The Milky Way galaxy is orbited by more than 150 globular star clusters, which are balls of hundreds of thousands of old stars dating back to the formation of the galaxy. One of these, along with several others in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), was found in the late eighteenth century by the French comet hunter Charles Messier and given the designation Messier 54. For more than two hundred years after its discovery Messier 54 was thought to be similar to the other Milky Way globulars. But in 1994 it was discovered that it was actually associated with a ...

Quantum computing relies on the laws of quantum mechanics to process vast amounts of information and calculations simultaneously, with far more power than current computers. However, development of quantum computers has been limited as researchers have struggled to find a reliable way to increase the power of these systems, a power measured in Q-Bits. Previous attempts to find the elusive Majorana particle have been very promising but have not yet provided definitive and conclusive evidence of its existence. Now, researchers from the University of Surrey and the Ben-Gurion ...

LOS ANGELES – Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute infused antibody-studded iron nanoparticles into the bloodstream to treat heart attack damage. The combined nanoparticle enabled precise localization of the body's own stem cells to the injured heart muscle. The study, which focused on laboratory rats, was published today in the online peer reviewed journal Nature Communications. The study addresses a central challenge in stem cell therapeutics: how to achieve targeted interactions between stem cells and injured cells. Although stem cells can be a potent ...

Magnetic reconnection can trigger geomagnetic storms that disrupt cell phone service, damage satellites and black out power grids. But how reconnection, in which the magnetic field lines in plasma snap apart and violently reconnect, transforms magnetic energy into explosive particle energy remains a major unsolved problem in plasma astrophysics. Magnetic field lines represent the direction, and indicate the shape, of magnetic fields. Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have taken a key step toward a solution, ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – People with multiple sclerosis (MS) lose myelin in the gray matter of their brains and the loss is closely correlated with the severity of the disease, according to a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study. Researchers said the findings could have important applications in clinical trials and treatment monitoring. The study appears online in the journal Radiology. Loss of myelin, the fatty protective sheath around nerve fibers, is a characteristic of MS, an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that can lead to a variety of serious neurological ...

Before they reach young adulthood, most children in the United States will experience their parents separating, divorcing, finding another partner, or getting remarried. Research tells us that children have more behavior problems (such as aggression and defiance) when families change structure. Now a new study has found that behavior problems in children increased in families in which parents separated only in higher-income families, and that children's age also played a part in their likelihood of having behavior problems. The study, by researchers at Georgetown University ...

Research has told us that infants whose mothers respond quickly, consistently, and warmly when they cry have healthier emotional development than infants whose mothers are less sensitive to their cries. A new study has found that mothers whose childhood experiences with caregivers was positive and those who have come to terms with negative experiences are more infant-oriented when they see videos of babies crying and respond more sensitively to their own babies' cries. The study, by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, with input from colleagues ...

PHILADELPHIA, PA, September 10, 2014 – African American women and their female children have the highest obesity prevalence of any demographic group and are more likely to underestimate their body weight than white women. Yet, according to new research from Rush University Medical Center, cultural norms for body size may prevent awareness among many African American women about the potential health benefits they and others in their cultural group might achieve through weight loss. Led by Elizabeth Lynch, PhD, this research recruited African American women in a low-income ...

PHILADELPHIA, PA, September 10, 2014 – Smartphones have seen wide adoption among Americans in recent years because of their ease of use and adaptability. With that in mind, researchers from Arizona State University examined how smartphone use affected weight loss goals and determined that smartphones may offer users an advantage over traditional methods when tracking diet data. Roughly 83% of Americans now own a mobile phone and 45% own smartphones with Internet access. For this study, researchers recruited healthy, weight-stable adults and semirandomly divided them ...

Sendai, Japan – A research team headed by Prof. Patrick Han and Prof. Taro Hitosugi at the Advanced Institute of Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University discovered a new bottom-up fabrication method that produces defect-free graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with periodic zigzag-edge regions. This method, which controls GNR growth direction and length distribution, is a stepping stone towards future graphene-device fabrication by self-assembly. Graphene, with its low dimensionality, high stability, high strength, and high charge-carrier mobility, promises to be a revolutionary ...

As a heart fails, losing its ability to squeeze blood through the circulatory system, the body releases a neurohormone that interferes with the heart's best chance to improve contractility, a team of Temple University School of Medicine researchers show in a study published September 9th in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation. The discovery reveals a promising target for the treatment of end-stage heart failure, and raises intriguing questions about why a drug used to treat some forms of end-stage heart failure improves symptoms but fails to extend lives ...

DALLAS – September 9, 2014– The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has released the first comprehensive, evidence-based guidelines for management of sickle cell disease from birth to end of life, based on recommendations developed by a nationwide team of experts co-chaired by a UT Southwestern Medical Center hematologist. Appearing today in JAMA, the guidelines are intended for general use by pediatricians, physicians treating adults, hematologists, emergency room personnel, hospitalists, and other health care providers. The new management guidelines consist ...

Turnover of registered nurses (RNs) is an important and widely used measure in analyzing the health care workforce. It's used to project the job market for nurses (based on availability of jobs) and can also be considered an indicator of whether a health care organization has a good working environment. A study in the current issue of Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice reveals that an estimated 17.5 percent of newly-licensed RNs leave their first nursing job within the first year and one in three (33.5%) leave within two years. The researchers found that turnover for ...

As we and other vertebrates age, our DNA accumulates mutations and becomes rearranged, which may result in a variety of age-related illnesses, including cancers. Biologists Vera Gorbunova and Andei Seluanov have now discovered one reason for the increasing DNA damage: the primary repair process begins to fail with increasing age and is replaced by one that is less accurate. The findings have been published in the journal PLOS Genetics. "Scientists have had limited tools to accurately study how DNA repair changes with age," said Gorbunova. "We are now able to measure ...

A new mechanism to inhibit proteasomes, protein complexes that are a target for cancer therapy, is the topic of an article published in the journal Chemistry & Biology. The first author of the study is Daniela Trivella, researcher at the Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (LNBio/CNPEM). The findings of the study, conducted with FAPESP support in partnership with researchers from the University of California in San Diego, United States, and at the Technische Universität München, in Germany, are paving the ...

Truly two-dimensional objects are rare. Even a thin piece of paper is trillions of atoms thick. When physicists do succeed in producing 2D systems, quantum interactions can lead to new phenomena and Nobel prizes. Two examples: graphene---single-atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms---has unique mechanical, electrical, and optical properties; and two-dimensional electron gases (2DEG)---planar collections of electrons supported at the interface between certain semiconductors such as gallium arsenide---allow the observation of such emergent behaviors as the quantum Hall effect ...

Rice University wireless researchers have found a way to make the most of the unused UHF TV spectrum by serving up fat streams of data over wireless hotspots that could stretch for miles. In a presentation today at the Association for Computing Machinery's MobiCom 2014 conference in Maui, Hawaii, researchers from Rice's Wireless Network Group will unveil a multiuser, multiantenna transmission scheme for UHF, a portion of the radio spectrum that is traditionally reserved for television broadcasts. "The holy grail of wireless communications is to go both fast and far," ...

A prospective "green revolution" in Africa could boost land use and carbon emissions globally, according to a study co-authored by a University of British Columbia researcher. The term "green revolution" typically describes the use of agricultural innovations – such as the development of new seeds – to increase yields, particularly in developing countries. Past green revolutions in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have spared land and carbon dioxide emissions. However, in an increasingly globalized economy, an African green revolution could lead to opposite outcomes, ...

From AGU's blogs: Global food trade may not meet all future demand, new study indicates As the world population continues to grow, by about 1 billion people every 12 to 14 years since the 1960s, the global food supply may not meet escalating demand – particularly for agriculturally poor countries in arid to semi-arid regions, such as Africa's Sahel, that already depend on imports for much of their food supply, according to a new study published online in the American Geophysical Union journal, Earth's Future. From this week's Eos: Next-Generation Forecasting of High-Impact ...

West Orange, NJ. September 9, 2014. Kessler Foundation scientists have shown that working memory may be an underlying mechanism of cognitive reserve in multiple sclerosis (MS). This finding informs the relationships between working memory, intellectual enrichment (the proxy measure for cognitive reserve) and long-term memory in this population. "Working memory mediates the relationship between intellectual enrichment and long-term memory in multiple sclerosis: An exploratory analysis of cognitive reserve" (doi: 10.1017/S1355617714000630) was published online ahead of ...

As the amount of time employees spend at their desks increases, so does musculoskeletal discomfort and other health issues associated with the office environment. Although office ergonomics training programs have been shown to improve employee well-being and productivity, in many cases training occurs only after complaints are logged. New research to be presented at the HFES 2014 Annual Meeting in Chicago demonstrates that a comprehensive and proactive workplace ergonomics program can help to prevent discomfort and injury. Alan Hedge, coauthor of "Proactive Office Ergonomics ...

University of Cincinnati geography researchers have developed a large-scale mapping technique to track a variety of demographic data across the United States, including researching populations based on gender, race and economic diversity. Details on the technique behind the new, high resolution, grid-based map of U.S. demographics developed by Anna Dmowska, a postdoctoral fellow for UC's Space Informatics Lab, and Tomasz Stepinski, the Thomas Jefferson Chair Professor of Space Exploration at UC, are published in this month's issue of Applied Geography. The map can also ...

People who are in control of their gambling habits play for fun and like the idea of possibly winning big. They set limits on how much money and time they can spend, and they are likely to gamble on the internet. But gambling is just one of several leisure activities these players undertake. In contrast, gambling is a form of escapism for problem players and often their only social activity, say Richard Wood of GamRes Ltd. in Canada, and Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University in the UK. The results appear in Springer's Journal of Gambling Studies. Their study is ...

September 9, 2014 -- Male shoppers in search of emergency contraception do not always have an easy time making these purchases and may be turned away at their local pharmacies. A "mystery shopper" survey conducted in New York City by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Medical Center showed that males had a 20 percent likelihood of not being able to purchase emergency contraception. Nearly three-quarters of the pharmacies in the study created barriers for the males to get the contraception. This is the first research ...

Experiencing discrimination because of their race or health condition can influence just how much trust people put into the health profession. In fact, having these experiences was associated with a 53-percent increase in the chances that someone suffering from sickle cell disease will not follow their doctors' orders, says Carlton Haywood Jr. of the Berman Institute of Bioethics and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the US. Haywood led a study appearing in The Journal of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer, into the experiences of how patients who suffer ...