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New study finds Antarctic Ice Sheet unstable at end of last ice age

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study has found that the Antarctic Ice Sheet began melting about 5,000 years earlier than previously thought coming out of the last ice age – and that shrinkage of the vast ice sheet accelerated during eight distinct episodes, causing rapid sea level rise.

The international study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, is particularly important coming on the heels of recent studies that suggest destabilization of part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has begun.

Major discovery on the mechanism of drug resistance in leukemia and other cancers

A mechanism that enables the development of resistance to Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) anticancer drugs, thereby leading to relapse, has been identified by Kathy Borden of the University of Montreal's Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) and her collaborators. Kathy Borden is a Principal Investigator at IRIC and a professor at the university's Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. The development of drug resistance is one of the main problems in clinical oncology and the cause of relapse in many patients.

Wild coho may seek genetic diversity in mate choice

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study by researchers at Oregon State University suggests that wild coho salmon that choose mates with disease-resistant genes different from their own are more likely to produce greater numbers of adult offspring returning to the river some three years later.

The researchers also found that hatchery-reared coho – for some unknown reason – do not appear to have the same ability to select mates that are genetically diverse, which may, in part, explain their comparative lower reproductive success.

Toxins in the environment might make you older than your years

Why are some 75-year-olds downright spry while others can barely get around? Part of the explanation, say researchers writing in the Cell Press journal Trends in Molecular Medicine on May 28, is differences from one person to the next in exposure to harmful substances in the environment, chemicals such as benzene, cigarette smoke, and even stress.

Uncovering clues to the genetic cause of schizophrenia

NEW YORK, NY (May 21, 2014) — The overall number and nature of mutations—rather than the presence of any single mutation—influences an individual's risk of developing schizophrenia, as well as its severity, according to a discovery by Columbia University Medical Center researchers published in the latest issue of Neuron. The findings could have important implications for the early detection and treatment of schizophrenia.

Technology marketers should take consumer life-cycle into account: New Rotman study

Toronto – If you want grandpa to start using the bank machine instead of standing in line for the teller, the best way to do it is to tell him to "Act now!" with a limited time offer for a banking card, shows new research.

A new study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management suggests marketers should pay attention to where consumers are in their lifecycles when determining how to get them to adopt new technologies.

Acute concern for health, environment highlighted at UN-backed E-waste Academy in Latin America

Acute concerns about e-waste management in developing countries were highlighted in expert presentations at a recent E-waste Academy for Managers (EWAM) in El Salvador organized by UN University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) hosted Step (Solving the E-Waste Program) Initiative.

Coating stents with vitamin C could reduce clotting risks

Every year, more than 1 million people in the U.S. who have suffered heart attacks or chest pain from blocked arteries have little mesh tubes called stents inserted into their blood vessels to prop them open. The procedure has saved many lives, but it still has potentially deadly downsides. Now scientists are reporting in the ACS journal Langmuir that coating stents with vitamin C could lower the implants' risks even further.

Social networks linked to better health for older adults, studies find

WASHINGTON - Having regular positive interactions with family and friends and being involved in several different social networks can help older adults be healthier, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

A more earth-friendly way to make bright white cotton fabrics

With a growing number of consumers demanding more earth-friendly practices from the fashion world, scientists are developing new ways to produce textiles that could help meet rising expectations. They report in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research one such method that can dramatically reduce the amount of energy it takes to bleach cotton while improving the quality of the popular material.

Better catalysts for the petrochemical industry

Zeolites are among the substances which can accelerate chemical reactions – they are known as catalysts. Usually applied in pellet form, the industrial production of gasoline from crude oil without zeolites is today inconceivable. The chemical reactions occur on their surface. Fortunately, these are very large for zeolites: the catalysts are interspersed with nano-sized pores and microscopic channels through which gaseous or liquid reactants penetrate and the products later can leave.

MRI catches breast cancer early in at-risk survivors of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma

(TORONTO, Canada – May 28, 2014) – The largest clinical study to evaluate breast cancer screening of female survivors of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), who are at increased risk because they received chest radiation, shows that magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) detected invasive breast tumours at very early stages, when cure rates are expected to be excellent.

NUS researchers discover unusual parenting behavior by a Southeast Asian treefrog

Researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Science have discovered that a Southeast Asian species of treefrog practices parental care to increase the likelihood of survival of its offspring. Chiromantis hansenae (C. hansenae), is currently the only species in the treefrog family in Southeast Asia that is known to exhibit such behaviour. This discovery was recently published as the cover story in a popular magazine of nature and science, Natural History, in May 2014.

'Nanodaisies' deliver drug cocktail to cancer cells

Biomedical engineering researchers have developed daisy-shaped, nanoscale structures that are made predominantly of anti-cancer drugs and are capable of introducing a "cocktail" of multiple drugs into cancer cells. The researchers are all part the joint biomedical engineering program at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Marathon runners' times develop in a U shape

Spanish researchers have demonstrated that the relationship between marathon running times and the age of the athlete is U-shaped. The work shows the unusual fact that it takes an 18-year-old athlete the same amount of time to finish a marathon as a 55- or 60-year-old runner.

The 42,195 metres that are nowadays known as the marathon were run for the first time at the London Olympic Games of 1908. Since then, many athletes have completed this race and there has also been numerous scientific studies conducted on endurance runners.