Elephant Legs Are Much Bendier Than Shakespeare Thought
Through out history everyone though that elephants walk on inflexible column like legs. But when John Hutchinson from the Royal Veterinary College saw champion Thai racing elephants hurtling along at almost 7 m/s, he knew something else must be going on. Filming captive Asian elephants in UK zoos, and comparing his results with Delf Schwerda's data on African elephants, Hutchinson has found that elephant legs are very springy and almost as flexible as trotting horses' legs. (Read More)

Starting Kindergarten Later Gives Students Only A Fleeting Edge, Study Finds
New research challenges a growing trend toward holding kids out of kindergarten until they're older, arguing that academic advantages are short-lived and come at the expense of delaying entry into the workforce and other costs. (Read More)

Agile Approach Slashes Software Development Time
Results of the EUREKA ITEA software Cluster AGILE project make it possible for European manufacturers to develop high quality embedded software in markedly shorter times and at much lower costs than possible with traditional techniques. Applying the approach to 68 pilot case studies in industries from avionics and telecommunications to consumer electronics, the project demonstrated clearly that 'agile' methodology can lead to massive improvements in embedded software engineering. (Read More)

Tags: anxiety therapy, anxiety

Winking Star: First Step Of Earth-Like Planet Formation Observed
For the first time, astronomers have observed the initial phase in the formation of an earth-like planet. Astronomers observed that a protoplanetary disk, or ring, around the binary star known as KH 15D, is composed of solid particles larger than what is usually observed in space. For hundreds of years, scientists have been theorizing that Earth-like planets form when gas and dust around a star get compressed into these disks and the material begins to coalesce into planets.

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Amphibians Respond Behaviorally To Impact Of Clear Cutting
The number of amphibians drastically decreases in forest areas that are clearcut, according to previous studies. However, some animals may not be dying. Instead, a biologist says some animals may be moving away (possibly to return later) or retreating underground. The finding could have major implications for both the timber industry and the survival of amphibians.

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FDA Approves LUVOX(R) CR Extended-Release Capsules For The Treatment Of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) And Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved LUVOX CR (fluvoxamine maleate) Extended-Release Capsules for the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in adults. (Read More)

Tags: anxiety self help, generalized anxiety

Family Context Affects Genetic And Environmental Hormonal Response To Stress In Children
A study conducted on 346 19-month-old twins by an international team led by Universite Laval professor of psychology Michel Boivin reveals that the genetic and environmental bases of hormonal response to stress depend on the context in which a child grows up. This is the first time such an effect has been reported in young humans. The researchers explain the details of their findings in the latest edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry. (Read More)

PTSD: A Medical Warning Sign For Long Term Health Problems
Geisinger research finds that veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are as likely to have long-term health problems as people with chronic disease risk factors such as an elevated white blood cell counts and biological signs and symptoms. However, few healthcare providers screen for PTSD in the same way as they screen for other chronic disease risk factors. (Read More)

Natural Selection: Mathematical Model Predicts Success Of Businesses
Many gamblers claim to have a "system," whether they're shooting craps, backing horses or punting on the stock market. Now, researchers in Taiwan have devised an approach to spotting when a company is likely to fail based on the principles of natural selection.

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Coolest Winter Since 2001 For U.S., Globe, According To NOAA Data
The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA?s National Climatic Data Center. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West, produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this spring.

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Tags: anxiety help, anxiety

Newly Identified Eye Disease In Dogs Can Be Easily Treated
A professor of veterinary medicine has identified and named a previously unknown eye disease. Immune-Mediated Retinopathy, or IMR, causes loss of function in retinal cells and, in some cases, blindness. IMR is very similar to a previously known malady called Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome or SARDS. Both diseases occur when the dog produces auto antibodies that attack the retinal cells. The antibodies mistake retinal cells for cancerous tumors or tissues that need to be destroyed.

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Emergency On-field Treatment For Neck Injuries In Young Sports Athletes No Different Than Adults, Study Suggests
New guidelines for on-field treatment and emergency transport of young athletes with suspected neck injuries should recommend keeping both helmet and shoulder pads on for initial stabilization and transport, followed by removal of both, once the patient is in a controlled setting, according to new research.

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Behavioral Problems Among Preschool Children Linked To Exposure To World Trade Center Attacks
A study published by the Archives of Pediatrics &Adolescent Medicine reports that exposure to both the WorldTrade Center attacks and another traumatic event is associated withbehavioral problems among preschool children when compared to exposureto one event or to none.Researcher Claude M. Chemtob of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine inNew York and his colleagues note that there is a paucity of researchregarding the effects of terrorism on preschoolers. (Read More)

Tags: panic disorder, generalized anxiety

More U.S. Teeth Susceptible To Silent Enamel-eating Syndrome
Cavities or not, your teeth could be in more trouble than you know because of a silent and destructive phenomenon called dental erosion. Scientists have found that the incidence of dental erosion, which is the steady loss of the teeth's protective enamel, is on the rise in the United States.

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Biologists Surprised To Find Parochial Bacterial Viruses
Biologists examining ecosystems similar to those that existed on Earth more than 3 billion years ago have made a surprising discovery: Viruses that infect bacteria are sometimes parochial and unrelated to relatives in other parts of the globe. It's surprising because bacteria are ubiquitous on Earth, and both they and the viruses that affect them were long believed to be cosmopolitan, having similar genetic histories across the globe.

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Stress During Pregnancy Associated With Schizophrenia Of Children
A recent article in the Archives of General Psychiatryreports that women who undergo an extremely stressful event during thefirst three months of pregnancy have an increased risk ofhaving children who develop schizophrenia.Researcher Ali S. Khashan of the University of Machester, England andcolleagues note that there is some consensus that a mother'spsychological state influences her unborn baby. (Read More)

Tags: agoraphobia, generalised anxiety

Genetic Cancer Link Between Humans And Dogs Discovered
Cancer researchers have found that humans and dogs share more than friendship and companionship — they also share the same genetic basis for certain types of cancer. Furthermore, the researchers say that because of the way the genomes have evolved, getting cancer may be inevitable for some humans and dogs.

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A Scheme That Works With The NHS To Help Anxiety Sufferers, UK
A South London surgery is taking important steps in helping sufferers of anxiety and mild psychological distress deal with their problems without medication or counselling. They are recommending that selected patients attend a relaxation and stress management programme hosted at the GPs' surgery by the Relaxation For Living Institute. (Read More)

Helping Families Cope After An Injury
The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is pleased to announce a $50,000 grant received to help prevent traumatic stress in children after an injury. Researchers at the Center are working with injured children and their families to develop effective screening tools and interventions that can be integrated into hospital trauma care. (Read More)

Tags: generalised anxiety, anxiety treatment

Two Oxygenation Events In Ancient Oceans Sparked Spread Of Complex Life
The rise of oxygen and the oxidation of deep oceans between 635 and 551 million years ago may have had an impact on the increase and spread of the earliest complex life, including animals. Today, we take oxygen for granted. But the atmosphere had almost no oxygen until 2.5 billion years ago, and it was not until about 600 million years ago when the atmospheric oxygen level rose to a fraction of modern levels. For a long time, geologists and evolutionary biologists have speculated that the rise of the breathing gas and subsequent oxygenation of the deep oceans are intimately tied to the evolution of modern biological systems.

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Observing Sustainable Tourism In Antarctica
Antarctica is the ultimate destination for anyone interested in natural history but it also challenges those people who visit to think broadly about our responsibilities to all life on Earth, according to a professor who has just returned from the Antarctic in his role as an Observer for the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

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Smoking Associated With Both Anxiety And Depression
A new study indicates that smoking is linked to anxiety with depression, as well as to anxiety alone. However, people who are depressed but not anxious smoke the same as any other smokers. These findings come from a joint study from Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), University of Bergen and King's College in London. The link between smoking and anxiety/depression was most apparent among women and young people. (Read More)

Tags: anxiety attacks, anxiety self help

Pregnancy, Stress And Schizophrenia
Risk only increased during early pregancy "Children born to women who suffer severe stress early in pregnancy are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia later in life," The Daily Telegraph reported.The newspaper said that a Danish study of 1.38million births from 1973 to 1995 found the risk of schizophrenia increased by 67 per cent among the offspring of women who experienced the death of a relative during early pregnancy. (Read More)

Sex Differences In Memory: Women Better Than Men At Remembering Everyday Events
There are several human characteristics considered to be genetically predetermined and evolutionarily innate, such as immune system strength, physical adaptations and even sex differences. Psychologists determine significant sex differences in episodic memory, a type of long-term memory based on personal experiences, favoring women. Specific results indicated that women excelled in verbal episodic memory tasks, such as remembering words, objects, pictures or everyday events, and men outperformed women in remembering symbolic, non-linguistic information, known as visuospatial processing. For example, the results indicate a man would be more likely to remember his way out of the woods.

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Unique Martian Formation Reveals Brief Bursts Of Water
Several formations on Mars indicate incidents of rapid release of water from the planet's interior. Mars has many basins that contain formations that look like fans. A few of these fans, only about 10, have steps down into the basin. Since scientists first reported this feature three years ago, there has been no clear consensus on how they formed.

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First Direct Observation Of 3-D Molecule Folding In Real Time
All the crucial proteins in our bodies must fold into complex shapes to do their jobs. These snarled molecules grip other molecules to move them around, to speed up important chemical reactions or to grab onto our genes, turning them "on" and "off" to affect which proteins our cells make. Since the discovery of RNA clumps called "riboswitches," in 2002, scientists have been striving to understand how they work and how they form. Now, researchers are looking closer than ever at how the three-dimensional twists and turns in a riboswitch come together by grabbing it and tugging it straight. By physically pulling on this loopy RNA, they have determined for the first time how a three-dimensional molecular structure folds, step by step.

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Tags: panic disorder, anxiety treatment

Why Anticancer Drug Avastin Causes Potentially Fatal Brain Inflammation In Certain Patients, Study Suggests
New research may help explain why the anticancer drug Avastin, which targets a growth factor responsible for creation of new blood vessels, causes potentially fatal brain inflammation in certain patients. Institute scientists mimicked the drug's activity in mice and found that it damaged the cell lining that prevents fluid from leaking from the ventricle into the brain.

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'Old Dogs' Don't Notice New Tricks: Prior Knowledge Affects How Consumers Accept New Information
Over time, consumers develop a set of cues that we then use to make inferences about products, such as "all French restaurants have great service" or "more expensive candles smell better." However, this set of predictable beliefs can make it difficult for us to learn and recognize other real, positive qualities that are indicated by the same cues, reveals a new study.

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What's Good For The Heart May Be Good For The Prostate
Men who eat a diet low in fat and red meat but high in vegetables and lean protein and who drink alcohol in moderation may not just be doing their hearts a favor. A new study shows that such a heart-healthy diet may also be good for the prostate. Specifically, such a diet significantly decreases the risk of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH. The bothersome condition is associated with frequent and painful urination that affects about half of all men by the time they reach 50 and nearly all men by age 70.

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Depression And Anxiety Can Double Chances Of Coronary Artery Disease
Matters of the mind can affect matters of the heart. A new study by Universit de Montral and McGill University researchers has found that major anxiety and/or depression, can double a coronary artery disease patient's chances of repeated heart ailments. This is one of the first studies to focus on patients with stable coronary artery disease - not those who were hospitalized for events such as a heart attack. (Read More)

Tags: social phobia, worry

Understanding The Role Of Stress In Just About Everything
Stress, to put it bluntly, is bad for you. It can kill you, in fact. A study now reveals that stress causes deterioration in everything from your gums to your heart and can make you more susceptible to everything from the common cold to cancer. Thanks to new research crossing the disciplines of psychology, medicine, neuroscience, and genetics, the mechanisms underlying the connection are rapidly becoming understood. (Read More)

Asian Women At Risk For Arterial Defect, Study Suggests
A seemingly random arterial abnormality that can cause heart attack and sudden death in adults with no previous symptoms may not be so random after all. A group of researchers in the Netherlands discovered that many people with congenital aneurismal fistulas share traits that may help doctors prevent attacks by identifying and treating patients at risk.

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HIV Drugs, Abacavir And Didanosine Increase The Risk Of Heart Attack, Study Suggests
A study to assess the adverse effects of anti-retroviral drugs shows that two widely-used HIV drugs are associated with an increased risk of heart attack/the formation of blood clots in the heart. With the use of Didanosine, the risk of developing a heart attack increases by 49 percent; with Abacavir, the increased risk is 90 percent. The effect is most pronounced in patients with a high underlying cardiovascular risk.

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Tags: agoraphobia, anxiety treatments