ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- May 2, 2007
...roduced in combat creates potentially frequent and widespread exposure for soldiers and non-combatants, who may inhale DU dust particles, the researchers note. However, there have been few studies on the health effects of lung exposure to DU, they add. In the new study, researchers tested the effects of DU on...Plants with male and bisexual flowers on the same plant are better mothers
...separated in different flowers or individuals. One widespread sexual strategy that remains an evolutionary enigma is the production of both male and bisexual flowers in the same plant, which occurs in approximately 4000 species. What is the advantage of producing these redundant male flowers? Mario Vallejo-Mari...Minuscule molecules pack a powerful punch
...sorders. To uncover how miR-155 might cause such widespread disruption of the immune system, the team used genomic studies to identify protein genes whose activity was controlled by miR-155 in T-cells. Activity of more than 150 genes, with a large range of biological functions, was reduced by miR-155, demonst...Research group gets $7 million to pursue new antibiotic agents
...tigator on the study. "Because these compounds are widespread in biological processes, the range of targets is very large." Metcalf is one of five principal investigators at the U. of I., all of whom have appointments at the Institute for Genomic Biology. His collaborators are William H. and Janet Lycan profe...Researcher finds negative effects of colonization on slash-and-burn farming method in western Borneo
...n farming method traditionally used by the Iban, a widespread indigenous population that lives in northwestern Borneo in Southeast Asia. Researchers have long argued about the environmental effects of this type of agriculture. Reed L. Wadley, assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Scie...A new study links a stomach microbe to asthma prevention
...ome far less common due to improved sanitation and widespread use of antibiotics, says Dr. Blaser. (At the same time, the incidence of peptic ulcers and gastric cancer has declined in developed countries.) Today, less than 10 percent of children carry the organism in industrialized countries, while some...New report explores nanotechnology's future
... several compelling opportunities for significant, widespread benefit, focusing on nanotechnologys ability to address the "energy crisis, the need for better medical treatments, and the demand for clean water." Synthesizing perspectives offered at a two-day NanoFrontiers Workshop held in February 2006, the repo...Will nanotechnology revolutionize medicine?
... several compelling opportunities for significant, widespread benefits from the technology, including nanotechnologys ability to address the energy crisis and demand for clean water. *** Webcast LIVE at www.wilsoncenter.org/nano *** Who: Dr. Samuel I. Stupp, Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Scien...Ancient coral reef tells the history of Kenya's soil erosion
..., soil erosion is a global problem that has caused widespread damage to agriculture and animal husbandry, placing about 2.6 billion people at risk of famine. "This is particularly worrisome in East and sub-Saharan Africa, where per capita food production has declined for the last half-century," Dunbar said. ...First impressions: Computer model behaves like humans on visual categorization task
...nclude feedback loops in the model by modeling the widespread anatomical backprojections in cortex, while Oliva is designing behavioral studies that can test if the enhanced model matches the performance of humans who have more time to examine a scene. For cognitive neuroscientists, these results add to the c...Recent declines in breast cancer mortality greatest in women under 70
...risk of recurrence in ER-positive tumors only; and widespread use of screening mammography, which is more likely to detect the slow-growing tumors that tend to be ER-positive,' said Ismail Jatoi, MD, PhD, Director of the Breast Cancer Center in the Department of Surgery at the National Naval Medical Center, and...Are all male's liars and cheaters? Yes -- if they're crayfish!
...na or boardroom. Threatening behaviour is equally widespread among non-human animals. Individuals signal their superior strength to competitors to obtain food, resolve territorial disputes and acquire mates. Current theory insists that signals of strength should be honest. Surprisingly researchers have foun...Case Western researcher, international team call for better global warming forecasting
...cumented in the fossil record. "The simultaneous widespread and justified alarm over global warming and changes in biodiversity has induced both outstanding scientific research and deplorable pseudoscientific work," said Sobel. Sobel raises concerns about the "blurring" of scientific fact with public advoca...AEA, UAlbany College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering to partner on CIRCA 07
...echnology are among the greatest challenges facing widespread implementation and commercial viability. AeA's strategic relationship with CNSE is providing unique capabilities and solutions to address these challenges, as CIRCA '07 will demonstrate." Dr. Alain E. Kaloyeros, Vice President and Chief Administra...Could estriol be the elixir for MS?
...rtment of Neurology. For years estriol has been in widespread use in Europe and Asia as hormone replacement therapy for women with menopausal symptoms. The fact that the pill already exists, she said, should dramatically reduce the cost of treatment. Most important of all, though, is that the drug potentially...Tiny molecule controls stress-induced heart disease
... other animals, indicating that it has a basic and widespread function in controlling heart damage, Dr. Olson said. The work suggests that if miR-208 can be tied up or eliminated by therapeutic treatment, it might be a way to treat heart disease, Dr. van Rooij said. "That would be golden, because even a tiny...20 of world's 162 grouper species threatened with extinction
...N Red List of threatened species also reflects the widespread failure to successfully manage fisheries associated with coral reefs. Groupers are among the oldest fish on coral reefs, with some species reaching more than 50 years old. Several species only reach reproductive maturity later in life, making them ...Will the plague pathogen become resistant to antibiotics?
...istance plasmid acquired by the plague bacillus is widespread in environmental bacteria reinforces this warning". There have been many plague epidemics in human history, and Y. pestis is believed to have killed an estimated 200 million people. Plague is now regarded as a re-emerging disease, with small outbre...Gene hunters, patent prospectors leave indigenous communities in Pacific feeling besieged, betrayed
...niversity March 20. An absence of regulation and widespread naivet regarding the latest genetic technologies and intellectual patent law has made the region a major target for commercial 'gene' hunters or bio-prospectors, she says, likening gene pirates to the oceans bottom feeders. "In South Pacific cultur...... players, but actually they are more prevalent and widespread than histidine kinases," explains Manning. Bacteria were thought to rely mostly on histidine kinases, which are structurally different from protein kinases, for all their signaling needs. Even though the different kinase families had very little si...