After its initial appearance in New York in 1999, West Nile virus spread across the United States in just a few years and is now well established throughout North and South America. Both the mosquitoes that transmit it and the birds that are important hosts for the virus are abundant in areas that have been modified by human activities. As a result, transmission of West Nile virus is highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats. "The virus has had an important impact on human health in the United States partly because it took advantage of species that do well around ...

Los Angeles, CA (October 20, 2011)- Partners in Wall Street law firms write equally nice things about the work of their male and female junior lawyers, but when they use hard numbers, they rate the men higher, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE). The use of positive language may be to soften the blow of low evaluations or they may be based on lower expectations of female performance based on stereotypes, write Monica Biernat, of the University of Kansas, M.J. Tocci of Fulcrum Advisors and Joan Williams ...

HOUSTON -- (Oct. 20, 2011) -- Giant flakes of graphene oxide in water aggregate like a stack of pancakes, but infinitely thinner, and in the process gain characteristics that materials scientists may find delicious. A new paper by scientists at Rice University and the University of Colorado details how slices of graphene, the single-atom form of carbon, in a solution arrange themselves to form a nematic liquid crystal in which particles are free-floating but aligned. That much was already known. The new twist is that if the flakes – in this case, graphene oxide – ...

WASHINGTON -- The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every Southern Hemisphere spring, reached its annual peak on Sept. 12. It stretched to 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest ozone hole on record. Above the South Pole, the ozone hole reached its deepest point of the season on Oct. 9, tying this year for the 10th lowest in this 26-year record. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use balloon-borne instruments, ground-based instruments and satellites to monitor the annual Antarctic ozone hole, global levels of ozone in the stratosphere ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---For the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that's cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets. Water is an essential ingredient for life. Scientists have found thousands of Earth-oceans' worth of it within the planet-forming disk surrounding the star TW Hydrae. TW Hydrae is 176 light years away in the constellation Hydra and is the closest solar-system-to-be. University of Michigan astronomy professor Ted Bergin is a co-author of a paper on the ...

University of British Columbia researchers have identified three major patterns that emerge among couples dealing with male depression. These can be described as "trading places," "business as usual" and "edgy tensions." Published in the Social Science & Medicine journal and led by UBC researcher John Oliffe, the paper details how heterosexual couples' gender roles undergo radical shifts and strain when the male partner is depressed and the female partner seeks to help. Depression, a disorder often thought of as a women's health issue, is underreported in men, and little ...

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 20 – Exceptional cognitive and physical function in old age leaves a tell-tale immunologic fingerprint, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Likewise, older adults who have mild impairments bear a distinct immunologic pattern, too, according to findings published today in the Public Library of Science: One. Old age is not synonymous with impairment and disability, noted lead investigator Abbe N. de Vallejo, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics and immunology, University of Pittsburgh School ...

(New York City, October 20, 2011) In the October 20th edition of the journal Cell Host and Microbe, Drs. Claudia Plottel and Martin J. Blaser of the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology at NYU Langone Medical Center, and the Department of Biology at New York University, present a model for understanding how cancer evolves in humans based on an understanding of the bacteria living in our body, the microbiome. The authors suggest that the bacteria that reside in us play a crucial role in maintaining our health. This starts early in our lives, when a newborn is "seeded" ...

CINCINNATI – Children with certain dopamine system gene variants have an improved response to methylphenidate - the most commonly prescribed medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - in a finding that could help eliminate the guesswork from prescribing effective medications for children with ADHD. Researchers reporting their results in the Oct. 21 Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry tested 89 children with ADHD between ages 7 and 11. They found that children with specific variants of the dopamine transporter (DAT) and dopamine ...

A peer-reviewed study commissioned by NOAA shows the American people assign an estimated total economic value of $33.57 billion for the coral reefs of the main Hawaiian Islands. "The study shows that people from across the United States treasure Hawaii's coral reefs, even though many never get to visit them," said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "It illustrates the economic value of coral reefs to all Americans, and how important it is to conserve these ecosystems for future generations." "We are ...

A study focusing on the family and friends of people who were suicidal has highlighted the main challenges they face when trying to judge whether a person is in danger and decide what they should do about it. The research was carried out by Dr. Christabel Owens from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, supported by Devon NHS Partnership Trust and funded by the UK Medical Research Council. The findings are published in the British Medical Journal on 22nd October 2011 (online 19th October 2011). Researchers investigated 14 suicides aged 18-34 in London, the ...

Although increased use of noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation (NIPPV) nationwide has helped decrease mortality rates among patients hospitalized with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a small group of patients requiring subsequent treatment with invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) have a significantly higher risk of death than those placed directly on IMV, according to researchers in the United States who studied patterns of NIPPV use. The findings were published online ahead of the print edition of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of ...

Vancouver − Health prevention strategies to help Canadians achieve their optimal health potential could add a decade or more of healthy years to the average lifespan and save the economy billions of dollars as a result of reduced cardiovascular disease, says noted cardiologist Dr. Clyde Yancy. Dr. Yancy, who will deliver the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Lecture at the opening ceremonies of the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver this Sunday, will tell delegates that people who follow seven simple steps to a healthy life can expect to live an ...

Mammograms are an important part of every woman's health to screen for breast cancer. Because many more women have breast implants these days, some of them may wonder how their implants will affect their mammogram results. They may also wonder how the mammography will affect their breast implants. Worries about breast implant ruptures are not uncommon. However, breast implants are made of very durable material. The likelihood of a rupture is very small. It is extremely important that you do not skip a mammogram because you are worried your breast implant will rupture. Your ...

In many bird species males have a more elaborate plumage than females. This elaborate plumage is often used to signal body condition, to intimidate rivals or to attract potential mates. In many cases plumage colouration also depends on the hormone testosterone. Christina Muck and Wolfgang Goymann from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen have now investigated whether this also holds true for sex role reversed bird species. In barred buttonquails that live in Southeast Asia, females are polygamous and pair with several males that incubate the eggs and raise ...

LASIK vision correction is a long-term solution. The eye surgery changes the shape of your cornea, permanently altering the way that your eye receives light. The longevity of your LASIK results depends greatly on whether you will undergo age-related vision changes and if you had a stable prescription prior to surgery. During an initial LASIK consultation, your LASIK doctor will make sure you are a good candidate for the eye surgery. Vision after LASIK LASIK eye surgery changes the shape of your cornea, allowing your eye to correctly focus light for clear and precise ...

New research suggests African Americans have a higher burden of multiple, large-joint osteoarthritis (OA), and may not be recognized based on the current definition of "generalized OA." African Americans were also more likely to have knee OA, but less likely to be affected by hand OA than Caucasians according to the findings reported today in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). OA is the most common type of arthritis and typically affects multiple joints. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal ...

Clinical depression is a serious problem in the United States. According to estimates by the Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine, approximately 9.2 million Americans suffer from severe or clinical depression. By 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that clinical depression will be the number two cause of "lost years of healthy life" worldwide. Fortunately, those who suffer from severe, debilitating depression can qualify for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits. What Is Depression? Depression is much more than simply ...

Among known risk factors for hepatocellular cancer, smoking, obesity, and heavy alcohol consumption, along with chronic hepatitis B and C infection, contribute to a large share of the disease burden in Europe, according to a cohort study published online October 21 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. While a causal link between hepatitis B and C and hepatocellular cancer has been known for a few decades, tobacco smoking, obesity, and alcohol consumption are common risk factors, albeit with lower relative risks, that also contribute to the development of ...

MARSABIT, KENYA (21 October 2011) – In the midst of a drought-induced food crisis affecting millions in the Horn of Africa, an innovative insurance program for poor livestock keepers is making its first payouts today, providing compensation for some 650 insured herders in northern Kenya's vast Marsabit District who have lost up to a third of their animals. Known as Index Based Livestock Insurance or IBLI, payouts are triggered when satellite images show that grazing lands in the region have deteriorated to the point that herders are expected to be losing more than 15 ...

Professor Qin Wenbin from BaoTou Medical College first identified the hemoglobin (Hb) A2 phenomenon 30 years ago. His first paper on this phenomenon was published in Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica, in Chinese, in 1981. Subsequent research investigating its mechanism was published in Chinese in the Chinese Biochemical Journal and Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 1991 and more recently in Electrophoresis, in 2010. Using electrophoretic methods, he discovered that Hb is re-released in living red blood cells (RBCs) and demonstrated the significance of this process ...

After decades of decline, the worldwide death rate from full anesthesia is quietly creeping higher. According to an article recently published in the German Medical Association's official international science journal, the death rate during full anesthesia has reached approximately seven patients per million. In contrast, deaths from full anesthesia only affected four patients per million at the end of the 1980s. This disturbing trend may serve as a wakeup call to alert doctors that special precautions are warranted when anesthetizing at risk patients. Reasons Anesthesia ...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an established technique which over the years has made it possible for researchers and healthcare professionals to study biological phenomena in the body without using ionising radiation, for example X-rays. The images produced by normal MRI are, to put it simply, pictures of water in the body, since the body is largely made up of water. MRI produces images of the hydrogen nuclei in water molecules. It can also be used to study other types of nuclei in many other interesting molecules. The only problem is that the concentration of ...

However, Svante Björck, a climate researcher at Lund University in Sweden, has now shown that global warming, i.e. simultaneous warming events in the northern and southern hemispheres, have not occurred in the past 20 000 years, which is as far back as it is possible to analyse with sufficient precision to compare with modern developments. Svante Björck's study thus goes 14 000 years further back in time than previous studies have done. "What is happening today is unique from a historical geological perspective", he says. Svante Björck has gone through the global ...

The benefits of virtual worlds can be used to help autistic children develop social skills beyond their anticipated levels, suggest early findings from new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Researchers on the Echoes Project have developed an interactive environment which uses multi-touch screen technology where virtual characters on the screener act to children's actions in real time. During sessions in the virtual environment, primary school children experiment with different social scenarios, allowing the researchers to compare their ...