Cash bonuses can help hotel operators lure back disappointed customers who were displaced during overbooking snags, according to Penn State researchers. In an experiment, participants said they were more satisfied with cash compensation than a voucher if they lost stays at a hotel due to overbooking, said Breffni Noone, assistant professor of hospitality management. "A lot of people in the hotel industry ask the question: 'What do I do to compensate customers who have been turned away because of overbooking?' " said Noone. "The results suggest cash-based overcompensation ...

Every year, 10,000 pregnant women and up to 200,000 newborn babies are killed by the malaria parasite. Doctors all around the globe have for years been looking in vain for a medical protection, and now researchers from the University of Copenhagen have found the biochemically weakness of the lethal malaria parasite, and will now start developing a vaccine to combat pregnancy related malaria. The malaria parasite travels via the spit of an infected mosquito to the liver of the new host, where it spreads to the red blood corpuscles and starts to reproduce itself. "Pregnant ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – People may judge the quality and qualifications of psychotherapists simply by what their offices look like, a new study suggests. After only viewing photos of offices, study participants gave higher marks to psychotherapists whose offices were neat and orderly, decorated with soft touches like pillows and throw rugs, and which featured personal touches like diplomas and framed photos. "People seem to agree on what the office of a good therapist would look like and, especially, what it wouldn't look like," said Jack Nasar, co-author of the study and ...

Government plans to divert more mentally ill people out of the criminal justice system and into mental health services are unlikely to be achieved, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London. In a study published in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, researchers estimate that there are over 8,000 prisoners with schizophrenia and other psychoses in prisons in England and Wales. If transferred to hospital, treatment for these patients would have to be in conditions of security. However, the sheer number of mentally ill prisoners would ...

Advanced hepatitis C patients with chronic liver disease may benefit from drinking coffee during treatment, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. Patients who received peginterferon plus ribavirin treatment and who drank three or more cups of coffee per day were two times more likely to respond to treatment than non-drinkers. "Coffee intake has been associated with a lower level of liver enzymes, reduced progression of chronic liver disease and reduced incidence of liver cancer," ...

Lowering phosphate intake in humans can reduce heart disease, according to research by experts at the University of Sheffield. This is the first time the connection between a high phosphate diet and atherosclerosis - the cause of heart disease - has been proven. The findings have been published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (2 June 2011). The research, which was funded by the Sheffield Kidney Association and the National Institute for Health Research, has shown that cholesterol deposits in the wall of arteries are increased following a higher ...

WASHINGTON – Women service members who experience combat are apparently as resilient as the men they serve alongside, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association. Men and women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 experienced very similar levels of combat-related stress and post-deployment mental health impacts during the first year following return from deployment, researchers reported in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published by APA. "Contrary to popular belief, women who go to war respond to combat trauma much like ...

This release is available in Spanish. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded studies of mammary gland development in laboratory rats fed blueberries or other foods of interest may aid breast cancer research. In an early study that has paved the way to follow-up experiments, Rosalia C. M. Simmen of the Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center (ACNC) in Little Rock, Ark., has determined that several indicators of rat mammary gland health were improved in the offspring (pups) of mothers (dams) that had been fed 5 percent blueberry powder in their rations during pregnancy ...

A new study by Dr. Zoë Lindo, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at McGill University, and Jonathan Whiteley, a doctoral student in the same department, shows that large, ancient trees may be very important in helping forests grow. These findings highlight the importance of maintaining the large old-growth trees in the coastal temperate rainforests that stretch from Southern Alaska to Northern California. Lindo's findings suggest that it is the interactions between old trees, mosses and cyanobacteria, which contribute to nutrient dynamics in a way that ...

Overweight carries a greatly increased risk of cirrhosis of the liver in men, reveals a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy. "Given the increasing problem of overweight in Sweden, there is reason to fear that more people will develop cirrhosis of the liver," says Jerzy Kaczynski, docent at the Sahlgrenska Academy and doctor at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. A group of researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy has studied the link between overweight and the risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver in middle-aged men. Published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, ...

If a person's blood becomes too thick it can damage blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attacks. But a Temple University physicist has discovered that he can thin the human blood by subjecting it to a magnetic field. Rongjia Tao, professor and chair of physics at Temple University, has pioneered the use of electric or magnetic fields to decrease the viscosity of oil in engines and pipelines. Now, he is using the same magnetic fields to thin human blood in the circulation system. Because red blood cells contain iron, Tao has been able to reduce a person's blood ...

The present rate of greenhouse carbon dioxide emissions through fossil fuel burning is higher than that associated with an ancient episode of severe global warming, according to new research. The findings are published online this week by the journal Nature Geoscience. Around 55.9 million years ago, the Earth experienced a period of intense global warming known as the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which lasted for around 170,000 years. During its main phase, average annual temperatures rose by around 5°C. Scientists believe that the warming may have been ...

A team of researchers from Columbia Engineering, the Italian National Research Council, Princeton University, University of Missouri, and University of Nijmegen (Netherlands) has developed an artificial semiconductor structure that has superimposed a pattern created by advanced fabrication methods that are precise at the nanometer scale. The pattern is similar to the honeycomb lattice that occurs in graphene. The device, called "artificial graphene" (AG), simulates quantum behavior of strongly interacting electrons. The research team sees the AG-device as a first step towards ...

Dolphins and porpoises use echolocation for hunting and orientation. By sending out high-frequency sound, known as ultrasound, dolphins can use the echoes to determine what type of object the sound beam has hit. Researchers from Sweden and the US have now discovered that dolphins can generate two sound beam projections simultaneously. "The beam projections have different frequencies and can be sent in different directions. The advantage is probably that the dolphin can locate the object more precisely", says Josefin Starkhammar, a newly examined doctor in Electrical ...

The European eel is on the way to disappearing for good. The species is critically endangered, and there are strong scientific arguments for suspending all fishing. Despite this situation, Swedish eel fishery is allowed to continue. Analysis of the eel management plan by the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment identifies clear shortcomings. It is unlikely that Sweden will meet the target that has been set for silver eels capable of migrating back to the Sargasso Sea so that they can contribute to regeneration. The recruitment of new annual cohorts of European ...

(Boston) - In what is believed to be the first published study on the topic, researchers affiliated with the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) believe female military service-members from Operation Enduring Freedom OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) may be as resilient to combat-related stress as men. These findings currently appear on-line in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Though the literature suggests that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of trauma exposure, most available studies on combat trauma have relied on samples in which women's combat ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — As automated traffic monitoring systems such as red light cameras keep a law enforcement "eye" on the streets across the country, many drivers accuse city governments of installing the monitors as a way to generate revenue. New research from the University of Missouri says the safety benefits of automated traffic monitoring systems far outweigh the potential for abuse. "A red light camera is not a panacea for traffic problems; it is a very effective tool for safe and efficient transportation," said Carlos Sun, an associate professor of civil engineering ...

Protein folding has nothing to do with laundry. It is, in fact, one of the central questions in biochemistry. Protein folding is the continual and universal process whereby the long, coiled strings of amino acids that make up proteins in all living things fold into more complex three-dimensional structures. By understanding how proteins fold, and what structures they are likely to assume in their final form, researchers are then able to move closer to predicting their function. This is important because incorrectly folded proteins in humans result in such devastating ...

BOULDER—New research focusing on the Houston area suggests that widespread urban development alters wind patterns in a way that can make it easier for pollutants to build up during warm summer weather instead of being blown out to sea. The international study, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), could have implications for the air quality of fast-growing coastal cities in the United States and other midlatitude regions overseas. The reason: the proliferation of strip malls, subdivisions, and other paved areas may interfere with breezes needed to ...

RICHLAND, Wash. -- By adding the right amount of heat, researchers have developed a method that improves the electrical capacity and recharging lifetime of sodium ion rechargeable batteries, which could be a cheaper alternative for large-scale uses such as storing energy on the electrical grid. To connect solar and wind energy sources to the electrical grid, grid managers require batteries that can store large amounts of energy created at the source. Lithium ion rechargeable batteries -- common in consumer electronics and electric vehicles -- perform well, but are too ...

An investigation by the Spanish Scientifc Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) reveals that the large impacts occurred during the last ice age maintain their effects on the current distribution of dung beetles of the scarab family (Scarabaeidae). The presence of these beetles in Europe seems to be more influenced by the climate of that glaciation than by the present one. The study, published yesterday in the journal Ecology Letters, analyzed the species richness and the structure of their communities throughout the different regions of the European ...

The world is a dazzling array of people, objects, sounds, smells and events: far too much for us to fully experience at any moment. So our attention may automatically be snagged by something startling, such as a slamming door, or we may deliberately focus on something that is important to us right then, such as locating our child among the happily screaming hordes on the school playground. We also know that people are hard-wired to seek out and pay attention to things that are rewarding, such as food when we are hungry, or water when we are thirsty. So what happens ...

Dr. Kotis, a Chicago plastic surgeon, made an appearance on the popular daytime television show The Doctors. He and the show's host, Dr. Drew Ordon, scrubbed in to demonstrate a cutting-edge procedure that can end the pain and limitations caused by rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. In the May 24th airing of The Doctors take on Chicago, Dr. Kotis performed a surgery to replace a thumb joint which has been worn down on a woman due to a terrible car accident. The damaged joint caused the bones in the thumb to rub together causing severe rheumatoid as well as osteoarthritis. ...

Metal-on-Metal ("MoM") hip replacements have come under scrutiny lately. On May 6, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration ordered 21 manufacturers of 145 different MoM hip replacements to study and report the outcomes of patients who have received these devices. Such a study is called a "postmarket surveillance study." Attorney Ron Brown, of St. Louis-based law firm Brown and Crouppen, welcomed the development saying, "I'm very glad to see the FDA's action on this." Recent years have seen growing concern in both the United States and ...

Whales are the earth's largest creatures, yet they are incredibly hard to study in the open ocean. For decades scientists have used boats, aircraft and even high cliffs to conduct visual surveys and gather data on whale and dolphin populations. Today, these live surveys form the basis of our knowledge of these marine mammals—what species live where in the world, which ones tend to live together and how abundantly they are represented. Now, recent work by paleobiologist Nick Pyenson of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, has revealed a second, equally ...