An international team of nuclear astrophysicists has shed new light on the explosive stellar events known as novae. These dramatic explosions are driven by nuclear processes and make previously unseen stars visible for a short time. The team of scientists measured the nuclear structure of the radioactive neon produced through this process in unprecedented detail. Their findings, reported in the US journal Physical Review Letters, show there is much less uncertainty in how quickly one of the key nuclear reactions will occur as well as in the final abundance of radioactive ...

Using graphene – either as an alternative to, or most likely as a complementary material with – silicon, offers the promise of much faster future electronics, along with several other advantages over the commonly used semiconductor. However, creating the one-atom thick sheets of carbon known as graphene in a way that could be easily integrated into mass production methods has proven difficult. When graphene is grown, lattices of the carbon grains are formed randomly, linked together at different angles of orientation in a hexagonal network. However, when those orientations ...

Facebook posts resonate significantly more with human nature than books or even human faces, according to a new study by Laura Mickes and colleagues from the University of California San Diego in the US. The difference in memory between these microblogs and actual published words from a page is as striking as the difference in memory between amnesiacs and healthy controls. The work is published online in Springer's journal Memory & Cognition. Online social networking is very popular, and allows people to post their thoughts as microblogs, an opportunity that people exploit ...

Football players display different muscle response parameters depending on the position that they hold on the pitch, according to a study conducted by a team of Spanish researchers which has been published in the 'Journal of electromyography and kinesiology'. Scientists from the University of Vigo have analysed different muscle response parameters in 78 Spanish first division footballers who have been playing for between four and fifteen years. They found variations depending on the field position of the players. Published in the 'Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology', ...

Black carbon is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming and its influence on climate has been greatly underestimated, according to the first quantitative and comprehensive analysis of this issue. The landmark study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres today says the direct influence of black carbon, or soot, on warming the climate could be about twice previous estimates. Accounting for all of the ways it can affect climate, black carbon is believed to have a warming effect of about 1.1 Watts per square meter (W/m2), approximately ...

While Mexico and the United States have ramped up their efforts to control and perhaps defeat Mexico's increasingly violent drug cartels, the outcome of these efforts remains in doubt and no panaceas are in sight, but prohibition has once again proved to be a failure, according to a paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The paper by Rice sociologist William Martin, "Cartels, Corruption and Carnage in the Calderón Era," traces the origins and growth of Mexican drug cartels and the corruption, failed government policies and gruesome violence ...

The European Alps range span eight countries from France to Slovenia and harbour an extraordinary diversity of habitats, plants and animals, including many species found nowhere else. They are widely considered to be one of the most important regions for the preservation of biodiversity in Europe. But the Alps are not just a natural paradise: they are the home and workplace of up to 14 million people and the destination for more than 100 million tourists each year. The resulting changes to the landscape have led to an increasing fragmentation of the plant and animal ...

DENVER – Recent studies have demonstrated that molecular-targeted agents, such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), may prolong survival of selected patients based on tumor biomarkers. The presence of mutation in the EGFR gene is known as a predictive marker for the response to treatment. However, whether or not these EGFR mutations are prognostic factors for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been known. A recent study published in the February 2013 issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) ...

DENVER – Exon 20 insertions are the third most common family of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations found in non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Little is known about cancers harboring these mutations aside from their lack of response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, impairing the development of effective targeted therapies. A recent study published in the February 2013 issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) Journal of Thoracic Oncology, concludes that patients with EGFR exon 20 insertions have similar clinical characteristics ...

DENVER – For patients with medically operable clinical stage I non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), lobectomy or pneumonectomy is the standard approach. For patients with medically inoperable stage I NSCLC, stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has become a standard of care. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine wanted to compare the patterns of failure (primary tumor control, local control, regional control, and distant control) between each method. A recent study published in the February 2013 issue of the International Association for the Study ...

Materialistic consumers may derive more pleasure from desiring products than they do from actually owning them, and are willing to overspend and go into debt because they believe that future purchases will transform their lives, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Thinking about acquisition provides momentary happiness boosts to materialistic people, and because they tend to think about acquisition a lot, such thoughts have the potential to provide frequent mood boosts. But the positive emotions associated with acquisition are short-lived. Although ...

Consumers systematically mispredict both the selling and purchase prices of other consumers due to a lack of cognitive and emotional connection, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "As sellers, consumers fail to appreciate the extent to which endowment and the prospect of giving up an object and not getting to enjoy its benefits influence other owner valuations. On the other hand, as buyers, consumers fail to realize the extent to which lack of ownership and the prospect of giving up money to purchase an object impact other buyer valuations," ...

The Internet has given consumers the unprecedented opportunity to reach a mass audience and thereby advance their social position through displays of good taste, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Ordinary consumers were previously limited to sharing their views and tastes within their circle of friends and acquaintances, and only media professionals and others in powerful positions could reach a mass audience. But the Internet has made it possible for ordinary consumers to reach a mass audience or 'grab hold of the megaphone' through blogs, ...

Feeling socially isolated causes consumers to pursue riskier but potentially more profitable financial opportunities, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Seeking social acceptance and maintaining close relationships are among the most fundamental and universal human needs. Consumers are often willing to invest or sacrifice important resources to secure social bonds. In the absence of social support, consumers seek significantly more money to secure what they want out of the social system surrounding them. Feeling socially rejected triggers riskier ...

Family interaction and everyday activity strongly influence how television advertisements are experienced and interpreted at home, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "It is common to link advertising viewing at home to increased levels of materialism and domestic tension stemming from 'pester power' (children getting parents to buy something by asking for it repeatedly until they get it). While these are serious issues, we have found that creative and skilled viewers of television advertising in the family living room can overturn and personalize ...

Be it triumph or crushing defeat, exhilaration or agony, body language more accurately conveys intense emotions, according to recent research that challenges the predominance of facial expressions as an indicator of how a person feels. Princeton University researchers report in the journal Science that facial expressions can be ambiguous and subjective when viewed independently. The researchers asked study participants to determine from photographs if people were experiencing feelings such as loss, victory or pain from facial expressions or body language alone, or from ...

This press release is available in French. Quebec City, January 15, 2013—A team of researchers from Université Laval, CHU de Québec, and pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has discovered a way to stimulate the brain's natural defense mechanisms in people with Alzheimer's disease. This major breakthrough, details of which are presented today in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), opens the door to the development of a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and a vaccine to prevent the illness. One of the main characteristics ...

Toronto, January 15, 2013 –The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Big Brothers Big Sisters Canada (BBBSC) are releasing the first results of one of the largest mentoring studies ever conducted. The five-year study, which tracks the experiences of almost 1,000 children and teenagers registered with Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies across Canada, found that those with a mentor are significantly more confident in their academic abilities and considerably less likely to display behavioural problems. One stand out finding is that girls in the study with ...

New research suggests that commonly observed differences in how groups perceive racism may be explained by ignorance about — and even denial of — the extent of racism over the course of history. The research, conducted by psychological scientists at the University of Kansas and Texas A&M University, indicates that African Americans had more accurate knowledge of historically documented racism compared to European Americans. This difference in historical knowledge partially accounted for group differences in perceptions of racism, both at a systemic and an incident-specific ...

Salmon runs are notoriously variable: strong one year, and weak the next. New research shows that the same may be true from one century to the next. Scientists in the past 20 years have recognized that salmon stocks vary not only year to year, but also on decades-long time cycles. One example is the 30-year to 80-year booms and busts in salmon runs in Alaska and on the West Coast driven by the climate pattern known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Now work led by University of Washington researchers reveals those decadal cycles may overlay even more important, centuries-long ...

PHILADELPHIA, PA (January 14, 2013)—Shutting down a specific pathway in cancer cells appears to improve the ability of common drugs to wipe those cells out, according to new research from scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center, published in the January issue of Cancer Discovery. "Ideally, this research will eventually enable scientists to find drugs that disrupt this pathway and boost the impact of current therapies," says Igor Astsaturov, MD, PhD, Attending Physician in the Department of Medical Oncology at Fox Chase. "That's the long-term plan." The new approach appears ...

In a small study, researchers reported increased healthy tissue growth after surgical repair of damaged cartilage if they put a "hydrogel" scaffolding into the wound to support and nourish the healing process. The squishy hydrogel material was implanted in 15 patients during standard microfracture surgery, in which tiny holes are punched in a bone near the injured cartilage. The holes stimulate patients' own specialized stem cells to emerge from bone marrow and grow new cartilage atop the bone. Results of the study, published in the Jan. 9 issue of Science Translational ...

Washington, D.C. – Quitting smoking is a common New Year's resolution for Americans each year, but research has repeatedly shown it is not an easy task. Some groups, such as racial/ethnic minorities, have an even harder time quitting. New research suggests hard-hitting graphic tobacco warnings may help smokers of diverse backgrounds who are struggling to quit. A new study by researchers at Legacy® and Harvard School of Public Health provides further evidence that bold pictorial cigarette warning labels that visually depict the health consequences of smoking — such as those ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans (JGR-C), Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences (JGR-G) and Water Resources Research. In this release: 1. Seabird activity influences Arctic methane and nitrous oxide emissions 2. U.S. cities less susceptible to water scarcity than previously thought 3. First direct evidence that breaking waves cause horizontal eddies 4. Variability of transparent organic particles in Arctic floodplain lakes 5. ...

RICHMOND, Va. (Jan. 14, 2013) – Patients who undergo knee replacement surgery may be at risk of gaining more weight than their peers who have not had the surgery, according to a five-year study led by a Virginia Commonwealth University professor. Daniel Riddle, Ph.D., professor in the VCU Department of Physical Therapy in the School of Allied Health Professions, and his research team reviewed the medical records of nearly 1,000 knee-replacement surgery patients from the Mayo Clinic Health System and found that 30 percent of them gained 5 percent or more of their body ...