A black hole. A simple and clear concept, at least according to the hypothesis by Roy Kerr, who in 1963 proposed a "clean" black hole model, which is the current theoretical paradigm. From theory to reality things may be quite different. According to a new research carried out by a group of scientists that includes Thomas Sotiriou, a physicist of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, black holes may be much "dirtier" than what Kerr believed. According to the traditional model, black holes are defined by only two quantities: mass and angular ...

Adults who move to farming areas where they experience a wider range of environmental exposures than in cities may reduce the symptoms of their hypersensitivities and allergies considerably. This is the result of new research from Aarhus University. This pioneering result was recently published online in the esteemed periodical, The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in an article entitled "Become a farmer and avoid new allergic sensitization: Adult farming exposures protect against new-onset atopic sensitization". The immune systems of people who work in farming ...

Global production of photovoltaic (PV) cells grew by 10% in 2012 in comparison to 2011 despite a 9% decline in solar energy investments according to the annual "PV Status Report" released by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Europe remained a leader in newly installed capacities accounting for 51.7% (16.8 GW) of the 30 GW installed worldwide. Abundant solar resources in combination with zero emissions from solar installations have attributed to PV energy systems a key role in the transition to a low carbon energy supply. This potential has driven development ...

Researchers believe they have discovered how aspirin improves survival in patients diagnosed with colon cancer, the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1] heard today (Monday). Although previous research has shown that taking low dose aspirin after being diagnosed with colon cancer improves patient outcome, the reasons why this happens remain unknown. The new research has shown that aspirin improves outcome in patients whose tumour cells express a specific protein on their surface; the protein is known as Human Leukocyte Antigen class I (HLA class I), a cell-surface ...

The world's sharpest X-ray beam shines at DESY. At the X-ray light source PETRA III, scientists from Göttingen generated a beam with a diameter of barely 5 nanometres – this is ten thousand times thinner than a human hair. This fine beam of X-ray light allows focusing on smallest details. The research groups of Professor Tim Salditt from the Institute of X-ray Physics and of Professor Hans-Ulrich Krebs from the Institute of Materials Physics of the University of Göttingen published their work in the research journal Optics Express. High-energy (hard) X-ray light cannot ...

Bethesda, MD -- Cocaine use may increase one's vulnerability to HIV infection, according to a new research report published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. In the report, scientists show that cocaine alters immune cells, called "quiescent CD4 T cells," to render them more susceptible to the virus, and at the same time, to allow for increased proliferation of the virus. "We ultimately hope that our studies will provide a better understanding of how drugs of abuse impact how our body defends itself against disease," said Dimitrios N. Vatakis, Ph.D., the study's senior ...

Researchers say it's clear that some cases of autism are hereditary, but have struggled to draw direct links between the condition and particular genes. Now a team at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has devised a process for connecting a suspect gene to its function in autism. In a report in the Sept. 25 issue of Nature Communications, the scientists say mutations in one such autism-linked gene, dubbed NHE9, which is involved in transporting substances in and out of structures within the ...

Women with ovarian cancer that has recurred after chemotherapy have survived for longer after treatment with a biological therapy called cediranib, according to new results to be presented today (Monday) at the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1]. Cediranib, which is taken in pill form, is an inhibitor of a cell signalling process involved in formation of tumour blood vessels, essential for tumour growth, and it is the first oral inhibitor of its kind to show an improvement in the time before patients' disease progresses and in overall survival. The drug is a ...

Many of the elite sportsmen and women who competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games had poor levels of oral health similar to those experienced by the most disadvantaged populations. 18 per cent of athletes surveyed said their oral health was having a negative impact on their performance. The research, which was led by Professor Ian Needleman at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The researchers recruited 302 athletes to take part in the study at the Dental Clinic in the London 2012 athletes' village. The athletes ...

This news release is available in German. The harnessing of quantum phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, holds great promise for constructing future supercomputers using quantum technology. One huge advantage of such quantum computers is that they are capable of performing a variety of tasks much quicker than their conventional counterparts. The use of quantum computers for these purposes raises a significant challenge: how can one verify the results provided by a quantum computer? It is only recently that theoretical developments have provided methods ...

A zygote is the first cell of a new individual that comes about as the result of the fusion of an ovule with a spermatozoid. The DNA of the zygote holds all the information required to generate an adult organism. However, in the first stages of life, during the so-called embryogenesis, the genome of this zygote is repressed and does not exert any activity. In the fly Drosophila melanogaster, the genomes of the zygote are repressed until the thirteenth division, after which the embryo starts to express its own genes. Headed by Ferran Azorín, also CSIC Research professor, ...

A proposal for a new financing model to tackle the major disparities that exist in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and outcome of cancer in countries worldwide has been presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECCO 2013). While much progress has been made against cancer over the last century, a new report brings together evidence that not every patient benefits from it, nor even has the opportunity to benefit. The economics of cancer are daunting and the current model of financing is broken, said Professor Peter Boyle, President of the International Prevention ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 30, 2013—Divorced men have higher rates of mortality, substance abuse, depression, and lack of social support, according to a new article in Journal of Men's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article provides assessment and treatment recommendations for care providers and is available free on the Journal of Men's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jmh. Authors Daniel S. Felix, PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, W. David Robinson, PhD, Utah State University, Logan, and Kimberly J. Jarzynka, ...

Danish and Australian biologists have developed a technique to determine if seagrass contain sulfur. If the seagrass contains sulfur, it is an indication that the seabed is stressed and that the water environment is threatened. The technique will help biologists all over the world in their effort to save the world's seagrass meadows. Seagrass meadows, such as eelgrass or Halophila, grow along most of the world's coasts where they provide important habitats for a wide variety of life forms. However in many places seagrass meadows have been lost or seriously diminished ...

A new study by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers led by Christian Weber sheds light on the role of the adhesion molecule JAM-A in the recruitment of immune cells to the inner layer of arteries – which promotes the development of atherosclerosis. Multiphoton microscopy makes it possible to image the vessel wall (blue: collagen) and inner lining of an artery that has been subjected to atherosclerosis-promoting conditions. Staining for endothelial cells (red) and JAM-A (green) reveals the localization of JAM-A at the cell junctions and the first ...

Boosting testosterone can promote generosity, but only when there is no threat of competition, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that testosterone is implicated in behaviors that help to foster and maintain social relationships, indicating that its effects are more nuanced than previously thought. "Testosterone may mediate competitive and potentially antisocial behavior when social challenges or threats need to be confronted and handled," explains lead researcher Maarten ...

Chestnut Hill, MA (September 30, 2013) - It's a long held belief that parental and administrative support helps breed academic success; now there's data to back that up. A new study released today by the IEA and the TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College examines what makes up "cultural educational excellence" while quantifying the strengths of best practices at school, and at home. "The data supports many long held beliefs about good ways of raising your children and preparing them for school," says Dr. Michael Martin of Boston College, co-executive ...

NASA's Terra satellite passed over Typhoon Wutip on its approach to a landfall in Vietnam and a visible image revealed its 10-mile-wide eye, and large extent. Wutip was making landfall near Dong Hoi Vietnam around 0900 UTC/5 a.m. EDT. On Sept. 30 at 03:35 UTC/Sept. 29 at 11:35 p.m. EDT, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite took a visible image of Typhoon Wutip, clearly showing its eye. At that time, Wutip was still approaching landfall in Vietnam and the heaviest rainfall and strongest thunderstorms ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A cheap and simple process using natural fibers embedded with nanoparticles can almost completely rid water of harmful textile dyes in minutes, report Cornell University and Colombian researchers who worked with native Colombian plant fibers. Dyes, such as indigo blue used to color blue jeans, threaten waterways near textile plants in South America, India and China. Such dyes are toxic, and they discolor the water, thereby reducing light to the water plants, which limits photosynthesis and lowers the oxygen in the water. The study, published in the August ...

Bethesda, MD—A group of really brainy scientists have moved closer to growing "therapeutic" brain cells in the laboratory that can be re-integrated back into patients' brains to treat a wide range of neurological conditions. According to new research published online in The FASEB Journal, brain cells from a small biopsy can be used to grow large numbers of new personalized cells that are not only "healthy," but also possess powerful attributes to preserve and protect the brain from future injury, toxins and diseases. Scientists are hopeful that ultimately these cells could ...

Tropical Depression 11 formed in the central Atlantic Ocean and NASA's TRMM satellite passed overhead and gathered information and identified a "hot tower" that indicated it would strengthen. The depression became Tropical Storm Jerry on Sept. 30 at 10:30 a.m. EDT. The eleventh Atlantic tropical depression formed around 11 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Sept. 28, about 960 miles/1,540 km east-northeast of the Leeward Islands and was moving north at 9 mph. When NASA's TRMM or Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite flew over Tropical Depression 11 on Sept. 30 at 09:28 ...

Geologists and geophysicists of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), discovered traces of large ice sheets from the Pleistocene on a seamount off the north-eastern coast of Russia. These marks confirm for the first time that within the past 800,000 years in the course of ice ages, ice sheets more than a kilometre thick also formed in the Arctic Ocean. The climate history for this part of the Arctic now needs to be rewritten, report the AWI scientists jointly with their South Korean colleagues in the title story of the current ...

More Hispanic Texans die from cancer than any other cause, according to a new report by the Comparative Effectiveness Research on Cancer in Texas research group. The report documents cancer as the leading cause of death among Hispanic Texans under the age of 76. Only three percent of Hispanic Texans are older than 75. Texas's Hispanic population has more than doubled since 1990. Texans of Hispanic ethnicity now comprise 38 percent of the state's population. The findings are published in a September 2013 special issue of the Texas Public Health Journal, available online ...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2013 – A string of fiber-optic sensors running along a 36-km stretch of high-speed commuter railroad lines connecting Hong Kong to mainland China has taken more than 10 million measurements over the past few years in a demonstration that the system can help safeguard commuter trains and freight cars against accidents. Attuned to the contact between trains and tracks, the sensors can detect potential problems like excessive vibrations, mechanical defects or speed and temperature anomalies. The system is wired to warn train operators immediately of such ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 30, 2013—Many factors can affect blood sugar control at high altitudes, and people considering a mountain journey need to understand the potential risks of the environmental extremes, extensive exercise, and dietary changes they may experience. Insulin needs may increase or decrease and individuals with poorly controlled diabetes are especially at risk for hypothermia, frostbite, and dehydration, for example. These and other dangers are described by two doctors who have diabetes and are avid mountaineers in an article published in High Altitude ...