Research by a civil engineer from the University of Waterloo is helping shed light on the way wounds heal and may someday have implications for understanding how cancer spreads, as well as why certain birth defects occur. Professor Wayne Brodland is developing computational models for studying the mechanical interactions between cells. In this project, he worked with a team of international researchers who found that the way wounds knit together is more complex than we thought. The results were published this week in the journal, Nature Physics. "When people think ...

PRINCETON, N.J. -- A sudden closing of a major airline hub such as the main Atlanta airport would undoubtedly leave thousands of travelers stranded. Because of Atlanta's hub status, such a blow would be felt nationally, altering the travel plans of millions while impacting the travel industry, tourism and other segments of the economy. A team of economists including Esteban Rossi-Hansberg of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs have developed a model that can measure the widespread effects of local industry fluctuations such ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (Aug. 6, 2014) – Recent studies have shown that transplanting induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem cells (iPS-NSCs) can promote functional recovery after spinal cord injury in rodents and non-human primates. However, a serious drawback to the transplantation of iPS-NSCs is the potential for tumor growth, or tumorogenesis, post-transplantation. In an effort to better understand this risk and find ways to prevent it, a team of Japanese researchers has completed a study in which they transplanted a human glioblastoma cell line into the intact ...

Female candidates for elected office do as well as male candidates in terms of raising money and winning votes, so why do women only occupy 19 percent of congressional seats and approximately 25 percent of statewide offices and hold fewer governorships and mayorships? The traditional wisdom has been family obligations and responsibilities prevent women from running for office. "But in none of the scholarly research where scholars attempt to establish a link between family roles and political ambition did traditional family arrangements prevent women from eventually running ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, August 5, 2014 — As the first generation to embrace exercise, baby boomers continue going to the gym, yet more out of necessity than for the challenge and enjoyment of physical activity. In a study recently published in the International Journal of Wellbeing, James Gavin, a professor in Concordia's Department of Applied Human Sciences, investigates our motivations for exercise, from looking good to having fun. He finds that for the baby boom generation, passion is the most important motivator — a fact the fitness ...

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. – August 6, 2014 – According to researchers in California, African Americans' participation in colorectal cancer screening is low and the use of colonoscopy infrequent despite similar access to care across races in a Veterans Affairs healthcare system. The researchers also found that having established primary care at the time of screening eligibility significantly increased screening uptake. The study appears in the August issue of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy ...

Amsterdam, NL, August 6, 2014 – In a long-term, large-scale population-based study of individuals aged 55 years or older in the general population researchers found that those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) had a four-fold increased risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to cognitively healthy individuals. Several risk factors including older age, positive APOE-ɛ4 status, low total cholesterol levels, and stroke, as well as specific MRI findings were associated with an increased risk of developing MCI. The results are published ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When the ants come marching in, having miles of linked habitats may not be such a good idea after all. In a classic example of the law of unintended consequences, new University of Florida research suggests that wildlife corridors – strips of natural land created to reconnect habitats separated by agriculture or human activities -- can sometimes encourage the spread of invasive species such as one type of fire ant. The findings are particularly important in Florida, where invasive species are a vexing problem. The Sunshine State plays host to animals ...

Adolescents who behave aggressively are more likely to drink alcohol and in larger quantities than their peers, according to a recent study completed in Finland. Depression and anxiety, on the other hand, were not linked to increased alcohol use. The study investigated the association between psychosocial problems and alcohol use among 4074 Finnish 13- to 18-year-old adolescents. The results were published in Journal of Adolescence. The results indicate that smoking and attention problems also increase the probability of alcohol use. Furthermore, among girls, early menarche ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 6, 2014—The difficulty in replicating and directly comparing and confirming the scientific results reported by researchers worldwide who are studying new approaches to treating spinal cord injuries is slowing the translation of important new findings to patient care. A newly proposed reporting standard for spinal cord injury (SCI) experimentation defines the minimum information that is appropriate for modeling an SCI in the research setting, as presented in an article in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, ...

Informing the public about African Americans' disproportionate incarceration rate may actually bolster support for punitive policies that perpetuate inequality, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Stanford University psychology researchers Rebecca Hetey and Jennifer Eberhardt found that White participants who were exposed to higher racial disparities in incarceration rates reported being more afraid of crime and more likely to support the kinds of punitive policies that exacerbate these racial ...

A major study of all penguin species suggests the birds are at continuing risk from habitat degradation. Writing in the journal, Conservation Biology, a group of internationally renowned scientists recommends the adoption of measures to mitigate against a range of effects including; food scarcity (where fisheries compete for the same resources), being caught in fishing nets, oil pollution and climate change. This could include the establishment of marine protected areas, although the authors acknowledge this might not always be practical. A number of other ecologically ...

Emotional flexibility has become a widely discussed topic in emotional psychology, clinical psychology, health psychology and other fields. Professor Zhou Renlai and his group from Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University (BNU) explored whether frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) lateralization can predict emotional flexibility. Frontal EEG activation during different emotion stimuli was measured. They identified the difference of frontal EEG lateralization could predict difference in emotional flexibility. Relative ...

When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Typhoon Halong on its northern journey through the western North Pacific Ocean, it became wide-eyed again after going through eyewall replacement. Eyewall replacement happens when the thunderstorms that circle the eye of a powerful hurricane are replaced by other thunderstorms. Basically, a new eye begins to develop around the old eye and it usually indicates a weakening trend. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard Aqua captured a visible image of Halong on August 6 at 04:30 UTC (12:30 a.m. ...

Toronto, Canada – Older adults who are tested at their optimal time of day (the morning), not only perform better on demanding cognitive tasks but also activate the same brain networks responsible for paying attention and suppressing distraction as younger adults, according to Canadian researchers. The study, published online July 7th in the journal Psychology and Aging (ahead of print publication), has yielded some of the strongest evidence yet that there are noticeable differences in brain function across the day for older adults. "Time of day really does matter when ...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2014—A new hand-held device that uses lasers and sound waves may change the way doctors treat and diagnose melanoma, according to a team of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis. The instrument, described in a paper published today in The Optical Society's (OSA) journal Optics Letters, is the first that can be used directly on a patient and accurately measure how deep a melanoma tumor extends into the skin, providing valuable information for treatment, diagnosis or prognosis. Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer type in the United ...

ST. LOUIS – In recent research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Saint Louis University investigators report catching integrase, the part of retroviruses like HIV that is responsible for insertion of the viral DNA into human cell DNA, in the presence of a drug designed to thwart it. This achievement sets the stage to use x-ray crystallography to develop complete images of HIV that include integrase, which in turn will help scientists develop new treatments for the illness. Duane Grandgenett, Ph.D., professor at SLU's Institute of Molecular Virology ...

Cellular transplantation for repair of spinal cord injury is a promising therapeutic strategy that includes the use of a variety of neural and non-neural cells isolated or derived from embryonic and adult tissue as well as embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. In particular, transplants of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) have been shown to limit secondary injury and scar formation and create a permissive environment in the injured spinal cord through the provision of neurotrophic molecules and growth supporting matrices that promote growth of injured host ...

For decades, numerous investigations have only focused on axon regeneration to restore function after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), as interrupted neuronal pathways have to be reconnected for sensorimotor and autonomic recovery to occur. Experimental approaches have ranged from drug delivery and cell transplantation to genetic manipulations. Certainly, it would be an extraordinary achievement for injured axons to regenerate over long distances, to form synapses with target neurons, and to result in dramatic functional improvement. Dr. Shaoping Hou from Drexel University ...

Bethesda, MD (August 6, 2014) – Immunosuppressive drugs called thiopurines have been found to increase the risk of myeloid disorders, such as acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare bone marrow disorder, seven-fold among inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. These data were reported in a new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA). Thiopurines are an established treatment for IBD patients, used to reduce inflammation and provide symptom ...

Evolution of the first burrowing animals may have played a major role in stabilizing the Earth's oxygen reservoir, according to a new study in Nature Geoscience. Around 540 million years ago, the first burrowing animals evolved. When these worms began to mix up the ocean floor's sediments (a process known as bioturbation), their activity came to significantly influence the ocean's phosphorus cycle and as a result, the amount of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. "Our research is an attempt to place the spread of animal life in the context of wider biogeochemical cycles, ...

New research has identified two significant risk factors associated with painful neurological diseases in the skull shape of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (CKCS). The findings could help in tackling these conditions in toy dog breeds and could be used in breeding guidelines. The study conducted by undergraduate student, Thomas Mitchell, from the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences, and supervised by Dr Clare Rusbridge, is published online in the journal Canine Genetics and Epidemiology. Syringomyelia (SM) is a painful condition in dogs and is ...

Adolescents who behave aggressively are more likely to drink alcohol and in larger quantities than their peers, according to a recent study completed in Finland. Depression and anxiety, on the other hand, were not linked to increased alcohol use. The study investigated the association between psychosocial problems and alcohol use among 4074 Finnish 13- to 18-year-old adolescents. The results were published in Journal of Adolescence. The results indicate that smoking and attention problems also increase the probability of alcohol use. Furthermore, among girls, early menarche ...

An extensive study by Smithsonian scientists presents a synopsis of the carabid beetle tribe Lachnophorini. The research contains a new genus and the remarkable 24 new species added to the tribe. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys. Beetles from the family Carabidae, commonly known as ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan group, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, Carabid beetles range in size from 0.6 mm to 90.2 mm and occur in nature in several fractal universes influencing life therein as predators, ectoparasitoids, seed eaters, and even ...

Fortunately, you are not always what you eat – at least in Canada's Arctic. New research from the University of Guelph reveals that arctic mammals such as caribou can metabolize some current-use pesticides (CUPs) ingested in vegetation. This limits exposures in animals that consume the caribou – including humans. "This is good news for the wildlife and people of the Arctic who survive by hunting caribou and other animals," said Adam Morris, a PhD student in the School of Environmental Sciences and lead author of the study published recently in Environmental Toxicology ...