The press release
archive.

Environment19 Dec 2011

Cockroach hookup signal could benefit endangered woodpecker

A North Carolina State University discovery of the unique chemical composition of a cockroach signal – a "Let's hook up" sex pheromone emitted by certain female wood cockroaches to entice potential mates – could have far-ranging benefits, including improved conservation of an endangered woodpecker. Dr. Coby Schal, Blanton J. Whitmire Professor of Entomology at NC State and the corresponding author of a paper describing the discovery, says that the study, published the week of Dec. 19 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, advances the knowledge of fundamental ...

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Medicine19 Dec 2011

Wayne State study finds soybean compounds enhances effects of cancer radiotherapy

Detroit - A Wayne State University researcher has shown that compounds found in soybeans can make radiation treatment of lung cancer tumors more effective while helping to preserve normal tissue. A team led by Gilda Hillman, Ph.D., professor of radiation oncology at Wayne State University's School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, had shown previously that soy isoflavones, a natural, nontoxic component of soybeans, increase the ability of radiation to kill cancer cells in prostate tumors by blocking DNA repair mechanisms and molecular survival ...

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Technology19 Dec 2011

Infrared technology for measuring the effect of fire on materials

This press release is available in Spanish. The main problem associated with measuring the effects of fire on materials lies in the temperature of the flames, which reaches over 1000 ºC and can obscure the actual temperature of the material. In addition, there is the problem of the high concentration of gasses (CO2, H2O and others), which makes it difficult to obtain clear images of the sample being subjected to fire. In order to solve this problem, the UC3M scientists who developed this method used a measurement that utilizes the infrared spectrum. "To do this, ...

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Technology19 Dec 2011

First aid after tick bites

This press release is available in German.For years, Mrs. S. suffered from joint pain and headaches. After an odyssey through doctors' waiting rooms, one doctor diagnosed Lyme borreliosis – an infectious disease transmitted by ticks. With its bite, the parasite introduced bacteria that then spread throughout the entire body. Mrs. S. is not alone – very often, the disease is recognized too late or not at all, or is not properly treated. Doctors are provided with no clues if the characteristic redness around the bite area is missing. Left untreated, Lyme borreliosis can cause ...

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Space19 Dec 2011

Ultra-compact dwarf galaxies are bright star clusters

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the results of a detailed investigation of how many 'ultra-compact dwarf galaxies' (UCDs) can be found in nearby galaxy clusters. UCDs were recognized as a populous and potentially distinct class of stellar systems about a decade ago. But they are still mysterious objects that are characterized by a compact morphology (30-300 light-years in size) and high masses (more than one million solar masses). More generally, their properties (e.g., their size, shape, or luminosity) are similar to those of both star clusters and dwarf galaxies. ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Article Catalog, a New Article Directory, Offers Free Search Engine Optimization Opportunities for All

Article Catalog, a new article directory, launched today, Thursday, 15 December, 2011. The site offers users free, unlimited submissions of articles to its directory. Articles are categorized by industry and have to be a minimum of 300 words and a maximum of 2000 words in length. The site is available to companies worldwide and is visually appealing, and has an easy-to-use, straightforward login system and an aesthetically pleasing interface design. "The idea behind launching this directory was to offer another article marketing opportunity for companies looking ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Many Business Supplies & Services Consolidated by Grand Rapids, MI Vendor

Grand Rapids, Michigan's small business community has many vendors to turn to for business supplies and services such as printing, direct marketing and merchant services, but until recently, no vendor sought to simplify small business operations by offering all these services and supplies under one roof. Dodson Group started operations in 1998 providing office supplies and direct mail marketing solutions to automotive dealerships, but as their client base increased, Dodson Group began offering supplemental services to businesses in other industries. Today, the Grand ...

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Environment19 Dec 2011

German research team targets 'at risk' data on biodiversity

Copenhagen, Denmark – A new German-based project is setting out to rescue biodiversity data at risk of being lost, because they are not integrated in institutional databases, are kept in outdated digital storage systems, or are not properly documented. The project, run by the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, provides a good example for a GBIF recommendation to establish hosting centres for biodiversity data. This is one of a set of data management recommendations just published by GBIF. The team behind the German project called reBiND (http://rebind.bgbm.org/), ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Sensational bird finding in China

In June 2011, a team of Chinese and Swedish researchers rediscovered the breeding area for the poorly known Blackthroat Luscinia obscura, in the Qinling mountains, Shaanxi province, north central China. Seven singing males were observed in Foping and seven more in Changqing National Nature Reserves – which almost equals the total number of individuals observed of this species since its discovery in the late 19th century. Nearly all of the birds were on mountain slopes at 2400 meters above sea level in large, dense expanses of bamboo in open coniferous and mixed coniferous-broadleaved ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Mobilefilmworks Expands Programming to Include Afro American TV Content for Brazilian Wireless Audiences

Responding to huge consumer demand for mobile television content, Mobilefilmworks plans to stream to mobile, free reruns of TV sitcoms such as "The Cosby Show", "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", "Everybody Hates Chris", "Soul Train", "Good Times", and "The Jefferson's" in 2012. Mobilefilmworks will stream the popular sitcoms to Brazilian mobile viewers "On the Go", and to desktops. "The more than 70 million Afro Brazilian viewers want relevant, positive, and upward mobile sitcoms, featuring their ...

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Environment19 Dec 2011

Plant-eating dinosaur discovered in Antarctica

For the first time, the presence of large bodied herbivorous dinosaurs in Antarctica has been recorded. Until now, remains of sauropoda - one of the most diverse and geographically widespread species of herbivorous dinosaurs - had been recovered from all continental landmasses, except Antarctica. Dr. Ignacio Alejandro Cerda, from CONICET in Argentina, and his team's identification of the remains of the sauropod dinosaur suggests that advanced titanosaurs (plant-eating, sauropod dinosaurs) achieved a global distribution at least by the Late Cretaceous*. Their work has just ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Chandler's Roofing, Inc. Earns Coveted Angie's List Super Service Award

Chandler's Roofing, Inc. has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Angie's List Super Service Award, an honor bestowed annually on approximately 5 percent of all the businesses rated on the nation's leading provider of consumer reviews on local service and health providers. "It is an honor to have achieved this award for the second year in a row," stated Brian Hicks, CEO of Chandler's Roofing. "Having been awarded the 2011 National Residential Roofing Contractor of the Year Award in November by Roofing Contractor Magazine and now receiving the Super Service ...

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Earth Science19 Dec 2011

What are the prospects for sustaining high-quality groundwater?

Intensive agriculture practices developed during the past century have helped improve food security for many people but have also added to nitrate pollution in surface and groundwaters. New research has looked at water quality measurement over the last 140 years to track this problem in the Thames River basin. The NERC-funded study, led by the University of Bristol's Department of Civil Engineering, has looked at nitrate transport from agricultural land to water in the Thames basin. The team used a simple model to estimate the amount of nitrate able to leach from soils ...

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Energy19 Dec 2011

Chemicals and biofuel from wood biomass

Most commonly used raw materials in butanol production have so far been starch and cane sugar. In contrast to this, the starting point in the Aalto University study was to use only lignocellulose, otherwise known as wood biomass, which does not compete with food production. Another new breakthrough in the study is to successfully combine modern pulp - and biotechnology. Finland's advanced forest industry provides particularly good opportunities to develop this type of bioprocesses. Wood biomass is made up of three primary substances: cellulose, hemicelluloses and ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Data-driven tools cast geographical patterns of rainfall extremes in new light

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- Using statistical analysis methods to examine rainfall extremes in India, a team of researchers has made a discovery that resolves an ongoing debate in published findings and offers new insights. The study, initiated by Auroop Ganguly and colleagues at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, reports no evidence for uniformly increasing trends in rainfall extremes averaged over the entire Indian region. It does, however, find a steady and significant increase in the spatial variability of rainfall extremes over the region. These findings, published in Nature ...

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Social Science19 Dec 2011

Quotas for women in local politics brings surge in documented crimes against women in India

An increase in female representation in local politics has caused a significant rise in documented crimes against women in India, new research has found. That is good news, say the authors of the study carried out at the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) at the University of Warwick in the UK, Harvard Business School and the IMF, who argue that the increase is down to greater reporting of crimes against women, rather than greater incidence of crimes against them. The research examined the impact of the Panchayati Raj reform passed in 1993, ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

A new kind of metal in the deep Earth

Washington, D.C. -- The crushing pressures and intense temperatures in Earth's deep interior squeeze atoms and electrons so closely together that they interact very differently. With depth materials change. New experiments and supercomputer computations discovered that iron oxide undergoes a new kind of transition under deep Earth conditions. Iron oxide, FeO, is a component of the second most abundant mineral at Earth's lower mantle, ferropericlase. The finding, published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, could alter our understanding of deep Earth dynamics ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's illness deciphered after 150 years

Known for her poetry, letters, love affair and marriage to Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning also left a legacy of unanswered questions about her lifelong chronic illness. Now, a Penn State anthropologist, with the aid of her daughter, may have unraveled the mystery. Born in 1806, Barrett Browning suffered throughout her life from incapacitating weakness, heart palpitations, intense response to heat and cold, intense response to illnesses as mild as a cold, and general exhaustion in bouts that lasted from days to months or years. Her doctors were unable to diagnose ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

RunningShoes.com Launches Brooks Shoe Giveaway

RunningShoes.com is hosting a giveaway to get runners geared up for the upcoming new year. The online retailer has teamed up with Brooks to give away the latest style of its Adrenaline GTS running shoes. Launching in January 2012, the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12 is the twelfth iteration of its No. 1 selling shoe. Through the years, this stability shoe has received numerous accolades for its smooth ride. Most recently Runner's World deemed the 11th version of the Adrenaline GTS the "Best Update" in its winter shoe guide. For those not familiar with Brooks running ...

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Medicine19 Dec 2011

Tissue structure delays cancer development

This press release is available in German. Cancer growth normally follows a lengthy period of development. Over the course of time, genetic mutations often accumulate in cells, leading first to pre-cancerous conditions and ultimately to tumour growth. Using a mathematical model, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, University of Pennsylvania and University of California San Francisco, have now shown that spatial tissue structure, such as that found in the colon, slows down the accumulation of genetic mutations, thereby ...

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Medicine19 Dec 2011

Algal protein gives boost to electrochemical water splitting

Photosynthesis is considered the 'Holy Grail' in the field of sustainable energy generation because it directly converts solar energy into storable fuel using nothing but water and carbon dioxide (CO2). Scientists have long tried to mimic the underlying natural processes and to optimize them for energy device applications such as photo-electrochemical cells (PEC), which use sunlight to electrochemically split water – and thus directly generate hydrogen, cutting short the more conventional approach using photovoltaic cells for the electrolysis of water. Traditionally, PEC ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Study reveals gender bias of prospective parents

A Queen's University study has found that when people think about having children, men want boys and women want girls. "Gender neutrality - a lack of preference - is now a standard cultural norm embraced within most wealthy developed countries like Canada," says Lonnie Aarssen, a Queen's biology professor and co-author of the study. His results, though, reveal a strong gender bias, despite the researchers' prediction that they would find evidence of a well-established contemporary culture of gender neutrality. As a way of explaining these findings, Dr. Aarssen says the ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

New insight into why locusts swarm

New research has found that a protein associated with learning and memory plays an integral role in changing the behaviour of locusts from that of harmless grasshoppers into swarming pests. Desert Locusts are a species of grasshopper that have evolved a Jekyll-and-Hyde disposition to survive in their harsh environment. In their solitary phase, they avoid other locusts and occur in very low density. When the sporadic rains arrive and food is more plentiful, their numbers increase. However, as the rains cease the locusts are driven onto dwindling patches of vegetation. ...

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Medicine19 Dec 2011

Healthcare Talent Crisis Driving Boost in Human Capital Management

Healthcare providers' ability to deliver care is more contingent upon people than any other variable, according to the KLAS report, "Human Capital Management: Finding the Right Vendor Mix." KLAS found that many providers are feeling tremendous pressure to replace, acquire, or interface human capital management (HCM) solutions to improve the recruitment, training, utilization, and retention of staff. While most providers already have an HR/Payroll application--the foundation of an HCM system--as well as Time & Attendance (TA) and Staff Scheduling systems ...

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Science19 Dec 2011

Effect of adenotonsillectomy in children with sleep-disordered breathing

Alexandria, VA -- Children may have a better quality of life (QOL) and diminished cardiovascular disease risk from the decreased endothelin 1 (ET-1) levels after adenotonsillectomy, according to new research published in the December 2011 issue of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. SDB is an increasingly common indication for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy due to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Cardiovascular (CV) disease frequently has been reported in patients with moderate to severe OSAS, related abnormalities include: systematic hypertension, pulmonary ...

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