Posted by Archive Culture Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Japanese Bug Fights is a site that pits horribly demonic monstrous creatures against each other in an all out battle: two beetles enter, one beetle leaves. Soliciting reactions around the office like “shocking!” “disgusting!” and “unbelievably fascinating and cool!”, the bracketed tournament to the death would probably cause more of an uproar with animal rights activists were the creatures involved not quite so revolting. our favorite fighter is the hornet. Place bets to really make this a fully demoralizing experience.

“Link of the Week” is a new Culture gimmick that gives students a chance to share their favorite viral shames and mass-distributed memes. Leave comments here to submit your own candidates. Remember: this is democracy in action!

Short URL: arbiteronline.com/?p=19886

February 2, 2011

Frontotemporal dementia is caused by a breakdown of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal region of the brain (fronto-temporal lobe), which leads to, among other symptoms, a change in personality and behavior. The cause of some forms of frontotemporal dementia is a genetically determined reduction of a hormone-like growth factor, progranulin. Scientists around Dr. Anja Capell and Prof. Christian Haass have now shown that various drugs that are already on the market to treat malaria, angina pectoris or heart rhythm disturbances can increase the production of progranulin. accordingly, these drugs are good candidates for treatment of this specific form of frontotemporal dementia. The work will be published in the online edition of the scientific journal Journal of Neuroscience on February 2nd, 2011.

more information: Capell, A., Liebscher, S., Fellerer, K., Brouwers, N., Willem, M., Lammich, S., Gijselinck, I., Bittner, T., Carlson, A.M., Sasse, F., Kunze, B., Steinmetz, H., Jansen, R., Dormann, D., Sleegers, K., Cruts, M., Herms, J., Van Broeckhoven, C., Haass, C. (2011). Rescue of Progranulin Deficiency associated with Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration by Alkalizing Reagents and Inhibition of Vacuolar ATPase. J. Neurosci., published online on February 2nd, 2011. DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5757-10.2011

Provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (news : web)