April GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY media highlights
...ic rocks such as ash-flow tuffs are susceptible to alteration in low-temperature near-surface environments. Pot...tern United States and may be a primary pathway of alteration of the upper crust of the earth in arid lands. Cathodoluminescence petrography of K-metasomatized a...Diabetes tied to altering of the heart's circadian clock
..., hlf and tef) in the heart during diabetes. This alteration in the circadian clock of the heart are likely due to changes in circulating zeitgebers during diabetes. Whether these alterations of the clock in the heart cause a loss of synchronization in stimulus-response coupling, and play a role in dysfunctio...Scientists find protein at the intersection of genetics, development, and environment
...multiple genetic changes requiring the synchronous alteration of several features occur during evolution? The scientists from the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., and the University of Chicago knew that Hsp90 helps other proteins fold properly. They found that it acts like a buffer for naturally occu...Genetic factor underlies weight gain after use of antipsychotic drugs
...nd colleagues aimed to establish whether a genetic alteration of the promoter region of this receptor affects weight gain after drug treatment in patients with schizophrenia. 123 Chinese in-patients with first-time schizophrenia took part in the study. They received conventional drug treatment with antipsychot...Study finds genetic aberrations linked to lung cancer; Could help in early diagnosis
... of the genes identified in ourstudy show signs of alteration at a very early stage of tumordevelopment," You said. To spot these early changes, theresearchers plan to analyze lung tissue samples from patients whohave been diagnosed at an early stage of their illness - throughpositron emission tomography (PET) ...Abnormal chemical bonds cause bleeding disorder
... naturally occurring disease has been linked to an alteration in the kinetic properties of a chemical bond," says study leader Thomas G. Diacovo, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and of pathology and immunology. "The finding should give us a better understanding of how normal platelets function and of th...Researchers discover molecular 'switch' that tells body to store or burn fat
...e possibility is that SCD-1 deficiency leads to an alteration in the levels of lipid metabolites that regulate transcription factors that control metabolism," says Friedman. "Transcription factors turn groups of genes on and off. A second possibility is that the properties of the cell membrane, which is compos...Structural mechanism of cell enzyme revealed by UT Southwestern researchers
...med by site-directed mutagenesis - the controlled alteration of selected regions of a molecule - conducted in the lab of Cobb, holder of the Jane and Bill Browning Jr. Chair in Medical Science.Goldsmith said when the activating enzyme binds to p38, it causes conformational changes in the activating site, makin...Sprawl may threaten wildlife in reserves
...ow sustainable levels. "Our findings suggest that alteration and destruction of the remaining productive habitats outside nature reserves will pose dire threats to many wildlife populations," say Andrew Hansen and Jay Rotella of Montana State University in Bozeman in the August issue of Conservation Biology. G...Gene variant increases risk of cardiac arrhythmia for African-Americans
... gene resulted in a sodium channel that carried an alteration in a single amino acid. A broader survey of several population groups revealed that the Y1102 polymorphism occurred in 19.2 percent of people of West Africans and Caribbean decent, and in 13.2 percent of African-Americans studied. However, the gene v...New insights into cause of stomach cancer
...ud and Ernst discovered that the single amino acid alteration induced cellular changes reminiscent of early gastric cancer in mice as young as 6-8 weeks. The second set of mutant mice had reduced ability to repair damage in the colon and rectum making them highly susceptible to intestinal injury resulting in ...OSU studies breast cancer risk and beef consumption
...e measured by the degree of cell proliferation and alteration of estrogen-responsive gene mRNA levels. Lin and colleagues in veterinary colleges in four other universities across the country will simultaneously be collecting testing random samples of supermarket-bought beef to gauge the presence and amount of ...Study provides direct evidence of the role of telomeres in prostate cancer development
...vealing that telomere shortening is a defining DNA alteration characterizing early prostate cancer lesions. Telomere shortening may cause significant alterations at the chromosomal level of tumors initiating chromosomal instability and causing progression to a fully malignant state. Telomeres are specialized s...Use of genetic testing for colorectal cancer may increase screening rates
...vention Research meeting. Those carrying the gene alteration were significantly more likely to undergo a colono...o those who did not carry the risk-conferring gene alteration (22 percent) and individuals who declined testing (16 percent). HNPCC is the most common form of i...November GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY media highlights
...n fossils. Second, it indicates that all chemical alteration of the original biological materials happens in place at a submicron scale. Together, these points demonstrate that cellular biochemistry and physiology can be directly studied in fossils hundreds of millions of years old. Rapid and widespread vege...Seven-foot living 'dinosaur' lurks in Oregon
...tremely vulnerable to both overfishing and habitat alteration such as water diversion for irrigation and pollution. The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Ichthyology. Using radio-tracking techniques, the authors of the study found that once green sturgeon enter freshwater rivers to s...Scientists hone in on cause of amphibian deformities
... that each cause can eventually be traced to human alteration of our climate or amphibian habitat. And one of the most common deformities, extra or deformed legs, is most often linked to a particular parasite." The deformity problem first received widespread media attention when deformed frogs were spotted by ...SRS research highlights from the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Symposium
...mon sight in the southern U.S., before logging and alteration of the fire regime reduced the original pine forest habitat of the bird. Designated as endangered in 1970, small groups of red-cockaded woodpeckers can still be found in a range that stretches from Virginia to Florida and west to the eastern part of ......l, immunologists developed another kind of genetic alteration system in mice in order to solve the problem of how to study a gene by knocking it out when it also plays a role in development. In 1994, a Cologne-based group headed by Klaus Rajewsky generated the first tissue-specific knockout mouse. Tarakhovsky, ......aterpillars, appeared unaffected by the removal or alteration of shelters....