A prototype of a social robot has been developed with an eye toward supporting independent living for the elderly, in partnership with their relatives or carers.

It's based on the art service platform called Care-O-bot® 3 and works within a smart-home environment. Dr. Farshid Amirabdollahian, a senior lecturer in Adaptive Systems at the University of Hertfordshire, led a team of nine partner institutions from across five European countries as part of the ACCOMPANY (Acceptable Robotics Companions for Ageing Years) project.

Vast ranges of volcanoes hidden under the oceans ooze lava at slow, steady rates along mid-ocean ridges.

A new study shows that they flare up on strikingly regular cycles, ranging from two weeks to 100,000 years, and, that they erupt almost exclusively during the first six months of each year because they are apparently tied to short- and long-term changes in earth's orbit and to sea levels. And so they may be helping trigger natural climate swings. 

An app called Alicia, which has been adapted to iPhone, iPad and Android, is able to help patients over 65 years with multiple pathologies to administer their own medication at home. The Alicia app has been tested on 99 patients from Alicante and was able to reduce medication mistakes in up to 41, 2% of cases.

The most frequent causes of mishaps in drug self-administration, according to the team’s data are: 36% forgetfulness, 21% lack of medicines at home, 20% natural products are used without informing the doctor and 16% choose to drop medication without telling the doctor.

During the control tests, carried out over several months, the researchers also proved that 94% of users who tested the application considered it easy to use.

A common misconception is that all good scientific theory must be based on empirical science and provide ingredients where the theory can be potentially falsified (Karl Popper).

This dogma demands that a hypothesized theory should include something falsifiable, something that could be *possibly observed* and would then refute the theory (here in the words of Lee Smolin).

A worldwide study of the DNA of 100,000 women has discovered two new genetic variants associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

The genetic variants are specifically linked to the most common form of breast cancer, oestrogen receptor positive, and provide important insights into how the disease develops.

Scientists believe screening women for all the genetic variants so far identified could eventually pick out those at highest risk of breast cancer and improve strategies for preventing the disease.

The study was led by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and is published today (Thursday) in Human Molecular Genetics.

Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) is the second most common systemic autoimmune disease behind rheumatoid arthritis, with female patients outnumbering males by a ratio of 9:1. Those affected often experience dryness of the eyes and mouth, together with a variety of other symptoms such as extreme fatigue and arthritis. There is also a high prevalence of vaginal dryness and difficult or painful sexual intercourse in women with pSS, along with symptoms common across rheumatic diseases such as pain, stiffness, negative body image, anxiety, reduced libido, and side-effects from treatments.

In a study to be presented on Feb. 5 in an oral pleanary session at 8 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting in San Diego, researchers will report that induced or augmented labor are not associated with increased odds of Autism spectrum disorder.

New research shows a pattern of underreporting of on-campus sexual assaults by universities and colleges across the nation, and some schools have continued to underreport even after being fined for violations of federal law, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.

"When it comes to sexual assault and rape, the norm for universities and colleges is to downplay the situation and the numbers," said researcher Corey Rayburn Yung, JD, a law professor at the University of Kansas. "The result is students at many universities continue to be attacked and victimized, and punishment isn't meted out to the rapists and sexual assaulters."

Distraught Seattle Seahawks fans after their team lost the Super Bowl. Jason Redmond/Reuters

By David G. Myers, Hope College

Older people are continuing to enjoy active sex lives well into their seventies and eighties, according to new research from The University of Manchester and NatCen Social Research.

More than half (54%) of men and almost a third (31%) of women over the age of 70 reported they were still sexually active, with a third of these men and women having frequent sex - meaning at least twice a month - according to data from the latest wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).

The paper, lead authored by Dr. David Lee, an Age UK Research Fellow at The University of Manchester's School of Social Sciences and entitled Sexual health and wellbeing among older men and women in England, is published in the American academic journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior.