PORTLAND, Ore. — An HIV/AIDS vaccine candidate developed by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University appears to have the ability to completely clear an AIDS-causing virus from the body. The promising vaccine candidate is being developed at OHSU's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. It is being tested through the use of a non-human primate form of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, which causes AIDS in monkeys. Following further development, it is hoped an HIV-form of the vaccine candidate can soon be tested in humans. These research results were ...

A team of researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has developed an antibody that could prevent Candida infections that often afflict hospitalized patients who receive central lines. Margaret Hostetter, MD, director of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children's, and her team developed the antibody, which prevents Candida albicans from binding to heparin, thereby stopping the formation of biofilm in a rat model of catheter-associated infection. A biofilm is a multi-layered buildup of millions of microorganisms that coat the inside of the catheter The ...

DETROIT – Patients with longer-lasting chest pain are more likely having a heart attack than those with pain of a shorter duration, according to a study by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. The study is published in the September issue of Critical Pathways in Cardiology. Every year, eight to 10 million people in the U.S. go to emergency departments for chest pain. But only 15󈞊 percent of them are having a heart attack. The characteristics of chest pain are important to diagnosing the cause. Researchers studied the relationship between the length of time ...

Hanover, NH – In a study to be published in the journal Nature, two Dartmouth researchers have found that the protein cyclin A plays an important but previously unknown role in the cell division process, acting as a master controller to ensure the faithful segregation of chromosomes during cell division. Cell division is the process in which cells reproduce by splitting into two identical copies. This process happens trillions of times in an average person's lifetime. To generate two identical copies, cells must separate their chromosomes precisely, an event that relies ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Many climate studies have predicted that tree species will respond to global warming by migrating via seed dispersal to cooler climates. But a new study of 65 different species in 31 eastern states finds evidence of a different, unexpected response. Nearly 80 percent of the species aren't yet shifting their geographic distributions to higher latitudes. Instead, they're staying in place -- but speeding up their life cycles. The Duke University-led study, published online Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Global Change Biology, is the first to show ...

Wild Asian elephants slink quietly away at the sound of a growling tiger, but trumpet and growl before retreating from leopard growls, researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found. The work, published Sept. 11 in the journal Biology Letters, could help Indian farmers protect their crops from marauding elephants and save the lives of both people and animals. "We noticed that the elephants were more scared of tigers than of leopards," said Vivek Thuppil, who carried out the work with Richard Coss, professor of psychology at UC Davis, as part of his Ph.D. ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A team of researchers has shown that 8-month-old infants expect objects they identify as animals to have insides. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. University of Illinois professor of psychology Renée Baillargeon, who led the new study with graduate student Peipei Setoh, said that many psychologists have theorized that babies are born with core physical and psychological frameworks that help them navigate the world. For instance, when babies see a self-propelled object, their core physical framework leads them ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers have transported two endangered freshwater mussel species from Pennsylvania to Illinois in an attempt to re-establish their populations in the western part of the Ohio River Basin. The team of biologists, led by Jeremy Tiemann, of the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), traveled to the site of a bridge-replacement project on Pennsylvania's Allegheny River to collect northern riffleshell (Epioblasma rangiana) and clubshell (Pleurobema clava) mussels. The INHS is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois. The ...

VIDEO: In this satellite flyby animation, NASA's TRMM satellite passed over Humberto on Sept. 10 and measured rainfall rates of up to 2 inches/50 mm per hour (red) in the large... Click here for more information. Two NASA satellites passed over the hurricane in the Eastern Atlantic on Sept. 10 gathering information about the environment of Hurricane Humberto. NASA's Aqua satellite gathered infrared and visible data on Humberto's clouds while NASA's TRMM satellite measured ...

At work on the International Space Station, researchers studying plant and cell growth in space encountered a challenge. Imaging revealed interesting spaceflight-associated root morphologies. They needed to fix the tissues for further study back on Earth, but conventional fixation methods require separate fixatives depending on whether the sample is intended for molecular or morphological study. If the scientists wanted to study how spaceflight affected patterns of gene expression central to morphological patterns of cell growth, they needed a fixation method that would ...

More than one billion people worldwide rely on fish as an important source of animal protein, states the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. And while fish provide slightly over 7 per cent of animal protein in North America, in Asia they represent about 23 per cent of consumption. Humans consume low levels of methylmercury by eating fish and seafood. Methylmercury compounds specifically target the central nervous system, and among the many effects of their exposure are visual disturbances, which were previously thought to be solely due to methylmercury-induced ...

The worst impacts of climate change on the world's poorest fishing communities can likely be avoided by careful management of the local environment and investing in the diversification of options for local people, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and James Cook University. Climate change is already putting pressure on fishers who depend on nature for their livelihoods. In a new study, scientists found large differences in the potential to adapt based on the local mixture of social and environmental characteristics, requiring a variety of management approaches ...

CHICAGO --- A new study shows significant health benefits for uninsured people living under the federal poverty level in the suburbs when they receive access to primary care. Uninsured residents in a suburban collar county of Chicago reported a big improvement in their health status and increased their preventive care and screenings after one year of access to primary care, reports Northwestern Medicine research. The study illustrates the potential benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation and a promising solution to accessible health care for what are ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The modern-day tulip tree, state tree of Indiana as well as Kentucky and Tennessee, can trace its lineage back to the time of the dinosaurs, according to newly published research by an Indiana University paleobotanist and a Russian botanist. The tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipfera, has been considered part of the magnolia family. But David Dilcher of Indiana University Bloomington and Mikhail S. Romanov of the N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden in Moscow show that it is closely related to fossil plant specimens from the Lower Cretaceous period. Their ...

Most of the time, we try to avoid inflicting pain on others — when we do hurt someone, we typically experience guilt, remorse, or other feelings of distress. But for some, cruelty can be pleasurable, even exciting. New research suggests that this kind of everyday sadism is real and more common than we might think. Two studies led by psychological scientist Erin Buckels of the University of British Columbia revealed that people who score high on a measure of sadism seem to derive pleasure from behaviors that hurt others, and are even willing to expend extra effort to make ...

Irritable bowel syndrome patients extensively suffer from chronic visceral hypersensitivity, with involvement of all levels of the brain-gut axis, as well as various neurotransmitters. Chronic visceral hypersensitivity can occur in the periphery, spinal cord and central nervous system, which has been shown to be the main pathophysiological mechanism underlying abdominal pain in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Acupuncture at Tianshu (ST25) and Shangjuxu (ST37) has been reported to relieve visceral hypersensitivity for irritable bowel syndrome. Xinxin Guo and colleagues ...

The population of northeastern China has a high incidence of ischemic stroke. Previous studies have shown that intracranial large-artery atherosclerosis is one of the main causes of ischemic stroke, and that the mechanisms are related to inflammation and thrombosis of the affected arteries. A recent study by Lianqiu Min and colleagues from Liaoning Medical University observed the effects of atorvastatin treatment in 89 patients from northeastern China with acute ischemic stroke caused by intracranial large-artery atherosclerosis by measuring changes in the levels of markers ...

Astragaloside IV, the main component of the traditional Chinese medicine astragalus membra-naceus, has been shown to inhibit inflammation, oxidation, and apoptosis, and exerts immu-noregulatory effects. Xiaohong Zhang and colleagues from School of Pharmacutical Sciences, Jilin University investigated whether astragaloside IV could promote the repair of injured sciatic nerve. Denervated sciatic nerve of mice was subjected to anastomosis. The mice were intraperitoneally injected with 10, 5, 2.5 mg/kg astragaloside IV per day for 8 consecutive days. The researchers found that ...

Singapore, 11 September 2013 – By binding multiple molecules of a common leukemia drug with nanodiamonds, scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) managed to boost the delivery of the drug to leukemic cells and retain the drug within the cells to combat the cancer. This novel discovery, reported for the first time, addresses one of the major challenges in the treatment of leukemia where the cancer cells develop ways to pump drugs out of the body before they can do their job, particularly after they are ...

SYDNEY: A UNSW-led team of astronomers has begun to map the location of the most massive and mysterious objects in our galaxy – the giant gas clouds where new stars are born. Using a telescope at Coonabarabran that narrowly escaped devastation in a recent bushfire, the team identifies the galactic clouds of molecular gas - which can be up to 100 light years across - from the carbon monoxide they contain. "On Earth, carbon monoxide is poisonous – a silent killer. But in space, it is the second most abundant molecule and the easiest to see," says Professor Michael Burton, ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 317-262-5907 (Indianapolis Press Center, Sept. 6-11) 202-872-6042 Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 317-262-5907 (Indianapolis Press Center, Sept. 6-11) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society Obesity combined with exposure to cigarette smoke may pose new health concerns INDIANAPOLIS -- Millions of people who are obese and smoke tobacco may face additional health problems -- including their responses to common prescription medicines -- that extend beyond the well-known links with cancer, heart attacks and stroke, ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 317-262-5907 (Indianapolis Press Center, Sept. 6-11) 202-872-6042 Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 317-262-5907 (Indianapolis Press Center, Sept. 6-11) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society Latest research on ingredients that make chocolate, olive oil, tea healthful foods INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 11, 2013 — The scientific spotlight focuses today on the healthful antioxidant substances in red wine, dark chocolate, olive oil, coffee, tea, and other foods and dietary supplements that are enticing millions of consumers ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 317-262-5907 (Indianapolis Press Center, Sept. 6-11) 202-872-6042 Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 317-262-5907 (Indianapolis Press Center, Sept. 6-11) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society T-rays offer potential for earlier diagnosis of melanoma INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 11, 2013 — The technology that peeks underneath clothing at airport security screening check points has great potential for looking underneath human skin to diagnose cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages, a scientist said here today. The ...

Researchers at The Mount Sinai Medical Center have developed an innovative system to test how a virus interacts with cells in the body — to see, for example, what happens in lung cells when a deadly respiratory virus attacks them. In the journal Cell Host & Microbe, investigators say such a technique will not only speed basic research into viral biology, it will also help scientists improve vaccine production, generate novel antiviral compounds, and advance the development of viruses that attack cancer cells. "We have a powerful system in place today to investigate ...

CORAL GABLES, FL (September 9, 2013) — Recently, the global financial market experienced a series of computer glitches that abruptly brought operations to a halt. One reason for these "flash freezes" may be the sudden emergence of mobs of ultrafast robots, which trade on the global markets and operate at speeds beyond human capability, thus overwhelming the system. The appearance of this "ultrafast machine ecology" is documented in a new study published on September 11 in Nature Scientific Reports. The findings suggest that for time scales less than one second, the financial ...