The Australian dingo descends from domesticated dogs that people from Southeast Asia brought with them to Australia some 5,000 years ago. Genetic studies indicate that it is probably a matter of a single occasion and a very small number of dogs.
The story begins when a few domestic dogs originally originating from East Asia, jump ashore from a boat. “No matter how you get to Australia, you have to travel across open seas for at least 50 km-a journey no large land-based animal has eve
Researchers are one step closer to unravelling the mystery of medically unexplained pain such as chronic low back pain, which continues to baffle doctors. A study exploring the experience of pain in hypnotised volunteers has found that some types of pain which cannot be traced to a medical condition may have its origins in our brains, not in our bodies.
The study by University College London and University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre found that volunteers who felt pain as a result of
A novel and exciting study that will provide new insights into the key relationships between climate, water availability and human activities in the semi-arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is getting under way at the University of Reading. The research will help shape our perception of the past, present and future of one of the most complex – and often troubled – parts of the world.
With a major funding award of nearly £1,240,000 from the Leverhulme Trust, a uniq
New legal requirements of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, developed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), contain a multitude of internationally binding measures to provide better protection against terrorism aimed at ships and port terminals. Ships may be attacked and used for arms shipments or misused as a weapon. Ships and port facilities are exposed to a completely new threat potential since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Nearly 1% of the population is celiac, i.e. they suffer from intolerance to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and oats. The problem obliges sufferers to follow a diet based on natural foodstuffs such as legumes, meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit and rice.
Gluten, in sufferers, produces atrophy of the villi of the intestinal lining, and thus there is insufficient absorption of nutrients. Moreover celiac disease is a pathology that has no known cure, specialists point
Originally developed to pinpoint attacking aircraft during World War Two, today’s advanced radar technology can detect a very different moving target: shifts of the Earth’s crust that occur as slowly as the growth of your fingernails.
Radar data from satellites such as ESA’s Envisat are used to construct ’interferograms’ that show millimetre-scale land movements. These rainbow-hued images provide scientists with new insights into tectonic motion, and an enhanced ability to calculate
Scientists at Stockholm University in Sweden may have developed a new method for predicting earthquakes with the help of geochemistry. The method involves metering the content of certain metals in underground water, which changes before and after an earthquake.
The team of researchers behind these discoveries, presented in the latest issue of the scientific journal Geology, is led by Alasdair Skelton, professor of petrology and geochemistry at Stockholm University. An other member o
Researchers have made a significant advance in the understanding of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) by identifying new genetic factors associated with clearing the virus spontaneously without the necessity for additional treatment. Their findings are set out in a paper published in Science magazine today (6 August 2004).
Hepatitis C virus infects the liver and leads to serious permanent liver damage. The infection affects about 170 million people worldwide and up to 500,000 people in th
Penn researchers pinpoint identity of early-stage t-cells circulating in blood
T cells are critically important for human immunological defenses against pathogens, yet little is known about their early development. T cells are made in the thymus, but ultimately come from hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow, from which all blood-cell types begin. A progenitor cell must leave the bone marrow to seed the thymus, eventually giving rise to T cells. The identity of this cell has
A new study using positron emission tomography (PET) determined PET is a more accurate way to diagnose recurrent melanoma than the present, standard procedures.
Published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, the research conducted by David Fuster, MD, and his team at the University of Pennsylvania (PENN), Division of Nuclear Medicine, found that, by using PET as a routine clinical tool in diagnosing recurrent melanoma, significant changes in patient care can, an
Neurosurgeons at Rush University Medical Center are the first in Chicago to implant a new investigational neurostimulator in a patient with medically refractory epilepsy. The neurostimulator may be able to suppress seizures in patients with epilepsy before any symptoms appear, much like the commonly implanted heart pacemakers which stop heart arrhythmias before any symptoms occur.
Dr. Richard W. Byrne, neurosurgeon at Rush and member of the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuro
The secret to cowbird success is to join your nestmates in making noise, then hog the food
America’s brown-headed cowbird and the European cuckoo are the classic parasitic birds, laying their eggs in the nests of other bird species and leaving the chick-rearing to another parent.
But while a cuckoo hatchling thrives by muscling its host’s eggs out of the nest and hogging all the food, a new study by biologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common, crippling age-related disease characterized by the gradual destruction of cartilage cushioning the joints. To assess cartilage erosion, doctors routinely rely on measurement of the joint space width using radiographs. To be visible on an X-ray film, however, significant cartilage degradation must have already occurred. By the time radiographs reveal destruction, the damage to the joint is usually irreversible. Due to this method’s relatively insensitive nature, it al
Encouraging results of Phase II conformal radiation trial for ependymoma could resolve the dilemma on whether to withhold therapeutic radiation from children to preserve their cognitive development
A radiation therapy technique that kills brain tumors in children while sparing normal tissue allows young patients to enjoy normal development of memory, reasoning, problem-solving and other cognitive functions, according to investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The res
Nor can it be recommended for those with pleural tuberculosis who are not co-infected with HIV
Prednisolone, a glucocorticoid that is sometimes added to anti-tuberculosis drug regimens, should not be used to treat patients with pleural tuberculosis and HIV infection, nor can it be recommended for those with pleural tuberculosis who are not co-infected with HIV, according to a study in the August 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Alison
Travelers suffering from ’Montezuma’s revenge’ may not necessarily have to avoid tasty cuisine
Travelers suffering from “Montezuma’s revenge” may not necessarily have to avoid tasty cuisine. In a comparison of two groups of patients receiving antibiotics to treat travelers’ diarrhea, those who restricted their diet to broth and bland foods did not recover any faster than those who ate anything they wanted, according to an article in the August 1 issue of Clin
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