Apr. 29, 2013 ? A team of American and Italian neuroscientists has identified a cellular change in the brain that accompanies obesity. The findings could explain the body's tendency to maintain undesirable weight levels, rather than an ideal weight, and identify possible targets for pharmacological efforts to address obesity.
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition this week, identify a switch that occurs in neurons within the hypothalamus. The switch involves receptors that trigger or inhibit the release of the orexin A peptide, which stimulates the appetite, among other behaviors. In normal-weight mice, activation of this receptor decreases orexin A release. In obese mice, activation of this receptor stimulates orexin A release.
"The striking finding is that you have a massive shift of receptors from one set of nerve endings impinging on these neurons to another set," said Ken Mackie, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. "Before, activating this receptor inhibited the secretion of orexin; now it promotes it. This identifies potential targets where an intervention could influence obesity."
The work is part of a longstanding collaboration between Mackie's team at the Gill Center for Biomolecular Science at IU Bloomington and Vincenzo Di Marzo's team at the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry in Pozzuoli, Italy. Both teams study the endocannabinoid system, which is composed of receptors and signaling chemicals that occur naturally in the brain and have similarities to the active ingredients in cannabis, or marijuana. This neurochemical system is involved in a variety of physiological processes, including appetite, pain, mood, stress responses and memory.
Food consumption is controlled in part by the hypothalamus, a portion of the brain that regulates many essential behaviors. Like other important body systems, food consumption is regulated by multiple neurochemical systems, including the endocannabinoid system, representing what Mackie describes as a "balance of a very fine web of regulatory networks."
An emerging idea, Mackie said, is that this network is reset during obesity so that food consumption matches maintenance of current weight, not a person's ideal weight. Thus, an obese individual who loses weight finds it difficult to keep the weight off, as the brain signals the body to eat more in an attempt to return to the heavier weight.
Using mice, this study found that in obesity, CB1 cannabinoid receptors become enriched on the nerve terminals that normally inhibit orexin neuron activity, and the orexin neurons produce more of the endocannabinoids to activate these receptors. Activating these CB1 receptors decreases inhibition of the orexin neurons, increasing orexin A release and food consumption.
"This study identifies a mechanism for the body's ongoing tendency to return to the heavier weight," Mackie said.
The researchers conducted several experiments with mice to understand how this change takes place. They uncovered a role of leptin, a key hormone made by fat cells that influences metabolism, hunger and food consumption. Obesity causes leptin levels to be chronically high, making brain cells less sensitive to its actions, which contributes to the molecular switch that leads to the overproduction of orexin.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Indiana University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Luigia Cristino, Giuseppe Busetto, Roberta Imperatore, Ida Ferrandino, Letizia Palomba, Cristoforo Silvestri, Stefania Petrosino, Pierangelo Orlando, Marina Bentivoglio, Kenneth Mackie, and Vincenzo Di Marzo. Obesity-driven synaptic remodeling affects endocannabinoid control of orexinergic neurons. PNAS, April 29, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219485110
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Apr. 28, 2013 ? Being pregnant while young is known to protect a women against breast cancer. But why? Research in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research finds that Wnt/Notch signalling ratio is decreased in the breast tissue of mice which have given birth, compared to virgin mice of the same age.
Early pregnancy is protective against breast cancer in humans and in rodents. In humans having a child before the age of 20 decreases risk of breast cancer by half. Using microarray analysis researchers from Basel discovered that genes involved in the immune system and differentiation were up-regulated after pregnancy while the activity of genes coding for growth factors was reduced.
The activity of one particular gene Wnt4 was also down-regulated after pregnancy. The protein from this gene (Wnt4) is a feminising protein -- absence of this protein propels a fetus towards developing as a boy. Wnt and Notch are opposing components of a system which controls cellular fate within an organism and when the team looked at Notch they found that genes regulated by notch were up-regulated, Notch-stimulating proteins up-regulated and Notch-inhibiting proteins down-regulated.
Wnt/Notch signalling ratio was permanently altered in the basal stem/progenitor cells of mammary tissue of mice by pregnancy. Mohamed Bentires-Alj from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, who led this study explained, "The down-regulation of Wnt is the opposite of that seen in many cancers, and this tightened control of Wnt/Notch after pregnancy may be preventing the runaway growth present in cancer."
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Fabienne Meier-Abt, Emanuela Milani, Tim Roloff, Heike Brinkhaus, Stephan Duss, Dominique S Meyer, Ina Klebba, Piotr J Balwierz, Erik van Nimwegen and Mohamed Bentires-Alj. Parity induces differentiation and reduces Wnt/Notch signaling ratio and proliferation potential of basal stem/progenitor cells isolated from mouse mammary epithelium. Breast Cancer Research, 2013 (in press) [link]
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Strong storms initiated very early this morning north of San Angelo and quickly pressed into North Texas. ?With a Severe Thunderstorm Watch in place, the line came in with only one Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the Brownwood area and no official reports of severe weather. ?Pockets of heavy rain, lightning and gusts to 45 mph were common along the leading ?edge of the storms, but overall the storms where?innocuous. ?The graphic below was at 9 AM. ?You can see the front was through all of North Texas with most areas sinking into the 40s under gusty northwest winds except for immediately behind the front.
Rainfall totals were around an inch. ?Below are some of our SkyTracker reports along with some of the official totals around the Metroplex.
Behind the front, clouds will clear and northwest winds will remain gusty up to 30-35 mph. ?Temperatures will hold in the upper 40s and low 50s until the clouds clear then temperatures will top out near 60 degrees. ?Tonight turns out to be a cold night with the skies clearing and the winds easing somewhat. ?Here?s how we should look at 7 AM and 6 PM tomorrow:
Sunny skies are ahead for the weekend. ?Temperatures will certainly be cool both Saturday and Sunday morning, but the afternoons will be perfect! ?Storms make a return to North Texas late Monday night.
Barely even four months old, Twitter's Vine video service has already delighted the film world to the point that the Tribeca Film Festival is giving ephemeral attention spans their very own Vine competition. And the people were ready. After sorting through over 400 Vines or approximately 40 minutes-worth (for those of you keeping score at home), the judges came out with 40 of the very best abridged tales they could find in four categories: Auteur, Animage, Genre, and Series (with each submission being a Vine trilogy). More »
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Blake Shelton and a group of high-profile friends opened the Academy of Country Music Awards with ... a rap?
That's right. Shelton was joined on his new hip-hop-flavored single touting redneck swag "Boys 'Round Here" by friends Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow and the trio Pistol Annies to kick off Sunday night's show in Las Vegas.
Co-hosts Shelton and Bryan ? who have given themselves the celebrity couple name "Bluke" ? immediately took it off-color as they insulted each other during their monologue.
"How about a shout out to the Sherwin-Williams company for spray-painting Luke's jeans on," Shelton joked as the camera zoomed in on Bryan's, ahem, mid-section.
Bryan took his turn: "Blake's jeans are like buying something on credit ? nothing up front. I mean, what size are those, extra empty?"
The focus of this year's ACM Awards is on the men of country, and it's not just Shelton and Bryan taking the spotlight.
Top nominee Eric Church started the night with an award before he even hit the red carpet, winning vocal event of the year for his collaboration with Bryan and Jason Aldean on "The Only Way I Know."
"It's still kinda strange to me," Church said on the red carpet. "It's been a long journey, a long path. I can't control what I'm nominated for. I really have nothing to do with win or lose. We could win all seven, lose all seven. I promise you it won't affect anything. We're going to make the same kind of music, the same kind of show. Whatever happens happens."
Fans began lining up early to catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks and a host of country stars. One young fan clutched a bouquet of roses and waved a sign bearing a picture of Swift under the words, "Love is True."
Little Big Town was surprised on the red carpet with the video of the year award for "Pontoon."
The night will be a showcase for country's men of the moment ? and for its two dominant male stars of the last two decades.
Many of the top names in country music will perform or appear, including top nominees Church and Hunter Hayes, but most eyes will be on the marquee meeting of Brooks and George Strait. Brooks and Strait, two of music's top-selling artists regardless of genre, have never performed together.
They will help honor the show's longtime producer Dick Clark, who passed away last year. The academy is naming its artist of the decade award for Clark, whose tenure with the show began in 1979.
The moment will be special ? and not just for the millions watching at home. It has country's biggest stars abuzz as well.
"Having George and Garth on stage together at one time on an awards show will become one of the most important pieces of tape in country music history," Dierks Bentley said.
Shelton, Bryan and Aldean are up for the fan-voted entertainer of the year award ? though they're facing off against academy favorite Miranda Lambert, who is Shelton's wife, and two-time winner Swift, a heavy favorite to three-peat given her relationship with fans.
Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum said the best of country would be on display during the show, and urged country newbies to tune in.
"It'll give you a broad spectrum of what country music is all about. There are so many styles that kind of fall under the same umbrella, so it's a good representation of the genre," he said.
Shelton is arguably country's most visible male today. "The Voice" coach has a weekly presence on national television, was the recent winner of the rival Country Music Association's entertainer of the year award and has risen to platinum status again after a mid-career lull that's a distant memory.
Aldean is country's best-selling male artist at the moment and Church and Bryan have recently joined him as acts who can fill arenas and reach multiplatinum sales.
They're so prevalent at this year's awards, they've elbowed out traditional nominees like Brad Paisley, who was shut out of the nominations for the first time since 1999, and Kenny Chesney, a perennial entertainer of the year nominee who was left out of the category despite putting on 2012's most talked about event ? his stadium tour with Tim McGraw.
Hayes will be joined by another performer who got his start as a precocious teen ? Stevie Wonder, making his first appearance on the show.
Aldean, McGraw, Bentley, Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson also are scheduled to perform.
Church was nominated for the second consecutive year for album of the year for his breakthrough "Chief." He's up against Swift's "Red," Underwood's "Blown Away," Bryan's "Tailgates & Tanlines" and Little Big Town's "Tornado." Producer Jay Joyce has two nominations in the category with Church and Little Big Town.
Shelton and Lambert will defend their male and female vocalist of the year wins. Shelton faces Church, Bryan, Aldean and Toby Keith, while Lambert competes with Underwood, Swift, Martina McBride and newcomer Kacey Musgraves.
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AP Writer Hannah Dreier contributed to this report.
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I reviewed the Withings original WiFi Body Scale back in 2010 and have been using it almost daily ever since. I like how it records my weight so that I can see trends using my Android smartphone or iOS device. Withings has recently announced a new model called the Smart Body Analyzer. Priced at $149.99, [...]
This week on the Huffington Post Arts&Culture we heard from the Met on their controversial admission policy, we LOLed over the upcoming SNL themed exhibition and wished farewell to beloved film critic Roger Ebert.
Dave Quiggle
Church Lady, a Dana Carvey original. "Isn't that special?"
Bruce Yan
The dreaded Toonces, the driving cat.
Cuyler Smith
Adam Sandler's character, Canteen Boy.
PhilipTseng
Laser Cats!
Casey Weldon
Wayne's World, of course.
JOKA
Remember Eddie Murphy's take on Gumby?
Nan Lawson
Harray Caray quote: "I'm curious... like a cat. That's why my friends call me Whiskers."
Eric Price
Chris Farley tribute depicting Matt Foley, inspirational speaker.
Jude Buffum
Will Ferrel's impression of Janet Reno.
Bill Main
Aaand more Laser Cats.
Jason Liwag
Who could forget Alec Baldwin's "Schweddy Balls."
A hilarious new exhibit in Los Angeles is paying tribute to one of America's longest-running television shows: Saturday Night Live. Featuring a playful collection of impressive fan art, the show's masterpieces include portraits of Church Lady, Harry Caray and, of course, Toonces the dreaded driving cat. Read more here.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, that well-known behemoth of the New York City art scene, has been the subject of some not-so-favorable press in recent months. After not one, but two lawsuits filed by unhappy patrons contesting the institute's "recommended" admission fee policy, the museum has posted a strongly worded response on its website
In the lengthy statement, director Thomas P. Campbell defends the pay-what-you-will standard that's been in use since the 1970s (one that, for the record, prompts but does not require visitors to pay a suggested fee of $25) and attempts to debunk some of the rumors that have been floating around since the museum was first accused of fraud last year.
Click here for a breakdown of the letter.
Jennifer Pawluck took the photo above of police spokesman Ian Lafreniere in Montreal last month, and was surprised when police officers showed up at her home with a warrant for her arrest.
"Many of my friends do not like the police," Pawluck told the Huffington Post Qu?bec, in French. "I thought it would be funny to put the picture on Instagram. I do not even know who he is."
Read more here.
L to R: Gene Siskel, Leonard Maltin and Roger Ebert at the NATPE television convention 30 years ago.
Leonard Maltin writes:
I'm still in a state of shock over the news of Roger Ebert's death, at age 70, so soon after going public about the recurrence of cancer in his system -- and promising to file reviews as often as possible. That's the Roger Ebert I'm thinking about right now: not the influential critic or the lifelong newspaperman who never missed a deadline, but the guy who faced a staggering series of health crises and refused to give in. He was the bravest person I've ever encountered. It helped that he had an equally indomitable partner in his devoted wife Chaz; they made a great team.
It's impossible to overstate the impact Roger and his longtime partner and rival Gene Siskel had on popular culture and the perception of film criticism. They were both firmly established in Chicago (a great newspaper town), writing for the Sun-Times and the Tribune, respectively, when their local public television affiliate exposed them to a national audience on PBS in the early 1980s. Imagine: a weekly half-hour program consisting of two critics reviewing and debating current movies. There had never been anything like it before and it caught on like wildfire. Gene and Roger were in the right place at the right time, and they made the most of it; they became bona fide celebrities, and soon their names were synonymous with film criticism. (I know this first-hand, because Entertainment Tonight went on the air around the same time. When people started recognizing me in hotel lobbies and airports, they would often ask, "Aren't you Siskelandebert?", as if it were a compound name.)
Apr. 3, 2013 ? A new system for isolating rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) -- living solid tumor cells found at low levels in the bloodstream -- shows significant improvement over previously developed devices and does not require prior identification of tumor-specific target molecules. Developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Engineering in Medicine and the MGH Cancer Center, the device rapidly delivers a population of unlabeled tumor cells that can be analyzed with both standard clinical diagnostic cytopathology and advanced genetic and molecular technology.
The MGH team's report has been published in Science Translational Medicine.
"This new technology allows us to follow how cancer cells change through the process of metastasis," says Mehmet Toner, PhD, director of the BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems Resource Center in the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine, the paper's senior author. "Cancer loses many of its tissue characteristics during metastasis, a process we have not understood well. Now for the first time we have the ability to discover how cancer evolves through analysis of single metastatic cells, which is a big step in the war against cancer."
The new device -- called the CTC-iChip -- is the third microchip-based device for capturing CTCs developed at the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine. The first two systems relied on prior knowledge of a tumor-specific surface marker in order to sort CTCs from whole blood and required significant adjustment for each different type of cancer. The systems also required four to five hours to process a single blood sample.
The only U.S. Food & Drug Administration-cleared, commercially available device for capturing and enumerating CTCs -- the CELLSEARCH? system developed by Veridex, LLC -- relies on magnetic nanoparticles that bind to the same epithelial protein used in the MGH -developed microchip-based devices and cannot always find CTCs present at very low numbers. In January 2011 the MGH entered into a collaborative agreement with Veridex and its affiliate Janssen Research & Development, LLC, to establish a center of excellence in research on CTC technologies.
Combining elements of both approaches -- magnetic labeling of target cells and microfluidic sorting -- the CTC-iChip works by putting a blood sample through three stages. The first removes from the sample, on the basis of cell size, all blood components except for CTCs and white blood cells. The second step uses a microfluidic process developed at the MGH to align the cells in a single file, allowing for extremely precise and rapid sorting. In the third stage, magnetically labeled target cells -- either CTCs tagged via the epithelial marker or white blood cells tagged on known blood-cell antigens -- are sorted out. Tagging white blood cells instead of CTCs leaves behind a population of unlabeled and unaltered tumor cells and doesn't rely on the presence of the epithelial marker or other known tumor antigens on the cell surface.
The new system was able to process blood samples at the extremely rapid rate of 10 million cells per second, handling a tube of blood in less than an hour. Both the mode of sorting out tagged CTCs, called tumor-antigen-dependent, and the technique that depletes white blood cells, called tumor-antigen-independent, recovered more than 80 percent of tumor cells from different types of cancer that had been added to blood samples. Comparison of the antigen-dependent-mode CTC-iChip with existing commercial technology for processing blood samples from patients with prostate, breast, pancreatic, colorectal and lung cancer showed the CTC-iChip to be more sensitive at detecting low levels of CTCs.
In the antigen-independent mode, the CTC-iChip successfully identified CTCs from several types of cancers that had lost or never had the epithelial marker, including triple-negative breast cancer and melanoma. CTCs isolated through this mode were put through standard cytopathological analysis, which revealed structural similarities to the original tumor, and detailed molecular genotyping of CTCs from a single patient found significant differences in gene expression patterns among individual CTCs.
"We're only beginning to identify potential applications of the ability to analyze how tumors mutate as they spread, but this should help improve our understanding of the fundamental genetic principles of metastasis," says Toner, the Benedict Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School (HMS). "We hope to develop this technology to the point where it could be used for early diagnosis, which is the 'Holy Grail' that all of us working on CTC technology have been striving for."
Ravi Kapur, PhD, of the Center for Engineering in Medicine, leader of the innovation team within the MGH Circulating Tumor Cell Center, says, "The CTC-iChip provides a first-in-class device for high-efficiency, high-speed tumor cell sorting from a clinically relevant blood volume. The chip is designed for mass manufacturing, and simple automation for clinical translation." The team is working with collaborators at Veridex and Janssen to refine the system for commercial development.
Study co-author Daniel Haber, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Cancer Center and Isselbacher/Schwartz Professor of Oncology at HMS, adds, "The study of cancer metastasis has been limited by the inability to quickly and reliably isolate tumor cells in transit in the blood. This new approach is likely to be a game changer in the field."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts General Hospital, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Emre Ozkumur, Ajay M. Shah, Jordan C. Ciciliano, Benjamin L. Emmink, David T. Miyamoto, Elena Brachtel, Min Yu, Pin-i Chen, Bailey Morgan, Julie Trautwein, Anya Kimura, Sudarshana Sengupta, Shannon L. Stott, Nezihi Murat Karabacak, Thomas A. Barber, John R. Walsh, Kyle Smith, Philipp S. Spuhler, James P. Sullivan, Richard J. Lee, David T. Ting, Xi Luo, Alice T. Shaw, Aditya Bardia, Lecia V. Sequist, David N. Louis, Shyamala Maheswaran, Ravi Kapur, Daniel A. Haber, and Mehmet Toner. Inertial Focusing for Tumor Antigen?Dependent and ?Independent Sorting of Rare Circulating Tumor Cells. Sci Transl Med, 3 April 2013 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005616
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
This week on the podcast we're talking about the cooking mistakes everybody makes, creating your own private cloud syncing service, and which Linux distro is better for beginners. We're also answering questions about reusing old file cabinets, keeping your unlimited data after Verizon takes it away, and syncing music to a flash drive for your car.
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News and Top Stories
Facebook Home Brings a Friend-Focused Home and Lock Screen to Android: The fabled "Facebook Phone" is here, but it's not a phone?it's a suite of apps for Android. "Facebook Home" replaces the lock and home screens that normally hold your Android apps with updates, pictures, and messaging, all delivered through Facebook. It'll be available later in April for a few select devices in the Play Store, with more devices to come later.</li.
Firefox Updates with Per-Window Private Browsing, a New Download Manager, and More: Firefox's latest update brings a number of new features, included one highly anticipated one: per-window private browsing. Now you can browse privately without closing out your current session, and it's not just for porn, people!
5 Cooking Mistakes We All Make, and How to Fix Them: Cleaning your cast iron with soap and water? Squeezing every last bit of ground beef into that pan? Even if you know your way around the kitchen, there are a few mistakes nearly all of us make in the kitchen. We take a look at some common kitchen errors that may plague your cooking, and why they're bad for your food.
How to Set Up Your Own Private Cloud Storage Service in Five Minutes with OwnCloud: With so many services like iCloud and Dropbox getting hacked these days, it's no surprise that more people want to pull their data off the cloud. Instead of missing out on those great syncing features, though, you can create your own cloud storage service that you control with a service called ownCloud. With it, you'll get syncing files, notes, calendars, and more. And, it only takes about five minutes to get it set up.
Ubuntu vs. Mint: Which Linux Distro Is Better for Beginners?: There's nothing like digging into your first Linux distribution, whether you're a tech-savvy user looking to branch out or whether you're installing it on a friend's computer. But which distribution is actually better for beginners? Here, we'll delve into the differences between Ubuntu and Mint, the two most popular beginner distros, and perform a little experiment to see what new users prefer.
Questions and Answers
Each week we answer five questions from readers and listeners. Here's what we tackled this week. (Apologies for the bad audio in the video version, the questions did not come through very well.)
Now that I've digitized my life, what should I do with all these filing cabinets I used to use? You could just use them as regular drawers and store things like spare cables in them, but we've also shared a number of cool DIY projects over the years. You could turn it into a standing desk, a little container garden, or?for you l33t hackers out there?a Linux server cluster.
I just upgraded to the iPhone 5 on Verizon and lost my unlimited data. Can I move my iPhone to another carrier, or somehow get unlimited data back on Verizon? Unfortunately, you can't use the Verizon iPhone on other carriers like Sprint or T-Mobile (you can switch an AT&T or T-Mobile phone between those two networks, though). In the case of Verizon, you could possibly migrate it to a carrier that uses Verizon's cell towers?like the pay-as-you-go carrier Page Plus?but you won't necessarily have unlimited data. If you want truly unlimited data, you'll probably have to buy another phone and use it on Sprint. Some users may be able to get Verizon customer service to reinstate their unlimited data, but there are no guarantees. Make sure you actually need unlimited data, too, before you go through the trouble.
Can I sync iTunes with an SD card or flash drive for playback in my car? iTunes won't sync with mass storage devices on its own, but you could do it with an app like DoubleTwist. Mac users should also check out Middleman, an app I put together for syncing iTunes playlists with flash drives and SD cards.
I like your show and want to help you out with a review, but I don't like iTunes. Is there anywhere else I can leave a review? Sadly, iTunes is one of the primary ways people discover and listen to our podcast. Even if you don't listen to it with iTunes (most of us don't), you can still leave a review there if you want to help us out!
Can I sync MP3 files from my Android phone to a cloud service? We dig Google Play Music and Amazon Cloud Player for that kind of stuff, but they sync from your computer to the cloud. We don't know of anything that syncs directly from your phone, if that's what you're asking, but perhaps other readers have suggestions?
I want to get a Kindle. Can I read EPUB books on it, or just Amazon-bought books? You can't read EPUB books on a Kindle, but you can convert your EPUB books to the MOBI format with Calibre and then transfer them to your Kindle. You aren't limited to just Amazon books. Alternatively, we love the Nook Simple Touch, which can not only read EPUB but is rootable, which means you can turn it into the ultimate ereader with magazines and other Android apps.
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Newspaper, Computer, Clock (by Brandon Hopkins), and Alert (by Dima Yagnyuk) provided by the Noun Project.
A majority of Americans are in favor of legalizing the use of marijuana, a national survey finds, a shift in attitude after more than four decades of polling on the issue.?
Fifty-two percent of Americans say the use of marijuana should be made legal, while 45 percent say it should not, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in March?among 1,501 adults. People aged 18 to 32 are the most supportive group, but half of baby boomers now favor legalizing marijuana, too.?
The survey shows the acceptance rate?has risen 11 points since 2010. The shift is even more dramatic when taking into account a 1969 Gallup survey showing that only 12 percent of Americans favored legalization.
The survey finds that almost half of Americans -- 48 percent -- say they have tried marijuana, up from 38 percent a decade ago. About 12 percent say they have used marijuana in the past year.?
Fewer Americans now perceive marijuana as a gateway drug, and?fewer?say that smoking marijuana is morally wrong. The survey also shows about 72 percent believe?government efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they are worth. In November, Colorado and Washington state voted to approve the recreational use of small amounts of marijuana.
But while more and more Americans are in favor of legalization and fewer perceive marijuana as a dangerous drug, the survey shows?about half say they would still feel uncomfortable if people around them were using marijuana.
These days, multiple monitors are becoming the norm instead of the exception. And with most interfaces designed to capture your attention—everywhere and at all costs—the constant barrage of blinking windows, beeping notifications, and bouncing icons can be distracting if not entirely overwhelming. New Windows software, Diff Displays, wants to fix this by making sure you're focused on the information you need and nothing else. More »
Urinary tract infections 29 times more likely in schizophrenia relapsePublic release date: 3-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@gru.edu 706-721-4421 Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University
AUGUSTA, Ga. Schizophrenia patients experiencing relapse are 29 times more likely than healthy individuals to have a urinary tract infection, researchers report.
Urinary tract infections, which can cause painful and frequent urination, are common but patients hospitalized for schizophrenia are even more likely to have a UTI than healthy individuals or even others whose illness is under control, said Dr. Brian J. Miller, psychiatrist and schizophrenia expert at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.
The study comparing UTI rates in 57 relapsed hospitalized patients, 40 stable outpatients and 39 healthy controls showed that 35 percent of the relapsed patients had UTIs versus 5 and 3 percent, respectively, of the other groups.
While it's too early to know which comes first, the UTI or acute schizophrenia relapse, the association means relapsed patients should be tested for a UTI, said Miller, corresponding author of the study in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Relapse can produce delusions and symptoms that can impede good hygiene and adequate hydration, increasing the risk of UTIs. However Miller, who pursued the study because he's seen improvement in patients' psychiatric condition simply by treating them with antibiotics for a UTI, said UTIs could be the trigger.
This seemingly odd association between infection and relapse of a brain disorder also has surfaced in dementia, in which a significant percentage of patients with worsening aggressive behavior and psychotic symptoms have a UTI that, when treated, improves dementia-related problems. "The questions we are asking is, 'Does that same phenomena seem to take place in patients with schizophrenia?" and we are finding evidence that it does," Miller said.
It's clear that the immune system is a player in the heterogeneous disorder, which affects about 1 percent of the population, causing hallucinations, depression and impaired thinking and social behavior. Babies born to mothers who develop a severe infection, such as influenza or pneumonia, during pregnancy have a significantly increased risk of schizophrenia.
Miller and others suspect that the mother's infection somehow reprograms the baby's immune system so its reactions are more extreme more aggressive at times, more passive at others leaving the individual vulnerable to both infections and autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, where the body's immune system attacks itself. Schizophrenia patients die on average 15-20 years earlier than the general population, have an eight-fold increased risk of death from pneumonia and nearly five percent increased risk of death from all infectious diseases.
The study included reviewing charts of patients with acute illness relapses that required hospitalization and actively recruiting clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Urine cultures, which identify specific bacterium causing the urinary tract infection, were not available for most of the acutely ill patients. However, urinalysis, a broader screening test for disease or UTIs, were available.
Miller has already completed a similar study in a larger number of patients that found comparable correlations of UTIs in relapsed patients. He is pursuing prospective studies of acutely ill patients where urine cultures are obtained and wants to also look at giving antibiotics to prevent UTIs in those with a history to see if that also reduces their incidence of schizophrenia relapse. He's in the midst of a related, National Institute of Mental Health-funded study looking at blood levels of interleukin 6, a protein that helps regulate inflammation, to see if they are a red flag for relapse in some schizophrenia patients.
Miller and his colleagues note in the published study that some older antipsychotic medications reduce urination, which can increase the risk of UTIs, although most of the patients were on newer drugs. About 34 percent of adults over age 20 say they have had least one UTI and 1 in 5 women develop UTIs over their lifetime, according to the Kidney and Urology Foundation of America.
About 82 percent of patients with schizophrenia experience relapse within five years of their first episode, making them more treatment-resistant and further impairing their ability to think and function.
###
Media Contact:
Toni Baker
Communications Director
Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Regents University
706-825-6473 Cell
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Urinary tract infections 29 times more likely in schizophrenia relapsePublic release date: 3-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@gru.edu 706-721-4421 Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University
AUGUSTA, Ga. Schizophrenia patients experiencing relapse are 29 times more likely than healthy individuals to have a urinary tract infection, researchers report.
Urinary tract infections, which can cause painful and frequent urination, are common but patients hospitalized for schizophrenia are even more likely to have a UTI than healthy individuals or even others whose illness is under control, said Dr. Brian J. Miller, psychiatrist and schizophrenia expert at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.
The study comparing UTI rates in 57 relapsed hospitalized patients, 40 stable outpatients and 39 healthy controls showed that 35 percent of the relapsed patients had UTIs versus 5 and 3 percent, respectively, of the other groups.
While it's too early to know which comes first, the UTI or acute schizophrenia relapse, the association means relapsed patients should be tested for a UTI, said Miller, corresponding author of the study in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Relapse can produce delusions and symptoms that can impede good hygiene and adequate hydration, increasing the risk of UTIs. However Miller, who pursued the study because he's seen improvement in patients' psychiatric condition simply by treating them with antibiotics for a UTI, said UTIs could be the trigger.
This seemingly odd association between infection and relapse of a brain disorder also has surfaced in dementia, in which a significant percentage of patients with worsening aggressive behavior and psychotic symptoms have a UTI that, when treated, improves dementia-related problems. "The questions we are asking is, 'Does that same phenomena seem to take place in patients with schizophrenia?" and we are finding evidence that it does," Miller said.
It's clear that the immune system is a player in the heterogeneous disorder, which affects about 1 percent of the population, causing hallucinations, depression and impaired thinking and social behavior. Babies born to mothers who develop a severe infection, such as influenza or pneumonia, during pregnancy have a significantly increased risk of schizophrenia.
Miller and others suspect that the mother's infection somehow reprograms the baby's immune system so its reactions are more extreme more aggressive at times, more passive at others leaving the individual vulnerable to both infections and autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, where the body's immune system attacks itself. Schizophrenia patients die on average 15-20 years earlier than the general population, have an eight-fold increased risk of death from pneumonia and nearly five percent increased risk of death from all infectious diseases.
The study included reviewing charts of patients with acute illness relapses that required hospitalization and actively recruiting clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Urine cultures, which identify specific bacterium causing the urinary tract infection, were not available for most of the acutely ill patients. However, urinalysis, a broader screening test for disease or UTIs, were available.
Miller has already completed a similar study in a larger number of patients that found comparable correlations of UTIs in relapsed patients. He is pursuing prospective studies of acutely ill patients where urine cultures are obtained and wants to also look at giving antibiotics to prevent UTIs in those with a history to see if that also reduces their incidence of schizophrenia relapse. He's in the midst of a related, National Institute of Mental Health-funded study looking at blood levels of interleukin 6, a protein that helps regulate inflammation, to see if they are a red flag for relapse in some schizophrenia patients.
Miller and his colleagues note in the published study that some older antipsychotic medications reduce urination, which can increase the risk of UTIs, although most of the patients were on newer drugs. About 34 percent of adults over age 20 say they have had least one UTI and 1 in 5 women develop UTIs over their lifetime, according to the Kidney and Urology Foundation of America.
About 82 percent of patients with schizophrenia experience relapse within five years of their first episode, making them more treatment-resistant and further impairing their ability to think and function.
###
Media Contact:
Toni Baker
Communications Director
Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Regents University
706-825-6473 Cell
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CHOP collaborates with Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation to speed pediatric R & DPublic release date: 3-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: John Ascenzi
ascenzi@email.chop.edu
267-426-6055
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Jennifer Kokell
Jennifer.kokell@Pfizer.com
212-733-2596
Pfizer, Inc.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Pfizer, Inc., are joining forces with the goal of translating biomedical discoveries into novel treatments. CHOP is announcing its participation in the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) network, a novel collaboration model built by Pfizer that brings academic researchers together with Pfizer scientists to expedite the pace of innovation.
Children's Hospital is only the second pediatric center to join the CTI network, which has established partnerships with 21 academic medical centers throughout the United States, such as Rockefeller University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the University of California, San Francisco.
"We are excited to have this opportunity to accelerate the process of moving scientific insights toward therapies that healthcare providers can offer in the clinic," said Philip R. Johnson, M.D., chief scientific officer and senior vice president of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Johnson is one of CHOP's representatives on a joint steering committee with Pfizer representatives that will direct CTI's activities in Philadelphia.
CTI will bring together scientists from Pfizer and Children's Hospital to identify preclinical research at CHOP with potential applications for innovative treatments. Pfizer will share with CHOP researchers an extensive collection of antibodies and other proteins, along with other proprietary research and drug-development tools. CHOP investigators will collaborate with Pfizer scientists at CTI laboratories in both Boston and New York City.
The goal is to advance a project into a Phase 1 clinical trial.
"This partnership will bring together the leading science at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with Pfizer's global capabilities," said Jose Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, Ph.D., senior vice president, Head of Biotherapeutics R&D at Pfizer. "Together, we increase the potential to bring novel medicines to patients."
A March 15 Town Hall at CHOP introduced CTI to the Hospital's researchers, who are being encouraged to submit concise proposals by April 15 for projects to be considered. In July 2013, the steering committee will choose projects for funding.
This expedited timetable is much faster than the typical schedule for federally sponsored research. In contrast to many partnerships between private industry and academia that focus on one highly defined end-product, CTI is designed to identify cutting-edge areas of research in areas of high unmet need that hold strong potential for therapeutic interventions.
"Working with leading academic researchers is a key part of the CTI model," said Anthony Coyle, Ph.D., CTI's Chief Scientific Officer. "CHOP's world-class reputation as a leading research hospital means it is an ideal partner for CTI as we continue our determined efforts to translate exciting science into effective medicines for patients."
"It's extremely rewarding for our researchers to see their scientific work translated into bedside treatments that directly benefit children," said Ellen Purpus, Ph.D., director of CHOP's Office of Technology Transfer. "This partnership will help to expedite that process."
###
About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 516-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.
About Pfizer's CTI
The Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) is an entrepreneurial Research Unit at Pfizer, Inc. dedicated to the establishment of partnerships with Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) to transform research and development through a focus on translational medicine. CTI is an open innovation network with 21 leading AMCs focused on joint discovery and development of therapeutics, from early research through clinical proof-of-mechanism in humans. This model offers leading investigators the resources to pursue potential scientific and clinical breakthroughs by providing access to select Pfizer compound libraries, proprietary screening methods and antibody development technologies that are directly relevant to the investigators' work. The aim is to translate scientific ideas into clinically differentiated candidates ready for evaluation in a stratified patient population. CTI laboratories include Pfizer employees working side-by-side with leading investigators and post-doctoral researchers from the AMCs. The CTI collaborative model effectively and efficiently combines the best ideas, research and expertise of the AMCs with Pfizer's experience, technology and resources. For more information about CTI, visit http://www.pfizer.com/research/rd_works/centers_for_therapeutic_innovation.jsp
About Pfizer Inc.
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. To learn more, please visit us at http://www.pfizer.com
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CHOP collaborates with Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation to speed pediatric R & DPublic release date: 3-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: John Ascenzi
ascenzi@email.chop.edu
267-426-6055
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Jennifer Kokell
Jennifer.kokell@Pfizer.com
212-733-2596
Pfizer, Inc.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Pfizer, Inc., are joining forces with the goal of translating biomedical discoveries into novel treatments. CHOP is announcing its participation in the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) network, a novel collaboration model built by Pfizer that brings academic researchers together with Pfizer scientists to expedite the pace of innovation.
Children's Hospital is only the second pediatric center to join the CTI network, which has established partnerships with 21 academic medical centers throughout the United States, such as Rockefeller University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the University of California, San Francisco.
"We are excited to have this opportunity to accelerate the process of moving scientific insights toward therapies that healthcare providers can offer in the clinic," said Philip R. Johnson, M.D., chief scientific officer and senior vice president of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Johnson is one of CHOP's representatives on a joint steering committee with Pfizer representatives that will direct CTI's activities in Philadelphia.
CTI will bring together scientists from Pfizer and Children's Hospital to identify preclinical research at CHOP with potential applications for innovative treatments. Pfizer will share with CHOP researchers an extensive collection of antibodies and other proteins, along with other proprietary research and drug-development tools. CHOP investigators will collaborate with Pfizer scientists at CTI laboratories in both Boston and New York City.
The goal is to advance a project into a Phase 1 clinical trial.
"This partnership will bring together the leading science at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with Pfizer's global capabilities," said Jose Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, Ph.D., senior vice president, Head of Biotherapeutics R&D at Pfizer. "Together, we increase the potential to bring novel medicines to patients."
A March 15 Town Hall at CHOP introduced CTI to the Hospital's researchers, who are being encouraged to submit concise proposals by April 15 for projects to be considered. In July 2013, the steering committee will choose projects for funding.
This expedited timetable is much faster than the typical schedule for federally sponsored research. In contrast to many partnerships between private industry and academia that focus on one highly defined end-product, CTI is designed to identify cutting-edge areas of research in areas of high unmet need that hold strong potential for therapeutic interventions.
"Working with leading academic researchers is a key part of the CTI model," said Anthony Coyle, Ph.D., CTI's Chief Scientific Officer. "CHOP's world-class reputation as a leading research hospital means it is an ideal partner for CTI as we continue our determined efforts to translate exciting science into effective medicines for patients."
"It's extremely rewarding for our researchers to see their scientific work translated into bedside treatments that directly benefit children," said Ellen Purpus, Ph.D., director of CHOP's Office of Technology Transfer. "This partnership will help to expedite that process."
###
About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 516-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.
About Pfizer's CTI
The Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) is an entrepreneurial Research Unit at Pfizer, Inc. dedicated to the establishment of partnerships with Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) to transform research and development through a focus on translational medicine. CTI is an open innovation network with 21 leading AMCs focused on joint discovery and development of therapeutics, from early research through clinical proof-of-mechanism in humans. This model offers leading investigators the resources to pursue potential scientific and clinical breakthroughs by providing access to select Pfizer compound libraries, proprietary screening methods and antibody development technologies that are directly relevant to the investigators' work. The aim is to translate scientific ideas into clinically differentiated candidates ready for evaluation in a stratified patient population. CTI laboratories include Pfizer employees working side-by-side with leading investigators and post-doctoral researchers from the AMCs. The CTI collaborative model effectively and efficiently combines the best ideas, research and expertise of the AMCs with Pfizer's experience, technology and resources. For more information about CTI, visit http://www.pfizer.com/research/rd_works/centers_for_therapeutic_innovation.jsp
About Pfizer Inc.
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. To learn more, please visit us at http://www.pfizer.com
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
This week on the podcast we're talking about the cooking mistakes everybody makes, creating your own private cloud syncing service, and which Linux distro is better for beginners. We're also answering questions about reusing old file cabinets, keeping your unlimited data after Verizon takes it away, and syncing music to a flash drive for your car. 
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Public release date: 3-Apr-2013
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