(Edmonton) Digits on a scale can help determine a child's weight, but their overall health status can be influenced by other factors such as physical activity, diet and screen time, according to new research from the University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services. A study of 181 children with obesity aged eight to 17 years old showed that up to a third could be classified as "metabolically healthy," meaning they're not imminently at risk of developing insulin resistance—a precursor to Type 2 diabetes—high blood pressure, high cholesterol or other obesity-related diseases. "It's ...

Physicists are one step closer to developing the world's first room-temperature superconductor thanks to a new theory from the University of Waterloo, Harvard and Perimeter Institute. The theory explains the transition phase to superconductivity, or "pseudogap" phase, which is one of the last obstacles to developing the next generation of superconductors and one of the major unsolved problems of theoretical condensed matter physics. Their work was published in this week's issue of the prestigious journal Science. Superconductivity is the phenomenon where electricity ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Researchers at UC Davis have found that the investigational cancer vaccine tecemotide, when administered with the chemotherapeutic cisplatin, boosted immune response and reduced the number of tumors in mice with lung cancer. The study also found that radiation treatments did not significantly impair the immune response. The paper was published on March 10 in the journal Cancer Immunology Research, an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) publication. Though tecemotide, also known as Stimuvax, has shown great potential at times, the recent ...

A three-year study of ancient clam gardens in the Pacific Northwest has led researchers, including three from Simon Fraser University, to make a discovery that could benefit coastal communities' food production. PLOS ONE, a peer-reviewed science journal, has just published their study. Amy Groesbeck, an SFU alumna, SFU professors Anne Salomon, an ecologist, and Dana Lepofsky, an archaeologist, and Kirsten Rowell, a University of Washington biologist are the authors. The researchers discovered that ancient clam gardens made by Aboriginal people produced quadruple the ...

Although genome-wide association studies have linked DNA variants in the gene SCN10A with increased risk for cardiac arrhythmia, efforts to determine the gene's direct influence on the heart's electrical activity have been unproductive. Now, scientists from the University of Chicago have discovered that these SCN10A variants regulate the function of a different gene, SCN5A, which appears to be the primary gene responsible for cardiac arrhythmia risk. The SCN10A gene itself plays only a minimal role in the heart, according to the study, published in the Journal of Clinical ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (March 20, 2014) -- University of Oregon physicists using a supercomputer and mathematically rich formulas have captured fundamental insights about what happens when objects moving freely jam to a standstill. Their approach captures jamming -- the point at which objects come together too tightly to move -- by identifying geometric signatures. The payoff, while likely far down the road, could be a roadmap to preventing overfilled conveyor belts from stopping in factories, separating oil deposits trapped in sand, or allowing for the rapid, efficient transfer ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — March 20, 2014 — Is irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) caused by genetics, diet, past trauma, anxiety? All are thought to play a role, but now, for the first time, researchers have reported a defined genetic defect that causes a subset of IBS. The research was published in the journal Gastroenterology. Researchers estimate that approximately 15 to 20 percent of the Western world has IBS. It is a common disorder that affects the large intestine. Most patients with the disorder commonly experience symptoms of cramping, abdominal pain, bloating gas, diarrhea ...

WASHINGTON — The implementation of health care reform in Massachusetts – principally the expansion of health insurance coverage to nearly everyone in the state – was associated with a small but consistent increase in emergency department use, according to the findings of a study to be published online today in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Increased Use of the Emergency Department After Health Care Reform in Massachusetts"). "This obviously has implications about what we can expect to see nationally as the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act continues," said Peter ...

Lincoln, Neb., March 20, 2014 – The nation's left-leaning citizens might be pleased by the findings of a new University of Nebraska study that finds those who live in liberal states tend to be healthier. But conservatives could also take satisfaction in the same study's conclusion that strong communities also foster better health. "Some people might like the argument that liberal government automatically leads to healthier people, because it supports their worldview," said Mitchel Herian, a faculty fellow with the university's Public Policy Center and lead researcher ...

The top predators of the Southern Ocean, far-ranging seabirds, are tied both to the health of the ocean ecosystem and to global climate regulation through a mutual relationship with phytoplankton, according to newly published work from the University of California, Davis. When phytoplankton are eaten by grazing crustaceans called krill, they release a chemical signal that calls in krill-eating birds. At the same time, this chemical signal — dimethyl sulfide, or DMS — forms sulfur compounds in the atmosphere that promote cloud formation and help cool the planet. Seabirds ...

The worldwide demand for solar and wind power continues to skyrocket. Since 2009, global solar photovoltaic installations have increased about 40 percent a year on average, and the installed capacity of wind turbines has doubled. The dramatic growth of the wind and solar industries has led utilities to begin testing large-scale technologies capable of storing surplus clean electricity and delivering it on demand when sunlight and wind are in short supply. Now a team of Stanford researchers has looked at the "energetic cost" of manufacturing batteries and other storage ...

Tropical Cyclone Mike didn't even last a day in the Southern Pacific Ocean as NOAA's GOES-West satellite revealed the storm dissipating just 24 hours after it was born. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center's second update on Tropical Cyclone Mike was its last. At 2100 UTC/5 p.m. EDT Mike was located near 24.3 south latitude and 157.9 west, about 618 nautical miles/711.1 miles/ 1,145 km southwest of Papeete, Tahiti. Maximum sustained winds were near 35 knots/40 mph/62 kph at that time. All warnings for the Southern Cook Islands were cancelled and Mike was quickly weakening ...

Like them or not, there's more proof that selfies aren't going away any time soon. Georgia Institute of Technology and Yahoo Labs researchers looked at 1.1 million photos on Instagram and found that pictures with human faces are 38 percent more likely to receive likes than photos with no faces. They're also 32 percent more likely to attract comments. The study is one of the first to examine how photos with faces drive engagement on large-scale, image-sharing communities. The researchers also found that the number of faces in the photo, their age or gender didn't make ...

NASA's TRMM satellite continues to follow the remnants of former Tropical Cyclone Gillian as it moved from the Southern Pacific Ocean into the Southern Indian Ocean where it appears to be re-organizing. The persistent remnants of tropical cyclone Gillian have moved westward over 2,700 km/1,674 miles since forming in the Gulf of Carpentaria on March 8, 2014. Gillian's coherent remnants were located just to the southeast of the Indonesian island of Java when the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite flew overhead on March 20, 2014 at 0415 UTC/12:15 a.m. ...

Neuroimages play a growing role in biomedical research, medicine, and courtrooms, as well as in shaping our understanding of what it means to be human. But how helpful are they at answering complex questions such as: What is depression? Is a defendant lying? Do we have free will? These are among the topics explored in Interpreting Neuroimages: An Introduction to the Technology and Its Limits, a special report of the Hastings Center Report. It is edited by Josephine Johnston, a research scholar and director of research, and Erik Parens, a senior research scholar, and ...

Proteins that regulate energy metabolism are essential for stem cell formation, University of Washington researchers find. Two proteins that control how cells metabolize glucose play a key role in the formation of human stem cells, UW researchers report. The findings advance scientists' understanding of stem cell development but also suggest that the proteins, which also play a role in the process that transforms normal cells into cancer stem cells, might also be targets for new cancer therapies, the researchers write. The findings appear online in the journal Cell ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Scientists at Indiana University have unlocked one of the mysteries of modern genetics: how acquired traits can be passed between generations in a process called epigenetic inheritance. The new work finds that cells don't know to silence some genes based on information hardwired into their DNA sequences, but recognize heritable chemical marks that are added to the genes. These chemical tags serve as a form of molecular memory, allowing cells to recognize the genes and remember to silence them again in each new generation. The discovery made by a 12-member ...

The shortage of oxygen, or hypoxia, created when rapidly multiplying kidney cancer cells outgrow their local blood supply can accelerate tumor growth by causing a nuclear protein called SPOP—which normally suppresses tumor growth—to move out of the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where it has the opposite effect, promoting rapid proliferation. In the March 20, 2014, issue of the journal Cancer Cell, researchers from Chicago and Beijing describe the mechanisms that enable hypoxia to cause the overexpression of SPOP. They show that hypoxia also stimulates the shuttling of SPOP ...

Scientists using passive acoustic monitoring to track minke whales in the Northwest Atlantic have found clues in the individual calling behaviors and movements of this species. These findings, recently published online in the journal Behaviour, provide insight into one of the least studied baleen whales. "Although we regularly observe minke whales in our Gulf of Maine surveys, we know very little about minke whale vocalizations and how they use sound in their behavioral and social interactions," said Denise Risch, lead author of the study and a marine mammal researcher ...

At first glance, colonies of thousands of social spiders all look the same and are busy with the same tasks. Not so, says researchers Carl Keiser and Devin Jones of the University of Pittsburgh in the US, after carefully studying various gatherings of Stegodyphus dumicola social spiders of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. The size and condition of a particular spider's body indicates which task it generally performs within a colony. In addition, neighboring colonies can have different "personalities" too, writes Keiser, lead author of a study published in Springer's ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research from two University of Illinois economics professors who study election trends analyzes how polarization on social issues affects competing candidates' economic platforms. In the paper, co-authors Stefan Krasa and Mattias Polborn develop a theory of candidate competition that accounts for the influence of both economic and cultural issues on individual voting behavior. "Many pundits and academics have argued that political polarization, particularly on social and cultural issues, has increased in the U.S.," said Polborn, also a professor ...

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a way to potentially halt the progression of dementia caused by accumulation of a protein known as tau. Normally, tau protein is involved in microtubule formation, which acts as a brain cell's transportation system for carrying nutrients in and waste out. In the absence of tau protein, brain cells become dysfunctional and eventually die. In many forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy caused by multiple concussions, the tau protein starts behaving ...

You wouldn't hear the mating song of the male fruit fly as you reached for the infested bananas in your kitchen. Yet, the neural activity behind the insect's amorous call could help scientists understand how you made the quick decision to pull your hand back from the tiny swarm. Male fruit flies base the pitch and tempo of their mating song on the movement and behavior of their desired female, Princeton University researchers have discovered. In the animal kingdom, lusty warblers such as birds typically have a mating song with a stereotyped pattern. A fruit fly's song, ...

From smart phones to smart cars, both public and private entities must consider the needs of older adults in order to help them optimize the use of new technologies, according to the latest issue of Public Policy & Aging Report (PP&AR), titled "Aging and Technology: The Promise and the Paradox." A total of eight articles all from authors affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab are featured. "Remarkable technological advances are all around us, and leaders in the business and scientific communities are keenly aware of 'the aging of America' and ...

The surface of immune system cells is home to a number of receptors which are able to detect pathogens. As soon as these receptors are activated, inflammation occurs and the body's defense mechanisms kick in. Immune cells also have receptors that regulate or even suppress immunological responses to prevent damage to individual cells. There are other immune receptors that recognize endogenous substances that are released when tissue damage or cell death occurs. As such, the organism can defend itself even in cases where the damage caused by the pathogen, but not the pathogen ...