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Baby’s sex drives response to pregnancy stress

April 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 30 (ANI): The sex of the baby determines the way it responds to stressors during pregnancy and its ability to survive pregnancy complications, a University of Adelaide research has shown.

Male and female babies during pregnancy show different growth and development patterns following stressors during pregnancy such as disease, cigarette use or psychological stress.

The research is being carried out by the Robinson Institute”s Pregnancy and Development Group, based at the Lyell McEwin Hospital and led by Associate Professor Vicki Clifton.

“What we have found is that male and female babies will respond to a stress during pregnancy by adjusting their growth patterns differently,” said Associate Professor Clifton.

“The male, when mum is stressed, pretends it”s not happening and keeps growing, so he can be as big as he possibly can be. The female, in response to mum”s stress, will reduce her growth rate a little bit; not too much so she becomes growth restricted, but just dropping a bit below average.

“When there is another complication in the pregnancy – either a different stress or the same one again – the female will continue to grow on that same pathway and do okay but the male baby doesn”t do so well and is at greater risk of pre-term delivery, stopping growing or dying in the uterus.”

Associate Professor Clifton said this sex-specific growth response had been observed in pregnancies complicated by asthma, pre-eclampsia and cigarette use but was also likely to occur in other stressful events during pregnancy such as psychological stress. (ANI)

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Forums focus on mine safety

April 8, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The business and health ramifications of hazards in the mining industry are the focus of a series of workshops being held across central western New South Wales.

Industry and Investment NSW is hosting the seminars during the next seven months which will discuss health and fatigue management and musculoskeletal disorders.

The workshops in Orange, Dubbo, Cobar and Lithgow have been organised following the Wran Mine Safety Review.

The director of mine safety performance, John Flint, says the personal cost to staff and companies can be significant if it is not properly managed.

“Best practice occupational health and safety, which includes best practice health management, is one of the pathway to high productivity,” he said.

“You cannot have a highly productive mine if you have poor health and safety.”

Mr Flint says the issues are not just confined to the mining industry.

“They’re a problem for general industry as well but they’re specifically to address issues that have been identified as areas of need in the mining industry, not discounting that they are issues in other industries as well,” he said.

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Universities want permanent residency for post-grads

April 1, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Australia’s top universities have called for a new visa to be established that would clear the way for post-graduate students to gain permanent residency.

The Federal Government is reviewing its points system for skilled migrants ahead of changes to the list of preferred skills that will come into effect later this year.

In its submission on the points test, the Group of Eight, which represents Australia’s top academic institutions, said it would like to see PhD students guaranteed a three-year visa after completing an Australian degree, with a clear pathway to a permanent visa.

The submission suggests a similar arrangement with Masters students.

It argues the change would allow Australia to attract and retain high-calibre students from around the world.

Max King from Monash University says there is a talent war going on around the world and the Government is already worried about retaining its position in the knowledge economy.

“They are concerned about the number of graduates we have from PhDs in particular and are looking at ways to solve a problem we can see coming, that we won’t have enough researchers in the future unless we do something about it now,” he said.

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Security issues for Indian Ocean coastline: report

April 1, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

A new report is calling for a renewed focus on the security of Western Australia’s coast line.

The report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute says Australia’s position in the Indian Ocean makes it a ‘critical maritime pathway’.

One of the report’s authors Anthony Bergin says Western Australia is fuelling the nation’s economy and protecting mining interests along the coastline is critical to the nation’s economic prosperity.

“In the coming decades we will need to increase our defence infrastructure in Western Australia. The north-west of Western Australia is really going to be at the heart of our wealth creation for the next half of the century.”

He says there is a strong argument for a new naval base to be developed in the state’s north west and for better use of the existing Learmonth base.

“We need to increase our exercises in north-western Australia. We recommend having a naval base in the north-west with increasing critical offshore infrastructure.”

He says the Commonwealth has long had security and foreign policies for the Southern and Pacific Oceans but has neglected the Indian Ocean.

“The Indian Ocean is going to be the centre stage for much of the geopolitical competition in the 21st century. We are seeing both India and China making increasing inroads into the Indian Ocean and while I am not predicting a direct military clash, there is going to be increasing contestation.

“Each side fears really being contained by the other. In China’s case because India is supported by Japan and the US and India is really obsessed with China’s entry into the Indian Ocean region.

“Competition, contests, could in the worst case lead to conflict. And, obviously the worst case scenario is it could lead to a new Cold War in the Indian Ocean and we want to avoid that.”

Mr Bergin says the Commonwealth Government needs to take a keener interest in the region.

And, he says Western Australia’s Government should consider appointing a Minister for the Indian Ocean

He says Australia should increase its strategic presence in the Indian Ocean region and develop clear security policies for the next century.

“The bottom line, I think, is that the energy security concerns of east Asia and the rise of China and India are going to be the major determinants of how the Indian Ocean plays out in terms of geo-politics.”

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Protein that tells the heart when it”s big enough identified

March 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 26 (ANI): Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found the secret behind how the human heart and other organs automatically “right size” themselves— a protein discovered in fruit fly eyes.

The protein, named Kibra, is linked to a relay of chemical signals responsible for shaping and sizing tissue growth by coordinating control of cell proliferation and death.

The discovery could hold clues to controlling cancer.

In a series of experiments, the scientists manipulated Kibra”s role in a signalling network called the Hippo pathway, which consists of several proteins working together as a braking system.

Counterparts of the components in the Hippo pathway in flies are found in most animals, suggesting that this pathway may act as a “global regulator” of organ size control, said Dr. Duojia Pan.

“People have always been curious about what makes a hippopotamus grow so much bigger than a mouse. As well as how our two hands, which develop independently, get to very similar sizes. Our studies show that Kibra regulates Hippo, which keeps organs characteristically sized, preventing my heart or your liver from becoming as hefty as those befitting a large African amphibious mammal,” said Pan.

The researchers identified the gene they named Hippo in 2003, showing that an abnormal copy of it led to an unusually large eye in a developing fruit fly.

Pan said that the new experiments moved the investigation “slowly and methodically upstream” to find Hippo”s trigger, where “the key to size-control lies.”

Pan added that the Hippo-Kibra link could be a key to understanding and treating cancer because cancer is literally a disease of uncontrolled growth.

The Johns Hopkins and Florida State teams discovered Kibra by studying ovarian cells from adult flies and by using a gene-controlling technique called RNA interference (RNAi) to systematically turn off each of the approximately 14,000 genes in the fly genome, one at a time, in cultured fly cells.

They then analysed the function of Kibra in the developing fly larvae.

They found that the Hippo pathway was not active in the absence Kibra.

Further studies on human cells measured the activity of the Hippo pathway while manipulating human Kibra and showed that like its fruit fly counterpart, human Kibra acts as a tumour suppressor protein that regulates Hippo signalling.

“The discovery of Kibra moves us an important step closer to identifying the initial signal that triggers Hippo”s activation. We”re making progress along the Hippo pathway, heading toward the cell surface, and believe we will find that elusive signal en route,” said Pan.

The study has been published in Developmental Cell. (ANI)

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MP urges more prison training opportunities

March 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Pilbara MP Tom Stephens has expressed concern over the lack of training and education programs for people in WA prisons.

Mr Stephens says Casuarina Prison is overflowing at more than 170 per cent capacity, with half of those prisoners being Aboriginal, from regional areas.

He says there is a real need for the Government to provide opportunities for prisoners rather than just contributing to an already overcrowded prison system.

“They’re not getting access to the education, training, literacy programs that are needed to put people on a pathway towards employment,” Mr Stephens said.

“This is a worry for taxpayers, it’s a futile waste of money. There’s not enough effort being put into averting people away from the prison system into alternative strategies.”

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T20 could sound death knell for Test cricket: MCC boss

March 25, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, Mar.25 (ANI): The increasing popularity of the slam bang T20 cricket could ‘sound the death knell for Test cricket’, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) chief Keith Bradshaw has warned.

In his article for the April edition of the Wisden Cricket magazine, Bradshaw said the danger of Test cricket being rendered redundant looms large as many players have bid adieu to the longer version of the game to prolong their career in the latest and more lucrative edition.

“I consider myself optimistic, but it isn’t difficult to look ahead and see the pessimists’ apocalyptic version of the future of the game — where Tests are virtually redundant, Twenty20 saturates and players are globe-trotting mercenaries,” Bradshaw said.

“We know several players have already forgone playing Tests to prolong more lucrative Twenty20 careers,” he added.

Bradshaw said the Twenty20 cricket would leave future generations of cricketers ill-equipped to handle the pressure and demands of longer formats such as first-class and Test match cricket.

“I believe the more covert long-term problem will be that young players will be schooled purely in the Twenty20 game and be unable to adapt to the demands of cricket played over three, four and five days,” he said.

Bradshaw, however, expressed the hope that despite it threatening the conventional form of game, T20 cricket could prove beneficial for the expansion of cricket in countries which have until now been left untouched.

“Twenty20 could sound the death knell for Test cricket but it could also prove to be the perfect vehicle for the expansion of the game into other countries. The shorter the game, the greater the leveller, and Twenty20 is an excellent pathway into the elite fold,” he said. (ANI)

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Silk made by common Australian green lacewing toughest: Study

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, September 10 (ANI): A new research has found that Australian lacewings build tougher silk than silkworms.

Scientists at CSIRO Entomology have learnt that silk made by the common Australian green lacewing can be stretched up to six times further than silkworm silk.

Moreover, its unusual structure makes it potentially much easier to manufacture artificially.

The common Australian green lacewing (Mallada signata) produces silk to create tiny stiff stalks to hold each of its eggs on.

The insect pushes out a liquid drop of silk dope before stretching it out to the point at which it stiffens and then placing the egg safely on top.

Researchers found that the lacewing silk was different from the silk created by other insects and had had its own evolutionary pathway.

Unlike the plank-like structure of other silks from spiders or silkworms, lacewing silk contains two fibrous proteins structured like a concertina door, giving it extra toughness and elasticity.

According to Dr Tara Sutherland, who was part research team, the lacewing silk protein is also shorter and less repetitive, making it easier to reproduce artificially by fermentation in bacteria.

“Silks are made under benign conditions. They’re made at room temperature, from an aqueous system and from readily replaced building blocks, so it’s a very environmentally friendly process, in contrast to the synthetic equivalents,” ABC Science quoted Sutherland as saying.

She added: “The material has a lot of strength and it’s very, very light so it’s quite remarkable. It’s also very tough.”

Apart from the traditional textile uses, the biocompatibility of the natural fibre allows this kind of silk to be used in high-tech medical applications such as providing the scaffolding for growing new human cells on.

The research will be published in the Journal of Structural Biology. (ANI)

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Over-expressed protein may make non-invasive breast cancer invasive

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 9 (ANI): An over-expressed protein can convert active but non-invasive breast cancer into a different cell type, and thereby turn it into invasive breast cancer, according to scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The researchers say that overexpression of the protein 14-3-3? (zeta) launches a molecular cascade that removes bonds that tie the pre-malignant cells together, and hold them in place, converting them from stationary epithelial cells to highly mobile mesenchymal-like cells.

This epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is recognized as a crucial step in metastasis, the spread of cancer to distant organs that causes 90 percent of all cancer deaths.

“We have discovered a key molecular mechanism for the deadly transition of non-invasive breast cancer into invasive disease,” said senior author Dr. Dihua Yu.

The researchers have shown that the zeta protein teams up with the oncoprotein ErbB2, also known as HER2, in a two-hit process to convert normal mammary cells to invasive cancer cells.

The findings of the study also provided a biomarker in zeta to identify high-risk patients for more aggressive treatment before their noninvasive breast cancer converts to invasive disease.

The researchers also got new therapeutic targets among the components of the molecular pathway launched by zeta.

According to Yu, some drugs already aim at these targets.

In addition, they found a solution to a puzzling mystery about how a subset of non-invasive breast cancer with excessive presence of an ErbB2/HER2 develops into invasive breast cancer.

Earlier, the researchers showed that zeta is over-expressed in many other cancer types, like lung, liver, uterine, stomach cancers.

“Our findings might have broader implications relating to the mechanism of invasion and metastasis in other types of cancer,” Yu said.

The researchers said that it would be very challenging to target zeta by drugs because it also regulates other important proteins in normal cellular processes.

The study has been published in the journal Cancer Cell. (ANI)

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UK faces terror threat as CIA threatens to stop sharing intelligence

September 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep.6 (ANI): Britain is facing the likelihood of an increased terror threat after the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) threatened to stop sharing vital intelligence following the Lockerbie bomber’s release.

According to a News of The World report, Washington has warned British intelligence services that sending cancer-stricken Abdel Baset al-Megrahi home to Libya has destroyed a “special relationship”.

The CIA has also warned they may not pass on vital information picked up by their sophisticated eavesdropping satellites.

The Americans are reportedly furious at the bomber’s release.

Senior British security sources have told the News of the World the row threatens to put Britain’s security at risk.

They say American intelligence was vital in Operation Pathway – which thwarted a possible UK al Qaeda operation in April.

One security source revealed: “A large number of CIA agents are effectively British intelligence officers. They are doing a terribly important job.”

He added that the FBI had joined forces with the CIA to show the US anger. (ANI)

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Metal catalysts in carbon nanotubes block critical signalling pathway in neurons

August 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 28 (ANI): In what may prove very useful in improving treatments for human neurological disorders, Brown University scientists have found out why carbon nanotubes tend to block a critical signalling pathway in neurons.

Writing about their findings in the journal Biomaterials, the researchers have revealed that it is not the tubes, but the metal catalysts used to form them, that are to blame.

They say that minute amounts of a metal called ‘yttrium’ may impede neuronal activity.

They add that the findings mean that carbon nanotubes without metal catalysts may be able to treat human neurological disorders, although other possible biological effects still need to be studied.

“It’s a problem we can fix. We can purify the nanotubes by removing the metals, so it’s a problem we can fix,” said Lorin Jakubek, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering and lead author of the paper.

Taking single-walled carbon nanotubes to the laboratory of Brown neuroscientist Diane Lipscombe, the research team zeroed in on ion channels located at the end of neurons’ axons.

These channels are gateways of sorts, driven by changes in the voltage across neurons’ membranes. When an electrical signal, known as an action potential, is triggered in neurons, these ion channels “open”, each designed to take in a certain ion.

One such ion channel passes only calcium, a protein that is critical for transmitter release and thus for neurons to communicate with each other.

In experiments using cloned calcium ion channels in embryonic kidney cells, the researchers found that nickel and yttrium, two metal catalysts used to form the single-walled carbon nanotubes, were interfering with the ion channel’s ability to absorb the calcium.

Lipscombe, who specializes in neuronal ion channels and is a corresponding author on the paper, pointed out that yttrium’s ionic radius is nearly identical to calcium’s, which is why it “gets stuck and prevents calcium from entering and passing through. It’s an ion pore blocker.”

The experiments showed that yttrium in trace amounts – less than 1 microgram per milliliter of water – may disrupt normal calcium signalling in neurons and other electrically active cells, an amount far lower than what had been thought to be safe levels.

With nickel, the amount needed to impede calcium signalling was 300 times higher.

“Yttrium is so potent that … a very low nanotube dose” would be needed to affect neuronal activity, said Robert Hurt, professor of engineering and a corresponding author on the paper.

Jakubek said she was surprised that the metals turned out to be the cause.

“Based on the literature, I thought it would be the nanotubes themselves,” she said. (ANI)

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Molecule having anti-fat, anti-cancer abilities found to be a turnoff for fat genes

August 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 28 (ANI): Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have found that a small molecule, earlier found to have anti-fat and anti-cancer abilities, has the potential to put off fat-making genes.

Such action in mice genetically prone to obesity causes the animals to become leaner, they say.

The researchers have also found the molecule to lowers the amount of fat in the mice’s livers, along with their blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

“We are frankly very excited about it. It goes to the origin of [fat synthesis] – all the way back to gene expression,” said Salih Wakil at Baylor.

Unlike cholesterol-lowering statins in use today, which block a single enzyme in the pathway, the chemical the researchers call fatostatin, “hits fat from the very beginning,” said Motonari Uesugi.

As a result, fatostatin influences many of the genes involved in fat production and in various aspects of metabolic syndrome – a collection of risk factors including obesity, high cholesterol and insulin resistance – in one go.

Studies in cell culture showed that fatostatin, previously known only as 125B11, significantly lowers the activity of 63 genes, including 34 directly associated with fatty acid or cholesterol synthesis.

Many of these genes were known to be under the control of SREBP – a transcription factor which act as a well-known master controller of fat synthesis.

After more detailed analysis, the researchers found that the drug candidate blocked SREBP by preventing it from becoming active and entering the nucleus, where it would otherwise switch on the fat-making program.

According to them, it operates by binding another protein (called SCAP), which serves as SREBP’s escort into the nucleus.

It was found that obese mice injected with fatostatin show noticeable reductions in their weight despite little difference in their eating habits, the researchers report.

After four weeks of treatment, the animals weighed 12 percent less and had 70 percent lower blood sugar levels.

Their cholesterol levels (both LDL and HDL) were down too. The concentration of fatty acids in their blood was actually higher- a sign of their greater demand for fat to burn.

While the livers of the obese mice were heavy and pale with fat, treated animals’ livers were more than 30 percent lighter and were a healthy-looking red.

Although less obvious, the SREBP-blocking ability might also explain the molecule’s earlier reported effects against prostate cancer cells in culture as well.

They explained that cells need fatty acids and cholesterol to build their cell membranes and continue growing.

Researchers are optimistic that fatostatin could prove to be clinically useful in the context of obesity, and perhaps cardiovascular disease and diabetes as well.

“Hopefully down the road, fatostatin or a derivative of fatostatin may be helpful. It could have a broad impact on the key diseases we all suffer from,” said Wakil.

Uesugi said that fatostatin or its analogs may also serve a tool for gaining further insights into the regulation of SREBP and fat metabolism.

The study has been published in the journal Chemistry and Biology. (ANI)

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Gene linked with language, speech, reading disorders identified

August 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 28 (ANI): An international group of American and Spanish researchers have identified a new candidate gene for Specific Language Impairment.

Mabel Rice at the University of Kansas, Shelley Smith of University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Javier Gayan of Seville-based Neocodex in Spain have shed light on the KIAA0319 in the current issue of the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

The researchers have revealed that the gene found on Chromosome 6 was associated with variability in language abilities in a study of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and their family members.

They say that the gene was also found to be linked with variability in speech and reading abilities.

According to the researchers, the children they selected for the study had no hearing loss, general intellectual deficit or autism

Language ability involves vocabulary and grammar, whereas speech involves the accuracy of sound production. Both language and speech ability contribute to a child’s ability to read.

The researchers say that the finding that a candidate gene could influence all three abilities suggests a common pathway that could contribute to overlapping strengths or deficiencies across speech, language and reading.

Rice said: “We don’t understand the biological mechanisms yet but it’s important that we have identified the first gene that could be involved across these three different dimensions of development.”

The study involved 322 individuals, including children with SLI, their parents, siblings, and other family members.

“We have come to realize that language really sets the platform for reading to emerge and to thrive. Without a solid language system, it’s much harder to get reading going,” said Rice. (ANI)

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Nighttime alertness probed

August 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 27 (ANI): A new study, conducted by researchers in the U.S., has shown that the circadian system is not the only pathway involved in determining alertness at night – red light, which does not stimulate the circadian system, is just as effective at increasing nighttime alertness as blue light, which does.

Mariana Figueiro from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, and colleagues examined the effects of the different lighting conditions.

“It is now well accepted that the circadian system is maximally sensitive to short-wavelength (blue) light and is quite insensitive to long-wavelength (red) light. We’ve shown that a moderate level of red light impacts alertness, an effect that must occur via a pathway other than the circadian system,” she said.

Circadian rhythms are roughly 24-hour cycles in various biological processes, such as core body temperature, melatonin synthesis and sleep-wake behavior, that repeat approximately every 24 hours and are synchronized most strongly by the light-dark cycle in the environment.

Bright light is known to increase alertness at night, but it has never been completely clear whether this light-induced alertness can arise from neural pathways other than those involved in the circadian system.

“There is previous compelling evidence that light-induced stimulation of the circadian system increases alertness at night, but our results suggest that this effect is mediated not only by the circadian system, but also through other mechanisms,” Figueiro added.

The research has been described in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience. (ANI)

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Scientists discover signaling pathway which ensures that plants remember to flower

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 21 (ANI): A team of scientists has discovered signaling pathway that ensures plants remember to flower, even without positive signals from the environment.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany found the solution to the mystery that why do some plants blossom even when days are short and gray.

According to the researchers, an endogenous mechanism allows them to flower in the absence of external influences such as long days.

A small piece of RNA, a so-called microRNA, has a central role in this process, as a decline of its concentration in the shoot apex triggers flowering.

MicroRNAs are very short RNA snippets that have emerged in recent years as essential regulators of gene function in both plants and animals.

By binding to complementary motifs in a messenger RNA, they inhibit its translation into protein. This process thus blunts the activity of the corresponding gene.

In Tubingen, developmental biologists have discovered that the common wallcress, Arabidopsis, uses this regulatory mechanism to switch from vegetative to reproductive development.

A group of related regulators, the SPL proteins, play an important role in promoting the onset of flowering.

In young plants, high levels of microRNA156 prevent production of SPL proteins.

Jia-Wei Wang and colleagues demonstrate that independent of external cues, the concentration of the microRNA declines over time, like sand running through an hourglass.

When the microRNA concentration falls below a certain level, enough SPL proteins are produced to activate the flowering process even in the absence of other regulators that measure day length or external temperature.

This in turns allows a sufficiently old plant to flower, even in an unfavorable environment.

Interestingly, the SPLs do double duty, since they have supporting roles when plants flower in response to long days.

Furthermore, both the SPLs and other regulators eventually converge on a similar set of targets crucial for flowering.

According to Detlef Weigel, director at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, “Flowering is crucial for the long-term survival of plants. The redundancy of environment-dependent and independent mechanisms ensures that plants do not wait forever until flowering.” (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: absence, activity, ANI, apex, Arabidopsis, August, biology, blossom, Common Wallcress, concentration, converge, day, decline, Detlef, Development, developmental, Developmental Biologists, developmental biology, director, Double Duty, duty, environment, External Cues, external temperature, flower, Flowering, function, gene, Gene Function, Germany, group, hourglass, institute, Jia, Jia-Wei, length, level, max, max planck institute, max-planck, measure, mechanism, messenger, Messenger Rna, microRNA, MicroRNAs, mystery, onset, pathway, piece, Planck, plant, plants and animals, process, production, protein, redundancy, regulatory mechanism, Reproductive Development, response, rna, role, sand, set, shoot, Shoot Apex, solution, SPL, SPLs, survival, team, temperature, time, Translation, Tübingen, Unfavorable Environment, Wang, Washington, Wei Wang, Weigel

Tone-deaf people lack an important neural pathway

August 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 19 (ANI): Researchers have found that the nerve fibres that link perception and motor regions of the brain are disconnected in tone-deaf people.

According to experts’ estimates, at least 10 percent of the population may be tone deaf – unable to sing in tune.

The new finding has pinpointed a particular brain circuit that is believed to be absent in these individuals.

“The anomaly suggests that tone-deafness may be a previously undetected neurological syndrome similar to other speech and language disorders, in which connections between perceptual and motor regions are impaired,” said Dr. Psyche Loui, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, one of the study’s authors.

For the study, the researchers used an MRI-based technique called diffusion tensor imaging to examine connections between the right temporal and frontal lobes.

It is known that this region, a neural “highway” called the arcuate fasciculus, is involved in linking music and language perception with vocal production.

They took brain images of 20 people, half of whom had been identified as tone-deaf through listening tests.

The arcuate fasciculus was smaller in volume, and had a lower fibre count in the tone-deaf individuals.

Particularly, the superior branch of the arcuate fasciculus in the right hemisphere could not be detected in the tone-deaf individuals.

Thus, the researchers speculated that this could mean the branch is missing entirely, or is so abnormally deformed that it appears invisible to even the most advanced neuroimaging methods.

“The findings are clear. They show that the arcuate fasciculus, a structure long-known to join perceptual and motor areas, has reduced connectivity in individuals with tone deafness. Beyond improving our understanding of the anatomical underpinnings of tone-deafness, this study provides new insight into a person’s ability to detect pitch,” said Dr. Nina Kraus, at Northwestern University.

The findings add to previous work by the same researchers demonstrating that tone-deaf people could not consciously hear their own singing, and work by other researchers indicating abnormalities in brain regions that affect sound perception and production.

The study has been published in the latest issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ability, ANI, arcuate, Arcuate Fasciculus, Aug, Beth Israel, beth israel deaconess, beth israel deaconess medical, beth israel deaconess medical center, brain, Brain Circuit, brain images, branch, center, circuit, connectivity, count, Deaconess, deaconess medical center, Deaf Individuals, diffusion, diffusion tensor imaging, Dr. Nina Kraus, Dr. Psyche Loui, fibre, finding, frontal lobes, half, harvard, harvard medical school, hemisphere, highway, imaging, insight, israel deaconess medical center, issue, journal, language, link, medical, motor, MRI-based, music, nerve, nerve fibres, neural, Neural Pathway, Neuroimaging Methods, Neurological Syndrome, neuroscience, northwestern, pathway, percent, perception, perceptual, person, pitch, population, production, region, regions of the brain, right, right hemisphere, school, singing, sound, speech, Speech And Language Disorders, structure, study, syndrome, technique, tensor, tone, Tone Deafness, Tone-deaf, tune, understanding, University, volume, Washington, work

Cellular crosstalk contributes to asthma, pulmonary hypertension

August 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 18 (ANI): Crosstalk between cells lining the lung (epithelial cells) and airway smooth muscle cells could be linked to lung diseases, such as asthma and pulmonary hypertension.

Already, it is known that such crosstalk is important in lung development.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, have now molecularly characterized one crosstalk pathway in mice, which could provide potential new therapeutic targets for treating individuals with lung diseases, such as asthma and pulmonary hypertension, which are caused, at least in part, by affects on airway smooth muscle cells.

The team, led by Edward Morrisey and Ethan David Cohen, used numerous in vivo gain- and loss-of-function approaches to demonstrate that a Wnt7b/Tnc/Pdgfr crosstalk pathway was important for mouse smooth muscle development.

They also showed that lung epithelial cells exclusively express Wnt7b and the developing airway smooth muscle cells express Pdgfr.

Particularly, expression of the components of this crosstalk pathway was upregulated in a mouse model of asthma and humans with pulmonary hypertension.

Thus indentifying the Wnt/Tnc/Pdgfr crosstalk pathway is equally important in both lung development and adult lung disease. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: asthma, crosstalk, david cohen, Development Researchers, expression, Hypertension, Lung Development, Lung Disease, lung diseases, mice, morrisey, mouse model, muscle development, pathway, pennsylvania philadelphia, pulmonary hypertension, Smooth Muscle Cells, therapeutic targets, tnc, university of pennsylvania

How to make a lung

August 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 18 (ANI): Scientists from University of Pennsylvania have shed light on how lungs are developed in the body.

They have identified a tissue-repair-and-regeneration pathway in the human body, including wound healing that is essential for the early lung to develop properly.

The researchers have also discovered two molecules in this pathway, Wnt2 and Wnt2b that play a key role in early lung development.

“We wanted to know the answer to a seemingly simple question: What is required to generate the lung in mammals?” said senior author Dr Edward Morrisey, Associate Professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

“Wnt molecules are important for lung growth and we think that some of the molecules in the Wnt pathway are needed to specify lung progenitor cells and if not enough cells are ‘told’ to make a lung, an animal develops a faulty, smaller organ or even no lung,” he added.

Understanding how a lung develops is important in treating or preventing a host of lung and pulmonary diseases in children.

In the developing embryo, the lung, pancreas, liver, thyroid, and stomach all come from the foregut region, which starts out looking like a long tube.

“These organs bud from this undifferentiated tube and go on to develop into specific tissue types. The lung is one of the last to bud off the foregut during development,” said Morrisey.

The team focused on the Wnt pathway to see where and when Wnt molecules were expressed along the foregut tube, even before the lung starts to become a recognizable organ.

They found that the Wnt proteins Wnt2 and Wnt2b are expressed in the cells surrounding the foregut, right where the lung will eventually form. When they are knocked out, the animals completely lacked lungs.

Morrisey surmised that Wnt2 and Wnt2b were required to specify the early progenitors for the lung in the foregut.

The Morrisey lab showed that activation of the Wnt pathway resulted in formation of lung progenitors in both the esophagus and stomach where they are normally excluded.

“The ability of Wnt to program esophagus and stomach endoderm to a lung fate points to the critical role this pathway plays in lung development and suggests the possible use of Wnt in generating lung epithelium from non-lung sources,” said Morrisey.

The findings are described this week in Developmental Cell. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ability, activation, ANI, animal, answer, associate, Aug, author, biology, body, Bud, cell, Development, developmental, developmental biology, Dr Edward, Dr Edward Morrisey, embryo, endoderm, epithelium, fate, foregut, formation, generating, growth, host, human body, key role, lab, last, liver, lung, Lung Development, Lung Growth, make, mammals, medicine, molecules, organ, pancreas, pathway, Pennsylvania, pennsylvania school, professor, progenitor, progenitors, program, Pulmonary Diseases, question, region, right, role, school, school of medicine, stomach, team, thyroid, tissue, Tissue Repair, Tissue Types, tube, understanding, University, university of pennsylvania, university of pennsylvania school of medicine, use, Washington, week, Wnt, wnt pathway, Wnt Proteins, wound healing

Oz rules force foreign students to become economic slaves

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Sydney, July 15 (ANI): Businesses across Australia are exploiting thousands of international students by making them work free or even to pay to get work, as the current immigration and education laws in the country require students to gain 900 hours’ of work experience.

Termed by experts as economic slavery, the vast pool of unpaid labour was created in 2005 when vocational students were required to work even if they were not paid.

Overseas students remained bound to the system as completion of such courses became a near-guaranteed pathway to permanent residency, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Since then, the number of foreign students enrolled in the vocational training sector has leapt from 65,120 to 173,432 last year – about half of all our overseas students.

One university-educated overseas student said that she spent 22,000 dollars and two years doing a hairdressing course she will never use, to secure her residency.

Many colleges charge students thousands of dollars in “placement fees” only to advertise their supply of free labour to local business. A black market has sprung up in fraudulent letters of completion.

“You’ve got the agents and the proprietors realising there is a flood of free labour, but of course the demand for placements outstrips the supply – so even if they wanted to take all that free labour, they can’t use it all,” said immigration agent, Karl Konrad.

A trade in fraudulent documents had evolved with employers and agents selling students verification that they had completed their 900 hours. They charge between 15,000-20,000 dollars for such paperwork.

“They are slaves. They work for free from 11 o’clock to 11 o’clock – no breaks, no nothing. They have to pay the owner for the paperwork. They want to stay here. They will do anything. They work with no workers’ compensation, no insurance. If they are injured at work, bad luck,” one agent said.

Konrad said many students had taken out loans or mortgages at home to pay the fees.

“If you have taken a loan in Indian dollars of 20,000 dollars to study here, that is going to take you nearly 20 years to pay off in India. Parents can be kicked out of their homes,” he said. (ANI)

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Signalling pathway operational in intra-abdominal fat identified

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 15 (ANI): Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers and Germany-based University of Leipzig experts have announced the identification of a signalling pathway that is operational in intra-abdominal fat, the fat depot that is most strongly tied to obesity-related morbidity.

“Fat tissue in obesity is dysfunctional, yet, the processes that cause fat tissue to malfunction are poorly understood-specifically, it is unknown how fat cells ‘translate’ stresses in obesity into dysfunction,” said Dr. Assaf Rudich, senior lecturer from the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Ben-Gurion University.

Fat tissue is no longer considered simply a storage place for excess calories, but in fact is an active tissue that secretes multiple compounds, thereby communicating with other tissues, including the liver, muscles, pancreas and the brain.

Normal communication is needed for optimal metabolism and weight regulation, but in obesity, fat (adipose) tissue becomes dysfunctional, and mis-communicates with the other tissues.

According to the researchers, this places fat tissue at a central junction in mechanisms leading to common diseases attributed to obesity, like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The researchers highlight the fact that fat tissue dysfunction is believed to be caused by obesity-induced fat tissue stress: Cells over-grow as they store increasing amounts of fat. They say that this excessive cell growth may cause decreased oxygen delivery into the tissue; individual cells may die (at least in mouse models), and fat tissue inflammation ensues.

Excess nutrients, they add, may also lead to increased metabolic demands, and cause cellular stress.

The BGU and Leipzig teams collected fat tissue samples from people undergoing abdominal surgery, and identified a signalling pathway that is operational in intra-abdominal fat, the fat depot that is most strongly tied to obesity-related morbidity.

They say that the degree of activation of a signalling pathway from these individuals was compared with those of leaner people, those with obesity predominantly characterized by accumulation of “peripheral” fat, and those with obesity with predominant accumulation of fat within the abdominal cavity.

They found that the signalling pathway was more active depending on the amount of fat accumulation in the abdomen, and that it correlated with multiple biochemical markers for increased cardio-metabolic risk.

In their study report, they have revealed that the expression of one of the upstream signaling components, a protein called ASK1, predicts whole-body insulin resistance (an endocrine abnormality that is strongly tied to diabetes and cardiovascular disease), independent of other traditional risk factors.

The researchers have also shown that although non-fat cells within adipose tissue express most of this protein in lean persons, the adipocytes themselves increase its expression by more than four-fold in abdominally-obese persons.

“The importance of this study is not only in contributing to the understanding of adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity, but as a consequence, may provide important leads for novel ways to prevent the dangerous consequences, such as type 2 diabetes, of intra-abdominal fat accumulation,” states Dr. Iris Shai, a BGU researcher at the S. Daniel Abraham International Center for Health and Nutrition and Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

The study has been published in the Endocrine Society’s the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: abdomen, abdominal, abdominal surgery, abnormality, accumulation, activation, adipose, adipose tissue, amount, ANI, ASK, Assaf, beer, ben, ben gurion university, ben gurion university of the negev, BGU, biochemistry, brain, Cardiovascular Diseases, cavity, cell, cells, center, clinical, clinical biochemistry, common diseases, communication, consequence, degree, delivery, department, depot, diabetes, disease, Dr. Iris Shai, dysfunction, dysfunctional, Endocrine, Endocrinology, excess, excess calories, excess nutrients, expression, fact, fat, fat cells, growth, Gurion, Health, highlight, identification, importance, inflammation, insulin, Israel, journal, July, junction, lecturer, leipzig, liver, malfunction, medical, metabolic demands, metabolism, morbidity, mouse, mouse models, Negev, normal, novel, nutrition, obesity, optimal, oxygen, oxygen delivery, pancreas, pathway, place, predominant, protein, regulation, report, researcher, resistance, risk, Rudich, S. Daniel Abraham International, senior lecturer, Sheva, signalling, society, Soroka, storage, storage place, stress, study, surgery, tissue, Tissue Inflammation, type, type 2 diabetes, understanding, University, University Of Leipzig, university of the negev, Washington, weight

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