Belmont, MA—The long-term use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) may severely impact the user's ability to accurately recall the shapes and spatial relationships of objects, according to a recent study conducted by McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School investigators. In the study, published today online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, McLean Hospital Research Psychiatrist Harrison Pope, MD, used a variety of tests to determine whether AAS users developed cognitive defects due to their admitted history of abuse. "Our work clearly shows that while ...

University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll likes to think in multiples. If one robot can accomplish a singular task, think how much more could be accomplished if you had hundreds of them. Correll and his computer science research team, including research associate Dustin Reishus and professional research assistant Nick Farrow, have developed a basic robotic building block, which he hopes to reproduce in large quantities to develop increasingly complex systems. Recently the team created a swarm of 20 robots, each the size of a pingpong ball, ...

Two new studies published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explore the development of reasoning and perspective-taking in children. How to Pass the False-Belief Task Before Your Fourth Birthday As social creatures, humans must constantly monitor each other's intentions, beliefs, desires, and other mental states. A particularly important social skill is the ability to take another person's perspective and understand what the person knows, even when that knowledge may ultimately be false. Past research has shown that before ...

BOSTON (December 14, 2012) –Scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University have discovered a new gene mechanism that appears to regulate triglyceride levels. This pathway may protect carriers of a gene variant against cardiovascular disease, especially among those with greater intakes of polyunsaturated fat (PUFA). The findings, published online this week in the American Journal of Human Genetics, contribute to research efforts to develop gene-specific diets that could potentially improve general health and complement ...

Tampa, FL (Dec. 14, 2012)— A new study focusing on how people with dementia become lost while driving, how missing drivers are found, and the role of public notification systems like Silver Alert in these discoveries suggests techniques that may help recover drivers with dementia and prevent potentially harmful incidents. The study was led by principal investigator Meredeth A. Rowe, RN, PhD, FGSA, FAAN, professor and endowed chair at the University of South Florida College of Nursing. The findings were published online last month in the Journal of the American Geriatrics ...

Parents often wonder how much of the world their young children really understand. Though typically developing children are not able to speak or point to objects on command until they are between eighteen months and two years old, they do provide clues that they understand language as early as the age of one. These clues provide a point of measurement for psychologists interested in language comprehension of toddlers and young children with autism, as demonstrated in a new video-article published in JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments). In the assessment, psychologists ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– While some theoretical physicists make predictions about astrophysics and the behavior of stars and galaxies, others work in the realm of the very small, which includes quantum physics. Such is the case at UC Santa Barbara, where theoretical physicists at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) cover the range of questions in physics. Recently, theoretical physicists at KITP have made important strides in studying a concept in quantum physics called quantum entanglement, in which electron spins are entangled with each other. Using ...

At crucial points in the metabolism of all organisms, a protein with the unwieldy name of Translation Elongation Factor P (EF-P, for short) takes center stage. What it actually does during protein synthesis has only now been elucidated – by researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. The research group led by Kirsten Jung, Professor of Microbiology at LMU, actually focused on how bacteria cope with stress, for example how the receptor meolecule CadC monitors the acidity in the environment and alerts the cell to take countermeasures to protect itself. However, ...

This press release is available in German. The mass ratio of protons and electrons is deemed to be a universal constant. And rightly so, as the latest radio-astronomy observations of a distant galaxy have shown. Scientists at the VU University of Amsterdam and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn used the 100-metre radio telescope in Effelsberg to measure absorption lines of the methanol molecule at a number of characteristic frequencies. The researchers analysed the spectrum of the simplest of all the alcohols in a very distant galaxy. The result: to ...

The pelvic exam, a standard part of a woman's gynecologic checkup, frequently is performed for reasons that are medically unjustified, according to the authors of a UCSF study that may lay the groundwork for future changes to medical practice. The research shows that many physicians mistakenly believe the exam is important in screening for ovarian cancer. The study, which surveyed obstetricians and gynecologists around the country, also shows that doctors continue to perform the exam in part because women have come to expect it. The article is currently published online ...

Antibodies are key to the recognition and neutralisation of bacteria by our immune system. The most common antibodies have the shape of a Y, and the two prongs fasten to molecules that belong to the bacteria. The cells in the immune system recognise the shaft and can then attack the bacteria. Since the 1960s, it has been known that certain bacteria have developed the ability to turn these antibodies around, which makes it more difficult for the immune system to identify them. These include streptococcus bacteria, sometimes referred to as 'killer bacteria', that cause ...

Memo to casino operators: just because you build it doesn't mean they will come. A new study out of the University of Iowa examined how casino growth in the state has influenced gambling by residents. The survey suggests that fewer Iowans gambled overall and also that fewer people have become addicted to gambling despite a recent spurt in gaming facilities. Casino gambling was introduced in Iowa in 1991. There are currently 21 casinos in Iowa, all but three licensed by the state. (The others are owned and operated by Native American tribes.) The findings could affect ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan Health System doesn't claim to be perfect. But its response to medical errors, near-misses, unexpected clinical problems and unintended outcomes is a model for the nation that other hospitals can and should copy, according to a new paper in a prestigious health care journal. The "Michigan Model" for handling these situations, and preventing them from happening again, has not only helped patients and medical staff alike – it has also helped UMHS go against the grain of the costly, combative "deny and defend" medical malpractice ...

Electronic devices become smaller, lighter, faster and more powerful with each passing year. Currently, however, electronics such as cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc., are rigid. But what if they could be made bendable or stretchy? According to the University of Delaware's Bingqing Wei, stretchable electronics are the future of mobile electronics, leading giants such as IBM, Sony and Nokia to incorporate the technology into their products. Beyond traditional electronics, potential stretchable applications include biomedical, wearable, portable and sensory devices, ...

(SALT LAKE CITY)—Buprenorphine is a safe and effective drug for treating opioid addiction. But as the prescribed use of buprenorphine has dramatically increased in recent years, accidental exposure of children to the drug has risen sharply, placing them at risk for serious injury and in extremely rare cases even death, according to researchers at the Utah Poison Control Center (UPCC), U School of Medicine's Department of Family and Preventive Health, and the Utah Department of Health (UDOH). In a study published Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012, by the U.S. Centers for Disease ...

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite continues to provide rainfall and cloud height data on powerful Cyclone Evan as it crawls through the Samoan Islands with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains. NASA's TRMM satellite identified "hot towers" in the storm, hinting that it would continue to intensify. On Dec. 14, American Samoa, Tonga and Fiji are all under warnings or alerts as Evan continues to move west. A gale warning is in effect for Tutuila and Aunuu. A high surf warning is in effect for all of American Samoa. A flash flood watch is in effect ...

Turns out the trope is true: You should trust your gut -- as long as you're an expert. So says a new study from researchers at Rice University, George Mason University and Boston College. "How expert someone is within a particular domain has a positive impact on their ability to make an accurate gut decision," said Rice's Erik Dane, lead author of a study published last month in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. However, he added, "Even if you're an expert, intuitive decision-making is better for some types of tasks than others. Tasks that ...

HOUSTON – (Dec. 14, 2012) – A new material structure predicted at Rice University offers the tantalizing possibility of a signal path smaller than the nanowires for advanced electronics now under development at Rice and elsewhere. Theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and postdoctoral fellow Xiaolong Zou were investigating the atomic-scale properties of two-dimensional materials when they found to their surprise that a particular formation, a grain boundary in metal disulfides, creates a metallic – and therefore conducting – path only a fraction of a nanometer wide. That's ...

TORONTO, ON – Global lifespans have risen dramatically in the past 40 years, but the increased life expectancy is not benefitting everybody equally, say University of Toronto researchers. In particular, adult males from low- and middle-income countries are losing ground. People are living longer on average than they were in 1970, and those extra years of life are being achieved at lower cost, the researchers, led by U of T Chemical Engineering PhD candidate Ryan Hum, say in a paper published in the open access science journal eLife this month. However, the costs for ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A multicenter study led by researchers at UC Davis describes new, paradoxical characteristics of the most common type of breast cancer. The findings shed light on how the disease can evade treatment and could improve diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. The research, led by Jian Jian Li, director of translational research in the UC Davis Department of Radiation Oncology, examined breast tumors previously thought to lack the HER2 protein, which, when over-expressed, is associated with disease recurrence. Instead, researchers found in the tumors ...

By using electric voltage instead of a flowing electric current, researchers from UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have made major improvements to an ultra-fast, high-capacity class of computer memory known as magnetoresistive random access memory, or MRAM. The UCLA team's improved memory, which they call MeRAM for magnetoelectric random access memory, has great potential to be used in future memory chips for almost all electronic applications, including smart-phones, tablets, computers and microprocessors, as well as for data storage, ...

A new study by NYU School of Medicine researchers suggests that an existing HIV drug called maraviroc could be a potential therapy for Staphylococcus aureus, a notorious and deadly pathogen linked to hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations each year. Their study is published online this week in Nature. "What are the chances that a drug for HIV could possibly treat a virulent Staph infection?" asks Victor J. Torres, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology, and senior author of the study. "These findings are the result of a fantastic collaboration that we hope will result ...

ATLANTA - An international study of ibrutinib in people with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) continues to show unprecedented and durable results with few side effects. Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center presented interim findings of the multi-center Phase 2 study today at the 54th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition. "I believe we are witnessing a breakthrough in mantle cell lymphoma. This is great news for patients," said Michael Wang, M.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Departments of ...

BOZEMAN, MT (December 13, 2012) – A new tool developed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its partners is being used by scientists and land managers to model how noise travels through landscapes and affects species and ecosystems— a major factor in land and wildlife management decisions such as where to locate new roads or recreational trails. The tool, SPreAD-GIS, uses spatial data layers to predict how sound spreads from a source through the surrounding landscape and how it is affected by such factors as vegetation, terrain, weather conditions, and background ...

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Dec. 14, 2012 — A fast growing, flesh-eating fungus killed 5 people following a massive tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo., according to two new studies based on genomic sequencing by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Health officials should be aware of infections caused by the fungus Apophysomyces, according to the studies, which tracked 13 people infected by the pathogen during the Class EF-5 tornado — the most powerful category — whose 200-plus mph winds plowed through ...