An international team of geologists has a new explanation for how the Midwest's biggest geological feature -- an ancient and giant 2,000-mile-long underground crack that starts in Lake Superior and runs south to Oklahoma and to Alabama -- evolved. Scientists from Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the University of Gottingen in Germany and the University of Oklahoma report that the 1.1 billion-year-old Midcontinent Rift is a geological hybrid, having formed in three stages: it started as an enormous narrow crack in the Earth's crust; ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. (Oct. 16, 2014) -- As many as 35 percent of patients who undergo surgery to remove soft tissue sarcomas experience wound-healing complications, due to radiation they receive before surgery. Now a study has suggested that a simple test called transcutaneous oximetry may be able to predict which of these patients are most likely to experience wound-healing complications, potentially enabling surgeons to take extra precautions. Lukas Nystrom, MD, of Loyola University Medical Center presented his findings during the 2014 annual meeting of the Musculoskeletal ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 16, 2014—Delivering traditional emergency medical care at ground zero of natural disasters and military conflicts is challenging. First responders trained in simple integrative medicine approaches such as acupuncture, hypnosis, or biofeedback can provide adjunctive treatment to help relieve patients' pain and stress. How to teach and utilize modified techniques and their potential benefit are described in a Review article in Medical Acupuncture, a peer-reviewed journal from by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free ...

An article released by Social Forces titled, "Casual Contraception in Casual Sex: Life-Cycle Change in Undergraduates' Sexual Behavior in Hookups" by Jonathan Marc Bearak (New York University) explores the changes in undergraduate uncommitted sexual behavior during years 1–4 of college. The article provides reasoning for the decline in the use of condoms, and explains how changes in the odds of coitus and condom use depend on fam¬ily background, school gender imbalance, and whether the partners attend the same college. The results show that the odds of unprotected ...

Lithium (Li)-ion batteries serve us well, powering our laptops, tablets, cell phones and a host of other gadgets and devices. However, for future automotive applications, we will need rechargeable batteries with significant increases in energy density, reductions in cost and improvements in safety. Hence the big push in the battery industry to develop an alternative to the Li-ion technology. One promising alternative would be a battery based on a multivalent ion, such as magnesium (Mg). Whereas a Li-ion with a charge of +1 provides only a single electron for an electrical ...

Myths about the brain are common among teachers worldwide and are hampering teaching, according to new research. Teachers in the UK, Holland, Turkey, Greece and China were presented with seven so-called 'neuromyths' and asked whether they believe them to be true. A quarter or more of teachers in the UK and Turkey believe a student's brain would shrink if they drank less than six to eight glasses of water a day, while around half or more of those surveyed believe a student's brain is only 10 per cent active and that children are less attentive after sugary drinks and ...

October 16, 2014, Glenview, Illinois—The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) and the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS) announced today the release of Prevention of Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: American College of Chest Physicians and Canadian Thoracic Society Guideline in the journal CHEST. The guideline, a first of its kind, provides evidence-based recommendations aimed at prevention of COPD exacerbations, which can cause frequent hospital readmissions, death during or after a hospital stay, and can potentially greatly reduce ...

HOUSTON – (Oct. 16, 2014) – While most Texans used healthcare.gov earlier this year to get information or to enroll in a health insurance plan under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), larger percentages of Texans found talking to the call center or a navigator was the most helpful. Those are just some of the lessons learned in a report released today by the Episcopal Health Foundation and Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The report found 62 percent of Texans used the healthcare.gov website to learn about ACA Marketplace health plans during ...

Particle physicists have a hard time identifying all the elementary particles created in their particle accelerators. But now researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have designed a material that makes it much easier to distinguish the particles. To investigate the matter's smallest constituents, physicists have particles colliding with each other at very high speeds, for example in the particle accelerator LHC at Cern. The collisions create bursts of common and rare particles, all invisible to the eye. To identify them researchers need to detect the cone of ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Despite the growing popularity of using computer simulation to help teach college anatomy, students learn much better through the traditional use of human cadavers, according to new research that has implications for health care. Cary Roseth, associate professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University, said the study suggests cadaver-based instruction should continue in undergraduate human anatomy, a gateway course to medical school, nursing and other health and medical fields. In the United States, most anatomy courses still emphasize ...

Northridge, Calif. (October 16, 2014) – Post-menopausal women experienced improvements in vaginal atrophy, with no significant effect on hormone levels or genital bleeding, after 12 weeks of daily 10 milligram (mg) doses of an investigational fermented soy germ-based nutritional supplement previously shown to help relieve certain menopause symptoms, according to a new peer-reviewed pilot study reported in a poster at the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) annual scientific meeting. "These data documented improved vaginal epithelium, without significant abnormalities ...

Space scientists at the University of Leicester have detected a curious signal in the X-ray sky – one that provides a tantalising insight into the nature of mysterious Dark Matter. The Leicester team has found what appears to be a signature of 'axions', predicted 'Dark Matter' particle candidates – something that has been a puzzle to science for years. In a study being published on Monday 20 October in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the University of Leicester scientists describe their finding of a signal which has no conventional ...

October 16, 2014 – There's more bad news for job seekers with a scandal-hit company like Lehman Brothers or Countrywide Mortgage on their résumés. As if it weren't already hard enough to get a new job in this market, people who worked for one of those companies have tarnished reputations to overcome: New research finds that moral suspicion from higher-ups' wrongdoing spills down to people lower in an organization, even if they did not work directly under the moral transgressor. "We became interested in the plight of people whose career trajectories were ...

VIDEO: The brain has a complex system for keeping track of which direction you are facing as you move about; remembering how to get from one place to another would otherwise... Click here for more information. The brain has a complex system for keeping track of which direction you are facing as you move about; remembering how to get from one place to another would otherwise be impossible. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have now shown how the brain anchors this ...

Industrial ecology, a rapidly growing field focused on sustainable production and consumption, has contributed numerous important tools to modern environmental management — life cycle assessment; "industrial symbiosis," or the by-product exchange between neighboring facilities; "design for environment"; and the use of material flow analysis to track resource use in supply chains, companies, and economies. A new special feature of Yale's Journal of Industrial Ecology, titled "Industrial Ecology as a Source of Competitive Advantage," presents new research on how, ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 15, 2014—Palliative care provided in the hospital offers known clinical benefits, and a new study shows that inpatient palliative care can also significantly lower the cost of hospitalization and the rate of readmissions. Further, the study shows the hospital can get the expertise it needs through a collaborative relationship with a community hospice. The results of a comparative study are published in Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 16, 2014—To treat the debilitating anemia associated with reduced erythropoietin (EPO) production by the kidneys in chronic renal disease, patients are often given recombinant human EPO to increase hemoglobin levels. But that treatment has risks. A new approach that uses a small interfering RNA (siRNA) drug to stimulate natural EPO production by the liver has shown promising results in nonhuman primates, as reported in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers. The article is available free ...

Ann Arbor, MI, October 16, 2014 – Although disease outbreaks and epidemics drawing worldwide attention emphasize the importance and acute need for public health professionals, the world faces a longer-term challenge—a public health workforce that is truly effective in the 21st century. In a new supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, experts address critical challenges to public health, from workforce development, capacity building, partnership and collaborations, and changes and needs in workforce composition. As the U.S. healthcare system ...

Researchers have devised a new test to help doctors diagnose ovarian tumours and choose the most appropriate treatment. Successful treatment depends in part on accurately identifying the type of tumour, but this can be difficult. As a result, many women with cancer are not sent to the right specialist surgeon, or those with a benign cyst may have a more serious operation than they need. In a study published today in the British Medical Journal, an international team led by Imperial College London and KU Leuven, Belgium describe a new test, called ADNEX, which can discriminate ...

Led by Joseph Proietto, Sir Edward Dunlop Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne and Head of the Weight Control Clinic at Austin Health, the study also found that substantial weight loss is more likely to be achieved if undertaken rapidly. "This randomised study highlights the urgent need for committees that develop clinical guidelines for the management of obesity to change their advice," he said. The trial included 200 obese adults (BMI 30–45kg/m²) who were randomly assigned to either a 12-week rapid weight loss programme (average weight ...

Melbourne researchers have challenged conventional thinking on how the bowel lining develops and, in the process, suggested a new mechanism for how bowel cancer starts. The researchers produced evidence that stem cells are responsible for maintaining and regenerating the 'crypts' that are a feature of the bowel lining, and believe these stem cells are involved in bowel cancer development, a controversial finding as scientists are still divided on the stem cells' existence. Using 3D imaging technologies, Dr Chin Wee Tan and Professor Tony Burgess from the Walter and ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16—As in Alice's journey through the looking-glass to Wonderland, mirrors in the real world can sometimes behave in surprising and unexpected ways, including a new class of mirror that works like no other. As reported today in The Optical Society's (OSA) new high-impact journal Optica, scientists have demonstrated, for the first time, a new type of mirror that forgoes a familiar shiny metallic surface and instead reflects infrared light by using an unusual magnetic property of a non-metallic metamaterial. By placing nanoscale antennas at or ...

VIDEO: Scientists from Australian National University reveal how they found a mountain range that fed an explosion of life 600 million years ago. The range stretched 2,500 km across Gondwana from... Click here for more information. Scientists have found evidence for a huge mountain range that sustained an explosion of life on Earth 600 million years ago. The mountain range was similar in scale to the Himalayas and spanned at least 2,500 kilometres of modern west Africa and northeast ...

Although monocultures can be cultivated efficiently, they are anything but sustainable: environmental damage to soil and water caused by monoculture cultivation is becoming increasingly evident. Despite their disadvantages, however, monocultures remain the principal crop form and are regarded as the sole possibility of achieving higher yields in plant production – quite wrongfully, finds Bernhard Schmid, an ecology professor at the University of Zurich, who advocates a novel form of agriculture and forestry. After all, a new study carried out by PhD student Debra ...

Respiratory Syncytial Virus causes severe respiratory tract infections and worldwide claims the lives of 160,000 children each year. Scientists at VIB and Ghent University have succeeded in developing a promising vaccination strategy to counteract this common virus infection. Xavier Saelens (VIB/UGent): "We discovered a new vaccination strategy that paves the way for the development of a novel approach to vaccination against RSV, a virus that causes suffering in numerous small children and elderly people." RSV: an infection that is difficult to combat The Respiratory ...