Body

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – California's avocado industry is worth more than $320 million annually, and has about 6,000 growers farming more than 6,000 acres of land. Indeed, California grows nearly 95 percent of the country's avocados.

In what is believed to be the largest review of the human genetic code to determine why some people's blood platelets are more likely to clump faster than others, scientists at Johns Hopkins and in Boston have found a septet of overactive genes, which they say likely control that bodily function.

The limited immune response in the eyes of freshwater fishes has created a great home for parasites, according to research published online in the journal Molecular Ecology. The study provides a lens into the evolutionary world of the larval flukes that parasitize Canadian fish.

The robust jaws and formidable teeth of some of our ancestors and ape cousins may suggest that humans are wimps when it comes to producing a powerful bite: but a new study has found the opposite is true, with major implications for our understanding of diet in ancestral humans.

The surprise findings suggest that early modern humans did not necessarily need to use tools and cooking to process high-nutrient hard foods, such as nuts - and perhaps less tough foods such as meat - but may have lost an ability to eat very tough items, such as tubers or leaves.

The anti-obesity properties of resveratrol have been demonstrated for the first time in a primate. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Physiology studied the compound, generated naturally by plants to ward off pathogens, which has received much interest as a dietary supplement for its supposed life-extending effects.

Media Contact:Karen Shea61

Patients with a specific kind of lung cancer may benefit from a Phase III clinical trial offered by the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. The new drug, crizotinib, under development by Pfizer, showed dramatic results in reducing lung cancer tumors in some patients during Phase I and II clinical trials.

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) have discovered yet another reason to filter the foreign white cells from donor blood: The resulting blood product is associated with dramatically fewer cardiopulmonary complications for patients who received a transfusion.

The study is published in the journal, Transfusion. It is the latest in a large body of work led by Neil Blumberg, M.D., who for 25 years has been investigating the benefits of filtering or washing blood to create safer, simpler approaches to transfusion therapy.

Many primary school teachers admit they 'could do better'. Lack of resources or insufficient training has led to teaching that is often inadequate and lacking in confidence, claim researchers.

"Some of the reasons for the lack of positive promotion of disability in primary schools are; uncertainty about how to fit disability equality into the curriculum or a reluctance to talk about disability for fear of highlighting 'difference' " says the study.

Children of mothers whose blood glucose (sugar) was high during pregnancy are more likely to have low insulin sensitivity—a risk factor for type 2 diabetes—even after taking into consideration the children's body weight, a new study shows. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

A new study describes one of the mechanisms in which pathogenic bacteria populations control the way they spread over the surface of the organs they infect and stop when they detect the presence of an antibiotic, only to resume again when the effect wears off.

LONDON (22 June 2010)—Independent research by local groups in emerging democracies helped uncover corruption or abysmal government performance in 13 countries in last few years, forcing public officials to improve education and healthcare services, according to a global report released today by Results for Development Institute (R4D), a Washington, D.C.-based group that promotes good governance around the world.

INDIANAPOLIS — A protein whose primary role is in the embryonic development of kidneys may play a future role in treating kidney failure.

MANHATTAN, Kan. — A Kansas State University chemical engineer has developed and patented a chemical structure to make all-natural personal care products and purer pharmaceuticals in the laboratory.

K-State's Peter Pfromm, in collaboration with visiting scientist Kerstin Wurges, has engineered a way to use enzymes to efficiently catalyze chemical reactions to create things like scents for perfumes or to avoid the introduction of inactive ingredients in drugs.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University researcher hopes a better understanding of the neurological system of the body louse through the mapping of its genome will lead to better control or elimination of the human parasite.

Exposure to environmental levels of the industrial chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, in the womb and early life may cause long-lasting harm to testicular function, according to a new study conducted in animals. The results are being presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.