Ascribe Higher Education News Service articles from April 2005

Ascribe Higher Education News Service archives from April 2005

U.S.-India Research Team Completes Analysis of X Chromosome; Dozens of New Genes Identified.
April 1, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Baltimore, Apr. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- By intensely and systematically comparing the human X chromosome to genetic information from chimpanzees, rats and mice, a team of scientists from the United...

Mayo Clinic Study Shows Advanced Prostate Cancer Previously Considered Inoperable May Be Operable, Curable.
April 1, 2005... Byline: Mayo Clinic ROCHESTER, Minn., April 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- New findings from Mayo Clinic indicate that cT3 prostate cancer, a disease in which the cancer has spread locally from inside the prostate to immediately outside it, is...

Feat of Experimental Acrobatics Leads to First Synthesis of Ultracold Molecules; Achievement Could Benefit Fields of Superchemistry, Quantum Computing.
April 1, 2005... Byline: University of Chicago CHICAGO, April 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- A research team that in 2003 created an exotic new form of matter has now shown for the first time how to arrange that matter into complex molecules. The experiments...

University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center to Study People's Outlook on Poetry.
April 1, 2005... Byline: University of Chicago CHICAGO, April 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- The nation's first scientifically based survey of people's attitudes toward poetry has been launched by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago...

Purdue Scientists Unravel Midwest Tornado Formation.
April 1, 2005... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., April 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- A Purdue University study of tornado formation indicates that twisters can develop in unexpected ways and at unexpected times and places, a discovery that...

Pair of Cancer Genes Found to Drive Both Cell Migration and Division; Link Suggests News Ways of Thinking About Tumor Growth and Inflammation.
April 5, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, April 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Johns Hopkins researchers have found that two genes already known to control cell movement are also needed for proper cell division. They report their...

Genetic Testing Could Bolster Radiotherapy's Effectiveness Against Cancer.
April 5, 2005... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., April 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Obtaining a genetic picture of how a tumor will react to the many treatment techniques available could help doctors prescribe therapies customized for individual...

Study Shows Kidney Transplant Can Reverse Heart Failure; University of Maryland Study May Change Traditional Thinking About Offering Kidney Transplants to Dialysis Patients Whose Hearts Do Not Pump Effectively.
April 5, 2005... Byline: University of Maryland Medical System BALTIMORE, April 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore say that contrary to conventional thinking, a kidney transplant can significantly...

Durable Mars Rovers Sent Into Third Overtime Period.
April 5, 2005... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., April 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA has approved up to 18 more months of operations for Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars rovers that have already surprised engineers and scientists by...

University of Florida Study: Similar Species Can Show Different Rates of Genetic Mutation.
April 6, 2005... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., April 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- Even closely related species may have different rates of natural genetic mutation, according to a new University of Florida study. The study's finding that...

Timing Nature's Fastest Optical Shutter.
April 6, 2005... Byline: Vanderbilt University NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- It's nature's fastest quick-change artist: In less than the time it takes a beam of light to travel a tenth of a millimeter, vanadium dioxide can switch from a...

Researchers Unmask Malaria Parasite's Cloaking Mechanism.
April 7, 2005... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., April 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists are making strides in understanding how the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum disguises itself to avoid detection by the immune system....

Of Running in Place and Resurrections: Biologist Chases the Red Queen Hypothesis of Evolution.
April 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Technological University HOUGHTON, Mich., April 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- "Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "You'd generally get to somewhere else--if you ran very fast for a long time as we've been...

Protein Tags Regulate Key Ion Channel; Newly Recognized Process Solves 50-Year-Old Mystery.
April 7, 2005... Byline: University of Chicago Hospitals CHICAGO, April 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that a recently discovered biological process known as sumoylation -- until now thought to be active only in...

Fifteen-Year Hunt Uncovers Gene Behind 'Pseudothalidomide' Syndrome.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, April 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- A team of scientists from Colombia, the United States and elsewhere has successfully completed a 15-year-plus search for the genetic problems behind the...

Portable High-Resolution NMR Sensor Unveiled at Berkeley.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., April 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Homeland security experts may soon be getting a valuable new tool for identifying the chemical constituents in suspicious substances. A portable...

Exercise May Not Be Good Enough to Reduce Mild Hypertension in Older People, Hopkins Experts Say; Reductions in Fat, Increases in Muscle Key Indicators of Who Will Benefit Most.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, April 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Moderate levels of exercise may not be enough to control mild hypertension in men and women over age 55, the age group most at risk of later developing...

Hopkins Study Shows Older Children Also Benefit From 'Lazy Eye' Treatment; Findings Challenge Age-Based Treatment Guidelines.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, April 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and 48 eye centers across North America report that many children between the ages of 7 and 17 with...

Research Consent Forms Should Be More Readable, University of Michigan Health System Study Shows; Modified Consent Form Improves Parents' Understanding of Risks, Benefits of Children's Participation in Clinical Trials.
April 11, 2005... Byline: University of Michigan Health System ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- When children are part of a clinical trial, their parents must sign a document agreeing to the treatment and procedures used in the study. But...

Race and the U.S. Economy Is Subject of Two New Books Edited by Pomona College Professor Cecilia Conrad.
April 12, 2005... Byline: Pomona College CLAREMONT, Calif., April 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- Cecilia Conrad, associate dean and the Stedman-Sumner Professor of Economics at Pomona College, is the editor of two new books on the complex relationship between...

Revised Asteroid Scale Aids Understanding of Impact Risk.
April 12, 2005... Byline: MIT CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- Astronomers led by an MIT professor have revised the scale used to assess the threat of asteroids and comets colliding with Earth to better communicate those risks with the...

Atlantic Current Shutdown Could Disrupt Ocean Food Chain.
April 12, 2005... Byline: Oregon State University CORVALLIS, Ore., April 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- If increased precipitation and sea surface heating from global warming disrupts the Atlantic Conveyer current - as some scientists predict - the effect on the...

Heart Valve Ring Reverses Damage From Congestive Heart Failure, Easing Symptoms, University of Michigan Team Reports; Small Study Shows New Mitral Valve Ring Fixes Two Problems at Once.
April 13, 2005... Byline: University of Michigan Health System SAN FRANCISCO, April 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new heart valve ring appears to help congestive heart failure patients regain lost heart function, reversing the disease's effects on heart...

Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature Gives New Insight Into Field.
April 13, 2005... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., April 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- What do surfing, fly fishing and theme parks have in common? Each can be a form of nature-inspired religion, and they represent just a few of the 1,000 entries...

Catching a Sneak: Weizmann Institute Scientists Reveal Shape of Protein That Helps Retroviruses Break Into Cells.
April 13, 2005... Byline: American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science REHOVOT, Israel, April 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Retroviruses are among the trickier and more malicious disease agents, causing AIDS and cancers such as leukemia. The viruses...

Unchecked DNA Replication Drives Earliest Steps Toward Cancer.
April 13, 2005... Byline: The Wistar Institute PHILADELPHIA, April 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Although not widely appreciated as a disease of the genes, cancer is always rooted in genetic errors or problems in gene regulation. Scientists have identified some...

Gene Regions Beyond Protein Instructions Important in Disease.
April 13, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, April 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Gene hunters at Johns Hopkins have discovered a common genetic mutation that increases the risk of inheriting a particular birth defect not by the usual...

University of Georgia Scientists at Savannah River Ecology Laboratory Develop Simplified Lab Food Chain to Study Effects of Selenium in Reptiles.
April 13, 2005... Byline: University of Georgia AIKEN, S.C., April 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Environmental concerns over selenium toxicity in wildlife have re-emerged in recent years and become a topic of substantial debate. Currently, the U.S. Environmental...

Professor Writes About Boston - A City No Longer 'Darning' Its Sox.
April 13, 2005... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., April 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Boston's banner year in sports is cause for fans to look back at the blessings and curses that make this sports hub what it is today, said a Purdue University...

Humans Have Drastic Effect on Sediment Transfer to World's Coasts, According to CU-Boulder Study.
April 14, 2005... Byline: University of Colorado, Boulder BOULDER, Colo., April 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new analysis of data from more than 4,000 rivers around the world indicates humans are having profound and conflicting effects on the amount of...

Chemistry Textbooks Lack Connection to Real Chemistry as Practiced in Industry and at Universities, Report Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh.
April 14, 2005... Byline: Carnegie Mellon University PITTSBURGH, April 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- Stories of exciting chemistry discoveries in Scientific American and The New York Times paint a better picture of chemistry as it is practiced than do some...

Researchers Find New Giant Amphibian Fossils in Africa.
April 14, 2005... Byline: McGill University MONTREAL, April 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- Two new 250 million year-old species of large, meat-eating amphibians have been discovered by researchers, including investigators from McGill University. Their findings...

Joining Hands to Solve DNA Replication Puzzle.
April 15, 2005... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., April 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Two heads and three tools are better than one. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) professor and a colleague who mentors HHMI-supported...

Duke Theorists Play Role in Search for Superhot 'Quark-Gluon Plasma'.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., April 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- Duke University theoreticians said their predictions helped guide the efforts of experimenters using Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider...

Scientists at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Serve Up 'Perfect' Liquid; New State of Matter More Remarkable Than Predicted, Raising Many New Questions.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Brookhaven National Laboratory TAMPA, Fla., April 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- The four detector groups conducting research at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) -- a giant atom "smasher" located at the U.S. Department of...

Georgia Tech Research Reveals How Biomaterial Properties Control Cellular Responses.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Georgia Institute of Technology ATLANTA, April 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- The body treats implanted medical devices -- including everything from titanium hip replacements and blood vessel grafts -- as invaders. Cells surround and...

More Evidence Suggests Statins Help Cut Risk for Advanced Prostate Cancer; Risk Not Reduced for Development of Early, Curable Form.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, April 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- In a 10-year study of more than 30,000 health professionals, researchers at Johns Hopkins and Harvard found that the longer men take cholesterol-lowering...

Hawaiian Soils Reveal Clues to Cultural History.
April 18, 2005... Byline: University of California, Santa Barbara SANTA BARBARA, Calif., April 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- Oliver Chadwick is a doctor of dirt. The soil scientist - or biogeochemist, as he is known in some circles - is helping to shed light on...

First Matter: New Particle Built at Weizmann Institute of Science Will Help Probe Primordial Universe.
April 18, 2005... Byline: American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science REHOVOT, Israel, April 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- When the first matter came into being right after the big bang, what was it like? It may not have been quite as scientists have...

Mystery fungus to Be Studied at University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory.
April 19, 2005... Byline: University of Georgia AIKEN, S.C., April 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- A natural history mystery will be the subject of scrutiny for Betsie Rothermel, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology...

Yellowstone Discovery Bodes Well for Detecting Evidence of Life on Mars, Says CU-Boulder Study.
April 20, 2005... Byline: University of Colorado, Boulder BOULDER, Colo., April 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- University of Colorado at Boulder researchers say a bizarre group of microbes found living inside rocks in an inhospitable geothermal environment at...

NASA's Spitzer Telescope Sees Signs of Alien Asteroid Belt.
April 20, 2005... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., April 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted what may be the dusty spray of asteroids banging together in a belt that orbits a star like our Sun. The...

New Study: San Fernando, Northride Quakes May Be Maximum.
April 20, 2005... Byline: Oregon State University CORVALLIS, Ore., April 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new study by researchers at Oregon State University suggests that the magnitude 6.7 earthquakes that struck California's San Fernando Valley in 1971 and...

MIT Scientists Improve Explosives Detection.
April 21, 2005... Byline: MIT CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- MIT researchers have announced an innovation that could greatly improve explosives detection for military and civilian security applications. Scientists have developed a new...

Movie Clip Shows Whirlwinds Carrying Dust on Mars.
April 22, 2005... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., April 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is taking movies of dust devils -- whirlwinds carrying dust -- scooting across a plain on Mars. Clips consisting of...

Professor: Don't Bank on Violence in Summer Blockbusters to Fill Theaters.
April 22, 2005... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., April 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- Violence in movies may not be the feature attraction that Hollywood thinks it is, says a Purdue University researcher who recently completed a study on violence...

Junior Scientist at Joslin Diabetes Center Earns Two Prestigious Career Development Grants to Study Stem Cells.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Joslin Diabetes Center BOSTON, April 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- In addition to a highly competitive national grant, Amy Wagers, Ph.D., a young scientist at Joslin Diabetes Center, has received another prestigious career-development...

Bat Testing: Keeping League Softball Legal.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Kettering University FLINT, Mich., April 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- Keeping league softball bats legal and making it easier to test them in the field is the goal of Dr. Dan Russell, associate professor of Applied Physics at Kettering...

Low Level of Extinction During Ice Age Linked to Adaptability.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins University BALTIMORE, April 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- A Johns Hopkins University graduate student may have figured out why rates of extinction were so low for many of the major groups of marine life during one of the...

Kansas State University Professor Takes Chemistry to Another World.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Kansas State University MANHATTAN, Kan., April 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- Astronaut health is one of NASA's top priorities. Once beyond Earth's atmosphere, astronauts are exposed to ionizing radiation and microgravity. Effects...

Organic Materials Spotted High Above Titan's Surface.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., April 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- During its closest flyby of Saturn's moon Titan on April 16, the Cassini spacecraft came within 1,027 kilometers (638 miles) of the moon's surface and found...

Scientists Discover How Plants Disarm the Toxic Effects of Excessive Sunlight.
April 25, 2005... Byline: University of Wisconsin - Madison MADISON, Wis., April 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- A newly discovered pathway by which cells protect themselves from a toxic byproduct of photosynthesis may hold important implications for bioenergy...

Risk Scores Seen As Tool to ID Young People With Hardened Arteries.
April 25, 2005... Byline: University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio SAN ANTONIO, April 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- Armed with more knowledge about what cardiovascular disease looks like in people ages 15 to 34, co-authors from The University of...

University of Georgia, Berry College Scientists Studying Deer Behavior, Sensory Perceptions for Clues to Reducing Deer-Vehicle Collisions.
April 26, 2005... Byline: University of Georgia ATHENS, Ga., April 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- Wildlife researchers at the University of Georgia and Berry College are conducting one of the first studies on the basic sensory capabilities of white-tailed deer to...

'Fickle' Enzyme Helps Protect, But Also Can Promote Heart Failure, Animal Study Shows.
April 26, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, April 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- Enzymes that make the gas nitric oxide (NO) not only protect the heart from damage due to high blood pressure or a heart attack, but also promote heart...

University of Wisconsin-Madison Gains Two New Stem Cell Programs.
April 26, 2005... Byline: University of Wisconsin - Madison MADISON, Wis., April 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- Capitalizing on its across-the-board-strengths in stem cell research, the University of Wisconsin-Madison will add two new stem cell programs to its...

Pi Seems a Good Random Number Generator - But Not Always the Best.
April 26, 2005... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., April 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- If you wanted a random number, historically you could do worse than to pick a sequence from the string of digits in pi. But Purdue University scientists now say...

University of Chicago Instrument Detects Particles Near Saturn's Moon Enceladus.
April 26, 2005... Byline: University of Chicago CHICAGO, April 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- An instrument designed and built at the University of Chicago for the Cassini space probe has discovered dust particles around Enceladus, an ice-covered moon of Saturn...

Earthquake Safety Summit: Quake Hazards a Major Public-Health Issue for the 21st Century; World's Seismic Experts Agree -- It's Time to Speak with a Strong, Unified, Global Voice.
April 27, 2005... Byline: Seismological Society of America INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev., April 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- Frustrated by the needless deaths and injuries that result from earthquakes and tsunamis, leading members of the global seismology and...

Device Assesses Brain Injury Risk in Sports.
April 27, 2005... Byline: The Whitaker Foundation ARLINGTON, Va., April 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- Biomedical engineers have built a device to quickly detect mild traumatic brain injury in the heat of sports competition, on the battlefield, in the emergency...

Making Fruit Fly Development Run Hot and Cold.
April 27, 2005... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., April 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- Using tiny flows of warm or cool water, researchers have induced one end of a fruit fly embryo to develop faster than the other. The experiments are...

Black-White Achievement Gap Has Stopped Narrowing.
April 28, 2005... Byline: University of Chicago CHICAGO, April 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- The achievement gap between African-Americans and whites, which narrowed for much of the 20th century, has stalled and is likely to persist for generations unless...

Duke 'All-Optical' Switch Could Advance Light-Based Telecommunications.
April 28, 2005... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., April 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- Duke University physicists have developed a switching technique that uses a very weak beam of light to control a much stronger beam. The achievement could make optical...

River Restoration a Booming Business - Do We Know If It's Working?
April 28, 2005... Byline: University of Maryland, College Park COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- Streams and rivers around the world are in trouble -- more than a third of U.S. rivers are officially polluted or impaired. In hopes of reversing...

Restoring Polluted Rivers Hindered by Lack of Coordination.
April 28, 2005... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., April 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- If the nation's increasingly polluted rivers are to be rehabilitated, the restoration projects must be better organized and coordinated, according to a national group of...

University Of Florida Students Build Smaller, Smarter Heart Pump.
April 28, 2005... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., April 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- A miniaturized heart pump designed by a team of University of Florida engineering students could become a life-saving alternative for patients waiting in long...

Lava Lamp-Like Process Caused World's Largest Zinc Deposit.
April 28, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins University BALTIMORE, April 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- For more than two decades, geologists have scoured the ores and rocks surrounding the world's largest zinc deposit at Red Dog, Alaska, for clues as to how this...

Antibiotic Might Fight HIV-Induced Neurological Problems.
April 28, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, April 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- By studying animals, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that the antibiotic minocycline might help alleviate HIV's negative effects on the brain...

Tip Sheet: Seismological Society of America 2005 Annual Meeting April 27 - 29.
April 29, 2005... Byline: Seismological Society of America INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev., April 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Seismological Society of America today released the following tips from the organization's 2005 Annual Meeting April 27 - 29. All times...

UGA Extension Coordinators Say Cool Weather Delaying Vidalia Onions, Watermelons.
April 29, 2005... Byline: University of Georgia TIFTON, Ga., Apr. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- An unusually cool spring is delaying two of Georgia's sweetest farm crops: Vidalia onions and watermelons. Officially, the 2005 Vidalia onion marketing season...

Salty Staircase in the Atlantic Provides Clues to Ocean Mixing.
April 29, 2005... Byline: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WOODS HOLE, Mass., April 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- Layers of salty ocean water mix with layers of fresher water, creating a salty staircase or layering driven by small-scale convection known as...