High levels of "good" cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) are associated with a decreased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) — a disease of the major arterial blood vessels that is one of the major causes of heart attack and stroke. This suggests that therapeutics that increase HDL levels could be clinically useful. However, such therapies have not yielded clear-cut decreases in disease, indicating that the beneficial effects of HDL are likely not related simply to its abundance. More evidence to support this notion has now been provided by a team of researchers, led by Ulf ...

Although homeowners continue to struggle with their mortgage payments and try to avoid foreclosure, many banks see nothing wrong with concurrently pursuing foreclosures against borrowers who are seeking loan modifications. This controversial practice, called dual tracking, seems less like a smart business tactic and more like a way to punish homeowners working to keep their homes. While both federal regulators and various state officials work to curb or ban the practice of dual tracking, consumers should be aware that lenders may sell their homes before modifying their ...

Some individuals with epilepsy fail to respond to treatment with conventional drugs but benefit from consuming a ketogenic diet — a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet similar to the more commonly known Atkins diet. A team of researchers, led by Detlev Boison, at the Legacy Research Institute, Portland, has now identified in mice the molecular mechanism responsible for the antiepileptic effects of the ketogenic diet. The team found that a ketogenic diet reduces seizures in mice by decreasing expression of the protein Adk, which is responsible for clearing the natural antiepileptic ...

EDITOR'S PICK: What makes a happy meal? Many people when stressed turn to high calorie "comfort foods". Despite the contribution this behavior makes to the current obesity epidemic, little is known about the molecules and nervous system circuits that control it. Insight into this could provide new targets for the development of therapeutics to curb this potentially detrimental behavior. In this context, a team of researchers, led by Jeffrey Zigman, at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, working with a new mouse model of prolonged psychosocial ...

In its infancy, when the universe was a few millionths of a second old, the elemental constituents of matter moved freely in a hot, dense soup of quarks and gluons. As the universe expanded, this quark–gluon plasma quickly cooled, and protons and neutrons and other forms of normal matter "froze out": the quarks became bound together by the exchange of gluons, the carriers of the color force. "The theory that describes the color force is called quantum chromodynamics, or QCD," says Nu Xu of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley ...

None of us are strangers to stress of various kinds. It turns out the effects of all those stresses can change the fate of future generation, influencing our very DNA without any change to the underlying sequence of As, Gs, Ts and Cs. Now, researchers reporting in the June 24th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, have new evidence that helps to explain just how these epigenetic changes really happen. "There has been a big discussion about whether the stress effect can be transmitted to the next generation without DNA sequence change," said Shunsuke Ishii of RIKEN ...

A doctor's office visit can be stressful, no matter what the circumstances, but imagine if you're visiting your doctor after you've been injured in a car accident. If you've spoken with an attorney about your Florida motor vehicle accident, your attorney may have counseled you on how to protect your accident claim in the exam room. If you haven't spoken to an attorney, there are mistakes you want to avoid to prevent damaging any possible claim you have. Mistakes to Avoid at a Visit With Your Doctor Don't Lie About Your Pain or Ignore Pain: The most common, and ...

The ultimate source of some cancers is embryonic cells. Research published in the June 24th Cell, a Cell Press publication, traces the precursor of deadly esophageal cancers to leftover embryonic cells found in all adults. Some people with gastric reflux disease have a greater risk of developing esophageal cancer. These patients often have Barrett's esophagus, a condition in which intestinal-like cells appear in the esophagus. Esophageal cancers are difficult to treat and, together with gastric adenocarcinomas, kill more than a million people each year. "A lot of ...

Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation of Orion, is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It is also one of the biggest, being almost the size of the orbit of Jupiter — about four and half times the diameter of the Earth's orbit. The VLT image shows the surrounding nebula, which is much bigger than the supergiant itself, stretching 60 billion kilometres away from the star's surface — about 400 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun. Red supergiants like Betelgeuse represent one of the last stages in the life of a massive star. In this short-lived ...

Researchers at RIKEN have uncovered a mechanism by which the effects of stress in the fly species Drosophila are inherited epigenetically over many generations through changes to the structure of chromatin, the material that makes up the cell nucleus. Published in the journal Cell, the results highlight the role of the transcription factor dATF-2 in chromatin assembly, marking a major advance in our understanding of non-Mendelian inheritance. Recent years have seen growing interest in the phenomenon of epigenetic inheritance: the idea that our genome, through epigenetic ...

An app created by the Canadian based creators of Blackberry, Research In Motion, has recently been pulled off the company's online store after a formal request from four U.S. Senators. Known as the "DUI app," it allows users to pinpoint the exact locations of local police checkpoints using GPS. The apps also locate traffic cameras and speed traps. Web applications like these, however, are gaining widespread attention by law enforcement and legislative officials across the country. Senators Harry Reid, D-Nevada; Charles Schumer, D-New York; Frank Lautenberg, ...

Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disorder which affects one child in 25,000. Children born with this syndrome have a range of complex neurological and developmental problems which continue into adult life. These can manifest as cognitive and behavioral difficulties, weight gain, problems in controlling their temper and attendant difficulties in socialization. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, demonstrates that the hormone oxytocin is able to positively affect patients by improving trust, mood, and reducing ...

Synthetic collagen has a wide range of applications in reconstructive and cosmetic surgery and in the food industry. For proper function in animals a certain number of prolines within the protein need to be hydroxylated. BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Biotechnology reports that for the first time the α1 chain of type 1 collagen has been produced in maize with similar levels of proline hydroxylation to human collagen. Most collagen used is derived from animals but there are risks associated with this collagen containing infectious agents or being rejected ...

Small heads, large bodies, and a slow metabolism -- these are the characteristics that make us think of dinosaurs as dull, lethargic and cold-blooded giants. However, this image seems to be deceiving. These giant saurians that have been extinct for 65 million years may have been high-performance models of evolution. In cooperation with colleagues from the US, researchers from the University of Bonn have just determined that the body temperature of some large herbivorous dinosaurs was between 36 and 38 degrees Celsius. "Originally, dinosaurs were considered to have been ...

Where Atlantic salmon feed in the ocean has been a long-standing mystery, but new research led by the University of Southampton shows that marine location can be recovered from the chemistry of fish scales. Surprisingly, salmon from different British rivers migrate to feed in separate places, and may respond differently to environmental change. Numbers of Atlantic salmon have declined across their range since the early 1970s, and most researchers believe that conditions experienced at sea are largely to blame. Unfortunately, identifying where salmon go to feed in the ...

Oregon law requires that a parenting time plan be included in all judgments where minor children are involved. In Oregon, "parenting time" (called "visitation" in some states) is the scheduled time that each parent has with the children. The parenting time plan is a document that states when the children will be with each parent and how decisions will be made for the parties' children. The amount of parenting time that each parent has with the children is not necessarily related to whether or not a parent has legal custody in Oregon. In Oregon, ...

For years, it has been assumed that teachers—specifically math teachers—need to master the content they intend to teach. And the best way to do this is to take courses beyond that content. Yet in a paper published today in the Education Forum of the journal Science, Dr. Brent Davis of the University of Calgary says research does not support this common belief. There is little evidence that advanced courses in mathematics contribute to more effective teaching. "You know that feeling, when you try to explain to a child how to add multi-digit numbers, and you realize that ...

DALLAS – June 23, 2011 – We are one step closer to deciphering why some stressed people indulge in chocolate, mashed potatoes, ice cream and other high-calorie, high-fat comfort foods. UT Southwestern Medical Center-led findings, in a mouse study, suggest that ghrelin – the so-called "hunger hormone" – is involved in triggering this reaction to high stress situations. "This helps explain certain complex eating behaviors and may be one of the mechanisms by which obesity develops in people exposed to psychosocial stress," said Dr. Jeffrey Zigman, assistant professor ...

Ground-nesting birds face an uphill struggle to successfully rear their young, many eggs and fledglings falling prey to predators. Now, scientists from the USA have found that some birds eavesdrop on their enemies, using this information to find safer spots to build their nests. The study – one of the first of its kind – is published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology. Ovenbirds and veeries both build their nests on the ground, running the risk of losing their eggs or chicks to neighbouring chipmunks. Nesting birds use a range of cues ...

Es una historia de la que ningun padre quiere oir hablar, pero que, lamentablemente, todos hemos escuchado alguna vez. Supongamos que "Junior" pide prestado el coche y tiene un accidente. Puede ser que haya chocado simplemente contra un buzon o puede tratarse de algo mas serio. En el caso de accidentes que tengan como resultado lesiones, quien es responsable? "Junior", que solo tiene 16 anos? Sus padres? El propietario registrado del automovil? Generalmente, de acuerdo con la ley de Vehiculos y Transito de Nueva York, cuando una persona se ve involucrada ...

Double-stranded (ds) RNA viruses are a diverse group of viruses that include rotaviruses, a common cause of gastroenteritis. The ability of the immune system to detect and destroy viruses is critical for human health and survival. Now, a study published by Cell Press in the June 23rd issue of the journal Immunity identifies a novel sensor that is necessary to activate the immune response to viral infection. The research enhances our understanding of the complex and overlapping mechanisms our immune cells use to thwart infection. Viruses are infectious agents composed ...

Van Nuys, CA – June 23, 2011 – In a case study that illustrates the need for people with diabetes to be cautious of foot injuries and to protect themselves from pets, a woman with numbness in her feet caused by diabetic neuropathy slept through a traumatic episode in which her Jack Russell terrier chewed off part of her slightly infected big toe, according to an article published in this month's issue of the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association. The patient's wound required surgery, and it ultimately led the amputation of her leg, leaving her a double ...

Boulder, CO, USA - GSA BULLETIN offers pre-issue publication of papers online. Sign up for e-alerts at http://www.gsapubs.org/cgi/alerts or the Bulletin RSS feeds at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/rss/, for first access to new journal content as it is posted. Research highlights are provided below. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of GSA BULLETIN articles by contacting Christa Stratton at the address above. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GSA BULLETIN ...

Scientists have made an important step forward in their understanding of cryoprotectants – compounds that act as natural 'antifreeze' to protect drugs, food and tissues stored at sub-zero temperatures. Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Illinois, and Columbia University in New York, studied a particular type of cryoprotectants known as osmolytes. They found that small osmolyte molecules are better at protecting proteins than larger ones. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help scientists develop better storage ...

BETHESDA, Md., June 23, 2011 – Say what you will about bird brains, but our feathered friends sure have us -- and all the other animals on the planet -- beat in the vision department, and that has a bit to do with how their brains develop. Consider the in-flight feats of birds of prey: They must spot their dinner from long distances and dive-bomb those moving targets at lightning speed. And then there are the owls, which operate nimbly on even the darkest nights to secure supper in swift swoops. Some birds have ultraviolet sensitivity; others have infrared sensitivity. ...