New Rochelle, NY, January 13, 2011—Twenty years of mortality data from counties across the United States led to the striking discovery that living at higher altitudes may be a risk factor for suicide, according to a provocative study published online ahead of print in High Altitude Medicine & Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online. Barry Brenner, MD, PhD, and David Cheng, MD, University Hospitals Case Medical Center (Cleveland, OH), and coauthors Sunday Clark, MPH, ScD, University of Pittsburgh Medical ...

Men are more likely than women to seek jobs in which competition with coworkers affects pay rates, a preference that might help explain persistent pay differences between men and women, a study at the University of Chicago shows. The study, which covered most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, also revealed regional variation in how much women desire jobs in which competition plays a role in determining wages. In cities where local wages are generally lower, women tend to want jobs in which competition determines wages, the study showed. "We know that women, ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - California policies aimed at reducing electricity use and curbing greenhouse gas emissions have the unintended consequence of making new plug-in hybrid vehicles uneconomical, according to a Purdue University economist. Wally Tyner, the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics, said California's tiered electricity pricing system means Californians will pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country to recharge plug-in hybrid vehicles. States with flat electricity rates or those that vary price based on the time of use ...

(Garrison, NY) Extra large private hospital rooms with plenty of natural light and artwork may seem like unaffordable luxuries, but new research shows that these and other architecture and design features can improve patient care and in the long run reduce health care expenses. They are among the elements of the "Fable hospital," an ideal health care facility as conceived and analyzed by leaders in health care and design. Elements of the Fable hospital are being adopted on the ground today, with the imperative to improve quality and value. A set of articles in the Hastings ...

Older drivers could benefit from training programs that put them behind the wheel—in a driving simulator, with an observer who helps them develop their skills. That's the conclusion of a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Older people are at much higher risk of car crashes than younger drivers. Some states and provinces test older drivers, hoping to get the riskiest drivers off the road. But the tests they use are inadequate, says Normand Teasdale of Université Laval in Québec, ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University have demonstrated bio-inspired structures that self-assemble from simple building blocks: spheres. The helical "supermolecules" are made of tiny colloid balls instead of atoms or molecules. Similar methods could be used to make new materials with the functionality of complex colloidal molecules. The team will publish its findings in the Jan. 14 issue of the journal Science. "We can now make a whole new class of smart materials, which opens the door to new functionality that we couldn't ...

Galician researchers have studied the evolution in the introduction of non-native fresh water species in Galicia over the past century, and have compared this with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. The results show that 31 exotic aquatic species out of the 88 recorded for the entire Iberian Peninsula have become established in the region over the past century. An analysis of the introduction of non-native species in Galicia and the Iberian Peninsula carried out by researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and the University of Coruña (UDC) has shown ...

Scientists have for the first time sequenced and reconstructed the genomes of most of the microbes in the gut of a premature newborn and documented how the microbe populations changed over time. Further studies involving more infants could eventually help researchers understand the causes of various intestinal problems that afflict preemies, in particular the sometimes fatal necrotizing enterocolitis, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Stanford University. One unresolved question is whether ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Neuroscientists at MIT's Picower Institute of Learning and Memory have uncovered why relatively minor details of an episode are sometimes inexplicably linked to long-term memories. The work is slated to appear in the Jan. 13 issue of Neuron. "Our finding explains, at least partially, why seemingly irrelevant information like the color of the shirt of an important person is remembered as vividly as more significant information such as the person's impressive remark when you recall an episode of meeting this person," said co-author Susumu Tonegawa, Picower ...

BATON ROUGE – We live in a world almost completely dependent upon machinery. Since the creation of the simple wheel, humans have found ways to increase quality of life and advance scientific knowledge using these devices. Though the prevalence of machinery has allowed us to build bigger, travel faster and create more quickly with complexity increasing as science advances, our dependence upon them has limitations. Everything that moves can and will break, especially metals under strain. And when they fail, the consequences can be catastrophic. LSU's Michael Khonsari has ...

Dark energy is a mysterious force that pervades all space, acting as a "push" to accelerate the Universe's expansion. Despite being 70 percent of the Universe, dark energy was only discovered in 1998 by two teams observing Type Ia supernovae. A Type 1a supernova is a cataclysmic explosion of a white dwarf star. These supernovae are currently the best way to measure dark energy because they are visible across intergalactic space. Also, they can function as "standard candles" in distant galaxies since the intrinsic brightness is known. Just as drivers estimate the distance ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). In this release: Spooky action at a distance, for earthquakes Evidence for water ice near the Martian equator Extraordinary uplift of Yellowstone caldera New evidence could let supereruption off the hook Auroral oscillations seen on Saturn How much sea-level rise can coastal marshes withstand? Rain affects carbon-dioxide flow between sky and sea Ionosphere model overshoots during solar minimum Anyone may read the scientific abstract for ...

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- At any given time between 10 and 20 percent of cattle in the United States are afflicted with lameness, making it one of the most common ailments affecting feedlot and stocker calves. That's why a Kansas State University research team is working to reduce the percentage of cattle affected by bovine lameness. Three researchers -- David Anderson, professor of clinical sciences; Brad White, associate professor of clinical sciences; and Johann Coetzee, associate professor of clinical sciences -- are involved with bovine pain and welfare assessment at ...

BATON ROUGE – The Crab Nebula, once considered to be a source of energy so stable that astronomers used it to calibrate their instruments, is dimming. LSU physicists Mike Cherry, Gary Case and graduate student James Rodi, together with an international team of colleagues using the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, or GBM, on NASA's Fermi gamma-ray space telescope, discovered the anomaly. This revelation has proven astonishing for astronomers. The Crab Nebula, one of the most studied objects in the sky, is the wreckage of a star that exploded in 1054. Considered a cornerstone of ...

A research team from across the United States and Ecuador has pinpointed 1898 as the year the avipoxvirus, or avian pox, hit the Galapagos Islands and started infecting its birds. This estimation is vital to understanding avian diseases that affect today's Galapagos birds. The scientists' paper on the subject, "110 Years of Avipoxvirus on the Galapagos Islands," will be published on January 13 in PLoS ONE, an international, open-access science publication. The research team, led by Dr. Patricia Parker of the University of Missouri–St. Louis, examined 3,607 finches and ...

A new Chandra X-ray Observatory image of Messier 82, or M82, shows the result of star formation on overdrive. At a distance of only 12 million light years, M82 provides a unique cosmic laboratory for studying conditions similar to those that existed billions of years ago when stars were forming at a furious rate in most galaxies. M82 is a so-called starburst galaxy, where stars are forming at rates that are tens or even hundreds of times higher than in a normal galaxy. The burst of star birth may be caused by a close encounter or collision with another galaxy, which ...

DURHAM, N.C. — Researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute who have been studying prostate cancer cells for decades now think they know why PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels reflect cancer progression. "This is the first demonstration of a mechanism that explains why PSA is a bad thing for a tumor to produce," said senior author Sal Pizzo, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Duke Department of Pathology. "I am willing to bet there is also a connection in cancerous cell growth with this particular biological signaling mechanism happening in other types of cells." Using human ...

GALVESTON, TX – Drugs that pharmaceutical companies market most aggressively to physicians and patients tend to offer less benefit and more harm to most patients — a phenomenon described as the "inverse benefit law" in a paper from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Published online Thursday, Jan. 13 in the American Journal of Public Health, the article explores recent withdrawals of blockbuster drugs due to safety concerns and finds a clear pattern of physician-focused marketing tactics that ultimately exposed patients to a worsening benefit-to-harm ...

The American Heart Association today issued a call to action for the public, health professionals, the food industry and the government to intensify efforts to reduce the amount of sodium (salt) Americans consume daily. In an advisory, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, the association sets out the science behind the American Heart Association's recommendation for the general population, which is to consume no more than 1500 milligrams (mg) of sodium a day because of the harmful effects of sodium – elevated blood pressure and increased ...

New NASA satellite data indicate the current La Niña event in the eastern Pacific has remained strong during November and December 2010. A new Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite image of the Pacific Ocean that averaged 10 days of data was just released from NASA. The image, centered on Dec. 26, 2010, was created at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "The solid record of La Niña strength only goes back about 50 years and this latest event appears to be one of the strongest ones over this time period," said Climatologist Bill ...

The bodies of virtually all U.S. pregnant women carry multiple chemicals, including some banned since the 1970s and others used in common products such as non-stick cookware, processed foods and personal care products, according to a new study from UCSF. The study marks the first time that the number of chemicals to which pregnant women are exposed has been counted. Analyzing data for 163 chemicals, researchers detected polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), phenols, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), phthalates, ...

Improve your writing with our brief, informative articles on our Prompt Proofing blog. New posts published every Friday, so check back often! We have partnered with coupon site Social Shopper to offer a deal of the day, which will be available from Monday (January 17th). This offer will be sent to Social Shopper's Vancouver site subscribers, but we'll also post a link on our Facebook and Twitter pages on the day of the deal. If you receive emailed deals from Social Shopper, feel free to post a link to your Facebook page or Twitter and spread the word! What does ...

There is good news for all those MMA training enthusiasts who have wanted to get a grappling dummy but have been unable to do so owing to the inability to make a one time payment. And since the benefits of a good grappling dummy are many, this is one contraption that is definitely missed by any dedicated MMA training aficionado. MMA training equipment manufacturer, S.M.A.R.T. Athletics, Inc. has announced that their 'Submission Master' grappling dummy can now be bought by making three monthly payments. This offer, according to the management of the company, is in place ...

Investors search for diversification for a multitude of reasons. Stock specific risk can be diversified by increasing the number of holdings in order to mitigate the effects of a blow up in any particular stock. However, the greater challenge lies with eradicating systematic or market risk. Sidstone, Gray & Partners is a middle market Merger and Acquisition Advisory Firm focused on delivering successful results to our Clients. Our M&A professionals provide unbiased, qualified and technically sound advice to business owners on mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance ...

Little Trendstar, makers of uniquely designed kids' T-shirts, has recently received an exclusive invitation to showcase their line at the 2011 Pre-Golden Globes 'Boom Boom Room' celebrity event in Beverly Hills, CA on January 14th & 15th. Hosted by TV personality and fashion guru Jayneoni Moore, this gifting suite event welcomes A-list celebrity parents to connect with the hottest must-have clothing and products for babies and kids. Celebrities from past Boom Boom Room events include Tori Spelling, Jessica Alba, Halle Berry, Ali Landry, Denise Richards, Chris Noth, ...