Are you someone who easily recognises everyone you've ever met? Or maybe you struggle, even with familiar faces? It is already known that we are better at recognising faces from our own race but researchers have only recently questioned how we assimilate the information we use to recognise people. New research by the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus has shown that when it comes to recognising people the Malaysian Chinese have adapted their facial recognition techniques to cope with living in a multicultural environment. The study 'You Look Familiar: How Malaysian ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- A study about how wearing contact lenses affects glaucoma measurements has been named the top presentation at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine's annual St. Albert's Day research symposium. First author of the study is Marie Brenner, a fourth-year student at Stritch School of Medicine. Brenner and colleagues studied the effects of contact lens wear on retinal nerve fiber layer measurements, which ophthalmologists use to diagnose and manage glaucoma. The researchers found that in patients with lower refractive errors, better quality ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans (JGR-C), Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets (JGR-E), Journal of Geophysical Research- Biogeosciences (JGR-G), and Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). In this release: Variability of North Atlantic heat transport observed from instrument data Methane exceeds nitrous oxide in rivers' contribution to warming Waste recycling primary source of energy in deep ocean Record Arctic ozone depletion could occur again Traveling supraglacial ...

Affiliate Boosters will be giving away GBP1,000 in cold hard cash at the London Affiliate Conference 2012. All affiliates attending the LAC are eligible to win. There will be 2 draws with a GBP500 prize each and to be in for a chance of winning. Affiliates can enter by dropping off a business card at the Affiliate Boosters booth, stand 115 and 116 at some point throughout the 2 days. The two drawings will take place at 15:45 on Friday, 27th of January, and at 16:15 on Saturday, 28th of January at the Affiliate Boosters stand. Head of Affiliate Boosters, Lawrence ...

The University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey keeps a watchful eye on asteroids that might cross the Earth's path. A byproduct of that effort is the largest database compiling the brightnesses of 200 million objects in the universe, including supernovae and stars torn up by super-massive black holes. The night sky is filled with objects such as asteroids that dash across the sky and others – such as exploding stars and variable stars – that flash, dim, and brighten. Studying such phenomena can help astronomers better understand the evolution of stars, massive black ...

Devoted to making sure the Israel car rental experience is a positive one, Avis Israel has recently provided an option to rent an iPad 2 with unlimited Wi-Fi connectivity and included GPS for $16 a day to all rental car customers. Soon to be available throughout Israel, the new service is immediately available at the following central branches: Ben Gurion Airport, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The iPad 2 is a tablet computer designed, developed and marketed by Apple. It serves primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, ...

A key protein potentially involved in regulating breast cancer progression has been identified by researchers at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. Led by professor Costel Darie, the team worked to identify the binding partner of Tumor Differentiating Factor (TDF), a pituitary hormone that had previously been shown to reduce cancer progression in breast cancer cells. Earlier studies had shown that breast cancer cells treated with TDF lost their cancerous characteristics and began acting like normal mammary cells, suggesting that TDF had tumor-suppressing capabilities. ...

During a marketing presentation in early 2011, an attendee asked Dr. Joe Webb, "Does a plumber need a Web site?" This question inspired an unconventional new business book, written with "co-conspirator" Richard Romano, about a handful of interesting and motivated characters facing small-business sales and marketing challenges. A year and a half's worth of conversations with graphic communications professionals and small business owners across the country and around the world answered the question, and led to the book's title "Does a Plumber Need ...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A constellation of defective proteins suspected in causing a malfunction in the body's ability to repair its own DNA could be the link scientists need to prove a new class of drugs will be effective in treating a broad range of ovarian cancer patients, an Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute study found. These research results, published this week in PLoS ONE, have prompted additional exploration into whether the patient population included in clinical trials for drugs that target the enzyme poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) should ...

MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA -- Just like people, some proteins have characteristic ways of "walking," which (also like human gaits) are not so easy to describe. But now scientists have discovered the unique "drunken sailor" gait of dynein, a protein that is critical for the function of every cell in the body and whose malfunction has been associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as Lou Gehrig's disease and Parkinson's disease. The research, which was led by Samara Reck-Peterson of Harvard Medical School and partially conducted in the MBL Physiology Course, received advance ...

In the highly competitive commercial marine industry, employers must find a way to recruit, retain and compensate employees. What are the best strategies, training, and research that can be utilized to meet the demands of a growing industry? What makes industry employees happy, productive and loyal? Maritime employee recruitment, retention and compensation will be the topic of the WorkBoat.com webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 1 p.m. (eastern). To register for the webinar, visit www.WorkBoat.com. Cost to attend the webinar is $59. Individuals can also purchase the ...

With an eye on rapid changes in the resource-rich Arctic, countries like China, India and Brazil, which have no Arctic territories, are nonetheless knocking on the door of the increasingly influential Arctic Council looking for admission as permanent observers. The issue has divided existing members, with Russia and Canada most strongly opposed. It is among the major questions with which Canada will have to grapple as it prepares to chair the Council next year. It will also feature prominently on the agenda of a two-day meeting on the future of the Arctic Council, January ...

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have developed a novel strategy to protect the liver from drug-induced injury and improve associated drug safety. In their report receiving advance online publication in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the team reports that inhibition of a type of cell-to-cell communication can protect against the damage caused by liver-toxic drugs such as acetaminophen. "Our findings suggest that this therapy could be a clinically viable strategy for treating patients with drug-induced liver injury," says Suraj Patel, PhD, of the ...

Hundreds of times during a baseball game, the home plate umpire must instantaneously categorize a fast-moving pitch as a ball or a strike. In new research from the University of Chicago, scientists have pinpointed an area in the brain where these kinds of visual categories are encoded. While monkeys played a computer game in which they had to quickly determine the category of a moving visual stimulus, neural recordings revealed brain activity that encoded those categories. Surprisingly, a region of the brain known as the posterior parietal cortex demonstrated faster and ...

A team of four British engineers has returned to the UK after completing a gruelling journey to one of the most remote and hostile locations on the planet to put in place equipment and supplies for an ambitious project later this year. Enduring temperatures of minus 35°C the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth 'Advance Party' has successfully paved the way to explore an ancient lake buried beneath 3 km of Antarctic ice. A powerful 'tractor-train' towed nearly 70 tonnes of equipment across Antarctica's ice over deep snow and steep mountain passes. In December a science and engineering ...

The problem is the sheer number: In the family tree of modern-day corn, there are two main groups with 10,000 pure-breed lines each. Each of these lines could potentially be used for producing a new variety by means of cross-breeding. In mathematical terms, that equates to 100 billion possibilities. In terms of corn, however, a parent's performance is no indicator of what potential lies hidden in their offspring. Even the feeblest of parents can produce mighty offspring when cross-bred. But time is of essence: Currently it takes approximately 10 years for breeders to ...

Scientists working at the Medical Research Council have identified changes in the patterns of sugar molecules that line pre-cancerous cells in the esophagus, a condition called Barrett's dysplasia, making it much easier to detect and remove these cells before they develop into esophageal cancer. These findings, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, have important implications for patients and may help to monitor their condition and prevent the development of cancer. Oesophageal cancer is the fifth biggest cause of cancer death in the United Kingdom and the eighth leading ...

Killer T-cells in the human body which help protect us from disease can inadvertently destroy cells that produce insulin, new research has uncovered. The study provides the first evidence of this mechanism in action and could offer new understanding of the cause of Type 1 diabetes. Professor Andy Sewell, an expert in human T-cells from Cardiff University's School of Medicine worked alongside diabetes experts from King's College London to better understand the role of T-cells in the development of Type 1 diabetes. The team isolated a T-cell from a patient with Type ...

Telomeres, the very ends of chromosomes, become shorter as we age. When a cell divides it first duplicates its DNA and, because the DNA replication machinery fails to get all the way to the end, with each successive cell division a little bit more is missed. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy shows that cells from osteoarthritic knees have abnormally shortened telomeres and that the percentage of cells with ultra short telomeres increases the closer to the damaged region within the joint. While the shortening of ...

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – A new technology developed by neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) transforms the way highly detailed anatomical images can be made of whole brains. Until now, means of obtaining such images – used in cutting-edge projects to map the mammalian brain -- have been painstakingly slow and available only to a handful of highly specialized research teams. By automating and standardizing the process in which brain samples are divided into sections and then imaged sequentially at precise spatial orientations in two-photon microscopes, ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers University and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have developed a novel strategy to protect the liver from drug-induced injury and improve associated drug safety. In a report receiving advance online publication in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the team reports that inhibiting a type of cell-to-cell communication can protect against damage caused by liver-toxic drugs such as acetaminophen. "Our findings suggest that this therapy could be a clinically viable strategy for treating patients with drug-induced liver injury," ...

A recent California court decision highlights the need for state residents who buy a car from a private party to make sure that they are covered under a policy before driving it away, according to Online Auto Insurance (OAI). New car buyers in the Golden State must purchase California auto insurance for any car they plan to drive, but consumers may be uncertain when the coverage provided by the seller's policy ceases. And that issue played a large role in a recent California court decision. The state's 6th Court of Appeals found that Daniel Thiel--who purchased ...

With winter session classes already in full gear, CSUN students and faculty are just within reach of the 2012 spring semester. While things have been financially tight for the CSU system, everyone is still looking towards this new year with excitement and hope for what it has to bring. This is why the leading printing company in Los Angeles is now offering a 10% discount on all services to CSUN students and faculty to take just a little bit of the burden off of the already struggling California university system. While tuition may seem bad these days, the real problems ...

Recent Gun Crimes Could Trigger New Pennsylvania Self-Defense Law News outlets from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia recently reported on Pennsylvania homicide cases involving firearms that implicate Pennsylvania's new "stand-your-ground" law. Recent changes by lawmakers strengthened so-called Castle Doctrine principles in the state criminal code. House Bill 40 passed with wide majorities in both houses of the Pennsylvania General Assembly last summer, and took effect in late August after it was signed by Governor Tom Corbett. The new law redefines general principles ...

BOSTON, MA -- From tracking activities within bacteria to creating images of molecules that make up human hair, several experiments have already demonstrated the unique abilities of the revolutionary imaging technique called multi-isotope imaging mass spectometry, or MIMS, developed by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). MIMS can produce high-resolution, quantitative three-dimensional images of stable isotope tags within subcellular compartments in tissue sections or cells. With its use of stable isotopes as tracers, MIMS has opened the door for biomedical ...