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The Placebo Effect Takes Place Subconsciously
Date: Sep-15-2012Placebo and nocebos have been discovered to be activated outside the conscious mind, explaining why patients show clinical improvement even when given treatment without active ingredients. Previous research has suggested you do not need to give a placebo to get a placebo effect. Placebo effects can be potentially active in any therapeutic situation. In a new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNASO), it was found that placebo and nocebo effects depend on brain function that are separate from cognitive consciousness...
Aubagio (teriflunomide) Approved For Multiple Sclerosis Treatment, FDA
Date: Sep-15-2012Aubagio (teriflunomide), a once-daily tablet for adults with relapsing forms of MS (multiple sclerosis), has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to experts, the Multiple Sclerosis prescribing market is worth $12 billion annually. If Aubagio becomes popular, it has the potential to become a major earner for its makers, Sanofi-Aventis. However, it is entering a highly-competitive market with very effective existing medications. Novartis' Gilenya and Tysabri from Elan Corp are said to be more effective than teriflunomide...
New Analysis In Science Tells How World Eradicated Deadliest Cattle Plague
Date: Sep-15-2012A new analysis published in Science traces the recent global eradication of the deadliest of cattle diseases, crediting not only the development of a new, heat-resistant vaccine, but also the insight of local African herders, who guided scientists in deciding which animals to immunize and when. The study provides new insights into how the successful battle against rinderpest in Africa, the last stronghold of the disease, might be applied to similar diseases that today ravage the livestock populations on which the livelihoods of one billion of the world's poor depend...
Long Menopause Allows Killer Whales To Care For Adult Sons
Date: Sep-15-2012Scientists have found the answer to why female killer whales have the longest menopause of any non-human species - to care for their adult sons. Led by the Universities of Exeter and York and published in the journal Science (14 September 2012) the research shows that, for a male over 30, the death of his mother means an almost 14-fold-increase in the likelihood of his death within the following year. The reason for the menopause remains one of nature's great mysteries and very few species have a prolonged period of their lifespan when they no longer reproduce, as in humans...
Analyzing The 'Facebook Effect' On Organ And Tissue Donation
Date: Sep-15-2012When Facebook introduced a feature that enables people to register to become organ and tissue donors, thousands did so, dwarfing any previous donation initiative, write Blair L. Sadler and Alfred M. Sadler, Jr., in a commentary in Bioethics Forum, the blog of the Hastings Center Report, which analyzes the "Facebook effect" on donation. The Sadlers, Founding Fellows of The Hastings Center, helped draft the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, established in 1968 to standardize state laws on the donation of organs and tissue after death...
Tracking Stem Cell Reprogramming - Biologists Reveal Genes Key To Development Of Pluripotency, In Single Cells
Date: Sep-15-2012Several years ago, biologists discovered that regular body cells can be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells - cells with the ability to become any other type of cell. Such cells hold great promise for treating many human diseases. These induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are usually created by genetically modifying cells to overexpress four genes that make them revert to an immature, embryonic state. However, the procedure works in only a small percentage of cells...
Smoking: Quitting Is Tough For Teens, Too
Date: Sep-15-2012Abstinence from smoking seems to affect teens differently than adults in a couple of ways, but a new study provides evidence that most of the psychological difficulties of quitting are as strong for relatively new, young smokers as they are for adults who have been smoking much longer. "Adolescents are showing - even relatively early in the dependence process - significant, strong, negative effects just after acute abstinence from smoking," said L. Cinnamon Bidwell, assistant professor (research) in psychiatry and human behavior and the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies...
Who (And What) Can You Trust?
Date: Sep-15-2012People face this predicament all the time - can you determine a person's character in a single interaction? Can you judge whether someone you just met can be trusted when you have only a few minutes together? And if you can, how do you do it? Using a robot named Nexi, Northeastern University psychology professor David DeSteno and collaborators Cynthia Breazeal from MIT's Media Lab and Robert Frank and David Pizarro from Cornell University have figured out the answer...
At Least 200,000 Tons Of Oil And Gas From Deepwater Horizon Spill Consumed By Gulf Bacteria
Date: Sep-15-2012Researchers from the University of Rochester and Texas A&M University have found that, over a period of five months following the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, naturally-occurring bacteria that exist in the Gulf of Mexico consumed and removed at least 200,000 tons of oil and natural gas that spewed into the deep Gulf from the ruptured well head. The researchers analyzed an extensive data set to determine not only how much oil and gas was eaten by bacteria, but also how the characteristics of this feast changed with time...
Want To Encourage Eco-Friendly Behavior? Give Consumers A Nudge (Don't Tell Them What To Do)
Date: Sep-15-2012Consumers are more likely to change their behavior if they voluntarily commit to changing rather than being told what to do, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. So carefully nudge them along if you're trying to encourage more eco-friendly behavior. "Commitment promotes consistent changes in behavior, especially if consumers pledge specific steps to promote the desired behavior...
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