A recent study conducted by scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and cooperators shows the potato germplasm Neo-Tuberosum, used by potato breeders to develop new cultivars, has origins that can be traced to Chile, not to the Andes as previously believed.
WASHINGTON, DC — While some Latino immigrants to the United States may be accepted as "white" by the wider society, a new American Sociological Review (ASR) study finds that many of them face discrimination based on skin color.
In fact, the research showed that relatively darker-skinned Latinos earned less than their lighter-skinned counterparts.
The results suggest that the rapid influx of Latino immigrants will shift the boundaries of race in the United States, but will not end skin-color-based discrimination.
CHICAGO (June 2, 2010) – Minority organ donations have more than doubled since the institution of grassroots awareness and education programs, according to a new retrospective study published in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. In 2010, the percentage of minority donors is expected to reach 35 percent, up from approximately 15 percent in 1990.
Scientists are reporting new evidence that capsaicin, the stuff that gives chili peppers their kick, may cause weight loss and fight fat buildup by triggering certain beneficial protein changes in the body. Their study, which could lead to new treatments for obesity, appears in ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research.
After years of research and anticipation, insulin pills that could make it easier for millions of patients worldwide to manage diabetes are finally moving ahead in clinical trials and a step-closer to the medicine cabinet. That's among the topics highlighted in a two-part cover story on drug manufacturing in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News.
Are new medical residents a threat to patients? According to Dr. David Phillips and Gwendolyn Barker from the University of California, San Diego in the US, fatal medication errors peak in July in teaching hospitals in particular, which coincides with the yearly influx of new medical residents who are given increased responsibility for patient care. Their findings[1] are published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine[2], published by Springer.
The same mutated gene that makes humans more susceptible to the potentially fatal West Nile virus is also responsible for the virus affecting horses, according to scientists at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Cambridge, Mass., June 2, 2010 – Scientists have developed a new massively-parallel approach for manipulating single DNA and protein molecules and studying their interactions under force. The finding appears in the June 2 issue of Biophysical Journal.
The West African forest gecko, a secretive but widely distributed species in forest patches from Ghana to Congo, is actually four distinct species that appear to have evolved over the past 100,000 years due to the fragmentation of a belt of tropical rain forest , according to a report in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- When kidney cancer spreads to other body parts, patients usually receive a poor prognosis. A new Mayo Clinic study examined the benefits of surgical treatment of kidney cancer, specifically renal cell carcinoma, and how patients saw improved prognosis of their cancer. These findings were presented today at the American Urological Association meeting in San Francisco.
Since the beginning, plants and animals have deployed various mechanisms to fight pathogens. Proteins have always played an important part in this armoury, and a broad variety of defensin proteins have become part of the immune system of plants, insects and other animals except mammals. Now scientists from Regensburg discovered that those proteins also play a role in the "sex life" during the fertilization process of plants. These findings will be published next week in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology.
The era of one-size-fits-all medicine will eventually be history; after all it is no news that drugs and treatments do not work the same for everyone. For patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a lung cancer that kills approximately 1 million people annually, the treatment currently available is basically the same for all patients, despite the fact that some patients may respond to treatment while others may not. New biological markers and prognostic tools are urgently needed to help doctors decide on the best course of action for each NSCLC patient.
