The Monarch butterfly is famous for its ability to travel up to 2,000 miles from North America to central Mexico every fall. Now, it's enjoying fame of a different sort. In the November 23rd issue of Cell, researchers report the full genomic sequence of this iconic butterfly. The new genome is the first for any butterfly. It is also the first complete genome of any long-distance migrant. "With this genome sequence in hand, we now have an overwhelming number of opportunities to understand the genetic and molecular basis of long-distance migration," says Steven Reppert ...

New research sifts through the entire genome of thousands of human subjects to look for genetic variation associated with height. The results of the study, published by Cell Press in the December issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, suggest that uncommon genetic deletions are associated with short stature. Height is a highly heritable trait that is associated with variation in many different genes. "Despite tremendous recent progress in finding common genetic variants associated with height, thus far these variants only explain about 10% of the variation ...

WORCESTER, Mass. – Each fall millions of monarch butterflies from across the eastern United States use a time-compensated sun compass to direct their navigation south, traveling up to 2,000 miles to an overwintering site in a specific grove of fir trees in central Mexico. Scientists have long been fascinated by the biological mechanisms that allow successive generations of these delicate creatures to transverse such long distances to a small region roughly 300 square miles in size. To unlock the genetic and regulatory elements important for this remarkable journey, neurobiologists ...

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, have identified the pattern of cell signaling induced by antipsychotic drugs in a complex composed of two brain receptors linked to schizophrenia. The discovery should allow researchers to predict the effectiveness of novel compounds for the treatment of schizophrenia and other serious mental disorders and may accelerate the development of better antipsychotic drugs. The findings are published in the November 23 issue of Cell. Until now, the molecular mechanism through which current treatments for schizophrenia achieve ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 23, 2011 – A University of Utah biologist and an international research team decoded the genetic blueprint of the two-spotted spider mite, raising hope for new ways to attack the major pest, which resists pesticides and destroys crops and ornamental plants worldwide. The voracious mites, which technically are not insects, can eat more than 1,100 plant species – a rare trait. The mites' newly revealed and sequenced genome contains a variety of genes capable of detoxifying pesticides as well as toxins plants use to defend themselves, the scientists ...

Almost a year ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) proposed new limits on Hours of Service (HOS) rules for commercial drivers. While the intent was to improve highway safety for all who travel by limiting fatigue among truck drivers, the proposed changes have come under fire from trucking advocacy groups as having little impact on highway safety. The proposed changes in hours of service have not yet been finalized. Existing Hours of Service Limitations for Commercial Drivers HOS regulations generally apply to all drivers of commercial vehicles. ...

SALT LAKE CITY -- We drink water, bathe in it and we are made mostly of water, yet the common substance poses major mysteries. Now, University of Utah chemists may have solved one enigma by showing how cold water can get before it absolutely must freeze: 55 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. That's 87 degrees Fahrenheit colder than what most people consider the freezing point of water, namely, 32 F. Supercooled liquid water must become ice at minus 55 F not just because of the extreme cold, but because the molecular structure of water changes physically to form tetrahedron ...

BOSTON—A combination of two drugs may alleviate radiation sickness in people who have been exposed to high levels of radiation, even when the therapy is given a day after the exposure occurred, according to a study led by scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston. Mouse studies of other potential therapies suggest they would be effective in humans only if administered within a few minutes or hours of radiation exposure, making them impractical for use in response to events involving mass casualties. In contrast, the larger time window ...

Reducing the risk of potential global environmental disaster requires a "constitutional moment" comparable in scale and importance to the reform of international governance that followed World War II, say experts preparing the largest scientific conference leading up to next June's Rio+20 Earth Summit. Stark increases in natural disasters, food and water security problems and biodiversity loss are just part of the evidence that humanity may be crossing planetary boundaries and approaching dangerous tipping points. An effective environmental governance system needs to ...

Private disability insurance can be a significant source of value for employees and their families, and they expect to be able to rely on it in their times of need. But what happens when an employee's disability insurance claim is denied? A comprehensive federal law known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA, protects the interests of participants in many types of insurance plans. ERISA sets standards for the administration of benefit plans, including the proper procedure for appealing a denial of a claim for benefits. If the claims process ...

Washington, D.C. — The composition of the Earth's core remains a mystery. Scientists know that the liquid outer core consists mainly of iron, but it is believed that small amounts of some other elements are present as well. Oxygen is the most abundant element in the planet, so it is not unreasonable to expect oxygen might be one of the dominant "light elements" in the core. However, new research from a team including Carnegie's Yingwei Fei shows that oxygen does not have a major presence in the outer core. This has major implications for our understanding of the period ...

About 160,000 species of butterflies and moths are already known, but scientists believe that a similar number still remain undiscovered. Identification and characterization of these species can be complicated by the fact that each species has an immature caterpillar and a mature butterfly form, as well as the reliance on the physical appearance for classification. Now, though, researchers report that a type of DNA analysis called "barcoding" may provide a powerful tool in this effort, according to a study published in the Nov. 16 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. ...

Everyone wonders what bugs might be lurking in public bathrooms. Now researchers are using novel genetic sequencing methods to answer this question, revealing a plethora of bacteria all around, from the doors and the floors to the faucet handles and toilet seats, with potential public health implications, as reported Nov. 23 in the online journal PLoS ONE. Led by Gilberto Flores and Noah Fierer of the University of Colorado, Boulder, the researchers investigated 12 public restrooms, 6 male and 6 female, in Colorado. Using a high-throughput genetic sequencing technique, ...

Some risk factors for obesity become stronger the more overweight a person is, according to a study published Nov. 23 in the online journal PLoS ONE. Paul Williams of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California found that certain risk factors – lower education level, parental obesity, and high meat/low fruit diets – produced a greater risk for excess body weight for subjects with a higher body mass index (BMI) than for those with lower BMI. Based on these results, Williams proposes that environmental factors that result in little to no weight gain ...

We rely on our doctors to make appropriate decisions for our treatment, but this process can be subject to a variety of potentially conflicting influences. To identify what makes a good decision-maker, a team of researchers, led by Read Montague, PhD, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, tested 35 experienced physicians for their ability to make appropriate treatment choices, and found that the doctors who performed best were those who learned from both their successes and failures, rather than focusing just on the ...

A person goes to the hospital after feeling tightness in his chest. There, a physician runs a battery of tests to determine the cause. The tests show that nothing is seriously wrong, even though the patient is sure his pains are abnormal. The physician gives the patient healthy-eating instructions, prescribes an aspirin regimen and may even prescribe anti-anxiety medication for panic attacks. A few days later, the patient dies from cardiac arrest. This is a tragic story that we have heard far too many times as Cleveland medical malpractice lawyers. While diagnostic advancements ...

Dyslexia affects up to 17.5% of the population, but its cause remains somewhat unknown. A report published in the Nov. 23 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE supports the hypothesis that the symptoms of dyslexia, including difficulties in reading, are at least partly due to difficulty excluding excess background information like noise. In the study of 37 undergraduate students, the researchers, led by Rachel Beattie of the University of Southern California, found that the poor readers performed significantly worse than the control group only when there were high levels ...

Increased consumption of ground beef or processed meat is positively associated with aggressive prostate cancer, according to a study published Nov. 23 in the online journal PLoS ONE. The research team, led by John Witte of University of California, San Francisco, also found that the correlation was primarily driven by red meat that was grilled or barbequed, especially when well done. They suggest that this result, which was determined based on the meat consumption habits of about 1,000 male participants, is due to increased levels of carcinogens in meat prepared these ...

When seeking a physician, you should look for one with experience. Right? Maybe not. Research on physicians' decision-making processes has revealed that those who pay attention to failures as well as successes become more adept at selecting the correct treatment. "We found that all the physicians in the study included irrelevant criteria in their decisions," said Read Montague, Ph.D., director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute (http://research.vtc.vt.edu), who led the study. "Notably, however, the most experienced doctors ...

In New York, driving records include a point total. The New York Department of Motor Vehicles (NY DMV) uses this point total to track drivers and provide additional penalties, such as the Driver Responsibility Assessment (DRA), to drivers who have committed numerous traffic violations. In New York, points for various traffic violations can add up rather quickly. A few common traffic violations and their corresponding point totals include: - Improper cell phone use, such as texting while driving: 2 points - Failure to obey a traffic signal: 2 points - Reckless driving: ...

WHAT: HIV is coated in sugars that usually hide the virus from the immune system. Newly published research reveals how one broadly neutralizing HIV antibody actually uses part of the sugary cloak to help bind to the virus. The antibody binding site, called the V1/V2 region, represents a suitable HIV vaccine target, according to the scientists who conducted the study. In addition, their research reveals the detailed structure of the V1/V2 region, the last part of the virus surface to be visualized at the atomic level. The study was led by Peter D. Kwong, Ph.D., chief ...

Article provided by McCann Schaible & Wall, LLC Visit us at www.mswattorneys.com Traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, are some of the most severe traumas people can experience. Often, TBIs leave patients with lifelong side effects that affect their ability to function in their work and personal lives. Unfortunately, one of the most prevalent causes of TBI is also one of the most common American behaviors: driving. Motor vehicle accidents are the second-leading cause of TBIs in the United States, accounting for over 17 percent of brain injuries, and are the leading ...

SAN ANTONIO (Nov. 23, 2011) — Scientists studying longevity thought it might be good to lack a copy of a gene, called IGF1 receptor, that is important in insulin signaling. Previous studies showed invertebrates that lacked the copy lived longer, even if their bodies were less responsive to insulin, the hormone that lowers blood sugar. A new study from The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio challenges this. Knocking out one copy of the gene failed to increase the life span of male mice, and it only modestly increased the life span of female littermates. ...

People with diabetes are known to have an increased risk of heart disease. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine shows that regular consumption of a vitamin D-fortified yoghurt drink improves cholesterol levels and biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction, a precursor of heart disease, in diabetics. Not having enough vitamin D affects the inner lining of blood vessels (endothelial cells) eventually leading to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Endothelial dysfunction can be measured by the increased levels of a set of biomarkers, ...

They say time heals all wounds, and new research from the University of California, Berkeley, indicates that time spent in dream sleep can help. UC Berkeley researchers have found that during the dream phase of sleep, also known as REM sleep, our stress chemistry shuts down and the brain processes emotional experiences and takes the painful edge off difficult memories. The findings offer a compelling explanation for why people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as war veterans, have a hard time recovering from painful experiences and suffer reoccurring ...