Dr. Michael Collins, Naval Research Laboratory scientist and bird watcher, has published an article titled "Putative audio recordings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis)" which appears in the March issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. The audio recordings were captured in two videos of birds with characteristics consistent with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. This footage was obtained near the Pearl River in Louisiana, where there is a history of unconfirmed reports of this species. During five years of fieldwork, Collins had ten ...

One of the most critical tasks that a dividing cell must accomplish is the successful delivery of a complete set of genetic information to each new daughter cell. Now, a study published by Cell Press in the April 29th issue of the journal Cell, provides fascinating new insight into the complex of proteins that orchestrates the proper segregation of human chromosomes during cell division. During the process of mitosis, DNA and its associated packing proteins are arranged into structures called chromosomes that are duplicated and then segregated. Duplicated chromosomes ...

It's common knowledge that the perfect is the enemy of the good, but in the nanoscale world, perfection can act as the enemy of the best. In the workaday world, engineers and scientists go to great lengths to make the devices we use as perfect as possible. When we flip on a light switch or turn the key on the car, we expect the lights to come on and the engine to start every time, with only rare exceptions. They have done so by using a top-down design process combined with the application of large amounts of energy to increase reliability by suppressing natural variability. However, ...

The 25-story construction crane used since 1995 to investigate such things as how Pacific Northwest forests absorb carbon dioxide, obtain sufficient water and resist attacks by pests and diseases is being pruned back to just the tower. The Wind River Canopy Crane, located in a 500-year-old forest near Stevenson in southwest Washington, has been operated cooperatively by the University of Washington, the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The partners say the jib – the arm of the crane – is being removed because ...

A study of H1N1 and seasonal influenza vaccination in a sample of black and Hispanic children in Atlanta found a low rate of vaccine acceptance among parents and caregivers. Only 36 percent of parents and caregivers indicated they would immunize children against H1N1, and 22 percent indicated their children received the seasonal influenza vaccine in the previous three months. The majority of children in the sample (71 percent) were from households with less than $40,000 in annual income. Researchers say this low level of vaccine coverage and acceptance highlights the ...

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have developed a new method for discerning the functions of previously uncharacterized genes and placing them in interactive, functional networks that reveal how gene products interact to bring about cellular events. The research is published in the April 29 issue of the journal Cell. It was led by principal investigators Karen Oegema, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular medicine and head of the Laboratory of Mitotic Mechanisms in the Ludwig Institute ...

The brain is apparently programmed from birth to develop the ability to determine sunrise and sunset, new research on circadian rhythms at the University of Chicago shows. The research sheds new light on brain plasticity and may explain some basic human behaviors, according to Brian Prendergast, associate professor in psychology at the University of Chicago and co-author of a paper published April 27 in the journal PLoS One. The lead author is August Kampf-Lassin, an advanced graduate student at the University. "This finding may show us why infants of many species eventually ...

The long-awaited TK Maxx store is nearly ready to open its doors at the Grand Junction Retail Park, Crewe. This new store is set to open on Thursday 28 April at 9am and will feature nearly 20,000 sq ft of famous label fashion, shoes and accessories for men and women plus homewares, kids and toys - all at up to 60% off the RRP. The first lucky 500 customers through the doors at 9am will be treated to a GBP10 gift card to spend in the new store. The TK Maxx concept is simple. TK Maxx buyers shop the world all year round working direct with designers and negotiating ...

DETROIT – A study by Henry Ford Hospital shows a direct association between cotton swab use and ruptured eardrum. The study also shows that in most cases the rupture heals on its own and surgery is only necessary for the most severe cases. "In the past, many otolaryngologists have wondered if surgery is really necessary to treat a ruptured eardrum. The results of this study show that 97 percent of cases healed on their own within two months, proving that most cases do not require surgery," says Ilaaf Darrat, M.D., an otolaryngologist at Henry Ford Hospital and co-author ...

RUSTON, La. – Dr. Yuri Lvov, professor of chemistry and T.C. Pipes endowed chair in micro and nanosystems at Louisiana Tech University, recently led a symposium at the 241st Conference of the American Chemical Society (ACS), discussing his application of a more eco-friendly and cost-effective nano-material that can be used to significantly improve the properties of plastics, paints and other synthetic composites. The symposium featured Lvov's presentation on the use of clay "nanotubes" – created from dirt and soils found in a number of places on earth – to strengthen ...

Racial prejudice among some white Americans—even if unintentional—influences their views of President Barack Obama's "Americanism" and their assessment of how well he is performing in office, according to a University of Delaware doctoral student. The psychology student, Eric Hehman, recently received the national Albert Bandura Graduate Research Award for his paper detailing a research study he conducted on the subject. The article, "Evaluations of Presidential Performance: Race, Prejudice, and Perceptions of Americanism," was published in the March issue of the Journal ...

Firmly tucked away on the spur of Italy's heel, the dramatic coastline of Puglia is one of the country's best-kept secrets. It's a sun-soaked land of rolling vineyards, historic hamlets, colourful fishing villages and wonderfully deserted white beaches stretching as far as the eye can see. Cycling in Puglia with Headwater allows you to explore at leisure, stopping off as the mood takes you, to enjoy long lazy lunches in pretty white villages or relaxing dips in the clear emerald seas of the Adriatic. You'll eat well here too. Traditional Puglian cuisine uses the freshest ...

"Married Filing Jointly" is Not Always The Best Option Most tax professionals would agree that "married filing jointly" is generally the most advantageous filing status. Spouses' incomes are combined, deductable expenses are pooled together and there are some benefits that are available only to joint filers. While a joint return is typically how married couples file, what if you had recently become suspicious of your spouse and the source some of his or her income? What if your spouse had been making millions or even billions from a Ponzi scheme ...

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State University's Malika Jeffries-EL says she's studying doing structure-property studies so she can teach old polymers new tricks. Those tricks improve the properties of certain organic polymers that mimic the properties of traditional inorganic semiconductors and could make the polymers very useful in organic solar cells, light-emitting diodes and thin-film transistors. Conductive polymers date back to the late 1970s when researchers Alan Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa discovered that plastics, with certain arrangements of atoms, can ...

Stripping a Second Mortgage in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy One of current problems in the real estate market is the number of "underwater" mortgages, where the value of the properly has declined below the outstanding value of the mortgage. Banks have been extraordinarily resistant to the concept of loan modifications, where that modification would lower the principal value of the loan and bring it in line with the market value. Most people are trapped in these houses, as they cannot sell them for a high enough price to allow them to pay off the mortgage. The ...

Researchers eavesdropping on complex signals from a remote Wisconsin lake have detected what they say is an unmistakable warning--a death knell--of the impending collapse of the lake's aquatic ecosystem. The finding, reported today in the journal Science by a team of researchers led by Stephen Carpenter, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), is the first experimental evidence that radical change in an ecosystem can be detected in advance, possibly in time to prevent ecological catastrophe. "For a long time, ecologists thought these changes ...

According to prehistoric records, elk roamed the northwestern part of Missouri until 1865. Now, the Missouri Department of Conservation is planning to reintroduce elk, but this time in the southeast part of the state. While a University of Missouri anthropologist believes the reintroduction is good for elk, tourism and the economy, he said the effort may have unintended negative consequences that are difficult to predict. R. Lee Lyman, the chair of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Science, has studied the history of mammals, conservation biology and wildlife management ...

Teenage Texting: A Roadway Danger Distracted driving takes a heavy toll on our nation's highways: according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, over 5,000 motorists are killed every year in crashes that involve driver distraction. Texting while driving is an especially dangerous form of distraction, as it involves taking your hands off the wheel, your eyes off the road and your mind off of driving. Teens are not only more likely to text, they are also more inexperienced behind the wheel: drivers under the age of 21 are involved in three times as many ...

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite again flew over severe thunderstorms that were spawning tornadoes over the eastern United States on April 28 and detected massive thunderstorms and very heavy rainfall. TRMM, a satellite managed by both NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, captured the rainfall rates occurring in the line of thunderstorms associated with a powerful cold front moving through the eastern U.S. on April 28. TRMM flew over the strong cold front and captured data at 0652 UTC (2:52 AM EDT) on April 28, 2011. Most of the rainfall was occurring ...

Rent Regulation Bill Advances Through New York State Assembly Rent regulation law or rent law, a staple in the real estate landscape of New York City, has been eroding in recent years. Established after World War II, rent laws cap the amount of rent a landlord can collect for a particular rental unit. More than 300,000 affordable apartments have been reclassified as landlords exploit loopholes to charge more for rent under the old regulations. Legislative Activity Amidst concerns that the city is becoming increasingly unaffordable, lawmakers in the state Assembly ...

Thanks in part to studies that follow subjects for a long time, psychologists are learning more about differences between people. In a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the author describes how psychologists can use their data to learn about the different ways that people's minds work. Most psychology research is done by asking a big group of people the same questions at the same time. "So we might get a bunch of Psych 101 undergrads, administer a survey, ask about how much they ...

California Is One of the Deadliest States for Pedestrians Motor vehicle collisions involving pedestrians can happen in an instant: when a pedestrian steps off the curb, drivers inattentive to the crossing have only moments to react. Although pedestrian fatalities have actually been on the decline over the last decade, the number is still disturbingly high. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures, 4,092 people died in 2009 in pedestrian accidents. Nonfatal pedestrian injuries are even more common: approximately 59,000 were recorded in 2009 ...

Late last year, astronomers noticed an asteroid named Scheila had unexpectedly brightened, and it was sporting short-lived plumes. Data from NASA's Swift satellite and Hubble Space Telescope showed these changes likely occurred after Scheila was struck by a much smaller asteroid. "Collisions between asteroids create rock fragments, from fine dust to huge boulders, that impact planets and their moons," said Dennis Bodewits, an astronomer at the University of Maryland in College Park and lead author of the Swift study. "Yet this is the first time we've been able to catch ...

Wearing the Right Gear Can Save a Motorcyclist's Hide For a motorcyclist, protective clothing is not a luxury, but a necessity. Studies have found that motorcyclists who wear proper attire sustain fewer injuries in motorcycle crashes than those who do not. And while it is true that protective clothing will do little to shield riders involved in high-speed crashes, most motorcycle accidents occur at low speeds. In these types of accidents, motorcyclists are most likely to suffer injuries to the arms, legs and head. Wearing a helmet and the right type of clothing can ...

A team of scientists has produced an innovative new study of the environmental impact of major urban ecosystems, published in the April issue of the journal Ecological Applications. The team includes Joseph P. McFadden and Jennifer Y. King, both of UC Santa Barbara's Department of Geography. They analyzed environmental data gleaned from the "Twin Cities Household Ecosystem Project," a study of 3,100 households in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., and surrounding areas. The article is the first major paper to come out of the project. The data analysis yielded ...