Someday, that potted palm in your living room might go from green to white, alerting you to a variety of nasty contaminants in the air, perhaps even explosives. The stuff of science fiction you say? Not so, says a Colorado State University biologist whose research is funded in part by Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), as well as by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and others. Dr. June Medford and her team in the Department of Biology at Colorado State have shown that plants ...

Interactions between proteins are of fundamental importance for a number of processes in virtually every living cell. However, in order for the proteins to carry out any biological function, they must first assume their specific three-dimensional shape. A number of reactions have been described in recent years, where one of the interaction partners does not assume its active structure until the actual binding process commences. It was still a great mystery, though, how the binding partners could actually recognize such unstructured proteins. Scientists led by Professor ...

Boston, MA – An estimated 10 million Americans suffer from knee osteoarthritis (OA), making it one of the most common causes of disability in the US. Due to obesity and symptomatic knee OA, Americans over the age of 50 will together lose the equivalent of 86 million healthy years of life, concluded researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), who investigated the potential gains in quality and quantity of life that could be achieved averting losses due to obesity and knee OA. These findings are published in the February 15 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. "Reducing ...

While governments debate about potential policies that might curb the emission of greenhouse gases, new University of Washington research shows that the world is already committed to a warmer climate because of emissions that have occurred up to now. There would continue to be warming even if the most stringent policy proposals were adopted, because there still would be some emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. But the new research shows that even if all emissions were stopped now, temperatures would remain higher than pre-Industrial ...

Peer support offers promise as an effective, low-cost tool for fighting depression, a new study by the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and University of Michigan Health System finds. Programs in which patients and volunteers share information were found to reduce symptoms of depression better than traditional care alone and were about as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy, researchers found after analyzing 10 randomized trials of peer support interventions for depression dating from 1987 to 2009. The analysis was the first of its kind to look at peer support specifically ...

Up to two-thirds of California's 7 million uninsured residents will become eligible for health insurance coverage when health care reform is implemented in 2014, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The study draws on the latest data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), which will be released shortly. The policy brief, "Two-thirds of California's 7 Million Uninsured May Obtain Coverage Under Health Care Reform," finds that 4.7 million Californians, including both adults and children, will likely be eligible ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Leading scholars and private foundation presidents shared the Capitol Hill stage to highlight the payoffs of long-term investment in education research at a Capitol Hill briefing on Monday, February 14, 2011. Speakers emphasized that education research based on long-term funding has led to important payoffs for education policy and practice in such areas as resource allocation, school and classroom organization, and the education and evaluation of teachers. The Education Deans Alliance, American Educational Research Association, and the National Academy ...

Abnormal heart rate turbulence is associated with an increased risk of heart disease death in otherwise low-risk older individuals, according to a study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health. This study appears in the Feb. 15 edition of the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology. Among the nearly 1,300 study participants, heart rate turbulence, which reflects how well the heart reacts to occasional premature contractions, was an even stronger heart disease risk factor than elevated levels of C-reactive ...

Basic and translational research on cancer, and development of new cancer therapeutics, has focused on different aspects of cancer cellular function. One area of focus is the life and death of a cancer cell. Apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death, is a fundamental process of cells including cancer cells. The signal transduction pathways of apoptosis involve many different proteins and their interactions with each other. Protein-protein interactions involved in these apoptotic signals, like those in many other biological processes, are often determined or influenced ...

An international team of astronomers has identified for the first time a thick stellar disc in the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. The discovery of the thick disc, a major result from a five-year investigation, will help astronomers better understand the processes involved in the formation and evolution of large spiral galaxies like ours, according to the team, which includes UCLA research astronomer Michael Rich and colleagues from Europe and Australia. Using the Keck Telescope in Hawaii, the astronomers analyzed the velocities ...

HOUSTON - An essential protein for normal stem cell renewal also promotes the growth of breast cancer stem cells when it's overproduced in those cells, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the February edition of Cancer Cell. In mouse and lab experiments, the team also discovered that two drugs block the cascade of molecular events that they describe in the paper, thwarting formation of breast tumor-initiating cells. "Overexpression of the EZH2 protein has been linked to breast cancer progression, but the molecular details of that ...

AMES, Iowa – Automobiles, military vehicles, even large-scale power generating facilities may someday operate far more efficiently thanks to a new alloy developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory. A team of researchers at the Lab that is jointly funded by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, achieved a 25 percent improvement in the ability of a key material to convert heat into electrical energy. "What happened here has not happened anywhere else," ...

Infrared data from NASA's AIRS instrument revealed that the low level center of Cyclone Bingiza was still over land in western Madagascar this morning, but the bulk of its rainfall was over the Mozambique Channel. When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Madagascar this morning, Feb. 15 at 11:11 UTC (6:11 a.m. EST), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument read the temperatures of the cold thunderstorm cloud tops in Cyclone Bingiza. Most of the strongest thunderstorms were north and west of the center of circulation already over the Mozambique Channel, while Bingiza's ...

Australia is getting hit with two "tropical fists" as NASA satellites watch two low pressure areas develop near the Northern Territory and Western Australia. System 99S is currently strengthening near Darwin, Australia and another low pressure area called System 97S is strengthening near Western Australia. System 97S was located about 210 nautical miles north-northwest of Learmonth, Western Australia, at 1800 UTC (1 p.m. EST), Feb. 15. It was centered near 19.2 South and 112.1 East. That puts the center of System 97S well to the northwest of Exmouth. System 97S is forecast ...

NASA's Aqua satellite captured a low pressure area known as System 99S that appears to be strengthening very close to Darwin, Australia. Aqua satellite data indicated that the strongest thunderstorms were over the Timor Sea on Feb. 15. System 99S is a threat to Australia's Northern Territory because on Feb. 15 it was centered only 20 miles (32 km) south of Darwin, Australia, near 12.7 degrees South latitude and 130.7 degrees East longitude. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center gives System 99S a good chance for development in the next 24 hours, and NASA satellite imagery ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Feb. 16, 2011 — Whole genome sequencing — spelling out a person's entire DNA genetic code — has moved one step closer to being a medical option for direct patient care. Physicians and researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) successfully completed sequencing both a single patients normal and cancer cells – a tour de force of more than 6 billion DNA chemical bases. While the whole genomes of several individuals or their cancers have been sequenced in recent years, this is believed to be among the ...

Nearly 35 percent of all the imaging costs ordered for 2,068 orthopaedic patient encounters in Pennsylvania were ordered for defensive purposes, according to a new study presented today at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). For many years now, some physicians have ordered specific diagnostic procedures that are of little or no benefit to a patient, largely to protect themselves from a lawsuit. Until now, however, efforts to actually measure defensive medicine practices have been limited primarily to surveys sent to physicians. ...

There are three things women usually do when trying to get their ex boyfriend back, but those actions will only succeed in persuading them to run in the opposite direction. The comprehensive multimedia program by Brian Bold, "The Ex Back System," helps women avoid those pitfalls and points them in the right direction to avoiding the Valentine's Day Hangover Blues! "Women make three mistakes when a relationship breaks up," said Bold. "They act desperate, they tell their ex that this time will be different, and they constantly try to contact their ex. Instead of bringing ...

A relatively new treatment is available for difficult back pain, low back pain and neck pain in Atlanta. It is called spinal decompression. It is somewhat like traction, but more sophisticated in its engineering. The reason it usually helps patients is based on a simple, factual premise- as we age, our spines get more compressed. Eventually, this can cause pain and disability. This new spinal decompression treatment is the most effective way we have had to reverse this process. Reversing spinal compression is the most direct way to treat pain and disability that arises ...

Ann Brizolis, Southern California's top specialist in Rancho Santa Fe real Estate for sale partnered with Laguna Beach based Virtual Results to provide state-of-the-art IDX technology on her easy-to-use website last week. Designed to help Rancho Santa Fe home buyers improve their ability to research and find homes in record time, this website features innovative online technology sets Brizolis' team apart as they seek to improve and enhance the home buying experience for each and every client. "At ranchosantaferealestatefinder.com we try hard to give our clients the ...

BattleNoidz is an arcade-style fun-for-all with a unique mix of side-scrolling action and strategy! People wishing to download the app can visit http://www.pixeltactics.com or go directly to the itunes app store: (opens up itunes) For iPhone 4 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battlenoidz-for-iphone-4/id419246257?mt=8 For iPad http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battlenoidz-hd/id418759445?mt=8# BattleNoidz Features: Different missions offer diverse gameplay, from search and rescue to all-out shoot 'em up! Different types of enemies, and every type of on-screen ...

ComplianceBridge, Inc., a provider of web-based policy and procedure management software announced today a new website for its web-based solution TotalCompliance and a blog delivering tips and best practices for managing policy and procedure documents. Website: http://www.compliancebridge.com Blog: http://blog.compliancebridge.com/ TotalCompliance is a cost-effective policy and procedure management software solution that enables organizations of any size to improve efficiency and compliance through automated publication, distribution, and tracking of policies, procedures ...

XBOSoft, a fast growing software quality assurance services company, announced today that Pracplay has chosen XBOSoft for functionality and UI testing of products built on Pracplay's TradeLink open source trading platform. TradeLink provides a free and open platform to quickly build, test and trade strategies and trading applications, while their value-added commercial products accelerate tradelink adoption and promote integration with 3rd party platforms. Pracplay, with its expanding range of feature rich open-source trading solutions, and growing demand, needed a reliable ...

Our Mission at Charity Promoter is to raise money and awareness for charities and nonprofits across the world. Our program is founded on the premise that people are both generous and selfish...at the same time. Americans enjoy to give, however they also like to gain personal benefit. Our program promotes both...check out the "How It Works" page at http://www.CharityPromoter.com. The basic idea of Charity Promoter is to allow people like you to donate to charities, while having an opportunity to be rewarded for doing so. For every donation you make to a featured charity ...

Motivational speaker and best-selling author Joe Roberts encouraged and inspired the administrators and members of Toastmasters District 21 last week with his inspirational "Skid Row CEO" presentation. The event took place at the Jim Pattison Pavilion in the Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Saturday February 5th, 2011. Roberts' presentation "From Skid Row to" highlighted his unique "rags to riches" personal life story, which inspired his audience of young speakers to overcome adversity and use their speaking abilities to become leaders ...