VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a dimmable LED street light that consumes significantly less energy than current lighting systems, while improving the lighting characteristics. The street lights were tested in Helsinki with user experiences collected. Traditional street lights work on full power when turned on, and the amount of light is not usually adjusted. The new LED street lights developed by VTT adapt to the ambient conditions with the help of sensors and wireless control, allowing them to be dimmed on the basis of natural light, environmental ...

London, May 27, 2013 - Young people are demanding information and education about their bodies, sex, their sexuality and sexual health, as well as access to services that will support them to stay safe and healthy. Papers published in the latest themed issue of Reproductive Health Matters (RHM) demonstrate that information and services in fact remain unavailable to many young people, and many may grow up without fully understanding things that they are currently experiencing such as menstruation, let alone preparing themselves for future sexual relationships and adulthood. ...

Cells have a sophisticated system to control and dispose of defective, superfluous proteins and thus to prevent damage to the body. Dr. Katrin Bagola and Professor Thomas Sommer of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch as well as Professor Michael Glickman and Professor Aaron Ciechanover of Technion, the Technical University of Israel in Haifa, have now discovered a new function of an enzyme that is involved in this vital process. Using yeast cells as a model organism, the researchers showed that a specific factor, abbreviated Cue1, is not only ...

This news release is available in German. Storing light in a bottle is easier than one might think: Laser light can be coupled into an optical glass fiber in such a way that it does not travel along the fiber but rather spirals around it in a bulged, bottle-like section. In such a bottle microresonator light can be stored for about ten nanoseconds, corresponding to 30,000 revolutions around the fiber. This is long enough to enable interactions between the light and single atoms, which are brought very close to the fiber surface. Now, scientists at the TU Vienna ...

The Antarctic continental ice cap came into existence during the Oligocene epoch, some 33.6 million years ago, according to data from an international expedition led by the Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences (IACT)—a Spanish National Research Council-University of Granada joint centre. These findings, based on information contained in ice sediments from different depths, have recently been published in the journal Science. Before the ice covered Antarctica, the Earth was a warm place with a tropical climate. In this region, plankton diversity was high until glaciation ...

For early detection of colorectal (colon) cancer, statutory health insurance in Germany offers a fecal occult blood test free of charge to all insured persons starting at 50 years of age. In addition, those 55 or older are entitled to an endoscopic examination of the colon (colonoscopy). Colonoscopy identifies precancerous lesions with a high level of exactitude. Nevertheless, only about 20-30 percent of those eligible actually take advantage of the screening examination. "Therefore, fecal occult blood tests are important, because they help us reach more people. People ...

Many solids are produced from melting. Depending on how quickly they cool off, invariably, internal tensile stresses begin to build up. One example are Prince Rupert's Drops, or Dutch tears: you can hit their thick end with a hammer without breaking them while a slight pressure applied to their thin end is enough to shatter the entire tear. The properties of safety or even gorilla glass are determined to a large extent by their internal tensile stresses. However, until now, our understanding of the unique characteristics exhibited by the condition of the glass as compared ...

This news release is available in German. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, using miniaturised high-speed cameras and high-speed behavioural tracking, discovered that rats move their eyes in opposite directions in both the horizontal and the vertical plane when running around. Each eye moves in a different direction, depending on the change in the animal's head position. An analysis of both eyes' field of view found that the eye movements exclude the possibility that rats fuse the visual information into a single image ...

The growth of plants toward light is particularly important at the beginning of their lifecycle. Many seeds germinate in the soil and get their nutrition in the dark from their limited reserves of starch and lipids. Reaching for the surface, the seedlings rapidly grow upwards against the gravitational pull, which provides an initial clue for orientation. With the help of highly sensitive light-sensing proteins, they find the shortest route to the sunlight – and are even able to bend in the direction of the light source. "Even mature plants bend toward the strongest light. ...

New research from UBC's Sauder School of Business reveals that giving a free bump in service can backfire for retailers if the perk is given randomly in front of others. The new paper shows that consumers experience social discomfort when singled out for spontaneous special treatment, which may cause them to close their wallets. "Managerial wisdom guiding service and retail industries assumes that consumers get an uptick in esteem when they're allowed to skip a queue or get an upgrade," says Assistant Professor JoAndrea Hoegg, a co-author of the forthcoming study to ...

Charlottesville, VA (May 28, 2013). Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) is a surgical procedure used to treat spasticity in some children with spastic cerebral palsy. This procedure appears to be effective, but for how long? Researchers from Montreal, Quebec, Canada,* set out to find the answer to this question by studying data from the McGill University Rhizotomy Database on 102 pediatric patients with long-term follow-up. The researchers found that, in the majority of children with spastic cerebral palsy, the benefits of SDR last throughout adolescence and into early adulthood. ...

Using a novel method of analyzing genetic variations in families, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that individually harmless genetic variations affecting related biochemical processes may team up to increase the risk of schizophrenia. They say their findings, reported May 28 in Translational Psychiatry, bring some clarity to the murky relationship between genetics and schizophrenia, and may lead to a genetic test that can predict which medications will be effective for individual patients. "It's long been clear that schizophrenia runs in families, but schizophrenia ...

Among men with prostate cancer, African Americans experience longer treatment delays after being diagnosed than Caucasians. That is the finding of an analysis published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study suggests that efforts are needed to reduce racial disparities in prostate cancer care in order to provide earlier treatment for African Americans. To see if there is a difference in the time from cancer diagnosis to initiation of treatment for African American men compared with Caucasian men with prostate cancer, ...

Blood diseases such as leukemia, multiple myeloma, and myelodysplasia can develop from abnormal bone marrow cells and a dysfunctional bone marrow microenvironment that surrounds these cells. Until now, researchers have been unable to replace the cells that make up the bone marrow microenvironment. Researchers reporting in the May 28 issue of the Cell Press journal Developmental Cell have found that eliminating a gene in the cells found in this microenvironment causes them to die, therefore enabling donor cells to replace them. In addition to providing a better understanding ...

MADISON, Wis. — Transplantation of human stem cells in an experiment conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison improved survival and muscle function in rats used to model ALS, a nerve disease that destroys nerve control of muscles, causing death by respiratory failure. ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is sometimes called "Lou Gehrig's disease." According to the ALS Association, the condition strikes about 5,600 Americans each year. Only about half of patients are alive three years after diagnosis. In work recently completed at the UW School of Veterinary ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (http://www.ucr.edu) — To better understand how bacteria impact the environment a former University of California, Riverside graduate student spent nearly a year building a system that replicates a human colon, septic tank and groundwater and "fed" the colon three times a day during weeklong experiments to simulate human eating. Ian Marcus, who recently earned his Ph.D. from the UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering, said discussion of the research often left people a bit perplexed. "People would give a kind-of-interested-but-definitely-don't-talk-about-it-during-dinner ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Hikers in New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest often hit the trail less prepared than they should be, according to a study that gauged readiness by how many of 10 essential items the hikers brought along. Young and inexperienced hikers were most likely to lack multiple items recommended by the State of New Hampshire's HikeSafe program, according to a paper in press at the journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. Hikers were also less likely to prepare fully if they were planning a short hike, even though those can quickly ...

Wind energy capacity is growing rapidly in the cold climates of the world. According to the latest forecasts, between 45 and 50 gigawatts of wind energy will be built in cold climates by 2017, which would mean an increase of as much as 72 per cent since the end of 2012 and investments amounting to approximately EUR 75 billion. "This is a huge opportunity," says Research Scientist Tomas Wallenius from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. "There has been a lot of talk about the potential of offshore wind power, but the market for cold climate wind energy is more than ...

A team of researchers from the UPNA/NUP-Public University of Navarre has developed new superresolution and segmentation methods for magnetic resonance images so that they can be applied to the structural study of psychosis. The aim is to be able to identify the differences that are produced in specific parts of the brain in psychotic patients with respect to their healthy relatives or other people. The project, run in coordination with doctors in the Psychiatry and Radiology Service of the ComplejoHospitalarioof Navarre, is based on the study of medical images obtained ...

Camels are divided into two species, the one-humped dromedary and the two-humped Bactrian camel. Whether equipped with one or two humps, camels are precious in desert regions throughout the world. Their ability to carry heavy loads over long distances makes them ideally suited for transportation. In addition, camels are able to survive for weeks in hostile environments without food and water. Despite the extremely arid conditions, camels still provide enough milk for human consumption and also have an important role as a source of meat. Camels are specialists when it comes ...

Resolvins are molecules naturally produced by the body from omega-3 fatty acids – a process that can be jumpstarted by common aspirin. In a new study, published in The FASEB Journal, researchers at Karolinska Institutet describe how resolvins could protect against the cognitive impairment that often affects recovery of surgical and critically ill patients. The study adds new knowledge on how peripheral surgery affects the brain and neuronal function contributing to the processes of cognitive decline. Hospitalization for surgery or critical illness can lead to cognitive ...

There is growing recognition that reductions in Arctic sea ice levels will influence patterns of atmospheric circulation both within and beyond the Arctic. New research in the International Journal of Climatology explores the impact of 2007 ice conditions, the second lowest Arctic sea ice extent in the satellite era, on atmospheric circulation and surface temperatures. Two 30-year simulations, one using the sea ice levels of 2007 and another using sea ice levels at the end of the 20th century, were used to access the impact of ice free seas. The results showed a significant ...

A new strain of yellow-green algae, heterococcus sp. DN1, which may prove to be an efficient source for biodiesel, has been discovered in the snow fields of the Rocky Mountains. Research examining this new alga, published in Biotechnology Progress, reveals that H. sp. DN1 was found to grow at temperatures approaching freezing and to accumulate large intracellular stores of lipids. H. sp. DN1 produces the highest quantity of lipids when grown undisturbed with high light in low temperatures. Algae that can grow in extreme conditions and accumulate lipids are of great interest ...

As ash dieback disease continues to threaten common ash trees across Europe, new research in the Journal of Quaternary Science explores the historic impact of forest diseases to discover if diseases played a significant factor in vegetation change. The study explores how large-scale pathogen outbreaks were much more infrequent in the past, which suggests the human role in transporting pathogens to new locations, such as the international seed trade, is a major factor. "The temperate and boreal forests of Europe and North America have been subject to repeated pathogen ...

Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have pinpointed a genetic marker for sporadic breast cancer – one of a handful identified to date in Caucasians. Researchers have identified many genetic markers for familial breast cancers, but not for sporadic breast cancer which accounts for 80 per cent of all cases. Sambasivarao Damaraju, a professor with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and a researcher at the Cross Cancer Institute, worked with his team to scan the DNA of about 7,200 Alberta women, including those who have had sporadic breast cancer and those who ...