Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have developed a "stress test" for coral reefs as a means of identifying and prioritizing areas that are most likely to survive bleaching events and other climate change factors. The researchers say that these "reefs of hope" are priorities for national and international management and conservation action.
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GALVESTON, Texas — Five years ago, large numbers of farmers in central China began falling victim to an mysterious disease marked by high fever, gastrointestinal disorder and an appalling mortality rate — as high as 30 percent in initial reports. Investigators from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention hurried to the scene of the outbreak. On the basis of DNA evidence, they quickly concluded that it had been caused by human granulocytic anaplasmosis, a bacteria transmitted by tick bites.
LOS ANGELES (March 22, 2011) When physical therapy and drugs fail to relieve back or neck pain, patients often turn to spinal fusion surgery as a last resort, but two new studies show that in certain situations, especially when several discs are involved, artificial disc replacement may give better long-term results at lower cost.
There are many different kinds of crustaceans, ranging from the shellfish Swedish people eat at traditional crayfish parties every August to tiny relatives found in their millions in both freshwater and saltwater. One of the latter, Daphnia pulex, is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced. A researcher from the University of Gothenburg has made a surprising discovery.
The Pacific oyster was discovered in large numbers along the west coast of Sweden in 2007. The mortality rate in some places during the past two winters has been 100%, but researchers at the University of Gothenburg who have studied the Pacific oyster can now say that the species copes with cold winters and is here to stay.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In recent years, researchers have worked to develop more flexible, functional prosthetics for soldiers returning home from battlefields in Afghanistan or Iraq with missing arms or legs. But even new prosthetics have trouble keeping bacteria from entering the body through the space where the device has been implanted.
"You need to close (the area) where the bacteria would enter the body, and that's where the skin is," said Thomas Webster, associate professor of engineering and orthopaedics at Brown University.
Do common stereotypes about female characteristics keep the number of women in management roles low? This is the question posed by Janka Stoker and her colleagues from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in their study (1) looking at the factors which relate to managerial stereotypes. Their findings, published online in Springer's Journal of Business and Psychology, suggest that increasing the proportion of female managers is an effective way to overcome managerial stereotyping.
and Spanish.
According to a study conducted at the University of Granada, combined exposure to organochlorides significantly alters semen quality in young people from South East Spain. Having a low number of spermatozoa taking the levels established by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a reference can delay fertilization.
PITTSBURGH, March 22 – Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer can safely take an experimental oral drug intended to protect healthy tissue from the effects of radiation, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and published in this month's issue of Human Gene Therapy.
Amsterdam, March 22nd, 2011 – The report "Confronting the Global Water Crisis through Research – 2010", carried out by Elsevier and released today, reveals the increasingly international and strategic nature of water resources research. Examining major trends in water research at the international, national and institutional levels, the report highlights the escalation in the article output of countries conducting water resources research and the expansion of such research into strategic disciplines.
A Cardiff University-led study has discovered that a protein provides protection against the effects of alcohol in the pancreas.
The findings of the study, funded by the Medical Research Council, could lead to the development of new treatments to reduce the chances of people developing pancreatic cancer.
HOUSTON, March 22, 2011 – In a study that literally analyzed competing bacteria fighting it out to the death, a University of Houston (UH) researcher and his colleagues identified evolutionary 'winners' and 'losers.' Continuing research to understand the basis of these fates may become a useful tool is designing roadblocks to antibiotic resistance.
Researchers of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and of the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, the National Institute for Agrarian Technology and Research in Madrid and Wageningen Research Center (WUR, the Netherlands) have published the first partial genome sequencing of an Iberian pig. Using next-generation sequencing techniques, researchers have been able to sequence and analyse 1% of the genome. This is the first time an individual pig genome-sequence is published.
The bodies of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), which live in estuaries or along coastlines where industrial activities take place, are highly contaminated. This is the result of a European study, involving Spanish participation, which warns of the danger to these mammals from ports throughout Europe, even in the Mediterranean.
As the increasing number food scares causes consumers to question the safety of everyday food items, researchers at Queen's University Belfast have completed the first ever analysis of all the food recalls announced in the USA, UK and Ireland over the last decade.