Futurity.org » University of California at Irvine

Grade nursing home end-of-life care, study says

Mark Michaud-Rochester — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:04:58 +0000

U. ROCHESTER (US) — Evaluating hospital transfers and hospice care could help assess the quality of end of life care provided by nursing homes.

While nursing homes are the place where an estimated 30 percent of Americans die, there currently exists no way to compare which institutions do a better job at managing end of life care.

A new study appearing this week in the Journal of Palliative Medicine is starting a discussion over the need to create end of life quality measures in order to both inform consumers and provide nursing homes with incentive to improve care.

To uncover stem cell fates, pinpoint genes

Kimm Fesenmaier-Caltech — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:18:10 +0000

CALTECH (US) — New research traces the steps by which stem cells become T cells—key components of the immune system that help destroy invading pathogens.

What happens to a stem cell at the molecular level that causes it to become one type of cell rather than another? At what point is it committed to that cell fate, and how does it become committed? The answers to these questions have been largely unknown.

But now, in studies that mark a major step forward in our understanding of stem cells’ fates, a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has traced the stepwise developmental process that ensures certain stem cells will become T cells.

Is being nice a nudge from our genes?

Patricia Donovan-Buffalo — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:03:40 +0000

U. BUFFALO (US) — Researchers have found that some people are kind and generous in part because their genes nudge them toward it.

Michel Poulin, assistant professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo, is the principal author of the study “The Neurogenics of Niceness,” published in this month in Psychological Science.

The study, co-authored by Anneke Buffone at University at Buffalo and E. Alison Holman of the University of California, Irvine, looked at the behavior of study subjects who have versions of receptor genes for two hormones that, in laboratory and close relationship research, are associated with niceness.

Caught in scandal, Wall Street plays blame game

Amy Hodges-Rice — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:23:09 +0000

RICE / UC IRVINE (US) — Companies under investigation tend to use others’ bad behavior to excuse their own.

Among corporations involved in the 2006 stock-option backdating scandal, those implicated earlier were more likely to dismiss their top executives than those that surfaced later on, according to new research from Rice University and the University of California, Irvine.

Signers quick to read body language

Andy Fell-UC Davis — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:54:19 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — Deaf people who use sign language can recognize and interpret body language more readily than hearing non-signers, a new study shows.

The work suggests that deaf people may be especially adept at picking up on subtle visual traits in the actions of others, an ability that could be useful for some sensitive jobs, such as airport screening.

Tendons take shock muscles won’t handle

Richard Lewis-Brown — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:43:30 +0000

BROWN U. (US) — Tendons in the legs act as shock absorbers, offering protection at the moment of impact with muscles stepping up less than a second later to absorb the remaining energy.

The tendons’ role is crucial, researchers write in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, because they help protect the fascicles—fibrous bundles in skeletally connecting muscles—against damage from the rapid burst of energy and power generated by the impact.

On cooler days, beaches beat stress best

Jessica Martin-WUSTL — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:15:14 +0000

WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS (US) — There are peak times to visit the beach if you’re in search of a little rest and relaxation, a finding that suggests coastal parks should plan for the effects of climate change.

“Mild temperature days and low tides offer the most restorative environments when visiting the beach,” says J. Aaron Hipp, assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert in environmental health.

How the Milky Way got its spiral

Karen Hoffmann-Pittsburgh — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:09:19 +0000

U. PITTSBURGH (US) — The Milky Way’s spiral arms began forming after an epic collision with the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy, according to supercomputer simulations.

In the field of cosmology, supercomputer simulations are the only laboratories for scientific experimentation, allowing astronomers to recreate a small-scale simulation or model of distant, violent events that occurred over billions of years, and observe that model in sped-up time, in order to make predictions that can be tested by actual observations of the universe.

Impulsive neutrinos change their flavor

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:32:36 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — Neutrinos can spontaneously change flavors, a finding that may help explain why the universe is made up mostly of matter.

The new research is a significant step in discovering why matter trumped antimatter at the time of the big bang, helping to create virtually all the galaxies and stars in the universe.

Ouch! Bug killer from scorpion venom

Layne Cameron-Michigan State — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:43:41 +0000

MICHIGAN STATE U. (US) — Pests be warned. Researchers are hopeful scorpion venom can be used to develop potent insecticides.

Scorpion venom attacks various channels and receptors that control insects’ nervous and muscular systems. One major target of scorpion toxins is the voltage-gated sodium channel, a protein found in nerve and muscle cells used for rapid electrical signals.