Weekly PLoS ONE News and Blog Round-Up

In this week’s PLoS ONE media digest: obesity as risk factor for dying of flu, a new gene related to Alzheimer’s, brain size in birds, and more.

Morbid Obesity as a Risk Factor for Hospitalization and Death Due to 2009 Pandemic Influenza A(H1N1) Disease by Morgan et al, was covered by CIDRAP, Times of India, Tech Eye, HealthNews and eMaxHealth.

Coverage of Concordant Association of Insulin Degrading Enzyme Gene (IDE) Variants with IDE mRNA, Aß, and Alzheimer’s Disease by Carrasquillo et al, was carried by Benzinga, dBusinessNews Minneapolis, Jacksonville Business Journal and R & D Magazine.

Evolutionary Divergence in Brain Size between Migratory and Resident Birds by Sol et al was discussed by EcoTone and NeuroDojo.

Tentaculate Fossils from the Cambrian of Canada (British Columbia) and China (Yunnan) Interpreted as Primitive Deuterostomes by Caron, Conway Morris and Shu was blogged by Brian Switek of Laelaps.

The Alzheimer’s Disease-Associated Amyloid β-Protein Is an Antimicrobial Peptide was covered by Derek Lowe at In the Pipeline.

Prevalence of Livestock-Associated MRSA in Communities with High Pig-Densities in The Netherlands by van Cleef et al, was reported in Emerging Health Threats Forum.

A Cluster Randomized Trial of Routine HIV-1 Viral Load Monitoring in Zambia: Study Design, Implementation, and Baseline Cohort Characteristics by Koethe et al, was noted in Birmingham Science News Examiner.

Human Prion Diseases in the United States by Holman et al, was described by CJD Blogger.