Animals that reproduce asexually by somatic cloning have special mechanisms that delay ageing provide exceptionally good health. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg have shown how colony-forming ascidians (or sea squirts) can activate the enzyme telomerase, which protects DNA. This enzyme is more active also in humans who attain an advanced age. "Animals that clone themselves, in which part of an individual's body is passes on to the next generations, have particularly interesting conditions related to remaining in good health to persist. This makes it useful to ...

Capt. Max Hardberger, known as "The Good Pirate" for his efforts to repossess illegitimately seized ships around the world, will present a free WorkBoat.com webinar on "Vessel Operations in Third-World Countries" on Wednesday, April 27. Registration is now open for the webinar, which will be held from 1 p.m.-2 p.m. EST, noon-1 p.m. CST. To register, visit www.WorkBoat.com. "With U.S. workboat operators expanding into global markets and sometimes sending vessels to work in unstable countries, it's essential to know the dangers and pitfalls ...

Squamous cell cancers, which can occur in multiple organs in the body, can originate from hair follicle stem cells, a finding that could result in new strategies to treat and potentially prevent the disease, according to a study by researchers with UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. Researchers also found that the progeny of those cells, although just a few divisions away from the mother hair follicle stem cells, were not capable of forming squamous cell cancers. Further ...

DNA is under constant attack, from internal factors like free radicals and external ones like ionizing radiation. About 10 double-strand breaks – the kind that snap both backbones of the double helix – occur every time a human cell divides. To prevent not only gene mutations but broken chromosomes and chromosomal abnormalities known to cause cancer, infertility, and other diseases in humans, prompt, precise DNA repair is essential. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), working with cell lines of the fruit ...

Prepare for The 12th Annual Heart's Delight Wine Tasting & Auction, benefiting The American Heart Association, May 11-14, 2011 (www.HEARTSDELIGHTWINEAUCTION.org). The May 11 - May 14 benefit, known as a premier destination event, will feature master winemakers, culinary greats and distinguished guests. Wednesday's United States of Wine reception will showcase American Wine. Thursday's Private Dinner Series will offer a series of intimate wine dinners. Friday night Vintners Dinner will highlight the wines of Chateau Haut Brion, and following will be a live auction ...

By identifying a surprising association of two intracellular proteins, University of Iowa researchers have laid the groundwork for the development of new therapies to treat B cell lymphomas and autoimmune disease. The researchers studied mouse B cells expressing the viral protein Latent Membrane Protein 1 (LMP1), which has been implicated in several types of cancer because of its role in the proliferation and survival of Epstein-Barr virus infected B cells. They discovered that LMP1 needs the cellular protein Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor-Associated Factor 6 (TRAF6) ...

A new study from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows how analysing spinal fluid can help to detect Alzheimer's disease at an early stage. The researchers behind the study hope that their findings will contribute to a greater international breakthrough for this type of diagnostic method. It all comes down to biomarkers, substances that are found at abnormally high or low levels in patients who go on to develop Alzheimer's. The most common biomarkers to be identified by the researchers in the spinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer's are proteins and peptides – ...

Los Angeles health insurance agents at Master Insurance Services have now made it easier than ever for self-employed individuals to find an insurance plan that suits their needs. Anyone can receive an instant quote by filling out the online form on Master Insurance Service's website and compare different plans from different providers and find the one that suits their needs without the hassle of searching around and checking different websites. The changing economic conditions continue to bring uncertainty to workers. Workers are learning to make personal sacrifices ...

Håkan Eggert's studies from Iceland and the Gullmar fjord on the Swedish west coast, reveal that when commercial fishermen are given fishing rights they voluntarily choose more sustainable fishing methods and earn far more. His research at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, demonstrates that over-capacity in the fishing fleet can be reduced. Transferrable fishing rights were introduced in Sweden as late as 2009, and then only for species such as herring and mackerel. A report from the inquiry into Sweden's new Fishery Conservation Act has recently been out for consultation ...

Youngsters are, on average, 16 years old and sober when they make their sexual debut with somebody they have known for a while. However, condoms feature in just half of sexual encounters with new or casual partners, reveals a major survey on the sexual habits, attitudes and knowledge of young people carried out by the University of Gothenburg on behalf of the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control. "We have to get young people to view condoms as an essential part of having sex," says Ronny Heikki Tikkanen, one of the researchers behind the study which polled ...

Rotavirus vaccination in all areas of Brazil is associated with reduced diarrhea-related deaths and hospital admissions in children aged under five years, reports a study in this week's PLoS Medicine. Manish Patel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and colleagues show that these real-world impact data—what actually happens in reality rather than in strictly controlled clinical trial settings—are consistent with the clinical trials and conclude that their study strengthens the evidence base for use of rotavirus vaccination as ...

Policies to promote healthy ageing often emphasize a healthy diet and maintaining physical activity. But currently there is little good evidence to support the benefits of improved nutrition and increased physical activity levels for older adults from low-income or transition economies. Alan Dangour from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, and colleagues report this week in PLoS Medicine the outcomes of the Cost-effectiveness Evaluation of a Nutritional supplement and EXercise program for older people — CENEX — which evaluated whether Chile's ...

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Stephan Harbarth from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and colleagues argue that the International Health Regulations (IHR) should be applied to the global health threat of antimicrobial resistance. They say that certain events marking the emergence and spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, especially those involving new pan-resistant strains for which there are no suitable treatments, may constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and are notifiable to WHO under the IHR notification requirement. In an ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Each year, more than two million critically ill patients are transferred from one hospital emergency department (ED) to another for appropriate care. With the ability to successfully import data from a CD-ROM containing the patient's diagnostic medical images, hospitals may be able to significantly reduce unnecessary medical imaging tests, some of which expose patients to radiation. These findings are reported in a new study published in the July issue of Radiology. According to researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the implementing ...

A new study found that treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE) is common in idiopathic autism. Early age at the onset of seizures and delayed global development were associated with a higher frequency of resistance to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Full findings appear online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disabilities that can significantly impact social interaction, ...

An analysis of data from Medicare beneficiaries who underwent hip replacement or subsequent follow-up corrective surgery between 1991 and 2008 indicates that the length of hospital stay after surgery declined during this time period, as did the proportion of patients discharged home, while there was an increase in the rate of hospital readmissions and discharge to a skilled care facility, according to a study in the April 20 issue of JAMA. "Total hip arthroplasty [replacement] is a safe and effective therapy for patients with advanced degenerative joint disease. In recent ...

DURHAM, N.C.--Deforestation in parts of the Peruvian Amazon has increased six-fold in recent years as small-scale miners, driven by record gold prices, blast and clear more of the lowland rainforest, according to a new Duke University-led study. The study, published today in the online journal PLoS ONE, combined NASA satellite imagery spanning six years with economic analyses of gold prices and mercury imports to document the forces responsible for deforestation in Peru's biologically diverse Madre de Dios region. Roughly 7,000 hectares, or about 15,200 acres, of pristine ...

Cancer survival rates could improve soon with whole-genome sequencing, according to two studies published in the April 20, 2011, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that describe the first clinical applications of the high-tech process in patients with cancer. The papers are remarkable examples of the power that genomic data hold for patients with a cancer diagnosis, according to an accompanying editorial by Boris Pasche, M.D., deputy director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of medicine, and Devin ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say antibodies to a non-human sugar molecule commonly found in people may be useful as a future biomarker for predicting cancer risk, for diagnosing cancer cases early and, in sufficient concentration, used as a treatment for suppressing tumor growth. The work was led by Richard Schwab, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine, and Ajit Varki, MD, professor of medicine and cellular and molecular medicine, with other faculty at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center and the UCSD Glycobiology Research ...

For the first time in 27 years, clinical diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease dementia have been revised, and research guidelines for earlier stages of the disease have been characterized to reflect a deeper understanding of the disorder. The National Institute on Aging/Alzheimer's Association Diagnostic Guidelines for Alzheimer's Disease outline some new approaches for clinicians and provides scientists with more advanced guidelines for moving forward with research on diagnosis and treatments. They mark a major change in how experts think about and study Alzheimer's ...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala - The international team of the ENCODE, or Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements project, has created an overview of its ongoing large-scale efforts to interpret the human genome sequence. The April 19 publication of "A User's Guide to the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE)" in the journal PLoS Biology provides a guide for using the vast amounts of high-quality data and resources produced so far by the project. All of the data, tools to study them, and the paper itself are freely available through multiple websites accessible through encodeproject.org. "This ...

Two new studies highlight the power of sequencing cancer patients' genomes as a diagnostic tool, helping doctors decide the best course of treatment and researchers identify new cancer susceptibility mutations that can be passed from parent to child. Both studies, by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, are reported April 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In one case, sequencing the genome of a 39-year-old woman with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) uncovered a novel genetic mistake, leading doctors to change the course ...

New insight into the physiology of cardiac muscle may lead to the development of therapeutic strategies that exploit an inherent protective state of the heart. The research, published by Cell Press online on April 19th in the Biophysical Journal, discovers a state of cardiac muscle that exhibits a low metabolic rate and may help to regulate energy use and promote efficiency in this hard-working and vital organ. Muscle cells are highly specialized cells that are able to physically contract and produce force. Many variables contribute to the active generation of force, ...

Britain's soil bacteria have been mapped for the first time in the most comprehensive study of a country's soil biodiversity to date. The results are published today (20 April 2011) in the journal Environmental Microbiology. To complete the map the scientific team, from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), Newcastle University and the University of Oxford, analysed over 1000 soil cores from England, Scotland and Wales, examining microbial DNA sequences in the laboratory to map bacterial biodiversity. The research was carried out using samples collected for the ...

The first research to actively analyze adult male sea turtles (Caretta caretta) using satellite tracking to link geography with pollutants has revealed the potential risks posed to this threatened species by manmade chemicals. The research, published today in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, examines the different levels of chemicals in the blood of both migratory and residential turtles. "The risks posed by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) remain largely a mystery for threatened loggerhead sea turtles," said lead author Jared Ragland from the College of Charleston, ...