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The human (and non-human) primate brain is remarkable in recognizing objects when the view is nearly blocked. This skill let our ancient ancestors find food and avoid danger. It continues to be critical to making sense of our surroundings. UW Medicine scientists are conducting research to discover ways that the brain operates when figuring out shapes, from those that are completely visible to those that are mostly hidden. Although computers can beat the world's best chess players, scientists have not yet designed artificial intelligence that performs as well as the average person in distinguishing shapes that are semi-obscured. Studies of signals generated by the brain are helping to fill in the picture of what goes on when looking at, then trying to recognize, shapes. Such research is also showing why attempts have failed to mechanically replicate the ability of humans and primates to identify partially hidden objects. The most recent results of this work are published S...

The researchers analyzed parenthood, education and income statistics over a long time span from two groups of about 10,000 people -- those born in 1962-64 and those born in 1980-82. These are the key findings: Teen fathers and mothers came increasingly from single-mother families with disadvantaged backgrounds. The proportion of teen mothers or fathers living with their partners didn't change, but far fewer were married. The birth rates to teenage girls across the two groups didn't change, but the reported rate of teenage fatherhood increased, a seemingly contradictory conclusion. For example, 1.7 percent of the men in the older group were fathers by the time they were 17, while in the younger group, nearly double that number were dads. About 8 percent of the 17-year-old females in both groups were mothers. The researchers offer several theories for the reported growth in the number of teenage fathers. "In what might be called the ' cougar effect ,' we m...

The brain is protected by the near-impermeable blood brain barrier, a fortress which protects the brain but which also prevents the treatment of brain diseases, including brain tumours. Dr Zaynah Maherally and team at the University of Portsmouth have developed a model that mimics the blood brain barrier, which could pave the way for better, more efficient and reliable tests of drugs to treat brain diseases. ,p>The model, the result of slow painstaking research started in 2007, is published in the  FASEB Journal . Dr Maherally said: "The blood brain barrier is strikingly complex and notoriously difficult for scientists to breach. Its role, to protect the brain, makes it difficult for most drugs to make their way into the brain to treat brain tumours. "It is a dynamic structural, physiological and biochemical fortification that, in essence, protects the brain by providing multiple layers of armour, stopping molecules from entering the brain. It's highly select...

Schlemm's canal (inexperienced) performs a basic function in draining the aqueous humor (white arrows) from the anterior chamber of the attention to blood circulation. If the aqueous humor shouldn't be in a position to circulate out freely, elevated intraocular strain damages the optical nerve inflicting glaucoma and ultimately blindness. Credit score: IBS Researchers on the Heart for Vascular Analysis, throughout the Institute for Primary Science (IBS), have recognized a brand new mechanism concerned within the improvement and development of glaucoma, and located a possible therapeutic choice to deal with it. Glaucoma is the second reason behind irreversible blindness, after cataracts. It impacts about three.5% of the world inhabitants aged 40 to 80. Th...

The authors showed that human pluripotent stem cells communicate with other cells by emitting signal proteins. These signals activate cells in the surrounding tissue, causing them to move from where they are and to migrate through the body (invasion) to eventually carry out specific functions at other locations. "It is really fascinating to see the effect of the changes triggered by stem cells on somatic cells," says Margit Rosner, lead author of the publication. Dozens of international clinical trials have already attempted to use these stem cells to develop new treatments for such conditions as heart attacks, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's and diabetes, as well as a large number of rare genetic diseases. The basic principle is to produce very specific human cells (heart muscle cells, nerve cells, islet cells, etc.) in the laboratory for transplantation into the patient, in the hope that this will help to regenerate damage...

Jasmin Taubenschmid, PhD scholar at IMBA and first creator of the examine with a ricin plant. Credit score: Picture courtesy of Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) Researchers on the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) have found a method of immunizing cells in opposition to the organic weapon ricin, as reported within the present problem of  Cell Analysis . The plant toxin ricin is among the most toxic naturally occurring proteins, making it a particularly harmful bioweapon. Ricin assaults have made the headlines quite a few occasions through the years, together with the spectacular "umbrella homicide" in London within the 1970s, or extra lately the ricin letters addressed to Barack Obama in 2014. As ...