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Brains feel and think alike when playing computer games
Date: Nov-25-2013It's well known that people who communicate face-to-face will start to imitate each other. People adopt each other's poses and gestures, much like infectious yawning. What is less known is that the very physiology of interacting people shows a type of mimicry - which we call synchrony or linkage, explains Michiel Sovijärvi-Spapé.In the study, test participants play a computer game called Hedgewars, in which they manage their own team of animated hedgehogs and in turns shoot the opposing team with ballistic artillery. The goal is to destroy the opposing team's hedgehogs.
New ostomy care resource developed
Date: Nov-25-2013Nurses caring for ostomy patients will now be equipped with an essential new tool that provides them with the first comprehensive guide to optimize ostomy management and enhance patient safety. Janice Beitz, a professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing - Camden, was part of a research team that developed the ostomy algorithm, a step-by-step aid that allows nurses to properly assess ostomy patients and their needs. "The majority of ostomy care is provided by non-specialized clinicians or caregivers and family members who do not have ostomy care expertise," Beitz says.
Gene identified that regulates body weight in humans and mice
Date: Nov-25-2013Research has pointed to the importance of genetic factors in human obesity and has shown that heritability plays a role in 40% to 90% of cases. Now investigators reporting online in The American Journal of Human Genetics, published by Cell Press, have found that loss of a particular gene's function in humans and mice causes morbid obesity. The study of a morbidly obese family provides new insights into the pathways that control body weight and nutritional status, and the results could be useful for designing therapies for obesity and malnutrition.
Opportunistic microorganism could be a signal of transplant rejection
Date: Nov-25-2013More than 260,000 Americans are alive today thanks to transplant operations that have replaced their failing kidneys, hearts, lungs or livers with healthy organs donated by volunteers or accident victims.But treatment doesn't end with surgery. Transplant recipients follow strict drug regimens designed to suppress their immune systems just enough to prevent rejection of the donated organ, but not so much as to leave them prone to infection.Until now, maintaining this delicate balance has been something of a medical guessing game.
Drug resistance mutations identified in fluke parasites; raises hope for new therapies
Date: Nov-25-2013An international group of scientists led by Tim Anderson Ph.D., at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Philip LoVerde Ph.D., at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio has identified the mutations that result in drug resistance in a parasite infecting 187 million people in South America, Africa and Asia. The new finding allows detailed understanding of the drugs' mechanism of action and raises prospects of improved therapies."This is a major advance," said Claudia Valentim, Ph.D., the primary author of the report, who worked at both institutions.
Drug resistance mutations identified in fluke parasites; raises hope for new therapies
Date: Nov-25-2013An international group of scientists led by Tim Anderson Ph.D., at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Philip LoVerde Ph.D., at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio has identified the mutations that result in drug resistance in a parasite infecting 187 million people in South America, Africa and Asia. The new finding allows detailed understanding of the drugs' mechanism of action and raises prospects of improved therapies."This is a major advance," said Claudia Valentim, Ph.D., the primary author of the report, who worked at both institutions.
Predicting older dialysis patients' prognoses
Date: Nov-25-2013Adults age 65 years and older represent half of the patients initiating chronic dialysis in the United States.Simple measures of the severity of an older kidney failure patient's illness when starting dialysis - such as whether dialysis was initiated in an inpatient setting, the length of the patient's hospital stay, and the use of other life-sustaining procedures - can convey meaningful information about the patient's prognosis, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
New computer model 'can accurately predict epileptic seizures'
Date: Nov-25-2013Researchers have created a "computational model" which can more accurately predict when an epileptic patient will experience their next seizure. This is according to a study published in IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 2.3 million US adults and 467,711 children suffer from epilepsy - one of the most common neurological disorders caused by temporary disturbances to the nerve cells in the brain.
Predicting older dialysis patients' prognoses
Date: Nov-25-2013Adults age 65 years and older represent half of the patients initiating chronic dialysis in the United States.Simple measures of the severity of an older kidney failure patient's illness when starting dialysis - such as whether dialysis was initiated in an inpatient setting, the length of the patient's hospital stay, and the use of other life-sustaining procedures - can convey meaningful information about the patient's prognosis, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
For assisted reproduction, 2 Y genes can replace the entire Y chromosome in mice
Date: Nov-25-2013The Y chromosome is a symbol of maleness, present only in males and encoding genes important for male reproduction. But live mouse offspring can be generated with assisted reproduction using germ cells from males with the Y chromosome contribution limited to only two genes: the testis determinant factor Sry and the spermatogonial proliferation factor Eif2s3y."Does this mean that the Y chromosome (or most of it) is no longer needed? Yes, given our current technological advances in assisted reproductive technologies," said Monika A.
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