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Flocculent spiral NGC 2841

Flocculent spiral NGC 2841
2011-02-18
Star formation is one of the most important processes in shaping the Universe; it plays a pivotal role in the evolution of galaxies and it is also in the earliest stages of star formation that planetary systems first appear. Yet there is still much that astronomers don't understand, such as how do the properties of stellar nurseries vary according to the composition and density of the gas present, and what triggers star formation in the first place? The driving force behind star formation is particularly unclear for a type of galaxy called a flocculent spiral, such as ...

Improving microscopy by following the astronomers' guide star

2011-02-18
A corrective strategy used by astronomers to sharpen images of celestial bodies can now help scientists see with more depth and clarity into the living brain of a mouse. Eric Betzig, a group leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus, will present his team's latest work using adaptive optics for biology at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. during a press conference on Thursday, Feb., 17, and a panel discussion on Friday, Feb. 18. A key problem in microscopy is that when ...

Plants cloned as seeds

2011-02-18
Plants have for the first time been cloned as seeds. The research by aUC Davis plant scientists and their international collaborators, published Feb. 18 in the journal Science, is a major step towards making hybrid crop plants that can retain favorable traits from generation to generation. Most successful crop varieties are hybrids, said Simon Chan, assistant professor of plant biology at UC Davis and an author of the paper. But when hybrids go through sexual reproduction, their traits, such as fruit size or frost resistance, get scrambled and may be lost. "We're ...

Reverse genetics allow scientists to slow the spread of the Rubella virus

2011-02-18
Scientists have identified the gene that allows the Rubella virus to block cell death and reverse engineered a mutant gene that slows the virus's spread. Tom Hobman and a team of researchers at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry believed that RNA viruses were able to spread by blocking the pathways in cells that lead to cell suicide, and isolated the responsible gene in Rubella, also known as German measles. They then created a mutant version of this gene that made the virus spread more slowly. These results are reported in PLoS Pathogens. The ...

Engineering atomic interfaces for new electronics

2011-02-18
MADISON — Most people cross borders such as doorways or state lines without thinking much about it. Yet not all borders are places of limbo intended only for crossing. Some borders, like those between two materials that are brought together, are dynamic places where special things can happen. For an electron moving from one material toward the other, this space is where it can join other electrons, which together can create current, magnetism or even light. A multi-institutional team has made fundamental discoveries at the border regions, called interfaces, between ...

Identification of glaucoma gene brightens view for future therapies

Identification of glaucoma gene brightens view for future therapies
2011-02-18
Glaucoma – a leading cause of vision loss and blindness worldwide – runs in families. A team of investigators from Vanderbilt University and the University of Florida has identified a new candidate gene for the most common form of the eye disorder, primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). The findings, reported Feb. 17 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, offer novel insights into glaucoma pathology and could lead to targeted treatment strategies. Elevated pressure inside the eye is a strong risk factor for POAG. Pressure increases because of increased resistance to the ...

Checklist cuts lethal ventilator-associated lung infections

2011-02-18
Cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia — the most lethal and among the most common of all hospital-associated infections — dropped by more than 70 percent in Michigan hospitals where medical staff used a simple checklist designed by Johns Hopkins researchers. Such pneumonias kill an estimated 36,000 Americans each year. The findings, published online in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, show how a relatively simple series of steps, coupled with an education program and a culture that promotes patient safety, can save tens of thousands of lives ...

New Pitt projects will test brain computer interfaces for people with spinal cord injury

2011-02-18
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 17 – Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have been awarded funding for two projects that will place brain-computer interfaces (BCI) in patients with spinal cord injuries to test if it is possible for them to control external devices, such as a computer cursor or a prosthetic limb, with their thoughts. The projects build upon ongoing research conducted in epilepsy patients who had the interfaces temporarily placed on their brains and were able to move cursors and play computer games, as well as in monkeys that through interfaces guided a robotic ...

A genetic mutation allows Hudson River fish to adapt to PCBs

A genetic mutation allows Hudson River fish to adapt to PCBs
2011-02-18
NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2011 – A research group led by a New York University School of Medicine scientist discovered a genetic variant that allows a fish in the Hudson River to live in waters heavily polluted by PCBs. In a study published in the February 18, 2011, online issue of Science, they report that a population of Hudson River fish apparently evolved rapidly in response to the toxic chemicals, which were first introduced in 1929, and were banned fifty years later. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications, especially ...

Turning forests into fuel: New report outlines promise and limits of biomass energy in the Northeast

Turning forests into fuel: New report outlines promise and limits of biomass energy in the Northeast
2011-02-18
(Millbrook, N.Y. – Feb 17, 2011) Forest biomass could replace as much as one quarter of the liquid fossil fuel now being used for industrial and commercial heating in the Northeastern United States. That's according to a new report released today by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. But the report also has sharp caveats: The potential for forest biomass varies widely within the region, and forest resources must be carefully managed to protect the other important services and goods they provide. Under the right circumstances, however, the report found that forest ...

Unraveling how prion proteins move alon axons in the brain

2011-02-18
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified the motors that move non-infectious prion proteins (PrPC) – found within many mammalian cells – up and down long, neuronal transport pathways. Identifying normal movement mechanisms of PrPC may help researchers understand the spread of infectious prions within and between neurons to reach the brain, and aid in development of therapies to halt the transport. Their study is published in the February 18 edition of the journal Cell. The small prion protein is found in the cell membrane ...

Pollution triggers genetic resistance mechanism in a coastal fish

2011-02-18
For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New York's Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fish—the Atlantic tomcod—has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment. Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have joined colleagues from New York University (NYU) and NOAA to investigate this phenomenon and report that the tomcod living in the Hudson River have undergone a rapid evolutionary ...

Study links social security improvements to longer life span

2011-02-18
New findings from researchers at New York Medical College suggest that when Social Security benefits are improved, people over the age of 65 benefit most, and may even live longer. According to a new study published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, Americans over the age of 65 experienced steep declines in the rate of mortality in the periods that followed the founding of and subsequent improvements to Social Security. The authors urge that as Congress and the President discuss changes to Social Security they consider the benefit of reduced mortality and improved ...

World's first chemical guided missile could be the answer to wiping out cancer

2011-02-18
Deakin University medical scientists have created the world's first cancer stem cell-targeting chemical missile, placing them a step closer to creating a medical 'smart bomb' that would seek out and eradicate the root of cancer cells. The Deakin researchers have worked with scientists in India and Australia to create the world's first RNA aptamer, a chemical antibody that acts like a guided missile to seek out and bind only to cancer stem cells. The aptamer has the potential to deliver drugs directly to the stem cells (the root of cancer cells) and also to be used to ...

Swedish discovery could lead to new stroke therapy

2011-02-18
The only acute treatment for a stroke currently available is thrombolysis. This uses drugs that dissolve the blood clot responsible for the stroke, but it only reaches around 10 per cent of stroke patients in time to prevent lasting damage. For other patients, there are no other effective drugs that reduce the loss of brain function following a stroke. Researchers at the Laboratory for Experimental Brain Research in Lund, together with American researchers, have discovered a substance that reinforces the brain's self-healing functions after a stroke. It has long been ...

Choose less contaminating products thanks to eco-labeling

Choose less contaminating products thanks to eco-labeling
2011-02-18
Ensuring the sustainability of the products we use is a fundamental challenge for society, and is becoming ever more important for consumers and companies. A researcher from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) has come up with an eco-labelling system that provides environmental information, showing the carbon footprints generated by the goods and services in question during their "life cycle". "This study provides an alternative means of efficiently communicating environmental information to companies, consumers and interested parties – the eco-label. This ...

Sleeping Trojan horse to aid imaging of diseased cells

2011-02-18
A unique strategy developed by researchers at Cardiff University is opening up new possibilities for improving medical imaging. Medical imaging often requires getting unnatural materials such as metal ions into cells, a process which is a major challenge across a range of biomedical disciplines. One technique currently used is called the 'Trojan Horse' in which the drug or imaging agent is attached to something naturally taken up by cells. The Cardiff team, made of researchers from the Schools of Chemistry and Biosciences, has taken the technique one step further with ...

Cell-phone use not related to increased brain cancer risk

2011-02-18
Radio frequency exposure from cell phone use does not appear to increase the risk of developing brain cancers by any significant amount, a study by University of Manchester scientists suggests. The researchers used publically available data from the UK Office of National Statistics to look at trends in rates of newly diagnosed brain cancers in England between 1998 and 2007. The study, published in the journal Bioelectromagnetics, reported no statistically significant change in the incidence of brain cancers in men or women during the nine-year time period under observation. "Cell ...

Emotional response may predict how the body responds to stress

2011-02-18
New York, NY, 17 February 2011 – Your emotional response to challenging situations could predict how your body responds to stress, according to research published this month in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. "People who reported high levels of anger and anxiety after performing a laboratory-based stress task showed greater increases in a marker of inflammation, than those who remained relatively calm," said Dr Judith Carroll, who conducted the study at the University of Pittsburgh. "This could help explain why some people with high levels of stress experience ...

Preterm mothers' milk contains less antioxidants than mothers completing their gestation

2011-02-18
A study conducted at the University of Granada and at the University Hospital San Cecilio revealed that preterm mothers' milk contains low concentrations of coenzyme Q10. This is a complex of great medical importance, due both to its antioxidant capacity and to its role as a component of the electron transport chain, among other functions. This study counted with the participation of a group of researchers of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology "José Mataix" (from to the Andalusian Government research groups AGR-145 and CTS-627), and with the collaboration ...

Chronically ill children are 88 percent more likely to suffer physical abuse

2011-02-18
Children with chronic health conditions are 88% more likely to suffer physical abuse than healthy children, according to research in the March issue of Acta Paediatrica. They are also 154% more likely to suffer a combination of physical abuse and exposure to intimate partner violence than their healthy school friends. Researchers from Karlstad University, Sweden, analysed 2,510 questionnaires completed anonymously by children aged ten, 12 and 15 from 44 schools. Nearly one in four had at least one chronic health condition, including visual, hearing or speech problems, ...

Residual dipolar couplings unveil structure of small molecules

2011-02-18
The team of Professor Burkhard Luy from KIT and Junior Professor Stefan F. Kirsch from the TUM has now shown for the first time that certain NMR parameters, the so-called residual dipolar couplings (RDCs), can make a significant contribution towards determining the constitution of chemical compounds when traditional methods fail. To do this they embedded molecules of the compound in a gel which slightly constricts their mobility. By stretching the gel, the molecules can be aligned along a preferred orientation. While residual dipolar couplings average out in solution, they ...

Vitamin E may increase or decrease the risk of pneumonia depending on smoking and exercise

2011-02-18
Depending on the level of smoking and leisure time exercise, vitamin E supplementation may decrease or increase, or may have no effect, on the risk of pneumonia, according to a study published in Clinical Epidemiology. In laboratory studies, vitamin E has influenced the immune system. In several animal studies vitamin E protected against viral and bacterial infections. However, the importance of vitamin E on human infections is not known. Dr. Harri Hemila and Professor Jaakko Kaprio, of the University of Helsinki, Finland, studied the effect of vitamin E on the risk ...

Higher levels of social activity decrease the risk of developing disability in old age

2011-02-18
CHICAGO—Afraid of becoming disabled in old age, not being able to dress yourself or walk up and down the stairs? Staying physically active before symptoms set in could help. But so could going out to eat, playing bingo and taking overnight trips. According to research conducted at Rush University Medical Center, higher levels of social activity are associated with a decreased risk of becoming disabled. The study has just been posted online and will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. "Social activity has long been recognized ...

First-of-its-kind study shows benefits of electrical stimulation therapy for people paralyzed by spinal cord injury

First-of-its-kind study shows benefits of electrical stimulation therapy for people paralyzed by spinal cord injury
2011-02-18
Feb. 17, 2011– A new treatment approach which uses tiny bursts of electricity to reawaken paralyzed muscles "significantly" reduced disability and improved grasping in people with incomplete spinal cord injuries, beyond the effects of standard therapy, newly published research shows. In a study published online in the journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Toronto researchers report that functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy worked better than conventional occupational therapy alone to increase patients' ability to pick up and hold objects. FES therapy ...
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