Boulder, Colo., USA - In the August 2014 issue of LITHOSPHERE, Steve Israel of the Yukon Geological Survey and colleagues provide conclusions regarding the North American Cordillera that they say "are provocative in that they blur the definition of tectonic terranes, showing that many observations of early geologists can be attributed to evolving geologic processes rather than disparate geologic histories." Western North America is characterized by the Cordilleran accretionary mountain belt, which has seen episodic plate convergence since the early Paleozoic, about 253 ...

Topological transport of light is the photonic analog of topological electron flow in certain semiconductors. In the electron case, the current flows around the edge of the material but not through the bulk. It is "topological" in that even if electrons encounter impurities in the material the electrons will continue to flow without losing energy. In the photonic equivalent, light flows not through and around a regular material but in a meta-material consisting of an array of tiny glass loops fabricated on a silicon substrate. If the loops are engineered just right, ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Modern humans appear in the fossil record about 200,000 years ago, but it was only about 50,000 years ago that making art and advanced tools became widespread. A new study appearing Aug. 1 in the journal Current Anthropology finds that human skulls changed in ways that indicate a lowering of testosterone levels at around the same time that culture was blossoming. "The modern human behaviors of technological innovation, making art and rapid cultural exchange probably came at the same time that we developed a more cooperative temperament," said lead author ...

Coral Gables, Fla. (July 31, 2014) -- Quantifying and transforming the history of culture into visual representation isn't easy. There are thousands of individual stories, across thousands of years, to consider, and some historical conditions are nearly impossible to measure. Addressing this challenge, Dr. Maximilian Schich, associate professor of arts and technology at The University of Texas at Dallas, brought together a team of network and complexity scientists, including University of Miami physicist Chaoming Song, to create and quantify a big picture of European ...

August 1, 2014 — (BRONX, NY) — Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that bacteria that aid in digestion help keep the intestinal lining intact. The findings, reported online in the journal Immunity, could yield new therapies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and a wide range of other disorders. The research involved the intestinal microbiome, which contains some 100 trillion bacteria. The role of these microorganisms in promoting or preventing disease is a major emerging field of study. Einstein scientists found that absorption ...

A train of developing tropical low pressure areas stretch from the Eastern Pacific Ocean into the Central Pacific and they were captured in an image from NOAA's GOES-West satellite on August 1. The train of five tropical lows include the remnants of Tropical Storm Genevieve and newly developed Tropical Storm Iselle. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of the Pacific Ocean on August 1 at 1200 UTC (8 a.m. EDT) that showed post-tropical cyclone Genevieve's remnants between three other systems. The GOES-West image shows the train of storms with a well-developed Iselle ...

Understanding eye diseases is tricky enough. Knowing what causes them at the molecular level is even more confounding. Now, University of Iowa researchers have created the most detailed map to date of a region of the human eye long associated with blinding diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration. The high-resolution molecular map catalogs thousands of proteins in the choroid, which supplies blood and oxygen to the outer retina, itself critical in vision. By seeing differences in the abundance of proteins in different areas of the choroid, the researchers can ...

VIDEO: This 3-D flyby of Tropical Storm Bertha on Aug. 1 was created from TRMM satellite data. It shows (from the south) intense thunderstorms were reaching heights of over 15km (about... Click here for more information. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM found rain was falling heavily in the Atlantic Ocean's second tropical storm of the hurricane season. Bertha was close to the Lesser Antilles, prompting warnings and watches. The National Hurricane ...

More than 10,000 reptile species have been recorded into the Reptile Database, a web-based catalogue of all living reptile species and classification, making the reptile species among the most diverse vertebrate groups in the world, alongside bird and fish species. For some time, experts have projected that 2014 would mark the year that reptiles would become the most diverse vertebrate group in the world. Reptiles include snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, tuataras and amphisbaenians. "Officially, we have logged 10,038 reptile species into the database, which is ...

NASA satellite data showed Tropical Storm Halong's "best side" or most powerful side was east of its center. That's where the coldest cloud top temperatures and strongest thunderstorms appeared on satellite imagery. On August 1 at 13:30 UTC (9:30 a.m. EDT) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured an infrared picture of Tropical Storm Halong. The infrared data showed the coldest, strongest thunderstorm cloud-top temperatures east of the center of circulation. Cloud tops were as cold as -80F/-62C. Cloud ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 1, 2014—Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who want to conceive a child may face the same problems as some of their heterosexual and cisgendered peers, such as reduced fertility, but in addition they often face additional physiological and legal challenges to become parents. A comprehensive review of the most recent advances in assisted reproduction options is presented in the article "LGBT Assisted Reproduction: Current Practice and Future Possibilities," published in LGBT Health, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, ...

Scientists examining a taxonomically confused group of marine mammals have officially named a species new to science: the Australian humpback dolphin, Sousa sahulensis, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and Clymene Enterprises. The study describing the newly named species is the culmination of a 17-year long systematic examination of all available historical records, physical descriptions, and genetic data of humpback dolphins—a widespread group of coastal cetaceans ranging from the coast of West Africa to the northern coast of Australia. The Australian ...

CHICAGO (August 1, 2014)—The use of electronic reminders such as text messages, emails or voicemails is highly effective at getting surgical patients to adhere to a preadmission antiseptic showering regimen known to help reduce risk of surgical site infections (SSIs), according to a first-of-its-kind study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Each year approximately 400,000 SSIs occur and lead to a death rate approaching nearly 100,000 according to data sources cited by study authors. To help reduce the risk of these dangerous ...

This news release is available in German. Parkinson's disease affects neurons in the Substantia nigra brain region – their mitochondrial activity ceases and the cells die. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics show that supplying D-lactate or glycolate, two products of the gene DJ-1, can stop and even counteract this process: Adding the substances to cultured HeLa cells and to cells of the nematode C. elegans restored the activity of mitochondria and prevented the degeneration of neurons. They also showed that the two substances ...

Tropical Storm Iselle was born in the Eastern Pacific Ocean soon after NASA's Aqua satellite gathered infrared imagery on the storm that showed powerful thunderstorms wrapping into developing storm's center. Iselle is not close enough to land to cause any watches or warnings. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite passed over System 95E on July 31 at 5:23 p.m. EDT from gathered infrared data before it became Tropical Storm Iselle. The data was made into a false-colored image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. ...

Boulder, Colorado, USA – Hydraulic engineering is increasingly relied on for hydroelectricity generation. However, redirecting stream flow can yield unintended consequences. In the August 2014 issue of GSA Today, Donald Rodbell of Union College-Schenectady and coauthors from the U.S. and Peru document the wholesale contamination of the Lake Junín National Reserve by acid mine drainage from the Cerro de Pasco mining district. According to the World Bank, about 60% of Peru's electricity is generated by hydropower, which during the dry season relies heavily on glacial meltwater ...

LA JOLLA, CA—August 1, 2014—Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified a signaling pathway that switches on a powerful calorie-burning process in brown fat cells. The study, which is reported in this week's online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds light on a process known as "brown fat thermogenesis," which is of great interest to medical researchers because it naturally stimulates weight loss and may also protect against diabetes. "This finding offers new possibilities for the therapeutic activation ...

New mums are being urged to be cautious about returning to work too quickly, after a QUT study found one in two were still excessively sleepy four months after giving birth. Dr Ashleigh Filtness, from QUT's Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q), studied the sleep patterns and tiredness of postpartum mums and found despite new mums recording stable night sleep times at 18 weeks, they continued to report being excessively tired. The CARRS-Q study, published in PLOS ONE, followed 33 healthy new mums who recorded their postpartum sleep patterns ...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) currently ranks second after mental retardation among neurological disorders in terms of cost to society. Pain is a debilitating consequence of SCI related to the nature of the lesion, neurological structures damaged, and secondary pathophysiological changes of surviving tissues1. Approximately two-thirds of persons who have sustained SCI experience clinically significant pain after injury, of whom one-third have severe pain2, 3. Post-SCI pain can increase with time and is often refractory to conventional treatment approaches4. Over the past decade, ...

Acrolein, a highly reactive unsaturated aldehyde, has been shown to play a major role in the secondary injury by contributing significantly to both motor and sensory deficits. Prof. Riyi Shi, who comes from University of Purdue in USA will highlight the recent developments in the understanding of the mechanisms of acrolein in motor and sensory dysfunction in animal models of spinal cord injury, and will also discuss the therapeutic benefits of using acrolein scavengers to attenuate acrolein-mediated neuronal damage following spinal cord injury. The relevant study has been ...

Advances in stem cell research will provide enormous opportunities for both biological and future clinical applications. Basically, stem cells could replicate any other cells in the body, offering immense hope of curing Alzheimer's disease, repairing damaged spinal cords, treating kidney, liver and lung diseases and making damaged hearts whole. The potential for profit is staggering. Prof. Jinhui Chen from Indiana University in USA considered that this field of research still faces myriad biological, ethical, legal, political, and financial challenges. The eventual resolution ...

Sieve elements are a key component of phloem, the conductive tissue through which plants transport carbohydrates and a wide range of signalling molecules. Elongated cylindrical cells are capped at one end by a sieve plate and arranged end-to-end to form sieve tubes which in turn form a network throughout a plant's body. "Sieve elements are very special cells which play an important role in carbon sequestration, yet so far very little has been known about their differentiation," says Professor Ykä Helariutta from the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, ...

In recent years, minimally invasive aesthetic injectable procedures have grown in popularity as more and more men and women are seeking age-defying treatments. As Botulinum toxin – generally known as BOTOX® – use has increased, a growing number of nonaesthetic health professionals have emerged to perform procedures utilizing this and other injectables. Kevin Small, MD and Henry M. Spinelli, MD from the Division of Plastic Surgery Presbyterian Hospital in New York and Kathleen M. Kelly, MD from Columbia University in New York have assessed the capability of various providers ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Researchers at MIT and in Saudi Arabia have developed a new way of making surfaces that can actively control how fluids or particles move across them. The work might enable new kinds of biomedical or microfluidic devices, or solar panels that could automatically clean themselves of dust and grit. "Most surfaces are passive," says Kripa Varanasi, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, and senior author of a paper describing the new system in the journal Applied Physics Letters. "They rely on gravity, or other forces, to move fluids or ...

RICHLAND, Wash. – Sun, wind and other renewable energy sources could make up a larger portion of the electricity America consumes if better batteries could be built to store the intermittent energy for cloudy, windless days. Now a new material could allow more utilities to store large amounts of renewable energy and make the nation's power system more reliable and resilient. A paper published today in Nature Communications describes an electrode made of a liquid metal alloy that enables sodium-beta batteries to operate at significantly lower temperatures. The new electrode ...