How much food your dining companion eats can have a big influence on how much you consume, a UNSW Australia-led study concludes. This psychological effect, known as social modelling, leads people to eat less than they normally would if alone when their companion consumes a small amount of food. Study lead author, Associate Professor Lenny Vartanian of the UNSW School of Psychology, says that in social situations the appropriate amount of food to eat can be unclear. "Internal signals like hunger and feeling full can often be unreliable guides. In these situations people ...

An international consortium of scientists led by a group from the University of Leicester has announced a new advance in understanding the mechanisms of cancer and how to target it more effectively with new treatments. Two papers published in the same issue of the world-leading Journal of Cell Biology have arisen from research work led by Professor Andrew Fry at the University of Leicester. Both papers suggest that new understanding of the mechanics of cell division can reveal new targets for cancer therapy. Professor Fry, who is Director of Research in the College ...

Geoscientists have, for the first time, discovered the origins of Australia's two largest basins: Lake Eyre and the Murray-Darling Basin. The research also implies that in 30 million years' time both basins will cease to exist. Monash University geoscientist Associate Professor Wouter Schellart, and his colleague Professor Wim Spakman from Utrecht University, have discovered how the floor of an entire ocean basin that was destroyed 70 to 50 million years ago off the North coast of New Guinea is currently located at 800-1200km depth below Central and South-eastern Australia. Using ...

New scanning methods which map the wiring of the brain could provide a valuable new tool to predict people at risk of schizophrenia, according to a new study. Scientists have long known that the symptoms of schizophrenia are partly explained by disordered connectivity in the brain. Now, a team of scientists from Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London and the University of Bristol, have, for the first time, used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to identify how the ...

Myopia or short-sightedness is becoming more common across Europe, according to a new study led by King's College London. The meta-analysis of findings from 15 studies by the European Eye Epidemiology Consortium found that around a quarter of the European population is short-sighted but it is nearly twice as common in younger people, with almost half (47 per cent) of the group aged between 25 and 29 years affected. The analysis of studies covering over 60,000 people, which was published today in the journal Ophthalmology, also found a strong link between myopia and level ...

New research suggests the use of hookah steam stones - commonly considered a safer alternative to cigarette smoking - could be leaving users with a dangerous, false sense of security. The findings out of the University of Cincinnati/Agilent Technologies Metallomics Center of the Americas are published this month in the Microchemical Journal. An analysis led by Amberlie Clutterbuck, a doctoral student in the UC Department of Chemistry, found residues of toxic metals that included chromium, arsenic and cadmium following several simulated hookah/steam stones smoking scenarios. Clutterbuck's ...

Philadelphia, PA, May 11, 2015 -- Dopamine is the chemical messenger in the brain most closely associated with pleasure and reward. Recent scientific advances now shed light on precise roles for dopamine in the reward process. A new paper published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry implicates dopamine in a person's ability to be motivated by delayed rewards. People like immediate reinforcement and tend to devalue rewards that are substantially delayed in time. As a result, people will often opt for smaller immediate rewards as opposed to larger delayed rewards ...

Even with the best available treatments, the median survival of patients with metastatic, hormone-refractory prostate cancer is only two to three years. Driven by the need for more effective therapies for these patients, researchers at VCU Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) have developed a unique approach that uses microscopic gas bubbles to deliver directly to the cancer a viral gene therapy in combination with an experimental drug that targets a specific gene driving the cancer's growth. Recently published in the journal Oncotarget, ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Scientists at Oregon State University have developed a faster, more accurate method to assess cancer risk from certain common environmental pollutants. Researchers found that they could analyze the immediate genetic responses of the skin cells of exposed mice and apply statistical approaches to determine whether or not those cells would eventually become cancerous. The study focused on an important class of pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, that commonly occur in the environment as mixtures such as diesel exhaust and cigarette ...

Swollen lymph nodes are often the earliest sign of metastatic spread of cancer cells. Now cancer researchers and immunologists at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet have discovered how cancer cells can infiltrate the lymphatic system by 'disguising' themselves as immune cells (white blood cells). The researchers hope that this finding, which is published in the scientific journal Oncogene, will inform the development of new drugs. The main reason why people die of cancer is that the cancer cells spread to form daughter tumours, or metastases, in vital organs, such as the ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A study by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found that a workplace mindfulness-based intervention reduced stress levels of employees exposed to a highly stressful occupational environment. Members of a surgical intensive care unit at the large academic medical center were randomized to a stress-reduction intervention or a control group. The 8-week group mindfulness-based intervention included mindfulness, gentle stretching, yoga, meditation and music conducted in the workplace. Psychological and biological markers of stress ...

Individuals who had cancer as a child may be at increased risk of being obese due to the therapies they received during their youth. The finding comes from a new study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study's results suggest the need for effective counseling and weight loss interventions for certain childhood cancer survivors. Previous research has shown that obesity rates are elevated in childhood cancer survivors who were exposed to cranial radiation, which is used to prevent or delay the spread of cancer ...

Patients with advanced colorectal tumors without mutations in the RAS genes derive substantial benefit from anti-EGFR therapies; however, the disease eventually progresses, leaving these patients with few alternative therapeutic options. Over the last decade, some of the mechanisms driving resistance have been identified, but despite intensive research, treatment options available for patients have not improved, Tabernero said. Sym004 is a 1:1 mixture in the same infusion bag of two antibodies that bind to different regions of the extracellular domain of EGFR, according ...

The world's first international study on homophobia in sport, "Out on the Fields," has found widespread homophobia in UK sport, prompting calls for a zero tolerance approach towards discrimination and better training for coaches, teachers and officials. The research, on behalf of the Bingham Cup (the world cup of gay rugby) and affiliated sports groups, was conducted by the global sports market research firm Repucom and overseen by a panel of seven academics from six universities, including Brunel University London. Participants were from the United Kingdom, Ireland, ...

Sea scallops, one of the most valuable commercial fisheries in the United States, are a well managed and monitored fishery, yet little is known about how changing ocean temperatures and ocean chemistry and other environmental factors could impact the fishery. A new study published May 6 in PLOS ONE describes a new computer model to help inform scallop management discussions and decisions in the coming decades. Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), NOAA Fisheries' Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), and Ocean Conservancy developed an ...

BINGHAMTON, NY -According to new research co-authored by Binghamton University's Seth Spain, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the impact of Saturday morning cartoons. The research examines how fantasy-based stories, in particular the popular 1980s cartoon series The Transformers, can shape children's perceptions of what behaviors are associated with effective leadership. It also could provide a basis for workplace-training programs. "We believe that Transformers presents three key lessons about leadership," said Spain, an assistant professor of organizational ...

Philadelphia, PA, May 7, 2015 - Current U.S. health policy requires Medicaid beneficiaries to wait 30 days before tubal sterilization. Ob/gyn experts argue that this violates health care justice as elective tubal sterilization is readily available to women with a private source of payment. Writing in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, they urge obstetricians to advocate for change to eliminate health care injustice in women's access to elective tubal sterilization. One of the most common forms of contraception in the U.S. is tubal sterilization after childbirth, ...

Some of the most popular social media sites are filled with images of extremely thin women that might be harmful to those who view them -- whether they are seeking them or not, according to research from the University of California, Davis. The images were often cropped to remove heads or focus on just a few body parts. Doctoral candidate Jannath Ghaznavi and associate professor Laramie Taylor in the Department of Communication examined about 300 photographs from Twitter and Pinterest postings that used the terms "thinspiration" and/or "thinspo" to tag images and ideas ...

URBANA, Ill. - Much attention has been given to dedicated, perennial bioenergy crops to meet the revised Renewable Fuel Standard mandating production of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by the year 2022. Even so, concern remains over the impending need to convert as much as 30 million acres of U.S. crop land, which would include food crops, to land for perennial energy crops in order to meet that demand. Researchers realize that biomass feedstocks will need to come from many different sources, including crop residues, forest residues, and municipal waste, for example, said ...

Livermore - New results from the NASA NuSTAR telescope show that a supernova close to our galaxy experienced a single-sided explosion. A team of scientists including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers found that X-ray emissions taken with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) show that the Supernova 1987A explosion was highly asymmetric. The results appear in the May 8 edition of the journal, Science. NuSTAR observations, including those of 1987A, provide strong and compelling observational evidence that supernovae are not symmetric. Supernova ...

El Salvador, Niger, and Pakistan are performing better in improving water and sanitation for their citizens than industrial giants like Russia and Brazil according to the new WaSH Performance Index developed by The Water Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Global Public Health. The new index to be released Friday, May 8 during a live webcast shows which countries are leaders in improving access to water and sanitation for their citizens. Sub-Saharan Africa countries including Mali, South Africa, and Ethiopia are also among the ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- May 8, 2015) St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have gained ground toward developing more targeted therapies for the most common childhood brain tumor. The findings appear today in the Journal of Molecular Biology. The findings involve the DDX3X gene. In 2012, the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital -- Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project highlighted DDX3X as a promising focus for efforts to develop targeted therapies against medulloblastoma. Such treatments target the genetic mistakes that give rise to the brain tumor's ...

PITTSBURGH -- Scientists have been manipulating genes for a while. The University of Pittsburgh's Alexander Deiters just found a way to control the process with higher precision. By using light. Deiters and his group are the first to achieve this. The resulting paper was recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Since 2013, scientists have used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR/Cas9. The method employs a bacterially derived protein (Cas9) and a synthetic guide RNA to induce a double-strand break at a specific location in the genome. This ...

Object recognition -- determining what objects are where in a digital image -- is a central research topic in computer vision. But a person looking at an image will spontaneously make a higher-level judgment about the scene as whole: It's a kitchen, or a campsite, or a conference room. Among computer science researchers, the problem known as "scene recognition" has received relatively little attention. Last December, at the Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, MIT researchers announced the compilation of the world's largest database of images ...

The Philippines warning center has raised a #2 warning for its citizens in the Luzon province of Catanduanes. This warning indicates, among other things, that the tropical cyclone will affect the locality and that winds of greater than 100 kph up to 185 kph (62 to 114 mph) may be expected in at least 18 hours. Philippines know the storm as Dodong and have also raised warning #1 for the areas of Luzon provinces of Sorsogon. Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Quezon, Polillo Island, Aurora, Quirino, Isabela and the Visayas provinces of Northern and Eastern Samar. Warning ...