Body

Consumers are often less satisfied when they buy or receive products that are easily counted because this makes them focus on value instead of experience, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

"Numbers make us feel more certain of what is in front of us. When we count, we understand exactly how big, expensive, heavy, or old something is. But when we buy or receive products that are easily counted, we may be less satisfied," write authors Jingjing Ma and Neal J. Roese (both Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University).

Parents with a higher number of stressors in their lives are more likely to have obese children, according to a new study by pediatric researchers. Furthermore, when parents perceive themselves to be stressed, their children eat fast food more often, compared to children whose parents feel less stressed.

With adolescents seemingly glued to cell phones and social networking websites, experts are investigating whether the near-constant digital activity changes youths' development.

A new study from the University of Washington shows that digital media helps teens reach developmental milestones, such as fostering a sense of belonging and sharing personal problems. But the study also raised questions about whether digital connectedness might hinder the development of an autonomous sense of self.

Scientists have determined the three-dimensional structure of a complete, unmodified G-protein-coupled receptor in its native environment: embedded in a membrane in physiological conditions.

Using NMR spectroscopy, the team mapped the arrangement of atoms in a protein called CXCR1, which detects the inflammatory signal interleukin 8 and, through a G protein located inside the cell, triggers a cascade of events that can mobilize immune cells, for example.

Hiding deep inside the bone marrow are special cells. They wait patiently for the hour of need, at which point these blood forming stem cells can proliferate and differentiate into billions of mature blood immune cells to help the body cope with infection, for example, or extra red blood cells for low oxygen levels at high altitudes. Even in emergencies, however, the body keeps to a long-term plan: It maintains a reserve of undifferentiated stem cells for future needs and crises. A research team headed by Prof.

Our immune system must be tremendously complex to respond to the unending assault of viruses, bacteria and cancerous cells. One of the mechanisms used by the immune system to cope with the huge variety of possible threats is to randomly combine DNA segments for the production of receptors on lymphocytes – a type of white blood cell. The number of possible receptors that can be produced in this way is about 1000 times the number of stars in our galaxy – one followed by 15 zeroes.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Many child care providers have rules that exclude sick children from care, spurring anxious moments for millions of working parents. In a new University of Michigan poll, one-third of parents of young children report they are concerned about losing jobs or pay when they stay home to care for sick children who can't attend child care.

URBANA – For animals as well as people, diet affects what grows in the gut. The gut microbial colonies, also known as the gut microbiome, begin to form at birth. Their composition affects how the immune system develops and is linked to the later onset of metabolic diseases such as obesity.

Common wisdom is that cats, by nature carnivorous, are healthiest when fed high-protein diets. Researchers at the University of Illinois wanted to find out if this is true.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The glowing green molecule known as green fluorescent protein (GFP) has revolutionized molecular biology. When GFP is attached to a particular protein inside a cell, scientists can easily identify and locate it using fluorescence microscopy. However, GFP can't be used with electron microscopy, which offers much higher resolution than fluorescence microscopy.

Chemists from MIT have now designed a GFP equivalent for electron microscopy — a tag that allows scientists to label and visualize proteins with unprecedented clarity.

It's much easier for consumers to justify continued support of a celebrity or politician disgraced by scandal when they separate moral judgments about a public figure from assessments of their professional performance, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A simulated clinical experience guiding future pediatricians through interactions with breastfeeding moms appears to put the doctors at ease with the sensitive and important health topic, researchers say.

"We showed that their confidence and comfort increased with the OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) interventions," said Dr. Kathryn McLeod, a pediatrician and educator at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University who developed the three simulated patient exams.

Teenagers with severe obesity can benefit from gastric bypass surgery just as much as adults. A study by Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden found that 81 teenagers lost an average of 96.8 pounds following surgery, significantly improving their health and quality of life.

The study, published by the International Journal of Obesity, involved eighty-one 13-18 year-olds who had gastric bypass surgery, which had previously been performed on people younger than 18 in exceptional cases only.

Are cynics and happiness mutually exclusive? For modern cynics, perhaps. But for the ancient Cynics, not necessarily.

Research by the University of Cincinnati's Susan Prince shows that despite the historical perception of the ancient Cynics as harsh, street-corner prophets relentlessly condemning all passersby and decrying society's lack of virtue, these Greek philosophers, indirectly descended from Socratic teaching, weren't all doom and gloom. They actually might have espoused a shortcut to happiness.

Not long ago, some unassuming bacteria found themselves at the center of a scientific controversy: A group claimed that these microorganisms, which live in an environment that is rich in the arsenic-based compound arsenate, could take up that arsenate and use it – instead of the phosphate that all known life on Earth depends on. The claim, since disproved, raised another question: How do organisms living with arsenate pick and choose the right substance?

NEW ORLEANS -- Over the past few decades, cheerleading has evolved from leading the crowd in cheers at football games to a competitive, year-round sport featuring complex acrobatic stunts performed by a growing number of athletes – and as a result the number and severity of injuries from cheerleading has also surged.