Mosquito abatement usually means one thing: blasting the pesky critters with pesticides. Those pesticides, although highly effective, can impair other organisms in the environment.
Que Lan, insect physiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her colleagues in the entomology department are working on a new, more targeted approach to mosquito control: inhibiting their ability to metabolize cholesterol.
Cholesterol, the sticky substance that accumulates on the lini
Therapeutic approaches in childhood IBD using growth hormone could promote growth and intestinal healing
Children with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) frequently experience problems with poor and delayed growth and intestinal bleeding. This in part is due to impaired actions of growth hormone, a naturally occurring compound that normally acts to promote both growth and healing.
About 10%, or 100,000 of the estimated 1 million Americans who suffer from IBD (either Croh
A series of experiments reported on this week in the journal Science shows for the first time that novel biosensor dyes can directly reveal activation of proteins in individual living cells.
The research, led by Dr. Klaus M. Hahn, professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine, demonstrated that at least one of the dyes Hahn developed makes it possible to dramatically visualize the changing activation and intracellular location
The PSA test, commonly used as a screening tool for detecting prostate cancer, is now all but useless for predicting prostate cancer risk, according to Stanford University School of Medicine researchers. A study of prostate tissues collected over 20 years – from the time it first became standard to remove prostates in response to high PSA levels to the present – reveals that as a screen, the test now indicates nothing more than the size of the prostate gland.
“The PSA era is over
Even as Thursday’s Salzburg Envisat Symposium discussed the increasingly prominent role of Earth Observation in disaster relief, Envisat played a key part in a multinational emergency exercise taking place hundreds of kilometres to the north.
When is a flood not a flood? For the duration of the International Humanitarian Partnership’s Triplex 2004 exercise, taking place in Norway this week, humanitarian aid groups are taking part in a scenario where the country’s southern Lake Mj?sa
These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show part of a heavily eroded impact crater at Solis Planum, in the Thaumasia region of Mars.
The images were taken during orbit 431 in May 2004 with a ground resolution of approximately 48 metres per pixel. The displayed region is located south of Solis Planum at longitude 271° East and latitude of about 33° South.
The larger eroded impact crater in the lower left of thi
Researchers at the University of Bergen are now able to present new information on the HOX genes – the “software” to design animals. The findings are published in today’s issue of Nature.
Some years ago researchers at the Sars Centre for Marine Molecular Biology at the UoB discovered the smallest genome among vertebrates in a tiny urochordate called Oikopleura dioica. The organism is five millimetres long and the genome consists of only 70 million megabases (Mb). Although the human g
There’s increasing evidence that green tea offers health benefits, reports the September issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource. Recent studies have reported that polyphenols, compounds found in green tea, may offer protection against certain cancers and may aid in the destruction of cancer cells.
Now, Mayo Clinic researchers have found that another component in green tea helps kill the most common form of leukemia in the United States. The component, known as epigallocatechin-3-
Discovery common to zebrafish and humans may lead to therapies that interrupt colon cancer development
Mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor gene have been found to cause 85 percent of colon cancers. Now researchers at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute know why. In a paper published on-line Sept. 9 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, they explain that APC controls the conversion of dietary vitamin A into retinoic acid. If this
A combination of luck and scientific curiosity has produced a mouse lacking two isoenzymes, MAO A and MAO B, that have been linked to violent criminal behavior and Parkinson’s disease. The MAO A/B knockout mouse should provide an excellent model in which to address the specific roles of these neurotransmitters and their receptors in anxiety and stress-related disorders.
The research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the September 17 issue of the Journal of Biological Chem
To develop ever-smaller chips that consume less. These are the indispensable requirements of the current market for portable applications such as mobile telephone technology and biomedical systems, obtaining correct and trouble-free operation of the devices over the maximum possible duration of time. One of the techniques which, in fact, can be used for the development of this type of reduced-size, low-consumption microchip is one analysed by Carlos Aristóteles de la Cruz in his PhD defended at t
VLT Images and Spectra of Intriguing Object near Young Brown Dwarf
Is this newly discovered feeble point of light the long-sought bona-fide image of an exoplanet?
A research paper by an international team of astronomers provides sound arguments in favour, but the definitive answer is now awaiting further observations.
On several occasions during the past years, astronomical images revealed faint objects, seen near much brighter stars. Some of these have been thought
From mollusks to mammals, newly discovered chemical pathways of serotonin in the nervous system are paving a path toward future pharmaceutical treatments for depression and other disorders.
“Understanding novel serotonin pathways in a tissue-dependent manner is useful for the development of pharmaceuticals intended to preserve serotonergic signaling,” said Jeffrey N. Stuart, a doctoral student in the department of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
As the rains from the downgraded Hurricane Frances move northward while the eastern U.S. continues to watch Hurricane Ivan’s approach, the destruction from the heavy winds and rains is mounting into the billions of dollars.
In Florida alone, initial estimates for losses caused by Frances were between $2 and 4 billion following the projected $7.4 billion in insured damages from Hurricane Charley, according to Reuters News Service.
In most cases, low-rise buildings, inc
Painful and damaging chemotherapy may one day be a thing of the past. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University have developed nano-sized particles that can target and trick cancer cells into absorbing them. Once inside, the particles may soon be able to deliver a pharmaceutical payload, killing the tumor from within, avoiding the destruction of healthy cells responsible for much of the damage caused by traditional chemotherapy. The research is published in the Augu
Scientists have long recognized the importance of oceans in our climate. In fact, the unique physical characteristics of our oceans are largely responsible for making the Earth a livable environment. Oceans are major “climate-controllers” because of their large heat capacity. For instance, it requires four times the amount of energy to raise the temperature of water by one degree than it does soil. As a result, over a long period, oceans can store and transport heat from one location to another. Fur
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