Body

Montreal, May 17, 2010 – Country roadways can be hazardous for moose and men. According to estimates, millions of vehicles collide with moose, elk and caribou in North America and Europe each year. Moose, in particular, venture to roadsides to lick the salt pools that collect following pavement deicing.

OTTAWA – May 17, 2011 – Researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) have identified a novel gene in the nucleus of muscle and brain cells that affects heart development and the aging process. Their investigation brings the promise of new treatments for an old, failing heart.

"We know that aging is the greatest predictor of cardiovascular disease and heart failure. So we have been working backward in time, looking at the fetal heart to understand changes in the process as it ages, grows frail and fails," said molecular biologist Patrick Burgon, PhD.

The Epstein-Barr (EVB) virus –belonging to the herpesviruses family, which also includes the herpes simplex virus and the cytomegalovirus– is one of the environmental factors that might cause multiple sclerosis, a condition affecting the central nervous system, which causes are unknown. This has been confirmed by University of Granada scientists that analyzed the presence of this virus in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Blueberries may be nutritional powerhouses, but some types are no match for the fungus Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi, which causes "mummy berry" disease.

Fortunately, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have more than 100 years of experience in blueberry breeding and cultivation. Geneticist Mark Ehlenfeldt and plant pathologist James Polashock embody the latest generation.

A team of researchers from the University of the Free State in South Africa (René Fourie and Charles Haddad) and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium (Rudy Jocqué) discovered very poorly known purse-web spiders of the genus Calommata in Africa. Four of the species described are new to science.

ATS 2011, DENVER – Workplace smoking bans are gaining ground globally, and one study has shown that they may have significant health effects. The study, conducted by researchers in Dublin, found that emergency room admissions due to respiratory illness dropped significantly in Ireland after the implementation of a workplace smoking ban, compared to admissions that took place before the ban went into effect.

The study will be presented at the ATS 2011 International Conference in Denver.

Embargo: 17 May 2011 18:00 CET-- The coronary arteries of Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon - as visualised by whole body computerised tomography (CT) scanning - will feature in two presentations at the International Conference of Non-Invasive Cardiovascular Imaging (ICNC) this week in Amsterdam (15-18 May). ICNC is now one of the world's major scientific event in nuclear cardiology and cardiac CT imaging.

No password is 100% secure. There are always ways and means for those with malicious intent to hack, crack or socially engineer access to a password. Indeed, there are more and more websites and databases compromised on a seemingly daily basis. A new approach to verifying passwords that also takes into account the speed with which a user types in their login and the gaps between characters would render a stolen password useless.

Amsterdam, 17 May 2011 - Elsevier announced the publication of an important position statement from the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) in the journal Maturitas (http://www.maturitas.org/) on managing menopausal women with a personal or family history of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The statement includes summary recommendations as a quick aid for the busy clinician.

Spanish researchers from the University of Leon (Nicolás Pérez Hidalgo and M. Pilar Mier Durante) have discovered the plant lice Schizaphis piricola (Matsumura) in Madrid, Spain from a photography displayed on a social network platform: "Biodiversidad Virtual" (http://www.biodiversidadvirtual.org/) (Ángel Umaran). The results have been published recently in the open access journal ZooKeys and are available for free download.

CSIRO scientists have shown that a new experimental vaccine helps to protect horses against the deadly Hendra virus.Dr Deborah Middleton from CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) will announce the successful progress to develop the vaccine at the Australian Veterinary Association conference in Adelaide today.

"Our trials so far have shown that the vaccine prevents the infection of horses with Hendra virus," Dr Middleton said.

Stopping the disease in horses could also help protect people from the disease.

In just 10 weeks a team of Canadian researchers has succeeded in 'barcoding' 28,000 moth and butterfly specimens – or about 65 per cent of Australia's 10,000 known species – held at CSIRO's Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) in Canberra.Conducted in collaboration with the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) as part of the International Barcode of Life (IBoL), the project involved extracting DNA from each specimen to record its unique genetic code and entering the results, together with an image and other details, to the ALA and ANIC databases.

Australian scientists have reported the first known detrimental impact of southern hemisphere ocean warming on a fish species.The findings of a study published today in Nature Climate Change indicate negative effects on the growth of a long-lived south-east Australian and New Zealand inshore species – the banded morwong.

Young drivers who experience anxiety and depression are more likely to take risks on the road, according to a new study by Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

The results of the study led by Bridie Scott-Parker, from QUT's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q), have been published in the international journal Injury Prevention today.

Montreal, May 17, 2011 - Researchers at the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Australia have identified a new avenue for treating breast cancer.

In 20 to 30% of breast cancer patients, the over-expression of a particular protein (human epidermal growth factor-2) is the main cause of the proliferation of cancer cells. Over the past few years Herceptin® (trastuzumab) has become the standard treatment for this kind of cancer. While it is known that it blocks the activity of this protein, its exact mechanism of action has remained a mystery.