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Questions for Brandon Marshall: Predicting outcomes of HIV efforts in NYC

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2014Healthaffordable care act, brandon marshall, brown university, columbia university, david orenstein, drug user, high impact, hiv care, hiv efforts, hiv epidemic, hiv incidence, hiv treatment, hiv-positive, new york city, nyc, outcome, predictive computer model

New York City continues to battle an HIV epidemic, including among drug users. There are many possible interventions. Researchers have developed a sophisticated predictive computer model to help policymakers figure out which interventions, or combinations of interventions, would have the most meaningful impact.

Brandon Marshall, assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University, has led the simulation effort ever since he was a postdoctoral scholar at Columbia University. In a new paper in the March edition of the journal Health Affairs a team from Brown and Columbia published the results of the simulation, which projects that New York can significantly reduce new infections among drug users by 2040 by implementing certain combinations of interventions. Marshall spoke with David Orenstein about what the predictive computer model shows. (more…)

Stress vermindert soziale Fähigkeiten bei Männern und erhöht sie bei Frauen

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2014Healthbernadette von dawans, claus lamm, deutschland, emotion, frau, giorgia silani, kognition, livia tomova, man, markus heinrichs, oxytocin, pulsfrequenz, schutzfunktion, sissa, soziale fähigkeiten, sozialverhalten, stress, stresshormons cortisol, universitaet freiburg, universitaet wien

Akuter psychosozialer Stress führt zu verbesserten sozialen Fähigkeiten und erhöhter Empathie bei Frauen, während Männer mit höherer Egozentrizität reagieren. PsychologInnen um Claus Lamm von der Universität Wien haben die Effekte von Stress auf die Fähigkeit zur Unterscheidung selbst- und fremdbezogener Emotionen und Kognitionen, eine zentrale Fähigkeit für erfolgreiche soziale Interaktion, untersucht. Die Studie erscheint aktuell in der Fachzeitschrift “Psychoneuroendocrinology”.

Die Unterscheidung selbst- und fremdbezogener Emotionen und Kognitionen stellt eine Grundlage für die Fähigkeit dar, sich in andere Personen emotional und gedanklich hineinversetzen zu können. Diese Fähigkeit ist daher zentral für erfolgreiche soziale Interaktion. Zum Beispiel kennen wir alle das Gefühl wie schwer es uns fallen kann, Person zu verstehen, deren Einstellungen und Sichtweisen sich von unseren eigenen unterscheiden. Wie sich Stress auf diese Fähigkeit auswirkt, hat die Arbeitsgruppe von Claus Lamm gemeinsam mit ForscherInnen der Universität Freiburg (Deutschland) und der Scuola Internationale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) Triest untersucht. (more…)

How age opens the gates for Alzheimer’s

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2014Healthage, amy arnsten, angus nairn, becky carlyle, brain circuits, chemical vicious cycle, degeneration, enzyme, gates for alzheimer, molecular changes, molecular signals, molly wagster, neurofibrillary tangles, phosphodiesterase pde4a, protein called tau, risk factor, sensory cortex

With advancing age, highly-evolved brain circuits become susceptible to molecular changes that can lead to neurofibrillary tangles — a hallmark of Alzheimer’s Disease, Yale researchers report the week of March 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings not only help to explain why age is such a large risk factor for Alzheimer’s, but why the higher brain circuits regulating cognition are so vulnerable to degeneration while the sensory cortex remains unaffected. (more…)

Warmer temperatures push malaria to higher elevations

By Guest PostMarch 14, 2014Environment, Healthanti-malarial drugs, antioquia region, changes in climate, climate change, Colombia, debre zeit region, ecologist, ethiopia, fluctuations in rainfall, global warming, malaria, menno bouma, mercedes pascual, mosquito borne disease, temperature change, university of michigan, warmer temperature

ANN ARBOR — Researchers have debated for more than two decades the likely impacts, if any, of global warming on the worldwide incidence of malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that infects more than 300 million people each year.

Now, University of Michigan ecologists and their colleagues are reporting the first hard evidence that malaria does—as had long been predicted—creep to higher elevations during warmer years and back down to lower altitudes when temperatures cool. (more…)

Faster Anthrax Detection Could Speed Bioterror Response and Save Millions in Decontamination Costs, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2014Health2001, anthrax detection, anthrax spores, bioluminescent, biotech company, bioterrorism event, charleston, decontamination costs, george stewart, guild biosciences, krista spreng, medical bacteriologist, terror attack, university of missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Shortly following the 9/11 terror attack in 2001, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to news outlets and government buildings killing five people and infecting 17 others. According to a 2012 report, the bioterrorism event cost $3.2 million in cleanup and decontamination. At the time, no testing system was in place that officials could use to screen the letters. Currently, first responders have tests that can provide a screen for dangerous materials in about 24-48 hours. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have worked with a private company to develop a new method for anthrax detection that can identify anthrax in only a few hours. (more…)

Researchers create coating material to prevent blood clots associated with implanted devices

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2014Healthblood clots, blood vessels, conjugated catalytic systems, create coating material, flow, graphitic carbon, implanted biomedical devices, implanted devices, mark meyerhoff, nitric oxide, prevent, production of nitroxyl, sheets of graphene, ucla, university of michigan, yu huang

A team of researchers from UCLA and the University of Michigan has developed a material that could help prevent blood clots associated with catheters, heart valves, vascular grafts and other implanted biomedical devices.

Blood clots at or near implanted devices are thought to occur when the flow of nitric oxide, a naturally occurring clot-preventing agent generated in the blood vessels, is cut off. When this occurs, the devices can fail. (more…)

Fischlarven im Schichtbetrieb

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2014Health, Sciencearbeit, die innere uhr, erythrozyten, fabriken, fachzeitschrift chronobiology international, fischlarven im schichtbetrieb, herz kreislauf erkrankungen, margit egg, nachtrhythmus, risiko, schlaf wach rhythmus, simulation, tag, universitaet innsbruck, zoologie

Eine Störung des Schlaf-Wach-Rhythmus erhöht bei Zebrafischlarven das Risiko für Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankungen. Das zeigt eine aktuelle Studie von Forscherinnen und Forschern um Dr. Margit Egg von der Universität Innsbruck. Die Untersuchung könnte einen wichtigen Hinweis auf die Ursache vermehrter kardiovaskulärer Erkrankungen bei Arbeitnehmern in Schichtbetrieben liefern.

In Fabriken, Krankenhäusern und Verkehrsbetrieben verrichten Bedienstete ihre Arbeit zu sehr unterschiedlichen Zeiten. Sie haben einen zeitlich verschobenen Tagesablauf und wechseln immer wieder die Schicht. Nun haben Wissenschaftler um Dr. Margit Egg vom Institut für Zoologie der Universität Innsbruck in der Fachzeitschrift Chronobiology International eine Studie veröffentlicht, in der sie den Einfluss der inneren Uhr auf physiologische Parameter in Zebrafischlarven aufklären konnten. Störungen des zirkadianen Rhythmus verändern demnach bei den Larven die Anzahl und Qualität der roten Blutkörperchen deutlich und beeinflussen die Lebenserwartung der Tiere. Im vergangenen Jahr hatten die Innsbrucker Wissenschaftler bereits gezeigt, dass Sauerstoffmangel bei Zebrafischen die innere Uhr verstellen und umgekehrt Störungen der inneren Uhr die molekulare Reaktion auf Sauerstoffmangel verändern kann. (more…)

Touching the brain

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2014Health, Scienceafter stroke, brain damage, brain remapping, brenda rapp, cognitive psychologist, experience dependent plasticity, hyper plasticity, jared medina, neural map, patients, phenomenon, touching the brain, university of delaware

Research finds rapid brain ‘remapping’ in patients years after stroke

By examining the sense of touch in stroke patients, a University of Delaware cognitive psychologist has found evidence that the brains of these individuals may be highly plastic even years after being damaged.

The research is published in the March 6 edition of the journal Current Biology, in an article written by Jared Medina, assistant professor of psychology at UD, and Brenda Rapp of Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Cognitive Science. The findings, which are focused on patients who lost the sense of touch in their hands after a stroke, also have potential implications for other impairments caused by brain damage, Medina said. (more…)

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