They live in the cold, dark depths of the oceans, are often exposed to strong currents and provide a stable base for diverse and colourful ecosystems: Stony corals of the species Lophelia pertusa are considered excellent reef-builders. According to the latest findings of researchers from the Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, the University of Glasgow and the United States Geological Survey, even genetically different individuals are able to fuse their skeletons. On an expedition with the German submersible JAGO and the research ...

Circadian clocks regulate functions ranging from alertness and reaction time to body temperature and blood pressure. New research published in the November 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal further adds to our understanding of the circadian rhythm by suggesting that the suprachiasmaticus nucleus (SCN) clock, a tiny region of the hypothalamus considered to be the body's "master" timekeeper, is not necessary to align body rhythms with the light-dark cycle. This challenges and disproves the commonly held notion that circadian rhythms were strictly organized in a hierarchical ...

If it seems like more people are allergic to, or intolerant of, more and different kinds of foods than ever before, there might be a reason why. A new research published in November 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists show, for the first time, that there is a link between perinatal exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) at low doses and the risk to develop food intolerance in later life. This research involving rats suggests that early life exposure at a dose significantly below the current human safety limit set by the FDA affects developing immune systems, predisposing ...

Engineers routinely face tradeoffs as they design robotic limbs – weight vs. speed, ease of control vs. fluidity. A new hybrid fluid transmission developed at Disney Research Pittsburgh promises to eliminate some of those tradeoffs, making possible robot arms that are light enough to move swiftly and gracefully, yet with precise control. The transmission consists of antagonist pairs of rolling diaphragm cylinders – similar to traditional hydraulic cylinders, but sealed with a rubber diaphragm instead of sliding seals and valves. The result is a system that ...

A new research report published in the November 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal suggests that being overweight might be better in the long term than being underweight. Before you reach for that box of Twinkies, however, it's important to note that this discovery only applies to the weight of newborn babies in relation to risk of future disease. "These findings support the hypothesis that common long-term variation in the activity of genes established in the womb may underpin links between size at birth and risk for adult disease," said Claire R. Quilter, Ph.D., study ...

Delivering life-saving drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) might become a little easier thanks to a new report published in the November 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal. In the report, scientists describe an antibody, called "FC5," is one-tenth the size of a traditional antibody and able to cross the BBB. Moreover, FC5 uses the same pathways as nutrients that the brain needs to survive, allowing it to "smuggle" larger antibodies across the barrier. Like a Lego building block, FC5 connects into many types of antibody designs, helping them reach their disease targets ...

If you think sleep problems and bladder problems are a fact of life in old age, you may be right. A new report appearing in the November 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that our sleep-wake cycles are genetically connected to our bladder, and disruptions to one may cause problems with the other. This discovery builds on the hypotheses that under normal circumstances, a primary clock located in the brain controls several other peripheral clocks located throughout the body. These peripheral clocks, in turn, control the activity of functional proteins and receptors, ...

TAMPA, Fla. (Oct. 30, 2014) – The current special issue of Technology and Innovation, is devoted to patents that benefit people around the world who live with limited resources, in challenging environments, and are in need of better access to basic needs and improved standards of living, health and infrastructure. The issue includes original articles from winners of the 2013 USPTO Patents for Humanity Awards, aimed at rewarding innovators for deploying patented technologies to address humanitarian needs. Winners featured in the issue include SIGN Fracture Care International, ...

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 29, 2014) – Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, attacks muscle-controlling nerve cells – motor neurons – in the brain, brainstem and spinal cord, leading to progressive weakness and eventual paralysis of muscles throughout the body. Patients typically survive only three to five years after diagnosis. Now, with publication of a study by investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, ALS researchers know the effects of the attack are worsened, at least in part, ...

The Swainson's warbler (Limnothlypis swainsonii) is one of the rarest and most secretive songbirds in North America, prized by birdwatchers in the southeastern U.S. hoping to catch a glimpse of it in the wild or hear its beautiful ringing song. With only 90,000 breeding individuals sparsely distributed across 15 states in the U.S., the Swainson's warbler is a species of high conservation concern that, for decades, has left conservationists with little confidence that its populations would ever be fully secure. However, new research published in the Oct. 30 edition of ...

Washington, DC – Exciting results from an innovative, multicultural, five-year initiative, known as the Alliance to Reduce Disparities in Diabetes (Alliance), have been published in ten peer-reviewed articles in the November 2014 supplemental issue of Health Promotion Practice (HPP). The findings reveal that a new model of chronic disease management for vulnerable populations with diabetes shows significant promise in strengthening coordination of care, reducing diabetes health disparities and improving health outcomes. Funded by Merck Foundation, the Alliance ...

WHAT: A mathematical model developed by NIH grantees predicts that women must take the antiretroviral medication Truvada daily to prevent HIV infection via vaginal sex, whereas just two doses per week can protect men from HIV infection via anal sex. This finding helps explain why two large clinical trials testing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, in women failed to show efficacy. Participants in the VOICE and FEM-PrEP trials of Truvada and tenofovir (another antiretroviral) for HIV prevention were counseled to take one of the medications daily. However, because they ...

Why were dinosaurs covered in a cloak of feathers long before the early bird species Archaeopteryx first attempted flight? Researchers from the University of Bonn and the University of Göttingen attempt to answer precisely that question in their article "Beyond the Rainbow" in the latest issue of the renowned journal Science. The research team postulates that these ancient lizards had a highly developed ability to discern color. Their hypothesis: The evolution of feathers made dinosaurs more colorful, which in turn had a profoundly positive impact on communication, ...

Messenger, transfer, ribosomal... there's more than one type of RNA. The difference lies not only in the sequence of the nucleotides, the "beads" that form the strand, but also in the three-dimensional structure that this long molecule takes on. Computer models are often used to reveal this structure but these tend to be rather complex, and they vary depending on the field of application. A team of SISSA scientists used numerical techniques to develop a new "geometrical" model which has the advantage of being much simpler and faster than those traditionally used as well ...

Researchers from the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group, hosted at LSTM, have conducted an independent review to examine the diagnostic accuracy of the GenoType® MTBDRsl assay for the detection of resistance to second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs. While there are a number of different drugs available to people suffering from tuberculosis (TB), resistance to these drugs is a growing problem. People suffering from a drug-resistant strain of TB are more likely to die from the disease, and require treatment with what are described as "second-line" drugs. These drugs can ...

North Carolina State University researchers have developed a suite of technologies that can be used to enhance communication between dogs and humans, which has applications in everything from search and rescue to service dogs to training our pets. "We've developed a platform for computer-mediated communication between humans and dogs that opens the door to new avenues for interpreting dogs' behavioral signals and sending them clear and unambiguous cues in return," says Dr. David Roberts, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-lead author of a paper ...

New York | Heidelberg, 30 October 2014 Biological membranes are mainly composed of lipid bilayers. Gaining a better understanding of adsorption of solution ions onto lipid membranes helps clarify functional processes in biological cells. Now, a new study provides a quantitative description of the equilibria between lipid membranes and surrounding solution ions. Joanna Kotyńska and Zbigniew Figaszewski from the University of Bialystok, Poland, are the authors of a study describing these findings, just published in EPJ E. In addition to shedding some light on biological ...

CHICAGO --- Intense itching and dry, irritable skin aren't the only problems adults with eczema face. They are at greater risk of accidental bone fractures and other injuries, a new Northwestern Medicine® study has found. This is the first study to find adult eczema is a risk factor for fractures and other injuries. The increased odds of accidental injury could be directly related to the side effects of steroids and sedating antihistamines commonly prescribed to treat the skin disorder or the under-treatment of severe cases, study authors suggest. "Many eczema ...

Griffith University academics are challenging the foundations of quantum science with a radical new theory based on the existence of, and interactions between, parallel universes. In a paper published in the prestigious journal Physical Review X, Professor Howard Wiseman and Dr Michael Hall from Griffith's Centre for Quantum Dynamics, and Dr Dirk-Andre Deckert from the University of California, take interacting parallel worlds out of the realm of science fiction and into that of hard science. The team proposes that parallel universes really exist, and that they interact. ...

VIDEO: Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego recently invented a new method of lithography in which nanoscale robots swim over the surface of light-sensitive material to create complex surface... Click here for more information. What does it take to fabricate electronic and medical devices tinier than a fraction of a human hair? Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego recently invented a new method of lithography in which nanoscale robots swim ...

The United States and United Kingdom buck the overall trend of developed countries having more egalitarian domestic economies than the countries they trade with. The finding comes from the first ever 'inequality footprint' of nations, created by researchers at the University of Sydney, demonstrating the link that each country's domestic economic activity has to income distribution elsewhere in the world. Australia, with a comparable level of international trade activity, still maintains greater internal equality than the trading nations that 42 percent of our consumption ...

Research suggesting air pollutants released by unconventional oil and gas production are well over recommended levels in the US is published today in the open access journal Environmental Health. High levels of benzene, hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde were found. The study is the first to be based on community sampling by people who live near production sites and could be used to supplement official air-quality monitoring programs. Unconventional oil and gas come from reserves that do not readily flow to the surface. This is because they are either distributed throughout ...

Regardless of age, frailty is a strong risk factor for dying prematurely after a kidney transplant. The finding, which comes from a new study published in the American Journal of Transplantation, suggests that patients should be screened for frailty prior to kidney transplantation, and that those who are identified as frail should be closely monitored after the procedure. It's very difficult for physicians to identify which patients with kidney disease will not do well after receiving a kidney transplant. Even the best models are able to correctly discriminate patients ...

LIMA, PERU (30 October, 2014)—In an analysis of almost 73,000 concessions in eight tropical forested countries, more than 93 percent of these developments were found to involve land inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. According to the research, conducted by The Munden Project, the total amount of land handed over by governments to the private sector for mining, logging, oil & gas drilling, and large-scale agriculture includes at least 40 percent of Peru and 30 percent of Indonesia. "When governments sell the land, forests and other natural resources ...

Doctors and public health authorities need to renew their attention to measles, researchers from Emory Vaccine Center urge in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Because of its high level of contagiousness, measles is the indicator disease for weaknesses of an immunization program," write Walter Orenstein, MD, and Katherine Seib, MSPH. Orenstein is associate director of the Emory Vaccine Center and professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, and Seib is research manager in Emory's Division of Infectious Diseases. Measles is one ...