November 5, 2006, 9:18 PM CT

Toddlers Learn Complex Actions From Picture-book

Parents who engage in the age-old tradition of picture-book reading are not only encouraging early reading development in their children but are also teaching their toddlers about the world around them, according to a study in the recent issue of Developmental Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA). This finding shows that interactions with life-like color pictures can aid in children's learning.

Parents of preschool children reported that they own dozens of children's picture books and spend approximately 40 minutes a day reading books to their small children. To determine the extent of a young child's ability to learn from a picture-book, psychologist Gabrielle Simcock, PhD, University of Queensland and co-author and psychologist Judy DeLoache, PhD, University of Virginia, tested if toddlers could imitate specific target actions on novel real-world objects on the basis of a picture-book interaction.

A total of 132 children from three different age groups (18 months, 24 months and 30 months) participated in two studies to determine if age influenced a toddler's ability to learn how to construct a simple rattle from a picture-book reading. In the first study, two groups of children ages 18, 24 and 30-months, were given one of two picture books. One contained six color photographs and the other contained colored pencil drawings that were reproductions of the photograph. At the end of the reading, the children were asked to construct a rattle using the items in front of them. The study revealed that many of the children were able to imitate the actions depicted and described in the book.........

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November 2, 2006, 9:10 PM CT

Which Is More Annoying, Spam Or Direct Mail?

You open up your e-mail inbox and are inundated with spam that offers everything from inkjet cartridges to "investment opportunities" that are obviously too good to be true. You open up your mailbox at home to find more unsolicited ads, everything from pizza coupons to credit card offers.

Ever wonder which is more annoying?

As per a new study by a researcher in the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, most people find spam more intrusive and irritating than direct mail. The study, reported in the fall issue of the Journal of Interactive Advertising, also explores why people find spam so annoying.

"Overall, spam definitely is regarded as more annoying, irritating and intrusive than postal direct mail," said Mariko Morimoto, assistant professor of advertising. "That was pretty much our hypothesis. And while it's easy to figure out that spam is more annoying, I also wanted to know why".

Morimoto and co-author of study Susan Chang, assistant professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Miami, randomly assigned 119 college students to a survey that asked about either spam or direct mail. On a scale of one to seven, where one is most intrusive and seven is least intrusive, students gave spam an average intrusiveness score of 1.93 in comparison to 4.24 for direct mail. For irritation, the average score was 2.46 for spam in comparison to 3.87 for direct mail.........

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November 1, 2006, 8:22 PM CT

New Study Forecasts Democratic Takeover

A new study, "Forecasting House Seats from Generic Congressional Polls" authored by Dartmouth Professor of Government Joseph Bafumi and his colleagues at Columbia and Temple universities, predicts that based on current ballot polling data, the Democratic Party can expect to gain 32 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in the Nov. 7 mid-term congressional elections. Such a gain would guarantee the Democrats a House majority and exceed a number of current forecasts for Democratic gains in the House.

The study, co-authored by Robert Erikson of Columbia University and Christopher Wlezien of Temple University, translates the results of generic congressional polls conducted by CNN, USA Today/Gallup, ABC/Washington Post, Fox/Opinion Dynamics and Newsweek into the partisan midterm swing. The polling data they used asked respondents which party they would choose in the next election. As per that analysis, Democratic congressional candidates are predicted to receive 55 percent of the votes cast, plus or minus a few percentage points.

The study then goes on to analyze whether that majority of votes is likely to translate into a majority of House seats. Combining the partisan swing, estimated from the generic congressional polls, with historical data at the congressional district level, they predict which party will win each district race. The scientists observed that if Democrats receive even 53 percent of votes cast, the probability that they will win enough seats to take over the House increases to more than 90 percent.........

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November 1, 2006, 8:04 PM CT

Climate Change Tops Environmental Concerns

According to a recent MIT survey, Americans now rank climate change as the country's most pressing environmental problem--a dramatic shift from three years ago, when they ranked climate change sixth out of 10 environmental concerns.

Almost three-quarters of the respondents felt the government should do more to deal with global warming, and individuals were willing to spend their own money to help.

"While terrorism and the war in Iraq are the main issues of national concern, there's been a remarkable increase in the American public's recognition of global warming and their willingness to do something about it," said Stephen Ansolabehere, MIT's Elting R. Morison Professor of Political Science.

The survey results were released Oct. 31 at the seventh annual Carbon Sequestration Forum, an international meeting held at MIT that focuses on methods of capturing and storing emissions of carbon dioxide--a major contributor to climate change.

Ansolabehere's colleagues on the work are Howard Herzog, principal research engineer in MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE), LFEE research associates Thomas E. Curry and Mark de Figueiredo, and Professor David M. Reiner of the University of Cambridge.

The findings are a result of two surveys, the first administered in September 2003 and the follow-up in September 2006. Each survey included about 20 questions focusing on the environment, global warming and a variety of climate-change-mitigation technologies.........

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November 1, 2006, 5:25 PM CT

Why There Are More Species In The Tropics?

Why are there more species in the tropics than in the temperate regions of the globe? A number of of the world's species live in the tropics (perhaps more than half), but the reason has been debated for more than 100 years.

A number of scientists have hypothesized that climatic factors somehow cause species to originate more quickly in tropical regions. In a paper appearing in the recent issue of The American Naturalist, John Wiens and a group of scientists from Stony Brook University have shown that, contrary to expectations, species seem to evolve at similar rates in tropical and temperate regions. What causes the difference in species numbers between tropical and temperate regions is not something special about the tropics that leads to more rapid speciation, but rather that the temperate areas were colonized more recently, leaving less time for species to originate and accumulate in these regions.

The scientists studied the causes of high tropical species richness in treefrogs in the Americas. Combining analyses of evolutionary trees based on DNA sequences with GIS-based methods for analyzing the effects of climate on species distributions, the scientists found no relationship between how quickly species originate within a group and whether that group is tropical or temperate.........

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November 1, 2006, 5:12 PM CT

Why Wolves Not Dispersing As Fast As Expected

In 1995, 14 wolves were transferred to Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. from the Canadian Rocky Mountains, with 17 more joining them the following year. More than 1,000 healthy wolves have descended from the original 31, with about 150 of them still residing in the park boundaries.

However, wolves have been known to disperse at a rate of 100 km a year, but the Yellowstone wolves have only spread at one-tenth that rate. The slow dispersal rate had stumped scientists across North America until a team of mathematical biologists at the University of Alberta recently solved the puzzle.

"When the wolves traveled far distances in their new environment it was easy for them to lose track of their mates, and the further they traveled the less likely it is for them to find a mate," said Dr. Mark Lewis, director of the U of A Centre for Mathematical Biology and a co-author of the study.

"We've shown that a reduced probability of finding mates at low densities slows the predicted rate of recolonization," added Amy Hurford, a former U of A biological sciences master's student and co-author of the study.

By the 1970s, wolves had been systematically hunted to extinction in the lower 48 states in order to protect livestock. But wolves were a keystone species in the area (i.e. they are predators and nobody preys upon them), and, after 30 years of extinction, scientists felt a reintroduction of the species would balance the burgeoning population of other animals in the area, such as elk and cougars.........

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November 1, 2006, 4:43 AM CT

Rock Climbing Does Not Increase Risk Of Osteoarthritis

A study in the US has found there is no greater risk of osteoarthritis in rock climbers compared to non climbers, contrary to previous theory.

The study, published in the recent issue of Journal of Anatomy, examined osteological changes in the hands and fingers of rock climbers that result from intense, long-term mechanical stress placed on these bones. Specifically, whether rock climbing leads to increased cortical bone thickness and joint changes associated with osteoarthritis. Researchers also wanted to identify whether climbing intensity and frequency of different styles of climbing influence changes.

Adam Sylvester of the University of Tennessee explains: "Radiographs of both hands were taken for each participant and were scored for radiographic signs of osteoarthritis using an atlas method. We compared 27 recreational rock climbers and 35 non-climbers for four measures of bone strength and dimensions and osteoarthritis. The results suggest that climbers are not at an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis compared with non-climbers.

Climber's finger and hand bones are, however, greater in cross-sectional area and total width, indicating that additional bone is being deposited on the external surface, not usually seen in adults. The strength of the finger and hand bones are correlated with styles of climbing that emphasize athletic difficulty. Significant predictors include the highest levels achieved in bouldering and sport climbing".........

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November 1, 2006, 4:31 AM CT

Antidepressants Linked To Lower Child Suicide Rates

Scientists report an inverse relationship between antidepressant prescriptions and the rates of suicide in children and adolescents -- a finding that contradicts the Food and Drug Administration's "black box" warning for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications, also known as SSRI drugs.

The University of Illinois at Chicago epidemiologic study appears in the recent issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The scientists examined suicide rates of children ages 5-14 in each county of the United States from 1996 to 1998 and county-level data on SSRI prescriptions. The results were adjusted for sex, race, income, access to quality mental health care and variations in county-to-county suicide rates.

"We observed that counties with the highest prescription rates for SSRI drugs had the lowest suicide rates in children and adolescents," said the lead author Robert Gibbons, director of the Center for Health Statistics and professor of biostatistics and psychiatry at UIC. "This is just the opposite of what you would predict if SSRI's were producing suicide".

There were 933 suicides among children ages 5-14 from 1996 to 1998, or an overall annual rate of 0.8 per 100,000. The scientists observed that in counties with low antidepressant prescription rates, the suicide rate was as high as 1.7 per 100,000. In counties with high antidepressant prescription rates, the suicide rate was as low as 0.7 per 100,000.........

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November 1, 2006, 4:23 AM CT

Amniocentesis Safe For Pregnant Women

Amniocentesis is the most commonly prescribed invasive test performed during pregnancies in the United States. Most women fear them while doctors recommend them based on guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. These guidelines stem from past research studies and recommendations by the CDC that were based only on maternal age. Studies that are decades old have suggested that amniocentesis increases the rate of miscarriage by 0.5% or 1 in 200 pregnancies. However, researchers at Mount School of Medicine in conjunction with other institutions involved in the First and Second Trimester Evaluation of Risk for Aneuploidy trial (FASTER trial) have just reported in the recent issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, that pregnancy miscarriage rates after routine midtrimester amniocentesis are significantly lower than rates previously published years ago in the 1970s and 1980s. This study reports that the amniocentesis procedure- related loss risk is approximately 1 in 1,600 pregnancies.

Lead author of the study, "Pregnancy Loss Rates After Midtrimester Amniocentis", Dr. Keith E. Eddleman, MD, Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine has found that this new study now refutes the typically quoted 0.5% pregnancy loss rate and suggests it may be even lower than 0.1%."Women should be counseled that this older loss rate is archaic and their decision about whether or not to have an amniocentesis should be based on contemporary information about miscarriage rates with newer screening techniques, rather than just relying on general age based risks," said Eddleman. "This new research breakthrough will have a significant effect on how women are counseled about amniocentesis by their doctors and the information they have when deciding about screening for their unborn child".........

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November 1, 2006, 4:05 AM CT

Recovering Pompeii

Artists in ancient Pompeii painted the town red 2,000 years ago with a brilliant crimson pigment that dominated many of the doomed city's wall paintings. Now scientists from France and Italy are reporting in the journal Analytical Chemistry why those paintings are undergoing a mysterious darkening. The synchrotron light of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble (France) has provided new insight into this process and what produces it.

On 24 August of the year 79 AD, the volcano Vesuvius erupted burying its neighbouring towns in pumice and ash. The Villa Sora, in Torre del Greco, had since then remained inexistent, until twenty years ago, when excavation works brought it back to light. In the remains of the house, the distinctive red colour of the wall frescoes has turned black in many places since the excavation in a quick degradation process which is not well understood scientifically.

Scientists have been wondering for many years why the red in Pompeii walls, made of cinnabar (HgS), turns black. Already in the 1st century BC, Vitruvius, in his treatise "De Architectura", mentions the problem, which at that time, was prevented by applying a sort of protective varnish based on "punic wax". The causes and mechanisms responsible for cinnabar discolouration have remained a mystery until now; consequently conservators are unable to prevent the phenomenon from ocurring. The most commonly acknowledged answer is that the exposure to the sun transforms cinnabar into another phase, metacinnabar, which is presented in a black colour. Recently a Franco-Italian team of researchers had studied four samples of wall paint from Villa Sora using the ESRF synchrotron light to verify whether this statement was correct.........

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