Darla O'Brien, owner of Designer Fitness, was honored at the 2011 IDEA World Fitness Convention in Los Angeles with a Fitness Challenge Award. As an IDEA Challenge Award recipient, O'Brien was presented with a medal and special recognition at the convention, which was attended by over 5,000 fitness experts from 52 countries. She was also granted substantial opportunities to meet with the convention's celebrity presenters, including Elaine LaLanne, who was given an award honoring her late husband, Jack; Dr. Daniel Amen, author of "Change Your Brain, Change Your ...

Internet-based retail deals specialist DiscountVouchers.co.uk, the website that gets consumer money off at hundreds of top stores, this week publishes the results of a new poll surveying attitudes on money and relationships. The offers website questioned site visitors and discovered that 40% think that there is "no price on love" when it comes to saving up and spending money on an engagement ring. The poll results also showed that 11% believe in the old adage of an engagement ring costing at least double what the man buying it earns in a month, while 30% confessed ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society Feeding cows natural plant extracts can reduce dairy farm odors and feed costs DENVER, Sept. 1, 2011 — With citizens' groups seeking government regulation of foul-smelling ammonia emissions from large dairy farms, scientists today reported that adding natural plant extracts to cow feed can reduce levels of the gas by one-third while ...

Researchers at the University of Bath have combined genetic data with mathematical modelling to provide insights into cells and how they differentiate. The findings, to be published in open-access journal PLoS Genetics on September 1st, demonstrate the utility of a systems biology approach and could have implications for understanding and treating diseases, including cancers, caused when cells start to function incorrectly. All cells derive from multipotent precursor cells (stem cells). The mechanisms by which stably differentiated cell-types are generated from stem ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Researchers at Duke University Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School have demonstrated an approach to HIV vaccine design that uses an altered form of HIV's outer coating or envelope protein. The researchers showed that they could design HIV envelopes that could bind better to immature B cell receptors to create an enhanced immune response in an animal model. Immature B cells are the targets of vaccines, and when strongly targeted, they produce strong vaccine responses. The work of the Duke team was to improve ...

Researchers led by ETH professor Yaakov Benenson and MIT professor Ron Weiss have successfully incorporated a diagnostic biological "computer" network in human cells. This network recognizes certain cancer cells using logic combinations of five cancer-specific molecular factors, triggering cancer cells destruction. Yaakov (Kobi) Benenson, Professor of Synthetic Biology at ETH Zurich, has spent a large part of his career developing biological computers that operate in living cells. His goal is to construct biocomputers that detect molecules carrying important information ...

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Understanding the flow and processing of carbon in the world's oceans, which cover 70 percent of Earth's surface, is central to understanding global climate cycles, with many questions remaining unanswered. Between 200 and 1,000 meters below the ocean surface exists a "twilight zone" where insufficient sunlight penetrates for microorganisms to perform photosynthesis. Despite this, it is known that microbes resident at these depths capture carbon dioxide that they then use to form cellular structures and carry out necessary metabolic reactions so that ...

August 28, 2011 –A paper to be published on September 2, 2011 in the authoritative magazine Science reveals the discovery of a primitive woolly rhino fossil in the Himalayas, which suggests some giant mammals first evolved in present-day Tibet before the beginning of the Ice Age. The extinction of Ice Age giants such as woolly mammoths and rhinos, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats has been widely studied, but much less is known about where these giants came from, and how they acquired their adaptations for living in a cold environment. A team of geologists and paleontologists ...

An international team of scientists has developed a novel X-ray technique for imaging atomic displacements in materials with unprecedented accuracy. They have applied their technique to determine how a recently discovered class of exotic materials – multiferroics – can be simultaneously both magnetically and electrically ordered. Multiferroics are also candidate materials for new classes of electronic devices. The discovery, a major breakthrough in understanding multiferroics, is published in Science dated 2 September 2011. The authors comprise scientists from the European ...

A survey also reveals that of the non-urban property hotspots around the world, Saint Jean Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera - where Carlton International have a number of luxury properties for sale - is the most expensive. Based on the report released by the International Residential Index that watches the value of luxury properties around the world, there are specific non-urban pockets in the South of France where prices are substantially more expensive than those commanded in London, Paris and Tokyo. France nets four of the top ten positions, with real estate South ...

Individuals with an autoinflammatory syndrome experience episodes of prolonged fever and inflammation in the absence of infection. There are several different autoinflammatory syndromes identified by distinct symptoms and underlying genetic mutations. A team of researchers, led by Koji Yasutomo, at the University of Tokushima Graduate School, Japan, has now determined that a mutation of the PSMB8 gene causes Japanese autoinflammatory syndrome with lipodystrophy (JASL), a recently identified condition. The team performed a detailed analysis of how the PSMB8 mutation causes ...

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia among older people. One of the main features of AD is the presence in the brain of abnormal clumps of the protein fragment beta-amyloid, which are known as amyloid plaques. A team of researchers, led by Jens Pahnke, at the University of Rostock, Germany, has now identified a way to reduce the amount of beta-amyloid in the brains of mice with a disease that models AD, providing hope that a similar approach might be possible in patients. One reason that beta-amyloid accumulates in the brain of an individual with ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Activating your ABCs might help prevent AD (Alzheimer disease) Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia among older people. One of the main features of AD is the presence in the brain of abnormal clumps of the protein fragment beta-amyloid, which are known as amyloid plaques. A team of researchers, led by Jens Pahnke, at the University of Rostock, Germany, has now identified a way to reduce the amount of beta-amyloid in the brains of mice with a disease that models AD, providing hope that a similar approach might be possible in patients. One ...

Just as we must take out the trash to keep our homes clean and safe, it is essential that our cells have mechanisms for dealing with wastes and worn-out proteins. When these processes are not working properly, unwanted debris builds up in the cell and creates a toxic environment. Now, a new study published by Cell Press on September 1st in the journal Developmental Cell describes a master regulator of the intracellular recycling and waste removal process and suggests an alternative strategy for treatment of metabolic disorders associated with the abnormal accumulation of ...

Although parents may have a hard time believing it, even infants can be trained to improve their concentration skills. What's more, training babies in this way leads to improvements on other, unrelated tasks. The findings reported online on September 1 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, are in contrast to reports in adults showing that training at one task generally doesn't translate into improved performance on other, substantially different tasks. They also may have important implications for improving success in school, particularly for those children at ...

Researchers have identified an unconventional path that may correct the defect underlying cystic fibrosis, according to a report in the September 2nd issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. This new treatment dramatically extends the lives of mice carrying the disease-associated mutation. Cystic Fibrosis is caused by a mutation in a gene responsible for the transport of ions across cell membranes. This gene encodes a protein channel, called the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator or CFTR, that is normally found on the surfaces of cells lining ...

Yale researchers have discovered the source of signals that trigger hair growth, an insight that may lead to new treatments for baldness. The researchers identified stem cells within the skin's fatty layer and showed that molecular signals from these cells were necessary to spur hair growth in mice, according to research published in the Sept. 2 issue of the journal Cell. "If we can get these fat cells in the skin to talk to the dormant stem cells at the base of hair follicles, we might be able to get hair to grow again," said Valerie Horsley, assistant professor of ...

Yale University researchers have identified a key genetic gear that keeps the circadian clock of plants ticking, a finding that could have broad implications for global agriculture. The research appears in the Sept. 2 issue of the journal Molecular Cell. "Farmers are limited by the seasons, but by understanding the circadian rhythm of plants, which controls basic functions such as photosynthesis and flowering, we might be able to engineer plants that can grow in different seasons and places than is currently possible," said Xing Wang Deng, the Daniel C. Eaton Professor ...

Many common signs of aging, such as shaking hands, stooped posture and walking slower, may be due to tiny blocked vessels in the brain that can't be detected by current technology. In a study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers from Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, examined brain autopsies of older people and found: Microscopic lesions or infarcts — too small to be detected using brain imaging — were in 30 percent of the brains of people who had no diagnosed brain disease or stroke. Those who had the most trouble walking ...

DURHAM, NC -- Most AIDS patients, when diagnosed with a fungal infection known simply as cryptococcosis, are assumed to have an infection with Cryptococcus neoformans, but a recent study from Duke University Medical Center suggests that a sibling species, Cryptococcus gattii, is a more common cause than was previously known. The difference between these strains could make a difference in treatment, clinical course, and outcome, said Joseph Heitman, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study and chair of the Duke Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. The ...

In parts of the world still rich in biodiversity, separating natural habitats from high-yielding farmland could be a more effective way to conserve wild species than trying to grow crops and conserve nature on the same land, according to a new study published today (2 September 2011) in the journal Science. The study, by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, collected information on more than 600 species in southwest Ghana and northern India, two parts of the world where demand for agricultural land is putting ever ...

Biologists have long known that organisms from bacteria to humans use the 24 hour cycle of light and darkness to set their biological clocks. But exactly how these clocks are synchronized at the molecular level to perform the interactions within a population of cells that depend on the precise timing of circadian rhythms is less well understood. To better understand that process, biologists and bioengineers at UC San Diego created a model biological system consisting of glowing, blinking E. coli bacteria. This simple circadian system, the researchers report in the September ...

Cambridge, Mass. - September 1, 2011 - Exploiting a novel technique called phase discontinuity, researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have induced light rays to behave in a way that defies the centuries-old laws of reflection and refraction. The discovery, published this week in Science, has led to a reformulation of the mathematical laws that predict the path of a ray of light bouncing off a surface or traveling from one medium into another—for example, from air into glass. "Using designer surfaces, we've created the effects of ...

NEW YORK, NY, (September 1, 2011) – Although several genes have been linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), it is still unknown how they cause this progressive neurodegenerative disease. In a new study, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have demonstrated that two ALS-associated genes work in tandem to support the long-term survival of motor neurons. The findings were published in the September 1 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. "Any therapy based on this discovery is probably a long way off. Nonetheless, it's an important ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – In things thick and thin: Cornell physicists explain how fluids – such as paint or paste - behave by observing how micron-sized suspended particles dance in real time. Using high-speed microscopy, the scientists unveil how these particles are responding to fluid flows from shear – a specific way of stirring. (Science, Sept. 2). Observations by Xiang Cheng, Cornell post-doctoral researcher in physics and Itai Cohen, Cornell associate professor of physics, are the first to link direct imaging of the particle motions with changes in liquid viscosity. Combining ...