Two new rodent fossils were discovered in the arid highlands of southern Bolivia by researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Universidad Autónoma Tomás Frías. The larger of the two rodents, named Mesoprocta hypsodus, probably looked something like a guinea pig on stilts, said Darin Croft, an anatomy professor at Case Western Reserve. The smaller, Quebradahondomys potosiensis, was a spiny rat. An online article in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution describes the new species, a possible third, and two known species that are new inhabitants ...

Photo in Canvas provide a premium service to customers looking to transform photographs into exceptional canvas prints. The Hampshire based studio specialise in producing custom effects and one of the latest, contrasting black and white, can completely revamp a tired looking photo. The designer custom effects range at Photo in Canvas is extensive giving customers plenty of choice when it comes creating their canvas prints. The custom effects are usually free of charge and customers can preview their creations before buying them to ensure everything is at it should be. One ...

This release is available in Spanish. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have developed a fully cooked food-aid product called Instant Corn Soy Blend that supplements meals, particularly for young children. The work was led by food technologist Charles Onwulata at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit at the agency's Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) in Wyndmoor, Pa. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food ...

A little vibration can be a good thing for people who need a sensitive touch. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a glove with a special fingertip designed to improve the wearer's sense of touch. Applying a small vibration to the side of the fingertip improves tactile sensitivity and motor performance, according to their research results. Previous research has shown that adding an appropriate amount of white noise -- a concept called stochastic resonance -- can improve sight, hearing, balance control and touch, but the white noise had not ...

Anyone keen to learn about the best ways of staying in shape may enjoy the Asia Fitness Convention (AFC) 2011, which will be held in Bangkok soon. While the official conference programme runs from October 21st to 23rd, there will be additional sessions taking place before and after those dates in specialist areas such as sports conditioning, ultimate six plus trigger point therapy and freeform body workshop. The organisers have urged people to register for their tickets as soon as possible, so that they can be sure they do not miss out on the workshops they want ...

Researchers demonstrate for the first time that programmed cell death - a process by which cells deliberately destroy themselves - is involved in mandibular regression in termites. And it appears this regression may be the price to pay for the formation of termites' defensive organs, according to Kouhei Toga and Kiyoto Maekawa from the University of Toyama, and Shinichi Yoda from the University of Tokyo, in Japan. Their findings have just been published online in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften – The Science of Nature. As termites molt from workers, to presoldiers ...

Jim Newport will be hosting an exhibition of his film and television-related work in Phuket this month, as well as taking the stage with his blues band.   While many people on the island may recognise him from a handful of appearances as the lead singer of Jimmy Fame at the Phuket International Blues Festival, Newport is also an acclaimed production designer.   Among the work that has won him Emmy nominations is baffling sci-fi series Lost, which revolved around a group of people from across the world stranded on an exotic island.   In addition to this, Newport has ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Even though many Americans learn through community health screenings that they are at high risk for having a stroke, they rarely follow-up with their doctor for care. But a new University of Michigan study shows high-risk stroke patients are twice as likely to get follow-up care from a primary care doctor if they receive a pep talk over the telephone. "It is unfortunate that these high-risk patients often have a lower rate of follow-up with their primary care physicians," says Rajesh Balkrishnan, Ph.D., associate professor in the College of Pharmacy ...

Scientists at the University of York, using an 'amino acid time capsule', have led the largest ever programme to date the British Quaternary period, stretching back nearly three million years. It is the first widespread application of refinements of the 40-year-old technique of amino acid geochronology. The refined method, developed at York's BioArCh laboratories, measures the breakdown of a closed system of protein in fossil snail shells, and provides a method of dating archaeological and geological sites. Britain has an unparalleled studied record of fossil-rich ...

Emerging talents in the creative sphere will come together for Kuala Lumpur Design Week from September 16th to 25th 2011. With the tagline 'Reaching for the Stars', the event aims to find people with the passion and skill to help Malaysia make an impression on the global stage in terms of design. The organisers explained that experts from around the globe will share their abilities with eager beginners, with several awards due to be handed out to talents who excel. In a statement, they added: "The festival is to instil, stimulate and magnify our country's ...

Scientists can make graphene out of just about anything with carbon -- even Girl Scout Cookies. Graduate students in the Rice University lab of chemist James Tour proved it when they invited a troop of Houston Girl Scouts to their lab to show them how it's done. The work is part of a paper published online today by ACS Nano. Rice scientists described how graphene -- a single-atom-thick sheet of the same material in pencil lead -- can be made from just about any carbon source, including food, insects and waste. The cookie gambit started on a dare when Tour mentioned ...

Thinking small and local, not big and global, may help communities ignite long-term economic growth, according to Penn State economists. Small, locally owned businesses and startups tend to generate higher incomes for people in a community than big, nonlocal firms, which can actually depress local economies, said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural and regional economics. "Local ownership matters in important ways," said Goetz. "Smaller, locally owned businesses, it turns out, provide higher, long-term economic growth." The association of small businesses ...

Illustrator software packages have really broadened the creative power of the illustrators. Gone are the days of endless drawings, erasing, scaling and tracing. All of these can be done with a click of a button with powerful illustrator software. This type of software really turbo charges the creative process so that illustrations that used to take days can be finished in hours if not within an hour. These pieces of software automate the most tedious and manual part of the illustration process and makes an artist's creative flow more dynamic and smooth. However, there are ...

Scientists using chemical isotopes in ancient soil to measure prehistoric tree cover--in effect, shade--have found that grassy, tree-dotted savannas prevailed at most East African sites where human ancestors and their ape relatives evolved during the past six million years. "We've been able to quantify how much shade was available in the geological past," says University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling, lead author of a paper titled "Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years" on the results in this week's issue of the journal Nature. "It shows ...

The concept of the no fax payday loans has eased the financial troubles of hundreds of people across the globe. This is the reason these types of loans are fast becoming popular within the different countries of the world. The individuals can borrow an amount of money according to their needs to facilitate their cash flows before their next salary day. This way they can meet their urgent needs like paying for car maintenance, doctor's fees and other related issues. There are a number of banks and the financial institutes like Sky Loans offering these types of loans for ...

SPRINGLAKE – Whether it is a purple potato to fit a niche market or finding varieties resistant or at least tolerant to psyllid infestations, Dr. Creighton Miller has a potato plant in Texas aimed at meeting a grower's need. Miller, a potato breeder with Texas AgriLife Research and the Texas A&M University department of horticultural sciences in College Station, has breeding trials near Springlake and Dalhart. Selections are made from seedlings grown in breeding plots each year, he said. The children of these "families," as the parent plants are known in potato breeding, ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Predictive genetic testing may be able to identify children's risk for developing common, treatable, and possibly preventable disorders. Using this knowledge, doctors may be able to help at-risk children learn to manage their conditions by making healthy lifestyle changes. Test results may also be the motivation children need to take their health seriously as they grow older. But critics of predictive genetic testing say test results may be psychologically harmful to children. However, these claims are rooted in assumption, not evidence, says U-M ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – August 4, 2011 – A new study from researchers in Indiana reports that use of a retroflexion technique in the right side of the colon during colonoscopy is safe and results in the detection of additional adenomatous (precancerous) polyps in approximately four percent of patients. This result is comparable to that expected from a second colonoscopy in the forward view. The study appears in the August issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). Several ...

Leading dentist in Garfield Ridge, IL, Dr. Kyle Takla, has released new patient education resources via the practice's informative website. Patients can easily access the practice's website for valuable information on dental health care topics, symptoms and treatments at any time. With the addition of the online patient education library, patients can search various procedures performed by Drs. Takla, Perez and Patel such as veneers, teeth whitening and implants in Garfield Ridge. The new library presents patient education in a way that is "always on," allowing ...

A paper co-authored by William Phillip of the University of Notre Dame's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Menachem Elimelech, Robert Goizueta Professor of Environmental and Chemical Engineering at Yale University, appearing in this week's edition of the journal Science offers a critical review of the state of seawater desalination technology. Elimelech and Phillip and examine how seawater desalination technology has advanced over the past 30 years, in what ways the state-of-the-art technology can be improved, and if seawater desalination is a sustainable ...

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Researchers led by Montana State University have found a surprising condition that occurs in the lungs after an invasion of a common mold that can cause deadly infections in humans. In the most oxygen-rich environment in the body – the lungs – the scientists discovered a shortage of oxygen. The shortage resulted from inflammation and invasive growth of the mold, which greatly reduced the oxygen available to the pathogenic mold Aspergillus fumigatus. The mold is generally found in hay, soils and compost piles and can cause a variety of lung infections ...

This release is available in Spanish. Kidney transplant from a living donor, besides of being the best option for young people and those affected by particular conditions, results in increased organ survival and solves in part the organ shortage afflicting Spain since the mid-90 despite the high rate of cadaveric donation. According to the National Transplant Organization in 2010 in Spain 240 living donor kidney transplants were made, which represents 11% of the total. This year the expectation is that this number will grow to about 300, which would be almost about ...

Washington, DC, August 4, 2011 -- Increased hand hygiene knowledge positively correlates with a decreased risk of transmitting infection among both healthcare workers (HCW) and elementary school children, according to two studies published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC), the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. In the first study, conducted by Anne McLaughlin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University, 71 nurses, infection preventionists ...

Tel Aviv — Companies like Google and Zappos.com are famous for their "work hard, play hard" attitudes and friendly work environments, but are their employees healthier too? According to a Tel Aviv University researcher, a positive relationship with your co-workers has long-term health benefits. Dr. Sharon Toker of the Department of Organizational Behavior at TAU's Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration says that employees who believe that they have the personal support of their peers at work are more likely to live a longer life. "We spend most of our ...

VIDEO: After suffering from black lung disease, Ernie Gillispie, became the first UK HealthCare patient to receive help from an artificial lung that led to a double lung transplant. The machine... Click here for more information. Surgeons at the University of Kentucky on Aug. 3 announced that they were among the first to use artificial-lung technology to demonstrate the feasibility of a lung transplant, using a device invented by two university faculty members, Dr. Joseph Zwischenberger ...