Pack-MULEs are toting a new look at plant evolution
...lor. The transposable element jumps out and purple spots appear. Some elements are mutator-like transposable elements called MULEs. Of those, Jiang has found that some carry fragments of cellular genes with them and were dubbed Pack-MULEs. No one can say scientists don't have a bit of poet in them. Gen...Researchers devise potent new tools to curb ivory poaching
...ing and the illegal ivory trade by identifying hot spots where enforcement should be increased. It is relatively easy to monitor elephant populations with flights over the open savannas of eastern, central and southern Africa, but it is much harder to do the same in the dense forests of central and wester...March of Dimes statement on newborn screening report
...st that enables early detection from newborn blood spots or other means. We support parents' rights to be fully informed about their baby's screening results, and we support expansion of health care provider education about newborn screening. March of Dimes state chapters and their partners work closely ...$18 million bioinformatics center to become weapon against deadly diseases
...iomedical scientists identify and exploit the weak spots in scores of deadly microorganisms will be established with an $18 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health. Overseeing the effort will be the Computation Institute,...Ecologists help keep death off the roads
...onsequences." The study found that collision black spots occur where animals find it easier to cross roads in the absence of human habitation. Fences or large, steep embankments deter animals from crossing roads and funnel animals to easy crossing points. At these points planners should install over- or un...Related productivity tools complement computed tomography in lung cancer detection
...an is very helpful in lung cancer assessment as it spots even small lung tumors that might go undetected in conventional chest X-ray and other tests. However in general, CT scans could generate as many as 600 images in a single seating most of which might appear repetitive and can lead to information ov...Study reveals surprising 'remodeling' property of gene regulation process
...ckaging structures called nucleosomes to different spots in the genome. Once a nucleosome is moved from a site, the appropriate gene then can be expressed much more efficiently. The new findings appear online in the journal Nature Genetics. The study will be published in the August print edition. The UNC r...Satellites are tracing Europe's forest fire scars
...on could see where the fire is, as well as the hot spots inside it. They can then deploy ground and aerial resources with maximum efficiency." Building on ITALSCAR Italy's National Civil Protection Department is providing advice on the implementation of the Risk-EOS service, based on previous experienc...Study yields insights into precancerous condition
...S is characterized by the development of pigmented spots on the skin and the formation of gastrointestinal polyps. "There is a 30 to 50 percent chance that these polyps will become malignant and lead to patients developing cancer," explains senior author Lewis Cantley, PhD, chief of the Division of Signa...Poker Flat Research Range supports unmanned aerial vehicle operations
...ns, fire movement, and previously unidentified hot spots on a mission flown July 9. Poker Flat Research Range staff initiated this effort and provided airspace planning and mission support for the flight. The latest images of the Boundary Fire are assisting fire personnel as they tackle flames near Poker F...UCLA researchers recreate patterns formed by mammalian cells
...P to the cells and found that they indeed produced spots instead of stripes. "Using the mathematical formula based on Turing's concepts, we were able to recreate the classic stripe or spot patterns seen throughout nature such as in a zebra's stripes or leopard's spots," said Garfinkel. Garfinkel adds...MIT technology jump-starts human embryonic stem cell work
...oped robotic technology to deposit more than 1,700 spots of biomaterial (roughly 500 different materials in triplicate) on a glass slide measuring only 25 millimeters wide by 75 long. Twenty such slides, or microarrays, can be made in a single day. Exposure to ultraviolet light polymerizes the biomaterials...Fox Chase discovery may help physicians diagnose, treat devastating childhood disease
...ndromes, such as abnormal pigmentation, with white spots in the skin and hair, and hearing loss. Defects in the EDNRB signaling pathway also play a part in other major diseases, including cancer, hypertension and cardiovascular disorders. Research elsewhere has shown that inappropriate expression of EDNRB...Mutant biological machine makes proteins but can't let go
...he researchers found that ribosomes with these key spots changed could put proteins together as well as normal ribosomes, but let go of the finished product much more slowly. "Most scientists have said that these four nucleotides must be critical for synthesis of the growing protein because of their locati...Danger spots identified for threatened grizzly bear
...ment of Biological Sciences, has isolated specific spots where the bears are dying at the highest rates, all sites where grizzly habitats overlap areas that humans frequent regularly. Nielsen's paper, published in the journal "Biological Conservation" is one of the first to map out these dangerous location...Gene expression profiling may predict head, neck cancer recurrence
...luorescent "tags," the amount of mRNA bound to the spots on the microarray can be visualized and precisely measured, generating a profile of gene expression in the cell. The four subtypes showed statistically significant differences in recurrence-free survival during a 16-month period, the report said. One...Other highlights in the May 5 JNCI
...that contained metastatic tumors appeared as black spots while regions without tumors and lymph nodes in normal mice appeared white. This new imaging method, the authors conclude, has the potential to be used to detect sentinel lymph node metastases in human breast cancer patients. Contact: NCI Press Offic...Researchers find no safe place to sit in California tick-infested forest
...ranging from 5 to 10 percent on average, with some spots occasionally yielding rates of 15 percent or higher. Tick infection rates normally are significantly higher in the northeastern and upper midwestern United States, where most cases of Lyme disease occur. Lane cautioned that the findings in this study......ern analytic techniques use patterns of very small spots ofprotein, DNA or other biological molecules to screen for genes orproteins. Gang-yu Liu, associate professor of chemistry at UC Davis,and her colleagues have now made dots of protein hundreds of timessmaller than those in any commercial "chip" devic...UC San Diego bioinformatics experts help reconstruct the genomic makeup of our ancestors
...earrangements -- tend to occur at evolutionary hot spots known as breakpoints, which are similar to fault zones where earthquakes are more likely to hit. "We found a few hundred strings of roughly a million letters long, and we specifically focused on those large blocks that are shared between the human, m...