TORONTO, December 22, 2010 − Research from York University is revealing which regions in the brain "fire up" when we suppress an automatic behaviour such as the urge to look at other people as we enter an elevator. A York study, published recently in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, used fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to track brain activity when study participants looked at an image of a facial expression with a word superimposed on it. Study participants processed the words faster than the facial expressions. However, when the word did ...

Researchers at the University of Granada have developed a new method for predicting the precise shade that a bleaching treatment will bring about for a patient's teeth. What is innovative about this method is that it allows researchers to successfully predict the outcome of a bleaching treatment, which will have a significant impact on such treatments, which are becoming more frequent. At present, dental offices routinely employ carbomide peroxide bleaching agents for tooth discoloration. As bleaching treatments have soft side effects –all of them temporary and mild– ...

Stanford University in the USA has an X-FEL (X-ray Free Electron Laser) with a pricetag of hundreds of millions. It provides images of 'molecules in action', using a kilometer-long electron accelerator. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have developed an alternative that can do many of the same things. However this alternative fits on a tabletop, and costs around half a million euro. That's why the researchers have jokingly called it 'the poor man's X-FEL'. It's one of the few remaining 'holy grails' of science: a system that allows you to observe ...

During recessions, increased spending on research and development and on advertising can benefit certain types of firms and punish others, according to researchers, who identified the firm types that spend most effectively. More than 10,000 firm-years of data from publicly listed U.S. firms from 1969 to 2008 -- a period that included seven recessions -- were examined by Gary L. Lilien, Distinguished Research Professor of Management Science, Penn State Smeal College of Business; Raji Srinivasan, University of Texas; and Shrihari Sridhar, Michigan State University. The ...

Citation: Jozwiak, S.; Habich, A.; Kotulska, K.; Sarnowska, A.; Kropiwnicki, T.; Janowski, M.; Jurkiewicz, E.; Lukomska, B.; Kmiec, T.; Walecki, J.; Roszkowski, M.; Litwin, M.; Oldak, T.; Boruczkowski, D.; Domanska-Janik, K. Intracerebroventricular Transplantation of Cord Blood-Derived Neural Progenitors in a Child With Severe Global Brain Ischemic Injury. Cell Medicine 1(2):71-80; 2010. The editorial offices for Cell Medicine are at the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, College of Medicine, the University of South Florida. Contact, David Eve, PhD. ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A study comparing the long-term outcomes of patients with spinal-cord tumors following radiation therapy suggests that certain subsets of patients have better long-term survival. It also suggests that photon-based radiation therapy may result in better survival than proton-beam therapy, even in patients with more favorable characteristics. This is the first study to report the long-term outcomes of spinal-cord tumor patients treated by modern radiotherapy techniques, the researchers say. Gliomas, which represent most spinal cord tumors, develop in about ...

Montreal, December 22, 2010 – Obese people are more likely to report exercise as a trigger for asthma. Of 673 people evaluated in a new study whose results are published in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 71 percent of participants reported exercise-induced asthma (ETA). The findings are important, since 2.3 million Canadians are affected by asthma according to Statistics Canada. ETA affects up to 90 percent of asthma sufferers, says lead author Simon Bacon, a professor at the Concordia Department of Exercise Science and a researcher at the Hôpital du ...

Why do people choose present consumption over their long-term financial interests? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that consumers have trouble feeling connected to their future selves. "This willingness to forego money now and wait for future benefits is strongly affected by how connected we feel to our future self, who will ultimately benefit from the resources we save," write authors Daniel M. Bartels (Columbia Business School) and Oleg Urminsky (University of Chicago). When we think of saving money for the future, the person we think of can ...

Although it is the third most frequent cause of death in Germany, blood poisoning is frequently underestimated. In this country, 60,000 persons die every year from some form of sepsis, almost as many as from heart attacks. The Sepsis Nexus of Expertise states that patients arriving at the intensive care ward with blood poisoning only have a 50% chance of surviving. One of the reasons for the high mortality rate is the fact that patients are not correctly treated due to late diagnosis. The doctor and the patient used to have to wait as much as 48 hours for the laboratory ...

People who feel powerful are more likely to believe they can beat cancer if it's described in human terms, according to new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. The study looks at anthropomorphism, or the tendency to attribute humanlike characteristics, intentions, and behavior to nonhuman objects. "The present research shows important downstream consequences of anthropomorphism that go beyond simple liking of products with humanlike physical features," write authors Sara Kim and Ann L. McGill (both University of Chicago). Previous consumer research has already ...

People are happier when goods are more equally distributed, but equality makes people want to spend more to get ahead of their neighbors, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Authors Nailya Ordabayeva (Erasmus University, The Netherlands) and Pierre Chandon (INSEAD, France) examined the way equality influences the consumption decisions of people in the bottom tiers of social groups. The researchers found that increasing equality decreases bottom-tier consumer envy of what other people have and boosts their satisfaction with their possessions. ...

The way people treat their possessions looks like love, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Is it possible for consumers to be in love with their possessions?" ask authors John L. Lastovicka (Arizona State University) and Nancy J. Sirianni (Texas Christian University). When it comes to cars, computers, bicycles, and firearms, the answer seems to be a resounding yes. The researchers visited five car shows in Arizona and conducted in-depth interviews with car enthusiasts (males and females, aged 19-68). They found that love-smitten consumers ...

Adventure seekers are plunking down more than $50,000 to climb Mount Everest, but a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that people who pay for transformative experiences often lack the communitarian spirit that usually defines such activities. "In order to escape the rules, contraptions, and stresses of daily life in the city, many people search for new and liberating experiences that transcend their normal bureaucratic and corporate existence," write authors Gülnur Tumbat (San Francisco State University) and Russell W. Belk (York University). However, ...

If a vegetarian has to buy a steakhouse gift certificate for a friend, her discomfort will lead her to buy something else that reaffirms her identity, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "When gift givers choose a gift that matches the identity of the recipient but is contrary to their own identity, they experience discomfort," write authors Morgan K. Ward (Southern Methodist University) and Susan M. Broniarczyk (University of Texas). This discomfort leads consumers to choose other products that express their identities. The authors investigated ...

Picture the following: With great care, a robot picks up a gear wheel in one hand, a housing in the other, and places the two together. When they don't immediately engage, it breaks off its movement. Slowly, it twists the gear wheel round a little and tries again. This time the wheel slots easily into its mounting. The robot smiles, and places the correctly assembled part on the conveyor belt. The pi4-workerbot is capable of making many more movements than a normal robot and is the jewel in the crown of the EU-funded PISA research project, which aims to introduce greater ...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2010 — Just in time for New Year's Eve, and the arrival of the International Year of Chemistry, a study may settle that long-standing disagreement over the best way to pour a glass of champagne: Scientists in France are reporting that pouring bubbly in an angled, down-the-side way is best for preserving its taste and fizz. The study also reports the first scientific evidence confirming the importance of chilling champagne before serving to enhance its taste. They reported in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. ...

The AZTI-Tecnalia technological centre, in a project undertaken by the Tecnolat and Llet de Catalunya dairy product companies within the FUTURAL project, has verified that, as an alternative to the traditional heat treatment for decontamination of a number of dairy products, high pressure technology is highly recommendable. In fact, according to a press release from Tecnolat, the results, especially with ready-to-eat fruit products and in the inactivation of moulds and yeasts in other dairy products, "were highly positive and promising". The research and trials carried ...

FINDINGS: By determining how corticosteroids act to increase production of red blood cell progenitors, Whitehead Institute researchers have identified a class of drugs that may be beneficial in treating some erythropoietin-resistant anemias. One such anemia is Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA), which is frequently treated with corticosteroids, despite their severe side-effects. The identified class of drugs may be able to treat other anemias, including those resulting from trauma, sepsis, malaria, kidney dialysis, and chemotherapy. RELEVANCE: Some common anemias can be treated ...

Researchers at Cleveland Clinic's Genomic Medicine Institute have revealed multiple genetic discoveries that may permit easier diagnosis and disease management for Cowden syndrome patients who are predisposed to breast and kidney cancer. The research, which could allow for earlier discovery of cancerous tumors, is published in the Dec. 22 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Charis Eng, M.D., Ph.D, Chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute at Cleveland Clinic, led the research. It revealed KILLIN as a novel predisposition gene for Cowden ...

December 21, 2010 — (BRONX, NY) — Two researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that our 98.6° F (37° C) body temperature strikes a perfect balance: warm enough to ward off fungal infection but not so hot that we need to eat nonstop to maintain our metabolism. "One of the mysteries about humans and other advanced mammals has been why they are so hot compared with other animals," said study co—author Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of microbiology & immunology at Einstein. "This study helps to explain why mammalian ...

Projectors are getting smaller and smaller. Now that pictures are available in digital format almost everywhere, we need projectors to beam giant photos and films onto walls. Projectors contain lenses that spread the light from the pixelated source in such a way as to illuminate the image area evenly. Until now, this was done using complicated arrays of lenses placed one behind the other. Recently, the same effect has been achieved using flat lens arrays made up of thousands of identical microlenses. This kind of array takes up much less space and does not need to be painstakingly ...

The only way to learn if your water source has hexavalent chromium is to check with your public water supplier and request a water quality report, said NJIT Professor Taha Marhaba, a civil/environmental engineer. Most municipal or city engineers should be able to provide such a report upon request. Additional information specifically about hexavalent chromium levels may also be available. "In general, hexavalent chromium can be found in either surface or groundwater sources and its source can be either natural or man-made industrial operations that have used chromium," ...

About 50 miles from Bethlehem, a drilling project is determining the climate and earthquake activity of the Holy Land. Scientists from eight nations are examining the ground below the Dead Sea, by placing a borehole in this deepest basin in the world. The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program ICDP brings together research teams from Israel, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the USA and Germany. Particularly noteworthy: Researchers from Jordan and Palestine are also involved. Scientists and technicians of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have now ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Neuroscientists had assumed that a mutation in the progranulin gene, which makes the progranulin protein and supports brain neurons, was sufficient to produce a kind of dementia known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). But now an international team of scientists led by researchers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida have found another genetic factor they say appears to protect against the disorder in progranulin mutation carriers. In an article published in the Dec. 22, 2010, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy ...

JUPITER, FL, December 22, 2010 – A scientist from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute has discovered a molecular switch that controls the synthesis of ribosomes. Ribosomes are the large machineries inside all living cells that produce proteins, the basic working units of any cell. These new findings offer a novel target for potential treatments for a range of diseases, including cancer. The study is published in the December 24, 2010 edition of the Journal of Molecular Biology. The study identified the molecular switch, essentially formed by a small ...