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BOZEMAN, Mont. – Within sight of the Trans-Canada Highway, a team of ecologists with the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University set out on foot for a nearby site where they'd strung wire snags to catch the fur of passing bears.

In the short distance they walked, with Canada's busiest transportation artery paralleling a prime patch of buffalo berries in the Bow River bottomland, the team spotted five grizzly bears, including a sow with two cubs.

Burning incense, a popular cultural practice in Arabian Gulf countries and elsewhere, generates indoor air pollutants that may cause inflammation in human lung cells, say researchers in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Why can't the pine snakes cross the road? Hint: New Jersey traffic might have something to do with it.

Drexel University students will bring to light these and other findings about the plight, perils and peculiarities of the Northern Pine Snake in several presentations and posters at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting next week (ESA 2013), based on their research with Dr. Walt Bien's Laboratory of Pinelands Research in the New Jersey Pinelands.

SAN ANTONIO -- Children's perceptions of living with asthma may differ significantly from their caregivers' perceptions, which means both should be interviewed when they visit the doctor's office, a new study from UT Kids San Antonio and the Center for Airway Inflammation Research (cAIR) shows.

The study analyzed the agreement between 79 children and their caregivers on health-related quality-of-life questionnaires. The children ranged in age from 5 to 17. Fifty-three were classified as having acute asthma and 26 had refractory, or treatment-resistant, asthma.

August 2, 2013 / Kiel. How is vital oxygen supplied to the tropical ocean? For the first time, oceanographers at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel were able to make quantitative statements regarding this question. They showed that about one third of the oxygen supply in these areas is provided by turbulent processes, such as eddies or internal waves. The study, conducted in the framework of the Collaborative Research Center SFB 754 "Climate-Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean", was just published in the international journal Biogeosciences.

As any nervous first-time mother will confirm, the initial three months of pregnancy are the most risky time: many expectant women are reluctant to inform their friends or colleagues that they are pregnant until after this period is past. It is less well known that horses suffer from similar problems, with a considerable number of pregnancies failing to progress beyond the first five weeks.

New research into the fight against Dengue, an insect-borne tropical disease that infects up to 390 million people worldwide annually, may influence the development of anti-viral therapies that are effective against all four types of the virus.

The findings, led by researchers at the University of Bristol and published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry today [2 August], show for the first time that there may be significant differences in specific properties of the viral proteins for the four dengue virus types.

A study of gene expression led by scientists at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the University of Cambridge has revealed the first steps of evolution in gene regulation in mice. Published in the journal Cell, the research has implications for the study of differences in gene regulation between people.

Researchers from the Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program at Sydney's Centenary Institute have confirmed that, far from being "junk", the 97 per cent of human DNA that does not encode instructions for making proteins can play a significant role in controlling cell development.

And in doing so, the researchers have unravelled a previously unknown mechanism for regulating the activity of genes, increasing our understanding of the way cells develop and opening the way to new possibilities for therapy.

The future is looking good for drugs designed to combat Alzheimer's disease. EPFL scientists have unveiled how two classes of drug compounds currently in clinical trials work to fight the disease. Their research suggests that these compounds target the disease-causing peptides with high precision and with minimal side-effects. At the same time, the scientists offer a molecular explanation for early-onset hereditary forms of Alzheimer's, which can strike as early as thirty years of age.

A Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection is one that can affect the digestive system and most commonly affects people staying in hospital. It is not generally a problem for healthy people but may infect those on antibiotics with an imbalance of 'good bacteria' in the gut.

Washington, DC (August 1, 2013) — Ultrasound treatments may prevent acute kidney injury that commonly arises after major surgery, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings suggest that this simple and noninvasive therapy may be an effective precaution for patients at risk.

Two women have the same genetic mutation – an abnormal BRCA1 gene that puts them both at much higher-than-average risk for breast cancer – but only one woman develops the disease. Why? Michigan State University genetic scientists have begun to understand the mechanisms behind the phenomena.

Washington, DC (August 1, 2013) — Even early stages of kidney disease come with steep medical costs, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The study found that expenses related to moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) cost Medicare tens of billions of dollars each year.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — If two women have the same genetic mutation that puts them at higher-than-average risk for a disease such as breast cancer, why does only one develop the disease?

In the current issue of PLOS Genetics, Michigan State University genetic scientists have begun to understand how the rest of the genome interacts with such mutations to cause the differences we see among individuals.