- ScienceDaily
- 12/9/18 20:56
The orientation of a diagram on the page of a textbook may seem inconsequential, but it can have a significant impact on a reader's ability to comprehend the information as presented, according to a team of researchers.
The orientation of a diagram on the page of a textbook may seem inconsequential, but it can have a significant impact on a reader's ability to comprehend the information as presented, according to a team of researchers.
A new study of head and neck cancers finds that combinations of biomarkers are better than DNA alone in determining whether the human papillomavirus is involved. That's important because people with HPV-caused cancers are likely to fare much better than people whose cancer came from causes like smoking. Reliably assessing HPV's presence could prevent...
Human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA positivity alone, particularly when assessed using polymerase chain reaction methods, is a poor biomarker for HPV-driven head and neck cancers, according to two new studies.
A dictionary of thousands of words chronicling the everyday lives of people in ancient Egypt — including what taxes they paid, what they expected in a marriage and how much work they had to do for the government — has been completed. The ancient language is Demotic Egyptian, a name given by the Greeks to denote it was the tongue of the demos, or common...
Proteins accelerate certain chemical reactions in cells by several orders of magnitude. The molecular mechanism by which the Ras protein accelerates the cleavage of the molecule GTP and thus slows cell growth is described by biophysicists. Using a combination of infrared spectroscopy and computer simulations, they showed that Ras puts a phosphate chain under tension to such an extent that a...
More than one-third of young adults who reported being victims of dating violence as teenagers had two or more abusive partners, a new study suggests.
At first glance, the northern muriqui monkey is a prime conservation success story. These Brazilian primates are critically endangered, but in the past 30 years a population on a private reserve has grown from just 60 individuals to some 300, now comprising almost a third of the total remaining animals. A recent analysis of the factors contributing to this population's tremendous growth reveals...
Scientists specializing in neurology, cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy have discovered abnormalities in bone and bone marrow in rats undergoing chronic lack of sleep. They discovered abnormalities in serum markers of bone metabolism in sleep-deprived rats, which led them to conduct direct measurements of bone parameters; this time in rats experiencing recurrent sleep restriction during a...
Pancreatic cancer is highly lethal and difficult to detect early. In a new study, researchers report that people who had high levels of antibodies for an infectious oral bacterium turned out to have double the risk for developing the cancer. High antibody levels for harmless oral bacteria, meanwhile, predicted a reduced pancreatic cancer...
For six weeks the rover "Curiosity" is working on Mars. NASA also plans to send humans to Mars within the next 20 years. On the flight and during the stay on Moon or Mars the astronauts have to be protected against long exposure to cosmic radiation that might cause cancer. Scientists are testing whether Moon and Mars regolith can be used to build shieldings for ground...
During the first six months of 2012, sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem were the highest ever recorded. The annual 2012 spring plankton bloom was intense, started earlier and lasted longer than average. This has implications for marine life from the smallest creatures to the largest marine mammals like whales. Atlantic cod continued to shift northeastward from...
The jokes, critiques and issues raised by late-night comedy television hosts may have a significant impact on how much people talk about the upcoming political election, based on a new study.
The status of a romantic relationship could be in jeopardy if the couple or an individual in the relationship are frequent television watchers, according to a new study.
A professor of communication is exploring the effects of mass media on health behavior and social policy. He welcomes the move by McDonald’s to post calorie information, but calls on the fast food giant to lead the way toward changes that will have broader health benefits.
Scholars examined whether women speak less than men when a group collaborates to solve a problem. In most groups that they studied, the time that women spoke was significantly less than their proportional representation – amounting to less than 75 percent of the time that men spoke. The disparity vanished when groups followed a unanimous voting...
An interdisciplinary team of scientists from seven US institutions says a disregard of three critical protocols, including sorting samples by size, explains why a group challenging the theory of a North American meteor-impact event some 12,900 years ago failed to find iron- and silica-rich magnetic particles in the sites they...
Investigating the effects of prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation, researchers have demonstrated the ability of single walled carbon nanotube transistors to survive the harsh space environment.
In a new study, psychologists at Brown University and the University of Colorado found that while some people require a detailed explanation of how a product works before they'll be willing to pay more, others became less willing to pay when confronted with that additional detail. A simple, standard test predicted the desire for detail — who wants more, who wants...
Researchers have found a possible way to map the spread and structure of the universe, guided by the light of quasars. The technique, combined with the expected discovery of millions more far-away quasars over the next decade, could yield an unprecedented look back to a time shortly after the Big Bang, when the universe was a fraction the size it is...
Misfolded proteins can cause various neurodegenerative diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxias or Huntington's disease, which are characterized by a progressive loss of neurons in the brain. Researchers have now identified 21 proteins that specifically bind to the protein ataxin-1. Twelve of these proteins enhance the misfolding of ataxin-1 and thus promote the formation of harmful protein...
Obese individuals with excess visceral fat (abdominal fat that surrounds the body's internal organs) have an increased risk for the development of Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
The depth of explanation about novel products influences consumer preferences and willingness to pay, according to a new study.
Twenty minutes of daily, vigorous physical activity over just three months can reduce a child's risk of diabetes as well as his total body fat -- including dangerous, deep abdominal fat -- but 40 minutes works even better, researchers report.
Obesity is a major contributor to heart disease that substantially hinders the disease's proper diagnosis and treatment, says a cardiologist researching the impact of obesity and weight loss on the heart. With obese youth as the fastest-growing demographic group, the country's problem is only going to get worse, a preventive cardiologist...
The absence of a specific type of neuron in the brain can lead to obesity and diabetes in mice report researchers. The outcome, however, depends on the type of diet that the animals are fed.