Futurity.org » University of Florida

How to decide if a daily aspirin is harmful

Melissa Blouin-Florida — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:31:49 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — A new algorithm outlines factors doctors should consider when deciding whether or not a patient would benefit from a daily dose of aspirin.

Approximately 50 million people in the United States take a daily aspirin to treat or prevent heart disease. Of these, at least half take more than 100 milligrams of the drug—more than one baby aspirin—a day.

Why your ‘seesaw’ brain can’t stay on task

Melissa Blouin-Florida — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:08:07 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — When we try to concentrate on a specific task, different parts of our brain are in a constant battle for control behind the scenes.

We’ve all been there: You’re at work deeply immersed in a project when suddenly you start thinking about your weekend plans. Now, researchers are using a new technique to examine how parts of the brain fight for dominance.

Dual therapies treat blindness in dogs

Andy McGlashen-Michigan State — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:01:56 +0000

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Two kinds of therapy may be a knockout combo against inherited blindness. The study focused on impaired dogs, but the remedy may help people, too.

Published in the journal Molecular Therapy, the study builds on earlier work by Michigan State University veterinary ophthalmologist András Komáromy and colleagues. In 2010, they restored day vision in dogs suffering from achromatopsia, an inherited form of total color blindness, by replacing the mutant gene associated with the condition.

While that treatment was effective for most younger dogs, it didn’t work for canines older than 1 year. Komáromy began to wonder if the older dogs’ cones—the photoreceptor cells in the retina that process daylight and color—might be too worn out.

To heal heart, treat depression, too

Wilson Valentin-Columbia — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:25:14 +0000

COLUMBIA U. (US) —Treating people for depression after a heart attack could reduce the risk of death or another attack, new research shows.

Researchers completed a randomized controlled trial with 150 patients with elevated depressive symptoms two to six months after hospitalization for heart disease.

Tool keeps track of at-risk older drivers

Jill Pease-Florida — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:57:50 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — A free, online tool will help caregivers and family members identify drivers age 65 and older who may be at risk of driving problems.

The Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure can be completed by caregivers or family members who have been a passenger in a vehicle driven by an older driver within the past three months.

Give-and-take helps hyenas, people coexist

Layne Cameron-Michigan State — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:46:18 +0000

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Motion-detection cameras show that in the southern Rift Valley of Kenya, the Maasai people and their livestock coexist fairly happily with carnivores that include hyenas, lions, and bat-eared foxes.

“I wouldn’t call the results surprising,” says Meredith Evans Wagner, a visiting scholar from the University of Florida at the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at Michigan State University. “Other research has shown that people and carnivores can coexist, but there is a large body of thought that believes carnivores need their own protected space to survive.”

Saber-tooth cat was a Florida native

Danielle Torrent-Florida — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:13:29 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — A new genus and species of saber-toothed cat may be a missing link to and direct ancestor of Smilodon, a cat that went extinct about 11,000 years ago.

The 5-million-year-old fossils from Polk County, Florida, belong to the same lineage as Smilodon fatalis from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, a large, carnivorous apex predator with elongated upper canine teeth.

Gene x3 helps corn grow in acidic soil

Marilee Griffin-Florida — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:53:58 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — A genetic variation makes it possible for corn to grow in soil that contains high levels of aluminum, a chemical that is toxic to many plants.

Approximately 30 percent of the world’s total land is too acidic to support crop production, but certain strands of corn growing in tropical and subtropical areas have three copies of a particular gene that make them more tolerant.

Fossils of ‘alligator-like’ animals found in Panama

Danielle Torrent-Florida — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:41:40 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — Paleontologists have found remarkably well-preserved fossils of two crocodilians and a hippo-like mammal during recent excavations in the Panama Canal.

The ancient extinct alligator-like animals and an extinct hippo-like species—previously unknown to science—inhabited Central America during the Miocene about 20 million years ago.

Dengue may rise if rival mosquitoes don’t mate

Tom Nordlie-Florida — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:38:48 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — If female yellow fever mosquitoes start snubbing the courtship efforts of Asian tiger males, their numbers could rise, increasing the threat of dengue in Florida, experts say.

When male Asian tiger mosquitoes successfully woo yellow fever females—a competing species—their matings are fruitless. The two species can’t produce offspring together. Instead, chemicals transferred during mating render the yellow fever female sterile for the rest of her short life.