On the surface, Wild chronicles Cheryl Strayed's three-month solitary hike along the Pacific Crest Trail; however, as her journey progresses, we gradually learn more about Cheryl's troubled past and the events that drove her to pursue this particular quest. For Cheryl, the epic journey is not only an extreme physical challenge but a way for her to come to terms with her personal demons. She has recently lost her mother and amicably divorced her husband - among other issues. It seems trite to see the journey as a metaphor but one can hardly avoid seeing Cheryl's emotional ...

Eurodent, the leading low-cost dental clinic chain, is opening a new clinic in Bergen, on the Western coast of Norway on the 3rd of March 2014. Located at Strandgaten 6, 5013 Bergen 2, this new clinic will continue in Eurodent's tradition of providing a premier dental office visit experience, while showcasing the latest in dental technology, all at an affordable price. This clinic will join the other Eurodent clinics already in operation, located in Alta, Oslo, and Budapest. News, location, and more information about this new clinic can be found at http://www.tannlegebergen.com Leading ...

Filling vacancies is a continuous struggle for property managers, and apartment hunting is no small task for renters. With so many properties and websites to sort through, renters are looking for a quick and easy way to move into their new home. Here are 3 tips to simplify the process and help property managers drive applicants to their vacancies. 1. An effective online visibility. Nowadays, there are so many places to advertise vacancies online. Recent changes to Craigslist no longer allow convenient links back to company websites. Renters must either copy and ...

Astronauts floating weightlessly in the International Space Station may appear carefree, but years of research have shown that microgravity causes changes to the human body. Spaceflight also means exposure to more radiation. Together, microgravity and radiation exposure add up to pose serious health risks. But research is not only making space safer for astronauts, it's helping to improve health care for the Earth-bound as well. One of the effects of space radiation is damage to DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic material in nearly every cell of our bodies. ...

In this month's edition of Physics World, professional "science doodler" Perrin Ireland gives her unique take on one of Richard Feynman's famous lectures, 50 years after it was first delivered. The doodle is made up of an array of small, colourful, cartoon-like pictures that merge into one big collage representing Feynman's "The Great Conservation Principles" lecture that he gave at Cornell University in 1964 – one of the first of Feynman's lectures to be captured on film. The doodle, which was commissioned as part of Physics World's special issue on education, includes ...

Cold Spring Harbor, NY – At 85, Nobel laureate James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA, continues to advance intriguing scientific ideas. His latest, a hypothesis on the causation of type 2 diabetes, is to appear 7 pm Thursday US time in the online pages of The Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal. Watson's hypothesis, which is featured as the Lancet cover story in the U.S. print edition dated March 1-7, 2014, suggests that diabetes, dementias, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers are linked to a failure to generate sufficient ...

Increasing the number of calories consumed by patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may be a relatively simple way of extending their survival. A phase 2 clinical trial led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) physicians found that ALS patients receiving a high-calorie, high-carbohydrate tube-feeding formula lived longer with fewer adverse events than participants who received a standard formula designed maintain their weight. While the small size of the trial indicates results need to be interpreted with caution, the authors are optimistic that improved ...

The discovery of direct cell-to-cell transmission of HIV, and the finding that some anti-HIV drugs don't seem active against virus that spreads that way, have caused questions and concern. A study published on February 27th in PLOS Pathogens tested a panel of anti-HIV drugs for their ability to suppress cell-to-cell transmission of the virus. The results reveal differences between different drugs, explain why and how anti-retroviral therapy (ART) does work, and have implications for the prevention of drug resistance as well as the development of new effective anti-HIV drugs. ...

Early but not advanced forms of atherosclerotic plaques in the vessel wall disappear when the levels of 'bad' cholesterol are lowered, according to a study in mice from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. The findings, published in PLoS Genetics, indicate that preventative cholesterol-lowering treatment could prevent more advanced, clinically relevant plaque to develop. Almost half of all deaths worldwide are caused by strokes and heart attacks. The main underlying cause is atherosclerosis, where fat accumulates in the blood vessel walls in the so-called plaques. Atherosclerosis ...

(Boston) – A study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) provides novel insight into the impact that genes may have on Huntington's disease (HD). The study, published online in PLOS Genetics, identified specific small segments of RNA (called micro RNA or miRNA) encoded in DNA in the human genome that are highly expressed in HD. Micro RNAs are important because they regulate the expression of genes. The researchers showed that these miRNAs are present in higher quantities in patients with HD and may act as a mitigating factor in the neurologic ...

PHILADELPHIA – The role of the so-called "obesity hormone" leptin and hormones used for birth control in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) is examined in two new studies released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014. For the obesity study, BMI was calculated for 210 people with MS and 210 people of the same age and sex who did not have MS at ages 15 and 20 and at the time of the study. The study found that people who are obese at age 20 are twice as likely to later develop ...

Australian lizards are attracted to females with the brightest orange patches – but preferably not too large – on their underbelly, according to research published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Lake Eyre dragon lizards, Ctenophorus maculosus, are found exclusively in salt deserts in southern Australia, where they feed on dead insects blown onto the salt crust. When females become fertile they develop bright orange patches on their normally pale underbelly and change their behavior towards males: instead of "waving them away" with their ...

One-third of people who survive a stroke before age 50 are unable to live independently or need assistance with daily activities 10 years after their stroke, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. About 10 percent of strokes occur in 18- and 50-year-olds. "Even if patients seem relatively well recovered with respect to motor function, there may still be immense 'invisible' damage that leads to loss of independence," said Frank-Erik de Leeuw, Ph.D., senior author of the study and associate professor of neurology at the Radboud University ...

Australian astronomers have discovered what makes some spiral galaxies fat and bulging while others are flat discs — and it's all about how fast they spin. The research, led by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth, found that fast-rotating spiral galaxies are flat and thin while equally sized galaxies that rotate slowly are fatter. The study was published today in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal and was part of "The Evolving Universe" research theme of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO). ICRAR Research ...

Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School, Drs. Beste Kinikoglu and Yawei Kong, led by Dr. Eric C. Liao, cultured and characterized for the first time multipotent neural crest cells isolated from zebrafish embryos. This important study is reported in the February 2014 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine. Neural crest is a unique cell population induced at the lateral border of the neural plate during embryogenesis and vertebrate development depends on these multipotent migratory cells. Defects in neural crest development result ...

HOUSTON, Feb. 27, 2014 – A University of Houston (UH) scientist and his team are working to develop the next generation of prostate cancer therapies, which are targeted at metabolism. With approximately one out of six American men being diagnosed and nearly a quarter of a million new cases expected this year, prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men in the U.S. Since prostate cancer relies on androgens for growth and survival, androgen ablation therapies are the standard of care for late-stage disease. While patients initially respond favorably to this ...

University of Adelaide researchers have developed a new web-based tool to help unlock the complex genetics and biological processes behind grapevine development. Published in the journal BMC Genomics, the researchers describe their online database that can be used to examine how almost 30,000 genes work together in groups and networks to produce the vine and its grapes. "The complexity of plants is easily overlooked when we're enjoying a glass of wine," says project leader Associate Professor Christopher Ford at the University's School of Agriculture, Food and Wine. ...

For more than half a century, the American Bar Association has vetted the nation's judicial nominees, certifying candidates as "well qualified," "qualified," or "not qualified" and in the process rankling conservatives and liberals alike when nominees earn less than stellar marks. Now a new study suggests that the sometimes-controversial ratings could be tilted against minorities and women. An analysis of 1,770 district court nominations from 1960 to 2012 finds that the ABA systematically awards lower ratings to minorities and women than to white or male candidates. However, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A molecule in cells that shuts down the expression of genes might be a promising target for new drugs designed to treat the most frequent and lethal form of brain cancer, according to a new study by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). The findings, published in the journal Cancer Research, show that high levels of the enzyme PRMT5 are associated with aggressive growth of the brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The malignancy ...

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. (Feb. 27, 2014) — Social workers will see their roles in patient care expand as hospitals and other providers draw on a range of professionals to meet the demands of the Affordable Care Act, experts told the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work Forum "Health Care Reform: From Policy to Practice." Former Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO Charles D. Baker Jr., the keynote speaker, said social workers bring an expansive view of care options and can play crucial roles, particularly under a "team-based care" approach. "When I think of social workers, ...

A new study from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) demonstrates that it is possible to qualify bison coming from an infected herd as free of brucellosis using quarantine procedures. These bison can then be used to seed conservation herds in other landscapes without the threat of spreading the disease. In response to Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) guidelines on federal and state bison management actions, the USDA, APHIS Brucellosis Eradication: Uniform Methods and Rules protocol for the quarantine ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 27, 2014 – Genetic and environmental evidence indicates that after the ancestors of Native Americans left Asia, they spent 10,000 years in shrubby lowlands on a broad land bridge that once linked Siberia and Alaska. Archaeological evidence is lacking because it drowned beneath the Bering Sea when sea levels rose. University of Utah anthropologist Dennis O'Rourke and two colleagues make that argument in the Friday, Feb. 28, issue of the journal Science. They seek to reconcile existing genetic and paleoenvironmental evidence for human habitation on ...

BOSTON -- In biology, as in real estate, location matters. Working copies of active genes -- called messenger RNAs or mRNAs -- are positioned strategically throughout living tissues, and their location often helps regulate how cells and tissues grow and develop. But to analyze many mRNAs simultaneously, scientists have had to grind cells to a pulp, which left them no good way to pinpoint where those mRNAs sat within the cell. Now a team at the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, in collaboration with ...

NEW YORK (February 27, 2014) -- A new study led by Weill Cornell Medical College scientists shows that the most common genetic form of mental retardation and autism occurs because of a mechanism that shuts off the gene associated with the disease. The findings, published today in Science, also show that a drug that blocks this silencing mechanism can prevent fragile X syndrome – suggesting similar therapy is possible for 20 other diseases that range from mental retardation to multisystem failure. Fragile X syndrome occurs mostly in boys, causing intellectual disability ...

A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder bolsters the theory that the first Americans, who are believed to have come over from northeast Asia during the last ice age, may have been isolated on the Bering Land Bridge for thousands of years before spreading throughout the Americas. The theory, now known as the "Beringia Standstill," was first proposed in 1997 by two Latin American geneticists and refined in 2007 by a team led by the University of Tartu in Estonia that sampled mitrochondrial DNA from more than 600 Native Americans. The researchers found that ...