Plants often regarded as common weeds such as thistles, buttercups and clover could be critical in safe guarding fragile food webs on UK farms according to Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Published tomorrow in Science, researchers from the University of Bristol detail the interactions that occur between the different food webs commonly found on farms throughout the UK and the robustness of these interactions to species loss. In one of the first studies to look simultaneously at multiple types of food webs, the researchers ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- As scientists continue developing climate change projection models, paleontologists studying an extreme short-term global warming event have discovered direct evidence about how mammals respond to rising temperatures. In a study appearing in Science Feb. 24, researchers from eight institutions led by scientists from the University of Florida and University of Nebraska found a correlation between temperature and body size in mammals by following the evolution of the earliest horses about 56 million years ago: As temperatures increased, their body ...

More than three quarters (77%) of cancer patients who first present to their family doctors (GPs) with suspicious symptoms are referred to hospital after only one or two consultations, a new study has found. However, the new research also shows a wide variation in the number of times a cancer patient sees their general practitioner before they are referred to a specialist, with the most pre-referral consultations occurring when the cancer was one of the less common types, or when the patient was either female, young, or an older person from an ethnic minority. The research ...

A compound in citrus fruits may reduce your stroke risk, according to research reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. This prospective study is one of the first in which researchers examine how consuming flavonoid subclasses affects the risk of stroke. Flavonoids are a class of compounds present in fruits, vegetables, dark chocolate and red wine. "Studies have shown higher fruit, vegetable and specifically vitamin C intake is associated with reduced stroke risk," said Aedín Cassidy, Ph.D., the study's lead author and professor of nutrition at ...

Researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics have discovered an answer to the long-standing mystery of how brain cells can both remember new memories while also maintaining older ones. They found that specific neurons in a brain region called the dentate gyrus serve distinct roles in memory formation depending on whether the neural stem cells that produced them were of old versus young age. The study will appear in the March 30 issue of Cell and links the cellular basis of memory formation to the birth of new neurons -- a finding that could unlock ...

Stavros "LOTSandLOTS" Ioannou, one of the latest up and coming poker players to be sponsored and mentored by Badbeat.com, has begun with a winning streak that started with two MTTs then, the following week, 2nd in the EUR5k guaranteed EUR50 Turbo on Poker Time and 3rd in the $10k Guaranteed $5 Rebuy on Poker Encore for $2.1k. Now bankrolled and tutored by Badbeat.com, prospects look good for the young poker player. "My first day with Badbeat.com was a good one -- I played 6 MTTs in total and final tabled 3/6 winning two of them," said Ioannou. "My ...

A new study reports that the disintegration of the Maya Civilization may have been related to relatively modest reductions in rainfall. The study was led by Professors Martín Medina-Elizalde of the Yucatan Center for Scientific Research in Mexico and Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton in the UK. Professor Rohling says: "Our results show rather modest rainfall reductions between times when the Classic Maya Civilization flourished and its collapse – between AD 800-950. These reductions amount to only 25 to 40 per cent in annual rainfall. But they were large ...

Nursing home residents over the age of 65 who take certain antipsychotic medication for dementia are at an increased risk of death, suggests a research paper published today on bmj.com. The Harvard Medical School study, the largest ever undertaken among US nursing home residents, looked at 75,445 older nursing home residents from 45 US states between 2001 and 2005. All nursing home residents studied were 65 and over. Risks of mortality were looked at during a six month period. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned in 2005 that atypical antipsychotic drugs ...

In the war between parasite and host, the parasitic wasp, Aphidius ervi, and the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, are locked in a battle for survival. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Biology shows that this cunning parasite sniffs out differences between protected and unprotected aphids, and alters its egg-laying strategy, in order to overwhelm aphid defenses and ensure survival of wasp offspring. The wasp, A. ervi, lays an egg inside the pea aphid, where the egg hatches and converts the aphid's insides into a wasp nursery. The wasp ...

Spacious new homes on large, hillside homesites in Fair Oaks Ranch are coming to Santa Clarita at Crest View, where Los Angeles homebuilder Pardee Homes has set Saturday, March 3 for grand opening festivities. The Crest View sales center will open at 10 a.m. and home shoppers are invited to enjoy self-guided tours of 4 fully decorated model homes. Grand opening visitors can also take in a lively session with Sandy Krogh of Culinary Consultants. Demonstrating Crest View's upscale G.E. appliance line in a model home kitchen, Sandy will present delicious and easy springtime ...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, especially in developed countries, and there is currently no known treatment or cure or for the vast majority of AMD patients. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Medicine has identified genes whose expression levels can identify people with AMD, as well as tell apart AMD subtypes. It is estimated that 6.5% of people over age 40 in the US currently have AMD. There is an inheritable genetic risk factor but risk is also increased for smokers and ...

In recent years, a number of controversial claims have been made about the female mammal's egg supply – that it is renewed over her adult lifetime (as opposed to the conventional understanding that she is born with all of her eggs), and that the source of these eggs is stem cells that originate in the bone marrow. Now, Weizmann Institute scientists have disproved one of those claims and pointed in new directions toward resolving the other. Their findings, based on an original method for reconstructing lineage trees for cells, were published online today in PLoS Genetics. The ...

Scientists have discovered a new target in their fight against the devastating global disease 'malaria' thanks to the discovery of a new protein involved in the parasite's life cycle. The research has uncovered a vital player in the sexual phase of the malaria parasite's reproduction which could prove an effective target for new treatments to stop the disease in its tracks. The scientists from The University of Nottingham's School of Biology, with collaborators from the Universities of Leicester, Oxford, Imperial College London and Leiden in the Netherlands, have just ...

CHICAGO --- Millions of "good" bacteria exist harmoniously on the skin and in the intestines of healthy people. When harmful bacteria attack, the immune system fights back by sending out white blood cells to destroy the disease-causing interlopers. But how do white blood cells know which bacteria are good and which are harmful? Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers studied one type of white blood cell known as a macrophage, which is among the immune system's first to detect and eliminate harmful bacteria. The research team, led by Christian ...

Numerous mouse strains show great biological variation in features such as behavior, coat color and susceptibility to cancer and other diseases. This study examines one possible genetic cause for differential gene expression and biological variation. COLUMBUS, Ohio – The many short pieces of mobile DNA that exist in the genome can contribute to significant biological differences between lineages of mice, according to a new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research ...

How we move is an excellent indicator of overall health. When we feel good, we move around continually. When we're in pain, we reduce our physical activity. This observation might seem trivial, but it has led to an original approach for evaluating chronic pain. A team from EPFL's Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement (LMAM) has developed a clever, easy-to-use visual tool to help doctors assess their patients' pain levels. The research appears online February 23 in the journal PLoS One. "Movement is an objective indicator of pain. You move differently if you're ...

The tiny, little-noticed jewel wasp may provide some answers as to how different species differ in size and shape. And that could lead to a better understanding of cell growth regulation, as well as the underlying causes of some diseases. Using the wings of these insects as a tool to study how growth is regulated, biologists at the University of Rochester have discovered that changes in expression of a well-known cell regulator gene called "unpaired" (upd) accounts for wing growth differences between males of closely related species. Unpaired is distantly related to ...

Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered specific molecular and signaling events by which vitamin D inhibits inflammation. In their experiments, they showed that low levels of Vitamin D, comparable to levels found in millions of people, failed to inhibit the inflammatory cascade, while levels considered adequate did inhibit inflammatory signaling. They reported their results in the March 1, 2011, issue of The Journal of Immunology. "This study goes beyond previous associations of vitamin D with various health outcomes. It outlines a clear chain of cellular ...

A major register study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that children born to certain groups of immigrants in Sweden had an increased risk of developing autism with intellectual disability. The study includes all children in Stockholm County from 2001 to 2007, and brings the question of the heredity of autism to the fore. "This is an intriguing discovery, in which we can see strong links between a certain kind of autism and the time of the mother's immigration to Sweden," says principal investigator Cecilia Magnusson, Associate Professor ...

Prof. Dr. Albert Newen and Dr. Leon de Bruin from the Institute of Philosophy II at the Ruhr-Universität explain their theory in the journal Cognition. In the first year of life, children already have a basic "theory of mind", that is, they are capable of distinguishing their own beliefs from those of others. At the age of four, this capacity is fully developed. According to the Bochum model, this development is guided by two interacting systems. Contradictory results: "false belief" test with and without language The test: Sally puts her ball into a basket and goes ...

Some Parkinson's Disease patients can suddenly become creative when they take dopamine therapy, producing pictures, sculptures, novels and poetry. But their new-found interests can become so overwhelming that they ignore other aspects of their everyday life, such as daily chores and social activities, according to research published in the March issue of the European Journal of Neurology. Italian researchers studied 36 patients with Parkinson's Disease - 18 with increased artistic production and 18 without - and compared them with 36 healthy controls without Parkinson's. ...

To connect a laptop to an additional monitor, projector or even to a monitor wall, a special cable was required, until now. Researchers of the Saarland University's Intel Visual Computing Institute overcome this obstacle by linking computer and monitor via an 'Internet Service'. By this means, a screen's contents can be shifted freely to any terminal's display and even shown on large-scale monitor walls. The Saarland University's scientists present their results for the first time at stand F34, in hall 9 at the computer fair Cebit. The trade show takes place in Hannover ...

A study in Spain shows that insecurity at work is directly and negatively linked to satisfaction in work and life, as well as affecting performance and commitment. Furthermore, the research reveals that the consequences of this insecurity are different according to the occupational group they work in. A study led by Spanish psychologists has concluded that the feeling that one is going to lose their job worsens satisfaction levels in other areas of life, such as family, health, financial circumstances and the work-free time balance. As the fear of unemployment increases ...

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a controversial chemical widely used in the plastics industry. A new study followed people over a 10-year time period and shows that healthy people with higher urine concentrations of BPA were more likely to later develop heart disease. The study was carried out by researchers at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, the University of Exeter and the European Centre for the Environment and Human Health, in association with the University of Cambridge. The analysis was funded by the British Heart Foundation. The paper is published online ...

In an exclusive interview with Physics World, astronaut Drew Feustel gives a vivid account of his two missions into space and recalls his determination to make his childhood ambition – space flight – come true. In the video, Feustel discusses his two missions – his maiden flight in 2009, as part of a team sent to repair the Hubble Space telescope, and his return to space in 2011 as the lead spacewalker on Endeavour's final mission to the International Space Station. Recalling the first moments of launch, when you're sitting on the launch pad and the countdown hits ...