Although countries with high levels of economic development generally have more personal automobile travel than less-affluent nations, income is not the only factor that determines a nation's demand for cars, according to a new study. Examining factors that may influence personal automobile use in developing nations, researchers found that government policies such as taxes that keep fuel costs high and the development of road systems can have important influence on levels of automobile travel. Shaping the personal use of automobiles is an important issue in developing ...

MIAMI – A Florida-based marine research team has developed a unique formal process and modeling framework to help manage South Florida's economically important coastal marine environments. The MARES project (Marine and Estuarine Goal Setting), led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) based at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, successfully integrated both ecosystem science and societal benefits into a marine ecosystem support tool to ...

New research provides an intriguing glimpse into the processes that establish connections between nerve cells in the brain. These connections, or synapses, allow nerve cells to transmit and process information involved in thinking and moving the body. Reporting online in Neuron, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a group of proteins that program a common type of brain nerve cell to connect with another type of nerve cell in the brain. The finding is an important step forward in efforts to learn how the developing brain ...

This news release is available in Portuguese. This news release is available in Portuguese. The identification of the genes and proteins involved in a biological process, as well as the way they interact, are essential for the understanding of that process. However, often little is known about the dimensions of molecular biological structures. Knowing how many molecules make up a structure and are required for its function are essential for our understanding of biological mechanisms. Yet, quantifying molecules of infinitesimal size poses a difficult challenge. ...

The mystery behind the movements of flocking starlings could be explained by the areas of light and dark created as they fly, new research suggests. The research, conducted by the University of Warwick and published in the journal PNAS, found that flocking starlings aim to maintain an optimum density at which they can gather data on their surroundings. This occurs when they can see light through the flock at many angles, a state known as marginal opacity. The subsequent pattern of light and dark, formed as the birds attempt to achieve the necessary density, is what provides ...

Bethesda, MD (July 18, 2014) — Dietary elimination is a successful method of treatment for adults with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), according to a new study1 in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "By eliminating specific foods from patients' diets, symptoms improved in 71 percent of patients, and endoscopic appearance improved in 54 percent," said lead study author, W. Asher Wolf, MD, MPH, and co-author Evan S. Dellon, MD, MPH, from the division of gastroenterology and hepatology, ...

BOSTON – Aspirin is the gold standard for antiplatelet therapy and a daily low-dose aspirin is widely prescribed for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Now, a new study suggests that common genetic variation in the gene for catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) may modify the cardiovascular benefit of aspirin, and in some people, may confer slight harm. The findings, led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) appear online in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and ...

The tiny plastic particles polluting our seas are not only orally ingested by marine creatures, but also enter their systems through their gills, according to a new study led by the University of Exeter. Scientists also discovered that when microplastics are drawn in through this method they take over six times longer to leave the body compared with standard digestion. Lead author Dr Andrew Watts of the University of Exeter said: "Many studies on microplastics only consider ingestion as a route of uptake into animals. The results we have just published stress other ...

The 1500 mile Appalachian mountain chain runs along a nearly straight line from Alabama to Newfoundland—except for a curious bend in Pennsylvania and New York State. Researchers from the College of New Jersey and the University of Rochester now know what caused that bend—a dense, underground block of rigid, volcanic rock forced the chain to shift eastward as it was forming millions of years ago. According to Cindy Ebinger, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester, scientists had previously known about the volcanic rock structure under ...

Learning the role of immune-system cells in healthy digestive tracts and how they interact with neighboring nerve cells may lead to new treatments for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine, in collaboration with other scientists, have reported the role of macrophages in regulating the contractions of the colon to push digested material through the digestive tract. The muscular lining of the intestine contains a distinct kind of macrophage, an immune system cell that helps fight infections. The role of these cells in normal colon ...

New Haven, Conn. -- From the physics labs at Yale University to the bottom of a played-out gold mine in South Dakota, a new generation of dark matter experiments is ready to commence. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation recently gave the go-ahead to LUX-Zeplin (LZ), a key experiment in the hunt for dark matter, the invisible substance that may make up much of the universe. Daniel McKinsey, a professor of physics, leads a contingent of Yale scientists working on the project. "We emerged from a very intense competition," ...

WASHINGTON, July 18—Long hours of nighttime driving can cause eyestrain because while our vision adapts to the surrounding darkness, the sudden stabs of brightness from streetlamps can be irritating, distracting and even painful. Even as LED technology has transformed the lighting industry, bringing the promise of more energy-efficient road illumination, some fear that the new lights could cause even more troublesome, unsafe glare. A team of researchers from China and the Netherlands has developed a way to evaluate the human impact of uncomfortable glare caused by LED ...

Imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite captured a wide-eyed Typhoon Rammasun as it was making landfall in northern Hainan Island, China early on July 18. A rainfall analysis using another NASA satellite showed the flooding potential of the storm as it left the Philippines and headed for China. Now, Rammasun is headed for a final landfall near the northeastern border of Vietnam and China. On July 17, an analysis of Typhoon Rammasun's rainfall was conducted at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The rainfall analysis covered the storm's rainfall from ...

The first tropical cyclone of the season has formed in the Central Pacific Ocean as NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead. Tropical Storm Wali formed southeast of the Big Island of Hawaii, and now that it's nearing, a Flash Flood Watch has been posted for all of the islands. NASA's Terra satellite passed over Wali on July 17 at 19:55 UTC (3:55 p.m. EDT) just as it was being classified as Tropical Depression 1C. NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) issued an advisory at 5 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. HST) announcing the birth of the depression near 12.7 north and 140.7 ...

Current research on bone marrow stem cell transplantation and autologous or xenogenic nerve transplantation for peripheral nerve regeneration has mainly focused on the repair of peripheral nerve defects in rodents. Dr. Dong Wang and his team, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, China established a standardized experimental model of 2.5 cm-long radial nerve defects in rhesus monkeys and evaluated the effect of repair on peripheral nerve injury. The quality of nerve regeneration in the bone marrow stem cells-laden allografts was comparable to that achieved ...

Nerve growth factor can be delivered to the brain by intranasal administration without risk for treatment of brain diseases. Dr. Luigi Aloe, Cellular Biology and Neurobiology Institute, National Research Council, Italy and his team performed a study to investigate whether, by intranasal administration, the nerve growth factor bypasses the blood-brain barrier and turns over the spinal cord neurons. Results showed that at 3 weeks after intranasal administration of nerve growth factor, the contents of nerve growth factor and its receptor in the spinal cord were increased, ...

Several studies have demonstrated that L-carnitine exhibits neuroprotective effects on injured sciatic nerve of rats with diabetes mellitus. Dr. Ümmü Zeynep Avsar, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Turkey and his team proposed a hypothesis that L-carnitine exhibits neuroprotective effects on injured sciatic nerve of rats. Rat sciatic nerve was crush injured by a forceps and exhibited degenerative changes. After intragastric administration of 50 and 100 mg/kg L-carnitine for 30 days, axon area, myelin sheath area, axon diameter, myelin sheath diameter, and numerical ...

A new study determines glycosylation and pH-dependent conformational changes of virus receptor SCARB2 as crucial for EV71 attachment, entry and uncoating Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is the major causative agent of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in the Asia-Pacific region, having caused 8.8 million infections and 3,000 deaths in China in the past five years. Unlike other enteroviruses (e.g. Coxsackievirus), EV71 can cause severe aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis and acute flaccid paralysis, thus leading to significant fatality rates. Unfortunately, the molecular ...

This news release is available in German. Proteins, the components of our body that execute, control and organize basically all functions in our cells, are made out of strings of amino acids, which – like an origami - are folded into specific and complex three-dimensional structures according to their desired functions. However, since folding and maintaining of such structures is highly sensitive to cellular or environmental stress, proteins can potentially misfold or form clumps (aggregates). Such undesired protein waste can be toxic for cells and may even lead ...

Researchers at the University of Granada have designed new software that provides real time data on traffic. It is a device that provides information on traffic flow between cities. Drivers can use this information to choose the fastest route as they plan to drive to their destinations. It is a highly reliable, low-cost method, easy and quick to install, which uses bluetooth devices. These devices collect real-time data on road traffic which it then sends to a central server. This information is then processed using complex data mining algorithms, evolutionary computing ...

Spanish scientists have demonstrated through an experiment on obese rats that the consumption of probiotics during thirty days helps diminish the accumulation of fat in the liver. This new finding, published today by the journal PLOS ONE, is a great step forward on the fight agains the Non-Alcolohic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), which is closely related to obesity and diabetes. Researchers from the 'Nutrition Biochemistry: Theurapetic Applications' group (CTS-461) and the José Mataix Institute for Nutrition and Food Technology at the University of Granada have demonstrated ...

In a recent study, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder found no evidence that a California ban on using hand-held cellphones while driving decreased the number of traffic accidents in the state in the first six months following the ban. The findings, published in the journal Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, are surprising given prior research that suggests driving while using a cellphone is risky. For example, past laboratory studies have shown that people who talk on a cellphone while using driving simulators are as impaired as people ...

Slit-Robo GTPase-activating protein 3 contains a Rho GAP domain that regulates the activities of Rho family GTPases and affects actin polymerization, which influences dendrite elaboration, neurite outgrowth and axon guidance, contributing to neural regeneration. Anjie Lu, the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, China and his team performed a microRNA microarray analysis and identified 23 microRNAs whose expression were significantly changed in rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) after sciatic nerve injury (SNI). Bioinformatic analysis was used to determine microRNA-214 ...

Recent studies have demonstrated that glutamate receptor δ2 gene (GRID2) is closely related to cerebellar functions in mice. This gene is predominantly located in postsynaptic dendrites of parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses in the cerebellum and contains potential fragile sites within large introns. These fragile sites easily develop spontaneous mutation, which leads to Purkinje cell death, contributing to the manifestation of spinocerebellar ataxia in mice. The human GRID2 shares 90% homology with the orthologous mouse gene, and therefore it has become an important ...

Non-coding RNAs represent one of the most exciting aspects of current biomedical research. Non-coding RNAs include long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) which are generally longer than 200 nucleotides (nt) and small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) that are mostly 20-35 nt. Among sncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are commonly 21 nt in length, and both specifically bind to the AGO subfamily of the ARGONAUTE (AGO)/PIWI family proteins. PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), which are defined by their specific binding to the PIWI subfamily of AGO/PIWI family proteins, ...