The mood changes of a 'Jekyll-and-Hyde' protein, which sometimes boosts tumour cell growth and at other times suppresses it, have been explained in a new study led by Oxford University researchers. The researchers in Britain, with collaborators in Singapore and the USA, carried out a comprehensive biological study of the protein E2F, which is abnormal in the vast majority of cancers. They were able to explain the dual natures it can take up in cells in the body, and indicate how it could be a potent target for developing new cancer drugs. The Oxford University scientists ...

Folic acid deficiency can cause severe health problems in offspring, including spina bifida, heart defects and placental abnormalities. A study out today reveals that a mutation in a gene necessary for the metabolism of folic acid not only impacts the immediate offspring but can also have detrimental health effects on the next several generations. The new research, which also sheds light on the molecular mechanism of folic acid (also known as folate) during development, was published today in the journal Cell. "Although our research focused on genetic mutations which ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- As one species of European songbird island-hopped to colonize mid-Atlantic archipelagoes over the course of a half million years, their songs lost their sense of syntax. Chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) on the furthest island of their dispersal, Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, still sing the same notes, but with a much less structured pattern from one bird to the next, sort of like an island of Charlie Parkers. "A chaffinch from mainland Europe always sounds like a chaffinch from mainland Europe," said biologist Robert F. Lachlan who completed the ...

Rio de Janeiro, 28 September 2013 – As the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (BSC) team up to deliver key cardio messages at the 68th BSC Congress in Rio de Janeiro (28 September to 1 October 2013), new research underscores the essential role of cardiology specialists in Brazil. Cerebrovascular disease (CBVD) remains the leading cause of death in Rio de Janeiro, with poverty, poor fitness and education levels, and increasing rates of obesity contributing to these deaths annually, said Dr. Regina Fonseca from the Federal University ...

Croatia joined the European Union on 1 July and conservation scientists fear that the EU's rules could cause problems for its brown bear population. The country has been managing its brown bears as game animals, meaning they can be hunted; but under EU legislation, bears are a protected species and can only be shot if they are deemed to be problem animals. This might seem to be a positive outcome for the bears. However, it could lead to reduced tolerance for bears among local people, because the local economy will lose valuable revenue from hunting, according to a ...

Even more surprising, analysis show that the molecule is identical to Tramadol, a wholly synthetic medication that is used world-wide as a painkiller. According to the research team, this is the first time ever that a synthetic medication produced by the pharmaceutical industry has been discovered in strong concentrations in a natural source. This unexpected discovery had just been published in the chemical journal' "Angewandte Chemie" Nauclea latifolia (also know as the pin cushion tree) is a small shrub that is widely abundant throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. In traditional ...

Two species of tawny brown singing mice that live deep in the mountain cloud forests of Costa Rica and Panama set their boundaries by emitting high-pitched trills, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered. Although males of both the Alston's singing mouse (Scotinomys teguina) and Chiriqui singing mouse (S. xerampelinus) sing to attract mates and repel rivals within their respective species, the findings show for the first time that communication is being used to create geographic boundaries between species. In this case, the smaller Alston's ...

Professor Hannes Lohi's research group at the University of Helsinki and Folkhälsan Research Center has identified a mutation in ITGA10 gene, causing chondrodysplasia in two dog breeds, the Norwegian Elkhound and the Karelian Bear Dog. The research revealed a new chondrodysplasia gene in dogs, and a candidate gene for human chondrodysplasias. The finding has implications on bone biology as well as canine health. A genetic test can now be used to identify mutation carriers in the two affected dog breeds. The study was published on the scientific journal PLOS ONE on 25 September ...

New research, led by the University of Southampton, has shown that people in debt are three times more likely to have a mental health problem than those not in debt. There is currently around £156 billion in unsecured debt such as credit cards in the UK, of which the average family owes more than £11,000. Levels of debt have increased in recent years due to the economic recession and are predicted to increase further. Researchers from the University of Southampton, along with a researcher from Kingston University, carried out a systematic review on all previous research ...

NEW YORK--With nearly two billion people suffering from malnutrition across the planet, scientists and public health experts came together under an unprecedented alliance spearheaded by The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science at the New York Academy of Sciences to create A Global Research Agenda for Nutrition Science to identify the most critical knowledge gaps in the field of nutrition. The report supports the ongoing effort to accelerate global commitment, cooperative work, and funding to uncover and implement scientific and evidence-based solutions to malnutrition. This ...

Outreach programs that build relationships between families and schools may reduce the number of students who change schools for reasons other than grade promotion, according to a new study from researchers at Rice University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Columbia University. The researchers used data from a five-year study that examined the negative consequences of students changing schools for reasons other than grade promotion and the impact of an outreach program designed to enhance relationships between families and school personnel. The study found ...

Migrating cells, it seems, cover their tracks not for fear of being followed, but to keep moving forward. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have now shown that cells in a zebrafish embryo determine which direction they move in by effectively erasing the path behind them. The findings, published online today in Nature, could have implications not just for development but also for cancer and metastasis. As a zebrafish embryo develops, a group of cells migrate down the side of its body, leaving clumps of cells along the ...

Hidden in the thick foliage of tropical forests a subfamily of colorful beetles hides the secrets of the earliest stages of social behavior, showing explicit signs of maternal instincts and care. An international team of scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Centro Universitário de Lavras, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, and Université libre de Bruxelles looked into the complex subsocial behaviors present in the extraordinary Chrysomelinae subfamily to discover and describe in detail the different degrees of maternal instincts present ...

This news release is available in German. At present lithium is most popular for its use in rechargeable batteries. But for decades now, lithium has also been used to treat various psychological diseases such as depressions, manias and bipolar disorders. But, the exact biological mode of action in certain brain regions has hardly been understood. It is well known that lithium lightens moods and reduces aggression potential. Because it is so hard to dose, doctors have been reluctant to prescribe this "universal drug". Nonetheless, a number of international studies ...

Rosemont, Ill.–Shared decision making refers to a set of principles that can be employed by patients and their physicians to explicitly incorporate patient preferences and values into clinical decision making. Past research shows that patients, who have an enhanced knowledge of their medical conditions and treatment alternatives, demonstrate a reduced anxiety when it comes to medical decision making. A recent study in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery looked at a group of patients with advanced hip and knee osteoarthritis and found that they reached an informed treatment ...

HUNTSVILLE, TX -- While research consistently estimates that one in every four women in higher education will experience rape or attempted rape during their college careers, limited proactive approaches to address the issue are found on Texas college campuses, according to the Crime Victims' Institute at Sam Houston State University. A study of 74 two-and four-year institutions of higher education in Texas, published by the Crime Victims' Institute, found that while campuses have made strides in addressing sexual assault, efforts continue to be necessary to prevent and ...

Needham, MA.–JBJS Case Connector, an online case journal published by The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, has issued a "Watch" regarding early intraprosthetic dislocation with dual-mobility hip implants. The "Watch" is based on two case reports published in the September 25th issue, in addition to recent cases in the orthopaedic literature pointing to similar problems. In both cases of early intraprosthetic dislocation described in this issue of JBJS Case Connector, surgeons chose a mix-and-match strategy to minimize surgical complexity and bone loss and to maximize ...

This news release is available in French. In the era of globalization, bilingualism is becoming more and more frequent, and it is considered a plus. However, can this skill turn into a disadvantage, when someone acquires aphasia? More precisely, if a bilingual person suffers brain damage (i.e. stroke, head trauma, dementia) and this results in a language impairment called aphasia, then the two languages can be disrupted, thus increasing the challenge of language rehabilitation. According to Dr. Ana Inés Ansaldo, researcher at the Research Centre of the Institut universitaire ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 26, 2013—Traumatic brain injury (TBI) during childhood can have long-term effects on cognitive and psychosocial functioning, including poor academic achievement. Pediatric TBI can cause significant deficits in working memory, as demonstrated in a study published in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma website at http://www.liebertpub.com/neu. Working memory is the ability to collect, retain, and use information needed to perform ...

A good painter uses simple strokes of a brush to bring texture, contrast and depth to a blank canvas. In comparison, computer programs can have difficulty reproducing the complex and varied forms of brushstrokes, and often require painstaking effort to mimic a brief sweep of paint. Now, a team of researchers including scientists at Princeton University has developed a program that allows graphic artists to quickly and easily produce realistic brushstrokes on their computers. Called RealBrush, the program combines graphics algorithms with "Big Data" storage and retrieval ...

In the age of social media, people's inner lives are increasingly recorded through the language they use online. With this in mind, an interdisciplinary group of University of Pennsylvania researchers is interested in whether a computational analysis of this language can provide as much, or more, insight into their personalities as traditional methods used by psychologists, such as self-reported surveys and questionnaires. In a recent study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, 75,000 people voluntarily completed a common personality questionnaire through a Facebook application ...

Typhoon Pabuk weakened and the core of the storm was changing from a warm core tropical system to a cold core low pressure system as it continued paralleling the coast of Japan on Sept. 26. NASA's Aqua satellite provided a visible image of the transforming storm that had lost its eye. On Sept. 26, 2013 at 03:55 UTC/Sept. 25 at 11:55 p.m. EDT, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Pabuk skirting eastern Japan. MODIS imagery also showed a steady influx of cold air stratocumulus ...

The continued accumulation of sand within the iconic ring-shaped reefs inside Maldivian atolls could provide a foundation for future island development new research suggests. Islands like the Maldives are considered likely to be the first to feel the effects of climate change induced sea level rise, with future island growth essential to counter the threat of rising sea levels. The study published in the journal Geology, and carried out by researchers from the University of Exeter in collaboration with the University of Auckland, James Cook University, the National Institute ...

LA JOLLA, CA -- September 26, 2013 -- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered an important process by which special immune cells in the skin help heal wounds. They found that these skin-resident immune cells function as "first responders" to skin injuries in part by producing the molecule known as interleukin-17A (IL-17A), which wards off infection and promotes wound healing. "This appears to be a critical and unique component of mammals' defense against skin wounds, and we hope that it will point the way towards better therapies for people ...

Invasive species are among the world's greatest threats to native species and biodiversity. Once invasive plants become established, they can alter soil chemistry and shift nutrient cycling in an ecosystem. This can have important impacts not only on plant composition, diversity, and succession within a community, but also in the cycling of critical elements like carbon and nitrogen on a larger, potentially even global, scale. Clearly, both native and exotic plants form intimate relationships with bacteria in the soil that facilitate the extraction and conversion of elements ...