Irvine, Calif., June 16, 2015 - Two new studies led by UC Irvine using data from NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites show that civilization is rapidly draining some of its largest groundwater basins, yet there is little to no accurate data about how much water remains in them. The result is that significant segments of Earth's population are consuming groundwater quickly without knowing when it might run out, the researchers conclude. The findings appear today in Water Resources Research. "Available physical and chemical measurements are simply insufficient," ...

In one of the first published studies using data from the Health eHeart Study, UCSF researchers have found that people are divided on the cardiovascular benefits of alcohol consumption. And, those who do perceive alcohol as "heart healthy" drink substantially more than their counterparts. The study is in the Aug. 15 issue of American Journal of Cardiology. "While we often hear about alcohol's effects, this is the first assessment to address how the public might use that information," said senior author Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, director of clinical research in the UCSF ...

Women under chronic stress have significantly lower levels of klotho, a hormone that regulates aging and enhances cognition, researchers at UC San Francisco have found in a study comparing mothers of children on the autism spectrum to low-stress controls. The researchers found that the women in their study with clinically significant depressive symptoms had even lower levels of klotho in their blood than those who were under stress but not experiencing such symptoms. The study, published Tuesday, June 16, in Translational Psychiatry, is the first to show a relationship ...

DURHAM, N.C. - Patients older than age 45 with thyroid cancer that has spread to neck lymph nodes have long been considered at higher risk of dying, but the same has not been true for younger patients. Now researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke Clinical Research Institute have found that younger thyroid cancer patients with lymph node involvement are also at increased risk of dying, contrary to current beliefs and staging prognostic tools that classify young patients as having low-risk disease. The finding, published this week in the Journal of Clinical ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 16, 2015) - A new study co-led by Hsin-Hsiung Tai, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Kentucky, suggests that a key prostaglandin (PG) metabolic enzyme shows promise as a drug target to help tissue regeneration and repair, particularly after bone marrow transplantation and tissue injuries. Published in the June 12 issue of Science, the study looked at the role of 15-PGDH, an enzyme that quickly degrades a bioactive lipid called PGE2, in tissue regeneration in mouse models. Recent studies have shown that PGE2 may have a positive ...

Researchers at Chapman University and Columbia University have published a study in Nature Plants this month, called "Diversity of nitrogen fixation strategies in Mediterranean legumes." The recently published research focuses on a question that has intrigued scientists for decades--are plants able to regulate their relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria? Some groups of plants have mutually beneficial relationships with soil bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form that plants can use. In exchange for nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, ...

June 16, 2015 - When natural disasters strike - droughts, typhoons, floods - the media, charities, and science organizations appeal to the public both for aid to the victims and to communicate the causes of these events. Increasingly, as scientists link extreme weather events to climate change, people are mixing the discussion about climate change and aid. But a new study offers caution: Researchers found that linking a natural disaster with climate change caused climate change skeptics to justify the withholding of aid from victims. When typhoon Haiyan struck in Philippines ...

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on same-sex marriage equality, a University of Cincinnati survey of same-sex couples finds that 90 percent of the respondents felt that the option to marry was important to their relationship. The study is currently published online in the Journal of Homosexuality. UC researchers Stephen M. Hass, an associate professor of communication, and Sarah W. Whitton, an assistant professor of psychology, uncovered the perceived benefits of cohabitation and marriage of same-sex couples after conducting a national online survey of 526 ...

This news release is available in French. A multidisciplinary group of researchers from British Columbia has developed a participatory action research program to help address healthy body weight in children. The SCOPE (Sustainable Childhood Obesity Prevention through Community Engagement) program has a simple message and was developed to engage communities to take action to prevent childhood obesity. The first phase of the SCOPE program was funded by Child Health BC, an initiative of BC Children's Hospital, and was carried out in communities in British Columbia. The ...

Just as militaries need to have trained, experienced soldiers ready for future wars, making sure that the immune system has enough battle-ready T cells on hand is important for fast-acting, more effective vaccines, according to Penn State researchers. In a study of immune response in mice, the researchers found that regulatory T cells -- Tregs -- are critical for the immune system's ability to remember and fight off future pathogen attacks. T cells, which are specialized types of white blood cells, play important roles in the immune system and immunological memory. "Immunological ...

ALEXANDRIA VA, JUNE 16, 2015 - Dramatic increases in data science education coupled with robust evidence-based data analysis practices could stop the scientific research reproducibility and replication crisis before the issue permanently damages science's credibility, asserts Roger D. Peng in an article in the newly released issue of Significance magazine. "Much the same way that epidemiologist John Snow helped end a London cholera epidemic by convincing officials to remove the handle of an infected water pump, we have an opportunity to attack the crisis of scientific ...

London, Ontario, June 11 -- Researchers at Lawson Health Research Institute have identified a new stem cell population in the colon linked to cancer growth. The findings, which were recently published in the prominent journal Cell Stem Cell, will significantly change the way we study and treat colon cancer. Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in Canada. It is estimated that in 2015 that 25,100 Canadians will be diagnosed with colon cancer representing 13 percent of all new cancer cases. Dr. Samuel Asfaha, a clinician-scientist at Lawson and an ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A new study has found that toxic algal blooms in reservoirs on the Klamath River can travel more than 180 miles downriver in a few days, survive passage through hydroelectric turbines and create unsafe water conditions on lower parts of the river in northern California. Water-borne algal blooms can accumulate to concentrations that can pose health risks to people, pets and wildlife, and improved monitoring and public health outreach is needed to address this issue, researchers said. The frequency, duration and magnitude of harmful algal blooms appear ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, June 16, 2015 -- Thousands of patients die each year in hospitals across North America due to medical errors that could be prevented were doctors and nurses provided with instant access to patient records via wireless technology. Cue the catch-22: the electromagnetic radiation caused by those very devices can interfere with electronic medical equipment and thus lead to serious clinical consequences for patients. Luckily, that could soon change thanks to new research from Concordia University that helps define a ...

Humans aren't the only ones who like to cruise along the waterways, so do viruses. For the first time, a map of fecal viruses traveling our global waterways has been created using modeling methods to aid in assessing water quality worldwide. "Many countries are at risk of serious public health hazards due to lack of basic sanitation," said Joan Rose, Homer Nowlin Chair in water research at Michigan State University. "With this map, however, we can assess where viruses are being discharged from untreated sewage and address how disease is being spread. With that, we can ...

Tropical Storm Bill was making landfall at 11 a.m. CDT on Matagorda Island, Texas on June 16 as NASA and NOAA satellites gathered data on the storm. At NASA a movie of Bill's landfall was created using data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite. The center of Bill is expected to move inland over south-central Texas during the afternoon and night of June 16. On June 15 at 19:15 UTC (3:15 p.m. EDT) the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Bill approaching Texas and Louisiana. Powerful thunderstorms circled the center in fragmented ...

Results from a new study led the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Psychology and University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management show that, compared to younger job seekers, older adults receive fewer job offers, search for weeks longer and are ultimately less likely to find re-employment after losing a job. The study is published by the journal Psychological Bulletin. "There's very robust evidence that as an individual moves beyond age 50, they experience a large penalty toward how quickly they will find a job," says Professor Connie Wanberg, the Industrial ...

CLEMSON, S.C. - Drowsy drivers take a heavy toll on the nation's highways. So finding a reliable way to test for fatigue to mitigate its potential damage could have a significant impact on highway safety. U.S. statistics reveal drowsy drivers are five times more likely to be involved in an accident, or a near-crash incident, than alert drivers. Furthermore, drowsy or fatigued drivers are responsible for an estimated 56,000 crashes annually with more than 40,000 of them resulting in fatal and non-fatal injuries. Closer to home, there are more than 730 traffic accidents ...

SEATTLE -- The world invested more than $200 billion to improve health in lower-income countries over the past 15 years. Global health financing increased significantly after 2000, when the United Nations established the Millennium Development Goals, which included a strong focus on health. This trend in funding has only recently started to change, according to new research by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The article, "Sources and Focus of Health Development Assistance, 1990-2014," was published online June 16 ...

New York - An immensely powerful yet invisible force pulls water from the earth to the top of the tallest redwood and delivers snow to the tops of the Himalayas. Yet despite the power of evaporating water, its potential to propel self-sufficient devices or produce electricity has remained largely untapped -- until now. In the June 16 online issue of Nature Communications, Columbia University scientists report the development of two novel devices that derive power directly from evaporation - a floating, piston-driven engine that generates electricity causing a light to ...

The urban mosquito that carries the dengue fever virus is hitching rides on river boats connecting the Amazonian town of Iquitos, Peru, with rural areas. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases published a study by disease ecologists at Emory University, showing how the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is normally associated with urban areas, is tapping human transportation networks to expand its range. "The majority of large barges we surveyed were heavily infested," says Sarah Anne Guagliardo, who led the study as a PhD student in the lab of Uriel Kitron, chair of Emory's Department ...

Plants are a ubiquitous and essential part of our lives. Estimates suggest there are hundreds of thousands of plant species known to science. How many species are there, really? How are they related? How many are threatened with extinction? Answering these questions in such an enormous clade of life is an important but daunting task for scientists. Modern molecular techniques and, in particular, next-generation sequencing provide a powerful tool set to begin uncovering these answers. DNA regions can quickly be obtained and compared across species to infer relationships ...

This news release is available in German. They are thin, light-weight, flexible and can be produced cost- and energy-efficiently: printed microelectronic components made of synthetics. Flexible displays and touch screens, glowing films, RFID tags and solar cells represent a future market. In the context of an international cooperation project, physicists at the Technische Universität München (TUM) have now observed the creation of razor thin polymer electrodes during the printing process and successfully improved the electrical properties of the printed ...

This news release is available in French. A multidisciplinary group of researchers from British Columbia has developed a participatory action research program to help address healthy body weight in children. The SCOPE (Sustainable Childhood Obesity Prevention through Community Engagement) program has a simple message and was developed to engage communities to take action to prevent childhood obesity. The first phase of the SCOPE program was funded by Child Health BC, an initiative of BC Children's Hospital, and was carried out in communities in British Columbia. The ...

Alexandria, VA - From the tiny microcosms of atomic theory and futuristic colonies on Mars to dinosaurs walking the Earth, science illustrators translate scientific findings and theories into something lifelike, accurate and aesthetically pleasing. The July cover story from EARTH Magazine, "Science Illustrators: Making the Invisible Visible," takes readers on a behind-the-scenes of how illustrators transform a scientific concept into an informed work of art. Scientific illustrating is informed as much by researching the scientific literature as it is by the imagination. ...