SAN FRANCISCO--Seismologists studying the recent dramatic upswing in earthquakes triggered by human activity want to clear up a few common misconceptions about the trend. There is increasing evidence that these earthquakes are caused by injecting fluids from oil and gas operations deep into the earth. These human-caused earthquakes are sometimes called "induced earthquakes." A Seismological Research Letters focus section to be published online June 10 addresses some common misconceptions about induced seismicity--the biggest of which is that it is primarily related ...

Scientists at the University of York have made a significant advance that could make cell-based treatments for arthritis less of a lottery. Researchers in the Departments of Biology and Physics at York, working with colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, have identified individual stem cells that can regenerate tissue, cartilage and bone. The stem cells are mixed within human bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) but are similar in appearance and previously, scientists had difficulty in distinguishing between them. The York researchers isolated individual MSCs ...

An unexpected finding by an international team of scientists based at The University of Manchester and National Institutes of Health in America has shed new light on how immune cells are programmed to either repair or protect the body. It's hoped the discovery will inform the development of better treatments for a range of conditions from inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) to certain cancers. The research, led by Dr John Grainger from the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR) and Dr Yasmine Belkaid from the National Institute of Allergy and ...

Large magnetic storms from the Sun, which affect technologies such as GPS and utility grids, could soon be predicted more than 24 hours in advance. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are eruptions of gas and magnetised material from the Sun that have the potential to wreak havoc on satellites and Earth-bound technologies, disrupting radio transmissions and causing transformer blowouts and blackouts. These mass ejections can cause problems with GPS technology - used by all kinds of vehicles, from cars to oil tankers to tractors. For example, they can affect the ability of ...

What: The Makona strain of Ebola virus (EBOV) circulating in West Africa for the past year takes roughly two days longer to cause terminal disease in an animal model compared to the original 1976 Mayinga strain isolated in Central Africa, according to a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) report. The results provide important information to scientists who have wondered if the Ebola virus in West Africa is becoming more severe. In fact, the new study suggests the current virus has a decreased ability to cause disease in their animal model compared to the 1976 strain. Using ...

This news release is available in Spanish. CRG scientists describe a new mechanism shaping cells and generating cell contractile forces during development and organogenesis. The new mechanism, which has been published today in the journal Developmental Cell, includes strategies shared with programmed cell death but which have not previously been directly associated with force generation. Studying developmental processes such as the one presented in the Dev. Cell paper contributes to a better understanding of organ development and maintenance. Also, ...

Simple steps that include the consistent use of experienced medical teams for a single type of surgery, preemptive antibiotics before the procedure, less reliance on potent opioids during recovery and urging patients to get out of bed and move around sooner can not only prevent infections, blood clots and other serious complications in people undergoing colorectal operations, but can also accelerate recovery and reduce cost of care, according to results of an ongoing program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. The approach, dubbed Integrated Recovery Pathway, or IRP, and its ...

In a small clinical trial, scientists at Johns Hopkins' Kimmel Cancer Center and James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute found that men with advanced prostate cancer and detection of androgen receptor splice variant-7 (AR-V7) respond to chemotherapy just as well as men who lack the variant. The findings, the researchers say, may be significant for patients who carry the AR-V7 variant, because they are more likely to develop resistance to one of two hormone drugs routinely used to treat their disease. Results of the trial are published online in the June 4 issue of JAMA ...

Young adults who use social media to quit smoking are twice as successful in their efforts as those who use a more traditional method, according to new research from the University of Waterloo. The study, published last week in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, compared the success of the social media-based campaign Break It Off with Smokers' Helpline, a telephone hotline for young adults looking to quit smoking. After three months in the program, 32 per cent of smokers who used Break It Off apps and web tools had quit smoking, compared to 14 per cent of their peers who ...

Monsoon rainfall, although a little later than normal, started on June 5, 2015, in southern India. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite gathered rainfall data that was used to create an animation that shows where the precipitation fell as the season started. Due to El Nino conditions some meteorologists predict that monsoon rainfall will be below normal this year. Cooling rainfall comes to the country after high temperatures preceding the monsoon have caused the reported deaths of more than 2,300 people. Data from the NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE ...

The remnants of former Hurricane Blanca are blanking out over the northern part of Mexico's Baja California today, June 9. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an infrared image of Blanca's remnants revealing a disorganized storm. All watches and warnings have been dropped. NOAA's GOES-West satellite took an image of Blanca's remnants as it continued moving over the northern Baja California peninsula on June 9 at 1245 UTC (8:45 a.m. EDT). The clouds associated with the remnants were over the northern Baja and over the northern portion of mainland Mexico. The western-most ...

WASHINGTON, DC, June 9, 2015 - If you want to assign blame on an overcast day, then cast your eyes on the tropics. Water vapor originating from the Earth's tropics is transported to midlatitudes on long filaments of flowing air that intermittently travel across the world's oceans. When these airy tendrils make landfall, they can cause severe floods and other extreme weather events. Yet despite the importance of these "atmospheric rivers" for the global water and heat cycles, the mechanism behind their formation is still a mystery. But a new study, published this week ...

Between 1993 and 2012, the incidence rate of acute traumatic spinal cord injury remained relatively stable in the U.S., although there was an increase among older adults, mostly associated with an increase in falls, according to a study in the June 9 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Traumatic spinal cord injury leads to chronic impairment and disability. Despite the substantial effects of this injury on health-related quality of life and health care spending, contemporary data on trends in incidence, causes, and medical care are limited, ...

A control system that incorporated electrical signals generated during muscle contractions and gait information resulted in improved real-time control of a powered prosthetic leg for different modes of walking (such as on level ground or descending stairs), according to a study in the June 9 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Most prosthetic lower limbs are mechanically passive (cannot provide power) and so do not restore full function. Leg prostheses that provide power are becoming available; however, different ambulation modes require ...

Among applicants to U.S. medical schools, those with disabilities who obtained extra test administration time for the Medical College Admission Test in use from 1991 to January 2015 had no significant difference in rate of medical school admission but had lower rates of passing the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step examinations and of medical school graduation, according to a study in the June 9 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Individuals with documented mental and physical disabilities may receive testing accommodations ...

Following implementation of rotavirus vaccination in 2006, all-cause acute gastroenteritis hospitalization rates among U.S. children younger than 5 years of age declined by 31 percent - 55 percent in each of the post-vaccine years from 2008 through 2012, according to a study in the June 9 issue of JAMA. Eyal Leshem, M.D., of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues examined both all-cause gastroenteritis and rotavirus-related hospitalizations among children younger than 5 years from 2000 through 2012. The researchers analyzed State ...

Did the cross-country drive that you planned using an online mapping service take twice as long as expected? In a new study published in the Articles in Advance section of Transportation Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), Microsoft researchers working on a project for Bing Maps explain how they developed the first routing engine that satisfies a large number of algorithmic requirements that overcome barriers to generating directions on multi-stage trips like coast-to-coast drives. Customizable Route Planning ...

Rochester, MN, June 9, 2015 - U.S. government-issued dietary recommendations continue to evolve over time. In a special article published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, an obesity theorist and cardiovascular health researchers claim that the main source of dietary information used by the U.S. Government's 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) is scientifically flawed because the underlying data are primarily informed by memory-based dietary assessment methods (M-BMs) (eg, interviews and surveys). In an editorial response nutrition experts suggest that the purported ...

Reacting positively to stressful situations may play a key role in long-term health, according to researchers. In a study measuring adults' reactions to stress and how it affects their bodies, researchers found that adults who fail to maintain positive moods such as cheerfulness or calm when faced with the minor stressors of everyday life appear to have elevated levels of inflammation. Furthermore, women can be at heightened risk. Inflammatory responses are part of the body's ability to protect itself via the immune system. However, chronic -- long-term -- inflammation ...

DARIEN, IL - A new study suggests that insomnia decreases empathy in health care workers and may lead to adverse clinical outcomes and medical errors. Results show that subjects with an Insomnia Severity Index ISI of greater than 8, scored significantly higher across all four subscales of empathy. "Insomnia affects empathy in health care workers which can lead to adverse clinical outcomes," said lead author Venkatesh Basappa Krishnamurthy, MD, assistant professor, Sleep Research and Treatment Center, department of psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, ...

DARIEN, IL - A new study suggests that the timing of exposure to moderate levels of light may influence body mass index (BMI) and body fat. Results show that people with more exposure to moderate or higher intensity light earlier in the day had lower body mass index and percent body fat than those with more of their moderate or higher intensity light exposure later in the day. "These results emphasize the importance of getting the majority of your exposure to moderate or higher intensity light during the morning and provide further support that changes to environmental ...

Teenagers who are incarcerated tend to have substantially worse outcomes later in life than those who avoid serving time for similar offenses, according to a distinctive new study co-authored by an MIT scholar. "We find that kids who go into juvenile detention are much less likely to graduate from high school and much more likely to end up in prison as adults," says Joseph Doyle, an economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a new paper detailing the results of the study. Indeed, the research project, which studied the long-term outcomes of ...

BOSTON (June 9, 2015) - Latinos who worry about having enough food to eat -- so-called food insecurity -- report having a poorer diet and exhibit worse glycemic control than those who aren't worried about having sufficient food to survive, according to a study presented at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions. The findings suggest that food insecurity should be a factor considered in overall diabetes management. Approximately 24 percent of Latino households in the U.S. were food insecure in 2013, compared to 14 percent for Americans overall, according ...

BOSTON (June 9, 2015) - The evidence is clear that the children of obese parents are prone to obesity themselves, placing them at higher risk for type 2 diabetes, but how and why this occurs remains under investigation. A study being presented at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions found evidence suggesting that the in utero environment in obese mothers may program a child's cells to accumulate extra fat or develop differences in metabolism that could lead to insulin resistance. "One of the questions that needs to be explored is how children ...

BOSTON (June 9, 2015) - Gut hormone-based medications used to treat diabetes, such as GLP-1 receptor agonists, have also been shown to reduce body weight. Researchers have been working to understand how. This study, presented today at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions, sheds light on how GLP-1 receptor agonists alter the brain's response to food, possibly reducing cravings and increasing satisfaction while eating. Previous studies have shown that the brains of obese people have a greater response to pictures of food than those of lean people, ...