Antibiotic-producing bacteria in soil are the source of many antibiotics used to combat diseases in humans and plants. But, surprisingly little is known about how these microbes impact tropical plant communities and ecosystems, where plant diversity, competition, and pathogen pressures are high. A study published October 28 in the journal Biotropica represents a step toward a better understanding of the role antibiotic-bacteria play in the ecology of tropical forests. University of Minnesota researchers, led by Kristen Becklund, found that antibiotic production by soil ...

Every day for more than 20 years, an average of 2,000 hectares of irrigated land in arid and semi-arid areas across 75 countries have been degraded by salt, according to a study by UN University's Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, published Oct. 28. Today an area the size of France is affected -- about 62 million hectares (20%) of the world's irrigated lands, up from 45 million hectares in the early 1990s. Salt-degradation occurs in arid and semi-arid regions where rainfall is too low to maintain regular percolation of rainwater through the ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Adding tomosynthesis to biennial digital mammography screening for women with dense breasts is likely to improve breast cancer detection at a reasonable cost relative to biennial mammography screening alone, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. Mammography remains the only screening test proven to decrease mortality from breast cancer. However, mammography is less accurate in women with dense breasts for whom cancers may be masked by overlapping breast tissue. Moreover, dense breasts compared to average density ...

PISCATAWAY, NJ – Teenagers who live in communities with strict "social host" laws are less likely to spend their weekends drinking at parties, according to a study in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Many U.S. states and local communities have passed social host laws, which hold adults responsible when underage drinkers imbibe on their property. The details of the laws vary, however, and research has been mixed as to whether they actually keep kids from drinking. In the new study, investigators focused on 50 communities in California, ...

VANCOUVER ─ Robotically assisted coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery is a rapidly evolving technology that shortens hospital stays and reduces the need for blood products, while decreasing recovery times, making the procedure safer and less risky, says a study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress. "Robotically assisted CABG is a safe and feasible alternative approach to standard bypass surgery in properly selected patients. It is a less traumatic and less invasive approach than regular CABG," says cardiac surgeon and researcher Dr. Richard ...

For the first time, researchers have found that exposure to radioactive iodine is associated with more aggressive forms of thyroid cancer, according to a careful study of nearly 12,000 people in Belarus who were exposed when they were children or adolescents to fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. Researchers examined thyroid cancers diagnosed up to two decades after the Chernobyl accident and found that higher thyroid radiation doses estimated from measurements taken shortly after the accident were associated with more aggressive tumor features. "Our ...

VANCOUVER ─ When heart symptoms strike, men and women go through similar stages of pain but women are more likely to delay seeking care and can put their health at risk, according to a study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress. "The main danger is that when someone comes to the hospital with a more severe or advanced stage of heart disease, there are simply fewer treatment options available," says Dr. Catherine Kreatsoulas, lead author of the study and a Fulbright Scholar and Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Fellow at the Harvard School of Public ...

This news release is available in French. Compared to men who have had only one partner during their lifetime, having sex with more than 20 women is associated with a 28% lower risk of one day being diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to researchers at the University of Montreal and INRS - Institut Armand-Frappier. However, having more than 20 male partners in one's lifetime is associated with a twofold higher risk of getting prostate cancer compared to those who have never slept with a man. Marie-Elise Parent and Marie-Claude Rousseau, professors at university's ...

PULLMAN, Wash. - Politicians who discredit global warming risk losing a big chunk of the female vote. A new study found women who consider the long-term consequences of their actions are more likely to adopt a liberal political orientation and take consumer and political steps to reduce global warming. Jeff Joireman, associate professor of marketing at Washington State University, demonstrated that "future-oriented" women are the voting bloc most strongly motivated to invest money, time and taxes toward reducing global warming. Previous studies have shown that women ...

Both agave nectar and a placebo were more effective than no treatment for young children's cough symptoms, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine. The findings suggest that a placebo could help children more than "watchful waiting." The Food and Drug Administration recommends against the use of over-the-counter cough and cold medications in children under two years old due to safety concerns and a lack of evidence for their effectiveness in this age group. As part of a voluntary change announced in 2008 by the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, ...

Astronomers with the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) captured pictures not only of Thursday's partial solar eclipse, but also of the "monster" sized active region or sun spot that has many comparing it to one of a similar size that occurred 11 years ago. The sun spots were earlier reported by scientists with the NSF-supported National Solar Observatory. According to astronomers Frank Hill and Kiran Jain, "As of Oct 21, 2014, a very large active region is currently on the solar disk and producing flares as strong as ...

A large active region on the sun erupted with another X-class flare on Oct. 27, 2014 -- its fourth since Oct. 24. The flare peaked at 10:47 a.m. EDT. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc. To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings. Continuing a week's worth ...

A world without plants would be a world without oxygen, uninhabitable for us and for many creatures. We know plants release oxygen by absorbing carbon dioxide and breaking down water using sunlight through the process of photosynthesis. However, we know little about the mechanics of how plants create oxygen during photosynthesis. A breakthrough that will help advance our understanding of this critical ecological process was made recently by scientists at LSU. "Without photosynthesis or oxygen, basically all recognizable life that we see in our landscape would be gone: ...

Chicago, October 27, 2014—The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research today released the results of a major new study and related reports on the recovery from Superstorm Sandy in 12 New York and New Jersey neighborhoods hard hit by the 2012 storm. It is the second AP-NORC study that has focused on the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, with findings that emphasize the important role social factors play in a neighborhood's resilience: the ability of people and their social systems to survive, adapt and continue moving forward after a disaster. Funding ...

This news release is available in French. One in three children who have been reunified with their families after being placed in foster care will be maltreated again, according to a study into Quebec's youth protection system by Marie-Andrée Poirier and Sonia Hélie of the University of Montreal's School of Social Services. The study, the first of its kind in the world, was undertaken in the wake of a new law intended to improve the family stability of youth receiving child protection services. The researchers, who are also affiliated with the Centre jeunesse ...

Due to its unprecedented scope, the damage assessment caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been a challenge. One unsolved puzzle is the location of 2 million barrels of submerged oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean. UC Santa Barbara's David Valentine and colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and UC Irvine have been able to describe the path the oil followed to create a footprint on the deep ocean floor. The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For this study, the ...

Humans are the only primates with large, highly visible sclera – the white part of the eye. The eye plays a significant role in the expressiveness of a face, and how much sclera is shown can indicate the emotions or behavioral attitudes of a person. Wide-open eyes, exposing a lot of white, indicate fear or surprise. A thinner slit of exposed eye, such as when smiling, expresses happiness or joy. Averted eyes, as well as direct eye contact, can mean several things. So the eye white, or how much of it is shown and at what angle, plays a role in the social and cooperative ...

It's an often-agonizing challenge facing any parent of a child with autism: How can I help my son or daughter socialize with his or her typically developing peers? The solution, SF State's Pamela Wolfberg found, may lie in a different type of playgroup that focuses on collaborative rather than adult-directed activities. A new study shows that "Integrated Play Groups," or IPGs, developed by Wolfberg over several years, are effective in teaching children with autism the skills they need to interact with their peers and engage in symbolic play such as pretending. In IPGs, ...

Where's the remaining oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico? The location of 2 million barrels of oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean has remained a mystery. Until now. Scientist David Valentine of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of California, Irvine, have discovered the path the oil followed to its resting place on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor. The findings appear today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy ...

The first images of a nova during its early fireball stage--when it ejects material, and gases expand and cool--show that this activity is more complicated than predicted. That is the conclusion, published in the current issue of Nature, from a research collaboration led by Georgia State University Astronomer Gail Schaefer that includes 37 researchers (many who are National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded) from 17 institutions. The researchers observed the expanding thermonuclear fireball from a nova that erupted last year in the constellation Delphinus. "This is ...

The uncontrolled growth of cancer cells arises from their ability to hijack the cell's normal growth program and checkpoints. Usually after therapy, a second cancer-signaling pathway will open after the primary one shuts down — creating an ingenious escape route for the cancer cell to survive. The answer, say Case Western Reserve researchers, is to anticipate and block that back-up track by prescribing two drugs from the start. The results of the project, led by Ruth Keri, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair Department of Pharmacology, and Associate Director for Basic Research ...

1. Study: Prompt isolation of symptomatic patients is key to eliminating Ebola Isolating the sickest Ebola-infected individuals before they progress into their late phase of illness can effectively eliminate the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, according to a modeling study being published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Currently, West Africa is in the midst of the largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic ever recorded. Liberia has been especially hard-hit with more than 3,500 infections and 2,000 deaths in the past three months. Researchers developed a random transmission model ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The drug erlotinib is highly effective in treating advanced-stage lung cancer patients whose tumors have a particular gene change, but when the same drug is used for patients with early-stage tumors with the same gene change, they actually fare worse than if they took nothing. A study by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) and at Cincinnati Children's Hospital might show why. Oncologists use erlotinib to treat ...

SPOKANE, Wash.—Americans are in a world of hurt. Nearly one in five U.S. adults are in pain most every day for spells of three months or longer, according to an analysis by Jae Kennedy, professor of health policy and administration at Washington State University Spokane. The estimated 39 million adults in persistent pain outnumber the residents of California. Previous studies have said so much pain costs hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity and health care. And that doesn't take into account pain's psychic toll. "A sizeable portion of American ...

Chicago, October 27, 2014—The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research today released the results of a major new study and related reports on the recovery from Superstorm Sandy in 12 New York and New Jersey neighborhoods hard hit by the 2012 storm. It is the second AP-NORC study that has focused on the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, with findings that emphasize the important role social factors play in a neighborhood's resilience: the ability of people and their social systems to survive, adapt and continue moving forward after a disaster. Funding ...