With funding from the National Science Foundation, Peter Ungar is revealing more details about the lives of our human ancestors, and he's doing it through dentistry - sort of! The University of Arkansas anthropologist uses high tech dental scans to find out more about the diets of hominids, a technique that sometimes leads to new and very different conclusions. While anthropologists traditionally determine the diets of our ancestors by examining the size and shape of teeth and jaws, Ungar's...

Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, ~40% of children <5 y old are stunted, with levels that have remained largely unchanged over the past 2 decades. Although the complex determinants of undernutrition are well recognized, few studies have evaluated strategies that combine nutrition-specific, health-based approaches with food system– and livelihood-based interventions. Objective: We examined changes in childhood stunting and its determinants after 3 y of exposure to an integrated,...

The main objective of the AntiMal Integrated Project is to generate novel antimalarial drugs with potential for use in humans, specifically to progress candidate molecules to the “first time into humans” stage of drug development. To achieve this goal, leading groups of malaria researchers from Europe and Africa with expertise in malaria biology, chemotherapy and drug development have come together to exploit new scientific and political opportunities to secure the development of a...

Anti-malarial drugs are being used inappropriately for sick children in Zambia -- a problem that can be addressed by arming community health workers with a simple rapid-diagnostic test and a supply of antibiotics, a study led by researchers at Boston University School of Public Health has found. Listen to Kojo Yeboah-Antwi, assistant professor of international health at BUSPH, and David Hamer, professor of international health at BUSPH, discuss the study. Learn more at...

ASPIRE is an international women's health initiative aims to save thousands of lives by implementing a scalable and affordable integrated cervical cancer screening program in Eastern Africa using self-collection for the human papillomavirus (HPV). The ASPIRE program is community-driven and will undertake education and information campaigns to increase knowledge and capacity among healthcare providers. For more information visit www.aspireafrica.ca

The purpose of the Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC) project is to create a mobility aid specifically for developing countries. Conventional western-styled wheelchairs are nearly impossible to propel on the sandy roads and muddy walking paths frequently encountered in the developing world. The LFC has a variable mechanical advantage lever drivetrain that enables its user to travel 10-20% faster on tarmac than a conventional wheelchair, and off road like no other mobility aid available. The user...

M. Sofi Ibrahim of the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases discusses viral hemorrhagic fevers at the "Sequencing, Finishing, Analysis in the Future" meeting in Santa Fe, NM on May 27, 2009.

Geologic and Hydrologic Role of Sill Intrusion and Delineation of the Oceanic Crustal Boundary in the Central Gulf of California; Jared Kluesner, Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Geologic and Hydrologic Role of Sill Intrusion and Delineation of the Oceanic Crustal Boundary in the Central Gulf of California High-resolution multichannel profiles recently shot in the central Gulf of California display concordant and discordant (concave-upwards) sills intruded...

Ichnology for the 21st Century: Understanding the differences between continental and marine trace fossils, with implications to the diversity, distribution, and evolution of soil biota ; Department of Geological Sciences, San Diego State University, Seminar Series ; The study of ichnology has come a long way since its inception and it continues to evolve. In particular, progress is being made in understanding the implications of trace fossils in the continental realm and how they can be...

Note: Once this publication is available in PubMed Central the XML version will become available to connect figures and data. For now, for the full text and figures, please refer to the paper available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050124 Abstract: In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), communicable diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria, are still responsible for the greatest burden of morbidity and mortality [1]. However, non-communicable diseases...