The green anole lizard is an agile and active creature, and so are elements of its genome. This genomic agility and other new clues have emerged from the full sequencing of the lizard's genome and may offer insights into how the genomes of humans, mammals, and their reptilian counterparts have evolved since mammals and reptiles parted ways 320 million years ago. The researchers who completed this sequencing project reported their findings August 31 online in the journal Nature. The green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis) – a native of the Southeastern United States – ...

A specific genetic alteration has been discovered as a defining feature of epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE), a rare but devastating vascular cancer. These findings have also been used to develop a new diagnostic test for this blood vessel disease. An international research effort led by Brian Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., of Cleveland Clinic's Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute and Lerner Research Institute, devised an innovative approach to reveal the genetic alteration thought to cause EHE, which is considered uncommon: it comprises less than one percent of all ...

Breast cancer patients over the age of 60 with early-stage, hormone-responsive small tumors who forego adjuvant endocrine, also called hormonal therapy, are not at an increased risk of mortality compared to women of the same age without breast cancer, according to a study published Aug. 31 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The use of hormonal therapy has increased in breast cancer patients overall, and the 2009 St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference recommended hormonal therapy for almost all patients with hormone-responsive disease. But previous ...

University of British Columbia scientists may have uncovered a new explanation for how Alzheimer's disease destroys the brain – a profusion of blood vessels. While the death of cells, whether they are in the walls of blood vessels or in brain tissue, has been a major focus of Alzheimer's disease research, a team led by Wilfred Jefferies, a professor in UBC's Michael Smith Laboratories, has shown that the neurodegenerative disease might in fact be caused by the propagation of cells in blood vessel walls. Examining brain tissue from mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, ...

Golden Riviera Online Casino recently announced that they will be hosting a Guaranteed EUR10,000 Slots Tournament on the superb Video Slot, Hitman. Golden Rivera was the first in the industry to host a Slots Tournament of this kind and magnitude and to say that the previous EUR10K tourneys were an astounding success with its patrons would be an understatement. Casino Manager, Emily Alessi, released this statement to the press: "The time has come again for our famous EUR10,000 Guaranteed FreeRoll Slots Tourney. Every one of our previous EUR10K tourneys has had such ...

A new hi-tech £1million-plus non-invasive disease detection facility, developed by the University of Leicester, has been unveiled today (Sept 1st 2011) for use in Leicester Royal Infirmary's A&E department. It is designed to detect the "sight, smell and feel" of disease without the use of invasive probes, blood tests, or other time-consuming and uncomfortable procedures. Scientists use three different types of cutting-edge technology in combination under a range of situations. All the methods are non-invasive, and could speed up diagnosis. Scientists have surrounded ...

Robert Lauri reveals a new window of his musical creativity by now offering listeners some previously unreleased timeless melodies... all of them simply stunning. The artist introduces us to some of the songs performed in English by Lorraine S'. All of his melodies and arrangements offer an opportunity for today's artists and performers. For example, Robert Lauri first introduces us to the selections My Friend, Promised Land and Sunset. Wix widgets will be shared on Robert Lauri's social networking sites as well as on his music sites. During his long musical ...

Australia's iconic thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was hunted to death in the early Twentieth century for allegedly killing sheep; however, a new study published in the Zoological Society of London's Journal of Zoology has found that the tiger had such weak jaws that its prey was probably no larger than a possum. "Our research has shown that its rather feeble jaw restricted it to catching smaller, more agile prey," said lead author Marie Attard, of the University of New South Wales Computational Biomechanics Research Group. "That's an unusual trait for a large predator ...

Stars aren't shy about sending out birth announcements. They fire off energetic jets of glowing gas travelling at supersonic speeds in opposite directions through space. Although astronomers have looked at still pictures of stellar jets for decades, now they can watch movies, thanks to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. An international team of scientists led by astronomer Patrick Hartigan of Rice University in Houston, USA, has collected enough high-resolution Hubble images over a 14-year period to stitch together time-lapse movies of young jets ejected from three ...

A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that postmenopausal women who smoke have higher androgen and estrogen levels than non-smoking women, with sex hormone levels being highest in heavy smokers. Previous studies have shown that high levels of estrogens and androgens are potential risk factors for breast and endometrial cancer as well as type 2 diabetes. Cigarette smoking is a well established risk factor for chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, but ...

A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that among women aged 60 and above, heavier women have fewer hot flashes than their leaner counterparts. The inverse association between body size and hot flashes was observed only among the older women. In the last decade, research on perimenopausal women has shown that heavier women tend to have more hot flashes. As a result of this research, clinicians began to observe obesity as a risk factor for hot flashes. However, according to this new ...

Dr. Thomas Neuman, podiatrist in Lancaster and Northridge, has recently launched the practice's social media websites - Facebook and Twitter. These social media channels were set up to maintain a superior level of communication and interaction with patients at any point during the day. Patients can now access more personalized information, as well as learn more about other patients' experiences with Dr. Neuman. "My patients use the Internet more and more these days, including sharing information and interacting with other patients on popular social media websites. ...

Many care homes provide first rate care, despite relentless negative media coverage, argues an expert on bmj.com today. Graham Mulley, Emeritus Professor of Elderly Care at the University of Leeds, calls on the media and high profile individuals to "balance the prevailing nihilism" and celebrate all the excellent work that is taking place in many care homes. His views come after he was asked to be a consultant adviser for an undercover television exposé of nursing homes. Media reporting of care homes is rarely positive, he writes, yet the latest report from the Care ...

New Jersey top dentist, Dr. Ivan Stein of Northfield Dental Group, is treating patients with more precision and efficiency with recent advancements in dental technology. New laser devices enable Dr. Stein to provide the best possible care in his Livingston office. Laser dentistry is a form of dentistry that allows for the treatment of highly specific areas by laser without damaging the surrounding tissues. For years lasers have been used in dentistry to treat a number of dental problems and they continue to improve and grow in popularity. "The use of lasers ...

One of the most efficient means of transporting freight is by ship. However, many of the ships sailing today are powered by ageing diesel motors fitted with neither exhaust cleaning equipment nor or modern control systems. Three years ago the University of Birmingham initiated an ambitious trial, converting an old canal barge to use hydrogen fuel. The old diesel motor, drive system and fuel tank were removed and replaced with a high efficiency electric motor, a battery pack for short-term energy supply and a fuel cell with a hydrogen storage system to charge the batteries. ...

Population movements in the wake of disasters make it difficult to deliver the right amount of humanitarian aid to the right places. During the earthquake and ensuing cholera epidemic in Haiti, researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Columbia University, USA, developed a new method for solving this problem – they monitored the continual movements of two million anonymous mobile phones and reported directly to the humanitarian relief organisations on the ground. The method, which is now presented in the scientific journal PLoS Medicine, may have a major impact ...

Dr. Nicholas Southall, dentist in Mobile, offers patients a discounted price for teeth whitening for the next two months. Patients can schedule an appointment with Dr. Southall to save $150 on their teeth whitening treatment, regularly $300. "Teeth whitening is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures available, and sometimes patients can't afford it. This is why I am happy to offer my patients teeth whitening at such a discounted price. It allows those who have always wanted a whiter smile to be able to try it out at an affordable rate," said Dr. Nicholas ...

Philadelphia, PA, August 31, 2011 - Does Dad's stress affect his unborn children? According to the results of a new study in Elsevier's Biological Psychiatry, it seems the answer may be "yes, but it's complicated". The risk of developing depression, which is significantly increased by exposure to chronic stress, is influenced by both environment and genetics. The interplay of these two factors is quite complex, but in fact, there is even a third factor that most of us know nothing about – epigenetics. Epigenetics is the science of changes in genetic expression that are ...

An article in the current issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy examines the carbon sequestration potential of Miscanthus plantations on commercial farms. Researchers evaluated Miscanthus plantations in Ireland, where planting has been subsidized by the government. Carbon sequestration is expected to vary among different farming practices and soil characteristics. They found significant soil carbon sequestration under Miscanthus on both former tilled land and former grasslands after only two years of planting with little evidence that its introduction contributes to ...

Scientists have discovered a genetic cause of extreme thinness for the first time, in a study published today in the journal Nature. The research shows that people with extra copies of certain genes are much more likely to be very skinny. In one in 2000 people, part of chromosome 16 is duplicated, making men 23 times and women five times more likely to be underweight. Each person normally has a copy of each chromosome from each parent, so we have two copies of each gene. But sometimes sections of a chromosome can be duplicated or deleted, resulting in an abnormal 'dosage' ...

Washington, DC, August 31, 2011 – More than 60 percent of hospital nurses' and doctors' uniforms tested positive for potentially dangerous bacteria, according to a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. A team of researchers led by Yonit Wiener-Well, MD, from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel, collected swab samples from three parts of the uniforms of 75 registered nurses (RNs) and 60 medical doctors ...

AUDIO: This audio file is a brief interview with MIABE coauthors Sandra Orchard, John Overington, Dominic Clark and Christoph Steinbeck of the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute. They briefly discuss the potential impact... Click here for more information. An international consortium of pharmaceutical companies, public and commercial data providers and academic groups has agreed on a new standard for describing the effect of a compound on a biological entity. Published in ...

Paris, France, 31 August 2011: "The ESC Congress 2011 in Paris has been a record breaking event" said Prof Michael Böhm, chairman of the ESC Congress Programme Committee. "With a total attendance of 32 946 participants, this is our largest congress ever. We are especially pleased to see that more and more delegates are coming from outside Europe. Large delegations came from Brazil, Japan, China and India this year," said Prof Böhm. "The quality of the scientific content at the ESC Congress attracts more and more participants each year," explained Prof Böhm. "The medical ...

(Providence, R.I.) – The journal Radiology will publish in its September issue an article written by Damian E. Dupuy, M.D., director of tumor ablation at Rhode Island Hospital, supporting the use of ablation procedures for the treatment of lung cancer. The article, "Image-guided Thermal Ablation of Lung Malignancies," reviews the results of nearly 100 studies conducted between 1991 and 2011 that conclude that image-guided ablation for lung cancer is a successful alternative for patients who cannot withstand surgery due to advanced age or medical comorbidities. Percutaneous ...

As a crippling drought grips much of the Southern and Southwestern United States, the population continues to grow and water resources become scarcer. One way to address the problem is by a combination of modern engineering and ancient social principles, outlined in a new paper on rainwater harvesting that will be presented at the 2011 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Author John Whear, biomedical engineer at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, examines how to manage rainwater ...