Infants whose gut is colonised by E. coli bacteria early in life have a higher number of memory B cells in their blood, reveals a study of infants carried out at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The bacteria in our gut outnumber the cells in our bodies by a factor of ten and are extremely important for our health because they stimulate the maturation of the immune system. The normal bacterial flora in the gut is established at the very beginning of our lives, but an increasingly hygienic lifestyle has led to changes in this flora. Colonised ...

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University graduate student is creating a schoolyard that can become a therapeutic landscape for children with autism. Chelsey King, master's student in landscape architecture, St. Peters, Mo., is working with Katie Kingery-Page, assistant professor of landscape architecture, to envision a place where elementary school children with autism could feel comfortable and included. "My main goal was to provide different opportunities for children with autism to be able to interact in their environment without being segregated from the rest ...

After the 2008 election of President Barack Obama, many proclaimed that the country had entered a post-racial era in which race was no longer an issue. However, a new large-scale study shows that racial attitudes have already played a substantial role in 2012, during the Republican primaries. They may play an even larger role in this year's presidential election. The study, led by psychologists at the University of Washington, shows that between January and April 2012 eligible voters who favored whites over blacks – either consciously or unconsciously – also favored Republican ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - When you "lose yourself" inside the world of a fictional character while reading a story, you may actually end up changing your own behavior and thoughts to match that of the character, a new study suggests. Researchers at Ohio State University examined what happened to people who, while reading a fictional story, found themselves feeling the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters as if they were their own - a phenomenon the researchers call "experience-taking." They found that, in the right situations, experience-taking ...

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is hard to diagnose as well as treat, but researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered a way of confirming the disorder using stool samples. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) causes chronic or recurring problems with pain and discomfort in the abdomen together with changes in bowel habits. The syndrome is common and is believed to be linked to dysfunction of the stomach and intestines, but our understanding of IBS is incomplete, making it difficult to diagnose and treat. Identified specific ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- One of the world's most important fossils has a story to tell about the brain evolution of modern humans and their ancestors, according to Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk. The Taung fossil — the first australopithecine ever discovered — has two significant features that were analyzed by Falk and a group of anthropological researchers. Their findings, which suggest brain evolution was a result of a complex set of interrelated dynamics in childbirth among new bipeds, were published May 7 in the prestigious Proceedings ...

There is an old saying that knowledge is power, but in this day and age, it might be equally accurate to say that knowledge is money. Facebook has recently made this clear in its efforts to buy up as many patents, and shore up as much intellectual property, as possible, all in hopes of besting competitors like Yahoo while also impressing investors at its initial public stock offering. A new report finds that Facebook has agreed to purchase some 650 patents from Microsoft, amassing as much intellectual property as possible in order to boost its bottom line. This report underscores ...

If consumer-directed health plans grow to account for half of all employer-sponsored insurance in the United States, health costs could drop by $57 billion annually -- about 4 percent of all health care spending among the nonelderly, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Consumer-directed health plans, which include high deductibles and personal health accounts, are a market-based approach that many employers have adopted to address health care spending. Such plans now account for about 13 percent of all employer-sponsored health coverage. Aggressive expansion ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — For most people with asthma, a couple of puffs from an inhaler filled with steroids makes breathing easy. But if their lungs become resistant to the calming effect of that medicine, they live in fear of severe asthma attacks that could send them to the hospital – or worse. Now, new research from the University of Michigan Health System may help explain what's going on in the lungs of these steroid-resistant individuals. The findings could aid the development of new treatment options, and of better ways to identify people at risk of becoming steroid-resistant. The ...

The Daily Titan, the student-run newspaper at California State University, Fullerton, reports on the proceedings of the 2012 Educational Summit on Online Education, which took place at the Fullerton campus. Speakers at the event cite online education as a key part of education's future, and as such hope to explore the ways in which Internet-based educational programs can boost the academic performance of American students. Almeda University, which has been providing online educational opportunities for over 15 years, is glad that U.S. political leaders are finally paying ...

A study on a handful of people with suspected mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) suggests that a device that sends continuous electrical impulses to specific "memory" regions of the brain appears to increase neuronal activity. Results of the study using deep brain stimulation, a therapy already used in some patients with Parkinson's disease and depression, may offer hope for at least some with AD, an intractable disease with no cure. "While our study was designed mainly to establish safety, involved only six people and needs to be replicated on a larger scale, we don't have ...

Since 1997, an active ban on owning or harboring a pit bull or pit bull mix has existed in Prince George's County, Maryland. Many consider the penalty, which is punishable to up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine, an unnecessary act of breed discrimination. Nationwide, organizations, like No Leash Needed and the SPCA discourage such injustices. However, in a recent report by MSNBC, the Maryland Court of Appeals rules that pit bulls are an "inherently dangerous" breed. The ruling states that pet owners, or landlord that rent to them, are fully liable ...

WASHINGTON, May 7—X-ray mammography is an important diagnostic tool in the fight against breast cancer, but it has certain drawbacks that limit its effectiveness. For example, it can give in false positive and negative results; it also exposes women to low doses of ionizing radiation, which – while accepted as safe – still carry some risk. In the first phase of clinical testing of a new imaging device, researchers from Netherlands' University of Twente and Medisch Spectrum Twente Hospital in Oldenzaal used photoacoustics – light-induced sound – rather than ionizing radiation ...

It is increasingly difficult to deny the reality that, for businesses of all shapes and sizes, social media is the future of public relations. This point was driven home when major financial firm Goldman Sachs announced that it would be hiring a full-time social media strategist. According to a report in the New York Times, Goldman's social media strategist will be tasked with overseeing the various online communities that have built up around the firm, as well as cultivating a "positive online presence" for the company. This underscores just how vital social ...

One popular climate record that shows a slower atmospheric warming trend than other studies contains a data calibration problem, and when the problem is corrected the results fall in line with other records and climate models, according to a new University of Washington study. The finding is important because it helps confirm that models that simulate global warming agree with observations, said Stephen Po-Chedley, a UW graduate student in atmospheric sciences who wrote the paper with Qiang Fu, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences. They identified a problem with the ...

It is often said that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, yet for many small business owners, it does not always feel that way. Some small business owners can feel as though they are taken advantage of, particularly by larger corporations that seek to exploit tax loopholes. A recent CNBC report draws attention to this phenomenon. According to the report, small business pay the price, literally, when larger corporations don't pay their fair share; in light of this, more and more small businesses are seeking financial assistance, not just from conventional ...

Researchers studying the molecular signals that drive a specific type of lymphoma have discovered a key biological pathway leading to this type of cancer. Cancerous cells have been described as being "addicted" to certain oncogenes (cancer-causing genes), and the new research may lay the groundwork for breaking that addiction and effectively treating aggressive types of B cell lymphoma. B cell lymphomas, which occur both in children and adults, are cancers that attack B cells in the immune system. "Our research suggests ways to devise more specific therapies to selectively ...

ORANGE, Calif. – A groundbreaking study lead by Chapman University professor Brennan Peterson, Ph.D. on fertility awareness of American college students will be published in the May 5th edition of Human Reproduction—a top-tier international journal in reproductive biology. It is the first such study on fertility awareness among American undergraduate university students. In the USA, the postponement of childbearing is reflective of contemporary social norms of delaying marriage, pursuing education and securing economic stability prior to having a baby. However the awareness ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The Medical Publishing Insights and Practices (MPIP) initiative and its co-sponsors recently collaborated with journal editors to characterize the persistent and perceived credibility gap in reporting industry-sponsored research and to identify potential approaches to resolve it. This unique round table, hosted by MPIP, reached consensus on Ten Recommendations for Closing the Credibility Gap in Reporting Industry-Sponsored Clinical Research as reported in the May issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Attendees of the roundtable agreed that important improvements ...

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, report that significant numbers of myofibroblasts – cells that produce the fibrous scarring in chronic liver injury – revert to an inactive phenotype as the liver heals. The discovery in mouse models could ultimately help lead to new human therapies for reversing fibrosis in the liver, and in other organs like the lungs and kidneys. The work is published in the May 7, 2012 online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The ...

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have discovered that a drug already prescribed to millions of people with diabetes could also have another important use: treating one of the world's leading causes of blindness. In laboratory rat and cell-culture experiments, the scientists found that metformin, which is commonly used to control blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes, also substantially reduced the effects of uveitis, an inflammation of the tissues just below the outer surface of the eyeball. Uveitis causes 10 to 15 percent of all cases of blindness ...

One of the biggest online poker rooms in the world, Titan Poker recently upgraded its Titan Rewards program and introduced new schemes that will benefit all players, even new and casual visitors to its poker tables. Under the Monthly Cash program, players will receive a monthly supply of cash from the moment they sign up and download the Titan Poker software. For every 100 Titan Points that you accumulate, you will receive a $1 cash gift. This new program automatically rewards new and casual players who have not yet achieved VIP status with a return on their game play ...

BOSTON – Living close to a major highway poses a significant risk to heart attack survivors, reinforcing the need to isolate housing developments from heavy traffic areas, a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study concludes. Writing in the May 7 edition of Circulation, researchers found heart attack survivors living less than 100 meters or 328 feet from a roadway have a 27 percent higher risk of over within 10 years than survivors living at least 1,000 meters away. That risk recedes to 13 percent for those living between 200 and 1,000-meter or 656 to 3,277-feet from ...

Washington, D.C.— In the search for Earth-like planets, it is helpful to look for clues and patterns that can help scientist narrow down the types of systems where potentially habitable planets are likely to be discovered. New research from a team including Carnegie's Alan Boss narrows down the search for Earth-like planets near Jupiter-like planets. Their work indicates that the early post-formation movements of hot-Jupiter planets probably disrupt the formation of Earth-like planets. Their work is published the week of May 7 by Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

Pasadena, CA—Type Ia supernovae are important stellar phenomena, used to measure the expansion of the universe. But astronomers know embarrassingly little about the stars they come from and how the explosions happen. New research from a team led by Harvard University and including Carnegie's Josh Simon, Chris Burns, Nidia Morrell, and Mark Phillips examined 23 Type Ia supernovae and helped identify the formation process for at least some of them. Their work will be published in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online. Type Ia supernovae are violent stellar explosions. ...