Low job satisfaction in working mothers increases the stress levels of their children, but spending longer in childcare can help overcome these effects, new research has shown.
In a study involving more than 50 nursery school children, researchers found higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in children whose mothers found their jobs less rewarding, or left them feeling emotionally exhausted, than those who reported more enjoyment from their jobs.
Levels of cortis
Bacteria feel pressures to evolve antibiotic resistance and other new abilities in response to a changing environment, and they react by ’stealing’ genetic information from other better-adapted types of bacteria, according to research published in Nature Genetics today.
They do this through the bacterial equivalent of sex, otherwise known as horizontal gene transfer, through which bacteria obtain genetic material from their distant relatives. This allows them to evolv
Environmental groups around the world have been campaigning for years to replace lead-containing solders and protective layers on electronic components with non-hazardous metals and alloys. In response, the European Union (EU) will ban the use of lead (and five other hazardous substances) in all electrical and electronic equipment sold in EU nations starting in July 2006. U.S. manufacturers must comply with this requirement in order to market their products overseas.
However, pure ele
An experiment that began as a “fantasy pipe dream” just three years ago is now a reality. Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley, combining nanotechnology with biochemistry, have created unique synthetic membranes that, for the first time ever, enable them to directly control signaling activity in living T cells from the immune system. Already their experiments have yielded surprising results.
“This m
A series of copper ridges nearly doubles the resolution of experimental X-ray sensors, enabling more precise identification of the X-ray “fingerprints” of different atoms, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report. The sensors are expected to be powerful tools for astronomy, such as in determining the temperature and motion of matter in space, and for semiconductor materials analysis, helping to differentiate between nanoscale contaminant particles on sil
A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researcher has come up with a method designed to improve the energy efficiency of water chillers that cool the nation’s large commercial buildings. The NIST method, if confirmed through experiments with full-scale chiller systems, could save as much as 1 percent of the 320 billion kWh of electricity used annually by chillers or an equivalent 920,000 barrels of oil a day, according to Mark Kedzierski, the NIST mechanical engineer who dev
Finding advances efforts to tailor drugs to individual patients
Having high blood pressure and a particular genetic alteration dramatically increases the risk of heart attack, stroke or death, and may explain why some hypertensive patients fare worse than others – even if they take the same medication, University of Florida researchers announced this week.
The discovery, reported at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, brings scientists a
College is becoming a requirement for more and more jobs. But are the programs in place to motivate and move more kids from high school to higher education? Are those programs serving the students who need them? Are the programs getting the needed oversight?
A recent study of all 50 states contains both good news and cause for concern, according to Debra Bragg, a professor of educational organization and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the study
Immigrant youth are better able to handle discrimination, have fewer emotional problems, and get along better in school and in the community when they remain strongly attached to their own ethnic culture rather than try to melt into a national culture, a Queen’s University-based international psychological study has found. They do even better when they have a double attachment to both the national society and to their heritage culture.
Encompassing more than 5,000 interviews wi
The air in Fallon, Nev. has significantly higher levels of tungsten and cobalt than does the air in neighboring towns, according to a new research report. The research suggests that the metals in the air come from a point source within Fallon, a community of about 8,000 located in Churchill County about 60 miles east of Reno, Nev.
The finding that Fallon’s air differs from nearby towns might have medical implications. Since 1997, 16 cases of childhood leukemia have been dia
Researchers at the University of Washington have found a genetic pathway linking nutrient response and the aging process, they report in the Nov. 18 issue of the journal Science. Scientists have long known that dramatically reducing food intake boosts the lifespan of model organisms such as mice, but the new results point to a possible mechanism through which drastic calorie restriction affects aging.
As scientists learn more about the biochemical processes that affect lifespan, t
Microstructural characterization of BaTiO3 thin films prepared by RF-Magnetron sputtering using sintered targets from high energy ball milled powders
The electronic and optical characteristics of barium titanate (BT) ferroelectric ceramics are of great interest for industrial uses and when grown as thin films they can easily be integrated into modern circuitry. These thin films are commonly prepared by RF- magnetron sputtering using a commercially available BT target as the ma
Photorefractive organic polymer system functionalized with a nonlinear optical chromophore boronate derivative
Photoconducting polymers doped with nonlinear optical chromophores have emerged as efficient and inexpensive photorefractive (PR) materials. These materials show promise for applications in dynamic volume holography, image formation, optical processing, reversible data storage, correlation, etc.
Recently, PR polymer composites have gained a great amount of at
Northwestern University researchers have demonstrated how the microenvironments of two human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines (federally approved) induced metastatic melanoma cells to revert to a normal, skin cell-like type with the ability to form colonies similar to hESCs. The researchers also showed that these melanoma cells were less invasive following culture on the microenvironments of hESCs.
“Our observations highlight the potential utility of isolating the factors wit
The immune system is highly complex. The cast of characters alone required to marshal an immune response to a foreign invader can number in the millions as the body’s soldiers, T cells, are called into action. What triggers this complex response begins when T cells and dendritic cells, another type of immune cell, form a kind of molecular embrace, or immunological synapse, to relay information about intruders.
The communication between these immune cells hasn’t been well underst
By coating the surfaces of tiny carbon nanotubes with monoclonal antibodies, biochemists and engineers at Jefferson Medical College and the University of Delaware have teamed up to detect cancer cells in a tiny drop of water. The work is aimed at developing nanotube-based biosensors that can spot cancer cells circulating in the blood from a treated tumor that has returned or from a new cancer. The researchers, led by Eric Wickstrom, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Jefferson
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