The press release
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Medicine3 Sep 2014

Genetic 'hotspot' linked to endometrial cancer aggressiveness

Parents of twins often tell them apart through subtle differences such as facial expression, moles, voice tone and gait. Similarly, physicians treating women with endometrial cancer must be able to distinguish between different versions of this disease form that, on the surface, appear the same. With endometrial cancer, the most common gynecological cancer in the western world and the fourth most prevalent in the U.S., it can literally be a matter of life and death. Mortality rates from this cancer have nearly tripled in the last 25 years and are thought to be attributed ...

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Medicine3 Sep 2014

Can sleep loss affect your brain size?

MINNEAPOLIS – Sleep difficulties may be linked to faster rates of decline in brain volume, according to a study published in the September 3, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Sleep has been proposed to be "the brain's housekeeper", serving to repair and restore the brain. The study included 147 adults 20 and 84 years old. Researchers examined the link between sleep difficulties, such as having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night, and brain volume. All participants underwent two MRI brain scans, ...

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Science3 Sep 2014

Polyester clothes stink after exercise; cotton, not so much

Polyester clothes smell worse than cotton, following intensive exercise by their wearers, because bacteria that cause odor grow better on polyester, according to research published ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. In the study, the investigators collected t-shirts from 26 healthy individuals following an intensive, hour-long bicycle spinning session, and incubated the shirts for 28 hours before having them inspected by a trained odor panel. The researchers also investigated the taxonomy of the bacteria on the shirts, and in the axillaries. ...

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Environment3 Sep 2014

NASA's HS3 hurricane mission and Terra satellite take on Tropical Storm Dolly

NASA has Tropical Storm Dolly covered by satellite and the remotely piloted Global Hawk aircraft. Both captured data on Dolly before it made landfall in eastern Mexico. The MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite took an image of Tropical Storms Norbert in the Eastern Pacific and Dolly in the Gulf of Mexico at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Sept. 2. The image showed Dolly is a much more organized storm than Norbert, and revealed Dolly's strongest, towering thunderstorms around the center of circulation. Norbert is close to the ...

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Environment3 Sep 2014

Researchers discover new clues to determining the solar cycle

Approximately every 11 years, the sun undergoes a complete personality change from quiet and calm to violently active. The height of the sun's activity, known as solar maximum, is a time of numerous sunspots, punctuated with profound eruptions that send radiation and solar particles out into the far reaches of space. However, the timing of the solar cycle is far from precise. Since humans began regularly recording sunspots in the 17th century, the time between successive solar maxima has been as short as nine years, but as long as 14, making it hard to determine its cause. ...

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Space3 Sep 2014

NASA sees Tropical Storm Norbert affecting Mexico's west coast

Tropical Storm Norbert has now triggered Tropical Storm Warnings for Mexico's West Coast, and NASA's Terra satellite showed how close it is to land. On Wednesday, September 3, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a Tropical Storm Warning from La Paz to Santa Fe, Mexico. There is also a Tropical Storm Watch in effect from north of Santa Fe northward to Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico. he MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite took an image of Tropical Storms Norbert in the Eastern Pacific and Dolly in the Gulf of ...

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Technology3 Sep 2014

Climate change science aided by huge but 'invisible' efforts of amateurs

Ithaca, N.Y.— Hundreds of thousands of volunteer data collectors are due for some thanks from scientists, according to a new paper that reveals the role of citizen science in studies of birds and climate change. Data collected by amateurs underpins up to 77 percent of the studies in this field, but that fact is largely invisible by the time the research appears in journals, according to a study published today in the open-access journal PLOS ONE: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0106508 "Our paper is a chance to say thank you to the ...

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Social Science3 Sep 2014

Forming consensus in social networks

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (Sept. 3, 2014) -- Social networks have become a dominant force in society. Family, friends, peers, community leaders and media communicators are all part of people's social networks. Individuals within a network may have different opinions on important issues, but it's their collective actions that determine the path society takes. To understand the process through which we operate as a group, and to explain why we do what we do, researchers have developed a novel computational model and the corresponding conditions for reaching consensus in a wide ...

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Medicine3 Sep 2014

Leaky gut -- A source of non-AIDS complications in HIV-positive patients

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is no longer a fatal condition, thanks to newer medications inhibiting the retrovirus, but a puzzling phenomenon has surfaced among these patients — non-AIDS complications. Scientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have resolved the mystery with their discovery of the leaky gut as the offender. Bacterial products seep out of the colon, trigger inflammation throughout the body and set into motion the processes of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, chronic kidney and metabolic diseases, and cancer. Their ...

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Medicine3 Sep 2014

Study links healthy sleep duration to less sick time from work

DARIEN, IL – New research suggests that sleeping 7 to 8 hours per night is associated with the lowest risk of absence from work due to sickness. The results underscore the importance of the "Sleep Well, Be Well" campaign of the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project, a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep Research Society and other partners. Results show that the risk of an extended absence from work due to sickness rose sharply among those who reported sleeping less than 6 hours or more than ...

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Science3 Sep 2014

New deep sea mushroom-shaped organisms discovered

Scientists discovered two new species of sea-dwelling, mushroom-shaped organisms, according to a study published September 3, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jean Just from University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues. Scientists classify organisms based on shared characteristics using a taxonomic rank, including kingdom, phylum, and species. In 1986, the authors of this study collected organisms at 400 and 1000 meters deep on the south-east Australian continental slope and only just recently isolated two types of mushroom-shaped organisms that they couldn't ...

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Medicine3 Sep 2014

IU researchers isolate process that damages lungs of donors with traumatic brain injury

INDIANAPOLIS -- Few people would guess that some of the most detrimental damage from a traumatic brain injury is to the lungs, but transplant specialists are keenly aware of this phenomenon. Indiana University research published Sept. 3 in Science Translational Medicine sheds light on the potentially lethal process. Research conducted by an interdisciplinary team co-led by Fletcher A. White, Ph.D., the Vergil K. Stoelting Professor of Anesthesia, and David S. Wilkes, M.D., executive associate dean for research affairs and director of the Center for Immunobiology at the ...

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Medicine3 Sep 2014

Is type 2 diabetes 'diabetes' as currently understood?

The current way of diagnosing type-2 diabetes using blood glucose levels needs to be revised, research by scientists from The University of Manchester and King's College London suggests. The findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE today (3 September), show the current method of diagnosis - using blood glucose levels - means patients are diagnosed too late so that their blood vessels may already be damaged. Type 2 diabetes, which affects over 90% of all adults with diabetes, often leads to heart damage and blood vessel problems in the brain, eyes and kidneys. It ...

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Environment3 Sep 2014

Biodiversity in the balance

A new study calls into question the evolutionary stability of an ecological explanation of biodiversity. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, brings together evolutionary theory and ecology to explore one of the big questions in ecology: How is biodiversity developed and maintained? "This is a fundamental question if we want to protect biodiversity—what exactly do we need to protect?" says IIASA Evolution and Ecology Program Director Ulf Dieckmann, who led the study together with Florian Hartig from the University of Freiburg, collaborating with colleagues from ...

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Technology3 Sep 2014

Penn study demonstrates wearable sensors to detect firearm use

A new study from the University of Pennsylvania demonstrates that wearable sensors could one day transform the correctional system by tracking gun use by community-based offenders, who account for a disproportionate share of fatal and non-fatal shootings. Currently, detecting and deterring this type of crime can be challenging in the absence of reliable evidence that a particular community-supervised offender illegally used a firearm. In the study, published this week in the journal PLOS ONE, Charles Loeffler, an assistant professor of criminology at Penn, demonstrates ...

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Medicine3 Sep 2014

Widely used depression drug associated with dental implant failure

Alexandria, Va., USA – The International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) have published a paper titled "SSRIs and the Risk of Osseointegrated Implant Failure – A Cohort Study." Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), the most widely used drugs for the treatment of depression, have been reported to reduce bone formation and increase the risk of bone fracture. Since osseointegration is influenced by bone metabolism, this study investigates the association between SSRIs and the risk of failures in osseointegrated implants. The manuscript, ...

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Energy3 Sep 2014

Story from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sept. 2014

To arrange for an interview with a researcher, please contact the Communications staff member identified at the end of each tip. For more information on ORNL and its research and development activities, please refer to one of our media contacts. If you have a general media-related question or comment, you can send it to news@ornl.gov. OPTICS – Precision projectile tracker … Rifle optical sighting systems with a 19th century heritage could blast into modern times with a laser-based bullet tracking system being developed by a team led by Slobodan Rajic of Oak Ridge National ...

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Science3 Sep 2014

Trouble starting a task? Perception of time may be the problem, study finds

Completing tasks and crossing them off the ubiquitous "to-do" list is a great feeling. But what about those nagging tasks we keep putting off? What's the difference between those jobs that get completed and those that do not? The answer may be our perception of time, according to new research by Yanping Tu, a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. The study, "The Categorization of Time and Its Impact on Task Initiation," recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research, finds that people are more likely to begin a job when, ...

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Science3 Sep 2014

How much gravity is enough?

TORONTO, September 3, 2014 – Keeping upright in a low-gravity environment is not easy, and NASA documents abound with examples of astronauts falling on the lunar surface. Now, a new study by an international team of researchers led by York University professors Laurence Harris and Michael Jenkin, published today in PLOS ONE, suggests that the reason for all these moon mishaps might be because its gravity isn't sufficient to provide astronauts with unambiguous information on which way is "up". "The perception of the relative orientation of oneself and the world is important ...

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Earth Science3 Sep 2014

Team develops new, inexpensive method for understanding earthquake topography

Boulder, Colo., USA – Using high-resolution topography models not available in the past, geologists can greatly enrich their research. However, current methods of acquisition are costly and require trained personnel with high-tech, cumbersome equipment. In light of this, Kendra Johnson and colleagues have developed a new system that takes advantage of affordable, user-friendly equipment and software to produce topography data over small, sparsely vegetated sites at comparable (or better) resolution and accuracy to standard methods. Their workflow is based on structure ...

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Science3 Sep 2014

Study sets guideline for determining effectiveness of college football training methods

VIDEO: Athletic performance varies from day to day, which can make it difficult for strength and conditioning professionals to judge whether athletes' improvements are due to effective training. Now, University of... Click here for more information. COLUMBIA, Mo. –Athletic performance varies from day to day, which can make it difficult for strength and conditioning professionals to judge whether athletes' improvements are due to effective training. Now, University of Missouri ...

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Medicine3 Sep 2014

NIH-led scientists discover HIV antibody that binds to novel target on virus

WHAT: An NIH-led team of scientists has discovered a new vulnerability in the armor of HIV that a vaccine, other preventive regimen or treatment could exploit. The site straddles two proteins, gp41 and gp120, that jut out of the virus and augments other known places where broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) bind to HIV. This newly identified site on the viral spike is where a new antibody found by the scientists in an HIV-infected person binds to the virus. Called 35O22, the antibody prevents 62 percent of known HIV strains from infecting cells in the laboratory and ...

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Science3 Sep 2014

Hawaii scientist maps, names Laniakea, our home supercluster of galaxies

University of Hawaii at Manoa astronomer R. Brent Tully, who recently shared the 2014 Gruber Cosmology Prize and the 2014 Victor Ambartsumian International Prize, has led an international team of astronomers in defining the contours of the immense supercluster of galaxies containing our own Milky Way. They have named the supercluster "Laniakea," meaning "immense heaven" in Hawaiian. The paper explaining this work is the cover story of the September 4 issue of the prestigious journal Nature. Galaxies are not distributed randomly throughout the universe. Instead, they are ...

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Science3 Sep 2014

Sequencing of 5 African fishes reveals diverse molecular mechanisms underlying evolution

Cambridge, MA. Wed. September 3, 2014 — In an effort to understand the molecular basis of adaptation in vertebrates, researchers sequenced the genomes and transcriptomes of five species of African cichlid fishes. A research team led by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard uncovered a variety of features in the cichlid genomes that enabled the fishes to thrive in new habitats and ecological niches within the Great Lakes of East Africa. In addition to helping explain the complex genomic mechanisms that give rise to incredible diversity among cichlid fishes, ...

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Medicine3 Sep 2014

Airlock-like transport protein structure discovered

Palo Alto, CA—Sugars are an essential source of energy for microrganisms, animals and humans. They are produced by plants, which convert energy from sunlight into chemical energy in the form of sugars through photosynthesis. These sugars are taken up into cells, no matter whether these are bacteria, yeast, human cells or plant cells, by proteins that create sugar-specific pores in the membrane that surrounds a cell. These transport proteins are thus essential in all organisms. It is not surprising that the transporters of humans and plants are very similar since they ...

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