Molecular studies of plants often depend on high-quantity and high-quality DNA extractions. This can be quite difficult in plants, however, due to a diversity of compounds and physical properties found in plants. "Tannins, tough fibrous material, and/or secondary compounds can interfere with DNA isolation," explains Dr. Thomas Givnish, principal investigator of a new study published by Jackson Moeller et al. in the October issue of Applications in Plant Sciences (available for free viewing at http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.3732/apps.1400048). This is further complicated ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2014—Commercial devices capable of encrypting information in unbreakable codes exist today, thanks to recent quantum optics advances, especially the generation of photon pairs—tiny entangled particles of light. Now, an international team of researchers led by professor Roberto Morandotti of INRS-EMT in Canada, is introducing a new method to achieve a different type of photon pair source that fits into the tiny space of a computer chip. The team's method, which generates "mixed up" photon pairs from devices that are less than one square millimeter ...

VIDEO: A new study suggests ibuprofen can make old lungs look young. In lab tests, daily ibuprofen lowered lung inflammation in elderly mice. The research and its implications are described by... Click here for more information. COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research shows that the lungs become more inflammatory with age and that ibuprofen can lower that inflammation. In fact, immune cells from old mouse lungs fought tuberculosis bacteria as effectively as cells from young mice after ...

Grandparents can significantly influence parents' decisions to have additional children and the well-being of grandchildren, according to a recent study completed at the University of Eastern Finland. In his PhD study, Dr Antti O. Tanskanen observed that grandparents' help with childcare and emotional support are linked to mothers' willingness to have a second or a third child. Furthermore, parents of small children who obtain support from paternal grandparents are also more likely to have additional children. The involvement of maternal grandparents in the lives of their ...

Bethesda, MD (Oct. 2, 2014) — Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) — such as ibuprofen and aspirin — increase one's risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. When taken in combination with other drugs, this risk is significantly higher, according to new research appearing in the October issue of Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "These findings may help clinicians tailor therapy to minimize upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and are especially valuable in elderly patients who are likely to use multiple drugs ...

The bond between humans and dogs is strong and ancient. From being the protector of the first herds in a faithful pet, dogs and people share many aspects of life. The relationship between the two species has been studied by psychologists, anthropologists, ethnologists and also by genetic and molecular biologists. In this sense, dogs are a great model for understanding the causes of human diseases, especially cancer. Unlike other mammals used in research, dogs develop cancer spontaneously as humans do and cancer is the most common cause of death in this species. The dog ...

This news release is available in French, Spanish and German. Low digital skills and competences among school pupils and the need to integrate effective use of information and communication technologies into teacher training are among the most pressing challenges faced by European school education today, according to a report published by the European Commission and the New Media Consortium, a US-based not-for-profit body bringing together experts in education technology. The first-ever Horizon Report Europe: 2014 Schools edition outlines the trends and technological ...

A study analysing the positive and negative effects of energy drinks on athletes has seen that, although in principle their sports performance was seen to improve by between 3% and 7%, there was also an increase in the frequency of insomnia, nervousness and the level of stimulation in the hours following competition. The consumption of energy drinks has increased in recent years. In the case of athletes, the use of them before practising sport has also risen: more than 50% take them during training and even before competitions. A four-year study carried out by experts ...

This news release is available in Spanish. According to a recent paper published by the researchers Aritz Urdampilleta-Otegui, PhD in Physical Education and Sports and lecturer in the Department of Physical and Sports Education of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country and at the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community (region), and Saioa Gómez-Zorita, PhD in Pharmacy and Food Sciences and researcher at the UPV/EHU's Department of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, it is necessary to control the administering of drugs that interact with the foods consumed and which ...

Barely perceptible low-frequency signals nevertheless activate measurable responses in our auditory circuits. Neurobiologists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have now characterized the remarkable impact of low-frequency sounds on the inner ear. The human auditory system appears to be poorly adapted to the perception of low-frequency sound waves, as hearing thresholds become markedly higher for frequencies lower than about 250 Hz. Yet sensory cells do react to pressure waves with frequencies below 100 Hz, as revealed by the fact that such signals actually ...

A new test developed by researchers from the University of Manchester could revolutionise the discovery of new prescription drugs. The test will help determine which drugs are unlikely to work at an early stage, speeding up the time it takes to make safe and effective medicines available. The findings are published online in the journal Metabolomics. The Pharmaceuticals industry is worth billions of dollars a year. The main source of prescription medicines comes from what are known as 'small molecule' drugs, such as statins and antibiotics. The main problem for ...

AUDIO: These are gray snapper larval growls recorded in the field. Click here for more information. MIAMI – A new study from researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science is the first to document that fish larvae produce sound. These "knock" and "growl" sounds may help small larvae maintain group cohesion in the dark. "Although many adult fishes produce sounds, no one has previously considered that larvae, too, may be sound ...

For decades, research has generally focused on individual, family and peer factors to explain illicit drug use, neglecting neighborhood factors as a cause. While the scant previous research on neighborhood factors and illicit drug use has focused on facets such as crime and socio-demographic characteristics, none has explored the associations between the perceived frequency of drug sales, drug use, and peer attitudes towards drug use. Now a study out of New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR), address this paucity in the research. Published ...

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder both appear to be associated with dendritic spine loss in the brain, suggesting the two distinct disorders may share common pathophysiological features, write author Glenn T. Konopaske, M.D., and colleagues at McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., and Harvard Medical School, Boston. The dendritic spines play a role in a variety of brain functions. Previous studies have observed spine loss in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (DLPFCs) from individuals with schizophrenia (SZ). To determine whether spine pathology happens in individuals with ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- New research suggests dear old Mom and Dad could be the auto industry's secret weapon. The study, co-authored by Michigan State University economist Soren Anderson, found children are 39 percent more likely to buy a particular brand of automobile if their parents bought that brand. This surprisingly strong correlation could have implications for automakers' marketing efforts. In absence of this inherited brand loyalty, a sensible strategy might be to "invest in young consumers and harvest old consumers" – that is, lower prices on entry-level ...

A group of researchers from Switzerland has thrown light on the precise mechanisms responsible for the impressive ability of nanoparticles to detect fingermarks left at crime scenes. Publishing their results today, 2 October, in IOP Publishing's journal Nanotechnology, the researchers have provided evidence contesting the commonly accepted theory that nanoparticles are attracted to fingermarks electrostatically. The attraction, they claim, is in fact chemical and is caused by compounds on the surface of nanoparticles bonding with a complex cocktail of compounds present ...

People who are prone to delusions gather insufficient information before making decisions, according to research published in the journal Psychological Medicine. Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, led by PhD student Leslie van der Leer, assigned participants a computer task in which they observed the colour of a black or white fish caught from one of two lakes and were then asked to choose to see further fish or decide on one of the lakes as the source of that sequence of fish. Each participant was rewarded for choosing the correct lake but costs ...

Recruiting health workers with high levels of internal motivation is critical for work in difficult conditions, where their personal security and health might be compromised, according to new research published today in Health Policy and Planning. Health workers often witness the deaths of friends and colleagues during conflict situations and also face abduction, injury and death, themselves. Life history interviews with 26 health workers who lived through conflict in Northern Uganda reveal their resilience and how they coped by building trusting relationships with the ...

A unique collection of studies exploring the theme of the Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research has been published today in a supplement to Health Policy and Planning. This collection of studies on 'the science and practice of people-centred health systems' presents the latest in the field of health policy and systems research, bringing together research from Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, India, Argentina and Brazil. The eleven studies comprising the supplement employ a range of methods to investigate different aspects of people-centred health ...

Some sharks are 'gregarious' and have strong social connections, whilst others are more solitary and prefer to remain inconspicuous, according to a new study which is the first to show that the notorious predators have personality traits. Personalities are known to exist in many animals, but are usually defined by individual characteristics such as how exploratory, bold or aggressive an individual is. Research led by the University of Exeter and the Marine Biological Association of the UK (MBA) has shown for the first time that individual sharks actually possess social ...

Evolocumab, an injected form of a new class of drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors[1], is highly effective at reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad cholesterol" levels with few side effects in people with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), an inherited condition that causes extremely high cholesterol and high risk of cardiovascular disease at an early age. Published in The Lancet, the results of two of the largest global randomised trials ever undertaken in this field found that evolocumab rapidly cut levels of LDL cholesterol by on average 60% more than those given ...

How can parents with the autoimmune disorder celiac disease prevent or delay the condition's development in their children? The results of an international study led by investigators associated with the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) challenge some of the current thinking on possible measures to take. The report in the Oct. 2 New England Journal of Medicine finds that loss of tolerance to gluten – a protein composite found in wheat, rye and barley – is a dynamic process and that neither breastfeeding or delaying the ...

Teens who received free contraception and were educated about the pros and cons of various birth control methods were dramatically less likely to get pregnant, give birth or get an abortion compared with other sexually active teens, according to a new study. The research, by investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, appears Oct. 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study promoted the use of long-acting forms of birth control, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants, because of their superior effectiveness in preventing ...

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can differentiate into all types of blood cells, including red blood cells and immune cells. While HSC transplantation can be life saving for patients with aggressive forms of blood cancer that are unresponsive to other available treatments, there are many risks associated with the procedure. For example, graft verse host disease (GVHD) results when immune cells generated from donor HSCs attack host tissue. Chronic GVHD occurs over time and is characterized by fibrosis, which impairs organ function. A new study in the Journal of Clinical ...

Almost 40 million people worldwide live with HIV/AIDS, with an estimated 2.5 million new cases per year. Therefore, there has been a large global effort to develop an effective vaccine against the virus. HIV-1 vaccine development has been challenging but recent clinical trials have been promising. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation discusses the results from a clinical trial that evaluated the immune response following different HIV vaccine regimes. Nicole Frahm and colleagues tested prime-boost regimes combining a New York vaccinia HIV clade B (NYVAC-B) ...