Ruminant cows and sheep account for a major proportion of the methane produced around the world. Currently around 20 percent of global methane emissions stem from ruminants. In the atmosphere methane contributes to the greenhouse effect – that's why researchers are looking for ways of reducing methane production by ruminants. Comparatively little is known about the methane production of other animal species – but one thing seems to be clear: Ruminants produce more of the gas per amount of converted feed than other herbivores. The only other animal group that regularly ...

The willingness of decision makers to take risks increases when they play games of chance with money won earlier. Risk taking also rises when they have the opportunity to compensate for earlier losses by breaking even. This outcome was demonstrated by Dr. Kaisa Hytönen, a Finnish Aalto University researcher in neurofinance, together with her international colleagues. There are frequently various linkages between financial decisions: the circumstances accompanying the decision are rarely completely independent of each other. Both profits and losses, for example, on the ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In U.S. cities, it's not just what you do, but also your address that can determine whether you will get HIV and whether you will survive. A new paper in the American Journal of Public Health illustrates the effects of that geographic disparity – which tracks closely with race and poverty – and calls for an increase in geographically targeted prevention and treatment efforts. "People of color are disproportionately impacted, and their risk of infection is a function not just of behavior but of where they live and the testing and treatment ...

Philadelphia, PA, April 10, 2014 – Two new studies published this week in Biological Psychiatry shed light on the propensity for habit formation in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). These studies suggest that a tendency to develop habits, i.e., the compulsive component of the disorder, may be a core feature of the disorder rather than a consequence of irrational beliefs. In other words, instead of washing one's hands because of the belief that they are contaminated, some people may develop concerns about hand contamination as a consequence of a recurring urge to wash ...

Researchers at the Department of Applied Physics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, in Xi'an, China, are engaged in revealing the mysteries of solidification process and the development of new materials using self-designed experimental instrument which can simulate the space environment such as containerless state. Solidification mechanism is of great importance to better understand the relationship between solidification process and microstructure evolution, so that we can follow them to design and prepare new materials which can meet the application requirements. Dr. ...

A NEW strategy to help young people find jobs that pay fair wages, accompanied by high quality training and better career opportunities, has been developed by a University of Huddersfield professor. Outlined in a specially-commissioned research report, it is beginning to catch the attention of policy-makers throughout the UK. After conducting years of funded research into the challenges that face young people dubbed NEET – meaning that they are not in employment, education or training – Professor Robin Simmons has devised the concept of a Youth Resolution designed to ...

WORCESTER, Mass. – New research from scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School shows that fruit flies are secretly harboring the biochemistry needed to glow in the dark —otherwise known as bioluminescence. The key to activating this latent ability is a novel synthetic analog of D-luciferin developed at UMMS. The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the inherent biochemistry needed for bioluminescence is more common than previously thought. Synthetic luciferins can unmask latent enzymatic ...

Marine scientists keen on finding patterns of coral decline and persistence in gradually warming oceans have a complex challenge: how to save reefs containing the most diversity with limited resources. In the Western Indian Ocean, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Warwick, the ARC Centre for Excellence of Coral Reef Studies, Simon Fraser University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and other groups have found that the corals of the Mozambique Channel should be a priority for protection as climate change continues to threaten ...

The world's reefs are hotbeds of biological diversity, including over 4,500 species of fish. A new study shows that the ancestors of these fish colonized reefs in two distinct waves, before and after the mass extinction event about 66 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs. Reef fish represent one of the largest and most diverse assemblages of vertebrates, according to Samantha Price, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Evolution and Ecology at UC Davis. Price is first author on a paper describing the work, published April 2 in the journal Proceedings ...

Scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have shed light on one of the most common of ailments – the runny nose. Your respiratory tract is under constant attack and the nose is the first line of defense. Often, especially as the weather warms, the assault comes from allergens, which cause the body to fight off a perceived threat. Infections, too, are a problem. But millions of people get a runny nose and have difficulty breathing without an allergic attack or infection. What many people call the sniffles, scientists refer to as "non-allergic rhinitis." Although ...

Maintaining stability in the face of rapid change and growth, and proactively partaking in cooperative global ties in science and technology fields will be key in helping China become an innovation-based economy, according to Denis Simon, vice provost for International Strategic Initiatives at Arizona State University. One of the world's leading experts on science, technology and innovation in China, Simon recently hosted an ASU conference that focused on the evolving role of science and technology in China's international relations. Supplemented with strategic investments ...

UT Arlington and Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital are investigating whether bone grown from the body's own stem cells can replace traditional types of bone grafting. The process, which has been successful in previous lab experiments, uses biodegradable polymer scaffolding material and bone morphogenetic protein, or BMP, which was inserted into the abdomen of mice to attract stem cells that in turn produced bone. BMPs are proteins known to promote bone growth. The research is detailed in a new paper, "Tissue Engineering Bone Using Autologous Progenitor Cells in ...

LOS ANGELES — Concerns about climate change and its impact on the world around us are growing daily. New scientific studies at the La Brea Tar Pits are probing the link between climate warming and the evolution of Ice Age predators, attempting to predict how animals will respond to climate change today. The La Brea Tar Pits are famous for the amazing array of Ice Age fossils found there, such as ground sloths, mammoths, and predators like saber-toothed cats and powerful dire wolves. But the climate during the end of the Ice Age (50,000-11,000 years ago) was unstable, ...

Heroin abuse can damage many brain areas, including the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus of the midbrain, the ventral tegmental area, and nucleus accumbens. Persistent use of heroin induced irreversible damage to the nervous system. To verify the relationship between acupuncture, neurotrophic factor expression and brain cell structural changes, a research team from Anhui University of Chinese Medicine in China established a rat model of heroin relapse using intramuscular injection of increasing amounts of heroin. During the detoxification period, rat models received acupuncture ...

The boldest black-lined rainbowfish are those that are born in the wild. Also more fearless are those that analyze information both sides of their brains. This is the conclusion of Australian researchers Culum Brown and Anne-Laurence Bibost from Macquarie University, in a study published in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. The preference to analyze and react to information with either the left or right hemisphere of the brain is called cerebral lateralization, and is widespread among vertebrates. Lateralization is seen in the preference of humans ...

In 10% of human tumors there is a family history of hereditary disease associated with mutations in identified genes. The best examples are the cases of polyps in the large intestine associated with the APC gene and breast cancer associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. In the remaining 90% of cases are believed to have an increased risk of developing cancer in relation to genetic variants less powerful but more often, for example, doubles the risk of having a tumor that lacks this small change, called polymorphism. In the last decade, hundreds of studies have been conducted ...

A trip to the veterinarian may prove fatal to a horse, even if it is not necessary to put the animal down. In Europe if the horse is found to be ataxic, which is most often due to the disease 'wobbler syndrome', the horse is likely to be put down immediately. If a horse suffers from this disease, putting it down can be a necessity, as the animal can be dangerous to ride and handle. But now new research from the University of Copenhagen and the Royal Veterinary College in the UK shows marked disagreement among experts about when a horse is ataxic and severity of the ataxia. ...

University of Adelaide researchers have found that women on antidepressant medication are more successful at breastfeeding their babies if they keep taking the medication, compared with women who quit antidepressants because of concerns about their babies' health. These results have been presented this week at the 18th Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ) Annual Conference in Perth. Using data from the Danish National Birth Cohort in Denmark, researchers in the University of Adelaide's Robinson Research Institute studied the outcomes of 368 women who ...

Dr. Yuhong Zhao and co-workers from Sun Yat-sen University in China explored the projection of nestin+ neurons to the olfactory bulb and the time course of nestin+ neurons in the medial septum-diagonal band of Broca in adult rats during injury recovery after olfactory nerve transection. These researchers observed that all nestin+ neurons were double-labeled with ChAT in the medial septum-diagonal band of Broca. Approximately 53.6% of nestin+ neurons were projected to the olfactory bulb and co-labeled with fast blue. A large number of nestin+ neurons were not present in ...

Washington, DC (April 7, 2014) – The mediated version of what women should look like has always been under scrutiny, particularly looking at actresses and fashion models. But what about body image from social networks and friends? A recent study by researchers in the United Kingdom and United States, found that more time on Facebook could lead to more negative feelings and more comparisons to the bodies of friends. Petya Eckler, University of Strathclyde; Yusuf Kalyango Jr., Ohio University; and Ellen Paasch, University of Iowa will present their findings at the 64th ...

Co-signor for ex-spouse's student loans discharged in bankruptcy Article provided by Claeys, McElroy-Magruder & Kitchens Visit us at http://www.letangiehelp.com In the case of In re Zumbro, the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the district court was correct in upholding the bankruptcy court's order decision determining that student loans co-signed by the debtor were dischargeable in bankruptcy under a hardship exception. The"Brunner"test Bankruptcy courts apply a three-prong Brunner test for ordering a discharge of student loan debt. The ...

Veterans: Honorable service, but an endless wait for disability benefits Article provided by Manring & Farrell Visit us at http://www.manringfarrell-socialsecuritylaw.com Backlog and delay While serving in Vietnam, a soldier was exposed for several minutes to Agent Orange, raining down, in his words, "like they were giving us a shower." Now 64, he has waited approximately four years for his claim for disability benefits to be resolved by the Veterans Benefits Administration, one pending case among 2.1 million. Across the nation, according to the Dayton Daily ...

High-profile accident raises awareness of dangers faced by pedestrians Article provided by Callahan & Blaine Visit us at http://www.personalinjury-arizona.com The recent high-profile accident at the South-by-Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas, has put the spotlight on the hazards faced by pedestrians all over the country. In the tragic SXSW incident, a drunk driver being chased by police drove through a street barricade directly into a crowd of people, killing three and injuring nearly two dozen more. The driver has been charged with capital murder ...

Governor convenes task force to study shared-parenting laws Article provided by McWalter, Barron & Boisvert, LLP Visit us at http://www.concordmasslawfirm.com Advocates argue that changing custody laws will benefit children of divorced parents The support for shared parenting in Massachusetts is gaining steam and many lawmakers are beginning to take notice. In response, Gov. Deval Patrick has formed a task force consisting of psychologists, lawyers, elected officials, and others to study whether changes to state custody laws are possible, reports the Lowell ...

Texas prenuptial agreements can help prevent later disputes Article provided by Teller Law Firm, P.C. Visit us at http://www.dtellerlaw.com Despite that fact that no one enters into a marriage expecting it to end in divorce, sadly it nonetheless is an inevitable outcome for a significant percentage of Texas marriages. For many couples, it is only after they experience the complexities of divorce that they realize they should have entered into a prenuptial agreement in the first place. Indeed, prenuptial agreements can be particularly useful when Texas couples ...