Body

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Biologists have known for long that ecology, the interaction between organisms and their environment, plays a significant role in forming new species and in modifying living ones. The traditional view is that ecology shapes evolution. The environment defines a template and the process of evolution by natural selection shapes organisms to fit that template.

Some specialized theory, a few laboratory experiments and studies of natural populations suggest, however, that evolutionary processes reciprocate by influencing ecology in turn.

Clubfoot affects one in a thousand babies born in the United States, but with proper corrective treatment and follow-up, infants born with clubfoot can have feet compatible with an active, normal lifestyle. A new study in the February 2010 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) compared two common treatment options for clubfoot – Ponseti method and surgical treatment.

Hong Kong SAR, China – Current research suggests that pandemic H1N1 influenza of swine origin has distinct means of transmission from the seasonal flu, yet does not result in the pathogenic severity of avian flu viruses. The related report by Chan et al, "Tropism and Innate Host Responses of the 2009 Pandemic H1N1 Influenza Virus in ex Vivo and in Vitro Cultures of Human Conjunctiva and Respiratory Tract," appears published online ahead of print in the April 2010 issue of The American Journal of Pathology.

Scientists at the Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario, working in collaboration with researchers in Brazil, have used a unique genetically-modified mouse line to reveal a previously unidentified mechanism contributing to heart failure. The study, led by Marco Prado, Robert Gros and Vania Prado of London, Canada and Silvia Guatimosim of Brazil, shows how the decreased release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a chemical messenger which slows cardiac activity, contributes to heart failure.

Smoking affects your cardiac health both before and after a major event like a heart attack. But how much? And does cutting back instead of quitting have a positive effect as well?

There are definitive answers in a new study from Tel Aviv University, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind.

The loss of wetlands in the prairie pothole region of central North America due to a warmer and drier climate will negatively affect millions of waterfowl that depend on the region for food, shelter and raising young, according to research published today in the journal BioScience.

The new research shows that the region appears to be much more sensitive to climate warming and drying than previously thought.

New research on Type 2 diabetes by Trinity College Dublin researchers could benefit young adults (aged 18-25 years) with the condition. The research led by Professor John Nolan of Trinity College Dublin and St James's Hospital, Dublin, has just been published online in the leading international journal, Diabetes Care.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA— This month's Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, includes results from a large Kaiser Permanente study of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treatments, the first global report on retinal vein occlusion, and new recommendations to help elders with vision loss avoid falls.

Kaiser Study Compares Effectiveness of Two AMD Drugs

COLUMBIA, Mo. – In 2009, soybeans represented an almost $30 billion industry in the U.S. alone, making soybeans the second-most profitable crop next to corn. Worldwide, soybeans have been used in human foods and livestock feed for centuries and have been a key component in industrial products, such as plastics and soy biodiesel, an environmentally friendly fuel.

Tampa, Fla. (Feb. 01, 2010) – A research team from the National Taiwan University Hospital has evaluated the efficiency of transplanted hepatocyte (liver) cells in animal models severely damaged by two kinds of chemical toxicity to see whether and how transplanted hepatocytes were able to efficiently repopulate the toxin-induced, severely damaged livers.

NEW YORK (February 1, 2010) -- NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital is the only medical center in the United States to offer minimally invasive liver donation for pediatric transplantation. Surgeons use a laparoscopic technique to remove a section of liver from a living donor for implantation in a pediatric patient -- typically a parent donating to their child. The innovative approach promises dramatically improved recovery for the donor.

CINCINNATI—Peptides that target blood vessels in fat and cause them to go into programmed cell death (termed apoptosis) could become a model for future weight-loss therapies, say University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers.

A research team led by Randy Seeley, PhD, of UC's Metabolic Diseases Institute, has found that obese animal models treated with proapoptotic peptide experienced decreased food intake and significant fat loss.

The study was published online ahead of print Jan. 26, 2010, in Diabetes, the official journal of the American Diabetes Association.

Not all plantations need to be the biological deserts that have come to characterize large-scale, industrial plantations. According to scientists in a paper out in February's issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, well-planned plantations can actually alleviate some of the social, economic and ecological burden currently being placed on natural forests.

In addition, these biologically diverse, multi-purposed plantations can mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon, off-setting deforestation and reducing ecological strain on natural forests.

Reston, Va.— Studies have shown positron emission tomography's (PET) value as a minimally invasive, painless and safe diagnostic tool for many pediatric conditions. In a study published in the February issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM), researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) gathered data that may provide clinicians with new formulas—specific to pediatrics—to calculate the amount of radiotracer that should be injected based on the patient's weight.

Heidelberg, 31 January 2010 – The last ancestor we shared with worms, which roamed the seas around 600 million years ago, may already have had a sophisticated brain that released hormones into the blood and was connected to various sensory organs. The evidence comes not from a newly found fossil but from the study of microRNAs – small RNA molecules that regulate gene expression – in animals alive today.