Scientists from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and UCL (University College London) have identified what they believe could be a cause of pre-term premature rupture of the fetal membrane (PPROM), which accounts for 40 per cent of pre-term births, and is the main reason for infant death world-wide. The researchers, whose work was funded by the charity Wellbeing of Women, used bioengineering techniques to test the effect of repetitive stretch on tissues of the amniotic membrane which surrounds and protects the baby prior to birth. They found that stretching of the ...

New York | Heidelberg, 13 October 2014 Increasing reliance on renewable energies is the way to achieve greater CO2 emission sustainability and energy independence. As such energies are yet only available intermittently and energy cannot be stored easily, most countries aim to combine several energy sources. In a new study in EPJ Plus, French scientists have come up with an open source simulation method to calculate the actual cost of relying on a combination of electricity sources. Bernard Bonin from the Atomic Energy Research Centre CEA Saclay, France, and colleagues demonstrate ...

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have developed a new battery that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in only 2 minutes. The battery will also have a longer lifespan of over 20 years. Expected to be the next big thing in battery technology, this breakthrough has a wide-ranging impact on many industries, especially for electric vehicles which are currently inhibited by long recharge times of over 4 hours and the limited lifespan of batteries. This next generation of lithium-ion batteries will enable electric vehicles to charge 20 times ...

In the context of an aging population, the number of cases of people with multimorbidity, or multiple health conditions, is increasing, creating significant healthcare challenges. Now, the first comprehensive systematic review in this field has found higher levels of multimorbidity in women. Equally as importantly, it has revealed the poor quality of evidence on this increasingly critical area of healthcare. The review's main author, Professor Jose M Valderas, NIHR Clinician Scientist of the University of Exeter Medical School, is calling for better quality research to ...

Biomedical engineering researchers have developed a drug delivery system consisting of nanoscale "cocoons" made of DNA that target cancer cells and trick the cells into absorbing the cocoon before unleashing anticancer drugs. The work was done by researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "This drug delivery system is DNA-based, which means it is biocompatible and less toxic to patients than systems that use synthetic materials," says Dr. Zhen Gu, senior author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor in ...

Scientists at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have published their findings that mutations in a gene known as "ARMC5" promote the growth of benign tumours in the adrenal glands and on the meninges: ARMC5 appears to belong to the group of so-called tumour suppressor genes. It is the first time in years that scientists have characterized such a gene. The ARMC5 gene was discovered by independent workgroups studying benign tumours – so-called adrenal adenomas – in connection with Cushing's syndrome. In this ...

University of Leicester archaeologists have made a "once-in-a-career" discovery of the decorated bronze remains of an Iron Age chariot. A team from the University's School of Archaeology and Ancient History has unearthed a hoard of rare bronze fittings from a 2nd or 3rd century BC chariot which appears to have been buried as a religious offering. The archaeologists found the remains during their ongoing excavation of the Burrough Hill Iron Age hillfort, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. The School has led a 5-year project there since 2010, giving archaeology students ...

Parkinson's disease is strongly linked to the degeneration of the brain's movement center. In the last decade, the question of where the disease begins has led researchers to a different part of the human anatomy. In 2003, the German neuropathologist Heiko Braak presented a theory suggesting that the disease begins in the gut and spreads to the brain. The idea has since, despite vocal critics, gained a lot of ground. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden now present the first direct evidence that the disease can actually migrate from the gut to the brain. The so-called ...

Chemists at Ludwig-Maximilias-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have synthesized a ferromagnetic superconducting compound that is amenable to chemical modification, opening the route to detailed studies of this rare combination of physical properties. Superconductivity and ferromagnetism – the "normal" form of magnetism, such as that found in the familiar horseshoe magnet – are like chalk and cheese: They generally don't go together. Ferromagnets are magnetic because the parallel alignment of adjacent electron spins in the iron atoms generates a strong internal ...

The climate is getting warmer, the ice sheets are melting and sea levels are rising – but how much? The report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013 was based on the best available estimates of future sea levels, but the panel was not able to come up with an upper limit for sea level rise within this century. Now researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute and their colleagues have calculated the risk for a worst-case scenario. The results indicate that at worst, the sea level would rise a maximum of 1.8 meters. The results are published ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2014 — Whether it's a plain cheese, a deep-dish stacked with meats or a thin-crust veggie delight, there's just something about pizza that makes it delicious. There's a lot of chemistry that goes into everything from dough to sauce to toppings to, of course, cheese. There's also a very specific chemical reaction at work on every single slice, no matter what toppings you choose. Check out the latest episode here: http://youtu.be/tOkCgAwhh9U. Subscribe to the series at Reactions YouTube, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions to be the first to ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — An oral biologic medication has successfully treated chronic, precancerous inflammation in the intestine, according to results of an animal study authored by an MD/PhD student in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The study is featured on the cover of the current issue of Cancer Research; it was published online ahead of print in September. The journal's editors characterized the study's findings as "striking." Inflammatory cells in the colon, or polyps, are very common after the age of 50. The average 60-year-old ...

Tropical Storm Vongfong continues to weaken as it tracks across the big islands of Japan, and NASA satellite data showed that westerly wind shear is taking its toll on the storm's structure. On Oct. 12 at 0500 UTC (1 a.m. EDT), the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Vongfong approaching Japan. Despite weakening to a tropical storm, Vongfong still appeared to have an eye as its northeastern quadrant blanketed the large island of Kyushu, Japan. By 11 a.m. EDT, Maximum sustained winds had dropped to 55 knots (63 mph/102 kph). ...

The Eastern Caribbean islands were getting the brunt of Tropical Storm Gonzalo as the storm slowly moved through on Oct. 13. NASA's Terra satellite and NOAA's GOES-East satellite provided data on the storm. Gonzalo is the sixth named storm in the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Season. On Oct. 12 at 15:00 UTC (11:00 a.m. EDT), NASA's Terra satellite flew over Tropical Storm Gonzalo while it moved over the Lesser Antilles. The MODIS instrument captured a visible image of the storm that showed a concentration of strong thunderstorms around the center of circulation and in a thick ...

The fifth named Atlantic storm didn't maintain hurricane status long. Fay became a hurricane late on Oct. 12 and by early on Oct. 13, had weakened back to a tropical storm. A visible image from NOAA's GOES-East satellite on Oct. 13 at 1145 UTC (7:45 a.m. EDT) showed Tropical Storm Fay northeast of Bermuda and Tropical Storm Gonzalo over the Lesser Antilles. Fay appeared circular, but didn't have the signature shape of a tropical storm like Gonzalo, with bands of thunderstorms spiraling into the center. The image was created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard ...

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Oct. 13, 2014 -- Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have obtained the first direct observations of atomic diffusion inside a bulk material. The research, which could be used to give unprecedented insight into the lifespan and properties of new materials, is published in the journal Physical Review Letters (06 October 2014, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.155501). "This is the first time that anyone has directly imaged single dopant atoms moving around inside a material," said Rohan Mishra of Vanderbilt University who ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When Illinois researchers set out to investigate a method to control how DNA moves through a tiny sequencing device, they did not know they were about to witness a display of molecular gymnastics. Fast, accurate and affordable DNA sequencing is the first step toward personalized medicine. Threading a DNA molecule through a tiny hole, called a nanopore, in a sheet of graphene allows researchers to read the DNA sequence; however, they have limited control over how fast the DNA moves through the pore. In a new study published in the journal Nature ...

For decades, scientists thought that neurons in the brain were born only during the early development period and could not be replenished. More recently, however, they discovered cells with the ability to divide and turn into new neurons in specific brain regions. The function of these neuroprogenitor cells remains an intense area of research. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report that newly formed brain cells in the mouse olfactory system — the area that processes smells — play a critical role in maintaining proper connections. The results ...

Scientists have created a drug for type 2 diabetes that is switched on by blue light, which they hope will improve treatment of the disease. Diabetes drugs that promote the release of insulin from the pancreas can in some cases cause side effects due to their actions on other organs such as the brain and heart. Some can also stimulate too much insulin release, causing blood sugar levels to drop too low. To help create better drugs, researchers at Imperial College London and LMU Munich adapted an existing type of drug called a sulfonylurea so that it changes shape when ...

This might allow for improved disaster preparedness. As the complex systems technique builds upon a mathematical comparison that can be utilised for any time series data, the approach could be applied to extreme events in all sorts of complex systems. "Current weather forecast models cannot capture the intensity of the most extreme rainfall events, yet these events are of course the most dangerous, and can have severe impacts for the local population, for example major floods or even landslides," says lead author Niklas Boers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Young baseball pitchers who throw more than 100 pitches per week are at risk for a newly identified overuse injury that can impede normal shoulder development and lead to additional problems, including rotator cuff tears, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. The injury, termed acromial apophysiolysis by the researchers, is characterized by incomplete fusion and tenderness at the acromion. The acromion, which forms the bone at the top or roof of the shoulder, typically develops from four individual bones into one bone ...

In the advanced online edition of Molecular Biology and Evolution, authors Domman, et al. have explored factors behind the resilience of the most common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S., chlamydia, with an estimated 1 million infected. The research team sequenced 4 new strains of close genetic cousins of chlamydial pathogens, and examined these with existing DNA data. They found an extensive and robust shuffling of the genomic deck between chlamydia families has played a major role in the evolution of the pathogen, often serving to outwit and exploit its hosts. ...

New research that provides a better understanding of pancreatic cancer may help identify individuals at increased risk. The findings are published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Pancreatic cancer is a stealthy cancer that is usually detected at very late stages and has a 5-year survival rate of less than 5 percent. Strategies that might help identify which individuals have an increased risk of developing the disease are sorely needed. Some cases seem to run in families, but the genes that are responsible for such inherited ...

A standardized slow enteral feeding (SSEF) protocol significantly reduces the incidence of necrotizing enterocoltis (NEC), or death of intestinal tissue, and death in infants with extremely low birth weight, according to a new study. The study, published today in the OnlineFirst version of the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (JPEN), the research journal of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.), found the use of SSEF resulted in a significant reduction in NEC and accompanying death in infants with a birth weight below 750 grams ...

Childbirth is physically intense and, for many women, it is the most painful experience they will have. And yet, new research shows that the amount of time a woman spends in labor doesn't seem to impact how she remembers her labor pain afterwards. The research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that the peak and end levels of pain women experienced, and whether they received an epidural, impacted their recall of labor pain afterward. "This phenomenon – called duration neglect – is particularly ...