A Colorado man who went to the dentist complaining of toothache found he had a 4-inch (10cm) nail in his skull. Patrick Lawler had been suffering pain and blurry vision since a nailgun backfired on him at work, AP news agency reported. The machine sent a nail through a nearby piece of wood - but little did Mr Lawler realise another nail had shot into the roof of his mouth. The nail was embedded 4cm into his brain - barely missing his right eye. Six days after his 6 January work accident, Mr Lawler decided to visit the dental clinic where his wife Katerina works because painkillers and ice failed to stop the pain. "We all are friends, so I thought the [dentists] were joking... then the doctor came out and said, 'There's really a nail,'" Mrs Lawler said, according to AP. "Patrick just broke down. I mean, he had been eating ice cream to helpthe swelling." Mr Lawler remains in hospital following a four-hour operation to remove the nail. (C)BBC

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 6705 - Posted: 01.17.2005

Abnormal hormone levels could play a significant role in how multiple sclerosis develops, research suggests. Researchers from University La Sapienza in Italy looked at hormone levels in 25 men and 35 women with MS, and in 36 people without the disease. Women with low testosterone levels were found to have more brain tissue damage. There was no difference in testosterone levels between men with or without MS. The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry published the study. It is known that MS affects twice as many women as men, and that it is significantly less active during pregnancy, suggesting hormones do play a role in its development. MS is an inflammatory disease which causes a range of symptoms from fatigue and numbness to difficulties with movement, speech and memory. The relapsing-remitting form of the disease follows a characteristic pattern of periods of deterioration followed by partial recovery. In this study, researchers compared levels of a range of hormones in the healthy people and those with MS. The average age of the participants was 32, and those with MS had had the relapsing-remitting form of the disease for an average of six years. Women were tested during both phases of their menstrual cycle, to account for variations in hormone levels. None used oral contraceptives, and all had normal cycles. Men and women with MS were also given magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans to identify areas of tissue damage and inflammation, caused by the disease. (C)BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6704 - Posted: 01.17.2005

Young people with brain injuries may benefit from drugs used to treat Alzheimer's patients, research shows. The drug boosts the function of a key brain chemical called acetylcholine. Brain injury resulting from accidents and serious falls is the most common cause of disability in young people. The Cambridge University research, published in the journal Brain, suggests boosting the chemical acetylcholine may limit the effect of this damage. Potentially, this could help minimise the symptoms of brain injury, which can include the inability to concentrate, learn and remember. The researchers examined 31 young adults who survived a moderate-to-severe head injury. Patients underwent a number of tests and scans to determine the extent of their injuries, and the problems they were having. The results showed a reduction in key grey matter in parts of the brain associated with attention, learning and memory. Crucially, the abnormalities seemed to be linked to an imbalance of acetylcholine - a chemical which helps brain cells communicate with each other. The researchers believe that drugs called cholinesterase inhibitors, which block the breakdown of this chemical in the brain, may prove to be an effective treatment. Currently, cholinesterase inhibitors are used to treat the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. (C)BBC

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion; Alzheimers
Link ID: 6703 - Posted: 01.15.2005

By Chris Summers, BBC News As the British government unveils plans to make lie detector tests mandatory for convicted paedophiles, some scientists in the US are working on more advanced technology which might be better equipped at detecting deception. Imagine the Pentagon equipped with a machine which can read minds. Sound like the plot of a Hollywood thriller? Well, it might not be that far away. The US Department of Defense has given Dr Jennifer Vendemia a $5m grant to work on her theory that by monitoring brainwaves she can detect whether someone is lying. She claims the system has an accuracy of between 94% and 100% and is an improvement on the existing polygraph tests, which rely on heart rate and blood pressure, respiratory rate and sweatiness. Her system involves placing 128 electrodes on the face and scalp, which translate brainwaves in under a second. Subjects only have to hear interrogators' questions to give a response. But the system has a long way to go before it replaces polygraphs, which were invented almost a century ago and remain a tried and tested system of deception detection. On Thursday the UK government unveiled its Management of Offenders and Sentencing Bill. A key plank of the bill is increasing the use of polygraph tests for convicted paedophiles who have been released on licence. A voluntary scheme has been running in 10 pilot areas in England since September 2003. But under the new bill the tests will become compulsory for paedophiles in the 10 pilot areas. They are asked whether they have had contact with children, while having their anxiety levels measured. (C)BBC

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 6702 - Posted: 01.15.2005

Researchers at New York University have developed a model of the intra-cellular mammalian biological clock that reveals how rapid interaction of molecules with DNA is necessary for producing reliable 24-hour rhythms. They also found that without the inherent randomness of molecular interactions within a cell, biological rhythms may dampen over time. These findings appeared in the most recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Daniel Forger, an NYU biologist and mathematician, and Charles Peskin, a professor at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Center for Neural Science, developed a mathematical model of the biological clock that replicates the hundreds of clock-related molecular reactions that occur within each mammalian cell. Biological circadian clocks time daily events with remarkable accuracy--often within a minute each day. However, understanding how circadian clocks function has proven challenging to researchers. This is partly because the 24-hour rhythm is an emergent property of a complex network of many molecular interactions within a cell. Another complication is that molecular interactions are inherently random, which raises the question how a clock with such imprecise components can keep time so precisely. One way to combat molecular noise is to have large numbers of molecular interactions, but this is limited by the small numbers of molecules of some molecular species within the cell (for instance, there are only two copies of DNA).

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 6701 - Posted: 01.15.2005

Diana Parsell Several hundred million people today practice the ancient custom of chewing betel. In south Asia, where the habit is most prevalent, the signs are hard to miss. Placed inside the cheek and sucked for hours, a betel wad turns saliva bright red, and betel users' spit does likewise to sidewalks and streets. People typically chew betel as a quid consisting of nut pieces from an Areca catechu palm mixed with powdered lime (calcium hydroxide) and wrapped in the leaf of the pepper plant Piper betle. Betel is used primarily as a stimulant. Areca nuts contain alkaloids that induce euphoria and raise a person's heart rate and skin temperature. Some chewers say a cheekful of betel aids digestion. Over the past decade, a variety of evidence has linked betel chewing to several types of oral cancer. Although the custom is falling out of fashion in several countries, such as Thailand and Cambodia, it's growing in popularity in other areas. Especially troubling is that many new betel users are adolescents and children, say Asian health officials. Some governments in Asia are taking steps to reduce betel use. Oral cancer is relatively rare in Western countries. In some south Asian countries, however, it ranks first among malignancies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a disproportionate number of the world's cases of oral cancer in men occurs in regions of Asia where betel chewing is common. Once diagnosed mainly in adults, such cancers are now on the rise in young people. Copyright ©2005 Science Service.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 6700 - Posted: 06.24.2010

How do you remember your own name? Is it possible ever to forget it? The memory trace, or engram, "feels" like it is stored permanently in the brain and it will never be forgotten. Indeed, the current view of memory is that, at the molecular level, new proteins are manufactured, in a process known as translation, and it is these newly synthesized proteins that subsequently stabilize the changes underlying the memory. Thus, every new memory results in a permanent representation in the brain. But Northwestern University neuroscientist Aryeh Routtenberg has presented a provocative new theory that takes issue with that view. Routtenberg, with doctoral student Jerome L. Rekart, outlined the new theory on memory storage in the January issue of the journal Trends in Neuroscience. Rather than permanent storage, there is a "dynamic, meta-stable" process, the authors said. Our subjective experience of permanence is a result of the re-duplication of memories across many different brain networks. For example, one's name is represented in innumerable neural circuits; thus, it is extremely difficult to forget. But each individual component is malleable and transient, and as no particular neural network lasts a lifetime, it is theoretically possible to forget one's own name.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 6699 - Posted: 01.15.2005

Volunteers are to be 'burnt' by scientists to see if faith eases pain. Oxford University scientists will carry out experiments on hundreds of people in a bid to understand how the brain works during states of consciousness. One aspect of the two-year study will involve followers of both religious and secular beliefs being burnt to see if they can handle more pain than others. Some volunteers will be shown religious symbols such as crucifixes and images of the Virgin Mary during the tests. Researchers believe the study may improve understanding of faith, how robust it is and how easily it can be dislodged. The team from the newly-formed Centre for Science of the Mind also want to include people with survival techniques in the experiments, which may help the special forces easily identify people with high pain thresholds. Volunteers will have a gel containing chilli powder or heat-pad applied to the back of their hand to simulate pain. A team of neurologists, pharmacologists and anatomists will then analyse how people react by using brain scans. Another part of the research involves tests using anaesthetic, to see what effect it has on the brain and why some people need higher doses to make them unconscious. Baroness Greenfield, director of the centre, said 20 years ago scientists had shied away from studying the brain in such away but that was now changing. "We want to find out what the brain is doing, how it is working when we are having feelings and most importantly of all when we are conscious. (C)BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 6698 - Posted: 01.14.2005

By TYLER KEPNER Major league baseball players agreed to a stricter policy for steroids and other drugs yesterday that will include more tests and tougher penalties. Baseball and union officials also announced an expanded list of banned substances, although players will not be tested for amphetamines. The announcement, made at a meeting of baseball owners in Scottsdale, Ariz., amounted to the players' union response to pressure from the government, fans and some of its own members to take a stronger stand against steroids; the players had resisted testing for any drugs, saying it was an invasion of their privacy. Baseball owners also largely ignored the topic for years. "I felt an obligation that some day, somebody could come up to you and say, 'You people knew about this, and you didn't do anything about it,' " Commissioner Bud Selig said on a conference call. "That was something I would have had a very hard time living with. But the fact of the matter is that today, we did something about it." Baseball did not adopt steroid testing for major leaguers until 2002, when it negotiated a program with the union that was roundly criticized as being too lenient. Rob Manfred, an executive vice president for baseball, said the new policy was different in the frequency of testing during the season; the addition of off-season testing; the number of banned substances; and the penalties. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6697 - Posted: 01.14.2005

Researchers have discovered that deletion of a specific gene permits the proliferation of new hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear — a finding that offers promise for treatment of age-related hearing loss. This type of hearing loss is caused by aging, disease, certain drugs, and the cacophony of modern life. It is the most common cause of hearing loss in older people. The research team, which included Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator David P. Corey, published their findings on January 13, 2005, in Science Express, which provides rapid electronic publication of selected Science publications. Zheng-Yi Chen, who is at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, is the senior author of the article. He trained with Corey at Harvard Medical School. Other co-authors are from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Tufts-New England Medical Center, and Northwestern University. Hair cells in the cochlea detect sound by vibrating in response to sound waves, triggering nerve impulses that travel to the auditory region of the brain. Normally, humans are born with a complement of about 50,000 hair cells. But since the cells do not regenerate, the steady rate of hair-cell loss that can accompany aging produces significant hearing loss in about a third of the population by the time they reach 70-years-old. © 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Hearing; Regeneration
Link ID: 6696 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Helen Pearson A group of drugs already approved for humans can prolong the lifespan of worms. So, will these medicines be sought after by those seeking eternal youth? Researchers have long been trying to find drugs or elixirs that can stave off ageing. But they have met with little success, partly because it is laborious and time-consuming to show that a drug adds years to our lives. To get around this problem, Kerry Kornfeld of Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and his team tested drugs on a tiny, short-lived worm called Caenorhabditis elegans. Researchers have shown before that tweaking certain genes can prolong this worm's life. The team split the worms into groups and doped their food with 19 prescription medicines, from steroids to diuretics to anti-inflammatory drugs. "We went through a pharmaceutical textbook and picked a drug from each class," Kornfeld says. Most of the drugs had no effect, or even killed the worms at high doses. But an anticonvulsant used to fight epilepsy, and two other similar compounds, lengthened the animals' lives by as much as 50%. Normal signs of ageing were also delayed in the animals. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 6695 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Doctors in training were more than twice as likely to get in a car crash while driving home after working 24 hours or longer, compared with when they worked shorter shifts, according to a study conducted by Harvard Medical School. The study also found that after extended shifts young doctors were about six times more likely to report a near-miss accident and that they sometimes fell asleep while driving. "A lot of the lay public doesn't realize that twice a week most young doctors in this country are forced by hospitals to work these marathon shifts of 30 hours in a row," said Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School and the head of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "If they're going to require these trainees to work such long hours, they should at least provide them with transportation home." The study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, was done by some of the same Harvard Medical School researchers who reported last fall that sleep-deprived doctors made one-third more errors during their many long shifts than they did on the shorter ones. The new study included monthly surveys collected from 2,737 first-year interns around the country from April 2002 through May 2003. More than two-thirds of the drowsy doctors drove home from work. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Sleep
Link ID: 6694 - Posted: 01.13.2005

Spiders and insects that eat other creepy crawlies purposely seek a balanced diet to maintain their health, according to a new study. Scientists found that three predatory invertebrates—all of which use different hunting methods—adjust their feeding to correct nutritional deficiencies. Researchers behind the study—to be published tomorrow in the journal Science —say other, much larger predators, like leopards and sharks, may also monitor what they eat to maintain a balanced diet. While it's known that plant eaters and omnivores often eat a wide selection of foods to ensure the intake of various nutrients, carnivores aren't thought to be that fussy. Yet the study showed that predators also "read the label" when selecting their prey. Scientists based in England, Denmark, New Zealand, and Israel tested a quick ground beetle, an ambushing wolf spider, and a web-building desert spider to see if they selectively forage for fat (lipids) and protein. The animals were first given an unbalanced diet, skewed in favor of either lipids or protein. Their subsequent feeding, after they were given a choice of foods, was then monitored. © 1996-2005 National Geographic Society.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 6693 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Along with aiding efforts to study addicted smokers, a new drug that attaches only to areas of the brain that have been implicated in nicotine addiction may help studies of people battling other disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Developed by UC Irvine Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center scientists, the new drug – Nifrolidine – is a selective binding agent that identifies specific areas of the brain responsible for decision-making, learning and memory. Lead researcher Jogeshwar Mukherjee, UCI associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior, developed Nifrolidine to measure a subtype of nicotine receptors in the living brain by using an imaging technique, positron emission tomography, more commonly known as PET scans. After proving the drug’s effectiveness, Mukherjee believes the drug will have implications for other conditions, as well. Study results appear in the January issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. “Nifrolidine is suited to provide reliable, quantitative information of these receptors and may therefore be very useful for future human brain imaging studies of nicotine addiction and other clinical conditions in which these brain regions have been implicated,” Mukherjee said. © Copyright 2002-2005 UC Regents

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Alzheimers
Link ID: 6692 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Haven, Conn.--Smoking marijuana is associated with increased risk of many of the same symptoms as smoking cigarettes--chronic bronchitis, coughing on most days, phlegm production, shortness of breath, and wheezing, according to a Yale study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. In addition, marijuana smoking may increase risk of respiratory exposure by infectious organisms, such as fungi and molds, since cannabis plants are contaminated with a range of fungal spores, said Brent Moore, assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "Because more than two million adult Americans are heavy marijuana smokers, these risks represent a potentially large health burden," Moore said. "Marijuana smokers use more medical services for respiratory problems, and these demands are likely to increase as the population of heavy marijuana smokers ages." The findings were based on 6,728 questionnaires completed by adult men and women, 20 to 59 years old, in 1988 and 1994. The data was from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and was thought to provide the broadest snapshot to date of marijuana use and its effect on the lungs in a sample of U.S. citizens.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 6691 - Posted: 01.13.2005

Canada has found its third cow infected with BSE - bringing the number of native mad cows detected in North America to four. All of the infected cows detected so far were born in Alberta, Canada, where a clinical case of BSE was found in an imported British cow in 1993. This raises the question of whether the infection might have been limited to the province by chance, or whether other regions of the continent are just not looking hard enough to find infected cattle. In particular, the US surveillance programme has come under criticism. The most recently discovered infected cow was born in March 1998 - seven months after feeding beef remains to cattle was banned. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says it was probably infected by feed made just before the ban. It was detected as part of Canada's surveillance programme which, like the one in the US, focuses on "high risk" cattle, those found dead or "downers" unable to stand. Experience in Europe has shown that these cattle are much more likely to have BSE than apparently healthy ones. The programme - which discovered the country's first case in May 2003 - found another Alberta-born mad cow in December 2004, this one born just before the 1997 feed ban. The sole case found so far in the US, in December 2003, was a downer born and probably infected in Alberta. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 6690 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Michael Hopkin Bottlenose dolphins are clever, sociable beasts that feed in packs. But a study carried out off the coast of Florida has revealed another layer of complexity in their hunting: group members have specialized jobs that they stick to time and time again. Cooperative hunting is fairly widespread among animals and is found, for example, in chimpanzees, colobus monkeys and Harris' hawks. But the phenomenon of specific jobs for individuals, like the different positions in a football team, is much rarer, say Stefanie Gazda and her colleagues, who studied the dolphins off Florida's remote Cedar Key. Gazda and her colleagues watched two groups of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), one always consisting of three individuals and the other ranging from two to six members. During group hunts, one dolphin always took the role of 'driver', harrying shoals of small fish towards a waiting cordon of 'barrier' dolphins, then herding them up to the surface. The researchers identified individual dolphins by examining their fin markings, and observed at least 60 group hunts for each pack. Both groups had a particular individual who took the driver role in every single group hunt, the researchers report in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B1. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 6689 - Posted: 06.24.2010

High numbers of future deaths in the UK from the human form of mad cow disease are unlikely, researchers have said. The Imperial College team calculate there will be around 70 future deaths. They say the worst case scenario could see another 600 deaths, but that this is unlikely. The research, which appears in the Journal of the Royal Society, said thousands of people could carry vCJD, but show no symptoms. The higher forecast is based on the possibility that people from different genetic subgroups could be affected by vCJD. So far, people of only one genetic subgroup, which accounts for 40% of the population, have been affected. There have been 148 deaths from new-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) since the condition was first seen in 1995. Research pointed to eating meat contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) as the cause. Over the last decade, scientists have been working to evaluate what the full extent of the vCJD epidemic will be. Deaths have been declining from their peak of 28 in 2000 to nine last year. But researchers who tested 12,674 appendix and tonsil samples found three showed signs of apparent vCJD, indicating around 3,800 people could ultimately be affected. However, only one of the three positive samples actually matched those taken from people who had been diagnosed with the clinical disease. Interpretation of the other two samples was less certain because they did not look like scientists expected them to. (C)BBC

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 6688 - Posted: 01.12.2005

By BENEDICT CAREY Tne mislaid credit card bill or a single dangling e-mail message on the home computer would have ended everything: the marriage, the big-time career, the reputation for decency he had built over a lifetime. So for more than 10 years, he ruthlessly kept his two identities apart: one lived in a Westchester hamlet and worked in a New York office, and the other operated mainly in clubs, airport bars and brothels. One warmly greeted clients and waved to neighbors, sometimes only hours after the other had stumbled back from a "work" meeting with prostitutes or cocaine dealers. In the end, it was a harmless computer pop-up advertisement for security software, claiming that his online life was being "continually monitored," that sent this New York real estate developer into a panic and to a therapist. The man's double life is an extreme example of how mental anguish can cleave an identity into pieces, said his psychiatrist, Dr. Jay S. Kwawer, director of clinical education at the William Alanson White Institute in New York, who discussed the case at a recent conference. But psychologists say that most normal adults are well equipped to start a secret life, if not to sustain it. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6687 - Posted: 01.12.2005

CORVALLIS, Ore. - The next time you're at a party with the love of your life, don't spend a lot of time trying to identify other couples in love - chances are, you aren't very good at it. Golfers may be able to identify a sweet swing, and runners admire a lengthy stride in others, but a new study has found that when it comes to identifying couples in love, no one is worse than - well, couples in love. "Love is truly blind," said Frank J. Bernieri, professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Oregon State University and one of the authors of the study. "People in the study who had the longest relationships, were immersed in reading romance novels and spent lots of time watching romantic movies just loved this research. They all were quite confident of their ability to identify others in love. "And without exception," he added, "they were, by far, the least accurate in their assessment." The study was just published in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. Bernieri co-authored the paper with lead investigator Maya Aloni, who was an honors undergraduate at the University of Toledo when Bernieri was on the faculty there. She is now at State University of New York-Buffalo pursuing graduate studies.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6686 - Posted: 01.12.2005