The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation unveiled the Beckman-Argyros Award in Vision Research during the fifth annual Beckman Initiative for Macular Research conference. The Beckman-Argyros Award was named in honor of Dr. Arnold O. Beckman and Ambassador George L. Argyros, two extraordinary individuals who, despite their age difference, became close and trusted friends. Dr. Beckman founded the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation in 1978. Under his direction, and the tutelage of Ambassador George L. Argyros, who served as Chairman of the Board from 1990 - 2012, over ...

Jumozy Continuing Education proudly announces its accreditation by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB). As an Approved Provider, our clients can now receive continuing education (CE) credits for on-line courses incorporating footage from our award-winning videos. Everyone agrees continuing education is critical. Jumozy Continuing Education, a division of Salon Channel, Inc. provides working professionals the means to learn new and advanced techniques, grow business opportunities, and tailor treatments to their clients' needs. ...

Alex Cord is a walking woman-magnet who sweeps women off their feet. And, according to his good friend, "he has left a string of broken hearts that could reach the moon." Even after being given that information, however, Jessica, a sheltered yet adventurous college freshman; Becky, the beautiful, career-minded woman who isn't afraid to take charge of her own destiny; and Constance, who has been an on-again, off-again relationship, each choose to fall under Alex's charms. But it is Dorothy, who despite their differences, captures Alex's heart and leaves it broken. "I ...

EFMD is delighted to announce the winners of the first phase of the 2012 EFMD Case Writing Competition. This year was a record with over 200 case entries from 30 countries. The quality was exceptionally high so we thank all of you who took part. The "Best of the Best" category is now being evaluated by ecch and the results of the overall winner of the competition will be announced at the end of April. Corporate Social Responsibility: Novo Nordisk: Managing Sustainability at Home and Abroad, written by Jette Steen Knudsen, Copenhagen Business School, DK and ...

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have long understood that using energy more efficiently can be just as beneficial as finding new ways to produce energy more efficiently. On Feb. 7, NREL Director Dan Arvizu and a blue-ribbon panel of 20 energy experts drove that message home, declaring that the United States can double its energy productivity by 2030 — and do so in ways that bolster the nation's economy. Unveiling their recommendations at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Arvizu and other members ...

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other labs have demonstrated a process whereby quantum dots can self-assemble at optimal locations in nanowires, a breakthrough that could improve solar cells, quantum computing, and lighting devices. A paper on the new technology, "Self-assembled Quantum Dots in a Nanowire System for Quantum Photonics," appears in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature Materials. Quantum dots are tiny crystals of semiconductor a few billionths of a meter in diameter. At that size they ...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Feb. 19, 2013—A study by researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and a multinational team reveals how daclatasvir, a direct-acting antiviral agent in development for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), targets one of its proteins and causes the fastest viral decline ever seen with anti-HCV drugs – within 12 hours of treatment. Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus affects about 150 million people worldwide. It is the leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver transplants and results in some 350,000 deaths worldwide every year. The ...

In "before" and "after" photos from advertisements for wound-healing ointments, bandages and antibiotic creams, we see an injury transformed from an inflamed red gash to smooth and flawless skin. What we don't appreciate is the vital role that our own natural biomolecules play in the healing process, including their contribution to the growth of new cells and the development of new blood vessels that provide nutrients to those cells. Now, UCLA researchers led by Heather Maynard, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a member of UCLA's California NanoSystems ...

While the demand for ever-smaller electronic devices has spurred the miniaturization of a variety of technologies, one area has lagged behind in this downsizing revolution: energy-storage units, such as batteries and capacitors. Now, Richard Kaner, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Maher El-Kady, a graduate student in Kaner's laboratory, may have changed the game. The UCLA researchers have developed a groundbreaking technique that uses a DVD burner to fabricate micro-scale graphene-based supercapacitors ...

Located around 8000 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion), NGC 6357 -- sometimes nicknamed the Lobster Nebula [1] due to its appearance in visible-light images -- is a region filled with vast clouds of gas and tendrils of dark dust. These clouds are forming stars, including massive hot stars which glow a brilliant blue-white in visible light. This image uses infrared data from ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. It is just a small part of a huge survey called VISTA Variables ...

Good mental health and clear thinking depend upon our ability to store and manipulate thoughts on a sort of "mental sketch pad." In a new study, Yale School of Medicine researchers describe the molecular basis of this ability — the hallmark of human cognition — and describe how a breakdown of the system contributes to diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. "Insults to these highly evolved cortical circuits impair the ability to create and maintain our mental representations of the world, which is the basis of higher cognition," said Amy Arnsten, professor ...

Testimonials and responses to a survey from 375 past teen participants in a Canadian biotechnology competition -- mentored in professional labs by expert scientists -- show a majority of respondents were influenced by the experience to pursue science research studies and careers, offering a model for countries worldwide to advance their health and economic interests. In a survey of 375 past participants by Bioscience Education Canada, which runs the "Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada," 84% said their participation helped determine their field of study or career plan; ...

The most common inherited form of mental retardation and autism, fragile X syndrome, turns some brain cells into chatterboxes, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report. The extra talk may make it harder for brain cells to identify and attend to important signals, potentially establishing an intriguing parallel at the cellular level to the attention problems seen in autism. According to the researchers, understanding the effects of this altered signaling will be important to developing successful treatments for fragile X and autism. "We ...

The high cost of medication, stigmatisation and poor acceptance of their condition are causing young adults to take a dangerous approach to managing their asthma, according to new research published today in the journal BMJ Open. In the UK 5.4 million people are currently receiving treatment for asthma: 1.1 million children (one in 11) and 4.3 million adults (one in 12). There were 1,131 deaths from asthma in the UK in 2009. Most asthma deaths are preventable. Despite the availability of effective treatments, poor asthma control is common. The overuse of short-acting ...

A hospital is not the best place to get a good night's sleep, especially in a noisy intensive care unit. It's a cause for concern because studies have shown that a lack of sleep can cause patients to experience delirium—an altered mental state that may delay their recovery and lead to short and long-term confusion and memory problems. A team of doctors, nurses, psychologists and pharmacists in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) at The Johns Hopkins Hospital implemented a project to see if by taking simple steps to reduce nighttime noise, light,and staff interruptions, ...

PITTSBURGH—The Web makes it possible for lots of people to collaborate on projects, but it doesn't make it easy to lead them. A Carnegie Mellon University researcher has developed a new tool that helps leaders see complex, collaborative projects through to completion by redistributing leadership responsibilities. The tool, called Pipeline, makes it easier to assign, critique and track the progress of individual tasks within a project and makes it easy for leaders to delegate responsibility to others. As evidenced by a case study in which Pipeline was used to manage the ...

Electrodes operated into the brain are today used in research and to treat diseases such as Parkinson's. However, their use has been limited by their size. At Lund University in Sweden, researchers have, for the first time, succeeded in implanting an ultrathin nanowire-based electrode and capturing signals from the nerve cells in the brain of a laboratory animal. The researchers work at Lund University's Neuronano Research Centre in an interdisciplinary collaboration between experts in subjects including neurophysiology, biomaterials, electrical measurements and nanotechnology. ...

This press release is available in German. The study published in "Angewandte Chemie" might help to work out strategies for developing potential drugs. As the team of scientist including Markus Zweckstetter and Eckhard Mandelkow report, methylene blue inactivates molecular residues that promote the bonding of tau proteins. Methylene blue is a multi-talented substance with a long history. The synthetic compound was first produced in 1876, and since then has served not only as a blue dye, but also as a medical drug – for example to treat malaria and prevent urinary ...

A study conducted at the University of Granada and the University of York in Toronto, Canada, has revealed that bilingual children develop a better working memory –which holds, processes and updates information over short periods of time– than monolingual children. The working memory plays a major role in the execution of a wide range of activities, such as mental calculation (since we have to remember numbers and operate with them) or reading comprehension (given that it requires associating the successive concepts in a text). The objective of this study –which was published ...

New research shows that people can recover from poor performance when rivals comment on their failures. The research, to be published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, shows that while criticism from team members sends individuals into downward performance spirals, external criticism can be a trigger that boosts performance as people try to prove the outsiders wrong. The research carried out by the University of Exeter, Amherst College and the University of Stirling offers a method of improving performance following setbacks and can be applied both in the ...

Physicists have gained new insights into the inner intricacies of the structural variations of metallic nanoclusters. This work by Luca Pavan, Cono Di Paola and Francesca Baletto from King's College London, UK, is about to be published in EPJ D. It takes us one step closer to tailoring on-demand characteristics of metallic nanoparticles. Indeed, the geometric structure of these nanoclusters influences their chemical and physical properties, which differ from those of individual molecules and of bulk metals. The problem resides in the difficulty in evaluating the optimal ...

Both AMD, which affects around 50 million people worldwide, and aHUS, a rare kidney disease that affects children, are associated with incorrectly controlled immune systems. A protein called complement factor H (CFH) is responsible for regulating part of our immune system called the complement cascade. Genetic alterations in CFH have been shown to increase a person's risk of developing either AMD or aHUS, but rarely both. Why this is the case has never been explained until now. Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Matrix Research and the Ophthalmology and ...

The DNA, just like hair, has a tendency to become knotted, thus it may be useful to disentangle it. Unfortunately, it is not possible to "actively" choose at random (or better, in one solution) the filaments with the desired features, and this is why scientists adopt "passive" solutions like, for instance, having the DNA pass through nano-pores or nano-channels. "Channels and filaments have physical features we may exploit to selectively let a type of molecule pass through" explains Micheletti. "You can have more or less entangled filaments and featuring knots of different ...

Luis Hueso, the CICnanoGUNE researcher, together with researchers from the University of Cambridge, among others, has developed a new technology in the magnetic cooling of chips based on the straining of materials. Compared with the current technologies, this advance enables the impact on the environment to be lessened. The work has been published recently in the prestigious journal Nature Materials. Current cooling systems, be they refrigerators, freezers or air conditioning units, make use of the compression and expansion of a gas. When the gas is compressed, it changes ...

Scientists are reporting development of what they describe as the first self-healing protective coating for cracks in concrete, the world's most widely used building material. Their study on the material — which is inexpensive and environmentally friendly — appears in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Chan-Moon Chung and colleagues explain that protecting concrete roads, bridges and other structures from developing tiny cracks has been a major technological challenge. Cracks allow water, salt used for deicing and air to enter the concrete. During winter ...