In a paper about to be published in EPJ Data Science, Barbara Jasny, deputy editor for commentary at Science magazine in Washington, DC, USA, looks at the history of the debates surrounding data access during and after the human genome "war". In this context, she outlines current challenges in accessing information affecting research, particularly with regard to the social sciences, personalised medicine and sustainability. The trouble is that most researchers do not currently share their data. This is due both to research practices and research culture. Scientists withholding ...

Researchers in India have developed a filter system based on a medicinal herb, which they say can quickly and easily remove "fluoride" from drinking water. The technology described in the March issue of the International Journal of Environmental Engineering uses parts of the plant Tridax procumbens as a biocarbon filter for the ion. Drinking water can contain natural fluoride or fluoride might be added as a protective agent for teeth by water companies. However, its presence is not without controversy while in some natural drinking water levels may be above those considered ...

Kirk and Spock may not need a Vulcan mind meld to share cognition: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have found that our cold reasoning and hot feelings may be more intimately connected than previously thought. "We tend to believe we have rational parts, like Spock, and separate emotional parts, like Kirk. But our research suggests that's not true," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, who led the study. "We're all a combination of logical Spock and intuitive Kirk. Cold ...

MARCH 5, 2013—Baltimore, MD—The Center for Biosecurity of UPMC today released online ahead of print a new report, When Good Food Goes Bad: Strengthening the US Response to Foodborne Disease Outbreaks. The authors analyzed existing data and studies on foodborne illness outbreak response, identified emerging trends, and interviewed dozens of federal and state-level officials and experts from industry, professional organizations, academia, and relevant international organizations. The report puts forth a series of recommendations to accelerate and strengthen responses to foodborne ...

International nurse migration is a multibillion-dollar global phenomenon. Historically, Mexicans and Central Americans have not played a significant part in the migration of nurses to the United States. A new report, Strengthening health systems in North and Central America: What role for migration?, sponsored by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), seeks to draw attention to the cross-border migration in the Americas and suggests ways the migration could be managed to meet the demand for health care services in the region. The report, co-authored by New York University ...

The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies, Abell 68, acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies. Like a fun house mirror, lensing creates a fantasy landscape of arc-like images and mirror images of background galaxies. The foreground cluster is 2 billion light-years away, and the lensed images come from galaxies far behind it. In this photo, the image of a spiral galaxy at upper left has been stretched and mirrored into a shape similar to that of a simulated alien from the ...

Alexandria, VA – As the Colorado River winds through the Colorado Plateau's soft sedimentary strata, it picks up a tremendous amount of sediment. This sediment – which once left the river's waters so muddy that Spanish explorers christened it El Rio Colorado "the reddish river" – is a vital component to the unique ecosystems of the river. However, with the construction of the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams, which trap the sediment, the once-turbid waters have become a dazzling blue-green, signaling major changes with serious implications for the health of the river's native ...

Encouraging consumers to feel ownership of products they haven't yet purchased can backfire because consumers tend to see themselves in the products they own, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Companies assume that consumers who are made to feel ownership of a product prior to purchase will prefer it over competing products, but this can actually have the opposite effect and lead consumers to judge the product less favorably," write authors Liad Weiss and Gita V. Johar (both Columbia University). Companies encourage us to feel a sense of ...

Emotional appeals could be more effective than celebrities when promoting products related to a consumer's identity, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Specific emotions can help consumers strengthen their identities by providing information about how to feel a particular identity, especially when emotions are associated with distinct patterns of action. Consumers tend to choose products that bolster emotions associated with a particular identity," write authors Nicole Verrochi Coleman (University of Pittsburgh) and Patti Williams (Wharton ...

Two novel radiolabeled small molecules targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) have excellent potential for further development as diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, according to research published this month in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The imaging agents—123I-MIP-1072 and 123I-MIP-1095—were shown to have a high sensitivity of lesion detection in bone, soft tissue and the prostate gland with minimal retention in non-target tissue. An estimated 238,500 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013, and 29,700 will die from the disease. ...

New Rochelle, NY, March 5, 2013–Reducing preventable hospital readmissions is a cornerstone of emerging healthcare policy. The U.S. government has developed payment policies that will decrease payments to hospitals with excess patient readmission levels, for example. Early lessons learned from these current policy initiatives hint at their likelihood for success and are examined in an insightful article in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Population Health Management website ...

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have identified specific EEG (electroencephalogram) signatures that indicate when patients lose and regain consciousness under the general anesthetic drug propofol. Their report being published online in PNAS Early Edition is part of a major MGH-based investigation into the mechanisms behind general anesthesia and builds on the results of a November 2012 paper. "We have discovered highly structured EEG patterns that indicate when people are sedated during administration of propofol, when they are unconscious and when ...

New research from North Carolina State University finds that older adults who play video games report higher levels of emotional well-being. Researchers asked 140 people aged 63 and older how often they played video games, if at all. The study participants then took a battery of tests to assess their emotional and social well-being. 61 percent of study participants played video games at least occasionally, with 35 percent of participants saying they played at least once per week. The study found that participants who played video games, including those who only played ...

Consumers respond more favorably to advertising when the placement of product images is consistent with the way they visualize time, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Whether a product's image is placed on the left or the right of an advertisement matters for products promising results occurring over time (weight loss aids or anti-aging creams) or products that are valued because they are old or new (antique furniture, modern art, wine, new technologies)," write authors Boyoun (Grace) Chae and JoAndrea Hoegg (both University of British Columbia). Consumers ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (March 5, 2013) – Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Lillehei Heart Institute have combined genetic repair with cellular reprogramming to generate stem cells capable of muscle regeneration in a mouse model for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). The research, which provides proof-of-principle for the feasibility of combining induced pluripotent stem cell technology and genetic correction to treat muscular dystrophy, could present a major step forward in autologous cell-based therapies for DMD and similar conditions and should pave the way ...

Alexandria, VA — With over 37,000 face and neck injuries in more than 7,000 military personnel during Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF), a new study in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery concludes additional training in the management of these injuries and improvements in body armor could be beneficial. The authors note that OIF and OEF have changed the way military surgeons approach facial and penetrating neck trauma. "This study highlights the need for a trained head and neck surgeon in the deployed environment to address these changes and ...

Consumers are more willing to take risks and accept delays in exchange for greater benefits when they are able to compare products, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Rationally speaking, consumer preferences should be the same whether their product choices are presented side-by-side and evaluated comparatively or presented one at a time and evaluated in isolation, but it makes a remarkable difference in consumer decision-making," write authors Christopher K. Hsee (University of Chicago Booth School of Business), Jiao Zhang (University of Miami), ...

Product benefits that occur later in time are more likely to appeal to more independent consumers than to those who are more group or family oriented, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "More independent consumers think of the future in abstract terms and perceive future events as happening in the more distant future, whereas consumers who are less independent think of the future in concrete terms and perceive future events as happening sooner," write authors Gerri Spassova (Monash University) and Angela Y. Lee (Kellogg School of Management, ...

Ultrasound technology could soon experience a significant upgrade that would enable it to produce high-quality, high-resolution images, thanks to the development of a new key material by a team of researchers that includes a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University. The material, which converts ultrasound waves into optical signals that can be used to produce an image, is the result of a collaborative effort by Texas A&M Professor Vladislav Yakovlev and researchers from King's College London, The Queen's University of Belfast and ...

This press release is available in German. The microbiology team of David Berry, Alexander Loy and Michael Wagner from the Faculty of Life Sciences, in collaboration with scientists at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna) and with the help of NanoSIMS technology, has for the first time succeeded in directly observing microorganisms feeding on the intestinal mucosa. The results of this research project appear in the current issue of the prestigious journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (PNAS). To ...

Homes in neighborhoods that incorporate protected open space command prices 20 to 29 percent higher than those without open space, according to a new study by a Colorado State University multidisciplinary research team that included Wildlife Conservation Society scientist, Sarah Reed. Conservation development is an approach to the design, construction, and stewardship of a development that protects natural resources while also providing social and economic benefits to people. The properties in this study specifically incorporated protected open space into the design of ...

PASADENA, Calif.—If you could lick the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa, you would actually be sampling a bit of the ocean beneath. So says Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Brown—known as the Pluto killer for discovering a Kuiper-belt object that led to the demotion of Pluto from planetary status—and Kevin Hand from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have found the strongest evidence yet that salty water from the vast liquid ocean beneath Europa's frozen exterior actually makes its way to the surface. The finding, based ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (March 4, 2013) – Cesarean delivery is the most common surgery in the United States, performed on 1.67 million American women annually. Yet hospital cesarean rates vary widely according to new research from the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health. The latest study, appearing today in Health Affairs, shows that cesarean delivery rates varied tenfold across U.S. hospitals, from 7.1 percent to 69.9 percent. To arrive at their results, School of Public Health researchers examined hospital discharge data from a representative sample ...

March 5. 2013 -- Survey results released today indicate that satisfaction and usability ratings for certified electronic health records (EHRs) have decreased since 2010 among clinicians across a range of indicators. Overall, user satisfaction fell 12 percent from 2010 to 2012. Users who are "very dissatisfied" increased 10 percent during the same time period. The American College of Physicians (ACP) and AmericanEHR Partners revealed the findings in a presentation, "Challenges with Meaningful Use: EHR Satisfaction & Usability Diminishing," at the 2013 HIMSS Conference ...

SALT LAKE CITY – Researchers have identified a critical protein role in the metastasis of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Inhibition of the protein known as adenosine diphosphate ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6) reduces the spread of melanoma to the lungs in mice, according to a study published in the March 5 issue of Science Signaling online, suggesting that targeting ARF6 may be an effective approach to preventing melanoma metastasis. Melanoma is the sixth most common cancer in the United States. Approximately one in 50 people will develop melanoma in their ...