A new, highly destructive strain of wheat stem rust is continuing to evolve and has the potential to devastate wheat production worldwide, say plant pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS).

According to two international-research studies on the last ice age, studies with the participation of Dr Rainer Zahn, research professor in the ICREA at the UAB Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), before the great ice sheets of the Arctic Ocean began to melt, early sporadic episodes of melting of the old ice sheet which covered the British Isles had already begun to affect the circulation of the ocean currents, which played a key role in the climatic stability of the planet.

Based on this observation, scientists consider that the acceleration of the melting of the Greenland ice cap could play an important role in the future stability of ocean circulation and, hence, in the development of climate change.

According to this study, marital sex is the single greatest HIV risk for women around the world.

Marital infidelity by men is so deeply ingrained across many cultures, say Mailman School of Public Health researchers, existing HIV prevention programs are putting a growing number of women at risk of developing the HIV virus.

The findings, indicating that globally, prevention programs that take a "just say no” approach and encourage men to be monogamous are unlikely to be effective, underline the need for programs that make extramarital sex safer, rather than—unrealistically—trying to eradicate it.

The article’s lead author, Jennifer S.

Imagine a world where you can eat any kind of fat you want without raising your risk of heart disease.

A new study in mice raises just that possibility.

One simple blood test could predict relapse or survival for children and young adults with acute leukemias, researchers from the Children's Cancer Hospital at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported at the American Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology's annual meeting Saturday, May 5.

A review of young leukemia patients over the past decade has shown that the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), a measure of normal immune cells found on every complete blood count report, is a powerful predictor of survival for young patients with leukemia.

Everyday experience and psychology research both indicate that paying close attention to one thing can keep you from noticing something else.

However, a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that attention does not have a fixed capacity - and that it can be improved by directed mental training, such as meditation.

Tropical plants may be more adaptable than commonly thought to changing rainfall patterns expected to accompany a warming climate, new research shows.

A University of Florida scientist and other researchers have found that plants in Hawaii have the ability to acclimate to big changes in rainfall in at least one important respect – how they get nutrients. The plants largely rely on one form of the vital nutrient nitrogen in moist areas. But in the still wetter terrain that characterizes some rainforests, they switch to another form of nitrogen that becomes more available in those conditions.

New immigrants to Western nations are believed to experience fewer chronic health problems (e.g., diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease) than long-time residents of those countries. Dr. Joel Ray and coauthors tested whether this "healthy immigrant effect" extends to complications during pregnancy.

Implanted pumps improved heart function enough in a small percentage of patients awaiting a heart transplant that they were able to leave the hospital without a pump and without a new heart, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The heart-assist devices also significantly improved the cardiac function in many other heart failure patients.

Does the time of year in which a child is conceived influence future academic achievement? Yes, according to research by neonatologist Paul Winchester, M.D., Indiana University School of Medicine professor of clinical pediatrics.

Dr. Winchester and colleagues linked the scores of 1,667,391 Indiana students in grades 3 through 10 who took the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP) examination with the month in which each student had been conceived. The researchers found that ISTEP scores for math and language were distinctly seasonal with the lowest scores received by children who had been conceived in June through August.