Ancona, Italy, 8 October 2013 – Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects millions of people worldwide. As a result of an increase in life expectancy, the number of patients with dementia is expected to increase dramatically. Due to the lack of effective treatments that can slow down or reverse the progression of AD, preventive measures to lower the prevalence rate of AD by means of managing potential or actual risk factors is a reasonable clinical strategy. In this respect, identifying treatable factors which are able to promote cognitive deterioration would have important practical ...

A major study conducted at the Sahlgrenska Academy has now disproved theories of a viral cause for breast cancer and the brain tumour, glioblastoma. The study, which was based on over seven billion DNA sequences and which is published in Nature Communications, found no genetic traces of viruses in these forms of cancer. It has been scientifically proven that about 15 per cent of all cancer cases are the result of viral infection, but many researchers believe that even more cancers could be caused by viruses. Among other theories, it is suggested that the Epstein-Barr ...

Pregnant women living in areas with contaminated drinking water may be more likely to have babies that are premature or with low birth weights (considered less than 5.5 pounds), according to a study based at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Featured in the Canadian Journal of Economics, the study shows that the effects of contaminated water—which include numerous cognitive and developmental impairments—are particularly significant for babies born to less-educated mothers. These mothers also are less likely to uproot from ...

With optical fibre networks gradually approaching their theoretical capacity limits, new types of fibres such as multicore fibres have been at the focus of worldwide research to overcome critical capacity barriers, which threaten the evolution of the Internet. The University of Bristol in collaboration with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have demonstrated successfully for the first time a multicore fibre-based network, which will form the foundation for the future Internet infrastructure. The research relies on Space Division ...

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found unexpected similarities between proteins that were thought to be fundamentally different. The team studied how proteins bind to RNA, a process required for gene expression. It is known that some proteins only bind RNAs with certain sequences. Other proteins have been deemed "non-specific" because they interact with RNAs at seemingly random places. But the Case Western Reserve team has published a new study in Nature showing that non-specific proteins actually do have the ability to be specific ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR-D), Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface (JGR-F), Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans (JGR-C), Geophysical Research Letters, and Paleoceanography. In this release: 1. Measuring global sulfur dioxide emissions with satellite sensors 2. Seismic network detects landslides on broad area scale 3. Examining increasing potential for storms with global warming 4. Understanding oxygen depletion on the Oregon coastal shelf 5. ...

Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital-The Neuro, McGill University, have made important discoveries about a cellular process that occurs during normal brain development and may play an important role in neurodegenerative diseases. The study's findings, published in Cell Reports, a leading scientific journal, point to new pathways and targets for novel therapies for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases that affect millions of people world-wide. Research into neurodegenerative disease has traditionally concentrated ...

Cell division is an essential process for the development of an organism. This process, however, can cause tumour growth when it stops working properly. Tumour cells accumulate alterations in their genetic material, and this makes them divide in an uncontrolled fashion, thus encouraging growth of the tumour. Over the past few years, knowledge of the regulation of this process has led to the discovery of new therapeutic strategies based on blocking cell division or mitosis. The Cell Division & Cancer Group, led by Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) researcher ...

Together with researchers from the MIT Media Lab, they developed a printable multi-touch sensor whose shape and size everybody can alter. A new circuit layout makes it robust against cuts, damage, and removed areas. Today the researchers are presenting their work at the conference "User Interface and Technology" (UIST) in St. Andrews, Scotland. "Imagine a kid takes our sensor film and cuts out a flower with stem and leaves. If you touch the blossom with a finger, you hear the buzzing of a bumblebee", Jürgen Steimle says. He reports that programs and apps are easily imaginable ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 8, 2013—Job applicants try to make a good impression when meeting a prospective employer, but employers may be able to learn what applicants are really like by screening their social media posts. Unfiltered personal communications, photos, comments about others, and references to alcohol and drug use reflect five revealing personality characteristics that might impact their work performance, according to an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is ...

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death of young children around the world, and a study from an international group of researchers now finds that the risk of poor outcomes – including persistent pneumonia, secondary infections, organ failure or death – in children who contract pneumonia is four times higher in those who also have anemia and live at high altitudes (over 2,000 meters or about 6,500 feet). The report in the November issue of Pediatrics has been released online. "We know that anemia is very common among young children, affecting 45 percent of preschool ...

High school seniors who frown upon the use of drugs are most likely to be female, nonsmokers or hold strong religious beliefs, according to a study¹ by Joseph Palamar of New York University. Palamar examines how teenagers' attitudes toward marijuana influenced their thoughts on the further use of other illicit drugs. The work appears online in the journal Prevention Science², published by Springer. The study was conducted as marijuana use continues to be on the upswing in the United States, along with more lenient legislation and diminishing public disapproval toward ...

BINGHAMTON, NY – A Binghamton University scientist and his international colleagues report this week on the successful synthesis of the first superconductor designed entirely on the computer. Their findings were published in Physical Review Letters, the leading journal in the field. Aleksey Kolmogorov, assistant professor of physics at Binghamton, proposed the new superconductor in Physical Review Letters in 2010 and then teamed up with European experimentalists to test the prediction. The synthesized material — a novel iron tetraboride compound — is made of two common ...

URBANA, Ill. – Managing storm-water runoff in urban settings is critical to keep basements dry, streets clear and passable, and streams and rivers healthy, but how much are homeowners willing to pay for it? A University of Illinois survey of randomly selected households in Champaign-Urbana concluded that people are willing to pay to reduce flooding in their own basement, but they may also place a high value on water quality and the health of local rivers and streams. "It came as no surprise to us that people who experienced basement flooding were willing to pay for ...

Ever feel the weight of guilt? Lots of people say they do. They're "carrying guilt" or "weighed down by guilt." Are these just expressions, or is there something more to these metaphors? Princeton researcher Martin Day and Ramona Bobocel, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo, recently published the results of a series of studies that begin to offer answers to that question. In an article titled "The Weight of a Guilty Conscience: Subjective Body Weight as an Embodiment of Guilt" in the journal PLOS ONE, Day and Bobocel find evidence that ...

HOUSTON – (Oct. 8, 2013) – Blowing bubbles in the backyard is one thing and quite another when searching for oil. That distinction is at the root of new research by Rice University scientists who describe in greater detail than ever precisely how those bubbles form, evolve and act. A new study led by Rice chemical and biomolecular engineer Sibani Lisa Biswal and published in the journal Soft Matter describes two previously unknown ways that bubbles form in foam. The work should be of interest to those who make and use foam for a variety of reasons, from shaving cream ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, October 8, 2013 — Susan is a highly productive employee but is absent more often than her co-workers. She has decided to take a me-day because she believes that her absence will not affect her overall productivity. Legitimate reason to be out of the office, or punishable offence? Depending on where "Susan" lives, it can be either shows new research from Concordia University's John Molson School of Business. According to a study recently published in Cross Cultural Management, there are considerable differences ...

(New York, New York) October 8, 2013 - A loving touch, characterized by a slow caress or stroke - often an instinctive gesture from a mother to a child or between partners in romantic relationships – may increase the brain's ability to construct a sense of body ownership and, in turn, play a part in creating and sustaining a healthy sense of self. These findings come from a new study published online in Frontiers of Psychology, led by Neuropsychoanalysis Centre Director Dr. Aikaterini (Katerina) Fotopoulou, University College London, and NPSA grantee Dr. Paul Mark Jenkinson ...

A new review answers what do we really know about manipulating portion sizes and what questions still remain. Professor Benton, at Swansea University, reviewed the scientific evidence available on portion sizes and this highlights a number of the complexities surrounding the Public Health Responsibility Deal's call for reduced portion sizes, as a way of obtaining reductions in the nation's caloric intakes. The review, to be published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, found that simply reducing portion sizes is not an easy solution to reducing our energy ...

Babies learn how to anticipate touch while in the womb, according to new research by Durham and Lancaster universities. Using 4-d scans psychologists found, for the first time, that fetuses were able to predict, rather than react to, their own hand movements towards their mouths as they entered the later stages of gestation compared to earlier in a pregnancy. The Durham-led team of researchers said that the latest findings could improve understanding about babies, especially those born prematurely, their readiness to interact socially and their ability to calm themselves ...

Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Pan African Conference, Durban, South Africa — Results from a large-scale Phase III trial, presented today in Durban, show that the most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate, RTS,S, continued to protect young children and infants from clinical malaria up to 18 months after vaccination. Based on these data, GSK now intends to submit, in 2014, a regulatory application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that a policy recommendation for the RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate is possible ...

The bottom of the deep sea is largely deserted. Oases occur for example at cold seeps where water transports dissolved elements from the seabed: Specialized microbes convert methane and sulfate from sea water to hydrogen sulfide releasing carbon dioxide. Highly adapted bacteria, many of which live in symbiosis with worms and clams, use the hydrogen sulfide for their growth. In their cells, they incorporate carbon originating from the chemical reaction of methane. "The co-existence of organisms that have settled at the cold seeps is already well understood", says Dr. Peter ...

An international research team led by medical scientists at the University of Alberta has shown that new medications based on resveratrol — a compound found in red wine and nuts — may be used to treat a common heart-rhythm problem known as atrial fibrillation. Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry researcher Peter Light and his colleagues recently published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal, British Journal of Pharmacology. They discovered that new resveratrol-based drugs they created that were used in the lab, helped regulate electrical activity in the heart by inhibiting ...

A new study, published in Springer's Journal of Family Violence, casts light on how health care providers respond to the emotional, sexual and physical violence that female veterans sometimes experience at the hands of their intimate partners. According to the research group, this type of abuse can be common in the lives of women veterans and there is a need to understand how health care providers can best be responsive to this population's health care needs. The research was headed by Dr. Katherine Iverson and colleagues of the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress ...

Scientists at USC have created a mathematical model that explains and predicts the biological process that creates antibody diversity – the phenomenon that keeps us healthy by generating robust immune systems through hypermutation. The work is a collaboration between Myron Goodman, professor of biological sciences and chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; and Chi Mak, professor of chemistry at USC Dornsife. "To me, it was the holy grail," Goodman said. "We can now predict the motion of a key enzyme that initiates hypermutations in immunoglobulin ...