Study begins to reveal clues to the cause and progression of sepsis
... inflammatory response after sepsis and those that act more broadly on multiple components may yield better results. No one really knows why some people develop sepsis following an infection, said Scott Somers, Ph.D., who oversees sepsis grants at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, wh...Beyond batteries: Storing power in a sheet of paper
...ich give the device its black color. The nanotubes act as electrodes and allow the storage devices to conduct electricity. The device, engineered to function as both a lithium-ion battery and a supercapacitor, can provide the long, steady power output comparable to a conventional battery, as well as a su...High blood pressure, low energy -- a recipe for heart failure
... to high blood pressure, almost all of those drugs act outside the heart by dilating blood vessels throughout the body to reduce resistance. In the future, doctors might look for diminished energy capacity in the hearts of hypertensive patients and administer drugs that would rev up energy-producing path...Circadian clock controls plant growth hormone
...son of the year. The circadian rhythms appear to act by "gating" the effect of auxin, the researchers said. In other words, the plant becomes more responsive to auxin at a certain time of day. Postdoctoral researcher Michael Covington and Stacey Harmer, professor in the Section of Plant Biology at UC...Role of thyroid hormones in slumber under investigation at Rutgers
...ablished that in the adult brain, thyroid hormones act on receptors on the outside of cells, functioning like neurotransmitters. His findings contrast greatly with the well-documented functions of thyroid hormones, which are secreted from a gland located in the neck and increases cellular activity in ne...Study: Sticking to the sand might not be such good, clean fun for beachgoers
...epatitis. "Contaminated beach sands can actually act as bacteria sources," said Boehm, the Clare Booth ... means that the polluted sand is probably going to act as a source of fecal indicator bacteria to coastal waters-and will impact beach closures and advisor...Multicenter study nets new lung tumor-suppressor gene
...rs from forming. Mutated versions may be unable to act as a brake on cancer. To find out, the investigators ran a series of experiments in mice with a defective form of a gene called Kras, which drives the formation and growth of lung cancer. They tracked the development of lung cancer in animals with ...Unknotting DNA clue to cancer syndrome
...mosomes associate so that an intact chromosome can act as a template for the damaged one. The DNA strands are then exchanged to form four-way structures called Holliday junctions. To complete repair, these junctions are resolved in one of two ways: either leaving the original chromosomes intact, or excha...Chickadee, nutchatch presence in conifers increases tree growth, says CU-Boulder study
...ing which trees to eat, said Linhart. "Terpenes act a bit like an immune system by essentially fending...t said. "In essence the nuthatches and chickadees act as tree protectors, keeping check the insects that can have deleterious effects on forest vigor." ...Marijuana component opens the door for virus that causes Kaposi's sarcoma
...nnabinoid receptors on their outer surfaces, which act as switches that control cellular processes. Dr. Groopmans laboratory had previously demonstrated that THC could have a protective effect against a certain form of invasive, drug-resistant lung cancer. To study the combined effect of THC and KSHV,...Investigating antibiotic use in acute care patients
...only bad bacteria. "In reality, antibiotics also act against entire microbial communities, including the good bacteria which can protect patients from pathogenic bacteria. "Antibiotics do not just eliminate bad bacteria", Dr Chin said. "They also maintain a pool of antibiotic resistance genes within ...Researchers find pathway that controls cell size and division
...ry have recently identified a trio of enzymes that act in concert to link nutrient availability to cell size in the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Levin and her lab are looking into the factors that control the timing and position of cell division in B. subtilis. B. subtilis serves as the model syst...Prenatal stress keeps infants, toddlers up at night, study says
...e brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus which act as a signaling system that tunes bodys internal clock. This signaling system helps to properly regulate daily rhythms of waking, sleeping, even hunger that is, if its formation has not been disrupted. This could explain why sound sleep doesnt com...Isoprene emission from plants -- a volatile answer to heat stress
...does isoprene confer heat tolerance? Does isoprene act as an antioxidant due to its chemical reactivity" And more generally: Is this effect of significance under natural conditions for poplar and other isoprene-emitting species" The researchers aim to analyse the biophysical and biochemical mechanisms of...More fish oil, less vegetable oil, better for your health
...earchers are now investigating why COX-1 and COX-2 act differently. One possibility is that since COX-2 has two binding sites, it can bind to both fish and vegetable oils. When fish oil binds to one of the two sites, it may prepare the other site to bind more easily to vegetable oil, a process called all...Can the tonsils influence oral HIV transmission?
...t the tonsils may possess the necessary factors to act as a transmission site for the spread of HIV. The related report by Moutsopoulos et al, Tonsil Epithelial Factors May Influence Oropharyngeal Human Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission, appears in the August issue of The American Journal of Pathology....Hepatitis C helicase unwinds DNA in a spring-loaded, 3-step process
...randed RNA of the hepatitis virus, but it can also act on DNA. This suggests that the helicase plays a role in unwinding double-stranded host DNA during infection. The duplex created for the experiment included both single- and double-stranded DNA; fluorescent labels were located in the double-stranded r...FDA sees nanotech challenges in every product category it regulates
...first run in the first inning. But the agency must act rapidly to adopt and fully implement the Nanotechnology Task Forces recommendations. Without moving quickly and building on the recommendations in the Task Force report, FDA will not be able to keep pace with todays rapidly developing nanotechnology ...Study identifies new gene therapy tools for inherited blindness
.... The three genes, known as transcription factors, act by binding to DNA in a way that turns other genes on or off. "Using a computerized search of DNA, we were able to identify several hundred potential binding sites for these transcription factors," Corbo explains. Through a variety of experiments, C...University of Leeds strengthens China links in membrane and neurobiology
...y and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) - will act as a platform for the development of long term research and teaching collaborations. The partnership is expected to greatly enhance the research outputs and international profiles of the institutions. These Chinese institutions represent the le...