It is hypothesized that cocoons attached to any material were transported by air, eg by NATO aircraft, after which the moths found their favourite hostplant commonly planted. The finding of an unknown small moth by Dutch amateur moth hunter Hans Huisman in his backyard lead to the discovery that the American Oak skeletonizer (Bucculatrix ainsliella) is invading North West Europe on planted Northern Red oaks (Quercus rubra), a North American tree. "The finding is unusual", says Erik J van Nieukerken of Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Leiden, Netherlands), "because until ...

These are some of the results of a report for the World Bank, conducted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Climate Analytics in Berlin. The poorest in the world are those that will be hit hardest, making development without climate policy almost impossible, the researchers conclude. "The planetary machinery tends to be jumpy, this is to respond disproportionately to disruptions that come with the manmade greenhouse effect," PIK's director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber points out. "If we venture far beyond the 2-degree guardrail, towards 4 degrees, ...

VIB researchers from UGent and Vrije Universiteit Brussel , together with a team of the firm Oxyrane have developed a new technology that can lead to a more efficient and possibly also cheaper therapy for diseases such as Pompe disease. Oxyrane will now start developing a clinical program for this therapy in Pompe disease. Nico Callewaert (VIB-UGent): "By combining natural processes and proteins of two microbes and a plant we have improved the technology to produce enzymes that patients with metabolic disorders can't produce themselves. We played with the sugar structures ...

The answer is yes. Finnish researchers have developed a triumphant solution for predicting responses of breast cancer cells to a set of cancer drugs. The prediction is based on the genomic profiles of the cancer cells. Harnessing genomic profiles of cells in choosing the best treatment is considered the holy grail of personalised medicine. The team led by Professor Samuel Kaski from Helsinki institute of Information Technology (HIIT), a joint research centre of Aalto University and University of Helsinki, Finland, presented its winning solution at the DREAM 2012 conference ...

Male tree frogs like to 'see what they're getting' when they select females for mating, according to a new study by Dr. Michael Reichert from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the US. His work, which is one of the first to test the importance of vision on male mating behaviors in a nocturnal anuran (frog or toad), is published online in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Animals display a number of courtship behaviors and are able to modulate these behaviors depending on the likelihood of mating. For example, displaying males may increase the ...

A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows, that a technique for measuring bone density called digital X-ray radiogrammetry (or DXR) used on standard hand radiographs can help to identify patients with a higher risk of hip fracture. The researchers believe that DXR, which is fully comparable with other, more costly methods, can be used preventively to identify people in the risk zone for osteoporosis – a disease estimated to effect some 200 million women worldwide. Each year, approximately 1.7 million hip fractures occur worldwide (about 18,000 only in Sweden), ...

Scientists at the University of Southampton are pioneering a technique to predict when an ecosystem is likely to collapse, which may also have potential for foretelling crises in agriculture, fisheries or even social systems. The researchers have applied a mathematical model to a real world situation, the environmental collapse of a lake in China, to help prove a theory which suggests an ecosystem 'flickers', or fluctuates dramatically between healthy and unhealthy states, shortly before its eventual collapse. Head of Geography at Southampton, Professor John Dearing ...

A large-scale international study involving French researchers from the Inserm-Institut Pasteur Lille-Université Lille Nord de France "Public health and molecular epidemiology of ageing-related diseases" joint research unit led by Philippe Amouyel, has just discovered a gene for susceptibility to a rare disease that causes susceptibility to a common one, Alzheimer's disease, providing evidence of the heterogeneous aetiology of Alzheimer's disease. This whole-exome sequencing approach is explained in detail in The New England Journal of Medicine dated 14 November 2012. ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Could the emergency room be a good place to spot undiagnosed eating disorders among teens, and help steer them to treatment? A new study from the University of Michigan suggests that could be the case. Researchers screened more than 940 teens and young adults aged 14 years to 20 years for eating disorders, as part of their visit to the U-M Emergency Department for any non-psychiatric reason. They found that 16 percent – more than one in every 6 – had indications of an eating disorder. Those that did were also much more likely to also show signs ...

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are helping deployed American troops protect themselves against sand flies, which are major pests in Afghanistan, Africa and the Middle East. Sand flies are vectors of Leishmania parasites that cause leishmaniasis, a devastating disease for which there is no vaccine or medication. People who are bitten by infected sand flies do not know whether they have the disease until it becomes apparent three or four months later. Symptoms include permanent skin disfigurement and sometimes severe organ damage. At the Agricultural ...

A new tool for neuroscientists delivers a thousand pinpricks of light to a chunk of gray matter smaller than a sugar cube. The new fiber-optic device, created by biologists and engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, is the first tool that can deliver precise points of light to a 3-D section of living brain tissue. The work is a step forward for a relatively new but promising technique that uses gene therapy to turn individual brain cells on and off with light. Scientists can use the new 3-D "light switch" to better understand how the ...

​For Immediate Release – November 19, 2012 (Toronto) Youth with mental illness are among the most vulnerable, but new research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has found that less than half of Ontario youth aged 15 to 19 hospitalized with a psychiatric diagnosis received follow-up care with a primary care doctor or psychiatrist within a month after being discharged. "Timely aftercare is crucial in maintaining the health of youth with mental illness, and avoids future hospitalization, which is the most intensive, intrusive and expensive psychiatric ...

VIDEO: A video explaining the fragility of the welfare state. Click here for more information. The social contract that supports the welfare state, where income is redistributed, is fragile. That is one of the main conclusions of an experimental study done at Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M), which analyzes how the redistribution of income to people through government action originates. The study, carried out by Professor Antonio Cabrales, of UC3M, in collaboration with ...

This release is available in French. Quebec City, November 19, 2012—Contrary to popular belief, there is no connection between lunar phases and the incidence of psychological problems. This is the conclusion reached by a team of researchers directed by Professor Geneviève Belleville of Université Laval's School of Psychology after having examined the relationship between the moon's phases and the number of patients who show up at hospital emergency rooms experiencing psychological problems. Details on the study can be found on the website of the scientific journal General ...

Science on the benefits of gratitude and new in our journals... For Thanksgiving and Holidays: Benefits of gratitude A growing body of research highlights the importance of gratitude for both social and personal well-being. Ahead of Thanksgiving and the holidays, talk to an expert on gratitude research: Sara Algoe of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who has investigated how gratitude benefits close relationships, including how expressing gratitude leads to long-term social outcomes for women with metastatic breast cancer and the evolutionary role for ...

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified a genetic factor that prevents blockages from forming in blood vessels, a discovery that could lead to new therapies for cardiovascular diseases. The findings are described in the Nov. 19 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Researchers led by Mukesh K. Jain, MD, FAHA, professor of medicine, Ellery Sedgwick Jr. Chair and director of Case Cardiovascular Research Institute at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, found that a shortage of the genetic factor KLF4, which regulates ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three organizations representing America's research universities today launched a website that aims to inform policymakers and the public of the impact that the upcoming budget sequester would have on federal funding for university research. The organizations – the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and The Science Coalition (TSC) – urge Congressional leaders and the President to act quickly to develop a comprehensive, balanced solution to America's fiscal crisis that avoids steep cuts ...

Injured patients were less likely to die in the hospital if they had alcohol in their blood, according to a study from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health -- and the more alcohol, the more likely they were to survive. "This study is not encouraging people to drink," cautions UIC injury epidemiologist Lee Friedman, author of the study, which will be published in the December issue of the journal Alcohol and is now online. That's because alcohol intoxication -- even minor inebriation -- is associated with an increased risk of being injured, he ...

KANSAS CITY, MO—Changes in how DNA interacts with histones—the proteins that package DNA—regulate many fundamental cell activities from stem cells maturing into a specific body cell type or blood cells becoming leukemic. These interactions are governed by a biochemical tug of war between repressors and activators, which chemically modify histones signaling them to clamp down tighter on DNA or move aside and allow a gene to be expressed. In the November 19, 2012, online edition of the journal Genes & Development, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research ...

It has been 25 years since the identification of two proteins that facilitate communication between nerve cells – a significant achievement that revealed a group of related proteins. In recognition of this advancement, the Journal of Biological Chemistry has published a series of articles that assess what we know about each family member in this group and where that research is headed. This superfamily was recognized in 1987 with the discoveries of the genes that encode two of its members, the GABAA and glycine receptors, and of the similarity of these proteins to the ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Most people are faced with embarrassment or humiliation at some point in their lives. Maybe they get nervous before a big presentation to the bosses at work. Maybe they get a bit anxious thinking about approaching an attractive stranger at a party. But where is the line between normal shyness and social anxiety disorder? Rhode Island Hospital researcher Kristy L. Dalrymple, Ph.D., of the department of psychiatry, explores the variances between the two, and discusses the differing beliefs of over, and under-, diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD) ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A novel test that measures proteins from nerve damage that are deposited in blood and spinal fluid reveals the rate of progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in patients, according to researchers from Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida, Emory University and the University of Florida. Their study, which appears online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, suggests this test, if perfected, could help physicians and researchers identify those patients at most risk for rapid progression. These patients could then be offered ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Support for gay marriage is growing in Michigan, mirroring changing attitudes in many parts of the United States, according to Michigan State University's State of the State Survey. A recent survey found that 56 percent of the state's residents support gay marriage while 39 percent oppose it. Two years ago, 48 percent supported gay marriage and 51 percent were opposed. "Support for gay marriage has increased in recent years, in Michigan and across the country," said Charles Ballard, MSU economics professor and director of the State of the State ...

Akron, Ohio, Nov. 19, 2012 —Working in the lab for the last few years, three generations of University of Akron polymer scientists say their mutual and passionate curiosity about science has led to their discovery of a first-of-its-kind, easily adaptable biocompatible polymer structure able to fight infection, filter water and perform a host of other functions. Darrell Reneker, 82, distinguished professor of polymer science; Matthew Becker, 37, associate professor of polymer science; and 25-year-old graduate student Jukuan Zheng developed what they call a one-size-fits-all ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (November 19, 2012) – Limits on duty hours for residents in training haven't increased the safety of one common brain operation, concludes a study in the November issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Hospitals that train neurosurgery residents have had an uptick in complication rates since the work-hour limits were introduced, according to the study led by Drs. Anand I. Rughani, of the University of Toronto, and Travis ...