An ancient, bipedal hominid needs a new nickname. Paranthropus boisei, a 2.3 million to 1.2 million-year-old primate, whom researchers say is an early human cousin, probably didn't crack nuts at all as his common handle suggests. "Nutcracker Man" most likely ate grass and possibly sedges, said geochemist Thure Cerling, lead author of a study published in the May 2 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Cerling and colleagues determined P. boisei's diet by analyzing carbon isotope ratios in the tooth enamel of 24 teeth from 22 ...

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Fungi play significant ecological and economic roles. They can break down organic matter, cause devastating agricultural blights, enter into symbiotic relationships to protect and nourish plants, or offer a tasty repast. For industrial applications, fungi provide a source of enzymes to catalyze such processes as generating biofuels from plant biomass. One large fungal group with such enzymes are the rust plant pathogens which cannot survive on their own so they use crops as hosts, leading to reduced yields and potentially hindering efforts to grow biomass ...

Durham, NC – Most of us wouldn't consider slow-moving snails to be high-metabolism creatures. But at one point in the distant past, snail metabolism sped up, says a new study of marine snails in the journal Paleobiology. "Many of the marine snails we recognize today — such as abalone, conchs, periwinkles and whelks — require more than twice as much energy to survive as their ancestors did," said co-author Seth Finnegan of the California Institute of Technology. The findings come from a new analysis of snail fossils formed one to two hundred million years ago, during ...

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2011 – When it comes to healthy snacking and weight management, a new study bolsters the long-held view that not all calories are created equal. According to nutrition researchers at UCLA, choosing to snack on pistachios rather than pretzels as part of a healthy diet not only supports your body mass index (BMI) goals, but can support heart health too. The study, recently published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition is especially significant in today's diet as snack foods account for more than a quarter of the total caloric intake ...

Rutgers researchers have developed an innovative new treatment that could help minimize nerve damage in spinal cord injuries, promote tissue healing and minimize pain. After a spinal cord injury there is an increased production of a protein (RhoA) that blocks regeneration of nerve cells that carry signals along the spinal cord and prevents the injured tissue from healing. Scientists at the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience and Quark Pharmaceuticals Inc. have developed a chemically synthesized siRNA molecule that decreases the production of the RhoA protein ...

New Rochelle, NY, May 3, 2011—Researchers at last month's AACR conference in Orlando demonstrated that they are intensifying their efforts to identify and validate various types of biomarkers that are detectable in readily accessible bodily fluids such as blood and urine, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). The goal is to detect biosignatures that are more specific and sensitive than existing diagnostic modalities, according to the May 1 issue of GEN (http://www.genengnews.com/gen-articles/cancer-detection-improved-with-noninvasive-testing/3639/). "The ...

Texas Bill Would Raise Speed Limit on Some Texas Highways to 85 MPH A bill recently passed in the Texas House of Representatives would raise the speed limit on some Texas highways from 80 to 85 mph -- a move that highway safety advocates are already cautioning against. The Texas Senate is currently considering a similar measure. The Lone Star State already has over 500 miles of highways with speed limits set at 80 mph -- the highest in the nation, along with certain Utah highways. Critics say that the move would be tantamount to a license for motorists and truckers ...

Plants adapt to the local weather and soil conditions in which they grow, and these environmental adaptations are known to evolve over thousands of years as mutations slowly accumulate in plants' genetic code. But a University of Rochester biologist has found that at least some plant adaptations can occur almost instantaneously, not by a change in DNA sequence, but simply by duplication of existing genetic material. Justin Ramsey's findings are published in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While nearly all animals have two sets of chromosomes—one ...

Tallahassee, FL-- The most comprehensive study of 20th century children's books ever undertaken in the United States has found a bias towards tales that feature men and boys as lead characters. Surprisingly, researchers found that even when the characters are animals, they tend to be male. The findings, published in the April issue of Gender & Society, are based on a study of nearly 6,000 books published from 1900 to 2000. While previous studies have looked at the representation of male and female characters in children's books, they were often limited in scope. "We looked ...

Student Visas: F1 Visa Requirements The F1 visa allows students from around the world to study full time in the United States at accredited primary, secondary or postsecondary academic institutions. The F1 is a nonimmigrant visa, meaning it is intended for temporary visitors who do not intend to become permanent residents. However, F1 recipients are usually eligible for 12 months of practical training (employment authorization or permission to work) during and after completing their studies. Students who take advantage of this training or other similar opportunities ...

Alabama Dram Shop Act In Alabama it had long been the rule, with cases going back to 1876, that one cannot recover for negligence in the dispensing of alcohol. The legislature modified Alabama case law, which provided no remedy for the unlawful dispensing of alcohol, by the creation the Civil Damages Act and the Dram Shop Act. The Dram Shop Act The language of the Alabama Dram Shop Act states: -Every wife, child, parent, or other person who shall be injured in person, property, or means of support by any intoxicated person or in consequence of the intoxication ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT researchers and their collaborators have come up with an unusual, high performance and possibly less expensive way of turning the sun's heat into electricity. Their system, described in a paper published online in the journal Nature Materials on May 1, produces power with an efficiency roughly eight times higher than ever previously reported for a solar thermoelectric device — one that produces electricity from solar heat. It does so by generating and harnessing a temperature difference of about 200 degrees Celsius between the interior of the device ...

HOUSTON - A protein known as WWP2 appears to play a key role in tumor survival, a research team headed by a scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in an advance online publication of Nature Cell Biology. Their research suggests that the little-studied protein binds to the tumor-suppressing protein PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10), marking it for destruction by proteasomes, which degrade proteins and recycle their components. PTEN plays a role regulating the cellular reproduction cycle and prevents rapid ...

Safety Rule Requiring Backup Cameras Paused Two year old Cameron Gulbransen died in a tragic and preventable accident, a type of accident that occurs too often -- Cameron was accidentally backed over by his father while playing in the driveway. In response to Cameron's death, Congress passed the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007. The act sets out to end backup accidents by trying to "eliminate" vehicles' blind spots. As part of the act, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) set out to implement a rule requiring ...

SAN ANTONIO (May 3, 2011) — Since the 1930s scientists have proposed food restriction as a way to extend life in mice. Though feeding a reduced-calorie diet has indeed lengthened the life spans of mice, rats and many other species, new studies with dozens of different mouse strains indicate that food restriction does not work in all cases. Diet and fat loss Researchers at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio's Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, with colleagues at the University of Colorado, studied the effect of food restriction on fat and weight ...

Thinking of Leaving the Hospital Before You Are Discharged? Do So at Your Own Risk A recent report released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows an alarming rise in the number of patients who are leaving hospitals, emergency rooms and urgent care clinics before they are properly discharged. The agency examined data dating back to 1997 and found that the number of patients leaving against medical advice has increased nearly 40 percent since then. Hospital discharge information for 2008 -- the most recent year such data was available -- show that roughly ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers have developed an aluminum alloy that could be used in a new type of mobile technology to convert non-potable water into drinking water while also extracting hydrogen to generate electricity. Such a technology might be used to provide power and drinking water to villages and also for military operations, said Jerry Woodall, a Purdue University distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering. The alloy contains aluminum, gallium, indium and tin. Immersing the alloy in freshwater or saltwater causes a spontaneous reaction, ...

Survey Reveals High Rate of Criminal Convictions Among Nursing Home Employees In an unprecedented examination of the nursing home industry, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) surveyed hundreds of nursing homes around the country to find that a whopping 92 percent of them employed at least one worker with a criminal conviction. Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that almost half of all nursing home facilities in the country employ five or more people with at least one conviction each. An extreme example of the problem is seen in one particular ...

Think of a dependent person, and you think of someone who's needy, high-maintenance, and passive. That's how many psychologists and therapists think of them, too; passivity is key. But dependency is actually more complex and can even have active, positive aspects, writes Robert Bornstein of Adelphi University, the author of a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Bornstein was sent towards a different concept of dependency by a series of experiments he did in graduate school. He paired ...

Student Athlete Concussion Policy and Law in Indiana In Indiana, sports are king. From basketball to auto racing and football, sports are in our blood. Not only are sports great exercise for our kids, they can also help form important social skills, like teamwork and cooperation. But there are risks to this childhood fun. Every year in the U.S over 135,000 children aged five to 18 are treated in emergency rooms for sports-related concussions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But many concussions go untreated every year, based on an outdated ...

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is an indicator for coronary and carotid arterial disease and carries inherent risks of claudication and amputation. PAD screening has increased dramatically, particularly among cardiologists, while vascular surgery has demonstrated the greatest growth in revascularization procedures treating PAD, according to research being presented at the 2011 American Roentgen Ray Society's annual meeting. The study was performed at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, RI. CPT codes were extracted for lower extremity vascular noninvasive physiologic ...

MDCT arthrography is better than MR arthrography for diagnosing glenoid rim osseous lesions, lesions that have been identified as potential causes of recurrence after shoulder surgery, according to a new study. The study, done at the Hopital Sainte Marguerite in Marseille, France, included 40 patients scheduled for shoulder surgery. All patients had both an MDCT arthrography (MDCTA) and an MR arthrography exam (the current standard exam). "Our study found that MDCTA was as accurate as MR arthrography for the study of labro-ligamentous injuries, glenoid cartilage lesions ...

Bedsores Can Be a Tell-Tale Sign of Nursing Home Neglect As our population ages, the numbers of elderly people needing full-time care in nursing homes and residential care facilities is rapidly increasing. An increase in residents, however, does not necessarily translate into an increase in the number of caregivers, and the incidence of cases of nursing home abuse and neglect is on the rise. A huge number of those cases involve infirm patients affected by painful and sometimes deadly bedsores. Bedsores -- also known as "pressure sores" or "decubitus ...

A new study shows that susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is a powerful tool for characterizing infarctions (stroke) in patients earlier and directing more prompt treatment. In the United States, stroke is the third leading cause of death and overall affects almost one million people each year, said Dr. Mark D. Mamlouk, lead author of the study at the University of California, Irvine. He states, "There are different causes of stroke of which the thromboembolic (clot) subtype is one of the most common." Traditionally, SWI, which is a specific MRI sequence, has been ...

Recent studies have shown that a 64-detector CT angiography utilizing prospective electrocardiographic (ECG) gating produces a quality image but considerably reduced patient radiation dose when compared to retrospective ECG gating, according to research being presented at the 2011 American Roentgen Ray Society's annual meeting. The study was conducted in the Department of Radiology at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center, in Cleveland, OH. Researchers evaluated 29 patients who underwent prospectively-gated 100 kV whole chest CT for preoperative cardiothoracic ...