Support for natural history – the study of organisms, how and where they live and how they interact with their environment – appears to be in steep decline in developed countries, according to Joshua Tewksbury, a University of Washington professor and WWF International scientist. "Yet natural history provides essential knowledge for fields as varied as human health, food security, conservation, land management and recreation," he said. Tewksbury and 16 other scientists from across North America outline the importance to society and call for a revitalization of the practice ...

Large amounts of data are produced when industrial companies monitor their facilities. Sensors check temperature, pressure, power, or energy use data. "If you're scanning to the nearest second, it's easy to rack up several terabytes of information in under a week," says Dr. Olaf Sauer from the automation business unit at the IOSB. But often there is a lack of suitable methods to evaluate the information. "Today's operators use only about seven percent of this data for maintenance or protection from breakdowns," adds Sauer. At the Hannover Messe Digital Factory, IOSB developers ...

What is now considered to be the "right" amount of the essential nutrient, choline, might actually be "wrong," depending on who you are. That's because scientists have found that the "right" amount of choline needed by an individual is influenced by a wide range of factors, including gender, life stage, race and ethnicity of the individual. This means that using the current one-size-fits-all approach to determining a person's vitamin and mineral needs may leave them in less than optimal health. Choline is an essential nutrient used by the body to construct cell membranes ...

Scientists have for the first time witnessed the mechanism behind explosive energy releases in the Sun's atmosphere, confirming new theories about how solar flares are created. New footage put together by an international team led by University of Cambridge researchers shows how entangled magnetic field lines looping from the Sun's surface slip around each other and lead to an eruption 35 times the size of the Earth and an explosive release of magnetic energy into space. The discoveries of a gigantic energy build-up bring us a step closer to predicting when and where ...

WASHINGTON – Military men who are targets of frightening and threatening sexual harassment may experience more distress and work performance problems than military women who face the same treatment, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. A total of 52 percent of military women said they had been sexually harassed compared with 19 percent of military men, and women more frequently reported they were very frightened by the experience than their male colleagues, according to a study published online in APA's Journal of Occupational Health ...

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have confirmed that if current trends continue, Australia's Generation X will overtake Baby Boomers for poor health, including rates of obesity and diabetes, which could have huge implications for healthcare and the workforce. In a paper published in the online journal PLOS ONE, University of Adelaide researchers compared the health status of Baby Boomers (born from 1946–1965) and Generation X (1966–1980) at the same age range of 25-44 years. They found Generation X had significantly poorer levels of self-rated health, and higher ...

The Chinese compound Kaixin Jieyu Fang can be used to treat vascular depression; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Dr. Ying Zhang and co-workers from Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in China This study established a rat model of chronic cerebral ischemia-caused white matter damage by ligation of the bilateral common carotid arteries. Rats received daily intragastric administration of a suspension of Kaixin Jieyu Fang powder. Kaixin Jieyu Fang was made from two prescriptions of Kaixin San and Sini San supplemented with Radix ...

Researchers and the public can now have immediate access to data underlying discovery of new species of life on Earth, under a new streamlined system linking taxonomic research with open data publication. The partnership paves the way for unlocking and preserving a wealth of 'small data' backing up research conclusions, which often become lost within a few years of an article's publication in an academic journal. In the first example of the new collaboration in action, the Biodiversity Data Journal carries a peer-reviewed description of a new species of spider discovered ...

Acupuncture is more effective than oral antidepressants in improving depressive symptoms, and produces fewer side effects than tricyclic antidepressants. Despite the continued development of antidepressants and alternative/synergistic therapies, major depressive disorder has not been comprehensively recognized and treatment outcome is often insufficient. An epidemiological study addressing depression showed that poor recognition and treatment are largely linked to the lack of an accurate assessment tool and to patients' economic situation. Prof. Yong Huang and team from ...

Levels of a key hormone in the blood may be important for the survival prospects of newborn animals, a study of wild deer suggests. First-born male deer that have relatively high levels of the male hormone testosterone are less likely to survive their first year compared with their peers, the research shows. Scientists say their findings suggest that high testosterone levels represent a risk to newborns which, when coupled with a new mother's inexperience, lowers their chances of survival. High levels of testosterone in adult male animals, including deer, are known ...

This news release is available in German. Subtle interactions of electrons and light make them so valuable for technology: ultra-thin systems of semiconductor layers can turn electrical voltage into light. But they can also be used the other way around and serve as light detectors. Until now, it has been hard to couple light into these layered semiconductor systems. Scientists at Vienna University of Technology solved this problem. They used metamaterials, which are able to manipulate light in the terahertz range due to their special microscopic structure. Customized ...

Researchers at the Universities of Southampton, Plymouth and Exeter used the test to assess the levels of epigenetic switches in the PGC1a gene – a gene that regulates fat storage in the body. Epigenetic switches take place through a chemical change called DNA methylation, which controls how genes work and is set during early life. The Southampton team found that the test, when carried out on children at five years old, differentiates between children with a high body fat and those with a low body fat when they were older. Results showed that a rise in DNA methylation ...

This news release is available in German. Predictive maintenance of hard-to-access plants, no unnecessary oil changes, no unnecessary laboratory costs and less environmental impact. These are just some of the benefits offered by a new system that can monitor the condition of lubricating oils, hydraulic oils and other fluids in industrial installations without interrupting ongoing operations. The method was developed by engineers from Saarbrücken in collaboration with project partners. The compact sensor system is available as a portable unit or can be built into ...

In 2007, members of the Haystack Group in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory released a set of Web development tools called "Exhibit." Exhibit lets novices quickly put together interactive data visualizations, such as maps with sortable data embedded in them; sortable tables that automatically pull in updated data from other sites; and sortable displays of linked thumbnail images. In April, at the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Haystack members will present an in-depth study of the ways ...

As a spin-off (pun intended) of their Tropical Biodiversity course in Malaysian Borneo, a team of biology students discover a new spider species, build a makeshift taxonomy lab, write a joint publication and send it off to a major taxonomic journal. Discovering a new spider species was not what she had anticipated when she signed up for her field course in Tropical Biodiversity, says Elisa Panjang, a Malaysian master's student from Universiti Malaysia Sabah. She is one of twenty students following the course, organised by Naturalis Biodiversity Center in The Netherlands, ...

This news release is available in German. An insect's sense of smell is vital to its survival. Only if it can trace even tiny amounts of odor molecules is it is able to find food sources, communicate with conspecifics, or avoid enemies. According to scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, many proteins involved in the highly sensitive odor perception of insects emerged rather late in the evolutionary process. The very complex olfactory system of modern insects is therefore not an adaptation to a terrestrial environment when ancient ...

Genes are the "code" for building the biological elements that form an organism. The DNA that makes up genes contains the instructions to synthesise proteins, but it's wrong to think that, for a given gene, these instructions are always the same for all parts of the organisms. In actual fact, the gene varies depending on the tissue where it is located (cerebral cortex, cerebellum, olfactory epithelium, etc.); in particular, what varies is the point in the "string" of code at which protein synthesis starts. This complexity complicates the work of scientists considerably, ...

One of the scientists who revealed how plants "do maths" can now reveal how cells take measurements of size. Size is important to cells as it determines when they divide. In a paper published in eLife, Professor Martin Howard from the John Innes Centre and colleagues from the US, Germany and Singapore discovered that cells measure their surface area using a particular protein, cdr2p. The finding challenges a previous model suggesting that another protein called pom1p senses a cell's length. "Many cell types have been shown to reach a size threshold before they commit ...

Auckland, New Zealand. 27 March 2014...Researchers at Plant & Food Research have identified plant compounds present in carrots and parsley that may one day support more effective delivery of chemotherapy treatments. Scientists at Plant & Food Research, working together with researchers at The University of Auckland and the National Cancer Institute of The Netherlands, have discovered specific plant compounds able to inhibit transport mechanisms in the body that select what compounds are absorbed into the body,and eventually into cells. These same transport mechanisms ...

WASHINGTON (March 27, 2014) — A new study on the impact of Michigan's statewide smoking ban adds to mounting evidence that policies prohibiting tobacco smoking in workplaces and other public spaces may substantially improve public health by reducing heart disease and death, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. Studies on previous indoor smoking bans have consistently shown a major decrease in hospital admissions for heart attacks after smoke-free laws went into effect. Secondhand smoke exposure is ...

WASHINGTON (March 27, 2014) — The formula for peak exercise heart rate that doctors have used for decades in tests to diagnose heart conditions may be flawed because it does not account for differences between men and women, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. The simple formula of "220 minus age" has been widely used to calculate the maximum number of heart beats per minute a person can achieve. Many people use it to derive their target heart rate during a workout. Doctors use it to determine how ...

WASHINGTON (March 27, 2014) — Cholesterol levels fluctuate based on the time of year with more unfavorable lipid profiles seen in the colder months, a trend that may be driven by related behavior changes, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. While previous studies have shown that heart attacks and heart-related deaths increase during the winter months, researchers at Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease were interested in finding out whether cholesterol parameters might ...

WASHINGTON (March 27, 2014) — Adoption of a Mediterranean diet is linked to a lower risk of diabetes, especially among people at high risk for cardiovascular disease, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. Data from the first pooled analysis of studies evaluating the possible role of the Mediterranean diet on diabetes development show that adherence to this diet was associated with a 21 percent reduced risk of diabetes as compared to the control dietary groups. This reduced risk was even more pronounced ...

WASHINGTON (March 27, 2014) — Marathon training is associated with improved risk factors related to cardiovascular disease among middle-aged recreational male runners, suggesting that race preparation may be an effective strategy for reducing heart disease risk, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. Over the last decade, marathon participation has risen steadily among middle-aged people seeking the reported health benefits of regular physical exercise. Some studies have shown that older men are significantly ...

WASHINGTON (March 27, 2014) — Vitamin D deficiency is an independent risk factor for heart disease with lower levels of vitamin D being associated with a higher presence and severity of coronary artery disease, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. A growing body of research shows that vitamin D may be beneficial in preventing heart disease. Several recent studies also support the idea that low levels of vitamin D are linked to an increased risk of heart disease; however, it is still not clear whether ...