Imaging and mapping of electric fields at radio frequencies (RF)* currently requires the use of metallic structures such as dipoles, probes and reference antennas. To make such measurements efficiently, the size of these structures needs to be on the order of the wavelength of the RF fields to be mapped. This poses practical limitations on the smallest features that can be measured. New theoretical and experimental work by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Michigan suggests an innovative method to overcome ...

A study carried out at the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Eastern Finland shows that a common mutation in the PNPLA3 gene combined with overweight results in elevated ALAT values in children. The ALAT value is an indicator of liver metabolism. In adults, this gene mutation is known to promote the accumulation of fat in the liver. The new results indicate that a healthy lifestyle is important already in childhood in order to prevent the accumulation of fat in the liver, and it is especially important for those carrying the risk gene. The results will be published ...

June 17,2014- Fractures of the nose and other facial bones are a relatively common and potentially serious injury in soccer players, reports a Brazilian study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery—Global Open® , the official open-access medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). On the eve of the 2014 World Cup, a group of Brazilian plastic surgeons review their experience with soccer-related facial fractures requiring surgery. Dr. Dov Charles Goldenberg, MD, PhD, of University of São Paulo and colleagues write, "Due to exposure and the lack ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Even the smartest college students suffer academically when they use the Internet in class for non-academic purposes, finds new research by Michigan State University scholars. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, speaks to typical lecture-hall culture in which professors compete for students' attention with laptops and smartphones. "Students of all intellectual abilities should be responsible for not letting themselves be distracted by use of the Internet," said Susan Ravizza, associate professor of psychology and lead investigator ...

A researcher with the Department of Electrodynamics of Complex Systems and Nanophotonics, Alexander Rozhkov, has presented theoretical calculations which indicate the possible existence of fermionic matter in apreviously unknown state – in the form ofaone-dimensional liquid, which cannot be described within the framework of existing models. Details are contained in Rozhkov's article in the journal Physical Review Letters, and are also available as a preprint at http://www.arxiv.org. Rozhkov explained that the one-dimensional liquid state of matter is not necessarily one ...

WASHINGTON - Middle- and upper-class elementary school students in Kentucky demonstrated worse academic performance when they were required to start classes early, compared to peers whose school day started later, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Researchers led by Peggy S. Keller, PhD, of the University of Kentucky, theorized that earlier school start times would be associated with lower standardized test scores, poorer attendance, more students being left back, lower school rank and school underperformance. They also expected ...

[Boston, MA June 17, 2014]─ Sarcopenia – the significant loss of muscle mass and function that can occur as we age – is associated with many chronic conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity. In findings published online ahead of publication in the September 2014 issue of the FASEB Journal, researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University identify a muscle-building mechanism that could be important in addressing sarcopenia. When people strength train the body responds by making muscle. The researchers ...

HEIDELBERG, 17 June 2014 – A specific protein found in the bridge-like structures that make up part of the auditory machinery of the inner ear is essential for hearing. The absence of this protein or impairment of the gene that codes for this protein leads to profound deafness in mice and humans, respectively, reports a team of researchers in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. "The goal of our study was to identify which isoform of protocadherin-15 forms the tip-links, the essential connections of the auditory mechanotransduction machinery within mature hair cells ...

June 17, 2014, Glenview, Illinois--The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) announced today the Online First publication of Pharmacological Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Adults: CHEST Guideline in the journal CHEST. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare form of pulmonary hypertension, can strike anyone, but individuals with connective tissue diseases such as scleroderma, liver disease, or HIV infection, are more likely than the general population to have PAH. These new guidelines provide recommendations to help clinicians manage PAH using ...

Laboratory for the Spectroscopy of Planetary Atmospheres of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology has come up with a high-resolution meter to gauge the concentration of gases in the atmosphere with unparalleled precision. The infrared spectrum radiometer is described in an article recently published in the journal Optics Express. The paper, authored by Alexander Rodin, Artem Klimchuk, Alexander Nadezhdinsky, Dmitry Churbanov and Maxim Spiridonov, says that the new spectrum radiometer is 100 times more precise than the best available near-infrared spectrometers, ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease. It can affect various organs, in particular, the skin, joints and kidneys although it displays great variability in extent and seriousness depending on the patient. Approximately nine out of every ten patients are female and it appears in one woman in every thousand. As Dr Guillermo Ruiz-Irastorza, head of the Autoimmune Disease Research Unit of the Hospital Universitario Cruces, explained, traditionally lupus has been treated mostly with glucocorticoids ...

BETHESDA, MD – June 17, 2014 – Sex is everywhere in nature. Whether it's a male bird singing to mark his territory or a tiny yeast cell secreting chemicals to attract the opposite mating type, sex has profoundly shaped the appearance, behavior and evolution of many organisms. The genetic and evolutionary forces underlying sex differences and sex determination are crucial for understanding much of the natural world, including human biology. In recognition of the importance of these topics, the Genetics Society of America journals GENETICS and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics ...

BETHESDA, MD – June 17, 2014 – Immunity is what stops you dying from a common cold or a tiny pinprick. Differences in resistance or tolerance to disease influence who catches the bug that's going around the office, or which species succumb to the deadly fungus devastating frogs around the world. But immunity involves more than just the immune cells that recognize and hunt down pathogens. It is influenced by the host's health, physiology, behavior, and environment. And underlying all these processes and their intricate interactions are the genes that govern their function. This ...

A UT Arlington research team says their study of genetic information from more than 4,000 beetle species has yielded a new theory about why some species lose their Y chromosome and others, such as humans, hang on to it. They call it the "fragile Y hypothesis." The biologists' idea is that the fate of the Y chromosome is heavily influenced by how meiosis, or the production of sperm, works in an organism. They believe the size of an area where X and Y genetic information mingle or recombine can serve as a strong clue that a species is at risk of losing the Y chromosome ...

Non-vocational adult education drawing on a person's own motivation comes with a variety of benefits that are also reflected on the person's close friends, family and work. Studying boosts self-confidence and well-being, and expands social networks. Furthermore, motivation to pursue other studies also increases. Thanks to participation in adult education, tolerance towards and confidence in other people grows, and adult learners pay increasing attention to their health. Parents are better able to support the studying of their school-aged children. All of the above are ...

Scientists at the University of Bonn and the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) have developed a novel camera system which can see around the corner without using a mirror. Using diffusely reflected light, it reconstructs the shape of objects outside of the field of view. The researchers will be reporting their results at the international Conference for Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) from June 24-27 in Columbus (Ohio, USA). A laser shines on the wall; a camera watches the scene. Nothing more than white ingrain wallpaper with a bright spot ...

Mitochondria are cell organelles located within animal and human cells. They produce energy for the organism, possess their own genetic material - mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) - and are transmitted exclusively by the mother. Depending on their activity and tasks, different numbers of mitochondria are present in a cell - usually a few hundred to a thousand per body cell. Inherited mitochondrial disorders or so-called mitochondropathies occur in about one of 10,000 humans throughout the world. Diseases such as diabetes, stroke, cardiac defects, epilepsy, or muscle weakness ...

This news release is available in German. Substantial improvements in freshwater quality by 2015 have been a declared objective of the EU member states, manifesting itself by the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). A recent study conducted by the Institute for Environmental Sciences Landau together with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and fellow scientists from France (University of Lorraine and EDF) and Switzerland (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology - EAWAG) shows that this target is unlikely to be ...

Children's marks at school influence the likelihood of them abandoning their studies, but the effect varies according to their social background: among students with poor marks, those from a higher social class have more opportunities to raise their marks than children of low-skilled workers. This is according to a study carried out by researchers from the National University of Distance Learning (UNED) and the European University Institute. "The study deals with dissociating the effect of the marks (considered the 'primary source' of educational results) from other processes ...

Inspired by anomalies that arise in certain mathematical equations, researchers have demonstrated a laser system that paradoxically turns off when more power is added rather than becoming continuously brighter. The finding by a team of researchers at Vienna University of Technology and Princeton University, could lead to new ways to manipulate the interaction of electronics and light, an important tool in modern communications networks and high-speed information processing. The researchers published their results June 13 in the journal Nature Communications (Ref. 1). Their ...

NEW YORK (June 17, 2014) – A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society says that in wild yak societies, it's the mothers that are the real climbers. The study found that mothers with young venture on steeper terrain and slightly higher elevation than either males or females without young. The authors of the study expect that this strategy is an adaptive way to avoid predators and to access more nutritious food. Wild yaks are an endangered species occurring only on the Tibetan Plateau and closely related to North American bison. The study, which appears in ...

This news release is available in German. The cells of the human immune system are created from special stem cells in the bone marrow. In diseases affecting the bone marrow, such as leukemia, the degenerate cells must be destroyed using radiation or chemotherapy. Subsequently, the hematopoietic system has to be replaced with stem cells from the blood of a healthy donor. Because of the resulting temporary weakening of the immune system, patients are more exposed to viruses that would normally be warded off. The cytomegalovirus (CMV), which can cause serious damage to ...

This news release is available in German. Sound waves fade, water waves ebb, light waves are dissipated by a wall. The absorption of waves is a very common phenomenon. But only recently have physicists realized that amazing new possibilities are opened up, when this energy loss, rather than being seen as an annoying nuisance, is actually considered a desired effect. At the Vienna University of Technology, a system of two coupled lasers has been created, in which wave dissipation leads to a behaviour completely contrary to intuition: additional energy can switch it ...

A study conducted by the University of Granada has scientifically proven that alcohol consumption markedly impairs night-vision because it increases the perception of halos—luminous circles—and other visual night-time disturbances. Moreover, this deterioration of vision is significantly greater in subjects with breath alcohol content in excess of 0.25mg/litre—the legal limit for driving in Spain and other countries and, also, that recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Researchers from the Laboratory of Vision Sciences and Applications conclude that alcohol ...

Popular beliefs about the influence of the moon on humans widely exist. Many people report sleeplessness around the time of full moon. In contrast to earlier studies, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich did not observe any correlation between human sleep and the lunar phases. The researchers analyzed preexisting data of a large cohort of volunteers and their sleep nights. Further identification of mostly unpublished null findings suggests that the conflicting results of previous studies might be due to a publication bias. For centuries, people ...