Washington. Oct 28 : A breakthrough study has found that by wearing masks and using alcohol-based hand sanitizers, people can successfully avert the spread of flu symptoms by as much as 50 percent.

The study by researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, is the first-of-its-kind to deal with the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions in controlling the spread of the flu virus in communities

In the study, the researchers studied more than 1,000 student subjects from seven U-M residence halls during last year''s flu season. 

Washington, October 28 : Scientists have found that a treatment with Valproic Acid (VPA) in the early stages of Alzheimer''s disease can reverse memory deficit.

Lead researcher Weihong Song, the Jack Brown and Family Professor and Chair in Alzheimer''s Disease at UBC, has found that VPA works by inhibiting the activity of an enzyme that produces a neurotoxic protein called beta Amyloid, in turn discontinuing plaque formation.

Writing about the new findings in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the research team highlighted the fact that amyloid beta-proteins are the central component of neurotoxic plaques in AD. 

Washington, Oct 28 : Online shopping can turn out to be more fun when you can try on new clothes on your own computerised image, all thanks to a new program that creates an accurate computerized image of a person''s body even when the subject is clothed.

Developed by Brown computer scientists, the new technology could be put to use in fashion, film, forensics, sports medicine, and video gaming.

The program can accurately estimate the human body''s shape from digital images or video.

"If you see a person wearing clothing, can the computer figure out what they look like underneath?" asked Michael Black, professor of the computer science at Brown.

Washington, Oct 28 : Planning for a romantic dinner with the man of your dreams? Well, don’t forget to wear something in red, for the colour will sure make him drool all over you, according to a new study.

In their study, Professor Andrew Elliot and Dr Daniela Niesta of the University of Rochester, New York, have said that men find women in red more sexually attractive, confirming it really is the colour of romance.

Elliot claimed that men rated a woman shown in photographs as more sexually attractive if she was wearing red clothing or if she was shown in an image framed by a red border rather than some other colour.

The researchers also speculated that the attraction towards red could be an evolutionary trait too.

Washington, Oct 28 : A research has determined that despite being protected longer than anywhere else on Earth, Yellowstone National Park’s amphibians are declining fast, all due to climate change.

Yellowstone National Park, founded in 1872, has been protected by law longer than anywhere else in the world.

In 1992 and 1993, researchers in Elizabeth Hadly’s group at Stanford University surveyed amphibians dwelling in ponds left behind by glaciers in northern Yellowstone National Park. 

Over the last three summers, Hadly’s graduate student Sarah McMenamin repeated the study.

Washington, Oct 28 : Pregnant women consuming flaxseed oil are four times more likely to have premature baby births, according to a new study.

Led by University of Montreal researchers, the study has found that the risks of a premature birth quadruple if flaxseed oil is consumed in the last two trimesters of pregnancy.

A majority of pregnant women prefer to use natural health products during the pregnancy.

The most consumed natural health products by pregnant women are chamomile, green tea, peppered mint and flaxseed oil.