Many television advertisers voice fears that distracted viewers -- those increasingly frenetic multitaskers using smartphones, laptops and tablets while viewing TV - are becoming less receptive to advertisers' messages. A new study published in the online Articles in Advance section of Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), refutes this conventional wisdom and concludes that the "second screen" puts a virtual store in every consumer's pocket. Multitasking viewers now visit, browse, and even buy advertised ...

An anti-poverty program tested extensively on three continents has produced sustained gains in individuals' income, wealth, and well-being, according to a study published today in the journal Science. The program provides very poor people with productive assets, such as livestock, as well as job training, life-skills coaching, and health information. Known as the "Graduation" program, its intention was to examine whether helping the poor in multiple ways simultaneously could be especially effective in fighting poverty. Overall, with more than 20,000 people enrolled ...

A new paper, co-authored by Woods Hole Research Center Senior Scientist Richard A. Houghton, entitled, "Audit of the global carbon budget: estimate errors and their impact on uptake uncertainty", was published in the journal Biogeosciences. The paper confirms that as carbon emissions continue to climb, so too has the Earth's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. About half of the emissions of CO2 each year remain in the atmosphere; the other half is taken up by the ecosystems on land and the oceans. For Dr. Houghton, "There is no question that land ...

A new work based on 3-D supercomputer simulations of earthquake data has found hidden rock structures deep under East Asia. Researchers from China, Canada, and the U.S. worked together to publish their results in March 2015 in the American Geophysical Union Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth. The scientists used seismic data from 227 East Asia earthquakes during 2007-2011, which they used to image depths to about 900 kilometers, or about 560 miles below ground. Notable structures include a high velocity colossus beneath the Tibetan plateau, and a deep mantle ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Raising awareness of the dangers of mouth and throat cancer increased the number of black men in some of Florida's poorest counties who sought screening for the first time, opening the door to improved survival rates through early detection and treatment, UF Health researchers report. Black men have the lowest survival rates of mouth and throat cancer in the United States, and these rates have decreased even more in recent years. To combat this problem, UF Health researchers launched a five-month media campaign targeted at black men in some of Florida's ...

A new study led by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) reports the discovery of a genetic variant that is associated with a patient's likelihood of responding to interferon-beta, one of the medications used in treating multiple sclerosis (MS). Published in the Annals of Neurology on May 14, the study also presents evidence that the affected gene, SLC9A9, may have a broader role in regulating the development and activity of certain immune cells that play important roles in inflammatory diseases like MS. A proportion of MS patients experience disease activity ...

May 14, 2015 -- Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Leiden University in the Netherlands found that children whose mothers were malnourished at famine levels during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy had changes in DNA methylation known to suppress genes involved in growth, development, and metabolism documented at age 59. This is the first study to look at prenatal nutrition and genome-wide DNA patterns in adults exposed to severe under-nutrition at different periods of gestation. Findings are published in the International Journal of ...

Army scientists working to support the Ebola virus outbreak response in West Africa have established the first genomic surveillance capability in Liberia, enabling them to monitor genetic changes in the virus within one week of sample collection. An article describing their work was recently published ahead of print in the online edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases. In the paper, the team offers a concise evaluation of the potential impact of the evolution of Ebola virus Makona, the strain responsible for the current outbreak, based on genome reconstruction of 25 ...

LAWRENCE -- For centuries, people have imagined the possibility of life on Mars. But long-held dreams that Martians could be invaders of Earth, or little green men, or civilized superbeings, all have been undercut by missions to our neighboring planet that have, so far, uncovered no life at all. Yet visits to the Red Planet by unmanned probes from NASA and the European Space Agency have found evidence that a prime condition for life once may have existed: water. "There has been a tremendous amount of very exciting findings this year that Mars once contained actively ...

The Aqua satellite's MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument took this image of the fires in Siberia. The top image shows the full sized false color image of the area highlighting the burn scars from previous fires. The sliding "before and after" image shows the real and false color images side-by-side for comparison. The left side shows current fires burning denoted by the red spots. These spots show areas where the thermal detectors on the MODIS instrument recognized temperatures higher than background. When accompanied by plumes of smoke, ...

Soft matter encompasses a broad swath of materials, including liquids, polymers, gels, foam and - most importantly - biomolecules. At the heart of soft materials, governing their overall properties and capabilities, are the interactions of nano-sized components. Observing the dynamics behind these interactions is critical to understanding key biological processes, such as protein crystallization and metabolism, and could help accelerate the development of important new technologies, such as artificial photosynthesis or high-efficiency photovoltaic cells. Observing these ...

DNA damage caused by smoking can be detected in cheek swabs, finds research published today in JAMA Oncology. The study provides evidence that smoking induces a general cancer program that is also present in cancers which aren't usually associated with it - including breast and gynaecological cancers. The research team, led by Professor Martin Widschwendter, Head of the Department of Women's Cancer at the UCL Institute for Women's Health and Dr Andrew Teschendorff (UCL Cancer Institute) looked at epigenetic alterations - changes to the DNA that switch genes on and off. ...

May 14, 2015 - For medical practices, having more unique doctors on staff and having doctors see more patients doesn't necessarily lead to improved patient outcomes--and in fact, may have the opposite effect, according to a brief report in the June issue of Medical Care. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. The study shows that high blood pressure (BP) is less likely to normalize during times when the number of unique doctors on staff is higher and more patients are seen, suggesting that "[W]hen practices are busier, BP care may suffer," writes Nancy R. Kressin, ...

Automated analysis of the vital signs commonly monitored in patients being transported to trauma centers could significantly improve the ability to diagnose those with life-threatening bleeding before they arrive at the hospital, potentially saving their lives. In the May issue of the journal Shock, a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the U.S. Army, air ambulance service Boston MedFlight, and two other Boston trauma centers report successful field testing of a system that simultaneously analyzed blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing patterns during ...

Scientists have made an important step towards understanding how volcanic eruptions happen, after identifying a previously unrecognised potential trigger. An international team of researchers from the University of Liverpool, Monash University and the University of Newcastle (Australia) think their findings could lead to new ways of interpreting signs of volcanic unrest measured by satellites and surface observations. Dr Janine Kavanagh, from the University of Liverpool's School of Environmental Sciences and lead author of the research paper, said: "Understanding the ...

Led by Georgia State University, researchers have developed the first robust and noninvasive detection of early stage liver cancer and liver metastases, in addition to other liver diseases, such as cirrhosis and liver fibrosis. Their findings were published Wednesday (May 13) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. More than 700,000 people are diagnosed with liver cancer each year. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, accounting for more than 600,000 deaths annually, according to the American Cancer Society. The rate of liver cancer in the ...

The combination of a cholesterol-lowering drug, Bezafibrate, and a contraceptive steroid, Medroxyprogesterone Acetate, could be an effective, non-toxic treatment for a range of cancers, researchers at the University of Birmingham have found. The findings published in the journal Cancer Research show that the drugs kill cancer cells in a completely new way. Early stage clinical trials of the drugs in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) have shown promising results, with survival three months longer on average than standard palliative care. The combination, ...

Alexandria, VA - The evolutionary age of grass has been hotly contested. Scientists have previously dated the earliest grasses to 55 million years ago; after the dinosaurs went extinct. Now, a new 100-million-year-old specimen of amber from Myanmar potentially pushes back grass evolution to the Late Cretaceous. Scientists from the Oregon State University who studied the amber believe they identified "spikelet" - grass in its flowering state - and a cluster of fossilized ergot, a major ingredient in LSD. While their conclusions are intriguing, and have implications for ...

The knock-on effects of the economic downturn have been explored in economy and psychology. Now researchers are examining the effects of unemployment on an even darker subject - cancer mortality. One would think that dealing with unemployment was challenge enough. But according to the latest research published in ecancermedicalscience, rises in unemployment are associated with significant increases in prostate cancer mortality. This is the first study that has systematically explored the consequences that changes in unemployment - in particular the Great Recession ...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today announced results from four major studies to be presented at ASCO's 51st Annual Meeting, May 29-June 2, in Chicago. Findings showed that use of a widely available vitamin pill reduces the risk of non-melanoma skin cancers; that early chemotherapy extends the lives of men with advanced prostate cancers; and that new therapies can improve outcomes for children with a rare form of kidney cancer and adults with relapsed multiple myeloma. The studies are among the around 5,000 abstracts publicly released ...

WASHINGTON - A special issue of American Psychologist provides a comprehensive review of over 40 years of research on bullying among school age youth, documenting the current understanding of the complexity of the issue and suggesting directions for future research. "The lore of bullies has long permeated literature and popular culture. Yet bullying as a distinct form of interpersonal aggression was not systematically studied until the 1970s. Attention to the topic has since grown exponentially," said Shelley Hymel, PhD, professor of human development, learning and culture ...

LOS ANGELES (May 14, 2015) - Millions of people afflicted by irritable bowel syndrome can now be diagnosed quickly and accurately with two simple blood tests developed by a Cedars-Sinai gastroenterologist. The tests, created by Mark Pimentel, MD, director of the GI Motility Program and Laboratory, confirm when a patient has developed IBS because of food poisoning, a major cause of the disorder. Toxins produced by bacteria, such as salmonella, can severely harm the digestive system by damaging nerves critical to healthy gut function. The new blood tests identify the ...

Researchers have published results in Environmental Research Letters confirming strong warming in the upper troposphere, known colloquially as the tropospheric hotspot. The hot has been long expected as part of global warming theory and appears in many global climate models. The inability to detect this hotspot previously has been used by those who doubt man-made global warming to suggest climate change is not occurring as a result of increasing carbon dioxide emissions. "Using more recent data and better analysis methods we have been able to re-examine the global weather ...

A new report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics calls for a change in culture across all areas of children's health research, so that children's and young people's views and opinions can help to shape how research is prioritised, designed and reviewed. Unless ethical concerns about asking children to take part in research are addressed, our understanding of childhood disorders and ability to provide evidence based care will remain limited. "It will always be easier to say 'no' to research with children on the grounds that it's too difficult, but we should challenge ...

A new Australian study shows that cells which form the bulk of our fast-acting 'innate' immune system behave differently, depending on whether an injury is infected or not. It is well known that paparazzi-like 'neutrophils' swarm to sites of injury within minutes to undertake damage control and kill invaders. Most have very short lives and self-destruct once their job is done. Sydney researchers now demonstrate that in certain cases neutrophils can also enlist reinforcements in their fight against pathogens. If the injury is infected, neutrophils seek out accomplices ...