COLUMBUS, Ohio – A growing body of research suggests that there is a potent way to fight symptoms of depression that doesn't involve getting a prescription.
This potent weapon? Hope.
"We're finding that hope is consistently associated with fewer symptoms of depression. And the good news is that hope is something that can be taught, and can be developed in many of the people who need it," said Jennifer Cheavens, assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
Chennai, August 16, 2008 – A second Phase I AIDS vaccine clinical trial in India was successfully completed, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the National AIDS Control Organization and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative announced. The results of the trial of an MVA-based AIDS vaccine candidate (TBC-M4), which was conducted in Chennai, indicated that the vaccine candidate had acceptable levels of safety and was well tolerated.
If you're over 55 and have spent more than a few sleepless nights, you're not alone -- insomnia affects about half of all people over 55 -- but you may also be at increased risk for physical and mental ailments.
Many older adults don't get enough restorative sleep, leading to serious health concerns, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, memory problems and increased rates of depression. Unfortunately, current sleeping pills are associated with memory problems, a risk for falls, dependency, withdrawal symptoms and disturbed sleeping patterns.
Biologists at the University of Virginia have discovered a switching mechanism in the eye that plays a key role in regulating the sleep/wake cycles in mammals.
The new finding demonstrates that light receptor cells in the eye are central to setting the rhythms of the brain's primary timekeeper, the suprachiasmatic nuclei, which regulates activity and rest cycles.
A case study of the 2004 U.S. Presidential election by researchers at Yale shows that prediction markets are proving to be a strong forecasting tool, one that may have an impact in calling the current presidential contest between Democrat Senator Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).
PHILADELPHIA - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a protein from a most unlikely source -- baker's yeast -- that might protect against Parkinson's disease. More than a million Americans suffer from Parkinson's disease, and no treatments are available that fundamentally alter the course of the condition. By introducing the yeast protein Hsp104 into animal models of Parkinson's disease, researchers prevented protein clumping that leads to nerve cell death characteristic of the disorder.
Ever since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have wondered why some lineages have diversified more than others. A classical explanation is that a higher rate of diversification reflects increased ecological opportunities that led to a rapid adaptive radiation of a clade. A textbook example is Darwin finches from Galapagos, whose ancestor colonized a competitors-free archipelago and rapidly radiated in 13 species, each one adapted to use the food resources in a different way.
Parkinson disease (PD) is a debilitating and lethal neurodegenerative disease, for which there is currently no cure. It is caused by the progressive loss of nerve cells that produce the chemical dopamine and is characterized by the accumulation of abnormal aggregates of a protein called alpha-syn in these dopaminergic nerve cells. Several previous studies have suggested that the alpha-syn aggregates contribute to PD pathology, so it is possible that an agent that inhibits and/or, better yet, reverses alpha-syn aggregation could be eventually used as a therapy for PD.
EDITOR'S PICK: Lessons from yeast: a possible cure for Parkinson Disease?
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study here shows that even slight stress and anxiety can substantially worsen a person's allergic reaction to some routine allergens.
Moreover, the added impact of stress and anxiety seem to linger, causing the second day of a stressed person's allergy attack to be much worse.
The finding, the latest in more than three decades of study on stress and immunity, is important since allergic reactions are the fifth-most-common chronic disease in America, and medical costs to treat them can reach $3.4 billion each year.
PITTSBURGH—Millions of computer users collectively transcribe the equivalent of 160 books each day with better than 99 percent accuracy, despite the fact that few spend more than a few seconds on the task and that most do not realize they are doing valuable work, Carnegie Mellon University researchers reported today in Science Express.
Wurzburg, Germany – August 14, 2008 – Metacognition refers to the awareness of one's knowledge in different areas. The more comprehensive and accurate this metacognitive knowledge, the better one is able to reflect about his or her own actions and behaviors. "Theory of Mind" (ToM) deals with very young children's understanding of mental life and the ability to estimate mental states. A new study in the journal Mind, Brain, and Education detects a systematic link between children's "theory of mind" as assessed in kindergarten and their metacognitive knowledge in elementary school.
In metropolitan China, high school students' self-esteem depends more on good relations with peers than parents, a new UC Davis study shows. But the opposite is true for younger adolescents and young adults: Both base their self-esteem more on good relations with parents.
AUSTIN, Texas—A model for studying the genetics of Angelman syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes mental retardation and other symptoms in one out of 15,000 births, has been developed by biologists at The University of Texas at Austin.
Their research demonstrates that when a particular fruit fly gene, dube3a, is altered, the mutant flies show behavioral dysfunctions similar to those experienced by humans whose UBE3A gene doesn't function normally.
AUSTIN, Texas—A model for studying the genetics of Angelman syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes mental retardation and other symptoms in one out of 15,000 births, has been developed by biologists at The University of Texas at Austin.
Their research demonstrates that when a particular fruit fly gene, dube3a, is altered, the mutant flies show behavioral dysfunctions similar to those experienced by humans whose UBE3A gene doesn't function normally.