What motivates consumers to make ethical choices such as buying clothing not made in a sweat shop, spending more money on fair-trade coffee, and bringing their own bags when they go shopping? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, ethical consumption is motivated by a need for consumers to turn their emotions about unethical practices into action. "Advocates of ethical consumerism suggest that consumers should consider the environmental and human costs of the products they choose, but unfortunately only a small number of people in North America ...

Twenty-five years ago, the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. Americans found themselves cleaning up another giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, news coverage of environmental disasters serves to calm our immediate anxieties instead of catalyzing changes in the way fossil fuels are used. "We found that the national news media coverage of these two events helped to resolve many of the cultural anxieties that resulted, explaining what many environmental ...

Many experiences rarely seem to last the right amount of time. Vacations feel too short, meetings seem too long, and bad dates never seem to end. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that simply categorizing experiences can help consumers extend good experiences and shorten the bad ones. "Consumers do not just focus on individual experiences. Instead, they categorize and manage experiences in a way that stretches out good experiences and shortens negative experiences. For positive experiences, consumers are reluctant to eliminate categories, while the ...

Loyal consumers can earn benefits such as frequent flyer miles or free nights at hotels when they participate in rewards programs. Loyalty, of course, doesn't increase the odds of winning random prizes or receiving random discounts. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers who have shown loyalty to a company giving a random reward mistakenly believe they are more likely to receive the reward because they deserve it. "Even though prior effort or patronage does not increase the actual likelihood of a consumer receiving promotional discounts ...

Proteins are responsible for practically all vital functions in an organism. For example, they catalyze metabolic reactions, forward signals, transport particular substances and control immune system responses. Researchers established some years ago that proteins do not function independently of each other, but instead form complex networks. "When you examine the protein networks, you find many similarities with online social networks," says Dr. Pascal Falter-Braun from TUM's Chair of Plant Systems Biology. "Some proteins are good networkers that maintain contact with ...

DALLAS – September 15, 2014 – Combining a standard chemotherapy drug with a second drug that stops cells from dividing improves both the survival and response rates for those with advanced cervical cancer, a new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center cancer researchers finds. The cancer-fighting cocktail, which combines the chemotherapy drug cisplatin with pemetrexed - an agent that stops cancer cells from dividing - showed promising results for advanced, persistent, or recurrent cervical cancer. "We found that pemetrexed combined with cisplatin is less toxic, well ...

Overindulging in high-calorie snacks is partly caused by lapses in a very specific part of the brain, according to a new University of Waterloo study. The study, published in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, is the first to conclusively link reduced operation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with self-restraint in the dietary context. "It has long been thought that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex helps to keep automatic, or knee-jerk, reactions in check," said Professor Peter Hall, senior author on the study. "We discovered that when ...

New studies have uncovered the specific interventions and advances that have led to the success with these at-risk populations in the poorest countries. New research across 142 countries finds that some 50 percent of the reduction in under-five child mortality in those countries is attributable to high impact health interventions such as early immunizations and skilled birth attendance. The remaining 50 percent is due to factors outside the health sector, such as girls' education, women's participation in politics and the workforce, reduction of fertility rates, access ...

This news release is available in French. According to a study conducted by pediatricians and researchers at Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center (Sainte-Justine) and Université de Montréal published online in the prestigious medical journal Nature Medicine on September 14, 2014, the activation of a receptor that migrates to the nucleus of nerve cells in the retina promotes the growth of blood vessels. The finding opens the possibility of developing new, more selective drugs to control the abnormal growth of blood vessels and prevent blindness including ...

For lovers of wild foods, autumn harks a season of bounty. Fungi of dizzying variety erupt from wood and soil, luring intrepid collectors to woodlands in search of elusive but delectable wild mushrooms. Part of their appeal lies in the allure of the treasure hunt, and their mysterious not-quite-meat, not-quite-vegetable qualities that belie an almost otherworldly existence. But are the mushrooms which you are eating known to science? The Fungi Kingdom is enormously diverse yet vastly underdocumented – although some estimates range up to 10 million species, only about ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Imaging can be a cost-effective way to identify people at risk for stroke who might benefit from aggressive intervention, according to a new modeling study published online in the journal Radiology. The study looked at people with asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis, a narrowing of the major blood vessels supplying blood to the head due to atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup. Carotid artery stenosis is the primary cause of up to 20 percent of ischemic strokes, which result from an obstruction within a blood vessel and make up 85 percent of all strokes. ...

Using advanced computer models, neuroscience researchers at the University of Copenhagen have gained new knowledge about the complex processes that cause Parkinson's disease. The findings have recently been published in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience. The defining symptoms of Parkinson's disease are slow movements, muscular stiffness and shaking. There is currently no cure for the condition, so it is essential to conduct innovative research with the potential to shed some light on this terrible disruption to the central nervous system. Using advanced computer ...

Sugars in the diet should make up no more than 3% of total energy intake to reduce the significant financial and social burdens of tooth decay, finds new research from UCL (University College London) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The study, published in the open-access journal BMC Public Health, analysed the effect of sugars on dental caries, also known as tooth decay. They show that sugars are the only cause of tooth decay in children and adults. Free sugars are defined by the World Health Organisation Nutrition Guidance Adivisory Group as follows: ...

When this week's print issue of the journal Science comes out, a collective cheer will go up from New Mexico, Montana and even the Netherlands, thanks to the type of collaborative effort that is more and more the norm in these connected times. Yes, the research was brilliant, and if we're lucky, it will produce innovations in biology, medicine, biotechnology and agriculture. It could save lives, and it happened because this scientist talked with that one, that one knew another one, and brilliant minds overcame geographic distance to advance human understanding. "It is ...

A new, large cohort analysis from the prospective Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, indicates that men who had moderate baldness affecting both the front and the crown of their head at age 45 were at a 40% increased risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer (usually indicates a faster growing tumor resulting in poorer prognosis relative to non-aggressive prostate cancer) later in life, compared to men with no baldness. There was no significant link between other patterns of baldness and prostate cancer risk. The study, published September ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – According to recent studies, approximately one out of every 40 individuals in the United States is a carrier of the gene responsible for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a neurodegenerative disease that causes muscles to weaken over time. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have made a recent breakthrough with the development of a new compound found to be highly effective in animal models of the disease. In April, a patent was filed for the compound for use in SMA. "The strategy our lab is using to fight SMA is to 'repress the repressor,'" said ...

DALLAS, TX – September 12, 2014 - An estimated 8% of Americans will suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point during their lifetime. Brought on by an overwhelming or stressful event or events, PTSD is the result of altered chemistry and physiology of the brain. Understanding how threat is processed in a normal brain versus one altered by PTSD is essential to developing effective interventions. New research from the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas published online today in Brain and Cognition illustrates how fear arises ...

Human skin and gut microbes influence processes from digestion to disease resistance. Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet, more is known about belly-button bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics. Smithsonian scientists and colleagues working on Panama's Barro Colorado Island discovered that small leaf samples from a single tree were home to more than 400 different kinds of bacteria. The combined sample from 57 tree species contained more than 7,000 different kinds. Bacteria in tropical forests may ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (September 15, 2014) – The so-called central dogma of molecular biology—that DNA makes RNA which makes protein—has long provided a simplified explanation for how genetic information is deciphered and translated in living organisms. In reality, of course, the process is vastly more complicated than the schema first articulated nearly 60 years ago by Nobel Laureate Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA's double-helix structure. For one, there are multiple types of RNA, three of which—messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and ribosomal RNA (rRNA)—are ...

UC San Francisco researchers have used brain scans to predict how young children learn to read, giving clinicians a possible tool to spot children with dyslexia and other reading difficulties before they experience reading challenges. In the United States, children usually learn to read for the first time in kindergarten and become proficient readers by third grade, according to the authors. In the study, researchers examined brain scans of 38 kindergarteners as they were learning to read formally at school and tracked their white matter development until third grade. ...

An international team of researchers has designed decoys that mimic female emerald ash borer beetles and successfully entice male emerald ash borers to land on them in an attempt to mate, only to be electrocuted and killed by high-voltage current. "Our new decoy and electrocution process may be useful in managing what the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service claims to be the most destructive forest pest ever seen in North America," said Michael Domingue, postdoctoral fellow in entomology, Penn State. According to the Forest Service, the emerald ash borer was ...

VIDEO: Liquid metals have very large surface tensions that causes them to assume a spherical shape. Researchers have shown that the deposition of a surface oxide lowers the surface tension... Click here for more information. Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique for controlling the surface tension of liquid metals by applying very low voltages, opening the door to a new generation of reconfigurable electronic circuits, antennas and other ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Neuroscientists have found that a gene mutation that arose more than half a million years ago may be key to humans' unique ability to produce and understand speech. Researchers from MIT and several European universities have shown that the human version of a gene called Foxp2 makes it easier to transform new experiences into routine procedures. When they engineered mice to express humanized Foxp2, the mice learned to run a maze much more quickly than normal mice. The findings suggest that Foxp2 may help humans with a key component of learning language ...

Cognitive neuroscience research has shown that certain brain regions are associated with specific cognitive abilities, such as language, naming, and decision-making. How and where these specific abilities are integrated in the brain to support complex cognition is still under investigation. However, researchers at the University of Iowa and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, believe that several hub regions may be especially important for the brain to function as an integrated network. In research published online Sept. 15 in the Early Edition of the Proceedings ...

Reproductive cell division has evolved a simple, mechanical solution to avoid chromosome sorting errors, researchers report in the Sept. 11 Science Express. This natural safeguard prevents incorrect chromosome counts and misalignments that lead to infertility, miscarriage, or congenital conditions. "Mistakes during reproductive cell division cause these problems, but what exactly goes wrong is often not understood," said Adele Marston of the Wellcome Trust Center for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and lead author of the study. Understanding ...