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How to build a very large star
2013-03-27
(Press-News.org) Now, a group of researchers led by two astronomers at the University of Toronto suggests that baby stars may grow to great mass if they happen to be born within a corral of older stars –with these surrounding stars favorably arranged to confine and thus feed gas to the younger ones in their midst. The astronomers have seen hints of this collective feeding, or technically "convergent constructive feedback," in a giant cloud of gas and dust called Westerhout 3 (W3), located 6,500 light years from us. Their results are published in April in The Astrophysical Journal.
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ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New fossil species from a fish-eat-fish world when limbed animals evolved
2013-03-27
PHILADELPHIA (March 27, 2013)— "We call it a 'fish-eat-fish world,' an ecosystem where you really needed to escape predation," said Dr. Ted Daeschler, describing life in the Devonian period in what is now far-northern Canada.
This was the environment where the famous fossil fish species Tiktaalik roseae lived 375 million years ago. This lobe-finned fish, co-discovered by Daeschler, an associate professor at Drexel University in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, and associate curator and vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of ...
C. diff infection risk rises with antihistamine use to treat stomach acid, Mayo Clinic finds
2013-03-27
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Patients receiving antihistamines to suppress stomach acid are at greater risk of infection from Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, a common cause of diarrhea, particularly in health care settings, Mayo Clinic researchers have found. The study focused on histamine 2 receptor antagonists. The researchers found no significant risk for people taking over-the-counter antihistamine drugs, however. The findings appear in the online journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers reviewed 35 observations based on 33 separate studies involving C. diff and antihistamines used ...
Penn engineers enable 'bulk' silicon to emit visible light for the first time
2013-03-27
Electronic computing speeds are brushing up against limits imposed by the laws of physics. Photonic computing, where photons replace comparatively slow electrons in representing information, could surpass those limitations, but the components of such computers require semiconductors that can emit light.
Now, research from the University of Pennsylvania has enabled "bulk" silicon to emit broad-spectrum, visible light for the first time, opening the possibility of using the element in devices that have both electronic and photonic components.
The research was ...
Hot flashes? Active days bring better nights
2013-03-27
CLEVELAND, Ohio (March 27, 2013)—Getting a good night's sleep isn't always easy for women at menopause. Exercise may help, but women can have a tough time carving out leisure time for it. The good news from a study published online today in Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society, is that higher levels of routine daily physical activity may be the more important key to a better night's sleep for many women who have hot flashes or night sweats.
Although exercise is known to improve sleep for people in general, studies in menopausal women haven't ...
Telling tales can be a good thing
2013-03-27
The act of talking is not an area where ability is usually considered along gender lines. However, a new study published in Springer's journal Sex Roles has found subtle differences between the sexes in their story-relating ability and specifically the act of reminiscing. The research by Widaad Zaman from the University of Central Florida and her colleague Robyn Fivush from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, discusses how these gender differences in parents can affect children's emotional development.
Previous research in this area has concluded that the act of parents ...
New test for skin sensitization without using animals
2013-03-27
In an advance in efforts to reduce the use of animals in testing new cosmetic and other product ingredients for skin allergies, scientists are describing a new, highly accurate non-animal test for these skin-sensitizers. Their study appears in ACS' journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.
Bruno Miguel Neves and colleagues explain that concerns about the ethics and costs of animal-based tests for skin sensitizers, plus regulations in the European Union, are fostering a search for alternative tests. Testing product ingredients prior to marketing is important, because allergic ...
Environmental enrichment important factor impacting cell transplantation and brain repair
2013-03-27
Putnam Valley, NY. (March. 27, 2013) – A team of Korean researchers investigated whether "environmental enrichment" can improve the neurobehavioral function of six week-old mice after transplantation of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) to treat hypoxic-ischemic brain injury, and found that brain repair (neurogenesis) was aided in some animals through exercise-induced fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), a strong pro-angiogenic factor.
The post-transplantation environmental enrichment (EE) included use of a running wheel and exposure to "novel objects."
The study ...
Forced methadone withdrawal in jails creates barrier to treatment in community
2013-03-27
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Methadone treatment for opioid dependence remains widely unavailable behind bars in the United States, and many inmates are forced to discontinue this evidence-based therapy, which lessens painful withdrawal symptoms. Now a new study by researchers from the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, a collaboration of The Miriam Hospital and Brown University, offers some insight on the consequences of these mandatory withdrawal policies.
According to their research, published online by the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment and appearing in the ...
Ultrafine particles raise concerns about improved cookstoves
2013-03-27
A new study raises concerns about possible health impacts of very small particles of soot released from the "improved cookstoves" that international aid agencies are promoting to replace open-fire cooking in developing countries. It appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Brian Just and colleagues point out that 3 billion people worldwide still cook meals on stoves or open fires that burn wood, animal dung or other biomass fuel. These fires, which sometimes are indoors, release air pollutants linked to 3.5 million deaths annually. Soot, or so-called ...
Stressful life events may increase stillbirth risk, NIH network study finds
2013-03-27
Pregnant women who experienced financial, emotional, or other personal stress in the year before their delivery had an increased chance of having a stillbirth, say researchers who conducted a National Institutes of Health network study.
Stillbirth is the death of a fetus at 20 or more weeks of pregnancy. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, in 2006, there was one stillbirth for every 167 births.
The researchers asked more than 2,000 women a series of questions, including whether they had lost a job or had a loved one in the hospital in the year before ...