PHILADELPHIA -- Since their discovery in the 1950s, transfer RNAs (tRNAs) have been best known for their role in helping the cell make proteins from messenger RNA templates. However, recent studies have led to a previously-unsuspected concept that tRNAs are not always the end product; namely, they further serve as a source of small RNAs. Now researchers have discovered a new species of tRNA-derived small RNAs that are produced only in hormonally-driven breast and prostate cancers, and which contribute to cell proliferation. The results will be published online the week ...

The warm temperature on a summer's day is often a time for relaxing, but researchers from the University of Leicester have suggested that a 'thermosensory' gene could be responsible for changes in behaviour in different climates. The researchers from the University of Leicester's Department of Genetics have explored how the biological clock can be affected by the environment by examining the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, which shows 24 hour biological cycles and is used as a model organism for studies into human rhythms. Like many humans, the fly has a 'siesta' ...

It's been difficult to explain patterns of toxic mercury in some parts of the world, such as why there's so much of the toxin deposited into ecosystems from the air in the southeastern United States, even upwind of usual sources. A new analysis led by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder shows that one key to understanding mercury's strange behavior may be the unexpected reactivity of naturally occurring halogen compounds from the ocean. "Atmospheric chemistry involving bromine and iodine is turning out to be much more vigorous than we expected," said ...

A University of Oklahoma professor studying malaria mosquito interaction has discovered a new mosquito protein for the development of a new vaccine that is expected to stop the spread of the disease in areas where it is considered endemic. Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, and it infects millions of people in Africa, Asia and South America every year, causing a global health crisis. In addition to the local populations, U.S. military personnel stationed in these areas and travelers to these malaria-prone areas are at risk of becoming infected. Jun Li, assistant ...

UC Santa Barbara geologist Jim Boles has found evidence of helium leakage from the Earth's mantle along a 30-mile stretch of the Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone in the Los Angeles Basin. Using samples of casing gas from two dozen oil wells ranging from LA's Westside to Newport Beach in Orange County, Boles discovered that more than one-third of the sites -- some of the deepest ones -- show evidence of high levels of helium-3 (3He). Considered primordial, 3He is a vestige of the Big Bang. Its only terrestrial source is the mantle. Leakage of 3He suggests that the Newport-Inglewood ...

WASHINGTON (June 29, 2015) -The American College of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society and Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions today released a new overview on the implantation of left atrial appendage occlusion devices. The implantation of left atrial appendage occlusion devices may lower the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. As new devices are developed, it is anticipated that the use of left atrial appendage occlusion technologies in clinical practice will expand. The authors of the paper urge that the new technology should be ...

Stringing together meaningless sounds to create meaningful signals was previously thought to be the preserve of humans alone, but a new study, publishing June 29th in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, has revealed that babbler birds are also able to communicate in this way. Researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Zurich discovered that the chestnut-crowned babbler - a highly social bird found in the Australian Outback - has the ability to convey new meaning by rearranging the meaningless sounds in its calls. This babbler bird communication is reminiscent of ...

LAKEVILLE-MIDDLEBORO, Mass., (June 29, 2015) - A new study (1) reveals that drinking low-calorie cranberry juice cocktail may help lower the risk of chronic diseases that rank among the leading causes of death worldwide, including heart disease, diabetes and stroke. The finding is welcome news considering the World Health Organization estimates the trio of diseases annually claim 15.6 million lives around the globe (2). These illnesses are among the most common and costly health conditions, but fortunately, they are also among the most preventable through dietary intervention. ...

An overview and analysis of the factors underlying the recent Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak in Korea has been published online ahead of print in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. "On 20 May 2015, the Republic of Korea confirmed the first case of MERS-CoV infection in a 68 year old male who had returned to Seoul after traveling to 4 countries in the Middle East," write co-authors David S Hui, MD, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Malik Peiris, DPhil, of the University ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. - At least 14 deaths of marathon runners, football players and other athletes have been attributed to a condition called exercise-associated hyponatremia, which results from drinking too much water or sports drinks. But there's an easy way to prevent hyponatremia, according to new guidelines from an international expert panel: Simply put, drink only when you're thirsty. "Using the innate thirst mechanism to guide fluid consumption is a strategy that should limit drinking in excess and developing hyponatremia while providing sufficient fluid to prevent ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Clinicians testing the drug dasatinib, approved for several blood cancers, had hoped it would slow the aggressive growth of the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma; however, clinical trials to date have not found any benefit. Researchers at Mayo Clinic, who conducted one of those clinical trials, believe they know why dasatinib failed -- and what to do about it. In the online issue of Molecular Oncology, investigators report finding that dasatinib inhibits proteins that promote cancer growth as expected but also suppresses proteins that protect against ...

In tough economic times, parents financially favor daughters over sons, according to researchers at the Carlson School of Management and Rutgers Business School. Their study, forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Research, found participants preferred to enroll a daughter rather than a son in beneficial programs, preferred to give a U.S. Treasury bond to a daughter rather than a son, and bequeathed a greater share of their assets to female offspring in their will when they perceived economic conditions to be poor. "Almost all parents say that they don't favor one of ...

A specific type of talk therapy dispensed in the developing world to orphans and other vulnerable children who experienced trauma such as sexual and domestic abuse showed dramatic results, despite being administered by workers with little education, new research shows. The findings, from a group of researchers led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, suggest that young people from poor nations can benefit from mental health treatment, even when health professionals do not provide it. Untreated childhood trauma, the researchers say, is linked to skills ...

Scientists at the University of Malta and the Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (CNRS/Université de Montpellier) have shown that fruit flies and brewer's yeast can reveal clues about the cause of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), the most common genetic killer of infants. SMA is a devastating neuromuscular disorder that robs children of their ability to walk, eat, or breathe. Mostly caused by an inherited flaw in the Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) gene, SMA is presently without a cure. A key reason is the lack of detailed information on how ...

Laboratories that test chemicals for neurological toxicity could reduce their use of laboratory mice and rats by replacing these animal models with tiny aquatic flatworms known as freshwater planarians. Scientists at UC San Diego have discovered that planarians, commonly used in high-school biology labs to study regeneration and the primitive nervous system, are actually quite sophisticated when it comes to modeling the response of the developing human nervous system to potentially toxic chemicals. The researchers published their findings in the current issue of the journal ...

Tamper-resistant formulations of drugs will not solve the problems of opioid addiction and overdose, argues a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Governments in Canada and the United States are promoting tamper-resistant drugs, which are more difficult to crush, snort or inject, to prevent addiction and other harms. Opioid users may tamper with prescribed tablets, capsules or patches for a faster "high." "Misuse and diversion of opioids is a complex problem that requires a comprehensive solution; simply substituting one formulation for another ...

At the Association for Computing Machinery's Programming Language Design and Implementation this month, MIT researchers presented a new system that repairs dangerous software bugs by automatically importing functionality from other, more secure applications. Remarkably, the system, dubbed CodePhage, doesn't require access to the source code of the applications whose functionality it's borrowing. Instead, it analyzes the applications' execution and characterizes the types of security checks they perform. As a consequence, it can import checks from applications written ...

WASHINGTON - Tremendous variability in wait times for health care appointments exists throughout the U.S., ranging from same day service to several months, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. However, there is currently an opportunity to develop "systems-based approaches" -- similar to systems-based engineering approaches applied successfully in industries beyond health care -- that aim to provide immediate engagement of a patient's concern at the point of initial contact and can be used in in-person appointments as well as alternatives such as team-based ...

MADISON - A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and a collaborator from China have developed a nanogenerator that harvests energy from a car's rolling tire friction. An innovative method of reusing energy, the nanogenerator ultimately could provide automobile manufacturers a new way to squeeze greater efficiency out of their vehicles. The researchers reported their development, which is the first of its kind, in a paper published May 6, 2015, in the journal Nano Energy. Xudong Wang, the Harvey D. Spangler fellow and an associate professor of materials ...

NEW YORK -- June 29, 2015 /Press Release/ -- Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a new approach to build nearly complete genomes by combining high-throughput DNA sequencing with genome mapping. The methodology enabled researchers to detect complex forms of genomic variation, critically important for their association with human disease, but previously difficult to detect. The study was published today in Nature Methods, and is a collaboration with scientists at European Molecular Biology Lab, Weill Cornell Medical College, Cold Spring ...

Will next Saturday's Tour de France prologue in Utrecht get the winner it deserves? New aerodynamic research at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) shows that riders in a time trial can save vital seconds by riding closer to the following team car. Over a short distance like the prologue of the Tour de France, that can save as much as 6 seconds: enough to make the difference between winning and losing. On longer time trials and events like world championships, the effect can even add up to tens of seconds. Which is why aerodynamics professor Bert Blocken is advising ...

US researchers extol the virtues of high-altitude balloons for science education in a research paper published in the International Journal of Learning Technology. According to Jeremy Straub of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, "High-altitude balloons can carry student and scientific payloads to the boundaries of space." This, he suggests, gives students the opportunity to carry out experiments in a cold, near-vacuum, higher-radiation environment at such very high altitudes. "In the process, students experience the awe of space exploration as, through their ...

Nyon, Switzerland - June 29, 2015 While there is good understanding of how bone mass, and more recently bone architecture, affects fracture risk, far less is known about the material properties of bone, or how these can impart resilience or fragility to the skeleton. This is changing thanks to the development of new state-of-the-art imaging and other technologies which now allow researchers to gain new insights into the different material properties of bone and their role in bone fragility. Bringing together eight invited contributions by the field's leading experts, ...

CHICAGO (June 29, 2015): A scoring system that can identify periods of high activity and increased trauma patient deaths in hospital emergency rooms may help hospitals better prepare for surges in trauma patient volume that come with catastrophic events like the Boston Marathon bombing (April 2013) or disasters like the Amtrak train crash (May 2015) in Philadelphia. Trauma surgeon Peter C. Jenkins, MD, MSc, and a team of investigators from Indiana University and multiple centers developed the scoring system, called the Trauma Surge Index (TSI). They reported their observations ...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2015 -- If you're firing up the barbecue this week for an Independence Day cookout, you don't want to miss this week's Reactions video. We've got chemistry knowledge that will impress your guests like, "Why is red meat red?" You'll also learn about the amazing Maillard reaction that turns that red meat into a delicious grilled brown. We also settle, once and for all, the age-old debate of gas vs. charcoal. It's all in our latest video: https://youtu.be/RqUEh-B-U-k. Subscribe to the series at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions ...