Ants are friendly to some trees, but not others
Tree-dwelling ants generally live in harmony with their arboreal hosts. But new research suggests that when they run out of space in their trees of choice, the ants can get destructive to neighboring trees.
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AIBS publishes Darwin articles open access
Two articles about Charles Darwin and his development of the theory of evolution by natural selection have been published in the AIBS journal BioScience and have been made open to the public in honor of the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species." The articles are by Kevin Padian and James T. Costa. Together the articles dispel some common myths about Darwin the man and detail his efforts over many years to develop a theory to explain nature's diversity.
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New finding suggests prostate biopsy is not always necessary
Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that some elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in men may be caused by a hormone normally occurring in the body, and are not necessarily a predictor of the need for a prostate biopsy.
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Researchers find new way to attack inflammation in Graves' eye disease
A small group of patients with severe Graves' eye disease experienced rapid improvement of their symptoms -- and improved vision -- following treatment with the drug rituximab. Inflammation around their eyes and damage to the optic nerve were significantly reduced. The same patients had not previously responded to steroids, a common treatment for Graves' eye disease.
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Less than 1 in 3 Toronto bystanders who witness a cardiac arrest try to help: Study
Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital working in conjunction with EMS services, paramedics and fire services across Ontario found that a bystander who attempts CPR can quadruple the survival rate to over 50 percent. But Dr. Laurie Morrison and the research team at Rescu have found only 30 percent of bystanders in Toronto are willing to help, one of the lowest rates of bystanders helping others in the developed world.
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Possible help in fight against muscle-wasting disease
A compound already used to treat pneumonia could become a new therapy for an inherited muscular wasting disease. A five-member team of researchers from University of Oregon and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry report that pentamidine might be adapted to counter genetic splicing defects in RNA that lead to type 1 myotonic dystrophy.
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NHLBI stops enrollment in study on resuscitation methods for cardiac arrest
Enrollment has ended early in a large, multi-center clinical trial comparing two distinct resuscitation strategies delivered by emergency medical service (EMS) providers to increase blood flow during cardiac arrest. The study's independent monitoring board and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the lead sponsor of the study, stopped enrollment based on preliminary data suggesting that neither strategy significantly improved survival
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Local health investigation sheds light on gastroschisis birth defect
Results of an investigation conducted by University of Nevada, Reno researchers, public health officials and area physicians published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, indicate that Washoe County experienced a cluster of a particular birth defect, gastroschisis, during the period April 2007-April 2008. Subsequent review of medical records since the study's conclusion indicates that while the rate is still elevated, the cluster appears to have subsided.
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Psychiatric impact of torture could be amplified by head injury
Depression and other emotional symptoms in survivors of torture and other traumatic experiences may be exacerbated by the effects of head injuries, according to a study from the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, based at Massachusetts General Hospital. The researchers found structural changes in the brains of former South Vietnamese political detainees who had suffered head injuries and clearly linked those changes to psychiatric symptoms often seen in survivors of torture.
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DNA molecules in moss open door to new biotechnology
Plasmids, which are DNA molecules capable of independent replication in cells, have played an important role in gene technology. Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have now demonstrated that plasmid-based methods, which had been limited to single-cell organisms such as bacteria and yeasts, can be extended to mosses, opening the door to applications of a number of powerful techniques in plant research. The findings have been published in the distinguished journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Perfectly proportioned
The manufacture of parts by compaction and sintering involves filling a die with metal powder. Research scientists have simulated this process for the first time to achieve an evenly distributed powder density. This improves the cost-efficiency of sintering.
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Lasers put a shine on metals
Polishing metal surfaces is a demanding but monotonous task, and it is difficult to find qualified young specialists. Polishing machines do not represent an adequate alternative because they cannot get to difficult parts of the surface. A new solution is provided by laser polishers.
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We spend more on products with detailed nutritional information
People would be willing to pay more for products that carry detailed nutritional information than for the so-called light items. Thus it has been confirmed by researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Center for Agro-Food Research and Technology of Aragķn (CITA) in a new study on the nutritional labeling of breakfast biscuits.
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Higher carotid arterial stenting rates associated with poorer clinical outcomes
Among eligible Medicare beneficiaries, increased use of carotid arterial stenting procedures to treat carotid stenosis -- the narrowing of the carotid artery -- is associated with higher rates of mortality and adverse clinical outcomes, including heart attack and stroke, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
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'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies
Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic hydrogen signature at 787 million years post Big Bang. The finding is the first age-confirmation of a so-called dropout galaxy at that distant time and pinpoints when an era called the reionization epoch likely began.
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New statement outlines ATS positions on research, education, advocacy
The ATS has issued an official statement that outlines the Society's position on research, training, education, patient care and advocacy. The statement, which appears in the Nov. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, also makes specific recommendations on how elements of the organization can make these policies a part of new and ongoing projects.
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1930s drug slows tumor growth
Drugs sometimes have beneficial side effects. A glaucoma treatment causes luscious eyelashes. A blood pressure drug also aids those with a rare genetic disease. The newest surprise discovered by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is a gonorrhea medication that might help battle cancer.
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2 children suffering from adrenoleukodystrophy saved thanks to the ELA Association
The ELA Association and Zinedine Zidane, its emblematic ambassador, are proud to announce a world premiere: the results regarding the gene therapy in adrenoleukodystrophy conducted in France have just been published in the prestigious journal Science. Two children have been treated and their diseases have been halted. The children are doing well, which is unexpected for a disease destroying the brain in a few months. This discovery opens up treatment perspectives for numerous widespread diseases.
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Near vision research study
The Cornea and Laser Eye Institute is participating in a research study to determine if an investigational corneal inlay can safely and effectively reduce the need for reading glasses. Dr. Peter Hersh, the study doctor, will perform the procedures.
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New synthetic molecules trigger immune response to HIV and prostate cancer
Researchers at Yale University have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body's immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells. Their findings, published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could lead to novel therapeutic approaches for these diseases.
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AGU journal highlights -- Nov. 5, 2009
Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Antarctica warming a regional, not local, trend"; "New model factors storms into shoreline loss"; "Study agrees reservoir contributed to Wenchuan earthquake"; "Much Arctic warming linked to sea-ice, cloud-cover changes"; "Sorting out natural from human influences in ocean warming"; and "Meteoritic impacts may have cooked up life's components."
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Mom was right: Nice guys don't always finish last
Picture it: one jerk in a bar spends the night delivering bad come-ons to women. By the end of the evening, the women aren't receptive to even the nicest guys around. It's a scenario with a basis in evolutionary theory. Males increase their fitness by acquiring more mates; however, this is often not the case for females -- and therein lies the conflict.
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Coral reefs inspire rare consensus -- just save them
One of the first set of studies to examine what tourists and recreation enthusiasts actually think about coral reef ecosystems suggests they are a rare exception to controversies over human use versus environmental conservation -- their stunning beauty is so extraordinary that almost everyone wants them protected in perpetuity.
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Newly revised guidelines for managing thyroid cancer published in Thyroid journal
The American Thyroid Association has released new, revised Management Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer. The new guidelines are published in Thyroid, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert Inc. Thyroid is the official journal of the American Thyroid Association. The ATA's revised management guidelines and accompanying editorials are available free online.
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Keeping hearts pumping with 'LifeFlow'
LifeFlow, a new device from Tel Aviv University's Professor Ofer Barnea, applies a sophisticated algorithm to a computer-controlled IV drip to improve the efficiency of disaster response in the field.
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Research findings key for understanding, interpreting genetic testing for long QT syndrome
Results of a long QT syndrome study published in the current issue of Circulation play an important role in understanding genetic testing's role in diagnosing disease, according to the senior author, Michael Ackerman, M.D., Ph.D. A pediatric cardiologist at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Ackerman directs Mayo's Long QT Syndrome Clinic and is the director of the Mayo Clinic Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory.
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Chemists describe solar energy progress and challenges, including the 'artificial leaf'
Scientists are making progress toward development of an "artificial leaf" that mimics a real leaf's chemical magic with photosynthesis -- but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel such as methanol for cars and trucks. That is among the conclusions in a newly available report from top authorities on solar energy who met at the 1st Annual Chemical Sciences and Society Symposium. The symposium was organized by the American Chemical Society and other scientific societies.
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Autism Consortium symposium draws record number of researchers, advocates, parents for autism update
The Autism Consortium, an innovative collaboration of researchers, clinicians, funders and families dedicated to catalyzing research and enhancing clinical care for autism spectrum disorders, held its fourth annual symposium on Oct. 28, 2009, at Harvard Medical School in Boston. The meeting gave scientists, clinicians, advocates and parents an opportunity to gather for the latest information on causes of autism and their implications for diagnosis, prognosis and therapies for people with autism spectrum disorders.
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Carnegie Mellon researchers receive grant
Carnegie Mellon's Lucio Soibelman, H. Scott Matthews and Jose M.F. Mourareceived a three-year $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to identify inexpensive ways to track energy consumption.
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New TMS clinic offers noninvasive treatment for major depression
Rush University Medical Center has opened the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Clinic to offer patients suffering from major depression a safe, effective, nondrug treatment. TMS therapy is the first FDA-approved, noninvasive antidepressant device-based treatment clinically proven for treatment of depression. Psychiatrists at Rush University Medical Center were among the first to test the technique and Dr. Philip Janicak, professor of psychiatry and lead investigator at Rush for the clinical trials of TMS, helped to develop this therapy.
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Are the Alps growing or shrinking?
The Alps are growing just as quickly in height, as they are shrinking. This paradoxical result could be proven by a group of German and Swiss geoscientists.
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Parents just don't understand
Recent studies investigating the question of parental control in the west and in east Asian countries suggest that extreme meddling by parents can have negative effects on their children's psychological development in both of those regions, although the effects may not be uniform.
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November 2009 story tips from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Fuel economy ratings for the new 2010 model year automobiles are posted at www.fueleconomy.gov, which ORNL maintains for the US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency. A team led by ORNL's Nina Balke has moved closer to developing more rugged memory and logic devices. Heavy trucks are less heavy but just as safe and rugged because of steel rail frames. A new approach to crunching massive volumes of data uses neural networks like an artificial brain.
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Dartmouth professor finds that iconic Oswald photo was not faked
Computer Scientist Hany Farid has new evidence regarding a photograph of accused JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Farid digitally analyzed the iconic image of Oswald pictured in a backyard setting holding a rifle in one hand and Marxist newspapers in the other, and he says the photo almost certainly was not altered.
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Boat tail reduces truck fuel consumption by 7.5 percent
A boat tail, a tapering protrusion mounted on the rear of a truck, leads to fuel savings of 7.5 percent. This is due to dramatically improved aerodynamics, as shown by road tests conducted by the Dutch PART (Platform for Aerodynamic Road Transport) public-private partnership platform.
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Journal special edition outlines rotavirus burden and need for vaccines
The Journal of Infectious Diseases has released a special edition, Global Rotavirus Surveillance: Preparing for the Introduction of Rotavirus Vaccines. This special edition provides a significant contribution to the understanding of rotavirus disease burden and the impact of rotavirus vaccines, which have the potential to save an estimated 228,000 lives annually.
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Key player identified in cascade that leads to hypertension-related kidney damage
A key player in a cascade that likely begins with stress and leads to high blood pressure and kidney damage has been identified by researchers who say the finding may lead to better ways to control both. Medical College of Georgia researchers have found endothelin, a powerful blood vessel constrictor and inflammatory peptide, increases the number of T cells in the kidneys, which helps recruit other immune cells, causing inflammation and destruction.
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Jülich neutron scientists inaugurate unique device in the US
A unique large-scale research device from Jülich went into operation in the US yesterday. At the strongest neutron source in the world, the spallation source SNS in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Forschungszentrum Jülich inaugurated a so-called neutron spin echo spectrometer. The NSE spectrometer enables detailed observations to be made of the motion of proteins and polymers. It will thus help to develop improved plastics or to understand metabolic processes in cells.
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Deciphering the regulatory code
Thanks to scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, it is now possible to accurately predict when and where different CRMs will be active. The study, published today in Nature, is a first step towards forecasting the expression of all genes in a given organism, and demonstrates that the genetic regulation that is crucial for correct embryonic development is more flexible than previously thought.
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The last European hadrosaurs lived in the Iberian Peninsula
Spanish researchers have studied the fossil record of hadrosaurs, the so-called "duck-billed" dinosaurs, in the Iberian Peninsula for the purpose of determining that they were the last of their kind to inhabit the European continent before disappearing during the K/T extinction event that occurred 65.5 million years ago. Most notable among these fossils is the discovery of a new hadrosaur, the Arenysaurus ardevoli, found in Huesca, Spain.
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A new system preserves the right to privacy in Internet searches
A team of Catalan researchers has developed a protocol to distort the user profile generated by Internet search engines, in such a way that they cannot save the searches undertaken by Internet users and thus preserve their privacy. The study has been published in the Computer Communications magazine.
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Excitation pattern peak is more important determinant of vowel quality
Vowel perception is a central problem of speech research, and by far no compelling explanation has been proposed for all phenomena in speech perception. As a kind of inner representative of peripheral auditory system, is the excitation pattern closer to the solution? This paper investigates the perceptions of five Chinese vowel -- u, o, a, y, i -- on basis of the excitation pattern, and the results show a determinant relation between phonetic qualities and the peak positions of excitation pattern.
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PTB Terahertz calibration satisfies US laser manufacturer
Terahertz radiation still lies in a metrological no man's land -- a metrology gap. The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt can now close this gap. For the first time, a commercial Terahertz laser was traced back to the international system of units by measuring its output power absolutely. Therefore, this laser is the first THz laser in the field with a reliably proven output power enabled by a novel calibration capability set up at the PTB.
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Why nice guys usually get the girls
For the insects called water striders, the pushiest guys don't always get the girls, according to a research team led by a University of Arizona scientist. The finding provides support for the theory of multi-level selection and contradicts previous laboratory experiments that suggested that the most aggressive males are the most successful at reproducing.
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The first casualty of war
Researchers reporting in BioMed Central's open access journal Conflict and Health found that the discrepancy in media reporting of casualty numbers in the Iraq conflict can potentially misinform the public and contribute to distorted perceptions and gross underestimates of the number of civilians killed in the armed conflict.
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Perceived parent-pressure causes excessive antibiotic prescription
Antibiotic over-prescription is promoted by pediatricians' perception of parents' expectations. Research published in the open access journal BMC Pediatrics shows that pediatricians are more likely to inappropriately prescribe antibiotics for respiratory tract infections if they perceived parents were expecting a prescription.
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All dressed-up and nowhere to go
Parents who dress their children in inappropriate clothing could be inadvertently hampering their child's physical activity in childcare settings. The study, reported in BioMed Central's open access journal, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, suggests that inadequate or inappropriate clothing could restrict children's outdoor play.
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Genome sequence for the domestic horse to be unveiled
The whole genome sequence of the domestic horse has been completed by the genome-sequencing center of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, in collaboration with an international team of researchers that includes scientists at the University of California, Davis. The findings, which have important implications for improved breeding of horses and for studies of human health, will be reported in the Nov. 6 issue of the journal Science.
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Atlanta's Fernbank Museum tracks infamous conquistador through Southeast
Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History has discovered evidence of Hernando de Soto's 1540 journey through the Southeast. No evidence of De Soto's path from Tallahassee to North Carolina has been found until now, and few sites have been located anywhere. Fernbank archaeologist Dennis Blanton has amassed an impressive collection of objects revealing a probable stop in today's Telfair County, Ga. He'll present his findings at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference on Nov. 5 in Mobile.
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Study reveals how plants and bacteria 'talk' to thwart disease
Unwrapping some of the mystery from how plants and bacteria communicate to trigger an innate immune response, scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the bacterial signaling molecule that matches up with a specific receptor in rice plants to ward off a devastating disease known as bacterial blight of rice.
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Complete Genomics publishes in Science on low-cost sequencing of 3 human genomes
Complete Genomics, a third-generation human genome sequencing company, today announced publication of a report in the journal Science describing its proprietary DNA sequencing platform, including analysis of sequence data from three complete human genomes. The consumables cost for these three genomes sequenced on the proof-of-principle genomic DNA nanoarrays ranged from $8,005 for 87x coverage to $1,726 for 45x coverage for the samples described in this report.
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Rapid supernova could be new class of exploding star
UC Berkeley post-doc Dovi Poznanski was looking through seven-year-old data when he chanced upon a very strange supernova that flashed and was gone in less than a month, when 3-4 months is typical. The unusually rapid supernova appears to match the predicted behavior of a thermonuclear explosion on a white dwarf that is drawing helium from its binary companion. This mechanism is quite different from the two standard types of supernovae.
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Genomes of biofuel yeasts reveal clues that could boost fuel ethanol production worldwide
As global temperatures and energy costs continue to soar, renewable sources of energy will be key to a sustainable future. An attractive replacement for gasoline is biofuel, and in two studies published online in Genome Research, scientists have analyzed the genome structures of bioethanol-producing microorganisms, uncovering genetic clues that will be critical in developing new technologies needed to implement production on a global scale.
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Gene therapy success in severe brain disorder applauded by the STOP ALD Foundation
First gene therapy success in boys with fatal brain disorder -- the Stop ALD Foundation, having spurred a successful European gene therapy trial, is now pressing to bring this therapy to the US. The foundation was started by families with children who have died or suffered from adrenoleukodystrophy, the disease highlighted in the movie Lorenzo's Oil. A report of the trial appears in the current issue of Science.
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How size matters for catalysts
University of Utah chemists demonstrated the first conclusive link between the size of catalyst particles on a solid surface, their electronic properties and their ability to speed chemical reactions. The study is a step toward the goal of designing cheaper, more efficient catalysts to increase energy production, reduce Earth-warming gases and manufacture a wide variety of goods from medicines to gasoline.
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