Physorg

Jennifer Dyer, MD, MPH, an endocrinologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital, has developed and completed a pilot study that uses weekly, customized text messages to remind adolescent diabetes patients about their personal treatment activities. At the conclusion of the study, Dr. Dyer found an increase in overall treatment adherence and improved blood glucose levels.

Researchers from the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich have shown that the ADAM10 protein can inhibit the formation of beta-amyloid, which is responsible for Alzheimer's disease. ADAM10 acts like a pair of molecular scissors to cut the protein from which beta-amyloid is formed, effectively preventing the formation of beta-amyloid. This makes ADAM10 a key molecule in Alzheimer's therapy.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The answer to the mystery of dune patterns on Saturn's moon Titan did turn out to be blowing in the wind. It just wasn't from the direction many scientists expected.

Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health assessed the geographical distribution of the long-term burden of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in a region of Liberia and report that the prevalence of PTSD remains high nearly two decades after the principal conflict there and five years after war in Liberia ended entirely.

Picture a crowded beach at the height of summer. Boys and girls of all shapes and sizes cavort in the waves and lounge on beach towels. It`s the skin-baring season -- and that can exacerbate body image woes for many teens. Who do you think is most unhappy with their bodies? Underweight or overweight? Girls or boys?

Mutations in a gene known as "Fritz" may be responsible for causing human genetic disorders such as Bardet-Biedl syndrome, University of Texas at Austin developmental biologist John Wallingford and Duke University human geneticist and cell biologist Nicholas Katsanis have found.

How much pain osteoarthritis sufferers feel is directly related to their mental health, a new study by researchers at UC Davis School of Medicine has found. In the study, people with better mental health felt less pain, and people with worse mental health felt more.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent non-hematopoietic cells capable of differentiating into hepatocytes. Valproic acid (VPA), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, has recently exhibited profound therapeutic activity in preclinical tumor test. A research group in China investigated the induction of hepatic differentiation of mouse bone marrow MSCs (mBM-MSCs) by VPA. Direct evidences have been shown that the usefulness of VPA in the trans-differentiation of mBM-MSCs into hepatocytes both in vitro and in vivo.

A broad range of scientific research has demonstrated that an adequate intake of calcium plays an important role in building and maintaining optimum bone mass, and a recent meta-analysis published online in the British Medical Journal should not cause consumers to doubt the value of calcium supplements for maintaining bone health.

Researchers around the world are working on the development of quantum computers that will be vastly superior to present-day computers. Here, the strong coupling of quantum bits with light quanta plays a pivotal role. Professor Rudolf Gross, a physicist at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany, and his team of researchers have now realized an extremely strong interaction between light and matter that may represent a first step in this direction.

New mobile phones sold in Europe as of next year should all work off the same universal chargers, the European Commission said on Friday.

A research team from China investigated the effect of galangin on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. They found that galangin mediates apoptosis through a mitochondrial pathway, and may be a potential chemotherapeutic drug for the treatment of HCC.

Mathematicians from more than a dozen countries will gather at Case Western Reserve University next week to discuss the theoretical world of high dimensions.

UCI immunologists have found that testing for increased levels of antibodies that inhibit energy production in neurons can detect axon and neuron degeneration in multiple sclerosis earlier than existing diagnostic tools.

A borrowed boat, a small mountain lake and the inaugural run of a half-a-million dollar state-of-the-art multi-beam sonar system made history this month with the successful high-definition mapping of the bottom of Fallen Leaf Lake, a tributary lake just upstream from Lake Tahoe.

Researchers from Brown University and the University of California San Francisco have found that epigenetic changes to DNA in breast cancers are related to environmental risk factors and tumor size, providing a window into the severity of the disease. The study is published in today's edition of PLoS Genetics. The researchers found that epigenetic profiles of tumors had a direct association with diet, alcohol, and tumor size.

Australian scientists researching environmental restoration projects have found that the reforestation of damaged rainforests is more efficient at capturing carbon than controversial softwood monoculture plantations. The research, published in Ecological Management & Restoration, challenges traditional views on the efficiency of industrial monoculture plantations.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using the model organism Ciona intestinalis, commonly known as the sea squirt, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have uncovered the origins of the second heart field in vertebrates.

A nanomaterial originally developed to fight toxic waste is now helping reduce debilitating fumes in homes with corrosive drywall.

(AP) -- An FBI official said Friday a two-year-long multinational investigation led them to nab a 23-year-old Slovenian, who allegedly created a malicious software code that infected 12 million computers worldwide.