Satellite study doubles forest disturbance estimates in Brazilimpacts widespread
...ution satellite data analysis indicate that forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon has been underestimated by half. The study, conducted by lead author, Dr. Greg Asner, of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology and colleagues, is published in the October 21, 2005, issue of Science, and has f...Valuing biodiversity services, including its insurance against disease
...isease regulation, the costs of ecological service degradation are the costs of the diseases themselves. Among other presenters, Scientists Matt Thomas, Kevin Lafferty and Carolyn Friedman say increases or decreases in species richness and composition affect the dynamics of infectious disease. In a joint paper t...Baby's genes affect mom's cholesterol levels
...and lipoprotein lipase play important roles in the degradation of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins," notes Descamps. "In pregnant women, the concentrations of these lipoproteins are particularly very high and it is thought that these lipoproteins are the forms that carry the lipids to the placenta. The researcher...New Science study: Mangroves shielded communities against tsunami
...and create significant destruction. "Just as the degradation of wetlands in Louisiana almost certainly increased Hurricane Katrina's destructive powers, the degradation of mangroves in India magnified the tsunami's destruction," said Neil Burgess, a conservation specia...Highlights from October ESA journals
...nts' ability to survive stress in the study, "Soil degradation slows growth and inhibits jasmonate-induced resistance in Artemesia vulgaris." According to the scientists, "little is known about the interactions of biotic and abiotic stresses under ecologically realistic conditions." After the German reunificat...Compound in wine reduces levels of Alzheimer's disease-causing peptides
...chers believe the compound acts by stimulating the degradation of amyloid-beta peptides by the proteasome, a barrel-shaped multi-protein complex that can specifically digest proteins into short polypeptides and amino acids. However, eating grapes may not be a cure for Alzheimer's disease. "It is difficult to kno...JCI table of contents December, 2005
...e authors show that intravenous Ig accelerates the degradation of pathogenic autoantibodies and prevents blistering. It does this by saturating the Fc receptor, FcRn. The results give new insights into the pathology of these types of diseases and suggest that FcRn is a promising therapeutic target for treating...Ranks of 'environmental refugees' swell, calls grow for better definition, recognition, support
...ff the hook for their failure to help prevent land degradation and facilitate land restoration and, in some cases, for their collusion with owners of forest companies, open mines, and large cattle ranches in practices that degrade land."...New marine research shows global warming may affect organic matter recycling differently
...sible for all but the final step of organic matter degradation in sediments are often ignored, and we were interested in opening the microbial 'black box' in sediments and clarifying the temperature controls on different microbial groups," said Weston. Weston and Joye studied sediment cores from Umbrella Creek n...Nutrient pollution causes a long-term effect on Chesapeake Bay ecosystem
...ed oxygen concentrations, both contributing to the degradation of bottom habitats. Excess nutrients can cause large algae blooms which cloud the water. When the algae bloom dies it sinks to the bottom and decays through bacterial processes that rapidly deplete dissolved oxygen. Significant increases in the org...Overfishing in inland waters reduces biodiversity and threatens health
...intenance of biodiversity, protection from habitat degradation and other anthropogenic stressors, and provision of socioeconomic benefits to a broad spectrum of consumers. ......at around 0.52% per year. Immediately after a meal degradation of protein slows down and synthesis doubles. This ...month) rats. They discovered that the slow down in degradation that normally follows a meal does not occur in old animals, so there is excessive breakdown. But add...Russian River coho recovery project seeing first hopeful signs of success
...ipitous decline caused by factors such as loss and degradation of freshwater habitat and changing ocean conditions. Surveys of prime coho streams found no returning spawners several years in a row. Throughout its entire California range, coho numbers have dropped to between 6 percent and 15 percent of their abu...Bio-archaeologists pinpoint oldest northern European human activity
...ld a framework which records the extent of protein degradation in different sites, so that we can link the patchy terrestrial records of past climate change with the long continuous records from ice cores and marine sediments"....Genome discovery will help combat disease and lead to new drugs
...arth's ecosystem, being responsible for almost all degradation of plant material as well as recycling nitrogen. Aspergillus fumigatus is a major constituent of compost, and mould fungi have been important sources of drugs including penicillin and ciclosporin (for transplantation). "However, they are something of...Mechanism for Epstein-Barr virus protein's role in blood cancers discovered
...led EBNA3C (for EBV nuclear antigen)--mediates the degradation of the retinoblastoma protein, an important molecu...es ubiquitin to Rb. This inadvertently tags Rb for degradation by the proteosome machinery, the cell's recycling plant. With Rb out of the way, the cell now reprod...Report shows deforestation threatens Brazil's Pantanal
...te extremes." Losing native vegetation causes soil degradation and changes the hydrological processes, which determine the dry and wet cycles and are largely responsible for the biological richness of the region. That in turn can compromise resources such as food and breeding sites offered by the forests and oth...Protein finding could lead to treatment for inflammatory diseases
...lex. The normal function of IKK is to trigger the degradation of a protein that inhibits NF-kB activity. MC160 subsequently causes the IKK complex to fall apart to prevent the phosphorylation process that turns on NF-kB. "Our findings regarding MC160 provide yet another example of how viruses inhibit NF-kB acti...JCI table of contents: January 12, 2006
...alities. Type 3 deiodinase (D3) is involved in the degradation of thyroid hormones T3 and T4 to biologically inactive forms and as such serves as a modulator of intracellular TH levels and action. In order to learn more about the actions of D3, Arturo Hernandez and colleagues from Dartmouth Medical School examin...Stopping the clock: Genetics of tumor latency in skin cancer
...rd University) have identified two key Gli protein degradation signals that directly affect tumor latency in a mouse model of human skin cancer. Their paper has been made available online ahead of print and will appear on the cover of the February 1 issue of the scientific journal Genes & Development. Gli protei...