"Mud samples boiled in acid sounds like witchcraft," admits microbiologist Bente Lomstein from the Department of Bioscience when explaining how she and an international group of researchers achieved the outstanding results being published today in the journal Nature. Bacteria are the only living organisms to produce D-amino acids that deposit a chemical signature in the mud in which they live. Researchers at the Department of Bioscience and the Danish National Research Foundation's Center for Geomicrobiology at Aarhus University have used this knowledge together with American ...

Washington, March 19, 2012 – Infection preventionists and healthcare epidemiologists play key roles in promoting effective antimicrobial stewardship in collaboration with other health professionals, according to a joint position paper published today by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) in their respective peer-review journals, the American Journal of Infection Control and Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Antimicrobial agents, which include antibiotics ...

DURHAM, N.H. – A new book by a University of New Hampshire researcher and Vietnam-era disabled veteran sheds new light on the long-term psychological trauma experienced by the coalition force in recent wars in the Gulf and Balkans that, when left untreated, can have deadly consequences. In his new book "War Trauma and its Aftermath: An International Perspective on the Balkan and Gulf Wars" (University Press of America, 2012), Laurence French, senior research associate at UNH Justiceworks, and co-author Lidija Nikolic-Novakovic, a Balkan War survivor, detail how the Gulf ...

DETROIT – Styling practices can lead to serious hair and scalp diseases for some African Americans, says Henry Ford Hospital dermatologist Diane Jackson-Richards, M.D. "Hair is an extremely important aspect of an African-American woman's appearance," says Dr. Jackson-Richards, director of Henry Ford's Multicultural Dermatology Clinic. "Yet, many women who have a hair or scalp disease do not feel their physician takes them seriously. Physicians should become more familiar with the culturally accepted treatments for these diseases." Dr. Jackson-Richards says proper hair ...

When hands start hurting, it's common to wonder whether it�EUR s time to seek out a hand doctor or hand specialist. But how can one tell the difference between a normal, everyday, hand problem and one that may require the attention of a hand doctor and specialist? Well, there are some signs that every hand specialist will look for. Symptoms that include persistent pain, numbness, weakness, stiffness, or mobility problems are sure signs that something may be wrong. Some of these symptoms result from an instant injury, like a break or sprain. Others seem to come on ...

For a 6-year-old, one of the most powerful educational tools may be direct instruction, according to new research on how children learn about prejudice. Scientists found that as children get closer to age 10, they begin to rely more on their own experiences rather than what people tell them – but for youngsters, instruction trumps experience. "Young children are information hungry – they are eagerly searching for general rules to help in mapping out their social worlds," write Sonia Kang and Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto in this month's Personality and ...

Thanks to research by a University of Cincinnati undergraduate student and two team members, there's a new tool that's now been tested and found to work in continuously recording the habits of snakes. This small-scale study is the first-ever use of Lotek Archival Tags (LATs) on snakes, since the LAT devices were originally developed for use in avian and fish species due to LATs' ability to measure temperature and pressure – measuring pressure translates into altitude and depth. UC's Lauren Flick, a triple-major pursuing simultaneous undergraduate degrees in biology, ...

Cafe Baci announces a night of 'Classical Neapolitan Songs' at its restaurant in Sarasota, FL. On Tuesday, March 27, 2012, internationally-renowned tenor, Joseph Spinella will be the featured artist to celebrate National Joe Day. The origins of this holiday are rather murky, but the gist is that everyone can call themselves 'Joe' on this day. If you don't like your first name, you can call yourself Joe. Although if you are already named Joe, well you just have to be grateful your parents didn't name you 'Rutabaga.' In honor of this occasion, a real Joe will be singing ...

Up to two million lives, annually, could be saved globally with improvements in trauma care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This estimate by Charles Mock, from the University of Washington in Seattle, and his team provides support for investment in and greater attention to strengthening trauma care services globally. Their work is published online in Springer's World Journal of Surgery. There are significant differences in survival rates of severely injured individuals in countries at different economic levels. For example, in Seattle in the US (high ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have trained mouse immune systems to eradicate skin cancer from within, using a genetic combination of human DNA from melanoma cells and a cousin of the rabies virus. The strategy, called cancer immunotherapy, uses a genetically engineered version of the vesicular stomatitis virus to deliver a broad spectrum of genes derived from melanoma cancer cells directly into tumors. In early studies, 60 percent of tumor-burdened mice were cured in fewer than three months and with minimal side effects. Results of the latest study appear ...

The Home Furnishings e-commerce company DefySupply.com announced in January 2012 that they added a new complementary product group to it's existing line - Area Rugs. The site, has been a popular destination for all types of commercial furniture and home furniture from home sofas and sectional sofas to bar stools and dining furniture sets since it jumped into the scene in 2008. They had spent much of Q4 2011 developing partnerships with some of the world's leading producers of rugs. As a result, their customers will now be able to purchase from their current selection ...

The death of the American Chestnut due to an Asian bark fungus accidentally introduced to the United States had profound environmental and economic consequences since the tree was highly valued for its strong, workable lumber and a variety of wildlife from deer to birds to bears relied upon the chestnut for food. Ongoing efforts to reintroduce the American Chestnut are labor intensive and expensive, in part because they rely on genetic cross breeding to produce a tree that is – genetically speaking – primarily an American Chestnut but endowed with the Chinese Chestnut ...

Duquesa Marketing Founder and Expert to Discuss How to Create Entrepreneurial Opportunities During a Tough Economy Florence, KY Nancy Ficke, General Manager, announced today that her Branding and Product Development firm Duquesa Marketing has scheduled another in a series of national radio interviews for Company President and Founder Geoff Ficke. "Geoff Ficke will appear on The Believe Show with Host Barbara Bruce April 1st at 3:00pm MST", said Mrs Ficke. "The discussion will be about the opportunity to take hold of your life and career options by ...

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- Research from a Kansas State University professor may make it easier to recover after spinal cord injury or to study neurological disorders. Mark Weiss, professor of anatomy and physiology, is researching genetic models for spinal cord injury or diseases such as Parkinson's disease. He is developing technology that can advance cellular therapy and regenerative medicine -- a type of research that can greatly improve animal and human health. "We're trying to build tools, trying to build models that will have broad applications," Weiss said. "So if you're ...

Each year, millions of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) migrate from overwintering grounds in central Mexico to colonize eastern North America, but just how these delicate creatures manage to reach the northern part of their breeding range in spring has largely remained a mystery. Monarch ButterflyNew research from the University of Guelph led by Prof. Ryan Norris, Department of Integrative Biology, former graduate student Nathan Miller and Environment Canada, reveals how monarchs recolonize the northern reaches of their breeding grounds — information that will ...

Trinity Digital Marketing has just released that they are running a rewards program. They are performing a free website design for an organization that is making the community a better place. This may include non-profits, churches, or various other organizations. You may visit their web design page at http://www.trinitydigitalmarketing.com/washington-dc-maryland-virginia-website-design. If you have a business in the Washington DC, Maryland, or Virginia area that is making an impact, feel free to contact them. They have designed website carrying from businesses, political ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new method to reveal the structure of proteins could help researchers understand biological molecules – both those involved in causing disease and those performing critical functions in healthy cells. For roughly a decade, a technique called solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has allowed researchers to detect the arrangements of atoms in proteins that defy study by traditional laboratory tools such as X-ray crystallography. But translating solid state NMR data into an actual 3D protein structures has always been difficult. In ...

Cerebral edemas are accumulations of fluid into the intra- or extracellular spaces of the brain and it can result from several factors such as stroke or head trauma, among others. Cerebral edema is a serious problem in neurology. While in other organs swelling does not lead to an urgent situation, in the brain it leads to coma and death. Although there are therapeutic solutions such as surgery, more effective treatments are needed. Megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts (MLC) is a rare type of leukodystrophy (affects the white matter) of genetic ...

ArtistScope DRM for the Digital Rights Management of both eBooks and PDF documents is now available and affordable for everyone to use. An author can be publishing fully protected documents within hours. Documents are not only protected from all manner of copying their content but are also protected from the copy and redistribution to others. ArtistScope DRM is a total control solution comprised of a sophisticated suite of tools that enable authors to upload documents and images from a web page to be encrypted and assigned access rights permissions. The solution is unique ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Even if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends, future generations will have to deal with sea levels 12 to 22 meters (40 to 70 feet) higher than at present, according to research published in the journal Geology. The researchers, led by Kenneth G. Miller, professor of earth and planetary sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University, reached their conclusion by studying rock and soil cores in Virginia, Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific and ...

TAMPA, Fla. (March 19, 2012) – Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have found that when they deplete a smoker's self control, smoking a cigarette may restore self-control. The study, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology (Vol. 121, No.1), exposed a test group and a control group – totaling 132 nicotine dependent smokers – to an emotional video depicting environmental damage. One group in the study expressed their natural emotional reactions (no depletion of self-control) while the second group suppressed their responses (self-control ...

The Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Medicine Laboratory (NIMML) research team at Virginia Tech has discovered important new information on the efficacy of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in treating Crohn's disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). CLA is a naturally occurring acid found in meat and dairy products known for its anti-cancer and immune modulatory properties. In collaboration with the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepathology at University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the Wake Forest Medical Center, researchers found that ...

Matt Wilson, CEO of one of the world's most influential entrepreneurship organisations, Under30CEO has been named as the Ambassador for Climate Unchange. Wardour And Oxford is committed to the fight against climate change - this generation's greatest environmental crisis that carries economic, health, safety, food production, security and species survival consequences. As a social mission with technology developed by Swiss company South Pole Carbon, Climate Unchange is a webshop empowering all individuals, entrepreneurs, small, medium and large corporations to voluntarily ...

Kampyle is hosting a webinar with leading European Telecoms, Swisscom and KPN entitled "Reducing Support Costs While Enhancing Customer Experience. Markus Eberhard, Head of Selfcare and Customer Support at Swisscom and Maarten Goedvolk, Senior Web Strategy Manager at KPN (Netherlands) will share how using Kampyle helped them successfully transform the online and mobile user experience for their respective companies. Their story will provide a clear strategy and framework for business success. With stiff competition among telecoms, it is largely the universal ...

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — A new study describes how bacteria use a previously unknown means to defeat an antibiotic. The researchers found that the bacteria have modified a common "housekeeping" enzyme in a way that enables the enzyme to recognize and disarm the antibiotic. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Bacteria often engage in chemical warfare with one another, and many antibiotics used in medicine are modeled on the weapons they produce. But microbes also must protect themselves from their own toxins. The defenses they employ for ...