Wednesday 31 July 2013

A nanothermometer for cells

A novel approach to probe temperature in living cells is reported in this week's Nature. The 'nanothermometer' is based on diamond nanocrystals and can accurately measure very small temperature variations at high spatial resolution. Potential applications include temperature-induced control of gene expression, and the cell-selective treatment of diseases. The nanoscale thermometry technique developed by Mikhail Lukin and co-workers uses quantum manipulation of nitrogen vacancy (NV) colour centres in diamond nanocrystals... via Health News from Medical News Today Read More Here..

How antiprion antibodies cause neurodegeneration

It has been suggested that antibodies against prion protein might have therapeutic value. However, a study in this week's Nature shows that many antiprion antibodies cause neurotoxicity and also reveals the mechanism underlying these observations. The prion protein - which in a misfolded form is associated with neurotoxic effects such as those seen in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - contains a globular domain and a flexible tail. Aguzzi and colleagues show that antibodies against the globular domain cause neurotoxicity in mice and cerebellar cultured slices... via Health News from Medical News Today Read More Here..

Do's and Don'ts of The Legendary Bayreuth Festival

The legendary Bayreuth Festival has strict rules of etiquette that set it apart from other music festivals. Here audiences frequently have to wait 10 years or more for a ticket. Here are some of the do's and don'ts to observe so as not to embarrass yourself on your first visit to the world-famous Festspielhaus theatre on Wagner's fabled Green Hill. -- Swot up on the operas in advance. People who attend this month-long festival know their ...

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Some Patients to Get Mental Health Treatment Saves Money and Increased Outpatient Care

For certain people with severe mental illness, mandating outpatient treatment, results in substantial cost savings by cutting hospitalizations and increasing outpatient care. This is according to a financial analysis led by researchers at Duke Medicine. The finding - focusing on a program in New York termed Assisted Outpatient Commitment, or "Kendra's Law" - provides a key piece of information in the ongoing policy debate about appropriate treatment approaches for ...

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Government Take Steps to Fight HIV

In the forthcoming appraisal of the 12th Plan (2012-17), more resources would be dedicated to strengthening volunteer programmes to address the issue of parent-to-child transmission of HIV, Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed said. "The projects which link up with the existing government schemes and which help to transform the people at grassroots level will be encouraged," Hameed said at a conference here. She appreciated the four-year project, ...

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Mobile Phone and Risk of Cancer

This news again sparks the debate whether mobile phones can cause cancer and a recent research seems to suggest that using a mobile phone for just 17 minutes a day seems to up the risk. Mobile phones have been called as carcinogenic to humans. A new analysis of the saliva of mobile phone users found that even -eight-hours-a-month-results in higher-oxidative-stress- which is capable of harming a human cell including its DNA. This is a major risk for ...

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Life in the Wettest Place on Earth

In India, villagers in northeast use grass to sound-proof their huts from deafening rain, clouds are a familiar sight inside homes and a suitably rusted sign tells visitors they are in the "wettest place on earth". Oddly enough, lifelong residents of Mawsynram, a small cluster of hamlets in Meghalaya state have little idea that their scenic home holds a Guinness record for the highest average annual rainfall of 11,873 millimeters (467 inches). "Really, ...

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