Indiana
Meeting a friend you haven't seen in years brings on a sudden surge of pleasant memories. You might even call it an avalanche. Recent studies suggest that avalanches in your brain could actually help you to store memories. Last year, scientists at the National Institutes of Health placed slices of rat brain tissue on a microelectrode array and found that the brain cells activated each other in cascades called "neuronal avalanches."
Scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and seven other institutions have unearthed skeletal fossils of a human ancestor believed to have lived about 4.5 million years ago. The fossils, described in this week's Nature (Jan. 20), will help scientists piece together the mysterious transformation of primitive chimp-like hominids into more human forms. The fossils were retrieved from the Gona Study Area in northern Ethiopia, only one of two sites to yield fossil remains of Ardipithecus ramidus.
Additional evidence that a class of antidepressants can reduce the effectiveness of tamoxifen has been published by researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University. Results of the trial are published in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The large clinical trial confirmed data from an earlier study showing that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants may hinder the effectiveness of tamoxifen, a drug commonly administered to breast cancer patients. The study also reports that researchers now have pinpointed genetic types that are linked with this effect.
More sexually active adolescent females than previously thought may be infected with a virus linked to cervical cancer and genital warts, according to a study published in the Jan. 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. The research, reported by Darron R. Brown, M.D., and colleagues at the Indiana University School of Medicine, found four out of five sexually active adolescent females infected with the human papillomavirus. The study said the rates observed among the 60 study participants from three primary care clinics in Indianapolis exceeded the HPV rates reported in previous research.
Exceeding rates observed in previous research, a new study found four out of five sexually active adolescent women infected with human papillomavirus, a virus linked to cervical cancer and genital warts. Darron R. Brown and colleagues of Indiana University School of Medicine studied 60 adolescent women, ages 14 to 17, at three primary care clinics in Indianapolis. They reported their results in the Jan. 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.
A successful method for healing spinal injuries in dogs has been developed by Purdue University researchers, offering hope for preventing human paralysis. Lab tests have shown that an injection of a liquid polymer known as polyethylene glycol (PEG), if administered within 72 hours of serious spinal injury, can prevent most dogs from suffering permanent spinal damage. Even when the spine is initially damaged to the point of paralysis, the PEG solution prevents the nerve cells from rupturing irrevocably, enabling them to heal themselves.
A summer voyage to investigate the causes of one of the most devastating tsunamis in United States history has uncovered new mysteries about biological and geological processes off Alaska. Probing the depths below one of the world's most important fisheries, scientists with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, as well as Indiana State University and their colleagues, conducted the first exploration of deep seafloor biological communities in a sector of the Alaskan margin off the Aleutian Islands along the northern part of the Pacific Rim.
Gene exchange between different plant species is made possible by their parasites, according to an Indiana University Bloomington report in this week's Nature.
IUB biologists' discovery that genes can move from plant parasites to plant hosts complements a report by University of Michigan and Smithsonian Institution scientists in the July 30 issue of Science that showed the opposite -- that genes can move from plant hosts to plant parasites. Taken together, the findings establish plant parasitism as the first known medium for ''horizontal gene transfer,'' the exchange of genes between individuals of different species.
A common class of drugs prescribed to children with depression may have an adverse effect on bone growth, according to a study published online in the journal Endocrinology by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Researchers looked at the effect of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on bone accrual in growing mice. The findings showed a reduction in bone mass and size in the mice administered an SSRI.
Pre-school youngsters with type I diabetes can be treated as successfully with insulin pumps as with daily injections, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine report. A clinical trial at the Riley Hospital for Children studied 20 patients 5 years old or younger receiving treatment with continuous insulin infusion by pump and 17 who were receiving injection therapy. Physicians compared control of blood sugar levels, parents' satisfaction and safety in both groups. ''Pump therapy was safe and well tolerated,'' says endocrinologist Linda A. DiMeglio, M.D., who led the study.
The first study of the patient's perspective on errors in medicine may have health care professional rethinking what is important to their patients. The study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, suggests that patients are more disturbed with lack of access to and relationships with their physicians than technical errors in diagnosis and treatment. Although much has been written about medical errors since the controversial To Err is Human: Building A Safer Health System was presented by the Institute of Medicine in 2001, a new study expands the dialogue to include the patient's perspective.
The number of people who succumb to identity thieves' ''phishing'' e-mails could go way up if immediate action isn't taken to preempt the next generation of attacks, according to Markus Jakobsson, an Indiana University School of Informatics researcher. A report by cybersecurity expert Jakobsson describing worst-case phishing scenarios was recently cited by Howard Schmidt, chief information security officer for eBay Inc., during his testimony before a U.S. Congressional subcommittee on government reform. The report has also been presented to members of the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, based in Washington, D.C.
Men and women with mental disorders have higher odds of being diagnosed with brain tumors and lung cancer and they develop these cancers at younger ages than individuals without mental illness according to a study published in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. ''This work is a piece in the larger puzzle of understanding the relationships between mental and physical health,'' said Caroline Carney, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of psychiatry and medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. Dr. Carney is the first author of the study which looked at insurance claims data from over seven hundred thousand adults between the ages of 18 and 64 living in Iowa and South Dakota.
Scientists have devised a method for determining whether sulfate salts can account for evidence of water on Mars. The work could pave the way to a better understanding of the martian environment and the history of water on Mars. In a paper published in today's issue of the scientific journal Nature, a team of researchers lead by Los Alamos scientist David Vaniman describe the exposure of magnesium sulfate salts to various temperature, pressure and humidity conditions in order to understand their possible hydration states under martian surface conditions.
Mechanical loading through exercise builds bone strength and this effect is most pronounced during skeletal growth and development, according to research at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis. Exercise that puts the ''best'' kind of mechanical load to strengthen bones, especially during childhood and adolescence, involves impact or high rates of load such as running or jumping, as opposed to swimming or biking. Growing bones are most responsive to the strengthening effects of running/jumping, which have the additional benefit that these types of exercise don't affect longitudinal growth.
