BOSTON, MA (August 24, 2011)—In separate papers published online in Nature, two research teams report identifying a critical protein that Ebola virus exploits to cause deadly infections. The protein target is an essential element through which the virus enters living cells to cause disease. The first study was led by four senior scientists: Sean Whelan, associate professor of microbiology and immunobiology at Harvard Medical School; Kartik Chandran, assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; John Dye at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious ...

The spread of Dengue fever in northern Australia may be controlled by a bacterium that infects mosquitoes that harbor the virus, Australian and U.S. researchers report Aug. 25 in two papers published in the journal Nature. The result grew out of work more than 20 years ago by population biologist Michael Turelli, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, and Ary Hoffmann, now at the University of Melbourne, Australia, who are among the coauthors of one of the new Nature papers. Turelli and Nick Barton of the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria, also ...

New York, August 25, 2011 – In the zeal to eliminate dangerous bacteria, it is possible that we are also permanently killing off beneficial bacteria as well, posits Martin Blaser, MD, Frederick H. King Professor of Medicine, professor of Microbiology and chair of the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center. His commentary is published in the August 25 edition of the journal Nature. Dr. Blaser sounded the alarm to the medical community and to the general public, that the widespread use of antibiotics may be having unintended consequences causing permanent ...

The Orlando bankruptcy lawyers at Clark & Washington would like to thank the men and women who serve their communities and their country. As a way of showing their appreciation, the Orlando bankruptcy firm is currently offering 50% off of a routine chapter 7 filing for current military personnel, emergency medical technicians (EMT), members of the police or fire and rescue departments, and NASA employees who have been laid off. Clark & Washington specializes in chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy. As mid-Florida's largest bankruptcy filer, the Orlando bankruptcy ...

A study of women who were children, teenagers or young adults during the Dutch famine in 1944-45 has shown that undernutrition, particularly in the adolescent years, is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease in later life. The research, published online today in the European Heart Journal [1], provides the first direct evidence that acute undernutrition during the time that children are growing up can have an important impact on their future health. The authors of the accompanying editorial [2] say that it underlines the importance of policy makers ...

Adventurous females choose mates with similar personalities, regardless of the male's appearance and other assets, according to research led by the University of Exeter. This is the first study to show that the non-sexual behaviour or personalities of both mates influences partner choice in non-humans. The study focused on a population of more than 150 zebra finches. The research team assessed male and female birds separately for personality traits through a series of behavioural tests. In particular, they measured levels of exploratory behaviour through, for example, ...

New genetic evidence reveals that most British men are not descended from immigrant farmers who migrated east 5,000-10,000 years ago – contrary to previous research. Instead, scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh say that most European men can trace their lineage to people – most likely hunter-gatherers – who had settled in Europe long before that time. The latest study, based on the most common genetic lineage in European males, aims to correct an analysis of genetic data, published last year. It had reported that most British men came from people ...

The public should view crowd estimation with scepticism, say the authors of a study published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association, as they suggest more reliable alternatives to current estimating methods. Estimates of crowd sizes vary greatly, and the success of an event is often measured by the size of the crowd. Organisers of the 2007 "Stop the War" demonstration in London reported crowds of 60,000, whereas the police reported just 10,000. The US Government's estimate of the crowds at Obama's ...

New York, NY, August 24, 2011— Nearly three-quarters (72%) of people who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs over the last two years said that they skipped needed health care or did not fill prescriptions because of cost, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. The same proportion is also struggling with medical bills or medical debt, compared to about half (49%) who lost jobs but not their health insurance. Six in 10 working Americans rely on health insurance obtained through their employer, and when an estimated 15 million working-age adults ...

The Atlanta bankruptcy lawyers at Clark & Washington invite the residents of the Atlanta area to visit the firm at any of their twelve locations within the vicinity. As Georgia's largest bankruptcy filer, Clark & Washington offers legal assistance to individuals experience financial difficulties throughout the metro Atlanta area at the location most convenient for the client. The Atlanta bankruptcy attorneys at Clark & Washington maintain law offices within the metro Atlanta area at each of the following twelve locations: Chamblee-Tucker 3300 Northeast ...

FINDINGS: Where all of us inherit one copy of each chromosome from each of our two parents, cell lines exist with only a single set, and thus with a single copy of each individual gene, instead of the usual two. Using an unusual human cell line of this type, Whitehead Institute researchers and their collaborators performed a genetic screen and identified a protein used by Ebola virus to gain entry into cells and begin replicating. The discovery may offer a new approach for the development of antiviral therapeutics. RELEVANCE: Ebola virus, the cause of Ebola hemorrhagic ...

A new atlas of gene expression in the mouse brain provides insight into how genes work in the outer part of the brain called the cerebral cortex. In humans, the cerebral cortex is the largest part of the brain, and the region responsible for memory, sensory perception and language. Mice and people share 90 percent of their genes so the atlas, which is based on the study of normal mice, lays a foundation for future studies of mouse models for human diseases and, eventually, the development of treatments. Researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), ...

Rodriguez MD, a leading Lawrenceville clinic and bilingual Lawrenceville family practice in Gwinnett County, GA, is currently offering Back to School Health Checks and sports physicals for preschool through college age students. Available beginning in August 2011, the medical practice will accept patients by appointment and walk-in for Health Checks. Patients will be able to learn about their physical condition and treatment if a problem is identified. Available services at Rodriguez MD's Gwinnett family clinic include: - Physicals - Lab Tests - Blood Pressure - ...

DALLAS – Aug. 24, 2011 – Exercise can be as effective as a second medication for as many as half of depressed patients whose condition have not been cured by a single antidepressant medication. UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists involved in the investigation, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that both moderate and intense levels of daily exercise can work as well as administering a second antidepressant drug, which is often used when initial medications don't move patients to remission. The type of exercise needed, however, depends ...

Cluster headache has a substantial detrimental effect on quality of life. New invasive procedures, such as hypothalamic deep brain stimulation and bilateral occipital nerve stimulation, may help patients with chronic refractory headache. This is one of the conclusions reached by Charly Gaul and co-authors from the Department of Neurology at the University Medical Center Essen in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108(33): 543-9). Cluster headache is the commonest trigemino-autonomic headache, affecting some 120,000 people in ...

When investigating cancer cells, researchers discovered numerous peculiarities: Particular RNA molecules are present in large numbers, particular genes are overactive. Do these characteristics have a relation to cancer? Do they promote cell growth? Do they inactivate growth brakes or are they just a whim of nature? To find clues for answering these questions scientists perform what are called loss-of-function analyses. They knock out (silence) the gene of interest in living cells or whole organisms and subsequently look for any changes in the cells' metabolism, physiology ...

The same University of Washington researcher who used chemical sleuthing to deduce what's in fragranced consumer products now has turned her attention to the scented air wafting from household laundry vents. Findings, published online this week in the journal Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, show that air vented from machines using the top-selling scented liquid laundry detergent and scented dryer sheet contains hazardous chemicals, including two that are classified as carcinogens. "This is an interesting source of pollution because emissions from dryer vents are ...

Standard Life has revealed that more than half of parents potentially underestimate the maximum amount of debt their child could leave university with. When asked to take into account the increase in tuition fees to a maximum of GBP9,000 per year from 2012, and any other debts accumulated from living expenses, student loans, bank loans etc. 58 per cent of parents think the maximum debt their children could leave with is GBP40,000 or under, including many who think this would be a lot less. This total is well under the maximum figure of GBP54,000 calculated by the long-term ...

Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a new way to generate music and control computers. "Grab a block and add a base beat, turn a block to speed up the high hat and we have a new way to generate music through controlling the computer," said Dr Enrico Costanza at the University's ECS - Electronics and Computer Science, who is launching Audio d-touch (Thursday 25 August). Audio d-touch, which is based on Dr Costanza's research into tangible user interfaces, or TUIs, gives physical control in the immaterial world of computers. It uses a standard ...

The new discovery by Aalto University can have major impact on future nanoscale device design, such as ultraviolet photo detectors and drug delivery. In bulk size, many materials like silicon are as brittle as glass. In nanoparticle size, the same material can be compressed into half their size without breaking them. The new discovery was made by an international research group led by Professor Roman Nowak. Atom by atom, the researchers followed the rearrangements resulting from squeezing tiny spheres of silicon. They found that the response of the material varied depending ...

Foster Care Associates (FCA), the UK's largest Independent Fostering Agency, has added a new geographically targeted section to its website to provide locally based fostering information and placement needs to its visitors. Under the heading 'Your local FCA', the website now offers readers information about FCA and fostering in their local area, divided between the agency's 14 operating regions. Visitors can now access regional FCA news, information about forthcoming fostering events in their community and learn more about their local fostering team through FCA staff ...

Geneva, 23rd August 2011 – The fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and liver disease, is at grave risk, because of recent efforts by some countries to stall and weaken critical United Nations negotiations, the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) warned today. In a letter addressed to Mr Ban Ki-Moon, Dr Margaret Chan and Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, EASL called on them to personally push for progress at the first ever UN High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control ...

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, August 24, 2011 – Stocks of companies that are committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies perform statistically similarly to those corporations that do not have these programs, according to a new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers. These findings were presented at the Ninth Annual International Conference on Business Accounting, Finance, Management & Marketing in Athens last month by Zvi Amrousy, an MBA student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Some of the factors that define CSR include a company's environmental ...

Two articles in the Society of Interventional Radiology's flagship publication, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, report on studies related to peripheral arterial disease or PAD—coinciding with the approach of September's National PAD Awareness Month. In one study, researchers determined that Framingham Risk Score metrics (historically the gold standard in predicting 10-year cardiovascular risk) alone may not be enough to definitively say whether an individual may face a future cardiovascular event. The second study examined the success of a treatment ...

The delivery system for an important class of proteins in the cell membrane can be fully replicated with a mere three components, according to a new study. Tail-anchored proteins, the molecular machines that make up approximately five percent of the membrane proteins in a cell, are known to have their own special pathway for trafficking to the membrane after construction. New research from the University of Chicago and the National Institutes of Health blending structural and functional experiments finds that these proteins can be delivered to the membrane via a simple ...