Not all of America's most admired companies are killing it on social media. In fact, some are almost flat lining, according to a team of researchers. Several firms on Fortune Magazine's list of America's most admired companies are failing to achieve basic social media standards, let alone best practices, according to Marcia DiStaso, associate professor of public relations, Penn State. "We were surprised that not all the companies had a Twitter account, for instance, and not every company had a Facebook page, or a YouTube page," said DiStaso. "There are top companies ...

Beverly, MA, June 11, 2015 - Cardiac surgeons often "crack open" the flat bone that forms the middle front section of the chest, known as the sternum, in order to reach important structures. When a sternal wound infection (SWI) occurs, serious complications and even death may result. Implanting antibiotic-laden sponges between the sternal halves before closure has been adapted to prevent infections. While a recent report questioned this practice, a meta-analysis in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the official publication of the American Association for ...

Nursing home residents with dementia are less likely to be apathetic if they live in an appropriately stimulating environment, according to nursing researchers. Nearly half of all residents in nursing homes have dementia, according to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control. Apathy is one of the most common neurobehavioral symptoms in dementia, with about 90 percent of older adults with dementia experiencing it. Those with mild dementia will decline more quickly into severe dementia if they also suffer from apathy, making it important to help them stay engaged. ...

Lehigh University engineers, materials scientists and chemists will present their innovative breakthroughs to a national showcase of investors and industrial partners at the TechConnect 2015 World Innovation Conference and National Innovation Showcase in Washington on June 14-17. Working at the junction of engineering and health, the Lehigh innovations include a nanoscale device that captures tumor cells in the blood, a bioengineered enzyme that scrubs microbial biofilms and the creation of a safe and efficient chemical reagent that is stable at room temperature. These ...

DARIEN, Ill. -- A new study suggests that bright light at the end of a night shift may have potential as a countermeasure to improve driving performance, particularly for low light work environments and commutes that occur before dawn. Results show that temperature, subjective alertness and psychomotor vigilance performance decreased significantly across the night. Bright light significantly suppressed melatonin, but did not improve subjective alertness or psychomotor vigilance performance. Sleep deprivation markedly increased incidents, accidents, and the average lane ...

LEXINGTON, Ky., June 12 -- In a new University of Kentucky study published today in Cell Reports, a leading scientific journal in cell biology, researchers describe a new molecular mechanism that contributes to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) due to accumulation of excessive iron within the cells of the retina. Cells of the body use iron in dozens of normal metabolic processes. However, excessive iron or 'iron overload' can be very damaging to cells and tissues, and is implicated in numerous diseases, including AMD. 'The reason that cells die due to iron ...

About 90% of adults worldwide are infected with Epstein-Barr virus, or EBV. The virus infects B cells (the white blood cells that make antibodies) and can contribute to B-cell-derived cancers, but in most people it remains dormant--a state scientists refer to as "latent infection"--for the rest of their lives. A study published on June 11th in PLOS Pathogens sheds new light on why the infected person's immune system cannot eliminate EBV, or the associated cancer risk. Interested in the immune response against EBV, Andreas Moosmann, from the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Munich, ...

It's difficult enough to see things in the dark, but what if you also had to hover in mid-air while tracking a flower moving in the wind? That's the challenge the hummingbird-sized hawkmoth (Manduca sexta) must overcome while feeding on the nectar of its favorite flowers. Using high-speed infrared cameras and 3-D-printed robotic flowers, scientists have now learned how this insect juggles these complex sensing and control challenges - all while adjusting to changing light conditions. The work shows that the creatures can slow their brains to improve vision under low-light ...

ANN ARBOR--Variations in the amount of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere significantly altered global climate throughout the planet's history. Efforts to reconstruct past climates must include this previously overlooked factor, a new University of Michigan-led study concludes. Oxygen currently comprises about 21 percent of Earth's atmosphere by volume but has varied between 10 percent and 35 percent over the past 541 million years. In periods when oxygen levels declined, the resulting drop in atmospheric density led to increased surface evaporation, which in turn led to ...

This news release is available in Japanese. Water injected into an inactive fault can cause aseismic slip along the fault -- movement without detectable earthquakes -- that may then indirectly lead to micro-earthquakes. That's the result from a controlled experiment by Yves Guglielmi and colleagues, who observed these events in real time after injecting fluid into a natural fault near an underground experimental facility in southeastern France. Researchers are intensely interested in this type of induced seismicity, especially with a rise in earthquakes caused by ...

This news release is available in Japanese. New experiments in the Japanese rice fish show that the fox13 gene appears to be the switch that determines whether a germ cell becomes an egg or sperm cell. The finding could help researchers learn more about how the sexual fate of germ cells is determined during vertebrate development. Toshiya Nishimura and colleagues demonstrated that fox13, which is expressed in germ cells but not in the surrounding cells of the fish's reproductive organs, provides a molecular cue that prevents the start of sperm formation. When the researchers ...

This news release is available in Japanese. Variations in the percentage of atmospheric oxygen may have influenced climate in the past 500 million years, according to new calculations by Christopher Poulsen and colleagues. Since oxygen isn't a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide, it typically hasn't been included in studies of past climate change. But the proportion of atmospheric oxygen has varied between 10 percent and 35 percent over the past 500 million years, and Poulsen and colleagues have developed a model to show how those fluctuations might impact climate. ...

This news release is available in Japanese. How do nocturnal insects forage so successfully in the twilight and darkness? A new study by Simon Sponberg and colleagues suggests that the vision of the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta, which hovers in place while it feeds on nectar at dawn and dusk, is finely attuned to the swaying of flowers in the breeze. These findings imply that both the sight and flight of the hawkmoth likely evolved to match the movements of flowers -- their only source of food -- perfectly, helping to explain how the nimble insects are able ...

A new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that synchronized physiological interactions between remote brain regions have genetic underpinnings. The research was performed at Stanford but was made possible by collaborations with the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science and the IMAGEN Consortium, a multicenter European project, said the study's senior author, Michael Greicius, M.D., an associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences. The study will be published June 11 in Science. An emerging consensus among ...

This news release is available in German. It has been hypothesized that globalization of human-mediated dispersal of species may break down biogeographic boundaries. However, empirical tests had been lacking until recently. An international research team has now discovered a comprehensive biogeographic reorganization for 175 species of alien gastropods across 56 countries. The data shows that homogenization is indeed happening. Geographic barriers to dispersal have fallen down but climate still limits how species colonize new areas. The study was published in the ...

Investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard have added another piece to the puzzle of how a small group of individuals known as elite controllers are able to control HIV infection without drug treatment. In their paper published in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens, the research team reports finding that dendritic cells of elite controllers are better able to detect the presence of HIV - paradoxically through a greater susceptibility to HIV infection - which enables them to stimulate the generation of T cells ...

The concept sounds like the stuff of science fiction: take a pill, and suddenly new tissues grow to replace damaged ones. Researchers at Case Western Reserve and UT Southwestern Medical Center this week announced that they have taken significant steps toward turning this once-improbable idea into a vivid reality. In a study published in the June 12 edition of Science, they detail how a new drug repaired damage to the colon, liver and bone marrow in animal models -- even going so far as to save the lives of mice who otherwise would have died in a bone marrow transplantation ...

This news release is available in Japanese. Researchers in Japan have found, for the first time in vertebrates, a genetic switch that determines whether germ cells become sperm or eggs. The gene is named foxl3, and has been identified using a small fish called medaka (Oryzias latipes). In medaka without this gene's functionality, surprisingly, sperm are produced in the ovaries of females. The sperm that are produced function normally, and have been confirmed to produce normal offspring. These results will be announced in the journal Science through Science Express ...

EDMONTON, Canada, June 11 -- In this summer's much anticipated blockbuster Jurassic World, actor Chris Pratt joins forces with a pack of swift and lethal velociraptors. 'Velociraptor belongs to a group of predatory dinosaurs called the deinonychosaurs, or simply the 'raptors',' says University of Alberta paleontologist Scott Persons. 'Raptors are characterized by particularly nasty feet. Their big toes each bore an enlarged and wickedly hooked talon, which makes raptors well suited for Hollywood fight scenes.' Persons and University of Alberta alumnus Lida Xing are part ...

A NASA mission led by UCLA professor Christopher Russell has released new images of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. The photos were produced by the spacecraft Dawn, which is now observing Ceres from 2,700 miles above its surface; NASA has also produced a one-minute video animation that sheds new light on this mysterious and heavily cratered world. 'Everything we learn from Ceres will be absolutely new,' said Christopher Russell, a UCLA professor of space physics and planetary science, and the Dawn mission's principal investigator. ...

Philadelphia, June 11 -- The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that results in browned foods like seared steaks and toasted bread. When proteins and sugars are mixed together and heated, new chemical compounds are formed. Some are responsible for new flavors and some, according to a new study published in the Journal of Dairy Science®, may protect us against cardiovascular disease. Researchers at the R&D Center, Seoul Dairy Cooperative, the College of Life Science & Biotechnology, Korea University, and the BK21 Plus Graduate ...

People with autism are often described as "seeing the world differently." They tend to show superior perception for details, like, for example, the autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire's highly accurate representations of cityscapes drawn from memory. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 11 show that those differences in perceptual skill are present very early in infancy, before the onset of clinical symptoms of autism. The researchers say that the findings may shift scientists' view of autism by suggesting that changes in perception ...

Sometimes it takes a long time to solve a puzzle: In 1893, German surgeon G. Reinbach discovered that tumor tissue is often infiltrated by special cells of the immune system called eosinophils. Ever since then, scientists have been trying to figure out if and how these cells, which are part of the innate immune system, are involved in cancer rejection. "There are many studies that link the presence of eosinophils in a tumor with an improved prognosis of the disease. However, even 120 years after Reinbach's discovery, it still remained elusive whether or not eosinophils ...

ANN ARBOR--We've all been there: We eat an entire sleeve of fat-free, low-calorie cookies and we're stuffing ourselves with more food 15 minutes later. One theory to explain this phenomenon is that artificial sweeteners don't contain the calories or energy that evolution has trained the brain to expect from sweet-tasting foods, so they don't fool the brain into satisfying hunger. However, until now, nobody understood how organisms distinguish between real sugar and artificial sweetener. Now, a researcher at the University of Michigan has discovered how the brain of ...

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless technology promises to support high-bandwidth content at speeds exceeding 10 gigabits per second--a thousand times today's current mobile phone download speeds--but with that promise comes public concern about the health risks associated with utilizing the high-frequency radio waves in that spectrum. A multidisciplinary team of NYU researchers notes that unlike X-rays and gamma rays, which are called "ionizing radiation" and are known to cause genetic mutations due to their excessive energy levels, millimeter waves are "non-ionizing," ...