SALT LAKE CITY, May 2, 2011 –- For decades, a 2.3 million- to 1.2 million-year-old human relative named Paranthropus boisei has been nicknamed Nutcracker Man because of his big, flat molar teeth and thick, powerful jaw. But a definitive new University of Utah study shows that Nutcracker Man didn't eat nuts, but instead chewed grasses and possibly sedges –- a discovery that upsets conventional wisdom about early humanity's diet. "It most likely was eating grass, and most definitely was not cracking nuts," says geochemist Thure Cerling, lead author of the study published ...

Canadian researchers may be biased since a half-million dollar research grant to possibly change the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood has not been accessed, states a Salon article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj110262.pdf. "As to why researchers did not proceed in their normal fashion, which is to fiercely compete for any relevant funding opportunity, remains unknown," write Jason Behrmann and Vardit Ravitsky, University of Montreal. "However, a clue may lie in the fact that this grant aims ...

Using museum specimens from Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica, a team of researchers from San Francisco State University and University of California at Berkeley has documented evidence of a Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) epidemic wave that wiped out native amphibians, according to research to be published on May 3 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (PNAS). More than 40 percent of all amphibian species are currently in decline, with many species having already disappeared, even in protected areas. The suspected culprit has been the emergence ...

In modern ecology, the removal or addition of a predator to an ecosystem can produce dramatic changes in the population of prey species. For the first time, scientists have observed the same dynamics in the fossil record, thanks to a mass extinction that decimated ocean life 360 million years ago. What was bad for fish was good for the fish's food, according to a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from the University of Chicago, West Virginia University, and The Ohio State University find that the mass extinction known ...

Doctors should consider using catheterization as a treatment tool in addition to its established role in diagnosing children with heart defects, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement. A catheter is a thin flexible tube inserted into a blood vessel and used in procedures such as angiography, in which physicians use the catheter to inject dye into the arteries near the heart to illuminate the vessels via X-ray technology. It can also open a valve, enlarge a narrow blood vessel, close a hole in the heart or close off a blood vessel. The statement, ...

CHICAGO --- People take billions of doses of over-the-counter pain relievers like Tylenol every year, but many do not pay attention to the active ingredients they contain, such as acetaminophen, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. That lack of knowledge about popular pain relievers plus particular ignorance of acetaminophen's presence in more than 600 over-the-counter and prescription medicines could be a key reason acetaminophen overdose has become the leading cause of acute liver failure in the U.S. The study reported only 31 percent of participants knew ...

Atopic dermatitis is a form of eczema that is caused by an inappropriate inflammatory response in the skin. Many children with atopic dermatitis also have food allergies, and skin contact with food allergens can make their atopic dermatitis worse. It is unclear why this occurs, but it has been suggested that immune cells known as T cells that are sensitized by exposure to food allergens in the gut are responsible. Raif Geha and colleagues, at Harvard Medical School, Boston, have now generated data in a mouse model of food allergen–induced atopic dermatitis that support ...

Stem cells are considered by many to be promising candidate sources of cells for therapies to regenerate and repair diseased tissues. There are two types of stem cell considered in this context: embryonic stem (ES) cells, which are derived from early embryos; and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are derived by reprogramming cells of the body such that they have the ability to generate any cell type. Recent data indicate that ES and iPS cells are molecularly different, raising the possibility that cells derived from these two sources could be distinct. A team ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Skin sensitivity to food allergens explained Atopic dermatitis is a form of eczema that is caused by an inappropriate inflammatory response in the skin. Many children with atopic dermatitis also have food allergies, and skin contact with food allergens can make their atopic dermatitis worse. It is unclear why this occurs, but it has been suggested that immune cells known as T cells that are sensitized by exposure to food allergens in the gut are responsible. Raif Geha and colleagues, at Harvard Medical School, Boston, have now generated data in a mouse ...

Workers' Compensation Claims in Illinois Workers' compensation laws across the country serve the same basic function: ensuring an adequate safety net for workers who are injured, killed, or develop an occupational disease in the course of employment. But, while all workers' compensation schemes have much in common, each state has its own distinct framework. In Illinois, claims based on work related injury or disease are governed by the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act and the Illinois Occupational Diseases Act. If you or a loved has been injured in the course of ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – In 2005, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that 2-year-old children with autism have brains up to 10 percent larger than children of the same age without autism. Now a follow-up study by UNC researchers has found that the children who had enlarged brains at age 2 continued to have enlarged brains at ages 4 and 5, but the amount of the enlargement was to the same degree found at age 2. This increased brain growth did not continue beyond 2 years of age and the changes detected at age 2 were due to overgrowth prior ...

Scientists using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) observed that the brains of children with autism spectrum disorder are larger than those without autism, but this difference appears related to increased rates of brain growth before 2 years of age, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Autism researchers have long known of the connection between the developmental disorder and an increase in brain size, although the cause and timing are not well defined. "The timing of brain enlargement in autism is ...

In England, the prevalence of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was estimated to be 9.8 per 1,000 population, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Among children and adolescents, in England, recent surveys have reported an ASD prevalence of approximately ten per 1,000, which is higher than some earlier studies estimating prevalence of 4.4 per 10,000 population and 12.7 per 10,000 population. "It is not known whether this reported increased prevalence reflects case finding changes or increasing ...

A team of researchers has identified a cellular protein that acts as a receptor for Ebola virus and Marburg virus. Furthermore, the team showed that an antibody, which binds to the receptor protein, is able to block infection by both viruses. "This is the first receptor identified for Ebola and Marburg viruses," said Wendy Maury, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and senior study author. "That's important because if you can identify and understand the first step in infection - how the ...

Feds Look to Stem Pipeline Dangers The state of our nation's aging natural gas infrastructure has become a major concern in light of the recent string of pipeline explosions. Places like Allentown, Pennsylvania and San Bruno, California have seen firsthand the catastrophic aftermath of natural gas pipeline disasters. And, with 1.8 million miles of gas delivery lines veining the earth beneath the streets of almost every U.S. city and town, similar tragedies could happen anywhere. Stepped Up Regulations In some communities, gas pipelines that have seen continuous ...

A study documents reduction in hospital mortality over ten years in a children's hospital without a Pediatric Emergency Medical Team (PMET), according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Hospital-based PMETs have been advocated as an approach to reduce rates of in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest and mortality (death) among children. Several previous studies that have evaluated outcomes before and after implementation of PMETs have found inconsistent results, with some showing benefit and some ...

Among children whose parents and other primary caregivers have limited English proficiency, there is an associated increased length of hospital stay and decreased number of home health care referrals for pediatric inpatients with infections requiring long-term antibiotics, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "A language other than English is spoken in 14 million U.S. households by more than 55 million (roughly one in five) U.S. residents, nearly half of whom describe themselves as having ...

An ancient, bipedal hominid sporting a set of powerful jaws and huge molars that earned it the nickname "Nutcracker Man" likely didn't crack nuts at all, preferring instead to slurp up vast quantities of grasses and sedges, says a new study. The hominid, known as Paranthropus boisei, ranged across the African landscape more than 1 million years ago and lived side-by-side with direct ancestors of humans, said University of Colorado Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, a study co-author. It was long assumed Paranthropus boisei favored nuts, seeds and hard fruit ...

Padilla v. Kentucky and the Role of Criminal Defense Representation Since the U.S. Supreme court decided Padilla v. Kentucky in early 2010, the role of criminal defense representation related to counseling clients about the broader consequences of criminal convictions has been under scrutiny. The American Bar Association (ABA) used Padilla as a starting point to form a task force in late 2010 to study the impact of the case. While the outcome of the study could directly affect how current and past criminal cases are handled, the main practice consideration for criminal ...

Military service members who screened positive for mental health disorders before deployment, or who were injured during deployment, were more likely to develop post-deployment posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms than their colleagues without these risk factors, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "The relationship between preinjury psychiatric status and postinjury PTSD is not well understood because studies have used retrospective methods," write the authors. "The primary objective of ...

On land, being small and lurking at the bottom of the food chain is a far better strategy for species survival than being big, fierce and perched on top, at least when humans are after you – just ask the mice and grizzly bears. But talk to sharks and anchovies and they'll tell you a different story, according to a new study of fisheries collapses led by Stanford researchers. Analyzing over 200 scientific assessments of fisheries around the globe, the team found that populations of small fish such as sardines and anchovies were at least as likely to have collapsed at ...

Facing Future Education Costs for Children After a New Jersey Divorce Parents who are parting ways have a host of complex decisions to make, from alimony and division of property to child custody and child support. Every divorce is a unique legal matter with the potential for dispute at every turn, but through divorce mediation and a sense of cooperation, couples may be able to make the most of their marital assets to overcome future financial challenges. One important goal for many divorcing parents is to preserve their children's options for higher education. When ...

Austin, Texas, A Great Place To Start A New Business Austin is a great place to start a business. Austin is the U.S. market that is most conducive to the creation and development of small businesses, according to the latest On Numbers rankings. They used a six-part formula to analyze the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, searching for the places that offer the best climates for small businesses. The ranking is based on: -Population: The Austin area added 286,000 residents between 2004 and 2009, an increase of 20.2 percent. The only metro to grow faster ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The production of wind energy in the U.S. over the next 30-50 years will be largely unaffected by upward changes in global temperature, say a pair of Indiana University Bloomington scientists who analyzed output from several regional climate models to assess future wind patterns in America's lower 48 states. Their report -- the first analysis of long-term stability of wind over the U.S. -- appears in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition. "The greatest consistencies in wind density we found were over the Great ...

EMC reseller Reliant Technology is pleased to announce the EMC CX Storage Upgrade program to help EMC storage customers upgrade their EMC CX, EMC CLARiiON CX3, and EMC CX4 systems. The upgrade program is designed to provide greater flexibility and investment stability to EMC CLARiiON customers. EMC recently released its new VNX Storage system, leaving many legacy customers curious about what options exist for EMC CLARiiON systems that are currently or soon to be End-of-Life. As the manufacturer phases out support for these systems, Reliant Technology's EMC CX Storage ...