Researchers examine energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in almond production
2015-07-20
(Press-News.org) California-grown almonds dominate the global market, providing over 80% of the world's commercial almonds. Two new articles published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology examine the environmental impacts of California's almond production, focusing on greenhouse gas emissions and energy.
Investigators noted that certain practices reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use substantially, including strategic utilization of co-products and the choice of water source and irrigation technology. Both of these may be influenced by regional variability in resources.
"Our research shows 1 kilogram of California almonds typically results in less than 1 kilogram of CO2 emissions, a lower carbon footprint than many other nutrient and energy dense foods. These results include the use of almond co-products--orchard biomass, hulls, and shells--for renewable power generation and dairy feed," said Dr. Alissa Kendall, corresponding author of both articles.
"Under ideal circumstances, which are feasible but not in place today, California almonds could become carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative, largely through improved utilization of orchard biomass."
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-07-20
Studies that have assessed the effects of total knee replacement on quality of life are scarce and have been almost exclusively limited to patients with osteoarthritis, even though rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory arthritis for which the surgery is indicated.
In a new study that assessed the effects of total knee replacement in rheumatoid arthritis patients versus osteoarthritis patients, researchers found that the surgery is highly effective in reducing knee pain and also provides benefits in other subjective quality of life indices in patients with ...
2015-07-20
Examining post-mortem tissue from the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, Stanford University School of Medicine investigators identified what appear to be iron-containing microglia -- specialized scavenger cells that sometimes become inflammatory -- in a particular part of the hippocampus, a key brain structure whose integrity is critical to memory formation.
In post-mortem brain tissue from people not diagnosed with Alzheimer's, neither the iron deposits nor the scavenger cells engulfing them were present in that brain region.
The findings, recounted in a ...
2015-07-20
In a new study, women considered the position and shape of the urethral opening to be the least important aspects of a penis' appearance.
They also perceived the genitals of men who underwent surgery to treat distal hypospadias--a congenital condition in which the opening of the urethra is on the underside of the penis--to be as normal-looking as nonaffected, circumcised genitals.
"The information may help prevent the development of shame or impaired genital perceptions about penile appearance," said Dr. Norma Ruppen, lead author of The Journal of Sexual Medicine study.
INFORMATION:
...
2015-07-20
In a study of 2239 individuals with chronic widespread pain, the key feature of fibromyalgia, those who regularly consumed alcohol had lower levels of disability than those who never or rarely drank.
Those who drank 21 to 35 units of alcohol per week were 67% less likely than never drinkers to experience disability. (One unit of alcohol is a half pint of average strength beer/lager, one small glass of wine, or one single measure of spirits.).
"Although we cannot say that alcohol consumption causes less disability among people with chronic widespread pain, the observed ...
2015-07-20
New research provides mathematical evidence that Michelangelo used the Golden Ratio of 1.6 when painting The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Golden Ratio is found when you divide a line into two parts so that the longer part divided by the smaller part is equal to the whole length divided by the longer part.
The Golden Ratio has been linked with greater structural efficiency and has puzzled scientists for centuries due to its frequent occurrence in nature--for example in snail shells and flower petals. The Golden Ratio can also be found in a ...
2015-07-20
Fossil fuel emissions could soon make it impossible for radiocarbon dating to distinguish new materials from artefacts that are hundreds of years old.
Carbon released by burning fossil fuels is diluting radioactive carbon-14 and artificially raising the radiocarbon 'age' of the atmosphere, according to a paper published today (Monday 20 July 2015) in the journal PNAS.
Radiocarbon measurements have a range of uses, from analysing archaeological finds, to detecting fraudulent works of art, to identifying illegal ivory trading, to assessing the regeneration of brain cells ...
2015-07-20
Music enhances the teenage brain's response to sound; sharpens language skills
Band class had larger effect on brain than fitness-based ROTC training
Results highlight music's place in the high school curriculum
Kraus: 'Music may engender what educators refer to as learning to learn'
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Music training, begun as late as high school, may help improve the teenage brain's responses to sound and sharpen hearing and language skills, suggests a new Northwestern University study.
The research, to be published the week of July 20 in the Proceedings ...
2015-07-20
Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center's Center for Cognitive Neurology have evidence that monoclonal antibodies they developed may provide the blueprint for effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease.
A team led by Fernando Goni, PhD, an adjunct associate professor of Neurology, and Thomas Wisniewski MD, director of the Center for Cognitive Neurology at NYU Langone, showed that a novel class of monoclonal antibodies successfully targeted proteins that change shape and misfold, becoming toxic and triggering ...
2015-07-20
Infants can use their expectations about the world to rapidly shape their developing brains, researchers have found.
A series of experiments with infants ages 5 to 7 months has shown that portions of babies' brains responsible for visual processing respond not just to the presence of visual stimuli, but also to the mere expectation of visual stimuli, according to the researchers from Princeton University, the University of Rochester and the University of South Carolina.
That type of sophisticated neural processing was once thought to happen only in adults and not infants, ...
2015-07-20
Washington, DC - July 20, 2015 - Biofilms are tough, opportunistic, highly antibiotic resistant bacterial coatings that form on catheters and on medical devices implanted within the body. University of Maryland investigators have now shown that a "messenger molecule" produced by the opportunistic human pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, encourages bacteria to colonize catheters in the bladders of laboratory mice, where they form biofilms. The research appears July 20th in the Journal of Bacteriology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.
Normally, in ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Researchers examine energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in almond production
