EurekAlert! Public News List

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

New England Journal of Medicine
Voter polls portend conflict between Obama administration and Republican leaders over ACA
Newly released polls show most of those who voted for Obama in 2012 favor the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and want the federal government to make sure most Americans have health insurance. However, Republicans maintain a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 30 states will have Republican governors. The polls suggest that Republican voters, and many Republican governors and House Republican leaders, are likely to oppose implementing parts of the ACA.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Psychological Science
Tight times may influence how we perceive others
From the playground to the office, a key aspect of our social lives involves figuring out who "belongs" and who doesn't. Scientists theorize that these prevalent in-group biases may give us a competitive advantage against others, especially when important resources are limited. New research published in Psychological Science explores whether resource scarcity might actually lead us to change our definition of who belongs to our social group, influencing how we perceive others' race.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Socio-Economic Planning Services
Research criticizes young offenders' institution for gang-related violence
A youth offending facility in the East Midlands has been criticized in a new report for taking criminals from rival gangs in Leicester and Nottingham.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Scientists sniff out the substances behind the aroma in the 'king of fruits'
The latest effort to decipher the unique aroma signature of the durian -- revered as the "king of fruits" in southeast Asia but reviled elsewhere as the world's foulest smelling food -- has uncovered several new substances that contribute to the fragrance. The research appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Environmental Science & Technology
Many home couches contain potentially toxic flame retardants
Scientists are reporting an increasing use of flame retardants in the main gathering spot for adults, children and family pets in the home -- the couch. In a study published in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology, they describe the first efforts to detect and identify the flame retardants applied to the foam inside couches found in millions of family rooms and living rooms across the US.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Biomacromolecules
Hagfish slime as a model for tomorrow's natural fabrics
Nylon, Kevlar and other synthetic fabrics: Step aside. If new scientific research pans out, people may be sporting shirts, blouses and other garments made from fibers modeled after those in the icky, super-strong slime from a creature called the hagfish. The study appears in ACS' journal Biomacromolecules.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Science
USDA study shows trends in public and private agricultural R&D
Analysis published by the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS) in the most recent issue of the journal Science examine the relationship between public and private investments in research and development (R&D) and their importance in agricultural input industries. The Science article is drawn from a recent ERS study that provides new details on the rapid growth and changing composition of private investments in global agricultural R&D and traces the implications for agriculture.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
NIST releases annual report on federal technology transfer
With new treatments for disease, test suites that safeguard computers, and even expertise to rescue miners trapped thousands of feet underground, federal laboratories have a wealth of technologies and know-how that can give US companies a competitive edge and improve quality of life.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

ACS Macro Letters
Mix masters: NIST scientists image the molecular structure of polymer blends
Using an enhanced form of 'chemical microscopy', NIST researchers have shown that they can peer into the structure of blended polymers, resolving details of the molecular arrangement at sub-micrometer levels. The capability has important implications for the design of industrially important polymers like the polyethylene blends used to repair aging waterlines.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Nano Today
The music of the silks
Researchers synthesize a new kind of silk fiber -- and find that music can help fine-tune the material's properties.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Physics Review Letters
Outside a vacuum: Model predicts movement of charged particles in complex media
It's a problem that has stumped scientists for years. Now Northwestern University researchers have developed a model that can predict the movements of charged particles, even in heterogeneous environments like cells, blood, or colloids.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Women & Health
Rhode Island Hospital: Adult entertainment workers likely to benefit from health care intervention
Most adult entertainment club workers -- exotic dancers and other female club employees such as bartenders, waitresses and hostesses -- don't have great medical benefits. Add in the prevalence of risky sexual behavior and substance abuse and you've got a perfect storm for unchecked health risks. Esther Choo, M.D., emergency medicine physician at Rhode Island Hospital surveyed 69 female adult entertainment club workers in Rhode Island. The results were recently published in the journal Women & Health.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Physical Review Letters
NIST experiments challenge fundamental understanding of electromagnetism
A cornerstone of physics, quantum electrodynamics, may require some updates if the findings of recent experiments at NIST on highly charged ions are confirmed.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Young adults more likely to smoke cannabis than drink before driving, 2011 CAMH Monitor survey shows
Most adults are drinking responsibly, and fewer are smoking or using illicit substances -- but several areas of concern were found in the 2011 CAMH Monitor survey of Ontario substance use trends, released today by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

European Southern Observatory
Virginia Tech scientists discover record-breaking black hole energy blast
Virginia Tech physics researchers have discovered a quasar with the most energetic outflow ever seen, a finding that may answer questions about how the mass of a galaxy is linked to its central black hole mass and why there are so few large galaxies in the universe.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

2012 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference
Researchers identify ways to exploit 'cloud browsers' for large-scale, anonymous computing
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Oregon have found a way to exploit cloud-based Web browsers, using them to perform large-scale computing tasks anonymously. The finding has potential ramifications for the security of 'cloud browser' services.

National Science Foundation, US Army Research Office

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Nature Scientific Reports
Graphite experiment shines new light on giant planets, white dwarfs and laser-driven fusion
A team led by researchers from the University of Warwick and Oxford University is dealing with unexpected results of an experiment with strongly heated graphite. The findings may pose a new problem for physicists working in laser-driven nuclear fusion and may also lead astrophysicists to revise our understanding of the life cycle of giant planets and stars.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Attitudes towards security threats uncovered
New research has revealed a significant gap between what the government claims are the biggest security threats facing the UK and the fears of the population.

Economics and Social Research Council

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Family's economic situation influences brain function in children
Children of low socioeconomic status work harder to filter out irrelevant environmental information than those from a high-income background because of learned differences in what they pay attention to, according to new research published in the open access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis
Anthropological expertise facilitates multicultural women's health care
Collaboration between medical and anthropological expertise can solve complex clinical problems in today's multicultural women's healthcare, shows Pauline Binder, a medical anthropologist, who will present her thesis on 1 Dec. at the Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Nature
Scientists develop new approach to support future climate projections
Scientists have developed a new approach for evaluating past climate sensitivity data to help improve comparison with estimates of long-term climate projections developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Report finds Big Pharma is doing more for access to medicine in developing countries
The latest Access to Medicine Index, which ranks the top 20 pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicine in developing countries, finds that the industry is doing more than it was two years ago. Seventeen out of the 20 companies perform better than they did at the time of the last Index report in 2010.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UK Department for International Development, and others

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Brain cell transplants in early 2013
As part of the European study TRANSEURO, five patients with Parkinson's disease will undergo brain cell transplants at Skåne University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, in early 2013. These are the first operations of their kind in Europe for over 10 years.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Treating cocaine dependence: A promising new pharmacotherapy
Medication development efforts for cocaine dependence have yet to result in an FDA approved treatment. The powerful rewarding effects of cocaine, the profound disruptive impact of cocaine dependence on one's lifestyle, and the tendency of cocaine to attract people who make poor life choices and then exacerbate impulsive behavior all make cocaine a vexing clinical condition.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012

Nature
Autumn sets in rapidly on Saturn's giant moon
As leaves fall and winter approaches in Earth's Northern Hemisphere, a change of seasons is also rapidly becoming noticeable in the southern hemisphere of Saturn's giant moon, Titan.


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