Skeleton of 12,000-year-old shaman found
JERUSALEM, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Israeli scientists say they've found the skeleton of a 12,000 year-old Natufian shaman buried with 50 tortoise shells, a leopard's pelvis and a human foot.
Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologists said the newly discovered shaman burial site is thought to be one of the earliest known and the only shaman's grave in the whole region.
Leore Grosman of the university's Institute of Archeology is leading the excavation at the Natufian site of Hilazon Tachtit, a cave in the western Galilee. He said the elaborate and invested interment rituals and method used to construct and seal the grave suggest the woman had a very high standing within the community.
Grosman said the grave also contained body parts of several animals that rarely occur in Natufian assemblages, such as the wing tip of a golden eagle, the tail of a cow and the forearm of a wild boar that was directly aligned with the woman's left humerus.
Grosman said the burial site is unlike any found in the Natufian or the preceding Paleolithic periods.
The discovery is detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Genes may alter esophageal cancer risk
HOUSTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. cancer scientists say they have found variations in a common gene pathway can affect esophageal cancer risk.
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center scientists said their study is the first to look at the association between genetic variations related to microRNAs and esophageal cancer.
"Previous research has shown miRNAs control approximately one-third of human genes and may play a part in cancer risk," said Dr. Xifeng Wu, the study's lead author. "But whether genetic variants of miRNA-related genes influence esophageal cancer has largely remained unknown."
The researchers said they found seven genotypes were significantly associated with esophageal cancer risk, and four more showed at least a borderline significance. The risk of esophageal cancer became higher in correlation to an increase in the number of the unfavorable genotypes present.
"This research showed not only that a single gene contributes to the risk of esophageal cancer, but more importantly that the joint effect of several genetic elements can increase risk," said Yuanqing Ye, the study's first author.
Officials said esophageal cancer ranks sixth in cancer-related deaths worldwide, and it is becoming more common.
The research appears in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
Nighttime tornadoes more likely to kill
DEKALB, Ill., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've determined tornadoes occurring between midnight and dawn are 2 1/2 times more likely to kill than are daytime twisters.
"The proportion of nocturnal fatalities and killer tornado events has increased during the last half century," said Northern Illinois University Professor Walker Ashley, the study's lead author. "Unfortunately, this nocturnal fatality rate appears to be a major factor for the stalled decline in national tornado-fatality tallies during the past few decades."
The study found between 1950 and 2005, 27 percent of U.S. tornadoes were nocturnal, yet 39 percent of tornado fatalities and 42 percent of killer tornado events occurred at night.
The researchers said people are more vulnerable at night for several reasons, including the facts that tornadoes are more difficult to see, people are more likely to be asleep and in structures more susceptible to damage, and warning sirens are less effective at reaching those indoors.
The scientists also noted a relatively small proportion of U.S. households own weather radios although they're widely available, cost as little as $25 and are equipped with alarms.
The study that included Professor Andrew Krmenec and research associate Rick Schwantes appeared in the October issue of the American Meteorological Society journal Weather and Forecasting.
Novel action of insulin is discovered
SYDNEY, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- An Australian scientist has discovered a crucial step in how insulin works, moving science closer to explaining how insulin interacts with the body's cells.
"Since the 1920s, when (Frederick) Banting and (Charles) Best discovered insulin, scientists have been battling to discover how it actually works," said Professor David James, head of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research's diabetes program. "Then along comes Freddy Yip, doing his Ph.D., who unveils a completely novel action of insulin -- one which we believe plays a fundamental role in glucose uptake, a process that is defective in Type 2 diabetes."
James said there are two processes involved in Type 2 diabetes: insufficient production of insulin in the pancreas and faulty uptake and storage of glucose in fat and muscle cells.
Yip's finding focuses on the intersection between those two processes.
"In the cell we have series of motor proteins that have the ability to move other molecules from one place to another along intracellular railroad tracks," Yip said. "I have discovered that insulin activates a specific kind of motor protein known as Myo1c, which in turn performs a critical role in glucose uptake."
Added James, "While we're certainly not saying we've found a way to cure diabetes, we are saying we've found a pretty significant clue."
The study is reported online in the journal Cell Metabolism.
