September 2012 story tips
2012-09-07
(Press-News.org) ENERGY – Revolutionary heat pump . . .
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Oklahoma's ClimateMaster Inc. have collaborated to develop a ground source heat pump that can reduce a homeowner's electric bill by up to 60 percent. The Trilogy 40 is the first geothermal heat pump certified by the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute to achieve a space cooling efficiency rating in excess of 40 EER (energy efficiency ratio). An EER rating of 13.5 is typical of conventional heat pumps. For a family living in a 2,600-square-foot well-insulated home, that translates into average annual savings of $300 to $500 vs. today's state-of-the-art and minimum efficiency heat pumps, respectively. Savings could be much greater for individual cases. The Trilogy 40 is the culmination of a five-year cooperative research and development agreement and advances the integrated heat pump concept developed by ORNL. The U.S. Department of Energy and ORNL have a long tradition of researching, testing and verifying heat pump technology. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]
SUPERCOMPUTING -- The real oxygen-23 . . .
To really understand the mundane world we live in we must also understand matter at the edge of the nuclear landscape. Computational researchers have contributed to this understanding with an intensive simulation of the short-lived oxygen-23 isotope. Working with colleagues at the University of Tennessee and the University of Oslo in Norway, the team helped overturn a decade-old misconception about how this isotope is put together. Their work is discussed in a recent edition of the journal Physical Review C. [Contact: Leo Williams, (865) 574-8891; williamsjl2@ornl.gov]
VEHICLES – Charging on the move . . .
Owners of electric cars could kiss that cumbersome cord goodbye without losing efficiency because of a proprietary technology developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Not only would this mean never having to plug your car in while it's parked in your garage, it could mean not having to plug in at all. ORNL's charging system magnetically couples an electric source to your car's battery with an industry-leading 90 percent efficiency, making it as efficient as plugging in -- without the hassle. A team led by John Miller of ORNL's Power Electronics Group is first focusing on refining static systems for charging stationary vehicles, but the ultimate goal is to charge vehicles as they are in motion. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]
COMBUSTION – Hitting on all cylinders . . .
With the first demonstration of a dual-fuel advanced combustion cycle in a modified multi-cylinder engine, researchers have moved closer to delivering on the promise of increased fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers started with a 2007 General Motors 1.9-liter four-cylinder diesel engine, which they modified for reactivity controlled compression ignition operation. The engine was configured to have two separate fuel systems -- the original direct-injection diesel fuel system plus a port fuel injection system for gasoline-like fuels. In addition to improved efficiency and lower nitrogen oxide and soot emissions, this combustion mode features greater fuel flexibility when compared to other advanced combustion. This ORNL milestone, made possible with the help of the University of Wisconsin, bridges the gap between fundamental and applied research, said Scott Curran of ORNL's Fuels Engines and Emissions group. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]
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2012-09-07
URBANA – As a college student, you may be happy simply not to have gained the "Freshman 15." But a University of Illinois study shows that as little as 1.5 pounds per year is enough to raise blood pressure in that age group, and the effect was worse for young women.
"In our study, a small weight gain was enough to raise a college student's systolic blood pressure by 3 to 5 points. If young people continue to gain 1.5 pounds a year and think it doesn't matter, they're misleading themselves and increasing their risk for heart disease," said Margarita Teran-Garcia, a U of ...
2012-09-07
A new study published in a special issue of Substance Abuse finds that recovering alcoholics who help others in 12-step programs furthers their time sober, consideration for others, step-work, and long-term meeting attendance.
These novel findings are from a 10-year, prospective investigation led by Maria Pagano, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the "Helping Others" study. Dr. Pagano and colleagues evaluated the decade long of treatment outcomes using data from a single site in ...
2012-09-07
Boston, Mass. - Sepsis, or bacterial infection of the bloodstream, is a grave, hard-to-diagnose threat in premature newborns in the NICU. Even when it's detected and treated with antibiotics, its inflammatory effects can harm fragile babies' development. Now, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have modeled the effects of sepsis on the unique newborn immune system, using mice. They and others have begun using the model to identify diagnostic markers and better treatments.
The new model is described September 6 in the online open-access journal PLOS ONE (available ...
2012-09-07
SALT LAKE CITY Sept. 6, 2012 - University of Utah engineers mapped white blood cells called eonsinophils and showed an existing diagnostic method may overlook an elusive digestive disorder that causes swelling in the esophagus and painful swallowing.
By pinpointing the location and density of eosinophils, which regulate allergy mechanisms in the immune system, these researchers suggest the disease eosinophilic esophagitis, or EoE, may be under- or misdiagnosed in patients using the current method, which is to take tissue samples (biopsies) with an endoscope.
These ...
2012-09-07
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 6, 2012 -- After last year's accidental discovery of "zombie"-like bees infected with a fly parasite, SF State researchers are conducting an elaborate experiment to learn more about the plight of the honey bees.
The scientists are tagging infected bees with tiny radio trackers, and monitoring the bees' movements in and out of a specially designed hive on top of the Hensill Hall biology building on campus. At the same time, they are monitoring hives on campus and on the roof of the San Francisco Chronicle's offices for further signs of the mysterious ...
2012-09-07
A protein called "clathrin," which is found in every human cell and plays a critical role in transporting materials within them, also plays a key role in cell division, according to new research at the University of California, San Francisco.
The discovery, featured on the cover of the Journal of Cell Biology in August, sheds light on the process of cell division and provides a new angle for understanding cancer. Without clathrin, cells divide erratically and unevenly—a phenomenon that is one of the hallmarks of the disease.
"Clathrin is doing more than we thought ...
2012-09-07
A study carried out by Dr. Louis Bherer, PhD (Psychology), Laboratory Director and Researcher at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM), an institution affiliated with Université de Montréal, has shown that all seniors, even those considered frail, can enjoy the benefits of exercise in terms of their physical and cognitive faculties and quality of life and that these benefits appear after only three months.
This discovery is excellent news, as increased life expectancy has also increased the number of frail seniors in our communities. In geriatrics, ...
2012-09-07
Untreated severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in the elderly, and adequate treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) may significantly reduce this risk, according to a new study from researchers in Spain.
"Although the link between OSA and cardiovascular mortality is well established in younger patients, evidence on this relationship in the elderly has been conflicting," said lead author Miguel Ángel Martínez-García, MD, of La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital in Valencia, Spain. "In ...
2012-09-07
Cincinnati, OH, September 7, 2012 – Heart defects are the most common form of congenital malformations affecting newborns. Infants who were prenatally diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD) are more stable and have better outcomes than infants who were diagnosed after birth. Diagnosing CHD in a fetus also allows mothers to educate themselves on heart malformations, consider their options, and potentially plan for intervention or surgery after birth. However, a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics finds that, along with these benefits, ...
2012-09-07
Melanoma, newly diagnosed in more than 76,000 Americans in 2011, is the most common and dangerous form of skin cancer. Melanoma is rare in children, accounting for 1 to 4 percent of all melanoma cases and just 3 percent of pediatric cancers. Just as adult cases of melanoma are increasing, pediatric melanoma is rising at the rate of 1 to 4 percent per year.
The physicians and staff at Moffitt Cancer Center have a special interest in melanoma and related conditions occurring in childhood, and recently published results of their experience with cases of pathologically ...
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[Press-News.org] September 2012 story tips
