Providing employees with a bonus to spend on charities or co-workers may increase job satisfaction and team sales, according to results published September 18 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Lalin Anik from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and colleagues from other institutions. In the first of three studies, some employees at an Australian bank were given a 25-dollar or a 50-dollar voucher to donate to a charity of their choice on behalf of the company. Employees who donated the larger amount to charity reported enhanced happiness and job satisfaction, ...

Taste can be classified into five flavors that we sense, but how many odors can we smell? There are likely about 10 basic categories of odor, according to research published September 18th in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Jason Castro from Bates College, Chakra Chennubhotla from the University of Pittsburgh, and Arvind Ramanathan from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The researchers used advanced statistical techniques to develop an approach for systematically describing smells. Working with a standard set of data, Andrew Dravniek's 1985 Atlas of Odor Character Profiles, ...

Chronic infection with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii can make mice lose their innate, hard-wired fear of cats. This loss of their innate fear may persist after the parasite is no longer detectable in their brains, suggesting that initial infection may cause permanent changes in the mechanisms underlying their fear of predators. The results are published September 18 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Wendy Ingram and colleagues from the University of California, Berkeley. Even after infection with Toxoplasma has been removed from rodents' brains, they continue to ...

DURHAM, N.C. – A blood test developed by researchers at Duke Medicine showed more than 90-percent accuracy in distinguishing between viral and bacterial infections when tested in people with respiratory illnesses. The test, which detects a specific genetic "signature" that the sick person's immune system expresses as a response to the virus, demonstrates a potential new method for diagnosing the source of illnesses that have long been tough to pinpoint. Reported in the Sept. 18, 2013, issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, the finding moves the technology ...

Embryonic stem cells have the enormous potential to treat and cure many medical problems. That is why the discovery that induced embryonic-like stem cells can be created from skin cells (iPS cells) was rewarded with a Nobel Prize in 2012. But the process has remained frustratingly slow and inefficient, and the resulting stem cells are not yet ready for medical use. Research in the lab of the Weizmann Institute's Dr. Yaqub Hanna, which appears today in Nature, dramatically changes that: He and his group revealed the "brake" that holds back the production of stem cells, and ...

A mystery in the ocean near Antarctica has been solved by researchers who have long puzzled over how deep and mid-depth ocean waters are mixed. They found that sea water mixes dramatically as it rushes over undersea mountains in Drake Passage - the channel between the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic continent. Mixing of water layers in the oceans is crucial in regulating the Earth's climate and ocean currents. The research provides insight for climate models which until now have lacked the detailed information on ocean mixing needed to provide accurate ...

A team of scientists from Canada and Australia have discovered that the decline in shark populations is detrimental to coral reefs. "Where shark numbers are reduced due to commercial fishing, there is also a decrease in the herbivorous fishes which play a key role in promoting reef health," said Jonathan Ruppert, a recent University of Toronto PhD graduate. Ruppert was part of a team engaged in long-term monitoring of reefs off Australians northwest coast. Team leader Mark Meekan of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), said that the results might, at first ...

BOULDER, Colo.- Physicists at JILA have created a crystal-like arrangement of ultracold gas molecules that can swap quantum "spin" properties with nearby and distant partners. The novel structure might be used to simulate or even invent new materials that derive exotic properties from quantum spin behavior, for electronics or other practical applications. Described in a Nature paper* posted online on Sept. 18, 2013, the JILA experiment is the first to record ultracold gas molecules exchanging spins at a distance, a behavior that may be similar to that of intriguing solids ...

Furthermore, demand is set to rise as the population's age and girth increase, both of which are risk factors for the disorder, known as obstructive sleep apnoea or OSA for short. OSA is a condition that disrupts breathing during sleep, usually as a result of the relaxation of the muscles and soft tissues in the throat which relax and collapse to block the airway for 10 or more seconds. It affects an estimated 4% of middle aged men and 2% of middle aged women, and is associated with obesity and increasing age. But it is thought that 80% of cases remain undiagnosed. Because ...

The analysis shows that in 2007, in Cardiff, where this collaborative approach was pioneered, the scheme lopped off almost £7 million from health, societal, and criminal justice costs caused by violence. The estimated individual and societal costs of violence recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2003-4 came to £14 billion. The Cardiff Violence Prevention Programme, which was set up in 2003, entails the capture of anonymised information on violent incidents treated in hospital emergency departments. This information includes exactly where the incident took ...

Boston, MA -- According to a large, long-term study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), 40% of all colorectal cancers might be prevented if people underwent regular colonoscopy screening. The new research also supports existing guidelines that recommend that people with an average risk of colorectal cancer should have a colonoscopy every 10 years. The new study helps address previous uncertainty about the effectiveness of colonoscopy in reducing colorectal cancer incidence and mortality -- particularly among people with cancer that originates in the proximal, ...

Two thirds of these occur in low and middle income countries, the figures suggest. The authors base their findings on 4000 articles written in English and published from 1976 onwards, which looked at substandard medical care given to hospital patients around the globe. The researchers focused on seven key markers for substandard care: harm from prescribed medications; urinary tract infections associated with catheters; bloodstream infections associated with catheters; pneumonia acquired in hospital; blood clots (VTEs);falls; and bed sores. They used an approach similar ...

It is common for parents to influence mate choice — from arranged marriages to more subtle forms of persuasion — but they often disagree with their children about what makes a suitable partner. A new study has found an evolutionary explanation for why some parents try to control who their children pair up with. The study, involving a University of Bristol researcher and published today in the journal Evolution & Human Behavior, shows that this conflict over mate choice may be rooted in an evolutionary conflict over resources. Dr Tim Fawcett, a research fellow in Bristol's ...

Habitable conditions on Earth will be possible for at least another 1.75 billion years – according to astrobiologists at the University of East Anglia. Findings published today in the journal Astrobiology reveal the habitable lifetime of planet Earth – based on our distance from the sun and temperatures at which it is possible for the planet to have liquid water. The research team looked to the stars for inspiration. Using recently discovered planets outside our solar system (exoplanets) as examples, they investigated the potential for these planets to host life. The ...

Boston, MA – More than 43 million people are injured worldwide each year due to unsafe medical care, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). These injuries result in the loss of nearly 23 million years of "healthy" life. The findings represent a major new effort to calculate the global burden of unsafe medical care across a range of adverse health events. The study appears online September 18, 2013 in BMJ Quality & Safety. "This is the first attempt to quantify the human suffering that results from unsafe care," said lead author Ashish ...

Researchers from the University of Montreal and their colleagues have found brain activity beyond a flat line EEG, which they have called Nu-complexes (from the Greek letter Νν). According to existing scientific data, researchers and doctors had established that beyond the so-called "flat line" (flat electroencephalogram or EEG), there is nothing at all, no brain activity, no possibility of life. This major discovery suggests that there is a whole new frontier in animal and human brain functioning. The researchers observed a human patient in an extreme deep hypoxic ...

Cardiologists are increasingly accessing coronary arteries by way of the wrist rather than the groin to insert life-saving stents into patients with blocked arteries, according to the first broad report of the American College of Cardiology's clinical data registries published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The report, "Cardiovascular Care Facts: A Report from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry - 2011," includes data about stents from the CathPCI Registry, the ACC's national database of hospital records on stenting and angioplasty, ...

A duo of scientists at Penn State University has achieved a major milestone in understanding how genomic "dark matter" originates. This "dark matter" -- called non-coding RNA -- does not contain the blueprint for making proteins and yet it comprises more than 95 percent of the human genome. The researchers have discovered that essentially all coding and non-coding RNA originates at the same types of locations along the human genome. The team's findings eventually may help to pinpoint exactly where complex-disease traits reside, since the genetic origins of many diseases ...

A temperature sensor developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge could improve the efficiency, control and safety of high-temperature engines. The sensor minimises drift –degradation of the sensor which results in faulty temperature readings and reduces the longevity of engine components. The new sensor, or thermocouple, has been shown to reduce drift by 80 per cent at temperatures of 1200 degrees Celsius, and by 90 per cent at 1300 degrees Celsius, potentially doubling the lifespan of engine components. The results are published in the September issue of ...

A team of researchers led by King's College London has for the first time identified a new gene which may have the ability to prevent HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from spreading after it enters the body. Published in Nature today, the study is the first to identify a role for the human MX2 gene in inhibiting HIV. Researchers say this gene could be a new target for effective, less toxic treatments where the body's own natural defence system is mobilised against the virus. The work was funded by the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health ...

Bethesda, MD (Sept. 18, 2013) — A study published in the Sept. 19 New England Journal of Medicine provides some of the clearest evidence to date that colonoscopy has advantages over sigmoidoscopy for the prevention of colorectal cancer. Researchers followed 88,902 study participants for 22 years and found that 1,815 developed colorectal cancer. Investigators estimated that 40 percent of those cancers could have been prevented if all of the patients in the study had received colonoscopy. "Thanks to colonoscopy, fewer people than ever before are developing or dying from ...

Toronto, Canada (September 18, 2013) – In a world-first, decompression surgery has been shown to be an effective procedure to treat cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) – a common progressive, degenerative disease of the spine that can lead to paralysis – according to the results of a multi-centre clinical trial published today. The study, with its use of multiple outcome measures to determine patient improvement, is the first research of its kind to show that decompression surgery has a significant improvement in both the symptoms and quality of life of CSM patients ...

MILWAUKEE – The loss of estrogens at menopause increases a woman's risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, yet hormone replacement therapy can cause harmful side effects. Knowing the exact mechanism of estrogen activation in the brain could lead to new targets for drug development that would provide middle-aged women the cognitive benefits of hormone replacement therapy without increasing their risk for cardiovascular disease or breast cancer. In a new study, Karyn Frick, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), uncovers details about ...

Bug spray, citronella candles, mosquito netting – most people will do anything they can to stay away from insects during the warmer months. But those creepy crawlers we try so hard to avoid may offer substantial solutions to some of life's problems. Researchers using the cutting-edge X-ray technology at the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Photon Source (APS) were able to take an inside look at several insects, gathering results that go beyond learning about insect physiology and biology. What they found could provide a blueprint for a material used for artificial ...

Physicists at JILA have created a crystal-like arrangement of ultracold gas molecules that can swap quantum "spin" properties with nearby and distant partners. The novel structure might be used to simulate or even invent new materials that derive exotic properties from quantum spin behavior, for electronics or other practical applications. Described in a Nature paper* posted online on Sept. 18, 2013, the JILA experiment is the first to record ultracold gas molecules exchanging spins at a distance, a behavior that may be similar to that of intriguing solids such as "frustrated" ...