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New Test to Distinguish Psoriasis from Eczema Identified

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Researchers have developed a new diagnostic procedure which in practice enables psoriasis and eczema to be reliably differentiated from one another on the basis of only two genes. A better understanding of molecular processes "Both diseases have a highly complex appearance, which often varies widely from one patient to another," says Dr. Stefanie Eyerich, who heads the Specific Immunology working group at the Institute of Allergy Research (IAF) ...

Part of Striatum also Involved in Learning and Memory

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The marginal division of the striatum is also involved along with the hippocampus in learning and memory. What is the impact degree of substance P in the striatal marginal division on learning and memory function? Yan Yu and his team, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, China found, using immunofluorescence staining, that substance P receptor, neurokinin 1 was highly expressed in the hippocampus and striatal marginal division of normal rats. Unilateral ...

Cost of Expensive Medication in Dialysis Catheters may Reduce Complications

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A new study has found that using expensive agents to prevent blood clots in kidney failure patients' dialysis catheters may turn out to be less costly and may reduce complications too. Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) is a medication used to break up blood clots that occur in the vessels of patients having a heart attack. A recent clinical trial revealed that using rt-PA once per week plus the anticlotting agent heparin twice per week was better ...

Germany's Football: a Dream Match After Dark History

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While many countries call themselves mad for football, Germany's deeply troubled history has got its national team the status of redeemers of a people's pride. In a society where strong expressions of patriotism are still widely frowned upon, football is the exception and the World Cup has left the country of 80 million people awash in a sea of national flags. As Germany prays for a triumph in Sunday's final, with almost half the nation expected to be ...

Women Tend to be Under-represented in Academic Medicine

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The under-representation of women in academic medicine causes a waste in public investment due to loss of research talent. Writing in the July issue of the iJournal of the Royal Society of Medicine/i, authors of an essay on women and academic medicine say that as a consequence of female under-representation, some areas of medicine are under-researched at a cost to patients and society. Discriminatory practices and unconscious bias, they say, continue to occur ...

Inherited 'memory' of Environmental Impact on Health Could be Limited

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The so-called epigenetic effect explains why when the pregnant mom is undernourished, the child as a greater risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes. A new study in mice demonstrates that this 'memory' of nutrition during pregnancy can be passed through sperm of male offspring to the next generation, increasing risk of disease for her grandchildren as well. In other words, to adapt an old maxim, 'you are what your grandmother ate'. The study also raises questions over ...

Virtual Reality Interface Allow You to Touch, Smell and Hear the Virtual World

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Virtual reality interface tend to allow the user to interact with the virtual world through many multisensory channels like sight, hearing, touch and smell. The virtual reality interface devices enable the reorganization of neural networks in the brain of patients with chronic stroke and cerebral palsy, thereby improving hand function and other skills, contributing to their quality of life. Virtual reality interface devices can also activate visual, vestibular and ...

Depression, Stress and Hostility Linked to Increased Stroke Risk

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A new study has found that there is a higher risk of stroke and transient ischemic attack among older adults who have higher levels of stress, depression and hostility.A TIA is a stroke caused by a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain. Researchers investigated how psychological factors might influence risk for chronic disease, using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), an ongoing study on cardiovascular disease risk factors in participants ...

Non-Invasive Test may Help Predict Premature Birth, Poor Growth in Babies

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A new research has found that a specific molecule detected in pregnant women could predict whether the baby will be born premature or if the fetus will suffer poor growth. Identifying these conditions early in pregnancy could potentially help reduce complications and manage any difficulties, although more work is needed before the findings can be translated to clinical settings. Researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Crete analyzed the metabolites ...

Reducing Alcohol Consumption may Boost Cardiovascular Health Even for Light Drinkers

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Reducing alcohol consumption can improve cardiovascular health drastically and reduce the risk of coronary artery disease even among light drinkers, a new study has found. The latest findings call into question previous studies which suggest that consuming light-to-moderate amounts of alcohol (0.6-0.8 fluid ounces/day) may have a protective effect on cardiovascular health. The new research reviewed evidence from more than 50 studies that linked drinking habits and ...

November Auction to Display Holy Grail of Watches

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The auction home Sotheby has announced that the holy grail of watches will be up for sale in November. The Henry Graves Supercomplication, a timepiece which has an estimated value of 12 million euros ( (Dollar) 16 million), is "the most complicated watch ever made completely by human hand" and will be sold in Geneva on November 14, Sotheby's said. "The list of superlatives which can be attached to this icon of the 20th century is truly extraordinary," the auction ...

Earthquake Triggers Tsunami Near Fukushima Nuclear Plant

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An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 hit the Pacific coast and has caused a minor tsunami near the Fukushima nuclear plant. According to the Japan Times, there was no reported damage after the Earthquake and Tsunami. The Meteorological Agency reported that the tsunami was observed to be 20 cm (7.8 inches) in Miyagi Prefecture, Ofunato, Ishinomaki, and Iwate Prefecture. The city of Soma also witnessed 10 cm waves roughly 40km north of the Fukushima ...

Novel Compound Treats Both Blindness and Diabetes in Animal Studies

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A chemical compound discovered by scientists treats both blindness and diabetes in rats and mice. In addition to opening a promising drug-development path for the wide range of diseases caused by cell loss, the new research offers a new view of the workings of the unfolded protein response (UPR), a cellular "life-or-death" signaling network: When cells are under stress, the UPR works to ensure that they produce properly configured proteins, but those cells not ...

Quiz on Uterine Fibroids

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Uterine fibroid is a condition that causes discomfort to a number of women. Test your knowledge on uterine fibroids by taking this quiz.

Expressive Therapy Benefits Women Living With HIV

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A new study finds expressive therapy helps women living with HIV disclose their health status and improves their social support, self-efficacy and the safety and quality of their relationships. "Over 90 percent of our patients are on effective antiretroviral therapy but far too many are dying from suicide, addiction, and violence. Depression, addiction, and especially trauma are very common and often devastating for women living with HIV but are not being effectively ...

Bacterial Community may Play a Role in Female Urinary Health

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Researchers from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine claim that bacteria found in the bladders of healthy women differ from bacteria in women with a common form of incontinence. These findings, published July 9, 2014, in the American Society for Microbiology's online journal imBio/i, suggest that bacterial communities may play a role in female urinary health. "Urgency urinary incontinence (UUI) is a common, yet poorly understood, ...

Signal may Send Cancer's Cellular Protein Factories into Overdrive: Study

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New research suggests that a network of signals active in almost all types of cancer sends the protein factories in our cells into overdrive, and may help fuel a tumour's uncontrolled growth. Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, identified a molecular trigger responsible for ratcheting up activity of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) - the cellular factory that makes the building blocks cancer cells need to keep growing. A protein in ...

Biologists Link Sexual Selection and Placentation

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Sexual selection refers to species' selection for traits that are attractive to the opposite sex, the tail of male peacocks being an iconic example. This special type of natural selection enhances opportunities to mate. Biologists at the University of California, Riverside have now found that sexual selection and "placentation" - the formation of a placenta - are linked. Describing the life histories of more than 150 species of fish in the family Poeciliidae, the ...

ADHD Drug Approval Shows Gaps Between Approval Process, Long-Term Safety Assessment

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Over the last 60 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 20 medications for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Their approval is based on clinical trials that were not designed to study their long-term efficacy and safety or to detect rare adverse events. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital report this in iPLOS ONE/i. The study highlights gaps in how the long-term safety of drugs intended for chronic use in children ...

USGI to Test Effectiveness of Delivery Catheter Used in Incisionless Endoscopic Bariatric Surgery

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San Clemente-based USGI Medical Inc has announced that it will be conducting a study to test the effectiveness of its delivery catheter used in incisionless endoscopic bariatric surgery. The company will be hopeful that the study will lead to its g-Cath EZ Delivery Catheter with Snowshoe Suture Anchors being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Around 332 patients from 11 different locations will be selected to take part in its ESSENTIAL study in which ...

Experts Warn Parents About Dangers of Loom Bands

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Health experts are warning parents that Loom Band could pose a serious health risk to their children and have asked them to ensure their kids' safety. The warning comes after Kyle Lawrence, of Cleethorpes, was left blinded in an eye after his brother used one of the bands to ping him in the eye. Another child reportedly fell asleep with the band tied around his finger, which quickly turned blue though his mother was able to remove the band in time to prevent any permanent ...

Magic Mushrooms may Trigger Creative Insights Within Brain

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While psychedelic drugs do leave one in a dream-like state, they are also beneficial to the brain as they could facilitate creative insight, a new study published in the journal Human Brain Mapping reveals. The study was conducted by researchers at Goethe University in Germany who mapped the brains of 15 volunteers who were injected with the drug psilocybin. The researchers took out functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of the volunteers and ...

Here is How Weight-Loss Surgery Cures Diabetes

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The way in which diabetes is cured in the majority of patients that undergo gastric bypass surgery has been revealed by scientists, who add that it can be explained by specialized cells in the intestine that secrete a cocktail of powerful hormones when we eat. The research team showed that gut hormone cells previously thought to contain just one hormone, had up to six hormones including the hunger hormone ghrelin. Craig Smith, a Senior Lecturer in Molecular ...

Study Sheds Light on Information Transmission Through Synapses

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Information transmission in the brains of vertebrates is through synapses, which a mechanism that allows an electric or chemical signal to be passed from one brain cell to another. Chemical synapses, which are the most abundant type of synapse, can be either excitatory or inhibitory. Synapse formation is crucial for learning, memory, perception and cognition, and the balance between excitatory and inhibitory synapses critical for brain function. For instance, every ...

Teens Sensitive to Light and Noise may Display Emotional Symptoms After Concussion

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Results of a new study to be presented at The Sports Concussion Conference in Chicago reveal that teens who are sensitive to light or noise may display emotional symptoms, such as anxiety, after suffering a concussion. The symptoms after a concussion can vary widely from person to person. Symptoms can include physical, emotional and cognitive difficulties. "While most people recover from a concussion within a week, a number of factors affect people's ...

WHO Urges Gay Men to Take Antiretroviral Drugs to Prevent HIV Infection

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The World Health Organization has warned that the number of HIV infections among gay men is on the rise across the globe and asked men who have sex with men to take antiretroviral drugs to reduce the risk of infection. "We are seeing exploding epidemics," warned Gottfried Hirnschall, who heads WHO's HIV department. Infection rates are rising again among men who have sex with men -- the group at the epicentre of AIDS pandemic when it first emerged 33 ...

Lung Cancer Study Uncovers Mutation in a Cell-Signaling Pathway

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Researchers have uncovered mutations in a cell-signaling pathway that plays a role in forming tumors, studying the most common type of lung cancer. The new knowledge may expand treatments for patients because drugs targeting some of these genetic changes already are available or are in clinical trials. Reporting July 9 in iNature/i, investigators from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), including researchers at Washington University School of Medicine ...

Rising Level of Microscopic Plastic Debris in Ocean Triggers Concern Among Scientists

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Some of the leading experts led by Professor Kara Lavender Law and Professor Richard Thompson have expressed concern over the rising levels of microplastics, or microscopic particles of plastic debris, in the oceans as they can pose a physical and toxicological risk to marine organisms. In an article published today in the journal iScience/i, the two scientists have called for urgent action to "turn off the tap" and divert plastic waste away from the marine ...

Immune Marker Predicts Infection Risk Among Children With Traumatic Injuries

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Clinician-scientists studying critically ill children with traumatic injuries have identified an immune marker that predicts which patients are likely to develop a hospital-acquired infection. The study, led by scientists at Nationwide Children's Hospital and published online in June in the journal iShock/i, is part of several larger efforts that could lead to the clinical implementation of quick-turnaround immune function tests and treatments to prevent or ...

Gum Disease-Causing Bacteria may also Increase Risk of Atherosclerosis

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A new study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens reveals that the Porphyromonas gingivalis bacteria that cause chronic oral infection may also increase the risk of atherosclerosis as the pathogen can evade the immune system to trigger inflammation beyond the oral cavity. Like other gram-negative bacteria, IP. gingivalis/I has an outer layer that consists of sugars and lipids. The mammalian immune system has evolved to recognize parts of this bacterial coating, ...

Type of Food Consumed can Influence Body's Internal Biological Clock

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A new study published in the journal Cell Reports has found that the type of food that you eat may affect the body's internal biological clock, with the researchers suggesting that their findings prove that dietary manipulation can be used to help patients with various conditions. An internal biological or 'circadian' clock plays an important role in preferred sleep times, times of peak alertness, and the timing of certain physiological processes. The clock enables ...

French Health Minister Warns of Major Epidemic Following Chikungunya Deaths in Antilles, Guiana

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With the recent outbreak of chikungunya virus so far claiming 33 lives in the Antilles and French Guiana, France's health minister warned that the regions are facing a serious epidemic. "This is a major epidemic, with about 5,000 new cases every month," Marisol Touraine told BFMTV. "The disease has indirectly caused 33 deaths in vulnerable elderly people, affected nearly 100,000 people and resulted in 1,000 hospitalisations in the French Americas." Touraine ...

Immune System of Children Born Through Natural Birth Stronger Than Those Delivered Through C-Section

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A study about how birth affects development of the immune system in newborn mouse pups may help researchers at Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences determine the difference of intestinal flora among children delivered by Caesarean section and natural birth The study shows that pups delivered by Caesarean section had developed a lower number of cells that strengthen the immune system, says Camilla Hartmann Friis Hansen, Assistant Professor at the Department of ...

Predicting Binge Drinking Habits Among Teens

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Researchers are able to predict with a 70 percent accuracy which teens will go on to develop a binge drinking habit within the next two years by looking at 40 different factors, including brain structure and function, personality, life experiences and genetics, in 14-year-old teens. Impulsivity, hopelessness, sensation-seeking traits, lack of conscientiousness, and other variables such as life events and a family history of drug use contribute to the likelihood of ...

Study Looks into Effect of Thyroid Hormone in Protecting Neuron Function in Aged Animals

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Researchers led by Professor Ailing Fu at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, China are conducting a study on a group of aged mice that were administered with low dose of levothyroxine for 3 consecutive months in order to determine whether thyroid hormone protects neuronal function and increases the survival rate of naturally aged animals. Results showed that the aged rats exhibited an obvious improvement in cognitive and an increased rat survival ...

Low Doses of Arsenic Cause Lung Cancer in Mice

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Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found that mice exposed to low doses of arsenic in drinking water, similar to what some people might consume, developed lung cancer. Arsenic levels in public drinking water cannot exceed 10 parts per billion (ppb), which is the standard set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. However, there are no established standards for private wells, from which millions of people get their drinking water. In ...

High Blood Pressure Requires Adequate Diagnosis

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High blood pressure -also known as hypertension- is common, but treatment often fails, and one in 5 people with hypertension does not respond to therapy. This is frequently due to inadequate diagnosis, as Franz Weber and Manfred Anlauf point out in the current issue of iDeutsches Arzteblatt International/i (iDtsch Arztebl Int/i 2014; 111: 425-31). If a patient's blood pressure is not controlled by treatment, this can be due to a number of reasons. Often ...

Researchers Shed Light on the Mystery of Birds Sensing Spring for Offspring

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Researchers have finally found the missing piece in how birds sense light by identifying a deep brain photoreceptor in Japanese quails, in which the receptor directly responds to light and controls seasonal breeding activity. The team include Professor Takashi Yoshimura and colleagues of the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (WPI-ITbM) of Nagoya University. Although it has been known for over 100 years that vertebrates apart from mammals detect light deep ...

Skin can 'Sniff' Out the Odors: Study

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Human skin has olfactory receptors that can 'sniff' out the odors, reveals a new study. According to the scientists, human skin could smell itself as well as other scents, and could also pinpoint a common and pleasant scent, which promoted healing of the skin. Chemist Peter Schieberle from the Technical University of Munich, who discovered that the human heart, blood and lungs possess olfactory receptors, told Discovery News that it was possible for ...

Rehabilitation Therapy can Cut Down Depression Risk Among People With Age-Related Vision Loss

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A new study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) reveals that providing rehabilitation therapy to people who have lost their vision due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can reduce the risk of depression by almost half. "Our results emphasize the high risk of depression from AMD, and the benefits of multi-disciplinary treatment that bridges primary eye care, psychiatry, psychology, and rehabilitation," said Barry Rovner, M.D., a professor of psychiatry ...

Taking Smartphone Microbreaks Makes Employees More Productive

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Allowing employees to take smartphone microbreaks may be a benefit rather than a disruption for businesses, reveals a new study. Sooyeol Kim, through a study of 72 full-time workers from various industries, discovered that employees only spend an average of 22 minutes out of an eight-hour workday playing on their smartphones. The study found that employees who take smartphone breaks throughout the day are happier at the end of the workday and a smartphone ...

Spinal Mass Identified from Neural Stem Cell Therapy

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A spinal mass was identified in a patient with complete spinal cord injury 8 years after she had undergone implantation of olfactory mucosal cells in the hopes of regaining sensory and motor function. The case is reported and discussed in "Autograft-derived spinal cord mass following olfactory mucosal cell transplantation in a young woman with spinal cord injury. Case report," by Brian J. Dlouhy, MD, Olatilewa Awe, MD, Rajesh C. Rao, MD, Patricia A. Kirby, MD, ...

Environmentally Friendly Insecticides from Spider Toxins

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A new way to protect crops from insect plagues in a safe and environmentally responsible way could be possible, after using spider toxins to study proteins that let nerve cells send out electrical signals, say John Hopkins researchers. Their finding-that naturally occurring insect toxins can be lethal for one species and harmless for a closely related one-suggests that insecticides can be designed to target specific pests without harming beneficial species like ...

Struggle to Survive Among Cambodia Garment Workers

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Cambodian factory worker Ry Srey Bopha walks to her tiny shared room after a 10-hour shift stitching clothes for western brands, eats leftovers, then sleeps on the floor. Like many of Cambodia's 650,000 garment workers, who are overwhelmingly women, Bopha's days are monotonous and exhausting, and her diet is poor. She rarely sees her five-year-old daughter, who is being raised by an elderly grandparent in the countryside. "Life in the garment ...

Police Packs Antidote Due to Heroin Upsurge in the US

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Apart from the pistol, handcuffs, a Taser gun, the police sergeant Casey Stidham is also equipped with a dose of naloxone, an antidote of heroin overdose. In this semi-rural corner of Maryland, as in so many other parts of the United States, such cases are more and more frequent, as heroin abuse makes a nationwide comeback. "We're on the front line, 24 hours a day," said Stidham as he steered his Anne Arundel County patrol car through the quiet streets ...