CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists are searching through a massive collection of 20-million-year-old amber found in the Dominican Republic more than 50 years ago, and the effort is yielding fresh insights into ancient tropical insects and the world they inhabited. When the collection is fully curated, a task that will take many years, it will be the largest unbiased Dominican amber collection in the world, the researchers report. Perhaps the most striking discovery thus far is that of a pygmy locust, a tiny grasshopper the size of a rose thorn that lived 18- to 20-million ...

F1000Research today published new research from Bjorn Brembs, professor of neurogenetics at the Institute of Zoology, Universitaet Regensburg, in Germany, with a proof-of-concept figure allowing readers and reviewers to run the underlying code within the online article. This represents an important leap forward for scientific publishing, by demonstrating a completely novel framework for assessing the quality of a scholarly output. Figure 3 in fact doesn't really exist. The authors submitted their data and their code to F1000Research, and the figure is generated 'on the ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The household income of its residents is the most important factor in whether a community has high or low rates of avoidable hospital visits – conditions that could be better managed in a doctor's office or other health care settings if treated at an early stage, according to a report released today by the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy (CSHP). An analysis of hospital billing records and demographic data by Rutgers researchers across 13 low-income communities in New Jersey found that as an area's per capita income rises, the number of patients ...

This news release is available in French. Researchers at Inserm, led by Claude Gronfier (Inserm Unit 846: Stem Cell and Brain Institute), have, for the first time, conducted a study under real conditions on the body clocks of members of the international polar research station Concordia. The researchers have shown that a particular kind of artificial light is capable of ensuring that their biological rhythms are correctly synchronised despite the absence of sunlight. The full significance of this result can be appreciated with the knowledge that disturbance to this ...

KNOXVILLE—Exotic pests, shrinking ranges and a changing climate threaten some of the world's most rare and ecologically important plants, and so conservationists establish seed collections to save the seeds in banks or botanical gardens in hopes of preserving some genetic diversity. For decades, these seed collections have been guided by simple models that offer a one-size-fits-all approach for how many seeds to gather, such as recommending saving 50 seed samples regardless of species' pollination mode, growth habitat and population size. A new study, however, has found ...

Los Angeles, CA (July 30, 2014) With the advent of non-surgical modalities, stimulation of the brain has become a popular science and researchers must work to ensure systematic methods for consistent results in the study of stroke rehabilitation. A new study out today in The Neuroscientist discusses a systematic shift in perspective and suggests that chronically stimulating premotor areas (PMAs) of the brain would strongly promote stroke motor recovery, for example by restoring balance between the stroke and the intact hemispheres while establishing greater widespread connectivity. ...

Toronto – Companies who make their money in the "sin" industries such as the tobacco, alcohol and gaming industries typically receive less attention from institutional investors and financial analysts. But new research shows social norms and attitudes towards these types of businesses are subject to compromise when their share price looks to be on the rise. A paper from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management found that institutional shareholdings and analysts' coverage of sin firms were low when firm performance was low but went up with rising performance ...

Washington, DC—People who have the most common genetic mutation linked to obesity respond differently to pictures of appetizing foods than overweight or obese people who do not have the genetic mutation, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). More than one-third of adults are obese. Obesity typically results from a combination of eating too much, getting too little physical activity and genetics. In particular, consumption of appetizing foods that are high in calories can lead to weight gain. ...

A study of high school students by University of Adelaide psychology researchers has shed new light on the links between insomnia-related mental health conditions among teens. School of Psychology PhD student Pasquale Alvaro surveyed more than 300 Australian high school students aged 12-18 to better understand their sleep habits, mental health condition and the time of day they were most active (known as their "chronotype"). The results, now published in the journal Sleep Medicine, may have implications for the clinical treatment of teens experiencing sleep and mental ...

A survey of beds within a large teaching hospital in Ireland has shown than many of them did not comply with dimensional standards put in place to minimise the risk of entrapment. The report, published online in the journal Age and Ageing, therefore emphasises the need for careful selection of patients for whom bedrails are to be used, as well as the need for monitoring and maintenance of hospital bed systems. Bedrails are commonly used as safety devices to prevent people falling from bed. However, although the risk for any individual is extremely low, people can and ...

The analysis of the roughly 3,000 pieces is still in its infant stage. But it is already evident that the results will be of major significance. "Amazingly often, we are finding–in addition to Asian forms–the same insect species in Fushun amber that we found in Baltic amber," explained Bonn paleontologist Professor Dr. Jes Rust. The Baltic amber comes from the Baltic Sea region, which is almost 10,000 kilometers from Fushun. Sites rich in finds are, e.g., the coastal regions of Mecklenburg, Poland and Belarus. The pieces from the Baltic region are slightly younger than ...

An innovative 'trigeneration' system fuelled entirely by raw plant oils could have great potential for isolated homes and businesses operating outside grid systems both in the UK and abroad. Developed by a consortium led by Newcastle University and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the RCUK Energy Programme, the small-scale combined cooling, heat and power system has been designed to provide dependable electricity without the need for a mains connection. Ideally suited for small-holdings and businesses, and particularly ...

The shocking news of an Ohio teen who died of a caffeine overdose in May highlighted the potential dangers of the normally well-tolerated and mass-consumed substance. To help prevent serious health problems that can arise from consuming too much caffeine, scientists are reporting progress toward a rapid, at-home test to detect even low levels of the stimulant in most beverages and even breast milk. Their report appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Mani Subramanian and colleagues note that caffeine's popularity as a "pick-me-up" has led to it being ...

More accurate tests could be created to diagnose diseases such as Alzheimer's or memory problems stemming from head injuries, leading to earlier intervention, according to new findings from the University of East Anglia. The research involved investigating the components of memory using a combination of tests and neuroimaging – a method that could be used to create a diagnostic tool for distinguishing between different types of dementia, memory damage from stroke or forms of amnesia caused by head trauma. Dr Louis Renoult, a lecturer in UEA's School of Psychology, said: ...

Printing whole new organs for transplants sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, but the real-life budding technology could one day make actual kidneys, livers, hearts and other organs for patients who desperately need them. In the ACS journal Langmuir, scientists are reporting new understanding about the dynamics of 3-D bioprinting that takes them a step closer to realizing their goal of making working tissues and organs on-demand. Yong Huang and colleagues note that this idea of producing tissues and organs, or biofabricating, has the potential to address the ...

Long before humans figured out how to create colors, nature had already perfected the process — think stunning, bright butterfly wings of many different hues, for example. Now scientists are tapping into those secrets to develop a more environmentally friendly way to make colored plastics. Their paper on using structure — or the shapes and architectures of materials — rather than dyes, to produce color appears in the ACS journal Nano Letters. N. Asger Mortensen, Anders Kristensen and colleagues point out that currently, plastic manufacturers add pigments to their products. ...

To help Americans make better decisions about what they eat, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year proposed significant changes to the Nutrition Facts label found on nearly every food product in the U.S. An article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society, explains the suggested updates — and the fight that has ensued. Britt Erickson, a senior editor at C&EN, points out that while the Nutrition Facts label has remained largely the same for two decades, nutrition science has not — and neither have ...

Media and marketing experts have long sought a reliable method of forecasting responses from the general population to future products and messages. According to a study conducted at The City College of New York, it appears that the brain responses of just a few individuals are a remarkably strong predictor. By analyzing the brainwaves of 16 individuals as they watched mainstream television content, researchers were able to accurately predict the preferences of large TV audiences, up to 90 % in the case of Super Bowl commercials. The findings appear in a paper entitled, ...

Researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) have identified an RNA known as INXS that, although containing no instructions for the production of a protein, modulates the action of an important gene in the process of apoptosis, or programmed cell death. According to Sergio Verjovski-Almeida, professor at the USP Chemistry Institute and coordinator of a research funded by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), INXS expression is generally diminished in cancer cells, and methods that are capable of stimulating the production of this non-coding RNA can be used to ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The world's oceans are vast and deep, yet rapidly advancing technology and the quest for extracting resources from previously unreachable depths is beginning to put the deep seas on the cusp of peril, an international team of scientists warned this week. In an analysis in Biogeosciences, which is published by the European Geosciences Union, the researchers outline "services" or benefits provided by the deep ocean to society. Yet using these services, now and in the future, is likely to make a significant impact on that habitat and what it ultimately ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Adults who undergo a minimally invasive technique to treat atrial fibrillation are significantly less likely to die from a heart attack or heart failure, according to a long-term study by the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center. More than 4 million people have atrial fibrillation, an age-related heart rhythm disorder that can cause a fluttering sensation in the chest and impair the heart's ability to pump blood. The study published in Heart Rhythm shows cardiovascular mortality dropped by 60 percent among adults who had their normal ...

Earth and Mercury are both rocky planets with iron cores, but Mercury's interior differs from Earth's in a way that explains why the planet has such a bizarre magnetic field, UCLA planetary physicists and colleagues report. Measurements from NASA's Messenger spacecraft have revealed that Mercury's magnetic field is approximately three times stronger at its northern hemisphere than its southern one. In the current research, scientists led by Hao Cao, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar working in the laboratory of Christopher T. Russell, created a model to show how the dynamics ...

Wallerian degeneration is a subject of major interest in neuroscience. A large number of genes are differentially regulated during the distinct stages of Wallerian degeneration: transcription factor activation, immune response, myelin cell differentiation and dedifferentiation. Although gene expression responses in the distal segment of the sciatic nerve after peripheral nerve injury are known, differences in gene expression between the proximal and distal segments remain unclear. Dr. Dengbing Yao and co-workers from Nantong University, China used microarrays to analyze ...

The use of iodine-125 (125I) in cancer treatment has been shown to relieve patients' pain. Considering dorsal root ganglia are critical for neural transmission between the peripheral and central nervous systems, Dr. Tengda Zhang and colleagues from Institute of Radiation Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, China assumed that 125I could be implanted into rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) to provide relief for neuropathic pain. 125I seeds with different radioactivity (0, 14.8, 29.6 MBq) were implanted separately into the vicinity of the L5 DRG. Experimental results ...

Progress in developing robust therapies for spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and peripheral nerve injury has been slow. A great deal has been learned over the past 30 years regarding both the intrinsic factors and the environmental factors that regulate axon growth, but this large body of information has not yet resulted in clinically available therapeutics. Prof. Lemmon and his team from University of Miami in USA proposed this therapeutic bottleneck has many root causes, but a consensus is emerging that one contributing factor is a lack of standards ...