EAST LANSING, Mich. — Peer influence and low self-control appear to be the major factors fueling juvenile cybercrime such as computer hacking and online bullying, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University criminologist. Thomas Holt, assistant professor of criminal justice, said the findings reinforce the need for parents to be more aware of their children's friends and Internet activities. "It's important to know what your kids are doing when they're online and who they are associating with both online and offline," Holt said. The study, which ...

WASHINGTON — It will take more than tougher fuel economy standards for U.S. transportation to significantly cut its oil use over the next half century. It will likely require a combination of measures that foster consumer and supplier interest in vehicle fuel economy, alternative fuels, and a more efficient transportation system, says a new report from the National Research Council. Public interest in reducing the cost of securing the nation's energy supplies, curbing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), and improving transportation operations ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Can a smartphone app enable meaningful, face-to-face conversation? Engineers are trying to find out, with software that helps people locate their friends in a crowd – and make new friends who share similar interests. The software, called eShadow, makes its debut at the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS) on Thursday, June 23 in Minneapolis. It uses nearby wireless networks and smartphones' wireless communication technologies to alert users that a friend who also uses the software is in the area – and gives directions ...

This release is available in Spanish. Like diamonds, sugar crystals ideally are very pure and low in color. Now studies led by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) chemist Gillian Eggleston have provided a better understanding of the source of undesirable color in factory sugar. Eggleston works in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Commodity Utilization Research Unit in New Orleans, La. She conducted the studies with Barbara Muir of the Sugar Milling Research Institute in Durban, South Africa. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency. Environmental ...

URBANA – If you've been trying to lose weight and suspect your body's working against you, you may be right, according to a University of Illinois study published in Obesity. "When obese persons reduce their food intake too drastically, their bodies appear to resist their weight loss efforts. They may have to work harder and go slower in order to outsmart their brain chemistry," said Gregory G. Freund, a professor in the U of I College of Medicine and a member of U of I's Division of Nutritional Sciences. He particularly cautions against beginning a diet with a fast ...

WASHINGTON – State, national, and local policymakers should elevate science education in grades K-12 to the same level of importance as reading and mathematics, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report recommends ways that leaders at all levels can improve K-12 education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The report responds to a request from Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) for the National Science Foundation -- which sponsored the Research Council report -- to identify highly successful K-12 schools and programs in STEM fields. ...

Tampa, FL (June 23, 2011) – Education, referrals, support and other interventions by community health workers improve rates of screening mammography in the United States – especially in medical and urban settings and among women whose race and ethnicity is similar to that of the community health workers serving them. Researchers at the University of South Florida, Moffitt Cancer Center, and Georgia Southern University reported these findings earlier this month in an online first issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association ...

Besse Cooper of Monroe, Georgia, regained her title this week as the world's oldest. National photographer, Paul Mobley was in Georgia just last week to photograph Cooper for her 115th birthday, which is in August. Cooper is 114 years and 229 days, according to Guinness World Records. Mobley reflects, "Sometimes I wonder what people of this age must think of all this attention they get for leading healthy productive lives to the extent that they live longer? Maybe it's stressful or a bit unusual but I guess most accept it. At any rate, none of these things seemed ...

In the high stakes world of elite level athletics, coaches are king – but that lofty perch can prove a sword of Damocles. More often than not they're regarded as the undisputed authority on what it takes to train an athlete to maximal performance potential, and being placed on a pedestal doesn't allow for proper reflection about their coaching practices or any margin of error when there are Olympic finals and medals at stake. As a consequence, that doesn't always mean they're always doing the right thing for their athletes, says Dr. Jim Denison an expert in coach education ...

Rather than count sheep, drink warm milk or listen to soothing music, many insomniacs probably wish for a switch they could flick to put themselves to sleep. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered such a switch in the brains of fruit flies. In a study appearing June 24 in Science, the researchers show that a group of approximately 20 cells in the brains of fruit flies controls when and how long the flies sleep. Slumber induced through this sleep switch was essential to the creation of long-term memory, directly proving a connection ...

Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have developed a novel iPhone application that may enable persons with Parkinson's disease and certain other neurological conditions to use the ubiquitous devices to collect data on hand and arm tremors and relay the results to medical personnel. The researchers believe the application could replace subjective tests now used to assess the severity of tremors, while potentially allowing more frequent patient monitoring without costly visits to medical facilities. The program – known as iTrem – could be offered ...

HOUSTON – (June 23, 2011) – The remoteness and resource limitations of spaceflight pose a serious challenge to astronaut health care. One solution is ultrasound. Scientists with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have developed tools that expand the use of ultrasound during spaceflight and on Earth, especially in rural and underserved locations. These tools include techniques that streamline training and help remote experts guide non-physician astronauts to perform ultrasound exams. Ultrasound can be used to assess numerous conditions – fractured ...

NEW YORK (June 23, 2011)—Fish communities in the 21st Century live fast and die young. That's the main finding of a recent study by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society who compared fish recently caught in coastal Kenya with the bones of fish contained in ancient Swahili refuse heaps in order to understand how to rebuild the current fisheries. Of course, modern fish communities are not victims of reckless living, but of overfishing which has caused an ecosystem-level transition that may not be easily reversible, according to the study. Over the ...

PITTSBURGH, June 23 – Outpatient care for certain low-risk patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) can be safely and effectively used in place of inpatient care, according to a randomized, multi-center study in 19 emergency departments. The findings, published June 23 online in the Lancet, support current practice guidelines that are rarely followed by physicians. "This is the most rigorous study to date to compare inpatient and outpatient care for a selected group of stable patients with pulmonary embolism," said Donald M. Yealy, M.D., senior author of the study and chairman ...

WASHINGTON — Limiting television and other media use, encouraging infants and young children in preschool and child care to spend more time in physically active play, and requiring child care providers to promote healthy sleeping practices are some of the actions needed to curb high rates of obesity among America's youngest children, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The report recommends steps that should be taken by child care centers, preschools, pediatricians' offices, federal nutrition programs, and other facilities and programs that shape children's ...

This week MeetMyKind announced the launch of an all-in-one, intelligent social networking site (MeetMyKind.com). Similar to how the website Netflix recommends movies to its customers and the website Amazon.com recommends books and other products to its customers, MeetMyKind learns each user's social preferences and proactively recommends people, events, blogs, and other social content to its users. MeetMyKind is looking to be a "one stop shop" for those seeking social connection on the Web. While many existing sites focus primarily on connecting users with ...

For most people, listening to the ocean means contemplating the soothing sound of waves breaking gently on a sandy beach. But for researchers studying everything from whale migration to fisheries populations, and from underwater mapping to guiding robots trying to repair leaking undersea oil wells, listening to the ocean from the other side – underwater – can reveal volumes of valuable data. Stanford researchers have developed a highly sensitive underwater microphone that can capture the whole range of ocean sounds, from the equivalent of a soft whisper in a library ...

Ian Jonsen, a research associate and adjunct professor in the Department of Biology at Dalhousie University and co-lead investigator of the Future of Marine Animal Populations Project (FMAP), has teamed up with Barbara Block at Stanford University and several other American researchers to conclude a two year study entitled, "Tracking apex marine predator movements in a dynamic ocean" published in the science journal Nature released June 22. The study summarized the results from a ten year tagging program called the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP). The TOPP program ...

(Boston) – A new study conducted by a team of researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) sheds light on a possible new approach to treat the bone marrow disease known as myelofibrosis by inhibiting an enzyme that connects extracellular fibers. The study, published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, was conducted under the direction of Katya Ravid, PhD, professor of medicine and biochemistry and director of the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research at BUSM. Myelofibroisis, which currently affects between 16,000 and 18,500 Americans, ...

RICHLAND, Wash. – A new computer model of blue-green algae can predict which of the organism's genes are central to capturing energy from sunlight and other critical processes. Described in a paper published in the journal Molecular BioSystems, the model could advance efforts to produce biofuel and other energy sources from blue-green algae, known as cyanobacteria. Researchers from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Washington University in St. Louis and Purdue University developed the model, which was made for the single-celled marine ...

A Brooklyn purveyor of unlocked cell phones is celebrating the arrival of summer with the latest releases from Nokia, Samsung, HTC, and more. In the spirit of Spring Break, Cellification.com is offering price breaks of ten percent or more on select phones and models on a first-come/first-served basis for a limited time only. The sale is also being held to honor the upcoming one-year anniversary of an FCC ruling that finds unlocked cell phones to be entirely legal. It was only last year that the FCC released their revised rules governing a number of intellectual property ...

If the obvious reasons for avoiding recreational drug use aren't off-putting enough, physicians have yet another detrimental consequence to add to the list – crusty, purplish areas of dead skin that are extremely painful and can open the door to nasty infections. The condition is called purpura. Typical causes include a range of rare disorders, but it is also associated with the use of cocaine. Not just any cocaine, though: Physicians, researchers and health officials believe cocaine contaminated with a de-worming drug commonly used by veterinarians is the culprit. ...

DALLAS – June 23, 2011 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified compounds that appear to inhibit a signaling pathway in Huntington's disease, a finding that may eventually lead to a potential drug therapy to help slow the progression of degenerative nerve disorders. "Our studies have uncovered a new therapeutic target for Huntington's disease treatment and possibly for other neurodegenerative diseases," said Dr. Ilya Bezprozvanny, professor of physiology and senior author of the study, published in today's issue of Chemistry and Biology. "In addition, ...

Children love to succeed and do well in school. Watch a child being praised, and you will see his or her face light up with pride. Have you noticed when children do good and receive positive feedback, they want to continue to do good? Unfortunately the opposite is true as well. If young children are not consistently reminded of their manners, they often tend to get in trouble, which can lead to feelings of embarrassment and sadness. In a recent survey, more than 70 percent of U.S. adults said they thought people are ruder now than they were 20 years ago. Guaranteed Success ...

The Northwestern Pacific Ocean is active with two tropical cyclones today, Tropical Storm Meari near the Philippines, and Tropical Depression Haima moving over China and now toward Vietnam. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the region on June 22 and captured an infrared image of both storms in one image. One of the instruments onboard NASA's Aqua satellite is the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS). AIRS captures cloud top temperatures in tropical cyclones to determine the strength of convection and thunderstorms. The strongest thunderstorms have cloud tops with icy cold ...