VENLO, Netherlands, September 21 /PRNewswire/ --

- QIAGEN's careHPV test provides 'substantially more accurate' front-line screening

A new HPV test developed by QIAGEN specifically for use in regions of the world with scarce resources is "substantially" more accurate in identifying women with cervical disease than the current methods (Pap testing and visual inspection) in these countries. The first published study of patient outcomes with QIAGEN's careHPV test -- developed with support from PATH, a non-profit global health organization -- appears in the October issue of Lancet Oncology.

A study has given new insights into why Oval BA, a giant anticyclone on Jupiter also known as Red Spot Junior, suddenly turned from white to red in a period of just a few months.

The Oval BA is an enormous anticyclone (high-pressure system) that may be compared to a colossal hurricane in the Earth’s atmosphere. Oval BA is half the size of the Great Red Spot and is large enough to contain the Earth inside it.

Oval BA was formed in 2000 by the merger of smaller vortices called the White Ovals in a chain of collisions that started back in 1998. The apparent reddening was first reported by amateur astronomers in early 2006, but it was not until April that professional astronomers were able to image the impressive alteration of the second largest storm in the Solar System after the Great Red Spot (GRS).

There are more bacteria in our bodies than there ever have been people on the Earth. In fact, there are more bacteria in the colon than there are human cells in our bodies. Most of the bacteria in our guts are harmless and many are beneficial to our health. However, for several decades scientists have thought that some microbes living in the gut may play a role in the formation of sporadic colorectal cancer.

Research published in the October issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology says they have discovered that a molecule produced by a common gut bacterium activates signalling pathways that are associated with cancer cells.

Tetrapods, the first four-legged land animals, have also been considered the first organisms that had fingers and toes but researchers at Uppsala University say that is not the case.

Using medical x-rays, they found rudiments of fingers in the fins in fossil Panderichthys, the “transitional animal,” which indicates that rudimentary fingers developed considerably earlier than was previously thought.

Our fish ancestors evolved into the first four-legged animals, tetrapods, 380 million years ago. They are the forerunners of all birds, mammals, crustaceans, and batrachians (Editor - and reptiles! We have the most eagle-eyed readers anywhere.) Since limbs and their fingers are so important to evolution, researchers have long wondered whether they appeared for the first time in tetrapods or whether they had evolved from elements that already existed in their fish ancestors.

Scientists have decoded the genome of the Pristionchus pacificus nematode and gained valuable insight into the evolution of parasitism.

In their work, the scientists have shown that the genome of the nematode consists of a surprisingly large number of genes, some of which have unexpected functions. These include a number of genes that are helpful in breaking down harmful substances and for survival in a strange habitat: the Pristionchus uses beetles as a hideout and as means of transport, and feeds on the fungi and bacteria that spread out on their carcasses once they have died. It thus provides the clue to understanding the complex interactions between host and parasite.

No collisions and no beams either next week at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The BBC reported a quench of about 100 superconducting magnets yesterday that heated up as much as 100 Celsius. A ton of liquid helium spilled into the tunnel and the CERN fire brigade went in. Cause of the quenching has not been announced, nor have any injuries been reported.

The fault does not pose any longer-term threat to the LHC. The quench occurred during final testing of the last of the LHC's electrical circuits. Liquid helium leaks vaporize back to a gas almost instantly and would freeze or choke personnel present but no workers were at risk, according to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which runs the LHC.

A new proposed spacecraft named MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) is expected to be launched in 2013, a $485 million mission to collect atmospheric data on Mars. The purpose of the NASA’s Mars Exploration Program is to gain further knowledge on the history of the planet’s climate and atmosphere, as well as the planet’s availability of water and its future habitability.

Chemical clues from a comet’s halo are challenging common views about the history and evolution of the solar system and showing it may be more mixed-up than previously thought. A new analysis of dust from the comet Wild 2, collected in 2004 by NASA’s Stardust mission, has revealed an oxygen isotope signature that suggests an unexpected mingling of rocky material between the center and edges of the solar system. Despite the comet’s birth in the icy reaches of outer space beyond Pluto, tiny crystals collected from its halo appear to have been forged in the hotter interior, much closer to the sun.

The result counters the idea that the material that formed the solar system billions of years ago has remained trapped in orbits around the sun. Instead, the new study in Science suggests that cosmic material from asteroid belts between Mars and Jupiter can migrate outward in the solar system and mix with the more primitive materials found at the fringes.

For a long time scientists have been puzzled by the fact that the immune system in the gut is capable of fighting toxic bacterial infection while staying, at the same time, tolerant to its resident “friendly” bacteria. But an article now published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe(1) is starting to open the door to this mystery by revealing how a recently discovered gene - pims – is activated by the gut immune response against friendly bacteria to rapidly suppress it, effectively creating tolerance to the gut microbiota. In the same way pims is also shown to control the magnitude of immune responses against toxic bacteria by suppressing immuno-reactivity when a certain activation threshold is achieved, assuring, in this way, that the response stays restricted to the infection site and is proportional to the extent of the infection. These results suggest that the balance tolerance/immuno-reaction in the gut is achieved through self-regulatory cycles where suppression by negative regulators, such as pims, is triggered as soon as a specific threshold of immuno activation is reached.

LONDON, September 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Explorers are announcing today a new monitoring service (http://www.dataexplorers.com/rsm) covering all stocks with short selling restrictions recently applied by the SEC and FSA. These stocks now require specific regulatory filings and Data Explorers will combine these with their extensive global short side intelligence database.

Data Explorers has been providing transparency to the Securities Lending industry for the past 6 years. The company delivers unique data provided directly by the Securities Lending market participants. As short selling information becomes increasingly public, Data Explorers will integrate it with their proprietary data to provide increasing transparency in this large and important market.