A collaboration led by Shigeyuki Yokoyama of RIKEN and Takashi Kadowaki and Toshimasa Yamauchi of the University of Tokyo has used the SPring-8 synchrotron facility in Harima, Japan to elucidate the structure of two receptors of adiponectin, a protein that is associated with obesity and diabetes. The researchers hope that in the future this work, which was published in Nature today, will pave the way toward designing drugs that target these two receptors, AdipoR1 and AdipoR2, to reduce the early mortality associated with diabetes. Adiponectin, a hormone secreted by fat ...

In the first results to emerge from HIV patient trials of a new generation of so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies, Rockefeller University researchers have found the experimental therapy can dramatically reduce the amount of virus present in a patient's blood. The work, reported this week in Nature, brings fresh optimism to the field of HIV immunotherapy and suggests new strategies for fighting or even preventing HIV infection. In a person infected with HIV, there is an ongoing arms race between the virus and the body's immune system. Even as the body produces new ...

In a feat that would have been unachievable only a few years ago, researchers at UC San Francisco have pulled aside the curtain on a protein informally known as the "wasabi receptor," revealing at near-atomic resolution structures that could be targeted with anti-inflammatory pain drugs. Officially named TRPA1 (pronounced "trip A1"), the newly visualized protein resides in the cellular membrane of sensory nerve cells. It detects certain chemical agents originating outside our bodies--pungent irritants found in substances ranging from wasabi to tear gas--but is also triggered ...

A new scientific synthesis suggests a gradual, prolonged release of greenhouse gases from permafrost soils in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, which may afford society more time to adapt to environmental changes, say scientists in an April 9 paper published in Nature. "Twenty years ago there was very little research about the possible rate of permafrost carbon release," said co-author A. David McGuire, U.S. Geological Survey senior scientist and climate modeling expert with the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "In 2011, we assembled an ...

Fish are the key ingredients in a new recipe to diagnose and restore degraded coral reef ecosystems, according to scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, WCS, James Cook University, and other organizations in a new study in the journal Nature. For overfished coral reef systems, restoring fish populations that perform key roles will in turn restore ecological functions critical to recovery. For moderately or lightly fished reefs, the recipe requires knowing which fish to catch, how many, and which to leave behind. The authors assessed fish biomass ...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- A new approach to analyzing baseball-pitching biomechanics may one day give players more personalized feedback and help prevent elbow injuries. In a computer simulation study of baseball pitching, Northwestern University biomedical engineers found that the strength of the elbow muscles of a baseball pitcher likely play a bigger role in injury risk and prevention than previously thought. The motion analysis approach currently used in the baseball industry to provide athletes with injury-risk feedback is not sophisticated enough to estimate what an ...

April 8, 2015--Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia Business School studied bed capacity --measured by the number of staffed beds -- in New York City hospital obstetrics units and found a significant excess number of beds, which overall cost the city an estimated $26.4 million each year. The findings, coupled with the current trends of an aging population and the declining birth rate, suggest that many obstetrics units could reduce their bed capacity and still assure timely access to care. Study findings are published in the ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass--Biologists at MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have discovered a vulnerability of brain cancer cells that could be exploited to develop more-effective drugs against brain tumors. The study, led by researchers from the Whitehead Institute and MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, found that a subset of glioblastoma tumor cells is dependent on a particular enzyme that breaks down the amino acid glycine. Without this enzyme, toxic metabolic byproducts build up inside the tumor cells, and they die. Blocking this enzyme ...

BOSTON (April 8, 2015) -- A two-year epidemiological study of Puerto Rican adults with type 2 diabetes in the greater Boston area who were using insulin and lived next to roads with heavy traffic had markedly increased C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, compared to those living in lower traffic areas. Individuals taking oral diabetes medications did not experience increases in CRP concentration. The study, published online in Environmental Pollution, builds on the research team's previous work suggesting that oral diabetes medications may provide a protective ...

Since 2007, California has had one of the most aggressive incentive programs in the country for putting solar-electric panels on the rooftops of homes and businesses. Its $2.2 billion California Solar Initiative (CSI)has provided a per-watt rebate for installing residential and commercial photovoltaic systems. During this period, the solar industry in the state has experienced double-digit growth and to date has installed more than 245,000 systems capable of producing 2,365 megawatts of electricity. As a result, CSI has been widely touted as a major success. However, ...

Numerous studies over the past 30 years have linked exposure to nature with improved human health and well-being. These findings are of growing importance: In the near future, 70% of the world's population will live in cities, where they will face a rising tide of lifestyle-related disease. Still, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the nature-health connection, and confusion awaits those who would transform existing findings into action. In the June issue of BioScience, a group of biologists and public health experts led by Danielle F. Shanahan address this ...

The ceremonial opening kick of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Sao Paolo, Brazil, which was performed--with the help of a brain-controlled exo-skeleton--by a local teen who had been paralyzed from the waste down due to a spinal cord injury, was a seminal moment for the area of neuroscience that strives to connect the brain with functional prosthetics. The public display was a representative of thousands of such neuroprosthetic advances in recent years, and the tens of years of brain research and technological development that have gone into them. And while this display was quite ...

Strong vertical wind shear has taken a toll on Tropical Cyclone Ikola and that was pretty clear in a visible-light image from NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite today, April 8. When Suomi NPP flew over Tropical Cyclone Ikola at 07:05 UTC (3:05 a.m. EDT), the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite or VIIRS instrument aboard captured a visible image of the storm. VIIRS is a scanning radiometer that collects visible and infrared imagery and "radiometric" measurements. Basically it means that VIIRS data is used to measure cloud and aerosol properties, ocean color, sea and ...

A University of Calgary study has found that rats fed a fibre supplement while on a high fat and high sugar diet show a much lower weight gain than those who did not eat the fibre. A team of researchers from the university's Cumming School of Medicine and the Faculty of Kinesiology says the study helps scientists better understand the mechanisms of weight control and energy balance. "Our data shows that a simple dietary intervention, with a prebiotic oligofructose fibre, reduced weight gain, and this may also lead to the long-term maintenance of a lower body weight in ...

Argonne, Ill. - A clearer understanding of the origin recognition complex (ORC) - a protein complex that directs DNA replication - through its crystal structure offers new insight into fundamental mechanisms of DNA replication initiation. This will also provide insight into how ORC may be compromised in a subset of patients with Meier-Gorlin syndrome, a form of dwarfism in humans. ORC is a six-subunit protein complex that directly binds DNA to recruit other protein factors involved in DNA replication. Researchers collected data at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. ...

NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's GPM satellite provided scientists with a look "under the hood" of Tropical Cyclone Joalane's clouds at the rate in which rain was falling throughout the storm. The Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM core observatory satellite flew over intensifying cyclone Joalane in the South Indian Ocean on April 6, 2015 at 0406 UTC (12:06 a.m. EDT). GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) found that intense convective thunderstorms within Joalane were dropping rain at a rate of over 63 mm (2.5 inches) per hour. Cyclone Joalane was located ...

Scientists who have spent much of their careers peering out of deep-sea submersibles to learn about deep-sea coral and sponges recently turned their attention to the Web, watching each other share their experiences and expertise through an innovative series of online seminars. The seminars, sponsored by NOAA Fisheries, are now publicly available online. They cover the latest research into the fragile corals and sponges that bring color, habitat, and three-dimensional beauty to the deep ocean floor, far beyond the reach of snorkelers or scuba divers. The web-based seminars ...

In a study that included more than 32,000 cases of melanoma among Medicare patients, approximately 1 in 5 experienced a delay of surgery that was longer than 1.5 months, and about 8 percent of patients waited longer than 3 months for surgery, according to an article published online by JAMA Dermatology. Melanoma is a leading cause of new cancer diagnoses in the United States, accounting for most skin cancer¬related deaths. Surgical excision is the primary therapy for melanoma. Surgical delay may result in the potential for increased illness and death from other malignant ...

African-American women who live in rural areas have lower rates of major depressive disorder (MDD) and mood disorder compared with their urban counterparts, while rural non-Hispanic white women have higher rates for both than their urban counterparts, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry. MDD is a common and debilitating mental illness and the prevalence of depression among both African Americans and rural residents is understudied, according to background in the study. Addie Weaver, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and coauthors ...

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based screening program for individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer identified pancreatic lesions in 16 of 40 (40 percent) of patients, of whom 5 five underwent surgery, according to a report published online by JAMA Surgery. Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer death and can be considered a global lethal disease because incidence and mortality rates are nearly identical. Although treatment has improved, the surgery rate in patients with ductal adenocarcinoma is around 30 percent and the five-year survival rate is less ...

New Haven, Conn. -- One in five Medicare patients with melanoma experience delays in getting surgery, a Yale study found. The research was published April 8 in JAMA Dermatology. Melanoma, a type of skin cancer, is a leading cause of new cancer diagnoses in the United States. A delay between diagnosis and surgery to remove melanomas may cause patients psychological harm and affect health-care quality. Using the national Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result-Medicare database, the Yale team conducted the first population-based analysis of delay of surgery among Medicare ...

DENVER - The Women's Health Initiative Studies, a large prospective study of lung cancer, found no strong associations between lung cancer risk and a wide range of reproductive history variables and only revealed weak support for a role of hormone use in the incidence of lung cancer. In the United States 40% of the 160,000 deaths from lung cancer are women. In men 90% of lung cancer deaths are associated with tobacco usage; however in women this number is around 75-80%. Female never-smokers are more likely to develop lung cancer than male never-smokers and the histological ...

The discovery of antibiotics produced by soil fungi and bacteria gave the world life-saving medicine. But new antimicrobials from this resource have become scarce as the threat of drug resistance grows. Now, scientists have started mining lakes and rivers for potential pathogen-fighters, and they've found one from Lake Michigan that is effective against drug-resistant tuberculosis. Their report on the new compound appears in the journal ACS Infectious Diseases. Brian T. Murphy and colleagues point out that the emergence of drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Companies work fairly hard to place one woman -- but only one -- in a top management position, according to research by Cristian Desz?, an associate professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, and two co-authors. The article found evidence of a "quota" effect: Once a company had appointed one woman to a top-tier job, the chances of a second woman landing an elite position at the same firm drop substantially -- by about 50 percent, in fact. The study's design did not allow a conclusion about whether the quota was the result of conscious discrimination ...

Now that most consumers download and stream their movies and music, more and more CDs and DVDs will end up in landfills or be recycled. But soon these discarded discs could take on a different role: curbing the release of greenhouse gases. In the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, scientists report a way to turn the discs into a material that can capture carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, and other compounds. Mietek Jaroniec and colleagues from Poland and the U.S. note that manufacturers typically use natural sources, such as coal and wood, to make activated ...