University of Leeds-led research has used tree rings from eight cedar trees in Bolivia to unlock a 100-year history of rainfall across the Amazon basin, which contains the world's largest river system. The new study shows that the rings in lowland tropical cedar trees provide a natural archive of data closely related to historic rainfall. Researchers measured the amounts of two different oxygen isotopes trapped in the wood's rings: oxygen-16 and the heavier oxygen-18. By looking at the varying amounts of the two isotopes, they could see how the pattern of rainfall ...

[Barriers to cervical screening in women who have experienced sexual abuse: an exploratory study 2012; 38: 214-20 (Research) The effect of childhood sexual abuse on women's lives and their attitudes to cervical screening 2012; 38:1-2 (Editorial)] Women who have been sexually abused as children or young adults are much less likely to get screened for cervical cancer than other women, indicates exploratory research published in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care. Figures published last year by the national NHS Cervical Cancer Screening Programme ...

October 1, 2012 — (Bronx, NY) — In sharp contrast to previous studies suggesting that errors account for the majority of retracted scientific papers, a new analysis—the most comprehensive of its kind—has found that misconduct is responsible for two-thirds of all retractions. In the paper, misconduct included fraud or suspected fraud, duplicate publication and plagiarism. The paper's findings show as a percentage of all scientific articles published, retractions for fraud or suspected fraud have increased 10-fold since 1975. The study, from a collaboration between three ...

Diseases that progressively destroy nerve cells in the brain or spinal cord, such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), are devastating conditions with no cures. Now, a team that includes a University of Iowa researcher has identified a new class of small molecules, called the P7C3 series, which block cell death in animal models of these forms of neurodegenerative disease. The P7C3 series could be a starting point for developing drugs that might help treat patients with these diseases. These findings are reported in two new studies published ...

A seemingly unique part of the human and mammalian brain is the neocortex, a layered structure on the outer surface of the organ where most higher-order processing is thought to occur. But new research at the University of Chicago has found the cells similar to those of the mammalian neocortex in the brains of birds, sitting in a vastly different anatomical structure. The work, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms a 50-year-old hypothesis about the identity of a mysterious structure in the bird brain that has provoked decades of scientific ...

PHILADELPHIA — Whether human or baboon, it helps to have friends. For both species, studies have shown that robust social networks lead to better health and longer lives. Now, a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers has helped show that baboon personality plays a role in these outcomes, and, like people, some baboons' personalities are better suited to making and keeping friends than others. The research was conducted by psychology professor Robert Seyfarth and biology professor Dorothy Cheney, both of Penn's School of Arts and Sciences. They collaborated with ...

A SIMPLE blood test could one day be a more accurate way to test for the early signs of breast cancer than using mammograms to spot a lump say researchers today (Tuesday), as Breast Cancer Awareness Month gets underway. They also hope the blood test could improve treatment by detecting whether breast cancer patients are likely to relapse and what drugs their particular type of tumour will respond to. This pioneering new clinical study – funded by Cancer Research UK in collaboration with the University of Leicester and Imperial College London – is about to start in the ...

More effective treatments for one of the deadliest forms of cancer are one step closer thanks to groundbreaking research from an international collaborative study. Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Cologne have identified the dependencies of multiple Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) types – paving the way for clinical trials of new targeted treatments which could revolutionise the current approach. Around 40,000 people are diagnosed annually with lung cancer in the UK, and SCLC accounts for nearly one in five of all these cases. Unfortunately, the prognosis ...

The proportion of Americans who are severely obese -- those people 100 pounds or more overweight -- continues to increase rapidly and much faster than those with moderate obesity, but the rate of growth has slowed, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The RAND study found that from 2000 to 2010, the proportion of Americans who were severely obese rose from 3.9 percent of the population to 6.6 percent -- an increase of about 70 percent. The findings mean that more than 15 million adult Americans are morbidly obese with a body mass index of 40 or more. The good ...

Fermented soybean meal (FSBM), considered a promising substitute for fish meal in weanling pig diets because of its protein content, lower cost, and lack of anti-nutritional factors, may have an additional advantage. University of Illinois researchers recently found that pigs digest the phosphorous in FSBM better than the phosphorus in conventional soybean meal. "Most of the P in soybean meal is bound to phytate, so it's not available to pigs," explained animal sciences professor Hans Stein. Previous research by Stein's group found that pigs digest the phosphorous in ...

Sea cucumbers and sea urchins are able to change the elasticity of collagen within their bodies, and could hold the key to maintaining a youthful appearance, according to scientists at Queen Mary, University of London. The researchers investigated the genes of marine creatures such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers, known as echinoderms. They found the genes for "messenger molecules" known as peptides, which are released by cells and tell other cells in their bodies what to do. The study was published online in the journals PLOS One and General and Comparative Endocrinology. ...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 1, 2012— Combine the tree-ring growth record with historic information, climate records and computer-model projections of future climate trends, and you get a grim picture for the future of trees in the southwestern United States. That's the word from a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Arizona, and several other partner organizations. Described in a paper published in Nature Climate Change this week, "Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality," ...

Humanitarian workers are at significant risk for mental health problems, both in the field and after returning home. The good news is that there are steps that they and their employers can take to mitigate this risk. These findings, from a new study by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and collaborators, including Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, are published online in the journal PLOS ONE. Researchers surveyed 212 international humanitarian workers at 19 NGOs. Prior to deployment, 3.8% reported symptoms of ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 1, 2012) — Usher syndrome is a hereditary disease in which affected individuals lose both hearing and vision. The impact of Usher syndrome can be devastating. In the United States, approximately six in every 100,000 babies born have Usher syndrome. Several genes associated with different types of Usher syndrome have been identified. Most of these genes encode common structural and motor proteins that build sensory cells in the eye and inner ear. In a paper to be published in the November 2012 issue of Nature Genetics, a team of researchers from ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study has outlined for the first time a biological mechanism by which zinc deficiency can develop with age, leading to a decline of the immune system and increased inflammation associated with many health problems, including cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease and diabetes. The research was done by scientists in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University and the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences. It suggests that it's especially important for elderly people to get adequate dietary intake of zinc, since they may need ...

ANN ARBOR—A medication usually used to help treat depression and anxiety disorders has the potential to help prevent heart failure, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. John Tesmer, research professor at the U-M Life Sciences Institute and professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the U-M Medical School, and his research team at the Tesmer lab found that paroxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) sold under the name Paxil, inhibits G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2), a protein kinase that becomes over-expressed when people ...

An experimental treatment for blindness, developed from a patient's skin cells, improved the vision of blind mice in a study conducted by Columbia ophthalmologists and stem cell researchers. The findings suggest that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells – which are derived from adult human skin cells but have embryonic properties – could soon be used to restore vision in people with macular degeneration and other diseases that affect the eye's retina. "With eye diseases, I think we're getting close to a scenario where a patient's own skin cells are used to replace retina ...

BOSTON, Mass.-- Fluoxetine was the first drug approved by the FDA for major depressive disorder (MDD) in children and adolescents, and to this date, it remains one of only two selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) registered for treatment of MDD in children and adolescents, despite reports that indicate this class of drugs is associated with side effects, such as agitation, hostility and aggression. SSRIs have been amongst the most widely prescribed medications in psychiatry for over a decade. While there is a wealth of information regarding their effectiveness ...

PHOENIX -- A new Mayo Clinic study confirms the use of smartphones medical images to evaluate stroke patients in remote locations through telemedicine. The study, the first to test the effectiveness of smartphone teleradiology applications in a real-world telestroke network, was recently published in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association. "Essentially what this means is that telemedicine can fit in our pockets," says Bart Demaerschalk, M.D., professor of Neurology, and medical director of Mayo Clinic Telestroke. "For patients this means access to expertise ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Taking enough omega-3 fatty acid supplements to change the balance of oils in the diet could slow a key biological process linked to aging, new research suggests. The study showed that most overweight but healthy middle-aged and older adults who took omega-3 supplements for four months altered a ratio of their fatty acid consumption in a way that helped preserve tiny segments of DNA in their white blood cells. These segments, called telomeres, are known to shorten over time in many types of cells as a consequence of aging. In the study, lengthening ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Increasingly, U.S. firms are moving or considering moving their manufacturing operations back to domestic soil from overseas, finds a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University supply chain expert. Fueling the trend are rising labor costs in emerging countries, high oil prices and increasing transportation costs, global risks such as political instability and other factors, said Tobias Schoenherr. "Going overseas is not the panacea that it was thought of just a decade or so ago," said Schoenherr, assistant professor in MSU's top-ranked ...

AMES, Iowa – Two Iowa State University graduate students are just back from the Gulf of Maine with another big catch of clam shells. Shelly Griffin and Madelyn Mette recently boarded a lobster boat, dropped a scallop dredge into 30 meters of ocean water and pulled up load after load of Arctica islandica. "These are the clams that end up in clam chowder," said Alan Wanamaker, an assistant professor of geological and atmospheric sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Wanamaker studies paleoclimatology, the variations and trends of past climates and environments, ...

VIDEO: Dr. Amir Toor from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center's Bone Marrow Transplant program explains a recent clinical trial evaluating a new therapy for multiple myeloma that harnesses the power... Click here for more information. Richmond, Va. – (October 1, 2012) – A novel therapy in the early stages of development at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center shows promise in providing lasting protection against the progression of multiple ...

Bethesda, MD (Oct. 1, 2012) — Patients at average risk of colorectal cancer who have a clean colonoscopy do not need to repeat the test for 10 years. This and many other practical recommendations for cancer prevention were issued in "Guidelines for Colonoscopy Surveillance After Screening and Polypectomy,"1 a consensus update issued by the U.S. Multisociety Task Force on Colorectal Cancer. Colorectal cancer is preventable when precancerous polyps (growths) are found and removed before they turn into cancer. Screening for average risk patients is recommended to begin ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/01/2012) —New genome editing technologies developed at the University of Minnesota for use on livestock will allow scientists to learn more about human diseases. The genomic technique, known as TALENS, is described in a report published today in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The technique is cheaper and faster than previous technologies that allow scientists to genetically modify livestock animals; the animals are used to learn more about human diseases, which in turn can help researchers develop cures. ...