How Children Relate To Storybook Characters

A new study from University of Waterloo researchers Daniela O'Neill and Rebecca Shultis published in Developmental Psychology used an innovative approach to evaluate young children's storytelling ability and found that they are able to immerse themselves in the thoughts and feelings of fictional characters.

How Children Relate To Storybook Characters

IQ And Short-term Memory

Research from the University of Oregon published in Psychological Science suggests that short-term memory capacity is a strong predictor of IQ.

IQ And Short-term Memory

Suppressing Negative Emotional Memories

Recent research has shown that negative emotional memories can be suppressed with practice, offering the possibility of new treatments for people suffering from a range of conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive syndrome.

Suppressing Negative Emotional Memories

Gut Instinct Decisions

People usually follow emotional gut instinct rather than rational responses when making decisions about complex issues such as terrorism, troop surges or crime, even though the brain can simultaneously process both kinds of information.

Gut Instinct Decisions

Breastfeeding Does Not Protect Against Allergies

The results of a large randomized trial recently published on bmj.com indicate that prolonged or exclusive breastfeeding fails to protect against development of asthma and allergies in later life.

Breastfeeding Does Not Protect Against Allergies

Personal Chaos Inhibits HIV Health Care

Chaotic personal circumstances may significantly inhibit access to health care for HIV-positive people living in poverty.

Personal Chaos Inhibits HIV Health Care

Chocolate May Not Be Addictive

While people readily admit to being "chocoholics", chocolate is not truly addictive and there is an alternative explanation for this ubiquitous craving.

Chocolate May Not Be Addictive

Fruity Vegetables Reduce Childhood Asthma

A diet rich in fish and "fruity vegetables" such as tomatoes, aubergines, cucumber, green beans and courgettes can reduce childhood asthma and allergies.

Fruity Vegetables Reduce Childhood Asthma

Mediterranean Diet May Help Alzheimer's

Research led by Dr Nikos Scarmeas of Columbia University Medical Center published in Neurology has found that a Mediterranean diet may help people with Alzheimer's disease live longer than those relying on a more traditional Western diet.

The study followed 192 people with Alzheimer's disease in New York for an average of four and a half years during which 85 participants died. However, the study found that those most closely following a Mediterranean diet were 76 per cent less likely to die.

Mediterranean Diet May Help Alzheimer's

Loneliness Affects Health

Pointing out that loneliness is not the same as solitude which can be highly valued researchers nevertheless conclude that social isolation and physical aging may have a deleterious effect on health.

Loneliness Affects Health

New Research On Reading

Two recent studies look at the process of metacomprehension and greater effectiveness of female teachers.

New Research On Reading

Motherese

Female rhesus monkeys use particular vocalizations while interacting with their babies comparable to the way humans use "motherese" or "baby talk".

Motherese

Explaining Out-of-body Experiences

Two recent studies published in Science offer insight into how individuals perceive their own bodies and a possible explanation for out-of-body experiences. This phenomenon has been associated with drug use and neurological disorders such as epilepsy but patients were commonly thought to have imagined it.

Explaining Out-of-body Experiences

Tomato Antioxidant Does Not Prevent Cancer

A recent study concludes that lycopene, an antioxidant predominately found in tomatoes, is not effective in preventing prostate cancer.

Tomato Antioxidant Does Not Prevent Cancer

Stroke Care In UK Severely Deficient

The perception of stroke among health professionals and the public must be changed so that it is viewed as a condition requiring emergency treatment.

Stroke Care In UK Severely Deficient

NICE's Threshold Range Questioned

A situation in which NICE employs an unsubstantiated range to assess cost effectiveness and others within UK healthcare make no use of any such threshold is not conducive to efficiency and fairness in the NHS.

NICE's Threshold Range Questioned

Journey Distances To Hospital Can Be Fatal

The further patients with life-threatening conditions have to travel by ambulance to reach emergency care, the more likely they are to die, with people suffering respiratory problems at greatest risk.

Journey Distances To Hospital Can Be Fatal

Conflict And In-Group Bias

A recent address by Marilynn Brewer, professor of psychology at Ohio State University to mark the award of Distinguished Scientific Contribution for 2007 by the American Psychological Association challenged the concept that conflict is an inevitable and necessary part of interaction between groups.

Conflict And In-Group Bias

Slugs and Snails

This page on our gardening site has been updated to include some tips about slugs in compost bins.


Dealing with Slugs ands Snails

Lack Of Sleep Affects School Results

Insufficient sleep can have an adverse effect the next day not only on an adult's work performance but also on how well students perform at school.

Lack Of Sleep Affects School Results

Appreciating Another Perspective

People from Western cultures such as the United States find it particularly difficult to understand someone else's point of view because they are part of a culture that encourages individualism.

Appreciating Another Perspective

Facial Recognition: The "Cross-Race Effect"

A recent study throws new light on the "cross-race effect", a well-replicated if not fully understood phenomenon involving difficulty in distinguishing between people of other racial groups.

Facial Recognition: The "Cross-Race Effect"

Links Between Teenage And Domestic Violence

Adolescents who engaged in violent behavior relatively regularly throughout their teenage years or who began in their mid teens and increased with time were significantly more likely to perpetrate domestic violence in their mid 20s.

Links Between Teenage And Domestic Violence

Girl Talk Heightens Anxiety

Excessive discussion about problems with friends (co-rumination) may have a negative impact on emotional adjustment in girls who are more likely than boys of the same age to develop anxiety and depression as a result.

Girl Talk Heightens Anxiety

Managing Teen Emotions

Research from the University of Illinois published recently in Child Development has found that teenagers can learn to manage powerful emotions and gain insight into the processes involved.

Reed Larson, professor of family ecology said:

"There's a stereotype that teens don't manage their emotions, their emotions manage them. But this study showed that, in an atmosphere of trust and support, teens can become adept at identifying their emotions, learn to recognize the tricks emotions play on people, and begin to understand not only how to control their emotions, but to use them in positive ways."

Managing Teen Emotions

Evening-preference and Adolescent Problems

New research suggests that early adolescents who prefer evening to morning activities are more likely to exhibit antisocial behavior. Previous studies focusing on older adolescents showed a similar link with psychological problems.

Evening-preference and Adolescent Problems

Breaking Up Is Not Necessarily Hard To Do

New research shows that people were less distressed and coped much better with ending a relationship than they predicted and that this unanticipated effect was particularly marked for those described as "madly in love".

Breaking Up Is Not Necessarily Hard To Do

Why Women Prefer Pink

A study by Newcastle University researchers Anya C. Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling published in Current Biology supports the popular notion that men and women differ when it comes to colour preference. Researchers found that women prefer pink "or at least a redder shade of blue" than men do.

Why Women Prefer Pink

Effective Health Messages

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology investigated which health messages a person might pay attention to from the plethora available via numerous media and the possible reasons for that choice.

Effective Health Messages

Counterfactual Thinking

Research sheds new light on the mental processes involved in "counterfactual thinking" in which past decisions are reviewed and alternatives evaluated. The authors explain that while this can be positive and affirming, it more commonly engenders regret and self-criticism.


Counterfactual Thinking

The Albion Band

A lazy Sunday afternoon. I opened up the cupboard of old vinyl records, more or less alphabetically arranged. The first was the Albion Band's Light Shining (1982). I guess we hadn't played this for close on 20 years.

The Albion Band

The Origins of Morality

A new consensus that scientists are reaching on the origins and mechanisms of morality.

The Origins of Morality

Decision-making Made not Born

People who do well on a series of decision-making tasks involving hypothetical situations tend to have more positive decision outcomes in their lives.

Decision-making Made not Born

Intimacy and Cancer

A study aimed at improving support services has investigated the lives of people caring for a partner with cancer and how they negotiate issues surrounding sexuality and intimacy.

Intimacy and Cancer

Indian Courtship and the Mobile Phone

Mobile phones have an increasingly indispensable role in young peoples' personal relationships.

Indian Courtship and the Mobile Phone

Braking Genes and Cancer Cell Division

Researchers have identified a number of genes involved in the mechanism that prevents uncontrolled cell division and found that aberrations are linked to certain types of cancer as well as to the relative aggressiveness of the disease.

Braking Genes and Cancer Cell Division

Avoiding Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Researchers have measured carpal tunnel pressure to help establish how much the wrist can be flexed safely if nerve damage associated with carpal tunnel syndrome is to be avoided.

Avoiding Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Cancer

A new UK study investigated the incidence of cancer in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and whether this is associated with a decreased survival rate.

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Cancer

Botox and Migraine

A pioneering surgical technique can significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of migraine headaches in patients in whom other treatments have failed.

Botox and Migraine

Nanotechnology and Health

Nanotechnology may provide developing countries with techniques for diagnosing and treating disease.

Nanotechnology and Health

Colour Enhances Taste

Study finds that the colour of orange juice has a huge effect on perceptions of taste.

Colour Enhances Taste

Midday Siesta a Napping Good Idea

New research finds that taking regular midday naps (siestas) was associated with reduced risk of death from heart disease over a six-year period for Greek adults - especially working men.

Midday Siesta a Napping Good Idea

Adolescent Anger Management - Some Practical Texts

Anger Management - an overused phrase that often provokes more anger than management. Anyone working with angry adolescents rapidly realizes that while attention may be on the consequences - damage, disruption, violence to self and others - anger won't be resolved unless underlying issues are listened to and addressed if possible.

Adolescent Anger Management

Facial Composite Systems Give Poor Results

Recent technological advances in facial composite systems have failed to improve identification and apprehension of criminal suspects.

Facial Composite Systems Give Poor Results

21st Century Breast Cancer Management

New developments in breast cancer imaging, timing of chemotherapy, and vaccine research may offer innovative non-surgical interventions resulting in significant changes to current screening and treatment practice and improvements in patient care.

21st Century Breast Cancer Management

Aging and the Sense of Smell

New research finds that normal aging processes have little detrimental effect on the sense of smell.

Aging and the Sense of Smell

Parents Fail to Recognise Children's Excess Weight

A survey by researchers at Deakin's Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition in Australia has found that the majority of parents with obese children lack awareness or concern about their children's weight.

Parents Fail to Recognise Children's Excess Weight

Lying for Love Online

Online daters usually lie about either their height or weight but less often misrepresent their age. Men systematically overestimated their height, while women more commonly underestimated their weight.

Lying for Love Online

Skin is Home to Zoo of Bacteria

Analysis identified 182 species of bacteria on human skin of which 8 per cent were previously unknown.

Skin is Home to Zoo of Bacteria

Loneliness and Alzheimer's

Lonely people may be twice as likely to develop the type of dementia linked to Alzheimer's disease.


Loneliness and Alzheimer's

Genetic Evidence for African Britons

First evidence of Africans having lived among "indigenous" British people for centuries and found that their descendants were unaware of their black ancestry.

Genetic Evidence for African Britons

Learning and Forgetting Languages

Two new studies shed light on the process of learning new languages.


Learning and Forgetting Languages

Treating Homeless Young People Produces Results

Innovative new research to establish the best ways of engaging with homeless young people who are without parents or carers has found that a comprehensive intervention program can dramatically improve their mental health and life circumstances.

Treating Homeless Young People Produces Results

Shamrock Seeds

Our gardening site (GardenGuide.biz) had an enquiry about Shamrock seeds. The first problem is deciding on what one means by 'shamrock'. It could be one of at least 5 different species. See the article on the following BBC page and another interesting article about Shamrock. Having decided which you want, you can do a search using the botanical name. You could also try http://www.wildflowers.ie/ for seeds.

Needle Exchange and Drug Treatment

Needle exchange programs are an important part in linking drug users with treatment.

Needle Exchange and Drug Treatment

Cancer Care

Women with breast cancer who are obese, less educated or have lower household incomes may be more likely to receive reduced doses of chemotherapy thereby jeopardizing their survival.

Cancer Care

Lifestyle and Type II diabetes

Changing to a healthier lifestyle appears to be at least as effective as taking prescribed drugs in reducing the risk of developing Type II diabetes.

Lifestyle and Type II diabetes

Whiter Than White

New research by the University of Exeter and Imerys Minerals Ltd. published in Science has found that the shell of the little known Cyphochilus beetle could hold the answer to manufacture of brilliant white ultra-thin materials.


Whiter Than White

Why Do We Hate Contact Centres?

A recent survey of over 1600 UK consumers found that moving house was the only thing rated more stressful than having to call a contact centre.

Why Do We Hate Contact Centres?

Women Still Do Most Cooking and Shopping

A new study finds that three-quarters of women do most of the cooking and shopping for food in their households. The study of nearly 200 British men and women in their early 30s found that, although half of the women worked full time, they were still responsible for this aspect of family life.

Women Still Do Most Cooking and Shopping

Why is Laughter Contagious?

A new study shows a possible mechanism for contagious laughter. Positive sounds like laughter trigger a response in the area of the listener's brain activated when we smile, as though preparing facial muscles to laugh.

Why is Laughter Contagious?

Why Do We Never Forget a Face?

Vanderbilt University researchers have found that we are able to remember more faces compared to other objects and that faces are retained best in our short-term memory. They suggest that our expertise in remembering faces allows them to be packaged better for memory.

Why Do We Never Forget a Face?

Chronic Disability Declines Among Older Americans

Chronic disability among older Americans has decreased significantly and the rate of decline has accelerated during the past twenty years.

Chronic Disability Declines Among Older Americans

Combination Therapy and Breast Cancer

Radiation therapy and chemotherapy administered concurrently after lumpectomy helps prevent local reoccurrence of breast cancer.

Combination Therapy and Breast Cancer

Message Less Important Than Emotion in Advertising

The amount of emotional content in television advertisements affects viewers' opinions of the product, regardless of the intended message.

Message Less Important Than Emotion in Advertising

Surprise Endings

New research suggests that not everyone enjoys a murder mystery with a surprise ending. People with low self-esteem like to feel they knew all along who committed the crime, probably because it makes them feel smarter. But everyone seemed to enjoy a mystery with no strong hint of how it would be resolved.

Surprise Endings

Contraception More Effective Than Abstinence

Findings indicate that promotion of abstinence is insufficient by itself to help adolescents prevent unplanned pregnancies.

Contraception More Effective Than Abstinence

Baby Boomers Care More For Their Parents

Contrary to popular belief, the institution of the family is not in decline. People born in the 1950s and 1960s are more committed to caring for their aging parents than the previous generation were.

Baby Boomers Care More For Their Parents

Churchill Borrowed Ideas From H.G. Wells

Researching a book on Winston Churchill, Dr Richard Toye, a lecturer in history at the University of Cambridge, has found that science fiction writer H.G. Wells was a significant intellectual influence, both during the statesman's early career and subsequently.

Churchill Borrowed Ideas From H.G. Wells

Search For Better Breast Cancer Drugs

A joint initiative between computer scientists at the University of Edinburgh and cellular biologists at the Riken Genomic Research Centre in Japan may result in improved drug treatments for breast cancer sufferers that will also minimize side effects.

Search For Better Breast Cancer Drugs

Health Risks in the Future

The 1990 Global Burden of Disease study carried out by researchers at Harvard University and the World Health Organization (WHO) provided the first comprehensive global estimates of death and illness by age, sex, and region. Sponsored by the World Bank, it also provided projections of the global burden of disease and mortality up to 2020. Colin Mathers and Dejan Locar from the World Health Organization, Geneva have now updated the projections based on 2002 data.

Health Risks in the Future

Street Robbers Want More Than Money

New research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) reveals complex motivations behind street robbery in the UK. Rather than being simply an acquisitive crime, it commonly reflects a damaged sense of self in the perpetrator resulting in a need for violence or revenge, or to increase status among peers.

Street Robbers Want More Than Money

Keeping the Pounds Off

It is a sad fact that many (perhaps, most) attempts to lose weight result in a temporary loss that is reversed in a relatively short time. But new research indicates that this is not inevitable.

Keeping the Pounds Off

Measuring the Digital Divide

Simplistic measurements such as the number of Internet access points in a place tell us little about today's digital divide, according to Karine Barzilai-Nahon.

Measuring the Digital Divide

New Health Articles

A new study examines how helpful parents may be in assessing their children's alcohol and/or drug use and abuse. Findings indicate that they do not provide valuable information because they are often unaware of it. Read the article a: Teenage Substance Misuse: What Parents Don't Know

Physicians prescribing new medication often do not communicate to patients important details, such as potential side effects, how long or how often to take the drug or the specific name of the medication. More at: Physicians Don't Tell All

Physicians prescribing new medication often do not communicate to patients important details, such as potential side effects, how long or how often to take the drug or the specific name of the medication. Read: Malnutrition and Seniors in Hospital

Diabetes puts people at risk of developing critical illness and dying early, but obesity without diabetes does not. Read on: Diabetes is Bad News

A new study concludes that most patients who undergo gastric cancer staging by lymph node sampling have inadequate assessments that compromise survival. More at: Lymph Node Sampling Compromises Cancer Survival

Closing the Distance: Chasing a Father's Olympic Fencing Legacy

Every kid wants to grow up to be like his father, and Jeff Bukantz was no different - but unfortunately for Jeff, his father was a four-time Olympian and one of the greatest fencers ever! In his sentimental memoir Closing the Distance: Chasing a Father's Olympic Fencing Legacy, Jeff recounts the trials and tribulations he encountered
while trying to follow in the footsteps of Danny Bukantz, a great man both on and off the fencing strip.

Read an excerpt from: Closing the Distance

Greek Islands

Articles on some of the Greek islands:

Corfu

Crete

Greek Islands

The Ionian Islands

Paros

Gardening - Articles about growing from seed

Saving Seeds

With proper storage, gardeners can save seeds for next year

Reading Seed Packets

Reading fine print on seed packages is good gardening advice

Damping Off

Damping off is the single term used to describe underground, soil line, or crown rots of seedlings due to unknown causes.

Wales Book of the Year

The 2006 Wales Book of the Year Shortlist is: (English) To Babel and Back by Robert Minhinnick; ,Body Beautiful by Ifor Evans, Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell; and (Welsh) Gwynfor Rhag Pob Brad by Rhys Evans, Llen Yr Uchelwyr by Dafydd Johnston, Rara Avis by Manon Rhys.

Details at: Wales Book the Year

Cajun Recipe

The Mrs. Dash brand has teamed with Jimmy Bannos, chef/owner of Heaven on Seven restaurants, to suggest a combination of unique seasoning blends and fresh ingredients to create Cajun-inspired grilling specialties. Jimmy Bannos has written "The Heaven on Seven Cookbook: Where It's Mardi Gras All The Time!" and "Big Easy Cocktails, Jazzy Drinks and Savory Bites from New Orleans" inspired by the Creole and Cajun cuisines from New Orleans. His new Bayou Shrimp and Veggies with Creole Mustard Sauce is an interesting example


Cajun-inspired Grilling Specialties

Guacamole Recipe

This classic, creamy recipe for Guacamole (Avocado dip) comes from Hass Avocado from Mexico and makes 4 servings:

Guacamole

Avocado Recipe

To celebrate the spring season, the California Avocado Commission has developed a recipe that combines these two refreshing ingredients, Eggs in California Avocado Cups with Asparagus and Lemon, creating a complex layering of tastes that will leave your guests craving more.


Avocado and Asparagus Recipe

Victorian Health and Medicine

Some new articles (of different lengths) including some fascinating details about Vitorian Health and Medicine:

Abdomen

Aberration of Mind

Ablution

Abrasion

Abscess

Abstinence

Accidents

Acidity of the Stomach

Adder Bite

Aether (Ether)

Age

Ague

Air

Stress

Stress is associated with a number of physical conditions including back-pain, susceptibility to viruses, chronic fatigue syndrome and autoimmune disease.

More at Stress in the 21st Century

St Vincent and the Grenadines

St Vincent and the Grenadines is a group of about 30 islands in the Caribbean. They were used as a location for Pirates of the Caribbean. St Vincent is the main island. A mere 8% of the population live on the exquisite, and highly varied, Grenadines

Edwardian Gardens

Two gardens with different fates. The first has gone. The second is a major film location.



The lost garden at Campsea Ashe

The garden featured long stretches of water, avenues of elms, limes and horse chestnuts, cedar trees, an elliptical bowling green and the Great Hedge. This yew hedge was over 600 metres long, 3 metres thick and 2-8 metres high.



Haddon Hall, Derbyshire

By the early 1900s the gardens were hoplessly overgrown and a massive clearance was required. Yew trees and herbaceous borders were planted and the ivy stripped from the balustrades to be replaced by climbing roses.

Victorian mourning

Something light for the weekend:

MOURNING, ETIQUETTE OF. The various degrees of relationship which the living bear to the dead, regulate the depth of the mourning worn, and the length of time that it is to be retained. Mourning for a husband in the widow's cap and crape is usually extended over twelve months, and after that period the wearer may either adopt a half mourning, or put by mourning altogether, without appearing singular or wanting in feeling. In cases of this kind, the wearing of mourning beyond the prescribed interval depends, as a matter of course, greatly upon sentiment, the degree of affection which subsisted between the parties, the length of time which the marriage existed, &c.

More at The Victorian Etiquette of Mourning

Indian Ocean

Two fantastic but very different islands in the Indian Ocean:

Madagascar: Great Leaping Lemurs!

Mauritius

Gardening - Victorian Pear Tree Cultivation

Victorian Pear Tree Cultivation

The pear requires a good, naturally rich, loamy soil, not however enriched by artificial means, as that would only have the effect of producing a luxuriance of growth that would require much skill and labour to overcome.

Barcelona

Second city of Spain and major Mediterranean port, bustling Barcelona incorporates a delightful historic mix of Roman remains, medieval quarters and 20th century avant-garde art.

More at: Barcelona Spain - That Sensational Second City of Spain

Gardening - articles

Introduction to the Victorian Flower Garden

'The elder brethren of our profession, who can look back, for instance, to the introduction of the Dahlia, give us but a poor idea of flower-gardening as it was practised in the first decades of the century.

Gardening for Stress

In its purest form, gardening is about connecting with the earth and resetting our clocks to the simple, natural rhythms of life.

Safe Gardening

Bad backs and accidents can spoil the pleasure of gardening. Taking an ergonomic approach to gardening can help ensure that it is a safe and enjoyable hobby.

Gertrude Jekyll and Gardening

Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) aimed for 'beautiful effect' and had a lasting effect on gardening.

Top Ten Destinations

Three articles with lists of the top travel destinations:

* Top Ten Lesser-Known Beaches

* Top Ten (International) Travel Destinations

* Top Ten Travel Destinations USA

Victorian Alexandria

An antiquarian description of this Egyptian port from the 19th Century:

Victorian Alexandria

Gardening - Japanese Red Maple

How to Grow Japanese Red Maple Trees from Seed

Most Japanese Maple seeds ripen in the fall. Watch the tree and wait for the seeds to turn brown.

Vancouver

Vancouver, British Columbia is one of the world's premiere destinations. See these three articles about the city:

* A Guide to the Best Vancouver Vacation Attractions

* Vancouver, Hidden Jewel Of The Pacific Northwest

* Beautiful Vancouver, City of the Sea & Mountains

Gardening - Books

A selection of the best gardening books is available at:

Best Gardening Books

Japan travel articles

The Story Behind Japan's Notorious Ninja

The Story Behind Japan's Famous "Bullet Trains"

The Influence of 'Characters' On Japan’s Culture

Washington DC

Washington DC, the US capital, is a city with public museums and monuments galore, but also hidden treasures that should not be overlooked. Read more at: Washington, DC a Bargain Travel Guide

Caribbean islands

Tobago

Antigua

Nevis

New Zealand travel articles

New Zealand - No Snakes Here, Mate! Just Crazy Keas and Bubbling Mud

Discover the Real New Zealand