Antivirus software running on your computer has one big weak point - if a new virus is released before the antivirus provider knows about it or before the next scheduled antivirus software update, your system can be infected. Such zero-day infections are common. However, a key recent development in antivirus software is to incorporate built-in defences against viruses and other computer malware for which they have no prior knowledge. These defences usually respond to unusual activity that resembles the way viruses behave once they have infected a system. This so-called ...

Researchers at Umeå University, together with researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University, show in a new study how nitrogen doped graphene can be rolled into perfect Archimedean nano scrolls by adhering magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles on the surface of the graphene sheets. The new material may have very good properties for application as electrodes in for example Li-ion batteries. Graphene is one of the most interesting materials for future applications in everything from high performance electronics, optical components to flexible and strong materials. ...

Philadelphia, PA, August 15, 2013 – Difficulty in registering and responding to the facial expressions of other people is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Relatedly, functional imaging studies have shown that individuals with ASD display altered brain activations when processing facial images. The hormone oxytocin plays a vital role in the social interactions of both animals and humans. In fact, multiple studies conducted with healthy volunteers have provided evidence for beneficial effects of oxytocin in terms of increased trust, improved emotion recognition, ...

While we're not necessarily aware of our heartbeat, this inner rhythm actually contributes to how we experience the body, and what belongs to it, according to research recently conducted at EPFL. A study to be published in the journal Psychological Science later this year supports the idea that signals from our internal organs combine with visual information to contribute to self-consciousness. "The relevance of internal organs for identifying the self was determined over a decade ago," says EPFL researcher Olaf Blanke. "What is new about our approach and findings is that ...

Of all the dark forms that murder can take, the slaying of a family by the father is one of the most tragic and the least understood. This first ever study of British 'family annihilators', published in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, has analysed three decades of cases and reveals four new types of annihilator. "Family annihilators have received little attention as a separate category of killer," said Professor David Wilson, one of the paper's three authors, and Director of the Centre of Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University. "Often they are treated ...

By means of the quantum-mechanical entanglement of spatially separated light fields, researchers in Tokyo and Mainz have managed to teleport photonic qubits with extreme reliability. This means that a decisive breakthrough has been achieved some 15 years after the first experiments in the field of optical teleportation. The success of the experiment conducted in Tokyo is attributable to the use of a hybrid technique in which two conceptually different and previously incompatible approaches were combined. "Discrete digital optical quantum information can now be transmitted ...

New research suggests children don't understand competitive behaviour until around the age of four. A team of researchers from the University of Warwick and University of Salzburg found most children under 4 did not have a developed understanding of other people's perspectives — specifically, of the fact that what someone intentionally does depends on their take on the situation. Johannes Roessler, from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, and his co-authors Beate Priewasser and Josef Perner from the Department of Psychology at the University ...

BOSTON (August 15, 2013) -- In a study published on line this week in the journal Human Molecular Genetics, Drs. Donita Garland, Rosario Fernandez-Godino, and Eric Pierce of the Ocular Genomics Institute at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, along with their colleagues, reported the unexpected finding that in mice genetically engineered to have an inherited form of macular degeneration, turning off the animals' complement system, a part of the immune system, prevented the disease. Macular degenerations, which occur in several forms, are important ...

Scientists working at the Research Center on Aging at the Health and Social Services Centre — University Institute of Geriatrics of Sherbrooke (CSSS-IUGS) have been studying strategies for protecting retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. Dysfunction of the RPE is found in retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness of elderly people in developed countries. Findings published today in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology suggest that incubating retinal cells with vegetable oils induces biochemical and biophysical ...

HOUSTON -- (Aug. 15, 2013) -- A Rice University laboratory has improved upon its ability to determine molecular structures in three dimensions in ways that challenge long-used standards. By measuring the vibrations between atoms using femtosecond-long laser pulses, the Rice lab of chemist Junrong Zheng is able to discern the positions of atoms within molecules without the restrictions imposed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging. The technique can capture the structure of molecules at room temperature or very low or high temperatures ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 15, 2013—The first institution-level model to estimate the amount of reactive nitrogen released into the environment—a contributor to smog, acid rain, and climate change—is enabling the University of Virginia to quantify its nitrogen footprint and take steps to reduce it. A detailed description of this cutting-edge tool and how it can help improve institutional sustainability is presented in Sustainability: The Journal of Record a publication of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The Open Access article is available on the Sustainability: The Journal ...

Researchers at Aalto University, Finland and the University of Tokyo have succeeded for the first time in experimentally measuring a probability distribution for entropy production of electrons. Entropy production means an increase in disorder when electrons are moved individually between two microscopic conductors of differing temperatures. The researchers also showed that a connection prevails between two definitions of entropy that have been used. The result is significant for the design of future nanoelectronic devices. The study was published recently in the scientific ...

Two NJIT researchers have demonstrated that using a continuum-based approach, they can explain the dynamics of liquid metal particles on a substrate of a nanoscale. "Numerical simulation of ejected molten metal nanoparticles liquified by laser irradiation: Interplay of geometry and dewetting," appeared in Physical Review Letters (July 16, 2013). The evolution of fluid drops deposited on solid substrates has been a focus of large research effort for decades, said co-author Shahriar Afkhami, an assistant professor in the NJIT Department of Mathematical Sciences. This ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (August 15, 2013) – A health risk score calculated automatically using routine data from hospital electronic medical records (EMR) systems can identify patients at high risk of unplanned hospital readmission, reports a study in the September issue of Medical Care, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The score, called the Rothman Index, may provide a useful tool for lowering the rate of avoidable repeat hospitalizations, according to the report by Elizabeth Bradley, PhD, of Yale School of Public Health and colleagues. ...

Philadelphia, PA, August 15, 2013 – German researchers have identified four biomarkers that correctly determine malignancy of urinary bladder cancers and contribute to the accurate prediction of patient outcomes. Their results are published in the September issue of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. Current prognosticators of bladder cancer, such as tumor grade, stage, size, and number of foci, have limited usefulness for clinicians since they do not accurately reflect clinical outcomes. Therefore, investigators have been searching for new biomarkers with better diagnostic ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 15, 2013) – A multi-institutional team led by Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has found a recurrent genetic mutation that has been linked to deadly thoracic aortic dissections in family members as young as 17 years of age. The gene known as PRKG1 makes a protein called cGMP-dependent kinase, type I. The PRKG1 mutation alters the function of the protein and causes the muscle cells in the wall of the aorta to respond incorrectly to pulsatile blood flow from the heart, and the change in ...

You plan on shopping for groceries later and you tell yourself that you have to remember to take the grocery bags with you when you leave the house. Lo and behold, you reach the check-out counter and you realize you've forgotten the bags. Remembering to remember — whether it's grocery bags, appointments, or taking medications — is essential to our everyday lives. New research sheds light on two distinct brain processes that underlie this type of memory, known as prospective memory. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for ...

New research at Rutgers University may help shed light on how and why nervous system changes occur and what causes some people to suffer from life-threatening anxiety disorders while others are better able to cope. Maureen Barr, a professor in the Department of Genetics, and a team of researchers, found that the architectural structure of the six sensory brain cells in the roundworm, responsible for receiving information, undergo major changes and become much more elaborate when the worm is put into an high stress environment. Scientists have known for some time that ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Transposons are DNA elements that can multiply and change their location within an organism's genome. Discovered in the 1940s, for years they were thought to be unimportant and were called "junk DNA." Also referred to as transposable elements and jumping genes, they are snippets of "selfish DNA" that spread in their host genomes serving no other biological purpose but their own existence. Now Tokuji Tsuchiya and Thomas Eulgem, geneticists at the University of California, Riverside, challenge that understanding. They report online this week in the ...

Sunny Jung continues to redefine the views on the laws of physics, and in doing so, impacts the research on topics as varied as drug delivery methods to fuel efficiency. In a paper appearing this month in Physical Review E, Young and five colleagues reported on the dynamics of squeezing fluids using a simple experiment of clapping with wet hands. As an engineer, Jung described "this outburst of fluid motion" as the unusual physical phenomena. Earlier in his career, Jung, an assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics at Virginia Tech, made headlines in ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Children born with HIV can live longer and richer lives if their caregivers receive training in ways to enhance the children's development, according to research led by Michigan State University. The program also reduces depression in the caregivers which, in most cases, are the children's HIV-infected mothers, MSU researcher Michael Boivin and colleagues report in The Journal of Pediatrics. An HIV diagnosis once all but guaranteed an African child would die within a few years, but more effective and widely available drugs have made it commonplace ...

Researchers at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, have demonstrated that the degree to which a gene related to vitamin D action is switched on or off, when measured at birth, predicts bone density of the child at four years of age. In the study, 230 boys and girls were assessed at 4 years as part of the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS), a large ongoing mother-offspring cohort. The children visited the Osteoporosis Centre at Southampton General Hospital for measurement of their bone size and density using a DXA scanner. The researchers were ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Decision-making by a surrogate for a family member who is unable to make medical decisions is more complicated than decision-making by patients themselves, according to a study from the Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics of Indiana University Health. The researchers found that family decision-makers considered the cognitively impaired patient's wishes and interests. But they also took into account their own needs and preferences. Factors influencing surrogate ...

LONDON, ON – What are some of the most troubling numbers in mental health? Six to 10 -- the number of years it can take to properly diagnose a mental health condition. Dr. Elizabeth Osuch, a Researcher at Lawson Health Research Institute and a Psychiatrist at London Health Sciences Centre and the Department of Psychiatry at Western University, is helping to end misdiagnosis by looking for a 'biomarker' in the brain that will help diagnose and treat two commonly misdiagnosed disorders. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), otherwise known as Unipolar Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder ...

NEW YORK -- A study spearheaded by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Minnesota has shown that the world's largest owl -- and one of the rarest -- is also a key indicator of the health of some of the last great primary forests of Russia's Far East. The study found that Blakiston's fish owl relies on old-growth forests along streams for both breeding and to support healthy populations of their favorite prey: salmon. The large trees provide breeding cavities for the enormous bird, which has a two-meter (six-foot) wingspan. And when these dead, massive ...