(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Using eyes made of a calcium carbonate crystal, a simple mollusk may have evolved enough vision to spot potential predators, scientists say. Daniel Speiser, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara, studied mollusks that he collected in the Florida Keys. His research of their vision, performed during his graduate studies at Duke University, resulted in a study published today by Current Biology. The three-inch-long mollusks, called chitons, have hundreds of eye-like structures with ...

Experiential learning technology that allows students to simulate a real business office environment was recently featured in the Scholastic Administrator Spring 2011 magazine. The article, entitled "Best in Tech: Piloting New Technology", showcased a review by Ruthie Bass of North Shore Senior High School, Galena Park ISD in Houston, Texas of Business Education Simulations program from Realityworks, Inc. The Scholastic Administrator article highlights district leaders piloting programs with new technologies and how they are incorporating them into the classroom. The ...

BOSTON (April 14, 2011, noon ET) — The circadian system that controls normal sleep patterns is regulated by a group of glial brain cells called astrocytes, according to a study published online on April 14th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Neuroscientists from Tufts University School of Medicine found that disruption of astrocyte function in fruit flies (Drosophila) led to altered daily rhythms, an indication that these star-shaped glial cells contribute to the control of circadian behavior. These results provide, for the first time, a tractable genetic model ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A research group has concluded that forests and other terrestrial ecosystems in the lower 48 states can sequester up to 40 percent of the nation's fossil fuel carbon emissions, a larger amount than previously estimated – unless a drought or other major disturbance occurs. Widespread droughts, such as those that occurred in 2002 and 2006, can cut the amount of carbon sequestered by about 20 percent, the scientists concluded in a recent study that was supported by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy. The research, published ...

Challenging traditional views of workplace anger, a new article by a Temple University Fox School of Business professor suggests that even intense emotional outbursts can prove beneficial if responded to with compassion. Dr. Deanna Geddes, chair of the Fox School's Human Resource Management Department, argues that more supportive responses by managers and co-workers after displays of deviant anger can promote positive change at work, while sanctioning or doing nothing does not. "The trouble with sanctions: Organizational responses to deviant anger displays at work," ...

This release is available in German. The exploitation and utilization of new energy sources are considered to be among today's major challenges. Solar energy plays a central role, and its direct conversion into chemical energy, for example hydrogen generation by water splitting, is one of its interesting variants. Titanium oxide-based photocatalysis is the presently most efficient, yet little understood conversion process. In cooperation with colleagues from Germany and abroad, scientists of the KIT Institute for Functional Interfaces (IFG) have studied the basic mechanisms ...

Not so long ago Wikipedia was considered a playground for Capitol Hill staffers to game the system and make "the boss look better and the opponent look ridiculous." Now a peer-reviewed study by Brigham Young University political scientist Adam Brown validates Wikipedia as a reliable place to get a political education. The research focused on past and present candidates for governor across the 50 states. Brown fact-checked biographical information and voting statistics and found very few inaccuracies. "My finding is optimistic for the health of our country," said ...

As many as 25 percent of hospital nurses go without sleep for at least 24 hours in order to adjust to working on the night shift, which is the least effective strategy for adapting their internal, circadian clocks to a night-time schedule. That is one of the results of the first study to examine the strategies that night nurses use to adjust between day and night sleep cycles. The study was based on questionnaires from 388 nurses who work at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the results are published in the April 13 issue of the scientific journal, Public ...

SAN DIEGO, Calif., April 14, 2011 – New survey data released today at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) 20th Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress reveal that more than half (55%) of people with type 2 diabetes across the country report they have experienced hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. What's more, many experienced it during typical daily activities such as working (42%), exercising (26%) and driving (19%), according to the survey, designed by the American College of Endocrinology (ACE) and supported by Merck. Recognizing symptoms like nervousness, ...

CHICAGO --- Battling an illness, lack of sleep and strange surroundings can make any hospital patient feel out of sorts. For seniors, hospitalizations actually may cause temporary memory loss and difficulty in understanding discharge instructions, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. The seniors go back to normal one month after the hospital stay, the study found. But immediately following a hospitalization is a critical time in which seniors may need extra support from healthcare professionals and family, according to Lee Lindquist, the lead author of ...

A census team led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Insitut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo today announced some encouraging news from a region plagued by warfare and insecurity: a small population of Grauer's gorillas has not only survived, but also increased since the last census. The census, conducted late 2010 in the highland sector of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, revealed the presence of 181 individual Grauer's gorillas, up from 168 individuals detected in the same sector ...

LA JOLLA, CA – April 14, 2011 – An enzyme essential for DNA replication and repair in humans works in a way that might be exploited as anti-cancer therapy, say researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The research, published in the April 15, 2011 issue of the journal Cell, focused on a member of a group of enzymes called flap endonucleases, which are essential to the life of a cell. The findings show new, clearly defined crystal structures of the enzyme FEN1 in action—demonstrating it functions in a way opposite to accepted ...

SEATTLE – Everyone knows that eating a low-fat, low-calorie diet and getting regular exercise helps shed pounds, but a new study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that when it comes to losing weight and body fat, diet and exercise are most effective when done together as compared to either strategy alone. The results of this randomized trial, led by Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Prevention Center and a member of the Hutchinson Center's Public Health Sciences Division, were published online April 14 in Obesity. The majority ...

CINCINNATI—A new study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) shows that urban adolescents with asthma may experience worse outcomes when not using spiritual coping and often use complementary and alternative medicine, or integrative medicine, like prayer or relaxation, to manage symptoms. These findings, being presented at the National Conference in Pediatric Psychology in San Antonio April14-16, could help physicians and other providers gain insight into additional ways to help pediatric populations self-manage chronic illnesses. The study, led by Sian ...

New research from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Kent State University shows that salt intake raises blood pressure because it makes it harder for the cardiovascular system to simultaneously juggle the regulation of blood pressure and body temperature. For decades, medical researchers have sought to understand how salt causes salt-induced high blood pressure to no avail. Some individuals, described as "salt sensitive," experience an increase in blood pressure following the ingestion of salt, whereas others, termed "salt resistant," do not. Until ...

Ryan was just four years old when he went to sleep on his bunk bed one night and never woke up. His mother found him strangled to death the next morning with his neck caught between the vertical post of his side ladder and mattress. Ryan is not the only child to have strangled in the space between a bunk bed ladder and mattress. Since 1983, other incidents have been reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In the Forensic Ergonomics Special Issue of Ergonomics in Design: The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications, HF/E researcher Carol Pollack-Nelson, ...

(Garrison, NY) Giving patients data about the risks and benefits of a medical intervention is not always helpful and may even lead them to irrational decisions, according to an article in the Hastings Center Report. That finding calls into question whether it is essential to disclose quantitative data to patients to help them make informed decisions. An accompanying commentary calls for experimental evidence to determine the best way to provide information to patients. The analyses come at a time when many patient advocates and others are embracing the "quantitative imperative" ...

Stephen Spielberg's movie Jurassic Park got one thing right. Velociraptors hunted by night while big plant-eating dinosaurs browsed around the clock, according to a paper on the eyes of fossil animals published on-line this week in Science Express. That overturns the conventional wisdom that dinosaurs were active by day while early mammals scurried around at night, said Ryosuke Motani, a geologist at the University of California at Davis, and a co-author of the paper. "It was a surprise, but it makes sense," Motani said. It's also providing insight into how ecology ...

A team of Boston University researchers has found that the majority of individuals with substance dependence problems report having poor oral health. They also found that opioid users, in particular, showed a decline in oral health over the period of one year. These findings appear online in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. Public health, dental medicine and internal medicine faculty from Boston University investigated the affects of different substances on oral health among a sample of substance-dependent individuals. Alcohol, stimulant, opioid and marijuana ...

Chlorine is an abundant and readily available halogen gas commonly associated with the sanitation of swimming pools and drinking water. Could a one-atom thick sheet of this element revolutionize the next generation of flat-panel displays and lighting technology? In the case of Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) devices, it most certainly can. Primary researchers Michael G. Helander (PhD Candidate and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar), Zhibin Wang (PhD Candidate), and led by Professor Zheng-Hong Lu of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of ...

Given sufficient forward speed, a bicycle pushed sideways, will not fall over. Scientists have been trying to find a conclusive explanation for this remarkable characteristic for over a century. This week, researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands) have thrown new light on the question in a publication in Science. Staying stable The research at TU Delft, in collaboration with scientists from Cornell University (USA), centred on the following intriguing question: why is a bicycle self stable, above a certain speed? You add speed to a bike ...

A recently released report of the General Social Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, shows that for the first time since 1972, more Americans say that their financial situation has gotten worse in recent years rather than better. Understandably, also for the first time since 1972, the percentage of Americans saying that they are "not at all" satisfied with their financial situation (31.5%) notably exceeds those saying they are "pretty well" satisfied (23.4%). The General Social Survey which NORC has conducted for forty years, is supported by the National ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A University of Missouri researcher says people who overuse credit have very different beliefs about products than people who spend within their means. Following a new study, Marsha Richins, Myron Watkins Distinguished Professor of Marketing in the Trulaske College of Business, says many people buy products thinking that the items will make them happier and transform their lives. "There is nothing wrong with wanting to buy products," Richins said. "It becomes a problem when people expect unreasonable degrees of change in their lives from their purchases. ...

Nutrition research is pointing to ways that nutrients or diets may lessen the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI), raising the possibility that the U.S. Department of Defense might be able to use nutritional approaches to help personnel who receive a TBI. Nutrition and Traumatic Brain Injury: Improving Acute and Subacute Health Outcomes in Military Personnel, a new report from the Institute of Medicine, recommends which nutritional approaches DOD should adopt and priorities for further research into nutrients and diets that show promise for being effective in providing ...

Repeated unnecessary 911 calls are a common drain on the manpower and finances of emergency medical services, but a pilot program that identified Baltimore City's top 911 callers and coupled them with a case worker has succeeded in drastically cutting the number of such calls while helping callers get proper care. The program, called Operation Care, was conceived and implemented by the non-profit agency Baltimore HealthCare Access and ran as a three-month pilot in 2008. Now, a newly published report of its results appearing in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine ...