PITTSBURGH--It has been well established that people have a "bias blind spot," meaning that they are less likely to detect bias in themselves than others. However, how blind we are to our own actual degree of bias, and how many of us think we are less biased than others have been less clear. Published in Management Science, new research from Carnegie Mellon University, the City University London, Boston University and the University of Colorado, Boulder, has developed a tool to measure the bias blind spot, and reveals that believing that you are less biased than your ...

DARIEN, IL - A new study suggests that those at risk of hoarding disorder may have serious complaints about sleep. Results show that participants at risk of hoarding disorder scored significantly higher on the Sleep Habits Survey (SH) and on three sub-scales of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), including sleep latency; sleep disturbances and daytime disturbances. "Hoarders typically have problems with decision making and executive function; poor sleep is known to compromise cognition generally, so if hoarders have cluttered/unusable bedrooms (and less comfortable, ...

Evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould is famous for describing the evolution of humans and other conscious beings as a chance accident of history. If we could go back millions of years and "run the tape of life again," he mused, evolution would follow a different path. A study by University of Pennsylvania biologists now provides evidence Gould was correct, at the molecular level: Evolution is both unpredictable and irreversible. Using simulations of an evolving protein, they show that the genetic mutations that are accepted by evolution are typically dependent on ...

Planets with volcanic activity are considered better candidates for life than worlds without such heated internal goings-on. Now, graduate students at the University of Washington have found a way to detect volcanic activity in the atmospheres of exoplanets, or those outside our solar system, when they transit, or pass in front of their host stars. Their findings, published in the June issue of the journal Astrobiology, could aid the process of choosing worlds to study for possible life, and even one day help determine not only that a world is habitable, but in fact ...

Researchers in UC Santa Barbara professor Yasamin Mostofi's lab are proving that wireless signals can do more than provide Internet access. They have demonstrated that a WiFi signal can be used to count the number of people in a given space, leading to diverse applications, from energy efficiency to search-and-rescue. 'Our approach can estimate the number of people walking in an area, based on only the received power measurements of a WiFi link,' said Mostofi, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. This approach does not require people to carry WiFi-enabled ...

DARIEN, Ill. -- A new study suggests that poor sleep quality is associated with reduced resilience among veterans and returning military personnel. Results show that 63 percent of participants endorsed poor sleep quality, which was negatively associated with resilience. Longer sleep onset, lower sleep efficiency, shorter sleep duration, worse sleep quality, and greater daytime disturbance were each associated with lower resilience. Findings suggest that appraisal of sleep quality may contribute to resilience scores more than self-reported sleep efficiency. 'To our knowledge, ...

In 2009, scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution embarked on a NASA-funded mission to the Mid-Cayman Rise in the Caribbean, in search of a type of deep-sea hot-spring or hydrothermal vent that they believed held clues to the search for life on other planets. They were looking for a site with a venting process that produces a lot of hydrogen because of the potential it holds for the chemical, or abiotic, creation of organic molecules like methane - possible precursors to the prebiotic compounds from which life on Earth emerged. For more than a decade, the ...

BOSTON -- Diabetes patients with abnormal blood sugar levels had longer, more costly hospital stays than those with glucose levels in a healthy range, according to studies presented by Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute researchers at the 75th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), which ends June 9 in Boston. The findings come as more patients are being admitted into U.S. hospitals with diabetes as an underlying condition. A recent UCLA public health report indicated that one of every three hospital patients admitted in California has a diagnosis ...

BOSTON (June 8, 2015) -- One member of a widely prescribed class of drugs used to lower blood glucose levels in people with diabetes has a neutral effect on heart failure and other cardiovascular problems, according to the first clinical trial to examine cardiovascular safety in a GLP-1 receptor agonist, presented at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions. The Evaluation of Lixisenatide in Acute Coronary Syndrome (ELIXA) study also found a modest benefit for weight control, and no increase of risk for hypoglycemia or pancreatic injury in those who ...

A team of researchers from UC San Diego, Florida State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories has for the first time visualized the growth of 'nanoscale' chemical complexes in real time, demonstrating that processes in liquids at the scale of one-billionth of a meter can be documented as they happen. The achievement, which will make possible many future advances in nanotechnology, is detailed in a paper published online today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Chemists and material scientists will be able to use this new development in their ...

ALMA's Long Baseline Campaign has produced a spectacularly detailed image of a distant galaxy being gravitationally lensed. The image shows a magnified view of the galaxy's star-forming regions, the likes of which have never been seen before at this level of detail in a galaxy so remote. The new observations are far more detailed than those made using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and reveal star-forming clumps in the galaxy equivalent to giant versions of the Orion Nebula. ALMA's Long Baseline Campaign has produced some amazing observations, and gathered unprecedentedly ...

An international, multidisciplinary team including investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has found that lixisenatide, a member of a class of glucose-lowering drugs frequently prescribed in Europe to patients with diabetes, did not increase risk of cardiovascular events including heart failure. These results - the first to be reported on the cardiovascular safety of a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist - were presented today at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions. "There are a large number of patients around the world ...

ORANGE, Calif. -- In a study just published by researchers at Chapman University, findings showed that greater life satisfaction in adults older than 50 years of age is related to a reduced risk of mortality. The researchers also found that variability in life satisfaction across time increases risk of mortality, but only among less satisfied people. The study involved nearly 4,500 participants who were followed for up to nine years. 'Although life satisfaction is typically considered relatively consistent across time, it may change in response to life circumstances ...

Glenview, Ill. (June 8, 2015)-- A Canadian study published in the June issue of the journal CHEST found weight loss reduced asthma severity as measured by airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in obese adults. The incidence of asthma is 1.47 times higher in obese people than nonobese people, and a three-unit increase in body mass index is associated with a 35% increase in the risk of asthma. The study supports the active treatment of comorbid obesity in individuals with asthma. The study, the first of its kind to rely on appropriate physiologic tests as diagnostic criteria ...

Baltimore, Md. (Embargoed until 12:30 p.m. EDT, June 8, 2015) - Imaging lung cancer requires both precision and innovation. With this aim, researchers have developed a technique for clinical positron emission tomography (PET) imaging that creates advanced whole-body parametric maps, which allow quantitative evaluation of tumors and metastases throughout the body, according to research announced at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). Scientists have developed a novel agent for cancer imaging that seeks and attaches ...

Baltimore, Md. (Embargoed until 12:30 p.m. EDT, June 8, 2015) - A first-in-human study revealed at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) shows how a powerful new drug finds and attaches itself to the ovarian and prostate cancer cells for both imaging and personalized cancer treatment. The targeted aspect of the imaging agent, called I-124 PEG-AVP0458, is a small protein (avibody) linked to polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains. The drug compound is then labeled with the radionuclide iodine-124. Drugs like PEG-AVP0458 are ...

Baltimore, Md. (Embargoed until 12:30 p.m. EDT, June 8, 2015) - Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a potentially devastating cancer of the blood and immune system, can range from relatively easy to treat to very aggressive. For more aggressive cases, post-treatment surveillance with molecular imaging could mean the early start of a new, life-saving treatment, say researchers presenting during the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). NHL is the fifth most prevalent cancer in America, according to lead author Mehdi Taghipour, MD, ...

Baltimore, Md. (embargoed until 12:30 p.m. EDT, June 8, 2015) - Research presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) shows how a new molecular imaging agent finds prostate cancer that has spread to other tissues by locking in on an enzyme called prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), associated with prostate cancer. "To date, conventional imaging is limited in detecting prostate cancer metastasis accurately and measurably," said Neeta Pandit-Taskar, MD, co-author of the study and a researcher at Memorial Sloan ...

A recently developed tool can accurately predict the risk of death for patients within 1 year after admission to hospital using routinely collected data, reports a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "An accurate assessment of risk of death, particularly if that risk is high, could motivate and inform discussions between patients and physicians regarding goals of care," states Dr. Carl van Walraven, a researcher at the Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, who developed the tool. Researchers in Canada and the United States ...

Baltimore, Md. -- Scientists are taking medical imaging research and drug discovery to a new level by developing a molecular imaging system that combines several advanced technologies for all-in-one imaging of both tissue models and live subjects, say presenters at the 2015 annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). The preclinical and intra-vital molecular imaging system houses a window for tissue observation in addition to a larger imaging chamber. Together they are being used to peer into the microenvironment of tumors and other ...

Baltimore, Md. (Embargoed until 12:30 p.m., June 8, 2015) - The origin of cancer is often obscured by metastases--tumors that have already spread to other tissues. This is especially the case for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), a malignancy of nerve cells scattered throughout various organ systems that are sensitive to the signaling of neurotransmitters and hormones. An investigational molecular imaging technique could be the key to finding the elusive primary tumor, say presenters at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). ...

Baltimore, Md. -- A relatively new biomarker called prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is the bullseye for three new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents that bind to the protein in not only prostate cancer, but a range of tumor types, according to research unveiled at the 2015 annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). 'We have shown in this proof-of-concept study that PSMA could serve as a biomarker for MR-based molecular imaging due to its high concentration within target cells, limited expression within non-targeted ...

Baltimore, Md. -- Amyloid build-up is commonly talked about in relation to Alzheimer's disease, but amyloidosis can be found throughout the body. An excessive accumulation of these insoluble proteins could cause a heart attack or even death. A new molecular imaging scan of amyloid in the heart could help diagnose the problem, say researchers at the 2015 annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). The condition is called transthyretin-type (TTR) amyloidosis after the TTR gene thought to cause the over-abundance of plaque build-up. ...

Baltimore, Md. -- New research presented during the 2015 annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) demonstrates that amyloid positron emission tomography (amyloid PET) scans of the brain provide clearer diagnosis and earlier, more effective treatment for Alzheimer's patients, when results of a more conventional PET scan remain ambiguous. Researchers reviewed the clinical outcomes of two kinds of PET scans: a preliminary scan with a common radiotracer called fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), which acts like glucose in the brain to capture ...

Baltimore, Md. -- Fatal cardiac events are often preceded by abnormal blood clots, also called thrombosis. Scientists have now developed a molecular imaging technique that could save lives by revealing troublesome thrombi, according to a study presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). 'Thrombosis is the underlying cause of deadly diseases such as stroke, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and heart attack, which affect millions of people worldwide,' said Francesco Blasi, Ph.D., lead author of the study ...