HOUSTON -- (Aug. 10, 2011) -- In a biotechnological tour de force, Rice University engineering researchers this week unveiled a new method for rapidly converting simple glucose into biofuels and petrochemical substitutes. In a paper published online in Nature, Rice's team described how it reversed one of the most efficient of all metabolic pathways -- the beta oxidation cycle -- to engineer bacteria that produce biofuel at a breakneck pace. Just how fast are Rice's single-celled chemical factories? On a cell-per-cell basis, the bacteria produced the butanol, a biofuel ...

AMES, Iowa – From the kinds that people sneeze at, to the kinds that have prickly seeds that stick to pant legs, there are many different types of plants in grasslands around the world. According to a new analysis of plants in grassland ecosystems around the world, it turns out that most of those plant species are important. Brian Wilsey, associate professor, and Stanley Harpole, assistant professor, both in Iowa State University's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, are authors of a study on plant diversity published in today's issue of the journal ...

World Data Products, Inc. recently announced it has been recognized by Everything Channel as a part of CRN's 2011 VAR500 list, which ranks the top technology integrators in North America. Featuring the highest producing technology integrators and solution provider organizations in the IT channel, the VAR500 rankings consider earnings from hardware sales, software sales and managed IT services. World Data Products, Inc. placed 319 in the 17th annual ranking. The VAR500 is a list of the largest value-added resellers, solution providers and integrators in North America ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A study by University at Buffalo sociologists has found that the portrayal of women in the popular media over the last several decades has become increasingly sexualized, even "pornified." The same is not true of the portrayal of men. These findings may be cause for concern, the researchers say, because previous research has found sexualized images of women to have far-reaching negative consequences for both men and women. Erin Hatton, PhD, and Mary Nell Trautner, PhD, assistant professors in the UB Department of Sociology, are the authors of "Equal ...

An international team of scientists has identified 29 new genetic variants linked to multiple sclerosis, providing key insights into the biology of an important and very debilitating neurological disease. Multiple sclerosis (MS), one of the most common neurological conditions among young adults, affects around 2.5 million individuals worldwide. It is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), which includes the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves, and can cause severe symptoms such as paralysis or loss of vision. Vanderbilt University Medical ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- American courts are significantly expanding the legal rights and privileges celebrities can command over others using their names or likenesses. And a University at Buffalo Law School professor is questioning whether these courts have gone too far. Clearly, says UB Associate Professor of Law Mark Bartholomew, the courts have taken a more liberal interpretation when it comes to celebrities suing others for the use or even the implication of their names, images or voices. This special legal privilege -- known as the "right of publicity" -- has expanded ...

While singing the same songs as your neighbours may sound harmonious, research conducted at Queen's University Biological Station (QUBS) suggests that song-sharing amongst song sparrow populations is actually an aggressive behavior, akin to flinging insults back and forth. "It's been hypothesized that repertoire size and song complexity is about the singer's ability to advertise their quality as a mate," says lead author Janet Lapierre, a visiting biologist from the University of Western Ontario (UWO). "Song-sharing, where birds sing a smaller number of their species' ...

Cambridge, Mass. - August 10, 2011 - Between conception and birth, the human gut grows more than two meters long, looping and coiling within the tiny abdomen. Within a given species, the developing vertebrate gut always loops into the same formation—however, until now, it has not been clear why. Using a combination of experimental observations, biological and biophysical manipulations, theory, and computation, researchers at Harvard have shown that a "simple" balance of forces determines the form of the gut. The finding may shed light on how the gut has been able to ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A radical new approach to thwarting Internet censorship would essentially turn the whole web into a proxy server, making it virtually impossible for a censoring government to block individual sites. The system is called Telex, and it is the brainchild of computer science researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Waterloo in Canada. They will present it Aug. 12 at the USENIX Security Symposium in San Francisco. "This has the potential to shift the arms race regarding censorship to be in favor of free and open communication," ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – If you think teenagers prefer social media over the telephone, you may want to think again, at least when it comes to teens involved in research studies. When 188 ninth-11th graders in four rural Georgia counties were asked how they preferred to be contacted about their participation in a Georgia Health Sciences University research study: Nearly 54 percent preferred contact via cell and/or land line with a recorded message from a research assistant they know using a voice messaging call system Nearly 24 percent preferred a personal call from the research ...

Quebec City, August 10, 2011 – Having pioneered the development of the first high-performance iron-based catalyst for fuel cells, researchers at INRS recently achieved a second major advance. They developed a new and improved iron-based catalyst capable of generating even more electric power in fuel cells for transportation applications. Previously, only platinum-based catalysts could produce similar performance. The new research findings from the team of Professor Jean-Pol Dodelet were published in Nature Communications, a prestigious scientific journal part of the Nature ...

As we enter the era of data-intensive research and supercomputing, the world's top computer systems should not be ranked on calculation speed alone, according to Allan Snavely, associate director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego. "I'd like to propose that we routinely compare machines using the metric of data motion capacity, or their ability to move data quickly," Snavely told attendees of the 'Get Ready for Gordon – Summer Institute' being held this week (August 8-11) at SDSC to familiarize potential users with ...

NEW YORK, August 10, 2011 - New research led by Derya Unutmaz, MD associate professor, the Departments of Pathology, Medicine, and Microbiology at NYU School of Medicine and Mark Sundrud, PhD, of Tempero Pharmaceuticals, Inc., has identified a novel sensory pathway that modulates the potency of Th17 cell responses. The new research is highlighted in the August 8th online edition of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The study has found that when memory Th17 cells are exposed to a class of secreted proteins called gamma-c cytokines (IL-2, IL-15 or IL-7), they become armed ...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2011 — To the surprisingly inventive uses for banana peels which include polishing silverware, leather shoes, and the leaves of house plants, scientists have added purification of drinking water contaminated with potentially toxic metals. That's the topic of the latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions" podcast series. It actually points out that minced banana peel performs better than an array of other traditional purification materials. Gustavo Castro and colleagues note in the ...

### About Columbia Business School Led by Dean Glenn Hubbard, the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School is at the forefront of management education for a rapidly changing world. The school's cutting-edge curriculum bridges academic theory and practice, equipping students with an entrepreneurial mindset to recognize and capture opportunity in a competitive business environment. Beyond academic rigor and teaching excellence, the school offers programs that are designed to give students practical experience making decisions in ...

LOS ANGELES — August 10, 2011 — Do you run when you should stay? Are you afraid of all the wrong things? An enzyme deficiency might be to blame, reveals new research in mice by scientists at the University of Southern California. In a paper appearing in the October 2011 issue of the International Journal of Neuropharmacology, USC researchers show that mice lacking a certain enzyme due to genetic mutation are unable to properly assess threat. The mice exhibited defensive behaviors (such as biting or tail rattling) in the presence of neutral stimuli, such as plastic bottles. ...

WASHINGTON, DC—Orthopaedic surgeons from Children's National Medical Center are part of a team of researchers that has identified the genetic mutation causing Proteus syndrome, a rare disorder in which tissue and bone grow massively out of proportion. The discovery appears in the July 27, 2011, online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, led by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), may have larger implications in both the identification and treatment of Proteus syndrome, ...

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL), one of the world's busiest international airports is also the most fiscally efficient, says an aviation think-tank based at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business. ATL generated 60 per cent of its total revenue from non-aviation activities, compared to the lowest-ranked North American airport Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD), which derived only 34 per cent of its income from alternative sources. The Air Transport Research Society (ATRS), headquartered at Sauder, has released ...

Algae-based fuel is one of many options among the array of possible future energy sources. New University of Virginia research shows that while algae-based transportation fuels produce high energy output with minimal land use, their production could come with significant environmental burdens. For farmers looking to maximize profits, algae would produce considerably more transportation energy than canola and switch grass for every hectare planted, and can also be grown on poor-quality marginal land that cannot be easily used to grow food crops such as corn, according ...

CHICAGO --- Being physically active is one of best ways people with arthritis can improve their health, but a new study from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine shows that more than half of women and 40 percent of men with arthritis are virtually couch potatoes. This is the first study to use a device to objectively measure the physical activity of people with arthritis and determine if they meet federal guidelines. Past research relied on self-reported accounts of exercise and activity. The study was published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, August 2011. Researchers ...

This release is available in French. Dr. John Rioux, researcher at the Montreal Heart Institute, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Université de Montréal and original co-founder of the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium is one of the scientists who have identified 29 new genetic variants linked to multiple sclerosis, providing key insights into the biology of a very debilitating neurological disease. Many of the genes implicated in the study are relevant to the immune system, shedding light onto the immunological pathways that underlie the development ...

A UCSF-led pilot study in San Francisco has found the highest levels ever reported among pregnant women worldwide of banned chemicals used in flame retardants, a likely result, they believe, of California's strict flammability regulations. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were added to consumer products, such as electronics and foam in furniture beginning in the 1970s. The chemicals slow ignition and the rate at which a fire grows, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Tests indicate that these chemicals may cause liver, thyroid, and neurodevelopmental ...

Biologists and psychologists know that light affects mood, but a new University of Virginia study indicates that light may also play a role in modulating fear and anxiety. Psychologist Brian Wiltgen and biologists Ignacio Provencio and Daniel Warthen of U.Va.'s College of Arts & Sciences worked together to combine studies of fear with research on how light affects physiology and behavior. Using mice as models, they learned that intense light enhances fear or anxiety in mice, which are nocturnal, in much the same way that darkness can intensify fear or anxiety in diurnal ...

URBANA – Dieting postmenopausal women who want to avoid losing muscle as they lose fat should pay attention to a new University of Illinois study. Adding protein throughout the day not only holds hunger pangs at bay so that dieters lose more weight, it keeps body composition—the amount of fat relative to muscle—in better proportion. "A higher-protein weight-loss diet is more protective of muscle," said Ellen Evans, a former U of I associate professor of kinesiology and community health and member of the university's Division of Nutritional Sciences. Scientists in Evans's ...

DALLAS – Aug. 10, 2011 – People who frequently use tanning beds may be spurred by an addictive neurological reward-and-reinforcement trigger, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a pilot study. This could explain why some people continue to use tanning beds despite the increased risk of developing melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer. The brain activity and corresponding blood flow tracked by UT Southwestern scientists involved in the study is similar to that seen in people addicted to drugs and alcohol. "Using tanning beds has rewarding ...