The press release
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Environment19 Aug 2014

Solar energy that doesn't block the view

A team of researchers at Michigan State University has developed a new type of solar concentrator that when placed over a window creates solar energy while allowing people to actually see through the window. It is called a transparent luminescent solar concentrator and can be used on buildings, cell phones and any other device that has a flat, clear surface. And, according to Richard Lunt of MSU's College of Engineering, the key word is "transparent." Research in the production of energy from solar cells placed around luminescent plastic-like materials is not new. ...

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Physics19 Aug 2014

NMR using Earth's magnetic field

Earth's magnetic field, a familiar directional indicator over long distances, is routinely probed in applications ranging from geology to archaeology. Now it has provided the basis for a technique which might, one day, be used to characterize the chemical composition of fluid mixtures in their native environments. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) conducted a proof-of-concept NMR experiment in which a mixture of hydrocarbons and water was analyzed using a high-sensitivity magnetometer and a magnetic ...

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Medicine19 Aug 2014

Biomarker in an aggressive breast cancer is identified

Two Northwestern University scientists have identified a biomarker strongly associated with basal-like breast cancer, a highly aggressive carcinoma that is resistant to many types of chemotherapy. The biomarker, a protein called STAT3, provides a smart target for new therapeutics designed to treat this often deadly cancer. Using breast cancer patient data taken from The Cancer Genome Atlas, molecular biologists Curt M. Horvath and Robert W. Tell used powerful computational and bioinformatics techniques to detect patterns of gene expression in two cancer subtypes. They ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Nurse staffing and mortality in stroke centers

Hospital staffing levels have been associated with patient outcomes, but staffing on weekends has not been well studied, despite a recent UK mandate to make physician specialist care 7 days a week a policy and service improvement priority for the National Health Service. To help address the paucity of research on the association of weekend staffing with patient outcomes, Dr. Benjamin Bray of King's College London and Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study of weekend staffing with stroke specialist physicians for ...

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Medicine19 Aug 2014

Blood glucose levels measured in hospitalized patients can predict risk of type 2 diabetes

Blood glucose levels measured in hospitalized adults during acute illness can be used to predict risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the following 3 years, according to a study published by David McAllister and colleagues from the University of Edinburgh, UK in this week's PLOS Medicine. The researchers obtained measurements of blood glucose levels on admission for 86,634 patients aged 40 years or older who were admitted to a hospital for an acute illness between 2004 and 2008 in Scotland and identified those patients who developed type 2 diabetes up to December 2011 ...

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Energy19 Aug 2014

Electrical engineers take major step toward photonic circuits

Edmonton—The invention of fibre optics revolutionized the way we share information, allowing us to transmit data at volumes and speeds we'd only previously dreamed of. Now, electrical engineering researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada are breaking another barrier, designing nano-optical cables small enough to replace the copper wiring on computer chips. This could result in radical increases in computing speeds and reduced energy use by electronic devices. "We're already transmitting data from continent to continent using fibre optics, ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

New study first to examine quality of cardiac rehabilitation programs in Canada

The quality of cardiac rehabilitation programs across Canada is strong, with specific criteria areas now identified as requiring further enhancement to improve patient outcomes, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, York University and UHN. "We are the first to comprehensively assess cardiac rehabilitation quality --- what we are doing well and where we should do better --- to this degree across the country," says Dr. Sherry Grace, study author, Director of Research, GoodLife Fitness Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Unit, University ...

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Energy19 Aug 2014

Asian inventions dominate energy storage systems

This news release is available in German. Wind and solar power are inherently intermittent energy sources. If a large amount of electricity is to be produced with renewable energy sources in the future, excess energy will have to be stored during productive periods so that these fluctuations can be compensated for. However, existing storage capacities are far from adequate for the purpose. Science and industry are therefore working on new, better technologies. One important focus lies on battery systems that used to be too expensive or unsophisticated to be employed ...

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Environment19 Aug 2014

This week from AGU: Long-term ecological research, predicting cholera outbreaks

From this week's Eos: Long-Term Ecological Research and Network-Level Science Imagine if we had the ability to track how a wide range of ecosystems was responding to global changes in real time. Such a tool would be particularly powerful if it coupled multiple decades of information about ecological responses to environmental change with large-scale, long-term experiments and models from dozens of different ecosystem types. In fact, this tool exists: It is the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, which will soon celebrate its 35th anniversary. From ...

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Medicine19 Aug 2014

Moving single cells around -- accurately and cheaply

HOUSTON -- ( Aug. 19, 2014 ) -- Scientists at the Houston Methodist Research Institute have figured out how to pick up and transfer single cells using a pipette -- a common laboratory tool that's been tweaked slightly. They describe this engineering feat and preliminary test results in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. "Studying single cells and their unique functions has become a frontier in current biomedical research," said nanomedicine department. faculty member Lidong Qin, Ph.D., the project's principal investigator. "One of the biggest ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Financial weight makes it trickier to lose pounds where it counts

This news release is available in French. Montreal, August 19, 2014 -- Weight-loss advertising tends to target people ready, willing and able to pay for diet programs, special meals or gym memberships. But it's those who live below the poverty line who are more likely to be overweight or obese. When it comes to weight-loss for the poor, it turns out that it's more than just cash-flow that stands in the way. A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine by researchers from Concordia University shows that those who struggle the most financially also are ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Neighborhood ethnic composition and problem drinking among older Mexican-American men

BATON ROUGE – LSU Sociology Professor Samuel Stroope is the lead author of a new study, "Neighborhood Ethnic Composition and Problem Drinking among Older Mexican American Men," that will appear in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. Stroope – and co-authors at Baylor University and the University of Texas Medical Branch – found that older Mexican-American men are less likely to engage in problem drinking as residents of neighborhoods with a higher proportion of Mexican-Americans. The study used data on 350 men aged 75 and older from the "Hispanic Established ...

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Medicine19 Aug 2014

Laser optical tweezers reveal how malaria parasites infect red blood cells

VIDEO: This video shows the delivery of a viable merozoite via optical tweezers to a healthy erythrocyte and subsequent invasion. Click here for more information. Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by a parasite that invades one red blood cell after another. Little is known about this infection process because it happens so quickly, potentially explaining why there is currently no approved malaria vaccine. In a study published by Cell Press August 19th in the Biophysical ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Bubbling down: Discovery suggests surprising uses for common bubbles

Anyone who has ever had a glass of fizzy soda knows that bubbles can throw tiny particles into the air. But in a finding with wide industrial applications, Princeton researchers have demonstrated that the bursting bubbles push some particles down into the liquid as well. "It is well known that bursting bubbles produce aerosol droplets, so we were surprised, and fascinated, to discover that when we covered the water with oil, the same process injected tiny oil droplets into the water," said Howard Stone, the Donald R. Dixon '69 and Elizabeth W. Dixon Professor of Mechanical ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Perampanel for epilepsy: Still no proof of added benefit

The drug perampanel (trade name Fycompa) has been approved since July 2012 as adjunctive ("add-on") therapy for adults and children aged 12 years and older with epileptic fits (seizures). In a new early benefit assessment according to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether perampanel offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. However, such an added benefit cannot be derived from the new dossier either, as the drug manufacturer did not ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Ruxolitinib for myelofibrosis: Indication of considerable added benefit

Ruxolitinib (trade name: Jakavi) has been approved since August 2012 for the treatment of adults with myelofibrosis. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy specified by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA). According to the results, there is an indication of considerable added benefit in comparison with "best supportive care" (BSC) because ...

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Social Science19 Aug 2014

College education not always about what you have, but how you use it

Students who have books and computers at home, who take extramural cultural classes, and whose parents give advice and take part in school activities are most likely to enroll for a four-year college degree. Also, more American black students – irrespective of their class or background – will set off on this education path than their white counterparts. So says David Merolla of Wayne State University and Omari Jackson of Colby-Sawyer College in the US, in Springer's journal Race and Social Problems. Merolla and Jackson studied class and race differences in college enrollment, ...

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Medicine19 Aug 2014

Organic photovoltaic cells of the future

WASHINGTON D.C., Aug. 19, 2014 – Organic photovoltaic cells -- a type of solar cell that uses polymeric materials to capture sunlight -- show tremendous promise as energy conversion devices, thanks to key attributes such as flexibility and low-cost production. But one giant hurdle holding back organic photovoltaic technologies have been the complexity of their power conversion processes, which involve separate charge formation and transport processes. To maneuver around this problem, a team of researchers in Japan has developed a method to determine the absolute value ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Love makes sex better for most women

Love and commitment can make sex physically more satisfying for many women, according to a Penn State Abington sociologist. In a series of interviews, heterosexual women between the ages of 20 and 68 and from a range of backgrounds said that they believed love was necessary for maximum satisfaction in both sexual relationships and marriage. The benefits of being in love with a sexual partner are more than just emotional. Most of the women in the study said that love made sex physically more pleasurable. "Women said that they connected love with sex and that love actually ...

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Space19 Aug 2014

Life on Mars? Implications of a newly discovered mineral-rich structure

New Rochelle, August 19, 2014—A new ovoid structure discovered in the Nakhla Martian meteorite is made of nanocrystalline iron-rich clay, contains a variety of minerals, and shows evidence of undergoing a past shock event from impact, with resulting melting of the permafrost and mixing of surface and subsurface fluids. Based on the results of a broad range of analytical studies to determine the origin of this new structure, scientists present the competing hypotheses for how this ovoid formed, point to the most likely conclusion, and discuss how these findings impact the ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Women will benefit from the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive coverage

Women could benefit greatly from the Affordable Care Act's mandate for contraceptive coverage, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. The Affordable Care Act requires private insurance plans -- except those grandfathered or exempted due to employers' religious beliefs -- to provide women with access to all FDA-approved contraceptive methods without cost-sharing. This first-dollar coverage "has the potential to dramatically shift contraceptive use patterns, to reduce the U.S. unintended pregnancy rate ... and to improve the health of women and families," ...

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Environment19 Aug 2014

Evolution of marine crocodilians constrained by ocean temperatures

The ancestors of today's crocodiles colonised the seas during warm phases and became extinct during cold phases, according to a new Anglo-French study which establishes a link between marine crocodilian diversity and the evolution of sea temperature over a period of more than 140 million years. The research, led by Dr Jeremy Martin from the Université de Lyon, France and formerly from the University of Bristol, UK is published this week in Nature Communications. Today, crocodiles are 'cold-blooded' animals that mainly live in fresh waters but two notable exceptions, ...

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Technology19 Aug 2014

Electrical engineers take major step toward optical computing

Edmonton—The invention of fibre optics revolutionized the way we share information, allowing us to transmit data at volumes and speeds we'd only previously dreamed of. Now, electrical engineering researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada are breaking another barrier, designing nano-optical cables small enough to replace the copper wiring on computer chips. This could result in radical increases in computing speeds and reduced energy use by electronic devices. "We're already transmitting data from continent to continent using fibre optics, ...

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Space19 Aug 2014

NASA sees Tropical Storm Karina losing its punch

Tropical Storm Karina continues to weaken in the Eastern Pacific over open waters, and NASA data shows there's not much punch left in the storm. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite can measure the rate of rainfall from its orbit in space and when it passed over Tropical Storm Karina in the Eastern Pacific it saw an isolated area of heavy rain remaining in the storm. Tropical Storm Karina weakened during the overnight hours and by Tuesday, August 19, maximum sustained winds had decreased to near 60 mph (95 kph). When TRMM passed overhead at 03:04 ...

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Science19 Aug 2014

Secrets of how worms wriggle uncovered

LIVERPOOL, UK – 19 August 2014: An engineer at the University of Liverpool has found how worms move around, despite not having a brain to communicate with the body. Dr Paolo Paoletti, alongside his colleague at Harvard, Professor L Mahadevan, has developed a mathematical model for earthworms and insect larvae which challenges the traditional view of how these soft bodied animals get around. The most widely accepted model is that of the central pattern generator (CPG) which states that the central brain of these creatures generates rhythmic contraction and extension ...

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