If you want your doctor to know what goes wrong with your muscles because of age, disease or injury, it's a good idea to know what "normal" actually is. That's where a new research report published in the October 2014 issue of the FASEB Journal comes in. In the report, a team of scientists produce a complete transcriptome—a key set of molecules that can help scientists "see" which genes are active in an organ at a particular time. What's more, they found never-before-detected gene activity and that men have approximately 400 more active genes in their skeletal muscle than ...

Having trouble getting pregnant—even with IVF? Here's some hope: A new research report published in October 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal, explains how scientists developed a synthetic version of a sperm-originated protein known as PAWP, which induced embryo development in human and mouse eggs similar to the natural triggering of embryo development by the sperm cell during fertilization. "We believe that the results of this study represent a major paradigm shift in our understanding of human fertilization by providing a precise answer to a fundamental unresolved scientific ...

Screening for a genetic condition in younger people who are diagnosed with bowel cancer would be cost-effective for the NHS and prevent new cases in them and their relatives, new research has concluded. Researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School were funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) Programme to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of screening for Lynch Syndrome. Their findings, published in Health Technology Assessment, indicate that screening the 1,700 people under the age of 50 who ...

This news release is available in German. Animals often differ in their behavioural response to risky situations such as exposure to predators. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology now found in a long-term study on different populations of great tits that risk-taking behaviour correlates with both metabolic rate and ambient temperature. High metabolic rates and low temperatures were associated with high risk-taking behaviour, as in these scenarios birds were more likely to approach potential predators. The readiness to take a risk is to a ...

A new research report published in the October 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal may make the early detection of cancer as easy as a simple blood test. This test, called the "lymphocyte genome sensitivity" (LGS) test, could not only detect some cancers earlier than ever before, but it may eliminate the need for some types of biopsies, as well as identify those more likely to develop cancer in the future. "The test could allow earlier cancer detection, so helping to save peoples' lives," said Diana Anderson, a researcher involved in the work from the School of Life Sciences ...

Tropical Storm Rachel is spinning down west of Mexico's Baja California, and another tropical low pressure area developing off the coast of southwestern Mexico dwarfs the tropical storm. NOAA's GOES-West satellite showed the size difference between the two tropical low pressure areas. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of the Eastern Pacific Ocean on Sept. 30 at 1200 UTC (8 a.m. EDT). In the infrared image, Tropical Storm Rachel appeared small in comparison to the low pressure area called System 90E, coming together hundreds of miles south. As Rachel spins down ...

Many people recognize "the bubble boy" as an unusual character from a "Seinfeld" episode or a John Travolta movie. But in reality, a genetic disease called SCID, short for severe combined immunodeficiency, forces patients to breathe filtered air and avoid human contact because their bodies' natural defenses are too weak to fight germs. Although it affects fewer than 2,000 new births each year worldwide, SCID is a cousin to acquired immune deficiency syndrome triggered by a human immunodeficiency virus — HIV/AIDS. Now, using a mouse model, Virginia Tech researchers ...

The bands of thunderstorms wrapping around Tropical Storm Phanfone in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean appeared fragmented to NASA's TRMM satellite. On Sept. 30, a typhoon watch remains in effect for the far northern Marianas Islands including Pagan and Alamagan. Tropical storm warnings have been cancelled for Tinian and Saipan, but remain in effect for Pagan, Alamagan and surrounding waters. A flash flood watch remains in effect for the island of Saipan. For updated forecasts for these islands, visit the U.S. National Weather Service Office's Guam website: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/guam/cyclone.php. On ...

Because heart cells cannot multiply and cardiac muscles contain few stem cells, heart tissue is unable to repair itself after a heart attack. Now Tel Aviv University researchers are literally setting a new gold standard in cardiac tissue engineering. Dr. Tal Dvir and his graduate student Michal Shevach of TAU's Department of Biotechnology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, have been developing sophisticated micro- and nanotechnological tools — ranging in size from one millionth to one billionth of a meter — ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers report that some stickleback fish fathers can have long-term effects on the behavior of their offspring: The most attentive fish dads cause their offspring to behave in a way that makes them less susceptible to predators. These behavioral changes are accompanied by changes in gene expression, the researchers report. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. "There is lots of evidence that moms are very important for their offspring," said University of Illinois animal biology professor Alison Bell, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study shows just what it takes to convince a person that she is qualified to achieve the career of her dreams. Researchers found that it's not enough to tell people they have the skills or the grades to make their goal a reality. Instead, many people need a more vivid and detailed description of just how pursuing their dream career will help make them successful. This is especially important for people who have the skills and potential to pursue a particular career, but lack the self-confidence, said Patrick Carroll, author of the study and ...

Silver nanoparticles are well known for their anti-bacteria properties[1-4]. One of the main routes by which they may act as an anti-bacteria agent, is through attaching themselves to the thiol group present on the cellular membrane surface and hence disrupting the membrane's function[5]. Hence, it is crucial to gain a greater understanding of this complex silver-thiol interaction to determine silver nanoparticles' role in biological systems. With thiols, silver nanoparticles have been proposed to form various types of compounds with different structures[6-8]. One of the ...

Gender equality boosts a country's Olympic medal count for both women and men, shows a new study from the University of British Columbia. Drawing data from the World Economic Forum's 2013 Global Gender Gap Report, researchers compared a country's tendency toward sexual equality with its medal counts from the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Countries with greater parity – particularly for measures of educational equality – had more women and men reach the podium. "Our study makes apparent that gender equality has a tendency to lift ...

The traditional view is that learning is based on the strengthening or weakening of the contacts between the nerve cells in the brain. However, this has been challenged by new research findings from Lund University in Sweden. These indicate that there is also a third mechanism – a kind of clock function that gives individual nerve cells the ability to time their reactions. "This means a dramatic increase in the brain's learning capacity. The cells we have studied control the blink reflex, but there are many cells of the same type that control entirely different processes. ...

Sildenafil, the active ingredient in the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra®, could cause unusual visual responses in people who carry a common mutation for eye disease and may have long-term detrimental effects on their vision, UNSW Australia researchers warn. Sildenafil can inhibit an enzyme which is important for transmitting light signals from the retina to the brain, and it is already known from clinical trials of Viagra® that its use in high doses can cause transient disturbances in the vision of some healthy people. "Side effects can include sensitivity to bright ...

Scientists from InSilico Medicine and its partners successfully established a visual mapping of the molecular pathway cancer progression originating from myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC). The damage and immune suppression the cells cause are not fully understood, however this is a major stepping stone in creating necessary transparency. Highly cited MetaCoreTM was the primary interactome analysis tool used for mapping, providing these promising results. "MDSCs are elicited by tumor-derived factors from precursors present in hematopoietic organs such as the bone ...

AUDIO: Sedation is commonly used in the intensive care unit (ICU) to make patients that require mechanical ventilation more comfortable, and less anxious. What many don't realize is that sedation can... Click here for more information. Sedation is frequently required for mechanically ventilated intensive care unit (ICU) patients to reduce anxiety, provide comfort, and assist in providing optimal respiratory support. It is estimated that each year, there are nearly 1 million U.S. ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass--The key to creating a material that would be ideal for converting solar energy to heat is tuning the material's spectrum of absorption just right: It should absorb virtually all wavelengths of light that reach Earth's surface from the sun — but not much of the rest of the spectrum, since that would increase the energy that is reradiated by the material, and thus lost to the conversion process. Now researchers at MIT say they have accomplished the development of a material that comes very close to the "ideal" for solar absorption. The material is a two-dimensional ...

In a study published this week in the online journal PeerJ, University of Connecticut researchers announce they have found a way to prevent Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monarchus), an invasive species of parrot, from building huge nests that create power outages and public hazards on utility poles by blocking their access to the electric lines that are the gateway to their nest sites. The nests, which are built out of sticks and twigs, can weigh up to 200 pounds or more. The damage they cause can cost electric utility companies millions of dollars annually. But, the brightly ...

Philadelphia, PA, September 30, 2014 – On Star Trek, it is easy to take for granted the incredible ability of futuristic doctors to wave small devices over the heads of both humans and aliens, diagnose their problems through evaluating changes in brain activity or chemistry, and then treat behavior problems by selectively stimulating relevant brain circuits. While that day is a long way off, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does treat symptoms of depression in humans by placing a relatively small device on a person's scalp ...

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have synthesized crystalline materials that can bind and store oxygen in high concentrations. Just one spoon of the substance is enough to absorb all the oxygen in a room. The stored oxygen can be released again when and where it is needed. We do fine with the 21 per cent oxygen in the air around us. But sometimes we need oxygen in higher concentrations; for example lung patients must carry heavy oxygen tanks, cars using fuel cells need a regulated oxygen supply. Perhaps one day in the future even sunlight-driven "reversible" ...

Low birth weight children are more vulnerable to environmental influences than infants born with normal weight. When brought up with a great deal of sensitivity, they will be able to catch up in school, but on average they will not become better students than normal birth weight children. This result, provided by an international psychologist team, has confirmed the so-called diathesis-stress model of development for low birth weight populations. The researchers report their findings in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Theories on how environmental factors ...

Screening families of patients with bowel cancer for a genetic condition would cut their risk of developing bowel, womb, and ovarian cancers, new research has found. In a major study, Dr Ian Frayling from Cardiff University's School of Medicine and researchers from the University of Exeter's Medical School assessed the effectiveness of introducing a UK-wide screening programme for a genetic condition known as Lynch Syndrome. Lynch syndrome is a caused by changes in genes which check the spelling in DNA. The condition increases the risk of people developing cancer, ...

The natural photo degradation of diazepam (valium) and similar medicines – followed by bacterial breakdown – may reduce their potentially harmful impact on the UK's freshwater environment, a team of researchers has said. Diazepam – used to treat anxiety and other similar conditions – has been detected in rivers across the UK and Europe, having been released from waste water treatment plants. At the levels recorded, it has the potential to produce harmful ecological effects in surface waters, including changing the behaviour of fish shoals and their ability to sense danger ...

Quantum entanglement refers to the "pairing" of two subatomic particles in such a way that they form a whole quantum system. Interest in entanglement is increasing today, as it challenges the foundations of quantum mechanics itself, and is also key for achieving quantum information processing and communication. Entanglement is thought to exist up to the everyday, or "macroscopic" realm – according to the predictions of quantum physics – but experimental proposals to show this often involve conditions that are difficult to achieve in today's labs. Publishing in Physical ...