Scientists are reporting development and successful lab tests of "killer paper," a material intended for use as a new food packaging material that helps preserve foods by fighting the bacteria that cause spoilage. The paper, described in ACS' journal, Langmuir, contains a coating of silver nanoparticles, which are powerful anti-bacterial agents. Aharon Gedanken and colleagues note that silver already finds wide use as a bacteria fighter in certain medicinal ointments, kitchen and bathroom surfaces, and even odor-resistant socks. Recently, scientists have been exploring ...

Scientists are reporting an advance in overcoming a major barrier to the use of the genetic material RNA in nanotechnology — the field that involves building machines thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair and now is dominated by its cousin, DNA. Their findings, which could speed the use of RNA nanotechnology for treating disease, appear in the monthly journal ACS Nano. Peixuan Guo and colleagues point out that DNA, the double-stranded genetic blueprint of life, and RNA, its single-stranded cousin, share common chemical features that can serve as building ...

Knee replacement patients undergoing telerehabilitation – a unique Internet-based postoperative rehabilitation program that can be conducted from the patient's home – experience the same results as patients who undergo traditional postoperative rehabilitation, according to a new study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS). Telerehabilitation is becoming a popular alternative for patients who live in remote areas and who have no access to traditional rehabilitation centers. "The concept for telerehabilitation is a decade old; however, well-conducted ...

Scientists are reporting a key advance toward development of a way to combat the terrible plant diseases that caused the Irish potato famine and still inflict billions of dollars of damage to crops each year around the world. Their study appears in ACS' bi-weekly journal Organic Letters. Teck-Peng Loh and colleagues point out that the Phytophthora fungi cause extensive damage to food crops such as potatoes and soybeans as well as to ornamental plants like azaleas and rhododendrons. One species of the fungus caused the Irish potato famine in the mid 1840s. That disaster ...

An Inserm research team in Toulouse, led by Dr Stein Silva (Inserm Unit 825 "Brain imaging and neurological handicaps"), working with the "Modelling tissue and nociceptive stress" Host Team (MATN IFR 150), were interested in studying the illusions described by many patients under regional anaesthetic. In their work, to be published in the journal Anesthesiology, the researchers demonstrated that anaesthetising an arm affects brain activity and rapidly impairs body perception. The ultimate aim of the work is to understand how neuronal circuits are reorganised at this ...

The blood test procedure used on newborn infants for 40 years is finding a second life in the search for new lifesaving medications, according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine. C&EN Senior Editor Celia Henry Arnaud notes that collecting drops of blood from patients and depositing the drops on special paper cards to dry has been used for decades to screen newborns for hereditary disorders and infectious disease. But the dried blood spot technology has found a new role at pharmaceutical companies in the ...

The current Special Issue of Technology & Innovation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors ™, (www.academyofinventors.org), now available on-line at: http://www.cognizantcommunication.com/filecabinet/Technology/techinnovation.html , is focused on the history, process and practice of scientific peer review, with several articles aimed at assessing scientific peer review within the federal government and peer review's relationship to federal policy formation. According to A. Alan Moghissi, president of the nonproft Institute for Regulatory Science, and Michael ...

Conservation paleobiologists—scientists who use the fossil record to understand the evolutionary and ecological responses of present-day species to changes in their environment – are putting the dead to work. A new review of the research in this emerging field provides examples of how the fossil record can help assess environmental impact, predict which species will be most vulnerable to environmental changes and provide guidelines for restoration. The literature review by conservation paleobiologists Gregory P. Dietl of the Paleontological Research Institution ...

It is possible to construct a three-dimensional, 3D, face from flat 2D images, according to research published in the International Journal of Biometrics this month. The discovery could be used for biometrics in security applications or in forensic investigations. Xin Guan and Hanqi Zhuang of Florida Atlantic University on Boca Raton explain how Biometrics, the technology of performing personal identification or authentication via an individual's physical attributes, is becoming an increasingly viable solution for identity management, information protection and homeland ...

LA JOLLA, CA – A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of Virginia has determined the structure of the protein package that delivers the genetic material of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to human cells. The work is the culmination of studies carried out over the last decade looking at different portions of the cone-shaped container, or the capsid. The final piece of the puzzle, described in an article published in Nature on January 20, 2011, details the structure of the two ends of the cone. "This paper is a real milestone ...

PORTLAND, Ore. – According to research conducted at the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University, the commonly held belief that oral contraceptives cause weight gain appears to be false. The results of the study are published online and will appear in next month's edition of the journal Human Reproduction. "A simple Google search will reveal that contraceptives and the possibility that they may cause weight gain is a very highly debated topic," said Alison Edelman, M.D., a physician and researcher in the Department of Obstetrics ...

With mortgage loan defaults on the rise yet again, two mortgage researchers are proposing a new type of mortgage contract that automatically resets the balance and the monthly payment based on the mortgaged home's market value. Brent Ambrose, Smeal Professor of Real Estate and director of the Institute for Real Estate Studies at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Richard Buttimer, a professor in the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, call their new mortgage contract the "adjustable balance mortgage" and contend that it ...

Researcher Walker Smith of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, has been conducting shipboard studies of biological productivity in Antarctica's Ross Sea for the last three decades. This year he's letting underwater robots do some of the work. Smith and graduate student Xiao Liu are using a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to deploy and test a free-swimming underwater glider in the frigid waters of the Ross Sea near the U.S. McMurdo Research Station. The grant also funds efforts by fellow VIMS professor Marjorie Friedrichs ...

Grand Rapids, Mich. (January 19, 2011) – In a collaborative project involving scientists from three continents, researchers have identified a gene that is mutated in one in three patients with the most common form of renal cancer. The gene – called PBRM1 – was found to be mutated in 88 cases out of 257 clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCC) analysed, making it the most prevalent to be identified in renal cancer in 20 years. The identification of a frequently mutated gene provides new insights into the biology of the disease, which will be critical in the continued effort ...

The instability of large, complex societies is a predictable phenomenon, according to a new mathematical model that explores the emergence of early human societies via warfare. Capturing hundreds of years of human history, the model reveals the dynamical nature of societies, which can be difficult to uncover in archaeological data. The research, led Sergey Gavrilets, associate director for scientific activities at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis and a professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, is published in the first issue of ...

Chapel Hill, NC – The National Cancer Institute estimates that more than 43,000 Americans were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and more than 36,000 died from the disease. Despite advances in genetic science showing that the Ras oncogene is mutated in virtually all pancreatic cancers, scientists have been frustrated by the complexity of the signaling pathways in humans, which make it difficult to pinpoint potential therapeutic targets. In a study published today in the Cell Press journal Developmental Cell, a team of researchers led by Channing Der, PhD, Distinguished ...

LIVERMORE, Calif. – Using seawater and calcium to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) in a natural gas power plant's flue stream, and then pumping the resulting calcium bicarbonate in the sea, could be beneficial to the oceans' marine life. Greg Rau, senior scientist with the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and who also works in the Carbon Management Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, conducted a series of lab-scale experiments to find out if a seawater/mineral carbonate (limestone) gas scrubber would remove enough CO2 to be effective, and whether ...

Washington, DC — Recent legislative and regulatory actions make great strides toward establishing much needed incentives for pharmaceutical companies and others to develop and test more medications for pediatric rare diseases, including pediatric cancers, according to commentary by experts from Children's National Medical Center. The commentary appears in the January 19 issue of Science Translational Medicine. "Pediatricians who treat children with serious and life-threatening diseases often find themselves face to face with the inadequacies of pediatric drug development," ...

Ebola, a virus that causes deadly hemorrhagic fever in humans, has no known cure or vaccine. But a new study by University of Illinois at Chicago scientists has uncovered a family of small molecules which appear to bind to the virus's outer protein coat and may inhibit its entry into human cells. The results are to be published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and are now online. Previous studies have shown that small molecules can interfere with the Ebola infection process, says Duncan Wardrop, associate professor of chemistry at UIC and corresponding author of ...

Some amoebae do what many people do. Before they travel, they pack a lunch. In results of a study reported today in the journal Nature, evolutionary biologists Joan Strassmann and David Queller of Rice University show that long-studied social amoebae Dictyostellum discoideum (commonly known as slime molds) increase their odds of survival through a rudimentary form of agriculture. Research by lead author Debra Brock, a graduate student at Rice, found that some amoebae sequester their food--particular strains of bacteria--for later use. "We now know that primitively ...

An increased interest in biofuel production and a growing need to find cost-effective livestock feedstuff alternatives has led University of Illinois researchers to further evaluate the use of glycerin in swine diets. This study, led by U of I graduate research assistant Omarh Mendoza, was published in the Journal of Animal Science and reports that swine diets may include up to 15 percent glycerin and achieve similar performance to a conventional corn:soybean diet. "Glycerin is not a new product, but little is known about its role as a feed ingredient for swine," ...

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have coaxed polymers to braid themselves into wispy nanoscale ropes that approach the structural complexity of biological materials. Their work is the latest development in the push to develop self-assembling nanoscale materials that mimic the intricacy and functionality of nature's handiwork, but which are rugged enough to withstand harsh conditions such as heat and dryness. Although still early in the development stage, their research could lead to new applications that ...

VIDEO: This is the Free Electron Laser video. Click here for more information. ARLINGTON, Va.-Scientists at Los Alamos National Lab, N.M., have achieved a remarkable breakthrough with the Office of Naval Research's Free Electron Laser (FEL) program, demonstrating an injector capable of producing the electrons needed to generate megawatt-class laser beams for the Navy's next-generation weapon system. The Dec. 20 milestone, which occurred months ahead of schedule, will be the ...

UK-based Veritas Financial Europe announces the official launch of the new information platform for investors - FrontiersInsight.com. This web-based platform is designed for both private as well as institutional investors that have substantial interest in investing into new, previously unexplored Frontier markets with huge upside potential. The unique tools offered by FrontiersInsight will also be useful for brokerage and investment firms, VC and PE companies, research and statistical centers. The platform covers more than 13,000 public and private companies in developing ...

Milen Peev, owner of Office Cleaning Denver is pleased to announce the expansion of their services to the greater Denver area. In order for a business environment to be optimally functional and productive, staff require a clean work area that is free of clutter and debris. The team is dedicated to ensuring that all of the needs of an office is met. A representative of the team works closely with business owners to assure that all of the requirements of the office are identified. After meeting and evaluating the building, the representative provides an in depth breakdown ...