A new study by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers led by Christian Weber sheds light on the role of the adhesion molecule JAM-A in the recruitment of immune cells to the inner layer of arteries – which promotes the development of atherosclerosis. Multiphoton microscopy makes it possible to image the vessel wall (blue: collagen) and inner lining of an artery that has been subjected to atherosclerosis-promoting conditions. Staining for endothelial cells (red) and JAM-A (green) reveals the localization of JAM-A at the cell junctions and the first ...

Boosting testosterone can promote generosity, but only when there is no threat of competition, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that testosterone is implicated in behaviors that help to foster and maintain social relationships, indicating that its effects are more nuanced than previously thought. "Testosterone may mediate competitive and potentially antisocial behavior when social challenges or threats need to be confronted and handled," explains lead researcher Maarten ...

Chestnut Hill, MA (September 30, 2013) - It's a long held belief that parental and administrative support helps breed academic success; now there's data to back that up. A new study released today by the IEA and the TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College examines what makes up "cultural educational excellence" while quantifying the strengths of best practices at school, and at home. "The data supports many long held beliefs about good ways of raising your children and preparing them for school," says Dr. Michael Martin of Boston College, co-executive ...

NASA's Terra satellite passed over Typhoon Wutip on its approach to a landfall in Vietnam and a visible image revealed its 10-mile-wide eye, and large extent. Wutip was making landfall near Dong Hoi Vietnam around 0900 UTC/5 a.m. EDT. On Sept. 30 at 03:35 UTC/Sept. 29 at 11:35 p.m. EDT, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite took a visible image of Typhoon Wutip, clearly showing its eye. At that time, Wutip was still approaching landfall in Vietnam and the heaviest rainfall and strongest thunderstorms ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A cheap and simple process using natural fibers embedded with nanoparticles can almost completely rid water of harmful textile dyes in minutes, report Cornell University and Colombian researchers who worked with native Colombian plant fibers. Dyes, such as indigo blue used to color blue jeans, threaten waterways near textile plants in South America, India and China. Such dyes are toxic, and they discolor the water, thereby reducing light to the water plants, which limits photosynthesis and lowers the oxygen in the water. The study, published in the August ...

Bethesda, MD—A group of really brainy scientists have moved closer to growing "therapeutic" brain cells in the laboratory that can be re-integrated back into patients' brains to treat a wide range of neurological conditions. According to new research published online in The FASEB Journal, brain cells from a small biopsy can be used to grow large numbers of new personalized cells that are not only "healthy," but also possess powerful attributes to preserve and protect the brain from future injury, toxins and diseases. Scientists are hopeful that ultimately these cells could ...

Tropical Depression 11 formed in the central Atlantic Ocean and NASA's TRMM satellite passed overhead and gathered information and identified a "hot tower" that indicated it would strengthen. The depression became Tropical Storm Jerry on Sept. 30 at 10:30 a.m. EDT. The eleventh Atlantic tropical depression formed around 11 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Sept. 28, about 960 miles/1,540 km east-northeast of the Leeward Islands and was moving north at 9 mph. When NASA's TRMM or Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite flew over Tropical Depression 11 on Sept. 30 at 09:28 ...

Geologists and geophysicists of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), discovered traces of large ice sheets from the Pleistocene on a seamount off the north-eastern coast of Russia. These marks confirm for the first time that within the past 800,000 years in the course of ice ages, ice sheets more than a kilometre thick also formed in the Arctic Ocean. The climate history for this part of the Arctic now needs to be rewritten, report the AWI scientists jointly with their South Korean colleagues in the title story of the current ...

More Hispanic Texans die from cancer than any other cause, according to a new report by the Comparative Effectiveness Research on Cancer in Texas research group. The report documents cancer as the leading cause of death among Hispanic Texans under the age of 76. Only three percent of Hispanic Texans are older than 75. Texas's Hispanic population has more than doubled since 1990. Texans of Hispanic ethnicity now comprise 38 percent of the state's population. The findings are published in a September 2013 special issue of the Texas Public Health Journal, available online ...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2013 – A string of fiber-optic sensors running along a 36-km stretch of high-speed commuter railroad lines connecting Hong Kong to mainland China has taken more than 10 million measurements over the past few years in a demonstration that the system can help safeguard commuter trains and freight cars against accidents. Attuned to the contact between trains and tracks, the sensors can detect potential problems like excessive vibrations, mechanical defects or speed and temperature anomalies. The system is wired to warn train operators immediately of such ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 30, 2013—Many factors can affect blood sugar control at high altitudes, and people considering a mountain journey need to understand the potential risks of the environmental extremes, extensive exercise, and dietary changes they may experience. Insulin needs may increase or decrease and individuals with poorly controlled diabetes are especially at risk for hypothermia, frostbite, and dehydration, for example. These and other dangers are described by two doctors who have diabetes and are avid mountaineers in an article published in High Altitude ...

HOUSTON -- In the first study of its kind, Rice University scientists have used synthetic biology to study how a popular soil amendment called "biochar" can interfere with the chemical signals that some microbes use to communicate. The class of compounds studied includes those used by some plant pathogens to coordinate their attacks. Biochar is charcoal that is produced -- typically from waste wood, manure or leaves -- for use as a soil additive. Studies have found biochar can improve both the nutrient- and water-holding properties of soil, but its popularity in recent ...

Tropical Depression Sepat formed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on the storm, revealing some strong thunderstorms. Tropical Depression Sepat, the twenty-first tropical depression in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, formed on Sept. 30. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Sepat on Sept. 30 at 03:23 UTC/Sept. 29 at 11:23 p.m. EDT. As Aqua passed overhead, that Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard Aqua looked at the storm in infrared light. The AIRS data showed some cold cloud tops of thunderstorms ...

Similar to using Python or Java to write code for a computer, chemists soon could be able to use a structured set of instructions to "program" how DNA molecules interact in a test tube or cell. A team led by the University of Washington has developed a programming language for chemistry that it hopes will streamline efforts to design a network that can guide the behavior of chemical-reaction mixtures in the same way that embedded electronic controllers guide cars, robots and other devices. In medicine, such networks could serve as "smart" drug deliverers or disease detectors ...

(TORONTO, Canada; Sept. 30, 2013) – Canada should begin screening 'Baby Boomers' for the hepatitis C virus infection, since this age group is likely the largest group to have the illness, and most don't know they have it, say a group of liver specialists in the Toronto Western Hospital Francis Family Liver Clinic. Unlike many other chronic viral infections, early treatment makes hepatitis C curable. In an article entitled, A Canadian Screening Program for hepatitis C – is Now the Time? published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) Sept. 30, 2013, by Drs. ...

TORONTO, Sept. 30, 2013—More than half the people in Ontario who reported they had major depression did not use physician-based mental health services in the following year, a new study has found. "It's concerning to us that many Ontarians with mental health needs are not accessing clinician-based care," said Katherine Smith, the lead author and epidemiologist in the Centre for Research on Inner City Health of St. Michael's Hospital. "Some people may seek non-medical types of support or care, such as clergy, alternative medicine, psychologists or social workers. But ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- UC Davis Health System researchers have identified for the first time a biological pathway that is activated when blood sugar levels are abnormally high and causes irregular heartbeats, a condition known as cardiac arrhythmia that is linked with heart failure and sudden cardiac death. Reported online today in the journal "Nature," the discovery helps explain why diabetes is a significant independent risk factor for heart disease. "The novel molecular understanding we have uncovered paves the way for new therapeutic strategies that protect the ...

The twenty-first and twenty-second tropical depressions of the northwestern Pacific Ocean formed on Sept. 30 and while one is headed to the northeast, the other is headed to the northwest. Tropical Depression 21W also known as Sepat is forecast to turn to the northeast and parallel the coast of eastern Japan, while staying far off-shore. Tropical Depression 22W, however, is taking a different route and heading to the northwest. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite gathered infrared data on Sept. 30 at 04:59 UTC/12:59 ...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A tiny chip used in smart phones to adjust the orientation of the screen could serve to create a real-time urban seismic network, easily increasing the amount of strong motion data collected during a large earthquake, according to a new study published in the October issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA). Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) accelerometers measure the rate of acceleration of ground motion and vibration of cars, buildings and installations. In the 1990s MEMS accelerometers revolutionized the automotive airbag ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 29, 2013 – One problem in developing more efficient organic LED light bulbs and displays for TVs and phones is that much of the light is polarized in one direction and thus trapped within the light-emitting diode, or LED. University of Utah physicists believe they have solved the problem by creating a new organic molecule that is shaped like rotelle – wagon-wheel pasta – rather than spaghetti. The rotelle-shaped molecule – known as a "pi-conjugated spoked-wheel macrocycle" – acts the opposite of polarizing sunglasses, which screen out glare reflected ...

Daejeon, Republic of Korea, September 29, 2013 -- For many decades, we have been relying on fossil resources to produce liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and many industrial and consumer chemicals for daily use. However, increasing strains on natural resources as well as environmental issues including global warming have triggered a strong interest in developing sustainable ways to obtain fuels and chemicals. Gasoline, the petroleum-derived product that is most widely used as a fuel for transportation, is a mixture of hydrocarbons, additives, and blending agents. ...

HOUSTON -- (Sep. 29, 2013) – As so many genome studies do, this study published online in the journal Nature Genetics began with a single patient and his parents who were in search of a diagnosis. The parents of this first patient sought genetic testing for Prader-Willi syndrome when he was only a year old, but the test, which was still in its infancy, came back negative. For the next 12 years, his parents were left in limbo. He had many features of the disease – including lack of muscle tone, feeding difficulties and failure to thrive early on. Autism spectrum disorder ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A research team centered at Brown University has compiled the largest and most stringently validated list of RNA editing sites in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, a stalwart of biological research. Their research, which yielded several insights into the model organism's fundamental biology, appears Sept. 29 in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. The "master list" totals 3,581 sites in which the enzyme ADAR might swap an "A" nucleotide for a "G" in an RNA molecule. Such a seemingly small tweak means a lot because it changes ...

A programme funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation may have saved around 600,000 people in India from becoming infected with HIV over the course of a decade, according to a new report. Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative, which was launched in 2003, aimed to prevent HIV transmission in the general population through a comprehensive HIV prevention programme including the promotion of condoms among the people at most risk – female sex workers, high risk men who have sex with men and intravenous drug users – in the six Indian states with the highest HIV rates. In an ...

LA JOLLA, CA – September 29, 2013 – Highlighting an important but unexplored area of evolution, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found evidence that, over hundreds of millions of years, an essential protein has evolved chiefly by changing how it moves, rather than by changing its basic molecular structure. The work has implications not only for the understanding of protein evolution, but also for the design of antibiotics and other drugs that target the protein in question. "Proteins are machines that have structures and motions," said TSRI Professor ...