Body

CHICAGO, IL, October 26 – New research continues to link tart cherries, one of today's hottest "Super Fruits," to lowering risk factors for heart disease. In addition to lowering cholesterol and reducing inflammation, the study being presented by University of Michigan researchers at next week's American Dietetic Association annual meeting, found that a cherry-enriched diet lowered body weight and fat – major risk factors for heart disease.

By manipulating the way tiny droplets of fluid dry, Cornell researchers have created an innovative way to make and pattern nanoscale wires and other devices that ordinarily can be made only with expensive lithographic tools. The process is guided by molds that "stamp" the desired structures.

Blocking the signals from a protein that activates cells in the immune system could help kill cells that cause a rare form of blood cancer, according to physicists and oncologists who combined computer modeling and molecular biology in their discovery.

Researchers say the breakthrough could provide more efficient ways of targeting diseases such as leukemia, and help in the potential development of vaccines for viruses that cause AIDS.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' (CALS) Bioenergy Feedstock Project, now in its second year, is the only project of its kind devoted to exploring the many species of field grass that grow in the Northeast and their potential as sources for biofuels.

Scientific research shows that certain genes can influence a person's likelihood to contract particular diseases, cancer for example. New research at the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota demonstrates that genetic markers may also show a person's likelihood to survive the disease.

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., will speak during the opening session of ICAAC/IDSA 2008, a joint meeting of the American Society for Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in Washington, DC. His keynote lecture at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, is titled Global Health and Infectious Diseases: A Look to the Future. Dr. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The work follows a study carried out by Oregon Health and Science University, which suggested a link between a gene mutation in mice and tolerance to alcohol. Researchers at Liverpool have investigated this in worms, looking specifically at the role the gene plays in communication between cells in the nervous system.

TORRANCE (Oct. 22, 2008) – While the 2005 closure of King-Drew Medical Center's Level 1 trauma unit in Los Angeles County caused a 54 percent increase in trauma patients at nearby Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, the deaths among those patients actually declined, according to a new study published in this month's The American Surgeon.

According to statistics, Internet has become the most important information infrastructure of human society these days, accounting for 80% of human information exchange, and providing great strategic significance for social progress, economic development and national security. However, Internet technology invented more than 30 years ago cannot always satisfy its developmental requirement and support of new applications. The existing main technical challenges are: scalability, security, high performance, timeliness, mobility and ease of management.

Geneva, Switzerland: Research by scientists in France has shown for the first time that identifying patterns of gene expression can be used to predict response to treatment in patients with advanced metastatic colorectal cancer.

Geneva, Switzerland: A new anti-cancer compound that works by blocking a part of the cell's machinery that is crucial for cell division has shown promising results in a phase I clinical trial in patients who have failed to respond to other treatments. Now it is going forward into a phase II clinical trial programme. In addition, the compound will also be tested in combination with other anti-cancer drugs to see whether combined therapies could be even more effective.

Maputo, Mozambique—in response to the urgent need to reduce the impacts of natural disasters, the International Council for Science (ICSU) has launched a new, 10-year, international research programme designed to address the gaps in the knowledge and methods that are preventing the effective application of science to averting disasters and reducing risk. The programme was announced today at the 29th ICSU General Assembly in Maputo, Mozambique.

Modification of the current screening criteria are needed for diagnosing patients with autosomal dominant polycystic disease (ADPKD), according to a study appearing in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that some patients with a milder form of the disease may otherwise be misdiagnosed.

If the biofuel known as bioethanol is to make a major contribution to our fuel supplies, then we may well require the assistance of some tiny insect helpers, says Michael Scharf, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

In a review to be published in Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, Scharf and his colleague Aurélien Tartar describe how the enzymes produced by both termites and the micro-organisms that inhabit their gut – known as symbionts – could help to produce ethanol from non-edible plant material such as straw and wood.