March 25, 2007, 9:14 PM CT

Late Registrants More Likely to Vote

Later is better" when it comes to voter registration in national elections, according a new study of voter participation in the 2000 presidential election.

People who register to vote closer to registration deadlines are much more likely to vote on Election Day than are people who register earlier in an election year, according to the study conducted by political scientists from the University at Buffalo, University of Maryland and University of Texas.

"It's a very interesting pattern," says UB researcher Joshua J. Dyck, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science. "For political campaigns focused on get-out-the-vote efforts, the takeaway message is this: you'll get more bang for your buck if you focus on the narrow window close to the registration deadline.

"That's where we see a huge surge in voter registration and those people are much more likely to turn out to vote".

Dyck's co-researchers were James G. Gimpel, Ph.D., professor of government at University of Maryland, and Daron R. Shaw, Ph.D., associate professor of government at University of Texas.

The researchers focused on voter registration and voter turnout in large counties in six states during the 2000 presidential campaign. These included battleground states Florida, Iowa and New Mexico, as well as Kentucky, Nevada and North Carolina. The sample included more than 400,000 registered voters. The deadline for voter registration is about 30 days before an election in most states......... Posted by: Jaison      Read more         Source

March 25, 2007, 9:11 PM CT

Man's earliest direct ancestors

Modern man"s earliest known close ancestor was significantly more apelike than previously believed, a New York University College of Dentistry professor has found.

A computer-generated reconstruction by Dr. Timothy Bromage, a paleoanthropologist and Adjunct Professor of Biomaterials and of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology, shows a 1.9 million-year-old skull belonging to Homo rudolfensis, the earliest member of the human genus, with a surprisingly small brain and distinctly protruding jaw, features usually linked to more apelike members of the hominid family living as much as three million years ago.

Dr. Bromage"s findings call into question the extent to which H. rudolfensis differed from earlier, more apelike hominid species. Specifically, he is the first scientist to produce a reconstruction of the skull that questions renowned paleontologist and archeologist Richard Leakey"s depiction of modern man"s earliest direct ancestor as having a vertical facial profile and a relatively large brain an interpretation widely accepted until now.

Dr. Bromage"s reconstruction also suggests that humans developed a larger brain and more vertical face with a less pronounced jaw and smaller teeth at least 300,000 years later than usually believed, perhaps as recently as 1.6 million to one million years ago, when two later species, H. ergaster and H. erectus, lived. Dr. Bromage presented his findings today at the annual scientific session of the International Association for Dental Research in New Orleans......... Posted by: William      Read more         Source

March 25, 2007, 7:26 PM CT

Linear arrays of nanotubes

Despite the attractive electrical properties and physical features of single-walled carbon nanotubes, incorporating them into scalable integrated circuits has proven to be a challenge because of difficulties in manipulating and positioning these molecular scale objects and in achieving sufficient current outputs.

Now, scientists at the University of Illinois, Lehigh University and Purdue University have developed an approach that uses dense arrays of aligned and linear nanotubes as a thin-film semiconductor material suitable for integration into electronic devices.

The nanotube arrays can be transferred to plastic and other unusual substrates for applications such as flexible displays, structural health monitors and heads-up displays. The arrays also can be used to enhance the performance of devices built with conventional silicon-based chip technology.

"The aligned arrays represent an important step toward large-scale integrated nanotube electronics," said John A. Rogers, a Founder Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Illinois, and corresponding author of a paper accepted for publication in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, and posted on its Web site.

To create nanotube arrays, the scientists begin with a wafer of single-crystal quartz, on which they deposit thin strips of iron nanoparticles. The iron acts as a catalyst for the growth of carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition. As the nanotubes grow past the iron strips, they lock onto the quartz crystal, which then aligns their growth......... Posted by: Kevin      Read more         Source

March 25, 2007, 7:09 PM CT

Statins slow progression of arterial thickening

Among low-risk middle-aged people with subclinical atherosclerosis, the cholesterol-lowering drug rosuvastatin reduces the rate of progression of arterial thickening and stops but does not reverse atherosclerotic disease, according to a study in the March 28 issue of JAMA. The study is being released early to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's annual conference.

Lipid-lowering therapy has been shown to reduce cardiovascular events in a large number of studies. Statin drugs as well as other agents and lifestyle changes have also been shown to slow the progression of and even regress atherosclerosis, according to background information in the article. Atherosclerosis is the progressive thickening and hardening of the walls of medium-sized and large arteries as a result of fat deposits on their inner lining. Atherosclerosis is often advanced before symptoms appear, and it is not clear whether treatment is beneficial in middle-aged individuals with a low Framingham risk score (a measure used to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease) and mild to moderate subclinical atherosclerosis.

John R. Crouse III, M.D., of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, N.C., and colleagues conducted a randomized study of 984 individuals. The Measuring Effects on Intima-Media Thickness: an Evaluation of Rosuvastatin (METEOR) study was designed to investigate the effect of a 40-mg. dose of rosuvastatin on carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT, a measure of the thickness of the middle layers of the carotid arteries) over two years in middle-aged individuals with low Framingham risk scores, but with evidence of subclinical atherosclerosis......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

March 22, 2007, 10:20 PM CT

Delta Preservation With Coastal Science Experts

The Mississippi River delta region is of huge economic importance to the nation. As a "working coast," much of the Souths major industries especially seafood and petroleum are largely dependent on the health of the delta and its surrounding areas. After the 2005 hurricane season, however, experts are voicing growing concerns over how the Mississippi Deltaic Plain, or MDP, is being treated.

Scientists at LSU, led by John Day, estuary expert and professor of oceanography at the university, have joined forces with more than 10 other world-renowned coastal researchers to publish "Restoration of the Mississippi Delta: Lessons From Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," which will be featured in the March 23 edition of Science magazine.

The LSU group, which also includes Hassan Mashriqui, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Robert Twilley, professor of oceanography and associate vice chancellor of the Coastal Systems and Society Initiative, hopes that this article and the huge collaboration of experts that it represents will bring worldwide attention to the importance of preserving the MDP. "People need to understand that the formation of the MDP was a very complicated process, and its deterioration is equally as complicated," said Day. "Humans have affected it at every angle"......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

March 22, 2007, 10:18 PM CT

Evidence Of First Plate Tectonics

Identification of the oldest preserved pieces of Earth's crust in southern Greenland has provided evidence of active plate tectonics as early as 3.8 billion years ago, as per a report by an international team of georesearchers in the March 23 edition of Science magazine.

The finding pushes back the date of continent-forming processes previously determined as 2.5 billion years ago to a much earlier era considerably closer to Earth's formation some 4.5 billion years ago. Geochemical analysis of rocks has previously suggested an earlier date for plate tectonics, but this is the first study to find physical evidence of tectonics among Earth's oldest known rock structures, as per Hubert Staudigel of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

"The fact that this rock structure is so well preserved is especially lucky," Staudigel said. "The materials were formed as seafloor along a spreading center and accreted to a continental plate and just stuck there, surviving almost unscathed for as long as 3.8 billion years".

The study focuses on an area near the southwestern coast of Greenland where there is a rare outcrop of ancient rock, called the Isua Supracrustal Belt, which have been dated at 3.8 billion years old. The Isua rocks are ophiolites, which have a green hue from the chlorite minerals within them and are found in all major mountain belts, commonly located in areas linked to volcanism and plate tectonics. The Isua deposits were first described in the 1960s. They also have been found to contain fossilized evidence of the earliest bacterial life on Earth, also about 3.8 billion years old, in studies conducted in 1999 by Minik Rosing......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

March 22, 2007, 5:00 AM CT

Phone-based therapy for depression

When people receive brief telephone-based psychotherapy soon after starting on antidepressant medication, strong positive effects may continue 18 months after their first session. So concludes a Group Health study in the April Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

This paper describes one more year of follow-up since a 2004 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) report on the same random sample of Group Health patients.

With close to 400 patients, this is the largest study yet of psychotherapy delivered over the telephone, said Evette J. Ludman, PhD, senior research associate, Group Health Center for Health Studies, the papers lead author. Its also the first to study the effectiveness of combining phone-based therapy with antidepressant drug treatment as provided in everyday medical practice.

Long-term positive effects of initially adding phone-based therapy included improvements in patients symptoms of depression and satisfaction with their care, said Ludman. At 18 months, 77 percent of those who got phone-based therapy (but only 63 percent of those receiving regular care) reported their depression was much or very much improved. Those who received phone-based therapy were slightly better at taking their antidepressant medicine as recommended, but that did not account for most of their improvement. And effects were stronger for patients with moderate to severe depression than for those with mild depression......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

March 21, 2007, 10:15 PM CT

Amount of Mercury Entering the Ocean

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have found a new and substantial pathway for mercury pollution flowing into coastal waters. Marine chemists have detected much more dissolved mercury entering the ocean through groundwater than from atmospheric and river sources.

Mercury is toxic to animals and humans in large concentrations, especially in the form known as methyl mercury, which accumulates in fish. To date, WHOI scientists examined total mercury, not the more biologically dangerous form, though that is a logical next step. These initial findings of mercury moving through the coastal groundwater system are significant for scientists trying to quantify the impact of mercury in the marine environment.

The lead author of the study is Sharon Bone, a former undergraduate summer student fellow and research assistant in the laboratory of WHOI marine chemist Matt Charette. Bone is now a first-year graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley.

The findings were published online on March 21 by the journal Environmental Science and Technology and will appear in a printed issue later this spring.

Mercury pollution comes mostly from industrial emissions to the atmosphere, particularly from coal burning. After getting into the air, mercury particles eventually precipitate with rain or snow onto the land or directly into the oceans. Inland deposits of mercury are also weathered and carried to the coast in runoff from streams and rivers, where they accumulate in the sediments that build up along the shoreline......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

March 21, 2007, 9:56 PM CT

Tool To Track Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Researchers from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory announced recently a new tool to monitor changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by region and source. The tool, called CarbonTracker, will enable its users to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts to reduce or store carbon emissions.

The online data framework distinguishes between changes in the natural carbon cycle and those occurring in human-produced fossil fuel emissions. It also provides verification for researchers using computer models to project future climate change. Potential users include corporations, cities, states and nations assessing their efforts to reduce or store fossil fuel emissions around the world.

"NOAA encourages science that adds benefit to society and the environment. CarbonTracker does both," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "Increasingly, observations of the Earth are demonstrating a remarkable impact on our understanding of human and natural systems. We are transitioning this understanding gained from intensive research into operations that benefit the environment and the economy".

CarbonTracker distills an accurate assessment of greenhouse-gas increases or decreases. The resolution will increase to observe differences in concentration on finer geographical scales over time as data become available. Using the limited data that currently exist, the model can characterize emissions each month among U.S. regions, such as the West or the Southeast. As the observation network becomes denser, however, policymakers will be able to check the CarbonTracker Web site to compare emissions from urban centers. For instance, the resolution will be fine enough to determine the difference in net emissions from Sacramento as in comparison to San Francisco......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

March 21, 2007, 5:11 AM CT

Greenhouse gas animation using SCIAMACHY data

Based on three years of observations from the SCIAMACHY instrument aboard ESA's Envisat, researchers have produced the first movies showing the global distribution of the most important greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide and methane - that contribute to global warming.

The importance of cutting emissions from these 'anthropogenic', or manmade, gases has been highlighted recently with European Union leaders endorsing binding targets to cut greenhouse gases by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. Further illustrating the urgency to combat global warming, Britain became the first country last week to propose legislation for cutting the gases.

Careful monitoring is essential to ensuring these targets are met, and space-based instruments are new means contributing to this. The SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography) instrument, for instance, is the first space sensor capable of measuring the most important greenhouse gases with high sensitivity down to the Earth's surface because it observes the spectrum of sunlight shining through the atmosphere in 'nadir' looking operations.

Dr. Michael Buchwitz and Oliver Schneising from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen in Gera number of, led by Prof. Dr. John P. Burrows produced these maps based on SCIAMACHY observations from 2003 to 2005......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source