Washington D.C. [USA], Oct. 21 : In today's time, each and every teen use smartphone for every small thing, from learning new skills to communicating with friends to catching Pokemon.

But a new study at Brigham Young University finds smartphones are not as useful for helping teens maintain weight loss.

In a 24-week behavioural study that combined traditional weight control intervention with smartphone-assisted helps, researchers found that teens lost weight initially, but could not maintain it when smartphones were the only tool helping them stay on track.

Washington D.C. [USA], Oct. 20 : If you feel you are forgetting all that you've crammed in during a study session, then go for a run.

A new study says that a student's choice of activity after a period of learning, such as cramming for an exam, has a direct effect on their ability to remember information.

The researchers behind the new study, from the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, say students should do moderate exercise, like running, rather than taking part in a passive activity such as playing computer games if they want to make sure they remember what they learned.

"I had kids in an age where computer games started to be of high interest," said lead author Harald Kindermann.

Washington D. C. [US], Oct. 15 : Organizations in the service sector that have more creative employees enjoy higher levels of customer satisfaction, suggests a new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The study looked at how creativity-orientated HR practices influence customer satisfaction. The authors recommend that businesses should invest in developing the creative capabilities of their customer service employees by implementing a system of HR practices tailored towards creativity.

These could include workshops to help staff increase their creative confidence and training to provide creative thinking and problem solving techniques.

Washington D.C. [US], Oct. 14 : Fifteen percent of sixth-grade students reportedly committed at least one form of abuse toward a dating partner through technology, according to a new study conducted at The University of Texas Health Science Center.

The researchers analyzed survey results from 424 sixth-grade students in Southeast Texas who had a boyfriend or girlfriend and had just been enrolled in a trial for the study 'Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships'.

The study is a classroom and computer-based curriculum to teach youth the importance of having healthy relationships and how to make good decisions in their relationships with peers, friends, family and future dating partners.

Washington D.C. [USA], Oct. 13 : Purdue University researchers have engineered a new detection method that would enable them to traces E. coli (bacteria) contamination in food by turning off the lights to see if the bacteria glow in the dark.

The bacteriophage called NanoLuc is a virus that only infects bacteria to produce an enzyme that causes E. coli O157:H7 to emit light if infected.

The process can shave off hours traditional testing methods, which can be critical when stopping the distribution of tainted foods.

Researcher Bruce Applegate said, "It's really practical. They (testing labs) don't have to modify anything they're doing. They just have to add the phage during the enrichment step of the testing protocol."

Washington D.C. [USA], Oct.10 : As per a recent study conducted at the University of California, the parents these days spend more time with their children than they used to spend with their kids in the mid-60s.

The study also suggests that the time spent with kids is highest among better-educated parents.

Co-author Judith Treas said, "According to economic theory, higher wages should discourage well-educated parents from foregoing work to spend extra time with youngsters. Also, they have the money to pay others to care for their children."

Treas and co-author Giulia M. Dotti Sani found that between 1965 and 2012, all but one of 11 western nations showed an increase in the amount of time both parents' spent with their kids.

Washington D.C. [USA], Oct. 8 : A new study conducted at the Cornell University shows that while both the parents enjoy spending time with their children, managing them carries more strain for mothers.

This is is likely because moms spend more time with their kids while doing more onerous chores like basic childcare, cooking and cleaning, whereas dads spend more time with children in enjoyable, low-stress activities like play and leisure.

Mothers also do more solo parenting, experience more sleep disruptions and have less leisure time, which are all associated with lower levels of well-being.

The author of the study Kelly Musick said, "It's not that moms are so stressed out with their kids, but relative to fathers, they're experiencing more strain."

Washington D. C. [USA], Oct. 6 : A recent study shows how bans on smoking at a certain place, led young people living in those areas to give up or never take up cigarettes.

In particular, the study found that young males, who were light smokers, were more likely to give up cigarettes after a ban came into effect.

Smokers, who lived in areas where there was never a ban, weren't likely to drop their cigarette habit.

However, smoking bans did not seem to affect tobacco use among women, although their use was already below that of men.

Co-author of the study Mike Vuolo said, "These findings provide some of the most robust evidence to date on the impact of smoking bans on young people's smoking."

Washington D.C.[USA], Oct. 1 : In a recent research, scientists have studied a rare Thai water bug for a better insight into how the heart muscle works and how sometimes it fails. The breakthrough finding could also lead to novel treatments for cardiomyopathy in the future.

Lead researcher Taylor and his team used an electron microscope to capture the first three-dimensional image of a tiny filament, or strand, of an essential muscle that the palm-sized water bug Lethocerus indicus, uses to fly.

This filament is made of chains of a protein called myosin, which produce the power needed to contract muscles.

This image shows for the first time the individual molecules in the filament in a relaxed state, which is necessary to re-extend muscles.

Washington D. C. [USA], Sept. 20 : A recent research conducted at the University of Siena in Italy has found that the radiant glow of bright light may actually help some men combat their flagging sexual desire.

Researchers recruited 38 men suffering from clinically low libido to take part in a randomized, controlled experiment.

With the help of a specialized box, half the men were exposed to light that mimicked natural outdoor sunlight for a half-hour in the morning each day for 2 weeks, while the other half were exposed to much less intense light.

After two weeks, the men, who received genuine light therapy not only had higher amounts of testosterone in their blood, but they also reported a substantial increase in sexual desire and function compared to the placebo group.

Washington D.C. [USA], Sept. 11 : A recent study has found out that giraffes actually are not one species, but four.

For comparison, the genetic differences among giraffe species are at least as great as those between polar and brown bears.

The unexpected findings highlight the urgent need for further study of the four genetically isolated species and for greater conservation efforts for the world's tallest mammal, the researchers said.

"We were extremely surprised, because the morphological and coat pattern differences between giraffe are limited," said researcher Axel Janke.

Giraffes are also assumed to have similar ecological requirements across their range, he added, "but no one really knows, because this megafauna has been largely overlooked by science."

Washington D. C. [USA], Sept. 3 : A recent study has pointed out the parents, who excel in mathematics, produce children with the same skill.

The study highlights a distinct transfer of math skills from parent to a child, specifically exploring intergenerational transmission, the concept of parental influence on an offspring's behavior or psychology in mathematic capabilities.

Washington D. C., Aug. 11 - Experiencing rude behaviour by co-workers may reduce employees' self-control and lead them to act in a similar uncivil manner with others, says a study.

"People, who are recipients of incivility at work, feel mentally fatigued as a result because uncivil behaviours are somewhat ambiguous and require employees to figure out whether there was any abusive intent," said lead researcher Russell Johnson.

"This mental fatigue, in turn, led them to act uncivil toward other workers. In other words, they paid the incivility forward," he added.

Washington D.C., Aug .10 - A study says that a molecular switch that flips between different versions of genes could be crucial for maintaining stem cells across all animals from simple flatworms to humans.

The study at Center for Genomic Regulation says that flatworms (also known as planarians) have an incredible capacity for self-renewal, with almost any part of their body able to regenerate a whole new worm in a matter of days.

The researchers found that they 'mix and match' certain parts of their genes in particular ways - a process known as alternative splicing. The same analysis of flatworm cells that had changed into more specific cell types revealed a different mixture of gene parts.

Washington D.C., Aug .10 - A new study says that people prefer passing on the responsibility, when faced with choices that affect others, than when those decisions affect only themselves.

A series of experiments by Mary Steffel from Northeastern University and her collaborators found that these findings were particularly true when those choices had potentially negative consequences.

In domains as diverse as making a business decision, choosing a hotel, ordering meals, and even participating in experiments, people were two or three times as likely to delegate an unappealing choice on behalf of someone else than one on their own behalf.

Participants in one experiment imagined that they or their bosses needed a hotel reservation for an upcoming business trip.