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393 articles from THURSDAY 19.1.2012

• THURSDAY 19. JANUARY, 2012
• 00:24 Behavioral priming paradigm needs update

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  Behavioral priming, in which behavior is changed by introducing subconscious influences, is a well-established phenomenon, but a new study shows that the cause may be different than what was previously assumed, and that the experimenter's expectations are also crucial for the priming effect to be seen. The results are reported in the Jan. 18 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.  

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• 00:24 EBay reports higher 4Q earnings, revenue

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  (AP) -- EBay says its net income grew in the fourth quarter, helped by a gain on the sale of its remaining investment in Skype and higher revenue.  

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• 00:24 Good intentions ease pain, add to pleasure: study

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  A nurse's tender loving care really does ease the pain of a medical procedure, and grandma's cookies really do taste better, if we perceive them to be made with love - suggests newly published research by a University of Maryland psychologist. The findings have many real-world applications, including in medicine, relationships, parenting and business.  

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• 00:24 Hollywood, Silicon Valley face off over piracy bill

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  Wikipedia, Google and hundreds of other websites staged online protests Wednesday against US legislation targeting Internet piracy of movies and music and the sale of counterfeit goods.  

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• 00:24 Older women with normal T-scores may not need bone mineral density screening for 15 years

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and other organizations have recommended that women ages 65 and older be routinely screened for osteoporosis using bone mineral density (BMD) screening. However, how often women should be screened is a topic that remains controversial and undecided, with no definitive scientific evidence to provide guidance.  

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• 00:24 Radiation-induced damage to brain tissue reversed by oxygen starvation in mice

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  Treating brain tumors with whole brain radiation therapy can damage healthy brain tissue, but a new study in mice reveals that limiting the oxygen supply, or hypoxia, can alleviate some of the cognitive impairment caused by the radiation. The results are reported in the Jan. 18 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.  

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• 00:24 Researchers identify genetic signatures of exceptional longevity in re-published study

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  While environment and family history are factors in healthy aging, genetic variants play a critical and complex role in conferring exceptional longevity, according to researchers from the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine, Boston Medical Center, IRCCS Multimedica in Milan, Italy, and Yale University.  

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• 00:24 Scientists discover unusual 'tulip' creature

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  A bizarre creature that lived in the ocean more than 500 million years ago has emerged from the famous Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies.  

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• 00:24 Study pinpoints and plugs mechanism of AML cancer cell escape

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  A study published this week in the journal Leukemia identifies a mechanism that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells use to evade chemotherapy – and details how to close this escape route.  

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• 00:24 Study uncovers mechanism by which melanoma drug accelerates secondary skin cancers

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  Patients with metastatic melanoma taking the recently approved drug vemurafenib (Zelboraf) responded well to the twice daily pill, but some of them developed a different, secondary skin cancer. Now, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, working with investigators from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, Roche and Plexxikon, have elucidated the mechanism by which vemurafenib excels at fighting melanoma but also allows for the development of skin squamous cell carcinomas.  

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• 00:24 The great gas hydrate escape

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  For some time, researchers have explored flammable ice for low-carbon or alternative fuel or as a place to store carbon dioxide. Now, a computer analysis of the ice and gas compound, known as a gas hydrate, reveals key details of its structure. The results show that hydrates can hold hydrogen at an optimal capacity of 5 weight-percent, a value that meets the goal of a Department of Energy standard and makes gas hydrates practical and affordable.  

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• 00:24 To fight epidemic of unnecessary suffering, Stanford dean calls for major public health campaign

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  The amount of needless suffering caused by both acute and chronic pain in the United States is a major, overlooked medical problem that requires improved education at multiple levels, stretching from the implementation of new public health campaigns to better training of primary care physicians in pain management.  

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• 00:24 Why smart growth frustrates players in the system: study

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  Maryland planners, developers and land-use advocates consider the state's smart growth tools too weak, frustrating their desire for development within existing urban areas, finds a new University of Maryland study based on interviews with a representative group of stakeholders.  

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• 00:10 Why Did Seattle Get All This Snow? (LiveScience.com)

  Read the story at Yahoo!
  LiveScience.com - A "perfect recipe" for snow hit the Pacific Northwest today, one meteorologist said, bringing nearly a winter's worth of snow to Seattle in a matter of hours.  

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• 00:03 'Microtweezers' Work at Nanoscale Level

  Read the story at Sci-Tech Today
  U.S. researchers say they've created a new type of microtweezers to manipulate objects to build up tiny nanoscale structures.

  Scientists at Purdue University say the new tool could be used in nanotechnology, to print microcoatings to make advanced sensors, or to grab and position live stem cells for research.

  Structures in microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, could be assembled like microscopic Lego pieces moved individually into place with the microtweezers, mechanical engineering professor Cagri Savran said in a Purdue release Tuesday.

  "We've shown how this might be accomplished easily, using new compact and user-friendly microtweezers to assemble polystyrene spheres into three-dimensional shapes," he said.

  The new tool has three main parts: a thimble knob from a standard micrometer, a two-pronged tweezer made from silicon, and a "graphite interface" which converts the turning motion of the thimble knob into a pulling-and-pushing action to open and close the tweezer prongs.

  While other types of microtweezers have been developed and are being used in research, the new design is simpler both to manufacture and operate, Savran said.

  "We currently are working to weigh single micro particles, individually selected among many others, which is important because precise measurements of an object's mass reveal key traits, making it possible to identify composition and other characteristics," Savran said.

  "This will now be as easy as selecting and weighing a single melon out of many melons in a supermarket."

   

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• 00:03 Citrus Growers Sweating Extended California Freeze

  Read the story at Sci-Tech Today
  California citrus growers are sweating a hard freeze that has blanketed the nation's largest fresh-fruit market in the midst of harvest.

  The National Weather Service said temperatures dropped to as low as 19 degrees in some regions early Tuesday. It forced orange farmers to fire up wind machines and flood groves with water to keep bitter cold air from settling.

  "Every winter is weird," said Dean Thonesen of Sun West Fruit Company east of Fresno, where mandarins and navel oranges are being harvested. "We'll continue harvesting in the fields that have water or wind machines, but the others we'll have to evaluate."

  Oranges begin to suffer at about 28 degrees. Thonesen said his mandarin fields are in a pocket where temperatures dipped below the critical mark.

  "It will be a week before we see what damage there may or may not be," he said.

  The overall outlook is good for those in areas where the temperatures stayed in the mid-20s, said Bob Blakely, director of industry relations for the growers' co-op California Citrus Mutual.

  "Growers reported damage north of Fresno County, but we don't want to give the impression it's widespread," he said.

  Officials with the Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner's Office are sampling fruit from the coldest regions looking for signs of freeze damage. They use thermal imaging devices to pinpoint the areas where temperatures dipped below the danger point for the longest periods of time.

  Deputy Commissioner Fred Rinder said officials will examine fruit Friday in affected areas to see if the freezing burst the tiny juice-storing cells inside the oranges that leads to dryness. County agricultural commissioners can withhold damaged citrus from the fresh-fruit market.

  "Growers call us the crop cops," said Rinder, adding that it's one of the more odious parts of his job.

  Even with another freeze predicted for Tuesday night, the weather still isn't as...

   

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• 00:03 Russia Wonders if U.S. Radar Ruined Space Probe

  Read the story at Sci-Tech Today
  Russia will look into the possibility that a U.S. radar station could have inadvertently interfered with the failed Mars moon probe that plummeted to Earth, Russian media reported Tuesday, but experts argued that any such claims were far-fetched.

  NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs also said the U.S. space agency was not using the military radar equipment in question at the time of the Russian equipment failure, but instead was using radar in the Mojave desert in the western United States and in Puerto Rico.

  Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Yury Koptev, former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, as saying investigators will conduct tests to check if U.S. radar emissions could have impacted the Phobos-Ground space probe, which was stuck in Earth's orbit for two months before crashing down near Chile and Brazil.

  "The results of the experiment will allow us to prove or dismiss the possibility of the radar's impact," said Koptev, who is heading the government commission charged with investigating causes of the probe's failure.

  U.S. experts suggested that the Russians should look for causes of the failure at home.

  "The Russian Space Agency would do themselves and the future of Russian planetary exploration some good to look inside the project and the agency to find the cause of the Phobos-Ground mishap," said Alan Stern, former associate administrator for science at NASA and now director of the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida.

  The current Roscosmos head, Vladimir Popovkin, has said the craft's malfunction could have been caused by foreign interference. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin acknowledged U.S. radar interference as a possible cause but said it was too early to make any conclusions and suggested the problem could be the spacecraft itself.

  "Practically all disruptions are due to flaws in the technologies manufactured 12 to 13 years ago," he...

   

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• 00:03 Pfizer, Medivation End Drug Development Deal

  Read the story at Sci-Tech Today
  In a major setback for patients and doctors, drugmakers Pfizer Inc. and Medivation Inc. have halted development of a potential Alzheimer's disease treatment after the drug for a second time yielded disappointing results in a late-stage clinical study.

  Dimebon was furthest along in testing among the experimental Alzheimer's drugs being developed to try to stop or even reverse the course of the mind-robbing disease. Dimebon would have been the first such drug and specialists just a couple of years ago had hoped it would be on the market this year.

  Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker by revenue, and Medivation said on Tuesday that Dimebon failed to significantly improve cognitive ability, as well as self-care and daily functions in patients with mild-to-moderate cases of the disease. The study involved about 1,000 patients who had Dimebon added to their ongoing treatment with Pfizer's former blockbuster Alzheimer's drug donepezil, or Aricept.

  Aricept, jointly marketed by Pfizer and Japan's Esai Co. Ltd. and once heavily advertised, had about $3.7 billion in sales in 2009. It lost U.S. patent protection in November 2010, and sales have since plunged.

  Dimebon, known chemically as latrepirdine, would have been an even bigger blockbuster if it had panned out. The experimental drug looked promising after it kept Alzheimer's symptoms from worsening for a year in an earlier patient study.

  But Dimebon didn't work as hoped in a late-stage trial in which patients took it for six months. After those results, announced in March 2010, the companies said they were continuing three other studies that could prove Dimebon helped patients in combination with other Alzheimer's drugs or when used for a longer period.

  Then last April Pfizer and Medivation said Dimebon also failed in another late-stage clinical trial, when it did not improve symptoms of the neurologic disorder Huntington's Disease.

  After the latest failure, New York-based Pfizer...

   

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