University of California, Berkeley, chemists have engineered bacteria to churn out a gasoline-like biofuel at about 10 times the rate of competing microbes, a breakthrough that could soon provide an affordable and "green" transportation fuel. The development is reported online this week in advance of publication in the journal Nature Chemical Biology by Michelle C. Y. Chang, assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, graduate student Brooks B. Bond-Watts and recent UC Berkeley graduate Robert J. Bellerose. Various species of the Clostridium bacteria naturally ...

The dangers of distracted driving are well established at this point. When drivers choose not to devote their full attention to the road, whether because they are sending text message or fiddling with the radio, the likelihood of car accidents increases. However, drivers are not the only people who can cause car accidents while distracted. When pedestrians and cyclists are not paying proper attention while crossing the streets, they can pose a risk to themselves and others. According to 2009 statistics from the Illinois Department of Transportation, more than 5,300 car ...

A promising new way to inhibit cholesterol production in the body has been discovered, one that may yield treatments as effective as existing medications but with fewer side-effects. In a new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, a team of researchers from the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences - led by Associate Professor Andrew Brown – report that an enzyme - squalene mono-oxygenase (SM) - plays a previously unrecognised role as a key checkpoint in cholesterol production. The team included doctoral students Saloni Gill and Julian Stevenson, ...

A multinational study has identified a key gene mutation responsible for type 2 diabetes in nearly 10 percent of patients of white European ancestry. The study, which originated in Italy and was validated at UCSF, found that defects in the HMGA1 gene led to a major drop in the body's ability to make insulin receptors – the cell's sensor through which insulin tells the cell to absorb sugar. This drop in insulin receptors leads to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, according to the paper. Findings appear in the March 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical ...

Metal-on-metal artificial hips are producing complications and injuries not seen with their plastic or ceramic predecessors. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has drawn attention to the problems of these specific prostheses. Total hip replacement systems consist of a ball and socket just like an organic hip. When both the ball and cup are made of metal, in the course of normal movements, such as walking or running, the metal ball and metal cup slide against one another. If the design is imperfect, complications can arise. Excessive friction, excessive looseness, ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – New research suggests that ibuprofen may offer protection against developing Parkinson's disease, according to one of the largest studies to date investigating the possible benefits of the over-the-counter drug on the disease. The study is published in the March 2, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that causes tremors and difficulty with movement and walking. It affects about one million people in the United States. "Our results show that ibuprofen may ...

The current clinical trial process in the United States is on shaky ground. In this era of personalized medicine, as diseases are increasingly defined by specific genetic and biologic markers and treatments are tailored accordingly, patient populations for new therapies grow smaller and smaller. Coupled with skyrocketing costs and expanding regulatory requirements, the completion of trials that are essential in bringing new and effective therapies to patients is no easy task. Change is needed. Today, in the New England Journal of Medicine, a group of renowned researchers ...

Immigration debates are often fueled more by rhetoric than by actual facts and figures. Fortunately, the non-partisan Pew Research Center (which does not take positions on policy issues) offers objective statistics on immigration in their annual survey of national and state trends in immigration, as published by the Pew Hispanic Center. The national highlights from Pew's 2010 immigration report include: - Unauthorized immigrants make up about 3.7 percent of the nation's population --approximately 11.2 million persons. That number is statistically unchanged from last ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a potential target to treat an aggressive type of prostate cancer. The target, a gene called SPINK1, could be to prostate cancer what HER2 has become for breast cancer. Like HER2, SPINK1 occurs in only a small subset of prostate cancers – about 10 percent. But the gene is an ideal target for a monoclonal antibody, the same type of drug as Herceptin, which is aimed at HER2 and has dramatically improved treatment for this aggressive type of breast cancer. "Since SPINK1 ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — What makes a man? His clothes? His car? His choice of scotch? The real answer, says Brown University biologist Erica Larschan, is the newly understood activity of a protein complex that, like a genetic power tool, gives enzymes on the X-chromosome an extra boost to increase gene expression. The process is described in the March 3, 2011, issue of the journal Nature. Women have two X-chromosomes in their genomes while males have an X and a Y. Gender is defined by that difference, but for men to live, the genetic imbalance must be remedied. ...

The recent sentencing of a 28-year-old Gaston County man for multiple sex offenses, including second-degree sex offense of a child and one count of indecent liberties with a child, reveals the severe consequences that a conviction or guilty plea can bring. Marcus Stephen Archer pleaded guilty to two of six counts and faces up to ten years in prison as well as lifetime registration as a sex offender. He will also be required to submit to satellite monitoring after his release from prison. Archer admits not remembering the events due to heavy drug use during the time the ...

With the steep decline in populations of many animal species, from frogs and fish to tigers, some scientists have warned that Earth is on the brink of a mass extinction like those that occurred only five times before during the past 540 million years. Each of these 'Big Five' saw three-quarters or more of all animal species go extinct. In a study to be published in the March 3 issue of the journal Nature, University of California, Berkeley, paleobiologists assess where mammals and other species stand today in terms of possible extinction, compared with the past 540 ...

Thousands, if not millions of people worldwide, use Tylenol or Tylenol-related products with the active ingredient Acetaminophen each week. The over-the-counter drug is labelled as an effective treatment method to reduce a fever and relieve minor aches and pains. While it is considered safe by medical professionals in some circles, new information about the risks of prolonged use, overuse and even common use have raised red flags for medical professionals. It is well-known that excessive use of Acetaminophen (may be abbreviated as APAP on drug labels), such as an accidental ...

Physicists and mathematicians from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain are putting paid to the theory that two languages cannot co-exist in one society. Analysing the pattern of populations speaking Castilian, the most common language spoken in Spain, and Galician, a language spoken in Galicia, the North West autonomous community of Spain, the researchers have used mathematical models to show that levels of bilingualism in a stable population can lead to the steady co-existence of two languages. The research, published today, Thursday 3 March 2011, in ...

(March 2, 2011—Toronto, ON and Helsinki, Finland) Dr. Andras Nagy's laboratory at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital and Dr. Timo Otonkoski's laboratory at Biomedicum Stem Cell Center (University of Helsinki), as well as collaborators in Europe and Canada have identified genetic abnormalities associated with reprogramming adult cells to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The findings give researchers new insights into the reprogramming process, and will help make future applications of stem cell creation and subsequent use safer. The study ...

Atlanta SEO company Cardinal Web Solutions takes a proactive approach in its client's SEO and Internet marketing campaigns. While the recent announcement from Google of an updated search engine algorithm has shaken up the SEO industry, Cardinal Web Solutions sees these changes as a reinforcement of the company's focus on quality. Cardinal Web Solutions is a leading Atlanta SEO company that provides search engine optimization and internet marketing. In February, Matt Cutts of Google described on the company's blog what he called a "pretty big algorithmic improvement" ...

Ordinary human cells reprogrammed as induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) may ultimately revolutionize personalized medicine by creating new and diverse therapies unique to individual patients. But important and unanswered questions have persisted about the safety of these cells, in particular whether their genetic material is altered during the reprogramming process. A new study – published in the March 3 issue of the journal Nature and led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego in collaboration with other leading stem cell research groups – finds ...

Boston, MA – A new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers shows that adults who regularly take ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), have about one-third less risk of developing Parkinson's disease than non-users. "There is no cure for Parkinson's disease, so the possibility that ibuprofen, an existing and relatively non-toxic drug, could help protect against the disease is captivating," said senior author Alberto Ascherio, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at HSPH. The study will be published online March 2, 2011, in ...

Climate researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association (AWI) expand a prevalent theory regarding the development of ice ages. In the current issue of the journal Nature three physicists from AWI's working group "Dynamics of the Palaeoclimate" present new calculations on the connection between natural insolation and long-term changes in global climate activity. Up to now the presumption was that temperature fluctuations in Antarctica, which have been reconstructed for the last million years on the basis of ice cores, ...

The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Newberry SC Hotel offers convenient lodging to guests attending the Irish Fling Celebration in downtown Newberry. The event will celebrate St. Patrick's Day and includes live entertainment at three locations. The annual Newberry Irish Fling will take place on March 18, 2011. "The Newberry Irish Fling is a popular annual event our area residents and guests enjoy each year. As an added perk, there is no charge to attend Irish Fling," explains Ambria Lanteigne, General Manager at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Newberry. Lanteigne continues ...

Women who experience depression and anxiety after a miscarriage can continue to experience these symptoms even if they subsequently go on to have a healthy child. The findings, based on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) at the University of Bristol and published online today by the British Journal of Psychiatry, show no evidence that mental health problems associated with miscarriage or stillbirth end with the birth of a healthy baby. Instead, women may continue to experience symptoms for several years after the postnatal period. The researchers ...

Pregnant women who are unaware that they have HIV miss the chance for drug treatment that can benefit not only their own health, but could also prevent them from transmitting the virus to their infants. When HIV is not diagnosed until women go into labor, their infants are usually treated soon after birth with the anti HIV drug zidovudine (ZDV), to prevent the infants from becoming infected with the virus. Now, a National Institutes of Health study has found that adding one or two drugs to the standard ZDV treatment can reduce the chances by more than 50 percent that ...

Physicists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland-College Park, have for the first time caused a gas of atoms to exhibit an important quantum phenomenon known as spin-orbit coupling. Their technique opens new possibilities for studying and better understanding fundamental physics and has potential applications to quantum computing, next-generation "spintronics" devices and even "atomtronic" devices built from ultracold atoms. In the researchers' demonstration of ...

Four new Brazilian species in the genus Ophiocordyceps have been published in the online journal PLoS ONE. The fungi, named by Dr. Harry Evans and Dr. David Hughes, belong to a group of "zombifying" fungi that infect ants and then manipulate their behavior, eventually killing the ants after securing a prime location for spore dispersal. These results appear in a paper by Evans et al. entitled Hidden Diversity Behind the Zombie-Ant Fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis: Four New Species Described from Carpenter Ants in Minas Gerais, Brazil. This paper is the first to validly ...

Hampton Inn & Suites Scottsboro Hotel offers nearby lodging to golfers and guests attending the Spring-Fling National Jr. College Golf Tournament at Goose Pond Colony Golf. The tournament will showcase the best young golfers from across the country. The event will take place March 17 - 19, 2011 at Colony Course. Goose Pond Colony is a municipally owned resort on Lake Guntersville offering two beautiful 18-hole golf courses. The Colony Course was rated 4 stars by Golf Digest in 2008-09. There are views of the lake from every hole on the course. The Par 72 course plays ...