Body

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 16, 2014 - How universities fare on reputational quality-of-life and academic rankings – such as those published by the Princeton Review or U.S. News & World Report – can have a measurable effect on the number of applications they – and their competitors – receive and on the academic competitiveness of the resulting freshman class, according to a new study.

A team of researchers from the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine have identified critical complex mechanisms involved in the metastasis of deadly "triple negative" breast cancers (TNBC). These tumors are extremely difficult to treat, frequently return after remission, and are the most aggressive form of breast cancer in women. The discovery of this critical interaction of mechanisms could be used to develop new life saving treatments to kill metastatic tumors in TNBC.

Many products, like cigarettes and medications, are stamped with warning labels alerting consumers to their risks. Common sense suggests these warnings will encourage safer choices.

Augusta, Ga. - Scientists have more reasons for you to eat fiber and not abuse antibiotics.

They've shown that a receptor doctors already activate with mega-doses of niacin to protect patients' cardiovascular systems also plays a key role in preventing colon inflammation and cancer, according to a study featured on the cover of the journal Immunity.

Montréal, January 16, 2014 – A study conducted by Marie Kmita's team at the IRCM, in collaboration with Josée Dostie at McGill University, shows the importance of the chromatin architecture in controlling the activity of genes, especially those required for proper embryonic development. This discovery, recently published in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics, could have a significant impact on the diagnosis of genetic diseases.

Lead shot was forbidden in 2001 in Spanish wetlands on the Ramsar List of these areas of international importance. Ten years later, this prohibition -and the consequent use of steel shot by hunters- has started to bear fruit, according to a report in the journal 'Environment International'.

Researchers using custom-built GPS and accelerometer loggers, developed with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, (EPSRC), and attached to free-flying birds on migration, have gained ground-breaking insights into the mysteries of bird flight formation.

This news release is available in German.

The life-threatening disease typhoid fever results from the ongoing battle between the bacterial pathogen Salmonella and the immune cells of the body. Prof. Dirk Bumann's research group at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has now uncovered how the typhoid pathogen repeatedly manages to evade the host's immune system. Their findings are published in the scientific journal "Cell Host & Microbe".

This shows the transfer of mitochondria between stem cells via tunneling microtubes.

(Photo Credit: CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi, India)

Source: European Molecular Biology Organization

January 14, 2014, Shenzhen, China - Researchers from Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, BGI and other institutes have successfully decoded the whole genome sequence of Locust (Locusta migratoria), the most widespread locust species. The yielded genome is remarkably big- at 6.5 gigabytes, which is the largest animal genome sequenced so far. The latest study has been published online in the journal Nature Communications.

DURHAM, NC – More than 5,893 leaks from aging natural gas pipelines have been found under the streets of Washington, D.C. by a research team from Duke University and Boston University.

A dozen of the leaks could have posed explosion risks, the researchers said. Some manholes had methane concentrations as high as 500,000 parts per million of natural gas – about 10 times greater than the threshold at which explosions can occur.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Like the strings on a violin or the pipes of an organ, the proteins in the human body vibrate in different patterns, scientists have long suspected.

Now, a new study provides what researchers say is the first conclusive evidence that this is true.

Using a technique they developed based on terahertz near-field microscopy, scientists from the University at Buffalo and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI) have for the first time observed in detail the vibrations of lysozyme, an antibacterial protein found in many animals.

Boston, MA - Being overweight or obese does not lead to improved survival among patients with type 2 diabetes. The large-scale study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers refutes previous studies that have suggested that, for people with diabetes, being overweight or obese could lead to lower mortality for people compared with normal-weight persons—the so-called "obesity paradox."

The study appears in the January 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Efforts to cure hepatitis C, the liver-damaging infectious disease that has for years killed more Americans than HIV/AIDS, are about to get simpler and more effective, according to new research at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere.