Bethesda, Md. (Sept. 16, 2013)—From bird flu to the West Nile virus, bird diseases can have a vast impact on humans. Thus, understanding bird immune systems can help people in a variety of ways, including protecting ourselves from disease and protecting our interests in birds as food animals. An important element in the immune system of many animals' immune systems—including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and most animals with a backbone—is a protein called tristetraprolin, or TTP. TTP plays an anti-inflammatory role, largely through keeping another protein, called tumor ...

Granada - (16 September 2013) – Backed by research that demonstrates significant health benefits as well as unparalleled taste that meets consumer needs, food ingredients are taking center stage as thousands of experts from around the world converge to discuss the state of global health and nutrition at the leading international nutrition conference taking place this week in Spain. At a time when global dietary guidance recommendations call for people to increase intake of dietary fibre while decreasing consumption of sodium, there is a heightened need for great-tasting, ...

The way the stomach detects and tells our brains how full we are becomes damaged in obese people but does not return to normal once they lose weight, according to new research from the University of Adelaide. Researchers believe this could be a key reason why most people who lose weight on a diet eventually put that weight back on. In laboratory studies, University of Adelaide PhD student Stephen Kentish investigated the impact of a high-fat diet on the gut's ability to signal fullness, and whether those changes revert back to normal by losing weight. The results, ...

Philadelphia, Pa. -- Spinal injuries are present in 1 out of 9 U.S. military personnel sustaining combat injuries in Iraq or Afghanistan -- a much higher rate than in previous wars, according to a report in the Sept. 15 issue of Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. "The incidence of spine trauma in modern warfare exceeds reported rates from earlier conflicts," according to the new study, led by Dr Andrew J. Schoenfeld of William Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, Texas. The sharp increase in spinal injuries ...

The difference between Noggin and basic fibroblast growth factor for the neural precursor differentiation from human embryonic stem cells has not been studied. Prof. Xuejin Chen and colleagues from Shanghai Jiao Tong University were the first to utilize 100 µg/L Noggin or 20 µg/L basic fibroblast growth factor in serum-free neural induction medium to differentiate human embryonic stem cells H14 into neural precursors using monolayer differentiation. The researchers found that Noggin has a greater effect than basic fibroblast growth factor on the induction of human embryonic ...

Cytoglobin is a temporary oxygen reservoir, which might provide a minimal, but continuous supply of intracellular oxygen during ischemic and anoxic conditions. A research team from China Medical University was the first to use a plasmid carrying green fluorescent protein as the carrier to construct recombinant plasmids expressing cytoglobin by genetic engineering methods. Then, the recombinant plasmid was transfected into SH-SY5Y cells. Xiuling Yu and colleagues found that overexpression of cytoglobin could protect SH-SY5Y cells against cobalt chloride-induced hypoxia. ...

GUELPH, ON, CANADA -- Because Wisconsin and Ontario are similar in terms of agricultural practices, types of vegetable crops produced, climate, and latitude, researchers in Ontario looked to data from Wisconsin when comparing the long-term effects of climate on vegetable crop yield. According to researchers from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada), the length of the growing season is similar in the two locations, so growing conditions and yields could also be similar. Michael Tesfaendrias, Mary Ruth McDonald, and Jon Warland published the results of their extensive ...

Australian researchers have identified a potentially treatable subtype of pancreatic cancer, which accounts for about 2% of new cases. This subtype expresses high levels of the HER2 gene. HER2-amplified breast and gastric cancers are currently treated with Herceptin. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cause of cancer death in Western societies, with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5%. It is a molecularly diverse disease, meaning that each tumour will respond only to specific treatments that target its unique molecular make-up. A new study, published ...

SALINAS, CA -- Throughout California's fertile central coast region, fresh spinach is a high-production, high-value crop. Spinach can be finicky, requiring sufficient nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation to ensure ideal growth, and to meet industry quality standards such as its defining deep green color. These production practices -- combined with a shallow root system and the crop's intensive production cycle -- can increase the potential of detrimental nitrate leaching. Recent water quality monitoring in the region has found widespread incidences of NO3 levels that exceed ...

A gentler new chemistry promises cleaner and subsequently far safer pharmaceuticals. The ground-breaking method, developed by a chemistry research group at the University of Copenhagen, is now published in the internationally renowned journal, Chemical Communications, as "Site-selective three component reaction for dual functionalization of peptides". Knud J. Jensen, the group's leader, is convinced that the method will become pivotal in the development of new pharmaceuticals. "This method opens a new chest of tools. I believe, it will be applied to pharmaceutical research ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (September 16, 2013) – The hormone oxytocin could play a role in treating psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, according to a review article in the September Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Among other biological effects, oxytocin is "an important regulator of human social behaviors," according to the research review by Dr David Cochran of University of Massachusetts Medical School and colleagues. They discuss the preliminary but encouraging ...

This news release is available in German. Today, most information is transmitted by light – for example in optical fibres. Computer chips, however, work electronically. Somewhere between the optical data highway and the electronic chips, photons have to be converted into electrons using light-detectors. Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology have now managed to combine a graphene photodetector with a standard silicon chip. It can transform light of all important frequencies used in telecommunications into electrical signals. The scientific results have ...

A new study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that during a decade when prescription opioid use has skyrocketed, the identification and treatment of pain has failed to improve, and the use of non-opioid analgesics has plateaued, or even declined. The study was published online September 13 in the journal Medical Care. "There is an epidemic of prescription opioid addiction and abuse in the United States," notes G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, associate professor of Epidemology and Medicine and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug ...

In co-operation with a research group from Singapore, scientists at University of Copenhagen have shown that immature sugar molecules in the form of truncated O-glycans aid growth properties of cancer cells. Previously, scientists have not been able to decode the significance of these truncated O-glycans, and therefore, the results, which were recently published in the journal PNAS, represent an important contribution to understanding the growth of cancer cells as well as the work towards developing a cure that can limit or stop the growth. Catharina Steentoft, PhD student ...

Philadelphia, PA, September 16, 2013 – Just as wires must be insulated to effectively carry electrical impulses, nerve cells must be insulated by myelin to effectively transmit neural impulses. Using typical magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, one can visually distinguish parts of the brain that look white and parts that look gray. Myelin is most prevalent in the white matter because this component of the brain tissue is principally comprised by the nerve cell projections (axons) that are covered by myelin and that transmit information from one part of the brain to another. ...

Electronic data routinely gathered in hospitals can be used as a warning system for missed doses of prescribed medicine and making improvements to patient safety, says a new study. A team from the Universities of Leicester and Birmingham found that the secondary use of data from an electronic prescribing and decision support system in an English hospital led to a 'substantial and sustained' reduction in rates of missed or delayed doses of medicines. Published in the world-leading health policy journal Milbank Quarterly, the study looked at how using the electronic ...

More than half of all patients with pre-existing dementia will experience delirium while hospitalized. Failing to detect and treat their delirium early leads to a faster decline of both their physical and mental health, according to health researchers. "This study is important, as delirium is often overlooked and minimized in the hospital setting, especially in persons with dementia," said Donna M. Fick, Distinguished Professor of Nursing at Penn State and principal investigator for this study. "And it illustrates that delirium is deadly, costly and impacts patient functioning." ...

New research from the Niels Bohr Institute shows that cement made with waste ash from sugar production is stronger than ordinary cement. The research shows that the ash helps to bind water in the cement so that it is stronger, can withstand higher pressure and crumbles less. At the same time, energy is saved and pollution from cement production is reduced. The results are published in the scientific journal, Scientific Reports. Cement is comprised of chalk and clay, which are mixed together and heated at high temperatures in a cement kiln. The mixture is then crushed ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new theoretical model that will speed the development of new nanomaterial alloys that retain their advantageous properties at elevated temperatures. Nanoscale materials are made up of tiny crystals, or grains, that are less than 100 nanometers in diameter. These materials are of interest to researchers, designers and manufacturers because two materials can have the same chemical composition but very different mechanical properties depending on their grain size. For example, materials with nanoscale grains ...

Scientists have discovered that a drug which increases the risk of sudden cardiac death interacts with mistranslated protein-coding genes present in heart muscle. The cardiac drug flecainide was developed to prevent and treat serious arrhythmias in the ventricles - the main pumps of the heart. These cause very rapid heart rates which can be lethal if unchecked. However in clinical trials, flecainide, and its sister molecule encainide, were reported to more than double the risk of sudden cardiac death. Joint work by researchers in the Department of Chemistry and Warwick ...

Scientists at the University of Warwick have modelled an outbreak of the bee infection American foulbrood in Jersey, using a technique which could be applied to other honeybee diseases such as European foulbrood and the Varroa parasite. As well as modelling how bee infections spread, the method also allows scientists to simulate various disease control interventions in order to measure their efficacy. The researchers used two sets of data gathered two months apart during an outbreak of American foulbrood in Jersey in the summer of 2010. This provided two 'snapshots' ...

Why some people are troubled by cold sores while others are not has finally been explained by scientists. Cold sores affect around one in five people but, until now, no one has been sure why some are more prone to the virus that causes them. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that people affected by cold sores have a mutation in a gene, which means their immune system is not able to prevent them from developing. Cold sores are caused by a strain of the herpes simplex virus – herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). Between 80 and 90 per cent of people ...

There were three tropical cyclones between the north Eastern Pacific and the North Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, Sept. 14, and NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured them in one image created by NASA. Because Mexico was being hit with Tropical Storm Ingrid and Manuel, both coasts were under Tropical Storm Warnings. The National Hurricane Center cautioned that some areas in eastern and western Mexico may receive up to two feet of rainfall from each storm! NASA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center uses the data gathered by NOAA's GOES series of satellites and ...

ATHENS, GA--As water use and runoff regulations become more stringent and concerns about dwindling water supplies become more of an issue, finding ways to increase the efficiency of water use for horticultural operations is crucial. A new study contains answers that can help horticultural growers address regulatory and cost concerns. Amanda Bayer, lead author of the research study, explained that most often horticultural best management practices (BMPs) are used to conserve water, but that BMPs do not account for water requirements of plants. "Soil moisture sensors can ...

BOSTON (September 16, 2013) — Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have identified how one type of bacteria, Yersinia, immobilizes the immune system in order to grow in the organs of mice. To do so, the researchers extended the use of a technique and suggest that it could be used to study other bacteria that use the same or similar means of infection. The study is published in the September 11 issue of Cell Host & Microbe. Led by microbiologist Joan Mecsas, the research team studied a specific ...