A previously unknown genus of electric fish has been identified in a remote region of South America by a team of international researchers including University of Toronto Scarborough professor Nathan Lovejoy. The Akawaio penak, a thin, eel-like electric fish, was discovered in the shallow, murky waters of the upper Mazaruni River is northern Guyana. Lovejoy's team at UTSC analyzed tissue samples collected during a recent expedition by a researchers led by Hernán López-Fernández at the Royal Ontario Museum. By sequencing its DNA and reconstructing an evolutionary tree, ...

Parkinson disease, a neurodegenerative disorder in which both genetic and environmental factors play important roles, has been associated with epigenetic changes (those molecular modifications that alter the behavior of genes without changing the DNA sequence). Because accurate diagnosis is not easy for this disease, scientists are continuously trying to identify early signs of the disease that enable treatment before major neurological damage occurs. In an article published in the October issue of Epigenetics, those epigenetic changes appear to be great candidates as early ...

The deep-sea soft-sediment ecosystem in the immediate area of the 2010's Deepwater Horizon well head blowout and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will likely take decades to recover from the spill's impacts, according to a scientific paper reported in the online scientific journal PLoS One. The paper is the first to give comprehensive results of the spill's effect on deep-water communities at the base of the Gulf's food chain, in its soft-bottom muddy habitats, specifically looking at biological composition and chemicals at the same time at the same location. "This ...

Los Angeles, CA (September 25, 2013) For many international news followers, having a cup of coffee while reading the morning newspaper has turned into scrolling a Twitter feed to catch up on important news as it happens throughout the day. In a new article published in SAGE Open, researchers used data collected from Twitter to study readers' news preferences across the globe and discovered that different countries have stronger preference towards different types of articles – American and British readers are more drawn to opinion and world news, Spaniards to local and ...

A class of flame retardants that has been linked to learning difficulties in children has rapidly declined in pregnant women’s blood since the chemicals were banned in California a decade ago, according to a study led by researchers at UC San Francisco. Blood levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), tested in patients at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center fell by two-thirds since they were last tested three years ago and found to be the highest levels reported among pregnant women anywhere in the world. The findings were ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Coal-powered synthetic natural gas plants being planned in China would produce seven times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional natural gas plants, and use up to 100 times the water as shale gas production, according to a new study by Duke University researchers. These environmental costs have been largely neglected in the drive to meet the nation's growing energy needs, the researchers say, and might lock China on an irreversible and unsustainable path for decades to come. "Using coal to make natural gas may be good for China's energy security, ...

Atlanta, September 25, 2013 -- Detailed evaluation of a prostate cancer tumor biopsy may predict treatment outcomes for image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) or surgery for prostate cancer, according to research presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO's) 55th Annual Meeting. The study results indicate that patients who have abnormal levels of breaks at common fragile sites (CFSs), sites within the chromosomes that are sensitive to DNA damage, are more likely to have their cancer to return -- treatment failure. These CFS break abnormalities ...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2013—To capture all the details of a crime scene, you might take many photos at close range. To get the whole scene at once, you could use a wide-angle or fisheye lens; but without an especially large lens you would be sacrificing the fine resolution that would help you catch that partial footprint you might otherwise have missed. Now a new type of miniature camera system promises to give users a big picture view without sacrificing high-resolution. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego will describe their novel device at The Optical ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Materialistic people experience more stress from traumatic events such as terrorist attacks and are more likely to spend compulsively as a result, according to an international study led by a Michigan State University business professor. These possession-driven folks tend to have lower self-esteem than others, said Ayalla Ruvio, MSU assistant professor of marketing. "When the going gets tough, the materialistic go shopping," said Ruvio. "And this compulsive and impulsive spending is likely to produce even greater stress and lower well-being. Essentially, ...

Ulsan, South Korea – A research team of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea, developed a "wormlike" hematite photoanode that can convert sunlight and water to clean hydrogen energy with a record-breaking high efficiency of 5.3%. This research was published in Scientific Reports, a science journal published by the Nature Publishing Group. (Title: "Single-crystalline, wormlike hematite photoanodes for efficient solar water splitting") on 17 September 2013). The previous record of solar hydrogen efficiency among stable oxide semiconductor ...

Issues of 'science in society' are not in themselves new, but this new report from the European Science Foundation, called "Science in Society: Caring for our Futures in Turbulent Times", is written at a critical time for science policy. Recent times have seen the world having to learn to deal with austerity, libel and new models of business. This all happens at a time when innovation is being promoted more vigorously than ever as a way out of crisis and as a foundation for future prosperity. As the report argues, increased governance of science and technology and the sense ...

Philadelphia, PA, September 25, 2013 – Prenatal cocaine exposure affects both behavior and brain. Animal studies have shown that exposure to cocaine during in utero development causes numerous disruptions in normal brain development and negatively affects behavior from birth and into adulthood. For ethical reasons, similar studies in humans have been more limited but some research has shown that children exposed prenatally to cocaine have impairments in attention, control, stress, emotion regulation, and memory. Research also suggests that such children may be more predisposed ...

A recent paper published in the open access journal Zookeys provides a first-time glimpse in the natural history of the enigmatic spider species Progradungula otwayensis. Lurking in the hollows of old myrtle beech trees and thus hard to collect, this extraordinary spider is an endemic species confined strictly to the beautiful Great Otway National Park (Victoria, Australia). P. otwayensis belongs to the small spider family Gradungulidae which consists of seven genera with a total of 16 described species found exclusively in eastern Australia and New Zealand. The genus ...

Researchers at University of Copenhagen have gained more insight into the molecular mechanisms of importance for, for example, cancer cell growth and metastasis. The research objective is improved and more targeted drugs. The findings have just been published in the scientific journal Molecular Cell. Researchers are constantly trying to learn more about the body's advanced communication processes. Receptors serve as a kind of switchboard in the cell, which connects specific signaling proteins to specific cellular functions. Using state-of-the-art technology, researchers ...

Melatonin is a natural hormone segregated by the body and melatonin levels generally increase in the dark at night. It is also found in fruit and vegetables like mustard, Goji berries, almonds, sunflower seeds, cardamom, fennel, coriander and cherries. Spanish scientists have discovered that melatonin consumption helps control weight gain because it stimulates the appearance of 'beige fat', a type of fat cell that burns calories in vivo instead of storing them. White adipose tissue stores calories leading to weight gain whereas 'beige fat' (also known as 'good or thinning ...

Most materials show one function, for example, a material can be a metal, a semiconductor, or an insulator. Metals such as copper are used as conducting wires with only low resistance and energy loss. Superconductors are metals which can conduct current even without any resistance, although only far below room temperature. Semiconductors, the foundation of current computer technology, show only low conduction of current, while insulators show no conductivity at all. Physicists have recently been excited about a new exotic type of materials, so-called topological insulators. ...

Researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are showing the way toward low-cost, industrial-scale manufacturing of a new family of electronic devices. A leading example is a gas sensor that could be integrated into food packaging to gauge freshness, or into compact wireless air-quality monitors. New types of solar cells and flexible transistors are also in the works, as well as pressure and temperature sensors that could be built into electronic skin for robotic or bionic applications. All can be made with carbon nanotubes, sprayed like ink onto flexible plastic ...

Since 1993, oceanographers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), have carried out regularly expeditions to the Greenland Sea on board the research ice breaker Polarstern to investigate the changes in this region. The programme has always included extensive temperature and salinity measurements. For the present study, the AWI scientists have combined these long term data set with historical observations dating back to the year 1950. The result of their analysis: In the last thirty years, the water temperature between 2000 ...

Consumers are increasingly demanding higher standards for how their meat is sourced, with animal welfare and the impact on the environment factoring in many purchases. Unfortunately, many widely-used livestock production methods are currently unsustainable. However, new research out today from the University of Cambridge has identified what may be the future of sustainable livestock production: silvopastoral systems which include shrubs and trees with edible leaves or fruits as well as herbage. Professor Donald Broom, from the University of Cambridge, who led the research ...

Typhoon Pabuk's eye was clear on visible and infrared NASA satellite imagery on Sept. 24, and one day later high clouds covered the center and Pabuk's eye was "closed." Satellite data also showed that Pabuk's eye shrunk by about 5 nautical miles in the last day. When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Typhoon Pabuk on Sept. 24 at 16:05 UTC/12:05 p.m. EDT, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument viewed the storm in infrared light. The AIRS data clearly showed that Pabuk had a 30 nautical mile/34.5 mile/55.5 km wide-eye. AIRS data also showed that the eye was surrounded ...

A big challenge in medical science is to get medicine into the brain when treating patients with neurological diseases. The brain will do everything to keep foreign substances out and therefore the brains of neurological patients fight a constant, daily battle to throw out the medicine prescribed to help the patients. The problem is the so-called blood-brain barrier, which prevents the active substances in medicine from travelling from the blood into the brain. "The barrier is created because there is extremely little space between the cells in the brain's capillar ...

University of Adelaide researchers have developed a process for turning waste plastic bags into a high-tech nanomaterial. The innovative nanotechnology uses non-biodegradable plastic grocery bags to make 'carbon nanotube membranes' - highly sophisticated and expensive materials with a variety of potential advanced applications including filtration, sensing, energy storage and a range of biomedical innovations. "Non-biodegradable plastic bags are a serious menace to natural ecosystems and present a problem in terms of disposal," says Professor Dusan Losic, ARC Future ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Radiation oncology physicians who encounter an unfamiliar case when cross covering for another physician experience higher levels of perceived workload and may perhaps also effects on performance, according to research conducted at the University of North Carolina. In a paper presented at the 2013 American Society for Radiation Oncology conference, study authors Prithima Mosaly, PhD, and Lukasz Mazur, PhD, assistant professors in the UNC Department of Radiation Oncology; Bhishamjit Chera, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology and Lawrence ...

A new study is examining methane and other components in groundwater wells, in advance of drilling for shale gas that's expected over the next several years in an Ohio region. Amy Townsend-Small, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of geology, will present on the study on Sept. 27, at the 10th Applied Isotope Geochemistry Conference in Budapest, Hungary. The team of UC researchers spent a year doing periodic testing of groundwater wells in Carroll County, Ohio, a section of Ohio that sits along the shale-rich Pennsylvania-West Virginia borders. The study analyzed ...

New research that looked at whether two commonly prescribed statin medicines, used to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or 'bad cholesterol' levels in the blood, can adversely affect cognitive function has found that one of the drugs tested caused memory impairment in rats. Between six and seven million people in the UK1 take statins daily and the findings follow anecdotal evidence of people reporting that they feel that their newly prescribed statin is affecting their memory. Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insisted that all manufacturers list ...