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Mystery of the mutant polyomavirus

By Guest PostJuly 7, 2013Health, Scienceaaron derdowski, astrocytes, bethany ohara, brain glial cells, brown university, carbohydrate, crystal structure, DNA, gretchen gee, infectious, jc polyomavirus, lstc, luisa ströh, melissa maginnis, mutant form, mutant polyomavirus, myelin, mystery, non infection, oligodendrocytes, pathogen, pml, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, thilo stehle, university of tübingen, ursula neu, vanderbilt university, virus, walter atwood, wild type, xray crystallography

A new study shows that common mutant forms of the deadly JC polyomavirus are not responsible for the pathogen’s main attack, which causes a brain-damaging disease in immunocompromised patients called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. But that finding raises the ominous question of what the mutants might be up to instead.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The JC polyomavirus is clearly opportunistic. It infects half the population but lethally destroys brain tissue only in immunocompromised patients — and it may be outright sneaky, too. Even as a new research paper allays fears that common mutant forms of the virus are the ones directly responsible for the disease’s main attack, that same finding raises new questions about what the mutants are doing instead. (more…)

Women and HIV: A story of racial and ethnic health disparities

By Guest PostJuly 7, 2013Culture, Healthafrican american, aids, american women, behavioral, causes of death, cira, cultural factor, culture, discrimination, ethnic health disparities, hiv, hiv acquisition, hiv epidemic, hiv infection, hiv risk, intimate partner violence, ipv, known risk factors, latina women, lisa rosenthal, negative, non caucasian women, prep access, racial, sarah k calabrese, sexual experience, sexual partnership, sexual risk taking, sexual self concept, sexual stereotypes, sexually transmitted infections, society, stigma, stis, story, theory, united states, women

The history of women with HIV/AIDS in the United States is really a story of racial and ethnic health disparities.

Overall, the rate of American women contracting the disease relative to men has climbed from 8 percent in the 1980s to 25 percent today. But most of this burden is in underserved communities: one in 32 African-American women will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime, as will one in 106 Latina women. Meanwhile, one in 526 Caucasian and Asian women will contract the virus. Death rates are also higher for African-American and Latina women, making it one of the leading causes of death for those groups. (more…)

Changing Minds about Climate Policy Can Be Done – Sometimes

By Guest PostJuly 7, 2013Environmentchanging minds, climate change, climate policy, economic status, erik nisbet, george mason university, government intervention, lifestyle, mitigate the problem, morgan ellithorpe, nation, ohio state, open mindedness, ps hart, psychological test, status quo, teresa myers

Simply communicating the benefits is not enough

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Some open-minded people can be swayed to support government intervention on climate change – but only if they are presented with both the benefits and the costs, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that those who were open-minded didn’t change their view if they heard arguments for only one side of the issue.

People who are relatively more closed-minded did not change their mind regardless of the messages they received, or what their original views were. There was also no evidence of open-minded people becoming less supportive of government intervention, no matter if they heard both sides of the argument or only one. (more…)

Researchers Track Facial Expressions To Improve Teaching Software

By Guest PostJuly 6, 2013Sciencefacial expressions, facial movements, javatutor, learning process, online tutoring, student emotion, teaching software

Research from North Carolina State University shows that software which tracks facial expressions can accurately assess the emotions of students engaged in interactive online learning and predict the effectiveness of online tutoring sessions. (more…)

Helping Many People Boosts Social Standing More Than Helping Many Times, Says MU Anthropologist

By Guest PostJuly 6, 2013Culture, General, ScienceAmazon, caribbean island, charity, commerce websites, dominica, dominican village, ebay, evolution of language, helping many people, helping many times, human social interaction, modeling, mu anthropologist, organismal biology, positive reputation, public images, shane macfarlan, social standing, species, specific behaviors, university of missouri

Research could guide business and political decisions as well as charity work

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A business may build a better reputation as a good corporate citizen by donating $100,000 to ten charities, as opposed to $1 million to one charity, suggested University of Missouri anthropologist Shane Macfarlan. Contrary to earlier assumptions in theoretical biology, Macfarlan’s research found that helping a greater number of people builds a positive reputation more than helping a few people many times. The results of this research can offer guidance to businesses and politicians on how to improve their public images.

“Good reputations are good business. For example, buyers tend to purchase from merchants with numerous positive ratings on internet-based commerce websites, such as Amazon and eBay,” said Shane Macfarlan, post-doctoral anthropology researcher in MU’s College of Arts and Science. “Beyond the realm of commerce, the power of a positive reputation may have influenced the evolution of language and cooperation in our species. In our study, we found that an individual’s reputation improves more after helping a greater number of people compared to performing a greater number of helpful acts for fewer people.” (more…)

Chemists Work to Desalt the Ocean for Drinking Water, One Nanoliter at a Time

By Guest PostJuly 6, 2013Environmentdesalinated water, desalination methods, desalination of seawater, desalt the ocean, neutralization reaction, seawater desalination

By creating a small electrical field that removes salts from seawater, chemists at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Marburg in Germany have introduced a new method for the desalination of seawater that consumes less energy and is dramatically simpler than conventional techniques. The new method requires so little energy that it can run on a store-bought battery. (more…)

Great ape genetic diversity catalog frames primate evolution and future conservation

By Guest PostJuly 5, 2013Natureafrica, aids, ashmael, barcelona, behavioral disorders, belinga, bornean orangutan, chimpanzees, cognitive, dna segment, eastern gorilla, evan eichler, future conservation, genetic code, genetic diversity catalog, genetic variation, genome sciences, geographic isolation, gorillas, great ape, great ape species, humans, indonesia, javier prado martinez, map, migration, model, orangutans, origin of hiv, peter sudmant, primate evolution, seattle, simian immunodeficiency virus, siv, spain, suzie a, tomas marques bonet, universitat pompeu fabra, university of washington, virus, western lowland gorilla

A model of great ape history during the past 15 million years has been fashioned through the study of genetic variation in a large panel of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. The catalog of great ape genetic diversity, the most comprehensive ever, elucidates the evolution and population histories of great apes from Africa and Indonesia. The resource will likely also aid in current and future conservation efforts which strive to preserve natural genetic diversity in populations.

More than 75 scientists and wildlife conservationists from around the world assisted the genetic analysis of 79 wild and captive-born great apes. They represent all six great ape species: chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, eastern gorilla, and western lowland gorilla, and seven subspecies. Nine human genomes were included in the sampling. (more…)

Sea lampreys turning up the heat

By Guest PostJuly 5, 2013Naturecreature, fat cells, female lamprey, great lakes, jongeun choi, lamprey control, male sea lampreys, michigan state university, reproductive biology, sea lampreys, secondary sex characteristic, shipping channels, titus brown, weiming li

Male sea lampreys may not be the best-looking creatures swimming in our lakes and streams, but they apparently have something going for them that the ladies may find irresistible.

Research by a team of Michigan State University scientists found that the males have a secondary sex characteristic that creates heat when they get near a female lamprey, something the females find hard to say no to. (more…)

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