Tag: "indicator" at biology news

Recent breakthroughs in common adult leukemia highlighted in New England Journal of Medicine

...note that ZAP-70 may actually be the most reliable indicator of prognosis known to date. After discussing B lymphocytes -- the type of white blood cell that gives rise to CLL, the biology of leukemic lymphocytes and the clinical course of CLL as it relates to the biology, the authors then offer a unifying hyp...

The secret lives of whales

...ales. He was amazed at their genetic variation ?an indicator of the past size of their population. Piecing together their ancient family trees, he has discovered that the Antarctic population of minke whales is now the longest surviving whale population on earth. It was also once the largest—many times larger ...

Effective Cancer Treatments Follow The Clock

...esearchers measured the animals' body weight as an indicator of response to the anti-cancer drug. They discovered that Clock-mutant and Bmal1-knockout mice showed high sensitivity to the drug at any time it was administered ?as if the drug were administered early in the morning or late at night. In contrast, t...

Alzheimer's cognitive decline slowed

...of a radioisotope called 18-fluorodeoxyglucose, an indicator of increased metabolic activity in the brain. The researchers noted that the increase was observed in most cortical regions that receive cholinergic input from forebrain nerve cells called the nucleus basalis, and in the cerebellum, a structure assoc...

Elephant seal pups suffer from ocean warming

...t seal pup decreases. Weaning weights are a direct indicator of food availability to mother seals during their pregnancy. Because their prey has migrated to colder waters, female seals have to swim further and spend more time searching for food. As a result, they gain less body mass while pregnant and have few...

New mitochondrial DNA gene chip may be early cancer diagnosis tool

... techniques that use mitochondrial DNA as an early indicator for certain types of cancer. Additional results suggest that a relatively simple diagnostic test using a DNA microarray "chip" could enable early detection of some solid tumors, including lung cancer. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) plays a role in respir...

New type of rejection blocker protects kidneys after transplant

...e of the kidney's ability to filter waste -- as an indicator of how well transplanted kidneys were functioning....egimens compared to cyclosporine patients. Another indicator of kidney health, chronic allograft nephropathy (scarring of the kidney), also was lower at 12 month...

MERIS monitoring tracks planetary photosynthesis levels

...Active Radiation (FAPAR) ?is well-recognised as an indicator of its condition and an influence on its capacity for growth, or 'productivity'. FAPAR has been recognised as a fundamental surface parameter by international organisations including the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), charged with providing ...

Toxic flood lifts lid on common urban pollution problem

...terial, as well as high chemical oxygen demand, an indicator of the presence of organic chemicals in oil, gas, grease, cigarette filters and other pollution. Other research on urban runoff, meanwhile, has detected high levels of toxic metals and nutrients including phosphorus thought to leach from building ma...

Researchers report breakthrough against world’s deadliest viruses

...s are safe and effective in monkeys is a promising indicator of their real potential for use in humans. "When you see the tragedies these viruses cause, it's very frustrating that we can't do more to help people," said Dr. Feldmann, who (along with Dr. Jones and others from PHAC) has been providing on-site ra...

Hurricane aftermath: Infectious disease threats from common, not exotic, diseases

...m, mold may also pose a threat. Mold growth is an indicator of excess moisture, and much will need to be done to dry out New Orleans and clean up mold growth. Some environmental molds can cause allergic reactions. ...

Neurotransmitters signal aggressive cancer, offer potential for early diagnosis

...lable online after July 4. "GABA appears to be an indicator of a bad prognosis for these cancers," says Jeffrey I. Gordon, M.D., director of the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University. "But there's hope in our ability to identify substances, like GABA, that are associated with metastatic tumors. ...

Beach pollution is worst during new and full moon

...e been shown at freshwater beaches to harbor fecal indicator bacteria and even pathogenic bacteria," Boehm says. "Beach managers who want to improve water quality at their beaches should investigate the potential of these sources to be contributors of enterococci to marine waters." Boehm cautions that enteroc...

Study uncovers placental microtransfusions lead to transmission of AIDS virus during childbirth

...tein known as placental alkaline phosphatase as an indicator of maternal-fetal microtransfusion. "This enzyme, made in the placenta, is very big -- usually too big to pass through the natural barrier that protects babies from disease-causing organisms mothers sometimes carry before birth," Meshnick said. "We ...

Rutgers researchers scientifically link dancing ability to mate quality

...aluated each dancer for body symmetry, an accepted indicator in most animal species ?including humans ?of how well an organism develops despite problems it encounters as it matures. Symmetry, and its association with attractiveness, therefore indicates an organism's underlying quality as a potential mate. The ...

Bird song changes sound alarm over habitat fragmentation

...t-sensitive species might be used as a behavioural indicator of anthropogenic environmental deterioration. Because of their rapidly evolving cultural nature, bird vocalisations might become an early warning system detecting the effects of fragmentation over relatively short times and before other indicators - ...

Pregnancy drugs can affect grandkids

...t-sensitive species might be used as a behavioural indicator of anthropogenic environmental deterioration. Because of their rapidly evolving cultural nature, bird vocalisations might become an early warning system detecting the effects of fragmentation over relatively short times and before other indicators - ...

Hormonal male contraception reversible after few months for all men

...to recover to a threshold of 20 million per mL, an indicator of fertility. Data were available for around 1500 men. The average time for sperm recovery to 20 million/mL was 3? months. Various factors were associated with higher rates of recovery including older age, Asian origin, shorter treatment duration, ...

High-tech tags on marine animals yield valuable data for biologists and oceanographers

...measuring the chlorophyll content of the water (an indicator of algal blooms or "primary productivity"). "We can now use animals to show us things like the thermal properties and cooling rates of the ocean and the structure of the water column, and they can often get valuable data that would be hard to colle...

How the brain learns to become addicted

...y the animals when they receive the drug and is an indicator that the animals are experiencing an increased craving for the drug. Importantly, when the researchers "microinjected" directly into the VTA region of animals a drug that blocks orexin receptors, they found they could block the development of behavi...

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