AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Longhorn cattle have a hybrid global ancestry, according to a study by University of Texas at Austin researchers published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study of the genome of the Longhorn and related breeds tells a fascinating global history of human and cattle migration. It traces back through Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the New World, the Moorish invasion of Spain and the ancient domestication of the aurochs in the Middle East and India. "It's a real Texas story, an American story," said Emily ...

In this News Digest: Summary of a study being published online March 25, 2013 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, reports that Chinese women who consumed more soy before being diagnosed with lung cancer lived longer compared with those who consumed less soy. Quote for attribution to Jyoti Patel, MD, American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Communications Committee member and lung cancer expert Links to additional information on Cancer.Net, ASCO's cancer information Website New results from a large observational follow-up study conducted in Shanghai, China, ...

In the early 1940s, California fishermen hauled in a historic bounty of sardine at a time that set the backdrop for John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" novel. But by the end of the decade the nets came up empty and the fishery collapsed. Where did they all go? According to a new study led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, the forces behind the sardine mystery are a dynamic and interconnected moving target. Publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Scripps graduate student Ethan Deyle, professor George Sugihara, and ...

Contrary to convention, vegetation, when well-maintained, can lower the rates of certain types of crime, such as aggravated assault, robbery and burglary, in cities, according to a Temple University study, "Does vegetation encourage or suppress urban crime? Evidence from Philadelphia, PA," published in the journal, Landscape and Urban Planning. "There is a longstanding principle, particularly in urban planning, that you don't want a high level of vegetation, because it abets crime by either shielding the criminal activity or allowing the criminal to escape," said Jeremy ...

Studying the relationship between plants and the insects that feed on them is an arduous task, as it must be done through direct observation. It can take years for a researcher to fully understand the diets of a community of herbivorous insects in a tropical rain forest. Now, five Smithsonian scientists are paving a fast track using the DNA found inside the insects' stomachs, potentially turning years of research into months. This method will help scientists understand the ecology and evolution of plant-herbivore interactions more efficiently. Their findings are published ...

DURHAM, N.H., March 25, 2013 –Bubbling brooks and streams are a scenic and much loved feature of forest ecosystems, but long-term data at the U.S. Forest Service's Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest suggests that more productive forests might carry considerably less water, according to a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mark Green, a research hydrologist with the Forest Service's Northern Research Station and an assistant professor at Plymouth State University, is the lead author for the study titled "Decreased Water ...

PASADENA, Calif.—When our noses pick up a scent, whether the aroma of a sweet rose or the sweat of a stranger at the gym, two types of sensory neurons are at work in sensing that odor or pheromone. These sensory neurons are particularly interesting because they are the only neurons in our bodies that regenerate throughout adult life—as some of our olfactory neurons die, they are soon replaced by newborns. Just where those neurons come from in the first place has long perplexed developmental biologists. Previous hypotheses about the origin of these olfactory nerve cells ...

March 25, 2013 – (BRONX, NY) – Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered a novel strategy for preventing infections due to the highly common herpes simplex viruses, the microbes responsible for causing genital herpes (herpes simplex virus 2) and cold sores (herpes simplex virus 1). The finding, published online by The FASEB Journal, could lead to new drugs for treating or suppressing herpes virus infections. "We've essentially identified the molecular "key" that herpes viruses use to penetrate cell membranes and infect cells ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Pregnant women in Ghana who slept on their back (supine sleep) were at an increased risk of stillbirth compared to women who did not sleep on their back, according to new research led by a University of Michigan researcher. In the study, published this month in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, researchers found that supine sleep increased the risk of low birth weight by a factor of 5 and that it was the low birth weight that explained the high risk for stillbirth in these women. The study's senior author, Louise O'Brien, Ph.D., ...

AMHERST, Mass. – Although it's known that construction of homes in suburban areas can have negative impacts on native plants and animals, a recent study led by University of Massachusetts Amherst ecologist Susannah Lerman suggests that well- managed residential development such as provided by homeowners associations (HOA) can in fact support native wildlife. For their recent study published in Ecology and Society, Lerman and her colleagues Kelly Turner and Christofer Bang of Arizona State University (ASU), Phoenix, set out to assess whether neighborhoods managed by HOAs ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Patients at Michigan hospitals are less likely to experience a urinary tract infection caused by a catheter than at other hospitals in the country, according to a new study by the University of Michigan. Michigan hospitals lead the way in using key prevention practices to reduce the number of catheter-associated UTIs and also have lower rates of UTIs – which are one of the most common hospital-acquired infections in the nation– according to the new findings that appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine. "Hospitals ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Solutions that meet the broad, varied, and often competing priorities of conservation are difficult to come by. Research published in the March 28 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences takes a hard look at why, in an effort to find ways to resolve the issue. "People often think of conservation solutions that are effective, cost-efficient, and equitable –– the so-called triple bottom line solutions –– as the holy grail, the best possible outcome," said Ben Halpern, researcher at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for ...

Boston – Hospital readmissions are a costly problem for patients and for the United States health care system with studies showing nearly 20 percent of Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge at an annual cost of $17 billion. Preventing avoidable readmissions could result in improved patient care and significant cost savings. In a new model developed at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), researchers help clinicians identify which medical patients are at the greatest risk for potentially avoidable hospital readmissions so extra steps ...

Researchers have identified areas off southern California with high numbers of whales and assessed their risk from potentially deadly collisions with commercial ship traffic in a study published in the scientific journal Conservation Biology. Scientists from NOAA Fisheries, the Marine Mammal Commission and Cascadia Research Collective analyzed data collected over seven years by NOAA on marine mammal and ecosystem research surveys in the Southern California Bight. Maps predicting the density of endangered humpback, fin and blue whales were developed by merging the observed ...

Scientists have confirmed the discovery of the first-ever, two-headed bull shark. The study, led by Michigan State University and appearing in the Journal of Fish Biology, confirmed the specimen, found in the Gulf of Mexico April 7, 2011, was a single shark with two heads, rather than conjoined twins. There have been other species of sharks, such as blue sharks and tope sharks, born with two heads. This is the first record of dicephalia in a bull shark, said Michael Wagner, MSU assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife, who confirmed the discovery with colleagues ...

The advent of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have made us all more connected, but long-distance social networks existed long before the Internet. An article published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds light on the transformation of social networks in the late pre-Hispanic American Southwest and shows that people of that period were able to maintain surprisingly long-distance relationships with nothing more than their feet to connect them. Led by University of Arizona anthropologist Barbara Mills, the study is based ...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Researchers are digging deeper into whether infants' ability to learn new words is shaped by the particular language being acquired. A new Northwestern University study cites a promising new research agenda aimed at bringing researchers closer to discovering the impact of different languages on early language and cognitive development. For decades, researchers have asked why infants learn new nouns more rapidly and more easily than new verbs. Many researchers have asserted that the early advantage for learning nouns over verbs is a universal feature ...

Madison, Wis. — New findings from nonhuman primates suggest that an overactive core circuit in the brain, and its interaction with other specialized circuits, accounts for the variability in symptoms shown by patients with severe anxiety. In a brain-imaging study to be published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health describe work that for the first time provides an understanding of the root causes of clinical variability in anxiety disorders. Using a ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – A new study suggests that migraines are related to brain abnormalities present at birth and others that develop over time. The research is published online in the journal Radiology. Migraines are intense, throbbing headaches, sometimes accompanied by nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light. Some patients experience auras, a change in visual or sensory function that precedes or occurs during the migraine. More than 300 million people suffer from migraines worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Previous research on migraine patients ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Scientists have identified two new species of mouse lemur, the saucer-eyed, teacup-sized primates native to the African island of Madagascar. The new study brings the number of recognized mouse lemur species to 20, making them the most diverse group of lemurs known. But because these shy, nocturnal primates look so much alike, it's only possible to tell them apart with genetic sequencing. The new mouse lemurs weigh 2.5 to 3 ounces (about 65 to 85 grams) and have grey-brown fur. "You can't really tell them apart just looking at them through binoculars ...

Chevy Chase, MD ––The content of a person's breath may indicate how susceptible they are to weight gain, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). People whose breath has high concentrations of both hydrogen and methane gases are more likely to have a higher body mass index and percentage of body fat, according to the findings. The combination of the two gases signals the presence of a microorganism that may contribute to obesity. A person exhales larger amounts of hydrogen ...

Chevy Chase, MD ––For women enduring hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, a new model could better estimate the timing of the final menstrual period, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) developed a formula using the levels of two hormones to estimate when the final menstrual period would occur. The calculation relies on changing levels of estradiol, a hormone present in the ovary, and follicle stimulating ...

Chevy Chase, MD ––Maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D can help people breathe better and may even protect against tuberculosis (TB), according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The study of more than 10,000 Korean adults found that lung function improved when people had absorbed more vitamin D into their bodies. Vitamin D is absorbed primarily through sunlight, with a healthy diet as a secondary source. Without enough vitamin D to aid calcium absorption, children and adults ...

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of South Florida have developed a small molecule that inhibits STAT3, a protein that causes cancer. This development could impact the treatment of several tumor types, including breast, lung, prostate and others that depend on STAT3 for survival. The study appeared in the Jan. 15 online issue of Cancer Research, a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research. "STAT3 has been associated with poor prognosis and resistance to chemotherapy in patients with cancer," explained Said M. Sebti, ...

(Washington, DC) – The traditional Southern inflections associated with the Philadelphia regional accent are increasingly being displaced by Northern influences. A recent study supported by the National Science Foundation documents this trend through an analysis of Philadelphia neighborhood speech patterns over more than a century. The study, "A Hundred Years of Sound Change," to be published in the March 2013 issue of the scholarly journal Language, is authored by University of Pennsylvania linguists William Labov, Ingrid Rosenfelder and Josef Fruehwald. Labov and his ...