EurekAlert! Public News List

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Science
UCLA researchers find evidence for water ice deposits and organic material on Mercury
Planetary scientists have identified water ice and anomalously dark deposits within permanently shadowed regions at Mercury's north pole. They conclude the newly discovered black deposits are a thin dark crust of residual organic material brought to the planet over the past several million years by water-rich asteroid and comet impacts.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Journal of Physical Activity and Health
Brief interventions can help college students return to a healthy lifestyle
A new study from the University of Missouri has found that a brief intervention, sometimes as little as 30 minutes, can help put students back on the right track to a healthy lifestyle -- a change that can impact the rest of their lives.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

International Journal of Research in Marketing
Marketing analytics ups Fortune 1000 return on assets 8 percent, says operations research study
Fortune 1000 companies that increase their use of marketing analytics improve their return on assets an average 8 percent and as much as 21 percent, with returns ranging from $70 million to $180 million in net income, according to a paper written by two key members of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Science
More evidence for an ancient Grand Canyon
For over 150 years, geologists have debated how and when one of the most dramatic features on our planet -- the Grand Canyon -- was formed. New data unearthed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology builds support for the idea that conventional models, which say the enormous ravine is five to six million years old, are way off.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Academic Medicine
Defining career paths in health systems improvement
Among numerous programs aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of the US health care system, training the next generation of experts needed to help lead these efforts has received inadequate, according to three physicians writing in the January 2013 issue of Academic Medicine. Their article proposes a framework for career development in what they call "health systems improvement."

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Structure
Proteins that work at the ends of DNA could provide cancer insight
New insights into a protein complex that regulates the very tips of chromosomes could improve methods of screening anti-cancer drugs. University of Illinois researchers determined the binding mechanism of proteins that protect and regulate telomeres, segments of repeating DNA units that cap the ends of chromosomes and a key target of cancer researchers.

American Cancer Society, Human Frontier Science Research Program

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Population Health Management
Diabetics with cancer dangerously ignore blood sugar
When people with Type 2 diabetes are diagnosed with cancer -- for which they are at higher risk -- they ignore their diabetes to focus on cancer. But high blood sugar is more likely to kill them. When they received diabetes education after a cancer diagnosis, however, they were more likely to monitor their blood sugar and had fewer visits to the emergency room, fewer hospital admissions and lower health care costs.

NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Archives of Surgery
Young surgeons face special concerns with operating room distractions
A study has found that young, less-experienced surgeons made major surgical mistakes almost half the time during a "simulated" gall bladder removal when they were distracted by noises, questions, conversation or other commotion in the operating room.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Trends in Parasitology
Birds may spread, not halt, fever-bearing ticks
Turkey raises and releases thousands of non-native guineafowl to eat ticks that carry the deadly Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. Yet research suggests guineafowl eat few ticks, but carry the parasites on their feathers, possibly spreading the disease they were meant to stop, says a Turkish biologist working at the University of Utah.

University of Utah

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Astrobiology
Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars?
New research from the University of Washington hints that planets orbiting white and brown dwarfs, even in the habitable zone, face a "difficult path to habitability."

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Autism Research
Autism severity may stem from fear
New research on autism shows that children with the diagnosis struggle to let go of old, outdated fears. Even more significantly, the study found that this rigid fearfulness is linked to the severity of classic symptoms of autism, such as repeated movements and resistance to change.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Journal of Clinical Oncology
Delayed treatment for advanced breast cancer has 'profound effect'
Results from a recent study show women who wait more than 60 days to begin treatment for advanced breast cancer face significantly higher risks of dying than women who start therapy shortly after diagnosis.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences
A human-caused climate change signal emerges from the noise
By comparing simulations from 20 different computer models to satellite observations, Lawrence Livermore climate scientists and colleagues from 16 other organizations have found that tropospheric and stratospheric temperature changes are clearly related to human activities.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Advanced Materials
Predicting material fatigue
A small crack in a metal wheel caused Germany's worst-ever rail accident -- the 1998 Eschede train disaster. The problem: it was practically impossible to detect damage of that nature to a metal by inspecting it externally. But now scientists have succeeded in making material fatigue visible. They designed new synthetic materials that emit light to report high mechanical stress.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Nature Neuroscience
Scientists describe the genetic signature of a vital set of neurons
Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have identified two genes involved in establishing the neuronal circuits required for breathing, which appears in the December issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Childhood Obesity
Which group of Asian-American children is at highest risk for obesity?
Asian-American children have been at low risk for being overweight or obese compared to other racial and ethnic groups in the US, but that may be changing.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Adapting fish defenses to block human infections
Living in an environment teaming with bacteria and fungi, fish have evolved powerful defenses, including antimicrobial peptides located in their gills. Undergraduate researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are studying the biology and mechanics of one of those peptides with the aim of creating engineered surfaces that can kill bacteria responsible for foodborne illnesses and hospital-acquired infections. The team reports its latest findings online in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Clinical Psychological Science
Post-divorce journaling may hinder healing for some
Following a divorce or separation, many people are encouraged by loved ones or health-care professionals to keep journals about their feelings. But for some, writing in-depth about those feelings immediately after a split may do more harm than good, according to new research published in Clinical Psychological Science.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers
Can a genetic variation in the vitamin D receptor protect against osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis, or reduced bone mineral density that can increase the risk of fractures, may affect as many as 30 percent of women and 12 percent of men worldwide.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Heart
Running too far, too fast, and too long speeds progress 'to finish line of life'
Vigorous exercise is good for health, but only if it's limited to a maximum daily dose of between 30 and 50 minutes, say researchers in an editorial published online in Heart.

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Advanced Materials
Precisely engineering 3-D brain tissues
Borrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, MIT and Harvard Medical School engineers have developed a simple and inexpensive way to create three-dimensional brain tissues in a lab dish.

National Science Foundation, Paul Allen Family Foundation, NY Stem Cell Foundation, National Institutes of Health, IET A F Harvey Prize, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Lab

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Physical Review Letters
The beginning of everything: A new paradigm shift for the infant universe
A new paradigm for understanding the earliest eras in the history of the universe has been developed by scientists at Penn State University. The new paradigm shows, for the first time, that the large-scale structures we now see in the universe evolved from fundamental fluctuations in the essential quantum nature of "space-time," which existed even at the very beginning of the universe.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Pain
Children with higher intelligence less likely to report chronic widespread pain in adulthood
A UK-based study team has determined that there is a correlation between childhood intelligence and chronic widespread pain (CWP) in adulthood, according to a new study published in the December issue of PAIN®. About 10-15 percent of adults report CWP, a common musculoskeletal complaint that tends to occur more frequently among women and those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. CWP is a core symptom of fibromyalgia and is one of the most common reasons for consulting a rheumatologist.

University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Epidemiology

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Nature
Oceanic crust breakthrough: Solving a magma mystery
Oceanic crust covers two-thirds of the Earth's solid surface, but scientists still don't entirely understand the process by which it is made. Analysis of more than 600 samples of oceanic crust by a team including Carnegie's Frances Jenner reveals a systemic pattern that alters long-held beliefs about how this process works, explaining a crucial step in understanding Earth's geological deep processes.

Australian National University

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Sources of E. coli are not always what they seem
US Department of Agriculture scientists have identified sources of Escherichia coli bacteria that could help restore the reputation of local livestock. Studies by scientist Mark Ibekwe suggest that in some parts of California, pathogens in local waterways are more often carried there via runoff from urban areas, not from animal production facilities.

Agricultural Research Service


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