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Scientists at the University of Leicester have published findings about a new advance in the study of major diabetes drug target.

The advance - described by the researchers as 'very significant' - could lead to new drugs being developed to target a protein that plays a critical role in controlling the way the body breaks down sugar.

A community-based program that reinforces basic childbirth and newborn care practices can reduce a baby's risk of death within the first month of life by as much as 54 percent, according to a study in rural India led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in collaboration with CSM Medical University in Lucknow, India. The study is published in the September 27 issue of The Lancet.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--As a car accelerates up and down a hill then slows to follow a hairpin turn, the airflow around it cannot keep up and detaches from the vehicle. This aerodynamic separation creates additional drag that slows the car and forces the engine to work harder. The same phenomenon affects airplanes, boats, submarines, and even your golf ball.

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Microbiologists at Oregon State University have developed a new technology to detect illness-causing bacteria – an advance that could revolutionize the food industry, improving the actual protection to consumers while avoiding the costly waste and massive recalls of products that are suspected of bacterial contamination but are perfectly safe.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Shorter work commutes are one way to reduce gasoline consumption, but a new study finds that not all cities are equal in how easy it would be to achieve that goal.

Research suggests that Atlanta and Minneapolis may be the U.S. metropolitan areas that would find it most difficult to reduce the miles that workers commute each day.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas and Miami may be the metro areas where it would be easiest to reduce commuting miles.

CHAPEL HILL – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health has established a new Gillings Innovation Lab to track and map tropical infectious diseases such as malaria, using state-of-the-art molecular and demographic methods.

Better information about the prevalence and location of diseases will help national and international health organizations around the world treat and control these diseases.

DALLAS – Sept. 25, 2008 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that individuals who carry a specific form of the gene PNPLA3 have more fat in their livers and a greater risk of developing liver inflammation.

They also found that Hispanics are more likely to carry the gene variant responsible for higher liver-fat content than African-Americans and Caucasians.

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Stevens Institute of Technology's Center for Maritime Systems began a project to strengthen the Early Warning System (EWS) for Inundations in the Dominican Republic. The project is focused on developing the technology of DR's EWS and providing the most up-to-date equipment to improve accuracy in detection of hurricanes and prevent flooding on the island.

Women's muscles may require longer, more intensive rehabilitation after bed rest and cast immobilization, as reported today by the Institute for Neuromusculoskeletal Research at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM).

According to Brian C. Clark, Ph.D., assistant professor of neuromuscular biology, the discrepancy may relate to how sex-specific hormones regulate the growth of muscle mass. The study is the first to report sex differences in muscle strength restoration following immobilization of a limb.

By better managing environmental issues during deployments, U.S. Army units can gain tactical and strategic advantages that will help in combat and post-conflict operations, and boost overall mission success, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

The study finds that commanders have not usually given environmental concerns high priority during planning, despite the effect environmental conditions can have on troop health, safety and security, and the importance they have for the local population.

In a first, researchers at the University of Iowa and the University of Missouri (MU) have developed a pig model for cystic fibrosis (CF) that appears to closely mimic the disease in human infants. The striking similarities between disease manifestations in the CF piglets and human newborns with CF suggest that this new model will help improve understanding of the disease and may also speed discovery of new treatments. The study is published in the Sept. 26 issue of Science.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Cystic Fibrosis (CF) continues to be a lethal disease for humans despite the identification of the problematic gene two decades ago. Many humans born with CF – the most common genetic disease in Caucasians - often die because of a lung disease developed later. Scientists have been unable to develop an animal model that develops the fatal lung disease. Now, a University of Missouri researcher is producing pigs born with cystic fibrosis that mimic the exact symptoms of a newborn with CF.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The majority of children vaccinated against hepatitis B are not at an increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study to be published in the October 8, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers have found the right formula of radiation and immunotherapy for fighting lung cancer tumors in mice, which they hope will translate to better treatment in human lung cancers.

The study was presented today at the 50th annual American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology conference in Boston.

Three enzymes called phosphatases that shut down a molecule called SRC-3 (steroid receptor coactivator 3) could provide a new pathway for fighting cancer, particularly tumors of the breast and prostate, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Molecular Cell.