Brain
Over the past decade, autism spectrum disorder has been linked to mutations in a variety of genes, explaining up to 30 percent of all cases to date. Most of these variants are de novo mutations, which are not inherited, affect just one copy of a gene, and are relatively easy to find. The lab of Timothy Yu, MD, PhD, at Boston Children's Hospital chose a road less travelled, tracking rare recessive mutations in which a child inherits two "bad" copies of a gene.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Every year 790,000 Americans suffer a heart attack, which leaves damaged scar tissue on the heart and limits its ability to beat efficiently. But what if scientists could reprogram scar tissue cells called fibroblasts into healthy heart muscle cells called cardiomyocytes? Researchers have made great strides on this front with lab experiments and research in mice, but human cardiac reprogramming has remained a great challenge.
COLUMBIA, Mo. - 3D technology has transformed movies and medical imaging, and now it might be able to help young women better appreciate their bodies.
Virginia Ramseyer Winter, assistant professor in the School of Social Work and director of the MU Center for Body Image Research and Policy, is a nationally recognized body image expert. In a new study, she found that images from 3D scanners can be used to help young women focus on body appreciation, which might in turn improve mental health.
ITHACA, N.Y. - Researchers at Cornell University have created a system of circulating liquid -- "robot blood" -- within robotic structures, to store energy and power robotic applications for sophisticated, long-duration tasks.
The researchers have created a synthetic vascular system capable of pumping an energy-dense hydraulic liquid that stores energy, transmits force, operates appendages and provides structure, all in an integrated design.
With a simple twist of the fingers, one can create a beautiful spiral from a deck of cards. In the same way, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have created new inorganic crystals made of stacks of atomically thin sheets that unexpectedly spiral like a nanoscale card deck.
DALLAS, June 20, 2019 -- People who worked long hours had a higher risk of stroke, especially if they worked those hours for 10 years or more, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.
Researchers reviewed data from CONSTANCES, a French population-based study group started in 2012, for information on age (18-69), sex, smoking and work hours derived from questionnaires from 143,592 participants. Cardiovascular risk factors and previous stroke occurrences were noted from separate medical interviews.
Researchers found:
Children and youth with acute behavioral health needs who are seen through Connecticut's Mobile Crisis Intervention Service - a community-based program that provides mental health interventions and services to patients 18 years and younger - have a lower risk of experiencing a follow-up episode and are less likely to show up in an emergency room if and when another episode occurs.
That's according to a study conducted by researchers in UConn's School of Social Work published today in Psychiatric Services, a journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Dominant, non-native plants reduce wetland biodiversity and abundance more than native plants do, researchers report in the journal Ecology Letters. Even native plants that dominate wetland landscapes play better with others, the team found.
The researchers analyzed 20 years of data collected by expert botanists from hundreds of randomly selected sites in Illinois. This allowed them to track changes in the variety and abundance of different plants in the same locations over time.
Thanks in part to the popular film Finding Nemo, clownfishes are well known to the public and well represented in scientific literature. But the same can't be said for the equally colorful sea anemones--venomous, tentacled animals--that protect clownfishes and that the fish nourish and protect in return. A new study published online this month in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution takes a step to change that, presenting a new tree of life for clownfish-hosting sea anemones along with some surprises about their taxonomy and origins.
DURHAM, N.C. - About a million times a year, Americans with a torn meniscus in their knee undergo surgery in hopes of a repair. Certain tears can't be fixed or won't heal well, and many patients later suffer osteoarthritis from the injury.
Tsukuba, Japan - A team at the University of Tsukuba studied a novel process for creating coherent lattice waves inside silicon crystals using ultrashort laser pulses. Using theoretical calculations combined with experimental results that were obtained at the University of Pittsburgh, they were able to show that coherent vibrational signals could be maintained inside the samples. This research may lead to quantum computers based on existing silicon devices that can rapidly perform tasks out of the reach of even the fastest supercomputers now available.
New research conducted at the University of Bath has demonstrated important differences in how people with and without hoarding problems discard objects and the role their memories play.
It was already known that hoarding behaviour is driven by a strong emotional connection with objects. But the new experimental findings, published online in the journal Behavior Therapy, show that for people who hoard this connection may be in part attributable to the vivid, positive memories associated with those objects.
DALLAS, June 19, 2019 -- Cancer patients taking cholesterol-lowering statin medication following radiation therapy of the chest, neck or head had significantly reduced risk of suffering a stroke, and possibly other cardiovascular complications, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
Wetlands are an important part of the Earth's natural water management system. The complex system of plants, soil, and aquatic life serves as a reservoir that captures and cleans water. However, as cities have expanded, many wetlands were drained for construction. In addition, many areas of land in the Midwest were drained to increase uses for agriculture to feed a growing world.
Memories are stronger when the original experiences are accompanied by unpleasant odors, a team of researchers has found. The study broadens our understanding of what can drive Pavlovian responses and points to how negative experiences influence our ability to recall past events.