Central in Biological News

Two Central High (Philadelphia) grads honored by AIBS

Washington, DC. Each year the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) recognizes eminent individuals or groups for outstanding contributions to the biological sciences. Since 1972, AIBS has presented the Distinguished Scientist Award annually to individuals who have made significant sci...

Brain protein central to both Parkinson's, drug addiction identified

Scientists have identified a protein that appears not only to be central to the process that causes Parkinson's disease but could also play a role in muting the high from methamphetamine and other addictive drugs. The action of the protein, known as organic cation transporter 3 or oct3, fills a...

Penn medicine draws road map for elimination of central line-associated bloodstream infections

(SAN DIEGO) Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) fell by more than 90 percent during the past three years at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania due to a multi-pronged approach combining leadership initiatives, electronic infection surveillance, checklists to guide l...

Research uncovers surprising lion stronghold in war-torn central Africa

MADISON Times are tough for wildlife living at the frontier between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Armies are reportedly encamped in a national park and wildlife preserve on the Congolese side, while displaced herders and their cattle have settled in an adjoining Ugandan park. ...

Clinical trial that may help patients breathe easier begins at Central DuPage Hospital

WINFIELD, Ill., April 1, 2008 Researchers at Suburban Lung Associates and the Chicago Chest Center recently announced the start of the EASE (Exhale Airway Stents for Emphysema) Trial to explore an investigational treatment for advanced widespread emphysema. The trial focuses on airway bypass, a m...

Excellence in open access research celebrated at BioMed Central awards dinner

The winners of the 2007 BioMed Central Research Awards were announced yesterday at an awards ceremony at the Royal Society of Medicine. The event was attended by shortlisted authors, eminent researchers from around the world, open access advocates and science journalists. The Research Awards, n...

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to play central role addressing key questions in plant biology

Cold Spring Harbor, NY Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) will play a central role in an important new initiative called the iPlant Collaborative, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Collaborative will define and address grand challenge questions in plant biology that have glob...

BioMed Central launches Biology Image Library

LONDON, October 18, 2007 - BioMed Central today announced the launch of Biology Image Library, an online resource that provides access to over 11,000 carefully selected biology-related images. This is the latest service from BioMed Central, part of the Science Navigation Group of companies which ...

Obesity and the central nervous system -- the state of the art

The past decade has witnessed an explosion of information regarding the role of the central nervous system (CNS) in the development of obesity and the influence of peripheral, hormonal signals that regulate CNS function to regulate food intake and metabolism. A symposium held recently in Washingto...

Freshwater supplies threatened in central Pacific

Madison, WI, JULY 9, 2007 An international team from The Australian National University, Ecowise Environmental, the Government of the Republic of Kiribati, the French agency CIRAD and the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission has been studying the impacts of natural and human-induced chan...

Top physics laboratories sign up to open access with PhysMath Central

PhysMath Central, the Open Access publisher for Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science, today announced membership agreements with the CERN and DESY high-energy physics laboratories. Under these agreements the organizations will centrally cover article-processing charges for all research publi...

Two central mysteries in genome inheritance solved at UCSD

The dance of the chromosomes during cell division, first described in the late 1800s and familiar to all high-school students from movies shown in biology classes, has long fascinated biologists. However, the molecular nature of a key component of cell division, the "chromosome-spindle" connection...

Mayo Clinic study suggests that a central nervous system viral infection can lead to memory deficits

In one of the first known laboratory studies that explores memory deficits associated with a viral infection of the central nervous system, Mayo Clinic researchers have evidence that this infection can lead to memory loss late in life. The study, which was conducted in animal models, suggests that ...

Small molecule interactions were central to the origin of life

In an important new paper forthcoming in the June issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology, Robert Shapiro (New York University) argues against the widely held theory that the origin of life began with the spontaneous appearance of a large, replicating molecule such as RNA. Instead, Shapiro raises...

BioMed Central launches Biology Direct

BioMed Central is pleased to announce the launch of Biology Direct, a new online open access journal with a novel system of peer review. Biology Direct will operate completely open peer review, with named peer reviewers' reports published alongside each article. The journal also takes the innovativ...

Parts of the Caribbean and Central America are likely to have less summer rain

Parts of the Caribbean and Central America are likely to experience a significant summer drying trend by the middle of this century, UCLA atmospheric scientists will report in the April 18 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Their research is based on an analysis of 1...

Researchers identify molecular anchor that allows bacterial invasion of central nervous system

Could be target to block CNS infectionA single molecular anchor that allows bacteria to invade the nervous system may hold the key to treating many types of bacterial meningitis, a University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine study has found. By blocking the molecule's anchoring...

Poaching, logging, and outbreaks of Ebola threaten central African gorillas and chimpanzees

Experts call for $30 million action plan to save mankind's closest relatives A combination of natural and man-made threats is killing gorillas and chimpanzees in Central Africa, and experts say $30 million is needed for special programs to save some of mankind's closest relatives from disappeari...

BioMed Central welcomes the new National Institutes of Health public access policy

Yet another follow up of the NIH public access policy announced earlier this week , this time from free-access publisher BioMed Central : BioMed Central welcomes the announcement of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) new public access policy. The NIH calls on all of its grantees to d...

Alcohol's effects on gene expression in the central nervous system

Alcohol's primary target is the central nervous system (CNS), where it influences neurotransmission to produce intoxication. Scientists can now use microarray technology to study brain function gene by gene. Symposium proceedings published in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experim...

AGU journal highlights -- Aug. 6, 2009

...ed primarily along coasts, with no significant hum generation in the deep ocean. In particular, they find that the Pacific coasts of North America and central America are important sources of the hum, and the west coast of Europe is a strong secondary source region, while no significant hum was detected from...

Wastewater produces electricity and desalinates water

...negative ions through, but not both -- between the central chamber and the positive and negative electrodes. Salty water to be desalinated is placed in the central chamber. Seawater contains about 35 grams of ... water helps the cell generate electricity, as the central chamber becomes less salty, the conductivity decre...

'Green' energy from algae

...ld just be wasted, if light management in the photobioreactor would not be optimum. Posten points out that the Sahara offers just twice as much sun as central Europe. But there, the reactor contents would have to be cooled. Other advantages of the closed system are drastic savings of water and fertilizers. D...

Moving to the US increases cancer risk for Hispanics

... moving to the United States. They conducted the study in Florida, which has a diverse Hispanic community composed of Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, central and South Americans. The results indicated that these population groups showed different patterns of cancer once they moved to the United States; ...

Holding breath for several minutes elevates marker for brain damage

...apnea (breath-holding) can damage the brain over the long term. "The results indicate that prolonged, voluntary apnea affects the integrity of the central nervous system, and may have cumulative effects," the Swedish researchers said. The release of S100B into the blood suggests that holding one's breath...

Parasites ready to jump

...ven if they have not integrated into the genome. Small molecules of RNA (a class of nucleic acid closely related to the genetic material DNA) play the central role. "Transposons are genomic parasites, so to speak", says Frstemann. "If they are allowed to proliferate, the genome can become unstable or cancers...

Experimental treatment halts hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in newborns

...er is a protective system designed to prevent invasions of blood-borne materials, in particular inflammatory cells or potential contaminants, into the central nervous system. Dr. Kuan and his colleagues report that elevated tPA activity is triggered earlier in brain hypoxia than other proteases, particula...

UBC researchers help push for standard DNA barcodes for plants

..." Theoretically, any DNA barcoding standard would have to accommodate over 400,000 species of plants, and would be a key step toward establishing a central barcode database for taxonomy, agriculture and conservation. The 2008 International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List categorized, 8,457 o...

Researchers develop 'brain-reading' methods

... the brain. Known as the Connectome Project, the goal of researchers involved in that work is to provide a complete map of the neural circuitry of the central nervous system. "What our research shows is that if you want to understand human cognitive function, you need to look at system-wide behavior acros...

Cancer's distinctive pattern of gene expression could aid early screening and prevention

...n sequencing effort. "The work of Drs. Robertson and Shi is eminently important for our understanding of cancer, easily translated to patients and central to the Cancer Center's mission to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality," Dr. Bhalla says. ...

Most older long-term cancer survivors have poor health habits

...olorectal cancer survivors to estimate the prevalence of poor health habits in this population. Participants were recruited through the North Carolina central Cancer Registry, the Duke Cancer Registry, and self-referral. The study included telephone interviews to determine individuals' eligibility for a die...

Ants more rational than humans

...and unsophisticated, but you can still get a complex, intelligent result out of the whole group," says Pratt. "The ability to function without complex central control is really desirable in an artificial system and the idea that limitations at the individual level can actually help at the group level is pote...

Knee injuries may start with strain on the brain, not the muscles

...tentially harmful changes in lower body movements that, when preformed improperly, can cause ACL tears. "These findings suggest that training the central control process---the brain and reflexive responses---may be necessary to counter the fatigue induced ACL injury risk," said McLean, who also has an a...

UC San Diego's $3 million NSF grant to fund science festivals

...llaboration with entrepreneur Larry Bock and 100 leading science organizations, for the inaugural 2009 event. In addition to funding the week-long, central San Diego Science Festival event, the NSF grant will be utilized over the three-year period for the purpose of establishing year-round Science Festiva...

Warming climate threatens California fruit and nut production

... In some parts of California's agriculturally rich central Valley, winter chill has already declined by nearl...ned substantially over time. Their analysis in the central Valley, where most of the state's fruit and nut pr...y declined to the point that only 4 percent of the central Valley was still suitable for growing apples, cher...

Corn yield stability varies with rotations, fertility

... of a long-term fertility and cropping systems experiment at the Pennsylvania State University. This study suggests that on average in a productive central Pennsylvania soil, the yield of corn rotated with alfalfa, red clover, and timothy is modestly higher and less variable than corn grown exclusively. F...

Researchers design first model motor nerve system that's insulated and organized like the human body

...f Biomaterials , published by Elsevier, researchers from the University of central Florida (UCF) report on the first lab-grown motor nerves that are insulated... constituents, depending on where the cells are located in the body. In the central nervous system (CNS), the spinal cord and brain are surrounded by cerebrosp...

Early initiation of Arctic sea-ice formation

...) analysed oceanic sediment cores collected from the Lomonosov ridge in the central Arctic by Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 302 ('ACEX'). Previo...s later by the onset of seasonal sea-ice formation in offshore areas of the central Arctic, and about 24 million years before major ice-sheet expansion in the ...

Munich researchers discover new target for tailored antibiotics

... X-ray structure, kinetic measurements, and mutagenic analyses ultimately confirmed the unusual arrangement of three iron and four sulfur atoms in the central cavity, just as proposed years ago. "Now that the location, the chemical process, and the helpers involved in the IspH reaction have been identifie...

Researchers achieve major breakthrough with water desalination system

... saline water sources." "We envision a future where many of these systems are deployed all around the world and their operation monitored from a central location," Bartman said. "The M3 could be used to rapidly test water sources so that desalination plants can be constructed to augment the diminishing...