A University of Washington astronomer is using Earth's interstellar neighbors to learn the nature of certain stars too far away to be directly measured or observed, and the planets they may host. "Characterization by proxy" is the technique used by Sarah Ballard, a post-doctoral researcher at the UW, to infer the properties of small, relatively cool stars too distant for measurement, by comparing them to closer stars that now can be directly observed. Ballard is lead author of a study accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal that used this method and observations ...

In seeming contrast to the notion that the elderly often have memory problems, a new study from an HF/E researcher finds driver retraining to be an effective strategy for improving the safe-driving habits of older drivers over the long term. In his Human Factors article, "The Long-Term Effects of Active Training Strategies on Improving Older Drivers' Scanning in Intersections: A Two Year Follow-up to Romoser and Fisher (2009)," Matthew R. E. Romoser conducted a follow up study to see if participants from a 2009 study who received training retained the safe driving behaviors. ...

Philadelphia, PA, April 25, 2013 – Weight loss is a topic of concern for nearly 36% of Americans who are considered obese. There are many barriers that can interfere with weight loss. For those attending face-to-face weight loss programs, barriers can include travel, conflict with work and home, need for childcare, and loss of anonymity. In a new study released in the May/June 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, investigators from The University of Kansas Medical Center continue to explore alternative weight management delivery methods to ...

Sand-dwelling and rock-dwelling cichlids living in East Africa's Lake Malawi share a nearly identical genome, but have very different personalities. The territorial rock-dwellers live in communities where social interactions are important, while the sand-dwellers are itinerant and less aggressive. Those behavioral differences likely arise from a complex region of the brain known as the telencephalon, which governs communication, emotion, movement and memory in vertebrates – including humans, where a major portion of the telencephalon is known as the cerebral cortex. ...

Sophia Antipolis, 26 April 2013. A practical guide on the use of the new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) has been produced by the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). A guide was needed to summarise existing information on different drugs, to answer clinical questions that fall outside what drug companies can legally answer, and to make distinctions between the different drugs. ESC guidelines on atrial fibrillation recommend the NOACs as preferable to vitamin K antagonists for stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Friday 26 April 2013: Regular exercise has been proven to reduce the chance of developing liver cancer in a world-first mice study that carries hope for patients at risk from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The research announced at the International Liver Congress™ 2013 involved two groups of mice fed a control diet and a high fat diet then divided into separate exercise and sedentary groups. The exercise groups ran on a motorised treadmill for 60 minutes per day, five days a week. After 32 weeks of regular exercise, 71% of mice on the ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Friday 26 April 2013: A study presented today at the International Liver CongressTM 2013 – which evaluated the relationship between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), early predictors of atherosclerosis and the 10-year Framingham risk score (FRS) – showed that NAFLD increases the risk of early atherosclerotic lesions independent of established cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. NAFLD is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease. Patients with NAFLD have an excess prevalence of CV events and typically have an increase frequency ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Friday 26 April 2013: Data from a number of clinical trials presented today at the International Liver Congress™ 2013 shed new light on the use of TACE and SIRT in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a technique in which small particles designed to block blood vessels mixed or coated with chemotherapeutic drugs are injected directly into an artery supplying the tumour; it has become a standard treatment in selected patients with HCC. New data presented today has identified a scoring system ...

Up to 10 per cent of the population is affected by specific learning disabilities (SLDs), such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and autism, translating to two or three pupils in every classroom, a new study has found. Led by Professor Brian Butterworth, a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne's School of Psychological Sciences and Emeritus Professor of cognitive neuropsychology at University College London, the study gives insight into the underlying causes of specific learning disabilities and how to tailor individual teaching and learning for individuals and education ...

New research shows that movement of the ring-like molecule pyrrole over a metal surface runs counter to the centuries-old laws of 'classical' physics that govern our everyday world. Using uniquely sensitive experimental techniques, scientists have found that laws of quantum physics - believed primarily to influence at only sub-atomic levels – can actually impact on a molecular level. Researchers at Cambridge's Chemistry Department and Cavendish Laboratory say they have evidence that, in the case of pyrrole, quantum laws affecting the internal motions of the molecule ...

When predicting the outcome of a fight, the big guy doesn't always win suggests new research on fish. Scientists at the University of Exeter and Texas A&M University found that when fish fight over food, it is personality, rather than size, that determines whether they will be victorious. The findings suggest that when resources are in short supply personality traits such as aggression could be more important than strength when it comes to survival. The study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, found that small fish were able to do well in contests ...

Los Angeles, CA (April 26, 2013) – Intermittent fasting is all the rage, but scientific evidence showing how such regimes affect human health is not always clear cut. Now a scientific review in the British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease published by SAGE, suggests that fasting diets may help those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, alongside established weight loss claims. Intermittent fasting –fasting on a given number of consecutive or alternate days – has recently been hailed as a path to weight loss and improved cardiovascular risk. A team led by ...

This press release is available in German. The flu is caused by an infection with the influenza virus, which mainly attacks the upper respiratory tract – the nose, throat and bronchi and rarely also the lungs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around five to 15 percent of the population are affected by upper respiratory tract infections during seasonal flu outbreaks, and between 250 000-500 000 people die of the illness every year. However, a main cause of death in people having the flu is actually a secondary infection with bacteria. Influenza increases ...

During fetal development of the mammalian brain, the cerebral cortex undergoes a marked expansion in surface area in some species, which is accommodated by folding of the tissue in species with most expanded neuron numbers and surface area. Researchers have now identified a key regulator of this crucial process. Different regions of the mammalian brain are devoted to the performance of specific tasks. This in turn imposes particular demands on their development and structural organization. In the vertebrate forebrain, for instance, the cerebral cortex – which is responsible ...

Mobile phones using text messaging and monitoring have been shown to be useful additions to health programs. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a weight-loss intervention delivered by a smartphone app that supported individuals embarking on a diet and that was evidenced-based. Researchers developed and tested a mobile phone application (app) to support individuals embarking on a partial meal replacement program (MRP). Overweight or obese women were randomly allocated to one of two study groups an intervention group and a control group. The intervention ...

This press release is available in German. The protein C4BP is similar to a spider in its spatial form with eight "arms". The structure of the "spider body" has recently been described in detail by researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Technische Universität Darmstadt. This leads the scientists to unconventional ideas – the protein is possibly suitable as a scaffold for the transport of active pharmaceutical substances, particularly biomolecules. The researchers are publishing their results in the current edition ...

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have spent many years studying the remains of a Stone Age community in Karleby outside the town of Falköping, Sweden. The researchers have for example tried to identify parts of the inhabitants' diet. Right now they are looking for evidence that fertilisers were used already during the Scandinavian Stone Age, and the results of their first analyses may be exactly what they are looking for. Using remains of grains and other plants and some highly advanced analysis techniques, the two researchers and archaeologists ...

Scientists have long observed that species seem to have become increasingly capable of evolving in response to changes in the environment. But computer science researchers now say that the popular explanation of competition to survive in nature may not actually be necessary for evolvability to increase. In a paper published this week in PLOS ONE, the researchers report that evolvability can increase over generations regardless of whether species are competing for food, habitat or other factors. Using a simulated model they designed to mimic how organisms evolve, the ...

Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years, according to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). These high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are the latest in a trend of above average temperature seen during the spring and summer seasons, and part of a pattern of elevated temperatures occurring in the Northwest Atlantic, but not seen elsewhere in the ocean basin over the past century. The advisory reports on conditions in the second half of ...

According to a recent report released by the National Science Foundation, 22 of the nation's 39 federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) employed 3,011 postdocs in 2010, the year the latest data are available. Three out of every four postdocs employed in the FFRDCs in 2010 were men. Foreign nationals on temporary visas made up 60 percent of all postdocs employed in FFRDCs. Men constituted a higher percentage of foreign nationals than of U.S. citizens and permanent residents--78 percent versus 72 percent. Among U.S. citizens and permanent residents, ...

AUDIO: Atkins Diet, Zone Diet, South Beach Diet, etc. Chances are you have known someone who has tried a high protein diet. Noel Aldrich, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, discusses a new... Click here for more information. Philadelphia, PA, April 26, 2013 – Atkins Diet, Zone Diet, South Beach Diet, etc., etc., etc. Chances are you have known someone who has tried a high protein diet. In fact, according to the International Food Information Council Foundation, 50% of consumers ...

TEMPE, Ariz. – A team of student researchers and their professors from 20 laboratories around the country have gotten a new view of cancer cells. The work could shed light on the transforming physical properties of these cells as they metastasize, said Jack R. Staunton, a Ph.D. candidate at Arizona State University in the lab of Prof. Robert Ros, and the lead author of a paper reporting on the topic. Metastasis is a critical step in the progression of cancer. It is when the cancer spreads from one organ or part to another. While much is known about metastasis, it remains ...

The ancient Maya civilization of Mesoamerica may have developed its unique culture and architecture via contact with many other groups—not just exclusive contact with the Olmec people or on its own, without any outside influences, as researchers have debated. According to a new study, the formal plazas and pyramids at Ceibal, an ancient Maya site in Guatemala, probably arose from broad cultural exchanges that took place across southern Mesoamerica from about 1,000 to 700 BCE. Until now, two theories have dominated the debate concerning the origin of the Maya civilization: ...

This release is available in Japanese. The Maya civilization is well-known for its elaborate temples, sophisticated writing system, and mathematical and astronomical developments, yet the civilization's origins remain something of a mystery. A new University of Arizona study to be published in the journal Science challenges the two prevailing theories on how the ancient civilization began, suggesting its origins are more complex than previously thought. Anthropologists typically fall into one of two competing camps with regard to the origins of Maya civilization. ...

Humpback whales are able to pass on hunting techniques to each other, just as humans do, new research has found. A team of researchers, led by the University of St Andrews, has discovered that a new feeding technique has spread to 40 per cent of a humpback whale population. The findings are published today (Thursday 25 April) by the journal Science. The community of humpback whales off New England, USA, was forced to find new prey after herring stocks – their preferred food - crashed in the early 1980s. The solution the whales devised – hitting the water with ...