Ascribe Higher Education News Service articles from December 2005

Ascribe Higher Education News Service archives from December 2005

Photo Release: Most Detailed Image of the Crab Nebula.
December 1, 2005... Byline: European Space Agency - Hubble GARCHING, Germany, Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- The European Space Agency-Hubble today released the following image advisory. - - - - PHOTO RELEASE: Most detailed image of the Crab Nebula ...

Preventing Bacterial Biofilms Could Help Fight Tuberculosis.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have identified a gene that enables mycobacteria - the cause of tuberculosis and leprosy - to form biofilms....

Picking Particles Faster Than One at a Time; New Algorithm Automatically and Dependably Selects Images of Molecules for 'Crystallization in Silico'.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Computer scientists and biologists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed software that can select tens...

In Earth's Ancient Atmosphere Oxygen's Rise to 'Breathable' Level May Have Began Much Earlier, Occurred More Slowly.
December 1, 2005... Byline: University of Maryland, College Park COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- The history of life on Earth is closely linked to the appearance of oxygen in the atmosphere. The current scientific consensus holds that...

Early Responders: Hair Follicle Stem Cells Contribute to Wound Healing, Penn Study Finds; Research Has Implications for Skin Problems Related to Diabetes, Other Disorders.
December 1, 2005... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Hair follicle stem cells are important contributors to the wound-healing process, according to new research by investigators at the University...

Lumina Foundation Report Can Help Community Colleges Better Serve Their Students.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Lumina Foundation for Education INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- New research released today by Lumina Foundation for Education explores how community colleges can best use data to improve their service to students. ...

Tropical Atlantic Cooling, African Deforestation Correlate to Drought, Report Scientists.
December 1, 2005... Byline: University of California, Santa Barbara SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Against the backdrop of the Montreal Summit on global climate being held this week, an article on African droughts and monsoons by a...

Iron Particles, MRI Could Replace Biopsies to Track Stem Cell Therapy and Deploy Stents, Animal Studies Show.
December 2, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Dec. 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- In a series of experiments in animals, researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully used a technique that tracks mesenchymal stem cells via magnetic...

New Insights Into Protein Synthesis and Hepatitis C Infections.
December 2, 2005... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists have uncovered key new information towards understanding the crucial first step in protein synthesis, the process by which the genetic...

Computer Simulation Shows Buckyballs Deform DNA.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Vanderbilt University NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Soccer-ball-shaped "buckyballs" are the most famous players on the nanoscale field, presenting tantalizing prospects of revolutionizing medicine and the computer...

USC Annenberg Digital Future Project Finds Major New Trends in Online Use for Political Campaigns; Fifth Internet Survey to Be Released Wednesday, Dec. 7.
December 5, 2005... Byline: USC Annenberg School for Communication LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Internet users say that going online creates political clout, a new USC Annenberg study reveals. A comprehensive study of the impact of online...

Physicists Describe Strange New Fluid-Like State of Matter.
December 5, 2005... Byline: University of Chicago CHICAGO, Dec. 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- University of Chicago physicists have created a novel state of matter using nothing more than a container of loosely packed sand and a falling marble. They have found that...

USC Annenberg Digital Future Project Finds Major New Trends in Online Use for Political Campaigns.
December 7, 2005... Byline: USC Annenberg School for Communication LOS ANGELES, Dec. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- Internet users say that going online creates political clout, a new study reveals. The USC Annenberg Digital Future Report 2005 finds that for the...

Research Team Lead by Carnegie Mellon University Transforms DNA Microarray Analysis With Ideas from a Standard Internet Communications Protocol.
December 7, 2005... Byline: Carnegie Mellon University PITTSBURGH, Dec. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- A standard Internet protocol that checks errors made during e-mail transmissions has now inspired a revolutionary method to transform DNA microarray analysis, a...

Fine-Tuning the Steps in the Intricate Climate Change Dance.
December 7, 2005... Byline: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WOODS HOLE, Mass., Dec. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- New scientific findings are strengthening the case that the oceans and climate are linked in an intricate dance, and that rapid climate change may...

Use of Herceptin and Chemotherapy Improves Survival in Early Stage Breast Cancer, Large International Study Shows; Study Is Fourth to Show Significantly Reduced Risk of Disease Recurrence.
December 8, 2005... Byline: UCLA LOS ANGELES, Dec. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- Pairing the targeted therapy Herceptin with chemotherapy in patients with early stage breast cancer significantly increases disease-free survival time in women who test positive for a...

Mouse Study: New Muscle-Building Agent Beats All Previous Ones.
December 8, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Dec. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Johns Hopkins scientists who first created "mighty mice" have developed, with pharmaceutical company Wyeth and the biotechnology firm MetaMorphix, an...

Mayo Clinic Researchers Find Hole in Heart Does Not Make Stroke Inevitable; Patent Foramen Ovale May Be 'Innocent Bystander,' Not Source of Stroke.
December 8, 2005... Byline: Mayo Clinic ROCHESTER, Minn., Dec. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- Mayo Clinic researchers have found that -- contrary to current thinking by some in the medical community -- a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a small hole between the two upper...

Changes to Land Cover May Enhance Global Warming in Amazon, Reduce It in Midlatitudes.
December 8, 2005... Byline: National Center for Atmospheric Research BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- New simulations of 21st-century climate show that human-produced changes in land cover could produce additional warming in the Amazon region...

Prelude to an Earthquake? Berkeley Lab Scientist Studies Possible Precursors in Micro-Quakes.
December 8, 2005... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- A geophysicist from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has identified possible seismic precursors...

Purdue University Engineers Study Corrosion-Resistant Material for Bridges.
December 8, 2005... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Dec. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- Civil engineers at Purdue University are developing a new generation of bridges that will contain corrosion-resistant plastic bars reinforced with glass or carbon...

University of Illinois at Chicago City Design Center Updates Development Plan for Burnham.
December 8, 2005... Byline: University of Illinois at Chicago CHICAGO, Dec. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- The near southeast suburb of Burnham can renew itself by leveraging its riverfront, marina and golf course to attract retail and residential development,...

How the Neuron Sprouts Its Branches.
December 9, 2005... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., Dec. 9 (AScribe Newswire) -- Neurobiologists have gained new insights into how neurons control growth of the intricate tracery of branches called dendrites that enable them to connect with their...

Key Brain Regulatory Gene Shows Evolution in Humans.
December 12, 2005... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., Dec. 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers have discovered the first brain regulatory gene that shows clear evidence of evolution from lower primates to humans. They said the evolution of humans might...

Marine Biology Mystery Solved: Function of 'Unicorn' Whale's 8-Foot Tooth Discovered; Harvard School of Dental Medicine Researcher Announces Findings Today.
December 13, 2005... Byline: Harvard University Medical School SAN DIEGO, Dec. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Today, Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) researcher Martin Nweeia, DMD, DDS, answers a marine science question that has eluded the scientific...

Take a Deep Breath: University of Virginia Health System Opens Clinical Trial of Emphysema Treatment.
December 13, 2005... Byline: University of Virginia Health System CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Doctors at the University of Virginia Health System have opened a new clinical trial to try and help people with emphysema breathe better. The...

Astronomers Use Hubble to 'Weigh' Dog Star's Companion.
December 13, 2005... Byline: European Space Agency - Hubble GARTCHING, Germany, Dec. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- White dwarfs are important to theories of both stellar and cosmological evolution. New results published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal...

McGill University Researchers Crack Genetic Code of Quebec C. Difficile; Finding Will Help Fight Resistant Bacteria That Is Frequent Cause of Infection in Hospital Patients.
December 14, 2005... Byline: McGill University MONTREAL, Dec. 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, MUHC and Jewish General Hospital have collaborated to successfully sequence the genome of a...

Gene Mutation Found That Increases Severity of Multisystem Syndrome; Discovery Mirrors Expectations for Genetic Complexity of Common Diseases.
December 14, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Dec. 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- Johns Hopkins scientists studying a rare inherited syndrome marked by eye and kidney problems, learning disabilities and obesity have discovered a genetic...

Ancient Glaciers Still Affect Shape of North America, Say Scientists.
December 14, 2005... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Dec. 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- Long after the disappearance of the glaciers that once covered much of North America, the land they rested upon is still recovering from their weight - and the...

University of California, Davis Expert Writes Key Report on Controversial U.K. Badger Killings.
December 14, 2005... Byline: University of California, Davis DAVIS, Calif., Dec. 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- University of California, Davis scientist Rosie Woodroffe is co-author of two reports released today in Great Britain that say the controversial practice...

Study Measures Impact of Boat Noise on Humpback Whales.
December 14, 2005... Byline: University of California, Davis DAVIS, Calif., Dec. 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- The waters of Alaska's Inside Passage are abuzz. They hum with vessel sounds, ranging from the puttering of fishing boats to the rumble of cruise ships,...

Research: Snails Were Overlooked Contributors to Marsh Destruction; Weather Extremes Brought on by Climate Change Could Make Such Anomalies More Common.
December 15, 2005... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., Dec. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Buoyed by the effects of an intense drought, otherwise harmless snails likely killed off thousands of acres of salt marsh in the Southeast in recent years. ...

A Theoretical Breakthrough Inspired by Experiment: Calculating Electron Correlations in the Hydrogen Molecule.
December 15, 2005... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Need to understand the details of how a molecule is put together? Want to see the effects of the intricate dance that its electrons do to make a...

Research: How Rickettsial Pathogens Break Into Cells.
December 15, 2005... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., Dec. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- New research by a team of scientists in France and the United States has identified both the bacterial and host receptor proteins that enable Rickettsia...

Learning About Sex From an Elegant Worm: Three Major Papers Advance Understanding of Meiosis in C. Elegans.
December 15, 2005... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Most cells in the body contain two copies of every chromosome, one from each parent. Sex involves gently scrambling the genetic material of the...

Traditional Risk-Factor Scoring Misses One-Third of Women Vulnerable to Coronary Heart Disease; Cardiac CT Scans Recommended for Some Groups Of Women.
December 15, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Dec. 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- Traditional risk-factor scoring fails to identify approximately one-third of women likely to develop coronary heart disease (CHD), the leading cause of...

Most of Arctic's Near-Surface Permafrost to Thaw by 2100.
December 19, 2005... Byline: National Center for Atmospheric Research BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- Global warming may decimate the top 10 feet (3 meters) or more of perennially frozen soil across the Northern Hemisphere, altering ecosystems as...

University of Central Florida, NIH Study: Effective, Safe Anthrax Vaccine Can Be Grown in Plants.
December 19, 2005... Byline: University of Central Florida ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- Enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate everyone in the United States could be grown inexpensively and safely with only one acre of tobacco plants, a University...

Researchers Provide Detailed Study of Early Heart Development and Underlying Cause of Congenital Heart Defects.
December 20, 2005... Byline: The Burnham Institute LA JOLLA, Calif., Dec. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at The Burnham Institute for Medical Research have provided detailed insights into the early formation of the heart. A team lead by Dr. Rolf Bodmer...

Blocking the Nerve Receptor EP1 in Mouse Models Reduces Brain Damage Caused by Stroke; New Approach Offers Alternative to COX-2 Inhibiting Drugs.
December 20, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Dec. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered how to block a molecular switch that triggers brain damage caused by the lack of oxygen during a stroke. The...

Astronomers Use Laser to Take Clearest Images of Center of the Milky Way.
December 20, 2005... Byline: UCLA LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- UCLA astronomers and colleagues have taken the first clear picture of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, including the area surrounding the supermassive black hole, using a new laser...

New Analysis Reveals 3-5 Kilometer Displacements on Recently Active Southern California Earthquake Faults; Scientists Intrigued by Large Magnitude of Fault Offset.
December 20, 2005... Byline: Seismological Society of America EL CERRITO, Calif., Dec. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- Analysis of newly available seismic-reflection data collected by the oil-exploration industry shows that faults in the Malibu Coast fault system of...

NASA's Grace Finds Greenland Melting Faster, 'Sees' Sumatra Quake.
December 20, 2005... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- In the first direct, comprehensive mass survey of the entire Greenland ice sheet, scientists using data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity...

NASA and Texas Tech to Develop New Spacecraft Systems.
December 21, 2005... Byline: Texas Tech University LUBBOCK, Texas, Dec. 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- Faced with the challenging task of shuttling humans to the moon and later to Mars, NASA has tapped Texas Tech University computer scientists to help the agency...

Storing Carbon to Combat Global Warming May Cause Other Environmental Problems, Study Suggests.
December 22, 2005... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., Dec. 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- Growing tree plantations to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to mitigate global warming -- so called "carbon sequestration" -- could trigger environmental changes...

Blocking Previously Unrecognized Links Between Inflammatory Systems Could Make COX-2 Inhibitors Safer; Link Could Have Implications for Developing Other Novel Painkillers.
December 22, 2005... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Dec. 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- A recently identified path of inflammation once thought to be wholly independent of other inflammatory systems has now been linked to another major pathway....

DNA Self-Assembly Used to Mass-Produce Patterned Nanostructures.
December 22, 2005... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., Dec. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Duke University scientists have used the self-assembling properties of DNA to mass-produce nanometer-scale structures in the shape of 4x4 grids, on which patterns of...

Mechanism for Epstein-Barr Virus Protein's Role in Blood Cancers Discovered; Implications for New Therapeutic Targets for B Cell Lymphomas, Other EBV-Associated Illnesses.
December 23, 2005... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine identified a link between a critical cancer pathway and an...

Researchers: Treated Wood Poses Long-Term Threat.
December 23, 2005... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., Dec. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Arsenic from treated lumber used in decks, utility poles and fences will likely leach into the environment for decades to come, possibly threatening...

New Study Expands Understanding of Role of RNA Editing in Gene Control.
December 23, 2005... Byline: The Wistar Institute PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- For many years, scientists thought gene activity was relatively straightforward: Genes were transcribed into messenger RNA, which was processed and translated into...

Blacks' Lower Rate of Lung Cancer Surgery Not Just Due to Access to Care Issues; Study Suggests Racial Disparities Stem From Doctor-Patient Interaction.
December 27, 2005... Byline: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute BOSTON, Dec. 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- Even when they have equal access to specialized care, blacks with potentially curable lung cancer are about half as likely as whites to undergo surgery that could...

Scientists Lift Malaria's Cloak of Invisibility.
December 28, 2005... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., Dec. 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- The world's deadliest malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, sneaks past the human immune system with the help of a wardrobe of invisibility cloaks....

Unified Physics Theory Explains Animals' Running, Flying and Swimming.
December 29, 2005... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., Dec. 30 (AScribe Newswire) -- A single unifying physics theory can essentially describe how animals of every ilk, from flying insects to fish, get around, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School...

Discovery of European Marsupial Further Proof of Land Bridge Between Continents During Dinosaur Age; New Species Identified by Saint Mary's College of California Paleontologist.
December 29, 2005... Byline: Saint Mary's College of California MORAGA, Calif., Dec. 30 (AScribe Newswire) -- Remains of a new species of marsupial discovered in the Netherlands provides fresh evidence of a northerly land bridge between North America and Europe...