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Researchers create first-ever genetic animal model of autism

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:49:00 -0500

US researchers have created what might be an accurate model of autism not associated with a broader neuropsychiatric syndrome, which includes conditions like - Fragile X, the most common cause of inherited mental impairment, and Rett Syndrome, a childhood neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by normal early development followed by slowed brain and head growth, seizures, and mental retardation.

Autism is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by repetitive behaviours and by impairment in social interactions and communication skills.

The animal –model finding was based on a study, led by Thomas Sudhof, M.D., professor and chairman of neuroscience at UT Southwestern, which might help researchers better understand abnormal brain function in autistic humans, which could help them identify and improve treatment strategies.

“Prior to this study we knew next to nothing about the mechanisms of autism in the brain,” said Craig M. Powell, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwesters Medical Centre at Dallas and a co-researcher in the study.

“With this research, we can study changes in the brain that lead to autistic behaviours and symptoms, which may help us understand more about progression and treatment of the disorder,” Powell added.

The research team replaced the normal mouse neurologin-3 gene with a mutated neuroligin-3 gene associated with autism in humans.

By doing so, the researchers were able to create a gene in the mice that was similar to the human autism disease gene.

While the result amounted to a very small change in their genetic makeup, it perfectly mimicked the same small change occurring in some patients with human autism.

Dr. Powell studied the genetically altered mice and found that, when examined in behavioural tests that might reflect key signs of autism, they showed decreased social interaction with other mice; other traits, such as anxiety, coordination and pain sensitivity, were unaffected.

Powell said that these social interaction deficits were hallmark features of human autism. In addition, the mice showed enhanced spatial learning abilities, which might resemble the enhanced cognitive abilities in autistic savants, people who have a severe developmental or mental handicap as well as extraordinary mental abilities.

“These findings could be especially helpful in identifying novel treatment approaches. We already know that inhibitory chemical synaptic transmission from one neuron to the next is increased in this mouse model. Now we can test drugs that decrease this effect directly in the mice and ask whether this reverses their social interaction deficits,” Powell said.

The research was presented at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting. (ANI)

Archaeologists discover 3,000-years-old wood and ropes in Romania

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:44:00 -0500

Archaeologists in Romania have discovered 3,000-years-old well-preserved wood and ropes at Beclean in the country’s northern Bistrita-Nasaud County.

Valeriu Kavruk, curator of the Museum of the Eastern Carpathians based in Sfantu Gheorghe, central Romania, said that the objects, found in the bed of a vastly salted river near Baile Figa, have been well conserved due to the salted mud.

Lab tests with Carbon 14 revealed that the articles dated from 1000 B.C, Kavruk said.

He added that the Figa site represents "the most important archaeological discovery in the latest decades in South-Eastern Europe,” reports Xinhua.

The curator further explained that the findings, apart from being very old and very well preserved, also gave an idea about how salt was dug 3,000 years ago.

The specialists concluded that the salt blocks were sliced not with hard tools as nowadays, but they were melted using water and then poured through the holes in the big block of salt. (ANI)

Parents prefer teachers who make their children happy

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:44:00 -0500

A study conducted at the University of Michigan has revealed that, parents prefer having teachers who are more focused on making their children happy rather than those who lay emphasis on academic achievement.

The study found that when requesting a teacher for their elementary school children, parents are more likely to choose teachers who receive high student satisfaction ratings than teachers with strong achievement ratings, said Brian Jacob, the study's co-author and director of the Centre on Local, State and Urban Policy at the U-M Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

The findings however mask the striking differences across schools.

Where families in higher poverty schools strongly value student achievement and appear indifferent to the principal's report of a teacher's ability to promote student satisfaction. The results are reversed for families in wealthier schools.

The findings appear in the new issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

"The value of this study is that it helps education practitioners and policymakers better understand how factors such as family poverty can influence what parents are looking for in a school," Jacob said.

"While all parents presumably want what is best for their children, this can mean very different things depending on the school and neighbourhood context," he added.

Lars Lefgren, an economist at Brigham Young University, co-authored the study.

The study is the first known review of its kind to examine parents' preferences using information on parent requests for specific teachers within a school.

The sample included more than 300 kindergartens through sixth grade teachers in a mid-sized school district in western United States. This district did not have a formal procedure for parent requests, but parents could submit requests to principals before class assignments were made.

Within a school, there were no differences between more and less advantaged parents who requested a teacher in terms of the value the parents placed on student satisfaction versus student achievement.

The findings were consistent with a model in which high- and low-income parents have similar preferences for student outcomes, but face constraints that are correlated with school demographics.

Academic resources are typically more limited in higher-poverty schools---for example, such schools generally have more disruptive peers, lower academic expectations, fewer financial resources and less experienced teachers.

Parents in these schools may seek teachers skilled at improving achievement even if it means sacrificing student satisfaction, the researchers said. In higher-income schools, where academic resources are more abundant, a teacher's focus on academic achievement may be less valuable than his or her ability to help students enjoy school and learning.

The study also found that parents of low-income, minority and low-achieving children are less likely to make requests for specific teachers than other parents.

"Programs that increase the focus on basic skills or classroom management at the expense of student enjoyment or other academic outputs not measured on standardized tests are more likely to be unpopular in higher-income schools," said Jacob, who is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and Professor of Economics at the Ford School. (ANI)

Serial killer may be killing more people than previously thought

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:44:00 -0500

Serial killers may be responsible for up to 10 times more U.S. deaths than previously thought because investigators fail to notice marginalized victims like prostitutes and nursing home residents, according to a new study.

Criminologist Kenna Quinet, associate professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said investigators not only overlook victims who are never reported missing, such as street kids, but also ignore murders committed in hospitals or nursing homes where deaths are expected.

Recent academic estimates of the average number of serial killer victims each year range from 67 to 180. Quinet's analysis, based on conservative extrapolations from existing data, would add at least 182 and possibly as many 1,832 victims.

"We're talking about a factor of two clear up to a factor of 10. And this is not new -- these are victims that we've always been not counting,” she said.

Quinet said some victims of serial killers, including prostitutes, transients, gay street hustlers, foster children and street kids, are never reported missing, and so go uncounted.

The article cites the case of the Green River serial killer in Washington as an example of how including the "missing missing" could change the numbers. One-third of the killer's 48 known victims were never reported missing, had been mistakenly deleted from police missing-persons databases, or were never identified.

But Quinet said an even larger pool of overlooked victims may be the "misidentified dead," including hospital patients and nursing home residents who are thought to have died from natural causes but were in fact victims of medical murderers.

"From a humanitarian standpoint, the idea that some deaths don't matter as much as others infuriates me, particularly if they could have been prevented," she said.

In research published in 1990, Quinet debunked wildly inflated claims about the number of serial killer victims that had been circulated by special interest and advocacy groups and in the news media.

The article titled, "The Missing Missing: Toward a Quantification of Serial Murder Victimization in the United States,” was published recently in the journal Homicide Studies. (ANI)

WorldÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s largest and deadliest spitting cobra identified

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:39:00 -0500

Researchers have identified the world’s largest and most deadliest known species of spitting cobra.

Named as 'Ashe’s spitting cobra', or 'large brown spitting cobra', this reptile can reach lengths of more than 9 feet (274 centimeters) and is believed to deliver more venom with a single bite than any other cobra on the planet.

Known to exist in the dry lowlands of north and east Kenya, as well as in Uganda and Ethiopia, the snake was previously identified as a brown-colored variant of the black-necked spitting cobra.

But since researchers had long suspected that the snake merited its own species, new research, along with blood and tissue analysis, confirmed that it belongs to a new species of spitting cobra.

The fundamental differences between the two species (brown and black spitting cobra) also made researchers support the new theory.

For example, other variants of the black-necked spitting cobra fought harder when handled and took longer to settle down in captivity. Also, once these snakes were placed in cages, they became picky eaters.

But the ‘Ashe's cobra’ was less resistant to handling, generally less alert, less picky and were much bigger than the black necked spitting cobra.

The new finding might prove to be of significance for residents along Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, who are at risk of being bitten by the new cobra.

Though the venom of the new species of the cobra is similar to the species it was previously grouped with, it can deliver about twice the amount of venom with a single bite.

This means that doctors treating bites from what turned out to be the brown spitting cobra, have to now increase the dose of antivenin to the victims. That’s because they were administering only half of the dose before the identification of the new species of the reptile.

According to researchers, the discovery of the species may also lead to new developments in antivenin, from studying the chemical makeup of the cobra's venom.

"The fact that this is a separate species raises a question of the efficacy of existing antivenins," David Warrell, a herpetologist at the University of Oxford, told National Geographic News. (ANI)

Now, a warm lining that can be shorn without removing pants or shoes

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:30:00 -0500

Two graduates from the University of Wisconsin-Stout have invented a warm-weather garment lining for pants that can be taken off without removing the outer pants, or even the wearer’s shoes.

The invention has now been licensed to a global manufacturer

Thanks to Pamela Anhalt and Karl Fels, the next time you go out wearing your winter-lined pants only to start sweating it out when the temperature heats up, you might not have to find a secluded area to remove the lining.

Anhalt and Fels, as part of Anhalt’s functional clothing class assignment in 2004, invented the removable garment lining that can be worn under any type of pants to keep the wearer warm in cold weather.

Its novelty suggests that it can be taken off without removing the outer pants, or even the wearer’s shoes.

“Students know opportunities for improving current products or inventing sewn products for new markets is becoming a major focus for the apparel industry. Pamela and Karl’s design is a perfect example of meeting consumer demand for performance products,” Gindy Neidermyer, UW-Stout program director for apparel design and development and instructor of the course, said.

The invention has been exclusively licensed to apparel manufacturer JMI USA Ltd. JMI, whose research and development headquarters is based in Merrill, Wis., has initial plans to produce the lining for hunting and construction uses. The exclusive license is the first of its kind for a UW System student-led technology, according to the UW System technology transfer organization WiSys.

“We are both very excited about the whole patent process and that a company has licensed our idea. We are anxious for the removable garment lining to hit the apparel market,” Anhalt said (ANI)

Archaeologists find 2,000 year old Roman glue in Germany

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 04:39:00 -0500

Archaeologists have reportedly found traces of a glue used by the Romans 2,000 years ago near the town of Xanten in Germany.

It had lain on what was once the bed of the Rhine for at least 1,500 years.

According to researchers at the Rhineland Historical Museum in Bonn, this ancient glue was used to mount silver laurel leaves on legionnaires' battle helmets, made of iron.

Though the helmet lay on the river-bed for so long, its glue was not exposed to the destructive effects of the atmosphere, and therefore, did not lose its adhesive power.

“Researchers came across the glue by surprise while removing a tiny sample of metal from the helmet with a fine saw. The heat from the tool caused silver laurel leaves decorating the helmet to peel off leaving thread-like traces of the glue behind,” said Frank Willer, the museum's chief restorer.

"It is a sensational find and a complete stroke of luck that we were still able to find traces of the substance on the helmet after 2,000 years," he added.

Analysis shows that Roman glue was made of bitumen, beef tallow and pitch.

But researchers say they have failed to recreate the adhesive, and add that sawdust, soot or sand might have to be used to complete the process.

"When we finally manage to remake the superglue, it will easily compete with its modern equivalents," Willer told The Independent.

“Other Roman remains, including ancient battle masks, kept by the museum, bore traces of silver decorations and had probably been glued in the same way,” said Willer. “But their condition has deteriorated too far to find evidence of glue,” he added. (ANI)

Indian astronomers discover longest intergalactic beam

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 04:40:00 -0500

A team of Indian astronomers have discovered the longest intergalactic beam, stretching for more than a million light years, that might help to reveal how such jets of matter bind themselves together.

The discovery emerged from a large elliptical galaxy called CGCG 049-033, which is about 600 million light years away.

A team led by Joydeep Bagchi of Pune University in Maharashtra, India, noticed emission from this galaxy during a broad search for radio sources, and then took a closer look using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope near Pune and the 100-metre Effelsberg radio dish in Germany.

The jet they saw is nearly 1.5 million light years long, twice the length of the previous record holder.

It also has an unusual characteristic not observed in other jets.

Jets usually come in fairly well matched pairs, pointing in opposite directions. The new jet's counterpart, however, appears much shorter. That could be because the apparently shorter jet is pointing away from us; so light from its far end might not have had time to reach us yet.

Jets are seen all over the cosmos squirting out of many different types of object, including stars that are just beginning to form. The most powerful ones come from the cores of active galaxies, where gas falling towards a giant black hole generates a mixture of heat, high-energy particles and magnetic fields.

Interestingly, the radio waves emitted by the newly discovered jet are strongly polarised, revealing a powerful magnetic field wrapped around the jet.

"I was very surprised to find such a strong and regular magnetic field," team member Marita Krause of the University of Bonn in Germany told New Scientist.

It may be that the magnetic field acts as a containing sheath, preventing the high-pressure gas in the jet from dispersing. That could explain why this jet is so long.

A somewhat weaker version of this magnetic containment field might help hold jets together around other types of astronomical objects.

The research team plans to get an even more detailed picture of the jet and its magnetic fields using the Very Large Array radio observatory in New Mexico, US. (ANI)