Boulder, Colorado, USA – In the October issue of GSA Today, Grant Young of the University of Western Ontario discusses the possible causes of the numerous glaciations that characterized the Neoproterozoic and concludes that a dramatic shift in Earth's climate may have occurred during the Ediacaran, in part due to a large marine impact. According to Young, this shift separates Proterozoic glaciations, which were likely triggered by the effect of supercontinent assembly and breakup on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Young notes that this suggests strong seasonality ...

Most of us think of honey bees as having a bucolic, pastoral existence—flying from flower to flower to collect the nectar they then turn into honey. But while they're capable of defending themselves with their painful stings, honey bees live in a world filled with danger in which predators seize them from the sky and wait to ambush them on flowers. Such fear drives bees to avoid food sources closely associated with predators and, interestingly, makes colonies of bees less risk-tolerant than individual bees, according to a study published in this week's issue of the open-access ...

A team of engineers led by computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, has developed a new approach that marries computer vision and hardware optimization to sort cells up to 38 times faster than is currently possible. The approach could be used for clinical diagnostics, stem cell characterization and other applications. The approach improves on a technique known as imaging flow cytometry, which uses a camera mounted on a microscope to capture the morphological features of hundreds to thousands of cells per second while the cells are suspended in a ...

JUPITER, FL – October 2, 2013 – Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered some key features that explain just what turns on a protein that is considered to be a master regulator of how the human body uses and stores energy. The new discoveries could help in the design and development of new therapeutics to treat metabolic disease such as diabetes and obesity—and perhaps some cancers as well. The new study, led by Patrick R. Griffin, chair of the TSRI Department of Molecular Therapeutics, was published recently online ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Examining a long-lived forest, researchers have found that Black Spruce trees, which dominate the northern forests of North America, succumb about five years after being weakened by environmental stresses. Without rejuvenating fire, the dead trees aren't being replaced by new ones. The result will help researchers better understand how climate change affects the health of forests, and how forests affect the severity of climate change. The study also suggests trees might be storing more carbon than currently estimated. "The take away from this is that ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 1, 2013—People suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) face a greater risk of cardiovascular disease and death. A new study involving a comprehensive review of the medical literature shows that PTSD also increases an individual's risk of metabolic syndrome. What links these two disorders is not clear, according to a study published in Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders website at http://www.liebertpub.com/met. Francesco ...

This news release is available in French. Quebec City, October 2, 2013—Researchers from Université Laval's Faculty of Medicine and CHU de Québec have shown that it is possible to treat venous ulcers unresponsive to conventional treatment with wound dressings made from human skin grown in vitro. A study published recently in the journal Advances in Skin and Wound Care demonstrates how this approach was successfully used to treat venous lower-extremity ulcers in patients who had been chronically suffering from such wounds. About 1% of the population suffers from lower-extremity ...

In a recent study, two different strains of non-toxigenic Clostridium difficile provided protection against both historic and epidemic C. difficile strains. The research was conducted by researchers at Hines VA Hospital and is published ahead of print in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Studies show colonization with a non-disease-causing strain of C. difficile can prevent infection by the more dangerous strains. Patients who are not colonized by benign strains may risk become infected by the harmful strains. The harmless strains occupy the same niches ...

A genetic condition that attacks multiple organs and usually results in fatal heart problems can be detected using a new MRI technique that was developed at the University of Alberta. The discovery of this new diagnostic tool has resulted in updated clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Fabry disease in Canada. Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry researchers Gavin Oudit and Richard Thompson worked with Faculty colleagues Kelvin Chow and Alicia Chan on the discovery, as well as Aneal Khan from the University of Calgary. The findings were recently published ...

America's communities are becoming increasingly diverse, but there are still important concerns about racial and ethnic integration in the future, according to researchers. A new US2010 report shows whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians are increasingly sharing American communities, said Barry Lee, professor of sociology and demography, Penn State. Lee, who co-wrote the report with John Iceland, professor of sociology and demography, Penn State, and Chad Farrell, associate professor of sociology, University of Alaska Anchorage, said that a universal trend toward greater ...

Nearly 1 in 3 American children are overweight or obese, but sugary sweets are often on the menu at elementary school classroom parties. But schools with a district policy or state law discouraging sugary foods and beverages were 2.5 times more likely to restrict those foods at parties than were schools with no such policy or law, according to a new study published online in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago examined the linkages among state laws, district, and school-level policies for classroom birthday ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., October 2, 2013 – A recently published study by researchers from Spectrum Health and Henry Ford Hospital suggests that surgery may be an effective treatment for epilepsy in older patients, a finding that runs counter to conventional treatment methods. "Traditionally, there has been a tendency to exclude older patients from surgery for fear of increased risk of medical or surgical complications," said Spectrum Health Medical Group neurosurgeon Sanjay Patra, MD, lead author of the study. "This study provides evidence that surgery may instead be a viable ...

A new study published today in British Journal of Pharmacology has identified that a component of grapefruit and other citrus fruits, naringenin, successfully blocks the formation of kidney cysts. Known as polycystic kidney disease, this is an inherited disorder which leads to the loss of kidney function, high blood pressure and the need for dialysis. Few treatment options are currently available. The team of scientists from Royal Holloway University, St George's, University of London and Kingston University London used a simple, single-celled amoeba to identify that ...

New classification criteria for systemic sclerosis have just been published and are more sensitive than the 1980 criteria, enabling earlier identification and treatment of this disabling autoimmune disease. The 2013 criteria, developed by a joint committee commissioned by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), are published in the ACR journal, Arthritis & Rheumatism. Systemic sclerosis, also known as scleroderma, is a connective tissue disease that is characterized by sclerodermatous skin changes–a hardening of tissue ...

Concerned about the effect of stress on your health and well-being? If your answer is "yes," then Arizona State University Professor Doug Granger is doing research that could impact you. Granger is pioneering the field of interdisciplinary salivary bioscience using spit. Spit conjures a variety of saying and images for most people, but for Granger and colleagues spit is also serious business. "The use of oral fluid as a research and diagnostic specimen has tremendous potential," says Granger, who is the director of ASU's new Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience ...

In many ways, the spread of HIV has been fueled by substance abuse. Shared needles and drug users' high-risk sexual behaviors are just some of the ways that narcotics such as cocaine have played a key role in the AIDS epidemic in much of the world. There is, however, relatively little research into how drugs can impact the body's defenses against the virus. But a new UCLA study published in the October issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology examines how cocaine affects a unique population of immune cells called quiescent CD4 T cells, which are resistant to the virus ...

Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that mice made obese by high-calorie, high-fat diets develop abnormally high numbers of lesions known to be precursors to pancreas cancer. This is the first study to show a direct causative link in an animal model between obesity and risk of this deadly cancer. The study, published Sept. 30 in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, was led by Dr. Guido Eibl, a member of the Jonsson Cancer Center and a professor in the department of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. ...

Three researchers from the University of Huddersfield have published a paper in the Prison Service Journal looking at the important issue of what affect family ties and relationships can have on the prisoner, as well as how imprisonment can influence the family. This paper presents a qualitative evaluation of the Family Support Project (FSP) delivered at HMP New Hall, a female establishment located in West Yorkshire. The FSP was delivered by one female Family Support Officer (FSO) and managed by Lincolnshire Action Trust (LAT). Semi-structured interviews and focus groups ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Elevated levels of radioactivity, salts and metals have been found in river water and sediments at a site where treated water from oil and gas operations is discharged into a western Pennsylvania creek. "Radium levels were about 200 times greater in sediment samples collected where the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility discharges its treated wastewater into Blacklick Creek than in sediment samples collected just upstream of the plant," said Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. The ...

This news release is available in French. Researchers at the University of Montreal and the Institut universitaire de gératrie de Montréal examined brain changes over 20 months in Parkinson's patients with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at the early stages of the disease. Results showed that patients with MCI had significantly more cortical thinning and subcortical atrophy over time compared with patients without MCI, suggesting that early MCI in PD patients may indicate faster neurodegeneration. The specific pattern observed might serve as a marker for ...

DETROIT – Offering free head and neck cancer screenings annually to the community not only has the possibility of early detection, but also the opportunity – particularly in an urban city – to increase a person's understanding of risk factors that cause cancer, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Among those who attend free head and neck cancer screenings, the study finds people who reside in an urban city like Detroit were more likely to be African American, a current smoker and have a history of treatment for some other cancer than those who ...

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have for the first time managed to measure the internal pressure that enables the herpes virus to infect cells in the human body. The discovery paves the way for the development of new medicines to combat viral infections. The results indicate good chances to stop herpes infections in the future. A virus comprises a thin shell of protein, within which are its genes. A long-standing theory has been that a virus has high internal pressure because it is so tightly packed with genetic material. The pressure means that they can infect ...

Washington D.C., October 2, 2013 – A study published in the October 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that approximately one in three teens with bipolar disorder developed substance abuse, for the first time, during 4 years of follow-up. The study also identified several risk factors that predicted who among these teens was most likely to develop substance abuse. Using data from the Course and Outcome of Bipolar Youth (COBY) study, a group of researchers led by Dr. Benjamin Goldstein, of the University of Toronto ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Babies considered "early-term," born at 37 or 38 weeks after a mother's last menstrual period, may look as healthy as full-term babies born at 39-41 weeks, but a new study published by University at Buffalo physicians in JAMA Pediatrics has found that many of them are not. The study is considered the first population-based, countywide assessment of neonatal morbidity among early-term infants based on individual medical records in the U.S. "Our results show the need for an increased awareness among health care providers that even though we consider babies ...

The song of songbirds is a learned, complex behavior and subject to strong selective forces. However, it is difficult to tease apart the influence of the genetic background and the environment on the expression of individual variation in song. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen in collaboration with international researchers now compared song and brain structure of parents and offspring in zebra finches that have been raised either with their genetic or foster parents. They also varied the amount of food during breeding. Remarkably, both ...