Yearly Archives: 2016
Do you suffer from airplane headache during flight travels? Don’t worry, you are not alone!
While many passengers lean back and relax in their plane seats and look forward to their destination, every 12th passenger is anything but relaxed while flying according to new findings on headache associated with airplane travels. A
Theoretical design of drug carrying block copolymer micelles
One of the challenges of next generation drugs is the design of target-specific delivery of pharmaceutical agents to the cancerous tumors or diseased cells. Polymer micelles and hydrogels have been traditional candidates for drug-delivery purposes. Poorly soluble
Cracking eggs: Researchers measure the toughness of eggshell
Eggs break easily – but how easily exactly? Surprisingly, nobody knew until researchers at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland found a way to measure it. Prof David Taylor of the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering explained that eggs
International study of parents’ experiences when their baby was diagnosed with a limb difference
Dysmelia is a group of rare diseases involving limb differences. Rare diseases are those which affect less than 1 in 2000 people, but around 8000 rare diseases exist altogether and over 50 million people in the USA
Trapping copper with peptides to diminish metal-related toxicity in Alzheimer’s disease
Metals are essential in many life processes and, as such, all organisms including our body have developed mechanisms for their uptake and tight regulation to achieve a normal functioning. Failure of these mechanisms is reflected in the
MTA3: A master coregulator of physiology and oncogenesis
The discovery of novel therapeutics for treatment of cancer is today’s prime concern due to abundantly increasing cancer drug resistance and deaths worldwide. MTA3, a member of metastasis-associated protein (MTA) family, plays unique and collaborative roles in
Zika virus infection during pregnancy and small heads: What is the connection and what can be seen by imaging
Within the last year, the outbreak of Zika virus infection in Brazil became a “public health emergency of international magnitude and concern”. The global discussions about the risk of Zika virus infection for pregnant women ahead of
Nuclear cardiac imaging: the “old grandma” has still something to say
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) remains one of the most relevant predictors of overall patients’ mortality and a major determinant of sanitary and social costs. Different strategies have been proposed for the early diagnosis of myocardial ischemia, a
Severe spontaneous hemoperitoneum in pregnancy may be linked to in vitro fertilization in patients with endometriosis
Endometriosis can cause infertility but women with endometriosis who do get pregnant can find that their symptoms improve afterwards. Because of this, doctors treat endometriosis with drugs that are similar to the hormone progesterone. We know that
Nerves are required to repair the injured heart
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), such as heart attack, are responsible for approximately 18 million deaths each year, which accounts for more than 30% of all deaths worldwide. CVD is the single greatest cause of death in humans killing
Why clinical practice guidelines for asthma hinder rather than help
Asthma is the leading reason children are hospitalized. Visits to emergency rooms, missed school, and missed work for the parents are further results of this common disorder. Recognizing the problem, guidelines were published by an Expert Panel
Why is radiation treatment more effective for cancers caused by HPV?
Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and can lead to cancers in the affected organ such as the cervix. In the last 15 years, the rise in prevalence
Time to reflect as chromosomes loop-the-loop
Scientists are developing ever more detailed models to explain how DNA is stored inside our cells, and why it adopts the shapes it does. In a review of the latest research in the field Matthias Merkenschlager, of
Metallic iron for environmental remediation: A textbook message
The german word for science is “Wissenschaft” and can be word-wisely translated as „knowledge creation“. Knowledge is created by observing and understanding the nature. Once a natural process is understood, the conditions for its reproduction can be
Functional role of dissolved oxygen as TEA – Towards treatment of multiple pollutants
Domestic or industrial effluents need appropriate treatment prior to discharge into the ecosystem. Physicochemical processes have been commonly used for the treatment of wastewater. Alternatively, biological processes are considered to be advantageous and sustainable in comparison to the
Refuge women’s resettlement in western countries
Global movement has become a fashionable phenomenon. While some decide to migrate voluntarily, others cross borders in haste to settle down in safe countries. Recent worldwide conflicts including war, political conflicts, and economic crisis speeded up the
Immunological disturbances observed in chronic alcoholism
Alcoholism is a complex behavioral disorder characterized by the loss of control over alcohol consumption often involving other drug abuse with a relapsing and remitting course leading to significant impairment. Chronic alcohol use and alcoholism damages many
Transcription factor information system: A tool for detection of transcription factor binding sites
Transcription Factors are proteins those bind to DNA at specific sites (Transcription Factor Binding Sites or TFBSs) and control the gene expression. Hence identifying these TFBSs in DNA is important to understand the mechanism that regulates gene
Out-of-date statistics and traditional healers
It has been widely documented in the scientific literature, official fact sheets, reports and the press, that 80% of people in Asian and African countries (or sometimes: 80% of the world’s population) use traditional medicine practitioners to
The blood is Newtonian in LDL deposition through artery walls
The formation of an atherosclerotic plaque causes various cardiovascular diseases, such as a heart attack. In this process, the Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) has a main role, since it infiltrates in the artery wall and promotes the process,
