CHAMPAIGN, lll. — New insights into a protein complex that regulates the very tips of chromosomes could improve methods of screening anti-cancer drugs. Led by bioengineering professor Sua Myong, the research group's findings are published in the journal Structure. Myong's group focused on understanding the proteins that protect and regulate telomeres, segments of repeating DNA units that cap the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres protect the important gene-coding sections of DNA from loss or damage, the genetic equivalent of aglets – the covering at the tips of shoelaces ...

The sheer number of efforts aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of the U.S. health care system – ranging from portions of the national Affordable Care Act to local programs at individual hospitals and practices – reflects the urgency and importance of the task. One aspect that has received inadequate attention, according to three physicians writing in the January 2013 issue of Academic Medicine, is training the next generation of experts needed to help lead these efforts. In their Perspective article, which has been released online, the authors propose a framework ...

PASADENA, Calif.—For over 150 years, geologists have debated how and when one of the most dramatic features on our planet—the Grand Canyon—was formed. New data unearthed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) builds support for the idea that conventional models, which say the enormous ravine is 5 to 6 million years old, are way off. In fact, the Caltech research points to a Grand Canyon that is many millions of years older than previously thought, says Kenneth A. Farley, Keck Foundation Professor of Geochemistry at Caltech and coauthor of the ...

Fortune 1000 companies that increase their use of marketing analytics improve their return on assets an average 8% and as much as 21%, with returns ranging from $70 million to $180 million in net income, according to a paper written by two key members of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®). The research was conducted by Penn State University Management Science Professor Gary L. Lilien, former president of an INFORMS predecessor society; Arvind Rangaswamy of the Smeal College of Business at Penn State, former president of the INFORMS ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. ¬— The weight gain commonly known as the "Freshman 15" is a negative aspect of the college experience for many college freshmen who are independent for the first time, most making lifestyle decisions about eating and exercise. Researchers say it's no surprise freshmen experience one of the largest weight gains in their lifetimes when they attend college. A new study from the University of Missouri has found that a brief intervention, sometimes as little as 30 minutes, can help put students back on the right track to a healthy lifestyle – a change that can ...

Planetary scientists have identified water ice and unusually dark deposits within permanently shadowed areas at Mercury's north pole. Using data collected by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, a team from UCLA crafted the first accurate thermal model of the solar system's innermost planet, successfully pinpointing the extremely cold regions where ice has been found on or below the surface. The researchers say the newly discovered black deposits are a thin crust of residual organic material brought to the planet over the past several million years through impacts by water-rich ...

KANSAS CITY, MO –Chromatin remodeling—the packaging and unpackaging of genomic DNA and its associated proteins—regulates a host of fundamental cellular processes including gene transcription, DNA repair, programmed cell death as well as cell fate. In their latest study, scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research are continuing to unravel the finicky details of how these architectural alterations are controlled. Through a series of biochemical experiments, Stowers Investigators Ron Conaway, Ph.D., and Joan Conaway, Ph.D., and their team discovered that chromatin ...

One reason that biofuels are expensive to make is that the organisms used to ferment the biomass cannot make effective use of hemicellulose, the next most abundant cell wall component after cellulose. They convert only the glucose in the cellulose, thus using less than half of the available plant material. "Here at the EBI and other places in the biofuel world, people are trying to engineer microbes that can use both," said University of Illinois microbiologist Isaac Cann. "Most of the time what they do is they take genes from different locations and try and stitch all ...

ABOUT BAYLOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION The Baylor School of Education is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and consists of four departments: Curriculum and Instruction (preparation for classroom teachers and specialists); Educational Administration (post-graduate preparation for school leadership); Educational Psychology (undergraduate and graduate programs for those who are interested in learning, development, measurement, and exceptionalities); and Health, Human Performance and Recreation (preparing for sport- and health-related careers, ...

(Phoenix, AZ Nov. 27, 2012) – Lung cancer researchers at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz., in collaboration with researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute and other institutions, have identified a gene that plays a role in the growth and spread of non-small cell lung cancer tumors, opening the door for potential new treatment options. The study, titled "Elevated Expression of Fn14 in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Correlates with Activated EGFR and Promotes Tumor Cell Migration and Invasion," was published in the May 2012 issue ...

VIDEO: MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter sends out laser pulses that hit the ground and return to the instrument. The amount of light that returns for each pulse gives the reflectance at... Click here for more information. A Goddard-built instrument on NASA's MESSENGER mission provided one of three new lines of evidence that water ice exists near the north pole of Mercury. Most of the ice is covered by a thin layer of material that blankets and protects the ice, but in ...

VIDEO: On Nov. 27, 2012, NASA's TRMM satellite revealed that rain in Tropical Storm Bopha was falling at a rate of over 70mm/hour (about 1.75 inches) in the red areas. TRMM... Click here for more information. NASA's TRMM and Aqua satellites captured images of Tropical Storm Bopha as it continues to move through Micronesia in the western North Pacific Ocean and trigger warnings and watches throughout. From its orbit in space, NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission ...

PHILADELPHIA—Treating Parkinson's disease patients with the experimental drug GM1 ganglioside improved symptoms and slowed their progression during a two and a half-year trial, Thomas Jefferson University researchers report in a new study published online November 28 in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences. Although the precise mechanisms of action of this drug are still unclear, the drug may protect patients' dopamine-producing neurons from dying and at least partially restore their function, thereby increasing levels of dopamine, the key neurochemical missing in ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—November 27, 2012—Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have defined for the first time a key underlying process implicated in multiple sclerosis (MS)—a disease that causes progressive and irreversible damage to nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. This discovery offers new hope for the millions who suffer from this debilitating disease for which there is no cure. Researchers in the laboratory of Gladstone Investigator Katerina Akassoglou, PhD, have identified in animal models precisely how a protein that seeps from the blood into the brain sets ...

VIDEO: Spectacular jets powered by the gravitational energy of a supermassive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A illustrate the combined imaging power of two of astronomy's... Click here for more information. Spectacular jets powered by the gravitational energy of a super massive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A illustrate the combined imaging power of two of astronomy's cutting-edge tools, the Hubble Space Telescope's ...

(PHILADELPHIA) – Cancer and stress go hand-in-hand, and high stress levels can lead to poorer health outcomes in cancer patients. The Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine combined creative art therapy with a Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program for women with breast cancer and showed changes in brain activity associated with lower stress and anxiety after the eight-week program. Their new study appears in the December issue of the journal Stress and Health. Daniel Monti, MD, director of the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 30, 2012 – Turkey raises and releases thousands of non-native guineafowl to eat ticks that carry the deadly Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. Yet research suggests guineafowl eat few ticks, but carry the parasites on their feathers, possibly spreading the disease they were meant to stop, says a Turkish biologist working at the University of Utah. "They are introducing a species that is not eating many ticks, based on studies of stomach content, and is carrying the ticks, which are the best conduit for spreading Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever," ...

Cincinnati, OH, November 30, 2012 -- Rates of childhood obesity have tripled in the past 30 years, and food marketing has been implicated as one factor contributing to this trend. Every year, companies spend more than $10 billion in the US marketing their food and beverages to children; 98% of the food products advertised to children on television are high in fat, sugar, or sodium. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers used neuroimaging to study the effects of food logos on obese and healthy weight children. Amanda S. Bruce, ...

Charlottesville, VA (November 30, 2012). Researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, have found an association in the United States between a higher density of neurologists and neurosurgeons and a decreased risk of death from stroke. The findings of their study are described in the article "Association of a higher density of specialist neuroscience providers with fewer deaths from stroke in the United States population. Clinical article," by Atman Desai, M.D., and colleagues, published today online, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery. ...

Charlottesville, VA (November 30, 2012). The JNS Publishing Group is pleased to announce that the December issue of Neurosurgical Focus is dedicated to Concussion: Pathophysiology & Sequelae. Guest editors Paul S. Echlin (Elliott Sports Medicine Clinic, Burlington, ON, Canada), M. Sean Grady (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA), and Shelly D. Timmons (Geisinger Medical Center/Neurosurgery, Danville, PA) selected 11 articles for this issue that focus on methods of diagnosing concussion and evaluating its consequences, structural and functional changes that can ...

Employee sues clothing retailer for racial discrimination A former employee of a clothing chain is suing the company for racial discrimination, alleging that she was fired from her job for being African American. According to the complaint, the employee overheard the executive vice president of the company telling her district manager that the employee "wasn't the right fit for the store" and that it would be preferable to hire someone "with blond hair and blue eyes." The employee says she was fired from her position soon after that conversation. Allegedly, ...

Facebook Increasingly Tied to Divorce Facebook and other social media websites have become integrated into the everyday lives of most Americans. Some keep in touch with loved ones far away, others keep friends and family up to date on their daily lives and some use social media to network with individuals in their field of work. The use of social media does not always have positive results, however. For example, a recent study uncovered that approximately one-third of divorces filed in the United States today mention the word "Facebook." Social Media Used ...

Safe driving tips for winter weather in Massachusetts Cold winter weather can often be accompanied by dangerous driving situations, and it is especially important to keep safety in mind when driving during the winter months. While driving in snow and ice can be nerve wracking, there are many precautions a driver can take to increase safety. Perhaps the most important thing to remember during the winter months is that a person should only drive when it's absolutely necessary. Avoiding driving when the weather is extreme is the easiest way to stay safe. However, if ...

New York's Domestic Incident Report Repository is live, raising concerns Law enforcement officials, legislators, state prosecutors and victims' advocates are hailing New York's new electronic Domestic Incident Report Repository as a win for the state. However, advocates of the DIRR may overlook the negative implications the database may have on those included on domestic reports, including those accused of committing domestic violence and those who are innocent but implicated in a report. What is the Domestic Incident Report Repository? The Domestic Incident Report ...

Former NHL analyst pleads guilty to DWI, avoids deportation to Canada The arrest and subsequent plea of a former NHL player on DWI charges prompts a look at New York's tough DWI laws and how an experienced criminal defense attorney can help those accused of DWI build successful cases. Former NHL player and ESPN hockey analyst Matthew Barnaby pled guilty to driving while under the influence of alcohol, refusing a breath test, failing to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of a change in address and driving with unsafe tires. According to ESPN, Barnaby was visibly ...