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Genes Explain Memory
Differences Between Sexes
When it comes to memory it is clear that men and women are simply not on the same wavelength.
While men may fail to match a woman’s ability to remember the date of an anniversary, they are better at storing a seemingly endless cache of facts and figures, Telegraph reported.
Scientists believe they have now uncovered the reason for this difference between the sexes--they make the memories in different ways.
Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, have found that males use different genes from females when making the new connections in the brain that are needed to create long-term memories. They believe this might explain why men are far better at remembering ’tactical’ memories, such as travel directions and trivia, while women form more ’emotional’ memories such as birthdays, wedding anniversaries and details about the world around them.
Professor Peter Giese, who led the Medical Research Council- funded research, said they had identified two genes that seemed to be important for learning and making memories in males but not females.
He said, “It is unexpected that there should be such a difference within a species, but then we have to remember that males and females are far from identical at the genetic level as males have an X and Y chromosome while females have two X chromosomes. It is conceivable that the differences we found do account for the differences in the way the memories of men and women perform in different circumstances.“
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Iran Has 17,800
HIV Positives
Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education has announced that some 17,815 HIV positive individuals were identified before June 21.
According to a census, males comprise more than 93 percent of the HIV positive individuals.
As 41.3 percent of these cases are 25- to 34-year-old individuals, the report assesses that the disease is more prevalent among this age group, ISNA reported.
The MoHME report also shows that needles are the most common transmission route (68.5 percent) with sexual relationships (7.7 percent), blood transfusion (1.4 percent), and mother to child transmission (0.6 percent) following respectively.
The report states unknown transmission routes in 21.8 percent of the infected patients.
UNAIDS and the WHO estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in recorded history. Despite recent improved access to care in many regions of the world, the AIDS pandemic claimed an estimated 2.8 million (between 2.4 and 3.3 million) lives in 2005 of which more than half a million (570,000) were children.
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Iranian
Obstetrician
Honored in US
An Iranian physician, Masoud Khatami, has received a Medal of Honor from the US Congress for his achievement in infertility research.
Khatami, the administrative director of the Infertility Department of New York University has more than 30 years of experience in infertility research and prenatal gender detection, Presstv said.
Born in Mashhad, Khatami is considered a leading obstetrician and researcher. He has participated in several humanitarian missions, including gathering aid for the injured Iranians in the Bam earthquake.
Khatami was announced as the best White House physician in the years 2002 and 2003, and is among the top 10 physicians in the United States.
Infertility will become more common in future generations, with more couples needing help to have a baby, experts warned.
It is already estimated that fertility problems affect about 15 percent of would-be parents in affluent countries.
But researchers, writing in the British Medical Journal, have predicted that such difficulties are set to become much more prevalent in the coming years, with a
combination of medical, environmental and social factors affecting fertility.
They called for more research to be carried out now to combat infertility.
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Dentists’ Drill, Toothbrush Under Threat
The dentists’ drill could be consigned to the past while the future of the toothbrush is under threat, with the arrival of two radical new inventions that could be available within five years.
Scientists at Leeds Dental Institute have created a solution that mimics the way the body forms new teeth, which can be used to repair holes naturally without the need for drilling and filling, Telegraph said.
The same researchers have also formulated a mouthwash that kills the bacteria that cause plaque when a light is shone into the mouth.
They believe the mouthwash could be available in as little as three years or less while the alternative to drilling could be ready for use within five years.
The alternative to drilling comes from a new protein which allows the body to repair holes in the enamel on the surface of the tooth naturally.
It creates a scaffold which attracts the minerals that form enamel in the same way as the body creates new teeth.
The substance can be painted on teeth while decay is in the early stages to fill tiny holes before they become large holes full of decay.
Prof Jennifer Kirkham, Research Director at the institute, said, “I can’t bear the noise of the drill and it is surprising how many people say just the sound is enough to instil fear. We looked at a way to treat early decay and avoid drilling.“
The same treatment could also be used to fill tiny holes in the teeth’s dentine, which causes intense sensitivity to hot and cold food or drinks.
Because the protein involved in the treatment is completely new it must go through safety checks which are already under way.
It is hoped it can enter trials early next year with a view to gaining a license within five years, Prof Kirkham said.
She added, “We feel confident that this is a major step change for the future.“
The other invention is a mouthwash using a molecule that is absorbed by bacteria in the mouth. When activated by a bright light it destroys the bug from within.
There is no risk to the patient if any of the mouthwash is swallowed, as the molecule is completely safe and is already in use in the food industry.
The method, called photo dynamic therapy, has been developed from cancer treatment and was first looked at as a way of helping disabled patients to look after their teeth if they cannot use a normal toothbrush.
But Prof Kirkham said the scope for its use is much wider.
She said, “It is a safe alternative way of improving oral hygiene for those patients for whom brushing is not feasible or as an adjunct to brushing.
“At the moment we are not saying it is going to take over from brushing because the trials have not been done yet. We have to look at how much it is going to cost, at the moment is it is very cheap. We would wish to explore its full potential across the whole patient community and look at all the potential benefits over and above what is already out there.“
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Air-Conditioning With Solar Energy
Scientists from the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) have developed an environmentally friendly cooling technology that does not harm the ozone layer. This is achieved by using solar energy and therefore reducing the use of greenhouse gases.
According to ScienceDaily, a research team has designed and built an absorption chiller capable of using solar and residual heat as an energy source to drive the cooling system. The technology used in this machine, which looks like an ordinary air-conditioning system, minimizes its environmental impact by combining the use of a lithium bromide solution, which does not damage the ozone layer or increase the greenhouse effect, with a reduction in the use of water by the machine.
The team, managed by Professor Marcelo Izquierdo from the Department of Thermal Engineering and Fluid Mechanics of the UC3M, who is also a researcher at the Instituto de Ciencias de la Construccion Eduardo Torroja (IETCC) of the CSIC, is building a solar cooling system that unlike the existing machines on the market, uses an improved absorption mechanism capable of producing cold water at a range of temperatures from 7¼ C to 18¼ C when the exterior temperature ranges from 33¼ C to 43¼ C.
Professor Marcelo Izquierdo states that the conclusions reached by a study with a commercial air condensed absorption machine prove that given an outside temperature ranging from 28¼C and 34¼C, the machine can produce cold water at a range of 12 to 16¼C, with a source temperature at the generator between 80¼C to 95¼C. Under these conditions, the cold water produced can be used for climate control applications in houses by combining it with a water-to-air heat exchanger (fan coil).
Quoting Raquel Lizarte, a researcher at the Department of Thermal Engineering and Fluid Mechanics of the UC3M, “There are few absorption machines at a commercial level that are adapted for residential use“, and since it is very hard to go without climate control, it is important to find a cooling technology that has minimal environmental impact. “The machine that we’re studying produces enough cold water to cool down a room of 40 m2 of floor area and with a volume of 120 m3,“ she states.
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Black Tea to Tackle Alzheimer’s
Singaporean scientists have claimed that drinking two cups of tea a day halves the risk of developing cognitive decline and memory loss.
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The Brightest Star
There’s a new contender for the title of the Milky Way’s brightest star.
The star had been discovered previously in the Peony nebula near the galaxy’s dusty center. But infrared observations taken from the ground and with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have pierced the dust to reveal just how bright the star is, NewScientist said.
It boasts a wattage of about 3.2 million Suns. That is close to the output of Eta Carinae, the current record holder, which shines with the light of about 4.7 million Suns. However, measuring stellar brightness is not an exact science, and the stars may actually radiate similar amounts of light.
“As we get better measurements, these things change around a bit,“ says Michelle Thaller at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, who was not involved in the study.
It’s possible that the galaxy’s brightest star has not even been discovered yet. “There are probably other stars just as bright if not brighter in our galaxy that remain hidden from view,“ says team leader Lidia Oskinova of Potsdam University in Germany.
Both Eta Carinae and the Peony nebula star are evolved blue giants known as “Wolf-Rayet“ stars, which have masses of 100 to 200 Suns. Either could self-destruct as a supernova at any moment.
Ovulation Gene Key to Infertility Treatment
A gene essential to ovulation has been isolated by a team of Canadian and European researchers who say their findings could pave the way for new contraceptives and treatments for infertility.
Researchers at the Universite de Montreal have discovered how a gene, known as Lrh1, effects the ovaries and ovulation, according to Dr. Bruce D. Murphy, director of the animal research centre at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Canada said.
Until now, the role of the Lrh1 gene in female fertility was unclear but Murphy said his research team has concluded it is key to regulating ovulation and may play a role in fertilization.
“This discovery means we can envision new contraceptives that selectively stop ovulation,“ Murphy said. “If we can target the gene directly it could be possible to create a contraceptive that would be more effective and produce less side-effects than current steroid-based forms of birth control.“
To study the gene, scientists “blocked“ it from cells in the ovaries of genetically modified mice. Deleting the gene, they discovered, disrupted hormones, prevented eggs from maturing and effectively stopped ovulation, Murphy said.
The results of the two-and-a-half-year study conducted in collaboration with scientists from the Universite de Louis Pasteur at Strasbourg, France, are published in the current issue of the journal Genes & Development.
Sharpest Measurement Of Ice Crystals in Clouds
Scientists have created an instrument designed to help determine the shapes and sizes of tiny ice crystals typical of those found in high-altitude clouds, down to the micron level (comparable to the tiniest cells in the human body), according to a new study. The data produced using this instrument likely will help improve computer models used to predict climate change.
Among the hundreds of factors climate scientists must take into account in modeling weather, the nature of clouds is one of the most important and least understood. The best researchers could do in the past to measure cloud ice crystals was to try to record images of them, but for crystals below 25 microns, the images were too blurred to allow accurate determination of the crystal’s shape, ScienceDaily reported.
Researchers need to know the shape and sizes of these ice crystals because these properties influence how much incoming sunlight gets absorbed in the atmosphere and how much gets reflected right back out into space. This, in turn, can have a huge impact on the magnitude of possible global warming or cooling.
Now scientists from the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and Colorado State University in the United States have developed an optical scattering instrument that can evaluate the size of the crystals in a different way. Using this instrument, the researchers have been able to determine sizes and shapes of cloud ice crystals all the way down to the tiniest micron levels.
Autism Parents Face Infection Risk
Caring for children with developmental problems such as autism or Down’s syndrome can weaken parents’ immune systems, research suggests.
Researchers at Birmingham University found they had a poorer immune response to a vaccine against pneumonia, BBC said. It appears that stress causes the immune system to function less efficiently, the team wrote in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
Charities called for better support for parents struggling to cope.
Previous work has shown negative effects in elderly people caring for a spouse--but this is the first time that a similar result has been seen in a younger, healthier group providing round-the-clock care, the researchers pointed out.
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