Key to better sex revealed in new study (LiveScience.com)

Persons who can better communicate and understand the emotions of another person are more likely to have a satisfactory sex life, new research discoveries.

Personal qualities such as self-esteem and autonomy also play a role in sexual pleasure and health, the researchers said.

"Sexual health includes sexual wellbeing and sexual enjoyment is an important role in [which]," said study investigator Adena Galinsky, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "How people interact and their ability to listen to each other and to take the other perspective can really influence the sex they have." [Top 10 the aphrodisiac]

The study analyzed data from approximately 3,200 students, aged 18 to 26, who were interviewed in the third wave of the National Longitudinal Study of adolescent between 2001 and 2002 health.

Study the sexual satisfaction

Respondents answered questions designed to assess levels of autonomy, self-esteem and empathy, with their sexual health and satisfaction. Autonomy is defined as the force necessary to follow personal beliefs, even when they run counter to the wisdom, which usually increases as age adolescents and enter adulthood, said Galinsky. Self-esteem is a belief in the enhancement, which also increases with age. Empathy is the ability to take another perspective, to see things from their angle, to understand and respond to their emotions.

The study found that men were more likely than women declare having orgasms and more or all of the time during sexual intercourse, with 87% of men say, compared to 47% of women in the study. Men were more likely to enjoy giving oral sex to their partner more than women, the study concluded.

"The reality is that the majority of young men really like to engage in activities whose purpose is to give their partner pleasure", Galinsky told LiveScience. "There is a fairly consistent difference between young men and young women."

When the researchers compared the attributes of personality with three measures of sexual satisfaction (frequency of orgasm, level of enjoyment to give and receive oral sex), they found that higher sense of self-esteem, autonomy and empathy levels are associated with sexual pleasure total females, but only empathy had an incidence in men.

Among men, autonomy only a positive correlation to the frequency of orgasm, that only higher while considers itself is linked to the enjoyment of giving oral sex.

Getting emotional in the bedroom

"Our hypothesis is that caring individuals are better meet the needs of the partner and thus initiate a positive feedback cycle,", said Galinsky. "These assets of development can be more important sexual young women since pleasure they help eliminate barriers to sexual communication and exploration," he said, referring to the idea that women are more inhibited in the bedroom.

Interestingly, these recent data reported by Sara Konrath at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science have shown that this type of empathy is abandonment among adolescents and emerging adults, which could have an impact on their sexual satisfaction. Females traditionally score more empathy and lower on self-esteem compared with their male counterparts.

Galinsky and his team continue to study the sexual wellbeing and satisfaction to all points of life, including in adults of middle and older age.

The study was published on 3 June in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter @ microbelover. Follow LiveScience to the latest science and discoveries on Twitter @ livescience and on Facebook.

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Study: Eastern wolves are hybrid with coyotes (AP)

ALBANY, New York - wolves in the East of the United States are hybrids of grey wolves and coyotes, while the coyotes in the area are actually coyote-dog-Wolf hybrids, according to new genetic research to fuel a debate for a long time on the origins of two endangered species.

The study is unlikely that an impact on the management of the red wolf in the process of disappearance in North Carolina and the Wolf in Eastern Canada in Ontario, but it offers fresh overview of their genetic heritage and concludes that these wolves are hybrids that developed on the last few hundred years.

Some scientists have argued that the Red Wolf, Canis rufus and the Eastern Canadian wolf, Canis lycaon, evolved from a distinct ancient Wolf species of the larger gray wolf, Canis lupus, found in Western North America.

Wolf experts who adhere to this theory saying the new study is interesting but is far from proving anything. According to them, that it does not explain why the hybrids appear only in certain places and note that Western wolves to hybridize with coyotes but often them kill.

In the study, published online earlier this month in the journal peer Genome Research, 16 researchers from around the world led by Robert Wayne of the University of California - Los Angeles, the data from the dog genome - entire genetic code of the animal — to probe the genetic diversity in dogs, wolves and coyotes.

He was the more detailed of all species of wild vertebrates to date, using genetic techniques genetic study molecular to look more at 48,000 markers throughout the full genome, said Roland Kays, curator of mammals at the New York State Museum and a co-author.

In a previous study of the dog genome published last year in the journal Nature, an international team led by Wayne of scientists reported that domestic dogs likely originating from the Middle East and share more genetic similarity with Middle Eastern grey wolves than any other Wolf population.

A recent study showed a gradient of hybridization in wolves.

In the West, the wolves were pure wolf, while in the West of the Great Lakes, they average 15 per cent and 85 per cent of coyote wolf. Wolves in Algonquin Park in Eastern Ontario an average 58 percent wolf.

Red wolves in North Carolina, which was the subject of extensive preservation and restoration efforts, has proven to be coyote wolf and 76% of 24 per cent.

Coyotes in the Northeast, which only colonized the region in the past 60 years, were found to be Coyotes 82 percent, dog of 9% and 9% wolf.

In a study co-authored by Kays last year in the journal letters of biology, from museum specimens and DNA samples have been used to show that coyotes migrate eastward crossed with wolves to evolve into a form more wide which became the first predator in the Northeast, a niche left when natives of Eastern wolves have been driven out of existence. Hybridization allowed the coyotes to evolve since the mouse-eaters emaciated condition robust Prairie West deer hunters in the forests of the East.

The genetic techniques used in a recent study has enabled researchers to estimate that the hybridization, in most cases, happened when humans were Eastern wolves hunting to extinction, Kays said.

"The remaining animals some might find that no good partner has meant not the best option, as they could get," said Kays.

L. David Mech, researcher at Northern Prairie Research Center at the U.S. Geological Survey, St. Paul, Minnesota, and founder of the International Centre of Wolf in Ely, Minnesota, is skeptical as to the theory that the wolves Oriental are hybrids.

"How you reconcile it with the fact that grey wolves generally not breed with coyotes, but kill them?" Mech said. "We have no record in the West of wolves to hybridize with the coyotes, even in areas where unique wolves for partners have scattered in coyote country."

Mech also asked if the tested enough study wolves Canadian and North Carolina and whether these specimens were true representatives of these populations.

Although the sounds of genetic markers 48 000 much love, it is actually a small part of all of the genetic code, Mech said. If the evidence of an ancestor single Wolf could be simply in another part of the code that is not analyzed, he said.

Several researchers who consider the Eastern Wolf species separate Grey Wolf recently weighed in a discussion of the new study online.

Brent Patterson, a researcher in Genetics at the Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, called the study "a step important." forward but until more samples are analyzed, the hypothesis that a North American Wolf evolved independently by the Grey Wolf was still viable, said.

"It's an academic question," said Mech. "It is good to know what are the origins of the point of view of curiosity, but from the point of view of conservation, it should not make any difference."

David Rabon, Coordinator of the U.S. Fish and Red Wolf recovery program for the Wildlife Service in North Carolina, said that the Federal Agency has taken the position that the Red Wolf is a unique species that deserves protection. The new study, while interesting, change probably management decisions, he said.

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To deal blow to fruits, nuts, climate change: study (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) - climate change is expected to change the world industry in the fruit and nuts considerably as the tree as the pistachio and cherry crops are struggling in the rising temperatures, the researchers said.

A study says that even if polluters takes more action to reduce carbon emissions, the impact of climate change is likely be sufficiently serious for the industry of fruit and nuts of nearly 100 billion dollars annually must reassess planning.

Trees in temperate regions evolved in need of a cold period they can grow in the spring. The rising temperatures pose a special problem for temperate, but relatively warm areas where the winter cold is already in short supply.

The study, published in may by the journal PLoS One online, provides that fruit and nut trees to be very affected in the southeast of United States, of the Southern California and the southwest of the Australia and the province of Yunnan.

Areas which have already seen the worst of the losses from the winter chill include Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and the region of Cape Town, South Africa, the study said.

Commune of fruits and nuts in warm temperate areas understand with pistachio nuts, which are popular in Iran and in California with nut Grenoble, cherries and peaches.

Co-author Eike Luedeling of the World Agroforestry Centre based in Nairobi, said that long-term investments necessary to reach farmers quickly that fruit and nuts is more vulnerable than many other crops.

"If I am growing wheat or corn, and then a year to year I can decide to plant a little later or earlier planting or plant a variety of different,"said Luedeling."

"But for trees, you can not." Once you have made the decision to plant a certain culture, you're locked in 30 years, "he says.

Luedeling, who observed the problem of the decline in yields while research on Oman trees, said that the economic impact of climate change for the fruit and nuts will depend on the decisions taken today.

"If farmers wake up to the reality of the climate change and begin to make these adjustments - switching of cultivars are appropriate in the future, but not necessarily yet - now and then the disturbance to the markets may be minimal," he said.

"But if this is not, if farmers believe that they can continue to do what makes their grandfathers, then we will see some serious problems", he said.

Forecasts, climate change have a lesser impact on the cool temperate and cold of winter may in fact increase in some colder regions, the study found.

Co-author Evan Girvetz, a Senior Climatologist at The Nature Conservancy, an American environmental group, said colder regions had a window larger to the temperature rise, as they began with more days of cold of winter.

But many warmer parts are "already on the edge of not having enough cold during the winter of fruits and the production of nuts", Girvetz said.

"They have years when you do not have enough full production and while we are moving into the future, we find that which will become more frequent," he said.

Even if the world reduces gas emissions to greenhouse effect, "we are projecting that the qualities of those cultures are likely to reduce", he said.

Intergovernmental Group of experts on the evolution of the climate in a major report in 2007, provides that the world would be heat 1.8 to 4.0 ° C (3.2 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels and that some damage was irreversible.

However, a political boost to fight against climate change has decreased since then, especially in the United States, with a number of conservative legislators raise doubts about science and say that the action is too expensive.

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Off close to the melting of ice, Arctic inland resources: study (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - global warming will probably open coastal areas of the Arctic development but close vast areas of the Northern Interior the logging and mining operation in the century as ice and melt the frozen soil under temporary roads in winter, the researchers said.

Higher temperatures have already resulted in decline of levels in the Arctic sea ice and melting has the potential to increase access for fishermen, tourists and developers of oil and natural gas in coastal regions in the coming decades.

Melting has also led to hopes to open shorter shipping routes in the Arctic between China and Europe.

The Arctic is more a region of deep strategic importance for the United States, the Russia and China for its wealth of undiscovered resources and the potential of new waterways. The U.S. Geological Survey says 25 percent of the unknowns of oil and natural gas of the world is located in the Arctic.

But the global warming also probably melt so-called "roads of ice", temporary winter roads developers for the now use to access the resources of Northern far inland as timber, diamonds and minerals, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Nature of climate change.

"This is a frontier of resources where we don't even know what everything is there and I am beginning to think we will ever be" Lawrence Smith, Professor of geography at the University of California at Los Angeles and co-author of the study, said the Interior of the Arctic.

"These places will become wilder and land will be abandoned and return to the wild."

Ice roads, made famous by the History Channel "Ice road truckers" series, are built on the frozen ground, rivers, lakes and wetland areas, with ice and compacted snow. They cost only two to four per cent of permanent land roads would cost, making it the most profitable resource extraction in these remote areas.

Iron roads, indigenous peoples may well also to insulation increased and higher that certain goods could reach them only via aircraft.

All eight countries bordering the Arctic - Canada, Finland, Greenland, the Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and United States - expected to decrease the accessibility of the lands of the winter road.

Russia will lose the most of land suitable for road construction in winter by region, followed by the Canada and United States, as the modelling in the study, which was supported by the NASA cryosphere program and the National Science Foundation.

DIAMOND ROAD

In the North of the Tibbitt-Contwoyto Canada "diamond road", a winter road was first built in 1982 and would be more lucrative ice road in the world that it serves several diamond mines, is should be among the roads that suffer, according to researchers. A large part of the road about 300 miles runs at the top of the frozen lakes.

By 2020, the road is projected to lose 17 percent of its 10 weeks operating season.

Oil and natural gas developers could lose access to some domestic drilling, but the industry would have access to a coastal drilling and could take advantage of easier navigation routes.

Work wood and metal mines, however, much more would suffer because it would be cost prohibitive to build permanent roads leading to these resources.

A study more is needed to determine the potential economic losses of the melt regions and how they would compare on occasion, the authors say.

(Reported by Timothy Gardner.) (Editing by David Lawder)

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Head of the United Nations launches a study of nuclear accident (AP)

UNITED NATIONS - organization of the United Nations will undertake a study of the system on the consequences of the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear - to Japan, the Secretary General Ban Ki moon, said Friday.

Several organizations will prepare a report dealing with the effects of nuclear safety in areas including the environment, health and food safety. It must be presented at a meeting of high-level nuclear safety and security on 22 September, in the General Assembly in New York.

"Nuclear safety is a global public, serving the interests of all the peoples of the world," said the head of the United Nations.

"Forward, the effects of a disaster of the nuclear - cleaning prevention - should be more fully reflected in the assessment of the way to ensure the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and the maximum of security."

A March 11 earthquake triggered a tsunami which eliminated the factory of Fukushima Dai-ichi, causing the worst nuclear crisis of the world since Chernobyl, cooling systems. Fuel rods seem to have melted in large part to three of the plants reactors.

Radiation leak prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents and combating dangerous to hold the reactors is expected to continue in 2012.

Executives of the organizations of the United Nations, including the international agency of Atomic Energy, World Organization of the health, development of the United Nations, food and agricultural organization and World Meteorological Organization participated with prohibition in videoconferencing Friday about the study.

(This version corrects updates with quotes, details.) Corrects style on Dai-ichi in the first paragraph. (Added signature).

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Have been plagiarized climate study stifles debate (LiveScience.com)

The new 2008 study widely cited by global warming deniers were retracted probably no end to the contentious debate.

The paper, known as the Wegman report and published in the journal Computational Statistics and data analysis, was withdrawn because of serious defects, including instances of repeat discredited, claims alleged plagiarism, and a lack of prior to the publication peer reviewthe magazine said.

Problems with the Wegman study had known since last year, but it was only this week that editor of Stanley P. Azan retracted it.

The Wegman report was the product of research commissioned by two representatives of the United States, Joe Barton and Ed Whitfield, who has asked a panel of statisticians, led by Prof. Edward Wegman of George Mason University, to assess the validity of the evidence for global warmingwhich had been called a "hoax" by Republican Senator Jim Inhofe. The report concludes that the evidence for human-induced climate change was tainted and led many to question the validity of global warming.

In fact, are often interpreted the report as evidence that climatologists colluded to deceive the public and censor dissenting views.

The controversy over climate change has always been contentious and a tint with accusations of not only lack scientific, but also outright fraud and conspiracy. The Wegman report has played a role in these suspicions among the public and warming of spawning.

Retraction of the study follows the emails of "climategate" of 2009 were hacked on computers at East Anglia University, first climate research centre. Emails - widely touted at the time of their publication as documents "smoking gun" that proved climatologists had feigned data - proved nothing of the sort.

Conspiracy theorists combed through data of fraudulent research and simulate studies but found little. Several independent investigations are instances of sloppy record-keeping and conduct non-professional, but no evidence of any fraud or misrepresentation of climate data. Critics have suggested that the scientific investigations of compensation were themselves part of a larger cover-up to prevent the public of the truth.

A similar theme can be found in difficult plots. The research of Dr. Andrew Wakefield linking childhood vaccines to autism has been questioned (and his article of newspaper later retracted) supporters refused to accept that Wakefield had been poorly throughout and said instead that it was all part of a campaign to discredit him. [Vaccine & autism Timeline: how the truth took place]

It is a feature of conspiracy theories: proven as they essentially cannot be false because no evidence against them is itself considered as part of the conspiracy. It is likely that those who believe that global warming is a hoax see Wegman study politically motivated retraction.

Benjamin Radford is associate editor of the magazine Skeptical Inquirer science and author of media Mythmakers: how journalists, activists, and advertisers mislead us in error. Its Web site is www.RadfordBooks.com.

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Having obese people less satisfying sexual life: study (HealthDay)

(Tuesday, may 3, HealthDay News) - obesity can reduce levels of sexual satisfaction, especially for women, a new study shows.

Duke University researchers studied 91 obese men and studying 134 obese women who have completed a sexual function questionnaire before enrolling in weight loss. The questionnaire covered nine areas: interest, desire, arousal, orgasm, satisfaction, behavior, relationship, masturbation and sexual problems.

"We discovered that there was a sexual satisfaction less than and less sexual quality of life for women that men, and overall sexual quality of life was small between the two groups," Dr. Truls Ostbye, a professor in the Department of community and family medicinesaid in a press release from Duke.

The researchers also scores of obese patients compared to the results of a group of cancer survivors and a group of general population. Scores of obese women have been less than scores of these two groups, while scores of obese men were among the scores of the survivors of cancer and the Group of the general population.

"Our results contribute to a growing number of research that indicates obesity is associated with a reduced sexual function and sexual quality of life in men and women", said Ostbye.

Physicians must be aware of this issue and invite obese patients to talk about, the researchers said.

"Obese patients welcome opportunity to discuss the effects of weight on the quality of life, including sex, quality of life,", said co-author of the study and clinical psychologist Ronette l. Kolotkin. "Because so many people obese experience discrimination and prejudice, they appreciate the providers that create a warm, supportive environment discuss these sensitive issues."

The study appears in the May / June issue of the Journal of sex and marital therapy.

More information

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has resources on sexual health.

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Study doubt anti-aging claims of DHEA (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - the hormone DHEA supplement can be promoted as a fountain of youth, but there was no evidence of good that it stimulates the memory of older women, sexual function, or general welfare, a new research review finds.

DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone, or other steroid hormones, including testosterone and estrogen is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that is converted. The people of DHEA naturally levels peak during the twenties, and then taper as they age. Therefore, synthetic over-the-counter DHEA supplements are marketed as an anti-aging weapon.

The supplement is applied to enhance memory and other cognitive skills, boost libido and sexual function and improve the overall feelings of "well-being". He said also help protect against heart disease by improving the rate of cholesterol and diabetes by improving the use of the body of insulin hormone regulation of blood sugar.

But none of these claims hold up in the longer term studies, according to the new review, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & metabolism.

"In the 1990s, DHEA was considered an elixir of youth, with the preliminary studies suggesting benefits," said Dr. Susan r. Davis, principal investigator for the review and the Director of the research program of the health of women at Monash University at VictoriaAustralie.

But, more recently, she told Reuters Health in an email, some larger, more long term found no benefit.

For example, a few previous studies found that DHEA could stimulate the memory of older women. But they understood that a small number of women and lasted only for 2-4 weeks.

The largest study to examine the question - a subsequent 115 women for 1 year - 2008 trial found no evidence that DHEA benefited to the memory of women or other cognitive abilities.

Similarly, Davis and his colleagues found the bulk of the evidence was negative when it comes to DHEA for managing sexual dysfunction, mood, cholesterol and insulin.

"Our data suggest that there is virtually no benefit for post-menopausal women use DHEA supplements to improve sexual function, wellness, cognitive performance, or for the prevention of diabetes/insulin resistance or at lower levels of cholesterol," said Davis.

However, she noted, some trials have suggested that DHEA may help slow the loss of bone density after menopause. Researchers examined 10 studies have examined the effects of DHEA on bone density more than 6 months to 2 years, and the majority have revealed some of the positive effects on bone mass women.

However, Davis said, it is not known if DHEA may reduce the risk of older women of fractures.

DHEA capsules are widely sold with vitamins and supplements, costs about $ 6 a month supply.

The most common side effects of DHEA appear to be acne and excess hair on the face and body, said Davis. Researchers don't know yet what negative health effects, if any, might be caused by use in the long term.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/gpY9kN Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & metabolism, online March 16, 2011.

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