In their article "Over 30 million psychedelic users in the United States", Teri S Krebs and Pål-Ørjan Johansen from the Department of Neuroscience at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, use data from a randomly-selected sample of over 57,000 individuals surveyed for the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), to estimate lifetime prevalence of psychedelic use. The authors estimate that approximately 32 million people have used LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), psilocybin ("magic mushrooms"), or mescaline (peyote and other cacti) in their lifetime. ...

COLLEGE PARK, MD - The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their clearest view yet of Comet ISON, a newly-discovered sun grazer comet that may light up the sky later this year, or come so close to the Sun that it disintegrates. A University of Maryland-led research team is closely following ISON, which offers a rare opportunity to witness a comet's evolution as it makes its first-ever journey through the inner solar system. Like all comets, ISON is a "dirty snowball" – a clump of frozen gases mixed with dust, formed in a distant reach of the solar system, ...

Scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of California at Davis, led by Dr. John Imig and Dr. Bruce Hammock have determined the synergistic actions of inhibiting soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) with tAUCB (trans-4-(4-[3-adamantan-1-yl-ureid]-cyclohexyloxy)-benzoic acid) and activating peroxisome proliferator-activator receptorγ (PPARγ) with the thiazolidinedione rosiglitazone on the pathological progression of cardiometabolic syndrome. Cardiometabolic syndrome occurs with obesity and hypertension increasing the risks for cardiovascular ...

Researchers at Micro Orthopaedics, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, led by Dr. Ai-xi Yu, have suggested that articular cartilage defects can be repaired by a novel thermo-sensitive injectable hydrogel engineered with gene modified bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs). The chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol composite hydrogel containing hTGFβ-1 gene modified BMSCs was injected into rabbits with defective articular cartilage. Sixteen weeks later the defected cartilage regenerated and was proven to be hyaline cartilage. This work can be found in the January ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif.—Air pollution from wildland fires and urban and agricultural areas in California is diminishing air quality at Devils Postpile National Monument, according to a recent study published in the journal Atmospheric Environment. Dr. Andrzej Bytnerowicz, a research ecologist from the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station, and a team of scientists measured air quality at Devils Postpile National Monument in the eastern Sierra Nevada and found occasionally high concentrations of ozone caused by wildland fires and air pollution from the California ...

URBANA – Following the drought of 2012, the prices of corn and soybean meal for livestock diets have increased significantly. In an effort to reduce their costs, pork producers are looking for alternative sources of calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P). Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed equations for calculating the concentrations of these minerals in byproducts from the rendering industry. Professor of animal sciences Hans H. Stein and his team determined the digestibility of Ca and P in meat and bone meal (MBM), which is traditionally used as a source ...

PHILADELPHIA— Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that an area of the brain that initiates behavioral changes had greater activation in smokers who watched anti-smoking ads with strong arguments versus those with weaker ones, and irrespective of flashy elements, like bright and rapidly changing scenes, loud sounds and unexpected scenario twists. Those smokers also had significantly less nicotine metabolites in their urine when tested a month after viewing those ads, the team reports in a new study published online ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (April 23, 2013) -- A specific region of the brain is in play when children consider their identity and social status as they transition into adolescence -- that often-turbulent time of reaching puberty and entering middle school, says a University of Oregon psychologist. In a study of 27 neurologically typical children who underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at ages 10 and 13, activity in the brain's ventromedial prefrontal cortex increased dramatically when the subjects responded to questions about how they view themselves. The findings, ...

Frequent binge drinking in college can cause more than a hangover. Regularly consuming multiple drinks in a short window of time can cause immediate changes in circulation that increase an otherwise healthy young adult's risk of developing cardiovascular disease later in life, according to research published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "Regular binge drinking is one of the most serious public health problems confronting our college campuses, and drinking on college campuses has become more pervasive and destructive," said Shane A. ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Maybe rocker Greg Kihn was being prophetic in his 1981 hit, "The Breakup Song," with its chorus, "They don't write 'em like that anymore." An Indiana University professor's new paper looks at how people write to break up today, including through texts, emails and social media. According to a new research article by Ilana Gershon, associate professor of communication and culture in IU's College of Arts and Sciences, part of what makes the breakup stories she collected into American stories is that the medium seems so important to the message when breaking ...

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans. ---Kahlil Gibran What do a pond or a lake and a carnivorous pitcher plant have in common? The water-filled pool within a pitcher plant, it turns out, is a tiny ecosystem whose inner workings are similar to those of a full-scale water body. Whether small carnivorous plant or huge lake, both are subject to the same ecological "tipping points," of concern on Earth Day--and every day, say scientists. The findings are published in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy ...

AURORA, Colo. (April 23, 2013) – While gun control issues usually surface after major incidents like the fatal shooting of 20 elementary school students in Newtown, CT, a new study shows that children are routinely killed or injured by firearms. The study, conducted by the Colorado School of Public Health, Denver Health and Children's Hospital Colorado, was published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It examined trauma admissions at two emergency rooms in Denver and Aurora over nine years and found that 129 of 6,920 injured children suffered ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface (JGR-F), Journal of Geophysical Research- Biogeosciences, (JGR-G) and Tectonics. In this release: 1. Beachfront nourishment decisions: the "sucker-free rider" problem 2. Identifying the physical processes that control the stratigraphic record 3. Uplift of Zagros Mountains slows down convergence of two plates 4. Extensive Antarctic campaign finds cold bias in satellite records 5. Measuring tidal ...

The most comprehensive evaluation of temperature change on Earth's continents over the past 1,000 to 2,000 years indicates that a long-term cooling trend--caused by factors including fluctuations in the amount and distribution of heat from the sun, and increases in volcanic activity--ended late in the 19th century. The study also finds that the 20th century ranks as the warmest or nearly the warmest century on all of the continents, except Antarctica. Africa had insufficient data to be included in the analysis. Global warming that has occurred since the end of the ...

LEMONT, Ill. – The overuse of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture can wreak havoc on waterways, health and the environment. An international team of scientists aims to lessen the reliance on these fertilizers by helping beans and similar plants boost their nitrogen production, even in areas with traditionally poor soil quality. Researchers from the Center of Plant Genomics and Biotechnology at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) and the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory report as an advance article April ...

Astronomers have found a galaxy turning gas into stars with almost 100 percent efficiency, a rare phase of galaxy evolution that is the most extreme yet observed. The findings come from the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. "Galaxies burn gas like a car engine burns fuel. Most galaxies have fairly inefficient engines, meaning they form stars from their stellar fuel tanks far below the maximum theoretical rate," said Jim Geach of McGill University, lead author of a new study ...

An investigational treatment for an inherited form of Lou Gehrig's disease has passed an early phase clinical trial for safety, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Massachusetts General Hospital report. The researchers have shown that the therapy produced no serious side effects in patients with the disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The phase 1 trial's results, available online in Lancet Neurology, also demonstrate that the drug was successfully introduced into the central nervous system. The treatment uses ...

It's no accident that money obtained through dishonest or illegal means is called "dirty money." A new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that when people perceive money as morally tainted, they also view it as having less value and purchasing power. Challenging the belief that "all money is green," and that people will cross ethical boundaries to amass it, social scientists from UC Berkeley and Stanford University have found compelling evidence that the source of wealth really does matter. In fact, some people avoid ill-gotten gains – such as ...

Pasadena, CA.— Blazars are the brightest of active galactic nuclei, and many emit very high-energy gamma rays. New observations of a blazar known as PKS 1424+240 show that it is the most-distant known source of very high-energy gamma rays. But its emission spectrum appears highly unusual. A team including Carnegie's Michele Fumagalli used data from the Hubble Space Telescope to set a lower limit for the blazar's redshift (z ≥ 0.6035). An object's redshift value is a measurement of how much the wavelength of the light from it that reaches Earth is stretched by ...

Nearly two-thirds of children receiving stem cell transplants returned to the hospital within six months for treatment of unexplained fevers, infections or other problems, according to a study performed at Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center in Boston. Children who received donor cells were twice as likely to be readmitted as children who received their own stem cells. "No one had ever looked at these data in children," said Leslie E. Lehmann, MD, clinical director of pediatric stem cell transplantation at Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center (DF/CHCC). ...

BOSTON — New research published as abstracts in The FASEB Journal and presented at Experimental Biology 2013 (EB 2013) ties mushrooms to potential health outcomes – demonstrating that mushrooms provide more to a dish than just flavor. Nine mushroom research abstracts were presented at Experimental Biology this week, which found: Weight Loss and Maintenance: A one-year, randomized clinical trial found that substituting white button mushrooms for red meat can be a useful strategy for enhancing and maintaining weight loss.1 (Lawrence Cheskin, M.D., F.A.C.P., Department ...

Removal of guardians in Texas Article provided by The Law Office of Laura Coorpender Ramirez, PLLC Visit us at http://www.coorpenderramirezlaw.com There are many individuals that are no longer able to care for themselves. Some individuals may have disabilities that make it difficult to get around, while others may lose some of their mental capabilities as they age. Once any of these signs are observed, family members will need to create comprehensive plans that will put a plan in place to provide for their loved ones. In Texas, in order to have the legal ability ...

New laws addressing drugged driving may be coming to California Article provided by Garcia, Schnayerson & Thompson Visit us at http://www.gstcrimlaw.com Drunk-driving laws change in California quite frequently. This often leads to increased penalties for those who are convicted, as well as additional punishments for those who are repeat offenders. Motorists know that law enforcement takes this crime very seriously, and also know that police will be patrolling areas where drunk driving is believed to be occurring. In California, there are very clear laws for ...

Credit card concerns in Pennsylvania Article provided by Nahrgang & Associates PC Visit us at http://www.mnahrgang.com In today's difficult economy, it is no surprise that many people find themselves faced with debt they are unable to repay. Much of this debt is through credit cards and it is easy to think there is no solution. Although debt settlement and debt litigation issues are becoming more rampant in Pennsylvania, solutions are right around the corner. Soaring lawsuits The number of credit card debt cases in Pennsylvania has recently skyrocketed. ...

Legislators considering changes to Washington drunk driving laws Article provided by Twyford Law Office Visit us at http://www.twyfordlaw.com Washington motorists are very familiar with the dangers of drinking and driving. Advertising campaigns inform drivers that police will be actively targeting those who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Legislators continue to strengthen the penalties that are in place for a conviction, ensuring that the state's laws remain some of the toughest in the country. When someone is killed or injured by an allegedly ...