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The kelp forests off southern California are considered to be some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet, yet a new study indicates that today's kelp beds are less extensive and lush than those in the recent past.

New Haven, Conn. -- Amphibians, for years considered a leading indicator of environmental degradation, are not uniquely susceptible to pollution, according to a meta-analysis to be published in Ecology Letters.

Researchers at Uppsala University, in collaboration with colleagues in Sweden and abroad, have identified an entirely new mechanism by which a specific protein in the body inhibits formation of new blood vessels. Inhibiting the formation of new blood vessels is an important aspect of, for example, cancer treatment. The study is published in the November issue of the journal Molecular Cancer Research.

ATLANTA – Emory University Rollins School of Public Health researchers will present Nov. 11 on a range of topics at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting in Philadelphia, including a study that found reduced absenteeism among employees participating in a large-scale worksite wellness program.

Additional public health research findings from Emory scientists are highlighted below.

Does faith affect how Southern African-American women use contraception?

Were dinosaurs endothermic (warm-blooded) like present-day mammals and birds or ectothermic (cold-blooded) like present-day lizards?

Were dinosaurs "warm-blooded" like present-day mammals and birds, or "cold-blooded" like present day lizards? The implications of this simple-sounding question go beyond deciding whether or not you'd snuggle up to a dinosaur on a cold winter's evening.

In a study published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, a team of researchers, including Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has found strong evidence that many dinosaur species were probably warm-blooded.

MOSS LANDING, CA — It sounds like a classic horror story—eyeless, mouthless worms lurk in the dark, settling onto dead animals and sending out green "roots" to devour their bones. In fact, such worms do exist in the deep sea. They were first discovered in 2002 by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), who were using a robot submarine to explore Monterey Canyon. But that wasn't the end of the story.

To celebrate its fifth year of publication, Journal of the Royal Society Interface in conjunction with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) honoured the best research article published in the journal at an awards ceremony in London on 6th November.

This release is available in http://chinese..org/zh/emb_releases/2009-11/jaaj-_1110509.php">Chinese.

Lipid assessment in vascular disease can be simplified by measuring either total and HDL cholesterol levels or apolipoproteins, without the need to fast and without regard to triglyceride levels, according to a study in the November 11 issue of JAMA.

Despite a current suggestion that patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome be positioned lying face down while receiving mechanical ventilation, study results indicate that this positioning does not significantly lower the risk of death compared to similar patients positioned lying face up during ventilation, according to a study in the November 11 issue of JAMA.

Use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents is associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism, according to study published online November 10 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (i.e., erythropoietin and darbopoietin) stimulate red blood cell production and therefore were approved to reduce the number of blood transfusions required during chemotherapy; however, concerns about the risks of venous thromboembolism (the disease that includes deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism) and mortality exist.

The small-molecule inhibitor nutlin-3 may be a viable treatment option for neuroblastoma patients with wild-type p53 activity, according to a new study published online November 10 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In this study in mice, Tom Van Maerken, M.D., Center for Medical Genetics, Ghent University Hospital in Belgium, and colleagues evaluated the antitumor efficacy of nutlin-3, a potent and selective antagonist of the p53–MDM2 interaction.

NEW YORK – Medications frequently given to cancer patients to reduce their risk of anemia are associated with an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, according to new research led by Dawn Hershman, M.D, M.S., co-director of the breast cancer program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. The findings will be published online on Nov. 10, 2009 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (ahead of the Dec. 2, 2009 print edition).

AMES, Iowa – A researcher at Iowa State University has discovered how a group of proteins from plant pathogenic bacteria interact with DNA in the plant cell, opening up the possibility for what the scientist calls a "cascade of advances."

A potential new drug for lung cancer has eliminated tumours in 50% of mice in a new study published today in the journal Cancer Research. In the animals, the drug also stopped lung cancer tumours from growing and becoming resistant to treatment. The authors of the research, from Imperial College London, are now planning to take the drug into clinical trials, to establish whether it could offer hope to patients with an inoperable form of lung cancer.