The spleen is rarely noticed, until it is missing. In children born without this organ, that doesn't happen until they become sick with life-threatening bacterial infections. An international team of researchers led by scientists from Rockefeller's St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics and Infectious Diseases has now identified the defective gene responsible for this rare disorder. The findings, reported today in Science Express, may lead to new diagnostic tests and raises new questions about the role of this gene in the body's protein-making machinery. Medically known ...

MADISON — When it comes to delivering genes to living human tissue, the odds of success come down the molecule. The entire therapy — including the tools used to bring new genetic material into a cell — must have predictable effects. Now, a new screening process will simplify non-viral transfection, providing a method researchers and clinicians use to find an optimal set of biomaterials to deliver genes to cells. Developed by William Murphy, the Harvey D. Spangler professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the method gives researchers ...

An area of low pressure moving toward Cyclone Imelda from the west has turned the storm to the south from its westward track, as NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured a visible and an infrared image of the powerful storm that showed the effects of wind shear. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Imelda on April 11 at 0925 UTC (5:25 a.m. EDT). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard Aqua captured a visible image that showed a well-developed Tropical Cyclone Imelda in the Southern Indian Ocean that has now turned ...

A team of scientists has pieced together how the hominid Australopithecus sediba (Au. sediba) walked, chewed, and moved nearly two million years ago. Their research, which appears in six papers in the latest issue of the journal Science, also shows that Au. sediba had a notable feature that differed from that of modern humans—a functionally longer and more flexible lower back. Together, the studies offer a comprehensive depiction of some of the most complete early human ancestral remains ever discovered. Since its discovery in August 2008, the site of Malapa—located ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to the World Health Organization, more than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. And it's not just humans who are packing on the pounds. Our furry companions are plagued by an obesity epidemic of their own. More than 50 percent of the dogs and cats in the United States are overweight or obese. In a new paper on pet obesity in the Journal of Animal Science, University of Illinois professor of animal and nutritional sciences Kelly Swanson and his colleagues describe how nutrients and biological compounds in foods can affect gene expression ...

A new hypothesis has been developed by researchers in Bochum on how Alzheimer's disease could occur. They analysed the interaction of the proteins FE65 and BLM that regulate cell division. In the cell culture model, they discovered spherical structures in the nucleus that contained FE65 and BLM. The interaction of the proteins triggered a wrong signal for cell division. This may explain the degeneration and death of nerve cells in Alzheimer's patients. The team led by Dr. Thorsten Müller and Prof. Dr. Katrin Marcus from the Department of Functional Proteomics in cooperation ...

The M6.5 flare on the morning of April 11, 2013, was also associated with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), another solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later. CMEs can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME began at 3:36 a.m. EDT on April 11, leaving the sun at over 600 miles per second. Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they connect with ...

When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Cyclone Victoria in the Southern Indian Ocean it captured a visible image of the storm and it appeared to look like the letter "J." A band of thunderstorms wrapping into the center from the east of low-level center of circulation extended north, creating the appearance of the letter. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Victoria on April 11 at 0320 UTC (April 10 at 11:20 p.m. EDT). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard Aqua captured the visible image that showed strong thunderstorms ...

A new study reveals what happens in our brain when we decide to purchase a piece of music when we hear it for the first time. The study, conducted at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University and published in the journal Science on April 12, pinpoints the specific brain activity that makes new music rewarding and predicts the decision to purchase music. Participants in the study listened to 60 previously unheard music excerpts while undergoing functional resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, providing bids of how much they were willing ...

An ice cloud taking shape over Titan's south pole is the latest sign that the change of seasons is setting off a cascade of radical changes in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon. Made from an unknown ice, this type of cloud has long hung over Titan's north pole, where it is now fading, according to observations made by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) on NASA's Cassini spacecraft. "We associate this particular kind of ice cloud with winter weather on Titan, and this is the first time we have detected it anywhere but the north pole," said the study's lead ...

UCLA scientists have shown that temporarily blocking a protein critical to immune response actually helps the body clear itself of chronic infection. Published in the April 12 edition of Science, the finding suggests new approaches to treating persistent viral infections like HIV and hepatitis C. The research team studied type-1 interferons (IFN-1), proteins released by cells in response to disease-causing organisms that enable cells to talk to each other and orchestrate an immune response against infection. Constant IFN-1 signaling is also a trademark of chronic viral ...

April 11, 2013 -- The creation and use of information online and the widespread use of the Internet offer exciting new opportunities for patient care, but also require physicians to consider how to best protect patient interests and apply principles of professionalism to online settings, the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) said today in a newly released policy paper, "Online Medical Professionalism: Patient and Public Relationships." "Digital communications and social media use continue to increase in popularity among ...

Harvard researchers are adding statistical nuance to our understanding of how modern and historical temperatures compare. Through developing a statistical model of Arctic temperature and how it relates to instrumental and proxy records derived from trees, ice cores, and lake sediments, Martin Tingley, a research associate in Harvard's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Peter Huybers, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, have shown that the warmest summers in the last two decades are unprecedented in the previous six centuries. Their work is described ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder affects nearly 8 million adults in any given year, federal statistics show. Fortunately, clinical research has identified certain psychological interventions that effectively ameliorate the symptoms of PTSD. But most people struggling with PTSD don't receive those treatments, according to a new report published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. In the report, internationally renowned trauma expert Edna Foa of the University of Pennsylvania and a team of distinguished psychological scientists review studies describing interventions ...

New York, NY—April 11, 2013—Researchers at Columbia Engineering and Boston University have developed the first method to map evaporation globally using weather stations, which will help scientists evaluate water resource management, assess recent trends of evaporation throughout the globe, and validate surface hydrologic models in various conditions. The study was published in the April 1 online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "This is the first time we've been able to map evaporation in a consistent way, using concrete measurements ...

Stem cells can be coaxed to grow into new bone or new cartilage better and faster when given the right molecular cues and room inside a water-loving gel, researchers at Case Western Reserve University show. By creating a three-dimensional checkerboard—one with alternating highly connected and less connected spaces within the hydrogel—the team found adjusting the size of the micropattern could affect stem cell behaviors, such as proliferation and differentiation. Inducing how and where stem cells grow—and into the right kind of cell in three dimensions—has proven a ...

In 1972, a U.S. Senate committee reported, "Many of the great whales which once populated the oceans have now dwindled to the edge of extinction," due to commercial hunting. The committee also worried about how tuna fishing was accidentally killing thousands of dolphins, trapped in fishing gear. And they considered reports about seal hunting and the decline of other mammals, including sea otters and walruses. In October of that year, Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Four decades later, new research shows that the law is working. Not only has the act ...

Obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure (hypertension) are all related, but understanding the molecular pathways that underlie cause and effect is complicated. A new University of Iowa study identifies a protein within certain brain cells as a communications hub for controlling blood pressure, and suggests that abnormal activation of this protein may be a mechanism that links cardiovascular disease and obesity to elevated blood pressure. "Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, and hypertension is a major cardiovascular risk factor," ...

Cold Spring Harbor, NY - Stem cells are different from all other cells in our body because they retain the remarkable genetic plasticity to self-renew indefinitely as well as develop into cell types with more specialized functions. However, this remarkable self-renewal capacity comes with a price, as stem cells can become seeds of cancer. Identifying genetic programs that maintain self-renewing capabilities therefore is a vital step in understanding the errors that derail a normal stem cell, sending it on a path to become a cancer stem cell. Isolating cells from various ...

Research on a soy-based treatment for colorectal cancer, a promising agent in ovarian cancer, and a new drug target for advanced prostate cancer was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 2013 Annual Meeting. The meeting took place April 6-10, 2013 in Washington, DC. Natural Product From Soy May Be Effective in Combination with Chemotherapy The development of colorectal cancer (CRC) is largely driven by cellular signaling in the Wnt pathway, a network of proteins critical to cellular growth. Hyperactivity of the Wnt signaling pathway occurs in ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers have discovered that rising temperature induces key changes in the dengue virus when it enters its human host, and the findings represent a new approach for designing vaccines against the aggressive mosquito-borne pathogen. The researchers found that the dengue virus particles swell slightly and take on a bumpy appearance when heated to human body temperature, exposing "epitopes," or regions where antibodies could attach to neutralize the virus. The discovery is significant because it could help to explain why vaccines against dengue ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Maya are famous for their complex, intertwined calendric systems, and now one calendar, the Maya Long Count, is empirically calibrated to the modern European calendar, according to an international team of researchers. "The Long Count calendar fell into disuse before European contact in the Maya area," said Douglas J. Kennett, professor of environmental archaeology, Penn State. "Methods of tying the Long Count to the modern European calendar used known historical and astronomical events, but when looking at how climate affects the rise and ...

The chances of developing lung cancer associated with asbestos exposure, asbestosis and smoking are dramatically increased when these three risk factors are combined, and quitting smoking significantly reduces the risk of developing lung cancer after long-term asbestos exposure, according to a new study. "The interactions between asbestos exposure, asbestosis and smoking, and their influence on lung cancer risk are incompletely understood," said lead author Steven B. Markowitz, MD DrPH, professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the School of Earth & Environmental ...

Dog sniffs: Supreme Court honors privacy of the home Article provided by Fombelle & Fombelle, LLP Visit us at http://www.decaturdui.com Many criminal cases involve evidentiary issues, which are based on the Fourth Amendment. Case law is constantly evolving, revealing the boundaries of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures -- in the home, car or on a person. The Fourth Amendment analysis requires a thorough understanding of what constitutes a "search" under the Fourth Amendment. This, in turn, helps the criminal justice system uncover ...

An introduction to intentionally defective grantor trusts Article provided by Spencer Law Firm Visit us at http://www.spencerlawfirm.com/ Intentionally defective grantor trusts are valuable estate planning tools that have been used for years to transfer assets to heirs while minimizing estate tax liability. IDGTs came under threat in President Obama's federal budget proposal for 2013, which sought to change the rules governing their tax treatment, making them less attractive for people seeking to transfer assets in a tax-efficient manner. Congress rejected the proposal, ...