When an aerospace engineer says breaking up is hard to do, they are not referring to matters of the heart. Instead, they are looking at best practices for the breakup of large items returning from space to Earth. Understanding what happens during this process is the goal of the ReEntry Breakup Recorder, or REBR. This device hitched a ride on the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle-3, or ATV-3, as it departed the International Space Station and re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Oct 2, 2012. A better grasp of large item breakups could help economize deorbit ...

A new study of 377 Americans highlights the growing concern of using public Wi-Fi Hotspots. The survey, conducted by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) in conjunction with PRIVATE WiFi, revealed that 79% of respondents believe that using a free Wi-Fi connection can lead to identity theft. 45% of respondents said they were concerned about their security when using a public hotspot and 15% indicated that they were "very concerned." 44% of respondents weren't aware that there is a way to protect their sensitive information while using a public hotspot. In ...

Children living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to feel that they benefit from medication to treat the condition and do not feel that the medication turns them into 'robots', according to a report published today. In fact, they report feeling that medication helps them to control their behaviour and make better decisions. The study, which gives a voice to the children themselves, provides valuable insights into their experiences and the stigma they face. The ADHD VOICES – Voices on Identity, Childhood, Ethics and Stimulants – study has worked ...

The locations of the structures completed this fall were informed by data collected by WCS, the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and identified the pronghorn's preferred migration routes and highway crossing points. WCS has long studied an approximately 93-mile (150 km) migration of pronghorn between wintering grounds in the Upper Green River Basin and summering grounds in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP)—a migration corridor known as the "Path of the Pronghorn." WCS worked with many partners including ...

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have identified tissue mechanisms that may influence a woman's susceptibility or resistance to breast cancer after exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation, such as the levels used in full-body CT scans and radiotherapy. The research could lead to new ways to identify women who have higher or lower risks of breast cancer from low-dose radiation. Such a predictive tool could help guide the treatment of cancer patients who may be better served by non-radiation therapies. The ...

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) have identified mechanisms in the brain responsible for regulating cocaine-seeking behavior, providing an avenue for drug development that could greatly reduce the high relapse rate in cocaine addiction. The research reveals that stimulation of certain brain receptors promotes inhibition of cocaine-associated memories, helping addicts to stop drug use. This inhibition is achieved through enhancing a process called "extinction learning," in which cocaine-associated memories are replaced with associations that ...

University of Delaware researchers are using an underwater robot to find and follow sand tiger sharks that they previously tagged with transmitters. The innovative project is part of a multi-year partnership with Delaware State University to better understand the behavior and migration patterns of the sharks in real time. "In the past week our new, specially equipped glider OTIS – which stands for Oceanographic Telemetry Identification Sensor – detected multiple sand tiger sharks off the coast of Maryland that were tagged over the past several years," said Matthew Oliver, ...

Arlington, Va. — Two Chicago high school students have developed a novel treatment method to reduce the negative effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and a new understanding of genetics behind the disease. This research is being presented at the 2012 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Chicago, Ill., Oct. 14 – 18. More than 8,000 attendees are expected at the largest conference dedicated to the pharmaceutical sciences. Ayana Jamal and Ariella Hoffman-Peterson, 2012 graduates of Niles North High School in Skokie, ...

This abstract will be presented at a press conference hosted by program chairperson Cory Abate-Shen, Ph.D., the Michael and Stella Chernow professor of urological oncology and associate director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center, in the San Simeon AB Room on the fourth floor of the Hilton Anaheim at 7:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday, Oct. 17. Reporters who cannot attend in person can call in using the following information: U.S./Canada (toll free): 1 (800) 446-2782 International (toll call): 1 (847) 413-3235 ANAHEIM, ...

Arlington, Va. — A new compound created from a rich source in vegetables including broccoli and brussel sprouts has been developed to combat triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This research is being presented at the 2012 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition, the world's largest pharmaceutical sciences meeting, in Chicago, Ill., on Oct. 14 – 18, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. TNBC accounts for approximately 15-20 percent of all breast cancer cases in the U.S. It is one of the most aggressive forms of breast ...

Arlington, Va. — A new prototype for medicated chewing gum has been developed for motion sickness that may offer many advantages over conventional oral solid dosage forms. About 33 percent of people are susceptible to motion sickness in mild circumstances and 66 percent are affected in more severe conditions. This research is being presented at the 2012 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Chicago, Ill., Oct. 14 – 18, an international event anticipating more than 8,000 attendees. Lead researcher Mohsen Sadatrezaei of ...

If only there were a way to forget that humiliating faux pas at last night's dinner party. It turns out there's not one, but two opposite ways in which the brain allows us to voluntarily forget unwanted memories, according to a study published by Cell Press October 17 in the journal Neuron. The findings may explain how individuals can cope with undesirable experiences and could lead to the development of treatments to improve disorders of memory control. "This study is the first demonstration of two distinct mechanisms that cause such forgetting: one by shutting down ...

Boston, MA – A daily multivitamin can help a man reduce his risk of cancer, according to new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). The first-of-its kind study will be presented October 17 at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research and published online the same day in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "The Physicians' Health Study II is the first clinical trial to test the affects of multivitamins on a major disease such as cancer," said lead author J. Michael Gaziano, MD, chief of the Division ...

CHICAGO – For critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation, daily sedation interruption did not reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation or appear to offer any benefit to patients, and may have increased both sedation and analgesic use and nurse workload, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Annual Congress. "Critically ill patients wean more quickly from mechanical ventilation, with lower risk of delirium, when clinicians ...

PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 17, 2012 — Kaiser Permanente has created a new electronic Exercise Vital Sign initiative to systematically record patients' physical activity in their electronic health records. The new feature is successfully compiling accurate and valuable information that can help clinicians better treat and counsel patients about their lifestyles, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. The study examined the electronic health records of 1,793,385 Kaiser Permanente Southern California patients ...

CHICAGO – In a randomized trial that included nearly 15,000 male physicians, long-term daily multivitamin use resulted in a modest but statistically significant reduction in cancer after more than a decade of treatment and follow-up, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the Annual American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting. "Multivitamins are the most common dietary supplement, regularly taken by at least one-third of U.S. adults. The traditional ...

On the road at night or on a tennis court at dusk, the eye can be deceived. Vision is not as sharp as in the light of day, and detecting a bicyclist on the road or a careening tennis ball can be tough. New research reveals the key chemical process that corrects for potential visual errors in low-light conditions. Understanding this fundamental step could lead to new treatments for visual deficits, or might one day boost normal night vision to new levels. Like the mirror of a telescope pointed toward the night sky, the eye's rod cells capture the energy of photons - ...

Extreme 'housework' cuts the life span of female Komodo Dragons An international team of researchers has found that female Komodo Dragons live half as long as males on average, seemingly due to their physically demanding 'housework' such as building huge nests and guarding eggs for up to six months. The results provide important information on the endangered lizards' growth rate, lifestyle and population differences, which may help plan conservation efforts. The Komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard. Their formidable body size enables them to serve as top predators ...

More people still die from cardiovascular disease than any other illness. Dubbed the number one killer and the silent killer, modern medicine has been researching and incorporating complementary and alternative approaches to help treat and in some cases reverse and hopefully prevent this health problem at an earlier stage of the disease. One of those modalities is meditation. A new research review paper on the effects of the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique on the prevention and treatment of heart disease among youth and adults provides the hard ...

Information technology and electronics are becoming entwined with our everyday lives in industry, the service sector, transport, logistics, health care, housing, education, and our leisure time, almost without our noticing it. The changes are already apparent to consumers in the energy sector, for example: remotely readable meters are rapidly becoming more common, enabling developments such as new pricing models that encourage the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. The remote control of machines and devices is experiencing substantial growth and spreading to smaller ...

Active surveillance of small kidney masses is a safe and effective alternative to immediate surgery, with similar overall and cancer specific survival rates, according to a study published in the November issue of the urology journal BJUI. The technique is primarily used to treat elderly patients who have complex health issues or decline surgery. But researchers from the Department of Urology at Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK, say that the results of their study suggest that active surveillance could safely be extended to other selected patients. "The incidence ...

Governments and institutions should focus on developing adaption policies to address and mitigate against the negative impact of global warming, rather than putting the emphasis on carbon trading and capping greenhouse-gas emissions, argue Johannesburg-based Wits University geoscientist Dr Jasper Knight and Dr Stephan Harrison from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. "At present, governments' attempts to limit greenhouse-gas emissions through carbon cap-and-trade schemes and to promote renewable and sustainable energy sources are prob¬ably too late to arrest ...

A command doctrine used by the US military and NATO designed to warn personnel of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological (NBC) hazards could be overly conservative and degrade war fighting effectiveness or, under certain conditions, risk lives because it is susceptible to changes in wind direction and speed that happen in periods shorter than its two-hourly updates. Writing in the International Journal of Environmental Pollution, Nathan Platt and Leo Jones of the Institute for Defense Analyses, in Alexandria, Virginia explain how "Allied Tactical Publication-45(C)" relies on ...

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare is very pleased that study investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, chose Centrum® Silver® for the Physicians' Health Study II. The Centrum® multivitamins' quality, among other factors, led investigators to choose Centrum® Silver® for inclusion in the study. Centrum® Silver® multivitamins currently available in stores have since been updated and improved to reflect advances in nutritional science. In response to the Physicians' Health Study II findings shared this morning, Pfizer Consumer ...

Monozygotic twins have the same genome, that is, the same DNA molecule in both siblings. Despite being genetically identical, both twins may have different diseases at different times. This phenomenon is called "twin discordance". But how can people who have the same genetic sequence present different pathologies and at different ages? The explanation partly lies in the fact that the chemical signals added in the DNA to "switch off" or "switch on" genes can be different. These signals are known as epigenetic marks. The research team led by Manel Esteller, director of ...