One of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang contain so much dust. The leading hypothesis is that supernovae, stars that explode at the end of their lives, contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon.
A couple's sexual orientation determines whether or not they prefer to adopt a boy or a girl. Gay men are more likely to have a gender preference for their adopted child whereas heterosexual men are the least likely. What's more, couples in heterosexual relationships are more likely to prefer girls than people in same-gender relationships, according to Dr. Abbie Goldberg from Clark University in the US. These couples also have very different reasons for their preferences, depending on their sexuality. These findings (1), from the first study to compare the child gender preferences of prospective adoptive parents according to their sexuality, are published online in Springer's journal Sex Roles.
Michael Avidan, George Mashour and David Glick highlight the serious issue of awareness during anaesthesia in a recent review published by F1000 Medicine Reports.
Consciousness during general anaesthesia is an extremely distressing condition leading to post-operative psychological trauma and contributes towards patients' fear of surgery. Dr Avidan, a member of Faculty of 1000 Medicine and a leading authority on Anaesthesia and Pain Management, writes that intra-operative awareness with subsequent recall is surprisingly common, affecting around 1 in 500 surgical cases. These appear to be mostly preventable.
FAIRFAX, Va.—Due to regional conflicts across the globe, such as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism, women are being deployed overseas in greater numbers than ever before. Women constitute approximately 16 percent of the 3.5 million members of the U.S. armed forces and 10 percent of present forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Although separation of a service member from their family is always a hardship, for mothers of adolescent children, deployment comes at even more of a personal sacrifice. A recent study completed by George Mason University researcher Mona Ternus found that a woman's military deployment affects her health as well as that of her adolescent children.
Life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia can be a consequence of myocarditis – an inflammation of the cardiac muscle that can be caused by the Coxsackievirus. In mice, Dr. Yu Shi, Chen Chen, and Professor Michael Gotthardt of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now abolished the infection by blocking the receptor which is required for virus entry. "We did not detect a single cardiomyocyte that was infected by the virus. Inflammation of the heart muscle associated with this virus infection did not develop," Dr. Shi said. (Journal of American College of Cardiology, 2009; 53:1219-1226, doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2008.10.064).*
Cincinnati, OH, April 2, 2009--Little is known about the long-term effects of the death of a child in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on survivor siblings. These siblings may encounter unforeseen emotional difficulties and developmental consequences that can occur whether the siblings are born before or after the infant's death. A new study soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics explores the psychological and emotional issues related to siblings of children who died in the NICU.
Some of the symptoms of the autistic condition Asperger Syndrome, such as a need for routine and resistance to change, could be linked to levels of the stress hormone cortisol, suggests new research led by the University of Bath.
Normally, people have a surge of this hormone shortly after waking, with levels gradually decreasing throughout the day. It is thought this surge makes the brain alert, preparing the body for the day and helping the person to be aware of changes happening around them.
However, a study led by Dr Mark Brosnan and Dr Julie Turner-Cobb from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, and Dr David Jessop from the University of Bristol, has found that children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) do not experience this surge.
Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., Investigator, has joined with a team of colleagues to propose an operational definition of "Epigenetics" — a rapidly growing research field that investigates heritable alterations in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in DNA sequence.
Dr. Shilatifard's publication appeared today in Genes and Development and resulted from a meeting on December 7-10, 2008 that he co-organized at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York to discuss aspects of epigenetic control in genomic function and to develop a consensus definition of "epigenetics" for consideration by the broader research community.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The only available screening tests for ovarian cancer fail to catch early signs of the disease and often result in unnecessary surgery, said researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The new study looked at a screening regimen that combines ultrasound and a blood test for CA-125, a marker for women's cancer.
Results showed the combo screening caught 70 percent of the ovarian cancers in their late stages, when effective treatment options are limited.
VERNON – Much of Texas' wheat may be grazed as a part of a dual-use crop. But many fields are still prepared using conventional tillage, which may not efficiently capture rainfall – a key to economic success in a semi-arid environment, said a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.
Dr. Paul DeLaune, environmental soil scientist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Vernon, said tillage operations can increase soil compaction, thereby increasing runoff.
Each year, depending on market conditions, up to 75 percent of wheat planted in Texas may be grazed, and of that, 95 percent is under conventional tillage, DeLaune said.
Scientists have come to agree that different environments impact the evolution of new species. Now experiments conducted at the University of British Columbia are showing for the first time that the reverse is also true.
Researchers from the UBC Biodiversity Research Centre created mini-ecosystems in large aquatic tanks using different species of three-spine stickleback fish and saw substantial differences in the ecosystems in as little as 11 weeks.
Their findings are published in today's Advanced Online Publication of the journal Nature.
There are Web cams focused on falcons, ferrets and fish, virtual tours of the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, and robotic dogs, seals and even dinosaurs. But what about the real deal: observing animals in their natural habitat, hiking the John Muir Trail or a playing with a live pet?
Modern technology increasingly is encroaching into human connections with the natural world and University of Washington psychologists believe this intrusion may emerge as one of the central psychological problems of our times.
"We are a technological species, but we also need a deep connection with nature in our lives," said Peter Kahn, a UW developmental psychologist and lead author of a new study exploring how humans connect with nature and technological nature.
Boulder, CO, USA - The April Geological Society of America e-journal, GEOSPHERE, is now online. This month's papers investigate possible tectonic cycling of serpentized peridotites in the Mariana forearc; links between the Saddle Mountain and Seattle faults in the Olympic Peninsula, USA, as evidenced in maps created by airborne and marine geophysical methods; the presence of aquifers and oil and gas reservoirs within carbonate rock; and the depths of Earth using seismic reflection profiles and deep well drilling.
