A group of Japanese scientists have surprised themselves by being able to predict the success or failure of blockbuster movies at the box office using a set of mathematical models. The researchers, publishing their study today, 15 June, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics, used the effects of advertising and word-of-mouth communication to create a model that turned out to be successful in predicting how each movie fared once it hit the silver screen. The only data the researchers needed to put into the model were the daily ...

Male Cardiocondyla obscurior ants are diphenic (either winged or wingless). New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology demonstrates that the dominant wingless (ergatoid) male is able to identify potential rivals before they emerge from their pupae. Constant patrolling of the nest ensures that this male is able to bite or chemically tag rivals as soon as they emerge from their pupae. Chemically tagged ants are quickly destroyed by workers. When ants emerge from their pupae (eclosion) they are vulnerable to attack because their exoskeleton ...

In recent years it became clear that people with diabetes face an ominous prospect – a far greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Now researchers at The City College of New York (CCNY) have shed light on one reason why. Biology Professor Chris Li and her colleagues have discovered that a single gene forms a common link between the two diseases. They found that the gene, known to be present in many Alzheimer's disease cases, affects the insulin pathway. Disruption of this pathway is a hallmark of diabetes. The finding could point to a therapeutic target for both ...

Population estimates for the Amazon basin just before Europeans arrived range from 2 to 10 million people. The newly reported reconstruction of Amazonian prehistory by Smithsonian scientist Dolores R. Piperno and colleagues suggests that large areas of western Amazonia were sparsely inhabited. This clashes with the belief that most of Amazonia, including forests far removed from major rivers, was heavily occupied and modified. The team's research is published in the June 15 issue of Science. "Drawing on questionable assumptions, some scholars argue that modern Amazonian ...

VIDEO: When it comes to diagnosing heart disease, experts like Dr. Martha Gulati of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center are cautioning against relying too heavily on high-tech imaging, and are... Click here for more information. (COLUMBUS, Ohio) June 2012 – Most people might assume that technology first developed in 1928 would be obsolete by now. But from air conditioned buildings to sliced bread, many inventions of that era are still essential to our lives today. That ...

With an unprecedented commitment that bridges the urgent need to address diarrheal disease with unique opportunities to overcome it once and for all, leaders in global health issued today's Declaration on Scaling-up Treatment of Diarrhea and Pneumonia. PATH joins the US Agency for International Development, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Micronutrient Initiative, and others in raising a collective voice, calling for investments to scale-up the use of proven tools, particularly oral rehydration solution, zinc, and amoxicillin. "We call on all high-burden countries ...

The morphology of coelacanths has not fundamentally changed since the Devonian age, that is, for about 400 million years. Nevertheless, these animals known as living fossils are able to genetically adapt to their environment. This is described by PD Dr. Kathrin Lampert from the RUB's Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity along with colleagues from Würzburg, Bremen, Kiel and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) in the journal Current Biology. "Coelacanths are rare and extremely endangered. Understanding the genetic diversity of these animals could help make preservation ...

The use of genetic testing to establish racial origins for political purposes is not only scientifically foolish, but also unethical and should be condemned, the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) said today (Thursday June 14). The society, which promotes research in basic and applied human and medical genetics and ensures high standards in clinical genetic practice, said that the use by a member of parliament from the Hungarian far-right Jobbik party of a genetic test to attempt to prove his 'ethnic purity' was ethically unacceptable. The company Nagy Gén scanned ...

New research from psychologists at the Universities of Exeter and Cardiff shows that people can train their brains to become less impulsive, resulting in less risk-taking during gambling. The research could pave the way for new treatments for people with addictions to gambling, drugs or alcohol as well as impulse-control disorders, such as ADHD. Published today (14 June 2012), in the journal Psychological Science, the study assessed whether asking people to stop making simple movements while in a simulated gambling situation affected how risky or cautious they were ...

Character strengths can be defined as traits that are rated as morally positive. That they are positively linked to life satisfaction has already been shown in many studies. That they have a causal effect on life satisfaction and that practicing them triggers an increase in the sense of wellbeing, however, has now been proved by Willibald Ruch, René T. Proyer and Claudia Buschor from the Department of Personality and Assessment at the University of Zurich for the first time. Practice pays off For their current study, the team of researchers randomly divided a sample ...

When people say "Blood is thicker than water," they are literally right. Because nearly half of the 'life liquid' consists of solid components. The red blood cells form the greatest part of it – all in all around 40 percent of the blood. They contain the red pigment hemoglobin and are responsible for the transport of oxygen. "It is amazing that the percentage of this component is not only similar in all human beings but also in many other vertebrates," Prof. Dr. Stefan Schuster of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) says. Therefore it can be assumed that ...

While youth suicide is declining overall, the rate of youth suicide in rural America has remained steady. A key to helping rural families with children at risk of suicide is frank discussion of guns says Jonathan Singer, assistant professor of social work at Temple University and co-author of a new study that examined how clinicians, including social workers and counselors involve parents in prevention and treatment of youth suicide. The study, "Engaging parents of suicidal youth in a rural environment" was published in the May issue of Child & Family Social Work. Singer ...

To address the question about how climate may develop in the future, earth scientists direct their attention to the past. They look for epochs with similar conditions to today. The major identified climatic processes are then simulated with numerical models to further test possible reactions of the Earths' system. An epoch which is often regarded suitable for such an undertaking is the Eemian warm period, which began around 125,000 years ago following the Saalian ice age. For about 10,000 years, average temperatures on Earth in the Eemian were rather enhanced – probably ...

New research from scientists at McMaster University reveals exercise-related testosterone and growth hormone do not play an influential role in building muscle after weightlifting, despite conventional wisdom suggesting otherwise. The findings indicate that bodybuilders who look to manipulate those hormones through exercise routines are wasting their time. In two separate studies, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology and the European Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found anabolic hormones—long thought to be essential for building a muscular frame—do ...

Using individual molecules instead of electronic or magnetic memory cells would revolutionise data storage technology, as molecular memories could be thousand-fold smaller. Scientists of Kiel University took a big step towards developing such molecular data storage. They succeeded in selectively switching on and off the magnetism of individual molecules, so-called spin-crossover complexes, by electrons. The interdisciplinary study is part of the Collaborative Research Centre 677 "Functions by Switching", which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The results ...

People who were sexually unfaithful without their partner's knowledge were less likely to practice safe sex than those who had other sexual relationships with their partner's consent. They were also more likely to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the encounter. In a study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers from the University of Michigan, USA, found that condom use for vaginal and anal sex was 27% and 35% lower in sexually unfaithful relationships and drug and alcohol use was 64% higher. Of the 1,647 people who replied ...

Adult lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to report childhood abuse and adult sexual assault than heterosexual women, according to a new study by Dr. Keren Lehavot from the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, USA and her collaborators. Furthermore, the researchers' work shows that women who are more butch report more abuse in childhood, particularly physical and emotional neglect, while women who identify as femme, and have a more feminine appearance, report more adult sexual assaults. The work is published online in Springer's journal, Sex Roles. It ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A new study shows that a practical clinical tool developed by researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine to measure severity of dementia symptoms is reliable and valid. The Healthy Aging Brain Care Monitor is simple, user-friendly and sensitive to change in symptoms. "The HABC Monitor is a 'blood pressure cuff' for dementia," said Regenstrief Institute investigator Malaz Boustani, M.D., MPH, associate professor of medicine and associate director of the IU Center for Aging Research. A geriatrician, Dr. Boustani ...

Researchers from the University of Sheffield's Faculty of Engineering measured air quality inside and outside three residential buildings with different types of energy use (gas vs. electric cookers). They found that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in the kitchen of the city-centre flat with a gas cooker were three times higher than the concentrations measured outside the property and well above those recommended in UK Indoor Air Quality Guidance (1). These findings are published online in Journal of Indoor and Built Environment (2). "We spend 90 per cent of our time indoors ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – This past March was the second warmest winter month ever recorded in the Midwest, with temperatures 15 degrees above average. The only other winter month that was warmer was December of 1889, during which temperatures were 18 degrees above average. Now, MU researchers may have discovered why the weather patterns during these two winter months, separated by 123 years, were so similar. The answer could help scientists develop more accurate weather prediction models. Tony Lupo, chair of the Department of Soil, Environment and Atmospheric Sciences in the ...

An ancient heart drug that's inspired the work of herbalists and poets for centuries may treat a condition that plagues millions of overstressed and overweight Americans today. Since the 13th century, the herb Foxglove has been used to cleanse wounds and its dried leaves were brewed by Native Americans to treat leg swelling caused by heart problems. In an article published online today in Molecular Pharmacology, researchers at the University of Michigan Health System reveal that digoxin, the active ingredient in digitalis, or Foxglove, can enhance the body's own protective ...

Amsterdam, NL, June 14, 2012 – No effective treatments are currently available for the prevention or cure of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most frequent form of dementia in the elderly. The most recognized risk factors, advancing age and having the apolipoprotein E Ɛ4 gene, cannot be modified or treated. Increasingly, scientists are looking toward other risk factors to identify preventive and therapeutic strategies. Much attention recently has focused on the metabolic syndrome (MetS), with a strong and growing body of research suggesting that metabolic disorders ...

MADISON – The first U.S. population prevalence study of mutations in the gene that causes fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of intellectual disability, suggests the mutation in the gene – and its associated health risks – may be more common than previously believed. Writing this month (June 2012) in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, a team of Wisconsin researchers reports that the cascade of genetic amino acid repeats, which accumulate over generations and culminate in the mutation of a single gene causing fragile X, is occurring with more frequency ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An international team of scientists has sequenced the genome of the bonobo, a primate that, along with chimpanzees, is the closest living relative of humans. Unlike chimpanzees, which have an aggressive nature, bonobos tend to be peaceful, playful and highly sexual. The study, published online in the journal Nature, compares the bonobo genome to the genomes of chimpanzees and humans. As part of the study, scientists at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC ...

Like many new measurement tools, the laser frequency comb seemed at first a curiosity but has found more practical uses than originally imagined. The technique for making extraordinarily precise measurements of frequency has now moved beyond physics and optics to advance biomedicine by helping researchers evaluate a novel instrument that kills harmful bacteria without the use of liquid chemicals or high temperatures. Generated by ultrafast lasers, frequency combs precisely measure individual frequencies (colors) of light. Researchers at JILA, operated jointly by the ...