news 2013

Alcohol consumption could be much higher than previously thought, with more than three quarters of people in England drinking in excess of the recommended daily alcohol limit, according to a new paper in the European Journal of Public Health . The study, conducted by researchers in the UCL Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, is the first to investigate the potential public health implications related to the under-reporting of alcohol consumption.

Contrary to medical opinion, blood-thinning medications may be safe and beneficial for some patients with an inherited bleeding disorder, according to survey results published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. Blood thinners are taken to reduce risk of dangerous blood clots, but many doctors are reluctant to give them to patients who bleed excessively because it might make their symptoms worse, even though many of these patients also have a higher risk of blood clotting disorders such as deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) and stroke.

Depression is a major cause of disability worldwide and effective management of this is a key challenge for health care systems. The study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), confirmed evidence that 'low-intensity' interventions provide significant clinical benefit. Initial severity of depression is one of the key variables determining who gets 'low' or 'high' intensity treatment, but this is largely based on epidemiological studies and clinical experience rather than high quality evidence.

A study published today in Biology Letters found that ship noise affects crab metabolism, with largest crabs faring worst, and found little evidence that crabs acclimatise to noise over time. The team from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter found that crabs exposed to recordings of ship noise showed an increase in metabolic rate, indicating elevated stress.

An international research team led by a University of Bristol scientist has explained the preservation of colours in fossil insects for the first time. The discovery explains why colours change and why they are destroyed during fossilisation, revealing hidden gems in the insect fossil record that could help reconstruct the evolution of colours in insects.

The team has just carried out the first clinical trial to examine the impact of the fish oils on the skin immunity of volunteers. Led by Lesley Rhodes, Professor of Experimental Dermatology from the Photobiology Unit Dermatology Centre at the University, the study analysed the effect of taking omega-3 on 79 healthy volunteers.

Individuals with psychogenic disease (i.e. physical illness stemming from emotional or mental stresses) have brains that function differently to people with organic diseases, according to new research from UCL and the University of Cambridge. Psychogenic diseases, formerly known as 'hysterical' illnesses, may look very similar to genetic diseases of the nervous system or to illnesses caused by damage to the nerves, brain or muscles.

When dealing with cancer, time is critical. Identifying cancer before it spreads can often be the difference between life and death, so early diagnosis is key. Cancers begin in one part of the body and often spread through the bloodstream into other organs. This process is known as 'metastasis', and causes secondary tumours, 'metastases', to grow at other locations in the body.

A substantial proportion of individuals with a clinical diagnosis of Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) inherit a combination of small-effect changes in several genes (polygenic) rather than a large-effect mutation in a single gene (monogenic), according to a new paper in The Lancet . The findings have implications for the majority of national guidelines on family screening for FH, that advocate testing relatives of all individuals with a clinical diagnosis of FH, including those of the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

The death of a founding entrepreneur wipes out on average 60 per cent of a firm's sales and cuts jobs by around 17 per cent, according to a new study. The research, by Sascha O. Becker at the University of Warwick and Hans K. Hvide at the University of Bergen, sheds light on exactly how much a founder-entrepreneur 'matters' in terms of influencing the performance of privately-owned businesses.

New research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol shows that most babies who are slow to put on weight in the first nine months of life have caught up to within the normal range by the age of 13, but remain lighter and shorter than many of their peers. There are significant differences in the pattern of 'catch-up', depending on the infant's age when the slow weight gain occurs.

The origin of an innate ability the brain has to protect itself from damage that occurs in stroke has been explained for the first time. The Oxford University researchers hope that harnessing this inbuilt biological mechanism, identified in rats, could help in treating stroke and preventing other neurodegenerative diseases in the future.

An international research group has demonstrated a quantum algorithm that performs a true calculation for the first time. Quantum algorithms could one day enable the design of new materials, pharmaceuticals or clean energy devices. The team implemented the 'phase estimation algorithm' - a central quantum algorithm which achieves an exponential speedup over all classical algorithms.

An exploration of deep magmatic processes occurring in the Earth's crust beneath volcanoes, which could contribute to linking these physical processes at depth with volcanic eruptions at the surface, has been carried out by researchers from the University of Bristol and the Swiss Federal Institute in Zurich.

The amount of ash released by Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano during April 2010 was significantly underestimated at the time of the eruption, according to a new model developed at the University of Bristol and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. This could have important consequences for airspace management during future eruptions.

Flowers' methods of communicating are at least as sophisticated as any devised by an advertising agency, according to a new study, published today in Science Express by researchers from the University of Bristol. However, for any advert to be successful, it has to reach, and be perceived by, its target audience.

Researchers at the University of Warwick and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust have completed a study that may lead to clinicians being able to more accurately predict which patients will suffer from the side effects of radiotherapy. Gastrointestinal side effects are commonplace in radiotherapy patients and occasionally severe, yet there is no existing means of predicting which patients will suffer from them.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have identified molecules in the blood that could help predict the risk of a patient developing liver injury eight hours after a paracetamol overdose. Paracetamol overdose is one of the most frequent cases of hospital admissions, accounting for approximately 90,000 hospital attendances per year in the UK and almost 47,000 bed days in England alone.

The walls of the human heart are a disorganised jumble of tissue until relatively late in pregnancy, despite having the shape of a fully functioning heart, according to a pioneering study. Experts from the University of Sheffield's Medical School collaborated on research to create the first comprehensive model of human heart development using observations of living foetal hearts.

A new study shows that children who are exposed to bullying during childhood are at increased risk of psychiatric disorders in adulthood, regardless of whether they are victims or perpetrators. William E. Copeland of Duke University Medical Center and Dieter Wolke of the University of Warwick led a team in examining whether bullying in childhood predicts psychiatric problems and suicidality in young adulthood.