- June 5, 2013
- 09:00 AM
- 38 views
New method to improve cartilage formation from stem cells
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
Despite all the recent advantages in regenerative medicine, cartilage injuries still remain a challenge. Current methods to treat cartilage defects involve drilling the subchondral bone where the damage lays (microfracture) or taking a piece of cartilage from a non weight bearing area of the joint and transplanting it over the damaged area (OATS). In many cases, both approaches prove to be ineffective and the cartilage continues to deteriorate, leading to osteoarthritis. For this reason, bioengi........ Read more »
Bian L, Guvendiren M, Mauck RL, & Burdick JA. (2013) Hydrogels that mimic developmentally relevant matrix and N-cadherin interactions enhance MSC chondrogenesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 23733927
- June 5, 2013
- 08:30 AM
- 54 views
Is attachment to pet dogs linked to their behaviour?
by CAPB in Companion Animal Psychology Blog
Some people are more attached to their dogs than others. Recently, we wrote about a study that found that people who relinquished their dog to animal shelters had lower attachment to them than people who were keeping their dog. This week, we discuss a new study by Christy Hoffman et al that asks whether there is a link between a dog’s behaviour and how attached the owner is to the dog.The study involved a questionnaire that was completed by 60 adults and 92 children from sixty dog-........ Read more »
Fratkin, J., Sinn, D., Patall, E., & Gosling, S. (2013) Personality Consistency in Dogs: A Meta-Analysis. PLoS ONE, 8(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054907
Hoffman, C.L., Chen, P., Serpell, J.A., & Jacobson, K. (2013) Do dog behavioral characteristics predict the quality of the relationship between dogs and their owners?. Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, 1(1), 20-37. info:/
- June 5, 2013
- 08:10 AM
- 37 views
The Living Earth – Rocks and All
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
A new study contributes to the idea that the physical Earth and the life on Earth can be viewed as one system. Minik Rosing suggested in 2006 that photosynthetic bacteria contributed to the formation and stabilization of the continents, but the new study takes this idea further, stating that weathering of the continental crust released heavy metals that became critical in the developing complexity of life on Earth, including the evolution of eukaryotes. We can take this even further, as a 2013 s........ Read more »
Parnell, J., Hole, M., Boyce, A., Spinks, S., & Bowden, S. (2012) Heavy metal, sex and granites: Crustal differentiation and bioavailability in the mid-Proterozoic. Geology, 40(8), 751-754. DOI: 10.1130/G33116.1
Paasonen, P., Asmi, A., Petäjä, T., Kajos, M., Äijälä, M., Junninen, H., Holst, T., Abbatt, J., Arneth, A., Birmili, W.... (2013) Warming-induced increase in aerosol number concentration likely to moderate climate change. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1800
Rosing, M., Bird, D., Sleep, N., Glassley, W., & Albarede, F. (2006) The rise of continents—An essay on the geologic consequences of photosynthesis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 232(2-4), 99-113. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.01.007
- June 5, 2013
- 07:22 AM
- 57 views
Mind over mechanics
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
It’s a staple of science fiction: people who can control objects with their minds.
At the University of Minnesota, a new technology is turning that fiction into reality.
In the lab of biomedical engineering professor Bin He, several young people have learned to use their thoughts to steer a flying robot around a gym, making it turn, rise, dip, and even sail through a ring.
The technology, pioneered by He, may someday allow people robbed of speech and mobility by neurodegenerative ........ Read more »
University of Minnesota. (2013) Mind over mechanics. UM News. info:/
- June 5, 2013
- 06:59 AM
- 42 views
New Hair Growth Formula Found! (No, Seriously)
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
A research team at the University of Pennsylvania reported in Nature Medicine that they found a molecular pathway that stimulated hair follicle growth to a degree that could be therapeutic for baldness. The researchers found that a growth factor called Fgf9, which plays an important role in wound healing, stimulated these hair follicles in mice after an injury... Read more »
Gay D, Kwon O, Zhang Z, Spata M, Plikus MV, Holler PD, Ito M, Yang Z, Treffeisen E, Kim CD.... (2013) Fgf9 from dermal γδ T cells induces hair follicle neogenesis after wounding. Nature medicine. PMID: 23727932
- June 5, 2013
- 06:33 AM
- 5 views
A preliminary look at host association patterns in Trebouxia
by Heath O'Brien in Heath O'Brien
Having gone through the steps to build a phylogeny of the most common lichen photobiont, Trebouxia in my last post, I will now go on to discussing the host association patterns that it reveals. Here is the Trebouxia ITS tree … Continue reading →... Read more »
Heath O'Brien. (2013) A preliminary look at host association patterns in Trebouxia. PhotobiontDiversity.wordpress.com. info:/http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.711786
- June 5, 2013
- 05:10 AM
- 38 views
Extinct Frog Not Extinct, But “Living Fossil” Instead
by Anouk Vleugels in United Academics
The Hula painted frog was the first amphibian to be declared officially extinct in 1996. In 2011, however, the frog reappeared in Israel. Now it turns out the species is actually an unique “living fossil,” without close relatives among other living frogs.
A recent study published in Nature Communications offers an in-depth genetic analysis of the amphibian. The results show that the Hula painted frog is not related to any living frog species, yet the sole representative of an preh........ Read more »
Biton, R., Geffen, E., Vences, M., Cohen, O., Bailon, S., Rabinovich, R., Malka, Y., Oron, T., Boistel, R., Brumfeld, V.... (2013) The rediscovered Hula painted frog is a living fossil. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2959
- June 5, 2013
- 04:25 AM
- 46 views
Unification of forces
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
What if, like the individual threads that form a piece of cloth, all of nature’s forces can be woven together into one comprehensive force?... Read more »
Nitesh Soni. (2013) Unification of forces. Symmetry Magazine. info:/
- June 5, 2013
- 03:47 AM
- 36 views
Does Brain Stimulation Make You Better at Maths?
by Tom Stafford in United Academics
Researchers led by Roi Cohen Kadosh at the University of Oxford trained people on two kinds of maths skills, rote learning simple arithmetic problems and practicing more varied calculations.
During this learning process they applied small and continually varying electrical currents to the scalp, above the temples. A control group wore the electrodes but didn’t receive any current. Compared to the controls, the people who practiced with the current turned on performed faster on the maths........ Read more »
Snowball, A., Tachtsidis, I., Popescu, T., Thompson, J., Delazer, M., Zamarian, L., Zhu, T., & Cohen Kadosh, R. (2013) Long-Term Enhancement of Brain Function and Cognition Using Cognitive Training and Brain Stimulation. Current Biology, 23(11), 987-992. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.045
- June 5, 2013
- 12:04 AM
- 39 views
External Support Decreases the Detrimental Psychological Effects of Injury Among Athletes
by Kyle Harris in Sports Medicine Research (SMR): In the Lab & In the Field
Take Home Message: Among injury athletes, having a high level of support (emotional, esteem, informational, and tangible), particularly if the athlete perceives this support, is associated with less psychological stress.
It is widely accepted that strong social support can help alleviate psychological stress. This social support also shapes how athletes may cope with the psychological stresses that arise from injury, giving the athlete a social outlet so as to not feel isolated or alone. Mitc........ Read more »
Mitchell I, Evans L, Rees T, & Hardy L. (2013) Stressors, social support, and tests of the buffering hypothesis: Effects on psychological responses of injured athletes. British Journal of Health Psychology. PMID: 23621677
- June 4, 2013
- 10:22 PM
- 34 views
Agriculture and Property
by Diapadion in Lord of the Apes
One of the big questions in the study of ancient human history is, How did agriculture become the main technique humans use to produce food? For thousands if not millions of years, humans gathered food and hunted game to survive; some populations still live this way, as do our surviving ape cousins. To the neophyte, farming might seem like an obvious improvement over hunting and gathering (hereafter, foraging), but it turns out this isn't true. Getting started with agriculture is costly and ........ Read more »
Bowles, S., & Choi, J. (2013) Coevolution of farming and private property during the early Holocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(22), 8830-8835. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1212149110
- June 4, 2013
- 10:10 PM
- 50 views
Is Anorexia Nervosa a Subtype of Body Dysmorphic Disorder?
by Tetyana Pekar in Science of Eating Disorders
Is anorexia nervosa a subtype of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)? Well, probably not, but don’t click the close button just yet. In this post, I’ll explore the relationship between anorexia nervosa and BDD, and discuss how understanding this relationship might help us develop better treatments for both disorders.
Despite the fact that there are obvious similarities between the disorders, studies exploring the relationship between BDD and AN are few and far between. ........ Read more »
Hartmann AS, Greenberg JL, & Wilhelm S. (2013) The relationship between anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder. Clinical psychology review, 33(5), 675-685. PMID: 23685673
- June 4, 2013
- 07:13 PM
- 44 views
Transforming Autism Research: Reflections on IMFAR, RDoC, and DSM-5
by Jon Brock in Cracking the Enigma
The Kursaal Centre, San Sebastian. Venue for IMFAR 2013. Source“In many scientific problems, the difficulty is to state the question rightly; once that is done it may almost answer itself.” Jacob Bronowski*A year, it seems, is a long time in autism research. In May 2012, the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in Toronto was all about DSM-5 and the proposed changes to autism diagnosis contained therein. Up for discussion were the abolition of Asperger syndrome as a distinc........ Read more »
Insel, T., Cuthbert, B., Garvey, M., Heinssen, R., Pine, D., Quinn, K., Sanislow, C., & Wang, P. (2010) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): Toward a New Classification Framework for Research on Mental Disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(7), 748-751. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09091379
- June 4, 2013
- 06:00 PM
- 59 views
does meeting online mean a better marriage? sort of, but don’t get carried away…
by Greg Fish in weird things
There’s been a bit of a splash by a new study which says that meeting your spouse online could mean a longer, happier marriage, and confirms that far from being the last refuge of lonely shut-ins, online dating is now one of the top ways to meet your mate. Now, the numbers do bear this conclusion out. Out of a representative sample of 19,131 people [...]... Read more »
Cacioppo, J., Cacioppo, S., Gonzaga, G., Ogburn, E., & VanderWeele, T. (2013) Marital satisfaction and break-ups differ across on-line and off-line meeting venues. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1222447110
- June 4, 2013
- 04:45 PM
- 33 views
Bone Health and Osteoporosis: Ups and Downs of Bisphosphonates.
by AB Kirk in Stff Competition
Bone Health and Osteoporosis Risk If you are young you should eat well, not smoke, and get plenty of weight bearing exercise. Preferably starting from birth (which would be movingThe post Bone Health and Osteoporosis: Ups and Downs of Bisphosphonates. appeared first on WODMasters Stiff Competition.... Read more »
Thosani, N., Thosani, S., Kumar, S., Nugent, Z., Jimenez, C., Singh, H., & Guha, S. (2012) Reduced Risk of Colorectal Cancer With Use of Oral Bisphosphonates: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 31(5), 623-630. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2012.42.9530
Kang JH, Keller JJ, & Lin HC. (2012) A population-based 2-year follow-up study on the relationship between bisphosphonates and the risk of stroke. Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA, 23(10), 2551-7. PMID: 22270858
Kang JH, Keller JJ, & Lin HC. (2013) Bisphosphonates reduced the risk of acute myocardial infarction: a 2-year follow-up study. Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA, 24(1), 271-7. PMID: 23152093
Watts, N., & Diab, D. (2010) Long-Term Use of Bisphosphonates in Osteoporosis. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology , 95(4), 1555-1565. DOI: 10.1210/jc.2009-1947
- June 4, 2013
- 04:31 PM
- 36 views
Scientists Reveal High-Pressure Hydrogen Properties Using Infrared Radiation
by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion
A team of scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Geophysical Laboratory used intense infrared light to investigate the properties of the high-pressure hydrogen and has found out the details of a surprising new form of solid hydrogen.... Read more »
Zha, C., Liu, Z., Ahart, M., Boehler, R., & Hemley, R. (2013) High-Pressure Measurements of Hydrogen Phase IV Using Synchrotron Infrared Spectroscopy. Physical Review Letters, 110(21). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.217402
- June 4, 2013
- 04:20 PM
- 40 views
June 4, 2013
by Erin Campbell in HighMag Blog
HighMag is back from an early summer vacation at the beach, and ready to get our microscopic groove on. Happy Summer, everyone!Our world is the same size it’s always been, but so many advances in technology have made the world seem a lot smaller. We can call our brother across the country and video chat with our sister on the other side of the world, all while searching the internet for the lyrics to Snow’s “Informer” (side note…knowing the lyrics won’t help you understan........ Read more »
Lu, W., Fox, P., Lakonishok, M., Davidson, M., & Gelfand, V. (2013) Initial Neurite Outgrowth in Drosophila Neurons Is Driven by Kinesin-Powered Microtubule Sliding. Current Biology, 23(11), 1018-1023. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.050
- June 4, 2013
- 03:07 PM
- 75 views
Seeing Through The Clouds
by Michael Angus in Anthroblogenic Warning
Before I write this blog, I should make a confession; declare a bias, if we're going to speak lingua-climate. I find the branch of the natural sciences dealing with predicting future climate changes to be pretty endlessly fascinating. That we even try to predict a system as complex as the natural world with a bunch of equations is, to me at least, the perfect example of the hopeless search for an explanation which is everything that science should be about. In the early 60s, the natural scientis........ Read more »
Stevens, B., & Bony, S. (2013) What Are Climate Models Missing?. Science, 340(6136), 1053-1054. DOI: 10.1126/science.1237554
- June 4, 2013
- 02:56 PM
- 30 views
Hedgerow cutting: an eco-worrier response
by Denise O'Meara in A dribble of knowledge
Hedgerows are important habitat features in the Irish landscape, and the Irish law protects hedgerows from cutting between March 31st and August 31st to coincide with the bird nesting season. However, exceptions are allowed in cases of health and safety. This blog gives recent examples of how these clauses are being used by some government bodies. ... Read more »
E.J.Lindquist,, R. D’Annunzio, A. Gerrand, K. MacDicken, F. Achard, R. Beuchle, A. Brink, H.D. Eva,, & P. Mayaux, J. San-Miguel-Ayanz . (2012) Global forest land-use change 1990–2005. . Stibig. FAO Forestry Paper No. 169. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and European Commission Joint Research Centre. Rome, FAO. info:/
- June 4, 2013
- 02:48 PM
- 37 views
Malaria parasites send each other genes
by Gal Haimovich in Green Fluorescent Blog
Communication between cells takes many forms. There could be communication by direct contact, by sending out free molecules (like hormones) or by special structures (e.g. synapses). But how can parasites, that dwell inside their host cell, communicate with one another? … Continue reading →... Read more »
Regev-Rudzki N, Wilson DW, Carvalho TG, Sisquella X, Coleman BM, Rug M, Bursac D, Angrisano F, Gee M, Hill AF.... (2013) Cell-Cell Communication between Malaria-Infected Red Blood Cells via Exosome-like Vesicles. Cell, 153(5), 1120-33. PMID: 23683579
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