UAE
Bahrain
Jordan
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi ArabiaHealth News
Scientists uncover secrets of sleep effect on tasks
Date: Aug-25-2013Sleep is well-known to help us better understand what we have learned. But now, researchers believe they have discovered exactly how sleep helps our brains to better learn specific motor tasks, such as typing or playing the piano. The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, is the first to use three different brain scans in order to determine changes in particular brainwaves and the exact location of changed brain activity in specific motor learning subjects...
Patterns of genetic diversity portray secrets of tuberculosis' success
Date: Aug-25-2013By any measure, tuberculosis (TB) is a wildly successful pathogen. It infects as many as two billion people in every corner of the world, with a new infection of a human host estimated to occur every second. Now, thanks to a new analysis of dozens of tuberculosis genomes gathered from around the world, scientists are getting a more detailed picture of why TB is so prevalent and how it evolves to resist countermeasures. Writing today (Aug...
Generic and therapeutic drug substitutions can help lower Medicare costs
Date: Aug-25-2013Therapeutic drug substitutions have the potential to double or even triple annual cost savings compared with savings achieved with generic substitutions, according to O. Kenrik Duru and colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles. Therapeutic drug substitutions involve the use of less expensive substitutes that are not equivalent but have a similar treatment effect as the original medication. Their work¹ estimates the magnitude of potential savings with drug substitution in Medicare Part D plans in the US...
In young African-American women, vigorous physical activity linked to lower incidence of obesity
Date: Aug-25-2013The prevalence of obesity has increased markedly in the U.S. in recent years. According to a new study by researchers from Boston University Slone Epidemiology Center's Black Women's Health Study (BWHS), the risk of becoming obese among young African-American women decreased with increasing levels of vigorous activity. The investigators focused on younger women because most weight gain occurs before middle age. The findings are online and will appear in the September 2013 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine...
Scientists describe genesis, evolution of H7N9 influenza virus
Date: Aug-25-2013An international team of influenza researchers in China, the United Kingdom and the United States has used genetic sequencing to trace the source and evolution of the avian H7N9 influenza virus that emerged in humans in China earlier this year. The study, published in Nature, was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health, and other organizations. Working in three Chinese provinces, researchers led by Yi Guan, Ph.D...
Researchers discover new way to improve internal clock function, put sleep disorders to bed
Date: Aug-25-2013Overnight flights across the Atlantic, graveyard shifts, stress-induced insomnia are all prime culprits in keeping us from getting a good night's sleep. Thanks to new research from McGill University and Concordia University, however, these common sleep disturbances may one day be put to bed. The rotation of the earth generates day and night. It also confers daily rhythms to all living beings. In mammals, something known as a "circadian clock" in the brain drives daily rhythms in sleep and wakefulness, feeding and metabolism, and many other essential processes...
New interaction discovered between bitter and sweet in fruit flies has implications for control of insects that spread disease
Date: Aug-25-2013Fruit flies have a lot to teach us about the complexity of food. Like these tiny little creatures, most animals are attracted to sugar but are deterred from eating it when bitter compounds are added. A new study conducted by UC Santa Barbara's Craig Montell, Duggan Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, explains a breakthrough in understanding how sensory input impacts fruit flies' decisions about sweet taste. The findings were published in the journal Neuron...
A step toward better targets for anxiety treatments
Date: Aug-25-2013Anxiety disorders, which include post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder, affect 40 million American adults in a given year. Currently available treatments, such as antianxiety drugs, are not always effective and have unwanted side effects. To develop better treatments, a more specific understanding of the brain circuits that produce anxiety is necessary, says Kay Tye, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences and member of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory...
Cost effective prison education programs
Date: Aug-25-2013Prison inmates who receive general education and vocational training are significantly less likely to return to prison after release and are more likely to find employment than peers who do not receive such opportunities, according to a new RAND Corporation report. The findings, from the largest-ever meta-analysis of correctional educational studies, suggest that prison education programs are cost effective, with a $1 investment in prison education reducing incarceration costs by $4 to $5 during the first three years post-release...
Implanted defibrillators precision-guided in children with heart disease
Date: Aug-24-2013The small size and abnormal anatomy of children born with heart defects often force doctors to place lifesaving defibrillators entirely outside the heart, rather than partly inside - a less-than-ideal solution to dangerous heart rhythms that involves a degree of guesstimating and can compromise therapy...
Stay Connected
