Ninety years after Australian scientists began their race to stop the spread of Spanish flu in Australia, University of Melbourne researchers are hoping records from the 1918 epidemic may hold the key to preventing future deadly pandemic outbreaks.
This month marks the 90th anniversary of the return of Australian WWI troops from Europe, sparking Australian scientists' race to try and contain a local outbreak of the pandemic, which killed 50 million people worldwide.
Like other kinds of cells, immune cells lose the ability to divide as they age because a part of their chromosomes known as a telomere becomes progressively shorter with cell division. As a result, the cell changes in many ways, and its disease fighting ability is compromised.
But a new UCLA AIDS Institute study has found that a chemical from the Astragalus root, frequently used in Chinese herbal therapy, can prevent or slow this progressive telomere shortening, which could make it a key weapon in the fight against HIV.
Philadelphia, PA, November 10, 2008 – With childhood obesity increasing, school administrators and public health officials are reducing availability of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) in schools. In a study published in the November/December 2008 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, researchers found that reduction or elimination of SSB from school menus has little effect on total consumption by adolescents.
SALT LAKE CITY – A group of paleontologists visited the northern Arizona wilderness site nicknamed a "dinosaur dance floor" and concluded there were no dinosaur tracks there, only a dense collection of unusual potholes eroded in the sandstone.
So the scientist who leads the University of Utah's geology department says she will team up with the skeptics for a follow-up study.
The end-stage renal disease (ESRD) Medicare reform measures recently passed by Congress represent the most significant ESRD reforms in decades. These measures and how they will impact the practice of nephrology and patient care will be the topic of a session during the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Elementary school students will eat more whole grains when healthier bread products are gradually introduced into their school lunches, a new University of Minnesota study shows.
Whole grain breads are strongly recommended as part of a healthy diet, but children and pre-teens won't always eat them. For this study, researchers from the university's department of food science and nutrition monitored how much bread students threw away, and whether that amount increased as the percentage of whole-grain flour in the bread and rolls was gradually increased.
"Net energy is a (mostly) irrelevant, misleading and dangerous metric," says Professor Bruce Dale, editor-in-chief of Biofuels, Bioresources and Biorefining (Biofpr) in the latest issue of the journal published today.
Net energy is a metric by which some scientists attempt to assess the sustainability and ability of alternative fuels to displace fossil fuel but recent debate in Biofpr shows that scientists are undecided on its merits as a tool.
New Haven, Conn.—Climate change is an unprecedented global problem and an emerging carbon finance market will play a critical role in addressing it, asserts a newly published Yale report.
"This publication represents a major advance in our understanding of the interrelationships of government policy, private markets and technology in the climate arena," says Brad Gentry, director of the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale, in the report's foreword.
From the Tour de France to NASCAR, competitors and fans know that speed is only part of the equation. Strategy -- and the ability to use elements like aerodynamic drafting, which makes it easier to follow closely behind a leader than to be out in front -- is also critical.
But in some cases, drafting happens in reverse: It's the leader of a pack who experiences reduced drag, while the followers encounter more resistance -- and have to expend more energy to keep up.
An artificial intelligence coaching system has been developed that will help carers of older adults with moderate dementia. The COACH system (Cognitive Orthosis for Assisting aCtivities in the Home), described in the open access journal BMC Geriatrics, uses a camera and computer to deliver interactive advice - lessening the workload on often-overburdened carers.
Bakersfield, CA – November 5, 2008 – A new study in the journal International Studies Perspectives examines U.S. foreign policy towards three Middle Eastern states and finds that the executive branch is often the driving force in foreign policy. Also, U.S. foreign policies tend to be reciprocal in nature.
Rachel Bzostek, Ph.D., and Samuel B. Robison, M.A. conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the influences on U.S. foreign policy toward Israel, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia from 1981 to 2004.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The incoming administration will confront an array of threats and challenges as serious as any ever faced by an American president, says Steve Fetter, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. To help whoever won, Fetter asked six experts on his faculty with deep research and government expertise to create policy briefs recommending steps to address key challenges.
Some people know more about their neighbors than they would like to. Whether the other tenants are just now listening to music, watching television, having visitors, vacuum cleaning or washing clothes - its not possible to not overhear these things, because sound finds its own way. Only the best possible insulation of the walls helps here.
The search for a mysterious substance which makes up most of the Universe could soon be at an end, according to new research.
Dark matter is believed to account for 85 per cent of the Universe's mass but has remained invisible to telescopes since scientists inferred its existence from its gravitational effects more than 75 years ago.
Now the international Virgo Consortium, a team of scientists including cosmologists at Durham University, has used a massive computer simulation showing the evolution of a galaxy like the Milky Way to "see" gamma-rays given off by dark matter.
The skeleton of a 12,000 year-old Natufian Shaman has been discovered in northern Israel by archaeologists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The burial is described as being accompanied by "exceptional" grave offerings - including 50 complete tortoise shells, the pelvis of a leopard and a human foot. The shaman burial is thought to be one of the earliest known from the archaeological record and the only shaman grave in the whole region.