The protein Ras plays an important role in cellular growth control. Researchers have focused on the protein because mutations in its gene are found in more than 30 percent of all cancers, making it the most prevalent human oncogene. University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Harvard researchers have discovered an alternative mechanism for activating Ras that does not require mutation or hormonal stimulus. In healthy cells, Ras transmits hormone signals into the cell that prompt responses such as cell growth and the development of organs and ...

This study of 963 children aged 14 and 15 in Norwegian schools found a high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among bullied pupils. These signs were seen in roughly 33 per cent of respondents who said they had been victims of bullying. "This is noteworthy, but nevertheless unsurprising," says psychologist Thormod Idsøe from the Universitiy of Stavanger (UiS) and Bergen's Center for Crisis Psychology. "Bullying is defined as long-term physical or mental violence by an individual or group. "It's directed at a person who's not able to defend themselves ...

Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) in Mainz have identified a protein essential for initiating the development of male sex organs. Loss of the gene Gadd45g results in complete sex reversal of male mice, making them appear female. The researchers' finding uncovers a novel signaling cascade, which acts early in development to determine the gonads in males. This discovery sheds light on the genetic network that controls how embryos develop as males or females. The research has just been published in the high-impact journal Developmental Cell. Research ...

Chapel Hill, NC – In a paper published in the Nov. 21 issue of Cell, a team led by Mauro Calabrese, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina in the lab of Terry Magnuson, chair of the department of genetics and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, broadens the understanding of how cells regulate silencing of the X chromosome in a process known as X-inactivation. "This is a classic example of a basic research discovery. X-inactivation is a flagship model for understanding how non-coding RNAs orchestrate large-scale control of gene ...

Philadelphia, PA, November 27, 2012 – Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a form of learning that begins at the moment of the exposure to extremely stressful situations and that grows in impact as trauma-related memories are rehearsed and strengthened repeatedly. This somewhat oversimplified view of PTSD yields a powerful prediction: if one could disrupt the rehearsal and strengthening of traumatic memories, a process called reconsolidation of memories, then one might reduce PTSD risk or PTSD severity after potentially traumatic events. To be certain, it is tricky ...

In a new study published in the scientific journal Circulation, scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden show that an enzyme called arginase might have a key part to play in the development of cardiovascular disease in patients who already have type II diabetes. According to the team, arginase prevents the formation of protective nitrogen oxide in the blood vessels, and treatments that inhibit this enzyme reduce the risk of angina in diabetics. "The fact that we could demonstrate the presence of arginase in several types of cell ...

Malaria is a life-threatening disease that strikes more than 200 million people every year – mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The disease is caused by the Plasmodium parasite, which is spread by infected mosquito bites. Today, malaria can be prevented and successfully treated, but more than half a million people nevertheless die every year from the disease. Large-scale monitoring and treatment programmes during the past decade have reduced the distribution of the disease, and the frequency of actual epidemics has fallen. However, the number of malaria patients ...

Field and laboratory work by a group of zoologists led by Omar Torres-Carvajal from Museo de Zoología QCAZ, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, has resulted in the discovery of a new species of blunt-headed vine snake from the Chocoan forests in northwestern Ecuador. This region is part of the 274,597 km2 Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena hotspot that lies west of the Andes. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys. Blunt-headed vine snakes live in an area comprising Mexico and Argentina, and are different from all other New World snakes in having a very ...

A team of scientists from the University of Navarra and the Catalan Association of Biospeleology have discovered three new collembolan species in the Maestrazgo caves in Teruel, Spain. Their description has been published in the Zootaxa journal. These minute animals belong to one of the most ancient animal species on the planet. The Maestrazgo caves in Teruel are located in a region of the Iberian Range where fauna has not been the subject of much study. It is a very isolated region since its average altitude is between 1,550 m and 2,000 m asl and its climate can be described ...

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a computer-based test that could help heavy drinkers reduce their alcohol consumption. Regular heavy drinking can lead to serious health conditions such as liver and heart disease, costing the NHS millions of pounds every year. Research at Liverpool has shown that the habit of consuming alcohol can be interrupted when people practice methods of restraint whenever they see images of alcoholic drinks. The team developed a computer test that required participants to press particular buttons when an image of alcohol ...

Uncertainty about how much the climate is changing is not a reason to delay preparing for the harmful impacts of climate change says Professor Jim Hall of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford and colleagues at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, writing today in Nature Climate Change. The costs of adapting to climate change, sea-level and flooding include the upfront expenses of upgrading infrastructure, installing early-warning systems, and effective organisations, as well as the costs of reducing risk, such as not building on flood ...

The effects of storm surge and sea-level rise have become topics of everyday conversation in the days and weeks following Hurricane Sandy's catastrophic landfall along the mid-Atlantic coast. Ongoing research by professor John Brubaker of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is throwing light on another, less-familiar component of sea-level variability—the "intra-seasonal" changes that occupy the middle ground between rapid, storm-related surges in sea level and the long-term increase in sea level due to global climate change. "These are cases when the water is ...

Chromosome number is the most basic feature concerning the genome of a species, and it is known for about one third of higher plant species. In particular, for plants of Italy, Slovakia, and Poland, online chromosome number databases have been developed: 'Chrobase.it – Chromosome numbers for the Italian flora', 'Karyological database of ferns and flowering plants of Slovakia' and 'Chromosome number database – PLANTS', respectively. The three datasets account for about 35%, 60% and 40% of the whole floras, respectively. "We used these datasets to compare chromosome number ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- When it comes to stopping illness, social media posts and tweets may be just what the doctor ordered. A Kansas State University-led research team is looking at social media as a tool to reduce and prevent diseases from spreading. Researchers are studying whether a well-timed post from a public authority or trustworthy person could be as beneficial as flu shots, hand-washing or sneezing into an elbow. "Infectious diseases are a serious problem and historically have been a major cause of death," said Faryad Sahneh, Kansas State University doctoral candidate ...

Athens, Ga. – Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a virus commonly found in dogs may serve as the foundation for the next great breakthrough in human vaccine development. Although harmless in humans, parainfluenza virus 5, or PIV5, is thought to contribute to upper respiratory infections in dogs, and it is a common target for canine vaccines designed to prevent kennel cough. In a paper published recently in PLOS ONE, researchers describe how this virus could be used in humans to protect against diseases that have eluded vaccine efforts for decades. "We ...

This press release is available in German. The Galapagos giant tortoise, one of the most fascinating species of the Galapagos archipelago, treks slowly and untiringly across the volcanic slopes. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, together with the Charles Darwin Foundation, have used GPS technology and modern 3D acceleration measurements to find out that especially the dominant male tortoise wanders up to 10 kilometres into the highlands of the island. Only the fully grown animals migrate, the young tortoises stay year round in ...

Using ESA's Herschel space observatory, astronomers have discovered vast comet belts surrounding two nearby planetary systems known to host only Earth-to-Neptune-mass worlds. The comet reservoirs could have delivered life-giving oceans to the innermost planets. In a previous Herschel study, scientists found that the dusty belt surrounding nearby star Fomalhaut must be maintained by collisions between comets. In the new Herschel study, two more nearby planetary systems – GJ 581 and 61 Vir – have been found to host vast amounts of cometary debris. Herschel detected ...

Autism is a poorly understood family of related conditions. People with autism generally lack normal social interaction skills and engage in a variety of unusual and often characteristic behaviors, such as repetitive movements. While there is no specific medical treatment for autism, some success has been shown with early behavioral intervention. Understanding the importance of early diagnosis, researchers at Women & Infants' Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk in collaboration with researchers at University of Pittsburgh have been studying the cry acoustics ...

Contact: David Hosansky hosansky@ucar.edu 303-497-8611 Zhenya Gallon zhenya@ucar.edu 303-497-8607 National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Flu outbreaks predicted with weather forecast techniques BOULDER – Scientists at Columbia University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have adapted techniques used in modern weather prediction to generate local forecasts of seasonal influenza outbreaks. By predicting the timing and severity of the outbreaks, this system can eventually help health officials ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (Nov. 27, 2012) – A study published in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (21:8), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/ , reports that a team of researchers in South Korea have successfully engineered islet cell clusters (ICCs) that will improve pancreatic islet transplantation and offer promise for curing diabetes mellitus. Carried out by collaborating researchers at three universities in Seoul, Korea, the new process of creating ICCs included delivering a gene to single islet cells that increased their ...

As homeowners we are becoming cannier about turning down the thermostat to save our pennies and the planet but are we as energy conscious when we get to work? A new £1.3m project, being led by researchers at The University of Nottingham, is to look at people's attitudes to energy consumption in the workplace and how to encourage colleagues to work together in reducing their organisation's carbon footprint. Drawing on technical expertise at Nottingham's Horizon Digital Economy Research and design skills of experts at The University of Southampton, the five-year study ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (Nov. 27, 2012) – A study published in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (21:8), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/, has found that when mesenchymal cells derived from skeletal muscle (SM-MSCs) or adipose tissue (ADSCs) were injected into the heart muscle (myocardium) of separate groups of laboratory rats that had suffered a myocardial infarction, rats in both groups experienced significantly improved left ventricle function and smaller infarct size after cell therapy. The study, carried out by researchers ...

The thickest layers of global smog — caused by traffic, industry, and natural minerals, among other factors — are found over the world's megacities. But getting an accurate measurement of pollution is no easy task. On-the-ground monitoring stations do not always provide the most accurate picture —monitoring stations depend heavily on local positioning and some cities put stations in urban centers, while others build on the edge of a city. Now Prof. Pinhas Alpert of Tel Aviv University's Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences and head of the Porter School of Environmental ...

Water repelling molecules are said to be hydrophobic. The hydration – or formation of water interfaces around hydrophobic molecules – is important for many biological processes: protein folding, membrane formation, transport of proteins across an interface, the transmission of action potentials across membranes. It is involved as well in the process of creating mayonnaise, or in the fact that you can get rid of fat with soap. Hydrophobic interfaces although long studied, are poorly understood. Here's an amusing kitchen-table experiment to illustrate waters unusual properties: ...

Measles vaccine given with painless and easy-to-administer microneedle patches can immunize against measles at least as well as vaccine given with conventional hypodermic needles, according to research done by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the study, the researchers developed a technique to dry and stabilize the measles vaccine – which depends on a live attenuated virus – and showed that it remained effective for at least 30 days after being placed onto the microneedles. They also demonstrated that the ...