A treatment, not a cure: Calcium silicate neutralizes an acidic stream
...e, temporarily mask symptoms. They don't alleviate underlying causes, they are not feasible on a landscape scale and they will not protect our nation's freshwater resources." The Wollastonite stream application was part of a larger watershed-level addition. To learn more about how calcium silicate impacted for...New biomaterials improve medical devices
...n New Brunswick, New Jersey. Biomaterials form the underlying technologies for development of a wide variety of medical products for both preventive care and the treatment of disease. Examples are vaccine delivery systems, tissue-engineering scaffolds to promote regrowth of injured or diseased tissues, and dru...Dying cells encourage neighbors to grow
...rganismal fitness. In spite of its importance, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood," explains study leader Dr. Hermann Steller. Dr. Steller and colleagues demonstrate that when cells from the imaginal disc in the fruit fly Drosophila are stimulated to undergo apoptosis but experimentally manipula...Good news: As you age, leg blood vessels adapt so you can still exercise without fainting
...ement and not). They plan to study the mechanisms underlying age-related changes in vascular responsiveness to sympathetic stimulation; and to examine the importance of sympathetic outflow in regulating vascular tone and oxygen delivery to exercising muscles. Research is supported by the National Institute on...New genetic tools provide clues to the effects of exercise and diet on obesity, diabetes
...ing has provided us with a unique insight into the underlying metabolic crisis in chronically untrained muscle and clues as to how exercise reverses these effects." Editors note: Hittel is speaking at the American Physiological Society's 2004 Intersociety Meeting, "The Integrative Biology of Exercise," Oct. ...Muscle-building hand-grips aid systolic blood pressure, carotid AD, endothelial function
...r disease (CVD), as well as to uncover some of the underlying mechanisms. Both studies used similar methodology and isometric handgrip (IHG) exercise three times a week for eight weeks at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction. IHG's effect on carotid distensibility Adrienne Visocchi led a group studying wheth...Toward a better understanding of taste and smell impairments
... This project will identify inflammatory processes underlying smell loss in patients with CR and evaluate the prognosis for recovery. Results will enable improved diagnosis and treatment targeting for patients with CR-induced smell loss. A second effort, led by environmental psychologist Pamela Dalton, P...Mitochondria findings may help beat wide range of disease
... a first-ever glimpse into the sequence of events underlying outer and inner membrane fusion. What they discovered -- that mitochondria removed from their host-cell environment were nonetheless able to fuse -- surprised them because it suggested that mitochondria contain within themselves all the proteins nec...Gladstone researchers resolve key Huntington's disease mystery in Nature cover story
...werful new way to guide our investigation into the underlying mechanisms of neurodegeneration," he explains. In their study, the scientists introduced fluorescently tagged versions of huntingtin protein into neurons. They then used the robotic microscope to monitor the accumulation of the abnormal protein into ...Laboratory test of evolutionary theory confirms importance of links between populations
...and can be easily detected. Furthermore, the genes underlying these coevolutionary changes are known and accessible to study," Bohannan said. Forde set up microbial communities of bacteria and viruses with different nutrient levels in a series of chemostats--glass culture tubes that provide nutrients and oxygen...Mechanism discovered for muscle wasting seen in diabetes, AIDS and other diseases
...ly altered) mice to study the biochemical pathways underlying muscle wasting. Their studies zeroed in on a transcription factor called NF-kB, which is well known for its importance in immune cells but was previously not known to be a critical mediator of muscle wasting. The investigators created two differ...Using fruitflies to examine alcohol tolerance
...ggest that there are differences in the mechanisms underlying tolerance produced by different protocols of previous alcohol exposure. First, pre-treatment with a drug inhibiting protein synthesis blocked the development of chronic but not of rapid tolerance. Second, a fly mutant that lacks octopamine a neu...Zebrafish may offer researchers powerful new tool for studying innate immunity
...gnificant step toward understanding the mechanisms underlying the transition from non-specific innate immunity to specific adaptive immunity," Dr. Litman said. The researchers also found that only one of the 36 NITR genes is involved in the activation type of innate immunity. By targeting the one gene and knoc...Gene for Joubert syndrom with excessive brain folds discovered by UCSD researchers and Harvard team
...opment, it can tell us something about the biology underlying a common disorder like autism." Also important are the implications for genetic testing, Gleeson added. "We receive frequent calls from parents who already have a child with Joubert Syndrome, and who want more children but are natur...Mitochondrial mutation linked to blood pressure and cholesterol problems
...ndividuals more frequently than by chance, but the underlying causes were unknown. This study, published early in Science Express on line, suggests that altered mitochondria may account for the clustering as well as the disorders. "Looking further, this finding raises the possibility that all features of ...UF scientist: 'Brain' in a dish acts as autopilot, living computer
...m blue skies to stormy, hurricane-force winds, the underlying goal is a more fundamental understanding of how neurons interact as a network, DeMarse said. "There's a lot of data out there that will tell you that the computation that's going on here isn't based on just one neuron. The computational property is...Single genetic defect links many risk factors for heart disease and stroke
...fton has no illusions that defining the mechanisms underlying such linkages will be easy. "We have identified this defect and linked it with these traits, but there remains a complex black box in between," he said. "We don't know the mechanism that links the two." A better understanding of this mechanism could...Gene for common form of Parkinson's pinpointed
...hat earlier discoveries of other genetic mutations underlying rare forms of PD had yielded insight into PD and aided design and testing of drug treatments. Until their studies, it was only known that PARK8 was caused by a mutation in a gene somewhere along a chromosomal region, or locus, that contained about ......the autistic brain, we can begin to understand the underlying mechanisms that give rise to the behaviors we see ...nies to develop drugs that specifically target the underlying causes of autism and not just the behavioral symptoms." Daniel Buxhoeveden, PhD, of ...Calorie restriction leads to some brain benefits but not others in mice
...go. "Our findings help us understand the processes underlying both normal aging and calorie restriction benefits," says principal investigator Laura L. Dugan, M.D., associate professor of neurology, of medicine and of anatomy and neurobiology. "If some aspects of aging are influenced by free radical damage, we ...