HOUSTON, Sept. 5, 2013 – Physicists at the University of Houston's physics department and the Texas Center for Superconductivity are working on an innovation that could boost vehicle mileage by 5 percent and power plant and industrial processing performance as much as 10 percent. Their research uses non-toxic materials – tin telluride, with the addition of the chemical element indium – for waste heat recovery. Telluride has been studied for years, said Zhifeng Ren, M.D. Anderson Chair professor of physics at UH and lead author of a paper describing the ...

Synthetic antidepressants present a narrow spectrum and side effects following long-term application. Recently, medical practitioners have shown interest in the use of Chinese medicines for the treatment of diseases and in the adjustment of the human response to stress. Liping Chen and colleagues from Hainan Branch of Chinese PLA General Hospital have found in their preliminary studies that the Chinese herb Shuyusan, whose main constituent is jasminoidin, has been shown to protect SH-SY5Y cells against corticosterone-induced damage. A recent study reported in the Neural ...

A UCLA study published Sept. 3 in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine demonstrates that an approach that combines behavioral science with social media and online communities can lead to improved health behaviors among men at risk of HIV infection. The evidence-based approach not only led to increased HIV testing and encouraged significant behavioral change among high-risk groups but also proved to be one of the best HIV-prevention and testing approaches on the Internet, according to the study's lead investigator, Sean D. Young, an assistant professor ...

In the central nervous system, nerve cells adhere to the extracellular matrix. Type I collagen is the major class of insoluble fibrous proteins in the extracellular matrix. A previous study has shown that neural stem and progenitor cells, cultured on collagen matrices, are able to expand actively and generate neurons. Collagens can be classified into hydrolyzed and non-hydrolyzed collagens, or two-dimensional and three-dimensional collagens. Which form of collagen is suitable for nerve cell culture? Dr. Mohsen Fathi Najafi and colleagues from Mashhad University of Medical ...

In current studies, the degeneration and protection measures in the distal end of the injured spinal cord and target organ muscle effector have scarcely been investigated. The distal end of the spinal cord and neuromuscular junction may develop secondary degenera-tion and damage following spinal cord injury because of the loss of neural connections. The effect of basic fibroblast growth factor on motor neurons in the anterior horn of the injured spinal cord, and on the number of neuromuscular junctions in target organs, remains elusive. Jianlong Wang and team from Third ...

By blending their expertise, two materials science engineers at Washington University in St. Louis changed the electronic properties of new class of materials — just by exposing it to light. With funding from the Washington University International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES), Parag Banerjee, PhD, and Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, and both assistant professors of materials science, brought together their respective areas of research. Singamaneni's area of expertise is in making tiny, pebble-like nanoparticles, particularly gold nanorods. ...

Washington, DC (September 3, 2013) – Pornography has long held a controversial place in society, and its relationship with a number of behaviors and attitudes has been highly debated. But the concern remains: How does viewing pornography affect our attitudes towards women? A recent paper published in the Journal of Communication found that exposure to pornography was related to and increased sexist attitudes, but only among a subgroup of users. Gert Martin Hald, Theis Lange, University of Copenhagen, and Neil Malamuth, University of California, Los Angeles, asked 200 ...

Scientific research doesn't often start from outreach projects. Yet, Ryuho Kataoka from the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, Japan, came up with an idea for a new method to measure the height of aurora borealis after working on a 3D movie for a planetarium. Kataoka and collaborators used two digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras set 8 km apart to capture 3D images of Northern Lights and determine the altitude where electrons in the atmosphere emit the light that produces aurora. The results are published today in Annales Geophysicae, a journal of the European ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (September 6, 2013) – Patients undergoing spinal fusion surgery with bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) appear to be at increased risk of benign tumors—but not cancers, reports a study in the September issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Other papers in the September Neurosurgery report on a stent-assisted approach for difficult-to-treat brain aneurysms and a new software program to help in identifying and protecting ...

North Carolina State University researchers have come up with a new technique for improving the connections between stacked solar cells, which should improve the overall efficiency of solar energy devices and reduce the cost of solar energy production. The new connections can allow these cells to operate at solar concentrations of 70,000 suns worth of energy without losing much voltage as "wasted energy" or heat. Stacked solar cells consist of several solar cells that are stacked on top of one another. Stacked cells are currently the most efficient cells on the market, ...

Since its discovery in the early 1990s, the protein STAT1 (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 1) has been found to be central in passing signals across immune cells, ensuring that our bodies react quickly and appropriately to threats from viruses or other pathogens. Animals without STAT1 are also prone to develop cancer, suggesting that STAT1 is somehow involved in protection against malignant cells. The STAT1 protein is known to be phosphorylated on at least two positions: phosphorylation of a particular tyrosine (tyr-701) is required for the protein to enter ...

Research into the rise in obesity associated with the burgeoning industrial and service sectors in low- and middle-income countries found that education is a key factor in reducing the negative impact on women's health. The study, conducted by researchers at UCL and published in the journal BMC Public Health, found that women with no formal education who were working in sedentary occupations were twice as likely to be 'centrally obese' – defined by measuring waist circumference – compared to women with no education working in agriculture. However, for women with at ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have taken detailed images and measurements of the morphing structure of a brain protein thought to play a role in Parkinson's disease, information that could aid the development of medications to treat the condition. The protein, called alpha synuclein (pronounced sine-yoo-cline), ordinarily exists in a globular shape. However, the protein morphs into harmful structures known as amyloid fibrils, which are linked to protein molecules that form in the brains of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. "The abnormal protein formation ...

A team of scientists from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has demonstrated that frozen water in the form of snow or frost can melt to form debris flows on sunward-facing slopes of sand dunes in the Alaskan arctic at air temperatures significantly below the melting point of water. The debris flows consist of sand mixed with liquid water that cascade down steep slopes. SwRI scientists made their observations at the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska. This site serves as an Earth-based cold-climate "analog" to dunes on Mars. Debris flows formed ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. Sept. 6, 2013 -- Researchers have developed a new technique to produce thin films of germanium crystals -- key components for next-generation electronic devices such as advanced large-scale integrated circuits and flexible electronics, which are required for gadgets that move or bend. Unlike conventional methods, the new approach does not require high temperatures or other crystals to act as seeds to grow the germanium crystal. And, the researchers say, the new method can be used to produce germanium films with a very large area, allowing for more potential ...

London -- Long-term confinement is not a humane option for the control of feral and stray or abandoned cat populations, according to new guidelines issued by the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) in its Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery published by SAGE. According to the society, which is the veterinary division of the charity International Cat Care, culling to control cat populations is also rarely effective or acceptable, whereas trap–neuter–return programmes and rehoming (in appropriate cases) can offer effective and humane solutions, but need to ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. Sept. 6, 2013 -- A team of researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden has designed a microplasma source capable of exciting matter in a controlled, efficient way. This miniature device may find use in a wide range of applications in harsh environments, but can also help revolutionize archaeology. As the researchers describe in the Journal of Applied Physics, produced by AIP Publishing, their new device offers many advantages, such as electromagnetic compatibility, an integrated fluidic system, and Langmuir probes for plasma diagnostics. At the ...

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM passed over Tropical Storm Lorena from its orbit in space on Friday, Sept. 6 and measured the rate in which rain is falling from the storm. Lorena was soaking some areas of Mexico's west coast and is headed for landfall in Baja California, Mexico. On Friday, Sept. 6, a tropical storm warning was in effect for Baja California Sur from Agua Blanca to Buenavista, and a tropical storm watch was in effect for Baja California Sur North of Agua Blanca to Santa Fe. Tropical Depression 12E intensified into Tropical ...

Orphaned chimpanzees are less socially competent than chimpanzees who were reared by their mother. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, observed that orphaned chimpanzees frequently engaged in social play, but their play bouts were much shorter and resulted in aggression more often. Apparently, chimpanzee mothers endow their offspring with important social skills. It may not come as a surprise, but mother chimpanzees seem to be important for the development of social skills in young chimpanzees. "Orphaned chimpanzees ...

The Rim Fire, now three weeks old, is still burning through Yosemite Forest. The blaze, thought to have been started by a hunter's illegal fire, has consumed over 246,000 acres of land. At present, this fire is 80% contained and is expected to be fully contained by September 20, 2013, over a month since it first began. According to Inciweb.org: "Fire activity is expected to intensify Friday as unburned areas within control lines are consumed on the Rim Fire. Hotter and drier weather conditions will persist through Sunday increasing the chance of spotting of embers ...

Coating artery-opening stents with a new compound may someday eliminate a common side effect of the treatment, according to preliminary research in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Stents are tiny mesh tubes that prop open clogged arteries so blood will flow freely to heart muscle, relieving chest pain and reducing the risk of heart attack. But implanting a stent damages the inner lining of the artery, triggering overgrowth of smooth muscle in the middle layer of the artery, a process that can re-narrow the passageway ...

Washington, DC -- New research has uncovered a process that is defective in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, a common cause of kidney failure. The findings, which appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), point to a new potential strategy for preventing and treating the disease. Polycystic kidney disease (PKD), the fourth leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, comes in two forms: autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) develops in adulthood and is quite common, while autosomal recessive ...

Germ-free mice that received gut bacteria from obese humans put on more weight and accumulated more fat than mice that were given bacteria from the guts of lean humans, according to a new study. This finding, which demonstrates the transmission of physical and metabolic traits via communities of microbes in the gut, depends on the rodents' diet. And the researchers responsible suggest that it may represent an important step toward developing new personalized probiotic and food-based therapies for the treatment or prevention of obesity. This new research follows on the ...

This news release is available in Spanish, Japanese, Arabic and Chinese. Can the separate international commitments of protecting 17% of the planet's terrestrial surface and of conserving 60% of the world's plant species within these protected areas be met simultaneously by 2020? A new study suggests that they can—but only if researchers and conservationists do more to safeguard particularly hot spots of biodiversity. According to Lucas Joppa from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, and colleagues from the United Kingdom and the United States, the regions ...

A rare, emerging fungal disease that is spreading throughout Canada and Northwestern USA can easily pass its deadly genes to related fungal strains within the species but less readily to more distant relatives, according to a study part-funded by the Wellcome Trust. The findings will help to understand the origins of infectious outbreaks and predict the likelihood of the disease spreading to other populations and geographical areas. Cryptococcus gattii is a type of fungus that was previously only found in warmer climates throughout the tropics. However, since 1999 outbreaks ...