Macrophages playing an important role in the immune system eat and fight against pathogens and foreign substances in the very beginning of infection. In this condition, macrophages produce reactive oxygen species for sterilization. However, the relation with the temperature sensor was not previously known. Professor Makoto TOMINAGA from National Institute for Physiological Sciences (Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience), National Institutes of Natural Sciences, and his research team member Ms. Makiko KASHIO have identified the mechanism through which TRPM2 is activated ...

PHILADELPHIA — Niacin, or vitamin B3, is the one approved drug that elevates "good" cholesterol (high density lipoprotein, HDL) while depressing "bad" cholesterol (low density lipoprotein , LDL), and has thereby attracted much attention from patients and physicians. Niacin keeps fat from breaking down, and so obstructs the availability of LDL building blocks. Patients often stop taking niacin because it causes uncomfortable facial flushing, an effect caused by the release of a fat called prostaglandin or (PG)D2. PGD2 is the primary cause of the unwanted vasodilation, ...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – (April 6, 2012) – Using its unique online research platform, 23andMe, a leading personal genetics company, has found five significant genetic associations for hypothyroidism in the largest known genome-wide association study of hypothyroidism conducted to date. The details of the study are now available online in the journal PLoS ONE. "With nearly 90 percent of our 125,000 customers participating in our online research, 23andMe is making crowd-sourced science a reality," stated 23andMe CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki. "Our online research platform ...

A North Carolina State University researcher has developed a more efficient, less expensive way of cooling electronic devices – particularly devices that generate a lot of heat, such as lasers and power devices. The technique uses a "heat spreader" made of a copper-graphene composite, which is attached to the electronic device using an indium-graphene interface film "Both the copper-graphene and indium-graphene have higher thermal conductivity, allowing the device to cool efficiently," says Dr. Jag Kasichainula, an associate professor of materials science and engineering ...

WASHINGTON—April 9, 2012— New York voters recognize the importance of global health research and are concerned about the United States' ability to compete globally, according to a new poll commissioned by Research!America, yet an overwhelming majority (93%) of those polled don't know where global health research is conducted in their own state. The majority of New Yorkers (64%) think that New York residents should be concerned about global health and an additional 63% believe that spending money on global health is important to their state's economy. However, poll results ...

HOUSTON -- (April 9, 2012) -- Using light-harvesting nanoparticles to convert laser energy into "plasmonic nanobubbles," researchers at Rice University, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) are developing new methods to inject drugs and genetic payloads directly into cancer cells. In tests on drug-resistant cancer cells, the researchers found that delivering chemotherapy drugs with nanobubbles was up to 30 times more deadly to cancer cells than traditional drug treatment and required less than one-tenth the clinical dose. "We ...

Philadelphia, PA, April 9, 2012 – Scientists from Duke University Medical Center have determined that genes acting as molecular "on/off" switches can define clinically relevant molecular subtypes of ovarian cancer, providing ideal potential targets for use in clinical prognostic and diagnostic testing. These bimodal genes can define tumor subtypes that have different overall prognoses and respond to different therapeutic regimens. The researchers' results are published in the May issue of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. "We identified a very small set of genes ...

Up to 30% of the world's population is infected with Tuberculosis (TB), but in many areas of the world, TB diagnosis still relies on insensitive, poorly standardized, and time-consuming methods. A new diagnostic tool, endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), may change that. Dr. Thomas Bodmer shows how it's done in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE). Currently, TB is diagnosed through either a skin test, which produces a small bump on the patient's arm when administered and needs to be checked after 72 hours, and through smear microscopy, a method that ...

WirelessTimeClock.com, a trusted source for web-based time clocks, has re-launched its website (http://www.wirelesstimeclock.com) with a more intuitive and streamlined design, promising a more enriching experience for businesses searching for reliable employee time clocks and time and attendance management solutions. "Our customers have been asking for a more intuitive, resourceful site," says Scott Tobin, owner of WirelessTimeClock.com. "We wanted to make sure they could find exactly the clocks and monthly plans that would fit their business needs." With ...

Daejeon, the Republic of Korea, April 9, 2012—The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced that a research team from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has developed a technology that enables scientists and engineers to observe processes occurring in liquid media on the smallest possible scale which is less than a nanometer. Professor Jeong Yong Lee and Researcher Jong Min Yuk, in collaboration with Professor Paul Alivisatos's and Professor Alex Zettl's groups at the University of California, Berkeley, succeeded in making ...

Combining two strategies designed to improve the results of cancer treatment – antiangiogenesis drugs and nanomedicines – may only be successful if the smallest nanomedicines are used. A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers, appearing in Nature Nanotechnology, finds that normalizing blood vessels within tumors, which improves the delivery of standard chemotherapy drugs, can block the delivery of larger nanotherapy molecules. "We found that vascular normalization only increases the delivery of the smallest nanomedicines to cancer cells," says ...

One day in the fall of 2011, Neil Sheeley, a solar scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., did what he always does – look through the daily images of the sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). But on this day he saw something he'd never noticed before: a pattern of cells with bright centers and dark boundaries occurring in the sun's atmosphere, the corona. These cells looked somewhat like a cell pattern that occurs on the sun's surface -- similar to the bubbles that rise to the top of boiling water -- but it was a surprise to find this ...

It shouldn't be surprising to those who have children, that Atlanta Hardwood Flooring is constantly in harm's way from rambunctious babies! The experts at FlooringAtlantaNow are truly masters of the trade, and most recommend using more durable types of wood for high-traffic areas of your home which are prone to scratches or abrasions. Most Atlanta Flooring specialists agree that winter is the best time to do these types of installations and upgrades to your home. Because metro-Atlanta is known for its mild winters, the season offers a perfect climate which tends to be ...

Athens, Ga. – Black flies drink blood and spread disease such as river blindness—creating misery with their presence. A University of Georgia study, however, proves that the pesky insects can be useful. Don Champagne, an entomology professor with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, discovered a way to use the black fly's blood-sucking tactics for medical advancement. The results of his research were published in the journal PLoS One. "In order to feed on blood, these insects have to contend with our natural defense agents against blood loss—like ...

Courtship rituals can be all-consuming, demanding time and effort – but now scientists have discovered why it might be worth it. Attracting a mate – which can take significant effort, such as in a peacock's show of feathers or the exhaustive rutting of stags – can produce benefits for a species in the long term, a study suggests. Scientists have shown that animals and plants which reproduce sexually are at a considerable advantage to those species – such as some insects and reptiles – that reproduce without a partner. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied ...

While exercise is accepted universally as the most beneficial prescription physicians can write for patients, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that generate its widespread health benefits. Researchers from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine have shed light on this mystery by discovering that a genetic factor, Kruppel-like Factor 15 (KLF15), governs the body's ability to burn fat during exercise. Previous research from the laboratory of Mukesh Jain, MD, FAHA, identified the importance of KLF15 in the metabolism of two of the three basic nutrients used ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study offers compelling genetic evidence that head and body lice are the same species. The finding is of special interest because body lice can transmit deadly bacterial diseases, while head lice do not. The study appears in the journal Insect Molecular Biology. Scientists have long debated whether human head and body lice are the same or different species. The head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) is a persistent nuisance, clinging to and laying its eggs in the hair, digging its mouthparts into the scalp and feeding on blood several times a ...

HOUSTON -- (April 9, 2012) -- A new study by Rice University scientists reveals that plants can use the sense of touch to fight off fungal infections and insects. The study, which will be published in the April 24 issue of Current Biology, finds that plant defenses are enhanced when plants are touched. "From previous studies, we knew that plants change their growth in response to touch but we didn't know how these growth changes were activated," said Wassim Chehab, a faculty fellow in Rice's Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology and lead author of the new study. ...

AMES, Iowa -- Scientists have overcome a major hurdle facing quantum computing: how to protect quantum information from degradation by the environment while simultaneously performing computation in a solid-state quantum system. The research was reported in the April 5 issue of Nature. A group led by U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory physicist Viatsheslav Dobrovitski and including scientists at Delft University of Technology; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and University of Southern California, made this big step forward on the path to using the ...

On March 28, 2012, O'Reilly Collins obtained a verdict in favor of its client, Stephens & Stephens XII, LLC, and against Fireman's Fund Insurance Company for $4,673,125.10 for failure to pay an insurance claim. Stephens' warehouse was stripped of copper wiring, causing over $2 million electrical and mechanical damages. Stephens was notified of the theft on July 1, 2007 by the Richmond police who apprehended two thieves. Stephens promptly notified its insurance company, Fireman's Fund, of the loss and asked to pay for the repairs. Fireman's Fund initially promised ...

Major life decisions such as marriage, divorce, abortion, having a child and attending university may be subconsciously influenced by how long people believe they will live, according to a Queen's University study. "Life expectancy might be driving all of these major decisions," says Daniel Krupp, a post doctoral fellow in the Queen's math department who has a background in psychology and biology. The longer someone expects to live, the more time they will invest in education. If life expectancy is short, someone may decide to get married and have children sooner, or ...

NEW YORK, April 9, 2012 – In the current hyper-charged United States healthcare debate, the focus on lowering cost without compromising quality of care remains a priority. But according to a new study by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and colleagues, one common approach may have serious unintended consequences. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) Clinical Scholars program and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the study, which appears today in the April issue of Health Affairs, examines the potential impact of policies ...

Lowering glucose levels for people with diabetes is normally critical to improving health outcomes. But for those with heart failure, that might not always be the case, say UCLA researchers. A new study found that for advanced heart failure patients with diabetes, having higher blood glucose levels may actually help improve survival rates. Currently published online in the American Journal of Cardiology, UCLA researchers compared levels of a marker used to track glucose levels called glycosylated hemoglobin in advanced heart failure patients with and without diabetes. ...

Techniques for leveraging e-discovery and social media evidence. The West LegalEdcenter webinar will include discussions on the importance of e-discovery and social media evidence and how to use it as leverage in civil and criminal litigation. Mr. Isaacs, a New Jersey attorney, mediator, and arbitrator, will provide techniques for obtaining e-discovery and uses for social media. He will also cover material on the recent privacy invasion and bullying issues that resulted in the Rutgers University student's criminal trial and guilty verdicts. Hanan M. lsaacs, M.A., J.D., ...

AURORA, Colo. (April 9, 2012) – Dozens of American youth under the age of 20 die on the job each year while thousands more are injured, often due to poorly regulated work environments, according to a new report released by the Colorado School of Public Health. "We don't tend to think of child labor as a major issue in the U.S. but we should," said the study's lead author Carol Runyan, Ph.D., MPH, and professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health. "Laws governing the employment of youth ages 14 to 17 in this country are often very lenient and in the ...