EAST LANSING, Mich. — Black people who identify more strongly with their racial identity are generally happier, according to a study led by psychology researchers at Michigan State University. The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, appears in the current issue of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, a research journal published by the American Psychological Association. "This is the first empirical study we know of that shows a relationship between racial identity and happiness," said Stevie C.Y. Yap, doctoral candidate in psychology ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Overweight adolescents already struggling with risk factors such as insulin resistance may need to add weak bones to their list of health concerns, researchers report. A study of 143 overweight 14-18 year olds showed those with risk factors such as the precursor for diabetes and low levels of the blood-vessel protecting HDL cholesterol have less bone mass – an indicator of bone strength – than their overweight but otherwise healthy peers, according to researchers at Georgia Health Sciences University's Georgia Prevention Institute. Other risk factors ...

Seismologists have developed a new system that could be used to warn future populations of an impending tsunami only minutes after the initial earthquake. The system, known as RTerg, could help reduce the death toll by giving local residents valuable time to move to safer ground. The study by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology appears in the March 5 edition of Geophysical Research Letters. "We developed a system that, in real time, successfully identified the magnitude 7.8 2010 Sumatran earthquake as a rare and destructive tsunami earthquake. Using this ...

A Cardiff University study has established a link between pub violence and happy hour-style drinking promotions. The findings also show that pub staff themselves need to do more to stop heavily intoxicated customers from continuing to drink. The team studied pubs and nightclubs with a history of violence across five different cities and towns in the UK. Customers entering and leaving the premises were breathalysed. The team also recorded data about the price of beer and any drink promotions at each establishment. Their findings were then linked to police and hospital ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. ¬— Rapidly improving technology is changing everyday life for all generations. This constantly changing environment can be a difficult adjustment for older generations. However, for the current generation known as "Generation Y", this sense of constant technology adaption isn't an adjustment; it is a way of life. A University of Missouri researcher says a widening gap is occurring between educators and students due to the difference in how older and younger generations approach evolving technologies. Newton D'Souza, an assistant professor of architectural ...

Ongoing climate-driven changes to the Arctic sea-ice could have a significant impact on the blooming of tiny planktonic plants (phytoplankton) with important implications for the Arctic ecosystem, according to new research conducted by scientists at the UK's National Oceanography Centre (NOC). "Ice-edge phytoplankton blooms in the Arctic Ocean provide food for planktonic animals called zooplankton, which are in turn exploited by animals higher up the food chain such as fish," explained Dr Andrew Yool, one of the team of NOC researchers. During the Arctic spring and ...

(Boston) – Dr. David Levin, Professor of Molecular & Cell Biology at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine and Professor of Microbiology at Boston University School of Medicine discovered recently a novel, evolutionarily conserved mechanism for the regulation of gene expression. The study describing this work titled, "Mpk1 MAPK Association with the Paf1 Complex Blocks Sen1-Mediated Premature Transcription Termination," appears in the March 4 issue of Cell. Normal cell growth, embryonic development, and responses to stress, require proper spatial ...

When choosing a partner, women believe the lower the man's voice, the more likely he's going to cheat. Conversely, men think a woman with a higher voice is more likely to be unfaithful, researchers have found. The study, published in the latest edition of the online journal Evolutionary Psychology is the first to examine the link between voice pitch and perceived infidelity and offers insight into the evolution of the human voice and how we choose our mates. "In terms of sexual strategy, we found that men and women will use voice pitch as a warning sign of future betrayal. ...

WASHINGTON — A new report from the National Research Council offers a framework for evaluating the effects of a 2007 reform law on the District of Columbia's public schools. The evaluation program must include systematic yearly public reporting of key data as well as in-depth studies of high-priority issues, such as teacher recruitment and retention, the report says. As part of the evaluation program, the Mayor's Office should produce an annual report to the city on the status of the public schools, including an analysis of trends and all the underlying data. The evaluation ...

Atlanta - DNA provides the instruction manual for all life forms. Occasionally, instructions are not carried out properly, and bad messages are sent leading to the creation of mutant proteins and possible tumor development. Paul Doetsch, PhD, professor of radiation oncology and biochemistry and associate director for basic research at Emory's Winship Cancer Institute and Damien Brégeon, PhD, at Institut de Génétique et Microbiologie in Paris, have outlined the role this process – known as transcriptional mutagenesis – might play in tumor development in a Nature Reviews ...

Researchers have for decades hypothesized that negative emotions lead to inflated reports of common physical symptoms, like headaches or an upset stomach. But a new University of Iowa study suggests that two negative emotions –- depression and anxiety –- influence symptom reporting in different ways. Published in the latest issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study indicates that people who feel depressed report experiencing a higher number of past symptoms. People who feel anxious, by contrast, report more symptoms in the present moment. Understanding ...

CHICAGO (March 4, 2011) – From its involvement in a healthy immune system to its role in cell growth, zinc is an essential mineral for the human body. Zinc deficiency is a worldwide problem that affects approximately 4 million people in the U.S. alone. Consumed naturally in the human diet, zinc can be found in food sources, such as beef, yogurt, eggs, and fish. Furthermore, zinc is widely used in dental products, specifically denture adhesives. However, as with any herb, vitamin, or mineral, excess intake of zinc could pose a potential health hazard. Denture wearers ...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS or more popularly, Lou Gehrig's disease, is a notorious neurodegenerative condition characterized by the progressive deterioration of brain and spinal cord neurons, resulting in the gradual but catastrophic loss of muscle control and ultimately, death. In a new paper, published in the Feb. 27 advance online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, a team of scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues describe the profound and pervasive role of a key protein in ALS pathology called ...

BINGHAMTON, NY – Lijun Yin wants computers to understand inputs from humans that go beyond the traditional keyboard and mouse. "Our research in computer graphics and computer vision tries to make using computers easier," says the Binghamton University computer scientist. "Can we find a more comfortable, intuitive and intelligent way to use the computer? It should feel like you're talking to a friend. This could also help disabled people use computers the way everyone else does." Yin's team has developed ways to provide information to the computer based on where a user ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Using a bone-creating protein to augment the maxillary sinus could improve dental implant success, according to Georgia Health Sciences University researchers. Dental implants, screws that anchor permanent prosthetic teeth, won't work if the bone in which they are anchored is too thin. Bone-thinning is a common cause and consequence following tooth loss. The current favored solution is to supplement the area with bone grafts to stabilize the implant base. But that technique is problematic "primarily because it involves additional surgeries to harvest the ...

Your family's involvement in your exercise therapy could significantly improve your function and recovery after stroke, according to a study in the March print issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers found that adding family-assisted exercise therapy to routine physical therapy after stroke improved motor function, balance, distance walked and ability to perform daily living activities. It also lowered the strain on the family member, who said participation lowered stress and was empowering. "It's a win-win situation for everyone," said ...

MADISON, WI MARCH 4, 2011 – North and South Carolina have seen a steady increase in swine production over the last 15 years. In North Carolina alone, swine production generates approximately a quarter of the state's gross farm receipts. The presence of so many large-scale pig farms leads to the problem of proper animal waste disposal. The most common practice in the Carolinas is storing animal waste in anaerobic lagoons. They are primarily used to concentrate and passively treat urine and feces but because of the widespread use of this practice, the environmental impact ...

"Bariatric surgery" refers to several different surgical procedures designed to assist weight loss by limiting the amount of food someone eats or the amount they absorb during digestion. It has been used for several years to treat obesity in adults. A new study published in the journal Clinical Obesity reveals that bariatric surgery can result in significant weight loss in severely obese adolescents. Led by Ange Aikenhead of the International Association for the Study of Obesity in London, England, researchers searched various databases for articles examining subjects ...

When a Rhode-Island-sized ice chunk separates from Greenland, is the calving due to typical seasonal variations or a long-term warmer world? A project called the Scalable, Efficient, and Accurate Community Ice Sheet Model, or SEACISM, on the Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, aims to use state-of-the-art simulation to predict the behavior of ice sheets under a changing climate. ORNL computational Earth scientist Kate Evans leads the effort to develop scalable algorithms, which includes other researchers from ORNL as well as Los Alamos National Laboratory, ...

A process called gasification can turn carbonaceous fuels—coal, petroleum, or biomass—into syngas, a cleaner-burning fuel mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Scientists from the National Energy Technology Laboratory are concluding a three-year project using supercomputers at Oak Ridge and Argonne national laboratories for simulations to reduce the cost and time of building commercial-scale gasifiers. The efforts will inform the design of advanced technologies to supply clean, reliable and affordable electricity. NETL's Clean Coal Power Initiative, a cost-shared venture ...

Nuclear reactor technology research dwindled away when nuclear power fell out of favor several decades ago. Renewed interest in fission-based energy means knowledge gained in past research is relevant again. Researchers at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, working with Idaho National Laboratory, revived work to fabricate high-quality coated-particle fuel for high-temperature gas reactors (HTGRs). The ORNL researchers coated uranium-based fuel kernels with carbon and silicon carbide, relying in part on techniques developed years ago by scientists, many of who have long ...

Alerts from an early warning system developed in part by DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could help protect forests across the U.S. from the threats of insects, disease and wildfire. Led by the USDA Forest Service, the multi-agency project uses high-performance computing to incorporate remote sensing data from NASA satellites with other climate, soil and weather data to identify abnormal vegetation patterns and the timing of seasonal changes. "We can develop signatures of disturbance dynamics and teach the system to tell us not only where potential threats are, but ...

Operation: Western Front (OWF) - a very special initiative organized by mission commanders and philanthropists Warren M. Spitz and W. Brett Wilson to raise awareness and funds for military causes - has collected a stunning $1.5 million in sponsorship and donations. The funds will be donated to various military programs - including Outward Bound for Veterans and Canada Company, a charitable, non-partisan organization that builds a bridge between business and community leaders and the Canadian Military Forces, including providing scholarships to surviving offspring of fallen ...

Creomate.com announces the release of .NET Metadata Expert, a solution to explore metadata of .NET assemblies without disassembling or using the source code. By offering disassembler-free performance, the new .NET metadata analysis toolkit provides developers with blazing-fast visualizing of the most complex projects. .NET Metadata Expert offers developers a quick and easy way to visualize metadata dependencies of .NET assemblies. Supporting 32-bit and 64-bit versions of .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0, .NET Metadata Expert offers true cross-platform and cross-framework ...

Personal matchmaking and dating agency businesses are attracting a lot of people who failed to find partner at a regular dating site. Match making is just right for them: it provides personal approach, coaching and perfect match for potential couple. There's no doubt, that both professional and new matchmakers need to have their site online to attract more leads. You can write site from scratch and spend a lot of money, "lease" your site and share clients database with others (which is not very acceptable for many), or get an out-of-a-box matchmaking software and be ...