There's no honor among thieves when it comes to rodent robbers—which turns out to be a good thing for tropical trees that depend on animals to spread their seeds. Results of a yearlong study in Panama, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of July 16, suggest that thieving rodents helped the black palm tree survive by taking over the seed-spreading role of the mighty mastodon and other extinct elephant-like creatures that are thought to have eaten these large seeds. "The question is how this tree managed to survive for 10,000 years ...

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have genetically modified a bacterium commonly found in the mosquito's midgut and found that the parasite that causes malaria in people does not survive in mosquitoes carrying the modified bacterium. The bacterium, Pantoea agglomerans, was modified to secrete proteins toxic to the malaria parasite, but the toxins do not harm the mosquito or humans. According to a study published by PNAS, the modified bacteria were 98 percent effective in reducing the malaria parasite burden in mosquitoes. "In the past, we worked ...

Cambridge, Mass. - July 16, 2012 - Harvard-led researchers have discovered that an Ascomycete fungus that is common in polluted water produces environmentally important minerals during asexual reproduction. The key chemical in the process, superoxide, is a byproduct of fungal growth when the organism produces spores. Once released into the environment, superoxide reacts with the element manganese (Mn), producing a highly reactive mineral that aids in the cleanup of toxic metals, degrades carbon substrates, and controls the bioavailability of nutrients. The results, ...

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – As organisms develop, their internal organs arrange in a consistent asymmetrical pattern--heart and stomach to the left, liver and appendix to the right. But how does this happen? Biologists at Tufts University have produced the first evidence that a class of proteins that make up a cell's skeleton -- tubulin proteins -- drives asymmetrical patterning across a broad spectrum of species, including plants, nematode worms, frogs, and human cells, at their earliest stages of development. "Understanding this mechanism offers insights important ...

WASHINGTON, DC (July 16, 2012) -- Two new studies presented today at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior's (SNEB) annual conference may make it easier for moms to get their kids to eat – and enjoy – vegetables. Both studies were conducted by SNEB president Brian Wansink, PhD, the John Dyson Professor of Consumer Behavior at Cornell University, and funded by Birds Eye, the country's leading vegetable brand that recently launched a three-year campaign to inspire kids to eat more veggies. With nine out of 10 American children and teens not meeting daily vegetable ...

In the largest study to examine the impact of the recession on child abuse, researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's (CHOP) PolicyLab detected a significant increase in children admitted to the nation's largest children's hospitals due to serious physical abuse over the last decade. The study, published today in the journal Pediatrics, found a strong relationship between the rate of child physical abuse and local mortgage foreclosures, which have been a hallmark of the recent recession. The CHOP findings, based on data from 38 children's hospitals, contradict ...

Scientists at A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), in collaboration with Newcastle University, UK, the Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences and clinicians from multiple hospitals in Singapore, have identified a new subset of dendritic cells (DCs%r9 in human peripheral tissue which have a critical role in activating our immune response against harmful pathogens. This research will have significant impact on the design of vaccines and other targeted immunotherapies. The scientists also showed for the first time that DC subsets are conserved between species, facilitating ...

The nursing profession needs to harness the power of the video-sharing website YouTube to promote a positive image of nurses, after research found that many of the top hits portray them in a derogatory way. That is the key finding of research published in the August issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Researchers examined the YouTube database to find the most viewed videos for "nurses" and "nursing". Ninety-six videos were included after preliminary analysis of the first 50 hits for each word. The top ten hits - attracting between 61,695 and 901,439 hits - were ...

Far from processing every word we read or hear, our brains often do not even notice key words that can change the whole meaning of a sentence, according to new research from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). After a plane crash, where should the survivors be buried? If you are considering where the most appropriate burial place should be, you are not alone. Scientists have found that around half the people asked this question, answer it as if they were being asked about the victims not the survivors. Similarly, when asked "Can a man marry his widow's ...

High-tech technology, traditionally usually used to design racing cars and aeroplanes, has helped researchers to understand how plant-eating dinosaurs fed 150 million years ago. A team of international researchers, led by the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum, used CT scans and biomechanical modelling to show that Diplodocus - one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered – had a skull adapted to strip leaves from tree branches. The research is published today [16 July] in leading international natural sciences journal, Naturwissenschaften. The Diplodocus ...

Women who are obese continue to have higher levels of oestrogen than women of normal weight even after treatment with hormone-suppressing drugs, raising the possibility that they might benefit from changes to their treatment. The study, led by a team at The Institute of Cancer Research in London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, found hormone-suppressing drugs did markedly reduce oestrogen levels in obese women – but that their levels of oestrogen remained more than double those of women of normal weight. The research, which is published today in the Journal ...

Dublin – 16th July 2012 – At the ESOF 2012 conference The European Science Foundation's (ESF) dedicated Member Organisation Forum (MO Forum) on 'Science in Society Relationships' has released its latest report: "Science in Society: a Challenging Frontier for Science Policy". The report has called for a strengthening of 'Science in Society' (SiS) activities in a time of ambiguity for science. Society has changed much (and is still changing rapidly) under the influence of science and technology. But it seems that, following the endeavour of growth after the Second World ...

A team of academics from the University of Southampton is set to take on the rest of the English Fantasy Football League when the new Barclays Premier League season kicks off next month (August). Dr Sarvapali Ramchurn, Lecturer in Computer Science; PhD student Tim Matthews; and George Chalkiadakis, visiting researcher at the University of Southampton, have developed an artificial soccer manager that in tests has ranked, on average, in the top one per cent of the 2.5 million players in the official English Fantasy Football League, run by the Barclays Premier League. The ...

New Orleans, LA – Research conducted by Jesus Lovera, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and colleagues has shown that stress management treatment significantly reduced the formation of new brain lesions in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) over the course of treatment. These lesions are markers of disease activity used to objectively measure disease status. The work is published ahead of print and is now available online in Neurology. "Our research found that 77% of the patients undergoing stress management therapy remained ...

The aim is straightforward: In 1982, more than 160 countries agreed to maintain the global fish stocks at levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) over a long term. This agreement is part of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which came into force in 1994 and which has been ratified by Germany and all other countries of the European Union. While the USA, Australia or New Zealand started to change their fishing policies on the basis of UNCLOS years ago, reforms in the EU only started in 2012. One basic problem in fisheries ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University and ImagineOptix Corporation have developed new technology to convert unpolarized light into polarized light, which makes projectors that use liquid crystal (LC) technology almost twice as energy efficient. The new technology has resulted in smaller, lower cost and more efficient projectors, meaning longer battery life and significantly lower levels of heat. All LC projectors – used from classrooms to conference rooms – utilize polarized light. But efficient light sources – such as light-emitting diodes, or LEDs – produce ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Asian-American victims of domestic violence rarely seek help from police or health care providers – "an alarming trend" among the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, says a Michigan State University researcher. While cultural barriers can discourage victims from seeking help, there also is a lack of culturally sensitive services available to them, said Hyunkag Cho, assistant professor of social work. That can be as simple as a local domestic violence hotline that cannot facilitate calls from Chinese- or Korean-speaking victims due ...

Physical and social sciences share students and classroom space, but part ways, oftentimes, in the approach to research. For example, social sciences don't generally have topics that can be studied in a laboratory setting. Physical sciences can't use a petri dish to explain low voter turnout in off-year elections. Still, the next generation of researchers in physical and social sciences will need newer research skills that meld both perspectives for a more unified picture of research, skills that even their professors may not have. "Empirical Implications ...

VIDEO: Laboratory-engineered skeletal muscle is a potential therapy for replacing diseased or damaged muscle tissue. This computer-controlled system is designed to build properly organized muscle tissue in the lab. To do... Click here for more information. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – July 16, 2012 – New research shows that exercise is a key step in building a muscle-like implant in the lab with the potential to repair muscle damage from injury or disease. In mice, these implants ...

Despite a global reputation for gender equality, certain Scandinavian countries disadvantage female scholars with sexist attitudes towards 'women-friendly' work policies. These are the findings of a new study on equality in universities in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, where the share of professorships among women are below the European average. The research, which reveals female academics' perceptions of sex equality, hiring and discrimination, has been carried out by Professor Geraldine Healy at Queen Mary, University of London and Catherine Seierstad at Brunel University. ...

Though smartphones and tablets are hailed as the hardware of the future, their present-day incarnations have some flaws. Most notoriously, low RAM memory limits the number of applications that can be run at one time and quickly consumes battery power. Now, a Tel Aviv University researcher has found a creative solution to these well-known problems. As silicon technology gets smaller, creating a large and powerful memory grows harder, say PhD candidate Elad Mentovich and his supervisor Dr. Shachar Richter of TAU's Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. ...

Can you teach an old dog (or human) new tricks? Yes, but it might take time, practice, and hard work before he or she gets it right, according to Hans Schroder and colleagues from Michigan State University in the US. Their work shows that when rules change, our attempts to control our actions are accompanied by a loss of attention to detail. Their work is published online in the Springer journal Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. In order to adapt to changing conditions, humans need to be able to modify their behavior successfully. Overriding the rules ...

Helper cells traditionally thought to only assist killer white blood cells may be the frontline warriors when battling hepatitis A infection. These are the findings from a Nationwide Children's Hospital study appearing in a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus. Despite the availability of an effective vaccine, the virus infects millions of people worldwide each year and remains a global public health problem, especially in underdeveloped countries. Unlike the hepatitis ...

CINCINNATI—In a collaboration among researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC), Shriners Hospitals for Children–Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, burn and skin specialists have shown that use of a pulsed-dye laser tool improves the appearance, texture and elasticity of burn scars. The study, published online ahead of print in the journal Dermatological Surgery, compared the use of the pulsed-dye laser and compression therapy on scars against compression therapy alone for pediatric burn patients. Lead author and UC burn surgery researcher ...

Global warming also affects lakes. Based on the example of Lake Zurich, researchers from the University of Zurich demonstrate that there is insufficient water turnover in the lake during the winter and harmful Burgundy blood algae are increasingly thriving. The warmer temperatures are thus compromising the successful lake clean-ups of recent decades. Many large lakes in Central Europe became heavily overfertilized in the twentieth century through sewage. As a result, algal blooms developed and cyanobacteria (photosynthetic bacteria) especially began to appear en masse. ...