Researchers have shown for the first time that phytoplankton (plant life) in remote ocean regions can contribute to rare airborne particles that trigger ice formation in clouds. Results published this week (Wednesday 9 September) in the journal Nature show that the organic waste from life in the oceans, which is ejected into the atmosphere along with sea spray from breaking waves, stimulates cloud droplets to freeze into ice particles. This affects how clouds behave and influence global climate, which is important for improved projections of future climate change. Clouds ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--The Dirac cone, named after British physicist Paul Dirac, started as a concept in particle and high-energy physics and has recently became important in research in condensed matter physics and material science. It has since been found to describe aspects of graphene, a two dimensional form of carbon, suggesting the possibility of applications across various fields. Now physicists at MIT have found another unusual phenomenon produced by the Dirac cone: It can spawn a phenomenon described as a "ring of exceptional points." This connects two fields of ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (Sept. 9, 2015) - Alzheimer's disease (AD), which affects an estimated 26 million people worldwide, is the fourth leading cause of death among the elderly and the leading cause of dementia. Predictions are that the number of AD cases will quadruple by 2050. Although pharmacological methods for treating AD have been discovered, none significantly delay the progression of the disease. However, cell transplantation research using animals modeled with AD has indicated that human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCBCs) can ameliorate some cognitive deficits ...

The high frequency and magnitude of volcanic eruptions could have been the cause of the progressive cooling of ocean surfaces over a period of 1,800 years. This is made apparent in an international study published recently in the journal Nature Geoscience, involving researcher P. Graham Mortyn of the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and the UAB Department of Geography. The study emphasises that this trend came to an end with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the resulting global warming caused by human activity. It further shows ...

The world's grassy biomes are key contributors to biodiversity and ecosystem services, and are under immense pressure from conversion to agriculture and tree planting, report Joseph W. Veldman, of Iowa State University, and his colleagues in an article for the October issue of BioScience. The authors argue that forest- and tree-focused environmental policies and conservation initiatives have potentially dire ecological consequences for undervalued ecosystems, such as grasslands, savannas, and open-canopy woodlands. To illustrate this forest bias and its consequences, ...

LA JOLLA, Calif., September 9, 2015 - A consortium of investigators led by scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have found that a new class of drugs may be used to purge pockets of dormant HIV from a patient's body, eliminating the virus once and for all. Since these agents are already being explored in clinical trials for treating cancer, the route to approval for treating HIV may be significantly shorter than usual. Antiretroviral therapies have made it possible for people to live with HIV for decades. However, patients continue to ...

Scientists at Disney Research and the University of Washington (UW) have shown that a network of energy-harvesting sensor nodes equipped with onboard cameras can automatically determine each camera's pose and location using optical cues. This capability could help to enable networks of hundreds or thousands of sensors that could operate without batteries or external power and require minimal maintenance. Such networks could be part of the Internet of Things (IoT) in which objects can communicate and share information to create smart environments. Previous work at UW ...

A newly published research study by U.S. Forest Service researchers demonstrates that the social vulnerability indices used in climate change and natural hazards research can also be used in other contexts such as disease outbreaks. Authors of the article include Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) researchers John Stanturf, Scott Goodrick, Mel Warren, and Christie Stegall, and Susan Charnley from the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station. Published in the online journal PLOS ONE, the study illustrates how census and household survey data, when ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A new study reveals a pressing need to better understand water use in America's rivers, with implications for drought-stricken regions of the country. Findings from the study showed that virtually all of the water entering the Wabash River in Indiana during summer months is withdrawn and then returned to the waterway. "In a nutshell, in the summertime we generally use what is equivalent to the entire volume of the Wabash River so that by the time the river reaches the confluence of the Ohio River, the water in the Wabash on average has been through ...

GeoSpace Mercury's movements give scientists peek inside the planet The first measurements of Mercury's movements from a spacecraft orbiting the planet reveal new insights about the makeup of the solar system's innermost world and its interactions with other planetary bodies, found a new study recently accepted in Geophysical Research Letters. New research calls for rethinking of New Zealand's Alpine Fault The major fault line of New Zealand's Alpine Fault, which runs almost the entire length of the South Island, has been assumed to be a near vertical crack. However, ...

A deadly parasite that causes Chagas disease is widespread in a common Texas insect, according to a new study by University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) researchers. The finding suggests that the risk of Texans contracting the disease may be higher than previously thought. The parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), which causes Chagas disease can be transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects known as "assassin bugs" or "kissing bugs." Unlike mosquitoes that transmit malaria through the bite, kissing bugs drop feces on the subject while filling up with blood. The feces, ...

A low resting heart rate in late adolescence was associated with increased risk for violent criminality in men later in life, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry. Low resting heart rate is related to antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. Low resting heart rate (RHR) has been viewed either as an indicator of a chronically low level of psychological arousal, which may lead some people to seek stimulating experiences, or as a marker of weakened responses to aversive and stressful stimuli, which can lead to fearless behavior and risk taking. ...

Among patients 70 years or older who underwent elective surgery, major complications contributed significantly to a prolonged length of hospital stay while delirium contributed significantly to several adverse outcomes, including length of stay and hospital readmission, according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery. Major postoperative complications and delirium contribute independently to adverse outcomes and high resource use in patients who undergo major surgery; however, their interrelationship has not been well examined. Understanding the risks of adverse ...

A follow-up of nearly 60,000 women who received a synthetic vaginal mesh sling for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence finds the risk is low for needing a second surgery for mesh removal or revision (about 1 in 30 women ten years after surgery), according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery. Female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common condition that is often treated with surgery when conservative management options are unsuccessful. An estimated 1 in 7 women will undergo surgery for SUI during their lifetime. Synthetic mesh slings are the most ...

BOSTON -- Researchers from the Aging Brain Center at the Institute for Aging Research (IFAR) at Hebrew SeniorLife confirm that delirium is a significant and independent contributing factor to poor postsurgical outcomes in older adults. Findings published in JAMA Surgery suggest that the combination of major postoperative complications and delirium demonstrate a strong combined effect on adverse outcomes in older adults undergoing major surgery. Of all inpatient operations in the U.S. in 2007, 36% were performed on patients 65 years of age or older, and that number is ...

Capsaicin, the compound responsible for chilis' heat, is used in creams sold to relieve pain, and recent research shows that in high doses, it kills prostate cancer cells. Now researchers are finding clues that help explain how the substance works. Their conclusions suggest that one day it could come in a new, therapeutic form. Their study appears in ACS' The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. About 10 years ago, researchers reported that capsaicin can kill prostate cancer cells in mice while leaving healthy cells unharmed. But translating that dose to humans would require ...

An isolated, iron-rich bay in the heart of East Africa is offering scientists a rare glimpse back into Earth's primitive marine environment, and supports theories that tiny microbes created some of the world's largest ore deposits billions of years ago. According to University of British Columbia (UBC) research published this week in Scientific Reports, 30 per cent of the microbes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Kabuno Bay grow by a type of photosynthesis that oxidizes (rusts) iron rather than converting water into oxygen like plants and algae. "Kabuno Bay ...

Smoking has been shown to have drastic consequences for lifespan and disease progression, and it has been suggested that cigarette exposure may impact the risk of death and disease via its acceleration of the aging process. Not all smokers experience early mortality, however, and a small proportion manage to survive to extreme ages. Using long-lived smokers as their phenotype, the authors of a study published today in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences identified a network of SNPs (a DNA sequence variation occurring commonly ...

WASHINGTON - The percentage of poor children who received federal disability benefits for at least one of 10 major mental disorders increased from 1.88 percent in 2004 to 2.09 percent in 2013, and such growth is consistent with and proportionate to trends in the prevalence of diagnosed mental disorders among children in the general U.S. population, says a new report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The increase also is not unexpected. This is because a sizeable number of low-income children with disabling mental disorders do not receive ...

BOSTON -- Racial and ethnic inequalities in medical care are widely documented in literature. However, variations in Americans' experiences with healthcare, specifically regarding physician-patient communication and shared decision-making about treatment plans, are not well understood. A new study from Boston Medical Center, which suggests that a patient's race/ethnicity may influence the amount and type of information they receive from physicians regarding treatment recommendations, is published online in advance of print in the journal Patient Education and Counseling. "It's ...

Scientists have developed a new hybrid, solar-energy system that harnesses the full spectrum of the sun's radiation by pairing a photovoltaic cell with polymer films. The films convert the light that goes unused by the solar cell into heat and then converts the heat into electricity. They report on their device, which produces a voltage more than five times higher than other hybrid systems, in the journal ACS Nano. Solar cells today are getting better at converting sunlight to electricity, but commercial panels still harvest only part of the radiation they're exposed ...

September 9, 2015 - Getting a sports pre-participation exam (PPE) is a familiar preseason ritual for student athletes. But what about the growing number of people, of all ages, interested in participating in wilderness athletic and adventure events? Issues and advice on the PPE for wilderness athletes are featured in a special September issue of the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, published by Wolters Kluwer. The special issue provides health care providers, event organizers, and participants with an update on the PPE for wilderness athletes and adventurers. "By matching ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Brown-headed cowbirds have a reputation for being deadbeat parents: They lay their eggs in other birds' nests and then disappear, the story goes, leaving the care and feeding of their offspring to an unwitting foster family. A new study suggests, however, that cowbird moms pay close attention to how well their offspring do, returning to lay their eggs in the most successful host nests, and avoiding those that have failed. The new findings are reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "Cowbirds may be paying attention not only to their own ...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (September 9, 2015) -- Have you ever wondered why we call a dog a dog and not a cat? Is this an arbitrary decision, or is it based on iconicity--the resemblance between word structure and meaning? New research shows that for Indo-European languages, like English and Spanish, iconicity is more common than previously believed. The results are important for understanding the nature of human language, explains Lynn Perry, assistant professor of psychology in the University of Miami College of Arts & Sciences and co-lead author of the study. "Many linguists ...

In a study with 18 adults who had never smoked, scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have demonstrated one of the earliest steps -- nicotine "reinforcement" -- in the process of addiction, and shown that some people are far more vulnerable to nicotine addiction than others. In a summary of the research, published online Sept. 8 in the journal Psychopharmacology, the investigators say they have, for the first time, characterized the body's reaction to the first, tiniest "hits" of nicotine. The results, they say, should lay groundwork for future revelations about genetic ...