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Pre-Operative Statins Can Help Patients Who Undergo Heart Surgery
Balancing Trastuzumab’s Survival Benefits and Heart Risks for Women with Breast Cancer
Under Six Hours of Sleep Can Impact Appetite Regulation and Increase BMI
Nanocrystal-coated fibers might reduce wasted energy
Neuroplasticity - article documents benefits of multiple practices
X-Ray Probe Finds New Organic Transistors Do Well in Hot Water
New Genetically Engineered Mice that Mimics Features of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
Parkinson's protein a-syn causes disease spread in animal model
Brain Cancer Vaccine Combined with the Drug Avastin Proves Effective
Biologists prepare guidelines for a more precise investigation into marine pollution from microplastic particles
Orangutan's nest building: Mechanical design and material properties
New lead to slove the mystery of hearing system in Baleen Whales
Research suggests that men are risk-seeking in order to establish status while women are more risk-averse in order to protect their offspring

Pre-Operative Statins Can Help Patients Who Undergo Heart Surgery

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 05:55 AM PDT

Pre-operative statin therapy can reduce the chance of post-operative atrial fibrillation and shortens the stay on the intensive care unit (ICU) and in the hospital in patients who undergo cardiac surgery, according to a new systematic review by Cochrane researchers. However, statin pre-treatment had no influence on the risk of dying, stroke, heart attack or kidney failure around the time of the operation.

Balancing Trastuzumab’s Survival Benefits and Heart Risks for Women with Breast Cancer

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 05:52 AM PDT

Adding trastuzumab (trade name Herceptin) to the treatment offered to women who have HER2-positive breast cancer, significantly increases the chance of life being prolonged, and reduces the chance of tumours reappearing once therapy stops. This is important, because about one-fifth of women who develop early breast cancer have HER2-positive tumours that, if untreated, are associated with a worse outlook than HER2-negative tumours. At the same time, however, women given trastuzumab have a higher risk of experiencing problems with their heart.

Under Six Hours of Sleep Can Impact Appetite Regulation and Increase BMI

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 05:49 AM PDT

Can lack of sleep make you fat? A new paper which reviews the evidence from sleep restriction studies reveals that inadequate sleep is linked to obesity. The research, published in a special issue of the The American Journal of Human Biology, explores how lack of sleep can impact appetite regulation, impair glucose metabolism and increase blood pressure.

Nanocrystal-coated fibers might reduce wasted energy

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 08:43 PM PDT

Researchers are developing a technique that uses nanotechnology to harvest energy from hot pipes or engine components to potentially recover energy wasted in factories, power plants and cars.

"The ugly truth is that 58 percent of the energy generated in the United States is wasted as heat," said Yue Wu, a Purdue University assistant professor of chemical engineering. "If we could get just 10 percent back that would allow us to reduce energy consumption and power plant emissions considerably."

Neuroplasticity - article documents benefits of multiple practices

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 06:35 PM PDT

Practices like physical exercise, certain forms of psychological counseling and meditation can all change brains for the better, and these changes can be measured with the tools of modern neuroscience, according to a review article now online at Nature Neuroscience.

The study reflects a major transition in the focus of neuroscience from disease to well being, says first author Richard Davidson, professor of psychology at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

X-Ray Probe Finds New Organic Transistors Do Well in Hot Water

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 06:14 PM PDT

Materials scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), working with an international research team, have helped prove the stability of a novel—and rugged—thin-film membrane that could prove key to a new class of sterilizable, flexible organic electronics for medical applications.

New Genetically Engineered Mice that Mimics Features of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 11:11 AM PDT

A team of scientists from the University of Missouri created a genetically modified mouse that mimics key features of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited neuromuscular disease affecting approximately 150,000 people in the United States.

Parkinson's protein a-syn causes disease spread in animal model

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 10:53 AM PDT

Last year, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that small amounts of a misfolded brain protein can be taken up by healthy neurons, replicating within them to cause neurodegeneration. The protein, alpha-synuclein (a-syn), is commonly found in the brain, but forms characteristic clumps called Lewy bodies, in neurons of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. They found that abnormal forms of a-syn called fibrils acted as "seeds" that induced normal a-syn to misfold and form aggregates.

Brain Cancer Vaccine Combined with the Drug Avastin Proves Effective

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 09:52 AM PDT

A new brain cancer vaccine tailored to individual patients by using material from their own tumors has proven effective in a multicenter phase 2 clinical trial at extending their lives by several months or longer. The patients suffered from recurrent glioblastoma multiforme—which kills thousands of Americans every year.

Biologists prepare guidelines for a more precise investigation into marine pollution from microplastic particles

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 09:19 AM PDT

Large quantities of globally produced plastics end up in the oceans where they represent a growing risk. Above all very small objects, so-called microplastic particles, are endangering the lives of the many sea creatures. An estimate of how greatly the oceans are polluted with microplastic particles has so far failed in the absence of globally comparable methods of investigation and data.

Orangutan's nest building: Mechanical design and material properties

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 09:09 AM PDT

The great apes, Orangutan builds their nest in tree canopies. Little was studied on the way they build nests. The University of Manchester team spent a year learning their intelligence and cognition and how they understand the mechanical environment. Orangutans carefully chose the materials and designed their nests.

New lead to slove the mystery of hearing system in Baleen Whales

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 08:23 AM PDT

Based on the study of seven minke whales, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute infer that some baleen whales also have well-formed fat body connecting to the ears which helps in transmitting sound from ocean environment to their inner ears.

For decades, scientists have known that dolphins and other toothed whales have specialized fats associated with their jaws, which efficiently convey sound waves from the ocean to their ears. But until now, the hearing systems of their toothless grazing cousins, baleen whales, remained a mystery.

Research suggests that men are risk-seeking in order to establish status while women are more risk-averse in order to protect their offspring

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 08:01 AM PDT

A new psychology study by University of Warwick researchers focused on the baby effect and young male syndrome, the risk-taking behavior in men and women. The participants accumulated cash while pumping up a computer-simulated balloon which could explode randomly at any moment. As the game progressed, participants had to decide whether to stop pumping and “bank” the winnings – or whether to continue and risk the balloon exploding and all the cash being lost. Research suggests that unlike women, men don’t curb certain risk-taking behaviours when a baby is present.