ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Repurposed drug may be first targeted treatment for serious kidney disease
• First virtual surgery with Google Glass
• New trigger for breast cancer metastasis identified
• Scientists decipher how the immune system induces liver damage during hepatitis
• Super-typhoon Haiyan maintains strength crossing Philippines
• In animal study, 'cold turkey' withdrawal from drugs triggers mental decline
• Mother's immunosuppressive medications not likely to put fetus at risk
• New study decodes brain's process for decision making
• Potential drug target to nip cancer in the bud
• Volunteers join scientists in finding out who gets rid of cow dung
• An albacore tuna tagged off the coast of Gipuzkoa had managed to cover a record distance when recaptured in Venezuela
• Defending food crops: Whitefly experimentation to prevent contamination of agriculture
• Researchers develop at-home 3D video game for stroke patients
• Super-Typhoon Haiyan lashes the Philippines
• NASA's GRAIL mission puts a new face on the moon
• Robotic advances promise artificial legs that emulate healthy limbs
• 'Tiger stripes' underneath Antarctic glaciers slow the flow
• New insight into how antidepressants work in the brain
• It's complicated: Dawn spacecraft spurs rewrite of asteroid Vesta's story
• Tracking young salmon's first moves in the ocean
• High bat mortality from wind turbines
• Edited RNA plus invasive DNA add individuality
• Novel LEDs pave the way to cheaper displays
• Winter wonderland? Mountain hares feel more comfortable away from winter tourists
• Black holes don't make a big splash
• Origins of cattle farming in China uncovered
• Allergic to gummy bears? Be cautious getting the flu shot
• Depression therapy effective for poor, minority moms
• Peptide derived from cow's milk kills human stomach cancer cells in culture
• Bisphenol A is affecting us at much lower doses than previously thought
• Unique change in protein structure guides production of RNA from DNA
• Century-old question about 3-D structure of mitotic chromosomes answered

Repurposed drug may be first targeted treatment for serious kidney disease Posted: 08 Nov 2013 12:35 PM PST A team of researchers is reporting that treatment with abatacept appeared to halt the course of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis in five patients, preventing four from losing transplanted kidneys and achieving disease remission in the fifth.

First virtual surgery with Google Glass Posted: 08 Nov 2013 11:04 AM PST A surgical team has performed the first surgery using a virtual augmented reality technology called VIPAAR in conjunction with Google Glass, a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display. The combination of the two technologies could be an important step toward the development of useful, practical telemedicine.

New trigger for breast cancer metastasis identified Posted: 08 Nov 2013 09:48 AM PST For years, scientists have observed that tumor cells from certain breast cancer patients with aggressive forms of the disease contained low levels of mitochondrial DNA. But, until recently, no one was able to explain how this characteristic influenced disease progression. Now researchers have revealed how a reduction in mitochondrial DNA content leads human breast cancer cells to take on aggressive, metastatic properties.

Scientists decipher how the immune system induces liver damage during hepatitis Posted: 08 Nov 2013 09:48 AM PST A study published shows how the immune system 'attacks' liver cells during hepatitis by using the AP-1 gene JunB.

Super-typhoon Haiyan maintains strength crossing Philippines Posted: 08 Nov 2013 08:22 AM PST Super-Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the eastern Philippines as the strongest tropical cyclone of the year, and today, Nov. 8, is exiting the country and moving into the South China Sea.

In animal study, 'cold turkey' withdrawal from drugs triggers mental decline Posted: 08 Nov 2013 08:22 AM PST Can quitting drugs without treatment trigger a decline in mental health? That appears to be the case in an animal model of morphine addiction. Researchers say their observations suggest that managing morphine withdrawal could promote a healthier mental state in people.

Mother's immunosuppressive medications not likely to put fetus at risk Posted: 08 Nov 2013 08:22 AM PST Women with chronic autoimmune diseases who take immunosuppressive medications during their first trimester of pregnancy are not putting their babies at significantly increased risk of adverse outcomes, according to a study.

New study decodes brain's process for decision making Posted: 08 Nov 2013 08:21 AM PST Psychology and neurobiology researchers develop new brain imaging model to examine how memories are used in decision making.

Potential drug target to nip cancer in the bud Posted: 08 Nov 2013 07:27 AM PST Scientists have discovered an enzyme, Wip1 phosphatase, as a potential target to weed out the progression of cancer. Although studies in the past have revealed that this enzyme plays a critical role in regulating the budding of tumors, scientists have for the first time unearthed a mechanism for its mode of action.

Volunteers join scientists in finding out who gets rid of cow dung Posted: 08 Nov 2013 07:27 AM PST With more than a billion cows around the world, an immense amount of dung is produced each day. Most of these droppings will evidently disappear, as the world is still green rather than brown. Now a team of scientists have joined forces with local volunteers to find out who decomposes the most of it in Finland, Northern Europe.

An albacore tuna tagged off the coast of Gipuzkoa had managed to cover a record distance when recaptured in Venezuela Posted: 08 Nov 2013 07:23 AM PST 6,370 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean. That is the vast distance, as the crow flies, which has been covered by an albacore tuna tagged and released into the sea off a Gipuzkoan locality, 20 km to the north of Donostia-San Sebastian in October 2006. The specimen has recently been caught by Venezuelan fishermen just off the coast of their country. This is a record distance.

Defending food crops: Whitefly experimentation to prevent contamination of agriculture Posted: 08 Nov 2013 07:21 AM PST Agricultural researchers have developed a new technique to aid in the development of defenses against diseases threatening food crops worldwide.

Researchers develop at-home 3D video game for stroke patients Posted: 08 Nov 2013 07:21 AM PST Researchers have developed a therapeutic at-home gaming program for stroke patients who experience motor weakness affecting 80 percent of survivors.

Super-Typhoon Haiyan lashes the Philippines Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:18 AM PST Super-Typhoon Haiyan was lashing the central and southern Philippines on Nov. 7 bringing maximum sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane. The U.S. National Hurricane Center website indicates that a Category 5 hurricane/typhoon would cause catastrophic damage: A high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.

NASA's GRAIL mission puts a new face on the moon Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:17 AM PST Scientists using data from the lunar-orbiting twins of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission are gaining new insight into how the face of the moon received its rugged good looks.

Robotic advances promise artificial legs that emulate healthy limbs Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST Recent advances in robotics technology make it possible to create prosthetics that can duplicate the natural movement of human legs. This capability promises to dramatically improve the mobility of lower-limb amputees, allowing them to negotiate stairs and slopes and uneven ground, significantly reducing their risk of falling as well as reducing stress on the rest of their bodies.

'Tiger stripes' underneath Antarctic glaciers slow the flow Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST Researchers have discovered that most resistance to the movement of glaciers over the underlying bedrock comes from narrow, high-friction stripes that lie within large, extremely slippery areas underneath the glacier. These stripes are thought to govern the speed at which Antarctic glaciers are moving.

New insight into how antidepressants work in the brain Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST New research is giving scientists a never-before-seen view of how nerve cells communicate with each other. That new view can give scientists a better understanding of how antidepressants work in the human brain -- and could lead to the development of better antidepressants with few or no side effects.

It's complicated: Dawn spacecraft spurs rewrite of asteroid Vesta's story Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST Just when scientists thought they had a tidy theory for how the giant asteroid Vesta formed, a new paper from NASA's Dawn mission suggests the history is more complicated. If Vesta's formation had followed the script for the formation of rocky planets like our own, heat from the interior would have created distinct, separated layers of rock (generally, a core, mantle and crust). In that story, the mineral olivine should concentrate in the mantle. However, that's not what Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) instrument found.

Tracking young salmon's first moves in the ocean Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST Basic ocean conditions such as current directions and water temperature play a huge role in determining the behavior of young migrating salmon as they move from rivers and hit ocean waters for the first time, according to new research. How the fish fare during their first few weeks in the ocean has a profound impact on species' ability to survive into adulthood.

High bat mortality from wind turbines Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST A new estimate of bat deaths caused by wind turbines concludes that more than 600,000 of the mammals likely died this way in 2012 in the contiguous United States. The estimate used sophisticated statistical techniques to infer the probable number of bat deaths at wind energy facilities from the number of dead bats found at 21 locations, correcting for the installed power capacity of the facilities. The high mortality is worrisome because bat populations grow only very slowly.

Edited RNA plus invasive DNA add individuality Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST An enzyme that edits RNA may loosen the genome's control over invasive snippets of DNA that affect how genes are expressed, according to new research. In fruit flies, that newly understood mechanism appears to contribute to differences among individuals such as eye color and life span.

Novel LEDs pave the way to cheaper displays Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST Researchers have developed a novel type of organic light-emitting diode (OLED). These lights are suitable for the design of particularly energy-efficient cheap displays, which find applications in smart phones, tablet PCs or TVs. Applications in lighting such as in luminescent tiles are also conceivable.

Winter wonderland? Mountain hares feel more comfortable away from winter tourists Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST The mountain hare is rarely seen in the wild. It lives in the higher regions of the Alps and is famous for its beautiful white winter coat. Now, however, climate change and winter tourism are threatening the mountain hare's natural habitat. Researchers have confirmed for the first time that mountain hares suffer more stress in areas that are visited by large numbers of tourists than their conspecifics in quieter areas. Stressed hares expend more energy, and that can be life-threatening in the cold Alpine winter.

Black holes don't make a big splash Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST Throughout our universe, tucked inside galaxies far, far away, giant black holes are pairing up and merging. As the massive bodies dance around each other in close embraces, they send out gravitational waves that ripple space and time themselves, even as the waves pass right through our planet Earth. Scientists know these waves, predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, exist but have yet to directly detect one. In the race to catch the waves, one strategy -- called pulsar-timing arrays -- has reached a milestone not through detecting any gravitational waves, but in revealing new information about the frequency and strength of black hole mergers.

Origins of cattle farming in China uncovered Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST Scientists have produced the first multi-disciplinary evidence for management of cattle populations in northern China, around the same time cattle domestication took place in the Near East, over 10,000 years ago.

Allergic to gummy bears? Be cautious getting the flu shot Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:01 AM PST Do marshmallows make your tongue swell? Gummy bears make you itchy? If you've answered yes and are allergic to gelatin, you will want to take some precautions when getting the flu shot.

Depression therapy effective for poor, minority moms Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:01 AM PST Faced with the dual demands of motherhood and poverty, as many as one fourth of low-income minority mothers struggle with major depression. Now a new study shows that screening for the disorder and providing short-term, relationship-focused therapy through weekly home visits can relieve depression among minority mothers, even in the face of poverty and personal histories of abuse or violence.

Peptide derived from cow's milk kills human stomach cancer cells in culture Posted: 07 Nov 2013 02:10 PM PST New research indicates that a peptide fragment derived from cow's milk, known as lactoferricin B25 (LFcinB25), exhibited potent anticancer capability against human stomach cancer cell cultures. The findings provide support for future use of LFcinB25 as a potential therapeutic agent for gastric cancer.

Bisphenol A is affecting us at much lower doses than previously thought Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:23 PM PST A group of scientists that study endocrine disruption worked together to update and refine a 2007 review of the low dose effects of BPA. The group not only added hundreds of more recent studies, but they also used an integrative biological approach to scrutinize low dose effects of BPA at multiple levels of biological organization: on cells, animals and human populations.

Unique change in protein structure guides production of RNA from DNA Posted: 07 Nov 2013 12:48 PM PST One of biology's most fundamental processes is transcription. It is just one step of many required to build proteins -- and without it life would not exist. However, many aspects of transcription remain shrouded in mystery. But now, scientists are shedding light on key aspects of transcription, and in so doing are coming even closer to understanding the importance of this process in the growth and development of cells -- as well as what happens when this process goes awry.

Century-old question about 3-D structure of mitotic chromosomes answered Posted: 07 Nov 2013 11:25 AM PST Scientists have shown new evidence for a general principal of condensed, mitotic chromosome organization and structure that is highly adaptable and common to all cells. This new insight into how chromosomes are disassembled and reassembled during cell division will allow researchers to begin answering basic questions about epigenetic inheritance, as well as human disease such as chromosome disorders and cancer.

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