TORONTO, June 26, 2014 – Women with chronic physical illnesses are more likely to use mental health services than men with similar illnesses; they also seek out mental health services six months earlier than those same men, according to new study from St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).

"Chronic physical illness can lead to depression," said Dr. Flora Matheson, a scientist in the hospital's Centre for Research on Inner City Health. "We want to better understand who will seek mental health services when diagnosed with a chronic physical illness so we can best help those who need care."

Current guidelines to help prevent bloodstream infections during intravenous feeding may need
revisions to strengthen protections for patients, a new study finds.

Researchers at the United Kingdom's University of Southampton found that current guidelines do not account for other independent factors that can affect the growth of potentially deadly microorganisms. Their study was published today in the OnlineFirst version of the Journal of
Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (JPEN), the research journal of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.).

COLLEGE STATION – Scientists with Texas A&M AgriLife Research have found a "Trojan horse" way to deliver proteins into live human cells without damaging them.

The finding, published in this month's Nature Methods, is expected to be easily adopted for use in medical research to find cures and treatments for a wide range of diseases, according to the team's lead scientist, Dr. Jean-Philippe Pellois, an associate professor of biochemistry at Texas A&M University.

Old Westbury, N.Y. (June 25, 2014) –Administering low doses of a thyroid hormone to rats with diabetes helps restore hormone levels in their hearts and prevented deterioration of heart function and pathology, according to a new study by NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine professor A. Martin Gerdes.

The study, published in the online edition of Molecular Medicine provides the first clear indication that low thyroid hormone levels in cardiac tissue of diabetic individuals may be the major cause of their associated heart disease, says Gerdes.

The neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX) has been found for the first time in two species living out of water, according to a study published June 25 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Amber Stokes from California State University, Bakersfield, California and colleagues.

A promising molecule that blocks bone destruction could provide a potential therapeutic target for osteoporosis and bone metastases of cancer, according to a new study.

The molecule, miR-34a, belongs to a family of small molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs) that serve as brakes to help regulate how much of a protein is made, which in turn, determines how cells respond.

Mice with higher than normal levels of miR-34a had increased bone mass and reduced bone breakdown. This outcome is achieved because miR-34a blocks the development of bone-destroying cells called osteoclasts, which make the bone less dense and prone to fracture.

Bottom Line: Drinking alcohol has increased over a generation in a study of mothers and daughters in Australia.

Authors: Rosa Alati, Ph.D., M.Appl.Sc., of the University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues.

Background: Previous research suggests drinking patterns have changed with more heavy drinking at younger ages.

How the Study Was Conducted: The authors compared change in alcohol use over a generation of young women born in Australia born from 1981 to 1983 with that of their mothers at the same age. Data from an Australian birth cohort study were used for the two generations of women. The study included 1,053 mothers and daughters with complete data after 21 years of follow-up.

Amsterdam, NL, June 25, 2014 – Individuals with brain injury and their families often struggle to accept the associated personality changes. The behavior of individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) is typically associated with problems such as aggression, agitation, non-compliance, and depression. Treatment goals often focus on changing the individual's behavior, frequently using consequence-based procedures or medication. In the current issue of NeuroRehabilitation leading researchers challenge this approach and recommend moving emphasis from dysfunction to competence.

If the Greenland ice sheet ever gets past its stability threshold, it won't be the first time. 

400,000 years ago, a nearly complete deglaciation of southern Greenland happened, raising global sea levels as much as 6 meters. Not quite what was predicted to have happened by 2016 in "An Inconvenient Truth", but a substantial rise nonetheless.

The study authors say this is one of the first to zero in on how the vast Greenland ice sheet responded to warmer temperatures during that period, which were caused by changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun.

Though wind farms are touted as a viable part of our clean energy future, those sleek turbines are made of a decidedly low-tech core material: balsa wood.

Like other manufactured products that use sandwich panel construction to achieve a combination of light weight and strength, turbine blades contain carefully arrayed strips of balsa wood shipped in from Ecuador, which provides 95 percent of the world's supply.

For centuries, the fast-growing balsa tree has been prized for its light weight and stiffness relative to density. But balsa wood is expensive and natural variations in the grain can be an impediment to achieving the increasingly precise performance requirements of turbine blades and other sophisticated applications.