Los Angeles, CA (June 2, 2015) Neighborhoods with more interpersonal conflict, such as domestic violence and landlord/tenet disputes, see more serious crime according to a new study out today in Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency (JRCD). Private conflict was a better predictor of neighborhood deterioration than public disorder, such as vandalism, suggesting the important role that individuals play in community safety. "Private conflicts, for example, domestic violence or friendship disputes over money or girlfriends, can and do spill over into public spaces, ...

Scientists from the University of Louvain have discovered that a key element of infant brain development occurs years earlier than previously thought. The way we perceive faces -- using the right hemisphere of the brain -- is unique and sets us apart from non-human primates. It was thought that this ability develops as we learn to read, but a new study published in the journal eLife shows that in babies as young as four months it is already highly evolved. "Just as language is impaired following damage to the brain's left hemisphere, damage to the right hemisphere ...

Children as young as 4 years old may reap better health from altruistic giving, a behavior that tends to be less common among kids from high-income families, according to new research on the nature and nurture of altruism published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "The findings provide us with a new understanding of how children's altruistic behaviors, family wealth, and physiological health are intertwined," says psychological scientist and lead researcher Jonas Miller of the University of California Davis. Previous ...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- At a time when teenagers are grappling with new and often confusing health concerns, the overwhelming majority -- 84 percent -- turn to the Internet, according to the first national study in more than a decade to examine how adolescents use digital tools for health information. But while most teens tap online sources to learn more about puberty, drugs, sex, depression and other issues, a surprising 88 percent said they do not feel comfortable sharing their health concerns with Facebook friends or on other social networking sites, according to the study ...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (JUNE 2, 2015). Researchers from the Canada North Concussion Network in Manitoba examined neuroimaging studies obtained in children and adolescents with sports-related concussions and found that the images appeared normal in 78% of cases. Detailed findings of this study are reported and discussed in "Neuroimaging findings in pediatric sports-related concussion" by Michael J. Ellis, MD, and colleagues, published today online, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Expert opinion among physicians specializing in sports-related concussion ...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (JUNE 2, 2015). Researchers from the Canada North Concussion Network in Manitoba investigated the frequency of vestibulo-ocular dysfunction in children and adolescents with sports-related concussion and found that its presence was predictive of a prolonged recovery. Findings in this study are reported and discussed in "Vestibulo-ocular dysfunction in pediatric sports-related concussion" by Michael J. Ellis, MD, and colleagues, published today online, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Normally, if you are asked to focus on ...

New research presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia shows that use of public access defibrillation on people suffering cardiac arrest is associated with a large increase in chances of survival. However, despite the great potential, publicly accessible Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are not being used enough, concludes research by Dr Marianne Agerskov and colleagues at Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Publicly accessible AEDs are now commonplace in many European countries, and they are often found in sport centres, transportation hubs, and ...

Office workers should be on their feet for a minimum of 2 hours daily during working hours, recommends the first ever UK guidance designed to curb the health risks of too much cumulative sitting time, and published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This daily quota should eventually be bumped up to 4 hours a day, breaking up prolonged periods of sitting with the use of sit-stand desks, standing based work, and regular walk-abouts, it says. The guidance, which evaluates and distils the available evidence, was drawn up by a panel of international experts, ...

Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics has developed a groundbreaking, combination vaccine that may finally beat Streptococcus A infections. Human trials are set to begin, early as next year, for the vaccine which combines the protein, SpyCEP, with a previously developed vaccine J8-DT. Infections caused by Streptococcus pyogenes are responsible for the deaths of almost 500,000 people worldwide each year. It is particularly prevalent in developing countries and Indigenous populations, including Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. Infections can ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - June 1, 2015 - Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center report progress in their quest to build replacement kidneys in the lab. The teams' goal is to make use of the more than 2,600 kidneys that are donated each year, but must be discarded due to abnormalities and other factors. The scientists aim to "recycle" these organs to engineer tailor-made replacement kidneys for patients. "We believe the two studies we are reporting provide critical information to the booming field of organ bioengineering as it applies to the kidney," said Giuseppe ...

Soil erosion that occurs in rainy seasons leads to a significant amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere, a new study shows. Investigators who analyzed 240 runoff plots from different regions of the world found that organic carbon losses from soils corresponds to about one-sixth of annual fossil fuel-induced carbon emissions with highest rates for semi-arid soils followed by tropical soils and temperate soils. "The organic carbon lost from soils is more likely to reach the atmosphere under semi-arid sandy soils of weak structure compared to clayey tropical ...

In a study of the effects of increasing climate temperatures on the toxicity of 3 contaminants in different fish species, researchers found that all pesticides and industrial contaminants studied--endosulfan, chlorpyrifos, and phenol--became toxic in the upper 5oC range of species' temperature tolerance. "Within this narrow range of temperatures, other simultaneous changes--such as reduced shading of the water surface as a result of clearing vegetation or increased toxicant exposure--may combine to significantly increase the vulnerability of fish to global warming," ...

It's time for helicopter parents to land and stay grounded. New research by professors at Brigham Young University revealed that parental warmth cannot neutralize the consequences of helicopter parenting. Additionally, a lack of warmth makes the negative effects worse. Such negative effects include lower self-worth and higher risk behavior, such as binge drinking. "From our past work, we thought there might be something positive about helicopter parenting under certain conditions, but we're just not finding it," study author Larry Nelson said. The study, published ...

In a population of Congo Basin foragers called the Aka, 67% of men--but only 6% of women--use cannabis, and the practice seems to protect against infection with parasitic worms. The large sex difference, which is also seen in tobacco use, might be a consequence, in part, of women's avoidance of potentially toxic substances during childbearing years. The results provide evidence of a link between parasite infection and drug use, two of the developing world's great health problems, and they highlight the need for more research on the high rate of substance use in Aka ...

New recommendations offer insights on strategies for treating infants with seizures. In an Epilepsia report, child neurologists who are members of the International League Against Epilepsy note that intervening at the time of a febrile seizure does not alter the risk for subsequent epilepsy, and there is no evidence to support the use of antiepileptic drugs for simple febrile seizures. However, recurrent seizures warrant an urgent assessment, and a variety of antiepileptic drugs may benefit these patients. Unfortunately, there is no high level evidence to support the use ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- For inexperienced investors with little knowledge about the investment process, it may be important to invest in funds that do not require much maintenance. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri has found that investors with less investment knowledge are more likely to invest in target-date funds (TDFs). Michael Guillemette, an assistant professor of personal financial planning in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences, says this is a positive trend which will help inexperienced investors invest safely without risking significant losses ...

Collegiate women who wore shoes with 10 cm high heels more than 3 times per week to their classes developed an imbalance of 4 functional ankle muscles. While wearing high-heeled shoes appeared to strengthen ankle muscles at first, prolonged use eventually caused an imbalance, which is a crucial predictor of ankle injury. "Therefore, it is clinically important for wearers of high heels to regularly perform ankle strengthening exercises, such as heel walking, toe tappers, and heel raises, and to limit the frequency of wearing high-heeled shoes as preventative measures," ...

Recent forecasts on the impacts of climate change on the world's coral reefs--especially ones generated from oceanic surface temperature data gathered by satellites--paint a grim picture for the future of the "rainforests of the sea." A newer and more complex model incorporating data from both environmental factors and field observations of coral responses to stress provides a better forecasting tool than the more widely used models and a more positive future for coral reefs, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups. The study ...

PULLMAN, Wash.--A comprehensive study finds organic agriculture is more profitable for farmers than conventional agriculture. In spite of lower yields, the global study shows that the profit margins for organic agriculture were significantly greater than conventional agriculture. The results show that there's room for organic agriculture to expand and, with its environmental benefits, to contribute a larger share in feeding the world sustainably. Organic agriculture currently accounts for only one percent of agriculture globally. The study, published this week in the ...

Planet Earth may contain millions fewer species than previously thought and estimates are converging, according to research led by Griffith University (Queensland, Australia). In a paper published by the US-based journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Professor Nigel Stork of Griffith's Environmental Futures Research Institute reveals findings that narrow global species estimates for beetles, insects and terrestrial arthropods. The research features an entirely new method of species calculation derived from samples of beetles from the comprehensive ...

June 1, 2015 CHAPEL HILL, NC - In the beginning, there were simple chemicals. And they produced amino acids that eventually became the proteins necessary to create single cells. And the single cells became plants and animals. Recent research is revealing how the primordial soup created the amino acid building blocks, and there is widespread scientific consensus on the evolution from the first cell into plants and animals. But it's still a mystery how the building blocks were first assembled into the proteins that formed the machinery of all cells. Now, two long-time University ...

Today's computer chips pack billions of tiny transistors onto a plate of silicon within the width of a fingernail. Each transistor, just tens of nanometers wide, acts as a switch that, in concert with others, carries out a computer's computations. As dense forests of transistors signal back and forth, they give off heat -- which can fry the electronics, if a chip gets too hot. Manufacturers commonly apply a classical diffusion theory to gauge a transistor's temperature rise in a computer chip. But now an experiment by MIT engineers suggests that this common theory doesn't ...

Bacteria and viruses have an obvious role in causing infectious diseases, but microbes have also been identified as the surprising cause of other illnesses, including cervical cancer (Human papilloma virus) and stomach ulcers (H. pylori bacteria). A new study by University of Iowa microbiologists now suggests that bacteria may even be a cause of one of the most prevalent diseases of our time - Type 2 diabetes. The research team led by Patrick Schlievert, PhD, professor and DEO of microbiology at the UI Carver College of Medicine, found that prolonged exposure to a toxin ...

As the world's population of older adults increases, so do conversations around successful aging -- including seniors' physical, mental and social well-being. A variety of factors can impact aging adults' quality of life. Two big ones, according to new research from the University of Arizona, are the health and cognitive functioning of a person's spouse. Analyzing data from more than 8,000 married couples -- with an average age in the early 60s -- researchers found that the physical health and cognitive functioning of a person's spouse can significantly affect a person's ...

A team of scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University has synthesized a powerful new magnetic material that could reduce the dependence of the United States and other nations on rare earth elements produced by China. "The discovery opens the pathway to systematically improving the new material to outperform the current permanent magnets," said Shiv Khanna, Ph.D., a commonwealth professor in the Department of Physics in the College of Humanities and Sciences. The new material consists of nanoparticles containing iron, cobalt and carbon atoms with a magnetic domain ...