A fully renewable energy system, including all energy consuming sectors, is not only a possible but a viable solution for Finland, according to a new research. Researchers from Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) have investigated renewable energy system options for Finland in 2050. Results indicate that a fully renewable energy system is possible, and represents a competitive solution for Finland with careful planning. In order to achieve the national greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2050, all sectors of the energy system need to be nearly emission free ...

Scientists in the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, http://www.bnl.gov/rhic/), a particle accelerator exploring nuclear physics and the building blocks of matter at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, have new evidence for what's called a "chiral magnetic wave" rippling through the soup of quark-gluon plasma created in RHIC's energetic particle smashups. The presence of this wave is one of the consequences scientists were expecting to observe in the quark-gluon plasma--a state of matter that existed in the early ...

Researchers at the KU Leuven Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis have found a more eco-friendly way to derive lignin - a paper industry waste product - from wood and convert it into chemical building blocks. The resulting chemicals can be used in paint, insulation foam, and several other products. The researchers published their findings in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. Lignin is a substance in the cell walls of plants that strengthens their structure. When wood is processed into paper pulp, lignin is produced as a waste product. Researchers have ...

CINCINNATI - Children who received general anesthesia for surgery before age 4 had diminished language comprehension, lower IQ and decreased gray matter density in posterior regions of their brain, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report their findings in the journal's June 8 online edition. The authors recommend additional studies to determine anesthesia's precise molecular effects on the brain and contribution to diminished brain function and composition. Researchers say this knowledge ...

Philadelphia, PA, June 8, 2015 - Barrett's esophagus (BE) develops in a subset of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and can increase the risk of developing cancer of the esophagus. Although periodic surveillance for cancer is recommended for BE patients, these examinations may fail to identify pre-cancerous dysplasia and early cancers. A report in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics describes a test using next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect genomic mutations in precancerous esophageal tissue, which may improve cancer surveillance and early detection ...

Just one in 20 people worldwide (4·3%) had no health problems in 2013, with a third of the world's population (2·3 billion individuals) experiencing more than five ailments, according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2013, published in The Lancet. Moreover, the research shows that, worldwide, the proportion of lost years of healthy life (disability-adjusted life years; DALYS [1]) due to illness (rather than death) rose from around a fifth (21%) in 1990 to almost a third (31%) in 2013. As the world's population grows, ...

Sarcopenia is the aging-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength. Preventing sarcopenia is important for maintaining a high quality of life (QOL) in the aged population. However, the molecular mechanism of sarcopenia has not yet been unraveled and is still a matter of debate. Determining whether the levels of autophagy-related mediators (e.g., p62/SQSTM1, LC3, etc.) in muscle change with ageing is important to understanding sarcopenia. Such information could enhance the therapeutic strategies for attenuating mammalian sarcopenia. In previous studies, autophagic ...

Debates about legalizing marijuana have focused on crime rates, economic benefits, and health effects among adults. But a study published today from researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital shows that the risk to young children of swallowing, breathing in or otherwise being exposed to marijuana also needs to be considered. The study, published online today in Clinical Pediatrics, found that the rate of marijuana exposure among children 5 years of age and younger rose 147.5 percent from 2006 through 2013 across the United States. The rate increased almost 610 percent ...

SEATTLE -- People across the world are living longer but spending more time in ill health as rates of nonfatal diseases and injuries - including diabetes and hearing loss - decline more slowly than death rates, according to a new analysis of 301 diseases and injuries in 188 countries. Using a measurement known as years lived with disability, or YLDs, researchers from around the world quantified the impact of health problems that impair mobility, hearing, or vision, or cause pain in some way but aren't fatal. In 2013, low back pain and major depressive disorder were among ...

Clermont, Florida. (June 8, 2015) - A new national survey about men and their cars, commissioned by Orlando Health, found that more than 80 percent of men could remember the make and model of their first car, but only about half could remember the last time they went to the doctor for a check-up. The survey of approximately 1,000 men is being released in conjunction with the start of the Drive For Men's Health, a cross-country event where two of the top men's health surgeons in the US will travel 6,008 miles to promote awareness on various men's health topics. ...

Cancer cells share certain traits with anti-social members of human society. They shirk community responsibilities and engage in behavior aimed at fulfilling their selfish needs at the expense of the greater good. In a new study, Athena Aktipis, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, along with her international colleagues, explore the ways in which cancers bypass the protective mechanisms used by multicellular forms to ensure their survival and wellbeing. The paper identifies five foundations of multicellularity; maintenance factors present ...

The study, by engineers at the University of Sheffield, is the first to prove conclusively that contaminants can enter pipes through leaks and be transported through the pipe network. The pressure in mains water pipes usually forces water out through leaks, preventing anything else from getting in. But when there is a significant pressure drop in a damaged section of pipe, water surrounding the pipe can be sucked in through the hole. It had been assumed that only clean water from the leak would be sucked in, and that even if contaminants were sucked in these would ...

Glasgow, United Kingdom: The largest study to date of attitudes towards the use of genomic information shows that the majority of people want access to results from genome sequencing, even if these are not directly related to the condition for which the analysis has been undertaken. This applies even when the data are not health-related or are simply 'raw', a researcher will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Monday). Dr Anna Middleton, a Principal Staff Scientist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK, will describe ...

Research published today in the journal the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment has called for an overhaul of the way mobile devices are manufactured and contracted, in order to stop the harmful effects on the environment caused by current business models. Researchers from the University of Surrey analysed studies on the lifespan of mobile devices, from manufacture, use and disposal to see what impact each stage had on the environment. Through their investigation, they concluded that the current mobile business model, driven by frequent upgrades, is costing ...

A phase II clinical trial testing the ability of the generic vaccine bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) to reverse advanced type 1 diabetes has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The approval of this trial, which will shortly begin enrolling qualified patients, was announced today at the 75th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) by Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Immunobiology Laboratory and principal investigator of the study. The five-year trial will investigate ...

BOSTON (June 6, 2015) - From how people test their glucose levels to how long they can expect to live, almost everything has changed over the past 50 years for Americans with diabetes. A special symposium held at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions features a look back at what physicians and researchers have learned and how the lives of patients have changed during the past five decades. "There are things that have happened over the past 50 years that clearly make life a lot better for people," said Fred Whitehouse, MD, Division Head Emeritus ...

Until now, de novo genetic mutations, alterations in a gene found for the first time in one family member, were believed to be mainly the result of new mutations in the sperm or eggs (germline) of one of the parents and passed on to their child. Researchers from The Netherlands have now succeeded in determining that at least 6.5% of de novo mutations occur during the development of the child (post-zygotic) rather than from the germline of a parent. The research is published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics*. Christian Gilissen, PhD, Assistant Professor ...

Glasgow, United Kingdom: Thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection (TAAD), an enlargement or tearing of the walls of the aorta in the chest, is, together with abdominal aortic aneurysms, responsible for about 2% of all deaths in Western countries. The aorta is the largest artery in the body, and carries blood from the heart. About one out of every five patients with TAAD has a family member with the same disorder, therefore indicating a genetic cause. However, the relevant genetic mutations discovered so far only explain about 30% of all cases. Through the study of a large ...

Glasgow, United Kingdom: Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for Down's syndrome is feasible, acceptable to parents, and could be introduced into the National Health Service (NHS), UK researchers say. The results of a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) study carried out by the first NHS laboratory to provide NIPT testing will be reported to the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Saturday). Presenting her team's findings, Professor Lyn Chitty, from the UCL Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK, ...

Glasgow, United Kingdom: Results from a national study of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in women at high risk of having a baby with Down's syndrome will be presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Saturday). The Netherlands is the first country in the world to include NIPT in a government supported, healthcare-funded trisomy syndrome screening programme. In many other countries, such screening is offered by commercial companies and without governmental guidance, so studying the accuracy of the programme and its acceptability ...

Glasgow, United Kingdom: Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for chromosomal foetal disorders is used increasingly to test for conditions such as Down's syndrome. NIPT examines DNA from the foetus in the mother's blood, and therefore does not carry the risk of miscarriage involved in invasive testing methods. Now, for the first time, researchers have found another advantage of NIPT; it can detect maternal cancers at an early stage, before symptoms appear. The study, to be presented to the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Saturday), is ...

University of Florida Health researchers have discovered that a rabbit virus can deliver a one-two punch, killing some kinds of cancer cells while eliminating a common and dangerous complication of bone marrow transplants. For patients with blood cancers such as leukemia and multiple myeloma, a bone marrow transplant can be both curative and perilous. It replenishes marrow lost to disease or chemotherapy but raises the risk that newly transplanted white blood cells will attack the recipient's body. Now researchers say the myxoma virus, found in rabbits, can do double ...

Cells have devised many structures for transporting molecular cargo across their protective borders, but the nuclear pore complex, with its flower-like, eight-fold symmetry, stands out. Monstrously large by cellular standards, as well as versatile, this elaborate portal controls access to and exit from the headquarters of the cell, the nucleus. In research published June 4 in Cell, Rockefeller University scientists have uncovered crucial steps in the dynamic dance that dilates and constricts the nuclear pore complex -- the latest advance in their ongoing efforts to tease ...

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite flew over Hurricane Blanca in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and gathered infrared data on the storm that was false-colored to show locations of the strongest thunderstorms within the storm. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite or VIIRS instrument aboard the satellite gathered infrared data of the storm that was made into an image at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The image was false-colored to show temperature. Coldest cloud top temperatures indicate higher, stronger, thunderstorms within a tropical cyclone. Those are typically ...

For being so small, fruit flies have had a large impact on genetic research. Thomas Werner, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University, has bridged the miniscule and the massive in an effort to better understand the mechanisms behind several unique features of fruit fly genes. Over the past week, several studies that Werner co-authored have been published in PLoS ONE, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nature Education. All are linked by Drosophila--a genus of fruit flies--and the insights that fruit fly genetics ...