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EAST LANSING, Mich., Aug. 31 (UPI) — Married couples do not grow more alike, they are attracted to each other when they meet because they are more alike, U.S. researchers say.

Lead investigator Mikhila Humbad, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology, of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., says the study shows people tend to pick their spouse based on shared personality traits.

“Existing research shows that spouses are more similar than random people,” Humbad says in a statement. “This could reflect spouses’ influence on each other over time, or this could be what attracted them to each other in the first place. Our goal in conducting this study was to help resolve this debate.”

Humbad and colleagues analyzed data on 1,296 married couples from the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research for personality characteristics.

The study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, finds in most cases the couples did not become more alike with more years of marriage — concluding spousal similarity is better explained by selection than gradual convergence.

The one personality characteristic that doesn’t meet this pattern is aggression, Humbad says.

“It makes sense if you think about it,” Humbad says. “If one person is violent, the other person may respond in a similar fashion and thus become more aggressive over time.”

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AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 31 (UPI) — Moderate drinking — one to two drinks a day — may help middle-age and older people live longer, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin say.

The study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, suggests the health benefits of drinking among older adults are intrinsically linked to moderation.

“Older persons drinking alcohol should remember that consuming more than two drinks a day exceeds recommended alcohol consumption guidelines in the United States and is associated with increased falls, a higher risk of alcohol use problems and potential adverse interactions with medications,” Charles Holahan says in a statement.

Holahan and colleagues collected information on alcohol consumption and former drinking status, as well as health, social and other factors, for 1,142 men and 682 women ages 55-65 who were former or current drinkers for 20 years.

Abstainers tend to include former problem drinkers as well as those with other health problems.

The researchers found those who drank moderately were more likely to live longer across a 20-year follow-up than those who drank heavily or who didn’t drink at all.

“The findings showed increases in mortality risk of 42 percent for heavy drinkers and 49 percent for abstainers in comparison to moderate drinkers,” the study authors say in a statement.

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TEMPE, Ariz., Aug. 31 (UPI) — College students will intervene using three communication strategies to keep a female friend from risky sexual behavior after drinking, researchers say.

Linda C. Lederman, a professor of communication at Arizona State University, says 75 percent of the study participants reported they would make sure a female friend is safe while under the influence of alcohol by persuading the friend not to go home with a new male acquaintance or making sure she got home safely.

The participants reported three ways they prevent friends from going home with strangers after drinking:

– Stress the regret associated with negative health and social consequences of casual sex, include getting pregnant, developing a bad reputation and regretting their decision in the morning.

– Use trickery or deception to remove friends from a risky situation by getting food or putting them into a cab to go home.

– Directly confronting friends by specifically telling them they need to leave, or physically removing them from a situation.

“Our research suggests that the claim that college students routinely engage in risky sexual behavior while intoxicated may be exaggerated,” Lederman says in a statement.

The findings are published in the journal Communication Education.

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ATLANTA, Aug. 31 (UPI) — The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston completed a Phase I safety trial studying a heart failure drug for treatment of cocaine, researchers say.

To confirm the beneficial effects of dopamine beta-hydroxylase inhibition, researchers turned to the drug nepicastat — developed in the 1990s to treat congestive heart failure.

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta say nepicastat was tried after the drug disulfiram — which interferes with the body’s ability to metabolize alcohol and results in a bad hangover — was found to prevent cocaine addiction relapse.

“Disulfiram interferes with alcohol metabolism, but it inhibits several other enzymes by sequestering copper and can also damage the liver,” study senior author David Weinshenker of Emory University says in a statement. “We wanted to figure out how disulfiram was working so we could come up with safer and potentially more effective treatments.”

Weinshenker and colleagues studied the drug in rats and found disulfiram prevents rats from seeking cocaine after a break — a model for addicts tempted to relapse.

The study findings, published online by Neuropsychopharmacology, suggest the drug inhibits dopamine beta-hydroxylase, an enzyme related to cocaine relapse.

“Nepicastat is a selective dopamine beta-hydroxylase inhibitor that does not sequester copper or impair a host of other enzymes like disulfiram,” Weinshenker says. “We reasoned that if disulfiram is really working through dopamine beta-hydroxylase, then nepicastat might be a better alternative.”

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The Hurricane Earl path has the Category 4 storm reaching the southern coast of New England by Labor Day.  AccuWeather.com reports Earl’s path, if it continues on the current course, to hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Thursday and Cape Cod on Friday night with strong winds and powerful waves.

Due to uncertainty in the hurricane’s final direction, New Englanders and those throughout the northeast seaboard are being asked to take precautionary measures.

The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch Tuesday for the area north of Surf City, N.C., to Duck, N.C.

“The margin of error is still 200 to 300 miles,” says Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “But everyone needs to be paying attention to this.”

Rhode Island’s Providence Journal reported on Tuesday morning, “To make it all a little more interesting, Hurricane Earl is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane over the next few days and could have an impact on Southern New England at the end of the week. “At this time, it appears Earl will bring just a glancing blow, but the potential for a larger impact cannot be ruled out yet,” the weather service says.”

According to the Boston Herald, “Forecasters say there is a chance the hurricane could brush the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region toward the end of the week, with its closest approach to North Carolina on Friday. In any case, the U.S. East Coast is likely to see pounding surf. ‘Folks from the Carolinas northward through the Mid-Atlantic and New England need to be paying attention to Earl and the forecasts as they get updated through the week,’ Brennan said.”

ALBANY, N.Y., Aug. 31 (UPI) — Salmonella associated with a half billion eggs recalled by Iowa producers hasn’t reached New York, but precautions should still be taken, officials say.

“The chances of New Yorkers becoming infected are minimal, but we urge people to take precautions when cooking and eating eggs to ensure they are safe,” Dr. Richard F. Daines, New York state health commissioner, said in a statement.

Refrigeration of an egg inhibits the growth of salmonella in infected eggs and cooking the egg reduces the number of bacteria. People who eat raw or undercooked eggs, or foods containing raw or undercooked eggs, are at greater risk of being infected, Daines says.

Daines recommends people:

– Refrigerate eggs at 45 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.

– Don’t use eggs that are dirty or cracked.

– Cook eggs and any food containing eggs to 145 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Eggs should be cooked until both the white and yolk are firm.

– Don’t eat raw or runny eggs. Use pasteurized eggs for any recipes that call for raw eggs such as Hollandaise sauce or Caesar salad dressing.

– Eat eggs promptly and refrigerate any unused or leftover foods that contain eggs. Eggs that are warm or at room temperature for more than 2 hours should be discarded.

– Wash hands and surfaces that have been in contact with raw eggs.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Tropical Storm Fiona could be gaining strength and heading west, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said on Tuesday.  The tropical storm took form in the south Atlantic Ocean on Monday and forecasters expected it to follow the path of Hurricanes Earl and Danielle.

In an advisory on Tuesday at 5 p.m. EDT, forecasters said Fiona formed roughly 900 miles east of the Leeward Islands with maximum winds of 40 miles per hour.  The storm was heading west at 24 miles per hour and expected to head in a west-northwest direction but change direction towards the northwest on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, no storm warnings or watches had been issued for the region.

In related news, Hurricane Earl churned across the Atlantic Tuesday with 135 mph winds, but was still 1,070 miles from Cape Hatteras, N.C., at 11 a.m. EDT, forecasters said.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Earl was expected to maintain Category 4 status for the next day or two.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency Monday urged residents along the East Coast to prepare for severe weather, CNN reported.

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 31 (UPI) — Cars could get triple current fuel economy figures by 2035 if U.S. drivers will accept smart technology over pure horsepower, a researcher says.

As federal regulators prepare the next round of fuel economy mandates, John DeCicco of the University of Michigan and the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute says the most cost-effective answer is steady progress in advanced combustion engines and hybrid drive, an institute release said Tuesday.

DeCicco says the solution is a “revolution by evolution” rather than politically trendy breakthrough technologies that will remain too expensive for most consumers.

“If we really prioritize efficiency, we can get just as far with less sticker shock,” he said. “Evolutionary change can be of profound consequence for cutting oil use and greenhouse gas emissions, and do so with manageable costs and minimal risks for automakers.”

Optimizing internal combustion engines and more adoption of grid-free hybrids will enable new fleet efficiency levels to reach 52 mpg by 2025 and 74 mpg by 2035, he predicts.

“The fleet I’ve modeled for 2025 does not give up any of the performance and creature comforts consumers already enjoy,” he said. “You don’t have to go back to being Fred Flintstone, but you will see lower fuel costs instead of ever more mass and muscle.”

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PLYMOUTH, England, Aug. 31 (UPI) — A “natural laboratory” in the Mediterranean revealing effects of carbon dioxide levels in oceans paints a bleak picture for future marine life, researchers say.

Scientists from the University of Plymouth in England, along with Brazilian researchers, studying single celled organisms called Foraminifera around natural volcanic carbon dioxide vents off of Naples, Italy, found that increasing levels of the gas caused diversity of the creatures to fall from 24 species to 4, ScienceDaily.com reported Tuesday.

“Previous studies have shown a reduction in diversity of 30 percent, but this is even bigger for forams (Foraminifera),” Jason Hall-Spencer, one of the study’s co-authors, said. “A tipping point occurs at mean pH 7.8. This is the pH level predicted for the end of this century.”

Increasing carbon dioxide levels acidify the ocean, which has a devastating effect on organisms that have calcium carbonate shells, like Foraminifera, he said.

“At a mean pH level of 7.8, calcified organisms begin to disappear, and non-calcifying ones take over,” Hall-Spencer said. “We are headed towards that being the case in this century.

“The big concern for me is that unless we curb carbon emissions we risk mass extinctions, degrading coastal waters and encouraging outbreaks of toxic jellyfish and algae,” he said.

“Our natural laboratory provides a glimpse into the future of our oceans,” he said.

“These are the first CO2 vents to be used to study ocean acidification. They allow us to observe how ecosystems react to changes in ocean acidity. We can see for our own eyes what increasing CO2 levels do to marine communities,” Hall-Spencer said.

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BRIGHAM CITY, Utah, Aug. 31 (UPI) — NASA says it has successfully tested the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor that could be used for future U.S. heavy lift launch vehicles.

ATK Aerospace Systems of Brigham City, Utah, conducted the 2-minute, full-scale stationary firing of the first-stage development solid rocket motor, dubbed DM-2, a NASA release said.

The first-stage solid rocket motor is designed to generate up to 3.6 million pounds of thrust at launch.

Although similar to the solid rocket boosters that help power the space shuttle to orbit, the five-segment development motor includes several upgrades and technology improvements implemented by NASA and ATK engineers, the space agency said.

The external motor cases are flight-proven hardware used on shuttle launches for more than three decades. The cases used in this ground test have collectively launched 59 previous missions, NASA said.

The solid rocket motor was built as an element of NASA’s heavy-lift Constellation Program.

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