The words 'yes' and 'no' may seem like two of the easiest expressions to understand in any language, but their actual behavior and interpretation are surprisingly difficult to pin down. In a paper published earlier today in the scholarly journal Language, two linguists examine the workings of 'yes' and 'no' and show that understanding them leads to new insights concerning the understanding of questions and statements more generally. Floris Roelofsen (University of Amsterdam) and Donka F. Farkas (UC - Santa Cruz) provide a comprehensive account of 'polarity particles', ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - To sort out the biological intricacies of Earth-like planets, astronomers have developed computer models that examine how ultraviolet radiation from other planets' nearby suns may affect those worlds, according to new research published June 10 in Astrophysical Journal. "Depending on the intensity, ultraviolet radiation can be both useful and harmful to the origin of life," says Lisa Kaltenegger, Cornell associate professor of astronomy and the director of Cornell's new Carl Sagan Institute: Pale Blue Dot and Beyond. "We are trying to ascertain how much ...

CHICAGO --- Consumers may need more help navigating the sunscreen aisle. A new Northwestern Medicine study found that many people seem to be confused by sunscreen terminology. Only 43 percent of people surveyed understood the definition of sun factor protection (SPF) and only seven percent knew what to look for on a label if they wanted a sunscreen that offers protection against early skin aging. Details of the study were published June 17, in the journal JAMA Dermatology. "We need to do a better job of educating people about sun protection and make it easier for ...

To move the world toward sustainability, scientists are continuing to explore and improve ways to tap the vast power of sunlight to make fuels and generate electricity. Now they have come up with a brand-new way to use light -- solar or artificial -- to drive battery power safely. Their "photo battery," reported in ACS' The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, uses light and titanium nitride for the anode. Metal-ion batteries such as those based on lithium ions run most of our gadgets. But they take a long time to charge. They can also overheat and catch fire if they're ...

Chances are good that women with a low heart rate variability also suffer from sexual dysfunction. That's the finding from a study led by Amelia Stanton of The University of Texas at Austin in the US published in Springer's journal Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. Heart rate variability refers to differences in the length of time between consecutive heartbeats. It is one of the most sensitive and objective measures of the interplay between the sympathetic nervous system (which activates the so-called fight or flight response) and the parasympathetic nervous system ...

Good leaders needing to strike a balance between striving to reach goals and keeping their followers with them has deep evolutionary roots, according to a new study from the Universities of Bristol, Harvard and Princeton on schooling fish. Dr Christos Ioannou and colleagues devised an experiment to determine the behaviours associated with effective leadership using fish called golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas). Some of the fish were trained to expect food in a particular dish. These 'informed' individuals were then tested on their ability to reach the dish with ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- An international research team led by Mayo Clinic oncologists has found a new way to identify and possibly stop the progression of many late-stage cancers, including bladder, blood, bone, brain, lung and kidney. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video and audio are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network. The precision medicine study appears online in Oncogene and focuses on kidney cancer and its metastases. Recent studies of the same epigenomic fingerprint in other cancers suggest a common pathway that could help improve the diagnosis and treatment ...

The best sparkling wines take months to ferment to perfection. In recent years, many winemakers have turned to commercial yeast products to give this process a boost. How they ultimately affect bubbly has been an open question, but now scientists have stepped in to find out. They report their findings in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. When sparkling wine is made, yeast cells burst open in a process called autolysis. This releases a special kind of protein called mannoproteins that, in still wines (the non-bubbly kind), can reduce astringency and bitterness, ...

Researchers from Cardiff University have pioneered a new technique that will enable scientists to precisely pinpoint the areas on an enzyme that help to speed up chemical reactions. By labelling certain segments of an enzyme with heavy isotopes, the researchers have found that 'heavy' and 'light' versions of enzymes have different catalytic properties, allowing them to determine which regions are linked to specific functions. It is hoped this precise pinpointing may shed light on why enzymes are much more efficient at speeding up chemical reactions compared to man-made ...

LOS ANGELES -- In two ancillary studies of two multi-center international clinical trials led by the University of Southern California (USC) Eye Institute, the injectable drug ocriplasmin appears to improve vision among patients suffering from symptomatic vitreomacular adhesion (VMA), a condition related to the aging eye that could cause permanent vision loss if left untreated. 'These are the first large studies that document patient-reported visual improvement after injection of ocriplasmin for symptomatic VMA,' said Rohit Varma, M.D., M.P.H., director of the USC Eye ...

Lisbon, 17 June 2015: An IVF technique which freezes all embryos generated in an initial treatment cycle and transfers them in a later cycle as freeze-thawed embryos does not improve outcome as some studies have suggested. Results of the study, performed at the Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidad (IVI) clinic in Valencia, Spain, are presented today at the ESHRE Annual Meeting by Dr Ernesto Bosch, Medical Director of IVI Valencia, Spain. As background to his report, Dr Bosch noted that several studies have found improved outcomes in IVF when all embryos are electively ...

Nyon, Switzerland - June 17, 2015 -- An International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Working Group on Skeletal Rare Diseases has published a new classification of rare genetic metabolic bone disorders (RGMBDs) according to their metabolic pathogenesis. Skeletal Rare Diseases such as osteogenesis imperfecta, juvenile Paget's disease or osteopetrosis, are only three of the more than 400 developmental abnormalities of the skeletal system that affect patients worldwide. Although rare, these 'orphan' diseases have a very serious, and often devastating, impact on the lives ...

Scientists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum established a mouse model for the human disease SCA6. SCA6 is characterised by movement deficits and caused by similar genetic alterations as Chorea Huntington. The mouse model will be used to investigate the disease mechanisms. Experiments suggest that an impairment of eye blink conditioning could be an early disease symptom. The team from the Department of Zoology and Neurobiology published their data in the Journal of Neuroscience; the work was highlighted by the editor's commentary. Spinocerebellar ataxia 6: structural ...

This news release is available in German. Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) - an otherwise unremarkable plant - produces pollen that can trigger strong allergic reactions such as asthma even in very small quantities. Scientists from Technische Universität München (TUM) and Helmholtz Zentrum München have now published a joint study showing that the substance previously identified as the major allergen only induces such a vigorous allergic response in combination with the adenosine also present in the pollen. Ragweed only started to become widespread ...

A group of researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have managed to print and dry three-dimensional objects made entirely by cellulose for the first time with the help of a 3D-bioprinter. They also added carbon nanotubes to create electrically conductive material. The effect is that cellulose and other raw material based on wood will be able to compete with fossil-based plastics and metals in the on-going additive manufacturing revolution, which started with the introduction of the 3D-printer. 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing that is predicted to ...

Astronomers have long theorised the existence of a first generation of stars -- known as Population III stars -- that were born out of the primordial material from the Big Bang [1]. All the heavier chemical elements -- such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and iron, which are essential to life -- were forged in the bellies of stars. This meansthat the first stars must have formed out of the only elements to exist prior to stars: hydrogen, helium and trace amounts of lithium. These Population III stars would have been enormous -- several hundred or even a thousand times more ...

Scientists have developed a new tissue 'scaffold' technology that could one day enable the engineering of large organs. Research led by the Universities of Bristol and Liverpool has shown that it is possible to combine cells with a special scaffold to produce living tissue in the laboratory. It is hoped this can then be implanted into patients as a way of replacing diseased parts of the body. Until now, the approach has generally been limited to growing small pieces of tissue, as larger dimensions reduce the oxygen supply to the cells in the centre. A team of ...

HOUSTON, June 18 -- Taking research from the lab to the clinic can be a long and arduous process, but necessary to ensure new therapeutic methods are safe. This typically involves models created in the lab to closely resemble the cellular mechanism of the human body. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine say they have now created a new disease model that more than just resembles the human mechanisms; it acts as a fully functioning human lipid system within a mouse to specifically study hypercholesterolemia, a form of high cholesterol caused by a genetic defect. The ...

About a fifth of all U.S. children live in poverty. These children are more likely to experience learning and cognitive delays. Researchers have tried to determine causes for this disparity, with recent work identifying the hormone cortisol as a possible reason because of its ability to pass the blood-brain barrier. Cortisol is one of the most influential hormones in the human body, often referred to as the stress hormone because it's secreted into the bloodstream at higher levels as part of the body's flight-or-fight response. Now a new study has identified how specific ...

Teenagers vary substantially in their ability to control impulses and regulate their behavior. Adolescents who have difficulty with impulse control may be more prone to risky sexual behavior, with serious consequences such as sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies. A new study has found that individual differences in working memory can predict both early sexual activity and unprotected sexual involvement during adolescence. Working memory -- the system in the brain that allows individuals to draw on and use information to plan and make decisions -- ...

Migraine researchers and clinicians are growing excited about a new class of drugs called Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies, which are showing promise in treating high-frequency episodic migraine and chronic migraine. "This development is a transformative moment in migraine treatment," said Peter J. Goadsby, MD, PhD, who is chair of the scientific program of the American Headache Society's annual Scientific Meeting. Dr. Goadbsy is Chief of the UCSF Headache Center, and one of the world's leading headache treatment experts and researchers. ...

So perhaps there is some truth in the old legends of the underworld reeking of brimstone (or sulphur, as it is now called)? New research confirms that the Earth's core does in fact contain vast amounts of sulphur, estimated to be up to 8.5 x 1018 tonnes. This is about 10 times the amount of sulphur in the rest of the Earth, based on the most recent estimates (and for comparison, around 10% of the total mass of the Moon). This is the first time that scientists have conclusive geochemical evidence for sulphur in the Earth's core, lending weight to the theory that the Moon ...

During the coming monsoon season, survivors of the recent earthquake that destroyed parts of Nepal face a "very high" risk of a hepatitis E outbreak that could be especially deadly to pregnant women, according to a consensus statement from a group of infectious disease experts from around the world. The document, published in the Lancet June 16 and signed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Alain Labrique and six others, states that the conditions in the April tremor that killed 8,800 people and injured more than 23,000 have left conditions ripe for ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio--Are black holes the ruthless killers we've made them out to be? Samir Mathur says no. According to the professor of physics at The Ohio State University, the recently proposed idea that black holes have "firewalls" that destroy all they touch has a loophole. In a paper posted online to the arXiv preprint server [arXiv:1506.04342], Mathur takes issue with the firewall theory, and proves mathematically that black holes are not necessarily arbiters of doom. In fact, he says the world could be captured by a black hole, and we wouldn't even notice. More ...

An independent panel convened by the National Institutes of Health concluded that ME/CFS is a complex, multifaceted disorder characterized by extreme fatigue and many other symptoms (including impairment of memory or concentration, post-exertional malaise, and pain) which can result in disability and the loss of employment and family support. Furthermore, limited knowledge, insufficient research funding, and a lack of diagnostic tools diminish a clinician's ability to provide optimal care. This leaves patients burdened with the difficult task of finding a health care provider ...