UFC fan favorite Diego Sanchez is scheduled to fight against Takanori Gomi on March 3, 2013 at UFC on Fuel TV 8. Diego, the first "Ultimate Fighter" TV show winner, has also announced his decision to drop down from welterweight to lightweight, once again. In order to handle the weight drop and train safely, Diego has committed himself to a rigorous and all natural training regimen, which includes deer antler velvet spray from Nutronics Labs. Diego Sanchez recently tweeted: -- "Can't wait to get the best deer antler velvet available in my system" -- ...

The paper "Possible consequences of the overlap between the CaMV 35S promoter regions in plant transformation vectors used and the viral gene VI in transgenic plants" by Nancy Podevin and Patrick du Jardin—published in GM Crops & Food, 3(4), 296-300 (October/November/December 2012)—has this last week become the basis for a public controversy about certain aspects of the safety of foods containing or derived from GM ingredients. It has been pointed out that wider discussion of the issue might be hampered by the fee hitherto levied for downloading this paper. In order to ...

Doctors may one day treat some forms of blindness by altering the genetic program of the light-sensing cells of the eye, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Working in mice with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that causes gradual blindness, the researchers reprogrammed the cells in the eye that enable night vision. The change made the cells more similar to other cells that provide sight during daylight hours and prevented degeneration of the retina, the light-sensing structure in the back of the eye. The scientists now are ...

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – A rustle of undergrowth in the outback: it's a sound that might make an animal or person stop sharply and be still, in the anticipation of a predator. That "freezing" is part of the fear response, a reaction to a stimulus in the environment and part of the brain's determination of whether to be afraid of it. A neuroscience group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) led by Assistant Professor Bo Li Ph.D., together with collaborator Professor Z. Josh Huang Ph.D., today release the results of a new study that examines the how fear responses ...

Scientists at Arizona State University are celebrating their recent success on the path to understanding what makes the fiber that spiders spin – weight for weight - at least five times as strong as piano wire. They have found a way to obtain a wide variety of elastic properties of the silk of several intact spiders' webs using a sophisticated but non–invasive laser light scattering technique. "Spider silk has a unique combination of mechanical strength and elasticity that make it one of the toughest materials we know," said Professor Jeffery Yarger of ASU's Department ...

Scientists at A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) headed a study that discovered four processes by which gastric cancer is formed. This is extremely important since gastric cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide, claiming almost 750,000 lives annually, 60% of which are Asians. Using what is known as next-generation sequencing technologies, GIS scientists were able to provide a comprehensive view of the gastric cancer genome, characterizing micro- and macro-scale mutations. This led to the identification of four distinct processes that ...

For patients with type 1 diabetes, a dual-hormone artificial pancreas system (also known as a closed-loop delivery system) improved the control of glucose levels and reduced the risk of hypoglycemia compared with conventional pump treatment in a trial published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). It is challenging for patients with type 1 diabetes to control their glucose levels because tight glucose control increases the incidence of hypoglycemia (dangerously low glucose levels). Insulin pump treatment, which provides a continuous predetermined subcutaneous ...

A new study of randomized clinical trials found significant observer bias toward a more beneficial treatment effect in nonblinded trials when the researcher knew the treatment being given to the participant. The study is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "Nonblinded assessors of subjective measurement scales outcomes in randomized clinical trials tended to generate substantially biased effect sizes," writes Dr. Asbjørn Hróbjartsson, The Nordic Cochrane Centre, Rigshospitalet Department, Copenhagen, Denmark, with coauthors. Danish and French researchers ...

PORTLAND, Ore., January 28, 2013—For people with diabetes, meeting the recommended guidelines for blood pressure and cholesterol is even more important than meeting the guidelines for blood sugar control in reducing the risk of heart attack or stroke, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published today in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study included more than 26,000 patients with diabetes. Patients who met guidelines for all three risk factors and those who met the blood pressure and cholesterol guidelines were least likely to be hospitalized for ...

For seniors who are constipated, the use of polyethylene glycol and lactulose are effective, according to a review of current treatments published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). The article reviews the latest evidence on the efficacy and safety of treatments to help doctors treat their patients. Constipation, which increases with age, is a common complaint in seniors that can have serious health consequences and affect quality of life. Excessive straining in frail people can cause fainting and the risk of injury from falling or restrict blood flow to ...

Japanese researchers show for the first time that primates modify their body movements to be in tune with others, just like humans do. Humans unconsciously modify their movements to be in synchrony with their peers. For example, we adapt our pace to walk in step or clap in unison at the end of a concert. This phenomenon is thought to reflect bonding and facilitate human interaction. Researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute report today that pairs of macaque monkeys also spontaneously coordinate their movements to reach synchrony. This research opens the door ...

GRAFTON, Mass. (January 28, 2013)—A popular dog treat could be adding more calories than pet owners realize, and possibly be contaminated by bacteria, according to a study published this month by researchers at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the University of Guelph. The treat in question: the "bully" or "pizzle stick." The American and Canadian researchers analyzed the caloric density and bacterial contamination of these popular items, made from the uncooked, dried penis of a bull or steer. They also administered a survey to pet owners ...

Synapse development is promoted by a variety of cell adhesion molecules that connect neurons and organize synaptic proteins. Many of these adhesion molecules are linked to neurodevelopmental disorders; mutations in neuroligin and neurexin proteins, for example, are associated with autism and schizophrenia. According to a study in The Journal of Cell Biology, another family of proteins linked to these disorders regulates the function of neuroligins and neurexins in order to suppress the development of inhibitory synapses. Like neurexins and neuroligins, the neuronal proteins ...

Just as the body can become resistant to antibiotics, certain methods of killing cancer tumors can end up creating resistant tumor cells. But a University of Central Florida professor has found a protein present in several types of cancer, including breast and ovarian cancer, which could be helpful in preventing tumors from coming back. The protein, KLF8, appears to protect tumor cells from drugs aimed at killing them and even aid the tumor cells' ability to regenerate. "All cells have a DNA-repair mechanism," explained Jihe Zhao, a medical doctor and researcher who ...

Hyderabad, India, and Shenzhen, China (28 January 2013) – In a scientific breakthrough that promises improved grain yields and quality, greater drought tolerance and disease resistance, and enhanced genetic diversity, a global research team has completed high-quality sequencing of not one but ninety genomes of chickpea. Nature Biotechnology, the highest ranked journal in the area of biotechnology, featured the reference genome of the CDC Frontier chickpea variety and genome sequence of 90 cultivated and wild genotypes from 10 different countries, as an online publication ...

Sophia Antipolis, 28 January 2013: The radial approach for percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) was developed 20 years ago and is used for more than 50% of procedures in France, Scandinavian countries, the UK, Spain and Italy. Despite the advantages of radial access some countries in Europe such as Germany use radial access for fewer than 10% of PCI. Evidence has accumulated in the literature showing the benefits of radial over femoral access for PCI including reduced bleeding and improved survival. In addition, the development of smaller and thinner devices has ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When researchers sequence the RNA of cancer cells, they can compare it to normal cells and see where there is more RNA. That can help lead them to the gene or protein that might be triggering the cancer. But other than spotting a few known instigators, what does it mean? Is there more RNA because it's synthesizing too quickly or because it's not degrading fast enough? What part of the biological equilibrium is off? After more than a decade of work, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a technique to ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ⎯ The heat generated by everyday energy consumption in metropolitan areas is significant enough to influence the character of major atmospheric circulation systems, including the jet stream during winter months, and cause continental-scale surface warming in high latitudes, according to a trio of climate researchers that includes Ming Cai, a professor in Florida State University's Department of Meteorology. Led by Guang Zhang, a research meteorologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, the scientists ...

Research conducted by Matthew Shaffer, a doctoral psychology student at UT and C. Veronica Smith, an assistant psychology professor at the University of Mississippi, reveals that the first sexual experience can set the tone for the rest of one's sexual life. The study is published in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy and is the first to look at whether the circumstances of losing one's virginity have lasting consequences. "The loss of virginity is often viewed as an important milestone in human development, signifying a transition to adulthood," said Shaffer. ...

The majority of Americans support a broad array of policies to reduce gun violence, according to a new national public opinion survey conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. These policies include: requiring universal background checks for all gun sales (supported by 89 percent); banning the sale of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons (69 percent); banning the sale of large-capacity ammunition magazines (68 percent); and prohibiting high-risk individuals from having guns, including those convicted of a serious crime as a ...

PHILADELPHIA—A mailing or phone call to help patients get screened for colorectal cancer significantly increases their chances of actually getting tested, according to a study published in the January issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention by researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson. The research team, led by Ronald E. Myers, Ph.D., Professor and Director of Division of Population Science, Department of Medical Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University, performed a randomized, controlled trial of 945 people aged 50-79 to test the impact of a ...

Stanford Engineering's Center for Turbulence Research (CTR) has set a new record in computational science by successfully using a supercomputer with more than one million computing cores to solve a complex fluid dynamics problem—the prediction of noise generated by a supersonic jet engine. Joseph Nichols, a research associate in the center, worked on the newly installed Sequoia IBM Bluegene/Q system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL) funded by the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Sequoia ...

"We see functional stupidity as the absence of critical reflection. It is a state of unity and consensus that makes employees in an organisation avoid questioning decisions, structures and visions", says Mats Alvesson. "Paradoxically, this sometimes helps to raise productivity in an organisation." Together with colleague André Spicer, Mats Alvesson has written an article entitled 'A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organisations', which was recently published in the renowned Journal of Management Studies and has been featured in the Financial Times. In the article, he expounds ...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2013—A new optical prescription for automobile side-view mirrors may eliminate the dreaded "blind spot" in traffic without distorting the perceived distance of cars approaching from behind. As described in a paper published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) journal Optics Letters, objects viewed in a mirror using the new design appear larger than in traditional side-view mirrors, so it's easier to judge their following distance and speed. Today's motor vehicles in the United States use two different types of mirrors for the driver and passenger ...

'Evil' scientists, deadly viruses and terrorist plots are usually the preserve of Hollywood blockbusters. But when it comes to pandemic influenza, it is the stuff of real life. As controversy about research into the H5N1 bird flu virus continues, a new paper argues for a complete overhaul of current approaches to pandemic preparedness. To Pandemic or Not? Reconfiguring Global Responses to Influenza, by Dr Paul Forster, of the ESRC STEPS Centre, investigates the H1N1 swine flu pandemic of 2009-10 and sets out some vital lessons if we are to prepare for pandemic influenza ...