NEW YORK (June 22, 2011) – A new genetic study by a team of Cuban and American researchers confirms that American crocodiles are hybridizing with wild populations of critically endangered Cuban crocodiles, which may cause a population decline of this species found only in the Cuban Archipelago.
Cuban crocodiles and American crocodiles have been confirmed to interbreed in captivity and were suspected to hybridize in the wild. This is the first genetic study that confirms wild hybridization.
Power can lead to great acts of altruism, but also corruptive, unethical behavior. Being intoxicated can lead to a first date, or a bar brawl. And the mask of anonymity can encourage one individual to let a stranger know they have toilet paper stuck to their shoe, whereas another may post salacious photos online. What is the common thread between these three disparate states?
A developmental biologist at New York Medical College is proposing a new theory of the origin of birds, which traditionally has been thought to be driven by the evolution of flight. Instead, Stuart A. Newman, Ph.D., credits the emergence of enlarged skeletal muscles as the basis for their upright two-leggedness, which led to the opportunity for other adaptive changes like flying or swimming. And it is all based on the loss of a gene that is critical to the ability of other warm-blooded animals to generate heat for survival.
Imagine dropping dish soap into a sink full of greasy water. What happens? As soon as the soap hits the water, the grease recoils—and retreats to the edges of the sink.
Now, what if the sink was a cancer cell, the globs of grease were cancer-promoting proteins and the dish soap was a potential drug? According to new research from the University of Toronto Mississauga, such a drug could force the proteins to the cell's membrane (a.k.a., the edge of the sink)—and make the cancer cell more vulnerable to chemotherapy.
Initially the occurrence of progressive retinal degeneration - progressive retinal atrophy, in man called retinitis pigmentosa - had been identified in Schapendoes dogs. Retinitis pigmentosa is the most common hereditary disease which causes blindness in humans. The researchers report on their findings, in Human Molecular Genetics.
Genetic test developed
Computer algorithms might be useful in identifying sources of groundwater pollution, according to researchers in Australia and India. Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management they explain how notoriously difficult it is to trace such pollution.
Scientists have developed a way to transform ordinary sand — a mainstay filter material used to purify drinking water throughout the world — into a "super sand" with five times the filtering capacity of regular sand. The new material could be a low-cost boon for developing countries, where more than a billion people lack clean drinking water, according to the report in the ACS journal Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Scientists are reporting development and successful initial tests of a potential new delivery system for the biological signaling agent responsible for the effects of Viagra. It could be used to deliver the substance, called nitric oxide or NO, to treatment conditions ranging from heart disease to skin ulcers and other wounds that fail to heal, according to a report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Cancer survivors are less likely to be employed, and they work fewer hours, than similarly aged adults without a history of cancer, even two to six years after diagnosis, according to a study by Penn State researchers.
"The finding is significant when you consider that there are nearly 12 million cancer survivors living in the United States," said John Moran, assistant professor of health policy and administration, who led the study.
In one of the first studies to examine the reasons for the rising number of women delivering their babies by cesarean section, Yale School of Medicine researchers found that while half of the increase was attributable to a rise in repeat cesarean delivery in women with a prior cesarean birth, an equal proportion was due to a rise in first time cesarean delivery. Among these deliveries, factors such as slowly progressing labor and fetal heart rate concerns were the largest contributors.
Up to 3.6 million lives could be saved every year if midwifery services were upgraded in 58 developing countries by 2015, according to a major new report released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in partnership with the University of Southampton and 28 other organisations worldwide.
The State of the World's Midwifery 2011 reveals new data confirming there is a significant gap between the numbers of midwives practising and those needed to save lives.
Troy, N.Y. – A new technique developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute allows researchers to collect large amounts of biochemical information from nanoscale bone samples.
Along with adding important new insights into the fight against osteoporosis, this innovation opens up an entirely new proteomics-based approach to analyzing bone quality. It could even aid the archeological and forensic study of human skeletons.
Homosexual men taking bicalutamide for prostate cancer were much more likely to report sexual problems during treatment than heterosexual patients, according to a study in the July issue of the urology journal BJUI.
Researchers from Romania and the USA studied 17 heterosexual men and 12 homosexual men receiving a 50mg daily dose of bicalutamide, a fast-acting, non-steroidal anti-androgen, which is similar to other anti-androgens, but with reportedly fewer side effects.
A quick and easy way to detect groundwater in semi-arid hard rock areas that is also economical could improve the siting of borewells to improve clean water supply in the developing world. Details of the approach are outlined in the International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology this month.
Jeremy Smith, Governor's Chair for Molecular Biophysics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has helped reveal a key trigger of Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker (GSS) syndrome, a rare but deadly neurodegenerative disease. The finding could have far-reaching implications for the treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's.