As demand for computing and communication capacity surges, the global communication infrastructure struggles to keep pace, since the light signals transmitted through fiber-optic lines must still be processed electronically, creating a bottleneck in telecommunications networks. While the idea of developing an optical transistor to get around this problem is alluring to scientists and engineers, it has also remained an elusive vision, despite years of experiments with various approaches. Now, McGill University researchers have taken a significant, early step toward this ...

The intrauterine environment plays an important role in the health of the offspring. Now, experts from the University of Navarra affirm that the mother's stress, due to socio-economic or psycho-social causes, is associated with the development of pathologies related with obesity. "The growing prevalence of obesity cannot be solely attributed to genetic factors or poor nutrition, but also to lifestyle and adverse environmental factors," as explained to SINC by Javier Campión, lead researcher of this new study. "The said environmental factors could have a bearing on epigenetic ...

Sellers mostly focus on the desirability of a product when setting prices. Buyers, however, focus evenly on the product itself and what's entailed in using it, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Sellers tend to focus on aspects of a product that are related to its desirability. Buyers, in contrast, focus both on its desirability and the feasibility of using and consuming the product. This difference in focus leads buyers and sellers to set different prices for the same product," write authors Caglar Irmak (University of South Carolina), Cheryl ...

These results incentivise the development of targeted therapies enabling improved neurone production to alleviate cognitive decline in the elderly and reduce the cerebral lesions caused by radiotherapy. The research is published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. New neurones are formed regularly in the adult brain in order to guarantee that all our cognitive capacities are maintained. This neurogenesis may be adversely affected in various situations and especially: in the course of ageing, after radiotherapy treatment of a brain tumour. (The irradiation ...

For territorial animals, such as beavers, "owning" a territory ensures access to food, mates and nest sites. Defending that territory can involve fights which cause injury or death. How does an animal decide whether to take on an opponent or not? A new study by Helga Tinnesand and her colleagues from the Telemark University College in Norway has found that the anal gland secretions of beavers contain information about age and social status which helps other beavers gauge their level of response to the perceived threat. The study is published online today in Springer's journal ...

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- Beyond good test scores and high school grades, a new study finds one key factor that helps predict if a young black man will succeed at a predominantly white university. That factor is "grit" – a dedication to pursuing and achieving a goal, whatever the obstacles and failures along the way. Grit is so important that it was found to affect college grades for black men almost as much as high school GPA and ACT scores, said Terrell Strayhorn, author of the study and associate professor of educational studies at The Ohio State University. "For many ...

New Rochelle, NY, April 9, 2013–The decision to perform an invasive procedure to open clogged arteries in the heart instead of first trying medication and lifestyle changes may not reduce a patient's risk of death or of a major cardiac event. Unnecessary procedures to treat chronic, stable heart disease contribute to rising health care costs. A targeted approach to avoiding this kind of overutilization by instead relying on evidence-based decision-making is presented in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article ...

Researchers from the Bonn University Hospital implanted pacemaker electrodes into the medial forebrain bundle in the brains of patients suffering from major depression with amazing results: In six out of seven patients, symptoms improved both considerably and rapidly. The method of Deep Brain Stimulation had already been tested on various structures within the brain, but with clearly lesser effect. The results of this new study have now been published in the renowned international journal "Biological Psychiatry." After months of deep sadness, a first smile appears on ...

Rising temperatures will lead to a massive "greening" of the Arctic by mid-century, as a result of marked increases in plant cover, according to research supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of its International Polar Year (IPY) portfolio. The greening not only will have effects on plant life, the researchers noted, but also on the wildlife that depends on vegetation for cover. The greening could also have a multiplier effect on warming, as dark vegetation absorbs more solar radiation than ice, which reflects sunlight. In a paper published March ...

High blood pressure and obesity are no longer confined to wealthy countries, a new study has found. These health risks have traditionally been associated with affluence, and in 1980, they were more prevalent in countries with a higher income. The new research, published in Circulation, shows that the average body mass index of the population is now just as high or higher in middle-income countries. For blood pressure, the situation has reversed among women, with a tendency for blood pressure to be higher in poorer countries. Researchers at Imperial College London, ...

We all desire self-control — the resolve to skip happy hour and go to the gym instead, to finish a report before checking Facebook, to say no to the last piece of chocolate cake. Though many struggle to resist those temptations, new research suggests that people with low self-control prefer and depend on people with high self-control, possibly as a way to make up for the skills they themselves lack. This research, conducted by psychological scientists Catherine Shea, Gráinne Fitzsimons, and Erin Davisson of Duke University, is published in Psychological Science, a journal ...

Wetlands serve as the Earth's kidneys. They filter and clean people's water supplies while serving as important habitat for many species, including iconic species like cattails, cranes and alligators. Conventional ecosystem health assessments have focused on populations of these larger species. However, the tiny, unseen creatures in the wetlands provided crucial indicators of the ecosystems' health in a study by University of Missouri Associate Professor of Engineering Zhiqiang Hu and his team. Using analysis of the microbiological health of wetlands is cheaper and faster ...

Amsterdam, NL, April 9, 2013 – Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is being increasingly explored as a therapeutic tool for movement disorders associated with deficient inhibition throughout the central nervous system. This includes treatment of focal hand dystonia (FHD), characterized by involuntary movement of the fingers either curling into the palm or extending outward. A new study published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience reports short-term changes in behavioral, physiologic, and clinical measures that support further research into the therapeutic ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – GSA Bulletin articles posted online ahead of print over the last month study (1) a Carboniferous collision in central Asia; (2) crystal xenoliths in the Bolivian Altiplano; (3) The Tsakhir Event; (4) Onverwacht Group and Fig Tree Group contact, Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa; (5) iron oxide deposits in the Paraíba Basin, NE Brazil; (6) the southern Alaska syntaxis; (7) paleotopography of the South Norwegian margin; and (8) the Cheyenne belt suture zone, USA. GSA BULLETIN articles published ahead of print are online at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent; ...

WASHINGTON, DC (April 8, 2013)—Once considered part of the "junk" of our genome, much of the DNA between protein-coding genes is now known to be transcribed. New findings by scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center have identified several dozen transcripts known as lincRNAs, or long intergenic non-coding RNAs, that are dysregulated in breast cancer. The results, to be presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 on Monday, April 8, offer both a new research path for better understanding of how breast cancer works and a new method for identifying lincRNAs that may contribute to ...

Minocycline, an older, broad-spectrum antibiotic in the tetracycline family, provides meaningful improvements as a therapeutic for children with fragile X syndrome, a study by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute has found. The finding is important, the researchers said, because minocycline is a targeted treatment for the condition that is readily available by prescription. After three months of treatment with minocycline, children with fragile X syndrome had greater improvements in general behavior, anxiety and mood-related behaviors when compared with children ...

HOUSTON – (April 8, 2013) – Is the era of targeted therapy for breast cancer at hand? It could be, said experts at the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine – at least for a certain population of women. In a report that appears online today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the researchers have shown that a subset of breast cancer patients who have tumors overexpressing a protein called the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2 positive) may benefit from a combination of targeted treatments that zero in on the breast cancer cells ...

Washington, D.C.— Carnegie scientists have found that the plant species making up an ecosystem are better predictors of ecosystem chemistry than environmental conditions such as terrain, geology, or altitude. This is the first study using a new, high-resolution airborne, chemical-detecting instrument to map multiple ecosystem chemicals. The result, published in the April 8, 2013, Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a key step toward understanding how species composition affects carbon, nitrogen and other nutrient cycling, and the effects ...

Cancer survivors who had chest radiation are nearly twice as likely to die in the years after having major heart surgery as similar patients who didn't have radiation, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. Chest radiation to kill or shrink breast cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma and other cancers increases survivors' risk for major heart disease years — even decades — after radiation therapy. "While radiation treatments done on children and adults in the late 1960s, '70s and '80s played an important role in cancer survival, the treatment ...

Albert Einstein famously described quantum entanglement as "spooky action at distance"; however, up until now experiments that examine this peculiar aspect of physics have been limited to relatively small distances on Earth. In a new study published today, 9 April, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics, researchers have proposed using the International Space Station (ISS) to test the limits of this "spooky action" and potentially help to develop the first global quantum communication network. Their plans include a so-called ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (April 8, 2012) – The antibiotic drug minocycline yields "modest" but meaningful improvements in functioning and mood for children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), reports a study in the April Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Three months of treatment with minocycline in children with FXS resulted in greater overall improvement than placebo treatment, according to ...

Monarch butterflies have long been admired for their sense of direction, as they migrate from Canada and the United States to Mexico. According to new findings from a team of scientists, including researchers from the University of Guelph, the winged insects fly without a map, and use basic orientation and landmarks to find their way to their wintering sites, thousands of miles away. Recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, the study examined the insects' flight patterns and whether those patterns changed when the butterflies were ...

Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are as safe for teenagers – including those who have never given birth – as they are for adults, according to research from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Published in the May issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the findings disprove concerns that have persisted for more than 30 years, since the removal of a harmful IUD from the market in the 1970's, and open the door for many more women – teens included – to benefit from the highly effective, long-lasting form of contraception. "Today's IUDs are not the same as the ones ...

SEATTLE – Although previous research has linked alcohol consumption to an increased risk of developing breast cancer, a new study has found that drinking before and after diagnosis does not impact survival from the disease. In fact, a modest survival benefit was found in women who were moderate drinkers before and after diagnosis due to a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a major cause of mortality among breast cancer survivors. The study results will be published in the April 8 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Polly Newcomb, Ph.D., a member ...

Health systems worldwide are increasingly negotiating secret price rebates from pharmaceutical companies and Canadians risk losing out on the deal. "The pricing of medicines is now a game of negotiation, similar to buying a car at a dealership," says Steve Morgan, an expert in health policy at the University of British Columbia. "There's a list price equivalent to a manufacturer's suggested retail price; and then there's secret deals that everyone negotiates from there." In a study published today in the April issue of the journal Health Affairs, researchers interviewed ...