Tel Aviv — The most common connective tissue cell in animals is the fibroblast, which plays an important role in healing wounds. But Dr. Neta Erez of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine has now demonstrated that fibroblasts can also do a body great harm, helping to "recruit" immune cells for tumor growth. At the onset of a tumor's creation when cancer cell proliferation is beginning, fibroblasts rush to the scene to aid in healing. However, Dr. Erez's research shows that these ordinarily helpful cells can actually be turned against the body, enhancing ...

The operating system (OS) is the backbone of your computer. If the OS is compromised, attackers can take over your computer – or crash it. Now researchers at North Carolina State University have developed an efficient system that utilizes hardware and software to restore an OS if it is attacked. At issue are security attacks in which an outside party successfully compromises one computer application (such as a Web browser) and then uses that application to gain access to the OS. For example, the compromised application could submit a "system call" to the OS, effectively ...

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have developed a novel system for delivery of growth factors to chronic wounds such as pressure sores and diabetic foot ulcers. In their work published in the Jan. 18 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team from the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine (CEM) reports fabricating nanospheres containing keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), a protein known to play an important role in wound healing, fused with elastin-like peptides. When suspended in a fibrin gel, these nanoparticles improved the healing of ...

This press release is available in French. Montreal, January 26, 2011 – Not all trout are created equal. Those swimming up the streams of British Columbia might resemble their cousins from Quebec, yet their genetic makeup is regionally affected and has an impact on how they reproduce, grow and react to environmental stressors. Such regional variance makes transplanting fish species – to bolster dwindling populations – tricky business. These are some of the findings of a compelling review published in Heredity, a journal from the Nature Publishing Group, which examined ...

DURHAM, N.H. – New research from the University of New Hampshire suggests that China should establish a unified supervisory agency, similar to what is used in Singapore, to oversee its complex financial sector. The new research by Honggeng Zhou, associate professor of decision sciences, and Wenjuan Xie, assistant professor of finance, both at UNH, is presented in the working paper "Challenges for the Unified Financial Supervision in the Post-crisis Era: Singaporean Experience and Chinese Practice." The paper is co-authored by Jing Geng of Harvard University and GuiBin ...

KNOXVILLE -- Four letter words may offend you more depending on which television channel you watch, according to a recent study out of Florida State University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This study, published in the January issue of Mass Communication and Society, found that some TV viewers believe swearing on premium channels and cable is less offensive than vulgarity on broadcast channels. Similarly, viewers are more tolerant of swearing on the premium channels than they are on the advertiser supported cable channels. This differs from previous research, ...

St. John's, CANADA —January 26, 2011— According to a new study, dominant CEOS, who are powerful figures in the organization as compared to other members of the top management team, drive companies to extremes of performance. Unfortunately for shareholders, the performance of a company with an all powerful CEO can be either much worse than other companies, or much better. But there is one solution to an all powerful CEO: a strong board of directors. Companies with strong boards counteract powerful CEOS, and swing the tide of performance to the plus side. This study on dominating ...

CHICAGO (January 26, 2011) – A first of its kind surgical quality improvement program for children has the potential to identify outcomes of children's surgical care that can be targeted for quality improvement efforts to prevent complications and save lives. The results of a study of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (ACS NSQIP Peds) phase 1 pilot were published in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. A partnership of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the American Pediatric ...

New Rochelle, NY, January 26, 2011—An innovative genetic strategy for rendering T-cells resistant to HIV infection without affecting their normal growth and activity is described in a paper published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/hum A team of researchers from Japan, Korea, and the U.S. developed an anti-HIV gene therapy method in which a bacterial gene called mazF is transferred into CD4+ T-cells. The MazF protein is an enzyme (an mRNA interferase) ...

PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh researchers have recorded neuron activity in adolescent rat brains that could reveal the biological root of the teenage propensity to consider rewards over consequences and explain why adolescents are more vulnerable to drug addiction, behavioral disorders, and other psychological ills. The team reports in the Journal of Neuroscience that electrode recordings of adult and adolescent brain-cell activity during the performance of a reward-driven task show that adolescent brains react to rewards with far greater excitement than adult brains. ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Parents who share caregiving for their preschool children may experience more conflict than those in which the mother is the primary caregiver, according to a new study. Results showed that couples had a stronger, more supportive co-parenting relationship when the father spent more time playing with their child. But when the father participated more in caregiving, like preparing meals for the child or giving baths, the couples were more likely to display less supportive and more undermining co-parenting behavior toward each other. The results were ...

Everybody who has been aboard a ship has heard the advice: if you feel unsteady, look at the horizon. For a study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers measured how much people sway on land and at sea and found there's truth in that advice; people aboard a ship are steadier if they fix their eyes on the horizon. Thomas A. Stoffregen of the University of Minnesota has been studying "body sway" for decades—how much people rock back and forth in different situations, and what this has to do with motion sickness. ...

A recent study confirmed that low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with higher risk of depressive symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Statistically significant differences in race, public versus tertiary-care hospital, disability and medications were found between depressed and non-depressed patients. Study findings are reported in the February issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). Roughly 1.3 million Americans are affected by RA—a chronic autoimmune ...

Waterhemp has done it again. University of Illinois researchers just published an article in Pest Management Science confirming that waterhemp is the first weed to evolve resistance to HPPD-inhibiting herbicides. "A fifth example of resistance in one weed species is overwhelming evidence that resistance to virtually any herbicide used extensively on this species is possible," said Aaron Hager, U of I Extension weed specialist. Waterhemp is not a weed species that can be adequately managed with one or two different herbicides, Hager said. This troublesome weed requires ...

Scientists found that in 14 independent studies, the yields of two Agave species greatly exceeded the yields of other biofuel feedstocks, such as corn, soybean, sorghum, and wheat. Additionally, even more productive Agave species that have not yet been evaluated exist. According to bioenergy analyst, Sarah Davis, "We need bioenergy crops that have a low risk of unintended land use change. Biomass from Agave can be harvested as a co-product of tequila production without additional land demands. Also, abandoned Agave plantations in Mexico and Africa that previously supported ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — It's commonly known, at least among microbiologists, that microbes have an additional option to living or dying — dormancy. Dormant microbes are less like zombies and more like hibernating bears. What isn't known, however, is how large numbers of dormant microorganisms affect the natural environments when they act as microbial seed banks. In the current issue of Nature Reviews: Microbiology, Jay Lennon, Michigan State University assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, examines the cellular mechanisms that allow microbes to hibernate ...

CHICAGO (January 26) – Scientists at The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), designated the "#1 Rehabilitation Hospital in America" by U.S. News & World Report since 1991, report that, thanks to improvements in technology and data analysis, our understanding of the functional principles that guide the development and operation of the brain could improve drastically in the next few years. The advances could herald a neuroscientific revolution, much as increasing processor speeds paved the way for the computing revolution of the last half century. In the February, ...

A new target for the prevention of adverse immune responses identified as factors in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been discovered by researchers at the University of South Florida's Department of Psychiatry and the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair. Their findings are published online in the Journal of Neuroscience (http://www.jneurosci.org/). The CD45 molecule is a receptor on the surface of the brain's microglia cells, cells that support the brain's neurons and also participate in brain immune responses. Previous studies by the ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine describes a key molecular mechanism in nerve fibers that ensures the rapid conductance of nervous system impulses. The findings appear online Jan. 27, 2011 in the journal Neuron. Our hard-wired nerve fibers or axons rely on an insulating membrane sheath, the myelin, made up of fatty white matter to accelerate the rate of transmission of electrical impulses from the brain to other parts of the body. Myelin thus acts to prevent electrical current from leaking or prematurely ...

Scientists are reporting discovery of a potential biochemical basis for the apparent cancer-fighting ability of broccoli and its veggie cousins. They found for the first time that certain substances in the vegetables appear to target and block a defective gene associated with cancer. Their report, which could lead to new strategies for preventing and treating cancer, appears in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Fung-Lung Chung and colleagues showed in previous experiments that substances called isothiocyanates (or ITCs) — found in broccoli, cauliflower, watercress, ...

Scientists are reporting that key chemical components of the 770,000 gallons of oil dispersants applied below the ocean surface in the Deepwater Horizon spill did mix with oil and gas spewing out of the damaged wellhead and remained in the deep ocean for two months or more without degrading. However, it was not possible to determine if the first deep ocean use of oil dispersants worked as planned in breaking up and dissipating the oil. Their study, the first peer-reviewed research published on the fate of oil dispersants added to underwater ocean environments, appears in ...

Scientists are reporting successful application of the technology used in home devices to clean jewelry, dentures, and other items to make anticancer drugs like tamoxifen and paclitaxel dissolve more easily in body fluids, so they can better fight the disease. The process, described in ACS' journal, Langmuir, can make other poorly soluble materials more soluble, and has potential for improving the performance of dyes, paints, rust-proofing agents and other products. In the report, Yuri M. Lvov and colleagues point out that many drugs, including some of the most powerful ...

Phosphate-free automatic dishwashing detergents — introduced to combat the phosphate-fed algae blooms that foul the nation's lakes and rivers — may be making the fish happy. But they're putting a frown on the faces of some consumers who say the new products leave dishes dirty. That's the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine. C&EN Assistant Managing Editor Michael McCoy described how new laws in 16 states require manufacturers to eliminate phosphates from automatic dishwasher detergents sold in ...

Astronomers have pushed the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to its limits by finding what is plausibly the most distant and ancient object in the Universe [1] ever seen. Its light has travelled for 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble [2], which corresponds to a redshift around 10. The age of the Universe is 13.7 billion years. The dim object, called UDFj-39546284, is likely to be a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the Big Bang, only four percent of the Universe's current age. It is tiny. Over one hundred such mini-galaxies would be needed ...

Cardiac arrests that can be treated by electric stimulation, also known as shockable arrests, were found at a higher frequency in public settings than in the home, according to a National Institutes of Health-funded study appearing in the Jan. 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study compared home and public cardiac arrests under various scenarios. For example, the study considered whether bystanders or emergency medical services (EMS) personnel witnessed the cardiac arrest, and whether the person experiencing the arrest received treatment with an automatic ...