Cancer in humans is frequently associated with unusually high amounts of one or more proteins responsible for controlling the rate at which cells divide. As an example, excessive amounts of the cyclin-dependent kinase CDK6 are often found in types of cancer such as lymphoma. Together with a number of collaborators within Vienna and beyond, Karoline Kollmann of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni) has now shown that CDK6 is part of a multiprotein complex that stimulates the production of one of the so-called INK4 family members (confusingly termed ...

A multidisciplinary group of researchers from Finland (University of Turku and University of Helsinki) and Sweden (University of Skövde) has now found evidence that hypnotic suggestion can modify processing of a targeted stimulus before it reaches consciousness. The experiments show that it is possible to hypnotically modulate even highly automatic features of perception, such as color experience. The results are presented in two articles published in PLoS ONE and International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. The Finnish part of the research is funded by ...

A survey, run by Strathclyde academics on behalf of the Scottish Beekeepers' Association, indicated 31.3 per cent of managed honey bee colonies in Scotland failed to survive last winter – almost double the previous year's loss rate of 15.9 per cent. Dr Alison Gray and Magnus Peterson, of Strathclyde's Department of Mathematics and Statistics, warn the figures ought to be of major concern because bees play a pivotal role in crop pollination, agricultural yields and, therefore, food supply and prices. Last winter's figures represent 156 colonies lost during the winter ...

Female blue tits with brightly coloured crowns are better mothers than duller birds, according to a new study led by the University of York. Unlike humans, birds can see ultra-violet (UV) light. While the crown of a blue tit looks just blue to us, to another bird it has the added dimension of appearing UV-reflectant. The three-year study of blue tits, which also involved researchers from the University of California Davis, USA and the University of Glasgow, showed that mothers with more UV-reflectant crown feathers did not lay more eggs, but did fledge more offspring ...

Prisons and partner organizations must do more to provide health and social care to growing population of older prisoners. More needs to be done in prisons to look after a growing population of older male prisoners, according to research by The University of Manchester. The findings, just published by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Journals Library in Health Services and Delivery Research, showed 44% of prisons do not have a policy on the care and management of older prisoners and there was a lack of integration between health and social care services. Planning ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 13, 2013–Employers can have a significant role in improving efforts to prevent and treat diseases such as cancer by introducing and supporting health promotion programs in the workplace. Together, companies can influence health care policies and reimbursement and industry practices to support the fight against cancer. Johnson & Johnson's active role in implementing the CEO Cancer Gold Standard program is described in an article in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available ...

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have uncovered a protein switch that can either increase or decrease memory-building activity in brain cells, depending on the signals it detects. Its dual role means the protein is key to understanding the complex network of signals that shapes our brain's circuitry, the researchers say. A description of their discovery appears in the July 31 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. "What's interesting about this protein, AGAP3, is that it is effectively double-sided: One side beefs up synapses in response to brain activity, while the other side ...

TORONTO, ON – Women with a history of childhood physical abuse are more likely to become obese adults, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers. Results indicate that women who were physically abused in childhood were more likely to be obese than women from non-abusive homes. "After adjusting for age and race, childhood physical abuse was associated with 47% higher odds of obesity for women" says lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Professor and Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair in the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "Among ...

DETROIT – Doctors at Henry Ford Hospital have created a new route to the heart to implant an artificial heart valve by temporarily connecting major blood vessels that do not normally intersect. In a July 3 operation on 79-year-old Viola Waller of Charlevoix, physicians performed a world-first cardiac procedure when it became evident that other means would not work. "I knew of an experimental technique that had not yet been done in humans, and I had a patient with no other options who was failing rapidly," says William O'Neill, M.D., medical director of the Center for ...

A new high-tech analysis led by a University of Colorado Boulder researcher shows the oldest known petroglyphs in North America, which are cut into several boulders in western Nevada, date to at least 10,500 years ago and perhaps even as far back as 14,800 years ago. The petroglyphs located at the Winnemucca Lake petroglyph site 35 miles northeast of Reno consist of large, deeply carved grooves and dots forming complex designs on several large limestone boulders that have been known about for decades, said CU-Boulder researcher Larry Benson, who led the new effort. Although ...

In order to make solar energy widely affordable scientists and engineers all over the world are looking for low-cost production technologies. Flexible thin film solar cells have a huge potential in this regard because they require only a minimum amount of materials and can be manufactured in large quantities by roll-to-roll processing. One such technology relies on cadmium telluride (CdTe) to convert sunlight into electricity. With a current market share that is second only to silicon-based solar cells CdTe cells already today are cheapest in terms of production costs. ...

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), a common disorder that impairs fertility by impacting menstruation, ovulation, hormones, and more, is closely related to insulin levels. Women with the disorder are typically "insulin resistant" — their bodies produce an overabundance of insulin to deliver glucose from the blood into the muscles. The excess makes its way to the ovaries, where it stimulates the production of testosterone, thereby impairing fertility. Now Prof. Daniela Jakubowicz of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Diabetes Unit at Wolfson Medical ...

WASHINGTON, DC -- Smartphones are a great way to check in on the latest weather predictions, but new research aims to use the batteries in those same smartphones to predict the weather. A group of smartphone app developers and weather experts discovered a way to use the temperature sensors built into smartphone batteries to crowdsource weather information. These tiny thermometers usually prevent smartphones from dangerously overheating, but the researchers discovered the battery temperatures tell a story about the environment around them. Crowdsourcing hundreds of thousands ...

WASHINGTON D.C. August 13, 2013 -- Adjacent to the walls of our arterioles, capillaries, and venules -- the blood vessels that make up our microcirculation -- there exists a peculiar thin layer of clear plasma, devoid of red blood cells. Although it is just a few millionths of a meter thick, that layer is vital. It controls, for example, the speed with which platelets can reach the site of a cut and start the clotting process. "If you destroy this layer, your bleeding time can go way up, by 60 percent or more, which is a real issue in trauma," said Eric Shaqfeh, the Lester ...

LIVERMORE, Calif. -- As demand climbs for more fuel-efficient vehicles, knowledge compiled over several years about diesel engines and a new strategy known as "low-temperature combustion" (LTC) might soon lead auto manufacturers and consumers to broader use of cleaner diesel engines in the United States. The journal Progress in Energy and Combustion Science published a summary of recent research on diesel LTC in a review article titled "Conceptual models for partially premixed low-temperature diesel combustion." The article, prepared by researchers at Sandia National ...

The fight against antibiotic-resistant superbugs has taken a step forward thanks to a new discovery by scientists at The University of Nottingham. A multi-disciplinary research team at the University's Centre for Biomolecular Sciences has uncovered a new way of inhibiting the toxicity and virulence of the notorious superbug, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This bacteria produces an armoury of virulence factors and is resistant to many conventional antibiotics. It is almost impossible to eradicate P. aeruginosa from the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis and is therefore a ...

Congregation size has an impact on how people view the reasons for racial inequality in America, according to a new study by researchers at Baylor University and the University of Southern California. Those who attend very large congregations do not tend to attribute social divisions between blacks and whites to discrimination or lack of quality education, but to something other than structural failings in society, said Ryon J. Cobb, a postdoctoral research associate at USC's Roybal Institute on Aging. "Size of the congregation matters above and beyond denominational ...

Regular exercise is not only good for health, but can give people living with HIV a significant mental boost. This is according to a study by Dr. David J. Moore and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), published in Springer's Journal of NeuroVirology. The study found that HIV-infected adults who exercise suffered significantly less neurocognitive impairment compared to patients who do not exercise. Moore and his team, including UCSD medical student Catherine Dufour, found that HIV-infected adults who exercise were approximately half as likely ...

Proton therapy, using high-energy subatomic particles, may offer a precise, organ-sparing treatment option for children with high-risk forms of neuroblastoma. For patients in a new study of advanced radiation treatment, proton therapy spared the liver and kidneys from unwanted radiation, while zeroing in on its target. "As survival rates improve for children with neuroblastoma, we need to reduce treatment-related long-term toxicities," said study leader Christine Hill-Kayser, M.D., a radiation oncologist in the cancer center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 13, 2013—Recording the sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) of individuals in their health records would greatly facilitate identifying the unique health needs and health disparities of LGBT individuals, leading to improved quality and outcomes of their health care. The advantages of reporting this information and the growing support for including it in electronic health records (EHRs) are described in an article in LGBT Health, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, launching in fall 2013. The article is available ...

We might be one step closer to an Internet-of-things reality. University of Washington engineers have created a new wireless communication system that allows devices to interact with each other without relying on batteries or wires for power. The new communication technique, which the researchers call "ambient backscatter," takes advantage of the TV and cellular transmissions that already surround us around the clock. Two devices communicate with each other by reflecting the existing signals to exchange information. The researchers built small, battery-free devices ...

An international study of the work habits of conservation biologists suggests that they do work very hard — producing a substantial amount of work late at night and over weekends. The results have been published in an editorial article for the scientific journal Biological Conservation. The research, by Dr Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz of The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC), Dr Richard Primack of Boston University and Dr Lian Pin Koh of Princeton University, put to the test the commonly held belief that scientists are like laboratory rats, working long hours at ...

KANSAS CITY, MO — When egg and sperm combine, the new embryo bustles with activity. Its cells multiply so rapidly they largely ignore their DNA, other than to copy it and to read just a few essential genes. The embryonic cells mainly rely on molecular instructions placed in the egg by its mother in the form of RNA. The cells translate these RNA molecules into proteins that manage almost everything in the first minutes or hours of the embryo's life. Then, during the so-called midblastula transition, cells start transcribing massive amounts of their own DNA. How embryonic ...

As Typhoon Utor was exiting the northwestern Philippines, NASA's TRMM satellite passed overhead and detected some heavy rainfall in Utor's thunderstorm "feeder-bands" as it re-strengthened over the South China Sea. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite passed over Utor on August 12, 2013 at 0621 UTC/2:21 a.m. EDT as it was exiting the Philippines into the South China Sea. To form a complete picture of rainfall and cloud extent of Utor, TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data were added into a combination Infrared/Visible ...

LONDON, ON – American and European research shows an alarming increase in the rate of tonsillar cancer related to the human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus. Experts suggest a similar trend has emerged in Canada, but it had yet to be confirmed through scientific analysis. In a new study published in Current Oncology, a group of researchers from Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University have produced evidence confirming this epidemic. Orophararyngeal cancer impacts part of the throat, including the tonsils and the base of the tongue. Historically, ...