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Americans Overestimate Political Polarization, According To New CU-Boulder Research

By Guest PostFebruary 7, 20122 commentsPoliticsamericans, boulder, charles judd, david sherman, degree of polarization, democrat, election, john chambers, leaf van boven, misconception, overestimate, polarization, political polarization, republican, san diego, university of colorado, university of florida, voting behavior

Many Americans overestimate the degree of polarization between Democrats and Republicans, and this misconception is associated with citizens’ voting behavior and their involvement in political activities, according to new findings from the University of Colorado Boulder.

“It is clear that Americans see themselves as very sharply polarized,” said Professor Leaf Van Boven, who led the research efforts. “And that the extent of perceived polarization dramatically overstates the actual degree of polarization.” (more…)

A Bug’s (Sex) Life: Diving Beetles Offer Clues About Sexual Selection

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2012Nature, Sciencearizona desert, co evolution, dawn higginson, diving beetles, dytiscidae, epifluorescence image, Europe, evolution, evolutionary relationship, female, fertilization, great diving beetle, hygrotus sayi, invertebrate, kari segraves, kelly miller, larva, male, mammal, mollusk, reproductive organ, scott pitnick, sexual evolution, sexual selection, sexual trait, speciation, sperm evolution, sperm storage, spermatheca, syracuse university, thermonectus marmoratus, university of arizona

*Studies of diving beetles suggest sperm evolution may be driven by changes in female reproductive organs, challenging the paradigm of post-mating sexual selection being driven mostly by competition among sperm.*

Studying female reproductive tracts and sperm in diving beetles (Dytiscidae), researchers from the University of Arizona and Syracuse University have obtained a glimpse into a bizarre and amazing world of sperm that can take on a variety of forms – including joining together into conglomerates that navigate the twisted mazes of the female reproductive tract.

Analyses of the evolutionary relationships among diving beetles reveal that sperm form appears to follow function dictated by female reproductive organs. (more…)

comScore Reports $50 Billion in Q4 2011 U.S. Retail E-Commerce Spending, Up 14 Percent vs. Year Ago

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2012Economy, Technologycomscore chairman, ecommerce, ecommerce sales, sales estimate

Spending Reaches $161.5 Billion for Full Year 2011 Marking 13 Percent Gain

comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni to Present Update on Q4 2011 E-Commerce Trends in Upcoming Webinar (more…)

Self-Assembling Nanorods: Berkeley Lab Researchers Obtain 1, 2 and 3D Nanorod Arrays and Networks

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2012Sciencealexander mastroianni, block copolymer, cadmium sulfide, copolymer, cube, electronic device, kari thorkelsson, lamellar microdomain, macroscopic structure, mechanical properties, microtechnology, morphology, nanocomposite, nanocrystal, nanorod, nanorod polymer composites, ncem, peter ercius, plasmonic, semiconductor, set of function, supramolecule, tetrapod, three-dimensional, ting xu, transmission electron micrograph

A relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods – rod-shaped semiconductor nanocrystals – to self-assemble into one-, two- and even three-dimensional macroscopic structures has been developed by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This technique should enable more effective use of nanorods in solar cells, magnetic storage devices and sensors. It should also help boost the electrical and mechanical properties of nanorod-polymer composites.

Leading this project was Ting Xu, a polymer scientist who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and the University of California (UC) Berkeley’s Departments of Materials Sciences and Engineering, and Chemistry. Xu and her research group used block copolymers – long sequences or “blocks” of one type of monomer bound to blocks of another type of monomer – as a platform to guide the self-assembly of nanorods into complex structures and hierarchical patterns. Block copolymers have an innate ability to self-assemble into well-defined arrays of nano-sized structures over macroscopic distances. (more…)

Lecture or Listen: When Patients Waver on Meds

By Guest PostFebruary 5, 2012Healthadherence, aids and behavior, antiretroviral therapy, arv drugs, arv medication, Baltimore, brown university, detroit, hiv-positive, m barton laws, mary catherine beach, new york city, patient, portland, william rogers, yoojin lee

*According to a new analysis of hundreds of recorded office visits, doctors and nurse practitioners typically issued orders and asked closed or leading questions when talking to their HIV-positive patients about adherence to antiretroviral therapy. Attempts at problem-solving with patients who had lapsed occurred in less than a quarter of visits.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Take your medicine, Doctor’s orders. It’s a simple idea that may seem especially obvious when the pills are the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that add decades to the lives of HIV-positive patients. But despite the reality that keeping up with drug regimens is not easy for many patients, a new analysis of hundreds of recorded doctor’s office visits finds that physicians and nurse practitioners often still rely on lecturing, ordering, and scolding rather than listening and problem solving with their patients. (more…)

Genes Linked To Cancer Could Be Easier To Detect With Liquid Lasers

By Guest PostFebruary 5, 2012Scienceangewandte chemie, biological molecule, bit of backtracking, blueprint, cancer, cell, detect, disease, fluorescent beacon, fluorescent dye, genetic basis, genetic mutation, glass capillary, liquid laser, mutated dna strands, patrol molecule, ring resonator cavity, university of michigan, xudong fan, yuze sun

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Using a liquid laser, University of Michigan researchers have developed a better way to detect the slight genetic mutations that might predispose a person to a particular type of cancer or other diseases.

Their results are published in the current edition of the German journal Angewandte Chemie. (more…)

Freezing Technique Exposes Molecule-to-Molecule Attachments

By Guest PostFebruary 5, 2012Sciencealignment, atomic attachment, complex molecule, cryogenic infared spectroscopy, drug, etienne garand, freezing, large molecules, mark johnson, mechanics, michael z kamrath, molecular structure, nmr, non covalent interaction, non covalently bonded molecules, nuclear magnetic resonance, reactive system, standard analytical technique, supramolecular association, technique, yale university

Researchers at Yale University have developed a new way of exposing the atomic attachments that keep complex molecules in precise alignment. The new method could provide insight into the mechanics of a variety of molecular structures, potentially aiding efforts to manipulate them for drug discovery and other purposes.

“The method appears likely to become a central tool for the characterization of processes that depend on supramolecular associations,” said Mark Johnson, a Yale chemistry professor and the principal investigator of the technique, which is described in a paper published this month in the journal Science. Supramolecular associations are interactions taking place between molecules, rather than within them. (more…)

Here is What Real Commitment To Your Marriage Means

By Guest PostFebruary 4, 2012Healthbank account relationships, commitment to marriage, happy marriage, problems in marriage

What does being committed to your marriage really mean? UCLA psychologists answer this question in a new study based on their analysis of 172 married couples over the first 11 years of marriage. (more…)

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