As they destroy bacteria very efficiently, plasmas constitute an alternative to chemical disinfectants and potentially to antibiotics, as well. How they achieve this effect has been investigated by biologists, plasma physicists and chemists at the Ruhr-Universität (RUB). Cold atmospheric-pressure plasmas attack the prokaryote's cell envelope, proteins and DNA. "This is too great a challenge for the repair mechanisms and the stress response systems of bacteria," says Junior Professor Dr Julia Bandow, Head of the Junior Research Group Microbial Antibiotic Research at the ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (October 1, 2013) – Body contouring surgery to remove excess skin improves long-term weight control in patients after gastric bypass surgery, reports a study in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). "We demonstrated that patients with body contouring present better long-term weight control after gastric bypass," according to the study by Dr. Ali Modarressi and colleagues of University of Geneva, Switzerland. Since maintaining weight loss to reduce long-term ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (October 1, 2013) – A telestroke service increases the rate of effective tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) therapy for patients with acute ischemic stroke treated at community hospitals, according to a report in the October issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological SurgeonsCongress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Other studies in the October Neurosurgery find that known gene variants don't affect the size of brain aneurysms and that surgery ...

If we're to meet a goal set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Renewable Fuels Standard to use 36 billion gallons per year of biofuels—mostly ethanol—the nation must expand its infrastructure for transporting and storing ethanol. Currently, ethanol is transported via trucks, trains, and barges. For the large volumes required in the future, transportation by pipeline is considered to be the most efficient method to get it to customers. The integrity and safety of pipelines and storage tanks is crucial, because ethanol is both flammable and, at certain concentrations, ...

A pair of breakthroughs in the field of silicon photonics by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Micron Technology Inc. could allow for the trajectory of exponential improvement in microprocessors that began nearly half a century ago—known as Moore's Law—to continue well into the future, allowing for increasingly faster electronics, from supercomputers to laptops to smartphones. The research team, led by CU-Boulder researcher Milos Popovic, an assistant professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering, ...

Agricultural extension educators should take a flexible approach in teaching farmers about the changing landscape of food safety regulations, according to Penn State researchers. "We should try to focus on creating programs for growers so that they can do what they need to do economically to stay viable as they face new regulations and standards that can be complex and intimidating," said Daniel Tobin, doctoral candidate in agricultural economics, sociology and education. The researchers said that farmers who attended an extension workshop on food safety standards ...

Of all the amazing technologies humans have developed, none has matched the complexity of the fundamental building block of nature: the living cell. And none of the cell's activities would be possible without thin lipid membranes, or bilayers,that separate its parts and regulate their functions. Understanding and controlling bilayers' properties is vital for advances in biology and biotechnology. Now an interdisciplinary team of Northwestern University researchers has determined how to control bilayers' crystallization by altering the acidity of their surroundings. The ...

Northern Canada's permafrost and semi-permafrost environment is a huge challenge for designing and engineering underground pipelines, and a critical aspect of protecting both the pipeline and this sensitive environment involves the design of an effective corrosion protection system. One of the most common methods to protect buried infrastructure—such as oil and gas transmission pipelines —from corrosion is the application of an external coating. "Although great advances have been made within the past 30 years in terms of coatings reliability and longevity, it's still ...

The Energy Department's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently issued a new report, "Non-Hardware ('Soft') Cost-Reduction Roadmap for Residential and Small Commercial Solar Photovoltaics, 2013,"PDF funded by DOE's SunShot Initiative and written by NREL and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). The report builds off NREL's ongoing soft-cost benchmarking analysis and charts a path to achieve SunShot soft-cost targets of $0.65/W for residential systems and $0.44/W for commercial systems by 2020. Non-hardware costs — also referred to as soft, balance of system, ...

As food security becomes an increasingly important global issue, scientists are looking for the best way to maintain the organic matter in soils using different methods of fertilization and crop rotation. Increasing the organic matter in soils is key to growing crops for numerous reasons, including increased water-holding capacity and improved tilth. Scientists have recently used the Canadian Light Source (CLS) to evaluate the effects of various sources of supplemental nitrogen fertilizer on the chemical composition of soil organic matter. Results of their experiments ...

Johns Hopkins researchers, working with mice, say they have identified a chemical compound that reduces the risk of dangerous, potentially stroke-causing blood vessel spasms that often occur after the rupture of a bulging vessel in the brain. They say their findings offer clues about the biological mechanisms that cause vasospasm, or constriction of blood vessels that reduces oxygen flow to the brain, as well as potential means of treating the serious condition in humans. When an aneurysm — essentially a blister-like bulge in the wall of a blood vessel — bursts, blood ...

JUPITER, FL – October 1, 2013 – The membranes surrounding and inside cells are involved in every aspect of biological function. They separate the cell's various metabolic functions, compartmentalize the genetic material, and drive evolution by separating a cell's biochemical activities. They are also the largest and most complex structures that cells synthesize. Understanding the myriad biochemical roles of membranes requires the ability to prepare synthetic versions of these complex multi-layered structures, which has been a long-standing challenge. In a study published ...

Around 10 per cent of the UK is left handed — and that percentage remains consistent in many populations around the world. But why exactly someone is left or right handed remains unclear. New research from The University of Nottingham's Professor John Armour and Dr Angus Davison, in collaboration with UCL's Professor Chris McManus, has ruled out a 'strong genetic determinant' in influencing handedness. The researchers conducted a twin study examining the whole genome — which contains hereditary information — of nearly 4,000 subjects from the London Twin Research Unit ...

Knocking on wood is the most common superstition in Western culture used to reverse bad fortune or undo a "jinx." Other cultures maintain similar practices, like spitting or throwing salt, after someone has tempted fate. Even people who aren't particularly superstitious often participate in these practices. A new study from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds that these superstitions actually do "reverse" perceived bad fortune. People believe that negative outcomes are especially likely after a jinx. If someone says, "No one I know will ever get ...

1. Regular primary care visits lower colorectal cancer incidence, death, and all-cause mortality Medicare beneficiaries with more visits to their primary care physician (PCP) have lower colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence, CRC-specific mortality, and all-cause mortality. CRC is preventable with appropriate screening and polypectomy, yet many of the people who could benefit from it either are not screened, or do not start screening early enough. Recommendations from physicians are the strongest predictors of adherence to CRC screening guidelines. Researchers hypothesized ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new study reveals widespread inaccuracy in a quality measure that is self-reported by Medicare Advantage health plans. Researchers found that the vast majority in a sample of 172 such insurers significantly understated their rate of high-risk medication prescriptions. The average rate of prescribing at least one of about 100 medicines deemed risky for the elderly was 26.9 percent of patients over 65, according to the researchers' calculations, compared to the 21.1 percent of patients reported by the plans. The average plan, therefore, ...

San Jose, CA and Göttingen, Germany -- Researchers from the University Göttingen Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Chronix Biomedical have published a new study exploring the genetic hallmarks of canine mammary cancer. Appearing in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, the paper identifies important similarities and differences between human and canine breast tumors, providing a strong platform for future research using the canine model system. (Note to Editors: The paper is accessible here.) As part of the project, the research team successfully implemented Chronix ...

Physical activity in your leisure time could help keep your blood pressure at a healthy level, new research in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension suggests. Researchers pooled results from 13 studies on the effects of physical activity on blood pressure. The studies involved 136,846 people in the United States, Europe or East Asia who initially had healthy blood pressure. More than 15,600 later developed high blood pressure during follow-up periods ranging from two to 45 years. People who exercised more than four hours per week in their leisure time had ...

The logo of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics includes red, white and blue stars, but the white star is not really there: It is an illusion. Similarly, the "S" in the USA Network logo is wholly illusory. Both of these logos take advantage of a common perceptual illusion where the brain, when viewing a fragmented background, frequently sees shapes and surfaces that don't really exist. "It's hallucinating without taking drugs," said Alexander Maier, assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, who headed a team of neuroscientists who has pinpointed the area ...

SYDNEY: A team led by scientists at the University of New South Wales has uncovered the genetic secrets of "extremophile" microbes that can survive in water temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees in the saltiest lake in Antarctica. Deep Lake, about five kilometres from Davis Station, was formed about 3500 years ago, when the Antarctic continent rose, isolating a section of ocean. The water in the 36-metre deep lake is now so salty it remains in liquid form down to a temperature of minus 20 degrees. "The lake has the distinction of being the least productive lake ever ...

New research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol suggests that fish accounts for only seven per cent of mercury levels in the human body. In an analysis of 103 food and drink items consumed by 4,484 women during pregnancy, researchers found that the 103 items together accounted for less than 17 per cent of total mercury levels in the body. Concerns about the negative effects of mercury on fetal development have led to official advice warning against eating too much fish during pregnancy. This new finding, published today in Environmental Health ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a way to induce the ovaries of some infertile women to produce eggs. Using the technique, clinicians at the St. Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Japan, collected viable eggs from five women with a condition called primary ovarian insufficiency. One of these women has given birth to a healthy baby, and another is pregnant. Twenty-seven women in Japan took part in the experimental study. The researchers were able to collect mature eggs for in vitro fertilization ...

PHILADELPHIA— A new study by Penn Medicine researchers published Oct. 1 in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that busy intensive care units (ICUs) discharge patients more quickly than they otherwise would and do so without adversely affecting patient outcomes – suggesting that low-value extensions of ICU stays are minimized during times of increased ICU capacity strain. An expected growth in the number of patients requiring critical care resources combined with a projected shortage in critical care providers will likely result in ICUs operating under conditions of ...

SEATTLE—Women can choose among several types of estrogen pills, which are equally effective at relieving menopausal symptoms. But in an observational study of comparative safety, use of estradiol was associated with less risk of developing blood clots in leg veins (deep vein thrombosis) and clots in the lungs (pulmonary emboli) than was use of conjugated equine estrogens. According to a joint University of Washington (UW)–Group Health study in JAMA Internal Medicine, women patients of Group Heath who were prescribed a generic version of estradiol—a bio-equivalent estrogen—experienced ...

The oral hormone therapy conjugated equine estrogens (CEEs), which is used by women to relieve menopause symptoms, appears to be associated with increased risk for venous thrombosis (VT, blood clots) and possibly myocardial infarction (heart attack), but not ischemic stroke risk, when compared with the hormone therapy oral estradiol, according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Researchers compared the cardiovascular safety of the two commonly used oral estrogen medications because little is known about the cardiovascular safety ...