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Long working hours make parents compromise on food choices

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 10 (ANI): Long work hours and irregular schedules are forcing people to compromise on food choices for themselves and their children, suggests a new study.

The research team from Cornell University measured food choice coping strategies in low- to middle-income families in five categories: (1) food prepared at/away from home; (2) missing meals; (3) individualizing meals (family eats differently, separately, or together); (4) speeding up to save time; and (5) planning.

They found that fathers who worked long hours or had nonstandard hours and schedules were more likely to use take-out meals, miss family meals, purchase prepared entrees, and eat while working.

Similarly, mothers were also likely to purchase restaurant meals or prepared entrees or missed breakfast.

About a quarter of mothers and fathers said they did not have access to healthful, reasonably priced, and/or good-tasting food at or near work.

The findings suggest that better work conditions may be associated with more positive strategies such as more home-prepared meals, eating with the family, keeping healthful food at work, and less meal skipping.

“This study examined how work conditions are related to the food choice coping strategies of low- and moderate-income parents,” said Dr Carol M. Devine, RD, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, and colleagues.

“Study findings will enhance understanding of social and temporal employment constraints on adults’ food choices and may inform workplace interventions and policies…The importance of work structure for employed parents’ food choice strategies is seen in the associations between work hours and schedule and food choice coping strategies, such as meals away from home and missed family meals.

“Long work hours and irregular schedules mean more time away from family, less time for household food work, difficulty in maintaining a regular meal pattern, and less opportunity to participate in family meals; this situation may result in feelings of time scarcity, fatigue, and strain that leave parents with less personal energy for food and meals,” the researchers added.

The study appears in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. (ANI)

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Regular marijuana use leaves men with sexual difficulties

August 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Aug 25 (ANI): A new study from La Trobe University in Melbourne has found that men who regularly smoke pot are four times more likely to have trouble reaching orgasm.

During the study, lead researcher Marian Pitts analysed the data collected as part of a 2005 telephone survey of 16- to 64-year-olds.

It showed that overall, 8.7 per cent of respondents said they had gotten high in the last year, with twice as many men (11.2 per cent) admitting to marijuana use as women (6.1 per cent).

Although male smokers experienced sexual problems, they still had more partners than non-smokers, reports New Scientist.

The findings showed that marijuana users were twice as likely to have had two or more sex partners in the previous year than men who didn’t smoke pot.

Pitts’ team found an even stronger trend for increased sexual activity among female smokers, who were also seven times more likely to have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection in the last year than non-smokers.

However, they had no more problems in the bedroom than abstainers.

The new study supports the results of the research led by Marie Eloi-Stiven at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York, which found that marijuana users were far more likely than others to take Viagra. (ANI)

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New X-ray technique reveals buried image in N. C. Wyeth’s painting

August 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 20 (ANI): A new X-ray imaging technique has for the first time in a century revealed unprecedented details of a painting hidden beneath another painting by famed American illustrator Newell Convers Wyeth, who is regarded as the greatest American illustrator of the 20th century.

While making a presentation at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on Wednesday, Dr. Jennifer Mass said that the non-destructive look-beneath-the-surface method could reveal hidden images in hundreds of Old Master paintings, and other prized works of art.

In the study paper, the researcher noted that many great artists re-used canvases or covered paintings with other paintings, in order to save money on materials or to let the colours and shapes of a prior composition influence the next one.

Art historians believe that several of Wyeth’s most valued illustrations have been lost from view in that way, and one of them, depicting a dramatic fist fight, was published in a 1919 Everybody’s Magazine article titled ‘The Mildest Mannered Man’.

X-ray techniques previously used by other scientists suggested that Wyeth had covered the fight scene with another painting called ‘Family Portrait’, but they had not shown the the true image except in black and white reproductions.

The new instrument, called a confocal X-ray fluorescence microscope, was developed at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) national X-ray facility.

The instrument reveals minute details in hidden paintings without removing paint samples. It shoots X-ray beams into a painting and then collects fluorescent X-ray “signals” given off by the chemicals in the various paint layers.

Scientists can link each signal to specific paint pigments.

In addition to revealing the original image, the method is providing new information on Wyeth’s materials and methods.

The same technique may ultimately reveal hidden images in paintings by other famed artists, the researchers say. (ANI)

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How news stories rise and fall in popularity

July 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14 (ANI): Cornell computer scientists say that they have successfully managed to track and analyse how news stories rise and fall in popularity, by mapping the flow of articles appearing on the Internet.

Jon Kleinberg, the Tisch University Professor of Computer Science at Cornell, postdoctoral researcher Jure Leskovec and graduate student Lars Backstrom tracked 1.6 million online news sites, including 20,000 mainstream media sites and a vast array of blogs, over the three-month period leading up to the 2008 presidential election.

The researchers have revealed that their study included a total of 90 million articles, something that makes it one of the largest analyses anywhere of online news.

They found a consistent rhythm as stories rose into prominence, and then fell off over just a few days, with a “heartbeat” pattern of handoffs between blogs and mainstream media.

In mainstream media, according to them, a story rises to prominence slowly then dies quickly.

In the blogosphere, say the researchers, stories rise in popularity very quickly but then stay around longer, as discussion goes back and forth.

Eventually though, almost every story is pushed aside by something newer, they add.

“The movement of news to the Internet makes it possible to quantify something that was otherwise very hard to measure-the temporal dynamics of the news. We want to understand the full news ecosystem, and online news is now an accurate enough reflection of the full ecosystem to make this possible. This is one (very early) step toward creating tools that would help people understand the news, where it’s coming from and how it’s arising from the confluence of many sources,” said Kleinberg.

The researchers believe that the slow rise of a new story in the mainstream results from imitation-as more sites carried a story, other sites were more likely to pick it up. But the life of a story is limited, they say, as new stories quickly push out the old.

They say that a mathematical model based on the interaction of imitation and recency predicted the pattern fairly well, while predictions based on either imitation or recency alone couldn’t come close.

They admit that their mathematical model needs to be refined, and suggest further study of how stories move between sites with opposing political orientation.

“It will be useful to further understand the roles different participants play in the process, as their collective behavior leads directly to the ways in which all of us experience news and its consequences,” the researchers concluded. (ANI)

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Cosmic ‘whips’ may be detected with gravitational waves

July 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 6 (ANI): A new research has determined that cosmic ‘whips’, which are topological defects in space-time larger than the observable universe, can be detected with the help of gravitational waves.

Many theories predict the existence of cosmic strings.

They say that space-time should have universe-sized snags called ‘cosmic strings’ running across it, but none have yet been found.

That could be because they broke into a tangle of smaller strings and beads soon after the big bang, say scientists.

The imprint of their extremely high gravity was expected to be seen in the cosmic microwave background – the radiation left over from the big bang – or as gravitational lenses that bend distant light towards us.

But, no convincing evidence has been seen.

Ben Shlaer of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and colleagues, told New Scientist that the lack of evidence could be because the strings were unstable and split into smaller and smaller pieces soon after they formed.

The first strings could have been gigantic closed loops or extremely large fragments that terminated in “beads”.

These beads would have been so-called monopoles – analogous to a magnet’s north or south pole without its partner.

As the strings broke, the team’s analysis shows that their split ends would have been capped off by more monopoles, eventually leading to a universe filled with fragmented strings with beads at their ends.

In an infant universe, these high-tension strings would have been whipping around, accelerating the massive beads to relativistic speeds.

These would have generated tight beams of gravitational waves, which could still be traveling through space-time.

“It’s possible that if you wait long enough, one of those highly focused bursts would hit the Earth, and that would cause one of our gravitational wave detectors to chirp,” said Shlaer.

The first cosmic strings were unstable and split into small pieces capped by monopoles.

Those detectors include the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory, which is currently being upgraded, and the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.

“The possible frequency range of the waves is exceptionally large, “raising the hope of detection” of cosmic strings,” said theoretical physicist Henry Tye at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. (ANI)

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Gene therapy ‘helps minimize risk linked to stem cell transplantation’

May 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 22 (ANI): Researchers from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Centre suggest that genetically modifying stem cells prior to transplantation can help minimize the risk associated with the therapy.

Stem cells intended to treat or cure a disease can end up wreaking havoc simply because they are no longer under the control of the clinician.

“Stem cell therapy offers enormous potential to treat and even cure serious diseases. But wayward stem cells can turn into a runaway train without a conductor,” said senior author Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

“This is an issue that can be dealt with and we have the technology to do that in the form of gene therapy,” he added.

Researchers said that one of the biggest potential problems with stem cell therapy is the development of tumors.

Also stem cells directed to become beating heart cells might mistakenly end up in the brain. Or insulin-producing beta cells which can’t stop means the body can no longer regulate insulin levels.

The best way to avoid the problems is genetic modification of the stem cells prior to actually transplanting them, Dr. Crystal said.

“Almost all therapeutics we use have a half life. They only last a certain amount of time,” he said.

“Stem cells are the opposite. Once the future stem cell therapist does the therapy, stem cells have the innate potential to produce more cells,” he added.

The study appears in the journal Cell Stem Cell. (ANI)

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Changing climate make mockingbirds better singers

May 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 22 (ANI): Mockingbirds tend to sing fancier tunes with changing climate, say researchers.

The research team from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Centre (NESCent), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and McGill University showed that species in more variable climes also sing complex tunes.

“Survival and reproduction become more complicated when weather patterns are unpredictable because you don’t know when food will be available or how long it will be around,” said Carlos Botero, a postdoctoral researcher at NESCent in Durham, NC.

And the consequences of picking a mediocre mate are magnified in harsher climes.

“In really difficult or demanding environments you would expect females to be choosier,” he added.

Botero said that male mockingbirds sing primarily to impress mates and superior singing skills are a cue that a male is a good catch.

“Complexity of song display – how many song types a bird sings, how hard the songs are – is a good predictor of the quality of the individual,” he said.

“Males that sing more complex songs tend to carry fewer parasites, and have offspring that are more likely to survive,” he added.

Moreover, singing skills may be a sign that males are clever enough to cope with iffy environments.

“Individuals that are more intelligent tend to be better able to compensate for the difficulties of unpredictable climates,” said Botero.

“For example, if some individuals are able to invent new foraging techniques, then they are going to be better at surviving harsh winters than the poor guys who only know one way to forage.

“The more intelligent you are, the more resourceful you are, and the more curve balls you’re able to handle,” he added.

During the study, Botero and his colleagues studied nearly 100 tracks from 29 mockingbird species and found that species subject to more variable and unpredictable climates had more elaborate song displays.

The connection between birdsong and climate is new and somewhat surprising, Botero explains. “We’re connecting two dots that were far away before.” (ANI)

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Mars was windy, wet and wild in ancient times

May 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 22 (ANI): The instruments aboard the Rover Opportunity, which are studying the Victoria Crater on Mars, has revealed more evidence of the red planet’s windy, wet and wild past.

According to Steve Squyres, Cornell professor of astronomy and the principal investigator for NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission, Opportunity’s two-year exploration of Victoria Crater – a half-mile wide and 250 feet deep – yielded a treasury of information about the planet’s geologic history and supported previous findings indicating that water once flowed on the planet’s surface.

The data shows that water repeatedly came and left billions of years ago.

Wind persisted much longer, heaping sand into dunes between ancient water episodes. These activities still shape the landscape today.

At Victoria, steep cliffs and gentler alcoves alternate around the edge of a bowl about 0.8 kilometers in diameter.

The scalloped edge and other features indicate the crater once was smaller than it is today, but wind erosion has widened it gradually.

“The impact that excavated the crater millions of years ago provided a golden opportunity, and the durability of the rover enabled us to take advantage of it,” said Squyres.

Imaging the crater’s rim and interior, Opportunity inspected layers in the cliffs around the crater, including layered stacks more than 10 meters (30 feet) thick.

Distinctive patterns indicate the rocks formed from shifting dunes that later hardened into sandstone, according to Squyres and 33 co-authors of the findings.

Instruments on the rover’s arm studied the composition and detailed texture of rocks just outside the crater and exposed layers in one alcove called “Duck Bay.”

Rocks found beside the crater include pieces of a meteorite, which may have been part of the impacting space rock that made the crater.

Other rocks on the rim of the crater apparently were excavated from deep within it when the object hit.

These rocks bear a type of iron-rich small spheres, or spherules, that the rover team nicknamed “blueberries” when Opportunity first saw them in 2004.

The spherules formed from interaction with water penetrating the rocks.

The spherules in rocks deeper in the crater are larger than those in overlying layers, suggesting the action of groundwater was more intense at greater depth.

Opportunity’s first observations showed interaction of volcanic rock with acidic water to produce sulfate salts.

Dry sand rich in these salts blew into dunes. Under the influence of water, the dunes hardened to sandstone.

Further alteration by water produced the iron-rich spherules, mineral changes and angular pores left when crystals dissolved away. (ANI)

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New nanocrystal shows potential for cheaper and more versatile lasers

May 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 11 (ANI): Scientists at the University of Rochester, along with researchers at the Eastman Kodak Company, have created a nanocrystal that constantly emits light, which has potential for the development of cheaper and more versatile lasers and brighter LED lighting.

Many molecules, as well as crystals just a billionth of a meter in size, can absorb or radiate photons. But, they also experience random periods when they absorb a photon, but instead of the photon radiating away, its energy is transformed into heat.

These “dark” periods alternate with periods when the molecule can radiate normally, leading to the appearance of them turning on and off, or blinking.

“A nanocrystal that has just absorbed the energy from a photon has two choices to rid itself of the excess energy-emission of light or of heat,” said Todd Krauss, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Rochester and lead author on the study.

“If the nanocrystal emits that energy as heat, you’ve essentially lost that energy,” he added.

Krauss worked with engineers at Kodak and researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory and Cornell University to discover the new, non-blinking nanocrystals.

Krauss and Keith Kahen, senior principal scientist of Kodak, were exploring new types of low-cost lighting similar to organic light-emitting diodes, but which might not suffer from the short lifespans and manufacturing challenges inherent in these diodes.

Kahen, with help from Megan Hahn, a postdoctoral fellow in Krauss’ laboratory, synthesized nanocrystals of various compositions.

Xiaoyong Wang, another postdoctoral fellow in Krauss laboratory, inspected one of these new nanocrystals and saw no evidence of the expected blinking phenomenon.

Remarkably, even after four hours of monitoring, the new nanocrystal showed no sign of a single blink-unheard of when blinks usually happen on a scale of miliseconds to minutes.

After a lengthy investigation, Krauss and Alexander Efros from the Naval Research Laboratory concluded that the reason the blinking didn’t occur was due to the unusual structure of the nanocrystal.

Normally, nanocrystals have a core of one semiconductor material wrapped in a protective shell of another, with a sharp boundary dividing the two.

The new nanocrystal, however, has a continuous gradient from a core of cadmium and selenium to a shell of zinc and selenium.

That gradient squelches the processes that prevent photons from radiating, and the result is a stream of emitted photons as steady as the stream of absorbed photons.

With blink-free nanocrystals, Krauss believes lasers and lighting could be incredibly cheap and easy to fabricate. (ANI)

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Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak comes closer to reality

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, May 1 (ANI): Scientists have made yet another advancement in bringing invisibility cloak closer to reality by developing a material that renders objects invisible to near-infrared light.

Previous “cloaks” had metals in their structure, which resulted in imperfect cloaking due to loss of light.

In the new study, researchers from New York’s Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley have developed a carpet-based cloak using a dielectric – or insulating material – which absorbs far less light.

This “carpet” design was based on a theory first described by John Pendry, from Imperial College London, in 2008.

Michal Lipson and her team at Cornell University demonstrated a cloak based on the concept.

Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, led the other team.

“Essentially, we are transforming a straight line of light into a curved line around the cloak, so you don’t perceive any change in its pathway,” The BBC quoted Zang as saying.

The new material negates the distortion produced by the bulge of the object under it, bending light around it, and giving the illusion of a flattened surface.

According to Zhang, the cloak “changes the local density” of the object it is covering.

“When light passes from air into water it will be bent, because the optical density, or refraction index, of the glass is different to air.

“So by manipulating the optical density of an object, you can transform the light path from a straight line to to any path you want,” the expert said.

The new material does this via a series of minuscule holes – which are strategically “drilled” into a sheet of silicon.

“Where the holes are more dense, there is more air than silicon, so the optical density of the object is reduced,” Zhang said. (ANI)

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Noble Travels Group launches Bid2Travel.com

April 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 14 (ANI/Business Wire India): Noble Travels Group, the leading provider of travel-related services throughout the Indian travel industry for over a decade, today announced the launch of Bid2Travel.com – India’s first online bidding site bringing unsold, last-minute inventory of rooms straight to the customer.

Bid2Travel.com is based on a simple yet focused philosophy – “A room vacant for a night is revenue lost forever.” This new site will revolutionize the way that tourism accommodation providers sell unoccupied rooms and provide consumers with a direct way to get the best prices for their lodging needs.

For the first time, Bid2Travel.com enables consumers to decide the price they are prepared to pay for an unoccupied hotel room within the upcoming 14-day period.

They can also pay a heavily discounted rate for a last-minute room. Hotels gain advantages as well, with the ability to offer confidentially proposed prices to a consumer online for – for either unoccupied rooms or distressed stock/inventory . or they can sell last-minute rooms at a heavily discounted price.

The site is especially useful for those planning last-minute vacations or business trips. Consumers and business travelers alike face many challenges when attempting to book a cheap hotel through traditional online travel sites.

For the best prices, it often requires advanced booking timeframes of a few weeks – if not months – to score a good deal. Bid2Travel.com changes the entire process for consumers, empowering them to make an offer to a participating hotel with a vacant room and receive an answer within three hours.

This unique site allows people to make their own offers for hotel rooms at approximately one-third of the price (or lower) of the common reduced ‘last-minute’ rates.

“I have a firm belief that a room vacant for a night is revenue lost forever. A property/hotel only has a limited supply, so this revenue cannot be recaptured in the future,” said Pritpal S. Saini, Founder and Director of Bid2Travel.com.

“It’s like an eBay for the tourism industry, except it is not a competitive bidding process. While the cost of selling a room varies from property to property, the majority of a hotel’s costs will be the same whether a hotel has an occupancy rate of 57 per cent or it is fully booked,” Pritpal added.

Revenue management is of growing importance to the hospitality industry. The Internet represents a paradigm shift in how hospitality professionals can optimize a business segment that is driven by perishable inventory, relatively fixed capacity, high fixed and low variable costs, advance sales/reservations and time-variable demand for segmented markets.

According to Bill Carroll, senior lecturer at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, “Getting it right can make the difference between profitability and non profitability.”

According to PhoCusWright – the travel industry research authority on how travelers, suppliers and intermediaries connect, the past three years illustrated an unprecedented and fundamental shift in the supply side dynamics of the travel industry in India. Projections indicate that the online portion of the marketplace alone will surpass US $5.7 billion by 2010.

Bid2Travel.com represents a new opportunity for consumers to enhance their travel decisions. At the same time this initiative will benefit the accommodation industry, which on average has some 10,000 rooms sitting vacant throughout India each night.

“Increasing the number of people undertaking spontaneous travel will result in more demand for rooms,” said Saini. (ANI)

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Novel test to predict breast cancer metastasis

March 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 28 (ANI): Researchers from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have identified a new marker that may lead to the development of a novel test to predict breast cancer metastasis.

The research team has identified a marker called TMEM, for Tumor Microenvironment of Metastasis, density of which is associated with the development of distant organ metastasis via the bloodstream – the most common cause of death from breast cancer.

“Currently, anyone with a breast cancer diagnosis fears the worst – that the cancer will spread and threaten their lives,” said Dr. Joan G. Jones, professor of clinical pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and director of Anatomic Pathology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

“A tissue test for metastatic risk could alleviate those worries, and prevent toxic and costly measures like radiation and chemotherapy,” Jones added.

“If patients can be better classified as either low risk or high risk for metastasis, therapies can be custom tailored to patients, preventing over-treatment or under-treatment of the disease,” said first author Dr. Brian D. Robinson, resident in Anatomic Pathology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

During the study, the researchers analysed the tissue samples of 30 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast who developed systemic, distant-organ metastases.

These samples were compared to matched controls that had only localized disease i.e., invasive ductal carcinoma limited to the breast or with regional lymph node metastasis only.

They found that TMEM density was more than double in the group of patients who developed systemic metastases compared with the patients with only localized breast cancer.

“Traditionally, the likelihood of breast cancer metastasis is estimated based on tumor size, tumor differentiation – how similar or dissimilar the tumor is compared to normal breast tissue – and whether it has spread to the lymph nodes,” said Jones.

“While these are useful measures, TMEM density directly reflects the blood-borne mechanism of metastasis, and therefore may prove to be more specific and directly relevant.”

The findings appear in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. (ANI)

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NBA salutes contribution of Kothari to people’s movements

March 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Mar.23 (ANI): The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on Monday joined other people’s movements in saluting the services and contributions of Smitu Kothari to what it called the anti-poor agenda of privatization, globalization and liberalization.

A widely respected scholar, visiting academic at the Cornell and Princeton Universities, author of several publications on contemporary socio-political and economic discourses and above all an indomitable activist, Smitu Kothari, 59 passed away this morning after a cardiac attack.

She was cremated at a crematorium in South Delhi this afternoon. Kothari was a vocal supporter of adivasis, farmers, labourers, fish workers, potters and all people affected by the Narmada Dam project. (ANI)

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Novel drug offers highly effective treatment for blood disorder

March 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Mar 21 (ANI): An international team of researchers has found a new drug that can prove to be an effective treatment option for thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a chronic blood disorder.

Thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is an autoimmune disease that dramatically reduces the number of platelets in their blood – causing bruises, nosebleeds and, rarely, life-threatening brain hemorrhages.

The study suggests that drug Promacta(r) (eltrombopag) is safe and effective in treating the blood disorder.

“Findings from the new study are very encouraging, and I believe this treatment is an effective option for all patients suffering from chronic ITP,” The Lancet quoted Dr. James Bussel, principal investigator of the study from Weill Cornell Medical Centre as saying.

The new trials showed that eltrombopag was effective in raising platelet counts and lowering bleeding in adult with chronic ITP.

During the study, the researchers recruited 114 subjects, who were all 18 years and older, with at least six months of history with ITP and with low-platelet counts.

The safe level of platelet count is between 30,000 and 50,000.

The participants were divided into two groups. Two-thirds received the standard of care with the addition of 50mg of eltrombopag, while the other group received placebo pill.

Over a period of 43 days, the researchers found that 59 percent of subjects receiving Promacta(r) achieved platelet counts at or over 50,000 per 5L of blood, compared with 16 percent of subjects in the placebo group.

The group receiving Promacta(r) were nearly 10 times more likely to reach the target platelet counts as the placebo group.

The researchers are conducting further studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of eltrombopag as a long-term treatment for ITP. (ANI)

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NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity catches first glimpse of distant destination

March 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 19 (ANI): The panoramic camera on NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has caught a first glimpse on the horizon of the uplifted rim of the big crater that has been Opportunity’s long-term destination for six months.

Opportunity’s twin, Spirit, also has a challenging destination, and last week switched to a different route for making progress.

Endeavour Crater, 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter, is still 12 kilometers (7 miles) away from Opportunity, and at least 30 percent farther away on routes mapped for evading hazards on the plain.

Opportunity has already driven about 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) since it climbed out of Victoria Crater last August after two years of studying Victoria, which is less than one-twentieth the size of Endeavour.

“It’s exciting to see our destination, even if we can’t be certain whether we’ll ever get all the way there,” said John Callas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, project manager for the twin Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit.

“At the pace we’ve made since leaving Victoria, the rest of the trek will take more than a Martian year,” he added.

A Martian year lasts about 23 months.

According to Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers’ science instruments, “We can now see our landfall on the horizon. It’s far away, but we can anticipate seeing it gradually look larger and larger as we get closer to Endeavour.”

“We had a similar experience during the early months of the mission watching the Columbia Hills get bigger in the images from Spirit as Spirit drove toward them,” he said.

Both rovers landed on Mars in January 2004 to begin missions designed to last for three months. Both are still active after more than five years.

For the next several days, the rover team plans to have Opportunity use the tools on its robotic arm to examine soil and rock at an outcrop along the route the rover is taking toward Endeavour. (ANI)

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Few friends, loneliness leads to poor mental, physical health for the elderly

March 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 19 (ANI): Having friends is not only important for the elderly’s social well being, but also for their mental and physical health, according to a study.

The research led by University of Chicago has shown that not having many close friends, and feeling of loneliness, contributes to poorer health for many older adults.

“Social disconnectedness is associated with worse physical health, regardless of whether it prompts feelings of loneliness or a perceived lack of social support,” said study co-author Linda Waite, the Lucy Flower Professor in Sociology at the University of Chicago, and a leading expert on aging.

“(However) the relationship between social disconnectedness and mental health appears to operate through feelings of loneliness and a perceived lack of social support,” she added.

The study showed that most socially connected older adults were three times as likely to report very good or excellent health compared to those who were least connected, regardless of whether they felt isolated.

Older adults who felt least isolated were five times as likely to report very good or excellent health as those who felt most isolated, regardless of their actual level of social connectedness.

Feeling of loneliness and isolation triggered by social disconnectedness leads to poor mental health, say the researchers.

The study suggests that older adults who are able to withstand socially isolating circumstances, or adjust their expectations so that they do not develop strong feelings of loneliness, may fare better.

Aging often brings changes in social relationships as individuals retire, take up new activities, endure losses and experience health changes.

“We need to better understand how older adults adapt to changes in their social relationships,” Waite added.

“For some older adults, a shrinking circle of friends and family can lead to feelings of loneliness or isolation. Our findings suggest that those who adapt to losses so that they don’t feel isolated fare better with respect to both physical and mental health,” said lead author Erin York Cornwell, a Postdoctoral Associate in Sociology at Cornell University.

The study has been published in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour. (ANI)

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Family demands steer women away from math/science careers

March 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 15 (ANI): Women opt out of math/science careers not because they lack mathematical ability, but due to family demands, says a new study.

The research led by Cornell University revealed that women choose non-math-intensive fields for their careers because they want flexibility to raise children, or they prefer less math-intensive fields of science.

“A major reason explaining why women are underrepresented not only in math-intensive fields but also in senior leadership positions in most fields is that many women choose to have children, and the timing of child rearing coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted,” said lead author Stephen J. Ceci, professor of human development at Cornell.

The study showed that women with advanced math abilities choose non-math fields more often than men with similar abilities.

According to co-author Wendy M. Williams, Cornell professor of human development, the drop out rate of women in scientific fields – especially math and physical sciences is high, particularly as they advance, because of their need for greater flexibility and the demands of parenting and caregiving,

“These are choices that all women, but almost no men, are forced to make,” she said.

For the study, the researchers conducted an integrative analysis of 35 years of research on sex differences in math.

The authors concluded that hormonal, brain and other biological sex differences were not primary factors in explaining why women were underrepresented in science careers, and that studies on social and cultural effects were inconsistent and inconclusive.

They also reported that although “institutional barriers and discrimination exist, these influences still cannot explain why women are not entering or staying in STEM careers,” said Ceci.

“The evidence did not show that removal of these barriers would equalize the sexes in these fields, especially given that women’s career preferences and lifestyle choices tilt them toward other careers such as medicine and biology over mathematics, computer science, physics and engineering,” he added.

The authors recommended that universities and companies create options for women with math talents who want to pursue math-intensive careers.

These could include deferred start-up of tenure-track positions and part-time work that segues to full-time tenure-track work for women who are raising children, and courtesy appointments for women unable to work full time but who would benefit from use of university resources (e-mail, library resources, grant support) to continue their research from home.

The study appears in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin. (ANI)

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An apple a day may keep breast cancer at bay

February 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, February 18 (ANI): An apple a day, along with other fruits and vegetables, may keep breast cancer at bay, according to scientists.

Rui Hai Liu, Cornell associate professor of food science and a member of Cornell’s Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, has found that fresh apple extracts significantly inhibited the size of mammary tumours in rats.

The researcher said that the more extracts the subjects were given, the greater the inhibition.

“We not only observed that the treated animals had fewer tumours, but the tumours were smaller, less malignant and grew more slowly compared with the tumours in the untreated rats,” said Liu, pointing out that the study confirmed the findings of his preliminary study in rats published in 2007.

Revealing his findings in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the researcher revealed that Liu said that he found that a type of adenocarcinoma – a highly malignant tumour and the main cause of death of breast-cancer patients, as well as of animals with mammary cancer – was evident in 81 percent of tumours in the control animals.

However, it developed in only 57 percent, 50 percent and 23 percent of the rats fed low, middle and high doses of apple extracts, respectively, during the 24-week study.

Liu revealed that the doses of apple extracts fed to the rats during the study were equivalent to one, three and six apples a day in humans.

“That reflects potent anti-proliferative (rapid decrease) activity,” said Liu.

The researcher further said that his research highlight the important role of phytochemicals, known as phenolics or flavonoids, found in apples and other fruits and vegetables.

“These studies add to the growing evidence that increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, including apples, would provide consumers with more phenolics, which are proving to have important health benefits. I would encourage consumers to eat more and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily,” Liu said. (ANI)

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Working at your relationship all year round only way to keep the flame alive

February 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 11 (ANI): With Valentine’s Day drawing closer, the air is filled with love. However, a leading psychiatrist has said that people shouldn’t wait for February 14 to tell their partners how much they care for them.

Dr. Catherine Birndorf, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said that Valentine’s Day should serve as a reminder to devote time and energy to your relationship every day.

“Most people don’t realize a relationship is effortful and not static. It’s a dynamic evolution,” she said.

She added: “A genuine interest and curiosity about your partner is essential-take the care and make the time to keep up with him or her.”

Birndorf even came out with a few tips to help keep the fire burning between couples.

She suggested that one should let the past repeat itself. Recall favourite memories of times spent together and try to find similar activities. Whether it’s a nice dinner out, a night at the theatre, a day spent walking around town or a vacation, think about some of your best times together and create opportunities for them.

Take time out. Try to connect at least once a day, and set aside quality time once a week to do something you both enjoy.

Be a thoughtful gift giver. The best gifts aren’t the most expensive ones, but the ones that really say “I know you well” and make the other person feel special. Go the extra mile-beyond flowers and candy-to get something that is really unique to your partner.

Give in once in a while. On special occasions, let your partner choose something he or she enjoys but you may not. You may be surprised how good it feels to give selflessly and end up having a great time.

Share your thoughts. Leave a note for your partner in the morning, send a flirty text message or e-mail, or leave a sweet voicemail when you know he or she is away from the phone. These tiny acts of appreciation are sure to brighten your partner’s day.

Schedule in sex. In today’s world, you can’t always expect spontaneity. Make a date for sex and be strategic-schedule play dates for the kids or set an alarm for the early morning. Having it on the schedule will give you something to look forward to and may allow the excitement to build around it.

Never underestimate the power of a compliment. Taking a moment to tell your partner that he or she looks nice today can go a long way. Allowing him or her to start the day with an extra confidence boost will make you feel good, too. (ANI)

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Astronomers detect dust around a dying star, which may shed new light on universe’s origins

January 16, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 16 (ANI): In a new research, a Cornell University led team of astronomers has observed dust forming around a dying star in a nearby galaxy, giving a glimpse into the early universe and enlivening a debate about the origins of all cosmic dust.

The research, led by Cornell research associate Greg Sloan, was based on observations with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

The researchers used Spitzer’s Infrared Spectrograph, which was developed at Cornell.

Dust plays a key role in the evolution of such galaxies as our Milky Way. Stars produce dust – rich with carbon or oxygen – as they die.

But less is known about how and what kind of dust was created in galaxies as they formed soon after the big bang.

Sloan and his colleagues observed dust forming around the carbon star MAG 29, located 280,000 light years away in a smaller nearby galaxy called the Sculptor Dwarf.

Stars more massive than the sun end their lives as carbon stars, which in our galaxy are a rich source of dust.

The Sculptor Dwarf contains only 4 percent of the carbon and other heavy elements in our own galaxy, making it similar to primitive galaxies seen at the edge of the universe.

Those galaxies emitted the light we now see soon after they and the universe formed.

“What this tells us is that carbon stars could have been pumping dust soon after the first galaxies were born,” Sloan said.

Scientists have debated where the dust in the early universe comes from. Supernovae have been a favorite suspect, but they may destroy more dust than they create.

“While everyone is focused on the questions of how much and what kind of dust supernovae make, they may not have appreciated that carbon stars can make at least some of the dust we are seeing,” Sloan said.

“The more we can understand the quantity and composition of the dust, the better we can understand how stars and galaxies evolve, both in the early universe and right next door,” he added.

According to Sloan, observing such stars as MAG 29 is not unlike using a time machine, in which astronomers can catch glimpses of what the universe looked like billions of years ago.

“We haven’t seen carbon-rich dust in this primitive of an environment before,” he said. (ANI)

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