Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities
... Islands, and Polynesia-Micronesia -- remain under severe threat. Hotspots Revisited (CEMEX, 2004) contains the results of an in-depth reanalysis of global hotspots, a widely used prioritization strategy for allocating conservation dollars to areas where they can do the most good. "The biodiversity hotspo...Self-organization and vegetation collapse in salt marsh ecosystems
...m, may induce a cascade of vegetation collapse and severe erosion on the cliff edge, leading to salt-marsh destruction. Seawards of this cliff new pioneer vegetation can develop, leading to rejuvenation of the salt marsh. The study shows that on short timescales, natural processes improve the functioning o...Pro-inflammatory protein contributes to Crohn's disease according to UCSD School of Medicine study
...ified interleukin-1Beta (IL-1) as a major cause of severe inflammation in the mouse model of Crohn's disease...t, but they haven't known just how NOD2 causes the severe inflammation associated with the disorder. An intracellular sensor for bacterial infection, normal ...Bayou blues: Working to save the US from the worst potential oil, gas and fishing crisis
... the price of oil will go years down the line if a severe hurricane directly hits and there are less wetlands to protect the energy infrastructure and the coastline. Besides losing the oil, you'd also face the price of repairing broken pipelines, huge loses in shrimping and fishing and restructuring the who...Scientists discuss improved biopesticides for locust control in West Africa
...trees of foliage across several countries, causing severe income and food supply loss. Larry Vaughan, associate program director of the USAID-funded Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP) and research associate in the Office of International Research, Education, and Dev...Rats infected as newborns grew up vulnerable to memory problems during an immune challenge
... impairment in wild animals would undoubtedly have severe implications for survival, for example remembering nest sites, food sites and predator vicinities, as well as for fitness, for example remembering territories and potential mate locations." Bilbo stresses that adults rats who were not infected as p...Gene therapy for Parkinson's disease moves forward in animals
...movements in rats, scientists used 33 animals with severe dopamine depletion and transferred a gene to provide a source of L-dopa production into the animals' striata. Before receiving the treatment, all animals had limited use in their left paws. After treatment, the animals receiving the therapeutic enzym...Physicians recommend screening for toxoplasmosis for all pregnant women, newborns
...serious problems. Infection of the fetus may cause severe eye and brain damage, and may result in crippling diseases in the newborn or later in life. "Early detection and treatment of the T. gondii infection in the mother, fetus and infant can prevent or reduce the risks of ophthalmologic and/or neurologic ...Hypertension in African Americans linked to two genomic regions
...ps. African Americans suffer from earlier and more severe hypertension and have a higher rate of death from stroke, heart disease, and kidney failure as a result. The causes of hypertension are complex. Diet, exercise and stress contribute, but so do genetic factors. "It wouldn't be surprising if hypertensi...When cobras spit, there's not a dry eye in the house
...ge to hit an eye, the sensitive cornea reacts with severe stinging pain. In the worst case these burns can ultimately lead to blindness. As guinea pigs Katja Tzschtzsch used four Mozambique and six black-necked spitting cobras from the animal house in Schloss Poppelsdorf. In her experiments she either stood...JCI Table of Contents, March 1, 2005
...he University of Washington used rats that develop severe obesity due to genetic absence of leptin receptors. The rats consume increased amounts of food and have reduced satiety. Thus, leptin signaling appears to be required for normal responses to internal signals that tell the body to stop eating. To d...Progress toward a new remedy for chronic urinary tract infections?
...oint in their lives. The disorder is an especially severe problem when it becomes chronic - whereby some patients experience symptoms almost continually. The Escherichia coli bacterium is responsible for 80% of these urinary tract infections. Treatment with antibiotics is possible but does not preclude a re...National Inventors Hall of Fame announces 2005 inductees
...the mind. Previous drugs were addictive or caused severe side effects. Selman Waksman (1888-1973) Streptomycin In addition to inventing the important antibiotic streptomycin, which was the first effective treatment for tuberculosis, Waksman created the term "antibiotic." He won the Nobel Prize ...Tree-ring data reveals multiyear droughts unlike any in recent memory
...droughts between 1750 and 1950 that were much more severe than anything in recent memory because they persis...ers detected in the Columbia River Basin, the most severe and persistent started in the 1840s and lasted 12 years in a row. Flows were 20 percent below long-t...Other highlights in the February 16 JNCI
...ell samples from Sengalese women with increasingly severe CIN and invasive cervical cancer. The frequency o...ity of neoplasia but was rare in samples with less severe neoplasia, those with CIN-1 or less. The authors estimated that, among the population studied, detec...Columbia scientists identify potential therapy for kidney failure
..., antibiotic therapy or in patients suffering from severe infections. More than 80 percent of patients with postoperative acute renal failure die. The study also shows that the protein is highly accumulated in blood, urine and kidney tissue at the onset of acute renal failure, making it an effective marke...Common virus becomes a new target for cancer treatment
...haryngeal carcinoma, frequently fail and can cause severe long-term side effects," said senior study author ...ies that can improve disease-free survival without severe toxicity. This study demonstrates that virus-specific T cells show remarkable activity in some patie...JCI table of contents March 1, 2005
...glandins. Because these drugs are associated with severe side effects, there is a need for new therapeutic targets that could allow specific pain treatment with few side effects. Appearing online on February 17 in advance of publication in the March 1 print edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation,...Scientists discover how climate change causes the simultaneous boom or bust of multiple populations
...week in the journal Nature reveals that occasional severe weather conditions directly cause the rapid increase or decrease in abundance and mobility of an intestinal parasite that infects populations of an important game bird hunted on country estates in Northern England, causing them all to either decline ......depression could be a biological marker for a more severe form of epilepsy. Epilepsy, marked by unprovoked s...s true, he said, even of patients who exhibit less severe forms of the condition than those treated at specialized clinics and major medical centers. Ettinger...