EUGENE, Ore. -- Each tree species has its own bacterial identity. That's the conclusion of University of Oregon researchers and colleagues from other institutions who studied the genetic fingerprints of bacteria on 57 species of trees growing on a Panamanian island. "This study demonstrates for the first time that host plants from different plant families and with different ecological strategies possess very different microbial communities on their leaves," said lead author Steven W. Kembel, a former postdoctoral researcher in the UO's Institute of Ecology and Evolution ...

Molecular mechanisms of the Krüppel-like family of transcription factors (KLFs) have been studied more in proliferating cells than in post-mitotic cells such as neurons. Prof. Jeffrey L. Goldberg who comes from University of California San Diego, USA and his team recently found that KLFs regulate intrinsic axon growth ability in central nervous system (CNS) neurons including retinal ganglion cells, and hippocampal and cortical neurons. With at least 15 of 17 KLF family members expressed in neurons and at least 5 structurally unique subfamilies, it is important to ...

There is currently no standard pharmacological treatment for spinal cord injury. Here, Dr. Florencia Labombarda, who comes from Buenos Aires University, Argentina suggests that progesterone, a steroid hormone, may be a promising therapeutical candidate as it is already for traumatic brain injury, where it has reached phase II clinical trials. We rely on previous works showing anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and promyelinating roles for progesterone after spinal cord injury and in our recent paper, in which we demonstrate that progesterone diminishes lesion, preserves ...

Oxidative stress is closely associated with secondary cell death in many disorders of the central nervous system including stroke, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease. Among many aberrant oxidative stress-associated proteins, DJ-1 has been associated with the oxidative stress cell death cascade primarily in Parkinson's disease. Although principally expressed in the cytoplasm and nucleus, DJ-1 can be secreted into the serum under pathological condition. Recently, a close pathological association between DJ-1 and oxidative stress in stroke has been implicated. To this ...

A daily small serve of dairy food may reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke, even in communities where such foods have not traditionally formed part of the diet. A study of nearly 4000 Taiwanese, led by Emeritus Professor Mark Wahlqvist from Monash University's Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and the Monash Asia Institute, considered the role increased consumption of dairy foods had played in the country's gains in health and longevity. "In a dominantly Chinese food culture, unaccustomed to dairy foods, consuming them up to seven times ­ a ...

This news release is available in French. Dairy is considered part of a healthy diet and dietary guidelines recommend the daily consumption of 2-4 portions of milk-based products such as milk, yogurt, cheese, cream and butter. It's well known that dairy products contain calcium and minerals good for bones, but new research has shown that dairy consumption may also have beneficial effects on metabolic health and can reduce risk of metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Curious about these impacts, researchers from CHU de Québec Research Center ...

VIDEO: NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering researchers and their collaborators at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that fertile killifish females preferred swimming near a male replica that moved through the... Click here for more information. There's an old adage that warns against passing judgment based on appearance, but female bluefin killifish, like many animal species, apparently don't share such human wisdom when choosing a mate. Researchers at the New ...

This news release is available in Spanish. CRG researchers shed new light on mitosis. The study published in the Journal of Cell Biology describes how Topo 2 disentangles DNA molecules and is essential for proper cell division At this very moment thousands of our body's cells are duplicating and dividing. This is the mechanism by which the body repairs damaged tissues and regenerates others like skin and hair. It involves a fairly complex process known as "mitosis", during which the cell duplicates its genetic material and separates it into two identical halves, which ...

HUNTSVILLE, TX (9/16/14) -- Police agencies are using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for mapping crime, identifying crime "hot spots," assigning officers, and profiling offenders, but little research has been done about the effectiveness of the technology in curbing crime, according to a study at Sam Houston State University (SHSU). "This review provides a reality check on the current status of GIS assessment in policing and the findings are not positive," said Yan Zhang, a SHSU professor and co-author of "Geographic Information System Effects on Policing Efficacy: ...

Consumers are willing to spend thousands of dollars for luxury brand watches such as Rolex and Cartier because they are synonymous with high quality. But does this mean that inexpensive watches made by low-cost rivals must always be low quality? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers mistakenly predict product quality based on quality consistency in other price ranges. "Highly consistent quality in one price range is enough for consumers to assume that quality can be predicted by price. Based on this belief, consumers assume high or low ...

What happens when you use images of sexy women to attract men's attention? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, male consumers who are shown images of sexy women feel less connected to other people and are less likely to purchase products advertised as benefiting others or make charitable contributions. "Images of sexy women are ubiquitous in modern society and heavily used in advertising. Our primary focus is to show how exposure to pictures of sexy women could temporarily decrease the male consumer's sense of psychological connectedness with ...

What motivates consumers to make ethical choices such as buying clothing not made in a sweat shop, spending more money on fair-trade coffee, and bringing their own bags when they go shopping? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, ethical consumption is motivated by a need for consumers to turn their emotions about unethical practices into action. "Advocates of ethical consumerism suggest that consumers should consider the environmental and human costs of the products they choose, but unfortunately only a small number of people in North America ...

Twenty-five years ago, the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. Americans found themselves cleaning up another giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, news coverage of environmental disasters serves to calm our immediate anxieties instead of catalyzing changes in the way fossil fuels are used. "We found that the national news media coverage of these two events helped to resolve many of the cultural anxieties that resulted, explaining what many environmental ...

Many experiences rarely seem to last the right amount of time. Vacations feel too short, meetings seem too long, and bad dates never seem to end. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that simply categorizing experiences can help consumers extend good experiences and shorten the bad ones. "Consumers do not just focus on individual experiences. Instead, they categorize and manage experiences in a way that stretches out good experiences and shortens negative experiences. For positive experiences, consumers are reluctant to eliminate categories, while the ...

Loyal consumers can earn benefits such as frequent flyer miles or free nights at hotels when they participate in rewards programs. Loyalty, of course, doesn't increase the odds of winning random prizes or receiving random discounts. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers who have shown loyalty to a company giving a random reward mistakenly believe they are more likely to receive the reward because they deserve it. "Even though prior effort or patronage does not increase the actual likelihood of a consumer receiving promotional discounts ...

Proteins are responsible for practically all vital functions in an organism. For example, they catalyze metabolic reactions, forward signals, transport particular substances and control immune system responses. Researchers established some years ago that proteins do not function independently of each other, but instead form complex networks. "When you examine the protein networks, you find many similarities with online social networks," says Dr. Pascal Falter-Braun from TUM's Chair of Plant Systems Biology. "Some proteins are good networkers that maintain contact with ...

DALLAS – September 15, 2014 – Combining a standard chemotherapy drug with a second drug that stops cells from dividing improves both the survival and response rates for those with advanced cervical cancer, a new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center cancer researchers finds. The cancer-fighting cocktail, which combines the chemotherapy drug cisplatin with pemetrexed - an agent that stops cancer cells from dividing - showed promising results for advanced, persistent, or recurrent cervical cancer. "We found that pemetrexed combined with cisplatin is less toxic, well ...

Overindulging in high-calorie snacks is partly caused by lapses in a very specific part of the brain, according to a new University of Waterloo study. The study, published in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, is the first to conclusively link reduced operation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with self-restraint in the dietary context. "It has long been thought that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex helps to keep automatic, or knee-jerk, reactions in check," said Professor Peter Hall, senior author on the study. "We discovered that when ...

New studies have uncovered the specific interventions and advances that have led to the success with these at-risk populations in the poorest countries. New research across 142 countries finds that some 50 percent of the reduction in under-five child mortality in those countries is attributable to high impact health interventions such as early immunizations and skilled birth attendance. The remaining 50 percent is due to factors outside the health sector, such as girls' education, women's participation in politics and the workforce, reduction of fertility rates, access ...

This news release is available in French. According to a study conducted by pediatricians and researchers at Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center (Sainte-Justine) and Université de Montréal published online in the prestigious medical journal Nature Medicine on September 14, 2014, the activation of a receptor that migrates to the nucleus of nerve cells in the retina promotes the growth of blood vessels. The finding opens the possibility of developing new, more selective drugs to control the abnormal growth of blood vessels and prevent blindness including ...

For lovers of wild foods, autumn harks a season of bounty. Fungi of dizzying variety erupt from wood and soil, luring intrepid collectors to woodlands in search of elusive but delectable wild mushrooms. Part of their appeal lies in the allure of the treasure hunt, and their mysterious not-quite-meat, not-quite-vegetable qualities that belie an almost otherworldly existence. But are the mushrooms which you are eating known to science? The Fungi Kingdom is enormously diverse yet vastly underdocumented – although some estimates range up to 10 million species, only about ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Imaging can be a cost-effective way to identify people at risk for stroke who might benefit from aggressive intervention, according to a new modeling study published online in the journal Radiology. The study looked at people with asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis, a narrowing of the major blood vessels supplying blood to the head due to atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup. Carotid artery stenosis is the primary cause of up to 20 percent of ischemic strokes, which result from an obstruction within a blood vessel and make up 85 percent of all strokes. ...

Using advanced computer models, neuroscience researchers at the University of Copenhagen have gained new knowledge about the complex processes that cause Parkinson's disease. The findings have recently been published in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience. The defining symptoms of Parkinson's disease are slow movements, muscular stiffness and shaking. There is currently no cure for the condition, so it is essential to conduct innovative research with the potential to shed some light on this terrible disruption to the central nervous system. Using advanced computer ...

Sugars in the diet should make up no more than 3% of total energy intake to reduce the significant financial and social burdens of tooth decay, finds new research from UCL (University College London) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The study, published in the open-access journal BMC Public Health, analysed the effect of sugars on dental caries, also known as tooth decay. They show that sugars are the only cause of tooth decay in children and adults. Free sugars are defined by the World Health Organisation Nutrition Guidance Adivisory Group as follows: ...

When this week's print issue of the journal Science comes out, a collective cheer will go up from New Mexico, Montana and even the Netherlands, thanks to the type of collaborative effort that is more and more the norm in these connected times. Yes, the research was brilliant, and if we're lucky, it will produce innovations in biology, medicine, biotechnology and agriculture. It could save lives, and it happened because this scientist talked with that one, that one knew another one, and brilliant minds overcame geographic distance to advance human understanding. "It is ...