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Winning the genetic body odor lottery could save on deodorant

Research shows that people who have two copies of the minor allele of a single nucleotide polymorphism found in the ABCC11 gene could save money on deodorant as they are genetically odorless.

21 Jan 2013

Parental depression linked to TMD pain in young adults

A mother’s depression during pregnancy is not a risk factor for temporomandibular disorders in her child, a 31-year follow-up study indicates.

21 Jan 2013

Bladder cancer risk associated with childbearing factors

The risk for bladder cancer in women may decline with increased parity and older age at first birth, researchers report.

21 Jan 2013

Concern over privacy in neonatal intensive care units

Researchers say that privacy is a problem for breastfeeding mothers of newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit.

21 Jan 2013

NICE recommends BP monitor for atrial fibrillation detection

The UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has issued recommendations for the use of a new blood pressure device that could detect atrial fibrillation.

21 Jan 2013

Novel infertility mechanism suggested in men with metabolic syndrome

Men diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome appear to have reduced fertility potential despite the absence of leucocytospermia, report researchers.

21 Jan 2013

Albumin may prove a predictor for pneumonia outcomes

Researchers say that assessing serum albumin levels within 24 hours of admission could be a good prognostic marker of community-acquired pneumonia.

21 Jan 2013

MRI ‘good accuracy’ for detecting residual breast cancer

Magnetic resonance imaging is superior to mammography for the detection of residual breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, research confirms.

21 Jan 2013

Acupuncture ‘promising’ way to boost exercise response, recovery

Results from a systematic review suggest that acupuncture may improve exercise performance and postexercise recovery.

21 Jan 2013

Early treatment during primary HIV infection shows promise

Two papers in The New England Journal of Medicine suggest that starting antiretroviral treatment early after HIV infection is diagnosed may improve patients’ immune response, boosting the initial recovery of the immune system and delaying progression of the disease.

21 Jan 2013

Itch-specific nerve cells: an interview with Associate Professor Xinzhong Dong

Itch was actually defined by a German physician more than 350 years ago. His name was Samuel Hafenreffer. He defined itch as an unpleasant sensation that makes people want to scratch. You probably think this is a very simple definition but itch is really a very complex sensory modality.

21 Jan 2013

Study: Good sleep fosters psychological well-being, gratitude

We all know that getting a good night's sleep is good for our general health and well-being. But new research is highlighting a more surprising benefit of good sleep: more feelings of gratitude for relationships.

21 Jan 2013

UC Berkeley study finds sleep deprivation impacts gratitude

Spouses and other romantic partners often complain about feeling unappreciated, and a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests poor sleep may play a hidden role.

21 Jan 2013

Researchers report novel charge zipper principle used by proteins to form functional units

Membrane proteins are the "molecular machines" in biological cell envelopes. They control diverse processes, such as the transport of molecules across the lipid membrane, signal transduction, and photosynthesis. Their shape, i.e. folding of the molecules, plays a decisive role in the formation of, e.g., pores in the cell membrane.

19 Jan 2013

Link between air pollution and people's happiness

Researchers in Canada have found a correlation between air pollution and people's happiness. Their deep analysis, reported in the latest issue of the International Journal of Green Economics, suggests that air pollution may lead to unhappiness while the converse is also true, the unhappier the citizens of a country the more air pollution.

19 Jan 2013

Scientists compare neuronal network connections in 2 worm species

Researchers in the group of Ralf Sommer at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany, have for the first time been able to identify neuronal correlates of behaviour by comparing maps of synaptic connectivity, or "connectomes", between two species with different behaviour.

19 Jan 2013

Study finds evidence of how daily changes in temperature affect the fruit fly's internal clock

New research led by a team at Queen Mary, University of London, has found evidence of how daily changes in temperature affect the fruit fly's internal clock.

18 Jan 2013

Macular pigment screening: an interview with Jaquie Finn, Product Line Manager at Elektron Technology

AMD is the leading cause of vision loss in anyone over 50 and globally in 2010 it was estimated to cost $340 billion to treat AMD. The costs are set to spiral over the next 20 years and really over burden the healthcare system unless people start to take preventative action.

18 Jan 2013

Race bias decreases similarities in the brain's representations of faces

Racial stereotypes have been shown to have subtle and unintended consequences on how we treat members of different race groups. According to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, race bias also increases differences in the brain's representations of faces.

18 Jan 2013

Degree of emphysema predicts mortality in ever-smokers with or without COPD

Severity of emphysema, as measured by computed tomography (CT), is a strong independent predictor of all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality in ever-smokers with or without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a study from researchers in Norway. In patients with severe emphysema, airway wall thickness is also associated with mortality from respiratory causes.

18 Jan 2013