Despite the predicted environmental benefits of biofuels, converting land to grow bioenergy crops may harm native wildlife. Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig have developed a way to study the effects of increased energy crop cultivation on farmland bird populations. "The Skylark is an indicator species for agricultural areas because it occupies many habitats of the wider countryside around the globe, breeds on the ground within fields and feeds mostly on insects" notes lead researcher, Jan Engel. "Improving the habitat suitability ...

Neutrophil granulocytes comprise important defences for the immune system. When pathogenic bacteria penetrate the body, they are the first on the scene to mobilise other immune cells via signal molecules, thereby containing the risk. To this end, they release serine proteases – enzymes that cut up other proteins to activate signal molecules. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now discovered a new serine protease: neutrophil serine protease 4, or NSP4. This enzyme could provide a new target for the treatment of diseases that involve ...

A new study has estimated that over 260,000 cats and dogs entered the care of UK rescue organisations during 2009, the first full year since the onset of the UK recession. The aim of the research was to estimate the number of cats and dogs, currently being cared for by UK welfare organisations, the proportion of time that these organisations were full to capacity and the number entering these organisations during a 12-month period. The University of Bristol study by Dr Corinna Clark and colleagues in the School of Veterinary Sciences is published in the Veterinary ...

The journal Computers in Biology and Medicine has published an article on the new IT application BootstRatio, created by IDIBELL researchers. The application allows online statistical analysis of data from gene expression. It is accessible through http://regstattools.net/br and any scientist is already to use it. Researchers at the Human Molecular Genetics group at IDIBELL, led by Dr. Virginia Nunes, had a problem to provide signification to the results of statistical analyses of gene expression data. Most of the statistical calculations which are done to compare gene ...

You are what you eat is truism that has been given new impetus by 'cutting edge' research led by the University of Leicester that reveals your teeth are literally shaped by your food. Indeed, evidence from teeth can be used to determine what has been eaten by an animal providing a new way of working out the diets of wild animals that doesn't involve the unpleasant task of looking at the contents of their guts. Scientists say it is also possible to use these methods to investigate diets of extinct animals such as giant marine reptiles and dinosaurs. Research led by ...

Negative thinking is a red flag for clinical depression. Stopping such thoughts early on can save millions of people from mental illness, according research study from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. Jaclene Zauszniewski, the Kate Hanna Harvey Professor in Community Health Nursing and associate dean for doctoral education at the school, has developed a brief 8-item survey to help healthcare providers identify depressive thinking patterns that may lead to serious depression if not identified and addressed early. Zauszniewski's ...

Soon, the gardens and fields will be blooming, fragrant and buzzing again. Bees, flies and beetles fly, as they have done for millions of years, from flower to flower in search of food or mates, drawn by flower shapes, colors and the scents of the individual plants. Often, pollinating insects favor certain scents and preferentially visit the flowers in question. Previously, researchers always assumed that floral scents and the fondness of pollinating insects for a specific scent evolved mutually via coevolution of plants and insects. However, the evolutionary biologist ...

Physicists have recently devised a new method for handling the effect of the interplay between vibrations and electrons on electronic transport. Their paper is about to be published in EPJ B¹. This study, led by scientists from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, and the Centre for Computational Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore, could have implications for quantum computers due to improvements in the transport of discrete amounts of information, known as qubits, that are encoded in electrons. The authors created an electron transport model ...

A current study shows that the risk for coronary heart disease and stroke increases by almost thirty per cent in a person whose partner has cancer. The cause is probably the negative stress to which the cancer patient's relative is exposed. We know that the relatives of chronically ill patients, especially cancer patients, have an increased risk of mental illness and depression. Previous studies have reported that mental stress and depression affect the nervous system, blood pressure and inflammation, which in turn can increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease ...

Philadelphia, PA, April 3, 2012 – Depressed individuals with a tendency to ruminate on negative thoughts, i.e. to repeatedly think about particular negative thoughts or memories, show different patterns of brain network activation compared to healthy individuals, report scientists of a new study in Biological Psychiatry. The risk for depression is increased in individuals with a tendency towards negative ruminations, but patterns of autobiographic memory also may be predictive of depression. When asked to recall specific events, some individuals have a tendency to ...

Alexandria, VA – Tornadoes are notoriously difficult to forecast, with often deadly results: In 2011, tornadoes in the U.S. killed more than 550 people, a higher death toll than in the past 10 years combined. Now a new study on short-term climate trends offers a fresh approach to tornado forecasting that may give people in tornado-prone regions more warning that twisters may soon be descending. By sorting through average atmospheric conditions in tornado-prone regions, Michael Tippet, a climate scientist at Columbia University, may have found a way to predict tornado ...

TAMPA, Fla. (April 3, 2012) – Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have carried out a study to validate the utility of new tumor classification systems for staging and predicting relapse-free survival for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and who may be candidates for surgery. The results of their study were published in a recent issue of the Annals of Surgery. Neuroendocrine tumors, which form in the islet cells of the pancreas, are a relatively rare form of cancer, accounting for about 3 percent of all pancreatic malignancies. NETs that have not spread ...

(Boston) - Anurag Singh, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Boston University School of Medicine has been invited to present his recent work on targeted therapeutics for colon cancer at the American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. Singh's seminar, scheduled for Tuesday April 3rd, will be featured in the "Late-Breaking Abstracts Mini-Symposium". This highlights recent and provocative groundbreaking research in cancer biology. Over one million cases of colon cancer are diagnosed worldwide ...

People who are excluded by others online, such as on Facebook, may feel just as bad as if they had been excluded in person, according to researchers at Penn State and Misericordia University. "If you've ever felt bad about being 'ignored' on Facebook you're not alone," said Joshua Smyth, professor of biobehavioral health and of medicine at Penn State. "Facebook -- with its approximately 800 million users -- serves as a place to forge social connections; however, it is often a way to exclude others without the awkwardness of a face-to-face interaction. Most people would ...

Higher-spending hospitals do have better outcomes for their emergency patients, including fewer deaths, according to a Vanderbilt study released as a working paper through the National Bureau of Economic Research. Vanderbilt's John Graves, Ph.D., assistant professor of Preventive Medicine, along with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University, examined Medicare ambulance and hospital data from 2002-2008, finding that higher-cost hospitals have significantly lower one-year mortality rates compared to lower-cost hospitals. "At ...

Dr. Steve Hahn, Acworth prosthodontist, and his staff are pleased to announce the pending opening of a new location in Midtown, Atlanta. The new location will give Dr. Hahn and his associates access to a whole new group of patients. Roughly 30 miles from the current Acworth location, the Midtown location will be able to bring dental services to a large population center in the heart of Atlanta. For patients of the Acworth dentist who may live closer to Midtown or are employed there, the new location offers a new level of convenience. "We are all tremendously ...

CHICAGO, IL – April 3, 2012 – The brains of people with anorexia and obesity are wired differently, according to new research. Neuroscientists for the first time have found that how our brains respond to food differs across a spectrum of eating behaviors – from extreme overeating to food deprivation. This study is one of several new approaches to help better understand and ultimately treat eating disorders and obesity. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. And more than two-thirds of the U.S. population are overweight or obese – a health ...

Scientists have long believed that vitamin D, which is naturally absorbed from sunlight, has an important role in the functioning of the body's autoimmune system. Now Prof. Howard Amital of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sheba Medical Center has discovered that the vitamin may also affect the outcomes of patients in intensive care. In a six-month study, Prof. Amital and his colleagues found that patients who had a vitamin D deficiency lived an average of 8.9 days less than those who were found to have sufficient vitamin D. Vitamin D levels also ...

Dr. Scott Melamed, East Side podiatrist, further enhances his patients' knowledge of foot and ankle health care through the launch of Progressive Foot Care's educational resources via their website. Patients can visit the website for this podiatrist in Union Square for instant access to the vast education library, which is available 24/7 to provide patients with advanced knowledge of various foot and ankle health care information. "When my office is closed, I want my patients to be able to easily access important podiatric information. To accomplish this, we have ...

High fat diets cause damage to blood vessels earlier than previously thought, and these structural and mechanical changes may be the first step in the development of high blood pressure. These findings in mice, by Marie Billaud and colleagues from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in the US, are published online in Springer's Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research. With age, increasing weight and metabolic disease, the internal walls of our large arteries progressively thicken and become less elastic, which can lead to furring up of the arteries ...

Children who grow up learning to speak two languages are better at switching between tasks than are children who learn to speak only one language, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. However, the study also found that bilinguals are slower to acquire vocabulary than are monolinguals, because bilinguals must divide their time between two languages while monolinguals focus on only one. In the study, bilingual and monolingual children were asked to press a computer key as they viewed a series of images -- either of animals or of depictions ...

In order to maintain healthy smiles, Dr. Chris Hooper, dentist in Virginia Beach, offers his patients extensive dental health care information around the clock. It is commonly understood that in order to avoid cavities and more serious dental problems, a person has to take good care of their teeth and Dr. Hooper of Gentle Dental Center helps reiterate this. "Consistent brushing and flossing habits do more than just protect your oral health, they also help keep a host of other serious conditions at bay. Because of this I want to ensure that my patients fully understand ...

Montreal, April 3, 2012 — Love it or leave it — if only it were that simple. According to new research from Concordia University, the Université de Montréal and HEC Montréal, staying in an organization out of a sense of obligation or for lack of alternatives can lead to emotional exhaustion, a chronic state of physical and mental depletion resulting from continuous stress and excessive job demands. Published in the journal Human Relations, the study found that people who stay in their organizations because they feel an obligation towards their employer are more likely ...

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered why diabetic-like symptoms develop in some patients given rapamycin, an immune-suppressant drug that also has shown anti-cancer activity and may even slow ageing. Rapamycin is widely used to prevent organ rejection and is being tested as a cancer treatment in clinical trials. About 15 percent of patients, however, develop insulin resistance and glucose intolerance after taking the drug; until now, scientists had not identified the reason. In a study published in Cell Metabolism, the researchers report that ...

It's raining money this spring as Intertops Casino gives away $70,000 in casino bonuses during its April Cash Showers event. Intertops promotions are designed so that players at every budget level have a chance to win. Just by playing any of the 300 casino games at Intertops, players automatically earn points and are ranked in six levels based on their deposits, wins and losses. Every month the casino, known for generous bonusing, gives away tens of thousands in casino bonuses divided amongst players at all six levels. "At most casinos you have to be a real high ...