PITTSBURGH, Sept. 16 – Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered molecular-level changes in the brains of women with major depressive disorder that link two hypotheses of the biological mechanisms that lead to the illness. Their results, published online this week in Molecular Psychiatry, also allowed them to recreate the changes in a mouse model that could enhance future research on depression. Although women are twice as likely as men to develop depression and have more severe and frequent symptoms, very little research has focused ...

The sound design of the feature film, "Lovely Molly" (Amber Entertainment, Haxan Films), which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival on Wednesday, September 14th, is receiving high praise from industry bloggers. PopMark Media's Sound Division, Studio Unknown, was responsible for the full sound design package of the film. Directed by Eduardo Sanchez, known for his 1999 horror, "The Blair Witch Project," "Lovely Molly" centers on a troubled young woman and the evil power that exists inside her. The film relies heavily on sound for story support. ...

The earth's most successful bacteria are found in the oceans and belong to the group SAR11. In a new study, researchers from Uppsala University provide an explanation for their success and at the same time call into question generally accepted theories about these bacteria. In their analysis they have also identified a rare and hitherto unknown relative of mitochondria, the power stations inside cells.The findings were published in two articles in the journals Molecular Biology and Evolution and PLoS One in the last week. "The huge amounts of DNA information now being ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Sept. 16, 2011 – A study by epidemiologists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and colleagues suggests that a high intake of calcium causes prostate cancer among African-American men who are genetically good absorbers of the mineral. "High dietary intake of calcium has long been linked to prostate cancer but the explanation for this observation has been elusive," said Gary G. Schwartz, Ph.D., associate professor of cancer biology, urology, and public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist and co-author on the study. Schwartz and colleagues ...

In a new project, researchers from LIFE – the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen – document that the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) plays a previously unknown dual role in the prevention of a number of cancers. The new findings show that the virus both kills cancer cells and stops the expression of the molecules which certain types of cancer cells produce to hide from the immune system. Certain types of cancer cells express far too many liquid immunostimulatory molecules, blocking the immune system's ability to recognise them, and enabling them ...

Recently published studies by a researcher in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry demonstrate that ALS – known as Lou Gehrig's disease – damages neurons in parts of the brain responsible for cognition and behaviour. ALS, which stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that eventually leaves patients unable to move, breathe or swallow. Previous research has shown about 50 per cent of patients with ALS also have mild cognitive and behavioural changes, but between five and 15 per cent of patients can have severe changes resulting in dementia. ...

GALVESTON, September 16, 2011 – Researchers have shown for the first time that the protein fortilin promotes growth of cancer cells by binding to and rendering inert protein p53, a known tumor suppressor. This finding by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch may lead to treatments for a range of cancers and atherosclerosis, which p53 also helps prevent, and appears in the current print issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "The p53 protein is a critical defense against cancer because it activates genes that induce apoptosis, or the death of cells. ...

LA JOLLA, CA -- A "hidden" code linked to the DNA of plants allows them to develop and pass down new biological traits far more rapidly than previously thought, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The study, published today in the journal Science, provides the first evidence that an organism's "epigenetic" code - an extra layer of biochemical instructions in DNA - can evolve more quickly than the genetic code and can strongly influence biological traits. While the study was limited to a single ...

MADISON, WI, SEPTEMBER 16, 2011 -- Durum wheat is a valuable cereal crop widely used for human consumption in the United States, Canada, and several European countries. Scab or Fusarium head blight is one of the crop's most serious diseases, reducing its grain yield and quality. Current durum cultivars don't have resistance to this widespread disease. While working on the Durum Germplasm Enhancement Project (DGE), Dr. Prem Jauhar and staff at the USDA-ARS Northern Crop Research Laboratory, Fargo, ND discovered that a diploid wheatgrass contains the genes needed for scab ...

DURHAM, N.H. – Beginning Sunday, September 18, 2011 at NASA's launch facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, space scientists from the University of New Hampshire will attempt to send a balloon up to 130,000 feet with a one-ton instrument payload to measure gamma rays from the Crab Pulsar, the remains of a supernova explosion that lies 6,500 light years from Earth. The launch is highly dependent on weather and wind conditions, and the launch window closes at the end of next week. The Gamma Ray Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE), which was designed and built at the Space Science ...

MADISON, WI, SEPTMEBER 12, 2011 -- Modifying soybean seed to increase phosphorus content can improve animal nutrition and reduce feed costs and nutrient pollution. However, further research is needed to commercialize this valuable technology. Knowledge of soybean and other crops such as maize suggest that reducing phytate, the principle storage form of phosphorus in plant tissue, in seeds reduces seed germination and emergence of seedlings in the field. In soybean, however, researchers debate whether this problem exists, and suggest that other factors may be the cause. New ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A research team at Michigan State University has developed a laser that could detect roadside bombs – the deadliest enemy weapon encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan. The laser, which has comparable output to a simple presentation pointer, potentially has the sensitivity and selectivity to canvas large areas and detect improvised explosive devices – weapons that account for around 60 percent of coalition soldiers' deaths. Marcos Dantus, chemistry professor and founder of BioPhotonic Solutions, led the team and has published the results in the current ...

VIDEO: This animation of NOAA's GOES-13 satellite observations from Sept. 6 at 8:45 a.m. EDT through Sept. 16 at 7:45 a.m. EDT shows the movement of Hurricane Katia followed by Tropical... Click here for more information. Hurricane Maria joins twelve other hurricanes on record to make landfall in Newfoundland, Canada, and NASA satellite imagery revealed its inner strength. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Hurricane Maria on Sept. ...

When the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew over Tropical Storm Sonca on Friday, Sept. 16 it found moderate rainfall mostly on the southern side of the storm. Chichi Jima can expect some of that rainfall over the weekend as Sonca passes east of the island. TRMM passed over Tropical Storm Sonca and its precipitation radar instrument saw moderate rainfall occurring mostly on the southern side of the storm, while light-to-moderate rainfall was occurring throughout the storm. The southern edge of the storm had rainfall rates between .78 to 1.57 inches ...

Tropical Storm Roke has changed in size and is starting to change in strength. Roke appears to be consolidating in infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite. Roke began its life as a monsoon depression with a large low-level circulation center that over time consolidated and organized. The eastern half of Tropical Storm Roke was seen in an infrared image from NASA's Aqua satellite AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) on Sept. 15, and it showed a more consolidated center with strong convection and very cold cloud-top temperatures. Cloud-top temperatures are important ...

Two newer drugs used to treat Type 2 diabetes could be linked to a significantly increased risk of developing pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, and one could also be linked to an increased risk of thyroid cancer, according to a new UCLA study. Researchers from the Larry L. Hillblom Islet Research Center at UCLA examined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's database for adverse events reported between 2004 and 2009 among patients using the drugs sitagliptin and exenatide. They found a six-fold increase in the odds ratio for reported cases of pancreatitis with these ...

September 15, 2011 --. In a review of 31 peer-reviewed and published studies, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health looked generational and gender differences in alcohol consumption, alcohol disorders, and mortality. Findings indicate that people born after World War II are more likely to binge drink and develop alcohol use disorders. Researchers also found that the gender gap in alcoholism and problem drinking is narrowing in many countries. Findings will be published in the December 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research ...

SALT LAKE CITY – New research from the University of Utah in collaboration with the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) shows that the presence or absence of intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) varies with risk factors such as gender, parental age, maternal ethnicity, and maternal level of education. The study, published Sept. 15, 2011, in Autism Research, also shows that household income level has no association with either ID or ASD, in contrast to what other studies have suggested. ASDs are a group of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – In a first of its kind study, researchers have found that using two way audio-video telemedicine to deliver stroke care, also known as telestroke, appears to be cost-effective for rural hospitals that don't have an around-the-clock neurologist, or stroke expert, on staff. The research is published in the September 14, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "In an era of spiraling health care costs, our findings give critical information to medical policy makers," said Jennifer J. Majersik, MD, MS, ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Eating low-fat yoghurt whilst pregnant can increase the risk of your child developing asthma and allergic rhinitis (hay fever), according to recent findings. The study will be presented at the European Respiratory Society's (ERS) Annual Congress in Amsterdam on 25 September 2011. All the abstracts for the ERS Congress will be publicly available online from today (17 September 2011). The study aimed to assess whether fatty acids found in dairy products could protect against the development of allergic diseases in children. The researchers ...

The crystal structure of the dynamin protein — one of the molecular machines that makes cells work — has been revealed, bringing insights into a class of molecules with a wide influence on health and disease. "It's a really cool structure," said Jodi Nunnari, professor and chair of molecular and cellular biology at UC Davis and senior author of the paper, to be published Sept. 18 in the journal Nature. "This is a really important class of molecules for regulating membrane dynamics." The detailed structure reveals exactly how the dynamin protein can form large assemblies ...

SAN DIEGO, CA and PHILADELPHIA, PA – September 18, 2011 —Tarsa Therapeutics today presented positive safety and efficacy data from its Phase III ORACAL trial of OSTORA™, the company's oral recombinant salmon calcitonin tablet in development for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. These data were presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 2011 Annual Meeting by ORACAL investigator Neil Binkley, MD, who is an Associate Professor of Endocrinology and Geriatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, ...

VIDEO: Receptors on the cell's surface crowd around the nanotube, effectively standing it upright. The cell mistakes the tube for a sphere and begins to engulf it. Click here for more information. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — It's been long known that asbestos spells trouble for human cells. Scientists have seen cells stabbed with spiky, long asbestos fibers, and the image is gory: Part of the fiber is protruding from the cell, like a quivering arrow that's found ...

Researchers have developed a new method to sequence and analyze the dark matter of life—the genomes of thousands of bacteria species previously beyond scientists' reach, from microorganisms that produce antibiotics and biofuels to microbes living in the human body. Scientists from UC San Diego, the J. Craig Venter Institute and Illumina Inc., published their findings in the Sept. 18 online issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology. The breakthrough will enable researchers to assemble virtually complete genomes from DNA extracted from a single bacterial cell. By contrast, ...

BOULDER -- The planet's deep oceans at times may absorb enough heat to flatten the rate of global warming for periods of as long as a decade even in the midst of longer-term warming, according to a new analysis led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The study, based on computer simulations of global climate, points to ocean layers deeper than 1,000 feet (300 meters) as the main location of the "missing heat" during periods such as the past decade when global air temperatures showed little trend. The findings also suggest that several more intervals ...