In our everyday life, we use gasoline, diesel, plastics, rubbers, and numerous chemicals that are derived from fossil oil through petrochemical refinery processes. However, this is not sustainable due to the limited nature of fossil resources. Furthermore, our world is facing problems associated with climate change and other environmental problems due to the increasing use of fossil resources. One solution to address above problems is the use of renewable non-food biomass for the production of chemicals, fuels and materials through biorefineries. Microorganisms are used ...

Athens, Ga. – Decades of research show people born into poverty are likely to continue to live that way as adults. But one University of Georgia researcher has found a way out—education. Children reared in disadvantaged communities and poor families earn less money and experience more health problems as adults than do children raised without adversity, according to Kandauda Wickrama, a professor of human development and life science in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences. "Early adverse life experiences, such as community or family poverty, have a detrimental ...

Montreal, May 18, 2012 – The surgical team at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) achieved a North American surgical milestone on May 1st with a sutureless aortic valve replacement through a thoracic incision just five centimetres long. The two patients in their seventies who underwent this innovative procedure, which was performed by cardiac surgeons Denis Bouchard and Michel Carrier, were doing well only one week after their operations. A novel combination "This innovative combination of implanting a Perceval™ S valve through a minimally invasive thoracotomy signals ...

It was used to help Apollo astronauts navigate in space, and has since been applied to problems as diverse as economics and weather forecasting, but Harvard scientists are now using a powerful statistical tool to not only track sea level rise over time, but to determine where the water causing the rise is coming from. As described in an April 23 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), graduate students Eric Morrow and Carling Hay demonstrate the use of a statistical tool called a Kalman smoother to identify "sea level fingerprints" – tell-tale ...

Vacuum tubes have been retro for decades. They almost completely disappeared from the electronics scene when consumers exchanged their old cathode ray tube monitors for flat screen TVs. Their replacement – the semiconductor – is generally the cheaper, lighter, more efficient, and easier to manufacture of the two technologies. But vacuum tubes are more robust in high-radiation environments such as outer space. And since electrons travel faster in a vacuum than through a semiconductor, vacuum tubes are an intrinsically better medium for electricity. An international team ...

Quantum physics promises faster and more powerful computers, but quantum versions of basic logic functions are still needed to bring this technology to fruition. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. have taken one step toward this goal by creating an all-semiconductor quantum logic gate, a controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate. They achieved this breakthrough by coaxing nanodots to emit single photons of light on demand. "The ability to produce a photon in a very precise state is of central importance," said Matthew Pooley of Cambridge ...

Ed Randall's Fans for the Cure (www.fans4thecure.org) today launched its "Stadium of Champions" membership drive, designed to increase awareness of prostate cancer treatment, prevention and detection. The Stadium of Champions is the charity's VIP membership club. It offers advocates an easy opportunity to support the charity, while also enjoying unique benefits reserved exclusively for these Champions. Buy your tickets today before the stadium is sold out. "Every prostate cancer survivor, loved ones who supported the men in their life fighting prostate ...

Cell cultures need glucose for energy, but too much sugar can create a diabetic-like environment in which cell proteins undergo unwanted structural changes. Standard methods to monitor glucose levels require invasive and time-consuming handling of the cell culture. A team of engineers at the National University of Singapore and Singapore's Institute of Microelectronics is developing an alternative approach that takes advantage of new microfluidic techniques. In a continuous and controlled process, the researchers created small droplets of polymer that encapsulated pairs ...

Urologic conditions like urinary tract infections, kidney stones, and prostate cancer are a major economic burden on Americans, resulting in health care costs of close to $40 billion annually, according to a newly released national report that charts the demographic and economic impact of urologic diseases in the U.S. Urologic Diseases in America (UDA), last published in 2007, has been revised and updated for 2012 and includes a wealth of new, detailed information on the utilization of resources and the costs associated with urologic diseases among men, women and children. ...

VIDEO: This video shows active Cdc42 oscillating through yeast cells. Click here for more information. A collaboration between Lehigh University physicists and University of Miami biologists addresses an important fundamental question in basic cell biology: How do living cells figure out when and where to grow? The teams of Assistant Professor Dimitrios Vavylonis and Associate Professor Fulvia Verde discovered that protein Cdc42 oscillates throughout yeast cells, precipitating ...

Now reaching an unheard of total of 199 awards for TV commercial production, the world's first internet-based discount TV advertising agency, Cheap TV Spots, is proud to claim the Gold Remi, presented by the prestigious Worldfest competition of 2012. Worldfest is the one of the longest running international film and TV festivals in North America, and Cheap-TV-Spots.com is the longest-operating producer of original, discount-priced TV commercials for the U.S. and international markets. Cheap TV Spots offers two rare advantages for advertisers. One, the experienced ...

Los Angeles, CA (May 18, 2012) More than 5,000 people die each year in vehicle crashes caused by distracted driving, many who were texting and talking on cellphones behind the wheel, according to the May 4 issue of CQ Researcher (published by CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE). Teen drivers appear to be especially susceptible to distraction. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that 16 percent of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were believed to be distracted – "the highest proportion of any age group," according to David Hosansky, ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Recent studies have shown that palliative care interventions aimed at addressing patients' emotional, spiritual and social needs have a significant impact on cancer patients' quality of life and may even improve cancer patients' overall survival. Despite this, most cancer patients being cared for in their communities do not have access to these services. Most cancer patients also do not have advance directives addressed and are not aware of the benefits of hospice services. In order to address this issue, researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida decided ...

For some pastors and religious leaders, the topic of sex is more or less off-limits; for others, it comes loaded with political implications. Dallas pastor Ed Young, meanwhile, has long viewed sex from a perspective that is at once biblical and practical. In fact, a common topic in his Dallas ministry is that of sex's important role within a marriage--a role that is underscored in a surprising new study published by the Huffington Post. The study offers evidence to support the idea that couples must actively work to cultivate happy married relationships. Specifically, ...

RENO, Nev. – University of Nevada, Reno computer science engineering team Kostas Bekris and Eelke Folmer presented their indoor navigation system for people with visual impairments at two national conferences in the past two weeks. The researchers explained how a combination of human-computer interaction and motion-planning research was used to build a low-cost accessible navigation system, called Navatar, which can run on a standard smartphone. "Existing indoor navigation systems typically require the use of expensive and heavy sensors, or equipping rooms and hallways ...

A young mother on maternity leave won a $172,320 progressive jackpot at WinADayCasino.com the other day. Jody K. was playing the new Enchanted Gems slot when she hit the jackpot at the popular all slot games and video poker site. "The kids were out in the yard with my husband and I was just enjoying a little alone time," said the excited winner. "I win a bit here and there, but I really just play casino games to relax. I never expected to win anything like this!" Jody said she'll enjoy shopping for her kids and the new baby but said she and her ...

Douglas McCauley and Paul DeSalles did not set out to discover one of the longest ecological interaction chains ever documented. But that's exactly what they and a team of researchers – all current or former Stanford students and faculty – did in a new study published in Scientific Reports. Their findings shed light on how human disturbance of the natural world may lead to widespread, yet largely invisible, disruptions of ecological interaction chains. This, in turn, highlights the need to build non-traditional alliances – among marine biologists and foresters, for example ...

Ever since Wonder Woman became the first big female super hero in 1942, super heroines from Batwoman to the Fantastic Four's Invisible Girl have been a force to be reckoned with. This month Grande Vegas Casino salutes the super women of our time with a Facebook Contest and Super Bonus Weekend. The Super Heroines Leaderboard Contests continue and there will be two more Super Heroines Live Raffles with $250 instant prizes this month. A contest on the Grande Vegas Facebook Page this week gives players a chance to vote for their favorite super heroine and possibly win a ...

In a new KLAS study titled "Proton Therapy 2012: Dollars, Decisions and Debates," the majority of participants said that concerns about market saturation and an estimated initial investment of $150-$200 million would likely prevent them from looking at proton therapy in the next five years. "Besides cost, providers mention that ROI is a concern due to the patient referral base, staffing requirements, and ongoing maintenance costs," explained Monique Rasband, oncology research director and author of the report. "On the flip side, some currently ...

Athens, Ga. – The rate at which the rabies virus evolves in bats may depend heavily upon the ecological traits of its hosts, according to researchers at the University of Georgia, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. Their study, published May 17 in the journal PLoS Pathogens, found that the host's geographical location was the most accurate predictor of the viral rate of evolution. Rabies viruses in tropical and sub-tropical bat species evolved nearly four times faster than viral variants in bats in temperate ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – GSA Bulletin papers posted online 3-18 May 2012 cover a variety of locations: the Coast Range basalt province, southwest Washington State, USA; the Faroe Islands of the northeast Atlantic margin; Wairarapa fault, North Island, New Zealand; the eastern Mediterranean Sea offshore of southern Crete; the southern central Andes of Argentina; the Adriatic Carbonate Platform of southwest Slovenia; the Atacama Desert, Chile; Questa caldera, northern New Mexico, USA; the Norwegian Caledonides; and Lake Tahoe, USA. Petrology of the Grays River Volcanics, ...

RICHLAND, Wash. -- Pollution is warming the atmosphere through summer thunderstorm clouds, according to a computational study published May 10 in Geophysical Research Letters. How much the warming effect of these clouds offsets the cooling that other clouds provide is not yet clear. To find out, researchers need to incorporate this new-found warming into global climate models. Pollution strengthens thunderstorm clouds, causing their anvil-shaped tops to spread out high in the atmosphere and capture heat -- especially at night, said lead author and climate researcher ...

University of Iowa neuroscientist John Wemmie, M.D., Ph.D., is interested in the effect of acid in the brain. His studies suggest that increased acidity or low pH, in the brain is linked to panic disorders, anxiety, and depression. But his work also suggests that changes in acidity are important for normal brain activity too. "We are interested in the idea that pH might be changing in the functional brain because we've been hot on the trail of receptors that are activated by low pH," says Wemmie, a UI associate professor of psychiatry. "The presence of these receptors ...

San Diego, CA (May 18, 2012) — Clinicians, researchers and scientists from around the world will gather for Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2012, the largest and most prestigious gastroenterology meeting, from May 19-22, 2012, at the San Diego Convention Center, CA. DDW, the annual meeting of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute, is jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the AGA, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. AGA researchers will present ...

Patients who watch an online instructional video are more likely to keep their appointments and arrive prepared for a scheduled colonoscopy than those who do not, according to a study by gastroenterologists at the University of Chicago Medicine. The study, presented at the 2012 annual Digestive Diseases Week meeting in San Diego, CA, found that among patients age 50 to 65 – the primary target for colon cancer screening – those who watched the video were 40 percent less likely to cancel an appointment. That suggests many more cancers could be prevented or detected and ...