Passive smoking, also known as 'second-hand' smoke or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is known to cause serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. However, until now it has been uncertain whether ETS increases the risk of dementia, mainly due to lack of research. Previous studies have shown an association between ETS and cognitive impairment, but this is the first to find a significant link with dementia syndromes. The study, published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, is a collaboration between scientists ...

After uncovering a mechanism that promotes chronic intestinal inflammation and the development of colorectal cancer, scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have found that fingolimod, a drug currently approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, could potentially eliminate or reduce the progression of colitis-associated cancer (CAC). The study, published online in the journal Cancer Cell, was led by Sarah Spiegel, Ph.D., Mann T. and Sara D. Lowry Chair in Oncology, co-leader of the Cancer Cell Signaling program at VCU Massey Cancer ...

WASHINGTON – When it comes to losing weight, a popular New Year's resolution for many, people often focus on eating less and exercising more. But results of a new survey of psychologists suggest dieters should pay attention to the role emotions play in weight gain and loss if they hope to succeed. The survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, asked more than 1,300 licensed psychologists how they dealt with clients' weight and weight loss challenges. When asked which strategies were essential to losing weight and keeping it off, psychologists ...

SANTA CRUZ, CA--The remarkable diversity of California's plant life is largely the result of low extinction rates over the past 45 million years, according to a new study published in the journal Evolution. Although many new species have evolved in California, the rate at which plant lineages gave rise to new species has not been notably higher in California than elsewhere, researchers found. Botanists have long recognized California as a biodiversity hotspot. With more than 5,500 native plant species, 40 percent of which are "endemic" (occurring nowhere else), California ...

Singapore, 9 January 2013 Attitudes of Singaporeans and permanent residents toward gays and lesbians although sharply polarised and predominantly negative, have shifted slightly over a five-year span to become a little more favourable. This was found by a research team from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). A nationally representative survey found that people with higher levels of education and freethinkers tend to have more positive attitudes. Those who had higher interpersonal contact with gay men ...

The channel protein Pannexin1 keeps nerve cells flexible and thus the brain receptive for new knowledge. Together with colleagues from Canada and the U.S., researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum led by the junior professor Dr. Nora Prochnow from the Department of Molecular Brain Research describe these results in PLoS ONE. In the study, mice comprising no Pannexin1 in memory-related brain structures displayed symptoms similar to autism. Their nerve cells lacked synaptic plasticity, i.e. the ability to form new synaptic contacts or give up old contacts based on the level ...

The results of a pioneering UK-wide clinical trial that compared treatments for patients with a common type of kidney disease has found one to be significantly more effective. The results of the study, published online in The Lancet today [9 Jan], will be recommended to clinicians worldwide as the most effective approach to treating the condition. The Medical Research Council-funded study, led by researchers from the University of Bristol's Academic Renal Unit based in Southmead Hospital, compared three treatment approaches in a type of kidney disorder known as 'membranous ...

The new study analyses data from school aged children in Tanzania infected with the most common forms of worms. It was found that infection by one parasitic species actually changes the risk of catching another, over and above other risk factors. The study is the first to look at the significance of infection with one disease as a risk for further infections (i.e. co-infection). The findings could help us better understand the importance of co-infection as a risk, and could help inform disease control strategies. Traditionally, co-infection, where the person or ...

In collaboration with the National University of Mexico, a team of Spanish researchers has analysed for the first time remains of cosmetics in the graves of prehispanic civilisations on the American continent. In the case of the Teotihuacans, these cosmetics were used as part of the after-death ritual to honour their city's most important people. A research team from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Valencia has studied various funerary samples found in urns in the Teotihuacan archaeological site (Mexico) that date from between 200 and 500 ...

AUDIO: Melanie Hingle, Ph.D., MPH, RD, University of Arizona, discusses the effectiveness of using text messaging to engage adolescents in ‘‘conversations’’ about health using a familiar communication method -- that is... Click here for more information. Philadelphia, PA, January 9, 2013 – According to the Nielsen consumer research group, teens receive an average of 3,417 text messages per month (that's 114 texts per day!). Couple this with CDC's report that high school students' ...

The key to giving whole wheat bread a more appetizing aroma and taste may lie in controlling the amounts of a single chemical compound that appears in the bread, which nutritionists regard as more healthful than its refined white counterpart. That's the finding of a new study in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, which opens the door to making whole wheat bakery products more appealing to millions of people. Devin G. Peterson and colleagues explain that whole wheat flour includes all three layers of the grain — bran, germ and endosperm — while refined flour ...

Scientists are reporting development of chemical modules that can reproduce, on an "unprecedented" molecular level, changes and interactions that occur in natural populations of plants and animals, including those of hunting and being hunted for food, conducting mutually beneficial relationships and competing for resources. The report on these new "predator-prey biochemical oscillators," which could become building blocks for molecular machines and computers, appears in ACS Nano. Yannick Rondelez and Teruo Fujii explain that just as plants and animals interact in complex ...

This press release is available in German. Aggregations of the red and black colored firebugs are ubiquitous under linden trees in Central Europe, where the bugs can reach astounding population densities. While these insects have no impact on humans, their African, Asian, and American relatives, the cotton stainers, are serious agricultural pests of cotton and other Malvaceous plants. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, recently discovered that these bugs need bacterial symbionts to survive on cotton seeds as their sole food source. ...

To plant food, insect repellant and other homespun uses for spent coffee grounds, scientists are adding an application that could make the gunk left over from brewing coffee a valuable resource for production of dietary supplements. Their new report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry concludes that used coffee grounds are a rich source of healthful antioxidant substances. Maria-Paz de Peña and colleagues explain that people around the world drink millions of cups of coffee every day, generating about 20 million tons of used grounds annually. Although some ...

URBANA – What are you doing to keep your relationship alive? A University of Illinois study highlights the importance of five relationship maintenance strategies that couples can use to preserve or improve the quality of an intimate relationship. "Relationships are like cars in that you have do certain things to keep them running, especially when your goal is to strengthen and preserve your bond with your partner," said Brian Ogolsky, a U of I professor of human and community development. To determine which factors are the most important in promoting healthy relationships, ...

This press release is available in German. Whether a quantum object behaves like a wave or like a particle depends (according to the Copenhagen interpretation) on the choice of measurement apparatus used for observing the system, and therefore on the type of measurement performed. Anton Zeilinger's team of physicists at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences has recently taken this phenomenon further than ever. Whether a certain photon behaves like a particle or like a wave depends on the measurement performed on a second photon. In the ...

Mention magnets, and most people think of trivial applications of those pieces of metal, like holding family photos and reminder notes on the refrigerator. An article on magnets in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), however, focuses on the critical role magnets play in the real world and the search for new materials to make them. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. In the article, C&EN Senior Correspondent Mitch Jacoby explains that magnets are crucial to an enormous number of ...

New Rochelle, NY, January 9, 2013—More than 85,000 synthetic chemicals are registered for commercial use with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and only about half of those produced in large quantities are tested for their potential toxic effects on humans. Children are particularly vulnerable to environmental toxins and a detailed look at how and why, and what can be done to protect children's health, is presented in a two-part article published in Alternative and Complementary Therapies from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available ...

Tree seeds, rather than biomass or fuel crop plants, could represent an abundant source of renewable energy, according to research published in the International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management. The study suggests that seeds from the Indian mahua and sal trees have almost as good a thermal efficiency as biodiesel but would produce lower emissions of carbon monoxide, waste hydrocarbons and NOx (nitrogen oxides). Sukumar Puhan of the GKM College of Engineering and Technology and colleagues N. Vedaraman and K.C. Velappan of the Central Leather Research Institute, ...

PITTSBURGH—Self-moving gels can give synthetic materials the ability to "act alive" and mimic primitive biological communication, University of Pittsburgh researchers have found. In a paper published in the Jan. 8 print edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Pitt research team demonstrates that a synthetic system can reconfigure itself through a combination of chemical communication and interaction with light. Anna Balazs, principal investigator of the study and Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in Pitt's Swanson ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Jan. 9, 2013 – New research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center shows that patients suffering from aggressive brain tumors can be effectively treated with smaller radiation fields to spare the rest of the brain and preserve cognition. "For patients with glioblastoma, we now know we can safely and effectively treat them with smaller radiation fields to spare the rest of their normal brain," said lead investigator Michael D. Chan, M.D., assistant professor of radiation oncology at Wake Forest Baptist. "That's important because it lessens the symptoms ...

Alexandria, Va.–January 9, 2013– America Speaks, Volume 13, a compilation of public opinion polls commissioned by Research!America, features timely data about Americans' views on issues related to biomedical and health research. A majority of Americans (72%) say the new Congress and the President should take action to expand medical research within the first 100 days of the 113th Congress. Public support for increased government spending on medical research holds particular relevance as Congress considers whether to further delay, eliminate or permit "sequestration," a ...

When researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues conducted a random telephone survey among blacks, whites and Hispanics in New York, Baltimore and San Juan, Puerto Rico, they found that Hispanics are nearly twice as likely to report that fear of being used as a "guinea pig" and lack of trust in medical professionals contribute in being unwilling to participate in cancer screenings. The researchers concluded that health care providers need to do a better job of instilling trust and dispelling certain fears, particularly among Hispanics, to improve cancer screening ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – As we age, it just may be the ability to filter and eliminate old information – rather than take in the new stuff - that makes it harder to learn, scientists report. "When you are young, your brain is able to strengthen certain connections and weaken certain connections to make new memories," said Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University and Co-Director of the GRU Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute. It's that critical weakening that appears hampered in the older brain, according to a study in ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Negative media coverage may prompt firms to engage in greater levels of strategic change than previously thought, according to research by a University of Illinois business professor. While businesses have typically viewed the news media as a megaphone for publicity, businesses have not viewed the media as an influential stakeholder capable of shaping the strategic decisions of key executives, says Michael K. Bednar, a professor of business administration at Illinois. "As the news media reports negatively about firms, that registers with executives," ...