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Texas A&M scientist probes bullet evidence to challenge findings in JFK assassination

Researchers at Texas A&M University are combining statistics and chemistry to shoot holes in traditional bullet-lead analysis techniques and the accuracy of so-called "expert" testimony -- specifically, calling into question critical evidence that has long supported the theory of a lone gunman in the 1963 assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy.

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1. Vegetables, Like People, Urged To Live Up To Potential
   10-11-2006 · ScienceDaily
   A major stress in a carrot's life -- like the slash of a kitchen knife -- and the tapered tuber kicks in the juice and pumps up its phytochemicals. That's the finding of Dr. Luis Cisneros, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station food scientist. He calls it abiotic stress -- pushing the button, so to speak, on a crop after it has been harvested.
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2. IAP class probes Singapore highway collapse
   02-01-2008 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
   MIT Professor Andrew Whittle, who was one of four international experts chosen to probe the catastrophic collapse of a subway excavation in Singapore, presented his findings in the IAP class, "What Caused the Collapse of the Nicoll Highway in Singapore?"
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3. Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
   02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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4. Brain images show hysteria not an imaginary disorder
   12-11-2006 · EurekAlert!
   In what's being called a novel finding, researchers using brain scans have uncovered evidence of cerebral dysfunction in women with sensory conversion disorder, better known as hysteria. The study's findings open up a new window to understanding hysteria, an unexplained neurological disorder in which a patient complains of symptoms, but doctors can't find anything medically wrong with them. The study is published in the December 12, 2006, issue of the journal Neurology.
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5. A potential biological cause for sudden infant death syndrome
   10-31-2006 · EurekAlert!
   New autopsy data provide the strongest evidence yet that sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is not a "mystery" disease but has a concrete biological basis: abnormalities in the brainstem serotonin system. Based on their findings, published in the November 1 issue of JAMA, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston now hope to develop a diagnostic test to identify newborns at risk, and envision treatments to protect them during the vulnerable period.
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6. Stardust findings override some commonly held astronomy beliefs
   12-14-2006 · EurekAlert!
   Stardust provides evidence that material from inner solar nebular traveled to edge of solar system; as much as 10 percent of comet material might have originated near the sun.
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7. New understanding of schizophrenia could lead to new treatment approaches
   04-23-2007 · EurekAlert!
   New research helps bridge an important gap in understanding schizophrenia, providing the best evidence to date that defects in the brain's white matter are a key contributor to the disease, which affects about 1 percent of people worldwide. The findings, to be published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also demonstrate how two of the dozen or more genes previously linked with schizophrenia may contribute to the disease.
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8. Molecular detectors may refine cancer treatment
   07-19-2007 · EurekAlert!
   University of Florida scientists used short, single strands of genetic material called aptamers to bind to cells and molecules associated with leukemia, finding evidence that slight molecular differences can exist in patient samples.
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9. Pedophilia may be the result of faulty brain wiring
   11-28-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Pedophilia might be the result of faulty connections in the brain. A new study from CAMH showed that pedophiles had significantly less "white matter." The study challenges the commonly held belief that pedophilia is brought on by childhood trauma or abuse. This finding is the strongest evidence yet that pedophilia is instead the result of a problem in brain development.
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10. Refuted claims from observational studies often persist despite strong evidence against them
    12-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
    Prominent claims from observational studies of the cardiovascular benefits of vitamin E often continue to be supported in medical literature despite strong contradictory evidence from randomized trials, according to a study in the Dec. 5 issue of JAMA. Similar findings were found for claims regarding the protective effects of beta-carotene on cancer and estrogen on Alzheimer disease.
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