In our constantly connected, information-rich society, some drivers are jumping at the chance to let auto insurance companies monitor their driving habits in return for a handsome discount on their premiums. What these drivers may not know is that they could be revealing where they are driving, a privacy boundary that many would not consent to cross. A team of Rutgers University computer engineers has shown that even without a GPS device or other location-sensing technology, a driver could reveal where he or she traveled with no more information than a starting location ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Childhood obesity remains the top health concern for children in 2014, but when asked about national concerns, adults put school violence and gun-related injuries in the top 10, according to a new University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. In the poll's annual top 10 list, a nationwide sample of adults were asked to identify the biggest health concerns for kids in their communities, as well as kids nationwide. Overall, childhood obesity is rated at the top of both lists: 29 percent of adults said obesity ...

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis and the ensuing economic and political disruptions, inequality has re-emerged as a central focus of public debate. The drivers of rising inequality of income and wealth and the various scientific models for counteractive measures will be among the central topics debated among 17 Nobel Laureates in Economic Sciences and approximately 450 aspiring young economists from more than 80 countries in Lindau, Germany, next week. The 5th Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences will bring them together for a unique dialogue across generations, ...

How genes affect intelligence is complicated. Multiple genes, many yet unknown, are thought to interact among themselves and with environmental factors to influence the diverse abilities involved in intelligence. A large new genetic study in thousands of children and adolescents offers early glimpses of the overall patterns and connections among cognitive abilities such as language reasoning, reading skill and types of memory. The findings may lead to new tools in understanding human cognitive development and neuropsychiatric disorders. "This research is one of the ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 11, 2014 -- Nearly 6% of all children and teens in the U.S. are severely obese, and the prevalence of severe obesity is increasing faster than that of moderate obesity or overweight. This is an alarming trend as about 90% of these youths will grow up to be obese adults. The serious health problems associated with severe obesity and the poor long-term prognosis and quality of life projected for these children and teens demand more serious consideration of safe and effective treatment options that go beyond diet and lifestyle modifications, as proposed ...

UCL scientists have discovered a new method to efficiently generate and control currents based on the magnetic nature of electrons in semi-conducting materials, offering a radical way to develop a new generation of electronic devices. One promising approach to developing new technologies is to exploit the electron's tiny magnetic moment, or 'spin'. Electrons have two properties – charge and spin – and although current technologies use charge, it is thought that spin-based technologies have the potential to outperform the 'charge'-based technology of semiconductors for ...

A lung-damaging bacterium turns the body's antibody response in its favor, according to a study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Pathogenic bacteria are normally destroyed by antibodies, immune proteins that coat the outer surface of the bug, laying a foundation for the deposition of pore-forming "complement" proteins that poke lethal holes in the bacterial membrane. But despite having plenty of antibodies and complement proteins in their bloodstream, some people can't fight off infections with the respiratory bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. And chronic ...

A new drug spurs liver regeneration after surgery, according to a paper published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Liver cancer often results in a loss of blood flow and thus oxygen and nutrients to the liver tissue, resulting in deteriorating liver function. Although the diseased part of the liver can often be surgically removed, the sudden restoration of blood flow to the remaining liver tissue can trigger inflammation—a process known as ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI). IRI results in part from the deposition of immune proteins called complement on the surface ...

Visual impairment comes in many forms, and it's on the rise in America. A University of Cincinnati experiment aimed at this diverse and growing population could spark development of advanced tools to help all the aging baby boomers, injured veterans, diabetics and white-cane-wielding pedestrians navigate the blurred edges of everyday life. These tools could be based on a device called the Enactive Torch, which looks like a combination between a TV remote and Captain Kirk's weapon of choice. But it can do much greater things than change channels or stun aliens. Luis ...

The protein mTOR is a central controller of growth and metabolism. Deregulation of mTOR signaling increases the risk of developing metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cancer. In the current issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel describe how aberrant mTOR signaling in the liver not only affects hepatic metabolism but also whole body physiology. The protein mTOR regulates cell growth and metabolism and thus plays a key role in the development of human disorders. In the ...

Blood stem cells have the potential to turn into any type of blood cell, whether it be the oxygen-carrying red blood cells, or the many types of white blood cells of the immune system that help fight infection. How exactly is the fate of these stem cells regulated? Preliminary findings from research conducted by scientists from the Weizmann Institute and the Hebrew University are starting to reshape the conventional understanding of the way blood stem cell fate decisions are controlled thanks to a new technique for epigenetic analysis they have developed. Understanding ...

At the ends of the Universe there are black holes with masses equaling billions of our sun. These giant bodies – quasars – feed on interstellar gas, swallowing large quantities of it non-stop. Thus they reveal their existence: The light that is emitted by the gas as it is sucked in and crushed by the black hole's gravity travels for eons across the Universe until it reaches our telescopes. Looking at the edges of the Universe is therefore looking into the past. These far-off, ancient quasars appear to us in their "baby photos" taken less than a billion years after the Big ...

Nanocubes are anything but child's play. Weizmann Institute scientists have used them to create surprisingly yarn-like strands: They showed that given the right conditions, cube-shaped nanoparticles are able to align into winding helical structures. Their results, which reveal how nanomaterials can self-assemble into unexpectedly beautiful and complex structures, were recently published in Science. Dr. Rafal Klajn and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Gurvinder Singh of the Institute's Organic Chemistry Department used nanocubes of an iron oxide material called magnetite. As ...

Designing structures and devices that protect the body from shock and vibrations during high-velocity impacts is a universal challenge. Scientists and engineers focusing on this challenge might make advances by studying the unique morphology of the woodpecker, whose body functions as an excellent anti-shock structure. The woodpecker's brain can withstand repeated collisions and deceleration of 1200 g during rapid pecking. This anti-shock feature relates to the woodpecker's unique morphology and ability to absorb impact energy. Using computed tomography and the construction ...

Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have found between Greenland and Spitsbergen the scours left behind on the sea bed by gigantic icebergs. The five lineaments, at a depth of 1,200 metres, are the lowest-lying iceberg scours yet to be found on the Arctic sea floor. This finding provides new understanding of the dynamics of the Ice Age and the extent of the Arctic ice sheet thousands of years ago. In addition, the researchers could draw conclusions about the export of fresh water from the Arctic into the ...

Visitors to the Western Wall in Jerusalem can see that some of its stones are extremely eroded. This is good news for people placing prayer notes in the wall's cracks and crevices, but presents a problem for engineers concerned about the structure's stability. The Western Wall is a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the courtyard of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. It is located in Jerusalem's Old City at the foot of the Temple Mount. To calculate the erosion in the different kinds of limestone that make up the Western Wall, researchers from the Hebrew University ...

Celebrity promotion of charities is ineffective at raising awareness, but can make the stars more popular with the public, new research says. According to journal articles by three UK academics, "the ability of celebrity and advocacy to reach people is limited" and celebrities are "generally ineffective" at encouraging people to care about "distant suffering". The research, by Professor Dan Brockington, of The University of Manchester, Professor Spensor Henson, University of Sussex, and Dr Martin Scott, University of East Anglia, is published at time when many celebrities ...

A new mechanism of joint destruction caused by a natural material that grinds away healthy cartilage and worsens osteoarthritis has been identified in human hip joints for the first time by University of Liverpool scientists. The scientists, with Professor Alan Boyde and colleagues from Queen Mary University of London, were studying the hip of a man with the genetic condition, alkaptonuria (AKU), This is a metabolic disease in which a substance called homogentisic acid accumulates in joint cartilage, causing changes to its physical properties. The study revealed ...

As a national push continues to recruit talented girls and young women into math and science-related careers, a new study underlines the importance of mentoring and other social support systems for women pursuing those research professions. Mary Jean Amon, a doctoral student in the University of Cincinnati's psychology program, will present her findings at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C. Amon's study uncovered three themes that emerged as women examined the effects of gender stereotypes in STEM fields: career strategies, ...

This news release is available in German. Many human metabolic functions only run smoothly if the acid level in the body remains neutral and stable. For humans, normal blood pH values lie between 7.35 and 7.45. By way of comparison, an empty stomach is extremely acidic, with a pH value of 1.5. The body constantly monitors this narrow pH band and quickly restores the ideal pH values in the event of any deviations. This is because many proteins cease to function properly if fluids in the body become even slightly more acidic. These proteins become unstable and alter ...

Philadelphia, PA, August 11, 2014 – Testosterone, a steroid hormone, is well known to contribute to aggressive behavior in males, but the neural circuits through which testosterone exerts these effects have not been clear. Prior studies found that the administration of a single dose of testosterone influenced brain circuit function. Surprisingly, however, these studies were conducted exclusively in women. Researchers, led by Dr. Justin Carré, sought to rectify this gap by conducting a study of the effects of testosterone on the brain's response to threat cues in healthy ...

Rochester, Minn. — Gallstone pain is one of the most common reasons patients visit emergency rooms. Figuring out who needs emergency gallbladder removal and who can go home and schedule surgery at their convenience is sometimes a tricky question, and it isn't always answered correctly. A new Mayo Clinic study found that 1 in 5 patients who went to the emergency room with gallbladder pain and were sent home to schedule surgery returned to the ER within 30 days needing emergency gallbladder removal. The surgical complication rate rises with the time lag before surgery, the ...

New research published in the September issue of the British Journal of Nutrition and featured in the just released Global Phytonutrient Report highlights a significant shortfall in fruit and vegetable consumption in people's diets around the world. Commissioned by the Nutrilite Health Institute of Amway, the research finds the majority of adults worldwide would have to at least double their current consumption of fruits and vegetables to meet the World Health Organization's minimum recommendation of five servings (400 grams) per day. Additionally, the vast majority of ...

New Orleans, LA – Research led by Dr. Melinda Sothern, Professor and Director of Behavioral & Community Health at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, reports that a turn-key intervention program significantly increased physical activity levels among children in daycare. The treatment groups also achieved 91% of the physical activity goals in the improvement plans submitted by the directors of the daycare centers where the program was implemented. The results are published in the August 2014 issue of the journal, Childhood Obesity. "Physical ...

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court forced California to deal with the massive overcrowding in its prison system. The resulting reform shifted administrative and budgetary responsibility for low-level criminals from the state prison system to county jails. As a result, local California jails now face more overcrowding than ever, and local law enforcement is saddled with additional costs for imprisoning arrestees. A new study evaluating the exact opposite reform in Israel, published in the Journal of Public Economics, offers insight into the long-term impact of the California ...