EurekAlert! Public News List

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Archives of Neurology
Scientists image brain structures that deteriorate in Parkinson's
A new imaging technique developed at MIT offers the first glimpse of the degeneration of two brain structures affected by Parkinson's disease.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

PLOS Genetics
Microbial 'missing link' discovered after man impales hand on tree branch
Two years ago, a 71-year-old Indiana man impaled his hand on a branch after cutting down a dead tree. The wound caused an infection that led scientists to discover a new bacterium and solve a mystery about how bacteria came to live inside insects.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Using biomarkers from prehistoric human feces to track settlement and agriculture
University of Massachusetts Amherst geoscientists have used a biomarker from human feces in a new way to establish the first human presence, the arrival of grazing animals and human population dynamics in a landscape. Doctoral student Robert D'Anjou and his advisor Raymond Bradley, director of the Climate System Research Center at UMass Amherst, with others, describe their findings in the current online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

PLOS ONE
Scanning innovation can improve personalized medicine
Ge Wang, director of Virginia Tech's Center for Biomedical Imaging, has a history of "firsts" in the imaging world, including the first paper on spiral multi-slice/cone-beam CT in 1991, on bioluminescence tomography in 2004, and on interior tomography in 2007. In a recent paper that appeared in the refereed journal PLOS ONE, Wang speaks about new combinations of medical imaging technologies that hold promise for improved early disease screening, cancer staging, therapeutic assessment, and other aspects of personalized medicine.

NIH//National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
Continuing Thanksgiving eruptions on the sun
On Nov. 23, 2012, at 8:54 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME. Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and the ESA/NASA mission the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, show that the Nov. 23 CME left the sun at speeds of 375 miles per second, which is a slow to average speed for CMEs. This is the third Earth-directed CME since Nov. 20.

NASA

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
EARTH: Highlights of 2012
Considered individually, 2012's record high temperatures, droughts, wildfires, storms and diminished snowpack are not necessarily alarming. But combined, these indicators are much more significant from a climate standpoint. Two questions then remain: Will we see the same thing in 2013? And how do we increase our ability to weather the storms and other disasters coming our way in the future?

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Psychological Science
Bothered by negative, unwanted thoughts? Just throw them away
If you want to get rid of unwanted, negative thoughts, try just ripping them up and tossing them in the trash.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
New hope for setback-dogged cancer treatment
Several drugs companies have ineffectively tried to produce antibodies that bind to the IGF-1 receptor on the cell surface, which has a critical part to play in the development of cancer. Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now ascertained how these antibodies work, and can explain why only some cancer patients are helped by IGF-1 blockers during clinical tests. The researchers also present a means by which drugs of this kind could help more cancer patients.

Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Research Council, and others

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Community Oncology
Old habits die hard: Helping cancer patients stop smoking
It's a sad but familiar scene near the grounds of many medical campuses: Hospital-gowned patients, some toting rolling IV poles, huddled in clumps under bus shelters or warming areas, smoking cigarettes.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Academy of Management Journal
Corporate wrongdoers should stick to the facts in post-crisis message
When faced with scandal or wrongdoing, corporations should stick to the facts in their post-crisis messaging, according to a new study from researchers at Rice University, the University of Georgia and the University of Maryland -- College Park.

University of Maryland

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Journal of Neuroscience
Risk aversity visible in the brain
Scientists from the University of Bonn in cooperation with the University of Zurich studied the attitudes towards risk in a group of 56 subjects. They found that in people who preferred safety, certain regions of the brain show a higher level of activation when they are confronted with quite unforeseeable situations.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Dissertations and Features
Using computational biology for the annotation of proteins
Research carried out at Universidad Carlos III of Madrid in collaboration with the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas employed computational techniques to improve the characterization of proteins. The system they developed has allowed them to predict, for example, the relationship between two human proteins and telomeres, which led to their possible implication in cellular aging and the development of cancer; this awaits experimental verification.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Digital Journalism
Scientists analyze millions of news articles
Researchers in the UK have used artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze 2.5 million articles from 498 different English-language online news outlets over ten months.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Nature Communications
Scientists from Bangalore and Mainz develop new methods for cooling of ions
Among the most important techniques developed in atomic physics over the past few years are methods that enable the storage and cooling of atoms and ions at temperatures just above absolute zero. Scientists from Bangalore and Mainz have now demonstrated in an experiment that captured ions can also be cooled through contact with cold atoms and may thus be stored in so-called ion traps in a stable condition for longer periods of time.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
More Facebook friends means more stress, says report
A large number of friends on Facebook may appear impressive but, according to a new report, the more social circles a person is linked to online the more likely social media will be a source of stress.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Journal of Affective Disorders
Lack of nutrients and metabolic syndrome linked to different subtypes of depression
A low intake of folate and vitamin B12 increases the risk of melancholic depressive symptoms, according to a study among nearly 3,000 middle-aged and elderly Finnish subjects.

Cultural Foundation of South Savo, Hospital District of South Savo

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Avian Pathology
Crash landings
Injuries to mute swans' hips are believed to be uncommon. However, Michaela Gumpenberger and Alexandra Scope of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna now present evidence to suggest that such injuries are more frequent than suspected but are under-recorded because of difficulties in diagnosis. They show that computerized tomography is far better suited to examine the hip joint than classical radiographic methods.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
Putting more cores to work in server farms
EPFL scientists have found that reorganizing the inner architecture of the processors used in massive data processing centers can yield significant energy savings. Their work is part of the EcoCloud program.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012
Combination of two pharmaceuticals proves effective in the treatment of multiple sclerosis
This is a joint press release of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Max Planck Research Unit for Enzymology of Protein Folding.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Science China: Earth Sciences
Destruction of the North China Craton
To investigate the important continental evolution issue of cratonic destruction, a comprehensive study of the geology, geophysics, and geochemistry of the North China Craton was conducted, focusing on the timing, extent, triggers, and dynamics of craton destruction. The results suggest that the instability of the lithosphere may be closely related to the huge change in its structure, composition, and rheology. Moreover, cratonic destruction seems to occur only in cratons severely affected by oceanic subduction.

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Science China: Earth Sciences
Yuzhou Flora -- a hidden gem of the Middle and Late Permian Cathaysian Flora
During the Permian (about 250 million years before present), a complete and successive sequence of strata with exquisitely preserved plant fossils (i.e., the Yuzhou Flora) was developed in today's western Henan Province, China. This report provides a comprehensive review of the findings of a research project analyzing this flora, including its botanical features, plant assemblages, evolutionary stages and their ages.

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Science China: Earth Sciences
Interannual variability in soil respiration from terrestrial ecosystems in China
Soil respiration is an important part of the terrestrial carbon cycle. In a paper just published in issue 10 of Science China, estimates are made of annual soil respiration from terrestrial ecosystems in China from 1970 to 2009. The work presents new analyses concerning the relationship between interannual variability in soil respiration and climatic factors.

National Basic Research Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy
Geometries presented by Chinese scholars for all possible space-time kinematics and their relations
Accounting for all 4-dimensional geometries characterized by a 10-dimensional symmetry group was considered a solved problem. Astonishingly, however, more such geometries were presented in the 2012 10th issue of SCIENCE CHINA. All of these new geometries are associated with different realizations of the possible Lorentzian and Euclidean kinematical algebras with so(3) isotropy. Classification of those geometries has been performed and relationships between these are fully revealed.

National Natural Science Foundation of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Aging
Putrescine water may be Fountain of Youth for eggs
An Ottawa scientist has discovered a critical reason why women experience fertility problems as they get older. The breakthrough by Dr. Johne Liu, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor at the University of Ottawa, also points to a simple solution that could increase the viability of egg cells for women in their late 30s and older -- putrescine water.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Public Release: 26-Nov-2012

Environmental Research Letters
Shrubs lend an insight into a glacier's past
The stems of shrubs have given researchers a window into a glacier's past, potentially allowing them to more accurately assess how they're set to change in the future.


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