Prediction of species’ distributions is central to diverse applications in ecology, evolution and conservation science. There is now increasing electronic access to vast sets of occurrence records in museums and herbaria all over the world, yet there has been little effective guidance on how best to use this information to model and predict species distributions.

A recent study in the journal Ecography by an international team of researchers now offers the by far most comprehensive mo

Although young adults are faced with a diversity of life choices, they seem to be coming to terms with themselves and their lives in their 20s, says new University of Alberta research that shows psychological well-being improves after adolescence and girls improve faster than boys.

Dr. Nancy Galambos from the Department of Psychology followed a sample of the same cohort of people over a seven-year period and looked specifically at how 18-25 year olds make the transition from a

A group of researchers at the University of Kent has been awarded £156,000 by the Government’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to investigate the range of identity choices potentially available to mixed-race young people in Britain.

Conducted by Peter Aspinall (Centre for Health Services Studies), Miri Song (School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research) and Ferhana Hashem (Centre for Health Services Studies), this two year study will be the largest and mos

Despite research efforts to find modern factors that would explain the different life expectancies of men and women, the gap is actually ancient and universal, according to University of Michigan researchers.

“Women live longer in almost every country, and the sex difference in lifespan has been recognized since at least the mid-18th century,” said Daniel J. Kruger, a research scientist in the U-M School of Public Health and the Institute for Social Research. “It isn’t a recent t

Imperial College London and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich are to take the lead in a Euro 11 million (GBP 8 million) study to examine how genetics and environment influence the development of asthma in Europe.

The GABRIEL project, funded through an EC Framework 6 grant, involves over 150 scientists from 14 European countries and Russia, using the latest research across a variety of disciplines, including genetics, epidemiology and immunology, to identify key factors in the

The Internet – millions of people rely on it for everyday tasks. But when is the line crossed between average use and addiction? An article published in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care states, “The Internet has properties that for some individuals promote addictive behaviors and pseudo-intimate interpersonal relationships.” Nurse practitioners will soon find themselves faced with the issues of “internet addicts” and their inability to get offline.

While not yet defined as a true ad

Put a mouse or a rat under stress and what does it do? It stops eating. Humans should be so lucky. When people suffer nontraumatic stress they often head for the refrigerator, producing unhealthy extra pounds.

When Syrian hamsters, which are normally solitary, are placed in a group-living situation, they also gain weight. So scientists at the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia State University are using hamsters as a model for human stress-induced obesity. They

Generosity of health insurance plans varies widely by state; Urban states get more for their premium dollar

Employees in the smallest firms (1-9 workers) pay an average 18% more in health insurance premiums than those in the largest firms (1,000+ workers), when actuarial value–the percentage of total medical expenses paid by a health plan–is taken into account, a new Commonwealth Fund-supported study finds.

In this look at employer-provided health coverage, researche

College freshmen under the age of 20 at several colleges in the southeastern U.S. were almost 70 percent more likely to test positive for chlamydia than students between 20 and 24 years of age, according to findings to be presented on May 9 by Adelbert James, PhD, MPH, senior associate in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. James will present results of his data analysis at the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference in Jacksonville, Fla. His effor

New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has identified and established the substance in grapefruit juice that causes potentially dangerous interactions with certain medications.

For almost a decade, people have been told by their doctors and pharmacists to avoid grapefruit juice if they are being treated with certain medications, including some drugs that control blood pressure or lower cholesterol. Studies have shown that grapefruit juice can cause more

IQWiG publishes a comparative review of inhaled insulin versus insulin administered subcutaneously

There is currently no evidence available that inhaled insulin (Exubera) in diabetes therapy shows advantages over short-acting human insulin or insulin analogues administered subcutaneously. The available studies do not provide evidence that Exubera would improve the quality of life or treatment satisfaction of diabetes patients in Germany. However, they do provide indications of di

Most people who are visually impaired could see better if they had the proper eyeglasses or contact lenses

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) study has found that although 94 percent of Americans aged 12 and older have good vision, the remaining six percent, or 14 million, are visually impaired. Of these, more than 11 million have uncorrected visual impairment, such as nearsightedness. They need eyeglasses or contact lenses to improve their vision. Teenagers, people with d

New technologies that mimic the way insects, plants and animals overcome engineering problems could help reduce our dependence on energy, according to new research published in the Royal Society journal Interface.

When faced with engineering difficulties, such as lifting a load or coping with extremes of heat, up to 70 per cent of man-made technologies manipulate energy, often increasing the amount used, in order to resolve the problem.

However, new research which has

Two new studies from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center show that computerizing ordering of chemotherapy and other types of intravenous drug infusions for children greatly reduces the risk of potentially dangerous medical errors.

An online infusion calculator and a computerized drug ordering system, developed under the leadership of Christoph Lehmann, M.D., director of clinical information technology at the Children’s Center, have been in use there for about three years

Beautiful young models are used to sell everything from computer processors to motor oil. But is it really effective to use a pretty face to market something that has nothing to do with physical attractiveness? New research from the June issue of the Journal of Consumer Research argues that an attractive model can actually negatively influence product perception if the model is irrelevant to the quality of the product and the consumer had a very high interest in the product to being with.

Early trials of an experimental photosensitizer cancer drug called Tookad have yielded dramatic results, according to Dr. Mostafa Elhilali, Chief Surgeon at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and study principal investigator. In a recently-completed trial, 46 percent of patients showed no evidence of prostate cancer after treatment with optimum doses of Tookad and the correct light intensity. A larger study to determine the drug’s efficacy is now underway at the MUHC. “This ne