science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Παρασκευή 25 Ιανουαρίου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

'Cool' kids in middle school bully more, UCLA psychologists report
Liquid crystal’s chaotic inner dynamics
False Beliefs Persist, Even After Instant Online Corrections
“Connection error” in the brains of anorexics
Researchers prevent cancer spread by blocking tissue scarring
HDL cholesterol impaired in kidney disease
Mental health approach to teenage alcohol prevention is successful

'Cool' kids in middle school bully more, UCLA psychologists report

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 12:32 PM PST

Bullying, whether it's physical aggression or spreading rumors, boosts the social status and popularity of middle school students, according to a new UCLA psychology study that has implications for programs aimed at combatting school bullying. In addition, students already considered popular engage in these forms of bullying, the researchers found.

Liquid crystal’s chaotic inner dynamics

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 09:05 AM PST

Liquid crystal displays are ubiquitous. Now, Polish physicists have demonstrated that the application of a very strong alternating electric field to thin liquid crystal cells leads to a new distinct dynamic effect in the response of the cells. The theory of spatio-temporal chaos explains this effect. It was elucidated by Wojciech Jeżewski and colleagues from the Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, in Poznań, Poland, and is about to be published in EPJ E.

False Beliefs Persist, Even After Instant Online Corrections

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 08:56 AM PST

It seems like a great idea: Provide instant corrections to web-surfers when they run across obviously false information on the Internet.

But a new study suggests that this type of tool may not be a panacea for dispelling inaccurate beliefs, particularly among people who already want to believe the falsehood.

“Connection error” in the brains of anorexics

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 08:08 AM PST

When people see pictures of bodies, a whole range of brain regions are active. This network is altered in women with anorexia nervosa. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, two regions that are important for the processing of body images were functionally more weakly connected in anorexic women than in healthy women. The stronger this “connection error” was, the more overweight the respondents considered themselves.

Researchers prevent cancer spread by blocking tissue scarring

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 08:02 AM PST

What to fear most if faced by a cancer diagnosis is the spread of the cancer to other parts of the body. This process called metastasis accounts for over 90% of cancer patient deaths and therefore is a strong focus for cancer researchers. Researchers at BRIC, University of Copenhagen have shown that the enzyme Lysyl Oxidase (LOX) can create a “scarred” microenvironment that enhances cancer spreading. By blocking activity of the LOX enzyme, the researchers succeeded in significantly decreasing metastasis in a model of breast cancer.

HDL cholesterol impaired in kidney disease

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 07:52 AM PST

Patients with end-stage renal disease on dialysis (ESRD-HD) are at high risk for cardiovascular disease – including heart attacks – and do not appear to benefit from cholesterol-lowering statin therapy.

Mental health approach to teenage alcohol prevention is successful

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 07:47 AM PST

Targeted psychological interventions aimed at teenagers at risk of emotional and behavioural problems significantly reduce their drinking behaviour, and that of their schoolmates, according to the results from a large randomised controlled trial published today in JAMA Psychiatry. The authors argue that the intervention could be administered in schools throughout the UK to help prevent teenage alcohol abuse.