All posts from Today
- March 18, 2010
- 05:05 PM
- 7 views
Parkinsonism emotion recognition impairment better accounted for by sleep deprivation
by William Lu in The Quantum Lobe Chronicles
The New York Times recently covered a paper by Grey and Tickle-Degnen, published in the journal Neuropsychology, finding that people with Parkinson's Disease (PD) are unable to recognize facial and vocal emotions very well. The article states that it's not clear why this seems to be the case. I briefly reviewed the original meta-analytic paper (the pdf can be found here) and saw that the research team accounted for 1) the emotion recognition tasks used, 2) the medication the participants were on........ Read more »
Gray HM, & Tickle-Degnen L. (2010) A meta-analysis of performance on emotion recognition tasks in Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychology, 24(2), 176-91. PMID: 20230112
Massicotte-Marquez J, Décary A, Gagnon JF, Vendette M, Mathieu A, Postuma RB, Carrier J, & Montplaisir J. (2008) Executive dysfunction and memory impairment in idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder. Neurology, 70(15), 1250-7. PMID: 18216303
Seugnet L, Galvin JE, Suzuki Y, Gottschalk L, & Shaw PJ. (2009) Persistent short-term memory defects following sleep deprivation in a drosophila model of Parkinson disease. Sleep, 32(8), 984-92. PMID: 19725249
Norlinah, M., Afidah, K., Noradina, A., Shamsul, A., Hamidon, B., Sahathevan, R., & Raymond, A. (2009) Sleep disturbances in Malaysian patients with Parkinson's disease using polysomnography and PDSS. Parkinsonism , 15(9), 670-674. DOI: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2009.02.012
- March 18, 2010
- 04:25 PM
- 6 views
Death by human stampede
Over the past 30 years, stampedes have killed at least 7,000 people and injured another 14,000. That's the conclusion that Edbert Hsu (Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) and colleagues reached after a painstaking trawl of news reports in the world's English-language media.The real toll is probably even higher, of course, but the data were enough to allow Hsu to work out the characteristics of the most lethal stampedes. They found reports on 215 stampedes, of which 49 occurred at sporting events........ Read more »
Hsieh, Y., Ngai, K., Burkle, F., & Hsu, E. (2009) Epidemiological Characteristics of Human Stampedes. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 3(4), 217-223. DOI: 10.1097/DMP.0b013e3181c5b4ba
- March 18, 2010
- 03:54 PM
- 6 views
Unique Fossils Record the Dining Habits of Ancient Sharks
A photograph and line drawing (left side) of the fossil dolphin Astadelphis gastaldii. The crescent-shaped line in the line drawing represents the bite of a large shark, with the red portions representing damage done directly to the bone. From Bianucci et al, 2010.
Shark attacks are events of speed and violence. When they have locked on to a prey item sharks seem to come out of nowhere, and though they can be quite gentle with their jaws (as on occasions when they are unsure about whether ........ Read more »
CHRISTY C. VISAGGI and STEPHEN J. GODFREY. (2010) VARIATION IN COMPOSITION AND ABUNDANCE OF MIOCENE SHARK TEETH FROM CALVERT CLIFFS, MARYLAND. Journal of Verterbrate Paleontology, 30(1), 26-35. info:/
Godfrey, S., & Smith, J. (2010) Shark-bitten vertebrate coprolites from the Miocene of Maryland. Naturwissenschaften. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-010-0659-x
BIANUCCI, G., SORCE, B., STORAI, T., & LANDINI, W. (2010) Killing in the Pliocene: shark attack on a dolphin from Italy. Palaeontology, 53(2), 457-470. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00945.x
- March 18, 2010
- 02:12 PM
- 14 views
“Skunk bear” snowfall ecology (a.k.a what wolverines want)
by DeLene Beeland in Wild Muse
Recently, the only known wolverine in Michigan passed away. Unlike the life and death of most wild animals, which unfold without human fanfare, her life and death were noticed. Scrutinized even. Rare species catch our attention. Rare species persisting outside their normal range even more so. Wolverines are often characterized as solitary creatures, thinly distributed [...]... Read more »
Copeland, J., McKelvey, K., Aubry, K., Landa, A., Persson, J., Inman, R., Krebs, J., Lofroth, E., Golden, H., Squires, J.... (2010) The bioclimatic envelope of the wolverine (Gulo gulo): do climatic constraints limit its geographic distribution?. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 88(3), 233-246. DOI: 10.1139/Z09-136
- March 18, 2010
- 01:51 PM
- 11 views
On the Origins of Polar bears
From PNAS March 16, 2010 vol. 107 no. 11 5053-5057 "Complete mitochondrial genome of a Pleistocene jawbone unveils the origin of polar bear" Lindqvist et al. 2010.
The polar bear has become the flagship species in the climate-change discussion. However, little is known about how past climate impacted its evolution and persistence, given an extremely poor fossil record. Although it is ... Read more »
Lindqvist, C., Schuster, S., Sun, Y., Talbot, S., Qi, J., Ratan, A., Tomsho, L., Kasson, L., Zeyl, E., Aars, J.... (2010) Complete mitochondrial genome of a Pleistocene jawbone unveils the origin of polar bear. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(11), 5053-5057. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0914266107
- March 18, 2010
- 01:48 PM
- 11 views
LRR proteins help neurons find a partner
by Kevin Mitchell in Wiring the Brain
Matching 100 billion neurons with their appropriate partners is a daunting task, especially when each neuron can make synaptic contact with about 1,000 other cells. Nevertheless, the developing brain accomplishes this feat with remarkable specificity – neurons from each area of the brain send out axons which follow a stereotyped pathway to find their appropriate targets, guided by signpost proteins along the way. Once in the right general area they have to select specific cell types with whi........ Read more »
Ko J, Fuccillo MV, Malenka RC, & Südhof TC. (2009) LRRTM2 functions as a neurexin ligand in promoting excitatory synapse formation. Neuron, 64(6), 791-8. PMID: 20064387
de Wit J, Sylwestrak E, O'Sullivan ML, Otto S, Tiglio K, Savas JN, Yates JR 3rd, Comoletti D, Taylor P, & Ghosh A. (2009) LRRTM2 interacts with Neurexin1 and regulates excitatory synapse formation. Neuron, 64(6), 799-806. PMID: 20064388
Dolan J, Walshe K, Alsbury S, Hokamp K, O'Keeffe S, Okafuji T, Miller SF, Tear G, & Mitchell KJ. (2007) The extracellular leucine-rich repeat superfamily; a comparative survey and analysis of evolutionary relationships and expression patterns. BMC genomics, 320. PMID: 17868438
- March 18, 2010
- 01:00 PM
- 13 views
And The Winner Is…
by Moselio Schaechter in Small Things Considered
by Elio The transposases! The contest, in case you wonder, was for the most abundant set of genes in the known universe, or at least in the genomic data banks available on Earth. Aziz, Breitbart, and Edwards examined some 10 million genes from 2137 sequenced genomes (47 archaeal, 725 bacterial, 29 eukaryotic and 1336 viral) plus 187 metagenomes, in search...... Read more »
Aziz RK, Breitbart M, & Edwards RA. (2010) Transposases are the most abundant, most ubiquitous genes in nature. Nucleic acids research. PMID: 20215432
- March 18, 2010
- 12:00 PM
- 21 views
Qualitative exercise adherence studies - participants with back pain and knee pain
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
Slade et al. (2009) is a qualitative study on people with non-specific chronic low back pain and examines their exercise adherence. It examines their experiences of exercise past and present and also how they felt during the research study programme. Many of the findings are in line with expectations from people who have been unsuccessful at establishing long term exercise behaviour, low exercise self efficacy and feelings of fear and helplessness. The participants also reporte........ Read more »
Slade SC, Molloy E, & Keating JL. (2009) People with non-specific chronic low back pain who have participated in exercise programs have preferences about exercise: a qualitative study. The Australian journal of physiotherapy, 55(2), 115-21. PMID: 19463082
- March 18, 2010
- 11:30 AM
- 17 views
Tasmanian devil colony shows immunity against cancer
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
In the tragic battle against devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), scientists may have found the first “glimmer of hope” near Cradle Mountain in northwestern Tasmania. At least that is what Katherine Belov of the University of Sydney and colleagues are saying about this unique colony that has resisted the disease. The results are paradoxical.... Read more »
Siddle, H., Marzec, J., Cheng, Y., Jones, M., & Belov, K. (2010) MHC gene copy number variation in Tasmanian devils: implications for the spread of a contagious cancer. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.2362
- March 18, 2010
- 11:19 AM
- 14 views
When population booms in poor nations
by Dave in The Daily Monthly
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, population isn’t growing evenly across the world. While some areas are growing quickly, other places are stagnating. In nearly every case, population growth is slowest in rich countries and faster in poor countries. These two maps from the UN Population Division perhaps show the trend most dramatically:
As you can [...]... Read more »
Nikos Alexandratos. (2005) Countries with Rapid Population Growth and Resource Constraints: Issues of Food, Agriculture, and Development. Population and Development Review, 31(2), 237-258. info:other/
- March 18, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 17 views
Quality vs. quantity in protecting habitat for birds
by Rob Goldstein in Conservation Maven
A new study from South Africa touches on an interesting conservation question about whether we should place greater importance on quality or quantity when it comes to protecting habitat to conserve biodiversity...... Read more »
Dures, S., & Cumming, G. (2010) The confounding influence of homogenising invasive species in a globally endangered and largely urban biome: Does habitat quality dominate avian biodiversity?. Biological Conservation, 143(3), 768-777. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2009.12.019
- March 18, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 20 views
Are big brains better for long trips?
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
For many birds, migration is a major component of life. You'd expect think that migration would have a whole cascade of effects on those birds, including the nervous system. But which way?
On the one hand, migration might be correlated with large brains to handle the the complex navigation tasks. On the other hand, migration might be correlated with small brains that are energetically efficient.
Sol and colleagues compared over six hundred species of birds (measuring over 4,000 skulls). Speci........ Read more »
Sol, D., Garcia, N., Iwaniuk, A., Davis, K., Meade, A., Boyle, W., & Székely, T. (2010) Evolutionary Divergence in Brain Size between Migratory and Resident Birds. PLoS ONE, 5(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009617
- March 18, 2010
- 07:26 AM
- 14 views
A heads-up about head-up displays
by Daniel Simons in The Invisible Gorilla
A new GM design that effectively turns the windshield of your car into a monitor, augmenting reality and aiding driving in poor conditions. But that can cause problems too.... Read more »
Wickens C.D., & Alexander, A. L. (2009) Attentional tunneling and task management in synthetic vision displays. International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 182-199. info:/
- March 18, 2010
- 06:14 AM
- 15 views
Measles week, part IV: Some of the answers
by iayork in Mystery Rays from Outer Space
Various workers affected by measles punish a god of measles, while a doctor and drugstore keeper try to protect the god from them. (1862
Well, here we are already at Part IV of Measles Week. Doesn’t time fly? Remember how young we all were, back at Part I, when I raised the question I’m trying [...]... Read more »
Aaby, P. (1985) Severe measles: A reappraisal of the role of nutrition, overcrowding and virus dose. Medical Hypotheses, 18(2), 93-112. DOI: 10.1016/0306-9877(85)90042-8
- March 18, 2010
- 03:43 AM
- 29 views
rethinking quantum states and computers
by Greg Fish in weird things
By now, it’s well known that atoms and molecules can be in more than one state at the same time and do very odd things depending on their quantum states. However, somewhere along the line, this odd behavior has to stop, otherwise our world would be a very strange one. Objects would change temperatures and [...]... Read more »
O’Connell, A., Hofheinz, M., Ansmann, M., Bialczak, R., Lenander, M., Lucero, E., Neeley, M., Sank, D., Wang, H., Weides, M.... (2010) Quantum ground state and single-phonon control of a mechanical resonator. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature08967
- March 18, 2010
- 12:19 AM
- 14 views
Palliative Care in Cancer Centers - Horses of many different colors
by Christian Sinclair, MD in Pallimed: a Hospice & Palliative Medicine Blog
The third Palliative Care related article released for St. Patrick's (Palladius) day is a article that speaks to what many of us in the field know already:
Palliative Care is a chameleon: it looks different depending on the background of the institution.
But as the editor-in-chief of the Lancet has said: "It is not true, until it is published." Well JAMA has published a little bit of truth with the article: "Availability and Integration of Palliative Care at US Cancer Centers." We have a........ Read more »
David Hui, MD, MSc, Ahmed Elsayem, MD, Maxine De La Cruz, MD, Ann Berger, MD, Donna S. Zhukovsky, MD, Shana Palla, MS, Avery Evans, Nada Fadul, MD, & J. Lynn Palmer, PhD; Eduardo Bruera, MD. (2010) Availability and Integration of Palliative Care at US Cancer Centers. JAMA, 303(11), 1054-1061. info:/
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