The mere taste of something extremely bitter—even if you don't swallow it at all—is enough to cause that dreaded feeling of nausea and to set your stomach churning, according to a new study reported in the April 12th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. "This work shows that our body and our physiology anticipate the consequences of foods we might eat, even if those foods contain toxins or anti-nutrients," said Paul Breslin of the Monell Chemical Senses Center and Rutgers University. Of course, it is well known that the promise of something tempting to ...

A chance observation by a Queen's researcher might have ended a decades-old debate about the precise way antifreeze proteins (AFP) bind to the surface of ice crystals. "We got a beautiful view of water bound to the ice-binding site on the protein," says Peter Davies, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and a world leader in antifreeze protein research. "In a sense we got a lucky break." AFPs are a class of proteins that bind to the surface of ice crystals and prevent further growth and recrystallization of ice. Fish, insects, bacteria and plants that live ...

A new 600-pound cuber ice machine on average costs between $4K to $9K, while a 6-pan combi steam oven will cost about $12K to $35K. For a commercial semi-automatic espresso machine, a company has to spend between $8K to $20K. Even purchasing a 5-year old used machine, a company can expect to pay at least one-third of the new cost. With traffic only recently starting to increase after nearly a two year decline, operators have been understandably reluctant to spend on new equipment. As a result, foodservice equipment manufacturers saw a decline in sales of 15%-30%, or higher, ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A diet high in saturated fat is a key contributor to type 2 diabetes, a major health threat worldwide. Several decades ago scientists noticed that people with type 2 diabetes have overly active immune responses, leaving their bodies rife with inflammatory chemicals. In addition, people who acquire the disease are typically obese and are resistant to insulin, the hormone that removes sugar from the blood and stores it as energy. For years no one has known exactly how the three characteristics are related. But a handful of studies suggest that they ...

WASHINGTON – Fluctuations in penguin populations in the Antarctic are linked more strongly to the availability of their primary food source than to changes in their habitats, according to a new study published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Funded in part by the Lenfest Ocean Program, this research indicates that species often considered likely "winners" of changing conditions, such as large-scale ice melting, may actually end up as the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The two penguin species of focus in the study ...

Improved management of chronic pain can significantly reduce disability in older adults, according to the latest issue of the WHAT'S HOT newsletter from The Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Based largely on presentation highlights from GSA's 63rd Annual Scientific Meeting in November 2010, the current WHAT'S HOT examines the impact of pain in older adults, strategies for managing pain and preserving function, and methods to improve the assessment and management of pain for residents in long-term care facilities, including those who have dementia. Support for this ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. (April 11, 2011) – New research suggests that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could help detect Alzheimer's disease (AD) at an early stage, before irreversible damage has occurred, according to a new study published online and in the June print edition of Radiology. With no known treatment to alter its course, AD exacts an enormous toll on society. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that 5.4 million Americans are living with the disease today, and the cumulative costs for care could top $20 trillion over the next four decades. As a result, there is ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Stress not only sends the human immune system into overdrive – it can also wreak havoc on the trillions of bacteria that work and thrive inside our digestive system. New research suggests that this may be important because those bacteria play a significant role in triggering the innate immune system to stay slightly active, and thereby prepared to quickly spring into action in the face of an infection. But exactly how stress makes these changes in these bacteria still isn't quite clear, researchers say. "Since graduate school, I've been interested ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – When researchers had college-age women view magazines for five straight days that only included images of women with thin, idealized body types, something surprising happened: the readers' own body satisfaction improved. But the boost in body image came with a catch. Those women whose body satisfaction improved the most also were more likely to report that they engaged in dieting behaviors such as skipping meals or cutting carbohydrates during the course of the study. That suggests these women may be inspired by the images they view and become momentarily ...

FINDINGS: Certain differentiated cells in breast tissue can spontaneously convert to a stem-cell-like state, according to Whitehead Institute researchers. Until now, scientific dogma has stated that differentiation is a one-way path; once cells specialize, they cannot return to the flexible stem-cell state on their own. These findings hold true for normal mammary cells as well as for breast cancer cells. RELEVANCE: These findings may redefine how researchers view cancer stem cells – the cells capable of seeding new tumors at primary and distant sites in the body. Therapies ...

This release is available in German. FRANKFURT. Creating artificial structures from DNA is the objective of DNA nanotechnology. This new discipline, which combines biology, physics, chemistry and material science makes use of the ability of the natural DNA-strains' capacity for self assembly. Smileys or small boxes, measuring only 10s of nanometers (10 one-billionths of a meter) were created from DNA in a drop of water. Prof Alexander Heckel and his doctoral student Thorsten Schmidt from the "Cluster of Excellence for Macromolecular Complexes" at Goethe University were ...

Patience may be a virtue in a person, but in an infectious disease, it is insidious. Witness tuberculosis, which can lie dormant in a human host for decades before bursting forth into infection. TB's stealthy nature has made it difficult to decipher how it spreads, seriously hampering efforts to control it. The World Health Organization estimates that a third of the people on Earth are infected. Now, a study led by Stanford scientists has provided new insights into the behavior of tuberculosis by tracing the travels of a particular strain of the disease that was unintentionally ...

Although nearly 80 percent of ambulatory providers that have purchased an EMR are confident they will qualify for meaningful use (MU) in 2011, a closer look at what functionalities they have actually implemented reveals that most still have significant holes to fill, according to a KLAS report. Over two thirds of the surveyed providers are not sharing medical records electronically with patients, and nearly half have not implemented clinical decision support (CDS) rules, two key MU requirements. The report, "Ambulatory EMR: A KLAS Guide to Meaningful Use Success," presents ...

A major new study finds that nitrogen pollution is costing each person in Europe around £130 - £650 (€150 – €740 Euros) a year. The first European Nitrogen Assessment (ENA) is launched at a conference today in Edinburgh, Scotland. The study, carried out by 200 experts from 21 countries and 89 organizations, estimates that the annual cost of damage caused by nitrogen across Europe is £60 - £280 billion (€70 -320 billion), more than double the extra income gained from using nitrogen fertilizers in European agriculture. Professor Bob Watson Chief Scientific Advisor to ...

In a development that holds intriguing possibilities for the future of industrial catalysis, as well as for such promising clean green energy technologies as artificial photosynthesis, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have created bilayered nanocrystals of a metal-metal oxide that are the first to feature multiple catalytic sites on nanocrystal interfaces. These multiple catalytic sites allow for multiple, sequential catalytic reactions to be carried out selectively and in tandem. "The demonstration ...

Pop Cult Studio's Mark Mushkin is currently producing TV shows as content for a new wave of media headed for America's living room. The Internet and TV are engaged to be married and there are big name companies scheduled to attend. Google and YouTube are looking to purchase TV shows to distribute on a network of channels being set up in preparation for the next generation of TV's that will connect to the Internet. Pop Cult Studios' Executive Producer Mark Mushkin says, "We plan to take advantage of this opportunity to get our new TV shows seen by these major distributors." ...

Many scientists are concerned that plant and animal species may face extinction due to global warming, but biologists at Washington University in St. Louis are trying to predict exactly what will happen to them. Which species will migrate? Which evolve? Which change their behavior? Which become extinct? Rather than peer into the future, they are looking backward, exploring how species alive today survived global warming at the end of the Pleistocene and asking whether their responses provide any guidance for us today. For his dissertation Brad Oberle, a doctoral candidate ...

MedWOW.com, the global online marketplace for medical equipment, announces the promotion of their upgraded business leads program. Any medical equipment professional in the world can claim a gift of 10 free business leads. All of the business leads generated are highly verified, pre-qualified, registered buyers who are looking for medical equipment, as well as devices and related services. Leads' types include: buying leads (available for complete systems, as well as parts and accessories), leasing & financing leads and shipping leads. Leads are kept fresh and current, ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Women under the age of 75 with high vitamin D status were less likely to have early age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in adults, a University at Buffalo study has shown. The disease affects approximately 9 percent of Americans aged 40 and older. The paper is published in the April issue of "Archives of Ophthalmology," one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Vitamin D status was assessed using the blood measure of 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25 (OH) D. The 25 (OH) D level is generally considered the means by which ...

AMES, Iowa – Solving problems for clients in any field usually requires gathering information and creative thinking that leads to practical and inventive solutions. A new computer interface developed at Iowa State University is helping students use what they've learned in the horticulture classroom and apply it to problems they'll face when they are on the job site. The project, called ThinkSpace, is led by a group of ISU faculty including Ann Marie VanDerZanden, professor of horticulture and associate director of ISU's Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. ThinkSpace ...

What can be more intriguing than a furniture item that seemingly has come straight out of the house of a fashion stylist? If you love the planet, you will want to explore the new modern designs of the collection from Emco, now available at Spacify. Such is the creation of Emco and its Icon Bar/Counter stool is known to be an avant garde design amongst all the modern bar stools and contemporary counter stools. But this is not the only design that is intriguing. You may pick up any designer bar stool from Emco and you will find that all the stools have been created keeping ...

PHILADELPHIA (April 11, 2011) – Swallow the good, spit out the bad. A new study from the Monell Center highlights the vital role taste plays as the body's gatekeeper. The research shows that strong bitter taste in and of itself can cause people to both report the sensation of nausea and display a pattern of stomach activity characteristic of actual nausea. "Nausea is a huge negative modulator of quality of life for many people, including pregnant women, patients undergoing chemotherapy, and virtually all types of GI patients," said senior author Paul A.S. Breslin, Ph.D., ...

A study appearing in the journal Investigational New Drugs and conducted by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital, discovered that two new small molecule inhibitors are showing promise in blocking STAT3, a protein linked to the most common malignant bone tumor, osteosarcoma. These small molecule inhibitors – one derived from a portion of the turmeric spice – may serve as a new, non-toxic treatment for these deadly tumors. Osteosarcoma is aggressive and its treatment outlook has not changed significantly over the last 20 years. Treatment consists of a combination ...

New research published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) details research in rats and mice that offers hope for stopping the devastating, and often fatal, effects of sepsis in humans. In the study, University of Michigan researchers show how neutralizing the effects of a key protein fragment, called C5a, used by the immune system to attract white blood cells may ultimately prevent heart failure. "During sepsis, heart failure is a common feature of the later stages of the syndrome," said Peter A. Ward, M.D., a senior scientist involved in the work from ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. — In the first clinical trial of gene therapy for treatment of intractable pain, researchers from the University of Michigan Department of Neurology observed that the treatment appears to provide substantial pain relief. In a study published online in the Annals of Neurology last week, the researchers showed that the novel agent NP2 is safe and well-tolerated. In addition, measures of pain in the treated patients suggested that NP2 may provide a substantial analgesic effect. NP2 is a gene transfer vector that expresses the naturally-occurring opioid ...