University of Leicester scientists will present groundbreaking new evidence about how a chemical found in red wine can help prevent cancer on Wednesday, December 5. Experts from around the world are set to attend Resveratrol 2012, a major conference at the University which will assess the latest advances in the study of resveratrol – a compound found in the skins of red grapes. The conference will feature new findings based on the last two years of research, which show how the chemical can help prevent cancer, heart disease and diabetes. The event follows the first ...

Researchers have discovered what may be the earliest dinosaur, a creature the size of a Labrador retriever, but with a five foot-long tail, that walked the Earth about 10 million years before more familiar dinosaurs like the small, swift-footed Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus. The findings mean that the dinosaur lineage appeared 10 million to 15 million years earlier than fossils previously showed, originating in the Middle Triassic rather than in the Late Triassic period. "If the newly named Nyasasaurus parringtoni is not the earliest dinosaur, then it is the closest relative ...

VIDEO: Eurasian jays change strategies to prevent others from stealing food and to improve their chances of absconding with other birds’ caches. Click here for more information. In order to prevent other birds from stealing the food they are storing for later, Eurasian jays, a type of corvid, minimizes any auditory hints a potential pilferer may use to steal their cache (food that is buried for later use). The new research was published today, 05 December, in the journal ...

ST. PAUL, Minn., December 4, 2012 – Trees, water and lawn clearly matter to urban dwellers. For city planners balancing green space with other demands, the question has been just how much green space matters to residents. Working with lead author Heather Sander of the University of Iowa, economist Robert Haight of the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station estimated how much home buyers are willing to pay for more scenic vistas, better access to outdoor recreation, and greater neighborhood tree cover. Their study, "Estimating the economic value of cultural ecosystem ...

PHOENIX — Researchers have found that using telemedicine to deliver stroke care, also known as telestroke, appears to be cost-effective for rural hospitals that do not have an around-the-clock neurologist, or stroke expert, on staff. The research, published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, is intended to help hospital administrators evaluate telestroke. In telestroke care, the use of a telestroke robot allows a patient with stroke to be examined in real time by a neurology specialist elsewhere who consults via computer with an emergency room ...

Using a new method for estimating greenhouse gases that combines atmospheric measurements with model predictions, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researchers have found that the level of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, in California may be 2.5 to 3 times greater than the current inventory. At that level, total N2O emissions—which are believed to come primarily from nitrogen fertilizers used in agricultural production—would account for about 8 percent of California's total greenhouse gas emissions. The findings were recently published in a ...

Evanston, Ill. (December 4, 2012) – In 2008, research showed that expressing support for Barack Obama increased people's comfort in subsequently saying or doing things that might be considered racist. Researchers argued that endorsing a black political figure made people feel as if they had "non-racist credentials" that reduced their concern about subsequently seeming prejudiced. Now this same research group has identified a mental trick that people play to convince themselves that they have these same non-racist credentials: convincing themselves that they were presented ...

The study, by IIASA Evolution and Ecology Program postdoctoral fellow Tatsuya Sasaki, provides a simple new model that ties punishment by social exclusion to the benefits for the punisher. It may help explain how social exclusion arose in evolution, and how it promotes cooperation among groups. "Punishment is a common tool to promote cooperation in the real world," says Sasaki. "And social exclusion is a common way to do it." From reef fish to chimpanzees, there are many examples of animals that promote cooperation by excluding free riders. Humans, too, use social exclusion ...

Philadelphia, PA, December 4, 2012 – A new study of working women has identified factors during pregnancy and postpartum that can predict pain in the joints that comprise the pelvic girdle. While 90 percent of working women in the Netherlands return to work after the birth of their first child, health issues during the postpartum period often require sick leave. Chief among these health issues is pelvic girdle pain (PGP). "It is important to identify predictors for postpartum PGP, because physicians, obstetricians, midwives, and employers could use them to identify women ...

UC Davis chemists have been using a Japanese synchrotron to get a detailed look at enzymes that could help power the green economy. The work was published online Nov. 8 by the journal Angewandte Chemie and is featured on the cover of the Nov. 26 issue. One option for powering clean, environment friendly vehicles is to run them on hydrogen fuel rather than carbon-based fuels. Cheap catalysts to prepare hydrogen gas (H2) are key to this future "hydrogen economy." Current man-made catalysts are based on the rare and precious metal platinum. But living cells contain enzymes ...

December 4, 2012 – About 60% of infectious diseases are caused by viruses, bacteria and other pathogens that make the jump to humans from other species. This includes some of the most devastating disease outbreaks of the past 30 years, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and SARS. Despite the huge and rising toll of such diseases, many gaps remain in our understanding of how these "zoonoses" evolve, develop, and spread—gaps that must be filled if we are to succeed in preventing or at least reducing the impact of a next pandemic. A new paper published in the Lancet by Stephen ...

Scientists using NASA satellite data and climate models have projected drier conditions likely will cause increased fire activity across the United States in coming decades. Other findings about U.S. wildfires, including their amount of carbon emissions and how the length and strength of fire seasons are expected to change under future climate conditions, were also presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Doug Morton of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., presented the new analysis of future U.S. fire ...

The population of the United States is getting older, due not only to aging boomers but also to a four-year increase in life expectancy from 1990 to 2010. An aging population means increased diagnosis of prostate cancer. Statistically, the older the patient at time of diagnosis, the more aggressive the disease – and also the less well the patient is likely to tolerate traditional chemotherapies. In sum, we have more, aggressive prostate cancer that can't be targeted by traditional treatments. Members of the University of Colorado Cancer Center recently published a review ...

Buildings and statues constructed of limestone can be protected from pollution by applying a thin, single layer of a water-resistant coating. That's the word from a University of Iowa researcher and her colleagues from Cardiff University in a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, from the publishers of Nature. In the study, the researchers report a new way to minimize chemical reactions that cause buildings to deteriorate, according to Vicki Grassian, F. Wendell Miller professor in the UI departments of chemistry and chemical and biochemical engineering. The ...

New Rochelle, NY, December 4, 2012—About 30 million women in the U.S. have osteoporosis, with low bone mass and deteriorating bone structure that increases their risk for fractures. Racial differences in the rates of detection and management of osteoporosis were explored in a study of African American and white women published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. The study, "Osteoporosis Health Care Disparities ...

No man is an island, entire of itself, said poet John Donne. And no atom neither. Even in the middle of intergalactic space, atoms feel the electromagnetic field---also known as the cosmic microwave background---left over by the Big Bang. The cosmos is filled with interactions that remind atoms they are not alone. Stray electric fields, say from a nearby electronic device, will also slightly adjust the internal energy levels of atoms, a process called the Stark effect. Even the universal vacuum, presumably empty of any energy or particles, can very briefly muster virtual ...

URBANA – A detailed annotation of the genome of T.J. Tabasco, a pig from the University of Illinois South Farms, is the outcome of over 10 years of work by an international consortium. It is expected to speed progress in both biomedical and agricultural research. U of I Vice President for Research Lawrence Schook said that the College of ACES played a crucial role in getting the work started. Funding that came through ACES allowed Schook and others to put together the Swine Genome Sequencing Consortium, an alliance of university, industry, and government laboratories ...

To grasp and move microscopic objects, such as bacteria and the components of living cells, scientists can harness the power of concentrated light to manipulate them without ever physically touching them. Now, doctoral student Amr Saleh and Assistant Professor Jennifer Dionne, researchers at the Stanford School of Engineering, have designed an innovative light aperture that allows them to optically trap smaller objects than ever before – potentially just a few atoms in size. The process of optical trapping – or optical tweezing, as it is often known – involves sculpting ...

Paolo Riva of the University of Milano-Bicocca and colleagues wanted to examine whether there might be a causal relationship between activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) – known to be involved in the regulation of physical pain and negative expressions of emotion – and experiences of social pain. Their findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The researchers recruited 79 university students to take part in a "mental visualization exercise." They used a constant-current regulator ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (December 4, 2012) – Can treatment with modern anti-HIV drugs help fight hunger for HIV-infected patients in Africa? Starting antiretroviral therapy for HIV reduces "food insecurity" among patients in Uganda, suggests a study published online by the journal AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. AIDS is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part ofWolters Kluwer Health.. Treatment including antiretroviral therapy (ART) may lead to a "positive feedback loop" whereby improved functioning and productivity lead to increased ability ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (December 4, 2012) – Road networks and geographic factors affecting "spatial accessibility" have a major impact on the spread of HIV across sub-Saharan Africa, according to a study published online by the journal AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. AIDS is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part ofWolters Kluwer Health. Using sophisticated mapping techniques and detailed databases, Dr Andrew J. Tatem of the University of Florida and colleagues have found "coherent spatial patterns in HIV-1 subtype distributions" across ...

A new study published in BJS has demonstrated for the first time that a simple breath analysis could be used for colorectal cancer screening. The study is part of the "Improving Outcomes in Gastrointestinal Cancer" supplement. Cancer tissue has different metabolism compared to normal healthy cells and produces some substances which can be detected in the breath of these patients. Analysis of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) linked to cancer is a new frontier in cancer screening. Led by Donato F. Altomare, MD, of the Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation ...

PISCATAWAY, NJ – People who like to smoke when they drink may be at greater risk of suffering a hangover the next morning, according to a study in the January 2013 issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. For anyone who has ever had too much to drink, that day-after combination of headache, nausea and fatigue may be a familiar feeling. But some drinkers appear hangover-resistant: about one-quarter of people who drink enough to spur a hangover in most of us don't actually develop one. No one is sure why that is. But the new study suggests that smoking could ...

Rates of reported neonaticide have more than halved following the implementation of a unique 'anonymous delivery' law in Austria, finds a new study published today (05 December) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Researchers, from the Medical University of Vienna, looked at the rates of reported neonaticide (where a child is killed within the first 24 hours of birth) in Austria prior to and after the implementation of the 'anonymous delivery' law which was introduced in 2001. The law allows women access to antenatal care and to give birth ...

New York, NY, December 5, 2012—Consumers saw nearly $1.5 billion in insurer rebates and overhead cost savings in 2011, due to the Affordable Care Act's medical loss ratio provision requiring health insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on health care or quality improvement activities or pay a rebate to their customers, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. Consumers with individual policies saw substantially reduced premiums when insurers reduced both administrative costs and profits to meet the new standards. While insurers in the small- and large-group ...