WASHINGTON, July 22, 2014—Scientists may have overcome one of the major hurdles in developing high-efficiency, long-lasting solar cells—keeping them cool, even in the blistering heat of the noonday Sun. By adding a specially patterned layer of silica glass to the surface of ordinary solar cells, a team of researchers led by Shanhui Fan, an electrical engineering professor at Stanford University in California has found a way to let solar cells cool themselves by shepherding away unwanted thermal radiation. The researchers describe their innovative design in the premiere ...

Chicago – July 22, 2014 – Researchers may be one step closer to better understanding how anesthesia works. A study in the August issue of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists® (ASA®), found stimulating a major dopamine-producing region in the brain, the ventral tegmental area (VTA), caused rats to wake from general anesthesia, suggesting that this region plays a key role in restoring consciousness after general anesthesia. Activating this region at the end of surgery could provide a novel approach to proactively induce ...

Imagine being able to instantaneously run an optical cable or fiber to any point on earth, or even into space. That's what Howard Milchberg, professor of physics and electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland, wants to do. In a paper published today in the July 2014 issue of the journal Optica, Milchberg and his lab report using an "air waveguide" to enhance light signals collected from distant sources. These air waveguides could have many applications, including long-range laser communications, detecting pollution in the atmosphere, making high-resolution ...

New research suggests that Antarctic sea ice may not be expanding as fast as previously thought. A team of scientists say much of the increase measured for Southern Hemisphere sea ice could be due to a processing error in the satellite data. The findings are published today in The Cryosphere, a journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Arctic sea ice is retreating at a dramatic rate. In contrast, satellite observations suggest that sea ice cover in the Antarctic is expanding – albeit at a moderate rate – and that sea ice extent has reached record highs in recent ...

Mixed genes appear to drive hybrid birds to select more difficult routes than their parent species, according to new research from University of British Columbia zoologists. "Instead of taking well-trodden paths through fertile areas, these birds choose to scale mountains and cross deserts," says UBC researcher Kira Delmore. Delmore harnessed a flock of B.C. Swainson's thrushes with tiny geolocating backpacks to map their routes as they migrated south through the U.S. to Central and South America. Many of the hybrid thrushes chose intermediary migration routes situated ...

Curtin University-led research has shown squirrels have adapted to New York City's human behaviour, allowing them to thrive just as well, if not better, than their fellow squirrels in the woods. Dr Bill Bateman, Senior Lecturer at Curtin's Department of Environment & Agriculture, led the study that proved eastern grey squirrels were able to modify their behaviour in urban environments and prevent unnecessary responses when humans acted in a predictable manner, such as staying on the footpath. "As we rapidly increase the spread of urbanisation around the world, urban ...

New Orleans, LA -- Nancy Buccola, MSN, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, CNE, Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Nursing, contributed samples used in a study reporting new locations of genetic material associated with schizophrenia and also suggesting a possible link between the immune system and schizophrenia. The study, “Biological insights from 108 schizophrenia-associated genetic loci,” was published online July 22, 2014 in Nature, available at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13595.html. ...

Playing in schoolyards that feature natural habitats and trees and not just asphalt and recreation equipment reduces children's stress and inattention, according to a University of Colorado Boulder study. Working on class assignments or gardening in such settings also provide stress-reducing benefits for youth, according to a paper published in the journal Health & Place. The study is one of the first of its kind to focus on the relationship between student access to green settings and stress. "Many schools already offer stress management programs, but they're about ...

While historical barriers that excluded Black America from the homeowner market for decades have crumbled, there are signs that emerging types of racial inequality are making homeownership an increasingly risky investment for African-American home seekers. A new study from sociologists at Rice University and Cornell University found that African-Americans are 45 percent more likely than whites to switch from owning their homes to renting them. The study, "Emerging Forms of Racial Inequality in Homeownership Exit, 1968-2009," examines racial inequality in transitions out ...

Philadelphia, PA -- Brain stimulation treatments, like electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), are often effective for the treatment of depression. Like antidepressant medications, however, they typically have a delayed onset. For example, a patient may receive several weeks of regular ECT treatments before a full response is achieved. Thus, there is an impetus to develop antidepressant treatments that act to rapidly improve mood. Low field magnetic stimulation (LFMS) is one such potential new treatment with rapid mood-elevating ...

This news release is available in German. Vacuum is not as empty as one might think. In fact, empty space is a bubbling soup of various virtual particles popping in and out of existence – a phenomenon called "vacuum fluctuations". Usually, such extremely short-lived particles remain completely unnoticed, but in certain cases vacuum forces can have a measurable effect. A team of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel) and the Vienna University of Technology has now proposed a method of amplifying these forces by several orders of magnitude ...

A pilot study by HIV researchers from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark has shown that an anti-cancer drug can activate hidden HIV. The researchers found that the anti-cancer drug romidepsin increased the virus production in HIV-infected cells between 2.1 and 3.9 times above normal and that the viral load in the blood increased to measurable levels in five out of six patients with HIV infection. A pilot study The results were presented today as breaking news at the annual international AIDS conference in Melbourne, Australia. The pilot study ...

In Jeju, a place emerging as a world-famous vacation spot with natural tourism resources, a recent study revealed a volcanic eruption occurred on the island. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) indicated that there are the traces that indicated that a recent volcanic eruption was evident 5,000 years ago. That is the first time to actually find out the date when lava spewed out of a volcano 5,000 years ago in the inland part of the island as well as the one the whole peninsula. The research team led by Dr. Jin-Young Lee confirmed in results ...

LOS ANGELES (July 21, 2014) – Investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute are developing a novel, multistep investigational treatment for one of the most complex and difficult-to-treat forms of the disease, locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Locally advanced pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of any solid tumor, with a cumulative five-year survival rate of only 4 percent for all stages of disease. Surgery is rarely an option for patients because tumors often involve vital blood vessels. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy given ...

A Vanderbilt University-led research team has identified protein "signatures" of genetic mutations that drive colorectal cancer, the nation's second leading cause of cancer deaths after lung cancer. The technological tour de force, described in the current issue of the journal Nature as the first integrated "proteogenomic" characterization of human cancer, "will enable new advances" in diagnosing and treating the disease, the scientists concluded. "It's a first-of-its-kind paper. I think it's a very important advance in the field," said senior author Daniel Liebler, ...

A new UCLA-led study suggests that a higher quality educational environment may help improve health outcomes Low-income minority adolescents who were admitted to high-performing public charter high schools in Los Angeles were significantly less likely to engage in risky health behaviors than their peers who were not admitted to those schools, according to a new UCLA-led study. These students also scored significantly better on California state standardized math and English tests. While numerous previous studies have shown a link between health and K-12 education, ...

Researchers at the University of Western Australia, led by Associate Professor Melinda Fitzgerald, have discovered that preventing abnormalities in the insulating sheath surrounding nerve cells is associated with better function following neurotrauma. Following injury to the central nervous system, damage spreads away from the initial impact in a process known as secondary degeneration. Dr Fitzgerald emphasises that "In order to develop treatments for secondary degeneration, we need to understand the biochemical reactions that occur in tissue that succumbs to spreading ...

Led by Dr. Zahoor A. Shah, Dr. Shadia E. Nada and Jatin Tulsulkar (graduate student), researchers at the University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, have discovered that mice treated with Ginkgo biloba 4 hours after inducing experimental stroke and then daily for seven days had improved recovery and less brain damage than the control mice. It was also observed that Ginkgo biloba treated mice had enhanced neurogenesis, partly due to the increased protein expression of hemeoxygenase 1, an antioxidant gene that also has a role in neurogenesis. Pertinently, mice lacking the hemeoxygenase ...

*** UPDATE TO NEWS RELEASE: 'Fires are a major cause of wind farm failure, according to new research' *** Message to news release subscribers from Imperial College London Press Office: Following discussion with reporters we wish to draw attention to further information relating to the News Release issued under embargo for Thursday 17 July 2014: "Fires are a major cause of wind farm failure, according to new research". A version of this note will be appended to the online news release and news story and both will be updated accordingly. 1. The purpose of the research ...

July 22, 2014, Cleveland: A type of immune cell widely believed to exacerbate chronic adult brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS), can actually protect the brain from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and may slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, according to Cleveland Clinic research published today in the online journal Nature Communications. The research team, led by Bruce Trapp, PhD, Chair of the Department of Neurosciences at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, found that microglia can help synchronize brain firing, ...

AURORA, Colo. (July 22, 2014) – With over 170,000 students now playing high school lacrosse, more and more are being exposed to injuries during practice and competition, according to a new study from the Colorado School of Public Health and the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The study, published online today by The American Journal of Sports Medicine, found that high school lacrosse players experienced 1,406 injuries over the four academic years from 2008 through 2012. The overall injury rate was 20 per 10,000 ...

Not much is known about the the genus of planthopper known as Conosimus, which now includes six species after a new one was recently discovered in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula in the Spanish city of Jaen. A description of it appears in the open-access Journal of Insect Science (see http://www.insectscience.org/14.92/). The new species, Conosimus baenai, has been named after Manuel Baena, a Spanish hemipterologist, for his contributions to the taxonomy of Iberian Hemiptera. Conosimus baenai differs in appearance from the other species in the Conosimus genus ...

Saudi Arabian researchers have detected genetic fragments of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the air of a barn holding a camel infected with the virus. The work, published this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, indicates that further studies are needed to see if the disease can be transmitted through the air. MERS, a serious viral respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, has been identified in 699 people as of June 11, according to the World Health Organization; 209 people have died ...

Viruses designed to target and kill cancer cells could boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy to the arms and legs and help avoid amputation, a new study reports. Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, tested the effectiveness of a genetically engineered version of the virus used to vaccinate against smallpox. They found use of the virus alongside isolated limb perfusion chemotherapy – given directly to blood vessels supplying the affected arm or leg as an alternative to amputation – was more effective in rats than either treatment on its own. The ...

Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing high school sports in the United States, with more than 170,000 students now playing the sometimes hard-hitting game. The growing participation numbers, however, mean that more young people than ever are at risk of injury in lacrosse practice and competition. In a study published online today by The American Journal of Sports Medicine and available in an upcoming print issue, researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Colorado School of Public Health found that high school ...