LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Using data derived from nuclear weapons testing of the 1950s and '60s, Lawrence Livermore scientists have found that a small portion of the human brain involved in memory makes new neurons well into adulthood. The research may have profound impacts on human behavior and mental health. The study supports the importance of investigating the therapeutic potential of applying adult neurogenesis to the treatment of age-related cognitive disorders. Neurogenesis is the process by which neurons are generated from neural stem and progenitor cells, and, until ...

Several years ago, Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center became the first center in the United States to test an Israeli-invented device designed to increase the space between the prostate and the rectum in prostate cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. Now, results from the international Phase I clinical trial show that the device has the potential to significantly reduce rectal injury, a side effect caused by unwanted radiation exposure that can leave men with compromised bowel function following treatment. Results of the 27-patient prospective ...

Inbreeding is generally deleterious, even in flowering plants. Since inbreeding raises the risk that bad copies of a gene will be expressed, inbred progeny suffer from reduced viability. Many flowering plants are able to recognize and reject their own pollen, thereby preventing inbreeding despite the plants' hermaphroditic nature. This mechanism is a complex trait that involves the interaction of a gene that tags the pollen with an identifier molecule, and a gene that produces a molecule capable of detecting pollen produced by the same plant. Evolutionary biologists ...

Biofuels developed from plant biomass and purpose-grown crops can substantially move California toward its ambitious energy goals, a new report says, but only through the wise allocation of feedstocks and the success of energy efficiency measures throughout the state. That's the conclusion of "California Energy Future: the Potential for Biofuels," a report of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) co-authored by Energy Biosciences Institute scientists Heather Youngs and Chris Somerville. The study is one of seven produced by the CCST's California's Energy ...

For more than a decade, scientists have suspected that hairpin-shaped chains of micro-RNA regulate wood formation inside plant cells. Now, scientists at NC State University have found the first example and mapped out key relationships that control the process. The research, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of June 10, describes how one strand of micro-RNA reduced by more than 20 percent the formation of lignin, which gives wood its strength. Understanding how to reduce lignin at the cellular level could lead to advances in ...

Scientists in Sydney, Australia, have discovered that obesity and type 2 diabetes in pregnancy can program children to develop metabolic problems later in life. The good news is, this legacy is not set in stone—if children of obese mothers are careful about what they eat, it can be overturned. The study, carried out by scientists at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, is published in the June edition of the journal Epigenetics. By using genetically identical mice as a model, the team investigated the effects of having a mother with obesity and type 2 diabetes. ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – New GSA BULLETIN articles posted online ahead of print on 7 June cover granite, granitoids, and kimberlite; Garwood Valley Antarctica; Death Valley, California, USA; Esan Volcanic Complex, Japan; and Little Lake, California, USA. Some questions addressed include how melting affects granite emplacement; "how do you bury an ancient remnant ice sheet?"; how glaciation affected the evolution of Death Valley; and the risk of eruption at the Esan Volcanic Complex. GSA BULLETIN articles published ahead of print are online at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent; ...

Females play a larger role in determining paternity than previously thought, say biologists in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences. Their findings are the subject of a new paper titled "Female mediation of competitive fertilization success in Drosophila melanogaster," published this month by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Stefan Lüpold, a research assistant professor in the college's Department of Biology and the paper's lead author, says the findings have major implications for the study of sexual selection, ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects more than 170 million people worldwide. Approximately 80 percent of infections lead to chronic illness including fibrosis, cirrhosis, cancer and also hepatic iron overload. A new study completed by researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine reveals that HCV not only alters expression of the iron-uptake receptor known as transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) but that TfR1 also mediates HCV entry. "We have not yet discovered a cure for Hepatitis C, however discovering the relationship between HCV and TfR1 sheds more light ...

Women with a severe form of morning sickness who take antihistamines to help them sleep through their debilitating nausea are significantly more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes, including low birth weight babies and premature births, a UCLA study has found. The findings, the first to link antihistamine use to adverse pregnancy outcomes, are important because babies born before 37 weeks often are hospitalized longer than full term babies, can experience problems breathing and feeding, are more prone to infection and can suffer from developmental problems. ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — For patients managing cancer and other chronic health issues, painkillers such as morphine and Vicodin are often essential for pain relief. The body's natural tendency to develop tolerance to these medications, however, often requires patients to take higher doses – increasing risks of harmful side effects and dependency. Now, new research from the University of Michigan Health System and a major pharmaceutical company has identified a novel approach to moderate and severe pain therapy that paves the way for lower dosage painkillers. The findings ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Although many abused women suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and/or depression, they are not receiving needed mental health services, a University of Missouri researcher found. "More than half of the women participating in our study suffered from depression, PTSD or both illnesses," said Mansoo Yu, an assistant professor of social work in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. "However, most of the survivors had not used mental health services in the past year, even though they reported having access to the services. Social stigmas, ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Biologists from Indiana University and Montana State University have discovered a striking connection between viruses such as HIV and Ebola and viruses that infect organisms called archaea that grow in volcanic hot springs. Despite the huge difference in environments and a 2 billion year evolutionary time span between archaea and humans, the viruses hijack the same set of proteins to break out of infected cells. In eukaryotes -- the group that includes plants and animals -- and in archaea -- micro-organisms with no defined nucleus in their cellular ...

Although scientists have known since the middle of the 19th century that the tropics are teeming with species while the poles harbor relatively few, the origin of the most dramatic and pervasive biodiversity on Earth has never been clear. New research sheds light on how that pattern came about. Furthermore, it confirms that the tropics have been and continue to be the Earth's engine of biodiversity. By examining marine bivalves (two-shelled mollusks including scallops, cockles and oysters), a model system for large-scale ecological and evolutionary analysis, the study ...

Schizophrenia, a chronic and devastating disorder characterized by the breakdown of cognition processes and typical emotional and behavioral responses, has been affecting people throughout history. Scientists believe that several genes are associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia but that no single gene causes the disease by itself. It is likely that interactions between genes and the environment are necessary for schizophrenia to develop and that epigenetic change also plays a role. Researchers from the University of Tokushima in Japan have published in the June ...

AKRON, OHIO, June 10, 2013 – It's not going to happen while you're peering through your binoculars, but African glossy starlings change color more than 10 times faster than their ancestors and even their modern relatives, according to researchers at The University of Akron and Columbia University. And these relatively rapid changes have led to new species of birds with color combinations previously unseen, according to the study funded in part by the National Science Foundation and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. "Many people ...

New research reveals that transplantation of partial livers from deceased adult and teen donors has become less risky for infants and young children, helping to save these young lives. Findings published online in Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, indicate that risk of organ failure and mortality from partial or split liver transplant was comparable to whole organ transplant in this pediatric population. Available livers for transplantation are in short supply, ...

The amount of dust being blown across the landscape has increased over the last 17 years in large swaths of the West, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The escalation in dust emissions — which may be due to the interplay of several factors, including increased windstorm frequency, drought cycles and changing land-use patterns — has implications both for the areas where the dust is first picked up by the winds and for the places where the dust is put back down. "Dust storms cause a large-scale reorganization of nutrients on the surface ...

Vancouver, British Columbia – Just a few years ago, integrated positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance (PET/MR) imaging was found only in research institutes, but little by little the technology has expanded into clinical practice. This is especially true for cardiac indications, for which the highly sensitive soft tissue contrast of MR and the functional and metabolic imaging of PET are particularly valuable. New research proves the value of PET/MR compared to PET/computed tomography (CT) in cardiac applications, say researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Soccer players who 'head' the ball with high frequency demonstrate poorer performance on memory tests and have brain abnormalities similar to those found in traumatic brain injury patients, according to a study published online in the journal Radiology. "We chose to study soccer players, because soccer is the most popular sport worldwide," said Michael L. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and medical director of MRI at Montefiore Medical Center in New York ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The JC polyomavirus is clearly opportunistic. It infects half the population but lethally destroys brain tissue only in immunocompromised patients — and it may be outright sneaky, too. Even as a new research paper allays fears that common mutant forms of the virus are the ones directly responsible for the disease's main attack, that same finding raises new questions about what the mutants are doing instead. Even if they are not the ones killing key brain cells, the mutants are up to some kind of no good, scientists suspect, because ...

June 11, 2013 -- (BRONX, NY) — Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have shown that soccer players who frequently head the ball have brain abnormalities resembling those found in patients with concussion (mild traumatic brain injury). The study, which used advanced imaging techniques and cognitive tests that assessed memory, published online today in the journal Radiology. "We studied soccer players because soccer is the world's most popular sport," said Michael L. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., associate director of Einstein's Gruss Magnetic ...

A new study by UBC's Sauder School of Business says retailers should consider admonishing queue jumpers and thoughtless store browsers to ease aggression between shoppers. "Our study shows that retailers can play a key role in mitigating conflict by calling shoppers on bad shopping etiquette," says Lily Lin, a recent graduate of the Sauder PhD program about her study published in June's Journal of Consumer Research. "This is important because research shows retailers can get part of the blame for their badly behaved customers." In an experiment, the researcher set ...

St. Charles Church is holding their 3rd Annual Fiesta on Father's Day weekend of June 15 & 16. The Fiesta is a feast for the eyes, ears and stomach—well known musicians from across New Mexico, including Gonzalo and NBC's "The Voice" contestant Mary Miranda, will be there to entertain you! New Mexican and Vietnamese food specials are a must! Family games for kids, bingo for adults, Cardinal Burger competition for competitive eaters...we have events for all age groups! Check out our raffle, pull tabs and themed baskets. Come out and enjoy the fun, food and festivities! ...

WordPress is by very far the most used blogging platform out there. In fact it has become much more than just a blogging engine, powering over 75 millions websites, roughly 25% of the websites run on the entire Internet. With the launch of the iPad in 2010, quickly followed by many competing tablets, new habits rose among Internet users. Digital books became more and more popular and even surpassed hardcover books in terms of sales on Amazon. A designer and web developer from Switzerland, Mirko Humbert, noticed that, despite the huge popularity of eBooks, it was still ...