College research is pushing ahead new discoveries to reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases, save NASCAR lives and examine the decline of bees. It’s all part of this week’s research roundup.
Daily dose of caffeine may reduce risk of neurodegenerative diseases
Caffeine, long notorious for its mass consumption despite presumed negative health effects, may be slowly redeeming itself on the health scene — news welcomed by coffee-addicted college students.
A recent study at the University of North Dakota found that daily caffeine intake in rabbits may help block the same processes that have been linked to Alzheimer’s, stroke and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Researchers compared rabbits with high cholesterol diets — which have been linked to such diseases — to those with normal diets, giving the caffeine equivalent of one cup of coffee to select members of each group.
After 12 weeks, the group with a cholesterol-enriched diet exhibited greater damage to the blood-brain barrier, the brain’s filter for harmful substances like cholesterol.
Yet rabbits that received daily caffeine in addition to high cholesterol diets had considerably less damage to the blood-brain barrier.
Full Story from The Daily Pennsylvanian
Study: Like animals, students offer sex for benefits
What would you do for a pair of Michigan-Ohio State football tickets?
Some University students might offer sex for tickets to “The Game,” according to Daniel Kruger, a research scientist in the School of Public Health.
Students who participated in Kruger’s study last fall reported that they had been offered - or themselves offered - sex for tickets to sporting events or help with laundry, vacuuming or class papers.
In the study, researchers asked freshmen and sophomore students in introductory psychology classes to answer questions about experiences they might have had where sexual relations were suggested in exchange for “investment of time or effort or something of material value,” Kruger said.
Kruger designed the study to test his hypothesis that some students succumb to gender roles, which designate women as childbearers and men as financial supporters.
“Women provide the vast majority of the biological component, men bring in resources to help offspring survive,” he said.
Full Story from The Michigan Daily
U. Nebraska invention saving lives on NASCAR tracks
On April 4, rookie NASCAR driver Michael McDowell lost control of his No. 00 stock car and slammed into the outside wall of Texas Motor Speedway.
He was going more than 160 mph. His vehicle rolled eight times.
Half a minute later, McDowell walked away from the crash with no injuries except for a slight limp. He went on to participate in a race the following Sunday.
McDowell may owe his life to the revolutionary safety system surrounding the track at Texas Motor Speedway. The Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier was developed at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s college of engineering.
Dean Sicking, a UNL professor of civil engineering and leader of the team that developed the barrier, said the crash was another demonstration of the SAFER barrier’s effectiveness.
“It did its job,” Sicking said. “We’ve had a number of these over the years, real serious hits where the drivers were able to walk away.”
The SAFER barrier, which debuted last year at the start of the NASCAR season, turns every crash into two separate collisions. This lessens the severity of each wreck by extending the time of impact.
Full Story from The Daily Nebraskan
Study: 7 percent of college students alcoholics
Most college students have heard, or uttered, the rationale that there is no such thing as an alcoholic in college, but while only 7 percent are technically considered alcoholics, binge drinking continues to be a problem nationwide.
Boston University officials said although some students drink to the point of excess and eventually could become a problem, the majority consume alcohol responsibly.
More than half — 56 percent — of BU students drink fewer than four drinks when they go out, and 10 percent of BU students abstain from alcohol altogether, Student Health Services Director David McBride said in an email.
Most students’ alcohol habits do not qualify as addiction, he said.
“Addiction would include things like attempts to cut down, having people concerned about your use, guilt about use, drinking in the morning, difficulty stopping [drinking] once having started and use despite negative consequences,” McBride said.
“We see less frequent negative effects from drinking as students age,” he said. “Developmental maturity is likely a big reason.”
Seven percent of college students meet the criteria for alcohol dependence and 31 percent meet the criteria for alcohol abuse, according to a 2002 Harvard University study.
Full Story from The Daily Free Press
Bee decline has Oregon State U. researchers abuzz
Although farmers detest the majority of insects, there is one type that is necessary for their success: bees.
Bee populations, however, are currently on the decline nationwide due to the unknown Colony Collapse Disorder.
Oregon State University wants to do something about it.
“There is a national effort to identify what is causing in some cases, very sharp declines in honeybee populations, specifically hives, which American agriculture is very dependent on for pollination,” said Stella Coakley, associate dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Science.
Unless they come from farming communities, many people don’t fully understand the impact these insects have on their lives.
Fruit, vegetables and the products formed from each do not just sporadically grow on their own. Bees are required for cross-pollination, a process that yields the development of fruit in many plants.
Without bees, or even with a significantly fewer number of bees, crop yields will be considerably decreased.
“If we did not have an adequate number of pollinators, a third of the crops we eat would decrease in quantity, and most likely increase in price,” Coakley said.
Full Story from The OSU Daily Barometer