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 ...

Until the '50s, bluefin tuna fishing was a thriving industry in Norway, second only to sardine fishing. Every year, bluefin tuna used to migrate from the eastern Mediterranean up to the Norwegian coasts. Suddenly, however, over no more than 4-5 years, the tuna never went back to Norway. In an attempt to solve this problem, Giancarlo De Luca from SISSA (the International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste) together with an international team of researchers (from the Centre for Theoretical Physics - ICTP – of Trieste and the Technical University of Denmark) started to ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Anticancer agents that inhibit tumor growth by targeting a regulatory protein called CDK4 might actually promote the development and progression of certain B-cell lymphomas, according to a new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). The study indicates that inhibiting CDK4, a regulator of the cell cycle, promotes genetic instability and the development or progression of B-cell lymphomas that are driven by the MYC oncogene. The ...

According to a recent Pew Research poll, a majority of Americans believe that there is still at least some racism against African Americans in this country. But new research by Jane L. Risen of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business shows that people are more likely to deny the persistence of racism after being exposed to a successful African American. Notably, people who are most thoughtful seem to be the ones who are most vulnerable to making these quick inferences. In "If He Can Do It, So Can They: Exposure to Counterstereotypically Successful Exemplars ...

Connecting extreme weather to climate change distracts from the need to protect society from high-impact weather events which will continue to happen irrespective of human-induced climate change, say experts. Writing in the journal Weather, Climate and Society, the University of Manchester researchers argue that cutting greenhouse gas emissions, while crucial to reducing humanity's longer-term impact on the planet, will not eliminate violent storms, tornadoes or flooding and the damage they cause. The authors suggest that developing greater resilience to extreme weather ...

It is very costly to present textiles interactively on a computer screen. Until recently, this process often took several days to weeks. Using recently engineered simulation software, now this process takes just seconds. Designers, pattern makers and tailors can create their clothes in real time. Just as they do in reality. Besides needle and thread, the computer mouse is increasingly turning into one of their most indispensable tools. A few clicks suffice to make just the right adjustments to color, material and cut pattern. Shadowing, optical and mechanical qualities ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Why do we become saucer-eyed from fear and squint from disgust? These near-opposite facial expressions are rooted in emotional responses that exploit how our eyes gather and focus light to detect an unknown threat, according to a study by a Cornell University neuroscientist. Media note: Images, video and research paper available at: https://cornell.box.com/EyeEvolution Our eyes widen in fear, boosting sensitivity and expanding our field of vision to locate surrounding danger. When repulsed, our eyes narrow, blocking light to sharpen focus and pinpoint ...

HUNTSVILLE, TX (3/20/14) -- Parents who use alcohol, marijuana, and drugs have higher frequencies of children who pick up their habits, according to a study from Sam Houston State University. The study, "Intergenerational Continuity of Substance Use," found that when compared to parents who did not use substances, parents who used alcohol, marijuana, and other illicit drugs were significantly more likely to have children who used those same drugs. Specifically, the odds of children's alcohol use were five times higher if their parents used alcohol; the odds of children's ...