#Bird is the word--plus some side dish science! While the word thanks is included in our country's favorite holiday's name we all know the real star of the day is the food.
The researchers washed the burrlike pollen particles with chloroform methanol hydrochloric acid and water to clean the surfaces
The new research from the Universities of Leicester Sussex and Cambridge examines how locusts associate odours with nutritious or toxic food.
and they avoid eating toxic plants; but gregarious locusts eat these plants to'impregnate'themselves with toxins to deter predators.
The transformation to gregarious behaviour which happens when solitary locusts are forced together into a crowd is complete within a few hours.
Dr Swidbert Ott from the University of Leicester said: Locusts should consider toxic food'bad
'while they live alone but'good'when they are in a swarm which made us wonder how do swarming locusts learn that'bad is the new good'?
which they find themselves says Dr Jeremy Niven from the University of Sussex. Dr Patrã cio Simã es who carried out the experiments as part of his doctoral study at the University of Cambridge
and the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme explains: When we presented solitary locusts with an unfamiliar odour together with toxic food they assigned it an aversive('bad')value.
But if the locust is in a crowd and starting to change towards gregarious it assigns an appetitive('good')value to the same odour.
and eat toxic plants to defend itself against predators. Then we asked if a solitary locust has learned already about an odour
'As Dr. Ott explains: Desert locusts aggregate into swarms when they run out of food--the crowding is driven by hunger and competition for the last few plants in the desert.
so they will give the toxic plants another try. And because they can no longer form aversive memories any food is now rewarding
This is how they re-train themselves to eat the toxic plants. It would be great to be able to do this experiment in the field
Dr Niven adds: Because newly crowded locusts don't form memories about toxins they ingest all they remember is the pleasant side of
what they ate and they ignore the toxin. In this way a smell previously associated with a toxin can become associated with a pleasant experience.
The changes in learning and memory we're proposing don't require the locusts to understand what's happening to them--they just have feed to
and form associations. The study recalls the work of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who famously studied dogs salivating in anticipation of food.
And if you train solitary locusts with toxic food and vanilla they will also go to lemon.
study suggestsin the largest study of its kind people who ate a daily handful of nuts were 20 percent less likely to die from any cause over a 30-year period than were those who didn't consume nuts say scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public health. Their report published in the New england Journal of Medicine contains further good news. The regular nut-eaters were found to be more slender than those who didn't eat nuts a finding that should alleviate the widespread worry that eating a lot of nuts will lead to overweight.
The report also looked at the protective effect on specific causes of death. The most obvious benefit was a reduction of 29 percent in deaths from heart disease--the major killer of people in America said Charles S. Fuchs MD MPH director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center
at Dana-Farber who is the senior author of the report. But we also saw a significant reduction--11 percent--in the risk of dying from cancer added Fuchs who is affiliated also with the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham
and Women's. Whether any specific type or types of nuts were crucial to the protective effect couldn't be determined.
and a lower risk of diseases such as heart disease type 2 diabetes colon cancer gallstones and diverticulitis.
Higher nut consumption also has been linked to reductions in cholesterol levels oxidative stress inflammation adiposity and insulin resistance.
For the new research the scientists were able to tap databases from two well-known ongoing observational studies that collect data on diet and other lifestyle factors and various health outcomes.
The Nurses'Health Study provided data on 76464 women between 1980 and 2010 and the Health professionals'Follow-up Study yielded data on 42498 men from 1986 to 2010.
Participants in the studies filled out detailed food questionnaires every two to four years. With each food questionnaire participants were asked to estimate how often they consumed nuts in a serving size of one ounce.
In all these analyses the more nuts people ate the less likely they were to die over the 30-year follow-up period explained Ying Bao MD Scd of Brigham and Women's Hospital first author of the report.
nonetheless the findings are strongly consistent with a wealth of existing observational and clinical trial data to support health benefits of nut consumption on many chronic diseases.
In fact based on previous studies the US Food and Drug Administration concluded in 2003 that eating 1. 5 ounces per day of most nuts may reduce the risk of heart disease.
The study is supported by a research grant from the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation and the National institutes of health grants UM1 CA167552 P01 CA87969 R01 HL60712 R01ca124908 P50
The above story is provided based on materials by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
or ph and pollination syndromes said lead author Yelenik who earned her doctorate from UCSB's Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology and now works for the U s. Geological Survey's Pacific Island Ecosystems
Exposure to arsenic has been linked to a variety of health problems including cancer vascular diseases and low birth weight.
performed differently in people who suffer from autism spectrum disorder than in those who do not.
Autism spectrum disorder and autism are general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development that affect social interactions communication skills and behaviors.
Many studies have found that people who have autism fail to focus on the eye region of others to gather social cues
and analyzed in patients with autism. Researchers in Cedars-Sinai's Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Neurology with colleagues from the California Institute of technology and Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena listened in
and recorded the firing activity of individual nerve cells in the amygdalae of two patients with a high-functioning form of autism as they viewed pictures of entire faces or parts of faces on a screen.
Each face expressed an emotion--fear or happiness--and the patients were asked to look at the pictures to decide which emotion was expressed.
The research team then compared recordings from neurons in the patients with autism to recordings from neurons in patients who did not have led autism
which to the discovery that a specific type of neuron performed atypically in those with autism.
Different neurons respond to different aspects of a task. In the amygdala which is known to be important for emotional memory certain neurons fire
In the two patients with autism whole-face neurons responded appropriately but the face-part neurons were much more active
when the patients were shown the mouth region compared to when they were shown the eyes. A subpopulation of neurons in these patients with autism spectrum disorder showed abnormal sensitivity to the mouth region.
The amygdala neurons appeared normal from an electrical point of view and the whole-face-sensitive neurons responded normally.
Thus the subset of face-part-sensitive neurons was specifically abnormal in autism Rutishauser said.
The article's senior author Ralph Adolphs Phd Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Caltech said the study presents new insights into mechanisms underlying the symptoms of autism
Do the cell abnormalities originate in the amygdala or are they the result of processing abnormalities elsewhere in the brain?
There are many questions yet to be answered but this study points us in a specific direction that we believe will help understand autism he said.
Observing the activity of single neurons in the human brain is very challenging and only rarely done
Progress in finding answers for autism has been limited because no animal model exists for the highly complex human disorder.
The autism study was made possible by patients being treated for epilepsy who underwent surgery to have implanted depth electrodes in their brains to monitor seizure-related electrical activity.
Two of the patients also suffered from a high-functioning form of autism spectrum disorder. The amygdala is a routine target for depth electrodes to localize epileptic seizures.
This provides a unique opportunity to record activity from the amygdala a brain structure that is important for the processing of emotions
and suspected to be abnormal in autism. However until our recent discovery it was unknown
whether the human amygdala contained face-sensitive neurons said Adam Mamelak MD professor of neurosurgery and director of Functional Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai.
In an intracranial electroencephalogram (EEG) study each time a targeted neuron is active it fires an action potential--a chemical and electrical change that can be recorded for later analysis. Like never before the researchers can witness in human subjects
Rutishauser Adolphs and their colleagues published several recent articles on face recognition that led up to this research on autism.
In one they recorded the activity of single neurons as patients'brains processed cues from facial expressions.
The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#New vaccine against lung diseases in goats and sheepan intranasal spray was developed using local isolated bacterium in Malaysia
and it was found to provide better protection against infections by Mannheimia haemolytica bacterium than imported vaccines.
Universiti Putra Malaysia has launched a new vaccine against lung or pneumonic diseases in goats and sheep that was developed
and patented by its scientists. The soft launch of STVAC7 the first intranasal spray vaccine for goats
and sheep was officiated by the Deputy Minister of Science Technology and Innovation Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah in a brief ceremony on 24.oct 2013.
The vaccine was developed and tested from 1998 to 2005 by UPM scientists led by Prof Dr Mohd Zamri Saad of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
The other scientist involved is Dr Md. Sabri Mohd Yusoff. The patent for the STVAC7 vaccine Has been fed commercialised to Tech Sdn Bhd for RM4 million
and the company has appointed Bio-Angle Vacs Sdn Bhd to manage the production and marketing of the vaccine said the Vice chancellor of UPM Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Fauzi Hj Ramlan when speaking at the ceremony.
He said he is confident that the vaccine could penetrate the local and foreign market
since in Malaysia alone there were more than 600000 goats and sheep at present and the figure is expected to increase to 1 million by 2015 a growth rate of 12.1%as projected by the Veterinary Services Department.
The company's collaboration with UPM would ensure that it would produce the STVAC7 vaccines under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
since it would be using the facilities at FTU. GMP@Biotech (or FTU) a service centre under the Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science of UPM.
Dr Fauzi said FTU which was established in 1999 is equipped now with the facilities for upstream and downstream production of biotechnological products including packaging
and bottling. The FTU services centre which cost RM14 million to develop is now serving a horde of local companies like Malaysia Agriculture Hightech Stella Gen Johor Biomicrobe Pascal Biotech MVP One
and FTU were currently developing the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the mass production of the STVAC 7 vaccine using the GMP facilities of the service centre as well as product registration before marketing.
Actual production for the commercialisation of the product with the GMP certification will begin in July 2014 using the Original Equipment Concept Dr Fauzi said.
Meanwhile replying to questions Prof Dr Zamri said the STVAC7 is a vaccine against mannheimiosis
or respiratory diseases of goats and sheep caused by bacteria. It was developed and produced using sophisticated recombinant technology
which unlike the imported vaccines has been demonstrated to provide protection against bacterium infection in the small ruminants like goats and sheep.
The current available vaccines against this disease are imported vaccines prepared using foreign strains. They are given via intramuscular injections.
The vaccines were found to be ineffective and expensive. Therefore STVAC7 was developed using local isolated bacterium that was found to be able to provide protection against infections by Mannheimia haemolytica bacterium A2 A7 and A9.
This was proven to be said better protection Prof Zamri who graduated with his Doctor of Veterinary medicine degree from UPM before obtaining his Phd from Liverpool.
The product is cheap and effective. If used according to the suggested protocol it can reduce mortality due to this disease by more than 90%he added.
Prof Zamri said the pneumonic diseases brought about by the bacterium usually caused a mortality rate of 30%during the rainy season
and the goats and sheep farmers could benefit from the STVAC7. The product itself is ready for the market
since laboratory and field tests have been completed he said adding that they started their research in 1998
and technology could be modified to produce vaccines against other diseases of animals and humans. In fact the technology can be modified further to produce test kits for various diseases he said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM. The original article was written by Noor Eszereen Juferi.
because the fruits and leaves are very unlike. comments Dr. Carvalho. For some people is hard to believe that the highland papayas from the Andes are not closer related to papaya than are these Mesoamerican herbs.
The Heart of New Ulm Project reinforce the positive influence of lifestyle factors in mitigating risks that potentially increase the likelihood of heart disease and other health problems.
and nutrition specifically eating more fruits and vegetables in addressing metabolic syndrome (MS) a common precursor to cardiovascular disease (CVD).
and demonstration project with a goal of reducing heart attacks in New Ulm Minn. over a ten year period.
The project involves worksite clinical and community programs and environmental changes and is being led by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation in close partnership with Allina Health and the community of New Ulm.
These findings clearly support national recommendations encouraging individuals to achieve energy balance and to increase fruit and vegetable consumption stated Boucher.
Our data suggests that there is a clear connection between increased body weight or the decrease in the consumption of fruits and vegetables and the development of metabolic syndrome a clustering of CVD risk factors.
and vegetables levels of physical activity and the daily use of aspirin. Data also suggests that significantly fewer people have high blood cholesterol
and high blood pressure reinforcing the importance of modifying nutrition and physical activity behaviors to improve health
and prevent disease. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#New bale unroller design deemed effectivejohn Wilhoit and Timothy Coolong from the University of Kentucky have introduced a new technology that can make the application of organic mulches more efficient.
and sugar and starch synthesis. Apple one of the world's most popular fruits tends to be highly susceptible to zinc deficiency.
Although the apple trees showed no zinc deficiency symptoms and the leaf zinc nutrition was at a low level continuing zinc sprays on these trees was required to increase fruit quality the researchers said.
High tunnels can offer many benefits for delicate vegetable crops including protection from environmental stresses such as hail frost excessive rainfall and high wind.
but the cultivars have suffered historically from several deficiencies including low yields late maturity disease and pest susceptibility and lack of uniformity.
'Observations of a number of'Carotex-312'plantings in Texas and the results of prior research with the parental lines used to develop'Carotex-312'also suggested that the new cultivar has several potentially useful disease-resistance attributes.
#Drinking more milk as a teenager does not lower risk of hip fracture laterdrinking more milk as a teenager apparently does not lower the risk of hip fracture as an older adult
and instead appears to increase that risk for men according to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics a JAMA Network publication.
While drinking milk during adolescence is recommended to achieve peak bone mass milk's role in hip fractures later in life has not been established.
which is a risk factor for hip fracture according to the study background. Diane Feskanich Sc.
D. of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard university Boston and colleagues examined the association between remembered teenage milk consumption and risk of hip fracture at older ages in a study of more than 96000 men
During the follow-up 1226 hip fractures were reported by women and 490 by men. Study findings indicate teenage milk consumption (between the ages of 13-18 years) was associated with an increased risk of hip fractures in men with each additional glass of milk per day as a teenager
associated with a 9 percent higher risk. Teenage milk consumption was associated not with hip fractures in women.
The association between drinking milk and hip fractures in men was influenced partially by height according to the studywe did not see an increased risk of hip fracture with teenage milk consumption in women as we did in men.
One explanation may be the competing benefit of an increase in bone mass with an adverse effect of greater height.
Women are at higher risk for osteoporosis than men hence the benefit of greater bone mass balanced the increased risk related to height the authors comment.
Cheese intake during teenage years was associated not with the risk of hip fracture in either men or women.
and height in preventing hip fractures in older adults. Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 recommends the consumption of three cups of milk
In this investigation higher milk consumption at this age did not translate into a lower risk of hip fracture for older adults
Lactobacillus johnsonii has previously been shown to exclude Clostridium perfringens from the guts of poultry opening the door to it being developed as a way of reducing necrotic enteritis in poultry and food poisoning in humans.
and Biological sciences Research Council found that the bacteria make coats for themselves that play important roles in colonization in this strain.
This capsule may help the bacteria to cope with environmental stress or aid colonisation and adhesion.
Different bacterial strains have different EPS structures and understanding this is important as they represent a key way bacteria interact with the world around them.'
'said Dr Arjan Narbad. Previous studies had identified potential genes in L. johnsonii for producing EPS giving the researchers tools to probe how the bacteria synthesise these molecules.
The structures of these two EPS molecules appear to be unique to this strain. Structural features such as the phosphorylation patterns are likely to be a major influence on how well bacteria adhere.
This strain of Lactobacillus johnsonii is now being taken through farm-scale trials to assess its potential use to combat pathogenic infections of poultry by bacteria such as C. perfringens.
and future work will focus on unpicking how the EPS molecules in the coat contribute to colonization and pathogen exclusion.
The study is published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health. Researchers say the findings have important implications for policies that limit tobacco advertising
neck cancerextract taken from an Asian vegetable may have therapeutic qualities to treat head and neck cancer a Saint louis University researcher has found.
Preliminary findings of the research were published in the Public library of Science One Journal by Ratna Ray Ph d. associate professor of pathology at Saint louis University.
Ray found that bitter melon extract a vegetable commonly used in Indian and Chinese diets reduces the head and neck cancer cell growth in the animal model.
We wanted to see the effect of the bitter melon extract treatment on different types of cancer using different model systems said Ray who first tested the extract in breast and prostate cancer cells.
and neck cancer cell growth in the mouse model reducing the growth of the tumor. In a controlled lab setting Ray found that bitter melon extract regulated several pathways that helped reduce the head and neck cancer cell growth in the animal model.
and volume of the tumor had reduced. Bitter melon is a tropical vegetable that is commonly used in Indian and Chinese cooking.
but a combination of things--existing drug therapy along with bitter melon--may help the efficacy of the overall cancer treatment Ray said.
Head and neck cancers which account for 6 percent of all cancer cases start in the mouth nose sinuses voicebox and throat.
They frequently are aggressive and often spread from one part of the head or neck to another.
I clinical trial with head and neck cancer patients Ray said she and her team would need to validate their results with other preclinical models.
Ray's initial research found that treatment with this natural substance halted the breast and prostate cancer cell growth eventually stopping them from spreading.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Saint louis University Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Algorithm identifies individual grains in planetary regolithinstruments on the Curiosity Mars rover not only measure the chemistry of rocks elemental abundances of soils
and climate change has allowed the current epidemic to spread from lodgepole pine to jack pine a tree species that was thought to be unsuitable for beetle survival in Alberta.
This eliminates the one-to two-year gap in diagnosing beetle-killed stands which don't show up until the dead foliage turns red.
and examine relevant collections at the Tasmanian Herbarium provided further evidence supporting the recognition of Lepidosperma monticola as a new species. Analysing the morphological and anatomical attributes of the plants demonstrated conclusively that L. monticola is a distinct species in need
The authors are also working with colleagues from University of Sydney to investigate the taxonomic value of aromatic resins which also appear to have therapeutic value.
Much of the valuable and heat-sensitive substances especially milk proteins and Vitamin b remains undenaturated explains Dr. Ana Lucia Vá
and disease outbreaks in trees and forests across the world has been increasing. The review The consequences of Tree Pests and Diseases for Ecosystem Services by scientists from the universities of Southampton Cambridge Oxford and St andrews is published today (15 november) in the journal Science.
The research shows that the experience of widespread death of trees similar to that seen from Dutch elm disease
and with the arrival last year of the new fungal disease of ash--Chalara fraxinea--has not been unique to the UK.
Furthermore there is growing concern that aspects of globalisation--in particular high volumes and new forms of trade--may increase the risk of disease spreading
and provide opportunities for genetic reassortment which can enhance pathogenicity (the ability of an organism to cause disease).
Trees and forests provide a wide variety of ecosystem*services in addition to timber food and other provisioning services such as carbon sequester
and disease management are needed that take into account these multiple services and the different stakeholders they benefit as well as the likelihood of greater threats in the future resulting from globalisation and climate change.
and researchers stress the importance of risk management at pathways of introduction especially where modern trade practices provide potential new routes of entry for pests and pathogens.
and practice can prevent the introduction of new diseases and improve recovery and ongoing management this includes the breeding of resistant trees and development of effective bio-control systems.
Modern pest and disease management for plants and the natural environment needs to be based on an extensive science base.
and herbivores as well as why some species reach epidemic prevalence and abundance. Researchers also examined the difficulties of maintaining tree health
and considered the consequences of pests and diseases for the full range of ecosystem services provided by trees.
The term pest and disease was used to describe all pathogens and small-to medium-size insect herbivores that--by causing tree damage and death--disrupt the ecosystem services provided by trees.
Many of the benefits from woodlands and forests for example carbon storage maintenance of biodiversity and recreational use are enjoyed uncosted
This raises difficult questions about who should be responsible for measures to protect tree health.**An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants animals
Plant pathologists Dr Joan Webber from Forest Research the research agency of the Forestry Commission and Professor Clive Brasier found that the defence mechanisms which the Chalara fraxinea (C. fraxinea) fungus
Professor Brasier and Dr Webber studied C. fraxinea's genetic recognition system called a vegetative compatibility (vc) system in samples of the fungus from three different UK sites Their results
If the vc system is switched on'during early infection of ash leaves then the spores (ascospores) responsible for infection might antagonise one other
Alternatively if the vc system is switched off'the germinating spores might cooperate during ash leaf infection leading to a greater spread of the fungus.
Later as larger lesions form in ash tissues the vc system might define the'territory'defended by each pathogen individual.
The fact that most isolates of Chalara fraxinea are incompatible with each other could mean that it might be difficult to deploy damaging fungal viruses against the pathogen as a disease control method
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