Body

ANN ARBOR—Zebrafish with very weak muscles helped scientists decode the elusive genetic mutation responsible for Native American myopathy, a rare, hereditary muscle disease that afflicts Native Americans in North Carolina.

New research provides critical insights into how normal breast precursor cells may be genetically vulnerable to develop into cancer. The research is published June 4th in the inaugural issue of Stem Cell Reports, an open-access journal from the International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) published by Cell Press. Scientists discovered that a particular class of normal breast precursor cells have extremely short chromosome ends (known as telomeres). As a result, these cells would be expected to be prone to acquiring mutations that lead to cancer if they managed to stay alive.

Johns Hopkins researchers have documented huge and somewhat puzzling interstate variations in the percentage of emergency versus elective bowel surgeries. Figuring out precisely why the differences occur is critical, they say, because people forced to undergo emergency procedures are far more likely to die from their operations than those able to plan ahead for them.

New Rochelle, NY, June 4, 2013—The composition of breast milk varies from mother to mother, and genetic factors may affect the levels of protective components in breast milk that could influence a newborn's outcomes. The potential to perform genomic studies on breast milk samples is explored in a Review article in Breastfeeding Medicine.

As antiretroviral drugs that treat HIV have become more commonplace, the incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma, a type of cancer linked to AIDS, has decreased in the United States. The disease, however, remains prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where poor access to medical care and lab tests only compound the problem. Now, Cornell University engineers have created a new smartphone-based system, consisting of a plug-in optical accessory and disposable microfluidic chips, for in-the-field detection of the herpes virus that causes Kaposi's.

New research from wildlife ecologists at Michigan Technological University indicates that white-tailed deer may be making the soil in their preferred winter homes unfit to grow the very trees that protect them there.

Jerusalem, June 4, 2013 -- The first amphibian to have been officially declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been rediscovered in the north of Israel after some 60 years and turns out to be a unique "living fossil," without close relatives among other living frogs.

To increase their share of leadership positions, women are expected to tick a range of boxes – usually demonstrating improved negotiation skills, networking strengths and the ability to develop a strategic career ladder. "But even these skills are not enough," maintains Professor Isabell Welpe of TUM's Chair for Strategy and Organization. "They ignore the fact that there are stereotypes that on a subconscious level play a decisive role in the assessment of high achievers. Leaders should be assertive, dominant and hard-lined; women are seen as mediators, friendly, social."

A research team from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the University of Edinburgh and IBM's TJ Watson Research Center has revealed a major breakthrough in the modelling of water that could shed light on its mysterious properties.

Water is one of the most common and extensively studied substances on earth. It is vital for all known forms of life but its unique behaviour has yet to be explained in terms of the properties of individual molecules.

The development of structured synthetic materials with unusual electromagnetic properties, so-called metamaterials, promises to provide access to special physical effects of great technological interest. Metamaterials have already been fabricated that have a negative refractive index for electromagnetic waves – bending them in the opposite sense to light waves entering water, for instance – which opens up completely novel opportunities for the manipulation of light. One of these makes it possible, in principle, to create cloaking devices that seem to make objects disappear.

In animal cells, DNA molecules are normally restricted to the cell nucleus and the mitochondria. When DNA appears outside these organelles – in the so-called cytosol - it most probably originates from a bacterial pathogen or a DNA virus. This is why cytosolic DNA triggers a strong response by the innate immune system. However, various types of insult can also lead to the release into the cytosol of the cell's own DNA. In this case, the resulting immune response may precipitate an autoimmune disease.

CSIRO scientists have developed a test to identify unsafe stem cells. It is the first safety test specifically for human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) – as published today in the international journal Stem Cells.

SYDNEY: Catching the attention of females in a darkened rainforest amid a blur of windblown vegetation is no easy task.

But male Anolis lizards on the island of Jamaica have evolved an ideal visual technique - very rapid extension and retraction of a large, coloured pouch under their throats, combined with quick bobbing of their heads to warn off any other rival suitors.

Now the mystery of why their close relatives on the neighbouring island of Puerto Rico do not adopt the same strategy to advertise their ownership of a territory has been solved.

Despite the clear arguments for controlling parasitic infections, we know surprisingly little about the developmental processes in parasitic nematodes. A good model system for research is provided by Oesophagostomum dentatum, a roundworm which infects the large intestines of pigs, slowing the animals' growth and leading to significant economic losses. A number of chemicals are available to help keep the parasite in check but the worms are growing increasingly resistant to their use and so there is a substantial need for new methods of treatment.

The moth genus Monema is represented by medium-sized yellowish species. The genus belongs to the Limacodidae family also known as the slug moths due to the distinct resemblance of their caterpillars to some slug species. Some people know this family as the cup moths, the name derived from the peculiar looking, hard shell cocoon they form.