Person-centered activities combined with just one hour a week of social interaction can improve quality of life and reduce agitation for people with dementia living in care homes, while saving money.

Combining a specific care management program with a commonly-prescribed drug for Alzheimer's, memantine, multiplies the medication's ability to improve daily function by about 7.5 times, stalling some of the disease's most damaging effects, according to new research. With no significant new drug for Alzheimer's having been approved since 2003, the study authors say the time has come for the field to pay more attention to methods that can improve the impact of existing drugs.

Using a combination of fossils and chemical markers, scientists have tracked how a period of globally low ocean-oxygen turned an Early Jurassic marine ecosystem into a stressed community inhabited by only a few species.

Discovered by British astronomer William Herschel over 200 years ago, NGC 2500 lies about 30 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Lynx. NGC 2500 is a particular kind of spiral galaxy known as a barred spiral, its wispy arms swirling out from a bright, elongated core. 

A new study of pregnant women shows that restless legs syndrome (RLS) is common and is strongly associated with poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and poor daytime function, which are frequent complaints during pregnancy.

Researchers have identified altered expression of a gene called ANK1, which only recently has been associated with memory robbing Alzheimer's disease, in specific cells in the brain. Following sequencing of each of these cell types, the scientists found that altered ANK1 expression originates in microglia, a type of immune cell found in the brain and central nervous system.

Adolescent girls receiving a wide range of medical care in the Emergency Department (ED) are receptive to receiving information about preventing pregnancy.

Using an automated screening test, researchers have invented an all-chemical replacement for the confusing, even dangerous materials, now used to grow stem cells.

Women and girls with autism may face greater challenges with real world planning, organization and other daily living skills, according to a new study.

While it's relatively straightforward for robots to 'see' objects with cameras and other sensors, interpreting what they see, from a single glimpse, is difficult. New technology enables robots to spot a new object and recognize what it is, whether it is right side up or upside down, without examining it from multiple angles. It can also fill in the blind spots in its field of vision and 'imagine' any parts that are hidden from view.

A significant number of national and international American banks hired new Chief Risk Officers to mitigate risk but may have actually helped lead the industry into widespread insolvency, new research suggests.

Two queueing theorists investigated why queues at restrooms are invariably longer for ladies than for men. Time and time again. What are the main causes for this disparity? And how can it be overcome? Moving to unisex toilets, it appears from this study, may reduce waiting times for women from over 6 minutes to less than a minute and a half. Already a symbol for transgender equality, unisex toilets can hence boast excellent figures when it comes to reducing waiting times. 

Climate change leads to loss of biodiversity worldwide. However, ecosystems with a higher biodiversity in the first place might be less affected a new study. Scientists found that when they experimentally warmed meadows, the diversity of nematode worms living in the soil went down in monocultures, whereas the opposite was true for meadows with many different herbaceous plant species.

Fluorination of hexagonal boron nitride, a common insulator, turns it into a magnetic semiconductor. That may make the heat-resistant material suitable for electronics and sensors in extreme environments.

Transistors, as used in billions on every computer chip, are nowadays based on semiconductor-type materials, usually silicon. As the demands for computer chips in laptops, tablets and smartphones continue to rise, new possibilities are being sought out to fabricate them inexpensively, energy-saving and flexibly. A research group has now succeeded in producing transistors based on a completely different principle.