EurekAlert! Public News List

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Neuroscience
Waiting for a sign? Researchers find potential brain 'switch' for new behavior
You're standing near an airport luggage carousel and your bag emerges on the conveyor belt, prompting you to spring into action. How does your brain make the shift from passively waiting to taking action when your bag appears?

Public Release: 21-May-2013

ZooKeys
The pirate ant: A new species from the Philippines with a bizarre pigmentation pattern
Scientists discovered and described a bizarre species of pirate ant. The new Cardiocondyla pirata has its name inspired by its strange pigmentation that consist of two eye-patch like dark stripes across the eyes of the female caste. Although it is supposed that this pattern has a protective function for disorienting the enemy, there are still many questions that will challenge the minds of biologists. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Rice unveils method for tailoring optical processors
Rice University scientists have unveiled a robust new method for arranging metal nanoparticles in geometric patterns that can act as optical processors that transform incoming light signals into output of a different color. The breakthrough by a team of theoretical and applied physicists and engineers at Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics is described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

US Department of Defense, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Naval Research, Welch Foundation

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Journal of Biological Chemistry
Mayo Clinic: How gold nanoparticles can help fight ovarian cancer
Positively charged gold nanoparticles are usually toxic to cells, but cancer cells somehow manage to avoid nanoparticle toxicity. Mayo Clinic researchers found out why, and determined how to make the nanoparticles effective against ovarian cancer cells.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Circulation
Evaluating a new way to open clogged arteries
A new study from MIT analyzes the potential usefulness of a new treatment that combines the benefits of angioplasty balloons and drug-releasing stents, but may pose fewer risks.

National Institutes of Health, Abbott Vascular

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Human Molecular Genetics
Common food supplement fights degenerative brain disorders
Widely available in pharmacies and health stores, phosphatidylserine is a natural food supplement produced from beef, oysters, and soy. Now a team headed by Professor Gil Ast and Dr. Ron Bochner of Tel Aviv University has discovered that the supplement improves the functioning of genes involved in degenerative brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease and familial dysautonomia.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research
People on higher incomes are happier with new knees
Knee replacement surgery is a very common procedure. However, it does not always resolve function or pain in all the recipients of new knees. A new study sought to determine if any socioeconomic factors were associated with less successful outcomes of knee replacement surgery. The study, which appears in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®, published by Springer, found that lower-income individuals reported higher levels of dissatisfaction and poorer function than those with higher incomes.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Finding a family for a pair of orphan receptors in the brain
Researchers at Emory University have identified a protein that stimulates a pair of "orphan receptors" found in the brain, solving a long-standing biological puzzle and possibly leading to future treatments for neurological diseases.

NIH/National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Sports Medicine
Most elite athletes believe doping substances are effective in improving performance
A study published in the prestigious journal "Sports Medicine" by researchers at the University of Granada has revealed the widespread belief among athletes that the fignt against doping is "inefficient and biased."

Public Release: 21-May-2013

PLOS ONE
Glaucoma drug can cause droopy eyelids
Prostaglandin analogues (PGAs) are often the first line of treatment for people with glaucoma. PGAs have long been associated with blurred vision, dryness, changes in eye color and other side effects. Now a new study has found that these drugs also cause upper and lower eyelid drooping and other issues that can interfere with vision.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Journal of Infectious Diseases
Estimates reveal low population immunity to new bird flu virus H7N9 in humans
The level of immunity to the recently circulating H7N9 influenza virus in an urban and rural population in Vietnam is very low, according to the first population level study to examine human immunity to the virus, which was previously only found in birds. The study, part-funded by the Wellcome Trust, has implications for planning the public health response to this pandemic threat.

Wellcome Trust

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Gaceta Sanitaria
Doctors prescribe more analgesics to women than to men just for being female
Regardless of pain, social class or age, a woman is more likely to be prescribed pain-relieving drugs. A study published in Gaceta Sanitaria affirms that this phenomenon is influenced by socioeconomic inequality between genders in the Autonomous Community in which the patient resides.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

PLOS ONE
New tumor-killer shows great promise in suppressing cancers
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University and Lund University, Sweden, have bioengineered a novel molecule which has been proven to successfully kill tumor cells.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

I Iberian Conference on the Clinical Physiology of Health and Sport

Tobacco Control
Warning images for cigarette packs proposed by Europe do not make enough emotional impact
Not only are some of the images not perceived as negative -- people actually see them as positive. So, they could have the opposite effect by motivating people to approach the stimulus, that is, tobacco.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Dissertations and Features
Home schooling: An option being discussed
Dr. Madalen Goiria of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has produced a thesis in which she analyses the juridical situation of home schooling, a social reality that lacks legal regulation in the Spanish State. By focussing particular attention on flexi-schooling or part-time education, she has also researched the reasons behind de-schooling and has presented possible solutions designed to overcome the difficulties of the families that choose to educate their offspring at home.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Neurosurgery
Study looks at risk factors for rupture or bleeding of arachnoid cysts in children
Arachnoid cysts are a common type of brain lesion that is usually harmless, but with a risk of rupture or bleeding. A new study identifies risk factors for rupture or bleeding in children with "incidentally" detected arachnoid cysts, reports the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Nature Communications
14 closely related crocodiles existed around 5 million years ago
14 species of crocodile lived in South America around 5 million years ago, at least seven of which populated the coastal areas of the Urumaco River in Venezuela at the same time. Paleontologists from the University of Zurich have found evidence of an abundance of closely related crocodiles that remains unparalleled to this day. As they were highly specialized, the crocodiles occupied different eco-niches. When the watercourses changed due to the Andean uplift, however, all the crocodile species became extinct.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Cell Metabolism
Insight into the dazzling impact of insulin in cells
Australian scientists have charted the path of insulin action in cells in precise detail like never before. This provides a comprehensive blueprint for understanding what goes wrong in diabetes. The breakthrough study, conducted by Sean Humphrey and Professor David James from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, is now published in the early online edition of the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism.

National Health and Medical Research Council

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Nature Communications
Study finds vitamin C can kill drug-resistant TB
In a striking, unexpected discovery, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have determined that vitamin C kills drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria in laboratory culture. The finding suggests that vitamin C added to existing TB drugs could shorten TB therapy, and it highlights a new area for drug design. The study was published today in the online journal Nature Communications.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Nature Communications
Origins of human culture linked to rapid climate change
Rapid climate change during the Middle Stone Age, between 80,000 and 40,000 years ago, sparked surges in cultural innovation in early modern human populations, according to new research. The research, published this month in Nature Communications, was conducted by a team of scientists from Cardiff University's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Barcelona.

UK Natural Environment Research Council, EU/7th Framework Programme

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Molecular Psychiatry
Child maltreatment increases risk of adult obesity
Children who have suffered maltreatment are 36 percent more likely to be obese in adulthood compared to non-maltreated children, according to a new study by King's College London. The authors estimate that the prevention or effective treatment of seven cases of child maltreatment could avoid one case of adult obesity.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Environmental Health Perspectives
Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivity
Early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Public Release: 21-May-2013

eLife
'Whodunnit' of Irish potato famine solved
An international team of scientists reveals that a unique strain of potato blight they call HERB-1 triggered the Irish potato famine of the mid-19th century.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

mBio
Resistance to last-line antibiotic makes bacteria resistant to immune system
Bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin are also commonly resistant to antimicrobial substances made by the human body, according to a study in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Cross-resistance to colistin and host antimicrobials LL-37 and lysozyme, which help defend the body against bacterial attack, could mean that patients with life-threatening multi-drug resistant infections are also saddled with a crippled immune response.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Molecular Psychiatry
Genetic predictors of postpartum depression uncovered by Hopkins researchers
Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered specific chemical alterations in two genes that, when present during pregnancy, reliably predict whether a woman will develop postpartum depression.

Solomon & Rebecca Baker Foundation, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health


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