Toronto—Scientists have found a control switch that regulates stem cell "pluripotency," the capacity of stem cells to develop into any type of cell in the human body. The discovery reveals that pluripotency is regulated by a single event in a process called alternative splicing. Alternative splicing allows one gene to generate many different genetic messages and protein products. The researchers found that in genetic messages of a gene called FOXP1, the switch was active in embryonic stem cells but silent in "adult" cells—those that had become the specialized cells that ...

Contact: Peter Tarr tarr@cshl.edu 516-367-8455 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Robert Perkins perkinsr@usc.edu 213-740-9226 University of Southern California Study suggests methylation and gene sequence co-evolve in human-chimp evolutionary divergence High-resolution comparison of methylation ‘bookmarks’ across species and individuals Cold Spring Harbor, NY -- Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the University of Southern California (USC) today published the first quantitative evidence supporting the notion that the genome-wide "bookmarking" ...

Of the many generalizations attached to baby boomers, one piece of common wisdom has been that they stand to inherit a great deal of wealth from their Greatest Generation parents. The onslaught of bad news that accompanied the Great Recession and other factors has tempered that outlook, and the estate planning implications of this development are worth noting. A recent report from Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, "How Important Are Inheritances for Baby Boomers?", examined the aggregate amount of this intergenerational transfer of wealth in ...

UCLA researchers have found that the hormone estrogen may help reverse advanced pulmonary hypertension, a rare and serious condition that affects 2 to 3 million individuals in the U.S., mostly women, and can lead to heart failure. The condition causes a progressive increase in blood pressure in the main pulmonary artery, which originates in the heart's right ventricle and delivers blood to the lungs. The rise in pressure impairs heart function by enlarging the right ventricle, potentially leading to heart failure. Published in the Sept. 15 issue of the American ...

The Ohio criminal justice system is notoriously tough on defendants charged with domestic violence crimes. The following provides an explanation of some of the basic issues you may encounter if you have been charged with domestic violence in Ohio. Sentence Enhancements for Domestic Violence Convictions The Ohio criminal code includes several provisions that can increase the penalty for a conviction of domestic violence when certain conditions are met. These are known as sentence enhancements. Sentence enhancements may be triggered by the circumstance of the offense ...

While the 2012 legislative session is five months away, lawmakers may consider changes to how consumers may pursue personal injury protection claims through their insurers. Better known as "PIP coverage", personal injury protection is essentially no-fault insurance that pays for policyholders' medical bills if they are injured in an auto accident. No fault insurance is essentially a trade off of benefits. For the right to have economic damages paid for regardless of fault, drivers are limited in pursuing non-economic damages. PIP coverage applies to children, ...

A study published in the October issue of the Journal of Labor Economics suggests an unexpected consequence of the housing bust: lower college attendance. The study, by Cornell economist Michael Lovenheim, finds evidence that when home values soared in the late 1990s and early 2000's, many families borrowed against that new equity to send kids to college, boosting overall college attendance nationwide. Now that the boom is over and families have less equity in their homes, it could mean fewer students heading to college, especially kids from middle and lower income households. To ...

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have uncovered a previously unknown fail-safe (compensatory) pathway that potentially protects the brain and other organs from genetic and environmental threats. The discovery could provide new ways to diminish the negative consequences of genetic mutations and environmental toxins that cause neurological diseases and other maladies. The findings are published in the Sept. 16 issue of the journal Molecular Cell. Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is an essential molecule that "reads" genetic information ...

Most people work under "at-will" terms of employment, meaning that either they or their employers may terminate the employment relationship at any time for any reason. However, the law does not allow an employer to fire an employee for discriminatory reasons which violate the state and federal rights of its workers, even if the employment relationship is at-will. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) data revealed that employment discrimination claims reached record heights for 2010. Analysts suggest that there are several explanations for the rise ...

The phrase "no guts, no glory" doesn't just apply to athletes who are striving to excel. Salmon and other fish predators take the adage literally, by having up to three times the "gut" capacity they need on a daily basis just so they can "glory" when prey is abundant, University of Washington researchers have discovered. It's a previously unrecognized survival tactic that might apply to other top predators, such as wolves, lions and bears, according to Jonathan Armstrong, a UW doctoral student in aquatic and fishery sciences and lead author of a letter published recently ...

U.S. immigration officials recently announced an important change to deportation enforcement that potentially affects tens of thousands of immigrant families. Some commentators are calling this development the functional equivalent of passage of the DREAM Act, which Congress has repeatedly failed to enact. The Obama administration's new policy will suspend deportation proceedings if the individual poses no threat to public safety or national security. Immigration agencies will have prosecutorial discretion to devote resources to cases involving individuals with criminal ...

Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Brussels has announced all Business Class rooms at the hotel have been recently renovated into the stylish and vibrant ambience of New York. Guests staying in a Business Class room benefit from added values and amenities such as a Nespresso coffee machine in the room, free access to the Royal Fitness Club and the Business Class Lounge of the hotel. To top that off, the signature "Super Breakfast Buffet" is always included in the room rate. Furthermore the brand new Business Class rooms offer a first class service with the highest ...

The blanket of sea ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean appears to have reached its lowest extent for 2011, the second lowest recorded since satellites began measuring it in 1979, according to the University of Colorado Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center. The Arctic sea ice extent fell to 1.67 million square miles, or 4.33 million square kilometers on Sept. 9, 2011. This year's minimum of 1.67 million square miles is more than 1 million square miles below the 1979-2000 monthly average extent for September -- an area larger than Texas and California combined. While ...

Eurostar, the high-speed passenger service linking London and mainland Europe, has announced that it has begun the search for a roster of agencies to provide creative and advertising services across its core markets of the UK, France and Belgium. The ultimately successful agency or group of agencies may also assume responsibility for Eurostar's international and emerging markets. The pitch process is a consequence of Eurostar's strategic decision to introduce a more consistent brand personality across all of its different markets as the business prepares for the advent ...

Park Inn by Radisson Al Khobar was recently awarded the 'Best Mid-market Hotel in Saudi Arabia' at the first ever Saudi Excellence in Tourism Awards. The awards are held under the patronage of HRH Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz, the president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. The Park Inn hotel in Al Khobar fought off tough competition from 16 other nominees in its category to receive the top honour. The nominees for each category were decided by the public through an online vote before a panel of eight leading national and international experts ...

When lung cancer strikes, it often spreads silently into more advanced stages before being detected. In a new article published in Nature Nanotechnology, biological engineers and medical scientists at the University of Missouri reveal how their discovery could provide a much earlier warning signal. "Early detection can save lives, but there is currently no proven screening test available for lung cancer," said Michael Wang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at MU and a corresponding author for the article. "We've developed highly sensitive ...

To help retailers effectively plan for the Christmas spike in trade, which typically accounts for around 20-30% of the industry's annual sales, global digital marketing and technology agency LBi and its media arm bigmouthmedia have published 'A Christmas Countdown: Getting your online business ready for the holiday season', a joint insight document which provides best practice advice and recommendations on how to plan and execute an effective Christmas ecommerce strategy. The agency, which works with clients including Boots, Cath Kidston and Play.com, has developed ...

A group led by a University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health scientist has discovered a type of spinal cord cell that could function as a stem cell, with the ability to regenerate portions of the central nervous system in people with spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). The radial glial cells, which are marked by long projections that can forge through brain tissue, had never previously been found in an adult spinal cord. Radial glia, which are instrumental in building the brain and spinal cord ...

The Radisson Blu Hotel at Disneyland Paris acts for the environment protection and supports Planete Urgence organization Since 2006, the year of the opening of the Disneyland Paris hotel, Radisson Blu Hotel is engaged daily in sustainable development actions. Since 2010, with Planete Urgence, the hotel has concentrated its efforts towards carbon compensation by planting trees through the Climate Emergency operation. Radisson Blu Hotel is committed to plant a minimum of 2,500 trees in the upcoming year, in Mali, Madagascar and Indonesia by offering business clients ...

Just as cell phones and computers transmit data through electronic networks, the cells of your body send and receive chemical messages through molecular pathways. The term "cell signaling" was coined more than 30 years ago to describe this process. Now, for the first time, scientists have quantified the data capacity of a biochemical signaling pathway and found a surprise – it's way lower than even an old-fashioned, dial-up modem. "This key biochemical pathway is involved in complex functions but can transmit less than one bit – the smallest unit of information in ...

GALVESTON — Researchers have found that a protein linked to cell division and migration and tied to increased cell proliferation in ovarian tumors is also present at high levels in breast cancer specimens and cell lines. The protein, dubbed "UNC-45A," was also determined to be more active in breast cancer cells than in normal breast cells. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston scientists describe these findings and others in a paper now online in the Journal of Molecular Biology. "As a result of earlier work, we hypothesized that UNC-45A should be critical ...

This press release is available in French.Bamako, Mali (15 September 2011) – The Geneva-based not-for-profit foundation FIND and Japanese diagnostics company Eiken announced today that a next-generation molecular test designed specifically for sleeping sickness – a deadly parasitic disease also known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) - is ready to enter accelerated field trials in sites across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. If all goes well, the LAMP (Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) test - which has completed design and development phases - will ...

Part 1: Twitter If you think Twitter is just for teenagers and celebrities, think again. Sometimes we are asked to help people with their social media; many think that, for business, LinkedIn may be relevant but Twitter and Facebook are not going to attract clients and therefore not worthy of their attention. They couldn't be more wrong. Before going any further, I would like to share a couple of experiences that I recently had connecting with businesses on Twitter. Having endured hours of frustration being kept on hold on their help line, all to no avail, I tweeted ...

COLLEGE STATION, Sept. 15, 2011 – In the next 20 years, more than 590,000 square miles of land globally — more than twice the size of Texas — will be gobbled up by cities, a trend that shows no signs of stopping and one that could pose threats on several levels, says a Texas A&M University geographer who is part of a national team studying the problem. Burak Güneralp, a research assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M, says urban areas are growing faster than urban populations and by 2030, urbanized land worldwide will grow by 590,000 square miles ...

SPL has long been a leader in offering technical services to the oil and gas industry, focusing primarily on hydrocarbon laboratory analytical and field services. "Steve has done an outstanding job for us over the past 31 years in managing our laboratory in Traverse City, Michigan," said Herb Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer. "He serves the company with distinction and has been an exemplary laboratory manager." Since 1980, Mr. Grenda has served as Operations Manager of the Traverse City, Michigan facility. Prior to joining SPL, Mr. ...