News Articles

The Multicentre Epilepsy Lesion Detection project (MELD) used over 1,000 patient MRI scans from 22 global epilepsy centers to develop an algorithm which provides reports of where abnormalities are in cases of drug-resistant focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) – a leading cause of epilepsy.Around 1 percent of the world’s population have the serious neurological condition epilepsy, that is characterized by frequent seizures. While drugs treatments are available for the majority of people with epilepsy, 20 to 30 percent do not respond to medications.

An experiment found that selfing” monkeyflower plants lost 13 percent to 24 percent of their genetic variation compared to another group that were propagated by bumble bees. Genetic variation is important to respond to changes in nature or the overall environment. The good news is that they used bumblebees and though they claim they are in decline, evidence does not show that, so the plants are not at short term risk. Even better, pollination is not done by bumblebees alone, there are over 25,000 species of just bees, and lots of other insects pollinate. An experiment outside a closed greenhouse would show that.

WNBA star Brittney Griner is in a Russian jail because the laws of the country you enter no matter what country you live in. A visitor to the US with banned substances is going to jail the same way. Yet to many Americans, what she had is no problem. She was not smuggling drugs, she had cannabis oil used for vaping.In that, she is hardy alone. Much like medical marijuana prescriptions were overwhelmingly obtained by young men while pain prescriptions are overwhelmingly for older women, there is a clear demographic who take up vaping for the cannabis, not to quit smoking or reduce harm by replacing carcinogenic smoke with nicotine vapor.

Obesity is correlated to risk for breast cancer after menopause and new study suggests that this adiposity is related to the follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). It is only an observational study, in the exploratory section and not causal, but the authors say their examination of  hormone levels from samples stored in a Women’s Health Initiative biobank is the largest study of its kind in older women.A hormone released by the pituitary gland, FSH plays an important role in female development and reproduction by stimulating growth of the ovarian follicle before ovulation.

The researchers confirmed there is a system in place that is working to limit the amount of water being lost from the leaf, but what’s causing it is not settled. They believe that water conduits, called aquaporins, located in the cell membranes are responsible. 

California is primarily a desert and with no way to generate enough of its own electricity, the state must run power lines from other states through dry areas to keep a growing population in air conditioning. When wildfires occur the state routinely blames utilities and since utilities are created and managed by government fiat, utilities rarely note that they are not allowed to own power lines in many cases, and environmental laws restrict clearing trees and brush near them. The state instead sues, gets a win in a politically sympathetic court, the utility goes into bankruptcy and then emerges and the whole process starts over.

Cells transform from one type into another and activation of a particular set of genes dictates how cells specialize in performing specific tasks and determines when they divide or when they differentiate. 

Countries where regressive policies toward science have banned modern technologies like genetic engineering are also overwhelmingly unable to feed themselves. Some European countries not only prevent much of Africa from feeding themselves, they ban imports by former colonies that don't do as they are told.A new breakthrough may mean genetic optimization that green NGOs won't have a reason to ban, like mutagenesis genetic engineering and copper sulfate pesticides, which are currently organic certified.

In the modern era, people are rarely not busy. When we have a free moment we are reading on a cell phone or playing a game.There are even jokes about someone sitting in a coffee shop and seeming bizarre because they just enjoy a coffee. 

Multimodal adaptive optics imaging has revealed photoreceptor and retinal pigment epithelium relationships in eyes with vitelliform macular dystrophy. Vitelliform macular dystrophy (VMD) is an inherited genetic disease that causes progressive vision loss through degeneration of the light-sensing retina. Genes implicated in VMD include BEST1, PRPH2, IMPG1, and IMPG2. Depending on the gene and mutation, age of onset and severity vary widely. All forms of the disease have in common a lesion in the central retina (macula) that looks like an egg yolk and is a build-up of toxic fatty material called lipofuscin. VMD affects about 1 in 5,500 Americans and there is currently no treatment for this condition.

A new study may improve the sense of embodiment when using autonomous prosthetic limbs. The work had left and right limbs are controlled by two people simultaneously and revealed that the visual information necessary to predict the partner’s intentions behind limb movements can significantly enhance the sense of embodiment towards partner-controlled limbs during virtual co-embodiment.

An analysis of 5,329 patients across the U.S. who died from medical aid in the 23 years after Oregon became the first state to legalize assisted suicide and predictably found one demographic dominates the group: well-educated, wealthy people with cancer. If they are not in a state that allows it, they have the money to travel and to incur the cost of the drugs needed for voluntary euthanasia, which are not covered by insurance. The results: More than 72 percent of patients who died with medical aid had college experience, more than 95 percent were non-Hispanic whites, and nearly 75 percent had cancer.