A new ecological network is urgently needed in Northern Ireland to ensure the continued survival of its precious lizard population, according to researchers at Queen's University Belfast.
Lizards are found in coastal areas, heath and boglands around Northern Ireland, but a Queen's study, published in international journal Amphibia-Reptilia, has found their natural habitats may have been replaced through agricultural intensification.
FAIRFAX, Va.—The unprecedented growth and promise of using thermal ablation to target and kill cancer is the subject of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology's August supplement, "Thermal Ablation 2010: At the Crossroads of Past Success, Current Goals and Future Technology."
The UK's first operation to fit a single cochlear implant capable of giving sound in both ears takes place this Friday (27 August), thanks to the work of the South of England Cochlear Implant Centre (SOECIC), based at the University of Southampton.
Research from the University of Exeter has revealed taking a dietary supplement to boost nitric oxide in the body can significantly boost stamina during high-intensity exercise.
The study has important implications for athletes, as results suggest that taking the supplement can allow people to exercise up to 20% longer and could produce a 1-2% improvement in race times.
This comes on the back of previous research from Exeter which showed that the high nitrate content of beetroot juice, which also boosts nitric oxide in the body, has a similar effect on performance.
University of Illinois researchers recently discovered that feeding co-products and cornstalk residue in the winter can save cow-calf producers up to $1 per day per cow as compared to feeding hay.
Feed costs continue to be the number one detriment to profitability in cow-calf operations. With feed comprising 60 percent of a producer's costs, any measures producers take to minimize expenses can make the difference between profit or no profit at the end of the year.
Generation X, the set of Americans who came of age in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is often branded as a rules-rejecting, authority-questioning group.
But when it comes to religion, new research has revealed that Gen-Xers are surprisingly loyal to their faith – a finding that also suggests the rising non-religious tide in the United States may be leveling off.
Clinical depression and anxiety during pregnancy results in smaller babies that are more likely to die in infancy, according to new research published in the open access journal BMC Public Health. The study, which focused on women living in rural Bangladesh, provides the first finding of its kind in a non-Western population. The research indicates that mental health issues are likely to be a primary contributor to infant mortality and poor child health, above poverty, malnutrition or low socio-economic status.
A rare form of kidney disease linked to a genetic mutation in the innate immune system has been identified by researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council.
So far, the disease, which the researchers have named CFHR5 nephropathy, has been identified in over one hundred people, all of whom are of Cypriot descent, including some living in the UK. Symptoms include blood in the urine – both microscopic and, occasionally, visible – and progressive kidney malfunction.
An international group of researchers led by the Peninsula Medical School and the University of Exeter have for the first time identified changes in sex hormones associated with BPA exposure in men, in a large population study. The study results are published in the latest issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.
Plantain and broccoli fibres may block a key stage in the development of the inflammatory bowel disorder, Crohn's disease, suggests preliminary research published online in Gut.
The causes of Crohn's disease are thought to be a mix of genetic and environmental factors, one of which is very likely to be diet.
The disease is significantly less common in developing countries, where fibrous fruit and vegetables are dietary staples, and its incidence has recently risen rapidly in Japan, in tandem with the increasing adoption of a more Westernised diet.
New York, August 25, 2010—A multicenter study has concluded that treatment with a new targeted therapy called PLX4032 (also called RG7204) resulted in significant tumor shrinkage in 80 percent of patients with advanced melanoma. Investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and colleagues at other cancer centers have published their findings in the August 26 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
A 13-member research team led by University of Oregon scientist Dr. Albert O. Edwards has found a gene likely responsible for Fuchs corneal dystrophy, an inheritable genetic disorder and leading cause of corneal transplant operations.
Edwards performed a genome-wide analysis comparing patients with and without typical age-related Fuchs, finding an alteration in the transcription-factor-4 gene (TCF4). Fuchs -- pronounced FEWKS or FOOKS -- generally emerges in middle-aged, roughly age 40, and older people.
Scientists at Georgetown University, the National Aquarium and the University of Queensland are the first to extract DNA from dolphin blow (breath exhalations).The researchers found that blow-sampling, which involves collecting exhalations from the blowholes of whales, dolphins and porpoises, could be developed as a less invasive method for DNA collection. Their findings are explained in the Aug. 25 edition of the online journal PLoS ONE in an article titled "Thar She Blows! A Novel Method for DNA Collection from Cetacean Blow."
