April – 2012 – BrainiYak

Monthly Archives: April 2012

A good example of a “so-what” abstract — a study of compassion and religiosity that goes nowhere interesting 0

Why did these people bother to write this bit of obviousness up? From the abstract: Past research argues that religious commitments shape individuals’ prosocial sentiments, including their generosity and solidarity. But what drives the prosociality of less religious people? Three studies tested the hypothesis that, with fewer religious expectations of prosociality, less religious individuals’ levels [...]

Categories: Psychology

Tagged: brother's keeper, compassion, Dacher Keltner, generosity, Katharine Clark, Laura R. Saslow, Matthew Feinberg, My Brother’s Keeper? Compassion Predicts Generosity More Among Less Religious Individuals, Paul K. Piff, prosocial, religion, Robb Willer, Sarina R. Saturn

Published:: 30 April 2012 – 15:28
Author:: By BrainiYak

University of Zurich physicists appear to have observed a theoretically anticipated baryon containing one light and two heavy quarks 0

Introduction — what are hadrons, baryons, mesons, and quarks? Baryons and mesons comprise the two categories of particle physics’ hadrons. Hadrons are composite entities made of fundamental (elementary) particles called quarks that are held together by the strong force. (Nature’s other 3 forces are gravitation, electromagnetism, and the weak interaction.) Quarks come in 6 flavors. [...]

Categories: Science

Tagged: anti-quark, baryon, bottom, CERN, charm, Claude Amsler, down, electromagnetism, Ernest Aguiló, gravitation, hadron, Large Hadron Collider, LHC, meson, new baryon, particle Xi_b^*, quark, strange, strong force, top, up, Vincenzo Chiochia, weak interaction

Published:: 27 April 2012 – 18:34
Author:: By BrainiYak

Meta-analysis shows that certain categories of organic farming may not be as inferior in yield (as compared to conventional techniques) as once thought — which may be good news for the environment 0

Comparative yields vary, depending on climate, soil regime, and practices From the abstract: [Y]ield differences are highly contextual, depending on system and site characteristics, and range from 5% lower organic yields (rain-fed legumes and perennials on weak-acidic to weak-alkaline soils), 13% lower yields (when best organic practices are used), to 34% lower yields (when the [...]

Categories: Agriculture

Tagged: agriculture, best practices, conventional, crop regimes, Jonathan A. Foley, legumes, Navin Ramankutty, organic, organic farmers, perennials, rain-fed, soils, Verena Seufert, weak-acidic, weak-alkaline, yields

Published:: 26 April 2012 – 15:37
Author:: By BrainiYak

Antarctic ice losses appear to be due to warm ocean currents that melt the shelves from below — and thereby speed up the velocity of inland glaciers’ ice transport to the sea 0

Citation H. D. Pritchard, S. R. M. Ligtenberg, H. A. Fricker, D. G. Vaughan, M. R. van den Broeke, and L. Padman, Antarctic ice-sheet loss driven by basal melting of ice shelves, Nature 484(7395): 502-505 (26 April 2012) How the study was done and what it indicates The British Antarctic Survey reported that: Researchers used [...]

Categories: Climate change,Environment

Tagged: Athena Dinar, British Antarctic Survey, D. G. Vaughan, East Antarctic Peninsula, Elaina Ford, glaciers, H. A. Fricker, H. D. Pritchard, ice shelf, ice shelves, ice-sheet loss, ICESat satellite, L. Padman, M. R. van den Broeke, melting, NASA, ocean currents, S. R. M. Ligtenberg, Southern Ocean, Stephen Cole, West Antarctic, West Antarctica, wind changes

Published:: 25 April 2012 – 14:54
Author:: By BrainiYak

Study finds increased levels of neural injury biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid of 30 Olympic boxers — who did not otherwise exhibit symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury — Is this a potential investigative tool for tracking the evolution of brain trauma? 0

Citation Sanna Neselius, Helena Brisby, Annette Theodorsson, Kaj Blennow, Henrik Zetterberg, and Jan Marcusson, CSF-Biomarkers in Olympic Boxing: Diagnosis and Effects of Repetitive Head Trauma, PLoS ONE 7(4): e33606. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033606 (April 2012) How this study was done The research team looked for cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers that indicate acute and chronic neural injury in a group [...]

Categories: Medicine,Neuroscience

Tagged: 42 amino acid isoform of amyloid β, Annette Theodorsson, Aβ1–42, brain injury, cerebrospinal fluid, CSF-biomarkers, GFAP), glial fibrillary acidic protein, H-FABP, heart-type fatty acid binding protein, Helena Brisby, Henrik Zetterberg, Jan Marcusson, Kaj Blennow, neurofilament light protein, neurological trauma, Olympic boxing, P-tau181, repetitive head trauma, S-100B, Sanna Neselius, T-tau, tau phosphorylated at threonine 181, total tau, traumatic brain injury

Published:: 24 April 2012 – 09:29
Author:: By BrainiYak

Soda (sweetened or diet) appears to boost stroke risk by 16 percent — whereas coffee (caffeinated or de-caf), as compared to either kind of soda, appears to lower relative stroke risk by 9 to 10 percent — Were there flaws in this inquiry? 0

Citation Adam M. Bernstein, Lawrence de Koning, Alan J. Flint, Kathryn M. Rexrode, and Walter C. Willett, Soda consumption and the risk of stroke in men and women, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 95(5): 1190-1199 (May 2012) Data comes from two large prospective cohort studies The soda and stroke data comes from analysis of two [...]

Categories: Medicine,Public Health

Tagged: Adam M. Bernstein, Alan J. Flint, caffeinated, coffee, de-caf, Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, Kathryn M. Rexrode, Lawrence de Koning, Nurses’ Health Study, risk of stroke, soda, soda consumption, stroke, Walter C. Willett

Published:: 21 April 2012 – 15:50
Author:: By BrainiYak

Promising advance in bridging spinal cord injury — Research team demonstrates that implanting a neuroelectrical device in a monkey’s brain, and wiring it to the animal’s hand muscles, can restore complex hand function 0

Citation C. Ethier, E. R. Oby, M. J. Bauman, and L. E. Miller, Restoration of grasp following paralysis through brain-controlled stimulation of muscles, Nature, doi:10.1038/nature10987 (early online publication, 18 April 2012) How this was done From the United States National Institutes of Health: In a report in the journal Nature, researchers describe how they combined [...]

Categories: Medicine,Neuroscience

Tagged: BCI, brain-computer interface, brain-controlled stimulation of muscles, C. Ethier, C5, C6, E. R. Oby, FES, functional electrical stimulation, L. E. Miller, M. J. Bauman, median nerve, neuroelectrical, neuroprosthesis, paralysis, restoration of grasp, spinal cord injury, ulnar nerve

Published:: 19 April 2012 – 10:31
Author:: By BrainiYak

Moderate alcohol consumption appears to be associated with a lower risk for subsequent fatal heart attack and all-cause mortality in men after the patient survives his first heart attack — But there are caveats regarding the generalizability of these results 0

Citation Jennifer K. Pai, Kenneth J. Mukamal, and Eric B. Rimm, Long-term alcohol consumption in relation to all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among survivors of myocardial infarction: the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, European Heart Journal, doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehs047 (early online publication, 27 March 2012) What is the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study? This research was done using the [...]

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: alcohol, alcohol unit, all-cause mortality, cancer promoter, cardiovascular mortality, Elizabeth Hartney, Eric B. Rimm, Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, heart attack, HPFS, Jennifer K. Pai, Kenneth J. Mukamal, long-germ alcohol consumption, MI, myocardial infarction, protective effect, standard drink, survivors of myocardial infarction

Published:: 17 April 2012 – 14:19
Author:: By BrainiYak

If true, this is an immense breakthrough — catalyzing water-splitting at oxygen- and hydrogen-producing photosystem II rates 0

Citation Lele Duan, Fernando Bozoglian, Sukanta Mandal, Beverly Stewart, Timofei Privalov, Antoni Llobet, and Licheng Sun, A molecular ruthenium catalyst with water-oxidation activity comparable to that of photosystem II, Nature Chemistry, doi:10.1038/nchem.1301 (early online publication, 25 March 2012) Research from Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology From the abstract: Across chemical disciplines, an interest in developing [...]

Categories: Energy,Science

Tagged: Antoni Llobet, Beverly Stewart, breakthrough, carbon-based fuels, catalysis, catalyst, environmentally friendly power generation, Fernando Bozoglian, hydrogen fuel, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Lele Duan, Licheng Sun, light driven, methanol, oxidation of water, photosystem II, renewalble energy, ruthenium catalyst, solar energy, Sukanta Mandal, Timofei Privalov, water oxidation, water splitting

Published:: 15 April 2012 – 14:32
Author:: By BrainiYak

How did the science article title, “Nineteenth and twentieth century sea-level changes in Tasmania and New Zealand,” get translated into, “Southern sea levels rise drastically”? 0

If fair-minded intelligence were the key to holding a place on the planet, most of us would be dead Here is an example of the kind of sensationalized nonsense that feeds the anti-science political Right with ammunition. It comes from comparing a press release from Australia’s University of Queensland to the science abstract that it [...]

Categories: Climate change,Environment,Science

Tagged: J. Andrew Milton, John Hunter, Kate Swanson, Maarten Blaauw, Mark H. Garnett, New Zealand, Patrick T. Moss, S. Louise Callard, salt marshes, se-level, sea-level changes, Southern Ocean, Tasmania, W. Roland Gehrels, William A. Marshall

Published:: 12 April 2012 – 11:58
Author:: By BrainiYak

BrainiYak

Monthly Archives: April 2012

A good example of a “so-what” abstract — a study of compassion and religiosity that goes nowhere interesting 0

University of Zurich physicists appear to have observed a theoretically anticipated baryon containing one light and two heavy quarks 0

Meta-analysis shows that certain categories of organic farming may not be as inferior in yield (as compared to conventional techniques) as once thought — which may be good news for the environment 0

Antarctic ice losses appear to be due to warm ocean currents that melt the shelves from below — and thereby speed up the velocity of inland glaciers’ ice transport to the sea 0

Study finds increased levels of neural injury biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid of 30 Olympic boxers — who did not otherwise exhibit symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury — Is this a potential investigative tool for tracking the evolution of brain trauma? 0

Soda (sweetened or diet) appears to boost stroke risk by 16 percent — whereas coffee (caffeinated or de-caf), as compared to either kind of soda, appears to lower relative stroke risk by 9 to 10 percent — Were there flaws in this inquiry? 0

Promising advance in bridging spinal cord injury — Research team demonstrates that implanting a neuroelectrical device in a monkey’s brain, and wiring it to the animal’s hand muscles, can restore complex hand function 0

Moderate alcohol consumption appears to be associated with a lower risk for subsequent fatal heart attack and all-cause mortality in men after the patient survives his first heart attack — But there are caveats regarding the generalizability of these results 0

If true, this is an immense breakthrough — catalyzing water-splitting at oxygen- and hydrogen-producing photosystem II rates 0

How did the science article title, “Nineteenth and twentieth century sea-level changes in Tasmania and New Zealand,” get translated into, “Southern sea levels rise drastically”? 0

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