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- June 19, 2013
- 11:55 AM
- 9 views
What is Foreign Accent Syndrome?
by Lyndsey Nickels in United Academics
In the past few days, a great deal of media attention has been paid to Leanne Rowe, a Tasmanian woman who has lived eight years with a French accent she acquired after a car accident. This phenomenon is known as foreign accent syndrome, a rare disorder that usually arises after brain damage as a result of, for example, stroke or head injury.
Foreign accent syndrome has always been the source of much media interest and the stories often sound sensational. There has been, for example, an Americ........ Read more »
David Stehling. (2009) Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS): The Speech Characteristics of Foreign Accent Syndrome. Grin. info:/
Dio, C., Schulz, J., & Gurd, J. (2006) Foreign Accent Syndrome: In the ear of the beholder?. Aphasiology, 20(9), 951-962. DOI: 10.1080/02687030600739356
- June 19, 2013
- 10:58 AM
- 6 views
Sons and daughters of same-sex couples grow up as good as in traditional families.
by Simone Munao in United Academics
Sons and daughters of same-sex couples grow up as good as in traditional families. That's what Australian research shows us.... Read more »
Crouch SR, Waters E, McNair R, Power J, & Davis E. (2012) ACHESS--The Australian study of child health in same-sex families: background research, design and methodology. BMC public health, 646. PMID: 22888859
- June 19, 2013
- 10:36 AM
- 9 views
Kids of Same-Sex Couples Are Just as Happy As Those In Traditional Families
by Simone Munao in United Academics
They live with two mums or two dads, and they are on the same level as their school friends regarding self-esteem, emotional behavior and time spent with their parents. But they seem to have the edge over the average regarding overall health and familiar cohesion. Kids that grow with homosexual couples grow up as good as in traditional families, and even better in some aspects. This seems to be confirmed by a study conducted by a group of researchers of the University of Melbourne on 500 minors ........ Read more »
Crouch SR, Waters E, McNair R, Power J, & Davis E. (2012) ACHESS--The Australian study of child health in same-sex families: background research, design and methodology. BMC public health, 646. PMID: 22888859
- June 19, 2013
- 05:02 AM
- 20 views
Are you really at risk of attack by someone with schizophrenia?
by Rebecca Syed in United Academics
A violent attack by someone who is mentally ill quickly grabs the headlines. And it’s usually implied that mental illnesses are a preventable cause of violent crime. Tackle that and we can all sleep safer in our beds. But by pressuring mental health services to focus on the risk of violence we are in danger of actually increasing it.
Most of the debate around risk and offending has centred around schizophrenia – the bread and butter of community psychiatry. But what is the evidenc........ Read more »
Fazel, S. (2009) Schizophrenia, Substance Abuse, and Violent Crime. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 301(19), 2016. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2009.675
Short, T., Thomas, S., Mullen, P., & Ogloff, J. (2013) Comparing violence in schizophrenia patients with and without comorbid substance-use disorders to community controls. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. DOI: 10.1111/acps.12066
- June 18, 2013
- 12:09 PM
- 24 views
Even ‘environmentally protective’ levels of pesticide devastate insect biodiversity
by Anouk Vleugels in United Academics
Pesticide levels considered environmentally friendly in Europe and Australia are, in fact, having a devastating effect on invertebrate insect biodiversity in nearby creeks and streams, a new study has found, showing the need for an urgent overhaul of the way pesticide risk is assessed. Water-dwelling invertebrates like worms, snails, crustaceans, mites and insects play a crucial role in regional ecosystems because they provide food for fish, birds and platypuses.... Read more »
Beketov, M., Kefford, B., Schafer, R., & Liess, M. (2013) Pesticides reduce regional biodiversity of stream invertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1305618110
- June 18, 2013
- 03:55 AM
- 63 views
Explainer: Why Do Women Menstruate?
by Dyani Lewis in United Academics
For half the population, it comes three to five days each month, 12 months each year, for 40 years of our lives. Menstruation can be debilitating, relieving, disappointing, or simply an inconvenient fact of life.
But why do humans menstruate, when most animals don’t? When you shake the tree of life, you find that only a handful of mammals aside from us – primates, a small number of bat species, and the elephant shrew – have opted for the monthly bleed.... Read more »
Emera, D., Romero, R., & Wagner, G. (2012) The evolution of menstruation: A new model for genetic assimilation. BioEssays, 34(1), 26-35. DOI: 10.1002/bies.201100099
Blanks, A., & Brosens, J. (2013) Meaningful menstruation. BioEssays, 35(5), 412-412. DOI: 10.1002/bies.201300022
- June 17, 2013
- 09:32 AM
- 48 views
No Sex Drive? There’s A Pill For That
by Alvin Lin in United Academics
In my mind, pills are like apps. Do you have a common problem to solve? There’s an app for that, as Apple has trademarked. Do you have some health related issue? There’s probably a pill for that. Blood pressure? Check. Cholesterol? Check. Social anxiety? Check. Erectile dysfunction? Check. Obesity? Check. Female libido? Oops! No check! But just wait! Big Pharma is working on that! As far back as January 2005, as published in the British Medical Journal, attempts have been made to dev........ Read more »
Moynihan, R. (2005) The marketing of a disease: female sexual dysfunction. BMJ, 330(7484), 192-194. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.330.7484.192
- June 17, 2013
- 08:21 AM
- 34 views
To Grow, Plants Do the Mathematics
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
You see them in sunflowers and artichokes. The familiar, concentric spiral-shaped Fibonacci sequence is part of a lot of flowering plants. These patterns precisely follow the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8), in which each digit (once you move along) is the sum of the previous two. But until now, nobody really knew how plants knew to make these mathematically precise patterns.... Read more »
Pennybacker, M., & Newell, A. (2013) Phyllotaxis, Pushed Pattern-Forming Fronts, and Optimal Packing. Physical Review Letters, 110(24). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.248104
- June 17, 2013
- 03:52 AM
- 35 views
Mutts Aren’t Always Healthier Dogs
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
Dogs have been at humankind’s side for thousands of years; we’ve bred them for size, ferocity, hunting assistance (actually, assistance of all kinds), and perhaps above all, companionship. Now, a number of studies show how dogs evolved from their wild wolf ancestors, and what all that breeding has led to.... Read more »
Bellumori TP, Famula TR, Bannasch DL, Belanger JM, & Oberbauer AM. (2013) Prevalence of inherited disorders among mixed-breed and purebred dogs: 27,254 cases (1995-2010). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 242(11), 1549-55. PMID: 23683021
Axelsson E, Ratnakumar A, Arendt ML, Maqbool K, Webster MT, Perloski M, Liberg O, Arnemo JM, Hedhammar A, & Lindblad-Toh K. (2013) The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-rich diet. Nature, 495(7441), 360-4. PMID: 23354050
- June 16, 2013
- 06:04 AM
- 49 views
Short Bursts of Exercise Key to Feeling Full
by Fron Jackson Webb in United Academics
Short bouts of intermittent exercise throughout the day may be better than one vigorous workout in convincing your brain that you are full, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity.
The researchers, from the United States and Murdoch University, set out to find how the appetite-regulating hormone Peptide YY (PYY) fluctuates with intermittent or continuous exercise. The research team asked the 11 participants to do no exercise on day one, to do a one-hour morning exercise sess........ Read more »
Holmstrup, M., Fairchild, T., Keslacy, S., Weinstock, R., & Kanaley, J. (2013) Satiety, but not total PYY, is increased with continuous and intermittent exercise. Obesity. DOI: 10.1002/oby.20335
- June 14, 2013
- 11:08 AM
- 93 views
Getting Science Right: Social Psychology Credibility
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
s social psychology in a crisis? Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman sparked an online (and laboratory) dustup last fall when he accused certain social psychologists of undermining the credibility of their field. At issue is whether certain experiments can be replicated. Kahneman says they should be. Other scientists have reported that certain popular results can’t. And that’s a problem.... Read more »
Elms, A. (1975) The crisis of confidence in social psychology. American Psychologist, 30(10), 967-976. DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.30.10.967
Shanks DR, Newell BR, Lee EH, Balakrishnan D, Ekelund L, Cenac Z, Kavvadia F, & Moore C. (2013) Priming intelligent behavior: an elusive phenomenon. PloS one, 8(4). PMID: 23637732
- June 14, 2013
- 10:23 AM
- 93 views
5 Unusual Ways to Reduce Crime
by Anouk Vleugels in United Academics
For the past 70 years or so, crime has mainly been explained through socio-economic factors such as housing or level of education. Currently the focus has shifted more to neuroscience and biology – and the idea that a chemical imbalance might also cause someone to be more violent or prone to criminal behavior.... Read more »
Keizer, K., Lindenberg, S., & Steg, L. (2008) The Spreading of Disorder. Science, 322(5908), 1681-1685. DOI: 10.1126/science.1161405
- June 13, 2013
- 11:22 AM
- 53 views
Body Dysmorphic Disorder puts ugly in the brain of the beholder
by Ben Buchanan in United Academics
When people think of mental problems related to body image, often the first thing that comes to mind is the thin figure associated with anorexia. Body dysmorphic disorder is less well known, but has around five times the prevalence of anorexia (about 2% of the population), and a high level of psychological impairment. It’s a mental disorder where the main symptom is excessive fear of looking ugly or disfigured. Central to the diagnosis is the fact that the person actually looks normal.... Read more »
Buchanan, B., Rossell, S., Maller, J., Toh, W., Brennan, S., & Castle, D. (2013) Brain connectivity in body dysmorphic disorder compared with controls: a diffusion tensor imaging study. Psychological Medicine, 1-9. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291713000421
- June 13, 2013
- 09:40 AM
- 50 views
Scientists Discover How to Trigger the Fruit Growth Hormone
by Geetanjali Yadav in United Academics
If someone told you to put your rock hard green McIntosh apple with a banana as that would make it ripe, you sure would scoff a little. But, believe your ears and do that yourself. It’s an easy way to get that red juicy goodness without spending a single penny! It sounds like magic – but it’s pure science. A very recent study by scientists from the Salk institute for Biological Studies have published their finding in the online international journal eLIFE – stating that ........ Read more »
Katherine Noelani Chang, Shan Zhong, Matthew T Weirauch, Gary Hon, Mattia Pelizzola, Hai Li, Shao-shan Carol Huang, Robert J Schmitz, Mark A Urich, Dwight Kuo, Joseph R Nery, Hong Qiao, Ally Yang, Abdullah Jamali, Huaming Chen, Trey Ideker, Bing Ren, Ziv . (2013) Temporal transcriptional response to ethylene gas drives growth hormone cross-regulation in Arabidopsis . eLife. info:/
- June 13, 2013
- 07:47 AM
- 51 views
Stress Leaves Its Mark on Dad’s Sperm
by Anouk Vleugels in United Academics
For the first time, researchers have found that stress can leave an epigenetic mark on sperm, which then alters the offspring’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a part of the brain that deals with responding to stress. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
The experiment was conducted with preadolescent and adult male mice, in which stress was induced – for example by confronting the mice with predator odor (fox urine) or foreign objects in their cages......... Read more »
Rodgers, A., Morgan, C., Bronson, S., Revello, S., & Bale, T. (2013) Paternal Stress Exposure Alters Sperm MicroRNA Content and Reprograms Offspring HPA Stress Axis Regulation. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(21), 9003-9012. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0914-13.2013
- June 12, 2013
- 11:58 AM
- 41 views
New Method Images Single Molecules and Atoms
by Akshat Rathi in United Academics
The ultimate dream of nanotechnology is to be able to manipulate matter atom by atom. To do that, we first need to know what they look like. In what could be a major step in that direction, researchers have developed a method that can determine the shape of a single molecule and identify its constituent atoms.
The laws of nature limit what can be seen with the help of light alone. Only objects separated by more than half the wavelength of the light that illuminates it can be observed as separ........ Read more »
Zhang, R., Zhang, Y., Dong, Z., Jiang, S., Zhang, C., Chen, L., Zhang, L., Liao, Y., Aizpurua, J., Luo, Y.... (2013) Chemical mapping of a single molecule by plasmon-enhanced Raman scattering. Nature, 498(7452), 82-86. DOI: 10.1038/nature12151
- June 12, 2013
- 08:36 AM
- 46 views
Gun-Use Research Gets Long-Overdue Boost
by Kate Blanchfield in United Academics
Too many days in the United States, a young man enters a public space, heavily armed. Shots are fired. Sometimes the killer takes his own life. Over the next few days, television news, newspapers and websites carry a photograph of the alleged gunman (they’re usually male), with a disturbing expression on his face and an accompanying that discusses his possible mental instability.... Read more »
Kiilakoski T, & Oksanen A. (2011) Cultural and peer influences on homicidal violence: a Finnish perspective. New directions for youth development, 2011(129), 31-42. PMID: 21491571
Bondü R, Cornell DG, & Scheithauer H. (2011) Student homicidal violence in schools: an international problem. New directions for youth development, 2011(129), 13-30. PMID: 21491570
- June 12, 2013
- 08:36 AM
- 31 views
Gun-Use Research Gets Long-Overdue Boost
by Kate Blanchfield in United Academics
Too many days in the United States, a young man enters a public space, heavily armed. Shots are fired. Sometimes the killer takes his own life. Over the next few days, television news, newspapers and websites carry a photograph of the alleged gunman (they’re usually male), with a disturbing expression on his face and an accompanying that discusses his possible mental instability.... Read more »
Kiilakoski T, & Oksanen A. (2011) Cultural and peer influences on homicidal violence: a Finnish perspective. New directions for youth development, 2011(129), 31-42. PMID: 21491571
Bondü R, Cornell DG, & Scheithauer H. (2011) Student homicidal violence in schools: an international problem. New directions for youth development, 2011(129), 13-30. PMID: 21491570
- June 12, 2013
- 06:16 AM
- 51 views
Social Media Use Linked to Narcissism
by Anouk Vleugels in United Academics
According to a new study published by researchers at the University of Michigan, social media might just be the perfect way to express our narcissistic tendencies. “Among young adult college students, we found that those who scored higher in certain types of narcissism posted more often on Twitter,” said Panek, leading author. ”But among middle-aged adults from the general population, narcissists posted more frequent status updates on Facebook.”
For the first experimen........ Read more »
Panek, E., Nardis, Y., & Konrath, S. (2013) Mirror or Megaphone?: How relationships between narcissism and social networking site use differ on Facebook and Twitter. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(5), 2004-2012. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.012
- June 11, 2013
- 08:37 AM
- 55 views
Mysterious Underwater Structure Discovered in Israel
by Anouk Vleugels in United Academics
Researchers stumbled upon the cone-shaped monument, that weighs about 60,000 ton, while executing geophysical research in the southern Sea of Galilee.
Expected is that the structure was built 6000 years ago. According to Prof. Shmulik Marco, who took part in the research, this is an impressive accomplishment since the stones had to be carried more than a mile – and be arranged according to a specific plan.... Read more »
Paz, Y., Moshe, R., Zvi, B., Shmuel, M., Tibor, G., & Nadel, D. (2013) A Submerged Monumental Structure in the Sea of Galilee, Israel. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 42(1), 189-193. DOI: 10.1111/1095-9270.12005
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