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From: Newsletter Phys.org <not-for-reply@physorg.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 3:42 AM
Subject: Science X Newsletter Tuesday, Apr 12
To: Pascal Alter <pascal.alter@gmail.com>
From: Newsletter Phys.org <not-for-reply@physorg.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 3:42 AM
Subject: Science X Newsletter Tuesday, Apr 12
To: Pascal Alter <pascal.alter@gmail.com>
Dear Pascal Alter,
Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for April 12, 2016:
- Differences in the importance of intentions and circumstances in moral judgments across diverse societies
- Astronomers discover two new stars in a distant open cluster
- Brain study suggests neural networks related to mathematics are different from those used for language
- Are they friends or not? Just a second of laughter can reveal relationship status, study finds
- Researchers create perfect nanoscrolls from graphene's imperfect form
- 1917 astronomical plate has first-ever evidence of exoplanetary system
- Scientists discover how the brain repurposes itself to learn scientific concepts
- Scientists find 'secret sauce' for personalized, functional insulin-producing cells
- Scientists reveal new target for anti-lymphangiogenesis drugs
- Milestone reached on path to new form of male contraception
- Stephen Hawking joins futuristic bid to explore outer space (Update)
- Biomarker discovery offers hope for new TB vaccine
- SpaceX's recovered rocket back at port after sea landing
- How the brain produces consciousness in 'time slices'
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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for April 12, 2016:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Radio-carbon study suggests Chauvet-Pont d'Arc cave art much older than thought- Differences in the importance of intentions and circumstances in moral judgments across diverse societies
- Astronomers discover two new stars in a distant open cluster
- Brain study suggests neural networks related to mathematics are different from those used for language
- Are they friends or not? Just a second of laughter can reveal relationship status, study finds
- Researchers create perfect nanoscrolls from graphene's imperfect form
- 1917 astronomical plate has first-ever evidence of exoplanetary system
- Scientists discover how the brain repurposes itself to learn scientific concepts
- Scientists find 'secret sauce' for personalized, functional insulin-producing cells
- Scientists reveal new target for anti-lymphangiogenesis drugs
- Milestone reached on path to new form of male contraception
- Stephen Hawking joins futuristic bid to explore outer space (Update)
- Biomarker discovery offers hope for new TB vaccine
- SpaceX's recovered rocket back at port after sea landing
- How the brain produces consciousness in 'time slices'
Nanotechnology news
![]() | Researchers create perfect nanoscrolls from graphene's imperfect form
Water filters of the future may be made from billions of tiny, graphene-based nanoscrolls. Each scroll, made by rolling up a single, atom-thick layer of graphene, could be tailored to trap specific molecules and pollutants in its tightly wound folds. Billions of these scrolls, stacked layer by layer, may produce a lightweight, durable, and highly selective water purification membrane.
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![]() | New hybrid inks permit printed, flexible electronics without sintering
Research scientists at INM have combined the benefits of organic and inorganic electronic materials in a new type of hybrid inks. This allows electronic circuits to be applied to paper directly from a pen, for example.
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![]() | Tumble-proof cargo transporter in biological cells
ver wondered how a molecular nanomotor works when repairing DNA or transporting material such as organelles in the cell? Typically, nanomotors move along biopolymer filaments to go about their duties in the cell. To do so, they use the energy of chemical reactions derived from their surroundings to propel themselves. In a new study published in EPJ E , Mu-Jie Huang and Raymond Kapral from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada show that small synthetic motors can attach to polymeric filaments and—unlike what previous studies showed—move along without changing either their shape or the direction in which they set out to move. This makes it possible to effectively deliver the substances they transport, such as anti-cancer drugs or anti-pollutants.
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Physics news
![]() | New method of detecting gravitational waves will bring them closer
Scientists at The University of Western Australia have discovered new technology which could mean that instead of being detected a billion light years away, gravitational waves may be identified throughout 'the observable universe'.
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![]() | Bringing the landslide laboratory to remote regions
It'd be hard to overstate how landslide-prone China's Loess Plateau is; thanks to millions of years' accumulation of the wind-deposited, highly-porous sediment from which the plateau takes its name, the region has been called the most erosion-prone on Earth.
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![]() | Will raindrops stick to a spider web's threads?
If you go out after a rain, you may notice spider webs glistening with water droplets. The soggy webs resemble human-made meshes for fog collection: They both have thin fibers that collect water from droplets in the air.
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![]() | Calcium isotope holds the secret to the mass of neutrinos
Scientists around the world are being kept in suspense by the negligible mass of neutrinos, subatomic particles that could be matter and antimatter at the same time. Now, researchers from the University of Tokyo, in collaboration with a Spanish physicist, have used one of the world's most powerful computers to analyse a special decay of calcium-48, whose life, which lasts trillions of years, depends on the unknown mass of neutrinos. This advance will facilitate the detection of this rare decay in underground laboratories.
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Earth news
![]() | Long-term study shows even protected tropical reserves are threatened by human encroachment
(Phys.org)—A small team of researchers from Mexico and the U.S. has found that protecting the remaining parts of the rain forest will require more than simply outlawing intrusion by mining or tree-cutting on islands of land. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group outlines the problems isolated patches of protected rain forests encounter and why those problem needs to be fixed or we risk losing what we are trying to protect.
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![]() | Oxygen key to containing coal ash contamination
As energy companies decide what to do with aging coal ash disposal facilities in North Carolina and across the nation, they may be overlooking a fundamental but potentially critical variable—oxygen.
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![]() | China report sounds alarm on groundwater pollution
More than 80 percent of China's underground water drawn from relatively shallow wells used by farms, factories and mostly rural households is unsafe for drinking because of pollution, a government report says.
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![]() | How Suomi NPP satellite orbits Earth and captures and transmits information home
These images illustrate how the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite, a joint NASA/NOAA mission launched in 2011, circles Earth from pole-to-pole in a sun-synchronous orbit, with passes crossing the equator at the same local time.
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![]() | Did the earth move for you? How GPS tracks the slow movements of a world in motion
If you feel that the earth beneath your feet is moving, it's because it is.
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![]() | Professor hails 'world-changing' technology proven to extend shelf life of fruit and veg
Trials of potentially 'world-changing' technology aimed at prolonging the life of fresh produce have proved successful.
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Expert urges caution on Great Lakes water diversion plan
A plan in Wisconsin to divert drinking water outside of the Great Lakes basin appears sound, but it could set a dangerous precedent, says Joseph F. Atkinson, director of the Great Lakes Program at the University at Buffalo.
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![]() | Ocean temperatures may hold key to predicting tornado outbreaks
Today, we predict tornado outbreaks up to seven days in advance. But, new research holds the promise that sea surface temperatures thousands of miles away may help us predict tornado outbreaks as soon as one to three months ahead.
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Thriving B.C. forests outpace pine-beetle CO2 losses by 2020
In a rare bit of good climate change news, scientists have found that trees are growing faster in British Columbia due to global warming, and this is starting to counter the carbon-loss impacts of the province's devastating mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreak.
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![]() | Economic development does mean greater carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions
Must greater prosperity necessarily lead to a greater carbon footprint and increased greenhouse gas emissions? "In theory, no, but in practice this seems to be the case", says researcher Max Koch from Lund University in Sweden. His study of 138 countries is the first ever to take a global approach to the connections between growth, prosperity and ecological sustainability. The study was recently published in the journal article Global Environmental Change.
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Environmental groups sue over pollution from airliners
A coalition of environmental groups sued federal regulators Tuesday over long-sought pollution standards for airliners and cargo planes.
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![]() | The fourth dimension
Remote sensing techniques facilitate observations and monitoring of ground displacements. In particular, space-borne Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) allows accurate measurements of ground deformation by properly analyzing multi-temporal satellite acquisitions over the region of interest.
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![]() | NASA eyes powerful storms in newborn Tropical Cyclone Fantala
Powerful thunderstorms circled the low-level center of newborn Tropical Cyclone Fantana in infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite.
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![]() | Greenpeace protests Polish logging of Europe's last primeval forest
Greenpeace activists Tuesday called on Poland's environment ministry to "save" the Bialowieza forest, Europe's last primeval woodland, by safeguarding it against planned large-scale logging.
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Astronomy & Space news
![]() | Astronomers discover two new stars in a distant open cluster
(Phys.org)—An international team of astronomers has recently detected two new so-called Be stars (non-supergiant stars with B spectral types and emission lines) residing in the open cluster NGC 6830, located some 5,300 light years away. The findings could shed new light on the presence of this type of star in old open clusters like NGC 6830. A paper detailing the discovery appeared online on Apr. 8 on the arXiv preprint server.
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![]() | 1917 astronomical plate has first-ever evidence of exoplanetary system
You can never predict what treasure might be hiding in your own basement. We didn't know it a year ago, but it turns out that a 1917 image on an astronomical glass plate from our Carnegie Observatories' collection shows the first-ever evidence of a planetary system beyond our own Sun. This unexpected find was recognized in the process of researching an article about planetary systems surrounding white dwarf stars in New Astronomy Reviews.
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![]() | Stephen Hawking joins futuristic bid to explore outer space (Update)
With famed physicist Stephen Hawking at his side, an Internet investor announced Tuesday that he's spending $100 million on a futuristic plan to explore far outside our solar system.
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![]() | SpaceX's recovered rocket back at port after sea landing
The rocket that made a historic landing at sea last week is back at its home port.
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![]() | New hypervelocity binary star challenges dark matter, stellar acceleration models
A team of astronomers at the Friedrich Alexander University led by Péter Németh has discovered a binary star moving nearly at the escape velocity of our galaxy. There are about two dozen so-called hypervelocity stars known to be escaping the galaxy. While all of them are single stars, PB3877 is the first wide binary star found to travel at such a high speed. Additionally, the results of the new study challenge the commonly accepted scenario that hypervelocity stars are accelerated by the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. The findings are being published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters today.
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![]() | NASA's Kepler spacecraft recovers from emergency mode, but what triggered it?
After a nail-biting few days, NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has recovered from emergency mode, officials announced Monday.
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![]() | Invisible NASA network transports satellite secrets to earth
Around the world in 80 days? When Jules Verne wrote the novel, that seemed an impossible speed, but almost 150 years later, a NASA team has reduced the trip to minutes for data coming from some of today's spacecraft.
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![]() | New, fast solar wind propulsion system is aim of study
Scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are set to use computer models to investigate the results of experimental testing at NASA'S Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville to develop an engineering tool to design missions using a new type of long-distance space propulsion.
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![]() | NRL engineers to lead payload development for robotic servicing of geosynchronous satellites
With its newly announced Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to field an on-orbit satellite servicing vehicle that would transform U.S. space operations in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). As the lead payload developer for the program, the Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST) at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is committed and remains focused on integrating and validating the disparate components required to perform the RSGS mission.
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Video: Tracking ice with Sentinel-1B
On April 22, the European Space Agency ESA will launch the Sentinel-1B satellite on top of a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.
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![]() | Putin plays up Russia-US cooperation in space
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday highlighted the ability of Russia and the United States to cooperate closely in space, despite all of the difficulties the two countries face on Earth.
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Technology news
![]() | SCUBA simulator advances the field of virtual reality while exploring the relationship between diving and disability
"My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly," Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote in his agonizingly beautiful account of living with severe disabilities, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Holding these contrasting images of physical submersion and mental liberation in your mind is a useful way to approach Dhruv Jain's virtual reality project, Amphibian. Jain, a master of science candidate in the MIT Media Lab's Living Mobile Group who is partially deaf, created this SCUBA diving simulator to help abled people understand in an artistic way the liberating effects of disabilities, which he likens to the experience of being underwater.
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![]() | HTC's new phone focuses on camera quality
HTC is promising a better camera—along with refinements in audio and design—as it unveils its latest flagship phone, the HTC 10.
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![]() | A flexible camera: A radically different approach to imaging
A team led by Shree K. Nayar, T.C. Chang Professor of Computer Science at Columbia Engineering, has developed a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with one or more conventional cameras.
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![]() | Facebook shows new ways to chat, stream video
Looking for new ways to engage with its audience, Facebook says people who use its Messenger chat service will soon be able to order flowers, shop for shoes and talk with a variety of businesses by sending them direct text messages.
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Autonomous vehicles cannot be test-driven enough miles to demonstrate their safety, report says
Autonomous vehicles would have to be driven hundreds of millions of miles and, under some scenarios, hundreds of billions of miles to create enough data to clearly demonstrate their safety, according to a new RAND report.
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![]() | Japan prepares for release of tritium from Fukushima plant
To dump or not to dump a little-discussed substance is the question brewing in Japan as it grapples with the aftermath of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima five years ago. The substance is tritium.
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![]() | Shifting the field of view—science stories in virtual reality
Since first donning a Virtual Reality (VR) headset only eight months ago, my personal relationship with this technology has progressed at lightning speed, way past the awkward getting-to-know-you phase.
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![]() | Ford Fusion autonomous research vehicles use LiDAR sensor technology to see in the dark
Recently, under the cover of night, a Ford Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicle with no headlights on navigated along lonely desert roads, performing a task that would be perilous for a human driver.
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Firefighters' positioning system may be used to monitor walking difficulty for elderly
A positioning system adapted for use in fire rescue operations will soon be tested on senior citizens in Sweden as a way to spot signs of early stage Parkinson's disease and other mobility problems.
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![]() | US companies may need to beef up data privacy – but only for Europeans
Though the recent Apple versus FBI case garnered greater media attention, a privacy discussion with more economic significance – to the tune of US$260 billion – is moving toward fruition with less public attention: the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.
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![]() | New transparent luminous pigments provide high temperature stable protection against counterfeiting
Research scientists at INM - Leibniz-Institute for New Materials have developed luminous particles that can also withstand high temperatures. When activated by UV light or x-rays, they glow orange red.
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Stephen Hawking's brief history on Chinese social media
Renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking entered the universe of Chinese social media with a big bang on Tuesday, with his first post to the country's Twitter-like Weibo service garnering him more than a million followers the same day.
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![]() | Spotify threatens to turn its back on Sweden over taxes
Swedish music streaming giant Spotify said Tuesday it would turn its back on Sweden in future expansions if the country failed to address high taxes, a housing shortage and an outdated school system.
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![]() | Adele has best-selling album as global music revenue rises (Update)
Adele had the world's best-selling album last year, a global smash that helped music revenues record their first significant growth since the dawn of the digital age two decades ago.
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![]() | Commonly used strategy for website protection is not waterproof
Cloud-based security providers commonly use DNS redirection to protect customers' websites. The success of this strategy depends on shielding the website's original IP address. Computer scientists from KU Leuven, Belgium, and digital research centre iMinds have now revealed that the IP address can be retrieved in more than 70% of the cases. This means that the DNS redirection security mechanism can easily be bypassed.
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Philippines probes hacking of poll agency ahead of election
Philippine authorities are investigating a computer security breach at the state election agency, officials said Tuesday, less than a month before the nation goes to the polls.
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![]() | Engineers develop solar cells with highest power conversion efficiency
Perovskite solar cells first appeared in 2009 with an efficiency of just 3.8%. With the outstanding photovoltaic properties, perovskite solar cell has become a subject of vigorous research for sustainable power generation, with researchers around the world finding new ways to increase its energy conversion efficiency. It has currently established itself as one of the most promising solar cell materials.
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Sorry kids, seniors want to connect and communicate on Facebook, too
Older adults, who are Facebook's fastest growing demographic, are joining the social network to stay connected and make new connections, just like college kids who joined the site decades ago, according to Penn State researchers.
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Open-source collaborative platform to collect content from over 350 institutions' archives
With the technical and financial capacity of any currently existing single institution failing to answer the needs for a platform efficiently archiving the web, a team of American researchers have come up with an innovative solution, submitted to the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and published in the open-access journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO).
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![]() | Uber reveals US law enforcement data queries
Uber said Tuesday it received more than 400 requests from US law enforcement agencies in the second half of 2015, and gave authorities some information in the vast majority of cases.
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![]() | Undergraduate team wins Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for gloves that translate sign language
Two University of Washington undergraduates have won a $10,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for gloves that can translate sign language into text or speech.
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![]() | Demand for the new Tesla is wild, but limited to tech fans
Demand for Tesla's new Model 3 has been eye-popping, with consumers pre-ordering about $13.7 billion worth of the electric sedans nearly two years before they go on sale.
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Ex-US scientist sentenced in attempted cyber-attack
A former Nuclear Regulatory Commission scientist has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for plotting a cyberattack on federal government computers.
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How to measure the quality of life in smart cities?
From pollution levels and the number of traffic accidents to safer public spaces and more efficient heating in buildings—to what extent can the smartness of a city be quantified? And is it possible to measure the quality of life for an urban area through numerical parameters?
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![]() | How a new wave of digital activists is changing society
Digital activism has transformed political protest in the last two decades. Smartphones and the internet have changed the way political events, protests and movements are organised, helping to mobilise thousands of new supporters to a diverse range of causes. With such activity becoming an everyday occurrence, new forms of digital activism are now emerging. These often bypass the existing world of politics, social movements and campaigning. Instead, they take advantage of new technologies to provide an alternative way of organising society and the economy.
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![]() | Cutting quality control costs down to size
Roll forming is an effective way to produce continuous strips of metal with a complex, constant profile. A family-owned company in Bavaria, data M Sheet Metal Solutions GmbH, is changing approaches to roll forming quality control.
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![]() | Researchers unite to address the problems that drones and other unmanned vehicles encounter in a harsh Arctic climate
Drones and other remote-controlled and autonomous vehicles face a series of challenges when deployed in harsh and cold environment. Cool humid air ices down wings, propellers and crucial sensors on aircraft, and low temperatures drain batteries. Satellite and mobile phone coverage is often inadequate in high and scarcely populated latitudes, making communication and data transfer difficult and/or highly expensive, and the magnetic pole is constantly moving, making several instruments less reliable in the polar region. Further, sea ice makes communication with underwater gliders and other underwater vehicles even more difficult and poses a hazard to surface vehicles.
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Comey: FBI, Apple court clash created unproductive 'emotion'
FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday he was glad a court fight in California over access to a locked iPhone had ended because it "was creating an emotion around the issue that was not productive," likening the emotion and passion around the discussion to the debate over gun control.
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Chemistry news
![]() | Research team studies the velvet effect of chocolate at the Alba Synchrotron Radiation Facility
Primarily used in gourmet products, the velvet effect comes from a chocolate coating that results in a smooth texture and refreshing mouthfeel. A research team from the University of Barcelona, along with chocolatier Enric Rovira, undertook a study to characterize the textures of the velvet effect in chocolate. The work examined the effect by means of experiments conducted at the Alba Synchrotron Radiation Facility and UB Scientific and Technological Centres (CCiTUB).
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New method to determine the content of inorganic arsenic in foodstuffs
A new European standard method to determine the content of inorganic arsenic in foodstuffs has been developed at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark. Inorganic arsenic is carcinogenic according to the World Health Organization, WHO. Being able to accurately measure the substance in different foods is necessary to ensure that the content is below the maximum levels recently set by the European Commission to protect consumers.
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![]() | Video: Better coffee through chemistry
It's one of the most popular beverages in the world, and many of us rely on it to stay awake every day. But not every cup of coffee is created equal.
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Biology news
![]() | Malaria—a new route of access to the heart of the parasite
Scientists have just identified an Achilles heel in the parasite that causes malaria, by showing that its optimum development is dependent on its ability to expropriate RNA molecules in infected cells – a host-pathogen interaction that had never previously been observed. Although the precise function of this deviation remains mysterious, these findings open new perspectives for the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents within the parasite. This study, performed by the CNRS Architecture et Réactivité de l'ARN laboratory (Strasbourg), in collaboration with the Malaria Infection and Immunity Unit at Institut Pasteur (Paris), is published in PNAS the week of 11 April 2016.
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![]() | NIH sequences genome of a fungus that causes life-threatening pneumonia
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, in collaboration with extramural organizations, have sequenced nearly the entire genome of human, mouse and rat Pneumocystis. This organism causes a life-threatening pneumonia in immunosuppressed hosts. Pneumocystis was one of the first infections that led to the initial recognition of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It has been responsible for thousands of deaths over the past 30 years and remains a significant risk in the HIV/AIDS population as well as in transplant recipients and other immunosuppressed patients. Findings were published in Nature Communications. NIH scientists collaborated with investigators from the Broad Institute and Leidos, Inc.
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![]() | Study highlights processes shaping species coexistence and potential impacts of deforestation
Białowieża Forest in Poland has been in the news lately due to the major destruction it is facing from potential deforestation. Preserved through the ages—first used as a royal game reserve, then later protected through national park initiatives and management—a movement is now underway to tap the forest for increased logging.
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![]() | Lemur extinctions 'orphaned' some Madagascar plant species
The extinction of several species of large lemurs in Madagascar has created isolated "orphaned" plant species that once depended upon the animals to eat and disperse their large seeds, a Yale-led survey has found.
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![]() | 'Genetic super switch' separates insect boys from girls and queens from the plebs
Social insects such as ants, bees and wasps appear to be blessed with a genetic 'super switch' that designates both gender and their status as either a queen or worker, scientists have discovered.
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![]() | Tropical birds develop 'superfast' wing muscles for mating, not flying
Studies in a group of tropical birds have revealed one of the fastest limb muscles on record for any animal with a backbone. The muscle, which can move the wing at more than twice the speeds required for flying, has evolved in association with extravagant courtship displays that involve rapid limb movements, according to a paper to be published in the journal eLife.
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![]() | Sexually transmitted infections, peer pressure may have turned humans into monogamists
Prehistoric humans may have developed social norms that favour monogamy and punish polygamy thanks to the presence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and peer pressure, according to new research from the University of Waterloo in Canada.
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![]() | Major advance in 'synthetic biochemistry' holds promise for industrial products, biofuels
UCLA biochemists have devised a clever way to make a variety of useful chemical compounds, which could lead to the production of biofuels and new pharmaceuticals.
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![]() | Giant python found on Malaysian building site
A quarter-tonne snake that was found nestling on a building site could be the longest ever captured in Malaysia, officials said Tuesday.
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![]() | Top predators play an important role in human-dominated ecosystems
Large carnivores such as brown bears or wolves—so-called top predators—play a crucial role in the regulation of wildlife populations even in human-dominated ecosystems. This is the result of a joint study by scientists of the Leuphana University Lueneburg, the Humboldt University Berlin and the Charles Sturt University and the Deakin University (both Australia), recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. That top predators are important for the regulation of the ecosystem in natural landscapes is well known.
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![]() | Uncovering the evolution of queen-worker ant differences
Queen and worker ants develop from the same sets of genes, but perform completely different ecological roles. How the same genes result in two types of individuals is an ongoing mystery. In the past, scientists have only studied a small number of ant species at a time to try to understand the nature of queen-worker differences. However, a team from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in tandem with the University of Helsinki and other collaborators from around the world, recently looked at a large data set with 16 species that provides insight into the differences between queen and worker ants.
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![]() | What can we learn from the farming insects?
Farming evolved independently in humans at least nine times. The practice was among the innovations that enabled complex civilizations to develop. But we weren't the first species to raise our own food: various leafcutter ants, termites, and beetles have been cultivating other organisms for millions of years.
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![]() | How microscopic algae are helping forensic teams catch criminals
From deserted fields and dark forests to murky rivers and concrete jungles, environments can leave traces of physical evidence on a criminal. This principle has been well known to crime scene investigators (both real and fictional) since the the late 1800s. However, figuring out what the most reliable pieces of evidence are – and how to best detect and analyse them – can be difficult.
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![]() | Effective nature conservation requires a focus on species and people
Protecting the habitats of wildlife such as meadow birds is a moral obligation that must be taken on by a rich country like the Netherlands. Otherwise, birds that have made their home here for millions of years will die out. And it isn't because these species are incapable of adaptation. A more important reason is the increasingly rapid homogenization of their habitat. In conservation, the support of nature users is indispensable. These statements are made by Professor David Kleijn in his inaugural speech as professor of Plant Ecology and Nature Management at Wageningen University on 7 April.
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New version of the Human Protein Atlas
Today, the 15th version of the Human Protein Atlas is launched. The new version includes data from different sources, which makes comparisons between tissue profiles on both the RNA and protein level possible.
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![]() | Single-molecule sequencing technology assists microbial DNA methylation study
Researchers sequenced 230 diverse archaeal and bacterial genomes to learn more about the roles DNA methylation plays in prokaryotes.
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![]() | Swarming red crabs documented on video
A research team studying biodiversity at the Hannibal Bank Seamount off the coast of Panama has captured unique video of thousands of red crabs swarming in low-oxygen waters just above the seafloor.
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![]() | Garden-care giant to drop chemicals linked to bee declines
Amid ominous warnings about threats to pollinators and the food crops they make possible, garden-care giant Ortho said Tuesday it will stop using a class of chemicals widely believed to harm the most important pollinators of all: bees.
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![]() | Study links fetal and newborn dolphin deaths to Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Scientists have finalized a four-year study of newborn and fetal dolphins found stranded on beaches in the northern Gulf of Mexico between 2010 and 2013. Their study, reported in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, identified substantial differences between fetal and newborn dolphins found stranded inside and outside the areas affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
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![]() | Antibiotic resistance genes increasing
Around the world, antibiotic use and resistance is increasing while the discovery of new antibiotics has nearly halted.
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![]() | Mapping software tracks threats to endangered species
Habitat mapping software and satellite imagery can help conservationists predict the movements of endangered species in remote or inaccessible regions and pinpoint areas where conservation efforts should be prioritized, a new Duke University-led case study shows.
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![]() | Research reveals trend in bird-shape evolution on islands
In groundbreaking new work, Natalie Wright, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Montana, has discovered a predictable trend in the evolution of bird shape.
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Institutional investors warn against antibiotics in meat, poultry
A group of institutional investors managing a combined $1 trillion on Tuesday called on restaurant chains to end the systematic use of antiobiotics in their meat and poultry supply chains.
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![]() | Is biodiversity research biased?
In 2012, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a comprehensive, multi-lateral treaty signed by 193 nations, established 20 biodiversity targets to coincide with the beginning of the UN Decade of Biodiversity. The goals of the collected targets were to address underlying drivers of biodiversity losses, to help safe-guard ecosystems, reduce direct pressures on biodiversity, preserve species and genetic diversity, enhance benefits from biodiversity and ecosystem services, and to enhance the implementation of conservation measures world-wide through capacity building.
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![]() | Long-term strategic planning can pay dividends for home gardeners and commercial growers
Growing fruits and vegetables can be a constant battle against pests, disease and weather.
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![]() | New technology could improve insect control in cotton
A new biotech trait currently in the development stage could provide improved control of thrips and plant bugs in cotton, according to researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.
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Medicine & Health news
![]() | Are they friends or not? Just a second of laughter can reveal relationship status, study finds
Hearing other people laugh together, even for just one second, can be enough information to gauge whether or not those people are friends, according to a UCLA study.
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![]() | Brain study suggests neural networks related to mathematics are different from those used for language
(Medical Xpress)—A pair of researchers with Université Paris-Sud and Université Paris-Saclay has found via fMRI human brain studies that the neural networks used to process mathematics are different from those that are used to process language. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Marie Amalric and Stanislas Dehaene describe experiments they conducted with volunteers willing to undergo fMRI scans while engaging in various tasks and what they found as a result.
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![]() | Differences in the importance of intentions and circumstances in moral judgments across diverse societies
(Medical Xpress)—Do all cultures place the same importance on a person's motives when making moral judgments? According to the "moral intent hypothesis" all societies consider a person's intent, motivation, and circumstances important when making moral judgments on his or her actions. However, most studies that confirm the moral intent hypothesis investigated Western, large-scale industrialized societies.
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![]() | Biomarker discovery offers hope for new TB vaccine
A team of scientists led by Oxford University have made a discovery that could improve our chances of developing an effective vaccine against Tuberculosis.
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![]() | Genetic link confirmed between DCIS and development of invasive breast cancer
Scientists funded by Breast Cancer Now have confirmed inherited genetic links between non-invasive cancerous changes found in the milk ducts – known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) – and the development of invasive breast cancer, meaning that a family history of DCIS could be as important to assessing a woman's risk as a history of invasive breast cancer.
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![]() | Scientists find 'secret sauce' for personalized, functional insulin-producing cells
Salk scientists have solved a longstanding problem in the effort to create replacement cells for diabetic patients. The team uncovered a hidden energy switch that, when flipped, powers up pancreatic cells to respond to glucose, a step that eluded previous research. The result is the production of hundreds of millions of lab-produced human beta cells—able to relieve diabetes in mice.
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![]() | Scientists discover how the brain repurposes itself to learn scientific concepts
The human brain was initially used for basic survival tasks, such as staying safe and hunting and gathering. Yet, 200,000 years later, the same human brain is able to learn abstract concepts, like momentum, energy and gravity, which have only been formally defined in the last few centuries.
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![]() | Scientists reveal new target for anti-lymphangiogenesis drugs
After an injury to tissues, such as in organ transplantation, the body grows new lymphatic vessels in a process known as lymphangiogenesis. A new study in Nature Communications reveals a mechanism involved in the regulation of this process, specifically in corneal transplants and infectious eye disease. The team, led by researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts, and Tufts Medical Center, successfully prevented corneal inflammation, a condition that adversely affects transplantation, by inhibiting the overgrowth of these lymphatic vessels in a mouse animal model.
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![]() | Milestone reached on path to new form of male contraception
Researchers studying strategies to develop a non-hormonal approach to male contraception have reached an important milestone in their work, discovering a way to produce a key enzyme found only in sperm in sufficient quantities that they can begin designing drugs to stop the sperm from swimming to the egg.
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![]() | How the brain produces consciousness in 'time slices'
EPFL scientists propose a new way of understanding of how the brain processes unconscious information into our consciousness. According to the model, consciousness arises only in time intervals of up to 400 milliseconds, with gaps of unconsciousness in between.
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![]() | How depression may compound risk of type 2 diabetes
Depression may compound the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in people with such early warning signs of metabolic disease as obesity, high blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels, according to researchers from McGill University, l'Université de Montréal, the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal and the University of Calgary.
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![]() | Mice engineered with rare kidney disease shed light on how cells repair broken DNA
Like jewels in a vault, our precious genetic material is stored in the nucleus of a cell—sequestered away from potentially damaging cellular components and toxins so that no harm can come to it. Yet over the course of a life moving through this world, our DNA does get damaged, and our cells have a host of complicated repair mechanisms to deal with such injuries.
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![]() | Lung ultrasound may be a safe substitute for chest X-ray when diagnosing pneumonia in children
Lung ultrasound has been shown to be highly effective and safe for diagnosing pneumonia in children and a potential substitute for chest X-ray, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Results are currently published in the medical journal Chest.
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![]() | Concussion can alter parent-child relationships
The incidence of concussion is particularly high in the preschool years - up to around 2% of children aged 0 to 5 years per year. A study by researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine mother-child research hospital (affiliated with the University of Montreal), recently published in the Journal of Neuropsychology, reveals the adverse effects of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on the quality parent-child relationships. "The young brain is particularly vulnerable to injury because the skull is still thin and malleable. In the months following the injury, one of the first visible signs of social difficulties in young children is a decline in their relationship with their parents," said Miriam Beauchamp a researcher at Sainte-Justine, professor of psychology at the University of Montreal and senior author of the study. Knowing that good parent-child relationships are synonymous with better social skills later in life, the researchers stress ! the importance for parents to monitor behaviour changes in their child in the weeks that follow the trauma and adjust accordingly during this period.
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![]() | Telomere length tied to higher myocardial infarction risk
(HealthDay)—Telomere length (TL) is associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI), according to a study published in the April 19 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
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![]() | Expert panel reaffirms daily aspirin's use against heart disease, colon cancer
(HealthDay)—People in their 50s who are at increased risk of heart disease should take a low-dose aspirin each day to reduce their risk of both heart disease and colon cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends.
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![]() | Excision margins don't impact melanoma recurrence, survival
(HealthDay)—Wider excision margins in thick cutaneous melanoma cases do not improve locoregional recurrence or melanoma-specific survival (MSS), according to research published online March 25 in Head & Neck.
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![]() | Guidance issued on use of direct oral anticoagulants in obese
(HealthDay)—Recommendations have been issued for the use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in obese patients; the guideline was published online March 22 in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
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Psyllium fiber found to reduce abdominal pain in children with IBS
'My stomach hurts!' It's probably the oldest trick in the book to try to get out of school, but for some children who have abdominal pain related to irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, the pain is real and often interferes with activities. A new study by researchers at the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital found that children with these symptoms who take psyllium fiber had a decrease in pain episodes. Their report appears today in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
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![]() | It's time to change the way we think about changing what people eat
The Chancellor's recent announcement about a tax on sugary drinks is a step in the right direction towards fighting obesity, but we will need to use lot of different approaches simultaneously to make big changes, writes Dr Jean Adams from the Centre for Diet & Activity Research, Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit.
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![]() | 'Parents know best about effects of video games on children'
A study has found that parents who reported playing video games with their children are about three times more likely to have a handle on the effects gaming have on young people as compared with adults who are not parents and those who have never played.
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![]() | New study links suicide with rates of gun ownership and how weapons are stored
If guns were less available, fewer people would succeed in killing themselves, even if many would seek alternative ways of trying, concludes Augustine Kposowa, sociology professor at the University of California, Riverside.
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![]() | Kids more active, less depressed when playgrounds include natural elements
Adding natural elements like sand, bricks and bamboo can transform a dull outdoor play space into an imaginative playground for children and even reduce depression signs, according to a new UBC study.
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The experimental diet that mimics a rare genetic mutation
With the help of a small stool, Mercy Carrion clambers onto an examination table. The obese 50-year-old woman stands just 115.6 cm (3'9.5'') tall. Despite being overweight, Mercy shows no sign of developing diabetes and has remarkably low blood pressure at 100/70. "That's why they don't care much about their weight," says her doctor, Jaime Guevara-Aguirre.
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![]() | Microfilter allows non-invasive diagnosis of fetal abnormalities
A team of scientists at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Institute of Microelectronics (IME) has fabricated a microchip that can filter fetal red blood cells from the mother's circulation. Retrieving these isolated fetal cells could allow the early diagnosis of fetal genetic abnormalities.
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![]() | Naloxone not enough to solve fentanyl crisis
Fentanyl has become a headline-grabbing public health crisis in Canada, but most notably in Alberta. From a handful of fentanyl-related deaths at the start of the decade, the number of fatal overdoses attributed to the highly toxic synthetic opioid rose to 272 in 2015, according to Alberta Health. Hakique Virani says the actual number may be even higher, and doesn't account for all opiate-related deaths in Alberta last year.
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High-quality protein essential for optimal growth, development and health in humans
Contrary to recent reports that certain meat protein is bad for you, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research Faculty Fellow scientist has found adequate consumption of high-quality protein is essential for optimal growth, development and health in humans.
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How sleepiness affects young daredevils' risky behaviour
Risky behaviours such as dangerous driving, violence, and substance use are some of the leading contributors to rates of injury and death in young adults aged 18-25 and a QUT sleep researcher wants to find out if too little sleep is partly to blame for their daredevil behaviour.
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![]() | Personality may dictate how distracted you are while driving
Extraverted older adults and conscientious, curious teens may be more likely to engage in risky driving behavior, while agreeable teens are less likely to drive distracted, according to new research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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![]() | How narcissistic perfectionists hurt those around them
Sometimes, we throw around the word "perfect" so often that the list of things to be "perfect" at can feel endless: be the perfect parent, like the one seen on the mommy blog; be the perfect manager, like the ones who inspire teams to overcome any challenge; be the perfect party host, so friends will remember the occasion for years to come.
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![]() | Researchers identify genetic associations of neuroticism
Neuroticism, a personality trait related to depression, anxiety and even heart disease, can be linked to nine new distinct gene-associations according to international research led by the University of Glasgow.
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Key switch in the immune system regulated by splicing
The protein MALT1 is an important switch in immune cells and affects their activity. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München report in Nature Communications that this activation is not always equally strong. Through alternative splicing, two variants of the protein may arise which have a stronger or weaker effect on the immune system. Understanding this process is important for the pharmacological use of MALT1.
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Patients with learning disabilities less likely to be diagnosed with cancer
Coronary heart disease and cancer rates among people with learning disabilities are nearly a third lower than the general population, says new research.
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Mathematics to fight cancer
Mathematicians and physicians at the University of Bonn have developed a new model for immunotherapy of cancer. The method could help to develop new treatment strategies and to understand why some approaches do not work with certain tumors. The study is now appearing in the technical journal Scientific Reports.
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![]() | The science of hugs and why they (mostly) feel so good
"Hugging it out" is often touted as a good way to solve a problem. Now a group of Europeans have decided that that'sall Britons need to convince them to stay in the EU. Their #hugabrit campaign, in which people send in pictures of themselves hugging a Briton, aims to launch "a lovebomb" across the Channel.
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When do allergy shots become necessary?
The beauty of spring is upon us, but as lovely as it may be to look at, it can wreak havoc in your nose, throat and eyes. The higher the pollen count, the greater the misery.
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Living with adversity—what Tupac and Eminem can tell us about risk factors for mental health
Hip-hop artists Tupac and Eminem are among the most iconic music artists of the past two decades, and as Dr Akeem Sule and Dr Becky Inkster, co-founders of HIP-HOP-PSYCH, write, their lyrics can provide a valuable insight into the lives of some of the people most at risk of developing mental health issues.
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![]() | Improving treatments for post-Ebola syndrome sufferers
Researchers from the University of Liverpool and the King's Sierra Leone Partnership are to present new findings into post-Ebola syndrome at a major European conference this week.
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![]() | Southern California's reduction in smog linked to major improvement in children's health
A USC study that tracked Southern California children over a 20-year period has found they now have significantly fewer respiratory symptoms as a result of improved air quality.
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Multifaceted quality improvement intervention does not reduce risk of death in ICUs
Implementation of a multifaceted quality improvement intervention with daily checklists, goal setting, and clinician prompting did not reduce in-hospital mortality compared with routine care among critically ill patients treated in intensive care units (ICUs) in Brazil, according to a study appearing in the April 12 issue of JAMA.
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Doctors often overestimate promise of newly approved drugs
(HealthDay)—Use of the word "breakthrough" in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's expedited approval process could mislead doctors about the new drugs' actual benefits, researchers warn.
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![]() | Misregulation of DNA building blocks associated with the development of colon cancer
When cells divide, the proper balance between the four DNA building blocks is required in order for the DNA to be copied without the introduction of potentially harmful mutations. Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden have now shown a connection between levels of DNA building blocks - dNTPs - and colon cancer. This discovery has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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![]() | Children of older mothers do better
Children of older mothers are healthier, taller and obtain more education than the children of younger mothers. The reason is that in industrialized countries educational opportunities are increasing, and people are getting healthier by the year. In other words, it pays off to be born later.
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Researchers find new clue in lupus autoantibody production
A signaling molecule called interferon gamma could hold the key to understanding how harmful autoantibodies form in lupus patients. The finding could lead to new treatments for the chronic autoimmune disease, said researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.
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![]() | Psychology researchers find that dopamine genes could shine a light on early communication
University of Miami College of Arts & Sciences psychology researchers are searching for early markers of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previously, UM researchers published a study predicting ASD symptoms from children's behavior in the first year of life. Infants who demonstrated less initiating joint attention, using eye contact to share an experience with another person, tended to have higher levels of autism symptoms at age three.
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Prevalence of homosexuality in men is stable throughout time since many carry the genes
Around half of all heterosexual men and women potentially carry so-called homosexuality genes that are passed on from one generation to the next. This has helped homosexuality to be present among humans throughout history and in all cultures, even though homosexual men normally do not have many descendants who can directly inherit their genes. This idea is reported by Giorgi Chaladze of the Ilia State University in Georgia, and published in Springer's journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Chaladze used a computational model that, among others, includes aspects of heredity and the tendency of homosexual men to come from larger families.
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![]() | More blood vessels in adipose tissue may alleviate type 2 diabetes
Researchers at Wihuri Research Institute and University of Helsinki, Finland, in collaboration with scientists from Vanderbilt and Groningen Universities used recombinant gene transfer technologies to discover a fine-tuning mechanism that can be used to increase the density of blood vessels in adipose tissue. This prevented or even reversed the progression towards type 2 diabetes in animal models. The study was published by Cell Metabolism.
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Coordinated response could reduce spread of emerging superbug in health facilities
A simulation of how the so-called "superbug" carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) might spread among health care facilities found that coordinated efforts prevented more than 75 percent of the often-severe infections that would have otherwise occurred over a five-year period.
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Liver disease risk increased by type 2 diabetes, study finds
People with type 2 diabetes are at greater risk of serious liver disease than those without the condition, research has shown.
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For kids raised in stable families, no difference in well-being with same-sex versus different-sex parents
Children raised by same-sex female parents with a stable family life show no difference in general health, emotional difficulties, coping and learning behavior, compared to children of different-sex parents in similarly stable relationships, concludes a study in the April Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
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![]() | An invisible system to rescue the heart
Heart failure affects over one million people in France. Although the blood system is the first to have been explored for the purpose of improving heart function, a study by Inserm has revealed the potential of a secondary system that had previously received scant attention. The researchers analysed the heart lymphatic system in an animal model. They showed that this system was highly impaired following a myocardial infarction. Using a biotherapy based on the injection of innovative microparticles, they succeeded in regenerating lymphatic vessels in a targeted manner. This treatment promotes lymphatic drainage, thus limiting post-infarct oedema and inflammation. Heart function is thereby improved.
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UI researchers find benefits to using telehealth with ASD families
Telemedicine - connecting health care providers and patients via computer or smart phone for diagnosis and treatment—has been making it easier, and more cost-effective, to "see" the doctor. Using a camera-enabled computer or smart phone, patients with common health concerns can get some diagnoses without leaving their homes. Emergency room doctors and nurses are able to communicate with their peers in larger trauma centers via computer, as well.
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![]() | Single-cell analysis of embryos reveals mis-segregation of parental genomes
Single-cell embryos contain a set of maternal and paternal chromosomes, and as the embryo grows, daughter cells receive a copy of each. In a study published online today in Genome Research, researchers have discovered errors during the earliest stages of embryonic development can lead to entire sets of maternal and paternal chromosomes segregating into different cells, resulting in chimeric embryos.
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Early treatment for post-traumatic stress accelerates recovery but does not sustain it
The majority of people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recover after early treatment—but a substantial number still suffer for years after a traumatic event even with early clinical interventions, according to a study publishing online April 12, 2016 in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
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International college students are less likely to experience violent crimes
International students attending universities in the United States, particularly females, may be less at risk for violent, non-sexual victimization than their domestic counterparts, due, in part, to their choices in lifestyles and activities, new research suggests.
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Mobile phone surveillance could help tackle rabies
A mobile-phone-based system for rabies surveillance in Tanzania is demonstrating huge potential for mobile technologies to improve public health service delivery, especially in resource-poor settings, according to a new article in PLOS Medicine by Katie Hampson from the University of Glasgow, UK, and colleagues.
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![]() | First description of 2015 Zika virus outbreak in Rio de Janiero
Since the recent link to severe neurological defects in infants born to mothers infected during pregnancy, Zika virus (ZIKV) has become a public health and research priority. A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases reports details from the 2015 Zika outbreak in Rio de Janeiro—the first with a high proportion of cases confirmed by molecular diagnosis—and proposes changes to the current diagnostic criteria for ZIKV disease.
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![]() | Mobility plays important role in development for toddlers with disabilities
Typical toddlers simultaneously spend about three hours a day in physical activity, play and engagement with objects such as toys, while their peers with mobility disabilities are less likely to engage in all of those behaviors at the same time, new research from Oregon State University shows.
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Over-the-counter drug may reverse chronic vision damage caused by multiple sclerosis
A common antihistamine used to treat symptoms of allergies and the common cold, called clemastine fumarate, partially reversed damage to the visual system in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in a preliminary study released today that will be presented today at the American Academy of Neurology's 68th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada, April 15 to 21, 2016.
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B-School innovation professor discovers pathway between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease
In a new paper published by The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Professor Melissa Schilling, a strategy and innovation expert at the NYU Stern School of Business, uncovers a surprising new connection between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease: hyperinsulinemia, which is most often caused by prediabetes, early or undiagnosed diabetes, or obesity, is responsible for almost half of all cases of Alzheimer's disease.
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Researchers discover liver metastases have different radiation sensitivities based on primary tumor histology
Radiation is a commonly used therapeutic option to treat liver metastases, with the majority of tumors maintained under control after one year. However, some patients do not respond as well to radiation treatment, and the factors that predict patient outcomes are unclear. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers report that liver metastases have different sensitivities to radiation therapy based on the location of the primary tumor.
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Strategies and milestones for Alzheimer's patient and caregiver support outlined
The National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) was signed into law in 2011. Over the past five years milestones have been identified to meet the plan's biomedical research goal. However, similar milestones have not been created for the goals on patient care and caregiver support.
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Healthcare workers' radiation exposure tied to range of health problems
Healthcare professionals performing x-ray guided cardiovascular procedures may be at higher risk for health problems including orthopedic problems, cataracts, skin lesions and cancers, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.
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![]() | Iodine-125 interstitial implant feasible for prostate cancer
(HealthDay)—Iodine-125 permanent interstitial implantation is associated with long-term, biochemical control of localized prostate cancer, according to a study published online March 28 in the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology.
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![]() | Teenage girls now try alcohol before boys do: study
(HealthDay)—It's probably not a milestone that will do many feminists proud, but teenage girls in the United States now start to drink alcohol sooner than boys do, a new study shows.
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![]() | New-onset A-fib post acute MI ups complications, readmission
(HealthDay)—New-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is strongly tied to in-hospital complications and higher short-term readmission rates, according to a study published in the April 15 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.
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![]() | Hospice care doesn't up costs for nursing home decedents
(HealthDay)—For long-stay nursing home (NH) decedents, use of hospice does not increase Medicare costs in the six months before death, according to a study published online April 5 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
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Tackling obesity needs all of us, not some of us
One of the most important issues facing public health today is obesity. Worldwide, approximately 30% of adults are obese, and costs around $2 trillion annually. A health concern with complex determinants and many intertwined causes, there's no single magic bullet solution to the rising prevalence of obesity. A new report by the McKinsey Global Institute studied 74 interventions to see what was effective. They studied 74 interventions that target obesity, which range from subsidizing school meals, adding calorie and nutrition labels, as well as restrictions on advertising high-calorie food and drinks.
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Congo records 21 yellow fever deaths
The World Health Organization says yellow fever has killed 21 people in Congo, with some of the cases linked to an outbreak first reported in neighboring Angola in December last year.
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Boston Children's Hospital launches cloud-based education on Amazon Alexa-enabled devices
Through a new skill created for Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, parents will now be able to ask Alexa a variety of questions around fever and other common symptoms. The 'KidsMD™' Alexa skill was developed by the Innovation & Digital Health Accelerator (IDHA) team at Boston Children's Hospital and launched today.
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Marijuana legalisation debate fires up in France
French politicians across the board on Tuesday slammed a Socialist minister's call to legalise marijuana, re-igniting the debate in a country where cannabis use is common.
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Older women, especially blacks, receive targeted breast cancer treatment at low rates
The advent of targeted drugs for a specific type of breast cancer - HER2 positive - has dramatically improved survival rates for women with the disease. But a study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center reveals low rates of use of a targeted drug among older women with early-stage breast cancer of this type, and even lower rates for older black women.
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![]() | Surgery begins to separate infant conjoined twins in Texas
Surgery has started in Texas to separate two 10-month-old sisters born conjoined below the waist.
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![]() | Potential role for vaccine in malaria elimination
Although the World Health Organization decided not to recommend the use of RTS,S/AS01, the most advanced malaria vaccine candidate that is in development, in infants within the Expanded Programme of Immunisations (EPI), termination of further development of RTS,S/AS01 would be a loss for malaria elimination efforts according to Roly Gosling of the UCSF Global Health Group's Malaria Elimination Initiative and Lorenz von Seidlein of the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Thailand.
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Ergonomics study finds users need different setups when standing at a computer workstation
Recent studies have suggested that sitting at the computer all day can negatively affect your health. Sit-stand computer workstations are intended to provide a healthier and more comfortable work environment. But how do you find the best setup of workstation components for a standing workstation? And should it be the same as the setup you use when you're sitting down?
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Other Sciences news
![]() | Radio-carbon study suggests Chauvet-Pont d'Arc cave art much older than thought
(Phys.org)—A long-term study by an international team of researchers has led to findings that suggest drawings in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc cave are approximately 10,000 years older than has been previously thought. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes their study and the timeline of the cave they were able to build.
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![]() | A 3,800-year journey from classroom to classroom
Thirty-eight hundred years ago, on the hot river plains of what is now southern Iraq, a Babylonian student did a bit of schoolwork that changed our understanding of ancient mathematics. The student scooped up a palm-sized clump of wet clay, formed a disc about the size and shape of a hamburger, and let it dry down a bit in the sun. On the surface of the moist clay the student drew a diagram that showed the people of the Old Babylonian Period (1,900–1,700 B.C.E.) fully understood the principles of the "Pythagorean Theorem" 1300 years before Greek geometer Pythagoras was born, and were also capable of calculating the square root of two to six decimal places.
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![]() | The six elements of an effective apology, according to science
There are six components to an apology - and the more of them you include when you say you're sorry, the more effective your apology will be, according to new research.
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![]() | New hypothesis explains how human ancestors used fire to their advantage
Fire, a tool broadly used for cooking, constructing, hunting and even communicating, was arguably one of the earliest discoveries in human history. But when, how and why it came to be used is hotly debated among scientists.
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![]() | Using new models and big data to better understand financial risk
The financial crisis of 2008, which saw the failure of major investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, and the subsequent government bailout of insurance giant American International Group (AIG), had a ripple effect around the globe. How did America's housing collapse lead to the downfall of these institutions? And why did that, in turn, translate into a severe economic downturn?
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![]() | Combating bullies in the online playground
Bystanders who see school-yard bullying can intervene and stop it in about 10 seconds but when aggression moves online, young cyber peer groups become unsure of what to do.
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![]() | Do your politics make you happy?
U.S. election fever is running hotter than ever, and the presidential candidates are busy making big promises, hoping to convince voters that their approach is best.
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![]() | Sociologist explores 'the hidden literature of shame'
Shame shaming. Is that even possible?
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To exit prostitution, courts and safety are key
Raped as a child, Gwen cycled in and out of jail and sex work for more than 30 years, abusing drugs and battling anorexia.
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![]() | Case study investigates the strategic use of roadmaps within companies
In cooperation with TIM Consulting, Fraunhofer IAO conducted an online survey from July to September 2015 on the use, challenges and success factors of roadmaps in everyday company operations. An excerpt of its key findings is given in a publicly available infographic.
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New study on the grammar of subclauses in historical English
When do English speakers say whether that will happen is unknown and when do they say it is unknown whether that will happen? Looking at, among other things, medieval homilies and early modern letter correspondence, a recently published dissertation at the University of Gothenburg shows how clausal arguments, and in particular clausal subjects, have been expressed at different points in time in the history of English.
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