The engineered spring flood that brought water to previously dry reaches of the lower Colorado River and its delta resulted in greener vegetation, the germination of new vegetation along the river and a temporary rise in the water table, according to new results from the binational team of scientists studying the water's effects. The experimental pulse flow of water was the result of a U.S.-Mexico agreement called Minute 319. "The pulse flow worked," said Karl W. Flessa, co-chief scientist for the Minute 319 Science Team. "A small amount of water can have a big effect ...

New research helps explain a paradoxical effect of certain antidepressants--that they may actually worsen symptoms before helping patients feel better. The findings, highlighted in a paper publishing online December 17 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, may help investigators fix the problem as well as create new classes of drugs to treat depression. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most widely prescribed class of antidepressant drugs, and they work by increasing levels of a brain chemical called serotonin. While this boost ...

In an article to be published in the January issue of BioScience, two philosophers tackle one of the most divisive arguments in modern biology: the value of the theory of "kin selection." Kin selection is the idea that because genes influence behavior, and because an animal that helps its relatives helps to spread genes likely identical to its own, animals will evolve to favor kin. Researchers have spent decades testing this explanation for apparent animal altruism, but in recent years, critics, notably Martin Nowak of Harvard University and the famous naturalist and ...

(PHILADELPHIA) - Researchers look to understand the causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), in the hope of finding new ways to treat the disease. A new study published online today (December 17th) in the Cell Press journal Neuron shows that a common gene mutation in ALS generates a deadly protein that may cause the damage in the brain that leads to ALS. About 5 percent of ALS patients carry an altered version of a gene called C9orf72, which in ALS patients contains hundreds of repeat sequences that otherwise are not present in normal individuals. Since the gene's ...

When faced with making choices, but lack sufficient evidence to guarantee success, our brain uses elapsed time as a proxy for task difficulty to calculate how confident we should be, a team of neuroscientists has found. Their findings, which appear in the journal Neuron, help untangle the different factors that contribute to the decision-making process. "In our daily lives, we make many decisions," says Roozbeh Kiani, an assistant professor in NYU's Center for Neural Science and one of the study's authors. "Sometimes the evidence afforded us is strong, enabling us to ...

More than 90 percent of cancer-related deaths are caused by the spread of cancer cells from their primary tumor site to other areas of the body. A new study has identified how one important gene helps cancer cells break free from the primary tumor. A gene normally involved in the regulation of embryonic development can trigger the transition of cells into more mobile types that can spread without regard for the normal biological controls that restrict metastasis, the new study shows. Analysis of downstream signaling pathways of this gene, called SNAIL, could be used ...

PITTSBURGH--A stream runs through it. A much nicer, healthier stream. Pittsburgh's Frick Park is home to Nine Mile Run, a stream that had been known as "Stink Creek." From 2003 to 2006, the City of Pittsburgh and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers poured $7.7 million into restoring 2.2 miles of the stream and tributaries into waterways approximating what they were prior to urban development. The project remains one of the largest urban-stream restorations undertaken in the United States. What can this restoration teach us as we continue to deal with streams affected ...

WASHINGTON - National Poison Control Center data from 2012 show that poisonings from prescription drugs are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, and that poisonings from "bath salts," synthetic marijuana and laundry detergent pods are emerging threats to public health. The paper was published online Monday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Poisoning in the United States: 2012 Emergency Medicine Report of the National Poison Data System"). "The poison center system can provide real-time advice and collect data regarding a variety of poisonings, including ...

WASHINGTON -- Two related proteins exert a lethal double whammy effect against glioblastoma cells when activated with a small molecule, say researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. The scientists say when activated, one protein, called the short form, stops glioblastoma cells from replicating their DNA, and the other, called the long form, prevents cell division if the DNA has already been replicated, explains Rebecca Riggins, PhD, assistant professor of oncology at Georgetown Lombardi. The study was posted online Dec. 12 in the journal Cell Cycle. Both ...

New Rochelle, NY, December 17, 2014-The Sunni Islamist terror organization known as the Islamic State, or ISIS, uses extreme violence and brutality against anyone it perceives as a threat to its goal of expansion and restoration of an Islamic Caliphate. The significant behavioral aspects of this unparalleled violence and its implications for the future are explored in a compelling Review article published in Violence and Gender, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/vio.2014.0037 ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Dec. 17, 2014 - While people of Mexican ancestry are nearly twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as people of European heritage, the majority of research in this area has focused on those of European origin. In an effort to understand why Mexicans are disproportionately affected by the disease, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center led the largest study to date to examine the underlying causes. The study is published in the Dec. 17 issue of Diabetes. "Type 2 diabetes is really about how you dispose of your glucose - how long it ...

DAVIS, Calif. -- The 2013 Rim Fire, the largest wildland fire ever recorded in the Sierra Nevada region, is still fresh in the minds of Californians, as is the urgent need to bring forests back to a more resilient condition. Land managers are using fire as a tool to mimic past fire conditions, restore fire-dependent forests, and reduce fuels in an effort to lessen the potential for large, high-intensity fires, like the Rim Fire. A study led by the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) and recently published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management ...

The U.S. continues to look at the use and regulation of phthalates, which have been associated with health problems. Of particular concern is the safety of these plastic additives to children. A new study aims to improve our understanding of one possible exposure route for babies: vinyl crib mattress covers. Scientists report in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology that as these covers warm up, they emit more phthalates into the air. Ying Xu and Yirui Liang note that previous studies have linked phthalates, which soften plastics, to potential health effects, including ...

A new study by a team of researchers that includes University of Notre Dame scientists Joshua Shrout and Mark Alber provides new insights into the behavior of an important bacterial pathogen. Alber, Vincent J. Duncan Family Professor of Applied Mathematics, and Schrout, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, studied Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic pathogen responsible for both acute and persistent infections. "While this ubiquitous environmental bacterium rarely infects healthy people, it is a common pathogen among ...

ALAMEDA, Calif. - December 17, 2014 - Penumbra, Inc., the market leader in intra-arterial stroke treatment, announced that an independent study published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine found that intra-arterial stroke treatment, including the company's clot extraction technology, was shown to be significantly more effective than medical management with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which is the current standard of care. The findings of this randomized, controlled comparative effectiveness trial of stroke treatment have the potential to change ...

New Haven, Conn. - A Yale University lab has crafted the first synthetic molecules that have both the targeting and response functions of antibodies. The new molecules -- synthetic antibody mimics (SyAMs) -- attach themselves simultaneously to disease cells and disease-fighting cells. The result is a highly targeted immune response, similar to the action of natural human antibodies. "Unlike antibodies, however, our molecules are synthetic organic compounds that are approximately one-twentieth the size of antibodies," said David A. Spiegel, a professor of chemistry at ...

Promising treatments known as biologics are on the market and under development for many serious illnesses such as cancer, but some of them come with high risks, even lethal ones. Now scientists have produced a novel class of molecules that could be as effective but without the dangerous side effects. They report their work on these compounds, which they tested on prostate cancer cells, in ACS' Journal of the American Chemical Society. David A. Spiegel and colleagues explain that biologics are protein-based therapies that have revolutionized cancer treatment over the ...

It takes some cooking, but turning farm waste into biofuels is now possible and makes economic sense, according to preliminary research from the University of Guelph. Guelph researchers are studying how to make biofuels from farm waste, especially "wet" waste that is typically difficult to use. They have developed a fairly simple procedure to transport waste and produce energy from it. Scientists have struggled to find uses for wet and green waste, including corn husks, tomato vines and manure. Dry farm waste, such as wood chips or sawdust, is easier to use for generating ...

Many consumers seek out shampoos, soaps and cosmetics that are labeled "hypoallergenic" or "dermatologist tested," words that imply the products are safe to use. But recent research gives shoppers reason to question what those labels really mean. Now some scientists and consumer advocates are calling for change, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. Britt E. Erickson, a senior editor at C&EN, notes that the definitions of the terms "hypoallergenic" and "dermatologist tested/recommended" ...

MANHATTAN, KANSAS -- It may be beneficial for employers to not only encourage office Christmas parties but also celebrate holidays and festivals from a variety of religions, according to a Kansas State University researcher. Sooyeol Kim, doctoral student in psychological sciences, was involved in a collaborative study that found that employees who openly discuss their religious beliefs at work are often happier and have higher job satisfaction than those employees who do not. "For many people, religion is the core of their lives," Kim said. "Being able to express important ...

SAN FRANCISCO--A new study is helping to answer a longstanding question that has recently moved to the forefront of earth science: Did our planet make its own water through geologic processes, or did water come to us via icy comets from the far reaches of the solar system? The answer is likely "both," according to researchers at The Ohio State University-- and the same amount of water that currently fills the Pacific Ocean could be buried deep inside the planet right now. At the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 17, they report the discovery ...

SAN FRANCISCO--Of the many weather-related factors that contribute to harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Lake Erie, a new study has identified one as most important: the wind. Over a 10-year period in Lake Erie, wind speed contributed more consistently to HABs than sunshine or even precipitation, researchers at The Ohio State University and their colleagues found. The ongoing study is unusual, in that researchers are building the first detailed analyses of how the various environmental factors influence each other--in the context of satellite studies of Lake Erie. They ...

Singapore, Date - A more effective treatment for tuberculosis (TB) could soon be available as scientists have discovered that Metformin (MET), a drug for treating diabetes, can also be used to boost the efficacy of TB medication without inducing drug resistance. This discovery was made by a team of international scientists led by the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. TB is an air-borne infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), which ...

The extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago is thought to have paved the way for mammals to dominate, but a new study shows that many mammals died off alongside the dinosaurs. Metatherian mammals--the extinct relatives of living marsupials ("mammals with pouches", such as opossums) thrived in the shadow of the dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period. The new study, by an international team of experts on mammal evolution and mass extinctions, shows that these once-abundant mammals nearly followed the dinosaurs into oblivion. When a 10-km-wide asteroid struck ...

The Center for RNA Research at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has succeeded in revealing, for the first time, the mechanism of how miRNAs, which control gene expression, are regulated in the early embryonic stage. The IBS researchers have verified that maternally inherited miRNAs are highly adenylated at their ends in mature oocytes and early embryos. This maternal miRNA adenylation is extensively conserved in fly, sea urchin and mouse. The researchers have also identified that the enzyme called 'Wispy' is required to catalyze miRNA adenylation and to reduce miRNA ...