The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a long-anticipated update to the source-of-record for cetane number data. This information is vital to the development of new, energy-efficient, low-carbon fuels and compatible engines. Researchers, as well as members of the engine, vehicle, and fuel industries, rely on these numbers to target compounds for development of new fuels capable of greater energy efficiency, cleaner emissions, and maximum performance in diesel engines. A cetane number is a relative ranking of fuels based on the ...

One of the goals of genome sequencing is to identify genetic mutations associated with increased susceptibility to disease. Yet by and large these discoveries have been made in people of European or Asian ancestry, resulting in an incomplete picture of global genetic variation in disease vulnerability. In a new study published in the journal BMC Medical Genomics, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have addressed this omission. Their investigation identified more than 30 previously undescribed mutations in important regulatory molecules called microRNAs. Many ...

NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Fengshen as it continued moving away from the east coast of Japan. Satellite imagery showed that the storm resembled a frontal system more than a tropical storm because it appeared stretched from southwest to northeast NASA's Terra satellite flew over Tropical Storm Fengshen on Sept. 9 at 1:05 UTC (Sept. 8 at 9:05 p.m. EDT) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument captured an image of the massive storm. The MODIS image showed that the bulk of Fenghsen's clouds were north and northeast ...

The effort to develop therapeutics and a vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus disease (EVD) requires a complex understanding of the microorganism and its relationship within the host, especially the immune response. Adding to the challenge, EVD can be caused by any one of five known species within the genus Ebolavirus (EBOV), in the Filovirus family. Now, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (La Jolla Institute) and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego are assisting the scientific community ...

Researchers at Princeton University have begun crystallizing light as part of an effort to answer fundamental questions about the physics of matter. The researchers are not shining light through crystal – they are transforming light into crystal. As part of an effort to develop exotic materials such as room-temperature superconductors, the researchers have locked together photons, the basic element of light, so that they become fixed in place. "It's something that we have never seen before," said Andrew Houck, an associate professor of electrical engineering and one ...

An evolutionary analysis of public health data during a major disease outbreak, such as bird flu, E. coli contamination of food or the current Ebola outbreak could help the emergency services plan their response and contain the disease more effectively. Details are reported in the International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications. Dehai Liu of the Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, in Dalian, Liaoning, China, and colleagues have used evolutionary game theory to examine the data associated with a major public health event - the emergence of a new ...

This news release is available in German. It could be difficult for the NSA to hack encrypted messages in the future – at least if a technology being investigated by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen and the University Erlangen-Nürnberg will be successful: quantum cryptography. The physicists are now laying the foundation to make this technique, which can already be used for the generation of secret keys, available for a wider range of applications. They are the first scientists to send a pulse of bright light in a particularly ...

VIDEO: A team of scientists led by Carnegie's Jacqueline Faherty has discovered the first evidence of water ice clouds on an object outside of our own Solar System. Water ice clouds... Click here for more information. Washington, D.C.—A team of scientists led by Carnegie's Jacqueline Faherty has discovered the first evidence of water ice clouds on an object outside of our own Solar System. Water ice clouds exist on our own gas giant planets--Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune--but ...

Storms have been the major cause of the huge fires that California has been battling in its northern regions. A lightning strike from a storm on August 12, 2014 started the fires in the Happy Camp Complex. There are currently 99,200 acres affected and the fire complex is at 30% containment. At around 4pm PDT on September 08, the smoke inversion lifted and fire behavior significantly increased on the south and southeast sides of the fire with spotting distances of up to a mile. Multiple spot fires occurred across the Scott River from Swanson Gulch and McGuffy Creek. ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Contrary to popular opinion, unruly students are not driving out teachers in droves from America's urban school districts. Instead, teachers are quitting due to frustration with standardized testing, declining pay and benefits and lack of voice in what they teach. So finds a Michigan State University education scholar – and former high school teacher – in her latest research on teacher turnover, which costs the nation an estimated $2.2 billion a year. Alyssa Hadley Dunn, assistant professor of teacher education, conducted in-depth interviews ...

Fairfax, Va., September 9, 2014—Radiation therapy with concurrent paclitaxel chemotherapy following surgery is an effective treatment for patients with high-risk endometrial cancer, according to a study published in the September 1, 2014 edition of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology ● Biology ● Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy. Patients with early-stage disease are typically treated with surgery alone; however, ...

The number of Americans needing long-term care — also called long-term services and supports (LTSS) — is projected to more than double to 27 million by 2050. Approximately 70 percent of people over the age of 65 will rely on some form of LTSS for an average of three years. The latest issue of Public Policy & Aging Report (PP&AR) lays down a policy prescription for a sustainable system of LTSS in the U.S., using the Federal Commission on Long-Term Care's 2013 final report as its foundation. With support from The SCAN Foundation, the issue presents nine articles under ...

This news release is available in German. The research team of Annette Rompel from the Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, University of Vienna explore the mechanisms behind the "browning reaction" during the spoilage of mushrooms. The researchers were able to demonstrate that the enzyme responsible is already formed prior to fungal spoiling. The detailed study is published online in the well renowned journals, Phytochemistry and Acta Crystallographica. Understanding the mechanism of enzyme tyrosinase pigmentation is currently of both medical as well as technological ...

Philadelphia, PA, September 9, 2014 – Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating gastrointestinal illness affecting up to 10% of premature infants, with a 30% mortality rate, and formula feeding has been identified as a risk factor for NEC. A study published in The American Journal of Pathology found that growth factors present in human breast milk, but not in formula, may explain the protection against intestinal damage. Further, supplementing the diet of newborn NEC-affected rodents with these growth factors promotes epithelial cell survival. "NEC is a highly ...

Many people are unaware that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's mandated nutrition labels are based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, but a simple weekly text message reminder can greatly improve that awareness, according to a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While not an outright recommendation, the 2,000-calorie benchmark is what the FDA considers a reasonable daily calorie intake for many adults. More importantly, nutrition labels on food products sold in the U.S. are based on it. The key to translating nutrition labels and ...

This news release is available in German. Leipzig. In tropical rainforests, most young trees grow spatially independent from their parent trees. This means that it is not possible to predict where seedlings will take root, and less specialised species therefore have an advantage even in the species-rich rainforests of the tropics. This is the finding of a study, conducted by researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the University of California and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the results of which were published recently in ...

People with asthma often have a hard time dealing with respiratory viruses such as the flu or the common cold, and researchers have struggled to explain why. In a new study that compared people with and without asthma, the answer is becoming clearer. The researchers found no difference in the key immune response to viruses in the lungs and breathing passages. The work, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, suggests that a fundamental antiviral defense mechanism is intact in asthma. This means that another aspect of the immune system must explain the ...

A new study has revealed a weak spot in the complex life cycle of malaria, which could be exploited to prevent the spread of the deadly disease. It found female malaria parasites put on fat differently to male ones. "The study opens potential new ways to combat malaria," said Associate Professor Alexander Maier, from The Australian National University Research School of Biology. "Malaria parasites show resistance to all current anti-malarial drugs. We are losing our weapons against this very important disease. But by studying lipid molecules – fats – rather than ...

People can become addicted to eating for its own sake but not to consuming specific foods such as those high in sugar or fat, research suggests. An international team of scientists has found no strong evidence for people being addicted to the chemical substances in certain foods. The brain does not respond to nutrients in the same way as it does to addictive drugs such as heroin or cocaine, the researchers say. Instead, people can develop a psychological compulsion to eat, driven by the positive feelings that the brain associates with eating. This is a behavioural ...

New methods that enhance the quality of myocardial perfusion imaging were developed in a recent study completed at the University of Eastern Finland. In her PhD study, Tuija Kangasmaa, Lic. Phil., invented a method which makes it possible to reduce the imaging time by up to 50%, making the scan session easier for the patient. Furthermore, the study also created two additional methods which correct errors resulting from patient movement during the scan. The methods were validated and they have already been taken into use in hospitals all over the world. Coronary artery ...

Far-red shifted fluorescent tissue markers make it possible to visualize structures and processes with advanced bio-imaging. This permits new insights into organisms and creates the potential for a wide range of applications – from more exact delineation of tumor and metastasis through to tracking drug responses within whole-body imaging. The team of scientists headed by Dr. Ulrike Schoetz, Dr. Nikolas Deliolanis, Dr. Wolfgang Beisker, Professor Horst Zitzelsberger und Randolph Caldwell from the Helmholtz Zentrum München have succeeded in developing novel fluorescent ...

Treatment with xenon gas after a head injury reduces the extent of brain damage, according to a study in mice. Head injury is the leading cause of death and disability in people aged under 45 in developed countries, mostly resulting from falls and road accidents. The primary injury caused by the initial mechanical force is followed by a secondary injury which develops in the hours and days afterwards. This secondary injury is largely responsible for patients' mental and physical disabilities, but there are currently no drug treatments that can be given after the accident ...

Britain hit by extremely unsettled winter weather Three all-time high and two all-time low NAO values recorded in the last decade showing huge contrast in conditions Month of December shows biggest variation in weather. British winters are becoming increasingly volatile due to extreme variations in pressure over the North Atlantic according to scientists from the University of Sheffield. The new research, published today (9 September 2014) in the International Journal of Climatology, shows that weather patterns over the UK have become distinctly more unstable, resulting ...

In the domain of electronics, the continuous quest for miniaturisation is pushing us towards the creation of devices which are continuously becoming smaller and more efficient. However, silicon - the basic component for most of these devices which caused a true revolution in electronics - , begins to disclose its physical limits. The smaller the silicon system, the harder it gets to control its return. The point has been reached where scientists have started looking for alternative materials, better fit for the miniaturised formats. One of the alternatives to provide ...

A positive outlook and support from people around them help patients with diabetes cope with psychosocial challenges of the disease, according to an international study that included researchers from Penn State College of Medicine. A better understanding of the emotional, psychological and social challenges people with diabetes face could improve health outcomes. The Second Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs (DAWN2) study is the largest analysis yet undertaken of personal accounts of people living with diabetes. The original DAWN study in 2001 found that 41 percent ...