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Brain parasite makes rodents unafraid of cats, other predators

Cats have the power to control the minds of rodents, through a brain parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. The pathogen exerts a strange mind control on rodents that make them lose their fear of cats and become easier to catch.

15 Jan 2020

Immune system contribution to tumor heterogeneity may influence liver cancer growth

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine say the immune system might contribute to the tumor heterogeneity seen in liver cancer that can affect the rate of cancer growth.

15 Jan 2020

Study explains “Swiss-cheese” bones suspected to cause lower back pain

Researchers at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine say they have added to the evidence that age-related changes to spinal cartilage tissue could invite painful nerve overgrowth that causes lower back pain.

15 Jan 2020

Survey finds US adults see vaccines as less important than they did in 2001

A new survey reveals that US parents are increasingly opting to not vaccinate their children, with support for vaccines down 10% since 2001 and the concern that they may cause autism, still being a major factor preventing adults from trusting vaccinations.

15 Jan 2020

More federal funding needed to improve active transportation among Americans

The federal government has allocated only about 2 percent of its transportation funds to encourage walking and cycling, not nearly enough to make a significant difference, according to Ralph Buehler, associate professor and chair of the urban affairs and planning program in the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs.

14 Jan 2020

HIV 'hotspots' do not necessarily fuel the epidemic

Areas of high HIV prevalence, known as 'hotspots', do not necessarily fuel the epidemic in the wider population, say researchers.

14 Jan 2020

Alcohol dependence results in remodeling of functional architecture in rodent’s brain

Employing advanced technologies that allow whole brain imaging at single-cell resolution, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that in an alcohol-dependent mouse model, the rodent brain's functional architecture is substantially remodeled.

14 Jan 2020

Number of operations performed in a hospital linked to success of cancer surgery

Tumors of the colon, so-called colorectal carcinomas, are the second to third most frequent tumors in women and men in Germany. The surgical removal of the tumors is a central component of the therapy.

14 Jan 2020

Pupils' symptoms are not reliable to reveal the air quality in school buildings

In school buildings with indoor air quality related problems, such as moisture damage, temperature problems or poor ventilation, pupils experience slightly more symptoms than in buildings in which conditions are stated to be good based on expert evaluation.

14 Jan 2020

Divorce and conversational difficulties with father affect child's future health

Conversational difficulties with father after a divorce affects the children’s health negatively. "This demonstrates that contact with both parents after a divorce is important," says Professor Eivind Meland at the Department of Global Public Health and Care, University of Bergen.

14 Jan 2020

Parkinson’s disease could be prevented by gut microbes

One common gut organism that helps us digest food better could also be a powerful instrument in preventing or reversing the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD), according to a recent study. The changes are due to the ability of this bacterium to delay the build-up of a toxic protein involved in this in the disease condition, or even to eliminate the toxin altogether.

14 Jan 2020

Burnout linked to higher risk for abnormal heart rhythm

A new study published in January 2020 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology shows that burnout could really cause your heart to fail as a result of an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation (AF).

14 Jan 2020

Climate change will increase injuries and deaths in USA

A new study shows that warming of the global climate can lead to thousands more of deaths due to both unintentional and intentional injuries. This adds another and unexpected aspect to the current discussion on mitigating the effects of global climate change by adaptation.

14 Jan 2020

Electronic health records instead of patient care: waste of time?

Healthcare providers are increasingly murmuring about the amount of time and effort as well as money spent on maintaining an electronic health records (EHR) system in the US. The time outpatients spend with doctors and other providers of health care is limited, and when a significant fraction of this is devoted to entering information electronically, it could impact patient care negatively.

14 Jan 2020

Targeted transcranial electrical stimulation can improve metamemories

HRL Laboratories, LLC, researchers have published results showing that targeted transcranial electrical stimulation during slow-wave sleep can improve metamemories of specific episodes by nearly 20% after only one viewing of the episode, compared to controls. Metamemory describes the sensitivity of whether memories are recalled accurately or not, such as during eyewitness testimony.

14 Jan 2020

Protein SV2A levels could explain poor neuronal connections in schizophrenia

A team of researchers have found that persons with schizophrenia may have lower levels of certain specific proteins that show up on their brain scans. This could help as diagnostic tools, say experts. The new study titled, “Synaptic density marker SV2A is reduced in schizophrenia patients and unaffected by antipsychotics in rats”, is published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications.

14 Jan 2020

UT Southwestern researchers explain racial disparities in heart failure risk

Researchers at UT Southwestern have uncovered evidence that the higher prevalence of "malignant" enlargement of the heart among blacks contributes to the higher incidence of heart failure in this population.

14 Jan 2020

Overactivation of neuroimmune gene leads to schizophrenia-like changes in mice

Excessive activity of an immune system gene previously linked to schizophrenia reproduces neural and behavioral aspects of the disease in mice, according to a new study publishing on January 14 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Ashley Comer and Alberto Cruz-Martín of Boston University and colleagues.

14 Jan 2020

KU Leuven researchers develop new antibacterial strategy that weakens bacteria

Bioscience engineers from KU Leuven in Belgium have developed a new antibacterial strategy that weakens bacteria by preventing them from cooperating. Unlike with antibiotics, there is no resistance to this strategy, because the non-resistant bacteria outnumber resistant ones.

14 Jan 2020

Flame retardants and pesticides responsible for intellectual disabilities among millions

A few decades back one of the commonest environmental causes of intellectual disabilities among babies was exposure to lead and mercury. A new study reveals that while exposure to these heavy metals is on the decline, there is risk of other toxic chemicals. Researchers have found that chemicals present in pesticides and flame retardants could be causing over a million cases of intellectual disabilities among babies between 2001 and 2016.

14 Jan 2020