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Social Science16 Aug 2012

Foresters UK Awards 150 Scholarships to Students

With UK 'A' Level Students finding out their results this week and the focus being firmly on education, thanks to Foresters UK 150 students will have a contribution to the financial costs of their further studies via the Foresters Scholarship Programme. Foresters, the international financial services organisation, is committed to the support of the community, and has given students renewable scholarships awarding them for their outstanding educational achievements and the undertaking of volunteering projects in their community. "The Scholarship Programme is ...

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Science16 Aug 2012

Common Customs Pitfalls in U.S. - Mexico Trade Topic of Offshore Group Podcast

The Offshore Group recently spoke with Jim Clarke, vice president of new business development, with Taylor, Michigan-headquartered FOCUS Business Solutions. FOCUS has assisted companies involved in international trade to move their products into and out of the U.S. for the past twenty-five years, and has developed a particular expertise in servicing manufacturers located in Mexico, as well in the rest of the NAFTA region. During the session, Clarke talks about five challenging issues that confront companies navigating Customs that confront companies navigating Customs ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Apartment therapy: How does 'good taste' become second nature for consumers?

Design blogs such as Apartment Therapy or lifestyle brands such as Martha Stewart help consumers exercise taste in their everyday life as they learn how to generate meaning through objects, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Participating in a taste regime allows consumers to assemble coherent sets of objects, associate meanings with those objects, and then create routines that serve to maintain the physical order of objects and their associated meanings," write authors Zeynep Arsel (Concordia University) and Jonathan Bean (Parsons The New ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

Giving to charity: Why do we donate more money to individuals when they are members of a group?

When charity recipients seem to belong to a cohesive group, donors will make stronger judgments about the victims, which leads to greater concern and increased donations if these judgments are positive, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "One of the most puzzling aspects of charitable giving is the relative meagerness of donations to large numbers of 'statistical' victims in contrast to the generosity shown to a single identified victim," write authors Robert W. Smith (University of Michigan), David Faro (London Business School), and Katherine ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

Ownership increases the value of products: How does gender matter?

The price a consumer will pay for a product is often significantly less than the price they will accept to sell it. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, this occurs because ownership of a product enhances its value by creating an association between the product and consumer identity. "Our studies support the idea that ownership enhances the attractiveness of a product because ownership creates an association between the item and the self," write authors Sara Loughran Dommer (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Vanitha Swaminathan (University ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

Don't burn out: Enjoy your favorite products more by consuming them less frequently

Consumers enjoy products more in the long run if they don't overuse them when first purchased, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Consumers are naturally prone to consume products they enjoy too rapidly for their own good, growing tired of them more quickly than they would if they slowed down," write authors Jeff Galak (Carnegie Mellon University), Justin Kruger (New York University), and George Loewenstein (Carnegie Mellon University). We often face decisions about how rapidly to consume products we enjoy: how quickly to eat a favorite dessert; ...

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Social Science15 Aug 2012

Long-distance runners: How can differences unite a diverse community of consumers?

Growing communities can overcome conflict and fragmentation, and increase diversity, without losing their sense of collective belonging, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Consumption communities are groups of people united by a shared passion. A persistent challenge to community is continued engagement, and collective enterprises can be destabilized by differences as they grow. Our research shows how community members leverage social and economic resources to overcome differences," write authors Tandy Chalmers Thomas (Queen's University), ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

Targeting confident consumers? Focus on high-level product features

Confident consumers pay more attention to advertisements and product information that focus on high-level features of a product, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Less confident consumers, however, focus on the basics. "When we feel confident, we think that abstract information is more relevant to us. But when we feel doubtful, we think that concrete information is more relevant. The more relevant we perceive information to be, the more we will focus on it," write authors Echo Wen Wan (University of Hong Kong) and Derek D. Rucker (Kellogg School ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Color-coded markers may help doctors diagnose neural diseases through the eyes

Sticky plaques of proteins called amyloids mark several different, though related degenerative brain diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Creutzfeld-Jacobs. The symptoms of these disorders overlap and methods to diagnose and monitor them are not very advanced. To solve this problem, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have devised several new fluorescent probes that change color depending on what type of amyloid they encounter. Because amyloids accumulate in the eye as well as the brain, their discovery offers hope that one day neurodegenerative ...

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Energy15 Aug 2012

Novel nano-structures to realize hydrogen's energy potential

For the first time, engineers at the University of New South Wales have demonstrated that hydrogen can be released and reabsorbed from a promising storage material, overcoming a major hurdle to its use as an alternative fuel source. Researchers from the Materials Energy Research Laboratory in nanoscale (MERLin) at UNSW have synthesised nanoparticles of a commonly overlooked chemical compound called sodium borohydride (NaBH4) and encased these inside nickel shells. Their unique nanostructure has demonstrated remarkable hydrogen storage properties. "No one has ever ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

This is not a pipe

The Pipe Nebula is a prime example of a dark nebula. Originally, astronomers believed these were areas in space where there were no stars. But it was later discovered that dark nebulae actually consist of clouds of interstellar dust so thick it can block out the light from the stars beyond. The Pipe Nebula appears silhouetted against the rich star clouds close to the centre of the Milky Way in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer). Barnard 59 forms the mouthpiece of the Pipe Nebula [1] and is the subject of this new image from the Wide Field Imager on the ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

Breastfeeding may protect infants from HIV transmission

An international team of researchers has found that certain bioactive components found in human milk are associated with a reduced risk of HIV transmission from an HIV infected mother to her breast-fed infant. Their study will be published in the August 15 online edition of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "In developing countries, HIV-infected mothers are faced with the decision of whether or not to breastfeed their babies," said Lars Bode, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Duke scientists discover genetic material in blood cells that may affect malaria parasites

DURHAM, N.C. – Researchers at Duke University Medical Center may finally have discovered why people with sickle cell disease get milder cases of malaria than individuals who have normal red blood cells. In a finding that has eluded scientists for years, Duke researchers discovered that genetic material in red blood cells may help alter parasite activity via a novel mechanism that alters parasite gene regulation. "One of the most interesting findings in our study is that the human microRNA (very small units of genetic material) found in sickle red cells directly participate ...

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Environment15 Aug 2012

Greenland melting breaks record 4 weeks before season's end

Melting over the Greenland ice sheet shattered the seasonal record on August 8 – a full four weeks before the close of the melting season, reports Marco Tedesco, assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at The City College of New York. The melting season in Greenland usually lasts from June – when the first puddles of meltwater appear – to early-September, when temperatures cool. This year, cumulative melting in the first week in August had already exceeded the record of 2010, taken over a full season, according to Professor Tedesco's ongoing analysis. ...

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Social Science15 Aug 2012

Antimicrobials from personal care products found in statewide survey of Minnesota's rivers and lakes

In our zest for cleanliness, have we permanently muddied our nation's waters? A science team from Arizona State University, in collaboration with federal partners, has completed the first statewide analysis of freshwater bodies in Minnesota, finding widespread evidence of the presence of active ingredients of personal care products in Minnesota lakes, streams and rivers. These products are a billion dollar industry and can be found in antimicrobial soaps, disinfectants, and sanitizers to scrub our hands and clean countertops. Hundreds of antimicrobial products are ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

Babies may not have a 'moral compass' after all

New research from New Zealand's University of Otago is casting doubt on a landmark US study that suggested infants as young as six months old possess an innate moral compass that allows them to evaluate individuals as 'good' or 'bad'. The 2007 study by Yale University researchers provided the first evidence that 6- and 10-month-old infants could assess individuals based on their behaviour towards others, showing a preference for those who helped rather than hindered another individual. Based on a series of experiments, researchers in the Department of Psychology at ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Study: Vaccine targets malignant brain cancer antigens, significantly lengthens survival

LOS ANGELES (Aug. 14, 2012) – An experimental immune-based therapy more than doubled median survival of patients diagnosed with the most aggressive malignant brain tumor, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center researchers reported in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, published online Aug. 3. Median survival in a Phase I clinical trial at Cedars-Sinai's Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Brain Tumor Center was 38.4 months, significantly longer than the typical 14.6-month survival of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma receiving standard therapy alone, which includes radiation and chemotherapy. Median ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Long-term methadone treatment can affect nerve cells in brain

Long-term methadone treatment can cause changes in the brain, according to recent studies from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The results show that treatment may affect the nerve cells in the brain. The studies follow on from previous studies where methadone was seen to affect cognitive functioning, such as learning and memory. Since it is difficult to perform controlled studies of methadone patients and unethical to attempt in healthy volunteers, rats were used in the studies. Previous research has shown that methadone can affect cognitive functioning in ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

When it comes to food, chimps only think of themselves

A sense of fairness is an important part of human behaviour, yet a research team involving Queen Mary, University of London (UK) found it did not evolve from our closest living relatives. The study, published in the journal Biology Letters today (15 August) tested whether our great ape relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos, have a sense of fairness like humans. The scientists, involving Professor Keith Jensen, from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, put the apes through a series of ultimatum games. One against the other, they had to choose ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Tripping the switches on brain growth to treat depression

Philadelphia, PA, August 15, 2012 – Depression takes a substantial toll on brain health. Brain imaging and post-mortem studies provide evidence that the wealth of connections in the brain are reduced in individuals with depression, with the result of impaired functional connections between key brain centers involved in mood regulation. Glial cells are one of the cell types that appear to be particularly reduced when analyzing post-mortem brain tissue from people who had depression. Glial cells support the growth and function of nerve cells and their connections. Over ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

Be whoever you want to be!

Web shops, Cloud Computing, Online CRM systems: Each day many IT systems require the user to identify himself. Single Sign-On (SSO) systems were introduced to circumvent this problem, and to establish structured Identity Management (IDM) systems in industry: Here the user only has to identify once, all subsequent authentications are done automatically. However, SSO systems based on the industry standard SAML have huge vulnerabilities: Roughly 80 percent of these systems could be broken by the researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Protection through digital signatures ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Research from the JYFL-ACCLAB Centre of Excellence highlighted by the American Physical Society

One of the most sought-after goals in nuclear physics is an understanding of the structure of superheavy elements in the so-called "island of stability". These nuclei contain a large number of protons, and would ordinarily be ripped apart by the strong Coulomb repulsion between them. However, quantum mechanical shell-effects act to stabilize the nuclei, meaning that they can then live long enough to be observed in the laboratory. In order to understand these "shell effects", detailed experimental studies are needed. Such studies are unfortunately precluded by the fact ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Noise down, neuron signals up

Biomedical engineer Muhammet Uzuntarla from Bulent Ecevit University, Turkey, and his colleagues present a biologically accurate model of the underlying noise which is present in the nervous system. The article is about to be published in EPJ B¹. This work has implications for explaining how noise, modulated by unreliable synaptic transmission, induces a delay in the response of neurons to external stimuli as part of the neurons coding mechanism. Neurons communicate by means of electrical pulses, called spikes, exchanged via synapses. The time it takes for brain cells ...

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Science15 Aug 2012

High potency and synthetic marijuana pose real dangers in first weeks of pregnancy

Marijuana is up to 20 times more potent than it was 40 years ago and most pregnant women who use the drug are totally unaware that it could harm their unborn child before they even know they are pregnant. Writing in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis, American researcher's state the argument that marijuana is a harmless drug is no longer valid due to the emergence of 'high potency' marijuana and synthetic marijuana which pose a potential real threat for pregnant women. They also express concerns that marijuana's increased popularity among teenagers and young adults ...

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Medicine15 Aug 2012

Black belts' white matter shows how a powerful punch comes from the brain

Brain scans have revealed distinctive features in the brain structure of karate experts, which could be linked to their ability to punch powerfully from close range. Researchers from Imperial College London and UCL (University College London) found that differences in the structure of white matter – the connections between brain regions – were correlated with how black belts and novices performed in a test of punching ability. Karate experts are able to generate extremely powerful forces with their punches, but how they do this is not fully understood. Previous studies ...

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