Cryptochrome protein helps birds navigate via magnetic field

Researchers have found one one possible explanation for some birds' ability to sense the earth's magnetic field and use it to orient themselves: a magnetically sensitive protein called cryptochrome that mediates circadian rhythms in plants and animals.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1znv7nf via Karis World

Crohn's disease not exempt from racial disparities

Significant differences were found in hospital re-admissions, medication usage, and both medical and surgical complications of children with Crohn's disease related to race. In the study, black children had a 1.5 times higher frequency of hospital re-admissions because of Crohn's disease compared to white children.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1ay9lJ1 via Karis World

Hospitals participating in ACS NSQIP significantly improve surgical outcomes over time

The majority of hospitals participating in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project improve surgical outcomes over time, and improvement continues with each year that hospitals participate in the program, according to a new study.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1AjYRBE via Karis World

New compounds protect nervous system from the structural damage characteristic of multiple sclerosis

A newly characterized group of pharmacological compounds block both the inflammation and nerve cell damage seen in mouse models of multiple sclerosis, according to a study. Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the brain and spinal cord, where for unknown reasons, the body's immune system begins an inflammatory attack against myelin, the protective nerve coating that surrounds nerve fibers. Once myelin is stripped from these fibers, the nerve cells become highly susceptible to damage, which is believed to underlie their destruction, leading to the steady clinical decline seen in progressive forms of multiple sclerosis.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1ay9NXI via Karis World

Intimate partners with low self-esteem stay in unhappy relationships

People with low self-esteem are more likely stay in unhappy relationships, suggests new research. Sufferers of low self-esteem tend not to voice relationship complaints with their partner because they fear rejection.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1ay9NXA via Karis World

Predicting human crowds with statistical physics

A general law of how pedestrians interact in a crowd can be used to create realistic crowds in virtual reality games and to make public spaces safer.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1ay9Q5W via Karis World

First detailed microscopy evidence of bacteria at the lower size limit of life

Scientists have captured the first detailed microscopy images of ultra-small bacteria that are believed to be about as small as life can get. The existence of ultra-small bacteria has been debated for two decades, but there hasn't been a comprehensive electron microscopy and DNA-based description of the microbes until now. The cells have an average volume of 0.009 cubic microns (one micron is one millionth of a meter). About 150 of these bacteria could fit inside an Escherichia coli cell and more than 150,000 cells could fit onto the tip of a human hair.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1wty1qn via Karis World

Research of plain wren duets could help further understand fundamentals of conversation

Known for their beautiful singing duets, plain wrens of Costa Rica perform precise phrase-by-phrase modifications to the duration between two consecutive phrases, achieving careful coordination as their songs unfold. A new study shows that these songbirds achieve precise coordination by adjusting the period between two consecutive phrases (inter-phrase intervals), depending on whether their song is answered, the phrase type used in the duet and the position of the inter-phrase interval within the duet.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1Ajrwa4 via Karis World

Life 'not as we know it' possible on Saturn's moon Titan

A new type of methane-based, oxygen-free life form that can metabolize and reproduce similar to life on Earth has been modeled. It is theorized to have a cell membrane, composed of small organic nitrogen compounds and capable of functioning in liquid methane temperatures of 292 degrees below zero.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1ACIfdl via Karis World

Introverts prefer mountains

In a series of three studies, researchers tested whether there is a link between personality and an aspect of physical ecology: flat terrain versus mountainous terrain. The study found that only one of the Big Five personality traits predicted terrain preference -- extraversion.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1AjrvTt via Karis World

The better to see you with: Prosthetic leg would keep an eye on path ahead

A mechanical engineer and his team have developed a computer-controlled camera that enables their robotic ankle to see where it is going.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1LTtN4s via Karis World

Energy use in buildings: Innovative, lower cost sensors and controls yield better energy efficiency

Buildings are responsible for about 40 percent of the energy consumed in the United States. Studies indicate that advanced sensors and controls have the potential to reduce the energy consumption of buildings by 20-30 percent.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1LTtN4p via Karis World

Life 'not as we know it' possible on Saturn's moon Titan

A new type of methane-based, oxygen-free life form that can metabolize and reproduce similar to life on Earth has been modeled. It is theorized to have a cell membrane, composed of small organic nitrogen compounds and capable of functioning in liquid methane temperatures of 292 degrees below zero.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1ACIfdl via Karis World

Bringing clean energy a step closer

Researchers have made an inexpensive metal-free catalyst that performs as well as costly metal catalysts at speeding the oxygen reduction reaction in an acidic fuel cell, and is more durable. The catalyst is made of sheets of nitrogen-doped graphene that provides great surface area, carbon nanotubes that enhance conductivity, and carbon black particles that separate the layers allowing the electrolyte and oxygen to flow freely, which greatly increased performance and efficiency.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1FH9PWr via Karis World

Drug research, development more efficient than expected

Despite ever increasing regulation in drug approval and the rising costs of research, drug research and development remains unexpectedly efficient, a new shows. To investigate the efficiency in the development of new drugs, the researchers analyzed a data set consisting of new drugs approved by the FDA. They looked at efficiency indicators that could potentially positively influence the approval of new drugs.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1DisGVw via Karis World

Employees become angry when receiving after-hours email, texts

People who receive electronic correspondence from work after hours become angry more often than not and that can interfere with their personal lives, a new study from a management researcher shows.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1MZnu0F via Karis World

How were fossil tracks made by Early Triassic swimming reptiles so well preserved?

That swim tracks made by tetrapods occur in high numbers in deposits from the Early Triassic is well known. What is less clear is why the tracks are so abundant and well preserved. Paleontologists have now determined that a unique combination of factors in Early Triassic delta systems resulted in the production and unusually widespread preservation of the swim tracks: delayed ecologic recovery, depositional environments, and tetrapod swimming behavior.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1DisJ3u via Karis World

Enhancing studies on a possible blood biomarker for traumatic brain injury

New technology could help advance blood biomarker capabilities for improved diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI). An estimated 1.7 million Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury each year, and an estimated 5.3 million individuals -- approximately two percent of the U.S. population -- are living with disability as a result of TBI. Traumatic brain injuries can occur from even the slightest bump or blow to the head.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1DisGVj via Karis World

Disease, evolution, neurology, and drugs: Fruit fly research continues to teach us about human biology

Over 1,500 scientists from 30 countries and 46 states will attend the 56th Annual Drosophila Research Conference. The conference will feature close to 1,000 presentations (including 170 talks) describing cutting-edge research on genetics, developmental biology, cancer, stem cells, neurology, epigenetics, genetic disease, aging, immunity, behavior, drug discovery, and technology. It is the largest meeting in the world that brings together researchers who use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study biology.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1Aid5D4 via Karis World

Physician-industry conflict of interest issue from MS patient perspective

A new study explores what multiple sclerosis patients know, or want to know, about their physician’s financial relationship with the pharmaceutical company sponsoring clinical trials.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1G0Xi3M via Karis World

Growth Signal Can Influence Cancer Cells' Vulnerability to Drugs, Study Suggests

In theory, a tumor is an army of clones, made up of many copies of the original cancerous cell. But tumor cells don’t always act like duplicates, and their unpredictable behavior can create problems for treatment. For while some cells within a tumor succumb to anti-cancer drugs, others may survive to bring the cancer back to life once therapy has ended.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/186lRgW via Karis World

Anderson algorithm increases surgical success with advanced ovarian cancer

A surgical algorithm developed and implemented by ovarian cancer specialists dramatically increases the frequency of complete removal of all visible tumor – a milestone strongly tied to improved survival. The algorithm is a framework for a personalized surgical approach that allows surgeons to be "much smarter about whom we operate on up front, providing a more individualized approach to surgery that's led to better results for our patients," said one clinician.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1G0Xi3L via Karis World

High stress for new mothers increases secondhand smoke risk for infants

Mothers with a high level of prenatal social stressors -- including possibly less control over their own housing situation or economic distress -- had 2.5 times higher odds to have only a partial or no restriction on smoking in their home than those with no stressors, which increases secondhand smoke risk, a study has found.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/186lOSp via Karis World

Untangling DNA with a droplet of water, a pipet and a polymer

Researchers have long sought an efficient way to untangle DNA to study its structure -- neatly unraveled and straightened out -- under a microscope. Now, researchers have devised a simple and effective solution: they inject genetic material into a droplet of water and use a pipet tip to drag it over a glass plate covered with a sticky polymer.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1MZj3D6 via Karis World

New breast cancer test links immune 'hotspots' to better survival

Scientists have developed a new test that can predict the survival chances of women with breast cancer by analyzing images of 'hotspots' where there has been a fierce immune reaction to a tumor. Researchers used statistical software previously used in criminology studies of crime hotspots to track the extent to which the immune system was homing in and attacking breast cancer cells.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/186jIBZ via Karis World

Transient details of HIV genome packaging captured

Once HIV-1 has hijacked a host cell to make copies of its own RNA genome and viral proteins, it must assemble these components into new virus particles. The orchestration of this intricate assembly process falls to a viral protein known as Gag. For one thing, Gag must be able to discern viral RNA from the host cell’s and squirrel it away inside new viral particles — no easy task considering only two to three percent of the RNA found in the cytoplasm is from HIV-1. Exactly how Gag selectively packages viral RNA has been widely speculated but never directly observed.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/186jL0K via Karis World

Left or right? The brain knows before you move

A neural circuit that connects motor planning to movement has been identified by researchers. The study, the researchers say, explains why injuries that disrupt the brain's ability to carry out movement planning typically impair a person's ability to make movements on just one side of his or her body.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/186jKJX via Karis World

Mystery of the reverse-wired eyeball solved

Counter-intuitively, in vertebrates photoreceptors are located behind the neurons in the back of the eye. Now physicists explain why the neural wiring seems to be backwards.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1vGAToJ via Karis World

The biobattery: Turning sewage sludge into electricity and engine oil

Sewage sludge, green waste, production residue from the food industry, straw or animal excrement – with the biobattery‘s modular concept a much larger range of biomass can be utilized for energy recovery than previously. Researchers show that they can convert organic residues into electricity, heat, purified gas, engine oil and high quality biochar using this process.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1Dianzz via Karis World

Neurons controlling appetite made from skin cells

Researchers have for the first time successfully converted adult human skin cells into neurons of the type that regulate appetite, providing a patient-specific model for studying the neurophysiology of weight control and testing new therapies for obesity.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1MZ8gbS via Karis World

Global health experts call into question sub-Saharan cancer data

Global health experts believe the current data on cancer prevalence, incidence and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa -- which determines how billions of pounds of international development money is spent -- are weak and could mean vital funds are being deflected from other priorities. These include diarrheal and waterborne diseases, malnutrition, sanitation and the need to strengthen health systems.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1DiakE0 via Karis World

Aggressive boys tend to develop into physically stronger teens

Boys who show aggressive tendencies develop greater physical strength as teenagers than boys who are not aggressive, according to new research. Research has suggested a link between male upper-body strength and aggressive tendencies, but the mechanisms that account for the link are not well understood.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1vGw8f4 via Karis World

Study challenges theory on unconscious memory system

A long-accepted scientific theory about the role the hippocampus plays in our unconscious memory is being challenged by new research. For decades, scientists have theorized that this part of the brain is not involved in processing unconscious memory, the type that allows us to do things like button a shirt without having to think about it.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1Gzi08o via Karis World

Hiv controls its activity independent of host cells

A major hurdle to curing people of HIV infection is the way the virus hides in a reservoir composed primarily of dormant immune cells. It is generally believed that HIV does not replicate in these cells because the virus depends on active cellular machinery to do so. Now, two new papers propose that the virus itself -- not cells -- controls whether HIV is replicating, and that periods of latency paradoxically give the virus a survival advantage.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1ARJZOE via Karis World

Modern logging techniques benefit rainforest wildlife

The value of a modern logging technique has been revealed for maintaining biodiversity in tropical forests that are used for timber production. The most comprehensive study of Reduced-Impact Logging (RIL) to date has been completed, surveying wildlife communities over a five-year period before and after timber harvesting.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1zm6PKu via Karis World

New tool provides maps of protein interactions for 2,800 diseases

A new tool allows researchers to explore how alterations in more than 2,000 proteins affect the diverse biological functions in which these molecules are involved. The tool may help gain a more global view of the causes of tumor development.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1JVlqI3 via Karis World

Saving energy: Increasing oil flow in the Keystone pipeline with electric fields

A strong electric field applied to a section of the Keystone pipeline can smooth oil flow and yield significant pump energy savings. Once aligned with an electric field, oil retained its low viscosity and turbulence for more than 11 hours before returning to its original viscosity. The process is repeatable and the researchers envision placing aligning stations spaced along a pipeline, significantly reducing the energy necessary to transport oil.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1AhJMAF via Karis World

Submarine data used to investigate turbulence beneath Arctic ice

Using recently released Royal Navy submarine data, researchers have investigated the nature of turbulence in the ocean beneath the Arctic sea-ice. Recent decreases in Arctic sea ice may have a big impact on the circulation, chemistry and biology of the Arctic Ocean, due to ice-free waters becoming more turbulent. By revealing more about how these turbulent motions distribute energy within the ocean, the findings from this study provide information important for accurate predictions of the future of the Arctic Ocean.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1AhJMAA via Karis World

Terrorist attacks have shifted from air to rail, study suggests

Data on terrorist attacks from 1982 to 2011 show a long-term trend away from air attacks and toward railroad and subway attacks, underscoring the need for increased intelligence gathering to intercept those redirected attempts.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1AhJLg6 via Karis World

Zombie outbreak? Statistical mechanics reveals the ideal hideout; and informs real disease modeling

A team researchers focusing on a fictional zombie outbreak as an approach to disease modeling suggests heading for the hills, in the Rockies, to save your brains from the undead.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1DhVUDW via Karis World

Sun has more impact on the climate in cool periods

The activity of the Sun is an important factor in the complex interaction that controls our climate. New research now shows that the impact of the Sun is not constant over time, but has greater significance when the Earth is cooler.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1MYTRfP via Karis World

New filter could advance terahertz data transmission

For wireless communication in the long-sought terahertz range, engineers have devised a frequency filter that can be fabricated with an inkjet printer.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1wrdnHA via Karis World

Wind-powered freighters

To make ships more eco-efficient, engineers have been working with alternative fuels. A Norwegian engineer is currently pursuing a new approach: With VindskipTM, he has designed a cargo ship that is powered by wind and gas. Software will ensure an optimum use of the available wind energy at any time.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1BHJgDs via Karis World

New approach to assessing effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs

Scientists have a developed a new method to monitor the effect of anti-cancer drugs on very rare leukemia stem cells. The approach potentially allows doctors to screen patients and personalize their treatment.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1BHJiuQ via Karis World

Feast-and-famine diet could extend life, study shows

Think of it as interval training for the dinner table. Fasting has been shown in mice to extend lifespan and to improve age-related diseases. But fasting every day, which could entail skipping meals or simply reducing overall caloric intake, can be hard to maintain.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1wr7zha via Karis World

Breakthrough in understanding how cancer cells metastasize

A protein commonly found in human cells could be an important switch that activates cancer cell metastasis, according to a new study. The finding focuses attention on a biological mechanism that until now was largely overlooked. The discovery of the protein's effect significantly expands our understanding of epithelial cancers such as breast and lung cancer.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1JV9qWV via Karis World

Urine test could lead to better treatment of bladder cancer

A simple urine test could help to guide clinicians in the treatment of bladder cancer patients, researchers believe. Being able to reliably identify those patients with the most aggressive cancers early via urine tests, and expediting aggressive therapeutic strategies, may significantly improve outcomes, they say.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1BHs40B via Karis World

Strait of Georgia: Salish Sea seagull populations halved since 1980s

The number of seagulls in the Strait of Georgia is down by 50 per cent from the 1980s and researchers say the decline reflects changes in the availability of food.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1LQxIgv via Karis World

New ultrasensitive test for peanut allergies

Chemists have developed a new test for peanut allergies that can not only tell whether someone is allergic, it can also determine how intense their allergic reaction will be.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1BHs4xP via Karis World

Newly discovered algal species helps corals survive in the hottest reefs on the planet

A new species of algae has been discovered in reef corals of the Persian Gulf where it helps corals to survive seawater temperatures of up to 36 degrees Celsius -- temperatures that would kill corals elsewhere.



from News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/1Bmya51 via Karis World