LIMA--(2 December 2014) A new peer-reviewed study, released today at the start of the UN climate conference in Peru, reveals the unprecedented amount of carbon stored within the nine-nation network of Amazonian indigenous territories and protected natural areas. Accepted for publication in Carbon Management, the paper entitled, "Forest Carbon in Amazonia: The Unrecognized Contributions of Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas," suggests that protecting the vast amount of carbon stored above ground in the forests of indigenous and protected lands - totaling ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. - According to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Board, 31 percent of Americans surveyed said they had no retirement savings, and almost half were not actively thinking about planning for retirement. Studies show that many Americans do not invest because they distrust the market and fear financial losses. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found a way for financial planners to help decrease their clients' worries, which stem from the fear of losing money. Michael Guillemette, an assistant professor in the MU College of Human Environmental ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. - To hunt or not hunt wolves can't be quantified as simply as men vs. women, hunters vs. anti-hunters, Democrats vs. Republicans or city vs. rural. What's truly fueling the divisive debate is fear of wolves or the urge to care for canis lupis. The social dynamics at play and potential options for establishing common ground between sides can be found in the current issue of the journal PLOS ONE. "People who are for or against this issue are often cast into traditional lots, such as gender, political party or where they live," said Meredith Gore, associate ...

Using a novel gene knock-in technique, effective insertion of an exogenous gene was demonstrated in human cells and in animal models, including silkworms and frogs. This strategy universally enables gene knock-in not only in cultured cells, but also in various organisms. Genome editing using programmable nucleases enables homologous recombination (HR)-mediated gene knock-in. HR activity, however, is relatively low in most cultured cells and organisms. This problem presents technical hurdles for the application of HR-mediated knock-in technology in the field of life sciences. ...

RICHLAND, Wash. - A new study will help researchers create longer-lasting, higher-capacity lithium rechargeable batteries, which are commonly used in consumer electronics. In a study published in the journal ACS Nano, researchers showed how a coating that makes high capacity silicon electrodes more durable could lead to a replacement for lower-capacity graphite electrodes. "Understanding how the coating works gives us an indication of the direction we need to move in to overcome the problems with silicon electrodes," said materials scientist Chongmin Wang of the Department ...

HANOVER, N.H. - Logging doesn't immediately jettison carbon stored in a forest's mineral soils into the atmosphere but triggers a gradual release that may contribute to climate change over decades, a Dartmouth College study finds. The results are the first evidence of a regional trend of lower carbon pools in soils of harvested hardwood forests compared to mature or pristine hardwood forests. The findings appear in the journal Global Change Biology Bioenergy. A PDF of the study is available on request. Despite scientists' growing appreciation for soil's role in the ...

PULLMAN, Wash. - More than one-third of new commercial building space includes energy-saving features, but without training or an operator's manual many occupants are in the dark about how to use them. Julia Day recently published a paper in Building and Environment showing for the first time that occupants who had effective training in using the features of their high-performance buildings were more satisfied with their work environments. Day did the work as a doctoral student at Washington State University; she is now an assistant professor at Kansas State University. Closed ...

TORONTO, ON - Scientists have long known that air pollution caused by cars and trucks, solvent use and even plants, is reduced when broken down by naturally occurring compounds that act like detergents of the atmosphere. What has not been well understood until now are the relative contributions of all the processes producing such compounds. A new study, led by University of Toronto atmospheric chemist Jennifer Murphy, shows a key component of the process is the soil beneath our feet. "Pollutants in the atmosphere are broken down by hydroxyl radicals that are produced ...

This news release is available in German. VIDEO: Scientists decode the three-dimensional structure of the calcium channel with unprecedented accuracy. Click here for more information. Whenever muscles contract, so-called ryanodine receptors come into play. Calcium ions, which are ultimately responsible for the contraction of muscle cells, are released from storage organs and flow ...

Researchers working at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have combined key features of two highly acclaimed X-ray spectroscopy techniques into a new technique that offers sub-nanometer resolution of every chemical element to be found at heterogeneous interfaces, such as those in batteries and fuel cells. This new technique is called SWAPPS for Standing Wave Ambient Pressure Photoelectron Spectroscopy, and it combines standing-wave photoelectron spectroscopy (SWPS) with high ambient ...

When wild birds are a big part of your diet, opening a freshly shot bird to find worms squirming around under the skin is a disconcerting sight. That was exactly what Victoria Kotongan saw in October, 2012, when she set to cleaning two of four spruce grouse (Falcipennis canadensis) she had taken near her home in Unalakleet, on the northwest coast of Alaska. The next day, she shot four grouse and all four harbored the long, white worms. In two birds, the worms appeared to be emerging from the meat. Kotongan, worried about the health of the grouse and the potential risk ...

NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible picture of Tropical Storm Hagupit in the western North Pacific Ocean on December 2, when several warnings were in effect for islands in Micronesia. Micronesia warnings include a Typhoon Warning for Woleai, Yap and Ngulu in Yap state, a Typhoon Watch posted for Faraulep, Fais and Ulithi in Yap state, and a Tropical Storm Warning for Faraulep in Yap state. When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hagupit on Dec. 2 at 03:45 UTC (Dec. 1 at 10:45 p.m. EST) the MODIS instrument took a visible picture of the storm that showed it had become ...

Over the past thirty years, physical activity among children has declined markedly. The public health implications of this decline include a growing prevalence of obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. A new issue of Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development expands the focus to ask whether physical activity is also related to children's brain and cognitive development and achievement in school. Scholarly articles published by over 20 researchers in Monographs, titled "The Relation of Childhood Physical Activity to Brain Health, ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Chemists and engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a fascinating new way to take some of the atmospheric carbon dioxide that's causing the greenhouse effect and use it to make an advanced, high-value material for use in energy storage products. This innovation in nanotechnology won't soak up enough carbon to solve global warming, researchers say. However, it will provide an environmentally friendly, low-cost way to make nanoporous graphene for use in "supercapacitors" - devices that can store energy and release it rapidly. Such devices ...

New research in mice suggests that restricting access to food to 8-12 hours rather than allowing constant access to food may help prevent and even reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes. The results of two studies publishing online December 2 in the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism suggest that this time-restricted eating affects the balance of bacteria found in the gut. Researchers also found the occasional "cheat days" on weekends did not undo the benefits of time-restricted eating in mice. Previously, investigators led by Dr. Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute ...

VIDEO: This video gives another case against the midnight snack. Click here for more information. LA JOLLA-These days, with the abundance of artificial light, TV, tablets and smartphones, adults and children alike are burning the midnight oil. What they are not burning is calories: with later bedtimes comes the tendency to eat. A new study by researchers at the Salk Institute cautions against an extended period of snacking, suggesting instead that confining caloric consumption ...

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College and the Gladstone Institutes have found a way to prevent noise-induced hearing loss in a mouse using a simple chemical compound that is a precursor to vitamin B3. This discovery has important implications not only for preventing hearing loss, but also potentially for treating some aging-related conditions that are linked to the same protein. Published today in Cell Metabolism, the researchers used the chemical nicotinamide riboside (NR) to protect the nerves that innervate the cochlea. The cochlea transmits sound information ...

The aging process affects everything from cardiovascular function to memory to sexuality. Most worrisome for many, however, is the potential loss of eyesight due to retinal degeneration. New progress towards a prosthetic retina could help alleviate conditions that result from problems with this vital part of the eye. An encouraging new study published in Nano Letters describes a revolutionary novel device, tested on animal-derived retinal models, that has the potential to treat a number of eye diseases. The proof-of-concept artificial retina was developed by an international ...

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have figured out how to reverse the characteristics of a key bonding material--polyurea--providing an inexpensive alternative for a broad number of applications, such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and packaging. "Polymers with transient stability in aqueous solution, also known as hydrolysable polymers, have been applied in many biomedical applications, such as in the design of drug delivery systems, scaffolds for tissue regeneration, surgical sutures, and transient medical devices and implants," ...

Some of the most elaborately decorated instruments in history were produced in 18th century Naples. The materials for varnishes and decorations used by individual mandolin masters, honed for wealthy clients in the ancient city's labyrinthine artisan quarter, have been kept secret for over 200 years. Details are disclosed for the first time by Tommaso Rovetta from the Università degli Studi di Pavia and colleagues at the Laboratorio Arvedi Research Group in Springer's journal Applied Physics A - Materials Science & Processing. Italian conservation scientists studied ...

Philadelphia, PA, December 2, 2014 - Few classes of drugs have had such a transformative effect on the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as have statins, prescribed to reduce total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. However, some clinicians have ongoing concerns regarding the potential for lens opacities (cataracts) as a result of statin use. In an article in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, researchers report increased risk for cataracts in patients treated with statins. An accompanying editorial discusses the history of statins and positions ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 2, 2014 - Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) today announced that clinical data from three studies with Prolaris in prostate cancer patients will be highlighted at the 2014 Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) Annual Meeting being held tomorrow in Rockville, Md. The new data show that the Prolaris test could save the healthcare system $6 billion over 10 years and that physicians are using the test appropriately to personalize treatment options for their patients. "Improving patient care is our highest priority, and we strive to prevent the ...

With the help of citizen scientists, a team of astronomers has found an important new example of a very rare type of galaxy that may yield valuable insight on how galaxies developed in the early Universe. The new discovery technique promises to give astronomers many more examples of this important and mysterious type of galaxy. The galaxy they studied, named J1649+2635, nearly 800 million light-years from Earth, is a spiral galaxy, like our own Milky Way, but with prominent "jets" of subatomic particles propelled outward from its core at nearly the speed of light. The ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Today's atmosphere likely bears little trace of its primordial self: Geochemical evidence suggests that Earth's atmosphere may have been completely obliterated at least twice since its formation more than 4 billion years ago. However, it's unclear what interplanetary forces could have driven such a dramatic loss. Now researchers at MIT, Hebrew University, and Caltech have landed on a likely scenario: A relentless blitz of small space rocks, or planetesimals, may have bombarded Earth around the time the moon was formed, kicking up clouds of gas with enough ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, December 2, 2014 -- "Selfish" may be the adjective most often attached to millennials. But new research from Concordia University shows that the young men and women who make up the millennial generation aren't so self-centred when it comes to supporting charities -- as long as marketers use the right tactics for each gender. The forthcoming study in The Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing confirms stereotypes and reveals an important paradox. When asked to support charitable causes, millennials -- those ...