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Prompt Proofing Blog Post: Grammar Tips: Which or That?
Science 2012-10-05

Prompt Proofing Blog Post: Grammar Tips: Which or That?

The which/that conundrum continues to confuse many writers. If you are tired of Word producing green wiggly lines under your use of which read on! Simply put, that introduces a restrictive clause whereas which introduces a non-restrictive clause. The non-restrictive clause may contain information that is not essential to the sentence. For example: My car, which I just bought, has a leak in the radiator. The clause, which I just bought, is non-essential; it qualifies the subject, my car, but is non-restrictive; it provides additional information but the sentence ...
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Science 2012-10-05

EverydayActors.com is the iStockPhoto of the Acting World - The Site Turns Regular People Into Working Actors

At EverydayActors.com the main goal is to link everyday people (our actors) with video content producers. Times have changed, budgets have been reduced, and content producers are looking for local everyday people to star in or work as background talent in films, commercials, corporate training videos, music videos and other productions. This isn't about becoming a star or having lofty Hollywood ambitions. For EverydayActors' members it is about getting work in the business just being oneself. A network of agency members use EverydayActors.com to find the specific ...
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Medicine 2012-10-05

New Study Shows Marked Drop in PTSD Symptoms in Combat-Exposed Marines from Healing Touch and Guided Imagery

Three weeks of healing touch treatments, combined with listening to a guided imagery CD, provides significant clinical reductions in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms for combat-exposed, active duty Marines, according to a study released in the September issue of Military Medicine. The report finds that the 68 Camp Pendleton Marines who were randomly assigned to 6 sessions of the combined intervention within a three-week period also showed significant improvement in quality of life, as well as reduced depression and cynicism, as compared to the 55 subjects ...
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Science 2012-10-04

New study links caffeinated coffee to vision loss

Rockville, MD – A new study suggests caffeinated coffee drinkers should limit their intake to reduce their chances of developing vision loss or blindness. According to a scientific paper in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, heavy caffeinated coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing exfoliation glaucoma, the leading cause of secondary glaucoma worldwide. The study, The Relation between Caffeine and Coffee Consumption and Exfoliation Glaucoma or Glaucoma Suspect: A Prospective Study in Two Cohorts, is the first to examine the link ...
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Technology 2012-10-04

OU researchers implement a multi-photon approach in quantum cryptography

NORMAN, Okla. – Move over money, a new currency is helping make the world go round. As increasing volumes of data become accessible, transferable and, therefore, actionable, information is the treasure companies want to amass. To protect this wealth, organizations use cryptography, or coded messages, to secure information from "technology robbers." This group of hackers and malware creators increasingly is becoming more sophisticated at breaking encrypted information, leaving everyone and everything, including national security and global commerce, at risk. But the threat ...
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Science 2012-10-04

Anthropologist finds evidence of hominin meat eating 1.5 million years ago

DENVER (Oct. 4, 2012) – A skull fragment unearthed by anthropologists in Tanzania shows that our ancient ancestors were eating meat at least 1.5 million years ago, shedding new light into the evolution of human physiology and brain development. "Meat eating has always been considered one of the things that made us human, with the protein contributing to the growth of our brains," said Charles Musiba, Ph.D., associate professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Denver, who helped make the discovery. "Our work shows that 1.5 million years ago we were not opportunistic ...
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Science 2012-10-04

'Humanized' mice advance study of rheumatoid arthritis

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have developed the first animal model that duplicates the human response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an important step that may enable scientists to discover better medicines to treat the disease. Corresponding and senior author Harris Perlman, associate professor of rheumatology at Feinberg, introduced his team's new prototype mouse model in a recent online issue of the Journal of Translational Medicine. "This is the first time human stem cells have been transplanted into mice in order to find RA ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

Progress reported in tackling initial, recurrent bouts of health care-associated infection

CHICAGO — Surgeons are making progress toward preventing initial and recurrent episodes of clostridium difficile colitis (C. difficile or C. diff), a vicious bacterial infection that is estimated to affect about 336,000 people each year, typically patients on antibiotics. Using mouse models, researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston, found that an oral medication may prevent C. difficile infections (CDI). Also, surgeons at Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, examined human patients to detect a genetic mutation that could steer ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

New human neurons from adult cells right there in the brain

VIDEO: This is a direct observation of neuronal reprogramming of PDGFR-sorted pericyte-derived cells from the adult human brain by continuous live imaging in culture. Note the change in morphology of a cell... Click here for more information. Researchers have discovered a way to generate new human neurons from another type of adult cell found in our brains. The discovery, reported in the October 5th issue of Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press publication, is one step toward cell-based ...
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Science 2012-10-04

Newborn mice depend on mom's signature scent

VIDEO: For newborn mice to suckle for the very first time and survive, they depend on a signature blend of scents that is unique to their mothers. The findings, published online... Click here for more information. For newborn mice to suckle for the very first time and survive, they depend on a signature blend of scents that is unique to their mothers. The findings, published online on October 4 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveal that mom's natural perfume consists ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

Botox as effective as medication for urinary urgency incontinence

MAYWOOD – Botox® (onabotulinum toxin-A) injections to the bladder are as effective as medication for treating urinary urgency incontinence in women, but the injection is twice as likely to completely resolve symptoms. These findings were published in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine by a National Institutes of Health clinical trials network including Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM). Urgency incontinence is urinary incontinence with a strong or sudden need to urinate. Traditionally, this condition has been treated with ...
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Science 2012-10-04

Clot-busting enzymes are working 2 jobs

The body's blood clot-busting enzymes are much busier than previously imagined, with new research showing that they also dispose of every cell that dies prematurely from disease or trauma. In research published today in Cell Reports, scientists from Monash University have demonstrated for the first time the enzyme t-PA, which plays a vital role in the removal of blood clots, is also a major player in the removal of necrotic, or dead, cells. Necrosis occurs when cells in living tissue die prematurely due to external stress or injury. The body's system for removing waste ...
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The smell of Mom: Scientists find elusive trigger of first suckling in mice
Science 2012-10-04

The smell of Mom: Scientists find elusive trigger of first suckling in mice

LA JOLLA, CA – A team led by biologists at The Scripps Research Institute has solved the long-standing scientific mystery of how mice first know to nurse or suckle. This basic mammalian instinct, which could be a key to understanding instinctive behavior more generally, was thought to be triggered by a specific odor (pheromone) that all mouse mothers emit. But, as described online ahead of print by the journal Current Biology on October 4, 2012, the trigger in mice turns out to be a more complicated blend of nature and nurture: a signature mix of odors, unique for each ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

In cancer, an embryonic gene-silencing mechanism gone awry

There are some genes that are only activated in the very first days of an embryo's existence. Once they have accomplished their task, they are shut down forever, unlike most of our genes, which remain active throughout our lives. EPFL scientists have unveiled part of this strange mechanism. The same process, accidentally initiated later in life, could be responsible for many kinds of cancer. The discovery is described in a recent article in the journal Cell Reports. The researchers identified a group of proteins that play a key role in this phenomenon. They bind to a ...
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BWH researchers discover genetic risk for uterine fibroids
Science 2012-10-04

BWH researchers discover genetic risk for uterine fibroids

BOSTON, MA—Uterine fibroids are the most common type of pelvic tumors in women and are the leading cause of hysterectomy in the United States. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) are the first to discover a genetic risk allele (an alternative form of a gene) for uterine fibroids in white women using an unbiased, genome-wide approach. This discovery will pave the way for new screening strategies and treatments for uterine fibroids. The study will be published online on October 4, 2012 in The American Journal of Human Genetics. The research team, led by ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

Study shows benefits, drawbacks, for women's incontinence treatments

Oral medication for treating a type of incontinence in women is roughly as effective as Botox injections to the bladder, reported researchers who conducted a National Institutes of Health clinical trials network study, with each form of treatment having benefits and limitations. After six months, women in both treatment groups said that the average number of daily episodes had declined from about five per day to about 1-2 per day. In the study, the researchers compared the effectiveness of Botox injections to oral anticholinergic medications for treating urge urinary ...
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Social Science 2012-10-04

Babies learn the smell of mum

Researchers show for the first time that a mammal begins to suckle its mother's milk through a learned response built on learning her unique combination of smells. When it is born, the newborn is exposed to the smell of its mother's amniotic fluid and the baby then responds to those smells to feed. Prevailing thought has been that pheromones –chemicals that trigger an innate behaviour – drove the suckling response as an automatic behaviour. The new work determines that, in mice, the smells must be learned before the behaviour can occur. Suckling is a critical step for ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

New function of a protein involved in colon cancer is identified

Researchers from IMIM, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, have succeeded in determining the function of a new variant of enzyme IKKalpha (IKKα) to activate some of the genes taking part in the tumor progressions of colorectal cancer. In the future, this fact will make it possible to design new drugs that inhibit this enzyme specifically and are less toxic for the remaining body cells, hence improving the treatment for this disease. The study is the culmination of previous research by the IMIM Research Group on Stem Cells and Cancer that had proven the ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

Penn researchers create a universal map of vision in the human brain

PHILADELPHIA - Nearly 100 years after a British neurologist first mapped the blind spots caused by missile wounds to the brains of soldiers, Perelman School of Medicine researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have perfected his map using modern-day technology. Their results create a map of vision in the brain based upon an individual's brain structure, even for people who cannot see. Their result can, among other things, guide efforts to restore vision using a neural prosthesis that stimulates the surface of the brain. The study appears in the latest issue of Current ...
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Science 2012-10-04

Better battlefield triage, transport may raise severely wounded soldiers' survival rates

CHICAGO—Wounded soldiers who sustained chest injuries in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) had higher mortality rates than soldiers in Korea and Vietnam, according to a military trauma study presented at the 2012 American College of Surgeons Annual Clinical Congress. However, better battlefield triage and transport may have meant that severely wounded soldiers whom would have been considered killed in action in previous conflicts are more likely to get sent to trauma centers in the United States sooner in their course of care, ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

Chewing ability linked to reduced dementia risk

Can you bite into an apple? If so, you are more likely to maintain mental abilities, according to new research from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The population is ageing, and the older we become the more likely it is that we risk deterioration of our cognitive functions, such as memory, decision-making and problem solving. Research indicates several possible contributors to these changes, with several studies demonstrating an association between not having teeth and loss of cognitive function and a higher risk of dementia. One reason for this could be that few ...
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No evidence for 30-nm chromatin fibers in the mouse genome
Medicine 2012-10-04

No evidence for 30-nm chromatin fibers in the mouse genome

HEIDELBERG, 4 October 2012 – Scientists in Canada and the United States have used three-dimensional imaging techniques to settle a long-standing debate about how DNA and structural proteins are packaged into chromatin fibres. The researchers, whose findings are published in EMBO reports, reveal that the mouse genome consists of 10-nm chromatin fibres but did not find evidence for the wider 30-nm fibres that were previously thought to be important components of the DNA architecture. "DNA is an exceptionally long molecule that can reach several metres in length. This means ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

New gene test detects early mouth cancer risk

Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London have developed a new gene test that can detect pre-cancerous cells in patients with benign-looking mouth lesions. The test could potentially allow at-risk patients to receive earlier treatment, significantly improving their chance of survival. The study, published online in the International Journal of Cancer, showed that the quantitative Malignancy Index Diagnostic System (qMIDS) test had a cancer detection rate of 91-94 per cent when used on more than 350 head and neck tissue specimens from 299 patients in the UK and ...
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Science 2012-10-04

Top executives' team spirit affects whole business

Los Angeles, CA(04 October, 2012) Effective teamwork among an organization's top management makes employees happier and more productive, with positive benefits to the organization. Despite an abundance of research on teamwork in the workplace, studies of how teamwork right at the top impacts employees lower down the food chain is surprisingly thin on the ground. Now researchers have surveyed business theory and put it to the test empirically, showing that top management's behaviour does trickle down. This new research is published by SAGE in the journal Human Relations. Does ...
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Medicine 2012-10-04

Olympic legacy: Tackling the 'East London Diabetes Belt' is a major challenge

A study by Queen Mary, University of London researchers has shown the scale of the challenge facing those in charge of delivering the Olympic legacy. In three London boroughs they have found that, overall, as many as one in ten of the local population has a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the next ten years. In some areas close to the Stratford Olympic Park up to one in six adults are at high risk. The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice [1], analysed half a million electronic records for all people without diabetes, aged between ...
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