Study begins to reveal clues to the cause and progression of sepsis
...chers measured cytokine levels daily for the first week of hospitalization and then weekly thereafter. The...w days, but remained elevated throughout the first week of hospitalization even after the clinical signs of infection had subsided. Levels were highest in ......or prognosis. In a new study published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, Angela Johnston, Donna Senger, and colleagues at the University of Calgary injected immunocompromised mice with human gliomas and compared invasive cells (which left the primary tumor site) to noninvasive cell...Interaction of just 2 genes governs coloration patterns in mice
...them from many predators. The work, published this week in the journal PLoS Biology, marks one of the few instances in which specific genetic changes have been linked to an organism's ability to survive in the wild. "Our work shows how changes in just a few genes can greatly alter an organism's appearan...Conventional plowing is 'skinning our agricultural fields'
...and erosion. His findings are being published this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and will be published in a print edition later in the year. Long-term erosion rates worldwide average less than one-tenth of a millimeter per year, which is similar to t...New technology reveals seal behavior
...eir marine environment. Results are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The seals were tagged at the islands of South Georgia, Kerguelen and Macquarie in the Southern Ocean, and at the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The data from the seals was ...Satellite tracking will help answer questions about penguin travels
...an zoning," Boersma said. During the week of Aug. 20, the scientists will select six adult male penguins from rehabilitation centers at San Clemente del Tuyu and Mar del Plata, coastal towns more than 500 miles north of Punta Tombo. Epoxy and special tape will be used to attach a transmitter...A sensory organ, not the brain, differentiates male and female behavior in some mammals
...except higher primates. Their work, appearing this week in the journal Nature, indicates that defects in this organ, known as the vomeronasal organ, lead female mice to adopt male behaviors such as mounting and pelvic thrusting while abandoning female behaviors such as nesting and nursing. "These result...Forecasting system provides flood warnings to vulnerable residents of Bangladesh
...lerting a network of volunteers in Bangladesh last week to notify residents at risk. The volunteers cannot yet confirm the extent to which these efforts helped people prepare for the floods. "Our goal is that long-range flood forecasts, for the first time, will consistently reach many rural individuals ...New grants bolster efforts to generate faster and cheaper tools for DNA sequencing
... technology to re-sequence a human genome within a week for less than $10,000. To meet their goal, they will continue improving the quality of sequencing data and further develop the computational tools needed to assemble a human genome sequence. Jingyue Ju, Ph.D., Columbia University, New York (Two ...Testing the force of a shark's bite
...g high resolution 3-D computer simulations. Last week Dr Wroe and his team dissected the five year old shark and measured the structure of its jaw and the muscles used in biting. Underwater experiments with live sharks fail to adequately indicate the force of the Great Whites bite, and the sharks have...New databases put wings on search for bipolar risk genes
A novel, free, public online database opening this week should greatly speed efforts to find genes linked to increase risk of bipolar disorder. The Bipolar Disorder Phenome Databasea joint project of Johns Hopkins Psychiatry and the National Institute of Mental Healthis the first of its kind, offering de...MGH researchers confirm that bone marrow restores fertility in female mice
...from non-treated, healthy adult females either one week or two months after chemotherapy. The mice were t... females that received bone marrow transplants one week after chemotherapy, all but one achieved several successful pregnancies during the study period. On...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...in Parkinsons disease (PD). Chung et al. show this week that G-substrate, an endogenous inhibitor of the serine/threonine phosphatases PP2A and PP1, may confer protection to A10 neurons. G-substrate got its name because it was first identified as a substrate for cGMP-dependent protein kinase. In rats and ...Research shows NPD1 protects a key component of vision
...ngs of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of July 30-August 3, 2007 report findings that demonstrate that neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1) protects against damage to retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells and identifies an important trigger for its production and novel molecular mechanisms that supp...Scratch no more: Gene for itch sensation discovered
...ral nervous system. The findings are reported this week in Nature through advance online publication. Chronic itching is a widespread problem. It can be caused by skin disorders like eczema, or it can stem from a deeper problem such as kidney failure or liver disease. It can be a serious side effect of ca...Discoverer of Sly Syndrome finds way of delivering medicine to fight rare genetic disorder
...ional Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition the week of July 16. SLU researchers found that the right amount of epinephrine probably works by stimulating transport by vesicles blister-like wrappers that carry substances across the blood-brain barrier so that the enzyme missing in patients who have ...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...s it seems with making synapses. Ngerl et al. this week focused on the temporal requirements for the synapse formation at newly formed spines. The authors used two-photon laser-scanning microscopy to image hippocampal slice cultures. After theta-burst stimulation (TBS), CA1 pyramidal neurons generated new...Radiation therapy combined with microsurgery shows promise for curing injured spinal cord
...thwarted in its efforts during the second or third week by certain cells that block the repair process. ...iven localized at the lesion site during the third week following injury helped the spinal cord heal itself by eliminating the cells that interfere with its...Eat fish -- especially if you drink high levels of alcohol
...aluate women who binge drink two or more times per week due to the low numbers in this population, although it is quite possible that we would obtain similar findings. The changes we found indicate that those who drink alcohol make food selections in such a way as to decrease foods with this important nu...Steroids, not songs, spur growth of brain regions in sparrows
...ven of the birds then were surgically deafened. A week after the surgery, all of the birds were given testosterone implants and were shifted to long-day light conditions, similar to what they would encounter during their breeding season in Alaska. The birds three song-control regions are called the HVC...