As cable companies and Internet access providers compete for customers by offering broadband service, cable modems and digital subscriber lines (DSLs) as faster access to the Web, slower download speeds sometimes prompt greater user response than faster download speeds, a study says.
Dr. S. Shyam Sundar, associate professor of communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State, and Carson Wagner, assistant professor of advertising at the University of Texa
Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the University of California, San Francisco have shown that feeding behavior in worms is controlled by neurons that detect adverse or stressful conditions.
The findings are published in the Oct. 31 issue of Nature.
The discovery of the gene that controls social feeding behavior in worms was made in 1998 by researchers at UCSF. The new findings build on the earlier research by identifying the nociceptive neurons – ne
’Jurassic Chicken’ project may help studies of human development and evolution of dinosaurs
Scientists from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California have, for the first time, shown experimentally the steps in the origin and development of feathers, using the techniques of molecular biology. Their findings will have implications for the study of the morphogenesis of various epithelial organs-from hairs to lung tissue to mammary glands-and is already sheddin
Muscle strength, abdominal fat linked to bone mineral density
While day-to-day physical activities such as walking, housework and shopping may be good for your heart, they don’t do much for your bones, according to a Johns Hopkins study.
The new report, published in the November issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine, found that neither light-intensity activities nor aerobic fitness level contributed to bone health, contrasting previous studies suggesting that aerobics co
About as complex as it gets—that’s how pediatric urologist Andrew Freedman, M.D., director of pediatric urology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Endourology Institute, describes the surgery he performed this summer on then 17- month-old Jalen Brown, born with Prune Belly Syndrome. That surgery required reconstructing the toddler’s urinary system in a nearly 10-hour procedure. Prune Belly Syndrome, also known as Eagle-Barrett Syndrome, is a very rare occurrence: just one in 80,000 births. An
Researchers have found that a portion of anomalous cosmic rays — charged particles accelerated to enormous energies by the solar wind — results from interactions with dust grains from a belt of comet-sized objects near Pluto’s orbit. These objects make up what is known as the Kuiper Belt, a remnant of the formation of the solar system.
“This novel finding shows how dust in the cosmos may play an important role for producing the most energetic particles known,” says Dr. Nathan S
As detected by ESA satellite sensors, the recent eruptions of the Mount Etna volcano in Sicily are throwing huge amounts of ash and trace gases into the atmosphere. Working with data from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) sensor onboard ESA’s ERS-2 spacecraft, scientists at the German aerospace centre (DLR) report that levels of sulphur dioxide from the eruptions on Sunday and Monday are at least 20 times higher than normal.
As detected by ESA satellite sensors, the recent erupt
If you play pool, you`ll probably be familiar with that sinking feeling you get when you miss a pot, despite believing you`d lined up the perfect shot. But all that could change with the help of an interactive pool table and a virtual coach called James.
The table, invented by Lars Bo Larsen and his team at Aalborg University in Denmark, monitors the ball positions with a camera and uses the bright point from a moving laser beam to suggest which shots to play. It also shows you where
VLT UVES Observes Most Metal-Deficient Star Known [1]
A faint star in the southern Milky Way, designated HE 0107-5240, has been found to consist virtually only of hydrogen and helium. It has the lowest abundance of heavier elements ever observed, only 1/200,000 of that of the Sun – 20 times less than the previous record-holding star.
This is the result of a major ongoing research project by an international team of astronomers [2] . It is based on a decade-lon
Genetically modified Bt crops are now widely used in the USA.
These crops contain genes from bacteria that make them toxic to some insect pests. A central concern in regulating these genetically modified crops is the risk of insects evolving resistance to the Bt toxins.
To reduce this risk, the “high dose/refuge” strategy is now being used, in which non-Bt fields (refuges for insect pests) are planted near Bt fields (where there is high dose of toxin).
In the Nove
Scientists at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center have developed the world’s first animal model for mature human B-cell lymphomas, a discovery that may lead to the uncovering of the genetic mutations that cause these types of cancer. Mature B-cell type lymphomas account for about 85 percent of all lymphomas.
The basic science discovery is outlined in the Oct. 29 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“What we can do now is grow cell
A wheelchair robot developed by scientists at Coimbra University already has a prototype “capable of navigating without colliding with obstacles by commanded human voice”, as professor Urbano Nunes states, the person with joint responsibility, with professor Gabriel Pires, for the team of professors and students of the Electro-technical Engineering Department responsible for the project.
For the last five years this project has been developed and integrated in degree classes and pos
An enzyme that plays a pivotal role in controlling genes in yeast acts through a more versatile mechanism than was previously thought to be the case, according to a new study by researchers at The Wistar Institute.
Its mode of action is also distinct from that of other members of the vital enzyme family into which it falls, the scientists found. Because the human counterpart of the enzyme has been associated with certain forms of leukemia, this observation raises the possibility that
Scientists have developed and tested a new imaging technique that reveals the atomic structure of thin films with unprecedented resolution. For the first time, the technique has shown very precisely how the atoms of the first layers of a film rearrange under the action of the substrate on which the film is grown. The results of the study are reported as the cover story of the October issue of Nature Materials.
“This technique directly provides a very precise image of atomic positions within
A new study of the most commonly prescribed post-kidney transplant drug suggests it may not be the most effective weapon to fend off organ rejection and may even damage some donor kidneys. The research, to be presented Nov. 2 at the American Society of Nephrology annual meeting, identified another drug that seems to work better, a finding that could help expand the pool of donor organs.
An analysis by an Ohio University physiologist suggests that large doses of cyclosporine, the most often
Physicists have devised a new experiment that will be used in the quest for exotic forces in nature and “additional spatial dimensions.”
The researchers have demonstrated an innovative way to measure a phenomenon known as the Casimir effect – findings that also could have implications for the design of microscopic machines that contain tiny parts on the size scale of nanometers – or billionths of a meter.
The scientists are taking their theoretical findings a step further by
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