Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania… A remarkably well-preserved fossil discovered in northeast China provides new information about the earliest ancestors of most of today's mammal species—the placental mammals. According to a paper published August 25 in the prestigious journal Nature, this fossil represents a new milestone in mammal evolution that was reached 35 million years earlier than previously thought, filling an important gap in the fossil record and helping to calibrate modern, DNA-based methods of dating the evolution. The paper by a team of scientists led by Carnegie ...

This research was funded by a grant from the New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (NERCE) at Harvard Medical School. Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare, an integrated health care delivery network. BWH is the home of the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, the most advanced center of its kind. BWH is committed to excellence in patient care with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine ...

In the first study of its kind, researchers have linked a natural global climate cycle to periodic increases in warfare. The arrival of El Niño, which every three to seven years boosts temperatures and cuts rainfall, doubles the risk of civil wars across 90 affected tropical countries, and may help account for a fifth of worldwide conflicts during the past half-century, say the authors. The paper, written by an interdisciplinary team at Columbia University's Earth Institute, appears in the current issue of the leading scientific journal Nature. In recent years, historians ...

August 24, 2011 — (Bronx, NY) — Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/home/default.asp) have helped identify a cellular protein that is critical for infection by the deadly Ebola virus. The findings, published in today's online edition of Nature, suggest a possible strategy for blocking infection due to Ebola virus, one of the world's most lethal viruses and a potential bioterrorism agent. The study was a collaborative effort involving scientists from Einstein, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, ...

Tampa bankruptcy firm Clark & Washington invites individuals experiencing financial difficulties to come in for a free, no-obligation consultation with a Tampa bankruptcy attorney, as part of Clark & Washington's ongoing commitment to provide its clients with quality service and honest, helpful legal advice. In addition to offering a no-obligation consultation, Clark and Washington want to make the public aware of misleading forms of advertising in conjunction with bankruptcy, especially online. If an ad states absolute pricing, then it is probably not accurate. ...

Researchers have used next generation sequencing to trace the source and explain the spread of the latest (seventh) cholera pandemic. They have also highlighted the impact of the acquisition of resistance to antibiotics on shaping outbreaks and show resistance was first acquired around 1982. Whole genome sequencing reveals that the particular cholera type responsible for the current pandemic can be traced back to an ancestor that first appeared 40 years ago in the Bay of Bengal. From this ancestor, cholera has spread repeatedly to different parts of the world in multiple ...

Adding a common antibiotic to the usual daily treatment regimen for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can reduce the occurrence of acute exacerbations and improve quality of life, reports new results from a clinical trial funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study will appear in the Aug. 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "Acute exacerbations account for a significant part of COPD's health burden," said Susan B. Shurin, M.D., acting director of the NHLBI. "These promising ...

BOSTON, MA (August 24, 2011)—In separate papers published online in Nature, two research teams report identifying a critical protein that Ebola virus exploits to cause deadly infections. The protein target is an essential element through which the virus enters living cells to cause disease. The first study was led by four senior scientists: Sean Whelan, associate professor of microbiology and immunobiology at Harvard Medical School; Kartik Chandran, assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; John Dye at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious ...

The spread of Dengue fever in northern Australia may be controlled by a bacterium that infects mosquitoes that harbor the virus, Australian and U.S. researchers report Aug. 25 in two papers published in the journal Nature. The result grew out of work more than 20 years ago by population biologist Michael Turelli, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, and Ary Hoffmann, now at the University of Melbourne, Australia, who are among the coauthors of one of the new Nature papers. Turelli and Nick Barton of the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria, also ...

New York, August 25, 2011 – In the zeal to eliminate dangerous bacteria, it is possible that we are also permanently killing off beneficial bacteria as well, posits Martin Blaser, MD, Frederick H. King Professor of Medicine, professor of Microbiology and chair of the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center. His commentary is published in the August 25 edition of the journal Nature. Dr. Blaser sounded the alarm to the medical community and to the general public, that the widespread use of antibiotics may be having unintended consequences causing permanent ...

The Orlando bankruptcy lawyers at Clark & Washington would like to thank the men and women who serve their communities and their country. As a way of showing their appreciation, the Orlando bankruptcy firm is currently offering 50% off of a routine chapter 7 filing for current military personnel, emergency medical technicians (EMT), members of the police or fire and rescue departments, and NASA employees who have been laid off. Clark & Washington specializes in chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy. As mid-Florida's largest bankruptcy filer, the Orlando bankruptcy ...

A study of women who were children, teenagers or young adults during the Dutch famine in 1944-45 has shown that undernutrition, particularly in the adolescent years, is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease in later life. The research, published online today in the European Heart Journal [1], provides the first direct evidence that acute undernutrition during the time that children are growing up can have an important impact on their future health. The authors of the accompanying editorial [2] say that it underlines the importance of policy makers ...

Adventurous females choose mates with similar personalities, regardless of the male's appearance and other assets, according to research led by the University of Exeter. This is the first study to show that the non-sexual behaviour or personalities of both mates influences partner choice in non-humans. The study focused on a population of more than 150 zebra finches. The research team assessed male and female birds separately for personality traits through a series of behavioural tests. In particular, they measured levels of exploratory behaviour through, for example, ...

New genetic evidence reveals that most British men are not descended from immigrant farmers who migrated east 5,000-10,000 years ago – contrary to previous research. Instead, scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh say that most European men can trace their lineage to people – most likely hunter-gatherers – who had settled in Europe long before that time. The latest study, based on the most common genetic lineage in European males, aims to correct an analysis of genetic data, published last year. It had reported that most British men came from people ...

The public should view crowd estimation with scepticism, say the authors of a study published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association, as they suggest more reliable alternatives to current estimating methods. Estimates of crowd sizes vary greatly, and the success of an event is often measured by the size of the crowd. Organisers of the 2007 "Stop the War" demonstration in London reported crowds of 60,000, whereas the police reported just 10,000. The US Government's estimate of the crowds at Obama's ...

New York, NY, August 24, 2011— Nearly three-quarters (72%) of people who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs over the last two years said that they skipped needed health care or did not fill prescriptions because of cost, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. The same proportion is also struggling with medical bills or medical debt, compared to about half (49%) who lost jobs but not their health insurance. Six in 10 working Americans rely on health insurance obtained through their employer, and when an estimated 15 million working-age adults ...

The Atlanta bankruptcy lawyers at Clark & Washington invite the residents of the Atlanta area to visit the firm at any of their twelve locations within the vicinity. As Georgia's largest bankruptcy filer, Clark & Washington offers legal assistance to individuals experience financial difficulties throughout the metro Atlanta area at the location most convenient for the client. The Atlanta bankruptcy attorneys at Clark & Washington maintain law offices within the metro Atlanta area at each of the following twelve locations: Chamblee-Tucker 3300 Northeast ...

FINDINGS: Where all of us inherit one copy of each chromosome from each of our two parents, cell lines exist with only a single set, and thus with a single copy of each individual gene, instead of the usual two. Using an unusual human cell line of this type, Whitehead Institute researchers and their collaborators performed a genetic screen and identified a protein used by Ebola virus to gain entry into cells and begin replicating. The discovery may offer a new approach for the development of antiviral therapeutics. RELEVANCE: Ebola virus, the cause of Ebola hemorrhagic ...

A new atlas of gene expression in the mouse brain provides insight into how genes work in the outer part of the brain called the cerebral cortex. In humans, the cerebral cortex is the largest part of the brain, and the region responsible for memory, sensory perception and language. Mice and people share 90 percent of their genes so the atlas, which is based on the study of normal mice, lays a foundation for future studies of mouse models for human diseases and, eventually, the development of treatments. Researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), ...

Rodriguez MD, a leading Lawrenceville clinic and bilingual Lawrenceville family practice in Gwinnett County, GA, is currently offering Back to School Health Checks and sports physicals for preschool through college age students. Available beginning in August 2011, the medical practice will accept patients by appointment and walk-in for Health Checks. Patients will be able to learn about their physical condition and treatment if a problem is identified. Available services at Rodriguez MD's Gwinnett family clinic include: - Physicals - Lab Tests - Blood Pressure - ...

DALLAS – Aug. 24, 2011 – Exercise can be as effective as a second medication for as many as half of depressed patients whose condition have not been cured by a single antidepressant medication. UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists involved in the investigation, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that both moderate and intense levels of daily exercise can work as well as administering a second antidepressant drug, which is often used when initial medications don't move patients to remission. The type of exercise needed, however, depends ...

Cluster headache has a substantial detrimental effect on quality of life. New invasive procedures, such as hypothalamic deep brain stimulation and bilateral occipital nerve stimulation, may help patients with chronic refractory headache. This is one of the conclusions reached by Charly Gaul and co-authors from the Department of Neurology at the University Medical Center Essen in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108(33): 543-9). Cluster headache is the commonest trigemino-autonomic headache, affecting some 120,000 people in ...

When investigating cancer cells, researchers discovered numerous peculiarities: Particular RNA molecules are present in large numbers, particular genes are overactive. Do these characteristics have a relation to cancer? Do they promote cell growth? Do they inactivate growth brakes or are they just a whim of nature? To find clues for answering these questions scientists perform what are called loss-of-function analyses. They knock out (silence) the gene of interest in living cells or whole organisms and subsequently look for any changes in the cells' metabolism, physiology ...

The same University of Washington researcher who used chemical sleuthing to deduce what's in fragranced consumer products now has turned her attention to the scented air wafting from household laundry vents. Findings, published online this week in the journal Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, show that air vented from machines using the top-selling scented liquid laundry detergent and scented dryer sheet contains hazardous chemicals, including two that are classified as carcinogens. "This is an interesting source of pollution because emissions from dryer vents are ...

Standard Life has revealed that more than half of parents potentially underestimate the maximum amount of debt their child could leave university with. When asked to take into account the increase in tuition fees to a maximum of GBP9,000 per year from 2012, and any other debts accumulated from living expenses, student loans, bank loans etc. 58 per cent of parents think the maximum debt their children could leave with is GBP40,000 or under, including many who think this would be a lot less. This total is well under the maximum figure of GBP54,000 calculated by the long-term ...