AUSTIN, Texas--Seed size is controlled by small RNA molecules inherited from a plant's mother, a discovery from scientists at The University of Texas at Austin that has implications for agriculture and understanding plant evolution. "Crop seeds provide nearly 70 to 80 percent of calories and 60 to 70 percent of all proteins consumed by the human population," said Z. Jeff Chen, the D.J. Sibley Centennial Professor in Plant Molecular Genetics at The University of Texas at Austin. "Seed production is obviously very important for agriculture and plant evolution." Chen and ...

When it comes to running a successful business over decades, passion is everything. At The Meat Factory, passion is no short supply. Whether it's supporting the community, its employees, progress in the realm of food safety, or Canada's agriculture industry, TMF is a company that is not content to do things half-heartedly. That passion is one of many traits that have served to cement the company as one of Canada's top food manufacturers. "We derive our livelihood from Canada and Canadian products, and we also have to be cognizant of the farmers and everyone else ...

Magnetics have been a major force in the steel industry for decades, and Magnetic Analysis Corporation has been at the forefront for just as long. Since first incorporating in 1928, MAC has been providing U.S. steel producers with innovative methods and equipment for testing their products. Today, the company has expanded its reach worldwide - but its dedication to groundbreaking technology is just as strong as ever. "Technology is always changing," says says Dudley Boden, Vice President of Sales at MAC. "Some eddy current and flux leakage technology ...

In 1915, Alfred Haigh moved from Mount Gambier to Adelaide with one goal: the chocolate business. Nearly a century later, Haigh's Chocolates is still standing strong with six locations in Adelaide, Melbourne, and now in Sydney. Still family-owned and operated to this day, Haigh's Chocolates finds ways to embrace new technology while still staying true to the friendliness and quality ingredients that have made the company famous. When a company is built upon family, it can be difficult finding the right people for the job. When that job also involves a precise artisan ...

Duck-billed dinosaurs that lived within Arctic latitudes approximately 70 million years ago likely endured long, dark polar winters instead of migrating to more southern latitudes, a recent study by researchers from the University of Cape Town, Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and Temple University has found. The researchers published their findings, "Hadrosaurs Were Perennial Polar Residents," in the April issue of the journal The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology. The study was funded through a grant from the National ...

Rocky Veneziano and brothersJoe and John Kolenda are all self-made businessmen, solemnly dedicated to the pursuit of a business that is efficient and vertically integrated. But though their business is serious, their aim is to make The Groove Train a thoroughly engaging experience for both food and coffee lovers throughout Australia. "All our stores have a certain vibe about them: retro, groovy, casual, funky," says Rocky. "We have big communal tables, booth seating and table top arcade games machines which are also used as tables." "A lot ...

Ventana Research has begun its 2012 Value Index for Product Information Management. This 2012 Value Index will provide guidance that can enable organizations to ascertain the value of applications for addressing product information management. Using the Value Index, businesses and specific commerce, marketing, product, manufacturing and supply chain organizations will be able to evaluate vendors and their products and make choices based on an understanding of how well existing and new applications and technology best satisfy their needs. "The Value Index for ...

Using tiny tags to track a bird's location, biologists from PRBO Conservation Science (PRBO) have unlocked the mystery of where Golden-crowned Sparrows, which overwinter in California, go to breed in the spring. Published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, the study reveals for the first time the exact migration route of this small songbird to its breeding sites in coastal Alaska. During a time when birds are experiencing the negative impacts of climate and land-use changes, being able to pinpoint the most important breeding and stopover places is critical to prioritizing ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University have definitively linked an increase in ocean acidification to the collapse of oyster seed production at a commercial oyster hatchery in Oregon, where larval growth had declined to a level considered by the owners to be "non-economically viable." A study by the researchers found that elevated seawater carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, resulting in more corrosive ocean water, inhibited the larval oysters from developing their shells and growing at a pace that would make commercial production cost-effective. As atmospheric ...

In November 2011, a National Academy of Sciences committee issued a report calling for the creation of a "Google Maps"-like data network intended to revolutionize medical discovery, diagnosis and treatment. Today, the co-chair of that committee, UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, is issuing a call-to-arms to patient advocates to help make that idea a reality. In her editorial, reported in the April 11 issue of "Science Translational Medicine," Desmond-Hellmann calls on patient advocates to work with policy makers in the U.S. Congress and elsewhere to develop ...

Plans for the International Dog Bite Prevention Challenge are well underway. Doggone Safe challenged its presenters to visit schools and educate 50,000 children about dog safety in a single month. The Challenge will occur during May in honor of Dog Bite Prevention Week (May 20-26, 2012). So far 57 presenters have pledged to educate over 18,000 kids in eight countries, five Canadian provinces and twenty four US states. Half of all children are bitten by a dog and most of the time the biter is the family dog or another dog known to the child. "The number of bites ...

During the massive oil spill from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in 2010, it seemed at first like there might be a quick fix: a containment dome lowered onto the broken pipe to capture the flow so it could be pumped to the surface and disposed of properly. But that attempt quickly failed, because the dome almost instantly became clogged with frozen methane hydrate. Methane hydrates, which can freeze upon contact with cold water in the deep ocean, are a chronic problem for deep-sea oil and gas wells. Sometimes these frozen hydrates form inside the well casing, where ...

New York, NY, April 11, 2012 – Chromosomes are strands of DNA that contain the blueprint of all living organisms. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes that instruct how genes are regulated during development of the human body. While scientists have developed an understanding of the one-dimensional structure of DNA, until today, little was known about how different parts of DNA are folded next to each other inside the nucleus. Using a powerful DNA sequencing methodology, researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research have now investigated the three-dimensional ...

The demand for caregivers is growing rapidly as California's population ages, but the majority of state's Medi-Cal caregivers earn poverty or near-poverty wages and have poor access to health care and food, a new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has found. Fifty-seven percent of paid Medi-Cal caregivers — and almost half of all 450,000 paid caregivers in the state — have incomes that leave them in poverty or near poverty, according to the study, "Hidden in Plain Sight: California's Paid Medi-Cal Caregivers Are Vulnerable." Medi-Cal is the state's ...

WORCESTER, Mass. — Chromosomes, the molecular basis of genetic heredity, remain enigmatic 130 years after their discovery in 1882 by Walther Flemming. New research published online in Nature by the team of Edith Heard, PhD, from the Curie Institute and Job Dekker, PhD, from the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), reveals a new layer in the complex organization of chromosomes. The scientists have shown that chromosomes fold in a series of contiguous "yarns" that harbor groups of genes and regulatory elements, bringing them in contact with each other and allowing ...

Ann Arbor-based Colorbok, LLC, a nationally prominent creator and distributor of scrapbooking items, kids' crafts and other related products, announces the acquisition of the paper crafting business of ANW/Creativity Works and Making Memories. "We are tremendously excited to be able to work with Making Memories and ANW / Creativity Works. We feel that we will be able to drive newness into the marketplace using all of the great brands which include Making Memories, The Paper Company, Westrim, Crop In Style, Autumn Leaves and Hip in a Hurry. They are a great compliment ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A team of scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University have pinpointed the region on dengue virus that is neutralized in people who overcome infection with the deadly pathogen. The results challenge the current state of dengue vaccine research, which is based on studies in mice and targets a different region of the virus. "In the past researchers have relied on mouse studies to understand how the immune system kills dengue virus and assumed that the mouse studies would apply to people as well," said senior ...

BOSTON--In low-income, minority communities, tight-knit social connections -- with family members, friends, and neighbors -- can lead people to eat healthy and be physically active, but in some cases it may actually be an obstacle to a healthy lifestyle, according to new research by investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health. To account for this paradox, researchers theorize that for people made vulnerable by low income and poor access to services, the demands of social responsibilities -- being a single parent or caregiver to ...

Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff reports that recent studies on metal-on-metal hips revealed patients who have received the Wright Pro Femur, Wright Conserve Plus, Biomet Magnum and Biomet M2A hip replacement systems experience early hip failure more often than with traditional hip replacement systems. All of these hip implants are "metal on metal" hips that have recently been the subject of much controversy. Reportedly, under certain conditions, metal on metal hip replacements have been shown to produce excess metal wear debris, releasing metal particles into ...

A University of Oklahoma assistant professor and colleagues have identified two white dwarf stars considered the oldest and closest known to man. Astronomers identified these 11- to 12-billion-year-old white dwarf stars only 100 light years away from Earth. These stars are the closest known examples of the oldest stars in the Universe forming soon after the Big Bang, according to the OU researcher. Mukremin Kilic, assistant professor of physics and astronomy in the OU College of Arts and Sciences and lead author on a recently published paper, announced the discovery. ...

A new scientific instrument, a "time machine" of sorts, built by UCLA astronomers and colleagues, will allow scientists to study the earliest galaxies in the universe, which could never be studied before. The five-ton instrument, the most advanced and sophisticated of its kind in the world, goes by the name MOSFIRE (Multi-Object Spectrometer for Infra-Red Exploration) and has been installed in the Keck I Telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. MOSFIRE gathers light in infrared wavelengths — invisible to the human eye — allowing it to penetrate ...

Are Sinus Allergies Making You Snore More and Interrupting Your Sleep? Aaaahhh spring: 'tis the season for flowers and perfect temps, and for--aacchhoo!--sinus allergies. This year warm winters across the U.S. prompted tree pollen to go into full production earlier than usual, and resulted in a robust start for sinus congestion due to allergies--which is bad news for the more than 20% of people who suffer from hay fever. While congested sinuses cause difficult breathing and misery by day, stuffiness is often worse at night. Nighttime congestion has the added ...

Although the preference of dung beetles for specific types and conditions of dung has been given substantial attention, little has been done to investigate their preference for dung from exotic mammals found on game farms or rewilding projects. In "A Comparison of Dung Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Attraction to Native and Exotic Mammal Dung," an article appearing in the latest edition of Environmental Entomology, Sean D. Whipple, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and W. Wyatt Hoback, a biology professor at the University of ...

Environmental policy has historically been driven by a demand-side mindset – attempting to limit consumption of precious fossil fuels through pollution permits, taxation, and multi-national climate change treaties. However, new research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University suggests that actually buying coal, oil and other dirty fossil fuel deposits still in the ground could be a far better way to fight climate change. The new study, "Buy Coal! A Case for Supply-Side Environmental Policy," suggests that the single best policy for a multi-national ...

Boulder, Colo., USA - New Geosphere science covers volcanic activity in the Lake Tahoe-Reno-Carson City area and its tie to abundant seismicity in the region; mapping of the interpreted locations of the Kern Canyon and Breckenridge faults at a level of detail never before published; a study of sediments in Reno-Verdi area, Western Nevada, that provide a record of a warmer, wetter climate featuring large mammal fossils; and answers to some of the puzzles surrounding the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. Abstracts for these and other GEOSPHERE papers are available at http://geosphere.gsapubs.org/. ...