NC State In the News

Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. canadensis

Science Magazine, Science Daily, PhysOrg.com, Wall Street Italia, Genetic Engineering; Biotechnology News, New Scientist - News, EurekAlert, e Science News, Times of India, News Guide, First Science, The News; Observer, Deccan Chronicle, TMCnet.com, World Net Daily, Free Republic, Newstin.ae, Yahoo! India News, United Press International, Times of the Internet, SmasHits.com, COSMOS

April 30 – Molecular preservation in non-avian dinosaurs is controversial. We present multiple lines of evidence that endogenous proteinaceous material is preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues from an 80-million-year-old Campanian hadrosaur, Brachylophosaurus canadensis [Museum of the Rockies (MOR) 2598]. Microstructural and immunological data are consistent with preservation of multiple bone matrix and vessel proteins, and phylogenetic analyses of Brachylophosaurus collagen sequenced by mass spectrometry robustly support the bird-dinosaur clade, consistent with an endogenous source for these collagen peptides. These data complement earlier results from Tyrannosaurus rex (MOR 1125) and confirm that molecular preservation in Cretaceous dinosaurs is not a unique event . . .

National Pork Board Joins USDA, Others Calling Flu H1N1

Ktic 840 Rural Radio, Alfa Farmers, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, Kneb, KRVN Radio

April 30 – The National Pork Board is now calling the influenza outbreak the H1N1 flu, aligning with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other government agencies that begun referring to the virus by its viral strain...According to Peter Cowen, associate professor of epidemiology and public health at North Carolina State University, the H1N1 virus is being called swine flu because of the 1918 outbreak in Spain. That virus, Cowen said, became known as the swine influenza virus because it caused significant mortality in both swine and human populations. Cowen, as did the OIE, notes that it appears that people who have come down with the current novel H1N1 virus have had no contact with swine. The reason this virus is being called swine flu, Cowen said, "is the history and evolution of the virus. It also rests on the fact the some of the genetic analysis indicates that elements from viruses that have traditionally been found in swine populations are incorporated" . . .

Counties shed more jobs

The Herald

May 1 – While jobless rates dropped slightly in Wake and Johnston counties in March, a stark reality remains. The areas lost hundreds of jobs last month – more than in February...The numbers might sound like good news, but it's important to look at job losses, said Mike Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University. "Johnston is a good example of the pattern here," he said. The pattern is this: Johnston had 68,773 workers in March, compared to 69,122 in February. So 349 jobs were lost last month, nearly 250 more than were lost in February . ..

When Do Deficits Matter?

IStock Analyst

May 1 – On January 5, The New York Times reported that "the incoming Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Budget Committees today called upon the President to work with them on a deficit-reducing package that would include tax increases and spending cuts." Concerned that deficit projections were unrealistic because they didn't include military costs, Democrats urged the administration to increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans...Even without assuming Barro's private savings offset, scholars haven't been able to find a clear correlation between interest rates and deficit spending. In 1993, for instance, the North Carolina State University economist John Seater surveyed the academic studies on deficits and interest rates. After reviewing the literature, Seater concluded that the data "are inconsistent with the traditional view that government debt is positively related to interest rates." . . .

Cheap scope can spot cancer

The News & Observer, Individual.com

May 2 – Practicing medicine in a developing country is often an exercise in the art of jerry-rigging, but Dr. David Walmer is taking the challenge to a new level....Richard Daniels, the project engineer, has been tinkering with the basic model and is now assembling 10 prototype scopes with items the team has gathered from ordinary sources. To keep costs low, they use $10 binoculars mounted onto the plastic headgear stripped from $16 hard hats. The optics are altered with lenses cut from $2 reading glasses. Daniels and students at N.C. State University, working for community service credit, solder the wiring to a battery pack that is mounted on the side of the head gear . . .

Queen bee promiscuity boosts hive health

Bio-Medicine

May 3 – Though promiscuity may be risky behavior for humans, it's healthy for honeybees: Queen honeybees who indulge in sexual surfeits with multiple drones produce more disease-resistant colonies than monogamous monarchs....Seeley and David Tarpy of North Carolina State University tested the leading hypothesis that queens' promiscuity improves colony disease resistance by boosting the genetic diversity of their offspring, the worker bees. "This required a particularly nasty experiment, in which we inoculated colonies with the most virulent disease of honeybees that is known, the dreaded American foulbrood disease," said Seeley. Specifically, Tarpy inseminated honeybee queens (Apis mellifera) with sperm from either a single drone or from 10 drones. Seeley then sprayed the brood colonies of the resulting 49 colonies (24 from multiple-mate queens and 25 from singly mated queens) with water tainted with spores of the highly virulent bacterium that infects bee larvae and causes the disease American Foulbrood . . .

Scientists find way to track human movement

The Straits Times

May 1 – RESEARCHERS have developed a new statistical model simulating human mobility patterns, mimicking the way people move over the course of days or months. The model, developed by scientists at North Carolina State University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, is the first to represent the regular movement patterns of humans using statistical data. Among its uses, the model could be a tool for public health studies of epidemic disease, said the university in a statement . . .