INDEPENDENT READING DOESN´T UP ACHIEVEMENT

BOULDER, Colo. (UPI) -- Independent reading doesn't improve children's achievement in reading, at least among children age 11 at the end of elementary school, U.S. researchers say.

Nicole Harlaar of the University of Colorado, Boulder, who led the study when she was with Ohio State University, and colleagues at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said educators have long emphasized the importance of independent reading for fun or leisure.

It was believed getting kids to read more on their own would lead to improved reading scores, Harlaar said

The researcher team looked at reading achievement and independent reading in 436 pairs of identical and same-sex nonidentical twins at age 10 and again a year later at 11.

Reading achievement was assessed using standard measures of word recognition and reading comprehension, while independent reading was assessed by asking each twin questions about his or her motivation to read. Parents estimated how often their children read for pleasure.

The study, published in the journal Child Development, found children's reading achievement at age 10 predicted their independent reading at 11, regardless of how much independent reading they were doing at 10, suggesting that reading achievement influenced later independent reading.

However, the reverse was not true -- after accounting for reading achievement at age 10 -- independent reading at 10 didn't predict reading achievement at 11.
Copyright 2011 by United Press International

TEACHERS CAN MITIGATE STUDENT AGGRESSION

MONTREAL (UPI) -- A good relationship with a teacher mitigates against a child expressing aggression and being the target of aggression at school, researchers in Canada say.

Study leader Mara Brendgen of the University of Quebec at Montreal studied 217 Canadian identical and fraternal twin pairs at age 7.

The twin pairs had different teachers and different classmates. Classmates rated the twins' level of aggressive behavior and the extent to which they were victimized by peers, Brendgen said.

The twins' teachers rated the quality of their relationship with each twin. Genetic effects on aggression were estimated by comparing the similarity in behaviors of identical and fraternal twin pairs, Brendgen said.

The study, published in the journal Child Development, found children genetically vulnerable to being aggressive were more likely to be victimized by their classmates than others, but these children were protected from acting aggressively and being the target of other children's aggression if they had a very good relationship with their teacher.

"Aggressive behavior in middle childhood is at least partly explained by genetic factors, but genetic influences on behavior usually don't operate independently of environmental influences," Brendgen said in a statement.

"Our study found that a good relationship with the teacher -- a relationship that was warm and affectionate and involved open communication -- can protect genetically vulnerable children from being aggressive and, in consequence, from becoming the target of other children's aggressive behavior."
Copyright 2011 by United Press International

JOKING HELP CHILDREN ´THINK OUT OF THE BOX´

STIRLING, England (UPI) -- Joking and pretending with toddlers help them develop life skills such as "learning to think outside of the box," British researchers found.

Dr. Elena Hoicka of the University of Stirling and colleagues examined how the two very similar concepts of joking and pretending -- both involve intentionally doing or saying the wrong thing -- develop in children ages 15-24 months.

"Joking is about doing something wrong just for the sake of it. In contrast, pretending is about doing something wrong which is imagined to be right," Hoicka said in a statement. "For example, parents might use a sponge like a duck while pretending but use a cat as a duck when joking."

The study found parents rely on a range of language styles, sound and non-verbal cues such as when they talk slowly and loudly and repeat their actions.

Conversely, parents tend to cue their children to jokes by showing their disbelief through language, and using a more excited tone of voice.

"We found that most parents employ these different cues quite naturally to help their toddlers understand and differentiate these concepts," Hoicka said in a statement.

"While not all parents feel confident in their natural abilities, the research does show that making the effort to interact in this way with toddlers is important," Hoicka said in a statement. "Knowing how to joke is great for making friends, dealing with stress, thinking creatively and learning to think outside the box."
Copyright 2011 by United Press International

WHAT HORROR MEANS TO THE MODERN WORLD

BUFFALO, N.Y. (UPI) -- Mutilation, mutation, monstrosity, murder and mayhem offer a way for us to understand our own modern fears, a U.S. horror expert says.

David Castillo, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo, said the Spanish baroque period, roughly 1600-1720, provided the historical roots of horror in the modern age.

Castillo said that era's tales of supernatural visitations, terrifying visions, haunted houses and man-made horrors are not unlike those found online or in the tabloid press today.

David Schmid, a professor of English at the university, focuses on cultural monstrosities -- those among us whom we perceive as "monsters" and the role they play in our self-perception as individual and social beings.

Although his work focused on the serial killer as an American popular-culture figure, Schmid also studies how society safely represents and addresses the anxieties of our time through the use of other monsters, such as zombies and vampires.

"The monsters I'm most interested in are the ones that exist in plain sight -- the most distinctive and numerous monsters in any culture are the ones that we don't immediately recognize," Schmid, the author of "Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture" and "True Crime," said in a statement.

"I conduct research on killers and their place in our cultural imagination but I also want to extend that focus to other monstrous figures and institutions: the abusers at [the notorious Iraqi prison] Abu Ghraib, those whose apparent normality makes them no less destructive and murderous: the banks that are destroying lives while reaping record profits and the corporations who are poisoning the planet for their bottom line."
Copyright 2011 by United Press International

MOTHERHOOD CHANGES BRAIN FUNCTION

JERUSALEM (UPI) -- Motherhood is associated with a host of new behaviors that are driven, at least in part, by alterations in brain function, researchers in Israel say.

Study leader Dr. Adi Mizrahi of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his postdoctoral colleague Dr. Lior Cohen exposed three groups of mice -- mice that had experienced interaction with their pups, lactating mother mice and mice that had not given birth -- to pup odors, and then monitored both spontaneous and sound-evoked activity of neurons in the auditory cortex.

The primary auditory cortex is known as a site that undergoes functional changes in response to sensory input from the environment, the researchers said.

The odors triggered dramatic changes in auditory processing only in the females that had interacted with pups, while the lactating mothers were the most sensitive to pup sounds.

The study, published in the journal Neuron, said olfactory, or the sense of smell and auditory integration, appeared in lactating mothers shortly after they had given birth and had a particularly strong effect on the detection of pup distress calls.

"We have shown that motherhood is associated with a rapid and robust appearance of olfactory-auditory integration in the primary auditory cortex occurring along with stimulus-specific adaptation to pup distress calls," Mizrahi said in a statement. "These processes help to explain how changes in neocortical networks facilitate efficient detection of pups by their caring mothers."
Copyright 2011 by United Press International

GREGOR MENDEL

Gregor Johann Mendel (July 20, 1822 – January 6, 1884) was an Austrian Augustinian friar and scientist, who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics for his study of the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Mendel showed that the inheritance of these traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him. The significance of Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century. The independent rediscovery of these laws formed the foundation of the modern science of genetics.

Mendel was born into an ethnic German family in Heinzendorf bei Odrau, Austrian Silesia, Austrian Empire (now Hynčice, Czech Republic), and was baptized two days later as Johann. He was the son of Anton and Rosine (Schwirtlich) Mendel, and had one older sister (Veronica) and one younger (Theresia). They lived and worked on a farm which had been owned by the Mendel family for at least 130 years. During his childhood, Mendel worked as a gardener, studied beekeeping, and as a young man attended Gymnasium (school) in Opava. Later, from 1840 to 1843, he studied practical and theoretical philosophy as well as physics at the University of Olomouc Faculty of Philosophy, taking a year off through illness. When Mendel entered the Faculty of Philosophy, the Department of Natural History and Agriculture was headed by Johann Karl Nestler, who conducted extensive research of hereditary traits of plants and animals, especially sheep. In 1843 Mendel began his training as a priest. Upon recommendation of his physics teacher Friedrich Franz, he entered the Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas in Brno in 1843. Born Johann Mendel, he took the name Gregor upon entering religious life. In 1851 he was sent to the University of Vienna to study under the sponsorship of Abbot C. F. Napp. At Vienna, his professor of physics was Christian Doppler. Mendel returned to his abbey in 1853 as a teacher, principally of physics, and by 1867, he had replaced Napp as abbot of the monastery.
Besides his work on plant breeding while at St Thomas's Abbey, Mendel also bred bees in a bee house that was built for him, using bee hives that he designed. He also studied astronomy and meteorology, founding the 'Austrian Meteorological Society' in 1865. The majority of his published works were related to meteorology.

SNORING... HOW IT AFFECTS YOUR HEALTH AND WHAT YOU CAN DO

(ARA) - Do you feel tired all day, even if you slept a full 8 hours? Do you suffer from unexplained headaches, high blood pressure, cardiac problems and excessive daytime sleepiness? Believe it or not, all your problems could stem from snoring.

Snoring is more than just bothersome, it can be hazardous to your health. That's because snoring is the most common symptom of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition that literally causes you to stop breathing a multitude of times at night. And you often aren't even aware it's happening.

People suffering from OSA stop breathing at night when their jaw, throat and tongue muscles relax, which causes the airway to become obstructed. Snoring is a symptom that the obstruction is occurring. OSA has been linked to a host of health problems, including:

* Heart attack
* High blood pressure
* Heart disease
* Stroke
* Depression
* Diabetes

Diagnosing and treating OSA can be a costly affair. A full sleep study to diagnose the problem can cost up to $5,000 or more, must be done at a certified sleep center and involves an overnight stay. Prescribed treatments may include losing weight, wearing a costly and uncomfortable continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device that forces air through your nose and mouth to keep your airways open, or even surgery.

The My Snoring Solution chinstrap can help for just $119

There is a more cost-effective, simpler alternative. Recent studies have shown that wearing a jaw supporter while sleeping can effectively treat snoring and sleep apnea. Recently, a clinical trial conducted at the Kochi Hospital in Japan demonstrated how a chinstrap alone improved obstructive sleep apnea and snoring. A strap can reposition the jaw and tongue, preventing obstruction from occurring.

The news comes as no surprise to Stephen Matthews, inventor of the My Snoring Solution chinstrap. Matthews himself suffered from OSA until a flash of inspiration prompted him to wear a makeshift chinstrap to sleep. Years later, the My Snoring Solution chinstrap has helped thousands of wearers relieve snoring symptoms, sleep better and feel healthier.