The inspiration to Salvatore Robert Froio's latest novel comes from an actual experience he had when he was nine years old. He watched the troop trains go by on the outskirts of Boston, bringing back soldiers from the Second World War. It was exiting to pick up the souvenirs that the troops threw to the kids from the train. Many years later, after serving in the military, he came to a conclusion that there are no winners from wars, only losers. The story begins just before the First World War in Germany. We follow Siegfried immigrating to the U.S. where he starts his ...

It's obvious that there are significant cost savings associated with employees using their own smartphones, tablets and laptops for work. However, the downsides are numerous and worth considering says Dominic Jones of Barton Technology, http://www.barttech.co.uk, "by not having to buy smartphones, laptops and tablets, the hardware costs are significantly reduced and, in this economy, that's a strong incentive for many companies. From a logistics point of view, a multitude of devices are hard to support and manage, as you often can't make the same app work on all platforms." The ...

Want to be a part of International Space Station research? Here's your chance. NASA is offering opportunities for academia, industry and government agencies to develop and carry out research and technology demonstrations on the space station using the newly installed Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed. These opportunities will allow researchers to develop new software according to the Space Telecommunications Radio Standard, or STRS, architecture for radios and reconfigure how radios communicate in space. The SCaN Testbed is a communications, navigation ...

There are 38,500 Redbox machines in this country and then there's Brad Wiescinski - the independent owner of Why Wait DVDs. His locally owned movie rental kiosk in the Main Terminal Food Court of Boston's South Station is an independent business making a go of the same industry that landed Redbox parent company Coinstar (CSTR) at number 15 on this year's Fortune Magazine's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies List. The movie rental business has also been the driving force of the company's profitability, with Redbox revenue surging 26% to $458 million in the second quarter ...

Firelight Fusion, an online retailer of the e cig claims that the smokers who are looking to save money without sacrificing quality will find the best deals on their website. The company's model KR808D-1 Firelight Fusion kit is priced an average of 20% less that competitors and then throws in free shipping, adding another 10% to the already incredible savings everyday. "We want smokers to switch to the e cigarette by making prices so affordable that everyone who smokes can't afford not to take advantage of our kits," states Tiffany Ellis of Firelight Fusion. ...

Of course a nice glass of wine goes well with a hearty steak, and now researchers who study the way food feels in our mouths think they may understand why that is: The astringent wine and fatty meat are like the yin and yang of the food world, sitting on opposite ends of a sensory spectrum. The findings, reported in the October 9th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offer a whole new definition of the balanced meal. They also offer a new way of thinking about our eating habits, both good and bad. "The mouth is a magnificently sensitive somatosensory ...

Sinusitis: Leaving a bad taste in your mouth The immune system protects the upper respiratory tract from bacterial infections, but the cues that alert the immune system to the presence of bacteria are not known. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Noam Cohen at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated that the bitter taste receptor T2R38 regulates the immune defense of the human upper airway. Cohen and colleagues found that T2R38 was expressed in the cells that line the upper respiratory tract and could be activated by molecules ...

The immune system protects the upper respiratory tract from bacterial infections, but the cues that alert the immune system to the presence of bacteria are not known. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Noam Cohen at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated that the bitter taste receptor T2R38 regulates the immune defense of the human upper airway. Cohen and colleagues found that T2R38 was expressed in the cells that line the upper respiratory tract and could be activated by molecules secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other ...

Fat cells (adipocytes) surround breast tumors and contribute to tumor growth by expressing factors that aid oncogenesis. Col6 is a protein that is highly expressed in adipocytes and its expression is further increased in both obesity and in breast cancer cells. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Phillip Scherer and Jiyoung Park of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report that a portion of the Col6 protein, known as endotrophin, alters the tumor environment to promote tumor growth and metastasis in mice. Mice with reduced endotrophin ...

CHICAGO – Among premature, very low-birth-weight infants requiring a transfusion, use of fresh red blood cells (RBCs) compared with standard RBC transfusion practice did not improve clinical outcomes that included rates of complications or death, according to a study in the October 10 issue of JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the AABB (formerly the American Association of Blood Banks) Annual Meeting. "Although RBC transfusions are used routinely in acutely ill patients, including those in neonatal intensive care units, ...

October 8, 2012, Ottawa — In a finding that runs counter to commonly held beliefs about fresh being better, a clinical trial published today by the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that acutely ill premature babies who received fresher blood did not fare better than those who received the current standard of care. There was no difference between the two approaches with respect to major organ injury, mortality and infection. "Before now, most of the literature on the subject suggested that fresh red blood cells are better," says lead author Dr. Dean Fergusson, ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—October 8, 2012—Using animal models, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered how a protein deficiency may be linked to frontotemporal dementia (FTD)—a form of early-onset dementia that is similar to Alzheimer's disease. These results lay the foundation for therapies that one day may benefit those who suffer from this and related diseases that wreak havoc on the brain. As its name implies, FTD is a fatal disease that destroys cells, or neurons, that comprise the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain—as opposed to Alzheimer's which mainly ...

PHILADELPHIA – A new study from a team of researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Monell Chemical Senses Center, and the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, reveals that a person's ability to taste certain bitter flavors is directly related to their ability to fight off upper respiratory tract infections, specifically chronic sinus infections. The new research is published in the latest edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Most humans experience five types of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savory. The ...

A new study published in the Journal of Economic Entomology reports that live insects were found in 47% of firewood bundles purchased from big box stores, gas stations and grocery stores in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Untreated firewood can harbor pathogens and destructive insects such as the emerald ash borer, the Asian longhorned beetle, bark beetles and others, and transport them to uninfested areas. Furthermore, the risk of moving insects in untreated firewood is high, the authors found, because insects emerged up to 558 days from the purchase date of ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—A University of Michigan biophysical chemist and his colleagues have discovered the smallest and fastest-known molecular switches made of RNA, the chemical cousin of DNA. The researchers say these rare, fleeting structures are prime targets for the development of new antiviral and antibiotic drugs. Once believed to merely store and relay genetic information, RNA is now known to be a cellular Swiss Army knife of sorts, performing a wide variety of tasks and morphing into myriad shapes. Over the past decade, researchers have determined that most of the ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A new approach to lung scanning could improve the diagnosis and treatment of a lung disease that affects approximately 24 million Americans and is the country's third-highest cause of death. In a new paper published online in Nature Medicine, a team from the University of Michigan Medical School reports on a technique called parametric response mapping, or PRM. They used PRM to analyze computed tomography, or CT, scans of the lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD, who took part in the national COPDGene study funded ...

UCLA researchers have for the first time measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning, memory and Alzheimer's disease during sleep. They discovered that this part of the brain behaves as if it's remembering something, even under anesthesia, a finding that counters conventional theories about memory consolidation during sleep. The research team simultaneously measured the activity of single neurons from multiple parts of the brain involved in memory formation. The technique allowed them to determine which brain region was activating other areas ...

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) and their colleagues have identified 8 new loci associated with susceptibility to atopic dermatitis in the Japanese population. The findings, which appear in the journal Nature Genetics, advance our understanding of the genetic basis of the skin disorder, which affects millions of children and adults around the world. Atopic dermatitis (often called ecszema) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin condition affecting as much as one-fifth of children and 1-3% of adults in industrialized countries. Those with ...

Swedish researchers at Uppsala University have, together with Brazilian collaborators, discovered a new group of nerve cells that regulate processes of learning and memory. These cells act as gatekeepers and carry a receptor for nicotine, which can explain our ability to remember and sort information. The discovery of the gatekeeper cells, which are part of a memory network together with several other nerve cells in the hippocampus, reveal new fundamental knowledge about learning and memory. The study is published today in Nature Neuroscience. The hippocampus is an ...

Expanding production of palm oil, a common ingredient in processed foods, soaps and personal care products, is driving rainforest destruction and massive carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new study led by researchers at Stanford and Yale universities. The study, published online Oct. 7 in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that deforestation for the development of oil palm plantations in Indonesian Borneo is becoming a globally significant source of carbon dioxide emissions. Plantation expansion is projected to contribute more than 558 million metric tons ...

Researchers headed by Erwin Wagner, the Director of the BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer Cell Biology Programme at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), have deciphered how a stress-inducible gene regulator, AP-1, controls the survival of liver tumor-initiating cells. These results, published in the online edition of Nature Cell Biology, could provide new preventive strategies and identify potentially targetable molecules to prevent liver cancer. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) causes more than 500,000 deaths per year worldwide. While patients with chronic hepatitis ...

A variant in a gene involved with inflammation and the immune response is linked with a decreased risk of lung cancer. That is the finding of an analysis published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The results add to the growing body of literature implicating these processes in the development of lung cancer. Meredith Shiels, PhD, MHS and Anil Chaturvedi, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, MD, and their colleagues analyzed 1,429 variants in inflammation- and immunity-related genes from 378 patients with lung ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Today researchers from The George Washington University published a study showing that breast cancer patients can reduce potentially dangerous delays in the identification of breast cancer with the assistance of patient navigation services. Patient navigation—a service that helps patients overcome barriers to getting health care, including setting up appointments, dealing with health insurance, and helping with fears about cancer—led to a nearly four-fold reduction in the time it took to diagnose a suspicious breast lump, the new study found. "The time ...

(Baltimore, MD) – A new study published today in the journal Pediatrics (Epub ahead of print) found that nearly half of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are reported to wander or "bolt," and more than half of these children go missing. Led by researchers from the Interactive Autism Network (IAN), the nation's largest online autism research initiative and a project of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, this study provides the most comprehensive estimate of elopement occurrence in a United States community-based sample of more than 1,200 children with ASD. "Since ...

Environmental problems, such as depleting natural resources, highlight the need to establish a renewable chemical industry. Metabolic engineering enhances the production of chemicals made by microbes in so-called "cell factories". Next Monday, world class scientist Professor Sang Yup Lee of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) will explain how metabolic engineering could lead to the development of solutions to these environmental problems. For example, the polyester polylactic acid (PLA) is a biodegradable material with a wide range of uses, from ...