EurekAlert! Public News List

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Cell Transplantation
Cell Transplantation reports islet cell advancement increases impact on transplantation
Transplanted islet cells are challenged by hypoxic conditions and host immune reactions. When smaller islets were grouped into clusters (ICCs) they were found to be less susceptible to immune reaction, ischemia and oxygen starvation. The new process increased glucose sensitivity and modifying the ICC surface with a poly-lipid helped prevent immune reactions. The work helps to overcome shortages of islet cells, reduces the need for immunosuppressant regimes, and may improve pancreatic islet transplantation.

National Research Foundation of Korea

Contact: Robert Miranda
cogcomm@aol.com
Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Flu outbreaks predicted with weather forecast techniques
Scientists have developed a new system that adapts techniques used in weather prediction to generate local forecasts of seasonal influenza outbreaks. By predicting the timing and severity of the outbreaks as far as seven weeks in advance, the system can eventually help society better prepare for them.

National Institutes of Health, Department of Homeland Security, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Autism
Researchers study cry acoustics to determine risk for autism
Researchers at Women & Infants' Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk in collaboration with researchers at University of Pittsburgh have been studying the cry acoustics of six-month-old infants. Their research has recently been published in Autism Research

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?
Using ESA's Herschel space observatory, astronomers have discovered vast comet belts surrounding two nearby planetary systems known to host only Earth-to-Neptune-mass worlds. The comet reservoirs could have delivered life-giving oceans to the innermost planets.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

PLOS ONE
Man's best friend: Common canine virus may lead to new vaccines for deadly human diseases
Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a virus commonly found in dogs may serve as the foundation for the next great breakthrough in human vaccine development.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Scientific Reports
Researchers explore social media as preventative method for infectious diseases
Catching the social media bug might keep you from catching a nasty bug this winter.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the Royal Society B
For some feathered dinosaurs, bigger not necessarily better
Researchers have started looking at why dinosaurs that abandoned meat in favor of vegetarian diets got so big, and their results may call conventional wisdom about plant-eaters and body size into question.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012
Researcher studies 'middle ground' of sea-level change
The effects of storm surge and sea-level rise have become topics of everyday conversation in the days and weeks following Hurricane Sandy's catastrophic landfall along the mid-Atlantic coast. Research at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is throwing light on another, less-familiar component of sea-level variability -- the "intra-seasonal" changes that occupy the middle ground between rapid, storm-related surges in sea level and the long-term increase in sea level due to global climate change.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Comparative Cytogenetics
From Mediterranean coasts to Tatra Mountains and beyond: Plant chromosome number variation
It is well known that plants show huge variation in chromosome numbers, mainly because of multiple genome copies. One of the most intriguing issues in botany is to clarify the geographical pattern linked to this variation. In the research, the hypothesis that mean chromosome number in vascular plants increases at increasing latitude was tested. The study was published in the open access journal Comparative Cytogenetics.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

ZooKeys
A rather thin and long new snake crawls out of one of Earth's biodiversity hotspots
A team of Ecuadorian and American scientists have discovered a new species, belonging to a neotropical group of remarkably long arboreal (tree-dwelling) snakes: the blunt-headed vine snakes, from the Choco biodiversity hotspot in northwestern Ecuador. DNA data suggest that the closest relative of the new species lives on the other side of the Andes. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Environmental Research Letters
Projected sea-level rise may be underestimated
The rate of sea-level rise in the past decades is greater than projected by the latest assessments of the IPCC, while global temperature increases in good agreement with its best estimates. This is shown by a study now published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and his colleagues compare climate projections to actual observations from 1990 up to 2011.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
New mechanism for cancer progression discovered by UNC and Harvard researchers
University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Harvard researchers have discovered an alternative mechanism for activating rhe oncogene Ras that does not require mutation or hormonal stimulus.

National Institutes of Health, Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Research, Kanae Foundation for Research Abroad

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Cell
Research reveals new understanding of X chromosome inactivation
In a paper published in the Nov. 21 issue of Cell, a team led by Mauro Calabrese, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina in the lab of Terry Magnuson, chair of the department of genetics and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, broadens the understanding of how cells regulate silencing of the X chromosome in a process known as X-inactivation.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Zootaxa
Three new arthropod species have been found in the Maestrazgo Caves in Teruel
A team of scientists from the University of Navarra and the Catalan Association of Biospeleology have discovered three new collembolan species in the Maestrazgo caves in Teruel, Spain. Their description has been published in the Zootaxa journal. These minute animals belong to one of the most ancient animal species on the planet.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
New test to help heavy drinkers reduce alcohol intake
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a computer-based test that could help heavy drinkers reduce their alcohol consumption.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Nature Climate Change
Paralysis by analysis should not delay decisions on climate change
Uncertainty about how much the climate is changing is not a reason to delay preparing for the harmful impacts of climate change says Professor Jim Hall of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford and colleagues at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, writing today in Nature Climate Change.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

ACS Nano
New method for diagnosing malaria
Danish researchers have developed a new and sensitive method that makes it possible to diagnose malaria from a single drop of blood or saliva. The method might eventually be used in low-resource areas without the need for specially trained personnel, expensive equipment, clean water or electricity. With the development of this method, the researchers hope to go one step further in identifying and treating all patients suffering from malaria.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Journal of Animal Ecology
Galapagos tortoises are a migrating species
The large, dominant male Galapagos giant tortoises usually start their annual migration at the beginning of the dry season

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Circulation
Enzyme explains angina in diabetics
In a new study published in the scientific journal Circulation, scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden show that an enzyme called arginase might have a key part to play in the development of cardiovascular disease in patients who already have type II diabetes. According to the team, arginase prevents the formation of protective nitrogen oxide in the blood vessels, and treatments that inhibit this enzyme reduce the risk of angina in diabetics.

The Swedish Research Council, Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, and others

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012
Preventing posttraumatic stress disorder by facing trauma memories
A new study by Dr. Barbara Rothbaum and colleagues reports that a behavioral intervention delivered to patients immediately post-trauma is effective at reducing posttraumatic stress reactions.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Evolution, Medicine and Public Health
Malaria study suggests drugs should target female parasites
Fresh insight into the parasite that causes malaria suggests a new way to develop drugs and vaccines to tackle the disease.

Wellcome Trust

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Developmental Cell
Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biology identify key event for sex determination
Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) in Mainz have identified a protein essential for initiating the development of male sex organs. Loss of the gene Gadd45g results in complete sex reversal of male mice, making them appear female.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
Being bullied can cause trauma symptoms
Problems caused by bullying do not necessarily cease when the abuse stops. Recent research shows that victims may need long-term support.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012
Early intervention prevents behavioral problems
To prevent negative behavior among children, the work must start early.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012
Tracking down smallest biomarkers
A new device is to provide the metrological basis for promising biomarkers. The vacuum-compatible version of the Pilatus hybrid pixel detector for X-rays, which was developed by Dectris in cooperation with the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, allows the size of nano-particles -- which, to date, have been difficult to characterize -- to be determined using small-angle X-ray scattering at low photon energies.


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