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WASHINGTON, October 17, 2012--In a major advance that will unlock the benefits of the mapping of the barley genome--one of the world's most important cereal crops--work conducted and supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in collaboration with researchers around the world has resulted in the most advanced sequencing of the barley genome to date, as reported today in the journal Nature. The advance will give researchers the tools to produce higher yields, improve pest and disease resistance, and enhance nutritional value of barley.

It takes both teeth and jaws to make a pretty smile, but the evolutionary origins of these parts of our anatomy have only just been discovered, thanks to a particle accelerator and a long dead fish.

All living jawed vertebrates (animals with backbones, such as humans) have teeth, but it has long been thought that the first jawed vertebrates lacked pearly gnashers, instead capturing prey with gruesome scissor-like jaw-bones.

An international consortium of scientists has published a high resolution draft of the barley genome. The research, published in the journal Nature, will help to produce new and better barley varieties that are vital for the beer and whisky industries.

The UK team behind the research was led by Professor Robbie Waugh of Scotland's James Hutton Institute who worked with researchers at The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich.

New Rochelle, NY, October 17, 2012—SELEX is a rapid, efficient, and iterative high-throughput method for screening large libraries of molecules to identify those with the potential to be developed as drug compounds or research tools.

NEW YORK (October 17, 2012) — A new study co-authored by the Wildlife Conservation Society identifies countries most vulnerable to declining coral reef fisheries from a food-security perspective while providing a framework to plan for alternative protein sources needed to replace declining fisheries.

One of the most frequent is the existence of tumours that induce an over-secretion of this hormone. These women present with chronic infertility due to anovulation. Thanks to the work of the Inserm researchers from unit 693 "Steroid receptors: endocrinian and metabolic physiopathology", the intimate mechanism of the hyperprolactinaemia alterations affecting reproduction in mice has been discovered.

This work has been published in the journal JCI.

Leaves of the plant that yields carob — the substitute for chocolate that some consider healthier than chocolate — are a rich source of antibacterial substances ideal for fighting the microbe responsible for listeriosis, a serious form of food poisoning, according to a report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

The use of electronic health records is linked to significantly higher quality care, according to a new study¹ by Lisa Kern and her team, from the Health Information Technology Evaluation Collaborative in the US. Their work appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine², published by Springer.

Electronic health records (EHRs) have become a priority in the US, with federal incentives for 'meaningful' use of EHRs. Meaningful use entails tracking and improving specific patient outcomes, as well as gathering and storing information.

It's a common lament among parents: Kids are growing up too fast these days. Parents worry about their kids getting involved in all kinds of risky behavior, but they worry especially about their kids' forays into sexual relationships. And research suggests that there may be cause for concern, as timing of sexual development can have significant immediate consequences for adolescents' physical and mental health.

But what about long-term outcomes? How might early sexual initiation affect romantic relationships in adulthood?

In newscasts after intense wind and ice storms, damaged trees stand out: snapped limbs, uprooted trunks, entire forests blown nearly flat.

In a storm's wake, landowners, municipalities and state agencies are faced with important financial and environmental decisions.

A study by Harvard University researchers, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published in the journal Ecology, yields a surprising result: when it comes to the health of forests, native plants and wildlife, the best management decision may be to do nothing.

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have carried out a clinical trial in which patients with metastatic melanoma were given chemotherapy and an immunotherapy of adoptive cell transfer (ACT) with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). Tumor tissues were surgically removed from patients, minced and grown in culture. The treatment combined chemotherapy, then ACT with TIL, followed by interleukin-2 (IL-2). The combination therapy drew a high response rate from some patients.

The study appears in the October issue of the Journal of Immunotherapy.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, and TRIESTE, Italy — To encourage researchers around the world to adhere to universal science values and ethical behavior, a new report on responsible science has been issued by the InterAcademy Council and the IAP – the global network of science academies.

WASHINGTON, DC, October 17, 2012 — Hindus and Muslims are less likely than Christians and Jews to have premarital sex, and Muslims are the least likely among people of these religious groups to have extramarital sex, according to a new study that analyzed data on premarital and extramarital sexual behaviors in over 30 developing countries around the world.

Arlington, Va. — Two Chicago high school students have developed a novel treatment method to reduce the negative effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and a new understanding of genetics behind the disease. This research is being presented at the 2012 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Chicago, Ill., Oct. 14 – 18. More than 8,000 attendees are expected at the largest conference dedicated to the pharmaceutical sciences.

This abstract will be presented at a press conference hosted by program chairperson Cory Abate-Shen, Ph.D., the Michael and Stella Chernow professor of urological oncology and associate director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center, in the San Simeon AB Room on the fourth floor of the Hilton Anaheim at 7:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday, Oct. 17. Reporters who cannot attend in person can call in using the following information: