Researchers have long known that individual diseases are associated with genes in specific locations of the genome. Genetics researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill now have shown definitively that a small number of places in the human genome are associated with a large number and variety of diseases. In particular, several diseases of aging are associated with a locus which is more famous for its role in preventing cancer. For this analysis, researchers at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center catalogued results from several hundred human ...

New cancer drugs must be thoroughly tested in preclinical models, often in mice, before they can be offered to cancer patients for the first time in phase I clinical trials. Key components of this process include pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies, which evaluate how the drug acts on a living organism. These studies measure the pharmacologic response and the duration and magnitude of response observed relative to the concentration of the drug at an active site in the organism. A new comparison of four different methodologies for pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 19, 2012—More than 900 million people worldwide are active users of the social networking site Facebook, and it is estimated that as many as one-third report using Facebook to check on the activities of former romantic partners. The effects of remaining Facebook friends with an ex-lover or even just following their activities online can disrupt a person's ability to heal emotionally and move on with his or her life, according to an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study of the sense of smell lends support to a controversial theory of olfaction: Our noses can distinguish both the shape and the vibrational characteristics of odorant molecules. The study, in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, demonstrates the feasibility of the theory – first proposed decades ago – that the vibration of an odorant molecule's chemical bonds – the wagging, stretching and rocking of the links between atoms – contributes to our ability to distinguish one smelly thing from another. "The theory goes that when the ...

Contact: David Hosansky 303-497-8611 hosansky@ucar.edu NCAR/UCAR Zhenya Gallon, NCAR/UCAR Media Relations 303-497-8607 zhenya@ucar.edu New airport system facilitates smoother take-offs and landings BOULDER--For airline passengers who dread bumpy rides to mountainous destinations, help may be on the way. A new turbulence avoidance system has for the first time been approved for use at a U.S. airport and can be adapted for additional airports in rugged settings across the United States and overseas. The system, developed by the National Center for Atmospheric ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – This month, GSA's top geoscience journal, Geology, has posted 30 new articles ahead of print. Locations studied include Bhutan; the James Bay Lowland of Canada; Mount Taranaki, New Zealand; Fort Stanton Cave and Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico, USA; the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru; the Nile Delta; and Mars. Topics include methane hydrates, microbial micro-tunneling, fibrous diamonds, climate change, cosmic rays, and maars. Also in Geology: the first application of CARS microscopy to the geosciences. Highlights are provided below. GEOLOGY articles published ...

KNOXVILLE—Shoppers — particularly women — who take the time to read food labels are thinner than those who don't. These findings are from a recently released study authored by Steven T. Yen, a University of Tennessee professor in the Institute of Agriculture's Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, in conjunction with researchers at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the University of Arkansas and the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural Finance Research. Women who read food labels weighed nearly 9 pounds less than women who didn't read labels, ...

MADISON – At first glance, the northern muriqui monkey is a prime conservation success story. These Brazilian primates are critically endangered, but in the past 30 years a population on a private reserve has grown from just 60 individuals to some 300, now comprising almost a third of the total remaining animals. As the population grows, though, it is offering researchers a glimpse into a new phase of recovery as it begins to face the limitations of its habitat. A recent analysis of the factors contributing to this population's tremendous growth reveals surprising trends ...

CHICAGO (September 18, 2012) – The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have each released new tools and information to help track deadly healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in nursing homes and other long-term care settings. Potentially deadly HAIs strike volumes of nursing home residents each year, with best estimates suggesting that up to 2.8 million infections can occur in this population annually. Published online this week in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of SHEA, ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ⎯ The United States, long considered a champion of economic freedom, plunged to No. 18 in new rankings published in the 2012 Economic Freedom of the World, an annual report co-authored by Florida State University economics Professor James Gwartney. The report is published by Canada's Fraser Institute in cooperation with institutes in 78 other nations and territories. The U.S. publisher is the Cato Institute. The 2012 report, released on Sept. 18, uses 42 different variables derived from sources such as the World Bank and International Monetary ...

A dictionary of thousands of words chronicling the everyday lives of people in ancient Egypt — including what taxes they paid, what they expected in a marriage and how much work they had to do for the government — has been completed by scholars at the University of Chicago. The ancient language is Demotic Egyptian, a name given by the Greeks to denote it was the tongue of the demos, or common people. It was written as a flowing script and was used in Egypt from about 500 B.C. to 500 A.D., when the land was occupied and usually dominated by foreigners, including Persians, ...

Bethesda, MD – A new report from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is a stark reminder of the perilous situation facing the medical research and scientific communities unless Congress and the President take action to prevent the pending sequestration. Set in motion by the Budget Control Act of 2011, sequestration would impose automatic cuts on federal funding starting on January 2, 2013. According to OMB, the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be reduced by $2.529 billion, the National Science Foundation would lose $586 million, and the Department ...

Researchers Patricia A. Champion and Matthew Champion from the University of Notre Dame's Eck Institute for Global Health have developed a method to directly detect bacterial protein secretion, which could provide new insights into a variety of diseases including tuberculosis. The Champions point out that bacteria use a variety of secretion systems to transport proteins beyond their cell membrane in order to interact with their environment. For bacterial pathogens like TB these systems transport bacterial proteins that promote interaction with host cells, leading to ...

VIDEO: University of Iowa researchers have determined that thigh size in obese people is a reason their hip implants are more likely to fail. Click here for more information. University of Iowa researchers have determined that thigh size in obese people is a reason their hip implants are more likely to fail. In a study, the team simulated hip dislocations as they occur in humans and determined that increased thigh girth creates hip instability in morbidly obese patients (those ...

A once-promising discovery linking prostate cancer to an obscure retrovirus derived from mice was the result of an inadvertent laboratory contamination, a forensic analysis of tissue samples and lab experiments – some dating back nearly a decade – has confirmed. The connection, which scientists have questioned repeatedly over the last couple years, was first proposed more than six years ago, when the telltale signature of the virus, known as XMRV, was detected in genetic material derived from tissue samples taken from men with prostate cancer. Later studies failed ...

MADISON — Pacifiers may stunt the emotional development of baby boys by robbing them of the opportunity to try on facial expressions during infancy. Three experiments by a team of researchers led by psychologists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison tie heavy pacifier use as a young child to poor results on various measures of emotional maturity. The study, published today by the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology, is the first to associate pacifiers with psychological consequences. The World Health Organization and American Academy of Pediatrics already ...

Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu Source: Bedrich Benes, 765-496-2954, bbenes@purdue.edu Related websites: Bedrich Benes: http://www.tech.purdue.edu/CGT/Faculty-And-Staff/index.cfm?dept=Computer%20Graphics%20Technology&id=120 IMAGE CAPTION: Bedrich Benes, an associate professor of computer graphics at Purdue University, is working with Advanced Technology Labs of Adobe Inc. to develop a computer program that automatically strengthens objects created using 3-D printing. The innovation is needed because the printed fabrications are often fragile ...

Inflammation is the hallmark of many human diseases, from infection to neurodegeneration. The chemical balance within a tissue is disturbed, resulting in the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide, which can cause oxidative stress and associated toxic effects. Although some ROS are important in cell signaling and the body's defense mechanisms, these chemicals also contribute to and are indicators of many diseases, including cardiovascular dysfunction. A non-invasive way of detecting measurable, low levels of hydrogen peroxide and ...

MADISON -- Among his many qualities, the pioneering wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold was a meticulous taker of field notes. Rising before daylight and perched on a bench at his Sauk County shack in Depression-era Wisconsin, Leopold routinely took notes on the dawn chorus of birds. Beginning with the first pre-dawn calls of the indigo bunting or robin, Leopold would jot down in tidy script the bird songs he heard, when he heard them, and details such as the light level when they first sang. He also mapped the territories of the birds near his shack, so he knew where the ...

HOUSTON – (Sept. 18, 2012) – Contrary to the prevailing theories that music and language are cognitively separate or that music is a byproduct of language, theorists at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) advocate that music underlies the ability to acquire language. "Spoken language is a special type of music," said Anthony Brandt, co-author of a theory paper published online this month in the journal Frontiers in Cognitive Auditory Neuroscience. "Language is typically viewed as fundamental to human intelligence, ...

Although depression and prejudice traditionally fall into different areas of study and treatment, a new article suggests that many cases of depression may be caused by prejudice from the self or from another person. In an article published in the September 2012 issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, William Cox of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues argue that prejudice and depression are fundamentally connected. Consider the following sentence: "I really hate _____. I hate the way _____ look. ...

While wave watching is a favorite pastime of beachgoers, few notice what is happening in the shallowest water. A closer look by two University of Colorado Boulder applied mathematicians has led to the discovery of interacting X- and Y-shaped ocean waves that may help explain why some tsunamis are able to wreak so much havoc. Professor Mark Ablowitz and doctoral student Douglas Baldwin repeatedly observed such wave interactions in ankle-deep water at both Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, and Venice Beach, Calif., in the Pacific Ocean -- interactions that were thought to be very ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A small subset of patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) account for a large proportion of all glaucoma-related charges in the United States, according to new data published by researchers at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center and Washington University, St. Louis. These findings have importance for future evaluations of the cost-effectiveness of screening and treatment for glaucoma. "We've identified risk factors associated with patients who are the costliest recipients of glaucoma-related eye care," says Joshua D. Stein, M.D., M.S., ...

Powerful thunderstorms wrapped tightly around Hurricane Lane's center as it continued moving through the eastern Pacific Ocean. When NASA's Terra satellite passed over Lane it captured a close-up view of the storm and noticed that Lane's eye had become cloud-filled as if being punched in the eye. Nature is expected to fight Lane more and win over the next couple of days. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument captured a close-up of Lane on Sept. 17 at 3:25 p.m. EDT when it was still a hurricane. In the image, Lane's eye appeared obscured ...

Heavy rainfall from Typhoon Sanba caused flooding, landslides and at least one death when it hit South Korea on Monday September 17, 2012. NASA's TRMM satellite captured rainfall and thunderstorm cloud height data as Sanba drenched southwestern Japan earlier, and its eye passed to the west of the Japanese island of Kyushu. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite provided good coverage of Sanba as it passed over Typhoon Sanba on Sept. 16, 2012 at 0349 UTC, after Sanba had passed over Okinawa, Japan. Sanba was moving northward over the East China Sea toward ...