Tag Archives: university

Teenagers Urged to Exercise to Ward off Bone Disease

By Guest PostNovember 23, 2012Healthbone health, bone mass, bone mineral, content, counteract, exercise, exeter, luis gracia marco, osteoporosis, playing football, potential damage, running, sedentary activities, sitting, teenager, university, young people, zaragoza

Playing football or running for at least three hours a week could help teenagers counteract the potential damage to their bone health caused by prolonged spells of sitting.

An international team, including an expert from the University of Exeter, has found evidence that adolescents who spend long periods engaged in certain sedentary activities are more likely to have low bone mineral content in parts of the body where it can be an indicator of the risk of developing osteoporosis.

The team found that studying put girls at particular risk, while for boys leisure internet use posed the greatest threat. Scientists found that participating in at least three hours of certain sports could significantly reduce the threat in girls. The study found evidence of the benefits of high-intensity sports where the participant is on their feet, such as football, basketball, netball or running. (more…)

Making Farm Fresh Affordable

By Guest PostNovember 22, 2012Economyagro ecology training, barbara brkovich, bernard lolly, church, csa, dan reyes, delaware, food bank program, grocery store, guatemala, highland orchards, lipton iced tea, low income community, nick rockwell, patricia beebe, potatoes, snap, st stephen, ud alumnus, university, usda, wilmington

New Food Bank program makes local produce accessible to low-income community

“We want to make sure you have access to the best produce,” says University of Delaware anthropology senior Dan Reyes. “To locally-, naturally- and organically-grown fruits and vegetables. Pesticide-free. Herbicide-free. The kinds of food normally too expensive to buy in grocery stores.”

The kinds of food that low-income households can now — thanks to the Food Bank of Delaware’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, developed by two UD students — purchase using their federal food benefits. (more…)

Mutations in Genes that Modify DNA Packaging Result in form of Muscular Dystrophy

By Guest PostNovember 22, 2012Sciencebiopsies, chromatin structure, chromosome 4, culture, daniel g miller, devastating disease, dna sequence, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, family history, fshd, genetic deletions, genetic disorder, genetic material, genome, leiden university, medical geneticists, michael bamshad, muscle cell, muscle toxic dux4, mutation, protein, rabi tawil, rochester, silvere, smchd1 gene, stephen tapscott, symptom, the netherlands, university, van der maarel, Washington

A recent finding by medical geneticists sheds new light on how facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy develops and how it might be treated. More commonly known as FSHD, the devastating disease affects both men and women.

FSHD is usually an inherited genetic disorder, yet sometimes appears spontaneously via new mutations in individuals with no family history of the condition.

“People with the condition experience progressive muscle weakness and about 1 in 5 require wheelchair assistance by age 40,” said Dr. Daniel G. Miller, University of Washington associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Genetic Medicine. Miller and his worldwide collaborators study the molecular events leading to symptoms of FSHD in the hopes of designing therapies to prevent the emergence of symptoms or reduce their severity. (more…)

Say Hi to a Magpie via New App

By Guest PostNovember 21, 2012Natureandroid, apple devices, benefit, colin scott, common garden birds, database, exeter, good morning, gps, habitat, human life, human sense, magpie mapper, mobile phone, mr magpie, new app, quality, richard inger, satellite technology, sightings, south west, tony whitehead, uk, university, urban birds

A new app which encourages people to say “good morning Mr Magpie” via their mobile phone will help scientists evaluate the benefits which birds bring to the quality of human life.

Whether you view them with sorrow or joy, using your smart device to help build up a national database of sightings of the distinctive black-and-white birds will feed into wider research by the University of Exeter to assess how much value people place on having birds in their gardens.

Dr Richard Inger, at the Environment and Sustainability Institute on the University’s Cornwall Campus, said: “We chose to study magpies because they’re one of the most common garden birds in the UK and are easily recognisable. Many people already acknowledge them for luck, and we’re asking them to go one small step further and log sightings on their mobile phones. Magpies are not everyone’s favourite birds, but by getting involved you can help us to gather crucial data which will help us establish how much time the birds spend in different habitats. (more…)

Less Wait Time for Safe Travel Could Reduce Drinking and Driving in People with ‘Urgency’ Personality Trait, Says MU Researcher

By Guest PostNovember 21, 2012Sciencealcohol, city, columbia, degree, denis mccarthy, drinking, driving, emotional state, expression, impulsive behavior, impulsive characteristics, impulsivity, kim dude, missouri, negative, perseverance, personality traits, positive, risk, self control, taxi, university, urgency, young adults

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Saving bar patrons’ time on their commute home could save lives. A pair of studies by University of Missouri psychologists found that people who reported drinking and driving also exhibited “urgency,” or a lack of emotional self-control, especially while drinking. This suggests that some people when intoxicated may be more likely to choose the convenience of driving themselves home instead of waiting for a taxi, said Denis McCarthy, associate professor of psychology at MU.

“Our study correlated urgency, a specific type of impulsivity, to drinking and driving,” McCarthy said. “Individuals with a high degree of urgency tend to act impulsively when they are in both positive and negative emotional states. By looking at personality traits that correlate with drinking and driving, we can help people understand how their personalities might incline them to choose the risk of driving after drinking. Once a person knows this, they can decide to take extra care to moderate their drinking or be prepared to call a cab, hop on a bus or ask a designated driver for help.” (more…)

Can Life Emerge on Planets Around Cooling Stars?

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2012Scienceastronomers, astrophysics, brown dwarf, earth, Germany, habitable zone, heating phenomenon, ingredients, leibniz institute, life, liquid, nuclear burning, phase, planets, potsdam, rene heller, rory barnes, runaway greenhouse, sun, support, university, venus, Washington

Astronomers find planets in strange places and wonder if they might support life. One such place would be in orbit around a white or brown dwarf. While neither is a star like the sun, both glow and so could be orbited by planets with the right ingredients for life.

No terrestrial, or Earth-like planets have yet been confirmed orbiting white or brown dwarfs, but there is no reason to assume they don’t exist. However, new research by Rory Barnes of the University of Washington and René Heller of Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam hints that planets orbiting white or brown dwarfs will prove poor candidates for life. (more…)

Fishing for Answers off Fukushima

By Guest PostNovember 19, 2012Environmentcatastrophic damage, cesium, contaminated sediment, contamination, dai ichi, earthquake, fish, fukushima, fukushima prefecture, implication, Japan, japanese coast, japanese public, ken buesseler, maff, marine environment, mitsuo uematsu, northeast, northwest, nuclear power plant, ocean, pacific ocean, public health, radiation, radiation level, radioactive isotope, radionuclides, reactor site, release, seafloor, seaweed, shellfish, tokyo, triple disaster, tsunami, university, world

Japan fisheries data provides a look at how the ocean is faring 18 months after the worst accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history

Japan’s “triple disaster,” as it has become known, began on March 11, 2011, and remains unprecedented in its scope and complexity. To understand the lingering effects and potential public health implications of that chain of events, scientists are turning to a diverse and widespread sentinel in the world’s ocean: fish.

Events on March 11 began with a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the fourth largest ever recorded. The earthquake in turn spawned a massive 40-foot tsunami that inundated the northeast Japanese coast and resulted in an estimated 20,000 missing or dead. Finally, the wave caused catastrophic damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, resulting in the largest accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history, 80 percent of which ended up in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. (more…)

Technology in the Classroom

By Guest PostNovember 17, 2012Educationaudio, chrystalla mouza, concept, delaware, digital book, electronic text, Environment, fred hofstetter, future educator, graphics, hyperlinks, information, ipad, kindle, learn by doing, multimodal text, multiple modes, rachel karchmer klein, teaching, university, video, website

Teaching future educators how to read and write in a new way

Rachel Karchmer-Klein, an associate professor in the University of Delaware’s School of Education, is teaching future educators to read and write multimodal texts, which includes everything from literature on a Kindle or iPad to information on a website.

“With traditional texts we teach students to read left to right, top to bottom, but electronic text is different because it contains multiple modes,” Karchmer-Klein explained. (more…)