A 95 million-year-old fossilized jaw discovered in Texas has been identified as a new genus and species of flying reptile, Aetodactylus halli.
Aetodactylus halli is a pterosaur, a group of flying reptiles commonly referred to as pterodactyls.
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AMARILLO – Research came full circle on April 16 as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service amended the Karnal bunt quarantine areas in Arizona, California and Texas, according to a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.
"The research is finally paying off," said Dr. Charlie Rush, AgriLife Research plant pathologist, of the action by APHIS to lift the restrictions on the interstate movement of Karnal bunt regulated wheat from certain areas in all the three states. Texas has no further restrictions, however, Arizona still has one remaining area under quarantine.
Two new compact oakleaf hydrangea cultivars ideal for small gardens have been released by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.
"Ruby Slippers" and "Munchkin" are the latest cultivars released by ARS geneticist Sandy Reed with the U.S. National Arboretum's Floral and Nursery Plants Research Unit's worksite in McMinnville, Tenn. The arboretum is operated by ARS, the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Despite modest economic gains, gloomy unemployment numbers and low workplace morale still loom large within corporate America. Whether or not companies can capitalize on the momentum of this fragile financial revitalization is dependent on more than enhancing consumer confidence or introducing new products to the marketplace—it falls largely on employees working for organizations and their level of commitment to corporate success.
ANAHEIM, CA, April 27, 2010 – There's more evidence of tart cherries' powerful anti-inflammatory benefits, according to a new study presented by a team of Michigan researchers today at the Experimental Biology annual meeting. Using a "whole food" approach, researchers found that a cherry-enriched diet not only reduced overall body inflammation, but also reduced inflammation at key sites (belly fat, heart) known to affect heart disease risk in obese, at-risk rats.
Recent studies suggest that modifiable risk factors such as cigarette smoking and fructose consumption can worsen nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). With NAFLD, fat accumulates in the liver of overweight individuals despite drinking little alcohol, causing in some cases liver scarring that can lead to liver failure. Identifying modifiable factors that contribute to disease severity and progression is essential in improving patient outcomes.
A recent study by Danish researchers discovered patients with alcoholic cirrhosis had a high prevalence of complications at the time of the disease diagnosis. Researchers noted that complications, such as ascites (excessive fluid in the abdomen), were predictors of mortality, but did not develop in a predictable sequence. Results of this 12-year mortality study appear in the May issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).
A researcher from the University of Granada has designed a reliable method that –combined with the diagnostic criteria of the American College of Reumathology– helps to diagnose fibromyalgia on the basis of patients' walk parameters, i.e. their gait.
Black children with chronic kidney disease have more severe anemia than white children even when they receive the same treatment, according to a multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center to be published in the May issue of the American Journal of Kidney Disease.
The findings suggest that inherent biological differences, rather than access to care and treatment, may be at play, raising the question whether current guidelines for anemia treatment should be tailored to reflect race, investigators say.
ANAHEIM, CA – The human species is dependent for its survival on the billions of microorganisms that inhabit multiple environmental niches within and on the human body. While microbes are commonly associated with diseases and infections, they are also vital in essential, beneficial roles such as digestion, where they help synthesize vitamins and ferment complex indigestible carbohydrates.
Two independent groups of researchers have identified distinct roles for two proteins in a family of proteins known as PLA2s as crucial for sperm function and fertility in mice. These data identify proteins that could underlie causes of infertility and provide potential targets for the development of new contraceptive agents and new approaches to treating infertility. In addition, these data provide a caution to those developing drugs that target members of this closely related group of proteins to treat hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and inflammation.
CHAPEL HILL – Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have identified a molecular marker of pancreatic cancer that may help spot the disease at its earliest stages, when it can be treated more successfully with surgery.
In a finding published April 26, 2010, in the online journal PLoS One, the researchers showed that a specific form of a protein called palladin is produced in large amounts in the "tumor nest," the cells that surround a pancreatic tumor.
PHILADELPHIA (April 26, 2010)—Ovarian cancer kills nearly 15,000 women in the United States each year, and fewer than half of the women diagnosed with the disease survive five years. A screening test that detects ovarian cancer early, when it is still treatable, would likely reduce the high mortality, yet scientists have not known where the tumors originate or what they look like. Now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center think they have answered both questions.
April 26, 2010 ─ (BRONX, NY) ─ Tiny, melanin-covered nanoparticles may protect bone marrow from the harmful effects of radiation therapy, according to scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University who successfully tested the strategy in mouse models. Infusing these particles into human patients may hold promise in the future. The research is described in the current issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics.
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A newly discovered species of monitor lizard, a close relative of the Komodo dragon, was reported in the journal Zootaxa this week by a professor at UC Santa Barbara and a researcher from Finland.
Sam Sweet, a professor in the department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UCSB, and Valter Weijola, a graduate student at Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, are the first to describe the distinctive lizard, which lives in the Moluccan islands of east Indonesia. Sweet is an authority on monitor lizard biology.