Your body doesn't lie: People ignore political ads of candidates they oppose

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — A recent study examined people's bodily responses while watching presidential campaign ads -- and discovered another way that people avoid political information that challenges their beliefs.

In the last days of the 2008 campaign, researchers had people watch a variety of actual ads for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama while the viewers' heart rates, skin conductance and activation of facial muscles were monitored.

The results showed that partisan participants reacted strongly to ads featuring their favored candidate, but barely responded to ads featuring the rival candidate.

In comparison, people who didn't favor one candidate over the other showed similar physiological response patterns and intensity to ads for both Obama and McCain.

This suggests that partisan participants weren't really paying attention to the ads featuring the candidate they opposed even as they watched them, said Zheng Wang, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University.

"If people are exposed to information in ads regarding a candidate they oppose, they respond by basically tuning out," Wang said.

"A lot of research has shown that, behaviorally, we tend to selectively expose ourselves to information that reinforces our existing opinions. But this study further suggests that even when exposed to information, our attention to what is presented is highly selective, as well," she said.

Wang co-authored the study with Alyssa Morey, a graduate student in communication at Ohio State, and Jatin Srivastava, an assistant professor at Ohio University. Their results appear in a recent issue of the journal Communication Research.

The study involved 15 college students who came to Wang's laboratory in October 2008. They were hooked up with electrodes that measured four physiological responses: heart rate, skin conductance (a way to measure sweating, which is related to how stimulated and alert the person is), and muscle movements around the cheekbone and around the eyebrows.

Research has shown that these physiological responses, taken together, indicate emotional responses and attention levels, Wang said.

While hooked up to the electrodes, each participant watched 12 campaign ads -- six for Obama and six for McCain -- while their physiological reactions were recorded.

After watching the ads, the students filled out measures of how positively and negatively they regarded Obama and McCain in general.

The physiological measures used in the study revealed how much the viewers were paying attention and how they were reacting emotionally to ad content that was positive, negative, more emotionally arousing and less emotionally arousing.

For example, a lower heart rate suggests that the viewer is taking in information and paying more attention to the ad, while a higher heart rate suggests the viewer is not focused on the ads. The muscles in the face also indicate how much attentional effort a person is making.

In one key analysis of the study, the researchers used what they called a dynamical feedback model to see how the different ad factors interacted with the viewers' partisan leanings to influence their physiological reactions over time.

"At any one time, ad viewers' reactions are affected not just by what they are seeing at that exact moment, but also by what came before in the ad," Wang said. "The dynamical feedback model puts it all together to see how people react in a real-time, real-world way."

For supporters of a particular candidate, the feedback model suggests that the positive feelings that viewers have are amplified as they watch an ad for their candidate, Wang said. But for opponents, the feedback effects actually seem to decrease their response over time as they watch the ad -- in essence, they tune out, she said.

"When we integrate all of the ad message inputs into this dynamical system of the viewer's mind, we find the response of supporters is intensified, while the opponents become nonresponsive," she said.

The results also suggest that it isn't easy to predict how simple ad categories -- such as positive ads versus negative ones -- will affect viewers.

"The ad message is only part of the story because it interacts with how individuals process the ad," she said.

"In addition, one negative ad is very different from another negative ad, in terms of their content dynamics and how people react over time. And a 60-second version of an ad can have quite different effects from a 30-second version of the same ad. How people react to ads is a very complex and dynamic process."

The study was partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Jeff Grabmeier.

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Journal Reference:

1. Z. Wang, A. C. Morey, J. Srivastava. Motivated Selective Attention During Political Ad Processing: The Dynamic Interplay Between Emotional Ad Content and Candidate Evaluation. Communication Research, 2012; DOI: 10.1177/0093650212441793

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18 Sep, 2012

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About half of adults say schools should take action when kids bully with social isolation

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — U.S. adults repeatedly rate bullying as a major health problem for U.S. children. But a new poll from the University of Michigan shows adults have different views about what bullying behaviors should prompt schools to take action.

The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health recently asked a nationwide sample of adults what behaviors should be considered bullying and what behaviors should spur school officials to intervene.

The vast majority of adults (95 percent) say schools should take action if a student makes another student afraid for his/her physical safety. Eighty-one percent said schools should intervene when someone humiliates or embarrasses another student and 76 percent call for intervention when someone spreads rumors.

But only 56 percent said isolating a student socially should prompt school intervention.

"The key finding from this poll is that adults don't see behaviors across the bullying spectrum as equivalent," says Matthew M. Davis M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

"This is concerning because isolating a student socially is considered to be a form of bullying, and a dangerous one," says Davis, associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and associate professor of public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

"Isolating a student socially may be linked to episodes of school violence and also teen suicide."

Since year 2000, 46 states have passed laws related to bullying and 45 of them require schools to have bullying policies. But not all states have the same definition of what constitutes bullying, and the poll indicates that adults don't agree on this either.

In the poll, nearly all adults (90 percent) say threatening another student's physical safety is bullying and 62 percent also say embarrassing or humiliating a student is definitely bullying.

But just 59 percent say spreading rumors about a student is bullying and only 48 percent say isolating a student socially should be considered bullying.

Since the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, and with subsequent school shootings and teen suicides linked to bullying, public concern about bullying has grown considerably in the U.S. In the last several years of the Poll's 'Top 10' list of greatest child health concerns, bullying has been rated by the public as a major problem for kids. The latest national data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2011, reported by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicate that 20% of high school students report that they have been the victims of bullying.

"As school starts, this is the perfect time of year to have conversations about how each school can find solutions to the problems of bullying and address this important childhood health problem," says Davis.

Full report: http://mottnpch.org/reports-surveys/bullying-when-should-schools-take-action

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18 Sep, 2012

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'Occupy' movement's tumultuous year yields rich research data

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement marks its one year anniversary on Sept. 17 -- or, as Occupiers call it, S-17. OWS brought its 99 percent slogan to Wall Street in an effort to show the public's frustration with the elite one percent making up the financial nucleus of the country. Soon, clashes with police and local governments erupted as tolerance and respect for the law eroded and both police and Occupiers made missteps. Ultimately, Occupiers were evicted from their camps sometimes with excessive force.

American University's Ed Maguire, professor and chair in the Department of Justice, Law & Society (JLS) in the School of Public Affairs, is a criminologist interested in how the police and legal authorities handle protestors. OWS and Occupy D.C. provided a real opportunity to observe protestors and police in action.

"Our class discussions kept returning to the Occupy movement where we were examining issues related to procedural justice, legitimacy, and fairness of authority," recalls Maguire explaining, "The Occupy Movement provided a nice laboratory to look at interactions between the police and protestors. It occurred to us that we were observing phenomena that are making history so we designed a study examining the way protestors perceive police and legal authority."

What encourages people to obey the law? JLS researchers survey Occupiers

American University JLS doctoral students surveyed more than 300 OWS participants during the six month anniversary in Manhattan's Zucotti Park. Additionally, they surveyed Occupiers in Washington, D.C., where they found there is a strong statistical relationship between people's willingness to use violence against the police and the extent to which participants view the police as having behaved in fair ways towards Occupiers.

With Maguire's network of academic colleagues across the country, additional Occupy sites were surveyed through research partnerships. Sam Houston State University carried out surveys in Houston. San Francisco State University in conjunction with University of California Berkeley carried out surveys in Oakland. The survey data were processed by Arizona State University's Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety. The research results are expected to be published in 2013.

Under what conditions are people willing to defer to authority and obey the law?

The aim of the study is to identify the best practices law enforcement can use to handle protestors where liberties are respected and security can be maintained. In the post 9/11 world, American police have geared up to face threats. But Maguire cautions, "There is a steady stream of police research that concludes police are becoming significantly more paramilitary in nature."

As the research reveals most Occupiers tend to be non-violent. However, Maguire points out, "There is a non-trivial subset of people who seem very willing to break the law and use violence to achieve social change. In some places a third of Occupiers say they are willing to use violence against the police."

When Zucotti Park was cleared, the JLS research team observed police using force that was "disturbing" highlighting the tension between liberty and security. "When authority figures are seen by subordinates to break the law or behave in procedurally unjust or unfair ways, it is thought those behaviors will undermine people's deference to the law and willingness to obey legal authorities," says Maguire. The police enter these highly charged and emotional protests with the aim to maintain security but in some cases abuses occur which amount to the trampling of peaceful protestors' civil rights and Constitutional rights. "While relationships between police and protesters in some sites were routinely negative, some agencies relied on community policing practices to ensure community safety while preserving protesters' civil liberties," Maguire points out.

Department of Justice $400,000 grant awarded to continue research

Maguire stresses he did not only want to study the Occupy movement from the perspective of the Occupiers. As an academic researcher, he is neither an activist for the Occupiers nor an advocate for the police. Part one of his research focused on the Occupiers perspective. For Part two, Maguire received a $400,000 grant from the Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to examine how U.S. police agencies have responded to the Occupy movement.

The research grant will include interviewing police, prosecutors, and Occupiers in eight cities throughout the country. The methodology will rely on one week site visits and interviews to gather information. Site visits will be followed up by focus groups in Washington with representatives from the eight agencies visited. The final product of the research will be a guidebook for U.S. agencies with best practices for policing social and protest movements. Along the way, a series of academic articles will also be produced.

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18 Sep, 2012

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Protecting ecosystems brings benefits to society

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — Ecosystems are essential to our well-being and prosperity as they provide us with food, clean air and fresh water. Ecosystems also represent an exceptional source of outdoor recreation opportunities. The functions performed by ecosystems that increase our well-being are called ecosystem services. The PEER Research on EcoSystem Services (PRESS) initiative describes how different EU policies can help to increase the services and benefits provided by ecosystems, and calls for the inclusion of the ecosystem services approach into European policy measures affecting the use or state of natural resources.

The results of this research initiative were presented in Brussels on 13 September to an international panel of experts which helps DG Environment of the European Commission with the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. The report prepared to describe these results outlines a strategy which aims to promote a better understanding of how ecosystems and biodiversity provide essential benefits to our society. Launched in 2010, the PRESS initiative demonstrated how European researchers, including social scientists, economists, and ecologists, can combine their expertise to map and assess the natural, social and economic values of ecosystems services.

The first phase of the study, which was concluded in September 2011 with the publication of a first PRESS report, demonstrated methodologies to map the role of ecosystems as providers of clean water and recreation and investigated how ecosystem services can be mainstreamed into agriculture, fisheries or forestry policies. The second and final phase of the study consisted of case studies carried out on pollination, recreation and water purification to explore how assessment methods to measure and map ecosystem services might be developed at multiple spatial scales.

A spatial assessment of ecosystem services in Europe: Methods, case studies and policy analysis -- phase 2. Synthesis report is intended to convey four main policy messages:

• The capacity of wetlands, rivers, streams and lakes to remove or immobilize pollutants is essential to the provision of clean water for multiple uses and decreases costs of wastewater treatment based on technological solutions only. New proposals of the European Commission to green the Common Agricultural Policy and to restore wetland ecosystems are predicted to have positive effects on water purification services, thereby improving water quality and increasing the economic benefits to society.

• Outdoor recreation services are one of the most immediate perceived benefits of ecosystems to people. The PRESS study presents evidence of high visitation rates to natural areas, in particular forests. Surveys show that citizens are willing to pay for continued access to forest ecosystems for recreation purposes. On a national scale, the value of forests for recreation may be in a range of billions of Euros. This value increases when we consider the avoided cost for health care due to the restorative and stress reduction capacity of recreational activities. Green urban areas such as city parks also have high recreational potential. The PRESS study report describes spatial methods to identify where investments in green urban areas reach their highest potential.

• Insects such as bees and bumblebees are key actors in providing pollination services to maintain Europe's crop production, in particular of fruit and vegetables. High resolution data of forests and riparian areas were used to map the ecosystems in which bees and bumblebees build nests and find nectar-carrying flowers. Such information is important to convince farmers to help manage and protect these habitats as they increase their agricultural output.

• The mapping, assessment and valuation of ecosystem services are necessary but not sufficient steps in achieving the ecosystem services targets of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. We need to develop a thorough understanding of how we determine the levels of the various ecosystem services and the impacts of current policies on ecosystems.

Sound and cost-effective management of ecosystems should also take into account those EU policies that directly and indirectly influence ecosystems and the services they provide, e.g. policies designed to bring about social and economic changes, such as those on international trade, agriculture, land use, and nature conservation.

Including the ecosystem services concept in all social and economic policies would allow for a systematic review of their impacts on services, beyond conventional environmental assessments. The PRESS initiative recommends that new policies should be flexible in design and continuously monitored in order to be able to react and adapt to new circumstances, and that baseline levels and goals should be quantified in order to be able to measure progress. It calls for the broad collaboration of stakeholders at all levels, including researchers, policy makers, and citizens.

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18 Sep, 2012

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Sex matters: Men recognize cars and women recognize living things best, psychological analysis finds

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — Women are better than men at recognizing living things and men are better than women at recognizing vehicles.

That is the unanticipated result of an analysis Vanderbilt psychologists performed on data from a series of visual recognition tasks collected in the process of developing a new standard test for expertise in object recognition.

"These results aren't definitive, but they are consistent with the following story," said Gauthier. "Everyone is born with a general ability to recognize objects and the capability to get really good at it. Nearly everyone becomes expert at recognizing faces, because of their importance for social interactions. Most people also develop expertise for recognizing other types of objects due to their jobs, hobbies or interests. Our culture influences which categories we become interested in, which explains the differences between men and women."

The results were published online on Aug. 3 in the Vision Research journal in an article titled, "The Vanderbilt Expertise Test Reveals Domain-General and Domain-Specific Sex Effects in Object Recognition."

"Our motivation was to assess the role that expertise plays in object recognition with a new test that includes many different categories, so we weren't looking for this result," said Professor of Psychology Isabel Gauthier. She directs the lab where post-doctoral fellow Rankin McGugin conducted the study.

"This isn't the first time that sex differences have been found in perceptual tasks. For example, previous studies have shown that men have an advantage in mental rotation tasks. In fact, a recent study looking only at car recognition found that men were better than women but attributed this to the male advantage in mental rotation. Our finding that women are better than men at recognizing objects in other categories suggests that this explanation is incorrect."

Discovery of the sex effect in object recognition also casts doubt on several studies that claim an individual's ability to recognize faces is largely independent of his or her ability to recognize objects.

"Face recognition abilities are exciting to study because they have been found to have a clear genetic basis," said Gauthier, "and many studies conclude that abilities in face recognition are not predicted by abilities in object recognition. But this is usually based on comparing faces to only one object category for men and women."

It took the multi-category analysis to reveal that face recognition abilities are correlated to the ability to recognize different object categories for men and women. For example, men who are better at recognizing vehicles also tend to be better at recognizing faces, while women who are better at recognizing living things tend to be better at recognizing faces.

The researchers modeled their new test after the well-established Cambridge Face Memory Task, which effectively measures a person's ability to recognize faces. After familiarizing themselves with a number of images, participants are shown three images at a time -- one from the study group and two that they haven't seen before -- and then are asked to pick out the image that they had studied.

While one goal of the new study was to compare object and face recognition skills, another goal was to develop a better way to measure who has exceptional skills in one domain: how to find the experts in the recognition of cars or birds or even mushrooms. To do this, the Vanderbilt researchers reasoned that performance on any category of interest needed to be compared to performance on many other categories, to ensure that the self-proclaimed bird expert is not only better with birds than most people, but also better with birds than with most other categories. So they designed the new test with eight categories of visually similar objects: leaves, owls, butterflies, wading birds, mushrooms, cars, planes and motorcycles.

To evaluate the new test, they administered it to 227 subjects -- 75 male and 82 female -- with a mean age of 23. When the results of the entire group were analyzed, the researchers found that increasing the number of categories revealed a large sex difference: Women proved significantly better at recognizing living things while men were better at recognizing vehicles. In addition, the researchers administered a face recognition test to about half of the participants, which allowed them to determine the correlation between vehicle recognition and face recognition in men and the correlation between recognition of living things and faces in women.

Vanderbilt post-doctoral fellow Jennifer Richler as well as Grit Herzmann, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Research Assistant Magen Speegle also contributed to the study.

The research was supported by the National Eye Institute grants EYO13441-06A2 and P30-EY008126 and by the National Science Foundation's Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center grant SBE-0542013.

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Journal Reference:

1. Rankin W. McGugin, Jennifer J. Richler, Grit Herzmann, Magen Speegle, Isabel Gauthier. The Vanderbilt Expertise Test reveals domain-general and domain-specific sex effects in object recognition. Vision Research, 2012; 69: 10 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2012.07.014

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18 Sep, 2012

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Mobile launcher platforms prepped for new generation

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — NASA's trio of mobile launcher platforms (MLP) are being revamped to serve a variety of next-generation launch vehicles. The huge steel structures, which acted as launch bases for the Apollo/Saturn program and every space shuttle mission, will serve as the platforms that launch the next American-made vehicles to space.

Essentially a large steel box measuring 160 by 135 feet, a platform's surface features wide openings that align with a space-bound vehicle's engines and direct the blast into the flame trench below. Propellant lines and other utilities run throughout the structure. The two-story interior contains a variety of communications devices, control cabinets and other ground support equipment.

Throughout the past year, Kennedy Space Center's Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) program has overseen the removal of much of the hardware used to support shuttle launches, making it available to the new 355-foot-tall mobile launcher in development for the agency's Space Launch System (SLS), a rocket that will launch NASA's Orion spacecraft and provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond Earth orbit.

"We're removing a lot of components -- cryogenic, pneumatic, mechanical, electrical, controls-type stuff for reuse on the new SLS mobile launcher as a cost savings," explained John Rigney, GSDO lead architect. "But at the same time, we wanted to keep the MLPs ready for any commercial entities that want to use them."

To accomplish this, the program carefully decided what hardware should be removed from the platforms in order to ensure two would remain available.

"It's kind of like taking parts off your car," Rigney said. "If I took the wheels off your car, and took the doors out of another car, and took the glass out of a third car, you'd say, 'Couldn't you leave one car that works?' We tried to think ahead."

Any hardware used in a solid-propulsion system was removed from MLP No. 2. Some of the electrical racks and control panels also were taken out.

"We tried to keep MLP-2 intact for a commercial entity with a liquid-fueled vehicle," said Mobile Launcher Technical Integrator Mike Canicatti. "We tried to pull off what we could that wasn't liquid-related, such as equipment that interacts with solid propellant, mostly pneumatic panels and control cabinets that feed the SRBs."

Conversely, the materials removed from MLP No. 3 leave the platform set to support a vehicle fueled by solid propellant.

MLP No. 1, the oldest of the three, is not intended to be used again, so the team planned carefully which pieces to save and which to leave with the structure.

"We didn't want to turn it over to [Kennedy's Center Operations directorate] with anything in it that had some value," Rigney said. "But at the same time, we didn't want to take everything out, because we'd have to store it and spend money to keep it. So we did the best we could and took out all the parts that were still good."

There are plans to use the hardware that's been pulled out of the platforms. Until then, the majority of the parts are being stored in the Vehicle Assembly Building, in the heart of Launch Complex 39.

The hands-on work to remove parts from the Mobile Launcher Platforms began earlier this year, one of many such activities under way to transition and retire the shuttle fleet. The job is expected to be complete by year's end.

The first test flight of NASA's Space Launch System, which will feature a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity, is scheduled for 2017.

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18 Sep, 2012

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Improving memory for specific events can alleviate symptoms of depression

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — Hear the word "party" and memories of your 8th birthday sleepover or the big bash you attended last New Year's may come rushing to mind. But it's exactly these kinds of memories, embedded in a specific place and time, that people with depression have difficulty recalling.

Research has shown that people who suffer from, or are at risk of, depression have difficulty tapping into specific memories from their own past, an impairment that affects their ability to solve problems and leads them to focus on feelings of distress.

In a study forthcoming in Clinical Psychological Science, a new journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Hamid Neshat-Doost of the University of Isfahan, Iran, Laura Jobson of the University of East Anglia, Tim Dalgleish of the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Medical Research Council, Cambridge and colleagues investigated whether a particular training program, Memory Specificity Training, might improve people's memory for past events and ameliorate their symptoms of depression.

In Iran, the researchers recruited 23 adolescent Afghani refugees who had lost their fathers in the war in Afghanistan and who showed symptoms of depression. Twelve of the adolescents were randomly assigned to participate in the memory training program and 11 were randomly assigned to a control group that received no training.

All of the adolescents completed a memory test in which they saw 18 positive, neutral, and negative words in Persian and were asked to recall a specific memory related to each word. Their responses were categorized as either a specific or a non-specific type of memory. They also completed questionnaires design to measure symptoms of depression and anxiety symptoms.

For five weeks, the adolescents assigned to the training attended a weekly 80-minute group session, in which they learned about different types of memory and memory recall, and practiced recalling specific memories after being given positive, neutral, and negative keywords.

At the end of the five weeks, both the training group and the control group were given the same memory test that they were given at the beginning of the study. And they took the memory test again as part of a follow-up visit two months later.

The adolescents who participated in the training were able to provide more specific memories after the training than those who did not receive intervention. They also showed fewer symptoms of depression than the control group at the two month follow-up. The researchers found that the relationship between participant group (training or control) and their symptoms of depression at follow-up could be accounted for by changes in specific memory recall over time.

These findings are promising because they suggest that a standalone training program that focuses on specific memory recall can actually improve depression symptoms.

Based on the results of this study, Jobson, Dalgleish, and colleagues conclude that, for individuals suffering from depression, "including a brief training component that targets memory recall as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral therapy or prior therapy may have beneficial effects on memory recall and mood."

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18 Sep, 2012

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Hubble sees NGC 7090 — an actively star-forming galaxy

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — A new image portrays a beautiful view of the galaxy NGC 7090, as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy is viewed edge-on from Earth, meaning we cannot easily see the spiral arms, which are full of young, hot stars.

However, a side-on view shows the galaxy's disc and the bulging central core, where typically a large group of cool old stars are packed in a compact, spheroidal region. In addition, there are two interesting features present in the image that are worth mentioning.

First, we are able to distinguish an intricate pattern of pinkish red regions over the whole galaxy. This indicates the presence of clouds of hydrogen gas. These structures trace the location of ongoing star formation, visual confirmation of recent studies that classify NGC 7090 as an actively star-forming galaxy.

Second, we observe dust lanes, depicted as dark regions inside the disc of the galaxy. In NGC 7090, these regions are mostly located in lower half of the galaxy, showing an intricate filamentary structure. Looking from the outside in through the whole disc, the light emitted from the bright center of the galaxy is absorbed by the dust, silhouetting the dusty regions against the bright light in the background.

Dust in our galaxy, the Milky Way, has been one of the worst enemies of observational astronomers for decades. But this does not mean that these regions are only blind spots in the sky. At near-infrared wavelengths -- slightly longer wavelengths than visible light -- this dust is largely transparent and astronomers are able to study what is really behind it. At still longer wavelengths, the realm of radio astronomy, the dust itself can actually be observed, letting astronomers study the structure and properties of dust clouds and their relationship with star formation.

Lying in the southern constellation of Indus (The Indian), NGC 7090 is located about thirty million light-years from the Sun. Astronomer John Herschel first observed this galaxy on October 4, 1834.

The image was taken using the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the Hubble Space Telescope and combines orange light (colored blue here), infrared (colored red) and emissions from glowing hydrogen gas (also in red).

A version of this image of NGC 7090 was entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures Image Processing Competition by contestant Rasid Tugral. Hidden Treasures is an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for stunning images that have never been seen by the general public. The competition is now closed and the list of winners is available here.

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18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/spt1EjphuYA/120917130518.htm
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Shrinking snow depth on Arctic sea ice threatens ringed seal habitat

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — As sea ice in the Arctic continues to shrink during this century, more than two thirds of the area with sufficient snow cover for ringed seals to reproduce also will disappear, challenging their survival, scientists report in a new study.

The ringed seal, currently under consideration for threatened species listing, builds caves to rear its young in snow drifts on sea ice. Snow depths must be on average at least 20 centimeters, or 8 inches, to enable drifts deep enough to support the caves.

"It's an absolute condition they need," said Cecilia Bitz, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington. She's a co-author of the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

But without sea ice, the platform that allows the snow to pile up disappears, ultimately reducing the area where the seals can raise their pups.

Bitz typically focuses on studying the area and thickness of sea ice. "But when a seal biologist telephoned and asked what our climate models predict for snow depth on the ice, I said, 'I have no idea,'" she said. "We had never looked."

That biologist was co-author Brendan Kelly of the National Science Foundation and he was curious about the snow depth trend because he was contributing to a governmental report in response to the petition to list the seals as threatened.

The researchers, including lead author and UW atmospheric sciences graduate student Paul Hezel, found that snowfall patterns will change during this century but the most important factor in determining snow depth on the ice will be the disappearance of the sea ice.

"The snowfall rate increases slightly in the middle of winter by the end of the century," Hezel said. However, at the same time sea ice is expected to start forming later in the year than it does now. The slightly heavier snowfall in the winter won't compensate for the fact that in the fall -- which is also when it snows the heaviest -- snow will drop into the ocean instead of piling up on the ice.

The researchers anticipate that the area of the Arctic that accumulates at least 20 centimeters of snow will decrease by almost 70 percent this century. With insufficient snow depth, caves won't hold up.

Other climate changes threaten those caves, too. For instance, the snow will melt earlier in the year than it does now, so it's possible the caves won't last until the young seals are old enough to venture out on their own. In addition, more precipitation will fall as rain, which soaks into the snow and can cause caves to collapse.

The research is important for more than just the ringed seals. "There are many other reasons to study snow cover," Hezel said. "It has a huge thermodynamic impact on the thickness of the ice."

Snow on sea ice in fall and winter acts like a blanket that slows the release of heat from the relatively warm ocean into the atmosphere. That means deeper snow tempers sea ice growth.

In the spring, snow has a different impact on the ice. Since snow is more reflective than ice, it creates a cooling effect on the surface. "So the presence of snow helps sustain the icepack into spring time," Hezel said.

To produce the study, the scientists examined 10 different climate models, looking at historic and future changes of things like sea ice area, precipitation, snowfall and snow depth on sea ice. The resulting prediction for declining snow depth on sea ice this century agreed across all of the models.

The new research comes too late to be cited in the report about ringed seals that was written by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in response to the petition to list the ringed seal as threatened. However, it confirms results that were based on a single model that Bitz provided for the report two years ago. NOAA expects to issue its final decision soon.

The UW scientists on this study were funded by the Office of Naval Research.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. The original article was written by Nancy Gohring.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. P. J. Hezel, X. Zhang, C. M. Bitz, B. P. Kelly, F. Massonnet. Projected decline in spring snow depth on Arctic sea ice caused by progressively later autumn open ocean freeze-up this century. Geophysical Research Letters, 2012; 39 (17) DOI: 10.1029/2012GL052794

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/zo325L5zzVY/120917132345.htm
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Cause of chemotherapy resistance in melanoma found

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — Researchers with UC Irvine's Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a major reason why melanoma is largely resistant to chemotherapy.

UCI dermatologist Dr. Anand Ganesan and colleagues found a genetic pathway in melanoma cells that inhibits the cellular mechanism for detecting DNA damage wrought by chemotherapy, thereby building up tolerance to cancer-killing drugs.

Targeting this pathway, comprising the genes RhoJ and Pak1, heralds a new approach to treating the deadly skin cancer, which claims nearly 10,000 U.S. lives each year. Study results appear online in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"If we can find a way to turn off the pathway responsible for this resistance, melanoma tumors would suddenly become sensitive to therapies we've been using for the last 20 years," said Ganesan, assistant professor of dermatology and biological chemistry at UCI.

In pursuit of a cause for the chemo tolerance, he and his colleagues performed a genome-wide scan for genes controlling drug resistance in melanoma cells. Their search identified RhoJ, a gene normally involved in blood vessel growth. They saw that in response to drug-induced DNA damage in a melanoma cell, RhoJ activated another gene, Pak1, which initiated a molecular cascade suppressing the cell's ability to sense this damage -- and blocking the apoptosis process.

"Normally, such drug-induced DNA damage would result in cell death," Ganesan said. "But this blunting of DNA damage response allows melanoma cells to mutate and proliferate. Being capable of rapid adaptation and change is a hallmark feature of this challenging form of cancer and makes it very difficult to treat."

On the heels of this discovery, he and colleagues have begun exploring methods to inhibit the genes responsible for this DNA damage tolerance. What they come up with could one day supplement chemotherapy treatments for melanoma, Ganesan added.

Hsiang Ho, Jayavani Aruri, Rubina Kapadia and Hootan Mehr of UCI and Michael A. White of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas participated in the study, which received support from the National Institutes of Health, the University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee, the American Cancer Society, Outrun the Sun Inc. and the Robert A. Welch Foundation.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Irvine.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. H. Ho, J. Aruri, R. Kapadia, H. Mehr, M. A. White, A. K. Ganesan. RhoJ and Pak Kinases Regulate Melanoma Chemoresistance by Suppressing Pathways that Sense DNA Damage. Cancer Research, 2012; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-0775

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/TdqfxrpfVKY/120917132351.htm
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