Body

WACO, Texas (Sept. 25, 2012) — Moving through the traditional stages of grief can be as unpredictable as playing a pinball machine, with triggers of sorrow acting like pinball rudders to send a mourner into a rebound rather than an exit, according to a case study by a Baylor University researcher and a San Antonio psychologist.

How can laptop users be kinder to the environment by using less power?

University of Cincinnati computer science doctoral student Dippy Aggarwal will be among the leaders in their fields who are sharing emerging research and career interests at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, Oct. 3-6, in Baltimore. She'll present early results of her research in a poster presentation, "Leveraging Power Analytics and Linked Data for Enterprise Computing," on Wednesday, Oct. 3.

CHICAGO—A new study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), shows that grape skin and seeds generated from winemaking—known as wine pomace—are a good source of antioxidant dietary fiber and can be used to fortify various food products such as yogurts and salad dressings with enhanced nutritional value and extended shelf-life.

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University professor's research improving post-surgery pain treatment and osteoarthritis therapy in dogs may help develop better ways to treat humans for various medical conditions.

From the use of hot and cold packs to new forms of narcotics, James Roush, professor of clinical sciences, is studying ways to lessen pain after surgery and improve care for small animals, particularly dogs. He is working with the clinical patients who come to the College of Veterinary Medicine's Veterinary Health Center.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique to identify the proteins secreted by a cell. The new approach should help researchers collect precise data on cell biology, which is critical in fields ranging from zoology to cancer research.

The work is important because cells communicate by secreting proteins. Some of the proteins act on the cell itself, telling it to grow or multiply, for example. But the proteins can also interact with other cells, influencing them to perform any biological function.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- If you throw a ball underwater, you'll find that the smaller it is, the faster it moves: A larger cross-section greatly increases the water's resistance. Now, a team of MIT researchers has figured out a way to use this basic principle, on a microscopic scale, to carry out biomedical tests that could eventually lead to fast, compact and versatile medical-testing devices.

In the early stages of that vast undertaking known as the Human Genome Project, enthusiasm ran high. The enterprise would be costly and laborious but the clinical rewards, unprecedented. Once the complete blueprint of life was unlocked, the genetic underpinnings for a broad range of human maladies would be laid bare, allowing custom-tailored diagnosis and treatment and revolutionizing the field of medicine.

Or so it was thought.

Inside our cells, molecules are constantly binding and separating from one another. It's this game of constant flux that drives gene expression asides essentially every other biological process.

When the "fire brigade" arrives too lateImpaired protein degradation causes muscle diseasesRUB researchers and international colleagues report in Brain

HOUSTON - A receptor protein suppresses local invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells, the most lethal aspect of the disease, according to a research team headed by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Reporting in Nature Medicine, the team described using high-throughput RNA sequencing to identify the leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR) as a novel suppressor of breast cancer metastasis, the spread of the disease to other organs.

Watch out, acne. Doctors soon may have a new weapon against zits: a harmless virus living on our skin that naturally seeks out and kills the bacteria that cause pimples.

The Sept. 25 online edition of the American Society for Microbiology's mBio publishes the findings by scientists at UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh.

Scientists have isolated and studied the genomes of 11 viruses, known as phage, that can infect and kill the acne-causing bacterium Propionibacterium acnes, potentially paving the way for topical therapies that use viruses or viral products to treat this vexing skin condition. Their results are reported in the September 25 issue of mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The financial effects of alcoholism on the family members of addicts can be massive, but little is known about whether treatment for alcoholism reduces that financial burden. A study of 48 German families published online today in the journal Addiction reveals that after twelve months of treatment, family costs directly related to a family member's alcoholism decreased from an average of €676.44 (£529.91, US$832.26) per month to an average of €145.40 (£113.90, $178.89) per month.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men and early treatment is usually very successful. However, like other cancers, obesity increases the risk of aggressive prostate disease. New research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine, finds that the fat surrounding the prostate of overweight or obese men with prostate cancer provides a favorable environment to promote cancer growth.

New Haven, Conn. -- An international policy is needed for recycling scarce specialty metals that are critical in the production of consumer goods, according to Yale researchers in Science.

"A recycling rate of zero for specialty metals is alarming when we consider that their use is growing quickly," said co-author Barbara Reck, a research scientist at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.