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Friday, April 26, 2013

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Who would have thought that two very different species, a small insect and a furry alpine mammal, would develop a shared food arrangement in the far North?

University of Alberta researchers were certainly surprised when they discovered the unusual response of pikas to patches of vegetation that had previously been grazed on by caterpillars from a species normally found in the high Arctic.

U of A biology researcher Isabel C. Barrio analyzed how two herbivores, caterpillars and pikas, competed for scarce vegetation in alpine areas of the southwest Yukon. The caterpillars come out of their winter cocoons and start consuming vegetation soon after the snow melts in June. Weeks later, the pika starts gathering and storing food in its winter den. For the experiment, Barrio altered the numbers of caterpillars grazing on small plots of land surrounding pika dens.

"What we found was that the pikas preferred the patches first grazed on by caterpillars," said Barrio. "We think the caterpillar's waste acted as a natural fertilizer, making the vegetation richer and more attractive to the pika."

U of A biology professor David Hik, who supervised the research, says the results are the opposite of what the team expected to find.

"Normally you'd expect that increased grazing by the caterpillars would have a negative effect on the pika," said Hik. "But the very territorial little pika actually preferred the vegetation first consumed by the caterpillars."

The researchers say it's highly unusual that two distant herbivore species -- an insect in its larval stage and a mammal -- react positively to one another when it comes to the all-consuming survival issue of finding food.

These caterpillars stay in their crawling larval stage for up to 14 years, sheltering in a cocoon during the long winters before finally becoming Arctic woolly bear moths for the final 24 hours of their lives.

The pika does not hibernate and gathers a food supply in its den. Its food-gathering territory surrounds the den and covers an area of around 700 square metres.

The researchers say they'll continue their work on the caterpillar-pika relationship to explore the long-term implications for increased insect populations and competition for scarce food resources in northern mountain environments.

Barrio was the lead author on the collaborative research project, which was published April 24 in the journal Biology Letters.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Alberta, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. The original article was written by Brian Murphy.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

I. C. Barrio, D. S. Hik, K. Peck, C. G. Bueno. After the frass: foraging pikas select patches previously grazed by caterpillars. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (3): 20130090 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0090

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/apG4-pzYpt8/130424161114.htm

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ALS trial shows novel therapy is safe

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

An investigational treatment for an inherited form of Lou Gehrig's disease has passed an early phase clinical trial for safety, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Massachusetts General Hospital report.

The researchers have shown that the therapy produced no serious side effects in patients with the disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The phase 1 trial's results, available online in Lancet Neurology, also demonstrate that the drug was successfully introduced into the central nervous system.

The treatment uses a technique that shuts off the mutated gene that causes the disease. This approach had never been tested against a condition that damages nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

"These results let us move forward in the development of this treatment and also suggest that it's time to think about applying this same approach to other mutated genes that cause central nervous system disorders," says lead author Timothy Miller, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at Washington University. "These could include some forms of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and other conditions."

ALS destroys nerves that control muscles, gradually leading to paralysis and death. For treatment of the disease, the sole FDA-approved medication, Riluzole, has only a marginal effect.

Most cases of ALS are sporadic, but about 10 percent are linked to inherited mutations. Scientists have identified changes in 10 genes that can cause ALS and are still looking for others.

The study focused on a form of ALS caused by mutations in a gene called SOD1, which account for 2 percent of all ALS cases. Researchers have found more than 100 mutations in the SOD1 gene that cause ALS.

"At the molecular level, these mutations affect the properties of the SOD1 protein in a variety of ways, but they all lead to ALS," says Miller, who is director of the Christopher Wells Hobler Lab for ALS Research at the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders at Washington University.

Rather than try to understand how each mutation causes ALS, Miller and his colleagues focused on blocking production of the SOD1 protein using a technique called antisense therapy.

To make a protein, cells have to copy the protein-building instructions from the gene. Antisense therapy blocks the cell from using these copies, allowing researchers to selectively silence individual genes.

"Antisense therapy has been considered and tested for a variety of disorders over the past several decades," Miller says. "For example, the FDA recently approved an antisense therapy called Kynamro for familial hypercholesterolemia, an inherited condition that increases cholesterol levels in the blood."

Miller and colleagues at the University of California-San Diego devised an antisense drug for SOD1 and successfully tested it in an animal model of the disease.

Merit Cudkowicz, MD, chief of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, was co-PI of the phase I clinical safety trial described in the new paper. Clinicians at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Methodist Neurological Institute in Houston gave antisense therapy or a placebo to 21 patients with SOD1-related ALS. Treatment consisted of spinal infusions that lasted 11 hours.

The scientists found no significant difference between side effects in the control and treatment groups. Headache and back pain, both of which are often associated with spinal infusion, were among the most common side effects.

Immediately after the injections, the researchers took spinal fluid samples. This let them confirm the antisense drug was circulating in the spinal fluid of patients who received the treatment.

To treat SOD1-related ALS in the upcoming phase II trial, researchers will need to increase the dosage of the antisense drug. As the dose rises, they will watch to ensure that the therapy does not cause harmful inflammation or other side effects as it lowers SOD1 protein levels.

"All the information that we have so far suggests lowering SOD1 will be safe," Miller says. "In fact, completely disabling SOD1 in mice seems to have little to no effect. We think it will be OK in patients, but we won't know for sure until we've conducted further trials."

The therapy may one day be helpful in the more common, noninherited forms of ALS, some of which may be linked to problems with the SOD1 protein.

"Before we can consider using this same therapy for sporadic ALS, we need more evidence that SOD1 is a major contributor to these forms of the disorder," Miller says.

###

Washington University School of Medicine: http://www.medicine.wustl.edu

Thanks to Washington University School of Medicine for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127890/ALS_trial_shows_novel_therapy_is_safe

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Stocks little changed as investors weigh earnings

NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks were little changed in early trading on Wall Street Wednesday as investors considered mixed earnings results from several major U.S. companies.

Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, was among the early gainers, advancing 7 percent to $68.70. Yum Brands reported earnings late Tuesday that exceeded the expectations of financial analysts. General Dynamic, the aerospace and defense company, also surged after posting a profit that was better than expected. The stock jumped 5 percent to $70.46.

Other companies disappointed investors.

Procter & Gamble, the world's largest consumer goods maker, fell 4.9 percent to $77.97 after the maker of Tide and Gillette issued a weak forecast for the next quarter. AT&T dropped 5.8 percent to $36.75 after it lost phone subscribers from its contract-based plans for the first time as sales of smartphones slow.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 28 points, or 0.2 percent, at 14,691 as of 10:16 a.m. EDT. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,576. The Nasdaq composite was down 11 points, or 0.3 percent, at 3,258.

While the majority of companies have been exceeding Wall Street's expectations on earnings, their performance on sales hasn't been as strong.

About 67 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far have beaten expectations, better than the 10-year average of 62 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ. However, only 42 percent of companies have reported better revenue than forecast.

A report that orders for long-lasting U.S. factory goods fell more than economists expected last month also weighed on the stock market. The Commerce Department said orders for durable goods declined 5.7 percent in March following a 4.3 percent gain the previous month. February's figure was revised lower.

The report will add to concerns that the U.S. economy is slowing. Stocks logged their biggest weekly drop in five months last week after growth in China, the world's second-biggest economy, slowed.

Among other companies that reported earnings Wednesday, Boeing rose 3.6 percent to $91.27 after the airplane maker said its first-quarter net income rose 20 percent despite problems with the 787 Dreamliner. The company said it would still meet its financial and delivery targets this year even after the 787 was grounded in mid-January because of problems with its batteries.

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, was little changed at 1.71 percent.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-little-changed-investors-weigh-earnings-142211672--finance.html

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Video: Apple's New Reality

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/51648219/

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Add Any Shortcut To My Computer With This Simple Tweak

If you want a few more options for getting around in My Computer (or just "Computer" as its known in Windows 7 and beyond), you can add anything to this page by placing shortcuts in a little-known folder.

Depending on what version of Windows you're running, this folder may be in a different place, but here's the quickest way to get there:

Press Win+R to bring up the "Run" dialog box.
Enter "%appdata%" (no quotes).
Navigate to \Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts.
Put anything you'd like in this folder.

You can place app shortcuts, links to folders, or even networked locations in here and they'll all show up when you click "Computer," under the Network Location subheading.

How to Add Your Favorite Folder or Program to (My) Computer in Windows 7 and 8 | Gizmo's Freeware

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/l25f9vUZYdc/add-any-shortcut-to-my-computer-with-this-simple-tweak-479751317

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