Research provides clues to neurodevelopemental disorders

Not only mineral oil and petroleum gas, also phosphorous is a scarce resource. According to well-respected scientists who gathered together for a conference in Cambridge this August, we will face significant problems relating to phosphorous deficiency in just 20 years from now. Phosphorous, this important and essential mineral, is part of our DNA and, therefore, irreplaceable. Many soils are already depleted for phosphorous today. Plants growing on these soils are only able to take up enough phosphorous by living in symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi). ...

"Certain bats can deform the shapes of their ears in a way that changes the animal's ultrasonic hearing pattern. Within just one tenth of a second, these bats are able to change their outer ear shapes from one extreme configuration to another," said Rolf Müller, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. Müller and his students wrote a paper on their work that is appearing this week in Physical Review Letters, a prestigious peer-reviewed journal of the American Physical Society. The students are: Li Gao of Shandong, China, a Ph.D. student with Müller, ...

Realityworks, Inc. will showcase its experiential learning programs at the Association of Career and Technical Education (ACTE) annual convention and career tech expo. Realityworks' products will be presented in several sessions and displayed in booth 1121 on Nov. 17-18 at the Americas Center in St. Louis. ACTE's conference brings together over 4,000 teachers and administrators involved in Career and Technical Education. The brand new RealCareer Welding Program will be one of the programs featured at ACTE. It offers hands-on learning of basic welding form in a simulation ...

The brain scans of high school football and hockey players showed subtle injury -- even if they did not suffer a concussion – after taking routine hits to the head during the normal course of play, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study. The research, reported online in the journal Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is preliminary, involving a small sample of athletes, but nonetheless raises powerful questions about the consequences of the mildest head injury among youths with developing brains, said lead author Jeffrey Bazarian, M.D., M.P.H., associate ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a new study, scientists report that they substantially curbed weight gain, improved metabolism, and improved the efficacy of insulin in mice by engineering them to express a specific human enzyme in their fat tissue. Although the obesity prevention came at the significant cost of widespread inflammation, the research offers new clues about the connections among obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and inflammation. "Turning on this molecule has a very dramatic impact on lipid metabolism," said Haiyan Xu, assistant professor ...

Marion's Smart Delights is proud to announce that it won the Gourmet Product Awards. Marion's Gluten-Free Cookie and Muffin Mix won for best baking mix. The versatile, allergy-friendly, and Kosher mix can be used to create everything from fancy party treats to vegan, dairy-free, and even heart-healthy versions of scrumptious muffins, holiday cookies, pies, tarts, and more. The reduced sugar and low-sodium mix is packed with nutritious whole grains, including quinoa, millet, and amaranth. It is one of a few gluten-free dessert mixes in the market carrying the Whole Grain ...

Washington — Scientists are discovering promising approaches to treating pain, one of the most common and debilitating neurological complaints, according to research released today at Neuroscience 2011, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. Studies show that "mirror box therapy" can help reduce arthritis-related pain, and that a new opioid-like drug may be able to relieve acute pain without the euphoric effects that can lead to dependency. Additional research also identifies the ...

Tuberculosis, which kills over 2 million people each year, is caused primarily by infectious bacteria known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis – or Mtb. Mtb targets human immune cells as part of its strategy to avoid detection, effectively neutralizing the body's immune response. Up until now, scientists had a general understanding of the process, but researchers in the Immunity and Infection Research Centre at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and the University of British Columbia have shown Mtb produces a specific protein that allows it to defuse and bypass ...

Increases in air pollution and other particulate matter in the atmosphere can strongly affect cloud development in ways that reduce precipitation in dry regions or seasons. This while increasing rain, snowfall and the intensity of severe storms in wet regions or seasons, according to results of a new study. The research provides the first clear evidence of how aerosols--soot, dust and other particulates in the atmosphere--may affect weather and climate. The findings have important implications for the availability, management and use of water resources in regions ...

From Enron in the United States to Satyam in India, there are plenty of examples of corporate managers lying about their companies' earnings and ultimately hurting themselves and the businesses they work for. Why do they do it? A limited capacity to see the whole picture – known as "bounded rationality" -- combined with a faulty ethical compass are two big reasons, shows a new study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The study also finds that shareholders are just as guilty of the same weaknesses and that insider trading is linked to earnings ...