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Researchers at the University of Exeter have developed a new approach to studying potentially deadly disease-causing bacteria which could help speed up the process of finding vaccines.

Dr Andrea Dowling, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the university's Cornwall Campus, has pioneered a simple screen which can help isolate the virulent parts of the gene structures of pathogenic* bacteria.

The screen allows researchers to simultaneously run thousands of tests where genes from the pathogen are pitted against the human blood cells that normally attack them.

A new study at the University of Haifa reveals:

Emotional intelligence empowers positive attitudes and weakens negative behavior in the private sector; but does not have the same effect in the public sector

"The results of this study emphasize the existence of significant behavioral differences between the sectors. Executives intending to carry out reforms or implement management plans in the public sector should be well aware of these differences," explains Dr. Galit Meisler who conducted the study.

A study was carried out to examine the extent to which quercetin and trans-resveratrol (RSV) prevented inflammation or insulin resistance in primary cultures of human adipocytes treated with tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a)—an inflammatory cytokine elevated in the plasma and adipose tissue of obese, diabetic individuals. Cultures of human adipocytes were pretreated with quercetin and trans-RSV followed by treatment with TNF-a. Subsequently, gene and protein markers of inflammation and insulin resistance were measured.

Invention could improve cancer drug delivery, lessen harmful effects of chemotherapy

University of Arizona researchers may have found a way to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs to cancer tissues in controlled doses without harming healthy body cells.

ST. LOUIS – A compound which acts in the opposite way as growth hormone can reverse some of the signs of aging, a research team that includes a Saint Louis University physician has shown. The finding may be counter-intuitive to some older adults who take growth hormone, thinking it will help revitalize them.

Their research was published in the Dec. 6 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

When prowling for a hook up, it's not always the good-looker who gets the girl. In fact, in a certain species of South American fish, brawn and stealth beat out colorful and refined almost every time.

Tampa, Fla. (Dec. 23, 2010) – Two studies appearing in the current issueof Cell Transplantation 19(10) discuss stem cells derived from adipose (fat) cells and their potential use in plastic surgery and tissue reconstruction. The studies are now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/ .

Specially designed probiotics can modulate the physiology of host fat cells say scientists writing in Microbiology. The findings could lead to specialised probiotics that have a role in the prevention or treatment of conditions such as obesity.

Shouldering family demands and worries seems to increase the risk of angina, the precursor to coronary artery disease, reveals research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Previous research has indicated that rewarding personal relationships are a boost for heart health, so the authors wanted to know if the reverse might also be true.

They tracked the heart health of more than 4,500 randomly selected men and women in their 40s and 50s for six years. None had any heart problems at the start of the study in 1999.

Teen girls living in the most deprived areas are five times as likely to be assaulted as their affluent male and female peers, reveals research published online in Emergency Medicine Journal.

Young men are twice as likely to be a victim of assault as young women, but the link between deprivation and assault is far stronger for their female peers, the study shows.

STANFORD, Calif. — A study fast-tracked for online publication Dec. 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine has identified an important gene deletion in up to one of every four cases of glioblastoma, the most common adult brain cancer. This deletion contributes to tumor development, promotes resistance to therapy and considerably worsens a patient's survival prospects.

Penn State researchers have found that native pollinators, like wild bees and wasps, are infected by the same viral diseases as honey bees and that these viruses are transmitted via pollen. Their research published on December 22nd in PLoS ONE, an online open-access journal for the communication of all peer-reviewed scientific and medical research.

This multi-institutional study provides new insights into viral infections in native pollinators, suggesting that viral diseases may be key factors impacting pollinator populations.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Eating a Southern staple, fried fish, could be one reason people in Alabama and across the "stroke belt" states are more likely than other Americans to die of a stroke, according to a study published in the December 22, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

BUFFALO, NY (December 22, 2010) -- Experiments by a team of researchers in New York and New Jersey have generated evidence that questions the common belief that the pterygotid eurypterids ("sea scorpions") were high-level predators in the Paleozoic oceans. This group, which ranged the seas from about 470 to 370 million years ago (long before the dinosaurs appeared), included the largest and, arguably, scariest-looking arthropods known to have evolved on planet Earth.