- August 17, 2009
- 09:00 PM
- 728 views
Apparently, the moon hit their eyes like a big pizza pie
by Michael Clarkson in Conformational Flux
This post continues my series about selected articles from the dynamics-focused topical issue of JBNMR.It is helpful, in examining some NMR articles, to understand that NMR spectroscopists have a long and resilient tradition of giving their pulse sequences silly names. You can think of it as the biophysical equivalent of fly geneticist behavior. From the basic COSY and NOESY experiments (pronounced "cozy" and "nosy") to the INEPT spin-echo train, to more complicated pulse trains such as AMNESIA ........ Read more »
Gledhill, J., Walters, B., & Wand, A. (2009) AMORE-HX: a multidimensional optimization of radial enhanced NMR-sampled hydrogen exchange. Journal of Biomolecular NMR. DOI: 10.1007/s10858-009-9357-4
- August 17, 2009
- 07:17 PM
- 919 views
The AGE-Breaker TRC4186 From Torrent Pharmaceuticals
by Reason in Fight Aging!
Back in late 2006, a lifetime ago in Internet Time, I briefly mentioned the efforts of Torrent Pharmaceuticals. They are one of the few groups doing any sort of serious work on AGE-breakers, compounds aimed at breaking down the advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) that build up with age and cause all sorts of havoc in our biochemistry. One of the ways in which normal metabolic processes degrade important components in your body (such as kidneys, heart, skin and blood vessels) is through the gen........ Read more »
Joshi, D., Gupta, R., Dubey, A., Shiwalkar, A., Pathak, P., Gupta, R., Chauthaiwale, V., & Dutt, C. (2009) TRC4186, a Novel AGE-breaker, Improves Diabetic Cardiomyopathy and Nephropathy in Ob-ZSF1 Model of Type 2 Diabetes. Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, 54(1), 72-81. DOI: 10.1097/FJC.0b013e3181ac3a34
- August 17, 2009
- 03:15 PM
- 1,357 views
Bottle feeding simulates child loss
by Bjørn Østman in Pleiotropy
Bottle feeding practices and hospital procedures that simulate child loss may increase the risk of postpartum depression and fall within a growing number of medical issues that could benefit from an evolutionary perspective.... Read more »
Gallup Jr., G., Nathan Pipitone, R., Carrone, K., & Leadholm, K. (2009) Bottle feeding simulates child loss: Postpartum depression and evolutionary medicine. Medical Hypotheses. DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.07.016
- August 17, 2009
- 02:47 PM
- 1,162 views
DTC, medical journals and social media
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston recently administered a survey to 348 patients with a variety of cancers. The response rate was 75%, which was a pretty good response rate. Overall, 86.2% of patients reported being aware of cancer-related...... Read more »
Abel, G., Burstein, H., Hevelone, N., & Weeks, J. (2009) Cancer-Related Direct-to-Consumer Advertising: Awareness, Perceptions, and Reported Impact Among Patients Undergoing Active Cancer Treatment. Journal of Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2008.20.6599
- August 17, 2009
- 02:09 PM
- 751 views
Diagonal Postures & The Descent from Human to Ape
by Aaron Filler, MD, PhD, FRCS in AK's Rambling Thoughts
Homeotics, Cladistics and the Triple Emergence of Closed Hand Gaits in Descendants of an Upright Ancestor of the ApesGuest Post by Aaron Filler, MD, PhD, FRCSIf an upright bipedal ancestor evolved first, why would three of its descendant lineages abandon orthograde posture and restore quadrupedal gaits to their repertoire?Firstly, we don't have to have an answer as to why it happened if that is indeed what happened. If it occurred, then it occurred whether or not we have proposed and accepted a ........ Read more »
Kivell, T., & Schmitt, D. (2009) Independent evolution of knuckle-walking in African apes shows that humans did not evolve from a knuckle-walking ancestor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0901280106
- August 17, 2009
- 01:04 PM
- 617 views
Autobiographical and nonautobiographical memory functioning in PTSD
by William Lu in The Quantum Lobe Chronicles
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder characterized by altered memory functioning including the unintentional reliving of the traumatic experience. This feature of the disorder has been the focus of most PTSD studies, however rarely has there been an investigation on the aspect of disturbed intentional recall within the PTSD patient population. Jelinek et al. decided to address the paucity in this area of research by first clarifying central qualitative and quantitative........ Read more »
Jelinek L, Randjbar S, Seifert D, Kellner M, & Moritz S. (2009) The organization of autobiographical and nonautobiographical memory in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Journal of abnormal psychology, 118(2), 288-98. PMID: 19413404
- August 17, 2009
- 12:00 PM
- 526 views
The Social Side of Eating
by Christie Wilcox in Nutrition Wonderland
Much of nutrition focuses on the individual. You are responsible for picking the right foods, eating healthy, exercising, and doing what’s best for your body. Nutrition consultations are one-on-one, focused on the single person’s dietary needs and deficiencies. And that’s great – if you’re single, have no friends, and live and work by yourself. But the truth is most of us are a part of a larger network of people, whether it be because we’re married, work in a ........ Read more »
Young, M., Mizzau, M., Mai, N., Sirisegaram, A., & Wilson, M. (2009) Food for thought. What you eat depends on your sex and eating companions. Appetite, 53(2), 268-271. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.07.021
Mori D, Chaiken S, & Pliner P. (1987) "Eating lightly" and the self-presentation of femininity. Journal of personality and social psychology, 53(4), 693-702. PMID: 3681647
Herman CP, Roth DA, & Polivy J. (2003) Effects of the presence of others on food intake: a normative interpretation. Psychological bulletin, 129(6), 873-86. PMID: 14599286
SALVY, S., JARRIN, D., PALUCH, R., IRFAN, N., & PLINER, P. (2007) Effects of social influence on eating in couples, friends and strangers. Appetite, 49(1), 92-99. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2006.12.004
Bock, B., & Kanarek, R. (1995) Women and men are what they eat: The effects of gender and reported meal size on perceived characteristics. Sex Roles, 33(1-2), 109-119. DOI: 10.1007/BF01547938
Harrison, K., Taylor, L., & Marske, A. (2006) Women's and Men's Eating Behavior Following Exposure to Ideal-Body Images and Text. Communication Research, 33(6), 507-529. DOI: 10.1177/0093650206293247
Eng, P. (2005) Effects of marital transitions on changes in dietary and other health behaviours in US male health professionals. Journal of Epidemiology , 59(1), 56-62. DOI: 10.1136/jech.2004.020073
Welch, N., Hunter, W., Butera, K., Willis, K., Cleland, V., Crawford, D., & Ball, K. (2009) Women's work. Maintaining a healthy body weight. Appetite, 53(1), 9-15. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.04.221
- August 17, 2009
- 11:10 AM
- 634 views
The new naturalists?
by Daniel in Ego sum Daniel
Some time ago I watched a documentary called Lord of the Ants (clips available online) about the brilliant Ed O. Wilson, a born Naturalist whom I've also had the pleasure of hearing in person, and I was struck by his enthusiasm for natural history and the traditional exploratory naturalist work. It fed my imagination and made me think about my own work as a biologist. I'm probably as far away as you can come from a field biologist, working as I do with online genome databases and DNA sequences,........ Read more »
Caporale, L. (2009) Putting together the pieces: evolutionary mechanisms at work within genomes. BioEssays, 31(7), 700-702. DOI: 10.1002/bies.200900067
- August 17, 2009
- 11:00 AM
- 1,959 views
Those Cheating Testicles, or Who's Your Baby?
by Eric Michael Johnson in The Primate Diaries
Benjamin Franklin once quipped, "Where there's marriage without love there will be love without marriage." His affairs are well known in American history, however this founding father may have been stating a truth extending to evolutionary history as well.
Christopher Ryan (author of the forthcoming Sex at Dawn) offers some thoughts on the role of novelty in the sex lives of our favorite primate. He suggests that men are drawn to variety in sexual partners while women are drawn to variety in ........ Read more »
Kingan, S., Tatar, M., & Rand, D. (2003) Reduced Polymorphism in the Chimpanzee Semen Coagulating Protein, Semenogelin I. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 57(2), 159-169. DOI: 10.1007/s00239-002-2463-0
Dorus, S., Evans, P., Wyckoff, G., Choi, S., & Lahn, B. (2004) Rate of molecular evolution of the seminal protein gene SEMG2 correlates with levels of female promiscuity. Nature Genetics, 36(12), 1326-1329. DOI: 10.1038/ng1471
- August 17, 2009
- 10:58 AM
- 542 views
Podcasting in Education
by Kristen DiCerbo in Connections Research Blog
Podcasting is a relatively new addition to many classrooms and as such, research on it is somewhat limited. McGarr recently reviewed existing studies and identified three types of usage:
Substantial – delivering full lectures
Supplemental – reviewing and/or synthesizing material
Creative – having students create podcasts
Podcasting is interesting to me because although it uses new technology, it largely [...]... Read more »
McGarr, O. (2009) A review of podcasting in higher education: Its influence on the traditional lecture. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(3), 309-321. info:/
- August 17, 2009
- 10:09 AM
- 721 views
Schizophrenia: The Mystery of the Missing Genes
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
It's a cliché, but it's true - "schizophrenia genes" are the Holy Grail of modern psychiatry.Were they to be discovered, such genes would provide clues towards a better understanding of the biology of the disease, and that could lead directly to the development of better medications. It might also allow "genetic counselling" for parents concerned about their children's risk of schizophrenia.Perhaps most importantly for psychiatrists, the definitive identification of genes for a mental illness w........ Read more »
Purcell, S., & et Al. (2009) Common polygenic variation contributes to risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature08185
Shi, J., & et Al. (2009) Common variants on chromosome 6p22.1 are associated with schizophrenia. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature08192
Stefansson, H., & et Al. (2009) Common variants conferring risk of schizophrenia. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature08186
- August 17, 2009
- 09:00 AM
- 1,194 views
Poliovirus type 2 returns
by Vincent Racaniello in virology blog
The global battle to eradicate poliomyelitis is already 9 years behind schedule. To make matters worse, type 2 poliovirus, which was declared eradicated in 1999, has returned.
There are three serotypes of poliovirus, each of which causes poliomyelitis. The vaccine used by WHO in the global eradication effort is a trivalent preparation comprising all three serotypes. [...]... Read more »
Roberts, L. (2007) INFECTIOUS DISEASE: Vaccine-Related Polio Outbreak in Nigeria Raises Concerns. Science, 317(5846), 1842-1842. DOI: 10.1126/science.317.5846.1842
Roberts, L. (2009) Type 2 Poliovirus Back From The Dead in Nigeria. Science, 325(5941), 660-661. DOI: 10.1126/science.325_660
Jegede, A. (2007) What Led to the Nigerian Boycott of the Polio Vaccination Campaign?. PLoS Medicine, 4(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040073
- August 17, 2009
- 08:00 AM
- 830 views
Unique Urine Fingerprints
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
For decades, the word “fingerprint” has been used to denote a set of unique characteristics, whether literally the complex patterns of arches, loops, and whorls on one’s fingertips or entirely figuratively and more recently, the notion of a genetic fingerprint based on an analysis of an individual’s DNA sequence.
Most recently though, scientists have turned to [...]Unique Urine Fingerprints is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
... Read more »
Bernini, P., Bertini, I., Luchinat, C., Nepi, S., Saccenti, E., Schäfer, H., Schütz, B., Spraul, M., & Tenori, L. (2009) Individual Human Phenotypes in Metabolic Space and Time. Journal of Proteome Research, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1021/pr900344m
- August 17, 2009
- 08:00 AM
- 915 views
Health Insurance for All – A Weighty Issue
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
The prospect of universal health coverage for all Americans is weighing heavily on lawmakers right now. But, if the current proposals pass Congress, Americans may be looking at an even “weightier” problem. New economic research suggests that having health insurance actually makes people fat, and that, in turn, increases health care spending.
A working paper recently [...]... Read more »
Bhattacharya, J., & Bundorf, M. (2009) The incidence of the healthcare costs of obesity. Journal of Health Economics, 28(3), 649-658. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2009.02.009
Finkelstein, E., Trogdon, J., Cohen, J., & Dietz, W. (2009) Annual Medical Spending Attributable To Obesity: Payer- And Service-Specific Estimates. Health Affairs. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.5.w822
- August 17, 2009
- 06:00 AM
- 1,298 views
Is Throwing a Curveball Dangerous to our Youth Baseball Pitchers?
by Mike Reinold in MikeReinold.com
Over the last few weeks, there has been some debate regarding the release of two recent studies that showed that curveballs may not be as damaging to our youth baseball pitchers as we had once thought. I tried to let this die down a bit before discussing it, as the general press really picked up on this and started a debate with absolutely no medical background. The New York Times discussed this recently and I even saw a couple of sportscasters on ESPN discussing this on TV........ Read more »
Dun S, Loftice J, Fleisig GS, Kingsley D, & Andrews JR. (2008) A biomechanical comparison of youth baseball pitches: is the curveball potentially harmful?. The American journal of sports medicine, 36(4), 686-92. PMID: 18055920
- August 17, 2009
- 05:22 AM
- 1,498 views
Sunday Protist - Streblomastix: intestinal torpedo-bearing sub
by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder
Taking a bit of a break from Rhizaria... haven't done Excavates in a while. From one obscure 'kingdom' to another... (although now I have this nagging feeling that I'm really neglecting unikonts - I haven't done amoebozoa or opisthokonts in ages...)And the creature behind (or rather, containing) Mystery Micrograph #01 is...(Leander & Keeling 2004 J Euk Microbiol; scalebar=5μm)Streblomastix strix, an oxymonad. 2 - cross-sectionRosie more or less got this one ^.^ (I guess one can't really exp........ Read more »
LEANDER, B., & KEELING, P. (2004) Symbiotic Innovation in the Oxymonad Streblomastix strix. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 51(3), 291-300. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2004.tb00569.x
Poinar GO. (2009) Description of an early Cretaceous termite (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) and its associated intestinal protozoa, with comments on their co-evolution. Parasites and Vectors, 12. info:/10.1186/1756-3305-2-12
- August 17, 2009
- 04:55 AM
- 1,403 views
Unconscious Cognition 2-Going Beyond Zero Awareness
by Varun in Wissenschaft
In the first part "Unconscious Cognition 1- Simple Dissociation", we established two sets of assumptions for the zero awareness criterion. The exhaustiveness assumption where the direct measure D is a strictly monotonic function of conscious information c and a weakly monotonic function of unconscious information u and the indirect measure I is a weakly monotonic function of both c and u. Under these conditions, D(c,u)=0 necessitates c=0 and I(c,u)0 implies I(0,u)0 which in turn i........ Read more »
Schmidt, T. (2007) Measuring unconscious cognition: Beyond the zero-awareness criterion. Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 3(1), 275-287. DOI: 10.2478/v10053-008-0030-3
- August 17, 2009
- 03:00 AM
- 1,399 views
Needles in the skin cause changes in the brain, but acupuncture still doesn’t work
by David Gorski in Science-Based Medicine
I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned it on SBM before, but I went to the University of Michigan. In fact, I didn’t go there just for undergraduate studies or medical school, but rather for both, graduating with a B.S. in Chemistry with Honors in 1984 and from medical school in 1988. In my eight years [...]... Read more »
Harris, R., Zubieta, J., Scott, D., Napadow, V., Gracely, R., & Clauw, D. (2009) Traditional Chinese acupuncture and placebo (sham) acupuncture are differentiated by their effects on μ-opioid receptors (MORs). NeuroImage, 47(3), 1077-1085. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.05.083
- August 17, 2009
- 02:14 AM
- 806 views
Inflammation, microRNA, and cancer
by Charles Daney in Science and Reason
If there's just one single point worth making about the biology of cancer, it would have to be "it's complicated".Cells in general, and animal cells in particular, are extremely intricate Rube-Goldberg-like mechanisms. Their correct functioning depends on the integrity of 20,000 or so genes (in the case of humans), and at least 5 times as many proteins whose form is specified by the genes. Damage to even one of a few thousand important genes can put a cell on the road to becoming cancerous. So t........ Read more »
Pedersen, I., Otero, D., Kao, E., Miletic, A., Hother, C., Ralfkiaer, E., Rickert, R., Gronbaek, K., & David, M. (2009) Onco-miR-155 targets SHIP1 to promote TNFα-dependent growth of B cell lymphomas. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 1(5), 288-295. DOI: 10.1002/emmm.200900028
- August 17, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 782 views
Facial emotional expressions are not universal
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
From the Bushmen of the Kalahari to the Kalaallit of Greenland, you'll find that people everywhere frown in frustration and smile in delight. Or will you? The universality of human emotions and their expression in the face has become widely accepted in psychology. At the vanguard of this perspective is pioneering psychologist Paul Ekman, the co-creator of the facial action coding system (FACS) - a way of categorising and interpreting facial expressions according to which muscles are tensed. But ........ Read more »
Jack, R., Blais, C., Scheepers, C., Schyns, P., & Caldara, R. (2009) Cultural Confusions Show that Facial Expressions Are Not Universal. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.051
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