Health News

Righting Injustice: Science Helping Innocent People Proven Guilty

Date: Aug-21-2012
Should Lady Justice, that centuries-old personification of truth and fairness in the legal system, cast off her ancient Roman robe, sword and scales and instead embrace 21st century symbols of justice meted out objectively without fear or favor? A scientist's laboratory jacket, perhaps? And a spiral strand of the genetic material DNA? An unusual symposium that might beg such a question - showcasing chemistry's role in righting some of the highest-profile cases of innocent people proven guilty - unfolded at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical ...

Paying Prisoners To Participate In Research

Date: Aug-21-2012
When members of the public participate in research studies, they are often given incentives - such as cash or gift cards for food - as compensation or reimbursement for their time and effort. Not so for Canada's prison population. A new analysis shows that there is inconsistency in how and when incentives are used for research participants under criminal justice supervision. Of the provinces, territories and federal government, only two jurisdictions have written policy around the use of research incentives, according to a national study led by Dr. Flora I...

A Noninvasive Approach To Total Cholesterol Determination

Date: Aug-21-2012
Researchers in India have developed a total cholesterol test that uses a digital camera to take a snapshot of the back of the patient's hand rather than a blood sample. The image obtained is cropped and compared with images in a database for known cholesterol levels. Writing in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, N.R. Shanker of the Sree Sastha Institute of Engineering and Technology and colleagues describe how they have developed a non-invasive way to test cholesterol levels in patients at increased risk of heart disease...

The Strange Case Of UCP2

Date: Aug-21-2012
Uncoupling proteins present a paradox. They are found within mitochondria and serve to prevent the cell's powerhouses from exploiting the charge differential across their membranes to generate ATP, which the body uses as an energy source. When uncoupling proteins are active, mitochondria produce heat instead of ATP. This may be useful under certain circumstances, such as when an animal is hibernating, but it seems unlikely that helping bears through the winter is the only function of uncoupling proteins, especially as non-hibernating animals also have them...

Brain Scans Don't Lie About Age Of Young People

Date: Aug-21-2012
It isn't uncommon for people to pass for ages much older or younger than their years, but researchers have now found that this feature doesn't apply to our brains. The findings reported online on August 16 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that sophisticated brain scans can be used to accurately predict age, give or take a year. It's a "carnival trick" that may have deeper implications for both brain science and medicine...

Mouse Study Finds Clear Linkages Between Inflammation, Bacterial Communities And Cancer

Date: Aug-21-2012
What if a key factor ultimately behind a cancer was not a genetic defect but ecological? Ecologists have long known that when some major change disturbs an environment in some way, ecosystem structure is likely to change dramatically. Further, this shift in interconnected species' diversity, abundances, and relationships can in turn have a transforming effect on health of the whole landscape - causing a rich woodland or grassland to become permanently degraded, for example - as the ecosystem becomes unstable and then breaks down the environment...

Blood Markers Reveal Severity Of Common Kidney Disease

Date: Aug-21-2012
Increasing blood levels of particular proteins may act as warning signs for patients with one of the most common diseases of the kidney, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings could lead to better diagnosis and management of patients with the disease, called IgA nephropathy. IgA nephropathy occurs when IgA1, a protein that helps the body fight certain infections, becomes modified and settles in the kidneys...

Psychopaths Get A Break From Biology: Judges Reduce Sentences If Genetics, Neurobiology Are Blamed

Date: Aug-21-2012
A University of Utah survey of judges in 19 states found that if a convicted criminal is a psychopath, judges consider it an aggravating factor in sentencing, but if judges also hear biological explanations for the disorder, they reduce the sentence by about a year on average. The new study, published in the Aug...

Studying How Elesclomol Works Reveals New Molecular Target For Melanoma Treatment

Date: Aug-21-2012
A laboratory study led by UNC medical oncologist Stergios Moschos, MD, demonstrates how a new targeted drug, Elesclomol, blocks oxidative phosphorylation, which appears to play essential role in melanoma that has not been well-understood. Elesclomol (Synta Pharmaceuticals, Lexington, MA) was previously shown to have clinical benefit only in patients with normal serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), a laboratory test routinely used to assess activity of disease...

Help For Insomniacs Offered By Trained NHS Therapists

Date: Aug-21-2012
Insomnia sufferers in England could have greater access to successful treatment, thanks to a training programme developed as part of trials of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). In Britain, people report having insomnia more often than any other psychological condition, including anxiety, depression and even pain, according to the Office of National Statistics. Yet the only treatment offered in most doctors' surgeries is a course of sleeping tablets...