DURHAM, N.C. -- Food-finding tests in five lemur species show that fruit-eaters may have better spatial memory than lemurs with a more varied diet. The results support the idea that relying on foods that are seasonally available and far-flung gives a competitive edge to individuals with certain cognitive abilities -- such as remembering where the goodies are. In a study appearing in the journal Animal Cognition, researchers Alexandra Rosati at Yale University and Kerri Rodriguez and Brian Hare of Duke compared spatial memory skills across five species of lemurs living ...

NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Guito as it exited the Mozambique Channel and moved into the open waters of the Southern Indian Ocean. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Guito on Feb. 21 at 07:05 UTC/2:05 a.m. EST and took a visible image of the storm exiting the Mozambique Channel. The image showed bands of thunderstorms were still wrapping around the western quadrant of the storm. At 0900 UTC/4 a.m. EST, Guito ...

A study of the Pine Island Glacier could provide insight into the patterns and duration of glacial melt. The Pine Island Glacier, a major outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, has been undergoing rapid melting and retreating for the past two decades. But new research by an international team including researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory shows that this same glacier also experienced rapid thinning about 8,000 years ago. Using LLNL's Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry to measure beryllium-10 produced by cosmic rays in glacially transported ...

Selecting a Chevy Volt, Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf — or one of many other new models — shoppers in the United States bought more than 96,000 plug-in electric cars in 2013. That's a tiny slice of the auto market, but it's up eighty-four percent from the year before. By 2020, the International Energy Agency forecasts, there will be 20 million electric vehicles on the world's roads, many of them plug-ins. This is good news in terms of oil consumption and air pollution. But, of course, every plug-in has to be, well, plugged in. And this growing fleet will put a lot of new ...

Although community network studies show that sexual relationships occur between members of "risk groups" -- men who have sex with other men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PWID), non-injection drug users (NIDU) -- and heterosexuals, researchers at New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) note that little research has been done to help explain how HIV epidemics and programs in one population affect others and how to reduce the risks of transmission. A recent study conducted by researchers from CDUHR, led by Samuel R. Friedman, Director of both ...

(Phoenix , Ariz. Feb 21, 2014) -- Research on cervical cancer performed by a physician at the University of Arizona Cancer Center at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The multi-site research project by Bradley J. Monk, MD, is expected to change the standard of care for women with advanced cervical cancer. The featured research revealed that women with advanced cervical cancer live about four months longer with the combined use of bevacizumab (Avastin®) and chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone. ...

A pathway to more effective and efficient synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs and other flow reactor chemical products has been opened by a study in which for the first time the catalytic reactivity inside a microreactor was mapped in high resolution from start-to-finish. The results not only provided a better understanding of the chemistry behind the catalytic reactions, they also revealed opportunities for optimization, which resulted in better catalytic performances. The study was conducted by a team of scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley ...

Amsterdam, February 21, 2014 – From 1971-1982 Air Force reservists, who flew in about 34 dioxin-contaminated aircraft used to spray Agent Orange and returned to the US following discontinuation of the herbicide spraying operations in the Vietnam War, were exposed greater levels of dioxin than previously acknowledged, according to a study published today in Environmental Research. "These findings are important because they describe a previously unrecognized source of exposure to dioxin that has health significance to those who engaged in the transport work using these ...

West Orange, NJ. February 21, 2014. Kessler Foundation researchers have found that among persons with multiple sclerosis, self-generation may be influenced by variables such as task meaningfulness during learning and memory. They also found that type of task (functional versus laboratory) had a significant effect on memory. This is the first controlled investigation of therapeutic and patient-specific factors that supports the inclusion of self-generation in cognitive rehabilitation. The study was published in the January issue of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: An ...

Lexington, Ky. -- (Feb. 20, 2014) -- a recent study suggests that self-reported memory complaints might predict clinical memory impairment later in life. Erin Abner, Ph.D, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, asked 3,701 men aged 60 and higher a simple question: "Have you noticed any change in your memory since you last came in?" That question led to some interesting results. "It seems that subjective memory complaint can be predictive of clinical memory impairment," Abner said. "Other epidemiologists have seen similar ...

Despite a number of social/behavioral intervention and educational programs, the spread of hepatitis C (HCV) in people who inject drugs (PWIDs) remains a chronic problem. Now, researchers affiliated with New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) are focusing on intervention strategies that highlight the lesser-known dangers of HCV transmission through the sharing of other injection equipment such as cookers, filters, drug-dilution water and water containers. Their article, "The Staying Safe Intervention: Training People Who Inject Drugs in ...

Physics can provide insights into societal trends. Problems involving interactions between people linked in real-life networks can be better understood by using physical models. As a diversion from his normal duties as a theoretical physicist, Andrés Gomberoff from the Andres Bello University in Santiago, Chile, set out to resolve one of his real-life problems: finding a suitable weekend for both partners in his recomposed family to see all their children at the same time. He then joined forces with a mathematician and a complex systems expert. This resulted in a study ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 21, 2014) -- A new report from the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) reveals the prevalence and charges associated with drug overdose in the Bluegrass state. The report, "Drug Overdose Deaths, Hospitalizations, and Emergency Department Visits in Kentucky, 2000-2012", analyzes overdose morbidity and mortality among Kentucky residents and documents the enormous societal and financial toll on the Commonwealth's population. KIPRC, located in the UK College of Public Health, is a bona fide agent for the Kentucky Department for Public ...

A QUT mammalogist has discovered a highly sexed mouse-like marsupial in Queensland's Springbrook National Park. The Black-tailed Antechinus was found in the high-altitude regions of the World Heritage Area. It's the third new species in the genus Antechinus Dr Andrew Baker's research team has discovered in the past two years, all from south-east Queensland. Dr Baker said he suspected the rare, Black-tailed Antechinus was a separate species when he and his team came across it last May because it had distinctive yellow-orange markings around its eyes and on its rump, and ...

Viruses such as HBV can persist by depositing their genetic information (DNA) in the cell nucleus, where the DNA is normally not degraded. This prevents antiviral drugs from eliminating these viruses. But the newly discovered mechanism could make this possible without damaging the infected cell in the liver. In the current issue of the prestigious journal 'Science', the scientists report that now new therapeutic possibilities are consequently opening up. Although preventive vaccination is possible, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that more than 240 million ...

This news release is available in German. A team of researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Michigan/USA has produced novel microparticles, whose surface consists of three chemically different segments. These segments can be provided with different (bio-) molecules. Thanks to the specific spatial orientation of the attached molecules, the microparticles are suited for innovative applications in medicine, biochemistry, and engineering. The researchers now report about their development in the journal Angewandte Chemie. "Microparticles ...

Physics can provide insights into societal trends. Problems involving interactions between people linked in real-life networks can be better understood by using physical models. As a diversion from his normal duties as a theoretical physicist, Andrés Gomberoff from the Andres Bello University in Santiago, Chile, set out to resolve one of his real-life problems: finding a suitable weekend for both partners in his recomposed family to see all their children at the same time. He then joined forces with a mathematician and a complex systems expert. This resulted in a study ...

When women enter menopause, their oestrogen levels taper. This increases their risk of cardiovascular disease. New research from University of Copenhagen shows that interval-based team sport can make up for this oestrogen loss as it improves their conditions, reduces blood pressure and thereby protects the cardiovascular system. While aging and an array of physical transformations go hand in hand for all, menopause has a significant influence on physical changes in women. Oestrogen, the primary female sex hormone, is an important guardian of the female vascular system. ...

Enzalutamide (trade name: Xtandi) has been approved since June 2013 for men with metastatic prostate cancer in whom the commonly used hormone blockade is no longer effective and who have already been treated with the cytostatic drug docetaxel. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG) in November 2013, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) determined an added benefit of this new drug over the appropriate comparator therapy specified by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA). ...

The amount of debris in the ocean is growing exponentially, becoming more and more hazardous and harmful to marine life and therefore also to our ocean food source. Measuring and tracking the movements of such debris are still in their infancy. The driftage generated by the tragic 2011 tsunami in Japan gave scientists Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner a unique chance to learn about the effects of the ocean and wind on floating materials as they move across the North Pacific Ocean. Shortly after the tsunami struck, Maximenko and Hafner used the IPRC Ocean Drift Model ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Here are two facts that make the lowly barnacle important: They are popular models for ecology research, and they are very sensitive to temperature. Given that, the authors of a new study about a bellwether community of two barnacle species in Chile figured they might see clear effects on competition between these two species if they experimentally changed temperature. In the context of climate change, such an experiment could yield profound new insights into the biological future of a major coastline that is prized for its ecological, ...

Researchers have long known that people with autoimmune diseases, such as hepatitis, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis, are at greater risk of developing schizophrenia. But new research based on data sets covering the majority of the Danish population shows that the development goes both ways: People suffering from schizophrenia also have an increased risk of contracting autoimmune diseases, especially if they have suffered from a severe infection. Head of the new study is Michael Eriksen Benrós, MD and PhD, who is senior researcher at the National ...

Cholera has been all but eradicated in Europe, but this bacterial, primarily waterborne disease still claims thousands of lives in Africa every year. Scientists are examining the effects various environmental factors have on cholera epidemics in Uganda. As part of this work, the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe developed a software architecture for early warning systems that compares environmental and health data and presents the results graphically. "This allowed us to visualize the complex relationships between ...

PHILADELPHIA - An international team of scientists has traced the origin of Plasmodium vivax, the second-worst malaria parasite of humans, to Africa, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications. Until recently, the closest genetic relatives of human P. vivax were found only in Asian macaques, leading researchers to believe that P. vivax originated in Asia. The study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, found that wild-living apes in central Africa are widely infected with parasites that, genetically, ...

Arizona residents learn how to share the road with big rig trucks Article provided by Adelman German, P.L.C. Visit us at http://www.adelmangerman.com While many industries depend on large commercial "big rig" trucks to transport their goods through Arizona and across the country, these massive automobiles can be a threat to drivers on streets and highways. In fact, in Arizona alone, 65 people were killed in accidents involving tractor trailers in 2011 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. Nationwide, 3,608 people lost their lives ...