In many developing countries, forest restoration at home has led to deforestation abroad, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The authors say their findings could have significant implications for ongoing efforts to protect the world's remaining forests, which are disappearing at an annual rate of more than 32 million acres – an area roughly the size of England. "Reducing deforestation is an international priority, given its impacts on carbon emissions and biodiversity," said study co-author Eric Lambin of Stanford ...

Ask the Eucalyptus connoisseurs Koalas may be the pickiest marsupials around: They evolved to feed almost exclusively on the leaves of Eucalyptus trees, and they are highly selective when it comes to which species and even which individual trees they visit. When the furry leaf-eater settles on a particular tree, it relies on a number of factors, including taste, to make its selection. In a study published in the November issue of Ecology, a journal of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), researchers used koala feeding preferences to design a new method that could help ...

Fuel cells could create a breakthrough for electric cars, because refuelling them is fast and easy, just like your traditional gas guzzler. But there's an obstacle. Current fuel cells need platinum in order to work. And that's expensive. Now chemists from Copenhagen, Potsdam and Hanau have taken the first step towards producing fuel cells using very little of the precious metal. At the University of Copenhagen Matthias Arenz has specialized in testing the catalysts that do the actual work in fuel cells. Presented with a so called "Core Shell catalyst" developed by Clarkson ...

NEW YORK (Nov. 23, 2010) -- A hormone made by the body may be a potential therapeutic tool for the treatment of two anemic blood disorders -- beta-thalassemia and hemochromatosis. The new research was led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the journal Blood. Commonly known as Cooley's anemia, beta-thalassemia affects nearly 1,000 individuals in the United States; worldwide, approximately 300,000 children are born each year with thalassemias. The conditions cause excessive iron absorption in the body's ...

BATON ROUGE – LSU Professor Edward Shihadeh and Ph.D. candidate Raymond Barranco recently published a study titled "Latino Immigration, Economic Deprivation and Violence: Regional Differences in the Effect of Linguistic Isolation" in the journal Homicide Studies. The researchers found that when Latinos in the United States lack English language capability, they are far more likely to be murdered. But this link between English language proficiency and victimization exists only in places where Latinos have settled recently – in places that the authors term "new Latino destinations." ...

WASHINGTON — Earth and space science missions developed and implemented by federal agencies in collaboration typically result in additional complexity and cost and increased risks from divided responsibilities and accountability, says a new report from the National Research Council. Federal agencies should not partner in conducting space and earth science missions unless there is a compelling reason to do so and clear criteria are met in advance. "A common misperception among policymakers and individual agencies is that collaboration on these missions will save money ...

23 November 2010 (Geneva, Switzerland) – The International AIDS Society (IAS) cautiously notes the comments from Pope Benedict that condom use could, in specific circumstances, be acceptable, but calls on the Pope and the Catholic Church to come out clearly and strongly in support of all evidence-based methods of HIV prevention, including condom use. By implying that there can only be some exceptional circumstances that could allow for condom usage, such as that of male prostitutes, the Pope is ignoring scientific evidence that shows that both male and female condoms, ...

November 23, 2010 – Geneva, Switzerland – The International AIDS Society (IAS) calls on the Burmese Government to reverse a ruling made on November 18 to shut down a charitable HIV/AIDS clinic in Rangoon. The government demand came just one day after Aung San Suu Kyi, the recently released Nobel Peace Prize laureate visited the centre to show her support. The clinic known as the HIV/AIDS Patients Care Center has been given up to November 25 to close. The Burmese Government has repealed the clinic's permit as well as refusing to renew residence permits to the 80 patients ...

TORONTO, ON – Many people say they wouldn't cheat on a test, lie on a job application or refuse to help a person in need. But what if the test answers fell into your lap and cheating didn't require any work on your part? If you didn't have to face the person who needed your help and refuse them? Would that change your behaviour? New research out of the University of Toronto Scarborough shows it might. In two studies that tested participants' willingness to behave immorally, the UTSC team discovered people will behave badly – if it doesn't involve too much work on their ...

In the nanoworld many things are different. Scientists only recently started unveiling and harnessing the underlying laws and principles. A team associated with Professor Johannes Barth from the Physics Department of the TU Muenchen have now succeeded in capturing rod-shaped molecules in a two-dimensional network in such a way that they autonomously form small rotors that turn in their honeycomb-like cages. Nature itself provides the role model for such self-organizing systems. This is how proteins bring reactants so close together that reactions can take place – reactions ...

CHICAGO (November 23, 2010) - Even though most people are aware that good oral health is essential for the overall health of both mother and child, misunderstandings about the safety of dental care during pregnancy may cause pregnant women to avoid seeing their dentist. The fact is that dentists can create a treatment plan that is safe, effective, and essential for combating the adverse effects of oral disease during pregnancy. During the course of pregnancy, a woman's oral health can undergo significant changes. According to an article published in the November/December ...

Even when equipped with compressed-air bottles and diving regulators, humans reach their limits very quickly under water. In contrast, unmanned submarine vehicles that are connected by cable to the control center permit long and deep dives. Today remote-controlled diving robots are used for research, inspection and maintenance work. The possible applications of this technology are limited, however, by the length of the cable and the instinct of the navigator. No wonder that researchers are working on autonomous underwater robots which orient themselves under water and carry ...

While Africa is certainly no stranger to violence, the response to the Kenyan presidential elections of 2007 came as a surprise. Political unrest evolved into outright and unmitigated violence, marring the relatively peaceful history of Kenya's educated and mainly urban population. During allegations of voter manipulation and election fraud, two of Kenya's largest tribes, the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu, found themselves divided by anger, fueled by another tribe's promises of power and control. Wesley Shrum, LSU professor of sociology, had experience dealing with human tragedy ...

AMES, Iowa - Most living plant and animal species have a certain, relatively small, amount of variation in their genetic make-up. Differences in height, skin and eye color of humans, for example, are very noticeable, but are actually the consequences of very small variations in genetic makeup. Researchers at Iowa State University, China Agricultural University and the Beijing Genomics Institute in China recently re-sequenced and compared six elite inbred corn (maize) lines, including the parents of the most productive commercial hybrids in China. When comparing the different ...

Tel Aviv -- Ferrography, a practice used by the American and Israeli air forces to monitor the condition of machinery, extracts tiny iron particles from lubricants such as oil and grease to analyze wear in machines. Determining whether a system requires preventative maintenance can be the key to preventing catastrophic failure. Now Tel Aviv University scientists are exploring a modification of this technique for human analysis -- called "bio-ferrography" -- to diagnose diseases in their early stages, determine the efficacy of drugs, and ascertain the condition of orthopedic ...

Lions, bears, monkeys, crocodiles, parrots and iguanas may seem inoffensive at first glance when they're behind bars in zoos. But some exotic species can escape and become invasive species. This has been confirmed by a scientific team that has checked 1,568 animal houses in 63 Spanish zoos. Birds are the animals most likely to escape. "As zoos house a large number of exotic (non-indigenous) species, they could become an entry channel for these species if they escape, with the potential environmental risk that this implies", María C. Fàbregas, lead author of the study ...

(Boston) – Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have demonstrated that commensal species of the genus Neisseriae are low inducers of human airway epithelial cell responses as compared to the pathogenic species. Specifically, the study indicates that a Neisserial outer membrane component appears to play a differential role in the host inflammatory responses via interaction with a receptor on the surface of human airway epithelial cells. Paola Massari, an assistant professor in the section of infectious diseases at BUSM, is lead author of this ...

The venus flytrap plant captures its prey when it senses the presence of an insect on the tips of its leaves. An amphiphilic molecule designed by chemists at The City College of New York acts in a similar manner by changing its structure when heated slightly and, then, reverting to its original form when cooled. The finding, reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, points toward the possibility of designing adaptive soft materials in the lab that take their cues from how nature responds to stimuli, said Dr. George John, associate professor and corresponding author. Professor ...

In a cross-sectional study from the 2004 and 2007 Australian National Drug Strategy Household (NDSH) surveys, respondents were questioned about their current and past drinking, the presence of formal diagnosis for specific diseases (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cancer, anxiety, depression) and self-perceived general health status. The sample sizes for the 2004 and 2007 NDSH surveys were 24,109 and 23,356, respectively. The authors report that respondents with a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, or anxiety were more likely to have reduced or stopped ...

The brain is forever chattering to itself, via electrical impulses sent along its hard-wired neuronal "Ethernet." These e-messages are translated into chemical transmissions, allowing communication across the narrow cleft separating one neuron from another or between neurons and their target cells. Of the many kinds of molecules involved in this lively chemical symposium, acetylcholine is among the most critical, performing a host of functions in the central and peripheral nervous system. This delicate cholinergic design however is highly vulnerable. It can fall victim ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Crop diversification with shrubby legumes mixed with soybean and peanuts could be the key to sustaining the green revolution in Africa, according to a Michigan State University study. The study, which appears in the Nov. 22 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, states that diversifying crops would boost production of nutrient-enriched grain by 12 percent to 23 percent, said Sieglinde Snapp, a crop and soil scientist at Michigan State University's Kellogg Biological Station. Malawi has been called the cradle of Africa's green ...

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 23, 2010 -- A systematic study of phase changes in vanadium dioxide has solved a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades, according to researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Scientists have known that vanadium dioxide exhibits several competing phases when it acts as an insulator at lower temperatures. However, the exact nature of the phase behavior has not been understood since research began on vanadium dioxide in the early 1960s. Alexander Tselev, a research associate from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have developed a new type of software that enables people to use large visual displays and touch screens interactively over the Internet for business and homeland security applications. Tabletop touch-operated displays are becoming popular with professionals in various fields, said Niklas Elmqvist, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. "These displays are like large iPhones, and because they are large they invite collaboration," he said. "So we created a software framework that allows more ...

Vancouver residents and visitors set records for sustainable travel during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, more than doubling the number of trips typically taken by public transit, biking or walking, according to a University of British Columbia study completed for the City of Vancouver. The Host City Olympic Transportation Plan Downtown Monitoring Study looked at how people got around during the February 12-28 Winter Games, and compared the findings to previous transportation monitoring efforts conducted by the City of Vancouver and its partners. On an average Olympic ...

Some people always know which way is north and how to get out of a building. Others can live in an apartment for years without knowing which side faces the street. Differences among people that include spatial skills, experience, and preferred strategies for wayfinding are part of what determines whether people get lost in buildings—and psychological scientists could help architects understand where and why people might get lost in their buildings, according to the authors of an article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association ...