An investigation into how owls fly and hunt in silence has enabled researchers to develop a prototype coating for wind turbine blades that could significantly reduce the amount of noise they make. Early tests of the material, which mimics the intricate structure of an owl's wing, have demonstrated that it could significantly reduce the amount of noise produced by wind turbines and other types of fan blades, such as those in computers or planes. Since wind turbines are heavily braked in order to minimise noise, the addition of this new surface would mean that they could ...

Children who benefit from a good memory are much better at covering up lies, researchers from the University of Sheffield have discovered. Experts found a link between verbal memory and covering up lies following a study which investigated the role of working memory in verbal deception amongst children. The study saw six to seven year old children presented with the opportunity to do something they were instructed not to -peek at the final answers on the back of a card during a trivia game. A hidden camera and correct answers to the question, which was based on ...

TAMPA, Fla. - The development of targeted therapies has significantly improved the survival of melanoma patients over the last decade; however, patients often relapse because many therapies do not kill all of the tumor cells, and the remaining cells adapt to treatment and become resistant. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have discovered a novel mechanism that can lead melanoma cells to develop resistance to drugs that target the protein BRAF. Mutations in the gene BRAF are the most common mutation found in melanoma, with up to 50 percent of tumors testing positive for ...

The American College of Physicians (ACP) letter in response to a May 22 Senate Finance Committee letter requesting recommendations and policies that will improve care for patients with chronic diseases. In a 19-page letter ACP President Wayne J. Riley, MD, MBA, MPH, MACP, to Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch; Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden; Co-chairman of the Chronic Care Working Group Johnny Isakson; and Co-chairman of the Chronic Care Working Group Mark Warner, provides 18 detailed recommendations to: Expand the flexibility of Medicare Advantage ...

TAMPA, Fla. - Cancer is the most common cause of death among Latinos. It is estimated that one out of every three Latina women will be diagnosed with cancer during her lifetime. Given the increasing Latino population in the United States, more emphasis has to be placed on educating this population about cancer. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, along with collaborators at the University of South Florida, recently published a study about the attitudes and cultural perspectives of Latinas undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. The article also discusses their cancer ...

Tropical Depression Bill continues to be a soaker as it travels in an east-northeasterly direction from Arkansas toward the Ohio Valley. NASA's Aqua satellite and NOAA's GOES-East satellites provided a look at the extent and the movement of the storm. The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Depression Bill's remnants over the central United States on June 18 at 19:45 UTC (3:45 p.m. EDT). At the time Aqua passed overhead, Bill's center was located in northeastern Oklahoma. The image showed that moisture from the Gulf of Mexico ...

ANN ARBOR--Public health officials stand poised to eliminate polio from the planet. But a new study shows that the job won't be over when the last case of the horrible paralytic disease is recorded. Using disease-transmission models, University of Michigan graduate research fellow Micaela Martinez-Bakker and two colleagues demonstrate that silent transmission of poliovirus could continue for more than three years with no reported cases. To ensure that the disease is truly eradicated, aggressive surveillance programs and vaccination campaigns must continue in endemic ...

Public health officials stand poised to eliminate polio from the planet. But a new study shows that the job won't be over when the last case of the horrible paralytic disease is recorded. In an article publishing June 19 in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, graduate research fellow Micaela Martinez-Bakker and professors Aaron A. King and Pejman Rohani of the University of Michigan Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology use disease-transmission models to show that silent transmission of poliovirus could continue for more than three years with no reported cases. To ...

There is no longer any doubt: We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity's existence. That is the bad news at the center of a new study by a group of scientists including Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Ehrlich and his co-authors call for fast action to conserve threatened species, populations and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing. "[The study] shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth ...

Psychiatric disorders can be difficult to diagnose because clinicians must rely upon interpreted clues, such as a patient's behaviors and feelings. For the first time, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report identifying a biological marker: the over-production of specific genes that could be a diagnostic indicator of mental illness in female psychiatric patients. The study was published this week in the journal EBioMedicine. Researchers found that the gene XIST, which is responsible for inactivating one of the two copies of the ...

Scientists for the first time tracked ultrafast structural changes, captured in quadrillionths-of-a-second steps, as ring-shaped gas molecules burst open and unraveled. Ring-shaped molecules are abundant in biochemistry and also form the basis for many drug compounds. The study points the way to a wide range of real-time X-ray studies of gas-based chemical reactions that are vital to biological processes. Researchers working at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory compiled the full sequence of steps in this basic ring-opening reaction into computerized ...

This news release is available in French. Lightning dart across the sky in a flash. And even though we can use lightning rods to increase the probability of it striking at a specific location, its exact path remains unpredictable. At a smaller scale, discharges between two electrodes behave in the same manner, streaking through space to create electric arcs where only the start and end points are fixed. How then can we control the current so that it follows a predetermined path? Professor Roberto Morandotti and his colleagues have discovered a way to guide electric ...

DARIEN, IL - A new study suggests that sleep disturbances and undiagnosed sleep apnea are common among middle-aged and older adults in the U.S., and these sleep problems occur more frequently among racial/ethnic minorities. Results show that 34 percent of participants had moderate or severe sleep-disordered breathing measured by polysomnography, and 31 percent had short sleep duration with less than 6 hours per night measured by actigraphy. Validated questionnaires also showed that 23 percent reported having insomnia, and 14 percent reported excessive daytime sleepiness. ...

Memphis, Tenn., JUNE 19 -- Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered how an immune system protein, called AIM2 (Absent in Melanoma 2), plays a role in determining the aggressiveness of colon cancer. They found that AIM2 deficiency causes uncontrolled proliferation of intestinal cells. Surprisingly, they also discovered that AIM2 influences the microbiota -- the population of gut bacteria -- apparently fostering the proliferation of 'good' bacteria that can protect against colon cancer. The team, led by Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, Ph.D., a member ...

If a firm faces troubled times during a stable market, strong advertising can carry it through. But when the market is turbulent, a firm's Research and Development is more likely to help save it from bankruptcy. A new study published in the Articles in Advance section of Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), shows that "intangible assets" built with advertising (such as brands) and R&D (such as patents) can help protect firms from bankruptcy, but the effectiveness of each depends on the market climate. The ...

A new study from the Forsyth Institute is helping to shed light on latent tuberculosis and the bacteria's ability to hide in stem cells. Some bone marrow stem cells reside in low oxygen (hypoxia) zones. These specialized zones are secured as immune cells and toxic chemicals cannot reach this zone. Hypoxia- activated cell signaling pathways may also protect the stem cells from dying or ageing. A new study led by Forsyth Scientist Dr. Bikul Das has found that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) hijack this protective hypoxic zone to hide intracellular to a special stem cell ...

An amino acid whose role in the body has been all but a mystery appears to act as a potent seizure inhibitor in mice, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins. In a series of experiments, the amino acid D-leucine, found in many foods and certain bacteria, interrupted prolonged seizures, a serious condition known as status epilepticus, and it did so just as effectively as the epilepsy drug diazepam -- the choice of treatment for patients in the throes of convulsions -- but without any of the drug's sedative side effects. Results of the federally funded research, ...

A new paper out of the iPrEx study--a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of daily oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in men and transgender women who have sex with men--reported no link between taking Truvada for oral PrEP and experiencing depression. During the iPrEx study, depression was the most frequently reported adverse event. As the use of Truvada for HIV prevention increases, it is important to understand the impact of PrEP on depression and whether depression can hinder PrEP. "We've shown Truvada to be safe and effective for HIV prevention," says senior ...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Sexual dysfunction in women can be linked to low resting heart rate variability, a finding that could help clinicians treat the condition, according to a study by psychologists from The University of Texas at Austin. Heart rate variability (HRV) -- the variation in the time intervals between a person's consecutive heartbeats -- can indicate how well an individual responds to physiological and environmental changes. Low resting heart rate variability has been associated with several mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety and alcohol dependence, ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- June 19, 2015 -- A genetic mutation responsible for a debilitating childhood neurological condition known as Aicardi syndrome has been identified by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). In a study published today in the scientific journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, TGen researchers identified mutations to a gene known as TEAD1, which not only affects formation of the brain but also the retina, the part of the eye responsible for helping turn light into nerve impulses. In addition, the TGen study found that -- contrary ...

WASHINGTON --Many seniors injured in motor vehicle crashes remain in pain for months afterwards, which negatively affects their quality of life, including the ability to live independently. The results of a study of older auto accident victims treated in emergency departments were published online yesterday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Persistent Pain Among Older Adults Discharged Home from the Emergency Department Following Motor Vehicle Collision: A Prospective Cohort Study"). "The types of injuries that younger people recover from relatively quickly seem to put ...

By volunteering to mail saliva to researchers working with their health care provider, thousands of people in California have helped build one of the nation's most powerful medical research tools. The researchers have now published the first reports describing these volunteers' genetic characteristics, how their self-reported ethnicity relates to genetic ancestry, and details of the innovative methods that allowed them to complete DNA analysis within 14 months. The articles are published in the journal GENETICS. "This is an incredible treasure trove of data. The information ...

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- First-time surgery can be concerning to any patient. Knee surgery -- even arthroscopic surgery to treat a torn meniscus -- can require significant preparation and rehabilitation. According to a new study appearing in the June 17 issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS), a web-based tutorial can not only increase a patient's understanding of the surgery but also provide a better experience. Meniscal tears are among the most common knee injuries in athletes; however, anyone at any age can tear a meniscus. Although various non-surgical methods ...

Putnam Valley, N.Y., June 19 -- Three years after they treated patients with spinal cord injury in a randomized clinical trial with transplanted cells from the patients' olfactory mucosa (nasal cavities) to build a 'bridge' to span the gap between the damaged ends of the spinal cord, researchers found that some recipients had experienced a range of modest improvements and determined that the use of olfactory mucosa lamina propria (OLP) transplants was 'promising and safe.' 'This study demonstrated that transplantation of OLP affected motor functional recovery as well ...

A telecommunications law academic in Australia has recommended for laws to be enacted criminalising the application of face recognition technology to visual images online that enable the identity of a person or people to be ascertained without their consent. An article published today in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology has looked at the absence of laws surrounding face recognition technologies and has found that there are no laws which specifically address the issue of unauthorised application of face recognition technologies to online images. ...