Calcification in changing oceans

http://www.mybiologica.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/3b31140723114202.jpg

What do mollusks, starfish, and corals have in common? Aside from their shared marine habitat, they are all calcifiers — organisms that use calcium from their environment to create hard carbonate skeletons and shells for stability and protection.The June issue of the Biological Bulletin, published by the Marine Biological Laboratory, addresses the challenges faced by these species as ocean composition changes worldwide.As atmospheric carbon dioxide rises, the world’s oceans are becoming warmer and more acidic. This impact of global climate change threatens the survival of calcifying species because of the reduced saturation of the carbonate minerals required for calcification.The ability to calcify arose independently in many species during the Cambrian era, when calcium levels in seawater increased. This use of calcium carbonate promoted biodiversity, including the vast array of calcifiers seen today.”Today, modern calcifiers face a new and rapidly escalating crisis caused by warming and acidification of the oceans with a reduction in availability of carbonate minerals, a change driven by the increase in atmospheric CO2 due to anthropogenic emissions and industrialization. The CO2 itself can also directly cause metabolic stress,” write the issue’s co-editors, Maria Byrne of the University of Sydney; and Gretchen Hofmann of the University of California-Santa Barbara.Contributors to the journal address this timely issue across many taxa and from a variety of perspectives, from genomic to ecosystem-wide.Janice Lough and Neal Cantin of the Australian Institute of Marine Science review historical data on coral reefs to look at potential environmental stressors, while Philippe Dubois (Universit Libre de Bruxelles) discusses sea urchin skeletons.Other researchers address lesser-known organisms that are nevertheless critical to marine ecosystems. Abigail Smith of the University of Otago examines how bryozoans, a group of aquatic invertebrate filter-feeders, increase biodiversity by creating niche habitats, and what features make them particularly sensitive to calcium fluctuations.Evans and Watson-Wynn (California State University-East Bay) take a molecular approach in a meta-analysis showing that ocean acidification is effecting genetic changes in sea urchin larvae. Several papers take a broader population-based view by studying the effect of ocean acidification on predator-prey interactions in mollusks (Kroeker and colleagues of the University of California-Davis) and oysters (Wright and colleagues of the University of Western Sydney).”The contributors have identified key knowledge gaps in the fast evolving field of marine global change biology and have provided many important insights,” the co-editors write.By sharing research on this topic from researchers around the world, the Biological Bulletin is raising awareness of some of the greatest threats to the oceans today and emphasizing the global nature of the problem.Story Source:The above story is based on materials provided by The Marine Biological Laboratory. The original article was written by Gina Hebert. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Read More: Calcification in changing oceans

#Alternative-Medicine, #Australian, #Biological, #California, #Environment, #Journal, #Materials, #Pregnancy, #State, #Sydney, #World

New, inexpensive production materials boost promise of hydrogen fuel

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~4/HeD-Y2-DBAA

Generating electricity is not the only way to turn sunlight into energy we can use on demand. The sun can also drive reactions to create chemical fuels, such as hydrogen, that can in turn power cars, trucks and trains.The trouble with solar fuel production is the cost of producing the sun-capturing semiconductors and the catalysts to generate fuel. The most efficient materials are far too expensive to produce fuel at a price that can compete with gasoline.”In order to make commercially viable devices for solar fuel production, the material and the processing costs should be reduced significantly while achieving a high solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency,” says Kyoung-Shin Choi, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.In a study published last week in the journal Science, Choi and postdoctoral researcher Tae Woo Kim combined cheap, oxide-based materials to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases using solar energy with a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 1.7 percent, the highest reported for any oxide-based photoelectrode system.Choi created solar cells from bismuth vanadate using electrodeposition — the same process employed to make gold-plated jewelry or surface-coat car bodies — to boost the compound’s surface area to a remarkable 32 square meters for each gram.”Without fancy equipment, high temperature or high pressure, we made a nanoporous semiconductor of very tiny particles that have a high surface area,” says Choi, whose work is supported by the National Science Foundation. “More surface area means more contact area with water, and, therefore, more efficient water splitting.”Bismuth vanadate needs a hand in speeding the reaction that produces fuel, and that’s where the paired catalysts come in.While there are many research groups working on the development of photoelectric semiconductors, and many working on the development of water-splitting catalysts, according to Choi, the semiconductor-catalyst junction gets relatively little attention.”The problem is, in the end you have to put them together,” she says. “Even if you have the best semiconductor in the world and the best catalyst in the world, their overall efficiency can be limited by the semiconductor-catalyst interface.”Choi and Kim exploited a pair of cheap and somewhat flawed catalysts — iron oxide and nickel oxide — by stacking them on the bismuth vanadate to take advantage of their relative strengths.”Since no one catalyst can make a good interface with both the semiconductor and the water that is our reactant, we choose to split that work into two parts,” Choi says. “The iron oxide makes a good junction with bismuth vanadate, and the nickel oxide makes a good catalytic interface with water. So we use them together.”The dual-layer catalyst design enabled simultaneous optimization of semiconductor-catalyst junction and catalyst-water junction.”Combining this cheap catalyst duo with our nanoporous high surface area semiconductor electrode resulted in the construction of an inexpensive all oxide-based photoelectrode system with a record high efficiency,” Choi says.She expects the basic work done to prove the efficiency enhancement by nanoporous bismuth vanadate electrode and dual catalyst layers will provide labs around the world with fodder for leaps forward.”Other researchers studying different types of semiconductors or different types of catalysts can start to use this approach to identify which combinations of materials can be even more efficient,” says Choi, whose lab is already tweaking their design. “Which some engineering, the efficiency we achieved could be further improved very fast.”Story Source:The above story is based on materials provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison. The original article was written by Chris Barncard. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Read More: New, inexpensive production materials boost promise of hydrogen fuel

#Agriculture, #Alternative-Medicine, #Bismuth, #Cancer, #Gen, #Health, #Material, #National, #University, #Wisconsin, #World

Almost 13 million smoking deaths could be prevented in China by 2050

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~4/ah49r1tx9C0

China is home to about one third of the world’s smokers and reducing smoking in China could have an enormous public health impact, even on a global scale.Even though China raised the tax on tobacco products in 2009, this did not translate to higher retail prices for consumers and the only ban that has been enforced is on public transport. WHO went on to publish a report in 2011 which stated that there were multiple opportunities to improve tobacco control.Using a version of the SimSmoke Tobacco Control Policy model (a model of tobacco smoking prevalence and smoking-related deaths), populated with data from China, researchers from Spain, France and the US estimated the potential health impact of this programme in China from 2015 — 2050.Under current policies, a total of over 50 million deaths due to smoking were estimated from 2012 to 2050.Projecting the status quo scenario forward, the researchers estimate that active smoking in males would fall from 51.3% in 2015 to 46.5% by 2050 — and in females from 2.1% in 2015 to 1.3% in 2050In 2015, the estimated number of deaths from smoking was about one million (932,000 for males and 79,000 for females). In males, annual deaths were expected to peak at 1.5 million in 2040, but then drop to 1.4 million by 2050. In females, annual deaths from smoking were estimated to be 49,000 in 2040 and 42,000 by 2050.Relative to the status quo scenario, increasing cigarette taxes to 75% of the package price was estimated to reduce smoking prevalence by almost 10% for both males and females by 2015. By 2050, smoking prevalence showed a reduction of 13% for males and 12% for females. The researchers estimate that between 2015 and 2050, this tax would save approximately 3.5 million lives.Smoke-free air laws and a well enforced marketing ban also showed “potent and immediate” effects. Comprehensive smoke-free air laws were estimated to show a 9% reduction in smoking rates by 2015, increasing to about a 10% reduction in 2050, potentially averting around 3.4 million deaths. A comprehensive marketing ban would reduce smoking prevalence by about 4% and avert just over two million deaths by 2050.A high intensity tobacco control campaign would lead to a 2.5% relative decline in smoking rates by 2015 and prevent 1.1 million deaths due to smoking by 2050, while stronger health warnings were projected to yield a relative 2.3% reduction in smoking rates by 2050.The researchers estimate that complete implementation of the WHO framework “would lead to as much as a 34% relative reduction in male smoking prevalence by 2020, and a 41% reduction by 2050.” They say, despite the lag time expected between reductions in current smoking and declines in smoking attributable deaths, nearly half a million annual tobacco related deaths could be averted yearly by 2050.These estimates suggest that substantial health gains could be made, say the authors — a 40% relative reduction in smoking prevalence and almost 13 million smoking attributable deaths averted and more than 154 million life years gained by 2050 — by extending effective public health and clinical interventions to reduce active smoking. They add that these policies would be cost effective and say that “without the implementation of the complete set of stronger policies, the death and disability legacy of current smoking will endure for decades in China.”Story Source:The above story is based on materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Read More: Almost 13 million smoking deaths could be prevented in China by 2050

#Alzheimer, #British, #Britishmedical, #Cancer, #Control, #Cosmetics, #France, #King, #Policy, #Researchers, #Tobacco, #World

World"s most powerful terahertz laser chip

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~4/Kin3xuNh5Mg

University of Leeds researchers have taken the lead in the race to build the world’s most powerful terahertz laser chip.A paper in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) journal Electronics Letters reports that the Leeds team has exceeded a 1 Watt output power from a quantum cascade terahertz laser.The new record more than doubles landmarks set by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and subsequently by a team from Vienna last year.Terahertz waves, which lie in the part of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwaves, can penetrate materials that block visible light and have a wide range of possible uses including chemical analysis, security scanning, medical imaging, and telecommunications.Widely publicised potential applications include monitoring pharmaceutical products, the remote sensing of chemical signatures of explosives in unopened envelopes, and the non-invasive detection of cancers in the human body.However, one of the main challenges for scientists and engineers is making the lasers powerful and compact enough to be useful.Professor Edmund Linfield, Professor of Terahertz Electronics in the University’s School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, said: “Although it is possible to build large instruments that generate powerful beams of terahertz radiation, these instruments are only useful for a limited set of applications. We need terahertz lasers that not only offer high power but are also portable and low cost.”The quantum cascade terahertz lasers being developed by Leeds are only a few square millimetres in size.In October 2013, Vienna University of Technology announced that its researchers had smashed the world record output power for quantum cascade terahertz lasers previously held by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Austrian team reported an output of 0.47 Watt from a single laser facet, nearly double the output power reported by the MIT team. The Leeds group has now achieved an output of more than 1 Watt from a single laser facet.Professor Linfield said: “The process of making these lasers is extraordinarily delicate. Layers of different semiconductors such as gallium arsenide are built up one atomic monolayer at a time. We control the thickness and composition of each individual layer very accurately and build up a semiconductor material of between typically 1,000 and 2,000 layers. The record power of our new laser is due to the expertise that we have developed at Leeds in fabricating these layered semiconductors, together with our ability to engineer these materials subsequently into suitable and powerful laser devices.”Professor Giles Davies, Professor of Electronic and Photonic Engineering in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, said: “The University of Leeds has been an international leader in terahertz engineering for many years. This work is a key step toward increasing the power of these lasers while keeping them compact and affordable enough to deliver the range of applications promised by terahertz technology.”This work was mainly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).Story Source:The above story is based on materials provided by University of Leeds. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Read More: World"s most powerful terahertz laser chip

#Austrian, #Council, #Health, #Institute, #King, #Linfield, #Professor, #Research, #Science, #World

Veterans Video: Asbestos Exposure in the U.S. Navy

http://img.youtube.com/vi/9hgWioRqHbQ/0.jpg


Veterans Video: Asbestos Exposure in the U.S. Navy





Here’s the latest installment in our Veterans video series. It is titled, “Asbestos Exposure in the Navy.”
Some of this is covered in the video, but here are a few details: Roughly one-third of those diagnosed with...

Read More: Veterans Video: Asbestos Exposure in the U.S. Navy

#Collar, #Craft, #Exposure, #Mesothelioma, #Military, #Navy, #Result, #Series, #Veterans, #World

Making biodiverse agriculture part of a food-secure future

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/plants_animals/agriculture_and_food/~4/GuYlsDw8Q54

Is biodiverse agriculture an anachronism? Or is it a vital part of a food-secure future?Given the need to feed an estimated 2.4 billion more people by the year 2050, the drive toward large-scale, single-crop farming around the world may seem inexorable.But there’s an important downside to this trend, argues Timothy Johns, Professor of Human Nutrition at McGill University in Montreal, in a paper to be presented Feb. 15, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.Diets for most people around the world are becoming increasingly limited in biological and nutritional diversity. “Large-scale agriculture is characteristically simplified and less diverse than small-holder agriculture,” Prof. Johns cautions. “This is true in genetic, ecological and nutritional terms.”Small farmers, by contrast, in many places continue to grow a range of species and multiple varieties that form the basis of their diet and nutrition. Use of a range of wild species of fruit, vegetables, condiments and medicines, as well as wild animal-sourced foods, increase the likelihood that subsistence farmers with access to natural ecosystems meet their nutrition and health needs.The problem is that smallholder farmers in developing countries often have low productivity and little likelihood of generating the profits needed to rise above poverty level, says Prof. Johns, who directs the McGill Canadian Field Studies in Africa program. In particular, the smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa, which account for more than 90 percent of agricultural production and the primary livelihood of 65 percent of the population, need to be more productive.When they have access to improved technology, however, smallholder farmers can be both more productive and more sustainable than large-scale, intensive agriculture. Using family members in farming reduces labor and supervision costs, while a more intimate knowledge of the local soil, plants and animals enables smallholders to maximize output. …


Read More: Making biodiverse agriculture part of a food-secure future

#Association, #Canadian, #Ecology, #Field, #Montreal, #Pregnancy, #Profjohns, #Science, #University, #World

Superbright, fast X-rays image single layer of proteins

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~4/0uaIm4CdI8k

In biology, a protein’s shape is key to understanding how it causes disease or toxicity. Researchers who use X-rays to take snapshots of proteins need a billion copies of the same protein stacked and packed into a neat crystal. Now, scientists using exceptionally bright and fast X-rays can take a picture that rivals conventional methods with a sheet of proteins just one protein molecule thick.Using a type of laser known as XFEL, the technique opens the door to learning the structural details of almost 25 percent of known proteins, many of which have been overlooked due to their inability to stack properly. The team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories report their results with this unique form of X-ray diffraction in the March issue of the International Union of Crystallography Journal.”In this paper, we’re proving it’s possible to use an XFEL to study individual monolayers of protein,” said PNNL microscopist James Evans. “Just being able to see any diffraction is brand new.”Evans co-led the team of two dozen scientists with LLNL physicist Matthias Frank. The bright, fast X-rays were produced at the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., the newest of DOE’s major X-ray light source facilities at the national laboratories. LCLS, currently the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, is an X-ray free-electron laser. It produces beams millions of times brighter than earlier X-ray light sources.Coming in at around 8 angstrom resolution (which can make out items a thousand times smaller than the width of a hair), the proteins appear slightly blurry but match the expected view based on previous research. Evans said this level of clarity would allow researchers, in some cases, to see how proteins change their shape as they interact with other proteins or molecules in their environment.To get a clearer view of protein monolayers using XFEL, the team will need to improve the resolution to 1 to 3 angstroms, as well as take images of the proteins at different angles, efforts that are currently underway.Not Your Family’s CrystalResearchers have been using X-ray crystallography for more than 60 years to determine the shape and form of proteins that form the widgets and gears of a living organism’s cells. The conventional method requires, however, that proteins stack into a large crystal, similar to how oranges stack in a crate. …


Read More: Superbright, fast X-rays image single layer of proteins

#International, #Journal, #Laboratory, #Protein, #Rays, #Result, #Shape, #Union, #Widgets, #World

Fires, floods, winds and snow - 4 seasons in 1

By being connected through social media we find out and éxperience’ where others live around the world without actually leaving home! That is what makes social media so fascinating – the fact that we can keep in touch thanks to modern technology, being connected to the internet and even seeing/sharing immediate pictures of our lives and day to day experiences. Fires have been near here the last few days, floods and strong winds in UK and heavy snow falls in USA and Canada.Valentine’s day yesterday was interesting as to how it is celebrated globally. What is extra special is seeing not just it being celebrated with couples in love, but also families counting their blessings having the love of children, friends and other ‘friends’ they have …


Read More: Fires, floods, winds and snow - 4 seasons in 1

#Children, #Connecting, #Family, #Fires, #Floods, #King, #News, #Place, #Tasmania, #Word, #World

Cortical convolutions controlled in sections: Non-coding DNA sequence affects brain"s characteristic folding, study shows

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~4/99A6gIDiJgM

Researchers have tied a particular gene to the development of cortical convolutions — the prominent but enigmatic folds covering the surface of the human brain. Their discovery should shed some light on these characteristic contours, which have been the subject of wild speculation for ages, and perhaps also provide a better understanding of how such brain ridges form, how they evolved from our pre-human ancestors and, ultimately, how they influence brain function.The exact role of cortical convolutions remains unknown, but theories have abounded. (Some, for example, have suggested that the folds act as the body’s cooling system and others have even proposed that Albert Einstein’s genius could have been traced to a single cortical fold on his brain.)Now, leveraging advances that permit a closer look at how these folds develop, research published in the 14 February issue of Science shows that a mutation affecting GPR56 causes cortical convolutions around the brain’s Sylvian fissure — a particularly deep indentation — to develop thinner and more convoluted than usual. The finding, which suggests that genes may assert control over the brain’s physical folding on a section-by-section basis, provides insight into the mysterious cortical development process.”There is already a list of genetic mutations that cause abnormal neocortical folding, which can be used for prenatal testing,” explained Byoung-il Bae from the Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, one of the lead authors of the Science report. “We intend to add this mutation to some of the panels.”Bae and colleagues from around the world investigated the genomes of five individuals with abnormalities on Broca’s area, or the language center of the brain. These study participants were from three different families — one Turkish and two Irish-American — and they suffered from refractory seizures as well as intellectual and language difficulties.The researchers found that all five patients harbored a mutation on a particular regulatory element that influences the GPR56 gene. Such regulatory DNA doesn’t code for any proteins itself but promotes the expression of genes elsewhere on the genome. Geneticists have long-suspected that such non-coding regions of the genome could play important roles in evolution. To observe the specific effects of the GPR56 “promoter” DNA sequence, Bae and his team used genetically modified mice.They discovered that low expression of GPR56 (gauged by low levels of mRNA) decreases the production of neuroprogenitor cells — those that will eventually give rise to neurons — around Broca’s area and the Sylvian fissure. By contrast, overexpression of the gene boosts the production of such progenitor cells in that region. …


Read More: Cortical convolutions controlled in sections: Non-coding DNA sequence affects brain"s characteristic folding, study shows

#Alternative-Medicine, #Discovery, #Education, #Health, #Medical, #Pregnancy, #Rna, #School, #Speculation, #Technology, #Wild, #World

Traditional Medicine: Environment change threatens indigenous know-how

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~4/mGq_EPkoTbo

The way indigenous cultures around the globe use traditional medicines and pass on knowledge developed over centuries is directly linked to the natural environment, new research has found.This makes indigenous cultures susceptible to environmental change, a threat that comes on top of the challenges posed by globalisation.”Traditional medicine provides health care for more than half the world’s population, with 80 per cent of people in developing countries relying on these practices to maintain their livelihood. It is a very important part of traditional knowledge,” says Dr Haris Saslis-Lagoudakis, from The Australian National University’s (ANU) Research School of Biology.”This knowledge is typically passed down from generation to generation, or it is ‘borrowed’ from neighbours. Because of this borrowing, globalisation can homogenise medicinal practices of different communities, leading to loss of medicinal remedies.”But this is not the only challenge that indigenous cultures face.”Imminent changes in the environment also pose a threat to traditional knowledge,” explains Dr Saslis-Lagoudakis.”Traditional medicine utilises plants and animals to make natural remedies. Despite a lot of these species being under threat due to ongoing climatic changes and other human effects on the environment, the effect that these changes can have on traditional medicine is not thoroughly understood.”Dr Saslis-Lagoudakis and a team of international researchers led by the University of Reading (UK) investigated how the environment shapes medicinal plant use in indigenous cultures, specifically Nepal, a country in the Himalayans that has outstanding cultural, environmental and biological diversity.”By understanding the relationship between environment and traditional knowledge, we can then understand how cultures have responded to changes in the environment in the past,” he says.The team studied 12 ethnic groups from Nepal and recorded what plants different cultures use in traditional medicine. They calculated similarities in their medicinal floras and also calculated similarities in the floras these cultures are exposed to, how closely related they are, and their geographic separation.”We found that Nepalese cultures that are exposed to similar floras use similar plant medicines.”Although shared cultural history and borrowing of traditional knowledge among neighbouring cultures can lead to similarities in the plants used medicinally, we found that plant availability in the local environment has a stronger influence on the make-up of a culture’s medicinal floras.”Essentially, this means that the environment plays a huge role in shaping traditional knowledge. This is very important, especially when you think of the risks that these cultures are already facing.”Due to ongoing environmental changes we are observing across the globe, we might lose certain plant species which will lead to changed ecosystems, and an overall poorer natural environment. This will then affect what plants people can use around them.”We should be concerned about the fate of the traditional knowledge of these cultures. However, understanding the factors that shape traditional knowledge can provide the underpinnings to preserve this body of knowledge and predict its future.”Story Source:The above story is based on materials provided by Australian National University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Read More: Traditional Medicine: Environment change threatens indigenous know-how

#Cancer, #Human, #International, #Knowledge, #National, #Nepal, #Nepalese, #Research, #Science, #World

Promise for castor crop planting in Florida

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/plants_animals/agriculture_and_food/~4/Bj2Uovb5wxM

Castor, grown in Florida during World War II and currently considered as a component for military jet fuel, can be grown here again, using proper management techniques, a new University of Florida study shows.Those techniques include spacing plants properly and using harvest aids to defoliate the plant when it matures.Growers in the U.S. want to mechanically harvest castor, which is typically hand-picked in other parts of the world, the researchers said. Among other things, the UF/IFAS study evaluated whether the plant would grow too tall for mechanical harvesting machines.Castor oil is used in paints, lubricants and deodorants, among other industrial products, said David Campbell, a former UF agronomy graduate student and lead author of the study. It has not been grown in the U.S. since 1972, because the federal government ceased giving price supports, the study says.At UF research units in Citra and Jay, scientists tested Brigham and Hale, two types of castor that were bred in an arid part of west Texas near Lubbock in 1970 and 2003, respectively. These cultivars are shorter than castor found in the wild, said Diane Rowland, an associate professor of agronomy at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, and Campbell’s faculty adviser.Scientists tried to control the growth of the plants even more by spraying them with a chemical, she said. Even though the crop didn’t respond to the chemicals, it did not grow taller than expected. So it appears these types of castor can be harvested mechanically, she said.While yields were lower than those reported in Texas research trials in 1993, results are promising for Florida.“We were concerned that, in this environment, with all the moisture and the good growing conditions, that it would grow too tall. But it didn’t,” Rowland said. “So it shows that shorter genetic types will still work, without the chemical application. …


Read More: Promise for castor crop planting in Florida

#Agriculture, #Alzheimer, #Cancer, #Health-Insurance, #India, #Industrial, #Institute, #Plant, #Professor, #South, #World

After committing a crime, guilt and shame predict re-offense

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~4/tG-Cm9bEjWc

Within three years of being released from jail, two out of every three inmates in the US wind up behind bars again — a problem that contributes to the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. New research suggests that the degree to which inmates’ express guilt or shame may provide an indicator of how likely they are to re-offend.The findings show that inmates who feel guilt about specific behaviors are more likely to stay out of jail later on, whereas those that are inclined to feel shame about the self might not.This research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.The difference between guilt and shame might seem subtle, but researcher June Tangney and her colleagues Jeffrey Stuewig and Andres Martinez of George Mason University hypothesized that feeling one or the other of these emotions might contribute to different outcomes for incarcerated individuals.”When people feel guilt about a specific behavior, they experience tension, remorse, and regret,” the researchers write. “Research has shown that this sense of tension and regret typically motivates reparative action — confessing, apologizing, or somehow repairing the damage done.”Feelings of shame, on the other hand, involve a painful feeling directed toward the self. For some people, feelings of shame lead to a defensive response, a denial of responsibility, and a need to blame others — a process that can lead to aggression.Tangney and her colleagues interviewed over 470 inmates, asking them about their feelings of guilt, shame, and externalization of blame soon after they were incarcerated. The researchers followed up with 332 of the offenders a year after they had been released, this time asking them whether they had been arrested again and whether they had committed a crime but had not been caught. They also compared the self-reported data to official arrest records.Overall, expressions of guilt and shame were associated with recidivism rates, but in different ways.”Proneness to guilt predicts less recidivism — a lower likelihood of re-offense,” Tangney says. That is, the more inclined an inmate is to feel guilt, the less likely he or she is to re-offend.The implications of proneness to shame, on the other hand, were more complex.Inmates inclined to feel shame, and who were also defensive and blameful of others, were more likely to slip back into crime. Inmates who were shameful but who didn’t blame others were less likely to end up in jail again.These findings suggest that there may be “two faces” of shame — one that increases recidivism and one that does just the opposite.”It has implications for intervention for the more than 13 million individuals who pass through our nation’s jails and prisons annually,” says Tangney. “We hope that inmates will ultimately benefit from treatment enhanced by an appreciation for the positive potential of guilt, and an appreciation for the ‘two faces’ of shame.”The researchers believe this work opens up doors for evaluating other aspects of restorative justice, and they plan to investigate the links between guilt, shame, and other post-release outcomes, including substance abuse, mental health issues, and readjustment into their communities.Story Source:The above story is based on materials provided by Association for Psychological Science. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Read More: After committing a crime, guilt and shame predict re-offense

#Agriculture, #Health, #King, #Martinez, #Materials, #Proneness, #Psychological, #Science, #Sciencenote, #Stuewig, #World

Impact of repetitive heading in soccer needs more research, say experts

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~4/6FJ2hDmrku4

Soccer is the most-popular and fastest-growing sport in the world and, like many contact sports, players are at risk of suffering concussions from collisions on the field.But researchers warned in a paper published today that not enough attention has been given to the unique aspect of soccer — the purposeful use of the head to control the ball — and the long-term consequences of repetitive heading.The literature review by Dr. Tom Schweizer, director of the Neuroscience Research Program of St. Michael’s Hospital, was published in the journal Brain Injury.More than 265 million people play soccer worldwide, including 27 million in North America. Due to the nature of the sport, players are particularly vulnerable to head and neck injuries. Most are caused by unintentional or unexpected contact, such as when a player collides with teammates, opponents or the playing surface.There is significant concern in the sporting and medical worlds about the potential long-term cognitive and behavioral consequences for athletes who suffer acute or repeat concussions or multiple “sub-concussive” head impacts — blows to the head not causing symptoms of concussions.”The practice of heading, which might occur thousands of times over a player’s career, carries unknown risks, but may uniquely contribute to cognitive decline or impairment in the short- or long-term,” said Dr. Schweizer, a neuroscientist. “Thus, soccer players present a unique opportunity to study whether cumulative sub-concussive impacts affect cognitive functioning, similar to that of concussions.”Examining research papers that studied the incidence of concussion in soccer, he found that concussions accounted for 5.8 per cent to 8.6 per cent of total injuries sustained during games. One study found that 62.7 per cent of varsity soccer players had suffered symptoms of a concussion during their playing careers, yet only 19.2 per cent realized it. Another found that 81.8 per cent of athletes who had suffered a concussion had experienced two or more and that players with a history of concussion had a 3.15 times greater odds of sustaining another one than those who had never had a concussion. One study found concussions sustained during soccer accounted for 15 per cent of the total number of concussions in all sports. …


Read More: Impact of repetitive heading in soccer needs more research, say experts

#Alternative-Medicine, #Alzheimer, #Hospital, #Journal, #Literature, #Michael, #Neuroscience, #Research, #Sport, #University, #World

New maps reveal locations of species at risk as climate changes

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~4/SRXikrM9zOs

In research published today in the journal Nature, CSIRO and an international team of scientists revealed global maps showing how fast and in which direction local climates are shifting. This new study points to a simpler way of looking at climatic changes and their likely effects on biodiversity.As climate change unfolds over the next century, plants and animals will need to adapt or shift locations to track their ideal climate.”The maps show areas where plants and animals may struggle to find a new home in a changing climate and provide crucial information for targeting conservation efforts,” CSIRO’s Dr Elvira Poloczanska said.The study analyzed 50 years of sea surface and land temperature data (1960-2009) and also investigated two future scenarios for marine environments (‘business as usual’ and a 1.75C temperature increase).The new maps show where new thermal environments are being generated and where existing environments may disappear.”The maps show us how fast and in which direction temperatures are shifting, and where climate migrants following them may hit barriers such as coastlines. Our work shows that climate migration is far more complex than a simple shift towards the poles,” ecological geographer with the project Kristen Williams said.”Across Australia, species are already experiencing warmer temperatures. In terrestrial habitats, species have started to seek relief by moving to higher elevations, or further south. However, some species of animals and plants cannot move large distances, and some not at all.”Species migration can have important consequences for local biodiversity. For example, the dry, flat continental interior of Australia is a hot, arid region where species already exist close to the margin of their thermal tolerances.Some species driven south from monsoonal northern Australia in the hope of cooler habitats may perish in that environment.”In the oceans, warming waters and a strengthening of the East Australian Current have mobilised the Long-spined Sea Urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii), previously only found as far south as southern NSW, to invade the eastern Tasmania coast. This has resulted in the decline of giant kelp forests with knock-on effects for commercially-fished rock lobsters,” Dr Poloczanska said.CSIRO and University of Queensland’s Anthony Richardson said the study cannot be used as a sole guide as to what to do in the face of climate change.”Biological factors such as a species’ capacity to adapt and disperse need to be taken into consideration,” Professor Richardson said.”But in an unprecedented period of climate change, economic development and fast growing demand on an already pressured planet, we need to act fast to make sure as much of the world’s living resources survive that change.”Story Source:The above story is based on materials provided by CSIRO Australia. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Read More: New maps reveal locations of species at risk as climate changes

#Cancer, #Climate, #King, #Maps, #Nature, #Poloczanska, #Professor, #Richardson, #Species, #Tasmania, #World