Invasive species – plants, animals, and microbes introduced to regions beyond their native range – carry a global price tag of $1.4 trillion dollars. They are responsible for the loss of natural resources and biodiversity, damages to infrastructure, and an uptick in infectious diseases. Not all non-native species pose a threat. Scientists around the world have spent the last several decades teasing apart the conditions that set the stage for debilitating invaders, like giant hogweed, zebra mussels, or gray squirrels. A number of hypotheses have emerged to help predict ...

Nowadays, an increasing number of rivers and lakes are being invaded by exotic snails, which come from remote regions, and even other continents. Such species represent a threat to native species, as they compete for food or space with them. This is the case of the mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum. This small aquatic snail is native to New Zealand, and has spread throughout rivers, lakes or streams in Europe, Australia, America and Asia. The invasion success of this mudsnail may be partly due to the ability of females to reproduce without participation of males (i.e. ...

Health risks posed to people who work with tiny fibres used in manufacturing industries could be reduced, thanks to new research. Research into the health risks posed by nanofibres – used to strengthen objects from tennis rackets to airplane wings – has pinpointed the lengths at which these fibres are harmful to the lungs. Nanofibres, which can be made from a range of materials including carbon, are about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair and can reach the lung cavity when inhaled. This may lead to a cancer known as mesothelioma, which is known to ...

Australian scientists studying the impact obesity has on pregnancy, are urging men to get 'match fit' before conceiving to assist with fetal development. Reproductive experts from the University of Melbourne's Department of Zoology have discovered that a father's obesity negatively impacts sperm, resulting in smaller fetuses, poor pregnancy success and reduced placental development. While the health risks surrounding obesity and pregnancy have largely been centred on overweight mothers, scientists from the University of Melbourne are putting the onus on men to shape ...

Researchers at the University of Cantabria have used computer models to analyse the best way to evacuate the Spanish High Speed Train, AVE, in the case of fire. The involvement of the crew in organising the fast transfer of passengers, completing the process before the train comes to a halt and collective collaboration to assist those with reduced mobility are just some of the strategies to be followed. "In the event of fire on an AVE, two stages should be defined: the first is pre-evacuation in which passengers are transferred from one coach to another while the train ...

BOSTON (August 22, 2012) —A study in mice conducted by researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) suggests that a woman's risk of anxiety and dysfunctional social behavior may depend on the experiences of her parents, particularly fathers, when they were young. The study, published online in Biological Psychiatry, suggests that stress caused by chronic social instability during youth contributes to epigenetic changes in sperm cells that can lead to psychiatric disorders in female offspring across multiple generations. "The long-term effects of stress can ...

Parents with children nine years old and older who have Crohn disease should ask their children's doctor about MR enterography as a replacement for small bowel x-rays or CT enterography, a new study indicates. Children with inflammatory bowel disease must often undergo repeated examinations, which, with x-rays and CT, could lead to significant radiation exposure, said William A. Faubion, Jr., MD, one of the authors of the study. "MR enterography does not require any radiation, however the patient does have to drink an oral contrast agent, must hold their breath at times ...

Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body. The work, described in the Aug. 8 issue of the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS), is "Chapter Two" in an ongoing effort to efficiently and consistently convert adult blood cells into stem cells that are highly qualified for clinical and research use in place of human embryonic stem cells, says Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology ...

Major randomized controlled trials of new therapies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are conducted on patients who are not typical of those who physicians see in day-to-day practice, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA). The two major, often debilitating, illnesses that are recognized as IBD are ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. The introduction of biologics — the most prescribed medications for IBD patients — have dramatically impacted ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 22, 2012–Mosquito-borne West Nile virus (WNV) caused 26 deaths already this year, and nearly 700 cases had been reported by mid-August according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). WNV had become "old news" among the public and the media. Furthermore, funding to support research, training and education, and surveillance and vector control had waned. Now there is an urgent imperative to redouble our efforts to understand and control this dangerous virus. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, a major peer-reviewed journal from Mary ...

NEW YORK (August 20, 2012)—A new study by researchers from the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, and the Wildlife Conservation Society has found that locally managed marine protected areas within Fiji are playing an increasingly important role in the nation's strategy to protect inshore habitats. The study estimates that by 2020, locally managed marine protected areas within the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) network will effectively protect between 12-18 percent ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (08/22/2012) —New research from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management suggests learning how to stop enjoying unhealthy food sooner may play a pivotal role in combating America's obesity problem. The research, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, explores how satiation, defined as the drop in liking during repeated consumption, can be a positive mechanism when it lowers the desire for unhealthy foods. "When people talk about self-control, they really imply that self-control is willpower and that some people have it ...

AMES, Iowa – Edward Yu took note of the facts – nearly 2 million deaths each year, 9 million infected each year, developments of multidrug-resistant, extensively drug-resistant and now totally drug-resistant strains – and decided to shift his research focus to tuberculosis. Yu, an Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory researcher, has described in the journal Nature the three-part structure that allows E. coli bacteria to pump out toxins and resist antibiotics. And now, in a paper published online by the journal Nucleic Acids Research, a research team led by Yu describes ...

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have shown that 30 minutes of daily training provide an equally effective loss of weight and body mass as 60 minutes. Their results have just been published in the American Journal of Physiology. Forty percent of Danish men are moderately overweight. For thirteen weeks, a research team at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences followed 60 heavy – but healthy – Danish men in their efforts to get into better shape. Half of the men were set to exercise for an hour a day, wearing a heart-rate monitor and calorie counter, while ...

(Edmonton) Preschoolers from low-income neighbourhoods and kids who spend more than two hours a day in front of a TV or video-game console have at least one thing in common: a thirst for sugary soda and juice, according to research from the University of Alberta. Researchers from the faculties of Physical Education and Recreation, School of Public Health and Medicine & Dentistry surveyed parents to assess the dietary habits of 1,800 preschoolers in the Edmonton region as part of a larger study on diet, physical activity and obesity. Researchers found that 54.5 per cent ...

WASHINGTON—August 22, 2012— On the eve of the political conventions, nearly two-thirds of likely voters say the next president should announce initiatives promoting medical progress during his "first 100 days in office," according to a new national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America. And nearly three-quarters of those polled say it's important for candidates for the presidency and Congress to have a science advisor. The findings reveal deep concerns among voters about the lack of attention candidates and elected officials have assigned to research. "Research ...

A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Ames Laboratory has answered a key question concerning the widely-used Fenton reaction – important in wastewater treatment to destroy hazardous organic chemicals and decontaminate bacterial pathogens and in industrial chemical production. The naturally occurring reaction was first discovered in 1894 by H.J.H. Fenton, a British chemist at Cambridge, and involves hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and iron. How the Fenton reaction actually happens has remained in contention. Scientists have long debated whether it ...

TORONTO, ON – The radula sounds like something from a horror movie – a conveyor belt lined with hundreds of rows of interlocking teeth. In fact, radulas are found in the mouths of most molluscs, from the giant squid to the garden snail. Now, a "prototype" radula found in 500-million-year-old fossils studied by University of Toronto graduate student Martin Smith, shows that the earliest radula was not a flesh-rasping terror, but a tool for humbly scooping food from the muddy sea floor. The Cambrian animals Odontogriphus and Wiwaxia might not have been much to look at ...

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 22, 2012 — By discovering how certain viruses use their host cells to replicate, UC Irvine microbiologists have identified a new approach to the development of universal treatments for viral illnesses such as meningitis, encephalitis, hepatitis and possibly the common cold. The UCI researchers, working with Dutch colleagues, found that certain RNA viruses hijack a key DNA repair activity of human cells to produce the genetic material necessary for them to multiply. For many years, scientists have known that viruses rely on functions provided by ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. — Australian doctors-in-training spend significantly less time consulting with pediatric patients than they do with adults, according to a new study published in the journal Australian Family Physician. The study found that the proportion of longer consultations – more than 20 minutes -- for children was significantly less than that for adults and seniors among general practice registrars, says Gary Freed, M.D., M.P.H., the lead author on the study and Australian-American health policy fellow, Australian Health Workforce Institute at the University of ...

Researchers, doctors and patients tend to agree that during the high-risk period after an attempted suicide, the treatment of choice is close contact, follow-up and personal interaction in order to prevent a tragic repeat. Now, however, new research shows that this strategy does not work. These surprising results from Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen have just been published in the British Medical Journal. Researchers from Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen have ...

ATLANTA – Scientists at Georgia State University have found that the ability to hear is lessened when, as a result of injury, a region of the brain responsible for processing sounds receives both visual and auditory inputs. Yu-Ting Mao, a former graduate student under Sarah L. Pallas, professor of neuroscience, explored how the brain's ability to change, or neuroplasticity, affected the brain's ability to process sounds when both visual and auditory information is sent to the auditory thalamus. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The auditory thalamus ...

Intensive preparation for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) actually changes the microscopic structure of the brain, physically bolstering the connections between areas of the brain important for reasoning, according to neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The results suggest that training people in reasoning skills – the main focus of LSAT prep courses – can reinforce the brain's circuits involved in thinking and reasoning and could even up people's IQ scores. "The fact that performance on the LSAT can be improved with practice is not new. ...

For many pediatric cancer patients, total body irradiation (TBI) is a necessary part of treatment during bone marrow transplant– it's a key component of long term survival. But lengthened survival creates the ability to notice long term effects of radiation as these youngest cancer patients age. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Pediatric Blood & Cancer details these late effects of radiation. "These kids basically lie on a table and truly do get radiation from head to toe. There is a little blocking of the lungs, but nothing ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Transcription is a cellular process by which genetic information from DNA is copied to messenger RNA for protein production. But anticancer drugs and environmental chemicals can sometimes interrupt this flow of genetic information by causing modifications in DNA. Chemists at the University of California, Riverside have now developed a test in the lab to examine how such DNA modifications lead to aberrant transcription and ultimately a disruption in protein synthesis. The chemists report that the method, called "competitive transcription and adduct ...