Exercise is the key to overcoming the adverse metabolic effects passed on to offspring by their overweight mothers, a Sydney study has found. The research showed for the first time these effects can be almost completely reversed through physical activity.
Being an obese mother can have a powerful impact on the next generation, altering central appetite circuits and contributing to increased fat deposits, glucose intolerance and metabolic disease in offspring. But the study in rodents found exercise was able to dramatically improve these detrimental impacts, with the reversal most pronounced in juveniles who both exercised and consumed a low-fat diet.
Prof Margaret Morris, Sultana Rajia, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales
Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease
http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/exercise-can-reverse-negative-effects-maternal-obesity
Australia and New Zealand have the highest rates of cannabis and amphetamine use in the world, according to comprehensive research on illicit drug use. Up to 15 per cent of 15 to 64 year olds in the two countries use cannabis, while 2.8 per cent of the same age group use drugs such as speed and crystal meth. The latter figure does not include use of ecstasy. The data is included in a series of papers examining global drug use and law enforcement.
Prof Louisa Degenhardt, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre(NDARC), UNSW
The Lancet; http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/highest-rates-cannabis-use
Sydney researcher have developed the narrowest conducting wires in silicon ever made – just four atoms wide and one atom tall – and shown them to have the same electrical current carrying capability of copper. Despite their astonishingly tiny diameter – 10,000 times thinner than a human hair – these wires have exceptionally good electrical properties, raising hopes they will serve to connect atomic-scale components in the quantum computers of tomorrow.
The wires were made by precisely placing chains of phosphorus atoms within a silicon crystal, according to the study, which includes researchers from the University of Melbourne and Purdue University in the US.
Bent Weber, Prof Michelle Simmons; ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, University of New South Wales.
Science; http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-technology/wires-shrink-atomic-scale
Interactions with bacteria during water treatment could transform traces of pharmaceutical compounds commonly present in wastewater from non-toxic to toxic forms, a new study suggests.
Some drugs can occur in two forms, known as enantiomers. UNSW researchers monitored three common pharmaceuticals during wastewater treatment. These included the anti-inflammatory drug naproxen, which is manufactured and dispensed as a single enantiomer, known as S-naproxen.
Its counterpart, R-naproxen, is known to be highly toxic to the liver and is not publicly available. Through the treatment process, researchers observed that some of the safe version of naproxen had been converted to the unsafe form, which could have negative environmental implications.
It is the first time that enantiomeric inversion during the wastewater treatment process has been reported.
Dr Stuart Khan, Water Research Centre, UNSW
Water Research
http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-technology/bacteria-convert-wastewater-chemicals-toxic-form
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels plunged by 40 per cent before and during the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet 34 million years ago, according to a new study. The finding helps solve a long-standing scientific puzzle and confirms the power of C02 to dramatically alter global climate.
The study by an international team is the first multidisciplinary research of its kind to show that C02 was tracking global cooling at that time. It confirms that significant falls in the greenhouse gas result in global cooling, just as rises result in global warming.
Dr Willem Sijp, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW
Science
http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-technology/plunge-co2-put-freeze-antarctica
New Australian studies on how phantom limbs form show there is no default position that the phantom moves into after it forms. “Our research suggests that the state of nerves in the limb at the time the phantom is forming is very important in determining how the phantom develops,” say the researchers.
Because distortions of body image, such as phantom limbs, are difficult to treat, a better understanding of the mechanisms behind their formation will help developing more effective treatments.
Prof Simon Gandevia, Dr Lee Walsh, Neuroscience Research Australia, UNSW
The Journal of Physiology
http://www.neura.edu.au/news-events/news/new-research-reveals-how-phantom-limbs-form
Patients with depression will be able to monitor their mental health using a computer as easily as those with diabetes can manage their condition thanks to new research presented in Canberra. The work is developing a computerised diagnostic aid that is already able to diagnose depression with up to 80 percent accuracy. The researchers’ next step is to develop a laptop based prototype.
Dr Roland Goecke, Human-Centred Computing Laboratory, University of Canberra—also researchers from Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Black Dog Institute, UNSW
http://www.canberra.edu.au/media-centre/2011/november/uc-researchers-develop-technology-to-diagnose-depression
An international study in the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology reveals new information about human pluripotent stem cells and their genetic stability and has important implications for the development of therapies using these cells. Scientists from the University of Melbourne, University of NSW and CSIRO contributed to this study, which examined how the genome of 138 stem cell lines of diverse ethnic backgrounds changed when the cells were grown in the laboratory.
Prof Martin Pera, University of Melbourne and Stem Cells Australia
Dr Andrew Laslett, Qi Zhou, CSIRO
A/Prof Jeremy Crook, Shirani Sivarajah, University of Melbourne and National ICT Australia
A/Prof Kuldip Sidhu, UNSW
Nature Biotechnology
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.2051.html
A health supplement used by bodybuilders could be the key to treating a life-threatening muscular dystrophy affecting hundreds of Australian children, new research shows. The amino acid L-tyrosine had a “rapid and dramatic impact” on Nemaline Myopathy (NM) in laboratory tests on mice, significantly improving symptoms of the muscle wasting disease, medical researchers found.
Prof Edna Hardeman, Neuromuscular and Regenerative Medicine Unit, UNSW
Brain
http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/hope-muscle-wasting-disease
20 November, 2011
in Other
Patients who suffer stroke-like attacks can have mortality rates 20 per cent higher than the general population, new research finds, leading to calls for better stroke prevention strategies for those who experience a transient ischemic attack (TIA). In one of the largest studies of its kind ever conducted, more than 20,000 adults hospitalised in New South Wales between 2000-2007 with a TIA were compared against the general population for mortality rates.
Dr Melina Gattellari, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW
Stroke
http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/2011/nov/mini_strokes.html
Australian scientists have played a key role in the identification of a new biochemical mechanism that allows brain tumours to survive and grow, offering hope of new drug treatments for some of the most aggressive tumours.
A/Prof Gilles Guillemin, UNSW
Nature, http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/2011/oct/Brain.html
