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• Scientists Make Connection Between Genetic Variation and Immune System in Risk for Neurodegenerative and Other Diseases
• Liver cancer screening highly beneficial for people with cirrhosis
• With Self-Fumigation, Darwin’s Finches Combat Deadly Parasitic Flies
• Terahertz imaging on the cheap

Scientists Make Connection Between Genetic Variation and Immune System in Risk for Neurodegenerative and Other Diseases Posted: 06 May 2014 04:36 AM PDT Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School (HMS), the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and University of Chicago report findings demonstrating how genetic variations among healthy, young individuals can influence immune cell function. Many of those variants are also genetic risk factors for common diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis later in life, offering new insight into disease pathology. read more

Liver cancer screening highly beneficial for people with cirrhosis Posted: 05 May 2014 09:16 AM PDT Liver cancer survival rates could be improved if more people with cirrhosis are screened for tumors using inexpensive ultrasound scans and blood tests, according to a review by doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center. read more

With Self-Fumigation, Darwin’s Finches Combat Deadly Parasitic Flies Posted: 05 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT Researchers have found a way to protect threatened Darwin's finches on the Galápagos Islands from deadly parasitic nest flies in a manner that's as simple as it is ingenious: by offering the birds insecticide-treated cotton for incorporation into their nests. The study, reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 5, shows that the birds will readily weave the protective fibers in. What's more, the researchers find that just one gram of treated cotton is enough to keep a nest essentially parasite-free. read more

Terahertz imaging on the cheap Posted: 05 May 2014 08:45 AM PDT Terahertz imaging, which is already familiar from airport security checkpoints, has a number of other promising applications — from explosives detection to collision avoidance in cars. Like sonar or radar, terahertz imaging produces an image by comparing measurements across an array of sensors. Those arrays have to be very dense, since the distance between sensors is proportional to wavelength. read more

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