Most of what we know about bird populations stems from surveys conducted by professional biologists and amateur birdwatchers, but new research from North Carolina State University shows that the data from those surveys may be seriously flawed – and proposes possible means to resolve the problem.
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Long-term use of a macrolide antibiotic may reduce the frequency of exacerbations in patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by as much as 35 percent, according to a London-based study.
"Our results show a significant effect of low-dose macrolide therapy, reducing exacerbation frequency and severity with moderate to severe COPD," wrote lead author of the paper, Terence A. R. Seemungal, Ph.D., and Jadwiga Wedzicha, M.D., principle investigator.
It is said that timing is everything, and that certainly appears to be true for autumn infants. Children who are born four months before the height of cold and flu season have a greater risk of developing childhood asthma than children born at any other time of year, according to new research.
Scientists report the discovery of a new species of Ebola virus, provisionally named Bundibugyo ebolavirus, November 21 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. The virus, which was responsible for a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in western Uganda in 2007, has been characterized by a team of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia the Uganda Virus Research Institute; the Uganda Ministry of Health; and Columbia University.
A course of water aerobics classes has been shown to reduce the amount of pain-killing medication women request during labor. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Reproductive Health has shown that, as well as being safe, the gentle exercise has the benefit of making it easier to give birth.
HOUSTON - Gefitinib, also known as Iressa, the once-promising targeted therapy for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, has proven as effective as chemotherapy as a second-line therapy for the disease with far fewer side effects, according to an international Phase III clinical trial, led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
However, in contrast to earlier Iressa findings, the study showed that there was no additional survival benefit for patients who expressed an elevated level of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation.
Fort Pierce, Florida - November 19, 2008 - The Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) and its collaborators announced today the world's first use of an acoustic underwater camera to survey juveniles of goliath grouper in mangrove habitats.
New data, generated in mice, by Pierre Sonveaux and colleagues, at Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, have identified a potential new target for anticancer therapeutics.
DURHAM, N.C., and BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — A team of researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) has found that lactic acid is an important energy source for tumor cells. In further experiments, they discovered a new way to destroy the most hard-to-kill, dangerous tumor cells by preventing them from delivering lactic acid.
A research team led by Fetah Benabid, University of Bath, has observed for the first time the simultaneous emission of two resonant dispersive waves by optical solitons (waves that maintain their shape while traveling at constant speeds). By designing a special fiber with an extremely small waveguiding feature located in the photonic crystal fiber cladding, the researchers were able to bring the theoretical prediction into the experimental demonstration, creating waves on both sides of the pump. This research appears in the current issue of the Optical Society's Optics Letters.
PITTSBURGH—Research from the University of Pittsburgh published in the Nov. 20 edition of Heredity could finally provide evidence of the first stages of the evolution of separate sexes, a theory that holds that males and females developed from hermaphroditic ancestors. These early stages are not completely understood because the majority of animal species developed into the arguably less titillating separate-sex state too long ago for scientists to observe the transition.
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University of Alberta research has yielded a way to double the output of rice crops in some of the world's poorest, most distressed areas.
Jerome Bernier, a PhD student in the U of A Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, has found a group of genes in rice that enables a yield of up to 100 per cent more in severe drought conditions.