The press release
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Science5 Nov 2014

Why women buy magazines that promote impossible body images

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study reveals the secret of how some fashion and beauty magazines continue to attract devoted audiences, even though they glamorize super-thin models that would seem to taunt normal-sized women. The research suggests that some readers, rather than comparing themselves unhappily with the thin models, may derive "thinspiration": the belief that they can make themselves look just as attractive as the models they see in these magazines. But this is not any kind of positive inspiration, said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, author of the study and ...

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Medicine5 Nov 2014

Study gives insight into breast cancer recurrence

Around 5,000 cases of DCIS, a condition where cancerous cells are contained within the milk ducts of the breast, are diagnosed each year in the UK, with two thirds diagnosed through breast screening. If left untreated, up to half of DCIS cases could progress into invasive breast cancer, but it is not possible to say which ones, so all women are offered treatment. This usually involves breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) and, to reduce the risk of the cancer returning, radiotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. However, even with treatment up to one in five ...

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Science5 Nov 2014

Synthetic fish measures wild ride through dams

RICHLAND, Wash. – In the Pacific Northwest, young salmon must dodge predatory birds, sea lions and more in their perilous trek toward the ocean. Hydroelectric dams don't make the trip any easier, with their manmade currents sweeping fish past swirling turbines and other obstacles. Despite these challenges, most juvenile salmon survive this journey every year. Now, a synthetic fish is helping existing hydroelectric dams and new, smaller hydro facilities become more fish-friendly. The latest version of the Sensor Fish – a small tubular device filled with sensors ...

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Science5 Nov 2014

The Peres conjecture is false!

Since 1999, the conjecture by Asher Peres, who invented quantum teleportation, has piqued the interest of many scientists in the field. According to his hypothesis, the weakest form of quantum entanglement can never result in the strongest manifestation of the phenomenon. Today, a team of researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences have proven this conjecture to be false, thus solving one of the most famous problems in quantum information physics. This news was published in Nature Communications review. The physicist ...

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Medicine5 Nov 2014

Patients benefit from caregiver involvement in hospital discharge intervention

Providence, RI— Results of a new study published in The American Journal of Managed Care show that the presence of a family caregiver during patient recruitment is associated with a greater rate of completion of a post hospital transitional care coaching intervention, particularly among men. Discharge is a crucial component of the hospitalization process. Patients' understanding and engagement in discharge plans greatly influence their experiences, health outcomes, such as hospital readmission, and overall costs. The study looked at discharges using the Care Transitions ...

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Environment5 Nov 2014

Population boom, droughts contributed to collapse of ancient Assyrian Empire

There's more to the decline of the once mighty ancient Assyrian Empire than just civil wars and political unrest. Archaeological, historical, and paleoclimatic evidence suggests that climatic factors and population growth might also have come into play. This is the opinion of Adam Schneider of the University of California-San Diego in the US, and Selim Adali of the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations in Turkey, published in Springer's journal Climatic Change. In the 9th century BC, the Assyrian Empire of northern Iraq relentlessly started to expand into most of ...

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Science5 Nov 2014

No link found between movie, video game violence and societal violence

Washington, DC (November 5, 2014) – Since the 1920s, scholars and politicians have blamed violence in movies and other media as a contributing factor to rising violence in society. Recently the responses to mass shootings in Aurora, CO and at Sandy Hook Elementary followed this theme as media consumption came into the equation. But can consumption of violent media really be a factor in real-world violence? A recent study published in the Journal of Communication by a researcher at Stetson University found that there were no associations between media violence consumption ...

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Medicine5 Nov 2014

Getting to the heart of the heart

For years, a multidisciplinary team of Johns Hopkins researchers has tracked an elusive creature, a complex of proteins thought to be at fault in some cases of sudden cardiac death. As they report Nov. 5 in the online edition of Nature Communications, they have finally captured images of the complex. Those images reveal the connection between some genetic mutations and electrical abnormalities of the heart and provide a starting point for designing therapies. Sudden cardiac death is often caused by conditions that affect electrical signaling in the heart. Genetic studies ...

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Science5 Nov 2014

Taking a deeper look at 'ancient wing'

Berlin, Germany (November, 2014) – Reconstructing ancient life has long required a certain degree of imagination. This is especially true when considering the coloration of long-extinct organisms. However, new methods of investigation are being incorporated into paleontology that may shed light (and color) on fossils. Research presented at the recent Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting shows the importance of using new imaging technologies in reconstructing the color of Archaeopteryx, one of the most famous and important fossils species. Ryan Carney of Brown ...

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Earth Science5 Nov 2014

African diamond mine reveals dinosaur and large mammal tracks

Berlin, Germany (November, 2014) – Unexpectedly one of the largest diamond mines in Africa, Catoca in Angola, holds 118 million year old dinosaur, crocodile and large mammal tracks. The mammal tracks show a raccoon-sized animal, during a time when most were no larger than a rat. Nearly 70 distinct tracks were recovered in the Catoca mine in Angola. All the tracks were found in a small sedimentary basin, formed about 118 Ma, during the Early Cretaceous, in the crater of a kimberlite pipe. The most important of these finds are those whose morphology is attributable ...

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Energy5 Nov 2014

Jet-fueled electricity at room temperature

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 5, 2014 – University of Utah engineers developed the first room-temperature fuel cell that uses enzymes to help jet fuel produce electricity without needing to ignite the fuel. These new fuel cells can be used to power portable electronics, off-grid power and sensors. A study of the new cells appears online today in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Catalysis. Fuel cells convert energy into electricity through a chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxygen-rich source such as air. If a continuous flow of fuel is provided, a fuel ...

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Science5 Nov 2014

Turning pretty penstemon flowers from blue to red

While roses are red, and violets are blue, how exactly do flower colors change? In the case of penstemons, with over 200 species to choose from, scientists Carolyn Wessinger and Mark Rausher have now shown that turning their flowers from blue to red involves knocking out the activity of just a single enzyme involved in the production of blue floral pigments. A genetically conserved biochemical pathway produces the vivid blue pigments that they found to mutate over time to produce red. To shift into red pigment production, the enzyme flavonoid 3', 5' –hydroxylase ...

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Medicine5 Nov 2014

Patients with emergency-diagnosed lung cancer report barriers to seeing their GP

MANY patients whose lung cancer is diagnosed as an emergency in hospital reported difficulties in previously seeing their GP, according to research presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool today (Tuesday). The study, carried out by researchers from the London Cancer Alliance (LCA) and King's College London, investigated around 130 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer after attending as an emergency at one of seven hospitals in south and west London. Overall, nearly half of the patients reported that something ...

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Medicine5 Nov 2014

Scientists uncover potential drug to tackle 'undruggable' fault in third of cancers

SCIENTISTS have found a possible way to halt one of the most common faults in many types of cancer, according to research presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool today (Wednesday). A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Germany has uncovered a new strategy and new potential drug to target an important signalling protein in cells called Ras, which is faulty in a third of cancers. When the Ras protein travels from the centre of a cell to the cell membrane, it becomes 'switched on' ...

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Medicine5 Nov 2014

Trial results reveal first targeted treatment to boost survival for oesophageal cancer

PATIENTS with a specific type of oesophageal cancer survived longer when they were given the latest lung cancer drug, according to trial results being presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference today (Wednesday). Up to one in six patients with oesophageal cancer were found to have EGFR duplication in their tumour cells and taking the drug gefitinib, which targets this fault, boosted their survival by up to six months, and sometimes beyond. This is the first treatment for advanced oesophageal cancer shown to improve survival in patients ...

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Medicine5 Nov 2014

Gene 'switches' could predict when breast cancers will spread to the brain

SCIENTISTS have found a pattern of genetic 'switches' – chemical marks that turn genes on or off - that are linked to breast cancer's spread to the brain, according to research* presented at the National Cancer Research Institute Cancer Conference in Liverpool today (Wednesday). The researchers, based at the University of Wolverhampton, studied 24 breast cancers that had spread to the brain, along with samples from the original breast tumour, and found a handful of genes with faulty switches. Crucially, two of the genetic switches became faulty early on in the ...

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Medicine5 Nov 2014

New insight into the neuroscience of choking under pressure

Everyone knows the scene: a basketball player at the free throw line, bouncing the ball as he concentrates on the basket. It's a tight game, and his team needs this point. He regularly makes baskets from much farther away while avoiding defenders, but now, when all is calm, he chokes and misses the basket, and his team loses. Recent research from The Johns Hopkins University suggests that in situations like this, performance depends on two factors: the framing of the incentive in terms of a loss or a gain, and a person's aversion to loss. "We can measure someone's loss ...

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Medicine4 Nov 2014

Oxytocin levels in blood, cerebrospinal fluid are linked, Stanford study finds

For years, scientists have debated how best to assess brain levels of oxytocin, a hormone implicated in social behaviors. Now, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found the first direct evidence in children that blood oxytocin measurements are tightly linked to levels of oxytocin in cerebrospinal fluid, which bathes the brain. Low oxytocin levels in blood and CSF are both correlated to high anxiety levels, the research also showed. The findings will be published online Nov. 4 in Molecular Psychiatry. "So many psychiatric disorders involve ...

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Technology4 Nov 2014

Digital dinosaurs: New research employs high-end technology to restore dinosaur fossil

Fossils are usually deformed or incompletely preserved when they are found, after sometimes millions of years of fossilization processes. Consequently, fossils have to be studied very carefully to avoid damage, and are sometimes they are difficult to access, as they might be located in remote museum collections. An international team of scientists, led by Dr. Stephan Lautenschlager from the University of Bristol now solved some of these problems by using modern computer technology, as described in a recent issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The team consisting ...

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Medicine4 Nov 2014

Nonobstructive CAD associated with increased risk of heart attack, death

In a study that included nearly 38,000 patients, those diagnosed with nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) had a significantly increased risk of heart attack or death one year after diagnosis, according to a study in the November 5 issue of JAMA. Nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) is atherosclerotic plaque that would not be expected to obstruct blood flow or result in anginal symptoms (such as chest pain). Although such lesions are relatively common, occurring in 10 percent to 25 percent of patients undergoing coronary angiography, their presence has ...

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Medicine4 Nov 2014

Combination treatment for metastatic melanoma results in longer overall survival

Among patients with metastatic melanoma, treatment with a combination of the drugs sargramostim plus ipilimumab, compared with ipilimumab alone, resulted in longer overall survival and lower toxicity, but no difference in progression-free survival, according to a study in the November 5 issue of JAMA. F. Stephen Hodi, M.D., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues conducted a phase 2 clinical trial in which 245 patients with unresectable (unable to be removed by surgery) stage Ill or IV melanoma were randomly assigned to receive ipilimumab (intravenously) ...

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Science4 Nov 2014

Study finds Google glasses may partially obstruct peripheral vision

Testing of study participants who wore head-mounted display systems (Google glasses) found that the glasses created a partial peripheral vision obstruction, according to a study in the November 5 issue of JAMA. Interest in wearable head-mounted display systems for general consumers is increasing, with multiple models in production. However, their effect on vision is largely unknown. Peripheral visual field is a main component of vision and essential for daily activities such as driving, pedestrian safety, and sports. Conventional spectacle frames can reduce visual field, ...

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Medicine4 Nov 2014

Immune booster combined with checkpoint blocker improves survival in metastatic melanoma

BOSTON – Patients with metastatic melanoma who were treated with ipilimumab, an immune checkpoint blocker, survived 50 percent longer – a median 17.5 months vs. 12.7 months – if they simultaneously received an immune stimulant, according to a study led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists. Patients in the clinical trial who got the combined therapies also had fewer serious adverse side effects than those who received only ipilimumab, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The group treated with both ipilimumab ...

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Medicine4 Nov 2014

Long-acting anti-meth treatment demonstrates protective benefits for meth addiction

San Diego — A recently developed Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV)-based medication has the potential to offer substantial protective effects for patients attempting to cease methamphetamine use. This research is being presented at the 2014 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition, the world's largest pharmaceutical sciences meeting, in San Diego, Nov. 2-6. Methamphetamine, commonly referred to as meth, is an addictive substance that can cause brain damage, organ failure, stroke, open sores, rotting teeth, mania, paranoia, ...

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Technology4 Nov 2014

Novel nanofiber-based technology could help prevent HIV/AIDS transmission

San Diego — Scientists have developed a novel topical microbicide loaded with hyaluronic acid (HA) nanofibers that could potentially prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through the vaginal mucosa. This research is being presented at the 2014 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition, the world's largest pharmaceutical sciences meeting, in San Diego, Nov. 2-6. HIV is an infectious virus that attacks T lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that prevents infections and disease. Over time, HIV ...

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