Biologists at the University of Leicester have published results of a new study into the intricacies of sex in flowering plants. They have found that a gene in plants, called DUO1, acts as a master switch to ensure twin fertile sperm cells are made in each pollen grain. The research identifies for the first time that DUO1 switches on a battery of genes that together govern sperm cell production and their ability to produce seeds.. The findings have implications for plant fertility, seed production – and could be used to help produce improved crops to help meet ...

Gallium nitride (GaN) material holds promise for emerging high-power devices that are more energy efficient than existing technologies – but these GaN devices traditionally break down when exposed to high voltages. Now researchers at North Carolina State University have solved the problem, introducing a buffer that allows the GaN devices to handle 10 times greater power. "For future renewable technologies, such as the smart grid or electric cars, we need high-power semiconductor devices," says Merve Ozbek, a Ph.D. student at NC State and author of a paper describing the ...

Rare fragments of Martian meteorites have been investigated at the University of Leicester revealing one of the ways water flowed near the surface of Mars. Scientists at the University's renowned Space Research Centre, in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, examined five meteorite samples – including the very first nakhlite, found a century ago. Nakhlites are a form of meteorite known to have originated on Mars. They are named after the village of El-Nakhla in Egypt where the first one was found in 1911. Findings from the research have been published in Meteoritics ...

Human influence on the landscape, global warming, sea level rise, ocean acidification and biodiversity are highlighted in a new set of studies led by University of Leicester researchers. How this influence will be reflected in the distinctive geological record forms the basis of the studies published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams from the University of Leicester Department of Geology led the production of the studies into the Anthropocene – a new geological epoch distinguished by the change that man has wrought ...

A wealth of documentary evidence relating to theatres and society in early-modern London has for the first time been brought together online, in an international project led by the University of Southampton. Professor of English at Southampton, John McGavin, has directed research to find and transcribe historical texts relating to eight early theatres north of the Thames, which operated outside the capital's city walls.1 The online database 'Early Modern London Theatres' (EMLoT) has been created as part of this research project, in collaboration with King's College ...

The results of the work, developed at the Mount Sinai Hospital Medical School in New York, in which Ana García-Osta, researcher at the Centro de Investigación Médica Aplicada (CIMA) of the University of Navarra took part, was published in the latest issue of Nature. The article describes the role played by IGF-II in the processes of consolidation of long-term memory. "Through microarray studies (gene identification) we see that the gene that codes this protein increases in the brain of rats exposed to a learning session. On administering IGF-II locally into the hypocampus ...

Tel Aviv — Quantum mechanics, developed in the 1920s, has had an enormous impact in explaining how matter works. The elementary particles that make up different forms of matter — such as electrons, protons, neutrons and photons — are well understood within the model quantum physics provides. Even now, some 90 years later, new scientific principles in quantum physics are being described. The most recent gives the world a glimpse into the seemingly impossible. Prof. Eran Rabani of Tel Aviv University's School of Chemistry and his colleagues at Columbia University have ...

Lung tumors are the number one cause of death among cancer patients, and one cancer in three is lung cancer. Each year, there are 50,000 new cases of the disease in Germany alone. The earlier a tumor can be detected, the greater the chance of healing the patient. But early detection is difficult. In its initial stages, the tumor-related complaints resemble chronic inflammatory reactions. To get a more complete diagnosis, the patient must undergo an X-ray examination or an bronchoscopy. The last procedure often involves irritation of the lung or removal of tissue samples ...

TORONTO, Ont., Feb. 2, 2011—Immigrant women in Ontario are not screened for cervical cancer as often as native-born Canadians, with the lowest rates being among older, poorer South Asians, new research shows. Only one in five – 21.9 per cent – of South Asian immigrants over the age of 50 living in low-income neighbourhoods had had a recent Pap test, according to a study led by doctors at St. Michael's Hospital. In contrast, 79 per cent of Canadian-born women living in the highest-income neighbourhoods and who had a primary care doctor were up-to-date with their cervical ...

Selective schools closures has been considered as a means of reducing transmission between children and hence reducing the number of cases at the peak of an epidemic but new research led by researchers at the University of Warwick shows that limited school closures are ineffective and that only significant widespread school closures would have real effect on the spread of a epidemic and the strain placed on hospital intensive care units. Dr Thomas House from the University of Warwick's Mathematics Institute, and the University's Complexity Science research group said: "Influenza ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Calling this "our generation's Sputnik moment," President Obama emphasized the national need for continued robust support of research and development in his State of the Union address last week: "We'll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology—an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people." President Obama specifically cited the need for research and incentives as a way to "break our dependence on oil with biofuels." Members of the ...

The adaptor protein thought to be active in killing cells also promotes cellular survival through a dual function Findings indicate that the presence of RIP1 is actually necessary for survival of septic injury Future research will focus on identifying survival trigger, and the potential for developing new treatments for sepsis PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Researchers from Rhode Island Hospital have identified a protein that plays a dual role in the liver during sepsis. The protein, known as RIP1, acts both as a "death switch" and as a pro-survival mechanism. The ability to identify ...

When delivered intranasally, vaccine was found to be more effective Funding will support future clinical trials to test effectiveness in humans PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A new study led by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital in collaboration with the University of Rhode Island (URI) and EpiVax. Inc, a privately owned vaccine development company in Providence, RI, has identified a potential vaccine capable of reducing colonization of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) -- a known cause of gastritis, ulcer disease and cancer. Their findings appear online in advance of print in ...

Ritalin may help improve brain function in adolescent rats that were iron deficient during infancy, according to a team of Penn State neuroscientists. This may have implications for iron-deficient human infants as well. The researchers found that low doses of Ritalin can help improve the focus of iron-deficient rats. Higher doses proved to hurt rather than help the control animals' focus, making them hyperactive. The control rats that were not iron deficient but received low doses of Ritalin showed no positive or negative change in performance. When children are deprived ...

Children who grow up in poverty have health problems as adults. But a new study finds that poor adolescents who live in communities with more social cohesiveness and control get some measure of protection; they're less likely to smoke and be obese as adolescents. The new study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is part of a long-term examination of children growing up poor in rural upstate New York. The study was designed to discover, "What is it about poverty that leads to these negative outcomes?" says lead author ...

An exercise program designed by researchers at the University of Louisville for patients with severe knee arthritis improves leg strength and patients' functional ability before knee replacement surgery, according to recent report in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. The study, led by UofL's Ann Swank, Ph.D., CSCS, and Robert Topp, Ph.D., R.N., says gains from exercise before knee replacement or prehabilitation may translate into improved recovery after surgery. "We designed this program to be easily transferred to a home environment," Swank said. ...

BATON ROUGE – Inflammation is a healthy response in reaction to potentially harmful presences in the body. But when it starts in the lungs and builds up to a full-fledged asthma attack, it can be downright deadly. Chronic inflammation has been directly associated with heart disease and other physical ailments. But LSU graduate student Nathanial Gilbert and Professor of Biological Sciences Marcia Newcomer, together with Associate Professor Sue Bartlett, have developed the first 3-D model of Human 5-Lipoxygenase, or 5-LOX, the molecule responsible for creating inflammatory ...

Australian clinical researchers have noted an extraordinary and unexpected benefit of osteoporosis treatment – that people taking bisphosphonates are not only surviving well, better than people without osteoporosis, they appear to be gaining an extra five years of life. These findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, now online. Associate Professor Jacqueline Center and Professor John Eisman, from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, based their findings on data from the long running Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study. Out ...

On Friday, Jan. 28 in Antarctica, a research team investigating the last 100,000 years of Earth's climate history reached an important milestone completing the main ice core to a depth of 3,331 meters (10,928 feet) at West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS). The project will be completed over the next two years with some additional coring and borehole logging to obtain additional information and samples of the ice for the study of the climate record contained in the core. As part of the project, begun six years ago, the team, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), ...

It's a quick process, generates almost no waste and is extremely precise: within a few seconds, a laser beam has welded the casing and speedometer cover together – without any screws, clamps or glues whatsoever. The result is a perfect weld seam scarcely visible to the naked eye. There are no sparks or particles flying through the air during welding. What's more: the resulting heat is confined to a minimal area. This protects the material. Many industries have now turned to welding plastics with a laser. Still, the technology has its limits; when it comes to fusing two ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - University of Maryland researchers have made a breakthrough in the use of visible light for making tiny integrated circuits. Though their advance is probably at least a decade from commercial use, they say it could one day make it possible for companies like Intel to continue their decades long tread of making ever smaller, faster, and cheaper computer chips. For some 50 years, the integrated circuits, or chips, that are at the heart of computers, smart phones, and other high-tech devices have been created through a technique known as photolithography, ...

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- When you sit down to watch a new flick, whether you enjoy the movie may depend on the person sitting next to you, according to research from a Kansas State University professor. It's especially true if you are awkwardly watching a movie's steamy love scene with your parents. "We know that most of the time people enjoy watching movies -- that's why they do it," said Richard Harris, K-State professor of psychology. "But sometimes we watch a movie that isn't what we describe as 'enjoyable.' For whatever reason, the experience is uncomfortable emotionally ...

A new study highlights inconsistencies in black box warnings - medication-related safety warnings on a drug's label - and argues for a more transparent and systematic approach to ensure these warnings are consistent across all drugs within a same category, and any additions to warnings, on the back of a drug withdrawal for example, are done within a reasonable and uniform time period. The work by Orestis Panagiotou and John Ioannidis and colleagues from the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece and Stanford University School of Medicine in the USA is published ...

Low doses of an inexpensive, FDA-approved hypertension medication may improve the results of nanotherapeutic approaches to cancer treatment. In a report in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators describe experiments showing that the generic drug losartan, by modifying the network of collagen fibers that characterizes most solid tumors, improved the effectiveness of two nanotherapeutics against several types of cancer. "By 'normalizing' the abnormal extracellular matrix of tumors, which ...

Biologists have discovered that primitive, predatory lampreys have structures within their gills that play the same role as the thymus, the organ where immune cells called T cells develop in mammals, birds and fish. The finding suggests that in vertebrate evolution, having two separate organs for immune cell development -- the bone marrow for B cells and the thymus for T cells -- may have preceded the appearance of the particular features that mark those cells, such as antibodies and T cell receptors. The results will be published Feb. 3 by the journal Nature. The ...