This is important because now we have the potential to develop therapies that can block the activity of Type 1 pericytes to form fat
In the study the researchers were able to identify the subtypes through genetic and molecular labeling methods.
Using an in vitro model they showed that Type 1 pericytes form fat while Type 2 pericytes form muscle.
When Type 1 pericytes were injected into the disease model they formed fat not muscle. When Type 2 pericytes were injected into the disease model nothing happened.
This is a very important and fundamental process of ecosystem renewal around the planet that we really didn't understand says co-senior investigator Joseph P. Noel professor and director of Salk's Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical
Now we know the molecular triggers for how it occurs. Noel's co-senior investigator on the project Joanne Chory professor and director of Salk's Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology laboratory says the team found the molecular wake-up call for burned forests.
What we discovered she says is how a dying plant generates a chemical message for the next generation telling dormant seeds it's time to sprout.
While controlled burns are common today they weren't 50 years ago. The U s. park service actively suppressed forest fires until they realized that the practice left the soil of mature forests lacking important minerals and chemicals.
This created an intensely competitive environment that was ultimately detrimental to the entire forest ecosystem.
and charred ground In previous studies scientists had discovered that special chemicals known as karrikins are created as trees
Then comparing the karrikin-bound KAI2 protein to the structure of an unbound KAI2 protein allowed the researchers to speculate how KAI2 allows a seed to perceive karrikin in its environment.
The chemical structures the team solved revealed all the molecular contacts between karrikin and KAI2 according to Salk research associate Yongxia Guo a structural enzymologist and one of the study's lead investigators.
when karrikin binds to the KAI2 protein it causes a change in its shape. The studies'other lead investigator Salk research associate
and plant geneticist Zuyu Zheng says this karrikin-induced shape change may send a new signal to other proteins in the seeds.
These other protein players he says together with karrikin and KAI2 generate the signal causing seed germination at the right place and time after a wildfire.
La Clair then joined the study contributing his chemistry expertise. While the new findings were made in Arabidopsis a model organism that many plant researchers study the scientists say the same karrikin-KAI2 regeneration strategy is undoubtedly found in many plant species. In plants one member
of this family of enzymes has been recruited somehow through natural selection to bind to this molecule in smoke
More research is needed to understand exactly how the change in shape of the KAI2 protein activates a genetic pathway that regulates germination says Chory the Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical
The molecules in a liquid crystal elastomer are like rods that want to point in a particular direction Verduzco said.
Before testing the researchers chemically attached liquid crystal molecules--similar to those used in LCD displays--to the silicones.
Pulickel Ajayan the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering and a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering;
and Walter Chapman the William W. Akers Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering all of Rice; and Prabir Patra an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Bridgeport with a research appointment at Rice.
Verduzco is an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. The research was supported by an IBB Hamill Innovations Grant the Robert A. Welch Foundation the National Science Foundation and the National institutes of health through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases.
and pseudochromosomal molecules are reassembled using powerful computers and algorithms. Wheat has the largest genome among crop plants
While 50 years of inorganic fertilization did increase soil organic carbon stocks in a long-term experiment in western Kansas the practice seemingly failed to enhance soil aggregate stability--a key indicator of soil
which in turn can boost soil organic carbon levels. But unexpectedly in this case we didn't see improvement in soil aggregate stability
even though soil organic carbon concentration increased Blanco says noting that soil particles usually bind together more strongly in aggregates as soil organic carbon concentrations rise.
When he tested soils from the experimental plots he saw soil organic carbon concentrations rise gradually with increases in nitrogen fertilization at soil depths from 0 to 6 inches although not at deeper ones.
Similarly phosphorus fertilization increased soil organic carbon at depths of 0 to 3 inches and 6 to 12 inches.
Some studies suggest that adding fertilizers rich in ammonium ions may cause soil particles to disperse rather than aggregate thereby offsetting any positive effects of increased soil organic carbon content.
'By studying the levels of isotopes in the bones we can for example find out where the animals were raised
and wheat were farmed at the site they point to elevated levels of the isotope N15 (nitrogen 15).
and emit isoprene an abundant molecule in the air known to protect leaves from oxygen damage and temperature fluctuations.
However in 2004 researchers contrary to popular assumptions revealed that isoprene was involved likely in the production of particulate matter tiny particles that can get lodged in lungs lead to lung cancer and asthma and damage other tissues not to mention the environment.
which isoprene contributes to the production of these tiny potentially health-damaging particles. The study found that isoprene once it is altered chemically via exposure to the sun reacts with human-made nitrogen oxides to create particulate matter.
#Recipe for low-cost, biomass-derived catalyst for hydrogen productionin a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Energy
& Environmental science researchers at the U s. Department of energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory describe details of a low-cost stable effective catalyst that could replace costly platinum in the production of hydrogen.
The catalyst made from renewable soybeans and abundant molybdenum metal produces hydrogen in an environmentally friendly cost-effective manner potentially increasing the use of this clean energy source.
and has resulted in the best-performing non-noble-metal-containing hydrogen evolution catalyst yet known--even better than bulk platinum metal Muckerman said.
--either directly or via electricity generated by solar cells--to convert the end products of hydrocarbon combustion water and carbon dioxide back into a carbon-based fuel.
By splitting liquid water (H2o) into hydrogen and oxygen the hydrogen can be regenerated as a gas (H2)
We sought to fabricate a commercially viable catalyst from earth-abundant materials for application in water electrolysis
the best-performing non-noble-metal-containing hydrogen evolution catalyst yet known...This form of hydrogen production could help the scientists achieve their ultimate goal.
A very promising route to making a carbon-containing fuel is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide (or carbon monoxide) using solar-produced hydrogen said Fujita who leads the artificial photosynthesis group in the Brookhaven Chemistry department.
But with platinum as the main ingredient in the most effective water-splitting catalysts the process is currently too costly to be economically viable.
The Brookhaven team had identified already some promising leads with experiments demonstrating the potential effectiveness of low-cost molybdenum paired with carbon as well as the use of nitrogen to confer some resistance to the corrosive acidic environment required in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis cells.
The students set out to identify plentiful and inexpensive sources of carbon and nitrogen and test ways to combine them with a molybdenum salt.
and legumes--with particular interest in those with high protein content because the amino acids that make up proteins are a rich source of nitrogen.
High-protein soybeans turned out to be the best. To make the catalyst the team ground the soybeans into a powder mixed the powder with ammonium molybdate in water then dried
and heated the samples in the presence of inert argon gas. A subsequent high temperature treatment (carburization) induced a reaction between molybdenum
and the carbon and nitrogen components of the soybeans to produce molybdenum carbides and molybdenum nitrides Chen explained.
The process is simple economical and environmentally friendly. Electrochemical tests of the separate ingredients showed that molybdenum carbide is effective for converting H2o to H2
but not stable in acidic solution while molybdenum nitride is corrosion-resistant but not efficient for hydrogen production.
We attribute the high activity of the molybdenum-soy catalyst (Mosoy) to the synergistic effect between the molybdenum-carbide phase
Structural and chemical studies of the new catalyst conducted at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light source (NSLS)
and provide further details underlying the high performance of this new catalyst. The presence of nitrogen and carbon atoms in the vicinity of the catalytic molybdenum center facilitates the production of hydrogen from water Muckerman said.
The scientists also tested the Mosoy catalyst anchored on sheets of graphene--an approach that has proven effective for enhancing catalyst performance in electrochemical devices such as batteries supercapacitors fuel cells and water electrolyzers.
Using a high-resolution transmission microscope in Brookhven's Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department the scientists were able to observe the anchored Mosoy nanocrystals on 2d graphene sheets.
The graphene-anchored Mosoy catalyst surpassed the performance of pure platinum metal. Though not quite as active as commercially available platinum catalysts the high performance of graphene-anchored Mosoy was extremely encouraging to the scientific team.
The direct growth of anchored Mosoy nanocrystals on graphene sheets may enhance the formation of strongly coupled hybrid materials with intimate seamless electron transfer pathways
thus accelerating the electron transfer rate for the chemical desorption of hydrogen from the catalyst further reducing the energy required for the reaction to take place Sasaki said.
The scientists are conducting additional studies to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of the interaction at the catalyst-graphene interface
and earth-abundant transition metal such as molybdenum can be turned into an active catalyst by the controlled solid-state reaction with soybeans#The preparation of the Mosoy catalyst is simple
and transition metals#to produce catalysts for electro-catalytic reactions. Additional collaborators in this research were Chiu-Hui Wang and Yimei Zhu of Brookhaven Lab. Story Source:
Nutritional value and resistant to pathogensthe four clones obtained are characterised by the high presence of antioxidants compounds making them very attractive from a nutritional perspective.
#while the yellow flesh variety have carotenes#essential chemical components for the diet#and in greater quantities than in the usual commercial varieties.
Moreover these varieties incorporate natural antioxidant compounds which are nutritionally and visually attractive both for restaurant professionals and for end consumers#.
article April 5 for the Metallomics journal of The Royal Society of Chemistry on how to use X-ray analysis to map a path to increasing the amount of nitrogen that legumes deposit into the soil Cultivation of legumes the plant family that includes peas beans alfalfa soybeans
Legumes use iron in the soil to carry out a complex chemical process called nitrogen fixation which collects atmospheric nitrogen
and characterize the key biological proteins responsible for iron transportation. That would give researchers targets to manipulate
The other factor that Bowne will test in the future is the sequestration of carbon. Along with the carbon dioxide efflux data in the current study information about carbon sequestration would give a bigger picture of carbon cycling.
That picture could then help researchers determine how various land uses as well as management practices such as no-till agriculture
or leaving grass clippings on lawns can change the carbon cycling. If we go from one land use to another land use how does that impact carbon cycling
which in turn can affect climate change? Our current study touches on one component of that cycle and more research is needed to address this huge topic says Bowne.
and reduce carbon emissions from deforestation. This incentive-based approach is comparatively inexpensive as low agricultural yields
A class of drugs called PPAR agonists that help regulate fat and glucose was considered promising by doctors who prescribed them for patients with metabolic syndrome--a collection of risk factors linked to heart disease
PPARS regulate genes involved in fat and glucose metabolism and when modified can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
In the same way measures of optimism and pessimism can provide indicators for an understanding of animal welfare explains co-author Dr Elodie Briefer from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical sciences.
Dr Alan Mcelligott also from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical sciences said: The study shows that animal rescue centres such as Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats where we collected our data can provide a vital role in reversing long-term neglect once the animals receive excellent care.
Milk is an important source of protein in Niger. Animals graze in rural areas but are brought to the city
#Mushrooms can provide as much Vitamin d as supplementsresearchers from Boston University School of medicine (BUSM) have discovered that eating mushrooms containing Vitamin D2 can be as effective at increasing
and maintaining Vitamin d levels (25-hydroxyvitamin D) as taking supplemental vitamin D2 or vitamin D3.
Vitamin d is crucial for good bone health and muscle strength; adequate amounts help the body maintain bone density reducing the risk of fracture osteomalacia osteoarthritis
The study to be presented consisted of 30 healthy adults who were randomized to take capsules containing 2000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D2 2000 IU of vitamin D3
or 2000 IU of mushroom powder containing vitamin D2 once a day for 12 weeks during the winter.
Baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D 25 (OH) D a measure to determine a person's Vitamin d status were not significantly different among the groups.
After 12 weeks of the Vitamin d supplements serum 25 (OH) D levels were not statistically significantly different than those who ingested 2000 IU of vitamin D2 in mushroom powder.
and contain vitamin D2 are a good source of Vitamin d that can improve the Vitamin d status of healthy adults.
Furthermore we found ingesting mushrooms containing vitamin D2 was as effective in raising and maintaining a healthy adult's Vitamin d status as ingesting a supplement that contained either vitamin D2
or vitamin D3 said Michael F Holick Phd MD the principal investigator of the abstract. The study is available on line concurrently in the journal Dermato-Endocrinology.
These results confirm other studies that have demonstrated that ingesting vitamin D2 either from fortified orange juice a supplement or a pharmaceutical formulation were all capable of increasing total circulating 25 (OH) D concentrations for at least 3 months and up to 6 years added Holick the senior
author of the study. According to Holick and his coauthors ingesting mushrooms containing vitamin D2 can be an effective strategy to enhance a persons'Vitamin d status. The observation that some mushrooms
when exposed to UVB light also produce vitamin D3 and vitamin D4 can also provide the consumer with at least two additional Vitamin ds he added.
In a second poster presentation the researchers were able to determine how mushrooms make vitamin D2
and found that the process is similar to what occurs in human skin after sun exposure.
They were also able to show that mushrooms not only produce vitamin D2 but can produce vitamin D3 and vitamin D4.
Although it has been reported previously that mushrooms have the ability to produce both vitamin D2 and vitamin D4 through our own research we were able to detect several types of Vitamin ds
and provitamin Ds in mushroom samples including vitamin D3 which is made also in human skin added Holick.
According to the researchers these abstracts as well as the on line published study demonstrate that mushrooms are another good natural food source for Vitamin d that can easily be found in ones'local grocery store.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Boston University Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Grains of sand from ancient supernova found in meteorites: Supernova may have been the one that triggered the formation of the solar systemit's a bit like learning the secrets of the family that lived in your house in the 1800s by examining dust particles they left behind in cracks in the floorboards.
By looking at specks of dust carried to earth in meteorites scientists are able to study stars that winked out of existence long before our solar system formed.
Isotopes are different atoms of the same chemical element that have a slightly different mass. Different stars produce different proportions of isotopes.
But the material from which our solar system was fashioned was mixed and homogenized before the solar system formed.
Haenecour with the Nanosims 50 ion microprobe he used to look for presolar grains in a primitive meteorite.
They found they could reproduce the oxygen-18 enrichment of the two grains by mixing small amounts of material from the oxygen-rich inner zones and the oxygen-18-rich helium/carbon zone with large
whose explosion is thought to have started kick the collapse of the molecular cloud out of which the planets of the solar system formed?
The study led by investigator E. Mitchell Seymour Ph d. of the University of Michigan Health System studied the effects of a high fat American-style diet both with added grapes
although the carbon footprint aspect of sustainability receives the most attention nutritional aspects are also important.
Protein is expensive both financially and environmentally so the choice of protein source and amount in the diet are particularly important.
There are thousands of widely varying pet foods on the market. Many are formulated to appeal to the owners who think their pets need extremely high levels of protein and other nutrients.
Often they contain human-grade ingredients thus competing directly with the human food system which will have feed to a human population that is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050.
Previous research by Swanson showed that kittens fed vastly different protein: carbohydrate ratios all remained healthy.
For example animal protein can be replaced by plant protein which requires substantially less water and energy to produce.
Soy-based proteins are a common pet food ingredient and their production is estimated to be 6 to 20 times more efficient in terms of fossil fuel requirements.
and have decided a preference for protein and fat. Swanson said it would be helpful to develop a model that would estimate the environmental impact of pet foods
Most diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's have shown an increased amount of toxic protein Berries seem to promote autophagy the brain's natural housekeeping mechanism thereby reducing the toxic accumulation said Poulose.
We have a lot of animal work that suggests these compounds will protect the aged brain and reverse some of behavioral deficits.
In a new study at UC San francisco researchers measuring chemicals in the blood and urine concluded that hookah smoke contains a different--but still harmful--mix of toxins.
and tobacco the heat causes chemical reactions in the mixture which produce toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCS) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS).
Pesticides kill protein-rich insects that bustard chicks rely on for rapid growth to be able to migrate come fall.
The protein forms a chain a bit like a necklace that wraps around and protects the RNA the genetic material of the virus. This chain also recruits other proteins that are vital to the virus'ability to multiply
and cause disease. We have developed a very finely detailed picture of the shape of the protein
and all the nooks and crannies that it needs to present to other molecules to be able to function.
The nucleocapsid proteins bind together in a ringlike structure of four identical protein units and the ring is held together by contacts between the protein units a bit like people holding hands in a circle.
Co-lead Dr Tom Edwards also from Leeds'Faculty of Biological sciences said: The shape of the nucleocapsid protein has shown us important details of how the individual proteins in these rings are interacting.
This not only tells us how the virus works but importantly we think we can block that interaction
and disrupt the process of making the ring. That could be the chink in its armour.
It would stop the protein wrapping up the RNA and would essentially kill the virus. We are now designing small molecules that could block ring formation
and could therefore be an effective antiviral drug. The Schmallenberg virus appears to be spread by midges.
Plant lipids are the key to biofuel production and preliminary tests show that the composition of lipids in hydrogen sulfide-treated plants is the same as in untreated plants he said.
When plants grow to larger-than-normal size they typically do not produce more cells
Dogs were key to the new study said Knight of CU-Boulder's chemistry and biochemistry department since results from previous studies suggested there were components of co-habitation involved in microbe sharing.
and UC Berkeley and have discovered new materials to capture methane the second highest concentration greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.
and gas extraction and the potential for large-scale release of methane from the Arctic as ice cover continues to melt
Unlike carbon dioxide the largest emitted greenhouse gas which can be captured both physically and chemically in a variety of solvents and porous solids methane is completely nonpolar
and ingenious molecular-level designs Maiti said. Methane is far more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2.
Researchers have found that the release of as little as 1 percent of methane from the Arctic alone could have a warming effect approaching that being produced by all of the CO2 that has been pumped into the atmosphere by human activity since the start of the Industrial revolution.
Methane is emitted at a wide range of concentrations from a variety of sources including natural gas systems livestock landfills coal mining manure management wastewater treatment rice cultivation and a few combustion processes.
The team's research focused on two different applications--concentrating a medium-purity methane stream to a high-purity range (greater than 90 percent) as involved in purifying a low-quality natural gas;
Zeolites are unique structures that can be used for many different types of gas separations and storage applications because of their diverse topology from various networks of the framework atoms.
This team dubbed Algafuture is composed of undergraduates and graduate students from the departments of Geography and Environmental Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular engineering.
Their faculty advisers are Edward Bouwer professor and chair of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and Michael Betenbaugh professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering.
Cellulose and starch have the same chemical formula Zhang said. The difference is in their chemical linkages.
Our idea is to use an enzyme cascade to break up the bonds in cellulose enabling their reconfiguration as starch.
or chemical reagents and does not generate any waste. The key enzymes immobilized on the magnetic nanoparticles can easily be recycled using a magnetic force.
Additional resources were contributed by the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life sciences'Biodesign and Bioprocessing Research center the Shell Gamechanger Program and the U s. Department of energy Bioenergy Science Center along with the Division of Chemical sciences
and reduce carbon emissions from deforestation. This incentive-based approach is comparatively inexpensive as low agricultural yields
In the body the nitrate is converted to a chemical called nitrite and then to nitric oxide in the blood.
Nitric oxide is a gas that widens blood vessels and aids blood flow. We were surprised by how little nitrate was needed to see such a large effect Ahluwalia said.
This beautiful'molecular fossil'has a remarkably slow mutation rate meaning that its mitochondrial genome has remained largely unchanged
Prof Jeffrey Palmer who led this study explained By using the tulip tree as a guide we are able to estimate that the ancestral angiosperm mitochondrial genome contained 41 protein genes 14 trna genes seven trna
genes sequestered from chloroplasts and more than 700 sites of protein editing. Based on this it appears that the genome has been more
#Maya Long Count calendar calibrated to modern European calendar using carbon-14 datingthe Maya are famous for their complex intertwined calendric systems
A combination of high-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry carbon-14 dates and a calibration using tree growth rates showed the GMT correlation is correct.
This same lintel was one of three analyzed in the previous carbon-14 study. Researchers measured tree growth by tracking annual changes in calcium uptake by the trees which is greater during the rainy season.
The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is incorporated into a tree's incremental growth.
Atmospheric carbon-14 changes through time and during the Classic Maya period oscillated up and down. The researchers took four samples from the lintel
The researchers used this information to fit the four radiocarbon dates to the wiggles in the calibration curve.
Wiggle-matching the carbon-14 dates provided a more accurate age for linking the Maya
These calculations were complicated further by known differences in the atmospheric radiocarbon content between northern and southern hemisphere.
The complication is that radiocarbon concentrations differ between the southern and northern hemisphere said Kennett. The Maya area lies on the boundary and the atmosphere is a mixture of the southern and northern hemispheres that changes seasonally.
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