ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem emerging
• Big girls don’t cry: Overweight teens who are satisfied with their bodies are less depressed, less prone to unhealthy behaviors
• DNA fingerprinting enters 21st century
• Maintain your brain: The secrets to aging success
• Slow-growing babies more likely in normal-weight women; Less common in obese pregnancies
• Treating brain cancer with novel viral vector
• New drug to tackle body fat problems
• Fruit flies provide new knowledge about uninhibited cell growth
• Researchers combat global disease with a cell phone, Google Maps and a lot of ingenuity
• Sperm viability greatly reduced in offspring of animals treated with common antibiotic tetracycline
• Novel regulatory molecules called mirror-microRNAs control multiple aspects of brain function
• New form of intellectual disability discovered
• Importance of short-wavelength excitation in environmental vibrations due to urban rail traffic
• Genetic mutation in African malaria parasite shown to give resistance to best drugs
• Novel genetic loci identified for high-frequency hearing loss
• Handheld probe shows great promise for oral cancer detection
• Intense light prevents, treats heart attacks
• 'Rogue DNA' plays key role in heart failure, study shows

Nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem emerging Posted: 27 Apr 2012 09:02 PM PDT A scientist provides an example of a nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem that is unfolding right now.

Big girls don’t cry: Overweight teens who are satisfied with their bodies are less depressed, less prone to unhealthy behaviors Posted: 27 Apr 2012 09:01 PM PDT A new study finds overweight teens who are satisfied with their bodies are less depressed, less prone to unhealthy behaviors.

DNA fingerprinting enters 21st century Posted: 27 Apr 2012 01:34 PM PDT Researchers have created a three-step algorithm, lobSTR, that in one day accurately and simultaneously profiles more than 100,000 short tandem repeats in one human genome sequence -- a feat that previous systems could never complete.

Maintain your brain: The secrets to aging success Posted: 27 Apr 2012 01:33 PM PDT Aging may seem unavoidable, but that's not necessarily so when it comes to the brain. So say researchers based on counterintuitive evidence that it is what you do in old age that matters when it comes to maintaining a youthful brain rather than what you did earlier in life.

Slow-growing babies more likely in normal-weight women; Less common in obese pregnancies Posted: 27 Apr 2012 11:21 AM PDT A new study found that the incidence of fetal growth restriction, or the poor growth of a baby while in the mother's womb, was lower in obese women when compared to non-obese women. Researchers conducted the study because a wealth of data shows that obese women are at greater risk of fetal death or stillbirth. They wanted to determine if fetal growth restriction – which increases the likelihood of stillbirth – might play a role.

Treating brain cancer with novel viral vector Posted: 27 Apr 2012 10:32 AM PDT Physicians are now treating patients with recurrent brain cancer by directly injecting an investigational viral vector into their tumor.

New drug to tackle body fat problems Posted: 27 Apr 2012 08:46 AM PDT Medical researchers have defined the structure of a key part of the human obesity receptor -- an essential factor in the regulation of body fat -- which could help provide new treatments for the complications of obesity and anorexia.

Fruit flies provide new knowledge about uninhibited cell growth Posted: 27 Apr 2012 08:45 AM PDT Scientists show that a specific type of carbohydrate plays an important role in the intercellular signaling that controls the growth and development of the nervous system. In particular, defects in that carbohydrate may result in the uninhibited cell growth that characterizes the genetic disease neurofibromatosis and certain types of cancer.

Researchers combat global disease with a cell phone, Google Maps and a lot of ingenuity Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:02 AM PDT Researchers have developed a compact and cost-effective RDT reader platform to combine digital reading of all existing rapid-diagnostic-tests. The team's new reader is installed on a cell phone that can work with various lateral flow immuno-chromatographic assays and similar tests to sense the presence of a target analyte in samples.

Sperm viability greatly reduced in offspring of animals treated with common antibiotic tetracycline Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:02 AM PDT Scientists report that male pseudoscorpions treated with the antibiotic tetracycline suffer significantly reduced sperm viability and pass this toxic effect on to their untreated sons. They suggest that a similar effect could occur in humans and other species.

Novel regulatory molecules called mirror-microRNAs control multiple aspects of brain function Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:01 AM PDT Our genes control many aspects of who we are -- from the color of our hair to our vulnerability to certain diseases -- but how are the genes, and consequently the proteins they make themselves controlled? Researchers have discovered a new group of molecules which control some of the fundamental processes behind memory function and may hold the key to developing new therapies for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

New form of intellectual disability discovered Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:01 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a gene for a new form of intellectual disability, as well as how it likely affects cognitive development by disrupting neuron functioning.

Importance of short-wavelength excitation in environmental vibrations due to urban rail traffic Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:01 AM PDT An inversion study will be published in Science China: Technological Sciences. The study will examine the excitation source function of environmental vibration due to urban rail traffic, which may be deemed a novel approach. Observation data indicate that uneven wheel–rail contact in the short wavelength range is the main generation mechanism of ground vibration.

Genetic mutation in African malaria parasite shown to give resistance to best drugs Posted: 27 Apr 2012 06:59 AM PDT Scientists have identified genetic mutations in the deadliest malaria parasite in Africa that are giving it resistance to one of the most powerful anti-malarial drugs. The researchers say their findings are a further warning that the best weapons against malaria could become obsolete.

Novel genetic loci identified for high-frequency hearing loss Posted: 27 Apr 2012 06:59 AM PDT The genetics responsible for frequency-specific hearing loss have remained elusive until recently, when genetic loci were found that affected high-frequency hearing. Now, a study reports, for the first time, genetic loci with effects that are limited to specific portions of the hearing frequency map, particularly those that are most affected in aging-related hearing loss.

Handheld probe shows great promise for oral cancer detection Posted: 27 Apr 2012 06:59 AM PDT Researchers have created a portable, miniature microscope in the hope of reducing the time taken to diagnose oral cancer. The probe, which is around 20 cm long and 1 cm wide at its tip, could be used by doctors to diagnose oral cancer in real-time or as a surgical guidance tool; dentists could also use it to screen for early-stage cancer cells.

Intense light prevents, treats heart attacks Posted: 25 Apr 2012 11:36 AM PDT There are lots of ways to treat a heart attack -- CPR, aspirin, clot-busters and more. Now researchers have found a new candidate: Intense light. The connection lies in the circadian rhythm, the body's clock that is linked to light and dark.

'Rogue DNA' plays key role in heart failure, study shows Posted: 25 Apr 2012 11:04 AM PDT Scientists have shown that during heart failure – a debilitating condition affecting 750,000 people in the UK – this 'rogue DNA' can kick start the body's natural response to infection, contributing to the process of heart failure.

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