When grown-ups and kids speak, they listen to the sound of their voice and make corrections based on that auditory feedback. But new evidence shows that toddlers don't respond to their own voice in quite the same way, according to a report published online on December 22 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings suggest that very young children must have some other strategy to control their speech production, the researchers say. "As they play music, violinists will listen to the notes they produce to ensure they are in tune," explained Ewen MacDonald ...

Compared to our other senses, scientists don't know much about how our skin is wired for the sensation of touch. Now, research reported in the December 23rd issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, provides the first picture of how specialized neurons feel light touches, like a brush of movement or a vibration, are organized in hairy skin. Looking at these neurons in the hairy skin of mice, the researchers observed remarkably orderly patterns, suggesting that each type of hair follicle works like a distinct sensory organ, each tuned to register different ...

This press release is available in Arabic, French, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese. The journal Science has lauded an eye-opening HIV study, known as HPTN 052, as the most important scientific breakthrough of 2011. This clinical trial demonstrated that people infected with HIV are 96 percent less likely to transmit the virus to their partners if they take antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). The findings end a long-standing debate over whether ARVs could provide a double benefit by treating the virus in individual patients while simultaneously cutting ...

A little history... In late 2009, as the economy started to pick up again, there was a surge in hiring activity from firms for consultancy jobs to bring on board the skills necessary to win, design and deliver new change programmes. There was the understanding that both government and private sector-led initiatives would guarantee medium-term revenue, and management consultancies and strategy houses were vying for a piece of the action after several lean years. The top consultancies were getting involved in major transformation programmes (such as the Lloyds/HBOS ...

A team of engineers and physicians have made a surprising discovery that offers a target for designing new materials for hip implants that are less susceptible to the joint's normal wear and tear. Researchers from Northwestern University, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and the University of Duisburg-Essen Germany found that graphitic carbon is a key element in a lubricating layer that forms on metal-on-metal hip implants. The lubricant is more similar to the lubrication of a combustion engine than that of a natural joint. The study will be published Dec. ...

Some signs are emerging that the executive-level diversity landscape is changing. Looking at individual cases paints a promising picture of women beginning to dominate the boardroom. Some of the world's largest technology companies are now led by women, Meg Whitman is president and chief exec at HP and Virginia Rometty is soon to assume the same role at IBM. Closer to home, Ruby McGregor-Smith is CEO of MITIE (and non-executive director at Michael Page) and Angela Ahrendts and Cynthia Carroll have led FTSE 100 listed Burberry and Anglo American respectively for several ...

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan for coronary heart disease is better than the most commonly-used alternative, a major UK trial of heart disease patients has shown. The findings by University of Leeds researchers could change the way that people with suspected heart disease are assessed, potentially avoiding the need for tests that are invasive or use ionising radiation. Full results of the study, which was funded by a £1.3 million grant from the British Heart Foundation (BHF), are published online today by the Lancet medical journal. Coronary heart disease ...

Yale researchers have uncovered the molecular tricks used by bacteria to fight the effects of fluoride, which is commonly used in toothpaste and mouthwash to combat tooth decay. In the Dec. 22 online issue of the journal Science Express, the researchers report that sections of RNA messages called riboswitches – which control the expression of genes — detect the build-up of fluoride and activate the defenses of bacteria, including those that contribute to tooth decay. "These riboswitches are detectors made specifically to see fluoride," said Ronald Breaker, the Henry ...

The genetic changes underlying the evolution of new species are still poorly understood. For instance, we know little about critical changes that have happened during human evolution. Genetic studies in domestic animals can shed light on this process due to the rapid evolution they have undergone over the last 10,000 years. A new study published today describes how a complex genomic rearrangement causes a fascinating phenotype in chickens. In the study published in PLoS Genetics researchers at Uppsala University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, North Carolina ...

A new study describes how a complex genomic rearrangement causes a fascinating phenotype in chickens in which a massive expansion of pigment cells not only makes the skin and comb black, but also results in black internal organs. Published in PLoS Genetics, researchers at Uppsala University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, North Carolina State University, and National Chung-Hsing University investigated the genetic basis of fibromelanosis, a breed characteristic of the Chinese Silkie chicken. "We have shown that the genetic change causing fibromelanosis ...

All life evolved from a single-celled universal common ancestor, and at various times in Earth history, single-celled organisms threw their lot in with each other to become larger and multicellular, resulting, for instance, in the riotous diversity of animals. However, fossil evidence of these major evolutionary transitions is extremely rare. The fossils, reported this week in Science, preserve stages in the life cycle of an amoeba-like organism dividing in asexual cycles, first to produce two cells, then four, eight, 16, 32 and so on, ultimately resulting in hundreds ...

One of the most extensive US-based dog training companies, Canine Trade Group, is proud to introduce a new 300 acre training facility in Dover, Delaware where its Professional Dog Trainer's Course will be held. Owned and operated by world-renowned dog trainer John Van Olden, Canine Trade Group offers customized training programs for dog trainers and their dogs. The new Dover Training Facility boasts a private, 20-run climate controlled kennel, an abundance of training field space, as well as accommodations such as on-site lodging or a country inn located less than a mile ...

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have demonstrated that the Anopheles mosquito's innate immune system could be genetically engineered to block the transmission of malaria-causing parasites to humans. In addition, they showed that the genetic modification had limited impact on the mosquito's fitness under laboratory conditions. The researchers' findings are published December 22nd in the Open Access journal PLoS Pathogens. In this study, Dimopoulos and his team genetically engineered Anopheles mosquitoes to produce higher than normal levels ...

A research team led by Glenn Rall at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA developed a novel mouse model to show that a fatal central nervous system (CNS) disease can be caused by a pathogen that does not replicate in the CNS. The results of this new study are published December 22nd in the Open Access journal PLoS Pathogens. The authors found that the immune response induced in response to a peripheral viral infection can be "mis-recruited" to the brain, where these activated immune cells can then lead to inflammation-induced neuropathology and disease. While ...

The computer assisted design (CAD) tools that made it possible to fabricate integrated circuits with millions of transistors may soon be coming to the biological sciences. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have developed CAD-type models and simulations for RNA molecules that make it possible to engineer biological components or "RNA devices" for controlling genetic expression in microbes. This holds enormous potential for microbial-based sustainable production of advanced biofuels, biodegradable plastics, therapeutic ...

KANSAS CITY, MO -- Life is complicated enough, so you can forgive the pioneers of DNA biology for glossing over transcriptional elongation control by RNA polymerase II, the quick and seemingly bulletproof penultimate step in the process that copies the information encoded in our DNA into protein-making instructions carried by messenger RNA. In a new report appearing in the Dec. 23, 2011, issue of Molecular Cell, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research add not just a new layer, but a whole new dimension to transcriptional elongation control with evidence ...

Chiropractic Internet marketing strategist and social media expert, Dr. Matthew Loop, has announced he'll continue to show DCs how to create an overwhelming presence on Facebook, which can easily net doctors an extra 20-30 new patients per month just from the social network. Dr. Loop's been helping fellow chiropractors master social media marketing since 2005-2006, which gives him an experience-based edge over other industry consultants. He's garnered a well deserved reputation as the "go-to" guy for chiropractors that want to dramatically improve their new ...

December 22, 2011 – Smoking is a well-known risk factor for lung cancer, but nearly 25% of all lung cancer patients have never smoked. In a study published online today in Genome Research (www.genome.org), researchers have identified a previously unknown gene fusion event that could explain a significant proportion of lung cancer cases in never-smokers, and might serve as a target for new therapies. Recent strides have been made to identify gene mutation events driving cases of lung adenocarcinoma in never-smokers, but the underlying genetic events leading to these lung ...

In eukaryotes – the group of organisms that include humans – a key to survival is the ability of certain proteins to quickly and accurately repair genetic errors that occur when DNA is replicated to make new cells. In a paper published in the December 23, 2011 issue of the journal Science, researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have solved part of the mystery of how these proteins do their job, a process called DNA mismatch repair (MMR). "One of the major questions in MMR is how MMR proteins ...

AMHERST, Mass. – A research team led by biochemist Scott Garman at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered a key interaction at the heart of a promising new treatment for a rare childhood metabolic disorder known as Fabry disease. The discovery will help understanding of other protein-folding disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, as well. Findings are featured as the cover story in the current issue of Chemistry & Biology. People born with Fabry disease have a faulty copy of a single gene that codes for the alpha-galactosidase ...

Research by University of Tennessee, Knoxville, faculty has discovered that bacteria's move from sea to land may have occurred much later than thought. It also has revealed that the bacteria may be especially useful in bioenergy research. Igor Jouline, UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory joint faculty professor of microbiology and researcher at ORNL's Joint Institute for Computational Sciences, performed a genome sequence analysis of the soil bacteria Azospirillum, a species' whose forbearers made the sea-to-land move. The analysis indicates the shift may have occurred ...

FINDINGS: Whitehead Institute scientists have identified conserved, long intervening non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) that play key roles during brain development in zebrafish, and went on to show that the human versions of these RNAs can substitute for the zebrafish lincRNAs. RELEVANCE: Despite their prevalence in the cell, lincRNAs have been referred to as the "dark matter" of all the transcribed RNAs because little is known of their functions or mechanisms. Until now, lincRNAs have been studied primarily in cell lines rather than at the organismal level, which has precluded ...

Global wildlife is facing an unprecedented threat from natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, warn scientists in a paper published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Hurricanes, droughts, flooding and wildfires are predicted to increase in frequency and severity – but despite being able to spot human populations at risk, there is currently no mechanism for identifying vulnerable animal populations. Now scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have come up with a method to identify populations likely to experience drastic changes in their population ...

A new study, bringing together an interdisciplinary team of physicians and engineers from the United States and Germany, made a surprising finding about implants used in hip replacement surgery: Graphite carbon is a key element in the lubricating layer that forms on metal-on-metal hip implants. The lubricant has more in common with the lubrication of a combustion engine than that of a natural joint. The study was funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), part of the National Institutes of Health. Made possible by an ...

Members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have shown their strong support of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's safety record and operational success by fighting to keep the Department of Energy facility sufficiently funded. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is the Department of Energy's underground repository for defense-generated, transuranic (TRU) waste. Since WIPP opened in 1999, more than 10,000 shipments of TRU waste have been permanently disposed of in salt beds 2,150 feet below the surface. WIPP is located about 26 miles outside of Carlsbad, New ...