SEATTLE – June 28, 2012 – A research team led by Seattle Children's Research Institute has discovered new gene mutations associated with markedly enlarged brain size, or megalencephaly. Mutations in three genes, AKT3, PIK3R2 and PIK3CA, were also found to be associated with a constellation of disorders including cancer, hydrocephalus, epilepsy, autism, vascular anomalies and skin growth disorders. The study, "De novo germline and postzygotic mutations in AKT3, PIK3R2 and PIK3CA cause a spectrum of related megalencephaly syndromes," was published online June 24 in Nature ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- You'd be amazed at how much you can learn from a plant. In a paper published this week in the journal Science, a Michigan State University professor and a colleague discuss why if humans are to survive as a species, we must turn more to plants for any number of valuable lessons. "Metabolism of plants provides humans with fiber, fuel, food and therapeutics," said Robert Last, an MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. "As the human population grows and nonrenewable energy sources diminish, we need to rely increasingly on plants and ...

Cambridge, Mass. -– June 29, 2012 -- Imagine a kerosene lamp that continued to shine after the fuel was spent, or an electric stove that could remain hot during a power outage. Materials scientists at Harvard have demonstrated an equivalent feat in clean energy generation with a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that converts hydrogen into electricity but can also store electrochemical energy like a battery. This fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel has run out. "This thin-film SOFC takes advantage of recent advances in low-temperature ...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, U.S.A. (June 29, 2012) -- Cognitive skills such as learning and memory diminish with age in everyone, and the drop-off is steepest in Alzheimer's disease. Texas scientists seeking a way to prevent this decline reported exciting results this week with a drug that has Polynesian roots. The researchers, appointed in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, added rapamycin to the diet of healthy mice throughout the rodents' life span. Rapamycin, a bacterial product first isolated from soil on Easter Island, enhanced ...

An attosecond is a ridiculously brief sliver of time – a scant billionth of a billionth of a second. This may seem too short to have any practical applications, but at the atomic level, where electrons zip and jump about, these vanishingly short timescales are crucial to a deeper understanding of science. In a paper accepted for publication in the American Institute of Physics' journal Review of Scientific Instruments, a team of researchers describes an advanced experimental system that can generate attosecond bursts of extreme ultraviolet light. Such pulses are the ...

New York, NY (June 29, 2012) -- Under-performance of small bowel biopsy during endoscopy may be a major reason that celiac disease remains underdiagnosed in the United States, according to a new study published online recently in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Investigators at the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) found that the rate of small bowel biopsy is low in this country. "The vast majority of people with celiac disease in the United States remain undiagnosed," said lead author Benjamin Lebwohl, MD, MS, assistant professor of clinical ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Water Resources Research (WRR), Space Weather, Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface (JGR-F), Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR-D), Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans (JGR-C), and Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). In this release: 1. Section of Atlantic circulation driven by transient southern Africa current 2. Prediction system to protect astronauts from solar storms 3. Streamflow changes following the 2010 Chile earthquake 4. Reanalyses find rising ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – Topics in this new batch of Geology papers posted online 29 June include ecospace utilization; Little Bahama Bank; climatic asynchrony; oceanic crust; sand budgets; the Alpine fault's seismic hazard to New Zealand; volcano behavior; gravity oscillations; chemical weathering in the Critical Zone; giant wave ripples; the location of high peaks as a function of drainage network; and soils as ledgers recording transactions of energy and material between Earth's plants, rocks, water, and atmosphere. Highlights are provided below. Geology articles published ...

If the day seems a little longer than usual on Saturday, June 30, 2012, that's because it will be. An extra second, or "leap" second, will be added at midnight to account for the fact that it is taking Earth longer and longer to complete one full turn--a day--or, technically, a solar day. "The solar day is gradually getting longer because Earth's rotation is slowing down ever so slightly," says Daniel MacMillan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Scientists know exactly how long it takes Earth to rotate because they have been making that measurement ...

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. is leading an international effort to develop and launch the High Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, on a sounding rocket from the White Sands Missile Range at White Sands, N.M. Hi-C is a next-generation suborbital space telescope designed to capture the highest-resolution images ever taken of the million-degree solar corona. Key partners include the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, University of Central Lancashire in Lancashire, England, and the Lebedev Physical Institute ...

Boulder, Colorado, USA – Mountain belts on Earth are most commonly formed by collision of one or more tectonic plates. The process of collision, uplift, and subsequent erosion of long mountain belts often produces profound global effects, including changes in regional and global climates, as well as the formation of important economic resources, including oil and gas reservoirs and ore deposits. Understanding the formation of mountain belts is thus a very important element of earth science research. One common but poorly understood aspect of mountain belts are the many ...

Ewing's sarcoma is a bone cancer commonly diagnosed in about 250 U.S. teenagers per year. If early chemotherapy is effective, improvement can be durable. But for children and teens who respond poorly to a first attempt at chemotherapy or if the disease spreads, long-term survival can be less than 10 percent. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published this week in the journal Molecular Cancer Research shows an important difference that may explain why some respond and some don't: the existence of high levels of the protein EYA3. "First, levels of EYA3 could ...

DARIEN, IL – Severe sleep loss jolts the immune system into action, reflecting the same type of immediate response shown during exposure to stress, a new study reports. Researchers in the Netherlands and United Kingdom compared the white blood cell counts of 15 healthy young men under normal and severely sleep-deprived conditions. The greatest changes were seen in the white blood cells known as granulocytes, which showed a loss of day-night rhythmicity, along with increased numbers, particularly at night. "Future research will reveal the molecular mechanisms behind ...

PeopleSurance announces that it now offers life insurance and health insurance in the state of New York.  PeopleSurance now offers life insurance from New York Life, Principle Financial, ING, and many other providers to residents of the state of New York.  PeopleSurance provides resources, including insurance videos, buyers' guides, and news and updates on health care reform.  PeopleSurance President Brandon Beavers states, "We are pleased to be able to continuously offer an expanding line of coverage for our clients.  The recent addition of New York to our growing ...

International Business Ethics Awards, the IBEA, identifies businesses that excel at business ethics, social responsibility and community involvement. Most business awards are based upon revenue growth or are vanity based, the IBEA process differs significantly. The IBEA is the first business ethics award of its kind that is international in scope and rewards businesses of all types, sizes, revenue levels and from varying industry segments. What truly makes the IBEA unique is the fact that professionals and businesses are nominated anonymously by third parties. Nominators ...

Pennsylvania Court Rules Sheriff's Sale Must Stand Despite Later Offer A three-judge panel on the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled recently that a sheriff's sale of real estate could not be set aside after a latecomer offered more than double the purchase price. The case arose from the sheriff's sale of a home in Middlesex Township, Pennsylvania. The property, which had been foreclosed upon, had an outstanding mortgage of about $204,000 when it was put up for sheriff's sale in September 2010. The winning bid at the sale was $255,800. About a month after the sheriff's ...

In California, Motorcycle "Lane Splitting" Legal if Done Properly Two cars, side-by-side, are motoring along two lanes of a California highway. Though the cars are only feet away from each other, a motorcycle cuts in, traveling in between the two lanes. This is known as "lane splitting," which is legal in California when done in a safe and prudent manner. When motorcyclists ride too fast, though, it can quickly turn fatal; motorcyclists are about 39 times more likely to die in crashes than car occupants, according to the California Office of Traffic ...

Mild Brain Injury and Repeated Hits to the Head May Lead to Brain Damage Brain injury has been in the news a lot lately in Utah and elsewhere around the country. Recently, the results of a new study that looked at mild traumatic brain injuries resulting from sports injuries and accidents was released, and the death of former NFL football player, Junior Seau, has again brought up the issue of repetitive concussions and mental health. Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries According to a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, mild traumatic injuries resulting ...

The State of Lifetime Alimony in New Jersey Is Questioned Going through divorce is the closing of one chapter in life and the opening of another. But, some family law advocates say the alimony law in New Jersey frustrates the ability of divorced individuals to build a new life. Reform advocates say the alimony law in New Jersey needs to be updated because the law is too unwieldy when circumstances in the lives of the paying ex-spouse change, especially regarding permanent alimony. Those who would like to see an update to the law want judges to have less discretion ...

Proposed Law in Missouri Could Permit Adoption Without Father's Consent Under a bill currently being considered by Missouri lawmakers, babies born to unmarried parents in Missouri could be placed for adoption without their fathers' consent. If passed, the proposed law would make an unmarried father's consent to a child's adoption unnecessary if he does not provide sufficient financial support to the child's mother during pregnancy, delivery or after the child's birth, despite having reason to believe he is the biological father of the child. An exception would be ...

Fewer Americans Behind on Credit Card Debt, but Average Balance Is High The number of credit card holders who have not paid their bills in the last 90 days has decreased in 2012. For Q1, the total number of delinquent cardholders dropped to 0.73 percent, from 0.78 percent for the last quarter of 2011. In addition, The Wall Street Journal reported that consumers continued to pay throughout May, despite worries from some experts that delinquency would increase in part because of continued high unemployment. However, while delinquency has decreased, nearly half of cardholders ...

Texas Seeks to Curb Prescription Drug Abuse with New Law Nearly nine of every 100,000 Texans died from prescription drug overdoses last year, most caused by abuse of illegally obtained prescription medications. The Drug Policy Alliance reports a 150 percent increase in accidental overdoses over an eight-year period in Texas. Emergency room doctors report that of the drug abuse cases they see, more are due to prescription drugs than illegal street drugs and many people do not believe they are abusing drugs because they received them from their doctor. Trafficking ...

Testifying at One's Own Trial May Lead to Self-Incrimination Defense lawyers agree it can be a game-changer when a client, who has been charged with a crime, testifies at his or her own trial. Allen Stanford, on trial in Texas for an alleged Ponzi scheme involving $7-8 billion in certificates of deposits, plans to testify on his own behalf and many believe that is a bad idea The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives a person charged with a crime the right to refuse to answer questions or make statements that may be used to help convict that person of a crime ...

Pennsylvania Law May Put Family on the Hook for Long-Term Care Costs Caring for an elderly loved one comes with a lot of responsibilities and, at times, a lot of associated stress. One of the most important considerations an adult child may face regarding long-term care is cost, and if those responsible for caring for elderly loved ones do not create plans to handle the cost of long-term care, the situation can quickly become stressful. Many folks in Pennsylvania may not be aware of a law that may put them on the hook for the cost of long-term care for senior family ...

The Means to Live: Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Debt Reaffirmation Even though going through Chapter 7 bankruptcy offers the prospect of financial relief, individuals who file may wish to reaffirm the debt on certain property to be discharged in order to retain it. For instance, it is common for filers to reaffirm the debt of a vehicle because many people depend on their cars to get to work. If a filer decides to reaffirm a debt, he or she should be sure of the ability to repay the loan in order to keep the property. In a personal bankruptcy case, the filer may decide ...