Washington, DC/Beijing, China (7-8 October 2010)—A new study released today in Washington, DC and Beijing suggests that one of the world's largest and "greenest" paper companies, in concert with local officials and other middlemen, used illegal means to gain control over thousands of hectares of Chinese forestlands, with a goal of acquiring 120 thousand hectares for a eucalyptus plantation in the Guangxi Autonomous Region of southern China. The authors say their research shows that the middlemen, acting on behalf of Finnish paper and pulp manufacturer Stora Enso, often ...

For the first time, biologists have described the evolution of the size of a female trait which males use to choose a partner. The research, published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, shows that male cichlid fish prefer females with a larger pelvic fin and that this drives females to grow fins out of proportion with their body size. Sebastian Baldauf from the University of Bonn, Germany, worked with a team of researchers to study the effects of female ornamentation in the African cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus. He said, "In contrast to the ...

Ultrasound can speed the healing of fractures. A randomized controlled trial reported in the open access journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders has found that the use of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) in patients with tibial fractures which showed inadequate progress toward healing resulted in 34% greater bone mineral density (BMD) in the fracture area after 16 weeks than use of a sham device. Jon E. Block, Ph.D. worked with a team of researchers from University Hospital Marburg and the University of Ulm, Germany, to test LIPUS in 51 patients and 50 controls. ...

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have solved a case of fraud that has been pending for 40 million years. Arum palaestinum, also called the Solomon's lily, attracts drosophilids (vinegar flies) as pollinators by emitting odor molecules that resemble those produced during alcoholic fermentation of rotting fruit initiated by yeast. The plant accomplishes the illusion of yeast simply by producing six chemicals that - together in a specific mix - create the impression of fermentation in the fly brain. The produced volatiles include ...

The Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC), a national leader in information security research and education, today announced the release of the GTISC Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2011, outlining the top three areas of security risk and concern for consumer and business Internet and computer users. The report was released today at the annual GTISC Security Summit on the Evolving Nature of Cyber Security Threats. The summit gathers leading industry and academic leaders who have distinguished themselves in the field of cyber security. According to the report, ...

MADISON – Widespread planting of genetically modified Bt corn throughout the Upper Midwest has suppressed populations of the European corn borer, a major insect pest of corn, with the majority of the economic benefits going to growers who do not plant Bt corn, reports a multistate team of scientists in the Oct. 8 edition of the journal Science. In Wisconsin, 75 percent of the $325 million cumulative economic benefit linked to Bt corn's pest suppression between 1996-2009 went to non-Bt corn growers. Wisconsin currently has about 3.9 million corn acres, with approximately ...

A low Apgar score at birth is strongly associated with cerebral palsy in childhood, concludes a study from researchers in Norway published on bmj.com today. The Apgar score is a quick and simple way to assess a baby's condition at birth. The baby is assessed on five simple criteria (complexion, pulse rate, reaction when stimulated, muscle tone, and breathing) on a scale from zero to two. The five values are then summed up to obtain a score from zero to 10. Scores of 3 and below are generally regarded as critically low, 4 to 6 fairly low, and 7 to 10 generally normal. Cerebral ...

Women have to work harder than men in order to start sweating, while men are more effective sweaters during exercise, according to new research published in the journal Experimental Physiology. The study by Japanese scientists at Osaka International University and Kobe University looked at differences between men and women's sweating response to changes in exercise intensity. The researchers asked four groups of subjects (trained and untrained females, trained and untrained males) to cycle continuously for an hour in a controlled climate with increasing intensity intervals. The ...

AURORA, Colo. (Oct. 7, 2010)—In 2006, Dr. Shimya Yaminaka of Kyoto University in Japan set the stem cell and regenerative medicine research world on fire when he successfully transformed differentiated mouse skin cells into cells that looked and behave like embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, the subject of much controversy when used in research, have the ability to differentiate into any type of tissue. Yaminaka's creation of induced pluripotent stem cells [iPSCs] meant that in the future, research to improve human disease might be able to use iPSCs in lieu ...

### Recommendations for the management of postmenopausal vaginal atrophy are published in the December 2010 edition of Climacteric, and are available at www.imsociety.org. Patient education materials are also available. NOTES TO EDITORS A webcast of the IMS press briefing for World Menopause Day will be available from Monday 11th October at www.imsociety.org. About the IMS The International Menopause Society (IMS) was established in 1978 and was the first menopause society in the world. At the time, it signalled to the medical community that there was a need ...

A discovery by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers in Melbourne, Australia, reported in today's edition of Science, is set to rewrite a long-held belief about how the body's immune system establishes its memory. The findings of Dr Ingela Vikstrom and Associate Professor David Tarlinton, from the institute's Immunology division, centre on immune cells called B cells that produce the antibodies which fight infection. "B cells and antibody production are the key to the success of all currently used vaccines for immunity in humans," said Associate Professor Tarlinton. ...

"We found a significant relationship between bacterial infections and acute asthma attacks - above and beyond the expected relationship between viral infections and attacks," says Hans Bisgaard, a professor of paediatrics at the DPAC. The study examined 361 children between the ages of four weeks and three years to determine the presence of viral and bacterial infections during severe asthma attacks. The results conclude that the number of attacks was just as high in children with bacterial respiratory infections as in those with viral infections. Using antibiotics ...

Common frog (Rana temporaria) populations across the UK are suffering dramatic population crashes due to infection from the emerging disease Ranavirus, reveals research published in the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) journal Animal Conservation. Using data collected from the public by the Frog Mortality Project and Froglife, scientists from ZSL found that, on average, infected frog populations experienced an 81 per cent decline in adult frogs over a 12 year period. "Our findings show that Ranavirus not only causes one-off mass-mortality events, but is also responsible ...

Large-scale crop failures like the one that caused the recent Russian wheat crisis are likely to become more common under climate change due to an increased frequency of extreme weather events, a new study shows. However, the worst effects of these events on agriculture could be mitigated by improved farming and the development of new crops, according to the research by the University of Leeds, the Met Office Hadley Centre and University of Exeter. The unpredictability of the weather is one of the biggest challenges faced by farmers struggling to adapt to a changing ...

Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) estimate that each pack of cigarettes really costs €107 for men and €75 for women, when premature death is taken into account. These figures confirm previous studies, and are of key importance in the cost-benefit analysis of smoking-prevention policies. "One of the conclusions of the article is that the price one pays for each pack of cigarettes at a newsstand is only a very small price of the true price that smokers pay for their habit", Ángel López Nicolás, co-author of the study that has been published ...

Researchers from the University of Alicante (UA) taking part in the European VACSATC project have studied mothers' and fathers' opinions on vaccinating their children in five countries. The results of the survey show that Spanish mothers are more resistant than those in other countries to the idea of paying for vaccines, while 20.9% expressed some concern about the safety of vaccines. "Mothers in Spain are more concerned about vaccinating their children since the incident with the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine", José Tuells, a researcher at the UA and a Spanish ...

VIDEO: This animation demonstrates the orbital perturbations to Venus Express caused by the atmospheric drag experienced as the spacecraft skims the atmosphere of Venus. To experience the drag, the spacecraft must... Click here for more information. The polar atmosphere of Venus is thinner than expected. How do we know? Because ESA's Venus Express has actually been there. Instead of looking from orbit, Venus Express has flown through the upper reaches of the planet's ...

Many a holiday is ruined by food poisoning, frequently caused by the bacterium Campylobacter jejuni. Although Campylobacter infections are rarely life-threatening they are extremely debilitating and have been linked with the development of Guillain-Barré syndrome, one of the leading causes of non-trauma-induced paralysis worldwide. Campylobacter jejuni is well adapted to life in the guts of animals and birds, where it is often found in very high levels. However, to infect humans it also needs to be able to survive outside the gut, on the surface of meat that will be ...

Increased global attention and research needs to be given to stroke prevention and the social and economic effects of the condition in developing countries, according to an academic at the University of East Anglia (UEA). In a paper published in the current issue of the journal Development Policy Review, Prof Peter Lloyd-Sherlock of the School of International Development argues that policy-makers have been slow to recognise the growing scale of the challenge and impacts of stroke in developing countries. He calls for them to prioritise preventative screening and drug ...

Witnessing a person from our own group or an outsider suffer pain causes neural responses in two very different regions of the brain. And, the specific region activated reveals whether or not we will help the person in need. Researchers at the University of Zurich studied the brain responses of soccer fans and now have neurobiological evidence for why we are most willing to help members of our own group. Our reactions to shocking news clips on television demonstrate that human beings can remain remarkably cool in the face of other peoples' suffering. And yet, we are also ...

University of Granada researchers have developed a pioneer intervention program aimed at 3 year-old children, that helps in preventing antisocial behavior in adulthood. In its first year of implementation, the program –named Aprender a convivir– achieved that 90% of participating children interacted more actively with their peers, and that 86% reduced symptoms such as anxiety/depression, somatization, poor emotional reactivity, shyness, and social isolation. To carry out this study –funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science–, the researchers took a sample ...

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have taken the first step to building a computer capable of operating in the heat of a jet engine or the sunny side of the planet Mercury. Te-Hao Lee, Swarup Bhunia and Mehran Mehregany, have made electromechanical switches – building blocks of circuits - that can take twice the heat that renders electronic transistors useless. Their work was published in Science last month. The engineers took their cue from English inventor Charles Babbage, who built a steam-driven machine to calculate mathematical tables in the 1830s. ...

Patient personality affects the accuracy of reports by friends and family members of mood history and symptoms and can cause missed diagnoses of depression, according to research published online by the journal International Psychogeriatrics. Friends and family members of a person who is highly outgoing and fun-loving and who is likely to experience happiness and excitement, for example, often miss the signs that indicate the person is depressed. "When a person who has enjoyed socializing and whose mood normally is positive becomes depressed, friends and family often ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- A Loyola University Hospital study has demonstrated how the hospital has improved patient safety and cut costs by reducing the number of blood transfusions. In 2009, the average amount of blood products transfused per patient at Loyola was 10 percent lower than it was in 2008, saving $453,355. The average amount of blood products transfused dropped from 2.03 units per patient in 2008 to 1.82 units per patient in 2009. Results were reported at the recent annual meeting of the College of American Pathologists. "We are giving the right blood component, ...

Photosynthesis is the process used by plants to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into the energy-rich chemicals upon which all life-forms depend. The energy trapped in these compounds comes from sunlight, and photosynthetic organisms – plants, algae and certain types of bacteria – capture this energy in a usable form with the help of protein complexes called photosystems. Photosystems include antenna proteins that collect incident light, and green plants have two sorts of photosystems, which respond best to light of different wavelengths. A team of researchers at LMU, ...