Humans have been building reservoirs and dams for thousands of years. Over the past few decades, their construction has spiked as our need to harness water – critical in flood control, irrigation, recreation, navigation and the creation of hydroelectric power – has grown. And while dams and reservoirs have important benefits, they can also be disruptive and costly to both humans and the environment. A close assessment of critical environmental and social tradeoffs associated with dams and reservoirs within the global river network has been impossible because the data ...

WASHINGTON, DC -- June 2, 2011 -- A distinctly new type of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that is not detected by traditional genetic screening methods has been discovered in patients in Irish hospitals according to research to be published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. These findings provide significant insights into how new MRSA strains emerge and highlight the potential for the transmission of infectious agents from animals to humans. MRSA is a significant cause of hospital- and community-acquired infection worldwide. MRSA ...

Wagner & Wagner, Attorneys at Law, is doing more to help its community by making a commitment to improve its environmental profile. By joining the B2B Green Alliance, Wagner & Wagner hopes to promote awareness of eco-friendly business practices for lawyers. The B2B Green Alliance is part of Page 1 Green Solutions, an environmental commitment program sponsored by web marketing firm Page 1 Solutions. Page 1 Solutions strives to reduce its environmental impact not only by following eco-conscious practices in office but also by encouraging its clients to pursue ...

This release is available in Spanish. The same precision farming techniques that work with crops can work with manure management on cattle feedlots, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists. Agricultural engineers Roger Eigenberg and Bryan Woodbury and their colleagues with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Clay Center, Neb., map the distribution of manure on the surface of feedlots and the flow of liquid manure in rain runoff. This research could lead to both precision harvesting of manure and also precision application of manure ...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Do those lightening fast disclaimers at the end of radio and television advertisements scare you away or simply seem like white noise required by regulatory agencies? According to Northwestern University and Wake Forest University research now online in the Journal of Consumer Research, fast disclaimers can give consumers the impression that an advertiser is trying to conceal information. However, trusted brands (versus trust-unknown or not-trusted brands) are immune to the adverse effects of fast disclaimers. "Speak slowly or carry a trusted brand," ...

It is not certain where John Thompson was one fateful night in December 1984, but one thing is clear: He was not robbing three children in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Thompson's innocence did not prevent the District Attorney's Office in Orleans Parish from building a case against him for the robbery, or from failing to turn over blood evidence to the defense--a failure that would taint his ability to accurately defend himself against charges of robbery and murder. The District Attorney's Office, headed by Harry Connick, Sr., tried and ultimately convicted Thompson of ...

WORCESTER, Mass. – A study of more than 100 popular websites used by tens of millions of people has found that three quarters directly leak either private information or users' unique identifiers to third-party tracking sites. The study, co-authored by Craig Wills, professor of computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), also demonstrated how the leakage of private information by many sites, including email addresses, physical addresses, and even the configuration of a user's web browser—so-called browser fingerprints—could permit tracking sites to link many ...

Hip strengthening exercises performed by female runners not only significantly reduced patellofemoral pain -- a common knee pain experienced by runners -- but they also improved the runners' gaits, according to Indiana University motion analysis expert Tracy Dierks. "The results indicate that the strengthening intervention was successful in reducing pain, which corresponded to improved mechanics," said Dierks, associate professor of physical therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "The leg was ...

BOSTON – Researchers from Harvard Medical School and MIT have developed a new approach for identifying the "self" proteins targeted in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. In a paper published in Nature Biotechnology, H. Benjamin Larman and colleagues showed that errant immune responses which mistakenly target the body's own proteins rather than foreign invaders can now be examined in molecular detail. Further research could lead to new insights into the exact causes of these debilitating autoimmune disorders. The results ...

From a distance, Callie (not her real name) appears to be a normal if quiet 5-year-old girl. But when faced with a toy that blows large soap bubbles—an activity that makes the vast majority of kindergarteners squeal and leap with delight—she is uninterested in popping the bubbles or taking a turn with the gun herself. When offered dolls or other toys, she is equally unmoved. When groups of children congregate to play, Callie does not join them. Even at home, she is quiet and withdrawn. While Callie's mother explains this lack of interest in play as simple "shyness," researchers ...

When we've got a problem to solve, we don't just use our brains but the rest of our bodies, too. The connection, as neurologists know, is not uni-directional. Now there's evidence from cognitive psychology of the same fact. "Being able to use your body in problem solving alters the way you solve the problems," says University of Wisconsin psychology professor Martha Alibali. "Body movements are one of the resources we bring to cognitive processes." These conclusions, of a new study by Alibali and colleagues—Robert C. Spencer, also at the University of Wisconsin, and Lucy ...

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released new recommendations for infants riding in child safety seats. The group announced that infants should ride in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible. Previously, children could ride in forward-facing seats after their first birthday. The group relied on a University of Virginia study indicating that small children are 75 percent less likely to die or suffer severe injuries in a car crash if they are facing the rear of the vehicle. Dr. Dennis R. Durbin, scientific co-director of the Center for Injury Research ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Mathematical models analyzing how a cholera outbreak spread in Zimbabwe are providing new insights into the most effective vaccination strategies for preventing future cholera epidemics, according to University of Florida researchers. The mathematical models employed to analyze a large cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe in 2008-2009 suggest that mass vaccinations deployed strategically could prevent future cholera epidemics in that country and others. The researchers' findings, published online in late April in the Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

WASHINGTON, DC, June 2, 2011 — A common reading of the recent subprime mortgage crisis pins the blame on bankers and loan brokers who extended mortgages to those who could not afford them, thereby inflating a housing bubble that was destined to burst. While technically correct, that reading ignores the "politics of creditworthiness" that undergirded the rise of subprime mortgages, as explained in a new article in the June issue of the American Sociological Review by Simone Polillo, an assistant professor of sociology in the University of Virginia's College of Arts & ...

Just before 10:00 a.m. on June 20, 2001, a uniformed police officer was dispatched to do what he thought was a routine welfare check at a home in Houston, Texas. When the officer met Andrea Yates at the door, she immediately told him, "I just killed my kids." When Yates was later asked why she drowned her five children, she claimed she had to in order to save them from hell. The police would learn that Yates had been suffering from long-term post-partum depression and psychosis. Nearly 10 years after Andrea Yates killed her five children, the case remains hotly debated ...

Philadelphia – Pleural mesothelioma patients who undergo lung-sparing surgery in combination with photodynamic therapy (PDT) show superior overall survival than patient treated using the conventional therapy of extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) (or en bloc removal of the lung and surrounding tissue) with PDT, indicates new research from the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The research is published in the June 2011 issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. "Unlike patients who receive traditional lung sacrificing surgery for ...

On May 6, 2011, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued an "urgent warning" about the "Me Too" Clip-On Table Top Baby Chairs (imported by phil&teds USA Inc.). The CPSC has determined that this baby chair poses a risk of serious injury to children. The CPSC strongly urges all consumers to stop using the chairs immediately. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC0B_k0nTlw for the CPSC's 2-minute video announcement and warning. The chair consists of a nylon seat with a metal frame that clamps onto a table edge using two metal vise ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study concludes that models may be predicting releases of atmospheric carbon dioxide that are either too high or too low, depending on the region, because they don't adequately reflect variable temperatures that can affect the amount of carbon released from soil. The study points out that many global models make estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from soils based on "average" projected temperatures. But temperatures vary widely from those averages. That variability, along with complex biological processes, makes the issue far more complicated. Researchers ...

Psychology researchers at the University of Alberta have found an interesting wrinkle in the decision- making process people use when gambling: People confronted with risky choices respond differently when they rely on past experiences, rather than when they just focus on the odds of winning or losing. The research team gave people two kinds of choices. One was a choice between a sure win versus a double-or-nothing win. The other choice was between a sure loss versus a double-or- nothing loss. In some cases the odds were explained to the volunteer gamblers, and sometimes ...

What links speed, power, and the color red? Hint: it's not a sports car. It's your muscles. A new study, published in the latest issue of the journal Emotion, finds that when humans see red, their reactions become both faster and more forceful. And people are unaware of the color's intensifying effect. The findings may have applications for sporting and other activities in which a brief burst of strength and speed is needed, such as weightlifting. But the authors caution that the color energy boost is likely short-lived. "Red enhances our physical reactions because ...

Everyone has heard horrific tales of medical negligence -- the healthy body part removed instead of the cancerous one, the adult dose of medication given to a child, the baby starting life with a permanent birth injury because someone made a mistake, the grandparent who dies from a hospital infection. In our legal system, a person hurt through the negligence of another can sue in court for money damages for the harm received. In most scenarios, a jury decides how much money would compensate a victim for his or her injury at the negligent or malicious hand of another. It ...

A Spanish research team, using 3D reflection seismology, has for the first time mapped the geomorphological features of the Ebro river basin between five and six million years ago. The images obtained show that the surface analysed is today 2.5 or 3 kilometres below the sea bed. "The results shed light on the way in which the sea level fell during the Messinian (between 5.33 and 6 million years ago), and imply that the subsequent inundation of the river margins happened extremely quickly", Roger Urgeles, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Department of Marine ...

On his way out of office in December 2010, now former New York Gov. David Patterson signed legislation giving people filing for bankruptcy something to celebrate. The bill raises the limits on several state property exemptions and allows debtors to choose between New York and Federal exemption limits. Property exemptions are the assets protected from creditors trying to satisfy a money judgment during bankruptcy proceedings. New York's exemptions fall into the following categories: - Homestead - Motor vehicle - Cash - Jewelry and art - Tool of trade - Cash, household ...

Patients who are evaluated for liver diseases such as hepatitis C (HCV) are typically recommended for liver biopsy to determine the extent of disease progression. For patients who question whether less invasive testing is available, clinicians now have alternatives options to consider. Elastography and serum markers are two such diagnostic options reviewed in an editorial published in the June issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Epidemiological studies report that approximately 150,000 individuals in the U.S. are ...

PHILADELPHIA (June 2, 2011) -- Although bitterness can sometimes be desirable – such as in the taste of coffee or chocolate – more often bitter taste causes rejection that can interfere with food selection, nutrition and therapeutic compliance. This is especially true for children. Now, scientists from the Monell Center and Integral Molecular describe the discovery of a compound that inhibits bitterness by acting directly on a subset of bitter taste receptors. "Bitter taste is a major problem for pediatric drug compliance and also for proper nutrition, such as eating ...