Analysis fingers causes of desertification
...ingle-factor explanations that put the most of the blame for desertification on the rural poor and nomadic populations. Nor do the results support the notion that desertification is the result of irreducibly complex processes. Rather, the analysis suggests that desertification is best explained by a limite...Healthy fats and oils essential to satisfy calorie-conscious consumers
...d fats. Though fats and edible oils are largely to blame for obesity and other related health issues, they are integral to a balanced diet and assist in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. This is driving the R&D efforts toward reduced fat and lower calorie foods without altering traditional eating hab...Highlights of the July Journal of the American Dietetic Association
... Tufts University, it's not the Pyramid that is to blame for the rise in weight in this country but ourselves for not following the Pyramid's guidelines. The authors say larger portions, increases in daily calorie intake and a sedentary lifestyle are the real reasons why so many Americans are battling the ...Volcanic soils yield new clues about the emergence of powerful chiefdoms in Hawaii
... on Maui and Hawaii had collapsed. Most historians blame its demise on the introduction of human diseases, which caused a drastic crash in the Hawaiian population. As a result, there were no longer enough people to work the labor-intensive fields, and as the population fell, the demand for sweet potatoes ...Mysterious beach closures may be linked to contaminated groundwater, study finds
...he contamination, leading frustrated beachgoers to blame everything from offshore sewage pipes to passing c...y most of these incidents occurred. Some residents blame a sewage outfall that has been dumping treated waste into the Pacific Ocean since 1971. A recent stu...Out-of-balance ecosystems play role in demise of amphibian populations
...a contributing cause. While these parasites are to blame for many of the malformed frogs observed, Schotthoefer said, the studies at Illinois indicate that the timing of infection is critically important. Schotthoefer, in her two studies published last summer, provided the first stage-specific data involvi...Chromosomes are 'nibbled' before they fuse, researchers report
...still need to verify that the same mechanism is to blame for genomic instability in mammalian cells as in yeast. If so, identifying other proteins that work with exonucleases may offer a target to block the process and push cells in cancer toward death instead of genomic instability....New evidence says Earths greatest extinction caused by ancient meteorite
...tinction ever since a meteor was fingered with the blame for the later dinosaur extinction, these new findings add weight to the argument that a major meteorite did strike the Earth 251 million years ago, likely triggering climate change and unprecedented volcanic activity. That one-two punch so affected t...High heart risk for lupus patients linked to death of cells lining blood vessels
...that line every blood vessel in the body may be to blame for the increased risk of heart and vascular disease faced by patients with the autoimmune disease known as lupus, new research suggests. And the test used to see those dying cells in the bloodstream may one day help lupus patients and people with ...Northwestern's Cancer Genetics Program pinpoints gene that increases cancer risk by 26 percent
...ults to conclude that the TGFRB1*6A gene may be to blame for approximately 7 percent of all breast cancers, nearly 11 percent of all ovarian cancers and 5.5 percent of all colon cancers, across a variety of ethnic groups. "These findings should put TGFBR1*6A on the map with better known cancer susceptibil...Sleep disorders linked to faulty brain chemistry, study finds
... chemical imbalances in the brain may be partly to blame for certain life-disrupting sleep disorders are being reported in two new studies by University of Michigan Health System researchers. In two papers in the July 8 issue of the journal Neurology, the team reports apparent links between deficits in bra...System failure to blame for Walkerton, North Battleford outbreaks, says U of T study
...., and North Battleford, Sask., were not solely to blame for the outbreaks. Instead, say the researchers, water contamination resulted from many failures in a complex system involving workers, local governments, regulatory bodies and provincial governments. "There are interactions and relationships across...Scientists re-evaluating the meaning of 'desertification,' Duke ecologist says
...ad land management or bad luck is fundamentally to blame is not an easy question to answer, according to Reynolds. Equally hard is establishing the key and obvious signs of desertification. "As an ecologist, I might consider the formation of erosion gullies as symptomatic of desertification," he said. "Yet...Obesity not a personal failing, but a battle against biology
...betes in children -- which public health officials blame on the obesity epidemic in young adults. Friedman points out that although the incidence of obesity in the United States has increased from 23.3 percent in 1991 to 30.9 percent today, the weight of the average American has increased about only seven ...Hopkins researchers find genetic cause for multi-system disorder
...d that changes in a gene called connexin 43 are to blame for the disorder, which also can include hearing loss, heart trouble and neurological problems. The findings, published online ahead of print, will appear in the February issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics. "It's pretty amazing that i...UMass scientist identifies gene that governs obesity, physical activity, sex behaviors in mice
...ir food intake." But these mice can legitimately blame their weight on their genes or rather, their lack of the Nhlh2 gene. "The gene is responsible for giving them the message, 'You're full, so stop eating,' or 'You need to increase your activity, so get some exercise.'" Without Nhlh2, the message is s...Genetic clash doubles schizophrenia risk
...gests that the gene that codes for Rh factor is to blame for the higher risk. "Previous studies reported a link between mothers and infants who are Rh-incompatible and a higher rate of schizophrenia in the children later in life," said Dr. Christina Palmer, a research scientist at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric...Study predicts Amazon deforestation could affect climate in US
...omenon called El Nino. Avissar said he could not blame recent drought conditions in the United States on deforestation in the Amazon because the Duke simulations looked at a hypothetical situation that is much more severe than what currently exists in the Amazon, which covers nine times as much land as T...Cystic fibrosis gene mutations missing from some cases
...mean that another gene, as yet unidentified, is to blame for these cases, or perhaps these patients really have another, unknown disease, despite the similarity of symptoms, the researchers suggest. Loss of the function of a protein called CFTR was identified more than a decade ago as the cause of CF, a l......iding house. We try to establish which tree is to blame and thus indicate which insurance company should pay out. "The problem is much easier to solve when there are different trees growing in the area. It's easy to tell the difference between an oak tree root and chestnut tree root, for example. It's ...