Researchers have discovered how a recently identified family of plant proteins assists in stopping gene function, a finding that may help produce plants resistant to environmental stresses such as saline soil, drought and cold.
The proteins, AtCPLs, apparently play a crucial role in triggering a gene that controls plants’ reactions to stressful conditions, said Purdue University researchers. They, along with collaborators at the University of Arizona, published their findings in two pap
Researchers at Stanford University Medical Center have devised a new gene therapy technique that appears to eliminate one of the major health risks linked to gene therapy. The technique, published in the Oct. 15 advanced online edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology, overcomes the need for viral vectors that have plagued gene therapy trials, while retaining the ability to insert therapeutic DNA into specific sites in the chromosomes.
“Our approach provides an alternative that didn’
Telecommunications companies worldwide must make “fundamental adjustments” to their business models if they are to survive in the complex and highly competitive new economy, according new research by the Universities of Newcastle and Strathclyde, UK.
A research paper published in a special issue of the journal Telecommunications Policy (1), urges companies to sharply examine and revise their pricing policies to encourage greater revenues and reverse the recent stock market slump in telecommunica
Researchers have found that immediately treating people who have early stage glaucoma can delay progression of the disease. This finding supports the medical community’s emerging consensus that treatment to lower pressure inside the eye can slow glaucoma damage and subsequent vision loss. These results are reported in the October 2002 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.
Scientists found that immediate treatment of newly-discovered primary open-angle glaucoma, the most common form of g
An international team of astronomers [2], lead by researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), has directly observed an otherwise normal star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Ten years of painstaking measurements have been crowned by a series of unique images obtained by the Adaptive Optics (AO) NAOS-CONICA (NACO) instrument [3] on the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory. It turns out that earli
Genomes of multicellular organisms are one of the greatest mysteries of biology. The more is discovered about them, the more questions are to be answered. One of such questions is connected with the size of a genome. As is known since the middle of the 20th century, the level of organization of an organism does not depend on the genome size, i.e., on the amount of DNA in the nucleus of a cell. Sometimes, a primitive organism contains much more DNA than a mammal. For example, the genome of certain amo
Perhaps, bioterrorists will not be able to spread lethal bacteria of anthrax in envelopes all over the world. Siberian biologists and physics have thought up how to adapt electron accelerator that is usually used for sterilizing medical equipment for decontamination of letters. To optimize the power of the accelerator they calculated how many bacteria could get into a human body when touching the letter infected and how many bacteria should be destroyed to avoid the tragedy.
For their experi
A partially exploding star, known as a nova, has recovered more quickly than expected, say scientists who have analysed new data from the ESA`s XMM-Newton X-ray satellite.
Nova explosions are not completely destructive phenomena. In fact, after an explosion occurs, the star recovers and starts shining again. Until now, astronomers have not known how long this process takes. In this case, however, the exploding star recovered in less than three years. This is surprising, given the fact that t
The first complete map of drug related web-sites on the Internet is under construction. Dr Fabrizio Schifano and colleagues at St George`s Hospital Medical School in Tooting, London, will collect and analyse data from web-sites relating to the design and sale of recreational and illicit substances. The purpose is to provide healthcare professionals in the European community with as much information as possible on the latest drugs – drugs that are often unrecorded in medical textbooks.
The la
An early version of a new software system developed by University at Buffalo researchers that detects cyberattacks while they are in progress by drawing highly personalized profiles of users has proven successful 94 percent of the time in simulated attacks.
The “user-level anomaly detection system” was described here today (Oct. 10, 2002) at the military communications conference known as MILCOM 2002.
“We have developed a new paradigm, proactively encapsulating user intent where y
Findings could lead to new understanding of diabetes, Crohn’s, and more
Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, and other institutions have identified the function of a protein, dubbed aire, that is critical to helping immune cells learn to recognize–and avoid attacking–the far-flung organs and tissues of the body. The protein appears to work by turning on in the thymus, which lies beneath the breast bone, the production of a wide array of proteins from the bo
Researchers report in the Oct. 11 “Science” the first detection of a living organism that makes a copper-containing mineral structure as part of its skeleton. The finding is remarkable because the amount of copper detected in the jaw tip of the marine bloodworm would normally be toxic to an organism.
The researchers determined that copper also occurs in non-mineral form in the bloodworm jaw where it may act as a structural element in cross-linking long chains of fibrous proteins. According
Scientists at Jefferson Medical College have used gene therapy to reverse the progression of Parkinson’s disease in rats. They have found that by adding a gene for an enzyme, they were able to reprogram brain circuitry and halt the deterioration of dopamine producing brain cells, one of the key problems in the disease.
“It’s not just inserting a replacement for a missing or mutated gene as a treatment for a genetic disorder,” says Michael Oshinsky, Ph.D., research assistant professor of neu
USDA Forest Service research confirms that chemicals in the leaves of the American chestnut suppress the growth of other trees and shrubs-and probably played a part in the species’ past dominance of the southern Appalachian forest.
Southern Research Station ecologist Barry Clinton (Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory)-with fellow researchers from Clemson University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill-tested the effects of fallen chestnut leaves on five tree species that historica
Atorvastatin shown to decrease heart disease and stroke in patients with hypertension and low cholesterol
A major European trial studying different blood pressure treatments and the effects of additional cholesterol lowering, announces today that it has stopped part of its trial earlier than expected because results collected already show a significant benefit to patients on one of its treatments.
It found that among 10,297 patients with hypertension and cholesterol levels lower t
Poor social circumstances in adulthood have been known for some time to increase heart disease risk but less attention has been paid to earlier life circumstances. A study in this week’s BMJ finds that adverse social circumstances in childhood, as well as adulthood, are strongly associated with increased risk of insulin resistance, and other heart disease risk factors.
Most people know that the hormone insulin is important for health. But the commonest type of diabetes (type 2 diabetes), whi
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