This news release is available in German. Home automation systems that control domestic lighting, heating, window blinds or door locks offer opportunities for third parties to intrude on the privacy of the inhabitants and gain considerable insight into their behavioral patterns. This is the conclusion reached by IT security expert Christoph Sorge and his research team at Saarland University. Even data transmitted from encrypted systems can provide information useful to potential burglars. Professor Sorge, who holds the juris Professorship in Legal Informatics ...

Radiotherapy for cancer involves exposing the patient or their tumor more directly to ionizing radiation, such as gamma rays or X-rays. The radiation damages the cancer cells irreparably. Unfortunately, such radiation is also harmful to healthy tissue, particularly the skin over the site of the tumor, which is then at risk of hair loss, dermatological problems and even skin cancer. As such finding ways to protect the overlying skin are keenly sought. Writing in the International Journal of Low Radiation, Faruck Lukmanul Hakkim of the University of Nizwa, Oman and Nagasaki ...

Most scientific literature devoted to the protein p53 refers to cancer biology, and the functions of this molecule as a tumour suppressor have been described in detail. Furthermore, also in cancer biology, it is known that p53 inhibits the metabolic pathways of tumour cells in order to block their metabolism and prevent their rapid growth and proliferation. The most innovative research on p53 attempts to unveil its functions in the management of energy stores and nutrients in healthy cells. Recent studies with cell cultures have demonstrated that p53 is activated in response ...

CINCINNATI -- Over half of patients being seen in the clinic for a diagnosed brain tumor have metastatic cancer, which has no treatment and detrimental outcomes in most cases. However, a Cincinnati Cancer Center (CCC) study, published in the advance online edition of the journal Oncotarget, provides hope that previously studied SapC-DOPS could be used for treatment of brain cancer that has spread. Xiaoyang Qi, PhD, member of the CCC, associate director and associate professor in the division of hematology oncology at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine ...

Attendances at emergency departments can be reduced by enabling patients to see the same GP every time they visit their doctor's surgery. This is just one of several recommendations made in a report published today, led by researchers at the University of Bristol. Called 'Primary care factors and unscheduled secondary care: a series of systematic reviews', the report has been compiled by researchers from the University's Centre for Academic Primary Care who looked at evidence from studies around the world. They found that patients who saw the same GP every time they attended ...

Toronto - Aristotle said, "Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." Poetic as it is, thinking that you and your partner were made in heaven for each other can hurt your relationship, says a new study. Psychologists observe that people talk and think about love in apparently limitless ways but underlying such diversity are some common themes that frame how we think about relationships. For example, one popular frame considers love as perfect unity ("made for each other," "she's my other half"); in another frame, love is a journey ("look how far we've ...

Parts of the primordial soup in which life arose have been maintained in our cells today according to scientists at the University of East Anglia. Research published today in the Journal of Biological Chemistry reveals how cells in plants, yeast and very likely also in animals still perform ancient reactions thought to have been responsible for the origin of life – some four billion years ago. The primordial soup theory suggests that life began in a pond or ocean as a result of the combination of metals, gases from the atmosphere and some form of energy, such as a lightning ...

An international team of researchers led by the University of York has carried out the first assessment of community-led marine conservation in the Western Indian Ocean. The results, reported in the journal PLOS ONE, point to a revolution in the management of marine protected areas, with almost half of the sites – more than 11,000 km² – in the region now under local community stewardship. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are zones of the seas and coasts designed to protect wildlife from damage and disturbance and managed typically by governments rather than by local communities. ...

Traumatic brain injury can cause post-traumatic neurodegenerations with an increase in reactive oxygen species and reactive oxygen species-mediated lipid peroxidation. Melatonin, a non-enzymatic antioxidant and neuroprotective agent, has been shown to counteract oxidative stress-induced pathophysiologic conditions like cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, neuronal excitotoxicity and chronic inflammation. Therefore, the research team at the Neuroscience Research Center, University of Suleyman Demire, led by Prof. Mustafa Nazıroğlu, aimed to evaluate whether there ...

A research team led by group leader Yung-Eun Sung has announced that they have developed cost-effective technology to synthesize sulfur-doped and nitrogen-doped graphenes which can be applied as high performance electrodes for secondary batteries and fuel cells. Yung-Eun Sung is both a group leader at the Center for Nanoparticle Research at Institute for Basic Science* (IBS) and a professor at the Seoul National University. This achievement has great significance with regards to the development of relative simplicity, scalablity, and cost effectiveness processes that ...

Mitochondria play an important role in neuronal apoptosis caused by cerebral ischemia. Researchers at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, China discovered transient ischemia led to cell apoptosis in the hippocampus and changes in memory and cognition of aged rats. Differential proteomics analysis suggested that this phenomenon may be mediated by mitochondrial proteins associated with energy metabolism and apoptosis in aged rats. This study reported in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 11, 2014) provides potential drug targets for the treatment of ...

Researchers at Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, led by Prof. Liu, Dr. Shen and Mrs. Yang have developed a biodegradable nerve conduit containing genipin-cross-linked gelatin was annexed using beta-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) ceramic particles (Genipin-Gelatin-TCP, GGT) to bridge the transection of a 15 mm sciatic nerve in rats. The effects of LLL therapy on peripheral nerve restoration and regeneration have systematically investigated throughout the study period. Very few studies have employed tubulation in combination with diode laser therapy ...

The cellular process autophagy appears to not work properly, contributing to the destruction of insulin-producing beta cells People with Type 2 diabetes have an excess of a protein called islet amyloid polypeptide, or IAPP, and the accumulation of this protein is linked to the loss of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. What causes this accumulation of IAPP in pancreatic beta cells of people with diabetes has remained a mystery. But a team of researchers from the Larry L. Hillblom Islet Research Center led by Dr. Peter Butler, professor of medicine at UCLA, may ...

TORONTO, ON (23 JULY 2014) – A team of astronomers has made the most precise measurements yet of water vapour in the atmospheres of Jupiter-like planets beyond our Solar System and found them to be much drier worlds than expected. The team, including Dr. Nicolas Crouzet of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, has found that the abundance of atmospheric water vapour is between ten and a thousand times less than what models predict. "The low water vapour levels are surprising," says Crouzet. "Our models predict a much higher abundance ...

Researchers have uncovered a way the malaria parasite becomes resistant to an investigational drug. The discovery, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, also is relevant for other infectious diseases including bacterial infections and tuberculosis. The study appears July 24 in Nature Communications. Many organisms, including the parasite that causes malaria, make a class of molecules called isoprenoids, which play multiple roles in keeping organisms healthy, whether plants, animals or bacteria. In malaria, the investigational drug fosmidomycin blocks ...

Traditional methods of characterising and detecting bacteria are often slow and time-consuming. Therefore, development of new methods of characterising and detecting illness-causing microorganisms is very important for improving food safety. Trine Hansen, PhD student at the National Food Institute, has studied new methods of characterising Salmonella in pork meat processing and detecting unknown bacteria in water, feed and food samples. The research project has given a better understanding of which factors in pork meat processing may contribute to the development of ...

It is seldom sufficient to read the declaration of contents if you need to know precisely what substances a product contains. In fact, to do this you need to be a highly skilled chemist or to have genuine X-ray vision so that you can look directly into the molecular structure of the various substances. Christian Grundahl Frankær, a Postdoc at DTU Chemical Engineering, is almost both, as he has developed a method that allows him to use X-rays to look deep into biological samples. The 'Fingerprints' of a Substance The technique is called 'powder diffraction' and involves ...

Quantum computers have yet to materialise. Yet, scientists are making progress in devising suitable means of making such computers faster. One such approach relies on quantum dots—a kind of artificial atom, easily controlled by applying an electric field. A new study demonstrates that changing the coupling of three coherently coupled quantum dots (TQDs) with electrical impulses can help better control them. This has implications, for example, should TQDs be used as quantum information units, which would produce faster quantum computers due to the fact that they would be ...

Sufficient financial inducements are one way of encouraging people to move to regional Australia for jobs, but other factors also play a part, according to a new report. Moving workers from a region with high unemployment to a region with many job vacancies is an important aspect of labour markets. The Commission of Audit recently advised the government to "force" long-term unemployed people who are single and between the ages of 22 and 30 to move to areas of higher employment if they have been on the dole for 12 months. Researchers from Monash and Deakin Universities ...

Philadelphia – Students graduating from U.S. medical schools in 2012 feel they've received a better education in health policy issues than graduates surveyed in 2008, according to a multi-center study led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and published online this month in Academic Medicine. The study applied a new framework for teaching and evaluating perceptions of training in health policy, first proposed by the authors in a 2011 perspective published in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Our prior work found that for nearly a ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers have discovered a previously unknown mechanism for wear in metals: a swirling, fluid-like microscopic behavior in a solid piece of metal sliding over another. The findings could be used to improve the durability of metal parts in numerous applications. "Wear is a major cause of failure in engineering applications," said Srinivasan Chandrasekar, a Purdue University professor of industrial engineering and materials engineering. "However, our findings have implications beyond wear itself, extending to manufacturing and materials processing." The ...

A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapour in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the Sun – and have come up nearly dry. The three planets, HD 189733b, HD 209458b, and WASP-12b, are between 60 and 900 light-years away, and are all gas giants known as 'hot Jupiters.' These worlds are so hot, with temperatures between 900 to 2200 degrees Celsius, that they are ideal candidates for detecting water vapour in their atmospheres. However, the three planets have only one-tenth to one-thousandth the ...

WASHINGTON, DC -- For decades, couples in which a wife had more education than her husband faced a higher risk of divorce than those in which a husband had more education, but a new study finds this is no longer the case. "We also found that couples in which both individuals have equal levels of education are now less likely to divorce than those in which husbands have more education than their wives," said Christine R. Schwartz, lead author of the study and an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "These trends are consistent with ...

New research has found that birthday-related drinking is associated with upsurges in hospital admissions among young people. This study of drinking behaviour in Ontario, Canada is published online today in the scientific journal Addiction. Researchers, led by University of Northern British Columbia Associate Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Russ Callaghan, analysed records from all hospital admissions in Ontario over a five-year period (2002-07) involving people aged 12 to 30 years. They discovered that during the week in which Ontarians turned 19 – the legal drinking age ...

The immune system has evolved to recognize and respond to threats to health, and to provide life-long memory that prevents recurrent disease. A detailed understanding of the mechanism underlying immunologic memory, however, has remained elusive. Since 2001, various lines of research have converged to support the hypothesis that the persistence of immune memory arises from a reservoir of immune cells with stem-cell-like potential. Until now, there was no conclusive evidence, largely because experiments could only be carried out on populations of cells. This first strict ...