Lower potassium levels in the blood may help explain why African-Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes as whites, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers. The findings, if confirmed, suggest that part of diabetes prevention may someday prove as easy as taking a cheap potassium supplement. "This research doesn't mean people should run out and start taking potassium supplements," says Hsin-Chieh "Jessica" Yeh, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an author of the study, ...

A retrovirus that inserted itself into the human genome thousands of years ago may be responsible for some cases of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gherig's disease. The finding, made by Johns Hopkins scientists, may eventually give researchers a new way to attack this universally fatal condition. While roughly 20 percent of ALS cases appear to have a genetic cause, the vast majority of cases appear to arise sporadically, with no known trigger. Research groups searching for a cause of this so-called sporadic form had ...

An international consortium of researchers led by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) genetically characterises almost all Spanish patients and studies the clinical impact of the mutations. The study describes over 130 pathogenic mutations and the origins and world distribution of some of the most frequent mutations. The predominant genetic mutation originated in Europe thousands of years ago and later migrated to America. The Canary island of La Palma and Brazil, with a high prevalence of the disease, were two areas in which the mutation spread widely. A consortium ...

Scientists are reporting the first evidence that consumption of a healthful antioxidant substance in apples extends the average lifespan of test animals, and does so by 10 percent. The new results, obtained with fruit flies — stand-ins for humans in hundreds of research projects each year — bolster similar findings on apple antioxidants in other animal tests. The study appears in ACS's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Zhen-Yu Chen and colleagues note that damaging substances generated in the body, termed free radicals, cause undesirable changes believed to ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University scientist and researchers in Japan have produced a new class of improved plant growth regulators that are expected to be less toxic to humans. Angus Murphy, a professor of horticulture, said the growth inhibitors block the transport of auxin, a plant hormone that, when transported throughout the plant, controls growth processes. Current growth regulators that inhibit auxin transport are inefficient because they also have hormonelike activity or affect other important plant processes. Current growth inhibitors also are often toxic. Growth ...

On February 20th, Alaric Flower Design participated in their first Fashion Week at the Waldorf Astoria. They showcased three concept floral dresses called "The Arrangement Collection" and were very well-received. Alaric Flower Design's Lena Yelagina and Olga Meshcheryakova are familiar with style, being one of the top florists in Midtown Manhattan for over five years.  Their floral designs have been described as stylish, stunning, elegant, and classy: a combination of description often coveted in the fashion world.  They presented three ready-to-wear dresses created ...

Scientists are reporting discovery of a protein in the blood of lung cancer patients that could be used in a test for the disease — difficult to diagnose in its earliest and most treatable stages — and to develop drugs that stop lung cancer from spreading. Their study appears in ACS's Journal of Proteome Research. In the report, Je-Yoel Cho and colleagues note that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Lung cancer is so deadly because of its tendency to spread — or metastasize — to distant sites in the body, such as the liver or the brain. Early ...

Technological progress may be fast-paced in many fields, but one mundane area has been almost left in the doldrums for the last 150 years: The basic technology for permanently coloring hair. That's the conclusion of an analysis of almost 500 articles and patents on the chemistry of permanent hair dyeing, which foresees much more innovation in the years ahead, including longer lasting, more-natural-looking dyes and gene therapy to reverse the gray. The article appears in ACS's journal Chemical Reviews. Robert Christie and Olivier Morel note that hair dye already is a multibillion ...

In a study that the authors describe as lending credence to the idiom, "by the skin of your teeth," scientists are reporting that the protective shield fluoride forms on teeth is up to 100 times thinner than previously believed. It raises questions about how this renowned cavity-fighter really works and could lead to better ways of protecting teeth from decay, the scientists suggest. Their study appears in ACS's journal Langmuir. Frank Müller and colleagues point out that tooth decay is a major public health problem worldwide. In the United States alone, consumers spend ...

Real-life scientists, whose work has overtones of Indiana Jones as they search for plants in remote areas of the world that could become the source of life-saving new medicines, are currently trying to figure out how a new international agreement on biodiversity will affect their work. That's the topic of an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS's weekly newsmagazine. C&EN Associate Editor Carmen Drahl explains that environment ministers from 200 countries hammered out the agreement late last year. Called the Nagoya protocol, it extends a 1993 United Nations ...

For the first time, scientists discovered that a specific type of human cell, generated from stem cells and transplanted into spinal cord injured rats, provide tremendous benefit, not only repairing damage to the nervous system but helping the animals regain locomotor function as well. The study, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, focuses on human astrocytes – the major support cells in the central nervous system – and indicates that transplantation of these cells represents a potential new avenue for the treatment of spinal cord injuries and other central nervous ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois researchers have combined two molecular imaging technologies to create an instrument with incredible sensitivity that provides new, detailed insight into dynamic molecular processes. Physics professors Taekjip Ha and Yann Chemla and combined their expertise in single-molecule biophysics – fluorescence microscopy and optical traps, respectively – to study binding and unbinding of individual DNA segments to a larger strand. They and their joint postdoctoral researcher Matthew Comstock detail their technique in a paper published in the Feb. 20 ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Rice, which is sensitive to drought due to its high water requirement, is particularly vulnerable to how global climate change is altering the frequency and magnitude of floods and droughts. If rice plants' combined tolerance to flooding and drought could be improved, however, rice productivity could be protected and even substantially increased. Now plant scientists at the University of California, Riverside have made a discovery that can greatly benefit rice growers and consumers everywhere. The researchers have demonstrated in the lab and greenhouse ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – New research by a University of Illinois expert in employment relations and labor economics shows that, for more than a decade, Wisconsin teacher salaries have fallen behind changes in the cost of living as well as wage growth in the private sector. Craig A. Olson, a professor of labor and employment relations, says the salaries of Wisconsin teachers have lost ground to those of their private sector counterparts over the last 16 years. The paper compares the earnings of an average college graduate employed in the private sector in the U.S. versus the ...

TORONTO, March 2, 2011 – York University researchers have zeroed in on a genetic process that may allow ovarian cancer to resist chemotherapy. Researchers in the university's Faculty of Science & Engineering studied a tiny strand of our genetic makeup known as a MicroRNA, involved in the regulation of gene expression. Cancer occurs when gene regulation goes haywire. "Ovarian cancer is a very deadly disease because it's hard to detect," says biology professor Chun Peng, who co-authored the study. By the time it's diagnosed, usually it is in its late stages. And by that ...

The Sun has been in the news a lot lately because it's beginning to send out more flares and solar storms. Its recent turmoil is particularly newsworthy because the Sun was very quiet for an unusually long time. Astronomers had a tough time explaining the extended solar minimum. New computer simulations imply that the Sun's long quiet spell resulted from changing flows of hot plasma within it. "The Sun contains huge rivers of plasma similar to Earth's ocean currents," says Andres Munoz-Jaramillo, a visiting research fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ...

Retail executives from across the nation will be descending upon San Francisco March 8th-10th for the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association's (RAMA) annual Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference. The show, catered to senior executives in retail e-commerce, marketing and technology, is about the changing business and marketing landscape. RAMA Chairman of the Board and Executive Vice President of Half Price Books, Kathy Doyle Thomas, will be among conference attendees. "This year's conference will showcase the leaders of our industry discussing what they do best: ...

KNOXVILLE, TN —March 2, 2011 — In an effort to develop strategies for breast health awareness in rural populations researchers asked the question, "What message strategies will motivate Appalachian women to attend to breast health issues and become actively involved in their own breast health?" A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs finds that two types of reasons motivate rural Appalachian women to perform breast health self-examinations, get mammograms, and to talk with doctors about their breast health. The women articulated their concerns with the ...

A reliable and trustworthy system of weights and measures is vital for economic activity. Maintaining that system requires constant vigilance, and that's where the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Weights and Measures Division (WMD) comes in. While the division routinely hosts meetings and online classes to help state regulators enforce compliance, NIST is now making an effort to reach out to industry and retailers so that they can proactively identify and address problems in their measurement procedures before the regulators show up. Proactive compliance ...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published the final version of a special publication that can help organizations to more effectively integrate information security risk planning into their mission-critical functions and overall goals. Managing Information Security Risk: Organization, Mission, and Information System View (NIST Special Publication 800-39) provides the groundwork for a three-tiered, risk-management approach that "fundamentally changes how we manage information security risk at the federal level," says Ron Ross, NIST Fellow and ...

While lab tests and imaging can sometimes help diagnose juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), a physical examination and thorough patient history are the most valuable tools in identifying this disease. According to a new literature review from the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS), the rate of false positives in laboratory evaluations and imaging studies meant to screen for juvenile arthritis makes their value limited. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (formerly known as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) is an autoimmune disease that affects nearly ...

PHILADELPHIA — New research from the University of Pennsylvania demonstrates a more consistent and cost-effective method for making graphene, the atomic-scale material that has promising applications in a variety of fields, and was the subject of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. As explained in a recently published study, a Penn research team was able to create high-quality graphene that is just a single atom thick over 95% of its area, using readily available materials and manufacturing processes that can be scaled up to industrial levels. "I'm aware of reports of ...

Intensive adherence counseling around the time of HIV treatment initiation significantly reduces poor adherence and virologic treatment failure in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a recent study in PLoS Medicine by Dr. Michael Chung, assistant professor of Global Health at University of Washington, who works at the Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases in Nairobi, Kenya. The study published March 1 also found that using an alarm device has no effect on adherence counseling. The findings of this study define an adherence counseling protocol that is effective and ...

Boulder, CO, USA - LITHOSPHERE is now regularly posting pre-issue publication content -- finalized papers ready to go to press and not under embargo. GSA invites you to sign up for e-alerts and/or RSS feeds to have access to new journal content the minute it is posted online. Go to http://www.gsapubs.org/cgi/alerts and enter your e-mail address to manage your subscriptions for pre-issue postings, tables of contents alerts, and more. The following LITHOSPHERE articles were published online 10 Feb. 2011. Mafic granulite xenoliths from the East Indian Shield: Evidence ...

PHILADELPHIA—Reporting in Nature, scientists from Thomas Jefferson University have determined that a single protein called FADD controls multiple cell death pathways, a discovery that could lead to better, more targeted autoimmune disease and cancer drugs. Twelve years ago, internationally-known immunologist Jianke Zhang, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Thomas Jefferson University, realized FADD, which stands for Fas-Associated protein with Death Domain, played an important role in embryonic development and the onset of ...