EurekAlert! Public News List

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

FASEB Journal
Mild vibrations may provide some of the same benefits to obese people as exercise
If you're looking to get some of the benefits of exercise without doing the work, here's some good news. A new research report published online in The FASEB Journal shows that low-intensity vibrations led to improvements in the immune function of obese mice. If the same effect can be found in people, this could have clinical benefits for obese people suffering from a wide range of immune problems related to obesity.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Canada's first liver cell transplant takes place in Calgary
Physicians at Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, Alberta, successfully completed a series of liver cell transplants earlier this month on a three-month-old girl. It is the first time the procedure has been performed in Canada. The girl was born with a Urea Cycle Disorder, a rare genetic disease that causes ammonia to build up, which, if untreated, can lead to brain damage and death.

Cytonet LLC

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
The future looks bright: ONR, marines eye solar energy
The Office of Naval Research is looking to the sun for energy in an effort to help Marines do away with diesel-guzzling generators now used in combat outposts, officials announced Nov. 29.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

The Astrophysical Journal
'Dark core' may not be so dark after all
Astronomers were puzzled earlier this year when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted an overabundance of dark matter in the heart of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520. This observation was surprising because dark matter and galaxies should be anchored together, even during a collision between galaxy clusters.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Nature
New approach allows past data to be used to improve future climate projections
Climate scientists are still grappling with one of the main questions of modern times: how high will global temperatures rise if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide doubles. Many researchers are turning to the past because it holds clues to how nature reacted to climate change before the anthropogenic impact. The divergent results of this research, however, have made it difficult to make precise predictions about the impact of increased carbon dioxide on future warming.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

FASEB Journal
New genetic test detects early breast cancer and identifies future risk
Breast cancer detection has improved, but more work remains to ensure accurate diagnosis, and to assess future risk. Researchers are developing a test of gene action that predicts cancer risk at first diagnosis, and into the future. This research in The FASEB Journal discusses how genetic switches, which are turned on and off in regular cellular development, can be analyzed in minute detail to determine the presence, or risk, of breast cancer growth.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Violence Against Women
Working couples face greater odds of intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence is two times more likely to occur in two income households, compared to those where only one partner works, a recent study at Sam Houston State University found.

Crime Victims' Institute

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

BMC Systems Biomedicine
Brain inflammation likely key initiator to prion and Parkinson's disease
In a recent publication, researchers of the Computational Biology group at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine showed that neuro-inflammation plays a crucial role in initiating prion disease.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

FASEB Journal
Insects beware: The sea anemone is coming
Insects are becoming resistant to insecticides, presenting a growing need to develop novel ways of pest control. New research in The FASEB Journal shows that the sea anemone's venom harbors toxins that could pose a new generation of environmentally friendly insecticides, which avoid insect resistance. These toxins disable ion channels that mediate pain and inflammation, and could also spur drug development aimed at pain, cardiac disorders, epilepsy and seizure disorders, and immunological diseases.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Bacteria hijack host cell process, create their own food supply to become infectious
Bacteria that cause the tick-borne disease anaplasmosis in humans create their own food supply by hijacking a process in host cells that normally should help kill the pathogenic bugs, scientists have found.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Optics Express
First-ever hyperspectral images of Earth's auroras
Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that can simultaneously image multiple spectral bands, in essence different wavelengths or colors, of light. The camera produced the first-ever hyperspectral images of auroras--commonly referred to as "the Northern (or Southern) Lights"--and may already have revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Maths helps mobiles & tablets match eyes' ability to switch from sunshine to shadow
Researchers have pushed the boundaries of High Dynamic Range (HDR) video to match our own eyes' ability to cope with the real world's ever rapidly changing light intensity -- such as sun simply going behind clouds. Now researchers at WMG at the University of Warwick, have found a way to compress and stream HDR video directly to monitors and mobile devices, such as an iPad, bringing enormous benefits to industries including gaming and security.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Journal of Marketing
Inviting customer complaints can kill business: UBC research
Giving customers a chance to complain can be a bad idea if customers believe they're to blame for a product's failure, a new study from the Sauder School of Business at UBC shows.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

ZooKeys
An ocean away: 2 new encrusting anemones found in unexpected locations
A group of marine biologists from Japan has discovered two new species of encrusting anemone, thousands of kilometres away from the single other known species of the group. The first species from Madagascar was found in 1972 and never reported again, while the new species are from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and southern Japan. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

ZooKeys
Travels in northeastern Brazil: Unfolding the reptile fauna of Lençóis Maranhenses
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park contains a dune field measuring about 120,000 hectares in the Amazonian transition with Cerrado and Caatinga. In this peculiar Brazilian ecosystem, which reptiles would you expect to encounter most frequently? In order to answer a question like this, Dr. Miranda and his colleagues spent 235 days in fieldwork, and eventually produced the first list of reptile species in the park. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Nature
Black hole upsets galaxy models
An unusually massive object at the heart of a tiny galaxy is challenging the theory.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Journal of Leukocyte Biology
Cancer drug shows promise in eradicating latent HIV infection
Breakthrough drugs help people to live longer with HIV, but more research is needed for an actual cure. One challenge involves eradicating the virus when it is latent in the body. Research in the December 2012 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests the cancer drug, JQ1, may be useful in purging latent HIV infection by activating the virus in the presence of potent therapy -- essentially a dead end for the virus.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Justice Quarterly
Homicide spreads like infectious disease
Homicide moves through a city in a process similar to infectious disease, according to a new study that may give police a new tool in tracking and ultimately preventing murders.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Researchers create a fly to study how a normal cell turns cancerous
The wing of a fruit fly may hold the key to unraveling the genetic and molecular events that transform a normal cell into a cancerous one. The study, conducted on Drosophila melanogaster by scientists at the IRB Barcelona has reproduced each of the steps known to take place when a healthy cell turns cancerous. The researchers have thus provided an inexpensive and effective model that will allow to scrutinize the genes and molecules involved in each step.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Science
Body language, not facial expressions, broadcasts what's happening to us
If you think that you can judge by examining someone's facial expressions if he has just hit the jackpot in the lottery or lost everything in the stock market -- think again. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at New York University and Princeton University have discovered that -- despite what leading theoretical models and conventional wisdom might indicate -- it just doesn't work that way.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Biological Psychiatry
Next-generation treatments for Fragile X syndrome
A potential new therapeutic strategy for treating Fragile X syndrome is detailed in a new report appearing in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, from researchers led by Dr. Lucia Ciranna at University of Catania in Italy.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Scientific advice to ensure the sustainability of shark populations in Ocean waters
A committee led by AZTI-Tecnalia will be providing those responsible for EU Fisheries Policy with scientific advice designed to make shark fishing more sustainable.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Technology use in the classroom helps autistic children communicate
The use of technology in the classroom is nothing new, but Topcliffe Primary School in Birmingham is breaking new ground by using technology to help pupils with Autism communicate more effectively in the a project, jointly funded by the ESRC and the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council.

Economic and Social Research Council

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Science China: Information Sciences
Method for accurate extraction of a target profile developed at Beijing Institute of Technology
The detection and recognition of an object with small radar cross-section (RCS) is a difficult problem. In the 2012(10) issue of Science China, a paper proposes a novel imaging algorithm to extract the target profile using the shadow inverse synthetic aperture signal in forward-scatter radar. The algorithm is an effective tool with which to detect and recognize an object with a small RCS, such as a stealth target or an unmanned aerial vehicle.

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Science China: Information Sciences
A new anti-windup design paradigm for control systems with actuator saturation was developed
The traditional anti-windup scheme involves a single anti-windup loop designed for activation immediately at the occurrence of actuator saturation. In the September 2012 issue of SCIENCE CHINA Information Sciences, a new anti-windup design paradigm was developed that includes three anti-windup loops, simultaneously designed for immediate, delayed and anticipatory activations, and results in significantly improved closed-loop system performances.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of Virginia


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