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Tingling sensation caused by Asian spice could help patients with chronic pain

By Guest PostSeptember 17, 2013Healthasian cooking, asian spice, brain, chilli, chronic pain, chronic pain patients, fibres, light touch fibres, measurable frequency, menthol, mustard oil, nobuhiro hagura, pain fibres, patient, sanshool, skin, szechuan pepper, thermal, tingling sensation, ucl

The science behind the tingling sensation caused by eating a popular Asian spice has been explained by researchers at UCL.

The study, which is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, helps shed light on the complex interactions between the senses of taste and touch, and could lead to a greater understanding of the causes of the tingling sensations experienced by many chronic pain patients.

Widely used in Asian cooking, the Szechuan pepper was found to mimic the sense of touch in the brain. It chemically activates light-touch fibres on the lips and tongue and sends the equivalent of 50 light taps to the brain per second. (more…)

Lesbian and gay young people twice as likely to smoke and drink alcohol

By Guest PostSeptember 3, 2013Healthalcohol drinking patterns, bisexual, bmj open, depression, drink alcohol, frequent intoxication, gareth hagger johnson, gay, hazardous alcohol drinking, heterosexism, heterosexual peers, homophobia, lesbian, london metropolitan university, longitudinal study, minority stress, public health england, research, smoke, social change, symptoms of anxiety, ucl, university of cambridge, young people

Young people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are twice as likely to have smoked than their heterosexual peers, according to new research published in BMJ Open. Lesbian and gay young people were also more likely to drink alcohol frequently and more hazardously.

The interdisciplinary research team comprised researchers from five UK Universities (UCL, University of Cambridge, London Metropolitan University, De Montfort University Leicester and Brunel University), a doctor working in General Practice and a consultant from Public Health England. (more…)

Grassroots women’s groups could halve maternal death rate

By Guest PostMay 29, 2013General, Healthadult learning techniques, anthony costello, audrey prost, Bangladesh, child death rates, cost effective, grassroots womens groups, India, local women, malawi, maternal death rate, money, nepal, newborn deaths, participatory games, pregnancy, problem in pregnancy, related health problems, role play, story telling, sustainable, the lancet, ucl

Women’s groups can dramatically reduce the number of maternal and newborn deaths in some of the world’s poorest communities, according to a new meta-analysis published in The Lancet.

The research incorporated seven trials in Bangladesh, India, Malawi and Nepal and looked at 119,428 births.

It assessed whether groups facilitated by local women, who received a short training course of around 7 – 11 days, but were not health workers, affected rates of maternal and newborn mortality. The groups use a range of methods – including discussion, voting and role-playing – to identify common pregnancy-related health problems and work out locally appropriate ways to address them. (more…)

Mobile health technologies to rapidly test and track infectious diseases

By Guest PostMay 14, 2013Health, Technologyadvances in nanotechnology, big data analysis, bing, biomarker discovery, calum mcneil, cepheid, david willetts, deadly diseases, deenan pillay, early warning, epsrc irc, Facebook, flu epidemics, genomics, geographically linked information, google trends, gp surgeries, hiv, internet, irc, Microsoft, mobile health technologies, mobile phone, mrsa, new british technologies, next generation solutions, o2 health, oj bio, outbreaks, pathogen specific fingerprints, prototype test, rachel mckendry, search engine queries, sensor systems, serious infectious diseases, Social networking sites, strains of influenza, symptoms of infection, temperature stable biomimetic, tracking systems, Twitter, ucl, xfab, zurich instruments

Early-warning sensor systems that can test and track serious infectious diseases – such as major flu epidemics, MRSA and HIV – using mobile phones and the internet are being developed by a major new Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) led by UCL.

The new £11 million IRC, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (total investment £16 million), will develop mobile health technologies that allow doctors to diagnose and track diseases much earlier than ever before. (more…)

Behaviour of seabirds during migration revealed

By Guest PostMay 6, 2013Natureanimal behavior, anthropogenic pressure, behaviour of seabirds, behavioural states, centre for mathematics, complex data series, computational analyses, conservation concern, environmental, environmental conditions, ethoinformatics, flight, geolocators, gps tracking, lightweight gps loggers, manx shearwater, migration, migration data, new method, patterns of foraging, puffinus puffinus, rest, robin freeman, royal society, small seabird, south america, south eastern brazil, species, tracking technologies, ucl, uk birds, university of oxford, western atlantic

The behaviour of seabirds during migration – including patterns of foraging, rest and flight – has been revealed in new detail using novel computational analyses and tracking technologies.

Using a new method called ‘ethoinformatics’, described as the application of computational methods in the investigation of animal behaviour, scientists have been able to analyse three years of migration data gathered from miniature tracking devices attached to the small seabird the Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus). (more…)

Born to Lead? Leadership Can be an Inherited Trait, Study Finds

By Guest PostJanuary 18, 2013Politics, Scienceassessment, Barack Obama, born to lead, child, de neve, democratic primary, dna sequence, economic, framingham heart study, garfld986, gene, genetic difference, genetic discrimination, genetic trait, genotype, harvard, hillary clinton, inherited trait, jan emmanuel, leadership, leadership behaviour, leadership position, leadership skills, learning environment, new hampshire, nyu, political outcomes, professor john antonakis, rs4950, selection, tendency, ucl, unite for change, united states, university college london, university of california, variation, workplace

Genetic differences are significantly associated with the likelihood that people take on managerial responsibilities, according to new research from UCL (University College London).

The study, published online in Leadership Quarterly, is the first to identify a specific DNA sequence associated with the tendency for individuals to occupy a leadership position. Using a large twin sample, the international research team, which included academics from Harvard, NYU, and the University of California, estimate that a quarter of the observed variation in leadership behaviour between individuals can be explained by genes passed down from their parents. (more…)

Skin Patch Improves Attention Span in Stroke Patients

By Guest PostJuly 7, 2012Healthadhd, brain damage, drug rotigotine, hemi spatial neglect, masud husain, parkinsons disease, placebo treatment, receptors in brain, skin patch, stroke, stroke patient, ucl, university college london

Researchers at the UCL Institute of Neurology have found that giving the drug rotigotine as a skin patch can improve inattention in some stroke patients.

Hemi-spatial neglect, a severe and common form of inattention that can be caused by brain damage following a stroke, is one of the most debilitating symptoms, frequently preventing patients from living independently. When the right side of the brain has suffered damage, the patient may have little awareness of their left-hand side and have poor memory of objects that they have seen, leaving them inattentive and forgetful. Currently there are few treatment options. (more…)

New App Keeps Londoners in the Loop about the Tube

By Guest PostJuly 4, 2012Technologyandroid phone, licia capra, londoner, loop, neal lathia, new app, public transport, tfl, transport for london, tube, tube line, tube star, ucl, underground

A new app for android phones allows Londoners to share their experiences about the London Underground as they travel, and could transform how we use public transport.

The new application, called Tube Star, has been developed by researchers at UCL and aims to capture the experience of being in the tube, as reported by passengers. The app’s designers hope that it will give travellers a way of sharing their knowledge as well as improving our understanding of what happens when things go wrong – or right – on the underground. (more…)

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