Body

San Francisco, Aug. 10, 2014 — Location. Location. Location. The popular real estate mantra alsoturns out to be equally important for growing wine grapes in fields and storing bottles of the beverage at home or in restaurants, according to researchers.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10, 2014 — Wrapping wound dressings around fingers and toes can be tricky, but for burn victims, guarding them against infection is critical. Today, scientists are reporting the development of novel, ultrathin coatings called nanosheets that can cling to the body's most difficult-to-protect contours and keep bacteria at bay.

The researchers are speaking about their materials, which they've tested on mice, at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

WASHINGTON –- Nearly 40 percent of women who earn engineering degrees quit the profession or never enter the field, and for those who leave, poor workplace climates and mistreatment by managers and co-workers are common reasons, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's 122nd Annual Convention.

According to a study published in the journal Conservation Biology by a group of scientists from the University of Notre Dame, Resources for the Future, U.S. ForestService, University of Michigan and the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory, if bighead and silver carp were to establish in Lake Erie, local fish biomass is not likely to change beyond observations recorded in the last 3 decades.

For the first time, the tiny fruit fly can be used to study how mutations associated with the development of diabetes affect the production and secretion of the vital hormone insulin.

The advance is due to a new technique devised by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine that allows scientists to measure insulin levels in the insects with extremely high sensitivity and reproducibility.

Almost 40 million people worldwide live with HIV/AIDS. Despite great effort, HIV-1 vaccine development has been challenging. A recent HIV vaccine trial, known as RV144, revealed that a combination of 2 vaccines protected some individuals from HIV infection. Individuals in the trial that made antibodies that bound to a specific region of the HIV envelope protein had a decreased risk of HIV infection. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation reveals that an individual's genotype correlates with their ability to develop immunity to HIV in response to vaccination.

Chronic inflammatory bowel disease can be painful and debilitating. Both genetics and environment are thought to promote disease, but it is not fully understood how chronic IBD develops. Emerging evidence indicates that IBD is associated with an increase in lymphatic vasculature, which transports lymph throughput the body. It is not clear if these lymphatic vessels promote or improve IBD. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation indicates that improving lymphatic function relieves experimental IBD in mice.

ANN ARBOR—When we think of ill effects from lead exposure various neurologic problems usually come to mind. Now researchers at the University of Michigan say another health impact can be added to the list: obesity.

Even at low levels, lead is associated with obesity in mice whose mothers were exposed to the chemical, researchers at the U-M School of Public Health found. Specifically male mice exposed to lead had an 8-10 percent increase in weight.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers have hijacked a defense system normally used by bacteria to fend off viral infections and redirected it against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes cervical, head and neck, and other cancers.

Using the genome editing tool known as CRISPR, the Duke University researchers were able to selectively destroy two viral genes responsible for the growth and survival of cervical carcinoma cells, causing the cancer cells to self-destruct.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 8, 2014) ­– A multicenter study including University of Kentucky researchers found that a new nerve repair technique yields better results and fewer side effects than other existing techniques.

Traumatic nerve injuries are common, and when nerves are severed, they do not heal on their own and must be repaired surgically. Injuries that are not clean-cut – such as saw injuries, farm equipment injuries, and gunshot wounds – may result in a gap in the nerve.

A new study suggests uric acid may play a role in causing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Tops and yo-yos are among the oldest types of playthings but researchers at Disney Research Zurich and ETH Zurich have given them a new spin with an algorithm that makes it easier to design these toys so that they have asymmetric shapes.

Sound effects and visual effects have long been standard tools for entertaining audiences, but even as storytellers increasingly turn to haptic feedback to engage the sense of touch in games, theme park rides and movies, they have lacked a common vocabulary to describe or access these "feel effects." Researchers at Disney Research Pittsburgh are beginning to fill that gap.

(PHILDELPHIA) – MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate protein-coding gene abundance levels by interacting with the 3´ end of various messenger RNAs. Each target site matches the first few nucleotides of the targeting miRNA, the so called "seed" region, and this interaction leads to the degradation of the target or prevents its translation into amino acids. This dogma has led researchers to largely look for perfect base-pair matching of the "seed" region among candidate targets.

Scientists at A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) and the Bioinformatics Institute (BII) have found new clues to early detection and personalised treatment of ovarian cancer, currently one of the most difficult cancers to diagnose early due to the lack of symptoms that are unique to the illness.