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62,854 articles from ScienceDaily

• THURSDAY 2. FEBRUARY, 2012
• 21:17 Hand counts of votes may cause errors

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  Hand counting of votes in postelection audit or recount procedures can result in error rates of up to two percent, according to a new study.  

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• 21:17 Rituximab possible treatment option for patients with primary biliary cirrhosis

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  An open-label study of rituximab, a monoclonal antibody for human CD20, was shown to be safe in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis who had an incomplete response to the standard ursodeoxycholic acid therapy. Rituximab was successful in reducing the level of alkaline phosphatase -- a protein used to measure liver injury, according to the new study.  

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• 21:17 Scientists show positive effects of affirmative action policies promoting women

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  Interventions to promote women have continuously been criticized as ineffective and inhibiting performance. Economists have now rejected this criticism; they conducted a series of experiments which examined the efficiency and effects of various interventions to increase women's willingness to enter competition.  

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• 21:17 Untangling the mysteries of Alzheimer's

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  Researchers have found new evidence that confirms the significance of a protein that neuroscientists call tau to the development of Alzheimer's disease. While earlier studies have focused on tau's aggregation into twisted structures known as "neurofibrillary tangles," the new work emphasizes intermediary steps between single protein units and the much larger tangles – small assemblages of two, three, four or more proteins, which the investigators believe are the most toxic entities in Alzheimer's.  

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• 21:16 New way to study ground fractures

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  Geophysics researchers have created a new way to study fractures by producing elastic waves, or vibrations, through using high-intensity light focused directly on the fracture itself.  

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• 21:16 Unraveling a butterfly's aerial antics could help builders of bug-size flying robots

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  By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, researchers hope to help build small airborne robots that can mimic those maneuvers.  

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• 21:14 New super-Earth 'best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it'

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  Sientists have discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. The star is a member of a triple star system and has a different makeup than our Sun, being relatively lacking in metallic elements. This discovery demonstrates that habitable planets could form in a greater variety of environments than previously believed.  

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• 21:14 Some roads and playgrounds in North Dakota contain cancer causing erionite

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  What would you do if you found out that the roads you drive on could cause cancer? This is the reality that residents face in Dunn County, North Dakota. For roughly 30 years, gravel containing the potentially carcinogenic mineral erionite was spread on nearly 500 kilometers of roads, playgrounds, parking lots, and even flower beds throughout Dunn County.  

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• 21:14 Stellar astrophysics: The discovery of deceleration

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  Pulsars are among the most exotic celestial bodies known. They have diameters of about 20 kilometres, but at the same time roughly the mass of our sun. A sugar-cube sized piece of its ultra-compact matter on Earth would weigh hundreds of millions of tons. A sub-class of them, known as millisecond pulsars, spin up to several hundred times per second around their own axes. Previous studies reached the paradoxical conclusion that some millisecond pulsars are older than the universe itself.  

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• 21:12 Food poisoning: Understanding how bacteria come back from the 'dead'

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  Salmonella remains a serious cause of food poisoning, in part due to its ability to thrive and quickly adapt to the different environments in which it can grow. New research has taken a detailed look at what Salmonella does when it enters a new environment, which could provide clues to finding new ways of reducing transmission through the food chain and preventing human illness.  

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• 21:12 Potential new treatment identified for leishmaniasis

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  Researchers have identified fexinidazole as a possible, much-needed, new treatment for the parasitic disease visceral leishmaniasis.  

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• 21:12 Yellow Biotechnology: Using plants to silence insect genes in a high-throughput manner

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  Scientists are now using a procedure which brings forward ecological research on insects: They study gene functions in moth larvae by manipulating genes using the RNA interference technology (RNAi). RNAi is induced by feeding larvae with plants that have been treated with viral vectors. This method called "plant virus based dsRNA producing system" increases sample throughput compared to the use of genetically transformed plants.  

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• 21:11 Caribbean lizards settle 'founder effect' controversy

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  In the first experimental study of the founder effect in a natural setting, researchers found that natural selection does not overwhelm the founder effect.  

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• 21:11 Castaway lizards provide insight into elusive evolutionary process, founder effects

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  A biologist who released lizards on tiny uninhabited islands in the Bahamas has shed light on the interaction between evolutionary processes that are seldom observed. He found that the lizards' genetic and morphological traits were determined by both natural selection and a phenomenon called founder effects, which occur when species colonize new territory.  

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• 21:11 Gene regulator in brain's executive hub tracked across lifespan

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  Scientists have tracked the activity, across the lifespan, of an environmentally responsive regulatory mechanism that turns genes on and off in the brain's executive hub. Genes implicated in schizophrenia and autism are among those in which regulatory activity peaks during an environmentally-sensitive critical period in development. The mechanism, called DNA methylation, abruptly switches from off to on within the human brain's prefrontal cortex during this pivotal transition from fetal to postnatal life.  

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• 21:11 Identical twins reveal mechanisms behind aging

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  Researchers compared the DNA of identical twins at different ages. They showed that structural modifications of the DNA, where large or small DNA segments change direction, are duplicated or completely lost, are more common in older people. The results may in part explain why the immune system is impaired with age.  

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• 21:11 Why red wine can be healthy: Probable mechanism underlying resveratrol activity uncovered

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  Researchers have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly activate sirtuin 1, a protein associated with aging. Rather, the authors found that resveratrol inhibits certain types of proteins known as phosphodiesterases (PDEs), enzymes that help regulate cell energy.  

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• 21:10 Coffee consumption reduces fibrosis risk in those with fatty liver disease, study suggests

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  Caffeine consumption has long been associated with decreased risk of liver disease and reduced fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease. Now, new research confirms that coffee caffeine consumption reduces the risk of advanced fibrosis in those with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. New findings show that increased coffee intake, specifically among patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, decreases risk of hepatic fibrosis.  

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• 21:10 Graphene electronics moves into a third dimension

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  Wonder material graphene has been touted as the next silicon, with one major problem – it is too conductive to be used in computer chips. Now scientists have given its prospects a new lifeline. Scientists have now literally opened a third dimension in graphene research. Their research shows a transistor that may prove the missing link for graphene to become the next silicon.  

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• 21:08 Hubble zooms in on a magnified galaxy

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  Astronomers aimed Hubble at one of the most striking examples of gravitational lensing, a nearly 90-degree arc of light in the galaxy cluster RCS2 032727-132623. Hubble's view of the distant background galaxy, which lies nearly 10 billion light-years away, is significantly more detailed than could ever be achieved without the help of the gravitational lens.  

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• 21:07 A zap of cold plasma reduces harmful bacteria on raw chicken

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  A new study demonstrates that plasma can be an effective method for killing pathogens on uncooked poultry.  

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• 15:46 Erratic heart rhythm may account for some unexplained strokes

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  Occasional erratic heart rhythms appear to cause about one-fifth of strokes for which a cause is not readily established.  

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• 15:46 Heat and cold damage corals in their own ways

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  Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts in sea temperatures. While warming has been the primary focus for scientists and ocean policy managers, cold can also cause significant damage. Scientists have shown that cool temperatures can inflict more damage in the short term, but heat is more destructive in the long run.  

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• 15:46 Sickle cell anemia stroke prevention efforts may have decreased racial disparities

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  The disparity in stroke-related deaths among black and white children dramatically narrowed after prevention strategies changed to include ultrasound screening and chronic blood transfusions for children with sickle cell anemia, according to new research.  

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• 15:45 Anemia may more than triple your risk of dying after a stroke

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  Being anemic could more than triple your risk of dying within a year after having a stroke, according to new research.  

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