Copyright © 2002 AP Online The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS - The hospitalization of three men with the potentially deadly West Nile virus - the first human cases reported this year - have experts alarmed at the infection's rapid spread since it first appeared in New York in 1999. The men, all living in towns east of Baton Rouge, were hospitalized with the mosquito-borne virus this week. A 78-year-old man was diagnosed Monday, and two more men, ages 62 and 53, were diagnosed Thursday. "We're seeing that it spread from an epicenter in the Northeast, and then there was an epicenter in Florida last year. Now it seems that we're seeing a lot of activity in Louisiana that might suggest it could become an epicenter," said Dr. Lois Levitan, program leader at the Environmental Risk Analysis Program at Cornell University. The center studies the development of West Nile in the United States. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 2305 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Lulling a baby to sleep with a song is an age-old part of child-care. But a Canadian researcher says even tiny babies respond to the lullabies because they recognise melodies. Professor Susan Trehub, from the department of psychology at the University of Toronto, found babies recognise tunes, even if they are sung in a different key or at a different speed. But if they detect wrong notes or rhythm changes, they do not respond as well to the music. (C) BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Hearing
Link ID: 2304 - Posted: 07.14.2002

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition Nerve cells extracted from a patient's own nose could one day be used to cure paralysis. At least, that is the hope of neuroscientists in Australia who have announced the beginning of tests on people. The team, led by Alan Mackay-Sim of Griffith University in Brisbane, has recruited three people who have been paralysed from the waist down for between six months and three years, and plans to enlist another five. Half the patients will receive a spinal injection of the nasal cells. The cells, called olfactory ensheathing cells, connect the lining of the nose with the brain, giving us our sense of smell. Unlike most nerve cells, they continue to regenerate throughout life, a property that probably evolved because they can be destroyed by infections. "There's only a few microns of mucus between the air and the nerve endings," points out Mackay-Sim. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Regeneration; Glia
Link ID: 2303 - Posted: 06.24.2010

JOHN WHITFIELD Nineteenth-century farmers suffered very different fates, depending on which month they were born in, new research suggests. Women born in northern Quebec in June left on average seven more grandchildren than those born in April. "That's a huge effect," says ecologist Virpi Lummaa of the University of Cambridge, UK. The result suggests that the earliest stages of life affect future reproduction. Birthweight and early growth are known to have many affects on adult health, including the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and schizophrenia. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 2302 - Posted: 06.24.2010

HOW do you treat people blinded by light? With more light. Shining near-infrared radiation on damaged retinal cells can keep them alive and prevent permanent blindness. The US Defense Advance Research Projects Agency is funding research into the method and hopes to use it to treat people whose eyes are damaged by lasers. A number of US military personnel, including a helicopter pilot over Bosnia in 1998, have suffered laser eye injuries. If the infrared technique works in people, it could be used to treat a wide range of eye injuries and diseases. And it doesn't stop there. Other studies have shown that infrared light can help heal all sorts of injuries and sores, and it is already being used to treat severe mouth ulcers in children undergoing chemotherapy.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 2301 - Posted: 07.13.2002

— Researchers pursuing the cause of leptin’s ability to boost metabolism and shed fat have identified a metabolic switch that appears to tell the body to store or burn fat. In an article published in the July 12, 2002, issue of the journal Science, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Jeffrey M. Friedman and his colleagues reported that the hormone leptin represses a liver enzyme called stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD-1). SCD-1 catalyzes the production of monounsaturated fats from fatty acids in the liver and other tissues. Genetically obese (ob/ob) mice are overweight and show low levels of fat metabolism. In the absence of leptin, the level of SCD-1 rises and more fat is stored in the liver. Leptin is produced by fat tissue and secreted into the bloodstream, where it travels to the brain and other tissues, causing fat loss and decreased appetite. Friedman’s research team cloned the ob gene in 1994 and discovered leptin in 1995. Since then, much of Friedman’s research has focused on understanding how leptin exerts its effects on body weight, food intake and metabolism. ©2002 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 2300 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Louis, — Though previous evidence points to the contrary, scientists have discovered that the protein known as fibroblast growth factor 14 (FGF14) may not actually behave like a growth factor. The research suggests that FGF14 is instead involved in transmitting signals from one nerve cell to another and may help regulate walking and other movements. The protein could, therefore, be linked to movement disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. "We believe we have found a new signaling pathway in the brain," says study leader David M. Ornitz, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "Once we learn what FGF14 does at the molecular level, I believe we may uncover a new mechanism for regulating nerve cell function." The work is published in the July 3 issue of the journal Neuron. It is the first study to examine the role of FGF14 in living animals and could provide new targets for testing future drugs designed to treat movement disorders and seizures, says Ornitz, who also leads the cancer and developmental biology program at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Huntingtons
Link ID: 2299 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Caloric Restriction Clinical Implications Advisory Group addresses scientific issues related to testing the effects of caloric restriction on human beings For more than 60 years scientists have known that restricting the caloric intake in several species of animals can extend life span and slow down the aging process. The prevalence of obesity in America has prompted scientists to consider caloric restriction (CR) research for humans as a way to get America in shape and living longer. Should scientists subject humans to research studies on CR to see whether it produces the same results in humans as in lab animals? What effect will CR have on psychosocial health and quality of life? Should CR replace other human weight-control strategies? Is CR even possible given the fact that humans have unrestricted access to food? To answer these and other questions, the National Institute on Aging in collaboration with the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases convened the Caloric Restriction Clinical Implications (CRCI) Advisory Group to consider opportunities of such research. The group, which included gerontologists, nutritionists, pharmacologists, physicians, and psychologists, published their findings and recommendations in a special issue of the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences (Special Issue I, March 2001, http://www.geron.org/journals/spcontents.html).

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 2298 - Posted: 07.13.2002

Dr. Irv Binik investigates pain during intercourse For some women sex can be uncomfortable. For others it can be downright painful. Dr. Irv Binik, a Psychology professor at McGill and director of the Royal Victoria Sex and Couples Therapy Service is trying to ease the pain. He has been studying the problem of sex-associated pain in women, paying particular attention to two recurrent acute conditions, pain during or after intercourse (dyspareunia) and involuntary spasms of the vagina (vaginismus). "At the hospital I saw an unusually large number of women all complaining of pain during intercourse," says Dr. Binik of how he got involved in such research. But it was one particular patient who really alerted him to the problem. She had come to him in pain and was exasperated by the suggestion that she should consult yet another gynecologist. Dr. Binik remembers the encounter: "I said, she's absolutely right. Why am I sending her to a gynecologist? I am a psychologist, I'm supposed to know about pain." Dr. Binik soon found out that women who experience pain during intercourse have very few options. "I basically learned that there was almost no research, almost no clinical intervention. People assumed it was a physical problem or a sexual problem. Nobody focused on the pain." So with the help of some devoted graduate students and an open-minded McGill gynecologist (Dr. Samir Khalifé), Dr. Binik set out to delve more deeply into the topic.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 2297 - Posted: 07.13.2002

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press - More and more smokers are trying to kick the habit rather than pay higher cigarette taxes in states from New York to Hawaii, anti-smoking groups say. "Do the tax increases make more people want to quit? You better believe it," said Helene Zarember, who runs a smoking cessation group at Beth-Israel Medical Center in New York. Her group, usually eight or nine members, has jumped to 19 since higher city and state taxes drove the price for a pack of cigarettes to more than $7, the highest in the nation. A similar program at the city's Metropolitan Hospital Center saw referrals during the first 12 days of July jump 62 percent from a year ago. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2296 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By STEVE BAILEY, Associated Press LEXINGTON, Ky. - A drug used to quit smoking and treat depression helps obese people lose weight and keep it off, researchers report. The drug, bupropion SR, is sold as Wellbutrin for depression and Zyban for nicotine addiction. In a yearlong study, it was shown to help reduce weight and keep it off when combined with diet and exercise, said Dr. James Anderson, professor of medicine and clinical nutrition at the University of Kentucky's College of Medicine. About 51 million Americans are obese and another 61 million are overweight, according to the American Obesity Association. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Depression; Obesity
Link ID: 2295 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bruce Bower In a discovery that upends the study of human origins, scientists have unearthed remains of what they say is the earliest known member of the human evolutionary family. Investigators led by anthropologist Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers in France estimate that the creature, officially dubbed Sahelanthropus tchadensis, lived between 7 million and 6 million years ago. The researchers call their find Toumaï, which means "hope of life" in the language of an African group that resides near the fossil site. The nearly complete skull, two lower-jaw fragments, and three isolated teeth attributed to this previously unknown hominid hold a pair of major surprises. First, a small braincase like that of living chimpanzees connects to a face and teeth resembling those of bigger-brained hominids dating to 1.75 million years ago, perhaps even early Homo specimens. No one had predicted that elements of later skulls—in particular, a short, relatively flat face, pronounced brow ridge, and small canine teeth—coexisted with a chimp-size brain in early hominids. From Science News, Vol. 162, No. 2, July 13, 2002, p. 19. Copyright ©2002 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 2294 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GARY TAUBES If the members of the American medical establishment were to have a collective find-yourself-standing-naked-in-Times-Square-type nightmare, this might be it. They spend 30 years ridiculing Robert Atkins, author of the phenomenally-best-selling ''Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution'' and ''Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution,'' accusing the Manhattan doctor of quackery and fraud, only to discover that the unrepentant Atkins was right all along. Or maybe it's this: they find that their very own dietary recommendations -- eat less fat and more carbohydrates -- are the cause of the rampaging epidemic of obesity in America. Or, just possibly this: they find out both of the above are true. When Atkins first published his ''Diet Revolution'' in 1972, Americans were just coming to terms with the proposition that fat -- particularly the saturated fat of meat and dairy products -- was the primary nutritional evil in the American diet. Atkins managed to sell millions of copies of a book promising that we would lose weight eating steak, eggs and butter to our heart's desire, because it was the carbohydrates, the pasta, rice, bagels and sugar, that caused obesity and even heart disease. Fat, he said, was harmless. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 2293 - Posted: 07.08.2002

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN BARCELONA, Spain, — The vast majority of young gay and bisexual men in the United States who were found to have the AIDS virus in a new study were unaware of their infection, according to findings reported as the 14th International AIDS Conference opened here today. The rates of unawareness among minority gay men ages 15 to 29 in the study were staggeringly high. Among those found to have H.I.V., the AIDS virus, 90 percent of blacks, 70 percent of Hispanics and 60 percent of whites said they did not know they were infected. Most of these infected men perceived themselves to be at low risk of being infected, despite having engaged in frequent high-risk sex like unprotected anal intercourse, said Duncan MacKellar, an epidemiologist from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which conducted the study. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 2292 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CARLA BARANAUCKAS Dr. W. Maxwell Cowan, an internationally known neurobiologist and a retired vice president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, died June 30 at his home in Rockville, Md. He was 70. The cause was prostate cancer, said the Robert A. Pumphrey Funeral Home in Bethesda, Md. As the chief scientific officer of the Hughes Institute, Dr. Cowan played a central role in determining how millions of dollars for biomedical research was directed from 1987 to 2000. The institute, which was founded by Howard Hughes and has an endowment of about $11 billion, employs about 350 university scientists known as Hughes investigators and finances their research. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 2291 - Posted: 07.08.2002

The Dynamic Brain Atlas could be a giant leap forward for neuroscience BY THOMAS K. GROSE When a doctor looks at a patient's brain scan, some problems are immediately clear. Tumors, for instance, aren't easily hidden. Other subtle abnormalities are harder to detect, however. So for years, doctors have relied on brain atlases — compendiums of scans of normal brains in book form — to make comparisons and spot differences. But book atlases are far from infallible. "The traditional atlas is an extrapolation of the general population," explains Jo Hajnal, a physicist at the MRC Clinical Services Centre at London's Imperial College. "They contain only whatever the preparer thought was useful," he adds. Now computer technology is giving physicians a much more powerful diagnostic tool: brain atlas images customized to each patient. Hajnal is part of a team of researchers at Imperial College and King's College London that has devised a Dynamic Brain Atlas, which runs from a networked laptop. The current prototype can access hundreds of images stored in databases around the world and create a composite image that closely approximates each patient's brain. Copyright © 2002 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 2290 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Georgina Kenyon Tracey Sullivan, 30 of Kew, London always feels terrible in the mornings. She has done ever since she was a teenager. At least she did until she started sleeping every second night. "I think I've cracked it. All this time I think I have been running on a 48 hour clock," she claimed. Chronic tiredness is a common problem, especially among the over-worked in London. But most people believe they need more sleep, not less. "When I tried to sleep properly each night, about six or seven hours, I could never wake up properly. When the alarm went off at 7am, I could hardly drag myself to work each day and I would not wake up totally until late afternoon," said Tracey. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 2289 - Posted: 07.07.2002

A study of African tribes found that the one with a fish-based diet had lower levels of a hormone which influences appetite. It suggests that people eating a fish-rich diet may find it easier to control their appetite - and perhaps their weight. The tribes came from neighbouring regions, and ate a diet with the same number of calories - but composed of different types of food. One was predominantly fish-based, while the other ate a vegetarian diet. Researchers, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, looked at the levels of a hormone called leptin in men and women. This hormone is produced by fat cells, and its role, in people with normal weight, is to tell people when they have had enough food. (C) BBC

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 2288 - Posted: 07.07.2002

Scientists have stumbled on a secret weapon against snails and slugs. They have discovered the garden pests are poisoned by caffeine. A strong cup of coffee is enough to send the creatures into a writhing frenzy, followed soon by death. Scientists think caffeine acts as a potent neurotoxin against the pests. The finding may be of use to gardeners and commercial growers. Slugs and snails are notoriously difficult to deter from attacking plants. The chemicals currently used to control them are not permitted as residues on food crops. (C) BBC

Keyword: Neurotoxins
Link ID: 2287 - Posted: 07.07.2002

Workaholics, take note: new research indicates that morning sleep and afternoon naps aid mental and physical learning. Scientists have known for some time that sleep can improve the brain’s acquisition of new facts and skills, but its effect on previously learned knowledge was not known. To that end, two studies published this month in the journals Neuron and Nature Neuroscience suggest that snoozing can reverse "burnout" from information overload and improve motor skill development. In the first study, Sara Mednick of Harvard University and her colleagues investigated the role of sleep in perceptual learning by training subjects to report the direction of colored bars superimposed on other lines on a computer screen. Their performance progressively worsened throughout the day. If the researchers allowed individuals to nap for 30 minutes, however, the deterioration halted; a one-hour snooze enabled performance to bounce back to initial morning levels. © 1996-2002 Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Sleep; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2286 - Posted: 06.24.2010