Researchers using novel approaches and methodologies of identifying genes that contribute to the development of autism have found evidence that disturbances in several immune-system-related pathways contribute to development of autism spectrum disorders. The report published December 4 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE powerfully supports a role for the immune function in autism by integrating analysis of autism-associated DNA sequence variations with that of markers identified in studies of families affected by autism. "Others have talked about immune function contributions ...

Princeton researchers have found a simple and economic way to nearly triple the efficiency of organic solar cells, the cheap and flexible plastic devices that many scientists believe could be the future of solar power. The researchers, led by electrical engineer Stephen Chou, were able to increase the efficiency 175 percent by using a nanostructured "sandwich" of metal and plastic that collects and traps light. Chou said the technology also should increase the efficiency of conventional inorganic solar collectors, such as standard silicon solar panels, although he cautioned ...

Scientists in Australia and Austria have described a "network map" of genes involved in pain perception, with remarkable similarity from fruit flies to people. The work should help identify new analgesic drugs. Dr Greg Neely from the Garvan institute of Medical Research in Sydney and Professor Josef Penninger from the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna had previously screened the 14,000 genes in the fly genome and identified 580 genes identified with heat perception. In the current study, using a database from the US National Centre for Biotechnology Information, ...

Severe acute kidney injuries are becoming more common in the United States, rising 10 percent per year and doubling over the last decade, according to a retrospective study at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The study, to be published online this week in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, analyzed information from a national database that monitors all causes of hospitalizations and used this data to estimate the total number of acute kidney injuries in the United States that were severe enough to require a patient to be placed on dialysis. ...

Children with persistent and drug-resistant seizures treated with the high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet may get an added therapeutic benefit from periodic fasting, according to a small Johns Hopkins Children's Center study. The results, published online Dec. 3 in the journal Epilepsy Research, suggest the ketogenic diet and fasting can work in tandem to reduce seizures but appear do so through different mechanisms -- a finding that challenges the longstanding assumption that the two share a common mechanism. "Our findings suggest that fasting does not merely ...

Presently, there are about 40 million Americans over the age of 65, with the fastest-growing segment of the population over 80 years old. Traditionally, aging has been viewed as a period of progressive decline in physical, cognitive and psychosocial functioning, and aging is viewed by many as the "number one public health problem" facing Americans today. But this negative view of aging contrasts with results of a comprehensive study of 1,006 older adults in San Diego by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Stanford University. ...

[EMBARGOED FOR DEC. 7, 2012, ARLINGTON, Va.] – Of the one million people each year who get hips and knees replaced, as many as 20,000 will get an infection in the new joint, a number that is expected to skyrocket in the next 20 years. Multispecialty physician teams need to work together to reduce disability, death and costs associated with the ever-growing number of these prosthetic joint infections, note the first guidelines on the topic being released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). "There are very few things that improve quality of life as much ...

It's well known how bacteria exposed to antibiotics for long periods will find ways to resist the drugs—by quickly pumping them out of their cells, for instance, or modifying the compounds so they're no longer toxic. Now new research has uncovered another possible mechanism of antibiotic "resistance" in soil. In a paper published on Dec. 6 in the Journal of Environmental Quality, a group of Canadian and French scientists report on a soil bacterium that breaks down the common veterinary antibiotic, sulfamethazine, and uses it for growth. Certain soil bacteria are already ...

Nicaragua is currently participating in the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) Offshoring and Outsourcing Summit, held in Medellin Colombia from December 4th to the 6th, whose objective is to promote the development of the outsourcing and offshoring industry in the region and establish key contacts between international companies interested in seeking new outsourcing destinations. The Nicaraguan delegation participating in the summit includes representatives from PRONicaragua, the official investment and export promotion agency of the Government of Nicaragua, and ...

The trusted electronic cigarette review website EcigaretteReviewed.com has hit back against false and misleading claims surrounding electronic cigarettes. News reports from around the world have spurred on the uncertainty surrounding the new nicotine-vaporizing devices, but a glut of scientific research has shown that there is very little to worry about with regards to their safety. It's been claimed that the presence of nitrosamines and diethylene glycol in e-cigarettes renders them a potential health hazard, but the website rallies against these claims, ultimately placing ...

This one causes confusion for a lot of people. The simplest way to approach it is to use farther when you are talking about physical distance and further when speaking figuratively. For example: It would be quicker to fly to Toronto; New York is much farther. I will have to go a few miles farther to find a gas station open at this hour. Compare: If you want to take this further then you can write to the Board of Governors. We can discuss this further next time. One easy way to remember is to use farther when you are comparing two places that are far ...

HBD Business Solutions, a sister company of Help Button Designs, LLC offers affordable Medical Alert Service with round the clock monitoring 24/7/365, Certified Response Associates with two responders per call, no contracts, easy installation, water proof pendants, and customized care plans to connect with family first in the event of an emergency. The service works by first pressing your waterproof Help Button and you will instantly be connected to a Certified Specialist. Next a Care Specialist assists you any time of the day in any given situation whether emergency ...

The brand aims to give an eclectic mix of fresh and established writers a new platform whilst establishing their credentials in the fashion world and have extended an open invitation to fashion bloggers who would like to take part. As part of their continual attempts to provide customers and fans with the best possible interactions with the brand, Barratts have launched a new weekly feature highlighting some of the most innovative and stylish fashion bloggers on the Internet. Whilst previously featuring an array of the best from the UK, including the likes of Temporary ...

For the past year, a NASA scientist at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida has led one of the preeminent microgravity research organizations in the United States. Howard G. Levine, Ph.D., chief scientist in the space agency's International Space Station (ISS) Ground Processing and Research Directorate has served as president of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research, or ASGSR. A nonprofit organization founded in 1984, ASGSR provides a forum to foster research, education and professional development in the multidisciplinary fields of gravitational, ...

In contrast to MBA programs, Doctorates of Business Administration (DBA) are not covered by internationally recognized rankings. Hence, proxies are needed to assess the quality of a program. The new platform Doctor of Business Administration Compass provides an overview of the five most important quality criteria: 1. Assess the research quality of the faculty. 2. Have a look at accredited programs. 3. Assess the reputation of a school. 4. How experienced is the school in teaching? 5. How well is the school exposed to executives? The Doctor of Business Administration ...

Scott Townsend, a crazy visionary in an unpadded whiteboard room, says "it's the end of the world as we know it, but not like the movie." As the 21st December 2012 nears, the world will, according to many people, mark the date when we begin to enter a new era of positive change and consciousness. To help motivate this much-needed transformation, Townsend is starting by reaching out to 99 influential people on Twitter, each with different values, passions and beliefs to discover what they think needs to change. Townsend hopes that reaching out to each ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Each year, about 610,000 Americans suffer their first heart attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart attacks and other symptoms of cardiovascular disease can be caused when blockage occurs in the arteries. In a new study from the University of Missouri, a scientist has discovered a natural defense against arterial blockage: bilirubin. Bilirubin is typically something parents of newborns hear about when their children are diagnosed with jaundice. Generated during the body's process to recycle worn-out red blood cells, ...

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's School of Dentistry have made an important connection between a molecule critical to nerve cells and high blood pressure. Production of the molecule Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) appears to increase dramatically in blood pressure-sensing nerve cells during hypertension. The study, published online in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, may someday have implications for the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure, which affects about one in three adults in the United States. BDNF is essential to ...

A protein known to regulate how cells process glucose also appears to be a tumor suppressor, adding to the potential that therapies directed at cellular metabolism may help suppress tumor growth. In their report in the Dec. 7 issue of Cell, a multi-institutional research team describes finding that cells lacking the enzyme SIRT6, which controls how cells process glucose, quickly become cancerous. They also found evidence that uncontrolled glycolysis, a stage in normal glucose metabolism, may drive tumor formation in the absence of SIRT6 and that suppressing glycolysis ...

Despite their modern-day diversity of language, lifestyle, and religion, Europe's widespread Romani population shares a common, if complex, past. It all began in northwestern India about 1,500 years ago, according to a study reported on December 6th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, that offers the first genome-wide perspective on Romani origins and demographic history. The Romani represent the largest minority group in Europe, consisting of approximately 11 million people. That means the size of the Romani population rivals that of several European countries, ...

Mice living in the high-altitude, oxygen-starved environment of the Andean mountains survive those harsh conditions by fueling their muscles with carbohydrates. The findings, reported online on December 6 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, provide the first compelling evidence of a clear difference in energy metabolism between high- and low-altitude native mammals. "The high-altitude mice we examined in this study are a rare exception to a general exercise fuel use pattern seen in lowland mammals," said Marie-Pierre Schippers of McMaster University. "Studying ...

VIDEO: The ability to detect rotten food is so crucial for survival that even flies have a dedicated neural circuit to do just that, according to a study published on December... Click here for more information. The ability to detect rotten food is so crucial for survival that even flies have a dedicated neural circuit to do just that, according to a study published on December 6th in the Cell Press journal Cell. The brain circuit allows flies to avoid feeding and laying ...

This press release is available in Spanish and French. A collaborative study conducted in Mexico by researchers from the West Virginia University-Charleston (US), Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (México), Universidad de Chile and the Institute of Molecular Epidemiology of the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (Chile), revealed that opinion surveys used by researchers from the Guttmacher Institute overestimated figures of induced abortion in the Federal District of Mexico (Mexico DF) up to 10-fold. The research recently published in the International ...

VIDEO: Bill Hansson and Marcus Stensmyr explain their results now published in CELL. Click here for more information. Consuming putrid food can be lethal as it allows bacterial pathogens to enter the digestive system. To detect signs of decay and thus allowing us and other animals to avoid such food poisoning is one of the main tasks of the sense of smell. Behavioral scientists and neurobiologists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have ...

LA JOLLA, CA – December 6, 2012 – For scientists who study the genetics of hearing and deafness, finding the exact genetic machinery in the inner ear that responds to sound waves and converts them into electrical impulses, the language of the brain, has been something of a holy grail. Now this quest has come to fruition. Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, CA, have identified a critical component of this ear-to-brain conversion—a protein called TMHS. This protein is a component of the so-called mechanotransduction channels in the ear, which ...