News Articles

Asthma may be overdiagnosed in countries like Canada, suggests a longitudinal study of 540 obese and non-obese adults (http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg1121.pdf)that found approximately one third of Canadians with physician-diagnosed asthma do not have asthma when objectively tested.

Why do so many people give up on those New Year's resolutions to lose weight or curb luxury spending? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says it has to do with the way our goals intersect with our natures and it uncovers some important differences in the way people categorize "necessities" and "luxuries.".The study by authors Cait Poynor (University of Pittsburgh) and Kelly L. Haws (Texas A&M University) is one of the first to try to understand why some people have more trouble than others regulating behaviors.

In a study to be published next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists show that forests may influence the Earth's climate in important ways that have not previously been recognized.When sunlight reaches the Earth's surface it can either be absorbed and converted to heat or reflected back to outer space, where it doesn't influence the Earth's temperature. Scott Ollinger, a professor at the University of New Hampshire Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space and the department of Natural Resources and the Environment and colleagues have discovered that, of the total amount of sunlight that falls on forests, the fraction that gets reflected back to space is directly related to levels of nitrogen in their foliage.

Across Europe, we are transforming into a continent of content-craving 'connect-aholics', according to the findings of the AMD European Connectivity Study of over 5,000 online respondents. Sponsored by AMD, in conjunction with independent research company, YouGov, 77% of respondents said they could not live without daily access to the internet.
This was higher than any other item including access to a car (54%) and to a washing machine (61%).

A new Dutch invention makes it possible to reforest large desert and rocky areas in the coming years, they say. Experiments in the Sahara desert have shown that the WaterBoxx allows trees to grow under harsh conditions and can provide them with sufficient water.
The invention of the Dutch businessman and inventor Pieter Hoff has won the prestigious Beta Dragons Award during the annual Flying Dutchman 2008, Science Technology Summit in Amsterdam. A board of scientists and captains of industry proclaimed his design to be the most promising and innovative project.

A new study finds that breast cancer patients who participate in intervention sessions focusing on improving mood, coping effectively, and altering health behaviors live longer than patients who do not receive such psychological support. Published in the December 15, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that reducing the stress that can accompany cancer diagnosis and treatment can have a significant impact on patients' survival.

Researchers at the University of Utah are enrolling people in a new clinical trial that uses a patient's own stem cells to treat ischemic and non-ischemic heart failure.   The one-year Cardiac Repair Cell Treatment of Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy (IMPACT-DCM) study will look at the safety of injecting Cardiac Repair Cells (CRC) and their ability to improve heart function.

The temperature might not be the only thing plummeting this winter. Many people also will experience a decrease in their vitamin D levels, which can play a role in heart disease, according to a new review article in Circulation. Vitamin D deficiency results in part from reduced exposure to sunlight, which is common during cold weather months when days are shorter and more time is spent indoors. "Chronic vitamin D deficiency may be a culprit in heart disease, high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome," said Sue Penckofer, PhD, RN, study author and professor, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago. 

A study published today in the online advance edition of The American Journal of Psychiatry for the first time reveals shape differences in the brains of children with ADHD, which could help pinpoint the specific neural circuits involved in the disorder.

Did you go to basic training for the military?  If so, it is a special memory and you remember it vividly but you don't want to repeat it.   On the opposite end of the spectrum, the truly special positive experiences are not something we want to repeat either - we want to keep them as memories.So most people are unlikely to return to the place of their Honeymoon because they can't repeat it and don't want to diminish the memory. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says people tend to treat their memories of previous special experiences as assets to be protected.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people die from lung cancer than any other cancer type. In fact, according to 2004 data, more people died from lung cancer than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. Smoking is the biggest risk factor for developing lung cancer, even after quitting for long periods of time.   But only 10% of smokers get lung cancer and almost 50% of lung cancer cases involve former smokers.   

Construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States is in danger of coming to a standstill, partly due to the high cost of the requirement, whether existing or anticipated, to capture all emissions of carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas. But an MIT analysis suggests an intermediate step that could get construction moving again, allowing the nation to fend off growing electricity shortages using our most-abundant, least-expensive fuel while also reducing emissions.Instead of capturing all of its CO2 emissions, plants could capture a significant fraction of those emissions with less costly changes in plant design and operation, the MIT analysis shows.