Body

HOUSTON - (July 18, 2016) - Females have two X chromosomes in each of their cells. Fully unfolded, each copy is two inches long. One of these two X chromosomes is inactive - its genes are turned off. This copy folds into a structure called the Barr body, a mysterious configuration that was discovered in 1949. Recently, scientists have shown that the Barr body contains massive superloops bringing DNA sequences at opposite ends of the chromosome together inside the nucleus of a cell.

On the surface, trees may look stationary, but underground their roots -- aided by their fungal allies -- are constantly on the hunt and using a surprising number of strategies to find food, according to an international team of researchers.

MADISON, Wis. -- In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a University of Wisconsin-Madison research team pinpoints how immune abnormalities beneath the retina result in macular degeneration, a common condition that often causes blindness.

Aparna Lakkaraju, an assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, focused on two protective mechanisms that are compromised during the gradual onset of macular degeneration, which degrades and can destroy the central vision needed to read and recognize faces.

For years, scientists and engineers have synthesized materials at the nanoscale level to take advantage of their mechanical, optical, and energy properties, but efforts to scale these materials to larger sizes have resulted in diminished performance and structural integrity.

A new exploratory analysis of data from the ASPIRE study has found that using a drug-infused vaginal ring most or all of the time reduced the risk of HIV infection in women by at least 56 percent. This finding is being reported today at a press briefing at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) in Durban, South Africa, and will be presented in more detail tomorrow in a lecture at the conference.

For HIV-infected mothers whose immune system is in good health, taking a three-drug antiretroviral regimen during breastfeeding essentially eliminates HIV transmission by breast milk to their infants, according to results from a large clinical trial conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and India.

Just as wrought-iron fences and ornaments connect straight and curved elements to form aesthetically pleasing 3-D shapes, a new computational design tool developed by Disney Research enables people to design 3-D objects whose surfaces are formed from interconnected circles, hearts and other shapes.

These ornamental objects, produced with a 3-D printer, look delicate, but the design tool helps users identify and strengthen weak areas so that the final product is structurally sound, said Bernhard Thomaszewski, research scientist at Disney Research.

Bremerhaven/Germany, 18. July 2016. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have overcome a seeming weakness of global climate models. They had previously not been able to simulate the extreme warm period of the Eocene. One aspect of this era that particularly draws interests to climatologists: It was the only phase in recent history when greenhouse gas concentration was as high as researchers predict it to be for the future.

Oxford, UK, July 18, 2016 - Increasing oxygen delivery to muscles can help athletes perform better and give them the edge needed to win elite competitions. One of the best ways to increase oxygen supply is through blood manipulation, undergoing a blood transfusion that provides extra red blood cells and boosts oxygen levels. These blood transfusions, popularly known as "blood doping," are illegal for professional athletes. While some transfusions and stimulants are identifiable with current testing methods, autologous blood transfusion (ABT) is not.

Oncologic patients are now among the main users of ICUs in the world, and they're also among the most fragile and prone to complications that can lead to death, such as hospital infections and adverse drug reactions. But the risk of these problems can be reduced through relatively simple processes of organization, such as holding meetings to discuss clinical cases between oncologists and intensivists, using care protocols and the presence of pharmacists in ICUs.

The decade-long search by researchers worldwide for a gene, which is critical in controlling the formation of blood and blood vessels in the embryo, shows how fascinating science can be. It is more than 20 years since Didier Stainier, director at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim, discovered a zebrafish mutant named cloche. This mutant lacks development of both blood vessels and blood cells, and was, until now, a unique phenomenon. Now, his research group has succeeded in finding the gene responsible for it.

Fresh insight into how ocean bacteria search for food could aid the development of a new generation of bacterial therapies programmed to treat disease.

The behaviour of marine bugs could inspire development of friendly bacteria engineered to carry out a range of tasks, such as searching organs for signs of illness, diagnosing diseases and delivering drugs to diseased tissue.

Scientists studied common ocean bacteria to understand how they can quickly and precisely propel themselves towards their source of food -- such as spots of algae in the water -- in order to survive.

An international team of researchers has succeeded for the first time in sequencing the genome of Chalcolithic barley grains. This is the oldest plant genome to be reconstructed to date. The 6,000-year-old seeds were retrieved from Yoram Cave in the southern cliff of Masada fortress in the Judean Desert in Israel, close to the Dead Sea. Genetically, the prehistoric barley is very similar to present-day barley grown in the Southern Levant, supporting the existing hypothesis of barley domestication having occurred in the Upper Jordan Valley.

DURBAN, South Africa (July 18, 2016) -- New data analyses announced at the AIDS 2016 conference today provide additional evidence suggesting that the monthly dapivirine vaginal ring developed by the nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) provides significant protection against HIV infection in women when used consistently. The new data were released as two open-label studies of the ring begin and as IPM pursues regulatory approvals for the product for its use in developing countries.

Zika virus can infect numerous cell types in the human placenta and amniotic sac, according to researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley who show in a new paper how the virus travels from a pregnant woman to her fetus. They also identify a drug that may be able to block it.