CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Honey bees don't start out knowing how to find flowers or even how to get around outside the hive. Before they can forage, they must learn how to navigate a changing landscape and orient themselves in relation to the sun. In a new study, researchers report that a regulatory gene known to be involved in learning and the detection of novelty in vertebrates also kicks into high gear in the brains of honey bees when they are learning to how to find food and bring it home. Activity of this gene, called Egr, quickly increases in a region of the brain known ...

Irvine, Calif., May 29, 2013 – Mexican American mothers' formal immigration status influences the educational achievement of their children and even their grandchildren, according to a new study led by a UC Irvine sociologist. Researchers found – based on a large‐scale survey of young, second-generation Mexican American adults in Los Angeles – that those whose mothers were authorized immigrants or U.S. citizens had, on average, two more years of schooling than those whose mothers had entered the country illegally. The researchers estimate that at least a third of ...

New Rochelle, NY, May 29, 2013—A novel, targeted approach to chemotherapy that makes ovarian cancer cells more susceptible to the cytotoxic effects of an antitumor drug may offer a safer, more effective treatment option for this often deadly form of cancer. The research and results are published in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website (http://www.liebertpub.com/nat). Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage ...

What will your kids remember about the life stories you tell them? New University of Alberta research shows that they're likely to be able to recall transitional moments you share with them, be it promotions or pets. The research offers strong evidence that societal values significantly affect how people think about and recall events in their lives—and how we potentially carry old values and beliefs forward in a new country. Psychology researchers Connie Svob and Norman Brown conducted interviews with two groups of participants, split evenly between people born in Canada ...

If you're still using your mobile phone behind the wheel, University of Alberta sociology researcher Abu Nurullah likely has your number. More specifically, he can tell what statistical category you fall under. Using survey data from mid-2011—just months before Alberta's distracted-driving law went into effect—Nurullah and his colleagues determined several characteristics of people who appear to top the risk scale by using cellphones while driving. The data are useful for police who have to deal with unlawful drive-and-dialers, and for policy-makers seeking to change ...

Researchers from New York Medical College and the University of California Davis have for the first time codified age-specific probabilities of live birth after in vitro fertilization (IVF) with frozen eggs. A team of researchers led by Kutluk Oktay, M.D., a New York Medical College physician/scientist who specializes in preserving the fertility of female cancer patients, conducted a meta-analysis of oocyte cryopreservation cycles using individualized patient data to report the probability of live-birth from IVF cycles. The study, "Age-specific probability of live birth ...

Millions of people with type 1 diabetes depend on daily insulin injections to survive. They would die without the shots because their immune system attacks the very insulin-producing cells it was designed to protect. Now, a University of Missouri scientist has discovered that this attack causes more damage than scientists realized. The revelation is leading to a potential cure that combines adult stem cells with a promising new drug. The discovery is reported in the current online issue of Diabetes, the American Diabetes Association's flagship research publication. Habib ...

May brought a major advancement in the science of aging when two Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers announced their discovery of a protein circulating in the blood of mice and humans that shows potential to be a treatment for age-related heart failure. The protein, called GDF-11, reduced the size and thickness of the heart walls when injected into old mice. There are hundreds of investigators in the HSCI network solving different problems related to cell biology and illness. This month, we feature recently published work by three laboratories on: a therapy ...

In a randomized phase III clinical trial conducted by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), high-dose (HD), compared with standard-dose (SD), radiotherapy (RT) with concurrent chemotherapy (CT) did not improve overall survival of patients with stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Philadelphia, PA—Of all the patients in the US with lung cancer, the country's leading cause of cancer death, 75 to 80 percent of them have NSCLC, with 30 to 40 percent of those being considered locally advanced (stage IIIA or IIIB). Although RT plus CT has been the standard ...

Stanford University scientists have developed an advanced zinc-air battery with higher catalytic activity and durability than similar batteries made with costly platinum and iridium catalysts. The results, published in the May 7 online edition of the journal Nature Communications, could lead to the development of a low-cost alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries widely used today. "There have been increasing demands for high-performance, inexpensive and safe batteries for portable electronics, electric vehicles and other energy storage applications," said Hongjie ...

A new version of solar cells created by laboratories at Rice and Pennsylvania State universities could open the door to research on a new class of solar energy devices. The photovoltaic devices created in a project led by Rice chemical engineer Rafael Verduzco and Penn State chemical engineer Enrique Gomez are based on block copolymers, self-assembling organic materials that arrange themselves into distinct layers. They easily outperform other cells with polymer compounds as active elements. The discovery is detailed online in the American Chemical Society journal Nano ...

Too many cooks may spoil a recipe, and too many doctors may give you the flu. That's the takeaway from a new study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research that found that Californians who jump from provider to provider rather than seeing a regular doctor who coordinates their care may be less likely to get the kind of preventive treatment that protects against the flu and flare ups in their chronic conditions. Specifically, the study used data from the 2009 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to estimate whether the approximately 4.76 million California ...

What truly inspires individuals to perform at their very best? When it comes to motivating others and ourselves, it turns out offering rewards in defined categories, even when they are largely meaningless, can heighten motivation. According to recent research co-authored by Scott S. Wiltermuth, assistant professor of management and organization at USC's Marshall School of Business, even if the rewards are the similar – and the categories arbitrary – the very act of segmenting rewards motivates people to perform better and longer, even on menial tasks. Wiltermuth's study, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Living in a poor neighborhood as an adolescent is linked to an increased risk of getting the sexually transmitted infection (STI) chlamydia in young adulthood, according to new research. Ohio State University researchers analyzed data from a large national study that tracked youths over time. The analysis suggested that children who lived in poor neighborhoods during their teenage years had an almost 25 percent greater risk of having chlamydia in their early 20s – even if they themselves weren't poor – than did teenagers living in wealthier settings. The ...

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have uncovered what may be a key molecular mechanism behind the lasting damage done by traumatic brain injury. The discovery centers on a particular form of a protein that neuroscientists call tau, which has also been associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Under ordinary conditions, tau is essential to neuron health, but in Alzheimer's the protein aggregates into two abnormal forms: so-called "neurofibrillary tangles," and collections of two, three, or four or more tau units ...

Astronomers using NASA's Swift X-ray Telescope have observed a spinning neutron star suddenly slowing down, yielding clues they can use to understand these extremely dense objects. A neutron star is the crushed core of a massive star that ran out of fuel, collapsed under its own weight, and exploded as a supernova. A neutron star can spin as fast as 43,000 times per minute and boast a magnetic field a trillion times stronger than Earth's. Matter within a neutron star is so dense a teaspoonful would weigh about a billion tons on Earth. This neutron star, 1E 2259+586, ...

AUDIO: Artificial sweeteners are thought to make foods and drinks taste sweet without any of the other consequences that come from sugar. But now studying people who are obese, nutrition researchers... Click here for more information. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a popular artificial sweetener can modify how the body handles sugar. In a small study, the researchers analyzed the sweetener sucralose (Splenda®) in 17 ...

WASHINGTON, DC, May 28, 2013 — Less-educated white women were increasingly more likely to die than their better-educated peers from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, according to a new study, which found that growing disparities in economic circumstances and health behaviors—particularly employment status and smoking habits—across education levels accounted for an important part of the widening mortality gap. "Based on the information we get from the news, it seems that life expectancy just keeps going up, and we're all riding this wave," said Jennifer Karas Montez, ...

WASHINGTON, DC, May 28, 2013 — A new study suggests that the decline of labor unions, partly as an outcome of computerization, is the main reason why U.S. corporate profits have surged as a share of national income while workers' wages and other compensation have declined. The study, "The Capitalist Machine: Computerization, Workers' Power, and the Decline in Labor's Share within U.S. Industries," which appears in the June issue of the American Sociological Review, explores an important dimension of economic inequality that has been largely overlooked in research and ...

NEW YORK – Clinicians have long speculated that poor sleep may be a mechanism involved in the higher risk of further cardiac events or death among those with post-traumatic stress disorder following a heart attack, but the association between PTSD and sleep after a heart event has been unknown. Recent data from Columbia University Medical Center researchers have shown that symptoms of PTSD after a heart attack are relatively common. A PLoS ONE study (published in June 2012) found that 1 in 8 heart attack survivors suffer PTSD and that survivors with PTSD have a doubled ...

Proposed changes may reduce Social Security benefit payments next year Article provided by Crowe & Shanahan Visit us at http://www.croweshanahan.com In an effort to reduce the federal deficit, the U.S. government is attempting to implement savings techniques for the 2014 budget. One of the proposed changes could save the nation hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade through the concept of "chained CPI." Unfortunately, chained CPI may reduce the amount of Social Security benefits received by thousands of recipients in Missouri, Illinois ...

Have you made an estate plan for your digital assets? Article provided by The Forakis Law Firm Visit us at http://www.mylegalhome.com If you are reading this right now, you are probably online. In this day and age, much of life is spent online. People spend hours of the day clicking away at websites. Everything from banking to social networking is carried out in various online venues. Due to the steady online presence, a new category of personal property has emerged in the estate-planning world. The new category is called "digital assets." Digital assets ...

Colorado lawmakers face challenge in setting marijuana DUI limits Article provided by James L. Finegan, P.C. Visit us at http://www.fineganduilaw.com Many people have hailed Colorado's recent legalization of marijuana as an important step to the larger development of a sensible drug policy. While this may be true, the legalization of the drug is requiring Colorado lawmakers to address some new questions. Unfortunately, coming up with answers is proving to be more difficult than expected. One issue that some lawmakers are attempting to tackle currently is setting ...

People of all ages should have a plan for their estate Article provided by Katherman, Heim & Perry Visit us at http://www.khpyork.com When people think about estate planning, they often assume it is a task they need not take on until they have reached an advanced age. This common assumption could not be further from the truth. In fact, it is wise for people to start estate planning when they turn 18 years old, and to continue to make adjustments to their plans as they reach certain milestones. Of course, as an individual ages, the types of plans they ought ...

Take care to protect your digital assets Article provided by Katherman, Heim & Perry Visit us at http://www.khpyork.com When people think about estate planning, they typically focus on what will happen to their home, car and other physical possessions. In fact, many people will outline specifically which possessions they wish to go to certain individuals upon their passing. As more information is gathered and stored online, it is also wise for individuals to consider what will happen to their so-called digital assets. Digital assets can include a wide variety ...