RENO, Nev. – A new study published in the prestigious journal Science, co-authored by University of Nevada, Reno's Glenn Biasi and colleagues at GNS Science in New Zealand, finds that very large earthquakes have been occurring relatively regularly on the Alpine Fault along the southwest coastline of New Zealand for at least 8,000 years. The Alpine Fault is the most hazardous fault on the South Island of New Zealand, and about 80 miles northwest of the South Island's main city of Christchurch. The team developed evidence for 22 earthquakes at the Hokuri Creek site, ...

In response to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs regarding declining medical imaging use in recent years, the American College of Radiology (ACR) released a statement explaining that physician education efforts and quality assurance steps have resulted in more efficient use of imaging, but that arbitrary Medicare cuts are damaging patient access to care. The ACR also cited a December 2011 Health Affairs article that shows Medicare imaging cuts may have resulted in physical harm to patients. "This Health Affairs study further supports the fact that ...

(Edmonton) Women who suffered spinal injuries in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake continued to endure hardships years later, including abandonment by spouses and families, according to new research from the University of Alberta. Zubia Mumtaz, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health who studies how gender and class inequalities affect maternal health, worked with a team of graduate students to document the experiences of paraplegic women three years after the 7.6-magnitude quake that devastated Kashmir. They found that women—far more than men with similar spinal ...

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have identified several factors in people infected with the hepatitis C virus that may predict whether the unusually rapid progression of disease from initial infection to severe liver conditions, such as cirrhosis, will occur. Knowing whether a patient's condition is likely to deteriorate quickly could help physicians decide on the best course of treatment. The study was conducted by an international team of researchers led by Patrizia Farci, M.D., chief of the Hepatic Pathogenesis Section in the Laboratory of Infectious ...

WHAT: The rate of new HIV infections among black men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States, particularly younger men, is high and suggests the need for prevention programs specifically tailored to this population, according to initial findings from the HPTN 061 study. The preliminary results were presented at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington, D.C., by study co-chair Kenneth Mayer, M.D., medical research director for the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston. The HPTN 061 study, which involved 1,553 black MSM ages 18 and older ...

Researchers reporting online on July 26 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have for the first time shown that they can control the behavior of monkeys by using pulses of blue light to very specifically activate particular brain cells. The findings represent a key advance for optogenetics, a state-of-the-art method for making causal connections between brain activity and behavior. Based on the discovery, the researchers say that similar light-based mind control could likely also be made to work in humans for therapeutic ends. "We are the first to show that optogenetics ...

VIDEO: A new technology described in the paper published online on July 26 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, might allow people who have almost completely lost the ability to... Click here for more information. A new technology described in the paper published online on July 26 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, might allow people who have almost completely lost the ability to move their arms or legs to communicate freely, by using their eyes to ...

Genome sequences of African hunter-gatherers from three different populations reveal insights into how humans have adapted to distinct environments over evolutionary history. By sequencing whole genomes of individuals within these groups, a team of scientists has substantially expanded knowledge about the scope of genetic diversity in humans, publishing their findings on July 26th in the journal Cell. Africa is the ancestral homeland of all modern humans and contains the highest level of genetic diversity among all of the continents. "Even though African populations ...

A new drug could aid in losing weight and keeping it off. The drug, described in the journal Cell Metabolism on July 26, increases sensitivity to the hormone leptin, a natural appetite suppressant found in the body. Although so far the new drug has only been tested on mice, the findings have implications for the development of new treatments for obesity in humans. "By sensitizing the body to naturally occurring leptin, the new drug could not only promote weight loss, but also help maintain it," says senior study author George Kunos of the National Institute on Alcohol ...

Cincinnati, OH. July 26, 2012 – Congenital hypothyroidism is thyroid hormone deficiency at birth that, if left untreated, can lead to neurocognitive impairments in infants and children. Although the World Health Organization recommends 200-300 µg of iodine daily during pregnancy for normal fetal thyroid hormone production and neurocognitive development, the US Institute of Medicine considers 1,100 µg to be the safe upper limit for daily ingestion. A case series scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics describes three infants who developed congenital hypothyroidism ...

PHILADELPHIA — Human diversity in Africa is greater than any place else on Earth. Differing food sources, geographies, diseases and climates offered many targets for natural selection to exert powerful forces on Africans to change and adapt to their local environments. The individuals who adapted best were the most likely to reproduce and pass on their genomes to the generations who followed. That history of inheritance is written in the DNA of modern Africans, but it takes some investigative work to interpret. In a report to be featured on the cover of the Aug. 3 issue ...

Washington, DC – An international expert task force is calling on health care providers to aggressively identify and provide care for the millions of people who have suffered their first osteoporosis-related fracture, in order to prevent subsequent fractures. In an extensive review of possible solutions to prevent these so-called "secondary fractures," the task force identified the most effective solution – a system of patient care coordination called "fracture liaison services" that research has shown to significantly improve follow-up assessment and treatment after ...

A Simon Fraser University graduate student's collaboration with her thesis supervisor on how a particular type of protein controls the growth of another protein could advance cancer research. Their findings have just been published in the online July 26 issue of Current Biology, a CellPress journal. Esther Verheyen, an SFU professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, has helped her Master's of Science student Joanna Chen uncover how Hipk can be manipulated to stop Yorkie from causing tissue overgrowth in flies. Hipk is a protein kinase — a type of enzyme that ...

West Orange, NJ. July 26, 2012. For the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Kessler Foundation and the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development released a new research brief on disability employment. "Strategies to Support Employer-Driven Initiatives to Recruit and Retain Employees with Disabilities" explores a growing trend among employers to establish initiatives to increase the participation of workers with disabilities in their workplaces. Authors are Elaine Katz, MS, CCC-SLP of Kessler Foundation, Meg O'Connell of the National Organization on ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - History offers a warning, but no clear pattern on the true risk of terrorism at the Olympic Games, concludes a new report by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) based at the University of Maryland. The Olympic Games have been terror targets on three separate occasions since 1970, claiming 22 lives and wounding more than 100, the report says. It compiles and analyzes data from START's comprehensive Global Terrorism Database (GTD). "The heightened profile of these events might increase the likelihood ...

The Mariana Trench is the deepest feature of the Earth's surface. The water column there exerts a pressure of more than one thousand times normal atmospheric pressure at sea level, enough pressure to crush an SUV. Yet many organisms thrive in this seemingly inhospitable environment. A Japanese research team has been investigating how deep-sea bacteria adapt to such high-pressure conditions. They have identified a structural change that confers pressure-resistant properties on a particular protein found in bacteria. The findings, which the team will present at the meeting ...

By outrunning a laser's path of destruction, an international research team has created 3D images of fragile but biologically important molecules inside protein nanocrystals. Using the Linac Coherence Light Source (LCLS), a powerful X-ray laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., the scientists fired femtosecond (one quadrillionth of a second) bursts of light at a stream of tumbling molecules, obliterating them as they pass, but not before capturing otherwise illusive images of their crystalline structures. An overview and early results ...

Ever since Darwin first published The Origin of the Species, scientists have been striving to identify a last universal common ancestor of all living species. Paleontological, biochemical, and genomic studies have produced conflicting versions of the evolutionary tree. Now a team of researchers, led by a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and including area high school students, has developed a novel method to search the vast archives of known gene sequences to identify and compare similar proteins across the many kingdoms of life. Using the comparisons ...

The economic impact of the Olympics has not been the same for all host countries. According to the Olympic Studies Centre at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the games held in the Catalonian capital 20 years ago were a resounding and incomparable success. But it is not always the case. The Olympic Games have always been thought of as a great opportunity to give a long-term boost to the economy by taking advantage of a short-term event. But before embarking on the costly effort of organising the Olympics, each candidate city should evaluate their own goals and capacities ...

Pancreatic beta cells produce insulin, responsible for controlling blood sugar levels and thus essential for our survival. Among the numerous factors that affect the workings of these cells, a protein called Cx36 was identified a few months ago by a research team at the UNIGE. The scientists there had demonstrated that in transgenic mice, suitably modified so as not to produce any Cx36, synchronization of the beta cells ceased and insulin production went out of control. This de-synchronization of insulin secretion is the first measurable sign in people suspected of developing ...

In a statement on the chances and limits of using bioenergy, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has come to the conclusion that in quantitative terms, bioenergy plays a minor role in the transition to renewable, sustainable energy sources in Germany at the present time and probably in the future. Bioenergy requires more surface area, is associated with higher greenhouse gas emissions and is more harmful to the environment than other renewable sources such as photovoltaic, solar thermal energy and wind energy. In addition, energy crops potentially compete ...

Amsterdam, July 26, 2012 - Surveys of drug use form an important basis for the development of effective drug policies, and also for measuring the effectiveness of existing policies. For the first time in history, scientists have now made direct comparisons of illicit drug use in 19 European cities by a cooperative analysis of raw sewage samples. To date, questionnaire-based studies have been the most common measurement method. Such studies are performed amongst different segments of society including partygoers, drug addicts and the general population. Additional information ...

Until now it was thought that fin whales in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea made up part of the distribution of this species of whale in the Mediterranean. However, an international team of scientists led by a Spaniard has revealed that their population has been overestimated by including specimens from the Atlantic that visit at certain times the western Mediterranean, where the noise generated by human activity affects their survival. In 1991 the fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) population in the Mediterranean Sea was estimated at 3500 specimens. A new study, ...

Brain tumors are the primary cause of cancer mortality in children. Even if a cure is possible, young patients often suffer from the stressful treatment which can be harmful to the developing brain. The most common childhood brain tumors are medulloblastoma and pylocytic astrocytoma. In order to find new target structures for more gentle treatment methods, cancer researchers are systematically analyzing all changes in the genetic material of such tumors. This is the mission of the PedBrain consortium, which was launched in 2010 as the first German part in the International ...

Chinese researchers have published the first evidence that a population of the recently discovered snub-nosed monkey, Rhinopithecus Strykeri, live in China. Until now researchers have been unable to photograph the monkey, whose upturned nostrils are said to make it sneeze in the rain. The paper is published in the American Journal of Primatology. The species was first discovered by a team led by Ngwe Lwin from the Myanmar Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association and described by Dr Thomas Geissman in the American Journal of Primatology in October 2010. It was ...