Discovery offers potential to determine if President Lincoln would have developed the disease
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered the gene responsible for a type of ataxia, an incurable degenerative brain disease affecting movement and coordination.
This is the first neurodegenerative disease shown to be caused by mutations in the protein â-III spectrin which plays an important role in the maintaining the health of nerve cells. The sc
Minimizing trauma to the body’s largest artery – the aorta – during heart bypass surgery can significantly reduce cognitive loss that often follows the operation, a team from Wake Forest University School of Medicine reported today (Jan. 21) in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
“A surgical strategy designed to minimize aortic manipulations can significantly reduce the incidence of cognitive deficits in coronary artery bypass graft patients compared with trad
Magnetotactic bacteria contain chains of magnetic iron minerals that allow them to orient in the earth’s magnetic field much like living compass needles. These bacteria have long been observed to respond to high oxygen levels in the lab by swimming towards geomagnetic north in the Northern Hemisphere and geomagnetic south in the Southern Hemisphere. In either hemisphere, this behavior would also lead them downward in the water column into areas with their preferred oxygen level. But an unusua
An ounce of prevention may actually be worth a pound of cure, especially if the actions taken are to reduce losses from natural hazards, such as tornados, hurricanes or flooding, according to a Penn State researcher.
“Our analysis found that for each dollar spent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for grants to mitigate the effects of natural hazards, approximately $4 was saved from what would have eventually been spent on correcting damages,” says Dr. Adam Rose, pro
A three-year multi-center study of kidney-pancreas transplant recipients has identified a new risk factor for impaired kidney function, which may help physicians refine their treatment strategies.
Researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues reported their findings today at the 6th Annual American Society of Transplant Surgeons State of the Art Winter Symposium in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The researchers found that metabolic syndrome, a clus
Drug discovery researchers at Northwestern University have developed a novel orally administered compound specifically targeted to suppress brain cell inflammation and neuron loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
The compound is also rapidly absorbed by the brain and is non-toxic – important considerations for a central nervous system drug that might need to be taken for extended periods.
As described in the Jan. 11 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, the compou
Ramosa2 determines cell fate in branch meristems of maize
Scientists are interested in understanding genetic control of grass inflorescence architecture because seeds of cereal grasses (e.g. rice, wheat, maize) provide most of the world’s food. Grass seeds are borne on axillary branches, whose branching patterns dictate most of the variation in form seen in the grasses. Maize produces two types of inflorescence; the tassel (male pollen-bearing flowers) and the ear (female fl
A new ’greener’ and cleaner chemical process* could revolutionize the leather-tanning industry, according to a report in the Feb. 15 issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology. ‘Reverse’ leather tanning, which essentially works backward from the point where conventional tanning ends, saves time, money and energy while drastically slashing water use and pollution, say researchers at the Central Leather Research Institute in Adyar, India.
Mechanical engineers at Purdue University have proven that the same sort of “deterministic chaos” behind the baffling uncertainties of the stock market and long-term weather conditions also interferes with measurements taken with a commonly used scientific instrument.
“The idea that chaos interferes with measurements in atomic-force microscopy has been sort of an urban myth over the years, but we have now proven this to be a fact,” said Arvind Raman, an associate professor o
UCR graduate student leads research showing how evolution slows recovery of fish population
The practice of harvesting the largest individuals from a fish population introduces genetic changes that harm the overall fish population, a UC Riverside graduate student and colleagues have determined. Removing the large fish over several generations of fish causes the remaining fish in the populations to become progressively smaller, have fewer and smaller eggs with lower survival and g
The use of continuous low-level heat wrap therapy (CLHT) significantly reduces acute low back pain and related disability and improves occupational performance of employees in physically demanding jobs suffering from acute low back pain, according to a Johns Hopkins study published in the December 2005 issue of The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
“With recent concerns around the safety of oral pain medications, both patients and physicians are considering alter
Loss of birds, bees and other pollinators places plants at risk
The decline of birds, bees and other pollinators in the world’s most diverse ecosystems may be putting plants in those areas at risk, according to new research. The finding raises concern that more may have to be done to protect Earth’s most biologically rich areas, scientists say in an article appearing in the Jan. 17 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The anal
Narrow debris belts, like Kuiper Belt, may herald shepherding companion star
A survey by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of 22 nearby stars has turned up two with bright debris disks that appear to be the equivalent of our own solar system’s Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy rocks outside the orbit of Neptune and the source of short-period comets.
The debris disks encircling these stars fall into two categories – wide and narrow belts – that appear to describe all ni
Dr. Anthony E. Oro and colleagues (Stanford University) have identified two key Gli protein degradation signals that directly affect tumor latency in a mouse model of human skin cancer.
Their paper has been made available online ahead of print and will appear on the cover of the February 1 issue of the scientific journal Genes & Development.
Gli proteins are transcriptional mediators of the Sonic Hedgehog intracellular signaling pathway. Aberrant Shh signaling is imp
In a multifaceted study involving the Kuna Indians of Panama, an international team of scientists has pinpointed a chemical compound that is, in part, responsible, for the heart-healthy benefits of certain cocoas and some chocolate products.
The researchers, who are from the University of California, Davis; the Heinrich-Heine University of Duesseldorf, Germany; and Harvard Medical School, hope the findings will lead to new dietary or medicinal methods for improving and maintaining
The development of a new dielectric model of tundra and forest-tundra for remote probing from space is being performed by Russian researchers from the L.V. Kirensky Institute of Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (Krasnoyarsk) jointly with the US colleagues from Michigan. The researches are sponsored by the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) and the Federal Agency for Science and Innovation (Rosnauka). The new model will make basis for more accurate and t
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