Psychologists study the effects of diagram orientation on comprehension

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2012) — The orientation of a diagram on the page of a textbook may seem inconsequential, but it can have a significant impact on a reader's ability to comprehend the information as presented, according to a team of researchers at UC Santa Barbara, Vanderbilt University, and West Carolina University. Their findings appear in a recent issue of the journal Bioscience.

Focusing on variously formatted cladograms -- also known as phylogenetic trees -- the researchers found that two diagrams may contain the same information, but they aren't necessarily equivalent in terms of how the information is interpreted. "In Western culture, we read from left to right, so we naturally come to a diagram with that behavior," said Andrew T. Stull, a researcher in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at UCSB and an author of the paper. "The important point in this research, however, is that how efficiently a student comprehends the information presented in the phylogenetic tree depends on how the tree is angled."

As it turns out, when a diagonal tree extends from tips on the left to the root on the right, and the trunk angles downward to the right-hand side, the information is more easily accessible. "The way we interrogate the tree is first culturally based -- left to right -- and the strong diagonal line tends to make us flow one way or another," said Stull. "But that combined effect influences the accuracy, or how we're able to use the tree effectively."

However, most textbooks depict the diagonal cladogram in the upward orientation, Stull noted. "Many artists draw the diagram in an inefficient and potentially confusing way," he said. "Artists have a tendency to draw it at the upward angle, not realizing they'd communicate the information better if they angled it downward."

The researchers used a phylogenetic tree for their research because it is very important for a process called tree thinking. "It's the idea that from an evolutionary perspective, there is a distinctive relationship between taxa," said Stull. "It's not just that things line up together on a tree, but you can infer certain biological, physiological, and pharmaceutical commonalities that might be relevant. There are a lot of things you can do in knowing how all of life is organized, and each organism's relation to everything else."

Drawing them in tree form, Stull continued, should help teach students the relationships between organisms, and to anticipate the valuable information those relationships can provide.

The researchers used eye-tracking technology to carry out their research. They showed test subjects one tree, and then another, and asked them to determine whether or not they were the same. "In order to answer the question, they had to interpret the two images," Stull explained. "Then we took all the eye positions. What we found is that when people studied the tree with the upward diagonal trunk, they were less accurate than when the tree followed the downward diagonal."

Why the directional angle makes a difference may have to do with how organisms represented by the individual branches relate to their closest common ancestor and to those with a more distant common ancestor. "With upward angled trunks, it may be because they [students] are thinking of it from the root up," Stull said. "But it's more efficient to think of it from the branches down. So, from an artistic perspective, it makes more sense to build it that way. With that orientation, the user doesn't have to deconstruct it in order to access the information."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Santa Barbara, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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19 Sep, 2012

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Late-night comedy television increases political discussion

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2012) — The jokes, critiques and issues raised by late-night comedy television hosts may have a significant impact on how much people talk about the upcoming political election, based on a new study from the University of Michigan.

The study, which was just released electronically and due out soon in print in the September 2012 issue of Mass Communication and Society, found that the political satire can be just as effective as regular political news in encouraging discussion among audience members. The research also discovered that while both late-night comedy television and hard news engaged audiences, late-night audiences were more likely to use online interaction as a way to comment on political issues.

"The constructive role of comedy shows evidenced in this study suggests that political entertainment may serve as an important catalyst for revitalized civic life," Hoon Lee, the article's author said. "This is an important finding, because then political candidates may be willing to use comedy programs to enhance their images."

Over 700 individuals participated in an online experiment and survey. The author broke the individuals into groups, and participants either watched The Daily Show with Jon Steward, NBC Nightly News or a clip about a Walt Disney World resort, comparing scores on political participation and discussion between these groups.

The ability to spoof political figures on these television shows, such as Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live in 2008, might raise questions about the power of show producers to influence the political agenda. This study doesn't tell us how the audience's voting decisions will be changed, but does suggest that such portrayals will make people talk about the portrayed issues with other people. This highlights the importance that late-night television comedy can have on politics.

"Political comedy can play a significant role in the public realm," Lee said. "The results from the experiment and survey demonstrate that exposure to late-night satire can enrich deliberative and participatory democracy."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Taylor & Francis, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

1. Hoon Lee. Communication Mediation Model of Late-Night Comedy: An Examination of the Mediating Role of Structural Features of Interpersonal Talk between Late-Night Comedy Viewing and Political Participation. Mass Communication and Society, 2012

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19 Sep, 2012

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Women speak less when they're outnumbered

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2012) — New experiments in group decision making show that having a seat at the table is very different than having a voice.

Scholars at Brigham Young University and Princeton examined whether women speak less than men when a group collaborates to solve a problem. In most groups that they studied, the time that women spoke was significantly less than their proportional representation -- amounting to less than 75 percent of the time that men spoke.

The new study is published by the top academic journal in political science, American Political Science Review.

"Women have something unique and important to add to the group, and that's being lost at least under some circumstances," said Chris Karpowitz, the lead study author and a political scientist at BYU.

There is an exception to this rule of gender participation, however. The time inequality disappeared when researchers instructed participants to decide by a unanimous vote instead of majority rule.

Results showed that the consensus-building approach was particularly empowering for women who were outnumbered by men in their group. Study co-author Tali Mendelberg of Princeton says these findings apply to many different settings.

"In school boards, governing boards of organizations and firms, and legislative committees, women are often a minority of members and the group uses majority rule to make its decisions," Mendelberg said. "These settings will produce a dramatic inequality in women's floor time and in many other ways. Women are less likely to be viewed and to view themselves as influential in the group and to feel that their 'voice is heard.'"

For their experiments, Karpowitz and Mendelberg recruited people to be part of a group and discuss the best way to distribute money they earned together from a hypothetical task. In all, the researchers observed 94 groups of at least five people.

On average, groups deliberated for 25 minutes before settling the matter. Participants voted by secret ballot, but half of the groups followed majority rule while the other half decided only with a unanimous vote.

Notably, the groups arrived at different decisions depending on women's participation -- swinging the group's stance on the level of generosity given to the lowest member of the group.

"When women participated more, they brought unique and helpful perspectives to the issue under discussion," Karpowitz said. "We're not just losing the voice of someone who would say the same things as everybody else in the conversation."

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Journal Reference:

1. Christopher F. Karpowitz, Tali Mendelberg, Lee Shaker. Gender Inequality in Deliberative Participation. American Political Science Review, 2012; 106 (03): 533 DOI: 10.1017/S0003055412000329

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19 Sep, 2012

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When TV and marriage meet: TV's negative impact on romantic relationships

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2012) — The status of a romantic relationship could be in jeopardy if the couple or an individual in the relationship are frequent television watchers, according to a study from Albion College.

The study, just released electronically and soon to be published in the September 2012 issue of Mass Communication and Society, found that the more an individual believed in television portrayals of romance, the less likely they were to be committed to their relationships. In August 2012, several of the most-watched television shows (Burn Notice, True Blood, The Big Bang Theory, and Two and a Half Men) featured romantic relationships prominently throughout their episodes. This research is especially important at helping individuals understand the impact that television viewing can have on their relationships.

"In this study I found that people who believe the unrealistic portrayals on TV are actually less committed to their spouses and think their alternatives to their spouse are relatively attractive," Dr. Jeremy Osborn, the article's author said. "My hope would be that people would read this article and take a look at their own relationships and the relationships of those around them. How realistic are your expectations for your partner and where did those expectations come from?"

Over 390 married couples participated in the study. The participants responded to questions about their satisfaction with their current romantic relationship, relationship expectations, relationship commitment, belief in television portrayals of romantic relationships, viewing frequency, and several others that focused on their spousal relationship. The research also discovered that the more an individual believed in the television romance, the higher people believed their relationship costs were. Relationship "costs" include a person's loss of personal freedom, loss of time, or their partner's unattractive qualities.

"We live in a society that perpetually immerses itself in media images from both TV and the web, but most people have no sense of the ways those images are impacting them," Osborn said. "The rate of marriage failure in the U. S. is not dropping, and it is important for people to have a sense of what factors are leading to the failure of so many relationships."

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Journal Reference:

1. Jeremy L. Osborn. When TV and Marriage Meet: A Social Exchange Analysis of the Impact of Television Viewing on Marital Satisfaction and Commitment. Mass Communication and Society, 2012; 15 (5): 739 DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2011.618900

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19 Sep, 2012

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How much product information do consumers want?

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2012) — A study published online in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that people can differ widely on the level of detail makes them feel they understand something. In experiments, the very same explanations that some subjects required before they would pay top dollar seemed to drive down what others were willing to pay. The natural trick for a marketer would be to figure out which customers are which. The study does that, too.

"The fact is that people differ," said Steven Sloman, professor of cognitive, linguistic, and psychological sciences at Brown University and an author on the paper. "Your advertising, your marketing, and your understanding of people has to be guided by an appreciation of who you are talking to."

The particular difference that lead author Philip Fernbach, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Colorado-Boulder's Leeds School of Business, and Sloman focused on in a series of experiments was the inclination of people to consider details of how products work. Thoughtful "explanation fiends" became more motivated the more the product was explained. More intuitive "explanation foes" felt confident in their understanding when the explanation was superficial but deeper detail eroded that understanding and ultimately their willingness to pay for the product.

In an essential respect these different groups of consumers are actually the same, said Fernbach. Both kinds of consumers want to feel like they understand how a product works before it will gain their trust.

"The more they feel like they understand, the more they will be willing to pay for the product," he said. But the consumers differ sharply on the level of detail that makes them feel informed.

Testing the test

Each of the study's four experiments measured the subjects' tendency to deliberate before responding to a question with a simple, standard quiz called the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). The test asks three questions that have intuitive, but wrong, answers. The correct answer requires a little more thought. Fernbach and Sloman thought it might predict each subject's inclination to consider detail. Sure enough, in each experiment the CRT accurately predicted whether the subject would be an explanation fiend or foe.

The first experiment assessed how 127 people who were recruited online rated their understanding of four products as they read four different levels of detail about how the products worked, presented in random order. Then they took the CRT. A low score indicated an intuition-oriented person while a high score indicates someone who thinks deeply.

The result? CRT low-scorers rated their understanding as higher when presented with less detail. High scorers on the CRT said they understood best when they read the greatest level of detail.

"The effect of mechanistic detail on judged understanding was moderated by cognitive reflection," wrote the authors of the study, which began when Fernbach was a postdoctoral researcher in Sloman's group at Brown. In addition to Fernbach and Sloman, the study's other authors are Brown undergraduates Robert St. Louis and Julia Shube.

The second experiment assessed what level of detail would motivate 223 new online volunteers to pay for a premium product with a special feature, compared to a less expensive generic competitor without that feature. The level of explanatory detail for the premium feature varied.

Low CRT scorers were most motivated to buy the premium product when given superficial detail, while high scorers showed an increasing degree of preference for the premium product as the level of detail increased.

The third experiment confirmed that only details explaining how a product works are pertinent to the dichotomy between explanation fiends (CRT high scorers) and explanation foes (CRT low scorers).

The money experiment

For marketers of consumer products, including funders of the research at Unilever, the big question is whether any of this psychology matters to what people will pay. The last experiment found that it can make a big difference and helped explain why.

The researchers again presented subjects with products and explanations of how they worked, but this time they broke them into two groups. Some were shown only a shallow explanation of each of four products and then rated their understanding. Then they indicated what they'd be willing to pay.

The researchers asked the other group to do extra work. After showing the volunteers explanations of two products, they asked them to generate their own explanation, to re-evaluate their level of understanding, and then to say how much they'd be willing to pay. By asking those subjects to explicitly explain the products, the authors forced them to confront whether they really understood or only felt they did.

The idea that people often feel they understand things better than they really do is called "the illusion of explanatory depth." Fernbach and Sloman's hypothesis was that explanation foes are especially prone to this illusion, even after encountering only a superficial explanation. Forcing them to confront their lack of understanding would dispel it, ultimately undermining what they'd be willing to pay.

That's exactly what happened.

"Low CRT participants began with a high feeling of understanding, which was subsequently shattered when they attempted to explain," the authors wrote. "High CRT participants were more conservative initially [about their level of understanding] and their judgments did not change after explanation."

What did change was how much fiends and foes of explanation were willing to pay before and after they were asked to explain how the products worked. Averaged over the two products, foes dropped their prices from $8 to less than $6 after their illusions were shattered. Explanation fiends, however, raised what they were willing to pay to about $8.50 from less than $6 after being asked to explain the products.

Sloman said he was struck by how strongly explanation foes harbor illusions about their understanding.

"We were actually shocked by how powerfully the data came out, that the effect really is almost entirely carried by the low CRT scorers," he said. "The people who do think before they respond don't seem to suffer from this illusion."

Fernbach said the lesson from the study for marketers -- how to vary the level of detail for different customers -- is particularly important for companies seeking to introduce novel products.

Getting it right could make a real difference in what customers are willing to pay.

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Journal Reference:

1. Philip M. Fernbach, Steven A. Sloman, Robert St. Louis, Julia N. Shube. Explanation Fiends and Foes: How Mechanistic Detail Determines Understanding and Preference. Journal of Consumer Research, 2012; [link]

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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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Higher levels of BPA in children and teens significantly associated with obesity

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2012) — Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have revealed a significant association between obesity and children and adolescents with higher concentrations of urinary bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic chemical recently banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from sippy cups and baby bottles. Still, the chemical continues to be used in aluminum cans, such as those containing soda.

The study appears in the September 19 issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), dedicated to the theme of obesity.

"This is the first association of an environmental chemical in childhood obesity in a large, nationally representative sample," said lead investigator Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, associate professor of pediatrics and environmental medicine. "Our findings further demonstrate the need for a broader paradigm in the way we think about the obesity epidemic. Unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity certainly contribute to increased fat mass, but the story clearly doesn't end there."

BPA, a low-grade estrogen, was until recently found in plastic bottles labeled with the number 7 recycling symbol, and is still used as an internal coating for aluminum cans. Manufacturers say it provides an antiseptic function, but studies have shown the chemical disrupts multiple mechanisms of human metabolism that may increase body mass. BPA exposure has also been associated with cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, neurological disorders, diabetes and infertility.

"In the U.S. population, exposure [to BPA] is nearly ubiquitous, with 92.6 percent of persons 6 years or older identified in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) as having detectable BPA levels in their urine. A comprehensive, cross-sectional study of dust, indoor and outdoor air, and solid and liquid food in preschool-aged children suggested that dietary sources constitute 99 percent of BPA exposure," the investigators wrote.

Using a sample of nearly 3,000 children and adolescents, ages 6 through 19 years, randomly selected for measurement of urinary BPA concentration in the 2003-2008 NHANES, Dr. Trasande and his co-authors, Jan Blustein, MD, PhD, and Teresa Attina, MD, PhD, MPH, examined associations between urinary BPA concentrations and body mass.

After controlling for race/ethnicity, age, caregiver education, poverty to income ratio, sex, serum cotinine level, caloric intake, television watching, and urinary creatinine level, the researchers found children with the highest levels of urinary BPA had 2.6 times higher odds of being obese than those with the lowest measures of urinary BPA. Among the participants with the highest levels, 22.3 percent were obese compared with 10.3 percent of the participants with the lowest levels.

Further analyses showed this association to be statistically significant in only one racial subpopulation, white children and adolescents. The researchers also found that obesity was not associated with exposure to other environmental phenols commonly used in other consumer products, such as sunscreens and soaps.

"Most people agree the majority of BPA exposure in the United States comes from aluminum cans," Dr. Trasande said. "This data adds to already existing concerns about BPA and further supports the call to limit exposure of BPA in this country, especially in children. Removing it from aluminum cans is probably one of the best ways we can limit exposure. There are alternatives that manufacturers can use to line aluminum cans."

The researchers wrote in their study that advocates and policy makers have long been concerned about BPA exposure. "We note the recent FDA ban of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, yet our findings raise questions about exposure to BPA in consumer products used by older children. Last year, the FDA declined to ban BPA in aluminum cans and other food packaging, announcing 'reasonable steps to reduce human exposure to BPA in the human food supply' and noting that it will continue to consider evidence on the safety of the chemical. Carefully conducted longitudinal studies that assess the associations identified here will yield evidence many years in the future."

# # #

EDITOR'S NOTE: (JAMA. 2012;308[11]:1113-1121. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)

About NYU School of Medicine:
NYU School of Medicine is one of the nation's preeminent academic institutions dedicated to achieving world class medical educational excellence. For 170 years, NYU School of Medicine has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history and enrich the lives of countless people. An integral part of NYU Langone Medical Center, the School of Medicine at its core is committed to improving the human condition through medical education, scientific research and direct patient care. The School also maintains academic affiliations with area hospitals, including Bellevue Hospital, one of the nation's finest municipal hospitals where its students, residents and faculty provide the clinical and emergency care to New York City's diverse population, which enhances the scope and quality of their medical education and training. Additional information about the NYU School of Medicine is available at http://school.med.nyu.edu/.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NYU Langone Medical Center, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. Trasande L, Attina TM, Blustein J. Association Between Urinary Bisphenol A Concentration and Obesity Prevalence in Children and Adolescents. JAMA, 2012; 308 (11): 1113-1121 DOI: 10.1001/2012.jama.11461

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18 Sep, 2012

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Attractive names sustain increased vegetable intake in schools

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — Would you rather eat "carrots" or "crunchy yummy carrots"? Or, if you're a youngster, "X-Ray Vision Carrots"? Kids seem to have an aversion to eating vegetables, but can this be changed?

Previous work conducted by Wansink et al., in 2005 revealed that sensory perceptions of descriptive foods are better than plain dishes with no fancy descriptors. But can children be influenced to prefer vegetables using this same approach? To find out, researchers Brian Wansink, David Just, Collin Payne, and Matthew Klinger conducted a couple of studies to explore whether a simple change such as using attractive names would influence kid's consumption of vegetables.

Name that food

In the first study, plain old carrots were transformed into "X-ray Vision Carrots." 147 students ranging from 8-11 years old from 5 ethnically and economically diverse schools participated in tasting the cool new foods. Lunchroom menus were the same except that carrots were added on three consecutive days. On the first and last days, carrots remained unnamed. On the second day, the carrots were served as either "X-ray Vision Carrots" or "Food of the Day." Although the amount of carrots selected was not impacted by the 3 different naming conditions the amount eaten was very much so. By changing the carrots to "X-ray vision carrots," a whopping 66% were eaten, far greater than the 32% eaten when labeled "Food of the Day" and 35% eaten when unnamed. The success of the changes is stupendous, and the fun, low cost nature of the change makes it all the more enticing.

20/20 Interview Clip

In the second study, carrots became "X-Ray vision carrots," broccoli did a hulk like morph into "Power Punch Broccoli" along with "Tiny Tasty Tree Tops" and "Silly Dilly Green Beans" replaced regular old green beans to give them more pizzazz. Researchers looked at food sales over two months in two neighboring NYC suburban schools. For the first month, both schools offered unnamed food items, while on the second month carrots, broccoli and green beans were given the more attractive names, only in one of the schools (the treatment school.) Of the 1,552 students involved 47.8% attended the treatment school. The results were outstanding: vegetable purchases went up by 99% in the treatment school, while in the other school vegetable sales declined by 16%.

These results demonstrate that using attractive names for healthy foods increases kid's selection and consumption of these foods and that an attractive name intervention is robust, effective and scalable at little or no cost. Very importantly, these studies confirm that using attractive names to make foods sound more appealing works on individuals across all age levels.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cornell Food & Brand Lab. The original article was written by Nathan Orsi and Joanna Ladzinski.

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Journal Reference:

1. Wansink, Brian, Just, David R., Payne, Collin R., & Klinger, Matthew. Attractive Names Sustain Increased Vegetable Intake in Schools. Preventive Medicine, 2012 (in press)

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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.

17 Sep, 2012

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New 'ATM' takes old phones and gives back green

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — When new cell phones or tablets enter the marketplace, yesterday's hot technology can quickly become obsolete--for some consumers. For others, the device still has value as an affordable alternative, or even as spare parts.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), ecoATM of San Diego, Calif., has developed a unique, automated system that lets consumers trade in those devices for reimbursement or recycling.

Using sophisticated artificial intelligence developed through two NSF Small Business Innovation Research grants, ecoATM kiosks can differentiate varied consumer electronics products and determine a market value. If the value is acceptable, users have the option of receiving cash or store credit for their trade--or donating all or part of the compensation to one of several charities.

ecoATM finds second homes for three-fourths of the phones it collects, sending the remaining ones to environmentally responsible recycling channels to reclaim any rare earth elements and keep toxic components from landfills. ecoATM is certified to the eWaste environmental standards of Responsible Recycling (R2) and ISO 14001.

"The basic technologies of machine vision, artificial intelligence and robotics that we use have existed for many years, but none have been applied to the particular problem of consumer recycling," says ecoATM co-founder and NSF principal investigator Mark Bowles. "But we've done much more than just apply existing technology to an old problem--we developed significant innovations for each of those basic elements to make the system commercially viable."

ecoATM received its first NSF support in 2010, then received follow-on funding from Coinstar, Claremont Creek Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank to launch the first kiosks in 2011. The company expanded to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and other areas along the East Coast this month and plans to have more than 300 kiosks deployed by the end of 2012 in shopping malls and large stores across the country.

The system began as a wooden-box prototype that required the presence of an ecoATM representative to ensure that users were being honest with their trades. While that setup proved consumers would be comfortable with the device-exchange concept, it was limited by the need for human intervention.

The first NSF Small Business Innovation Research grant allowed ecoATM to develop artificial intelligence and diagnostics that delivered 97.5 percent accuracy for device recognition, removing human oversight and making the system viable for broad use. A follow-on NSF SBIR grant is helping ecoATM close that final 2.5 percent accuracy gap.

According to Bowles, traditional machine vision generally relies on pattern matching, pairing a new image to a known one. Pattern matching is a binary approach that cannot handle the complexity of ecoATM's evaluation process, which includes eight separate grades based on a device's level of damage.

"We are now able to tell the difference between cracked glass on a phone, which is an inexpensive fix, versus a broken display or bleeding pixels, which is generally fatal for the device," says Bowles. "We were warned by leading machine-vision experts that solving the inspecting/grading problem-with an infinite variety of possible flaws-was an impossible problem to solve. Yet with our NSF support, we solved it through several years of research and development, trial and error, use of artificial intelligence and neural network techniques."

The company's databases are now trained with images of more than 4,000 devices, and when an identification mistake occurs, the system learns from that mistake.

When a user places their device into an ecoATM kiosk, the artifical intelligence system conducts a visual inspection, identifies the device model and then robotically provides one of 23 possible connector cables for linking it to the ecoATM network (the company warns consumers to erase all personal data before recycling).

Using proprietary algorithms, the system then determines a value for the device based on the company's real-time, worldwide, pre-auction system.Within that system, a broad network of buyers have already bid in advance on the 4,000 different models in eight possible grades, so the kiosk can immediately provide compensation.

A number of robotic elements enable the kiosk to safely collect, evaluate and then store each device in a process that only takes a few minutes.

"The ecoATM project is an extremely innovative way to motivate the public with an incentive to 'do the right thing' with discarded electronics, both socially and environmentally," says Glenn Larsen, the NSF SBIR program officer overseeing the ecoATM grants. "This may change behavior from simply dumping unwanted electronics to a focus on recycling, while helping put more hi-tech devices in the hands of others that might not otherwise be able to afford or acquire them."

The company is partnered with San Diego-based D&K Engineering to help design and build the kiosks domestically, and has expanded from an original workforce of less than 10 in 2010 to a team of more than 150 employees and contractors today.

Since its founding, ecoATM has filed over 20 patents, been awarded seven patents to date, and won numerous awards. The company is currently one of three finalists for a Consumer Electronics Association Inaugural Innovation Entrepreneur Award.

"ecoATM meets the required thresholds of both convenience and immediate financial incentive necessary to inspire mass consumer participation in electronics recycling," adds Bowles. "We believe we are the first system to achieve those thresholds."

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18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/FVlHeD2UrYw/120917123131.htm
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Risk of developing diabetes higher in neighborhoods that aren't walk-friendly

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — Whether your neighbourhood is conducive to walking could determine your risk for developing diabetes, according to a new study by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

Researchers found this risk was particularly high for new immigrants living in low-income neighbourhoods. A new immigrant living in a less walkable neighbourhood -- fewer destinations within a 10-minute walk, lower residential density, poorly connected streets -- was about 50 per cent more likely to develop diabetes when compared to long-term residents living in the most walkable areas, regardless of neighbourhood income.

"Although diabetes can be prevented through physical activity, healthy eating and weight loss, we found the environment in which one lives is also an important indicator for determining risk," said Dr. Gillian Booth, an endocrinologist and researcher at St. Michael's and lead author of the study published online in the journal Diabetes Care September 17.

For new immigrants, environment is an especially important factor as past research has shown an accelerated risk of obesity-related conditions including diabetes within the first 10 years of arrival to Canada, said Dr. Booth, who is also an adjunct scientist at ICES.

While diabetes is on the rise in Canada, the same trends are occurring globally, even in less industrialized countries. This is due in part to the move from rural to urban living in developing countries -- often associated with increased exposure to unhealthy foods, fewer opportunities for physical activity and a heightened risk of becoming obese and developing diabetes.

The study looked at data from the entire population of Toronto aged 30-64 -- more than 1 million people -- and identified those who didn't have diabetes. It then followed them for five years to see if their risk of developing diabetes increased based on where they live.

To determine which neighbourhoods were more conducive to walking, researchers developed an index looking at factors such as population density, street connectivity and the availability of walkable destinations such as retail stores and service within a 10-minute walk.

Dr. Booth said neighbourhoods that were the least walkable were often newly developed areas -- characterized by urban sprawl -- in part because of the reliance on cars caused by suburban design.

"Previous studies have looked at how walkable neighbourhoods affect health behaviour, but this is the first to look at the risk of developing a disease," said Dr. Booth.

Dr. Booth said the results emphasize the importance of neighbourhood design in influencing the health of urban populations.

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18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/ovHQPanBkl8/120917152105.htm
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Study links breast cancer risk to early-life diet and metabolic syndrome

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) — Striking new evidence suggesting that diet and related factors early in life can boost the risk for breast cancer -- totally independent of the body's production of the hormone estrogen -- has been uncovered by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The findings provide new insights into the processes that regulate normal breast development, which can impact the risk of developing breast cancer later in life. The study will be published Sept. 17 in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It's long been assumed that circulating estrogens from the ovaries, which underlie normal female reproductive development, were crucial for the onset of breast growth and development," said Russ Hovey, a UC Davis associate professor of animal science and senior author on the study.

"Our findings, however, suggest that diet and shifts in body metabolism that parallel changes seen during obesity and Type 2 diabetes can also stimulate breast growth entirely independent of estrogen's effects," he said.

The studies with mice used a diet supplemented with a form of the fatty acid known as 10, 12 conjugated linoleic acid or 10, 12 CLA, which mimics specific aspects of a broader metabolic syndrome.

In humans, this syndrome is linked to a broad array of changes associated with obesity that can increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The 10, 12 CLA was added to the diet of the test group of mice because it is known to disrupt normal metabolic processes. In this study, the supplement stimulated the mammary ducts to grow, despite the fact that the mice lacked estrogen.

The researchers demonstrated that the diet-induced breast development also increased the formation of mammary tumors in some of the mice.

They ruled out a role for estrogen as the possible cause for how diet increased growth of the breast tissues by giving the supplement to male mice and to female mice in which the function of estrogen was blocked.

The research team also discovered that various mouse strains responded differently to the dietary supplement despite similar metabolic changes, suggesting that there may be a genetic component for how diet and related metabolic changes affect breast cancer risk in different populations, Hovey said.

He noted that results from the study would likely have significant implications for better understanding human breast development before puberty and after menopause, when estrogens are less present.

"The findings of this study are particularly important when we superimpose them on data showing that girls are experiencing breast development at earlier ages, coincident with a growing epidemic of childhood obesity," Hovey said.

Adam Lock, an assistant professor of dairy cattle nutrition at Michigan State University, was co-principal investigator with Hovey on the original Dairy Management Inc. grant that supported studies leading to the PNAS publication.

"The biology of conjugated linoleic acid fatty acids has stimulated much scientific and public interest over the last two decades," said Lock. "These recent findings will further our understanding of the biology of this specific CLA isomer and also further advance our understanding of the role of bioactive fatty acids in health maintenance and disease prevention."

Other members of the research team are graduate students Grace Berryhill and Julia Gloviczki, Project Scientist Josephine Trott, postdoctoral researchers Lucila Aimo and Whitney Petrie, undergraduate student Carly Paul, and Professor Robert Cardiff, all of UC Davis; and Research Assistant Professor Jana Kraft of the University of Vermont.

The study was supported in part by Dairy Management Inc., the UC Davis Cancer Center and the Department of Defense.

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Journal Reference:

1. Grace E. Berryhill, Julia M. Gloviczki, Josephine F. Trott, Lucila Aimo, Jana Kraft, Robert D. Cardiff, Carly T. Paul, Whitney K. Petrie, Adam L. Lock, and Russell C. Hovey. Diet-induced metabolic change induces estrogen-independent allometric mammary growth. PNAS, September 17, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1210527109

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18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/fbbhorQhf7Q/120917152047.htm
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