In contrast to previous assumptions, conservation schemes that focus only on forests may thus fail to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from land-use change. If ecosystem protection policies aim at climate protection, they need to cover the whole range of land types, according to comprehensive computer simulations. To compensate for such restrictions on land use, intensification of agriculture to generate higher yields is important. "While protecting forests to abate climate change is definitely worthwhile, our results illustrate for the first time that forest protection ...

BOSTON - Since the discovery that microRNAs play key roles in regulating human disease, the hope has been that these short non-coding RNA molecules could be translated into a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cancer. But this promising application has been significantly hampered by a number of physiological and cellular barriers that prevent microRNA-based therapies from actually reaching tumor cells. Now scientists have identified a novel delivery platform by which an antisense molecule - akin to the mirror image of the microRNA - can be used to exploit a unique ...

Small pieces of synthetic RNA trigger a RNA interference (RNAi) response that holds great therapeutic potential to treat a number of diseases, especially cancer and pandemic viruses. The problem is delivery -- it is extremely difficult to get RNAi drugs inside the cells in which they are needed. To overcome this hurdle, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have developed a way to chemically disguise RNAi drugs so that they are able to enter cells. Once inside, cellular machinery converts these disguised drug precursors -- called siRNNs -- ...

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a new potential drug therapy for a rare, incurable pediatric brain tumor by targeting a genetic mutation found in children with the cancer. By inhibiting the tumor-forming consequences of the mutation using an experimental drug called GSKJ4, they delayed tumor growth and prolonged survival in mice with pediatric brainstem glioma. Also known as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), the disease occurs when tumors form in the brainstem, which controls essential body functions such as breathing, heartbeat and motor and ...

BOSTON - A research team led by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) has uncovered surprising new findings that underscore the role of an important signaling pathway, already known to be critical in cancer, in the development of type 2 diabetes. Their results, published in the November 17, 2014 advance online issue of the journal Nature, shed additional light on how a longstanding class of diabetes drugs, known as thiazolidinediones (TZDs), work to improve glucose metabolism and suggest that inhibitors of the signaling pathway -- known ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Ample evidence of ancient rivers, streams, and lakes make it clear that Mars was at some point warm enough for liquid water to flow on its surface. While that may conjure up images of a tropical Martian paradise, new research published today in Nature Geoscience throws a bit of cold water on that notion. The study, by scientists from Brown University and Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, suggests that warmth and water flow on ancient Mars were probably episodic, related to brief periods of volcanic activity that spewed tons ...

A team of New York University and University of Barcelona physicists has developed a method to control the movements occurring within magnetic materials, which are used to store and carry information. The breakthrough could simultaneously bolster information processing while reducing the energy necessary to do so. Their method, reported in the most recent issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, manipulates "spin waves," which are waves that move in magnetic materials. Physically, these spin waves are much like water waves--like those that propagate on the surface ...

In what is likely to be a major step forward in the study of influenza, cystic fibrosis and other human diseases, an international research effort has a draft sequence of the ferret genome. The sequence was then used to analyze how the flu and cystic fibrosis affect respiratory tissues at the cellular level. The National Institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases, of the National Institutes of Health, funded the project that was coordinated by Michael Katze and Xinxia Peng at the University of Washington in Seattle and Federica Di Palma and Jessica Alfoldi at the Broad ...

LA JOLLA, CA - November 17, 2014 - For decades, scientists thought drug addiction was the result of two separate systems in the brain--the reward system, which was activated when a person used a drug, and the stress system, which kicked in during withdrawal. Now scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found that these two systems are actually linked. Their findings, published November 17 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, show that in the core of the brain's reward system are specific neurons that are active both with use of and withdrawal from nicotine. ...

Joseph B. Muhlestein, M.D., of the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, Murray, Utah, and colleagues examined whether screening patients with diabetes deemed to be at high cardiac risk with coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) would result in a significant long­term reduction in death, heart attack, or hospitalization for unstable angina. The study appears in JAMA and is being released to coincide with its presentation at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. Diabetes mellitus is the most important coronary artery disease ...

Yasuo Ikeda, M.D., of Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues examined whether once-daily, low-dose aspirin would reduce the total number of cardiovascular (CV) events (death from CV causes, nonfatal heart attack or stroke) compared with no aspirin in Japanese patients 60 years or older with hypertension, diabetes, or poor cholesterol or triglyceride levels. The study appears in JAMA and is being released to coincide with its presentation at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. The World Health Organization estimates that annual global mortality ...

DALLAS - November 17, 2014 - Using next generation gene sequencing techniques, cancer researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified more than 3,000 new mutations involved in certain kidney cancers, findings that help explain the diversity of cancer behaviors. "These studies, which were performed in collaboration with Genentech Inc., identify novel therapeutic targets and suggest that predisposition to kidney cancer across species may be explained, at least in part, by the location of tumor suppressor genes with respect to one another in the genome," said ...

Washington, D.C.--Silicon is the second most-abundant element in the earth's crust. When purified, it takes on a diamond structure, which is essential to modern electronic devices--carbon is to biology as silicon is to technology. A team of Carnegie scientists led by Timothy Strobel has synthesized an entirely new form of silicon, one that promises even greater future applications. Their work is published in Nature Materials. Although silicon is incredibly common in today's technology, its so-called indirect band gap semiconducting properties prevent it from being ...

HOUSTON -- (Nov. 17, 2014) - A compound called calcein may act to inhibit topoisomerase IIβ-binding protein 1 (TopBP1), which enhances the growth of tumors, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the journal Nature Communications. "The progression of many solid tumors is driven by de-regulation of multiple common pathways," said Dr. Weei-Chin Lin, associate professor of medicine- hematology & oncology, and a member of the NCI-designated Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor. Among those are the retinoblastoma (Rb), PI(3)K/Akt ...

A study led by researchers at University of Helsinki, Finland and Universities of Melbourne and South Australia has identified a new gene for a progressive form of epilepsy. The findings of this international collaborative effort have been published today, 17 November 2014, in Nature Genetics. Progressive myoclonus epilepsies (PME) are rare, inherited, and usually childhood-onset neurodegenerative diseases whose core symptoms are epileptic seizures and debilitating involuntary muscle twitching (myoclonus). The goal of the international collaborative study was to identify ...

Scientists have found that altering members of the p53 gene family, known as tumor suppressor genes, causes rapid regression of tumors that are deficient in or totally missing p53. Study results suggest existing diabetes drugs, which impact the same gene-protein pathway, might be effective for cancer treatment. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center investigation showed that, in vivo, the genes p63 and p73 can be manipulated to upregulate or increase levels of IAPP, a protein important for the body's ability to metabolize glucose. IAPP is found in some diabetes ...

BALTIMORE, MD - As the world's diminishing fresh water resources are increasing allocated for human use, agricultural and horticultural production operations must rely more often on the use of brackish, saline, or reclaimed water for irrigation. These saline-rich water sources often contain electrical conductivities that can negativity affect plants' ability to thrive. Salinity is particularly problematic for ornamental plants such as daffodils because of the potential for damage to plants' aesthetics and visual qualities. In the September 2014 issue of HortScience, Maren ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- One of the family of drugs prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions is called TNF inhibitors. They act by dampening part of the immune system called tumor necrosis factor (TNF). In one of the balancing acts of medicine, the anti-inflammatory action of the drug also increases the risk for other conditions, in this case, a rare form of eye cancer, uveal melanoma. Mayo Clinic researchers make the case and alert physicians in an article in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Mayo researchers studied three patients -- two women and a ...

Who says your kids don't listen to you? An Indiana University study has found that setting specific family rules about healthy eating and sedentary behavior actually leads to healthier practices in children. Data analyzed for the study was originally part of a data set used to evaluate the Wellborn Baptist Foundation's HEROES program, a K-12 school-based obesity prevention initiative set in the Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky tri-state area. However, lead author Alyssa M. Lederer, doctoral candidate and associate instructor in the Department of Applied Health Science ...

CINCINNATI--Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found that a gene abundant in the kidneys may actually play a role in the regulation of blood pressure and hypertension in experimental male mouse models. The study led by Manoocher Soleimani, MD, James F. Heady Professor of Medicine and associate chair of research in the Department of Internal Medicine at UC, was presented during the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, held Friday, Nov. 15, 2014, in Philadelphia. The gene, a kidney androgen-regulated protein (KAP) that is abundantly ...

New Rochelle, NY, November 17, 2014--In the future, as space exploration takes astronauts on longer missions and more female astronauts participate, "The Impact of Sex and Gender on Adaptation to Space" will become increasingly critical to astronaut safety and mission success, as explored in a special collection of articles published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available Open Access on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://online.liebertpub.com/toc/jwh/23/11. In the Executive ...

LOGAN, UT - Urban landscape plants are often subjected to environmental conditions well beyond those of their native habitat. Differences in precipitation, along with stress caused by increased salinity resulting from irrigation with brackish reclaimed water, can have devastating impacts on trees and plants. Use of salt-tolerant species and implementation of proper management strategies can reduce the incidence of plant stress and loss. Researchers in Utah looked to plants' native habitats for ways to identify salt tolerance among tree species used in urban landscapes in ...

An international team of scientists led by Uppsala University has developed a high-throughput method of imaging biological particles using an X-ray laser. The images show projections of the carboxysome particle, a delicate and tiny cell compartment in photosynthetic bacteria. The experiment, described in a paper published today in the scientific journal Nature Photonics, represents a major milestone for studies of individual biological structures using X-ray lasers. The technique paves the way for 3D imaging of parts of the cell, and even small viruses, to develop a ...

November 17, 2014 - A growing body of research evidence shows that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has health benefits for US military veterans and active duty personnel, according to a special December supplement to Medical Care. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The special issue presents new studies and commentaries on the benefits and increasing use of CAM techniques in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and other military health settings. "The papers in this supplement represent promising ...

Fatigue, increased irritability, and feeling demoralized, may raise a healthy man or woman's risk of first-time cardiovascular disease by 36 percent, according to a study led by researchers at Mount Sinai St. Luke's and Mount Sinai Roosevelt hospitals presented on Nov. 17 at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014 in Chicago, IL. The combination of fatigue, increased irritability, and feeling demoralized is medically known as vital exhaustion. In their study, Mount Sinai researchers found that vital exhaustion was associated with a dramatic increase ...