Infants show unique physiological and behavioral responses to pleasant touch, which may help to cement the bonds between child and parent and promote early social and physiological development, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Previous studies with adults have shown that when the skin is stroked, a specific type of touch receptor is activated in response to a particular stroking velocity, leading to the sensation of "pleasant" touch. Cognitive neuroscientist Merle Fairhurst of the Max Planck ...

Improved thinking. Decreased appetite. Lowered blood pressure. The potential health benefits of dark chocolate keep piling up, and scientists are now homing in on what ingredients in chocolate might help prevent obesity, as well as type-2 diabetes. They found that one particular type of antioxidant in cocoa prevented laboratory mice from gaining excess weight and lowered their blood sugar levels. The report appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry. Andrew P. Neilson and colleagues explain that cocoa, the basic ingredient of chocolate, is one of the most ...

Athens, Ga. – The International Peanut Genome Initiative—a group of multinational crop geneticists who have been working in tandem for the last several years—has successfully sequenced the peanut's genome. Scott Jackson, director of the University of Georgia Center for Applied Genetic Technologies in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, serves as chair of the International Peanut Genome Initiative, or IPGI. The new peanut genome sequence will be available to researchers and plant breeders across the globe to aid in the breeding of more productive ...

To determine whether new medicines are safe and effective for humans, researchers must first test them in animals, which is costly and time-consuming, as well as ethically challenging. In a study published in ACS' journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, scientists report that they've developed a simple, "3D" laboratory method to test asthma and allergy medications that mimics what happens in the body, which could help reduce the need for animal testing. Amir Ghaemmaghami and colleagues note that respiratory conditions, such as asthma and allergies, are becoming more common. ...

An inscription on a 3,500-year-old stone block from Egypt may be one of the world's oldest weather reports—and could provide new evidence about the chronology of events in the ancient Middle East. A new translation of a 40-line inscription on the 6-foot-tall calcite block called the Tempest Stela describes rain, darkness and "the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses." Two scholars at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute believe the unusual weather patterns described on the slab were the result of a massive volcano explosion ...

NOS1 expression predicts melanoma-dependent immune dysfunction Individuals with cancer often exhibit dysfunctional immune signaling in response to interferon (IFN) stimulation. Furthermore, recent evidence indicates that pSTAT-1 levels, which are indicative of IFN responsiveness, in circulating immune cells are predictive of clinical outcome in melanoma patients. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Qiuzhen Liu and colleagues at Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China determined that melanoma cells have differing capacity to dampen IFN responses ...

A survey of more than 500 researchers indicates that scientists have the desire to get more involved in public discussion and policy decisions regarding environmental issues, but have concerns about how their efforts might be perceived. "Scientists debate whether they have a role in advocacy," says Gerald Singh, a PhD student in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC, who conducted the survey with his colleagues. "Some feel they need to remain objective and can't engage. Others feel they have a duty to get involved so that decisions are made ...

Director of Cornell's Food and Brand Lab Brian Wansink and post-doctoral lab researcher Aner Tal, are releasing a new study today published in the Journal of Environment and Behavior that discovered consumers are 16 percent more likely to trust a brand of cereal when the characters on the boxes on the supermarket shelves look them straight in the eye. Not surprisingly, the study also found that the gaze of characters on children's cereal boxes is at a downward, 9.6-degree angle, while characters on adult cereal boxes look almost straight ahead. Wansink says: "If you ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- The ability to stay positive when times get tough -- and, conversely, of being negative -- may be hardwired in the brain, finds new research led by a Michigan State University psychologist. The study, which appears in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, is the first to provide biological evidence validating the idea that there are, in fact, positive and negative people in the world. "It's the first time we've been able to find a brain marker that really distinguishes negative thinkers from positive thinkers," said Jason Moser, lead investigator ...

Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids! In a study of 65 cereals in 10 different grocery stores, Cornell researchers found that cereals marketed to kids are placed half as high on supermarket shelves as adult cereals—the average height for children's cereal boxes is 23 inches verses 48 inches for adult cereal. A second key finding from the same study is that the average angle of the gaze of cereal spokes-characters on cereal boxes marketed to kids is downward at a 9.6 degree angle whereas spokes-characters on adult cereal look almost straight ahead. To examine the influence ...

(Lebanon, NH, 4/2/14) — Using CT scans with contrast enhancement, Dartmouth researchers measured treatment response to pancreatic cancer photodynamic therapy (PDT) according to a paper published in Physics in Medicine and Biology. The research team at Dartmouth set out to reduce the imaging obstacles for PDT, a minimally invasive and nontoxic treatment for cancer. "This study implies that treatment response can be reliably predicted using contrast CT. This would represent a major breakthrough in PDT for pancreas cancer that allows for easier, faster treatment tailored ...

Several clues in the structure of NGC 1316 reveal that its past was turbulent. For instance, it has some unusual dust lanes [1] embedded within a much larger envelope of stars, and a population of unusually small globular star clusters. These suggest that it may have already swallowed a dust-rich spiral galaxy about three billion years ago. Also seen around the galaxy are very faint tidal tails — wisps and shells of stars that have been torn from their original locations and flung into intergalactic space. These features are produced by complex gravitational effects on ...

Colorado grandparents may be able to seek visitation or custody Article provided by Littman Family Law Visit us at http://www.davidlittmanpc.com The relationship between a child and his or her grandparents can be a huge factor in that child's happiness. Grandparents spoil us, teach us about our family's history, give us practical skills and shower us with love. In spite of the importance of the grandparent/grandchild relationship, in some circumstances, a grandparent is cut off from his or her grandchild because of a dispute or disagreement with the child's parent ...

Ohio employer charged in a payroll tax dispute Article provided by Terrence A. Grady & Associates Co., L.P.A. Visit us at http://www.tgradylaw.com When one thinks of tax liability or tax evasion, he or she may first imagine an employee who failed to report earned income. However, legal responsibility comes in varied forms. For example, employers or managers responsible for deducting pay roll taxes could be under the microscope, too. It is the duty of such person to forward deducted taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). If one fails to do so, he or she ...

Fatalities from stroller accidents trigger new regulations Article provided by The Epstein Law Firm, P.A. Visit us at http://www.theepsteinlawfirm.com The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a new safety standard for strollers in the United States. The changes were prompted by multiple reported amputations, lacerations and four fatalities since 2008. Key changes aimed at reducing the risk of releasing a defective or dangerous product that could injure a child include: -Braking systems. One of the reported lacerations occurred when a stroller rolled off ...

Club Leisure Group, the largest timeshare sales and property management company in South Africa, has contracted to use TrackResults Software sales management analysis tools to keep track of its growing business. Leadership at Club Leisure wanted more flexible reporting, plus the ability to run instant analytics on their data without an additional burden to the IT Department. Award-winning TrackResults Software, known around sales and marketing circles in the vacation ownership industry as being easy and ready-to-use with precise sales management analysis tools is used ...

Walter R. Strapps, Executive Director of RNA Therapeutics at Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to give a presentation titled "Gene Silencing Oligos: The Next Generation in Gene Silencing" at the Inaugural Nucleic Acid Research and Development Conference, June 29 & 20, 2014 in San Diego, CA. Dr. Strapps leads the RNA Discovery unit at Idera and is responsible for research and development of Idera's gene silencing oligo (GSO) platform. Dr. Strapps joined Idera in 2014. Prior to Idera, Dr. Strapps was Director, RNAi Therapeutics at Merck & Co., Inc. where he led siRNA ...

"Mold testing results, as done by many mold inspectors and industrial hygienists, are often inaccurate and misleading because of a number of mold testing mistakes and problems," warns Phillip Fry, Certified Environmental Hygienist, Professional Industrial Hygienist, and author of five mold advice ebooks, who explains these top six mold testing mistakes or misconceptions: The most basic problem is that "Standards for judging what is an acceptable, tolerable, or normal quantity of mold have not been established," according to the Centers for Disease Control on its website. Second, ...

Achieving a 5-star rating for the fifth year in a row, Millennium Park Orthodontics and Howard E. Spector, DDS, FACDS, have once again earned the prestigious Talk of the Town Customer Satisfaction Award in the Orthodontists Category. The awards, presented by Talk of the Town News, honor companies and professionals that provide excellent customer service as reported by their customers through no-cost, user review websites, blogs, social networks, business rating services and other honors and accolades. This data is analyzed by a team of researchers who calculate a company's ...

"Chimes for Autism: Tyler's Story" is a video chronicling the story of Tyler Doi, an 8-year-old boy with a fascination with windchimes, especially Woodstock Chimes, and a unique musical acuity. His acuity is so strong that Tyler was victorious against the founder of Woodstock Chimes in a challenge to identify the company's musically tuned chimes just by hearing them ring. However, there's much more to the story: Tyler lives with autism. "Around age 1, Tyler wasn't exhibiting simple behaviors for a 12-month-old," explained Sean Doi, Tyler's father. "He didn't wave hello ...

The Workplace Bullying Institute and the New Workplace Institute announce the launch of a joint initiative, the U.S. Academy on Workplace Bullying, Mobbing, and Abuse, which will support and promote the multi-disciplinary work of leading and emerging educators, researchers, practitioners, writers, and advocates who are dedicated to understanding, preventing, stopping, and responding to workplace bullying and related forms of interpersonal mistreatment. "For over a year, we've been contemplating how to bring together an American network of leading and emerging experts ...

Match My Email offers the most advanced, fully automated email syncing and logging app for Salesforce.com. Offered on the Salesforce.com AppExchange, Match My Email is a member of ISVForce Match My Email is proud to report that 2013 was a record year for its cloud service. In 2013, Match My Email posted record revenue and experienced subscriber growth of 116% year over year. It expanded its customer footprint to 14 countries and 36 states. During 2013, Match My Email released major new features such as automatic import of old emails, comprehensive de-duplication, 'total ...

ThermiAesthetics(TM) will proudly present ThermiTight(TM) Injectable RF, a breakthrough approach to skin laxity using FDA-cleared ThermiRF(TM) technology, at this year's American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) Annual Conference at the Phoenix Convention Center. ThermiRF will be on display at booth #631 from Wednesday, April 2nd to Sunday, April 6th and renowned doctors, board certified dermatologist Douglas J. Key, M.D. and board certified plastic surgeon Brian Kinney, M.D, will present ThermiTight Injectable RF during a number of speaking engagements throughout ...

Longtime White Bear Lake resident Elaine Arnold spent her 84 years fervently following the Minnesota Twins; so when this forever fan died not long after the 2013 Season Opener, her family was pleased to find a unique urn that perfectly reflected her passion for the Twins. When Elaine's daughter, Lynne Arnold, went to make the funeral arrangements at Mueller Memorial Funeral Home in White Bear Lake, she spotted the Twins urn, 12 inches tall and colored in blue, white, and baseball bat tan, which happened to be sitting on a table in the lobby. "It was only out because ...

DirectBuy of St. Louis gains a new line of leather furniture to add to its list of over 700 Top Manufacturers. Savanitalia, a division of Marthena Home Furnishing, is based in California. The collection focuses on contemporary and classic leather couches, chairs and ottomans with features not typically seen by furniture retailers. Savanitalia is full of bright colors and high quality leather from the Italian terrain. DirectBuy members get an exclusive deal on this collection with prices directly from the manufacturer with no hidden retail markups. For more information ...