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The continued growth of cropland and loss of natural habitat have increasingly simplified agricultural landscapes in the Midwest.

In a study supported in part by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Michigan--one of 26 such NSF LTER sites around the world--scientists concluded that this simplification is associated with increased crop pest abundance and insecticide use.

Systemic scleroderma has slowed Tracy Zinn but it has not stopped her from working. Thanks in part to determination and an accommodating employer, Zinn is now in her 13th year as an account executive for a firm that produces educational software. But, many with the incapacitating disease are not as fortunate.

A new study published in the American Journal of Transplantation reveals an association between the human papillomavirus (betaPV) infection and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in organ transplant recipients.

HPV is known to cause cervical cancer and SCC in the anogenital area and also plays a role in some forms of head and neck cancer. SCC skin cancer is increasing in incidence worldwide and the risk is particularly high in immunosuppressed individuals such as organ transplant recipients in whom rates are 100 times those of the general population.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., JULY 12, 2011 -- To dispel any uncertainty about the serious harm caused by smoking to babies and pregnant women, the first-ever comprehensive systematic review of all studies over the past 50 years has established clearly that maternal smoking causes a range of serious birth defects including heart defects, missing/deformed limbs, clubfoot, gastrointestinal disorders, and facial disorders (for example, of the eyes and cleft lip/palate).

AUSTIN, Texas—Current and proposed border fences pose significant threats to wildlife populations, with those animals living in border regions along the Texas Gulf and California coasts showing some of the greatest vulnerability, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin shows.

As soon as aphids feeding on a plant sense the heat and humidity in a mammal's breath, they drop to safety before they are inadvertently ingested together with the plant the animal is feeding on. These findings by Moshe Gish and colleagues, from the University of Haifa in Israel, show both how accurate aphids are at detecting this threat and how effective their escape behavior is. The work was just published online in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften – The Science of Nature.

Doctors have known for a long time that prostate cancer "runs in the family". Men with relatives who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer have an elevated risk of also developing this type of cancer. It was only last year that DKFZ scientists calculated that this risk rises with the number of affected direct family members and also depends on the relatives' age at outbreak of the disease (DKFZ Press Release 18/2010).

The majority of orchids are found in habitats where light may be a limiting factor. In such habitats it is not surprising that many achlorophyllous (lacking chlorophyll), as well as green, orchids depend on specific mycorrhizal fungal symbionts to supply them with carbohydrates in order to grow. However, orchids are found in a wide range of habitats and range in their photosynthetic capabilities. For those orchids that are fully photosynthetic, and presumably capable of acquiring their own organic carbon, are they less reliant on a specific suite of mycorrhizal fungi?

The study, which was supported by the German Research Foundation, brought together scientists from the Universities of Bonn and Köln, as well as from the Charité in Berlin. 28 younger persons who had been smoking for quite a number of years and an equal number of non-smokers participated in this study. Each of the subjects was shown photos of happy, fearful and neutral faces while their brain activity was recorded. The researchers were particularly interested in the amygdala – a structure the shape and size of an almond. "It is the brain's fear center," said Privatdozent Dr. Dr. med.

Fresh research into glaciers could help scientists better predict the impact of changing climates on global sea levels.

Scientists have shown for the first time that the terrain beneath glaciers influences how much glacier melt contributes to fluctuations in sea levels.

Researchers say the study will improve their understanding of how ice sheet movements have affected sea levels in the past, and will enable more accurate projections of future change.

TORONTO, Ont., July 12, 2001--Eating nuts every day could help control Type 2 diabetes and prevent its complications, according to new research from St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto.

A Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert is calling for all sexually active American women age 40 and older to get tested for the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis after new study evidence found that the sexually transmitted disease (STD) is more than twice as common in this age group than previously thought. Screening is especially important because in many cases there are no symptoms.

San Diego, CA, July 12, 2011 – Lack of physical exercise is often implicated in many disease processes. However, sedentary behavior, or too much sitting, as distinct from too little exercise, potentially could be a new risk factor for disease. The August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine features a collection of articles that addresses many aspects of the problem of sedentary behavior, including the relevant behavioral science that will be needed to evaluate whether initiatives to reduce sitting time can be effective and beneficial.

07/07/11, Clearwater Beach, FL. Experimental results to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, suggests that dietary supplementation with molasses extract may provide a novel approach for weight management in humans.