Just as banks store away only the most valuable possessions in the most secure safes, cells prioritise which genes they guard most closely, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have found. The study, published online today in Nature, shows that bacteria have evolved a mechanism that protects important genes from random mutation, effectively reducing the risk of self-destruction. The findings answer a question that has been under debate for half a century and provide insights into how disease-causing mutations ...

Scientists at the University of Warwick have developed a computation which simultaneously doubles the resolution, sensitivity and mass accuracy of Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (FTMS) at no extra cost. Researchers in the University's Department of Chemistry have solved the 40-year-old phasing problem which allows plotting of spectra in absorption mode. This breakthrough can be used in all FTMS including FT-ICR, Orbitrap and FT-TOF instruments and will have applications in proteomics, petroleum analysis, metabolomics and pharmaceutical analysis among other fields. Professor ...

Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP (www.cshlaw.com), a North Carolina defense litigation firm based in Raleigh, recently added Ginny Allen to its Raleigh office to serve as the firm's Chief Business Development Officer. Allen's experience as a practicing attorney as well as her experience in legal services marketing and business development in North Carolina makes her a significant addition to the firm. "Ginny brings the type of charismatic and experienced personality we wanted to manage our business development activities," said Dan Hartzog, Cranfill Sumner ...

The US presidential election dominates the global media every four years, with news articles, which are carefully analysed by commentators and campaign strategists, playing a major role in shaping voter opinion. Academics have developed an online tool, Election Watch, which analyses the content of news about the US election by the international media. A paper about the project by academics at the University of Bristol's Intelligent Systems Laboratory will be presented at 13th conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics held in ...

This press release is available in German. Jena/Leipzig. For years experts have discussed the ecological impact of the extended cultivation of energy crops. Scientists have now developed a computer model that allows assessing the impacts and comparing the effectiveness of strategies for the reduction of risks for biological diversity. Conclusion: The extension of bioenergy leads to problems to biological diversity in agrarian regions. With different accompanying measures, such as the conservation of near-nature areas, however, these effects could be partly reduced, as ...

Scientists have uncovered clues as to how our genomes became riddled with viruses. The study, supported by the Wellcome Trust, reveals important information about the so–called 'dark matter' of our genome. For years scientists have been struggling with the enigma that more than 90 percent of every mammal's genome has no known function. A part of this 'dark matter' of genetic material is known to harbour pieces of DNA from ancient viruses that infected our ancestors going back as far as the age of the dinosaurs. Researchers at Oxford University, the Aaron Diamond AIDS ...

Olympic boxers can exhibit changes in brain fluids after bouts, which indicates nerve cell damage. This is shown in a study of 30 top-level Swedish boxers that was conducted at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in collaboration with the Swedish Boxing Federation, published in PLoS ONE. It has been debated for quite some time whether Olympic boxing (amateur boxing) is hazardous to the brain. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg University, joined with colleagues at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Linköping University and ...

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have identified the genetic variations that are believed to cause osteoporosis. The study, published in Nature Genetics and involving leading researchers from Sweden and the world, shows among other interesting facts that women with a higher proportion of genetic variations associated with osteoporosis have a more than 50 percent increased fracture risk. Osteoporosis is a common and a devastating age-related disease about 50 percent of all who have a hip fracture after age 80 die within one ...

Jerusalem, April 23, 2012 – Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and other institutions have identified two distinguishable groups of genes: those that produce very abundant biochemical products in the cell and function properly in the majority of biological processes, and a flexible subset that might have abnormal function in a disease. They demonstrated that these two groups can be found among various organisms and cell types, including stem cells and cancer cells. One set of genes is a robust network that conducts the basic functions of all cells, ...

A new study from North Carolina State University shows that more than one-third of restaurant servers discriminate against African-American customers. "Many people believe that race is no longer a significant issue in the United States," says Sarah Rusche, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the study. "But the fact that a third of servers admit to varying their quality of service based on customers' race, often giving African-Americans inferior service, shows that race continues to be an issue in our society." Researchers ...

This press release is available in German. Physicists of the group of Prof. Anton Zeilinger at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI), the University of Vienna, and the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ) have, for the first time, demonstrated in an experiment that the decision whether two particles were in an entangled or in a separable quantum state can be made even after these particles have been measured and may no longer exist. Their results will be published this week in the journal "Nature Physics". Entangled ...

MIAMI – The behavior of marine larvae is central to fully understanding and modeling the pelagic (open ocean) stage for many coastal organisms. For the first time, a numerical study conducted by the University of Miami (UM) incorporates horizontal larval fish navigation skills into realistic 3D flow fields, creating a powerful tool that spells out how larvae use environmental cues to find their way back to the reef after being out on the open ocean. The new model uses reliable larval swimming speeds and vertical migration, known life history traits and spawning time to ...

A research partnership represented by the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) National Center for Organization Development (NCOD) is examining factors predicting the turnover of senior executives in the federal workplace. It's an area that has not been widely researched, yet it can result in a costly toll on organizations – both financially in replacing senior staff as well as professionally in the loss of the knowledge, skills and strategy-building talent of senior-level management. The project ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified a new way to deliver long-lasting pain relief through an ancient medical practice. In an article published in the April 23 online edition of Molecular Pain, UNC researchers describe how exploiting the molecular mechanism behind acupuncture resulted in six-day pain relief in animal models. They call this new therapeutic approach PAPupuncture. Principal investigator Mark J. Zylka, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology and the UNC ...

Next time you need to choose between vegetable oil and margarine in that favorite recipe, think about your health and reach for the oil. While the question of whether vitamin E prevents or promotes cancer has been widely debated in scientific journals and in the news media, scientists at the Center for Cancer Prevention Research, at Rutgers Mario School of Pharmacy, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, believe that two forms of vitamin E – gamma and delta-tocopherols – found in soybean, canola and corn oils as well as nuts do prevent colon, lung, breast and prostate ...

PITTSBURGH—Using a new fluorescent biosensor they developed, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered how a key set of immune cells exchange information during their coordinated assault on invading pathogens. The immune cells, called dendritic cells, are harnessed by cancer vaccines and other therapeutics used to amplify the immune system. The finding, published online March 29 in the journal Angewandte Chemie, marks the first time that scientists have visualized how antigens are transferred in the immune system between dendritic cells. "Knowing the ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 18, 2012 – Serious birth defects of the brain and spine in America's babies, particularly those of Hispanic origin, could be reduced if the nation's corn masa flour products were fortified with the B vitamin folic acid, according to a new petition filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by a coalition of six organizations: Gruma Corporation Spina Bifida Association March of Dimes Foundation American Academy of Pediatrics Royal DSM N.V. National Council of La Raza The ...

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have rewritten the job description of the protein TopBP1 after demonstrating that it guards early brain cells from DNA damage. Such damage might foreshadow later problems, including cancer. Researchers showed that cells in the developing brain require TopBP1 to prevent DNA strands from breaking as the molecule is copied prior to cell division. Investigators also reported that stem cells and immature cells known as progenitor cells involved at the beginning of brain development are more sensitive to unrepaired DNA damage ...

Open surgery appears to be associated with an increased risk of small-bowel obstructions compared to laparoscopic procedures. This is shown by a new study at the Sahlgrenska Academy, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In many cases, the surgical technique is the most important factor when it comes to adhesive small-bowel obstruction, even when taking factors such as age, previous operations and other health conditions into account. This is shown by a study carried out at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy, which reviewed 108,141 operations carried ...

Type 1 diabetes is caused by autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells. Over 250,000 patients suffer from type 1 diabetes in Germany who are treated with daily insulin injections to maintain glucose metabolism. Replacement of the destroyed beta cells by transplantation of either a complete pancreas organ or isolated human beta cells is the only effective way to cure the disease. However, due to the shortage of organ donors this method can be offered to only few patients. As an alternative approach researchers are exploring xenotransplantation, i.e. transplantation ...

AURORA, Colo. (April 23, 2012) A CU School of Medicine researcher who suffers from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and had to "fix it" before she could go to work one day was using a maneuver to treat herself that only made her sicker. "So I sat down and thought about it and figured out an alternate way to do it. Then I fixed myself and went in to work" and discovered a new treatment for this type of vertigo. More than seven million people in the U.S. can expect to have benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, a common vertigo disorder, especially as they ...

The super low profile septic tank, or Epurbloc as they are known, have just been released in the UK. These septic tanks are fantastic new technology, the iPad of the sewage world. The tanks are short, which means no more deep excavations. They can be installed with little or no knowledge within 3-4 hours with a mini digger. They require no concrete base or blanket, and only need emptying once every 7 years.The Septic Tank Shop is the UK's largest supplier of septic tanks. For free advice or sales please contact us on 0800 907 0051. Alternatively please visit www.theseptictankshop.co.uk. ...

A bacterium historically associated with cat scratch fever and transmitted predominately by fleas may also play a role in human rheumatoid illnesses such as arthritis, according to new research from North Carolina State University. Bartonella is a bacterium that is maintained in nature by fleas, ticks and other biting insects. It can be transmitted to humans both by these parasites as well as by bites or scratches from infected cats and dogs. The most commonly known Bartonella-related illness is cat scratch disease, caused by B. henselae, a species of Bartonella that ...

Tampa, Fla. (April. 23, 2012) –When laboratory mice were modeled with colitis and treated with human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal cells, the cells homed in on the inflamed colon and effectively ameliorated colitis, reported a study published in a recent issue of Cell Transplantation (20:9), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/. According to study corresponding author Dr. Zhong Chao Han of the Institute of Hematology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking Union of Medical Sciences, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - New research confirms an association between smoking and a reduced risk for a rare benign tumor near the brain, but the addition of smokeless tobacco to the analysis suggests nicotine is not the protective substance. The study using Swedish data suggests that men who currently smoke are almost 60 percent less likely than people who have never smoked to develop this tumor, called an acoustic neuroma. But men in the study who used snuff, which produces roughly the same amount of nicotine in the blood as smoking, had no reduced risk of tumor development. "We ...