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The declining mountain caribou populations of Canada's southern Rockies are a more distinct breed than scientists previously believed, according to a new study by University of Calgary researchers that is shedding light on the ancient ancestry of the mountain-dwelling herbivores.

Cambridge, MA – January 28, 2009 – A new study in the Journal of School Health found that physically fit kids scored better on standardized math and English tests than their less fit peers.

Researchers examined the relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement in a racially and economically diverse urban public school district of children enrolled in grades 4 – 8 during the 2004 – 2005 academic year.

When it comes to forecasting or decision-making, relying on the arithmetic mean, or average, can lead you to a seriously flawed plan of attack, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).

Management Insights, a regular feature of the journal, is a digest of important research in business, management, operations research, and management science. It appears in every issue of the monthly journal.

Quebec City, January 28, 2009—Omega-3s ease psychological distress and depressive symptoms often suffered by menopausal and perimenopausal women, according to researchers at Université Laval's Faculty of Medicine. Their study, published in the February issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, presents the first evidence that omega-3 supplements are effective for treating common menopause-related mental health problems.

In this New Digest:

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Researchers may have found why women have an edge in keeping a healthier balance between the amount of salt they eat and excrete - at least before reaching menopause.

Premenopausal women are known to have fewer problems with salt-sensitive hypertension and hypertension in general, but afterward their risks are essentially the same as men, says Dr. David Pollock, renal physiologist in the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia.

Genetics experts at The University of Nottingham have been involved in a scientific breakthrough which is helping to explain why some people may be more likely to suffer from the chronic skin condition, psoriasis.

and Spanish.

Researchers at Heidelberg University have found a molecular mechanism for anaphylactic shock. The activation of specific proteins in the cell walls of small blood vessels plays an important role. Suppressing the respective genes protects mice from the potentially fatal reactions of the immune and circulatory systems (anaphylactic shock) without disrupting circulatory regulation. This paves the way for the development of new drugs for the treatment and prevention of anaphylactic shock.

What separates the few cancer cells that survive chemotherapy – leaving the door open to recurrence – from those that don't? Weizmann Institute scientists developed an original method for imaging and analyzing many thousands of living cells to reveal exactly how a chemotherapy drug affects each one.

The Dead Sea lies in a basin structure situated below the sea level. This deep subsidence is a result of a tectonic concurrence between processes in the upper lithosphere that led to subsiding and a compensating upward flow of rocks in the deeper layers of the lithosphere.

Cancer is a genetic disease. It occurs when changes take place in the genes that regulate cell division, cell growth, cell death, cell signalling and blood vessel formation – either due to mutations caused by external factors such as smoking or radiation – or due to inherited changes. This interaction between defective genes and environmental factors means that cancer is an extremely complex disease. Cancer of the uterus, or endometrial carcinoma, is no exception.

Approximately 1.6 million people die worldwide every year as a result of pneumococcal infection, which causes grave illnesses, including pneumonia, meningitis, and middle-ear infections. Children and the elderly are especially at risk. Vaccines are only effective against a few of the pneumococcal types and increasing resistance to antibiotics is making treatment more difficult. Researchers led by Jesús M.

Hospitals in states where Medicaid does not pay for routine male circumcision are only about half as likely to perform the procedure, and this disparity could lead to an increased risk of HIV infection among lower-income children later in life, according to a UCLA AIDS Institute study.

28 January 2009 -- Scientists in Sydney and Melbourne have produced results that could silence the current debate about exactly how fat molecules clog up muscle cells, making them less responsive to insulin.

The finding is an important milestone in understanding the mechanisms of obesity related insulin resistance, a precursor of Type 2 diabetes.