ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Work productivity is key factor in assessing recovery of depressed patients
• Expanded role of PARP proteins opens the door to explore therapeutic targets in cancer
• Racial inequity, violence climb list of child health concerns for black adults
• Brain study confirms gene mutation link to psychiatric disorders
• Ready-made customer base for new products: Crowdsourcing provides remarkable benefits for companies
• Spin polarization by strong field ionization
• Tropical sea urchins caught between a rock and a hot place
• This is your brain on sentences
• New map of world vegetation reveals substantial changes since 1980s
• Heading for a fall: Neuroscientists reveal how overconfidence can lead to poor decision making
• How shaping light can change particle behavior
• Mate choices of barn swallows tied to diverging appearances
• A very hungry caterpillar: Researchers sequence genome of 'gluttonous' tobacco hornworm
• Researchers develop new strategy to limit side effects of stem cell transplants
• New study explains why MRSA 'superbug' kills influenza patients
• Cancer in context: 37 years of painstakingly collected data
• Schizophrenia emerged after humans diverged from Neanderthals
• Reduced ecosystem functions in oil palm plantations
• Replacing just one sugary drink with water could significantly improve health
• How racial inequality is produced online
• Blood pressure diet improves gout blood marker
• Cancer overtakes heart disease as the main cause of death in 12 European countries

Work productivity is key factor in assessing recovery of depressed patients Posted: 15 Aug 2016 08:14 AM PDT While medications can quickly reduce depressive symptoms, monitoring work productivity can provide unique insight into whether a patient will require additional treatments to achieve long-term remission, a new study finds.

Expanded role of PARP proteins opens the door to explore therapeutic targets in cancer Posted: 15 Aug 2016 08:13 AM PDT Using technology they developed, researchers have identified a previously unknown role of a certain class of proteins: as regulators of gene activity and RNA processing.

Racial inequity, violence climb list of child health concerns for black adults Posted: 15 Aug 2016 08:13 AM PDT Black adults rate school violence and racial inequities higher on their list of children's health concerns than other groups, a new national poll says.

Brain study confirms gene mutation link to psychiatric disorders Posted: 15 Aug 2016 08:12 AM PDT Brain scans have revealed how a genetic mutation linked to major psychiatric disorders affects the structure, function and chemistry of the brain. The study offers further clues about how the mutation increases the risk of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Ready-made customer base for new products: Crowdsourcing provides remarkable benefits for companies Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:47 AM PDT Organizations should be more customer focused in innovation production, say researchers. A new study indicates that crowdsourcing makes the organization's innovation management more customer focused and because this, innovations are more noteworthy and gain more demand in the markets.

Spin polarization by strong field ionization Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:47 AM PDT Strong field ionization has been studied for over half a century. Yet, the role of electron spin during this process has been largely overlooked. Surprisingly, our joint experimental and theoretical study shows that a chance of detaching spin-up or spin-down electron from an atom can be very different, say scientists.

Tropical sea urchins caught between a rock and a hot place Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:46 AM PDT The balmy waters of the Caribbean could turn into a deadly heat trap for countless tiny creatures. Authors of a new study have discovered that microscopic sea urchin eggs and larvae may suffer stunting or death when the water temperature spikes just a couple of degrees above normal, adding to the impact of climate change in already warm tropical oceans.

This is your brain on sentences Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:46 AM PDT Researchers, for the first time, have decoded and predicted the brain activity patterns of word meanings within sentences, and successfully predicted what the brain patterns would be for new sentences.

New map of world vegetation reveals substantial changes since 1980s Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT A new system to map the world's 'biomes' -- large-scale vegetation formations -- has been developed that will provide an objective method for monitoring how vegetation reacts as climate changes. The system uses satellite observations of the timing and intensity of vegetation activity and how this relates to temperature and soil moisture to classify the world's vegetation into 24 biome types.

Heading for a fall: Neuroscientists reveal how overconfidence can lead to poor decision making Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT The link between overconfidence and poor decision making is under the spotlight in a new, international study. Findings suggest that although being confident entails a reward-like component, it can lead to overconfidence which in turn can undermine decision making.

How shaping light can change particle behavior Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT Interactions between tiny particles trapped in light are found to differ, depending on the light's shape, report scientists. Physical phenomena, such as particle behavior in higher order modes not only allows for better control of the particle positions, but additionally could be useful in studying quantum effects with chains of atoms in 1D crystal-like structures, they say.

Mate choices of barn swallows tied to diverging appearances Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT If you are a male barn swallow in the United States or the Mediterranean with dark red breast feathers, you're apt to wow potential mates. But if you have long outer tail feathers in the United States, or short ones in the Mediterranean, the females may not be so impressed.

A very hungry caterpillar: Researchers sequence genome of 'gluttonous' tobacco hornworm Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT The genome of the tobacco hornworm -- an important model of insect biology -- has now been sequenced by a team of researchers. The sequenced genome can lead to improved molecular biology, physiology and neurobiology research in insects and also may help in developing future new methods for insect pest management. The tobacco hornworm is a good model species because of its large size -- the caterpillar can measure up to 4 inches long -- making it easy to collect tissue samples.

Researchers develop new strategy to limit side effects of stem cell transplants Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT A new approach that may prevent leukemia and lymphoma patients from developing graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) after therapeutic bone marrow transplants has now been developed by scientists.

New study explains why MRSA 'superbug' kills influenza patients Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT Secondary infection with the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium (or 'superbug') often kills influenza patients because the flu virus alters the antibacterial response of white blood cells, causing them to damage the patients' lungs instead of destroying the bacterium, researchers have found. A new study suggests that inhibiting this response may help treat patients infected with both the flu virus and MRSA.

Cancer in context: 37 years of painstakingly collected data Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT A new report includes every cancer diagnosis in the Los Angeles region over the past 37 years -- more than 1.3 million. With easy-to-read charts, the book divides L.A.'s population into 11 ethnic and racial groups to highlight the fact that cancer risk is a result of genetics, environment and behavior. The report card provides evidence of how environmental and lifestyle choices can alter one's cancer risk.

Schizophrenia emerged after humans diverged from Neanderthals Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:49 AM PDT Schizophrenia poses an evolutionary enigma. The disorder has existed throughout recorded human history and persists despite its severe effects on thought and behavior, and its reduced rates of producing offspring. A new study may help explain why-comparing genetic information of Neanderthals to modern humans, the researchers found evidence for an association between genetic risk for schizophrenia and markers of human evolution.

Reduced ecosystem functions in oil palm plantations Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:49 AM PDT Large areas of tropical lowland forests have been replaced by oil palm plantations, with major impact on environment and people. An interdisciplinary team of scientists has now performed a complete and multidisciplinary assessment of all ecosystem functions in oil palm plantations as compared to lowland forests. They found that in oil palm plantations, eleven out of 14 ecosystem functions showed a net decrease, some with an irreversible global impact. The results also reveal mitigation options that can reduce damage and benefit multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously.

Replacing just one sugary drink with water could significantly improve health Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:48 AM PDT New study findings modeled the effect of replacing one 8-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage with an 8-ounce serving of water, based on the daily dietary intake of US adults aged 19 and older, retrieved from the 2007-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

How racial inequality is produced online Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:48 AM PDT Internet users tend to navigate between websites in a racially segregated way, despite pathways that provide equitable access to different sites, finds a new study.

Blood pressure diet improves gout blood marker Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:47 AM PDT A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy and reduced in fats and saturated fats (the DASH diet), designed decades ago to reduce high blood pressure, also appears to significantly lower uric acid, the causative agent of gout. Further, the effect was so strong in some participants that it was nearly comparable to that achieved with drugs specifically prescribed to treat gout, a new study shows.

Cancer overtakes heart disease as the main cause of death in 12 European countries Posted: 14 Aug 2016 04:09 PM PDT Although diseases of the heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular disease, CVD) kill more people worldwide than anything else, with 17.3 million deaths globally, cancer has now overtaken CVD as the main cause of death in 12 European countries.

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