PASADENA, Calif.— Like scars that remain on the skin long after a wound has healed, earthquake fault lines can be traced on Earth's surface long after their initial rupture. Typically, this line of intersection between the area where the fault slips and the ground is more complicated at the surface than at depth. But a new study of the April 4, 2010, El Mayor–Cucapah earthquake in Mexico reveals a reversal of this trend. While the fault involved in the event appeared to be superficially straight, the fault zone is warped and complicated at depth. The study—led by researchers ...

MADISON, WI, JULY 11, 2011 -- Although phosphorus is an essential nutrient for all life forms, essential amounts of the chemical element can cause water quality problems in rivers, lakes, and coastal zones. High concentrations of phosphorus in aquatic ecosystems are often associated with human activities in the surrounding area, such as agriculture and urban development. However, relationships between specific human sources of phosphorus and phosphorus concentrations in aquatic ecosystems are yet to be understood. Establishing these relationships could allow for the development, ...

WHAT:Pyrazinamide has been used in combination with other drugs as a first-line treatment for people with tuberculosis (TB) since the 1950s, but exactly how the drug works has not been well understood. Now, researchers have discovered a key reason why the drug effectively shortens the required duration of TB therapy. The finding potentially paves the way for the development of new drugs that can help eliminate TB in an infected individual even more rapidly. The study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National ...

In 1991, Carl Lewis was both the fastest man on earth and a profound long jumper, perhaps the greatest track-and-field star of all time in the prime of his career. On June 14th of that year, however, Carl Lewis was human. Leroy Burrell blazed through the 100-meters, besting him by a razor-thin margin of three-hundredths of a second. In the time it takes the shutter to capture a single frame of video, Lewis's three-year-old world record was gone. In a paper just published in the journal Neuron, a team at the Stanford School of Engineering, led by electrical engineers Krishna ...

PITTSBURGH—The transport system inside living cells is a well-oiled machine with tiny protein motors hauling chromosomes, neurotransmitters and other vital cargo around the cell. These molecular motors are responsible for a variety of critical transport jobs, but they are not always on the go. They can put themselves into "energy save mode" to conserve cellular fuel and, as a consequence, control what gets moved around the cell, and when. A new study from Carnegie Mellon University and the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research published in the Aug. 12 issue of Science ...

A federal judge in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida has ruled that Florida drug crime laws violated a defendant's due process rights. At issue was whether prosecutors must prove that an accused drug trafficker had knowledge of drug possession, which is a fundamental legal principle in American criminal justice and the common law that preceded it. Amendments to Florida's criminal code in 2002 removed the mens rea requirement from the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control law. The term is Latin for "guilty mind" and is best summed ...

August 11, 2011 (Aurora, CO)--In an article published online this week in Nature Genetics, a University of Colorado Cancer Center team in partnership with universities in China and Denmark reports the first genetic sequencing of urothelial (transitional) carcinoma, the most prevalent type of bladder cancer. Recognizing the genetic mutations that make bladder cancer cells different than their healthy neighbors may allow early genetic screenings for cancer and new therapies targeting cells with these mutations. In addition, the mutations the team found are similar to those ...

PITTSBURGH—A growing number of illegal online pharmacies are flooding the web trying to sell dangerous unauthorized prescriptions, according to a new report from cybersecurity experts at Carnegie Mellon University. Report authors Nicolas Christin, associate director of the Information Networking Institute (INI) and a senior systems scientist at the INI and CyLab along with Nektarios Leontiadis from the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP), and Tyler Moore from Wellesley College, found that rogue websites were redirecting consumers to illicit pharmacies. ...

LOMA LINDA, Calif. – While some past studies have shown that persons carrying a few extra pounds in their 70s live longer than their thinner counterparts, a new study that measured subjects' weight at multiple points over a longer period of time reveals the opposite. Research from Adventist Health Studies recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society showed that men over 75 with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 22.3 had a 3.7-year shorter life expectancy, and women over 75 with a BMI greater than 27.4 had a 2.1-year shorter life expectancy. ...

If you are facing foreclosure in New Jersey, you need to know what your options are. Where can you turn for assistance? It's good to have a private attorney on your side. A lawyer experienced with foreclosure and debt relief issues can play a key role in helping your get your arms around what you need to do to keep your house. In New Jersey, there is also the state's Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program. This program educates homeowners and broadens the options available to them. Foreclosures Continue In January of this year, RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure ...

A study on the effect of different alcoholic beverages and drinking behaviour on the risk of acute pancreatitis was conducted, using the Swedish Mammography Cohort and Cohort of Swedish Men, to study the association between consumption of spirits, wine and beer and the risk of acute pancreatitis. In total, 84,601 individuals, aged 46-84 years, were followed for a median of 10 years, of whom 513 developed acute pancreatitis. There was a dose–response association between the amount of spirits consumed on a single occasion and the risk of acute pancreatitis. After multivariable ...

Sexual assault charges can bring tremendous notoriety and an immediate risk to the accused offender's freedom. Law enforcement gives cases involving rape, child molestation, indecent assault and other sex crimes focused attention, and the police often rush to apprehend a suspect if the victim does not personally know the alleged assailant. This means that anyone matching the description given by the victim will be at risk for being accused and charged with the crime, particularly if that person is at the wrong place at the wrong time. Such was the case when a so-called ...

For nearly 60 years, Pyrazinamide (PZA) has been used in conjunction with other medications to treat tuberculosis (TB), but scientists did not fully understand how the drug killed TB bacteria. PZA plays a unique role in shortening the duration of current TB therapy to six months and is used frequently to treat multi-drug resistant TB. A new study, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, suggests that PZA binds to a specific protein named RpsA and inhibits trans-translation, a process that enables the TB bacteria to survive under stressful ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke engineers have already shown that they can "cloak" light and sound, making objects invisible -- now, they have demonstrated the theoretical ability to significantly increase the efficiency of ships by tricking the surrounding water into staying still. "Ships expend a great deal of energy pushing the water around them out of the way as they move forward," said Yaroslav Urzhumov, assistant research professor in electrical and computer engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. "What our cloak accomplishes is that it reduces the mass of fluid ...

It has been just over a year since the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia killed 29 miners, and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has come out with proposed coal mining safety rule revisions. The proposal is intended to ensure that underground coal mine operators find and fix violations of mandatory health or safety standards, with an overall goal of improving miner health and safety. This comes as MSHA releases the findings from its yearlong investigation of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion. MSHA assistant secretary Joseph A. Main ...

Many small-business owners think their choice is between having in-house counsel or employing outside counsel for their legal needs. The fear inherent to this line of thinking is that, in reality, the choice becomes one of expensive in-house counsel or no legal counsel at all. However, a middle ground exists to provide solutions for a variety of business sizes and needs: outsourced in-house counsel services. Almost all Business Decisions Have Legal Implications When you are running your own business, to say you are busy is usually an understatement. From day-to-day ...

MADISON, WI, AUGUST 11, 2011 -- Recent studies report that corn hybrids released in the late 2000s, especially Bt hybrids, require higher seeding rates than commercial hybrids released in the 1990s to reach maximum yields. Expectedly, corn seeding rates in the USA have increased significantly in the past 10 years. However, limited data is available on silage yield and quality responses of recently released hybrids to seeding rates. Cornell scientist William Cox investigated the response of eight hybrids (three Bt and a non-Bt hybrid, two brown midrib and two silage specific ...

One of the earliest lessons in science that students learn is that a ray or beam of light travels in a straight line. Students also learn that light rays fan out or diffract as they travel. Recently it was discovered that light rays can travel without diffraction in a curved arc in free space. These rays of light were dubbed "Airy beams," after the English astronomer Sir George Biddell Airy, who studied what appears to be the parabolic trajectory of light in a rainbow. Now, scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have demonstrated the ...

Every day Congressional legislatives and authorities across the country are finding new ways to crack down on drunk driving. A recent bill would have allocated funds for a government-research project aimed at working with auto manufacturers to install a type of alcohol detection device inside future vehicles was recently on the table. The bill failed to pass the House and Senate, but it's likely legislators will continue to support and sponsor similar bills. The Research of Alcohol Detection Systems for Stopping Alcohol-related Fatalities Everywhere (known as the ROADS ...

A discrimination lawsuit was filed in Queens County Supreme Court against the Sizzler Restaurant in Forest Hills, New York on behalf of Liza Friedlander. Friedlander was allegedly attacked by a manager while trying to dine with friends. It is believed that this case is the first test of the newly enacted anti-bias crime law passed in August 2010 that allows victims of anti-gay and lesbian violence and intimidation to sue their attackers in civil court. The Sizzler is accused of violating New York City and State Civil and Human Rights Laws because Friedlander was attacked ...

Computer science researchers in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering are leading a team that has confirmed a substantial gender gap among editors of Wikipedia and a corresponding gender-oriented disparity in the content. The team's research will be presented at the 2011 WikiSym conference, the seventh annual International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration, in California this fall. Over the past decade, Wikipedia has become a premier online information resource. About 400 million people around the world visit Wikipedia on the web every ...

While "Deadliest Catch" might have entertained television viewers with risky examples of life at sea, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has confirmed something that has been known for years: longshore and maritime industry jobs are some of the most dangerous occupations in America. About 350 maritime and longshore industry workers are seriously injured in work-related accidents each year. Longshore workers do more than just load and unload cargo. They also repair ships and build bridges, among other duties. As a result, harbor and dock workers are subject ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – With the global economy in a state of unrest, saving money seems to be an obvious strategy for households to protect themselves. But are global households saving enough? Researchers at the University of Missouri have compared savings habits of households from two of the world's most powerful economies: China and the United States. Rui Yao, an assistant professor in the personal financial planning department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri, found that urban Chinese households, on average, save much more than American ...

Marine researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups have created a map of the world's corals and their exposure to stress factors, including high temperatures, ultra-violet radiation, weather systems, sedimentation, as well as stress-reducing factors such as temperature variability and tidal dynamics. The study, say the authors, will help to conserve some of the world's most important coral reefs by identifying reef systems where biodiversity is high and stress is low, ecosystems where management has the best chance of success. The paper appears ...

The new Volkswagen Crafter officially launches in August when the first vehicles and test drive demonstrators arrive in Volkswagen Van Centre showrooms with an extensive advertising campaign highlighting how efficient the new model is with class-leading fuel economy of up to 38.7 mpg, lower running costs and emissions from 199 g/km.   To make it the most efficient in the large van class, the new Crafter has a new engine range using Volkswagen's latest 2.0-litre TDI common rail engine, already proven in the new Transporter and Amarok.  It is available with power outputs ...