SOUTH AFRICA—The common fig is a subtropical, deciduous fruit tree grown in most Mediterranean-type climates. Although some believe that figs may be the oldest cultivated fruit species on earth, global expansion of fig crops has been hindered by the narrow research base pertaining to production practices and the limited number of fig cultivars currently available. Recently, three black figs were established in the Mediterranean-type climate of Western Cape Province of South Africa to provide fruit for fresh markets throughout South Africa and Europe. Hein J. Gerber, Willem ...

TOLEDO, OH—In parts of the United States where ornamental and vegetable plants are produced in greenhouses during cold seasons, heating costs are second only to labor costs for greenhouse operators. Greenhouse growers are faced with important management decisions that rely on understanding how temperature settings, heating systems, fuel types, and construction decisions influence their heating costs. To address the lack of user-friendly computer programs currently available for calculating heating costs in greenhouse operations, scientists have created a state-of-the-art ...

BOSSIER CITY, LA—Perlite, a processed volcanic mineral, is widely used as a component of soilless growing mixes. Lightweight, sterile, and easy to use, perlite is popular with greenhouse growers. But because salt and pathogen buildup can occur when perlite is reused, it must be replaced every year or two to minimize the risk of crop failure. The cost of disposing of old material and replacing it with new perlite can be significant and often prohibitive for smaller greenhouse operations. Hanna Y. Hanna, a researcher at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center's Red ...

AMES, IA—Recognizing the need for university students to develop problem-solving skills they will need in their careers, educators are looking to student-centered, problem-based learning strategies. Problem-based learning (PBL) experiences have been shown to promote higher-order thinking skills in students, but, for faculty, implementing and assessing problem-based activities often means a substantial time investment. Iowa State University professor Ann Marie VanDerZanden and graduate student Tigon Woline published a study in HortTechnology that reported on an innovative ...

Systems biology is a holistic approach to the study of how a living organism emerges from the interactions of the individual elements that make up its constituent cells. Embracing a broad range of disciplines, this field of science that is just beginning to come into public prominence holds promise for advances in a number of important areas, including safer, more effective pharmaceuticals, improved environmental remediation, and clean, green, sustainable energy. However, the most profound impact of systems biology, according to one of its foremost practitioners, is that ...

COLLEGE STATION, TX—New research from Texas A&M University and Texas State University found that older adults who participate in gardening may be more likely to eat their veggies. The report, published in HortTechnology, presents the results of an online survey of adults aged 50+ and includes recommendations for promoting gardening "intervention" programs to older adults. According to researchers Aime Sommerfeld, Amy McFarland, Tina Waliczek, and Jayne Zajicek, studies have shown that poor nutrition is one of several factors responsible for mortality and morbidity in ...

LANE, OK—Corn gluten meal, a powdery byproduct of the wet-milling process of corn, has shown important potential for use as an organic, non-selective preemergence or preplant-incorporated herbicide. A team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and Oklahoma State University recently reported on the impact of corn gluten meal (CGM) applications on direct-seeded squash (Cucurbita pepo), and determined that CGM can be effective and safe if used in banded applications. Used for years as a supplement in dog, fish, and livestock ...

COLLEGE STATION, TX—Does gardening contribute to quality of life and increased wellness for older adults? Researchers from the Texas A&M and Texas State Universities asked these questions in a survey of people aged 50 and older. The survey revealed some compelling reasons for older adults to get themselves out in the garden. Aime Sommerfeld, Jayne Zajicek, and Tina Waliczek designed a questionnaire to investigate older adult gardeners' and nongardeners' perceptions of personal life satisfaction and levels of physical activity. According to Sommerfeld, lead author of the ...

New Rochelle, NY, March 17, 2011—A new research tool for studying microRNA expression in zebrafish will help researchers study the effects of miRNA on the early development of this model organism and better understand developmental and disease mechanisms in humans, as described in Zebrafish, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online ahead of print. Researchers from University of Oregon (Eugene) have developed a novel, cost-effective method for measuring the expression of microRNAs (miRNA) in specific tissues in ...

BEIJING, CHINA—Solar greenhouses have played a vital role in China's agricultural scene for years. New innovations in greenhouse design are allowing growers to produce more varieties of vegetables, even during long winter months. In a recently published report Chinese scientists called solar greenhouses "the most important type of infrastructures for growing horticultural crops in China." The team of researchers from the College of Agronomy and Biotechnology at China Agricultural University presented an extensive report on single-slope solar greenhouses in a recent issue ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. — Providing kidney transplants to patients with the best probability of longer survival would reduce repeat transplant operations and improve life span after kidney transplant, says a U-M researcher in a commentary published in the New England Journal of Medicine March 16. Alan B. Leichtman, M.D., professor of Internal Medicine at U-M and his co-authors endorsed new concepts designed to improve kidney allocation. These concepts were circulated in February by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). The OPTN is the federal contract that ...

It's not just how free the market is. Some economists are looking at another factor that determines how much a country's economy flourishes: how smart its people are. For a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, researchers analyzed test scores from 90 countries and found that the intelligence of the people, particularly the smartest 5 percent, made a big contribution to the strength of their economies. In the last 50 years or so, economists have started taking an interest in the value of human capital. That means all of the qualities of the people ...

AUBURN, AL—Students at land-grant universities are a major source of educated, highly qualified employees for the U.S. nursery industry. To prepare future employees for work in "green" occupations, land-grant institutions have traditionally offered classes in nursery management and production, but availability of qualified faculty, integration of departments, and cutbacks in horticulture programs have contributed to a reduction in the number of nursery management and production (NMP) courses being offered. In a recent issue of HortTechnology, Amy N. Wright, James A. Robbins, ...

Epic Multimedia is an award-winning advertising agency in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Their philosophy on marketing is simple, they want to start conversations between their clients and their client's customers - a simple but effective philosophy. Epic Multimedia has worked with the South Dakota Department of Health on their Influenza marketing campaign for the past few years. During the 2009-2010 year Epic Multimedia created public service announcements for both the Influenza and H1N1 vaccinations for the state of South Dakota. The creative was targeted toward creating ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR-D), Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans (JGR-C) and Paleoceanography. 1. Huge ocean "Frisbees™" spin off Brazil's coast As the North Brazil Current (NBC) moves northward along the northeastern coast of Brazil, it draws water from the South Equatorial Current and the freshwater outflow of freshwater from the Amazon River, providing warm, nutrient-rich water to areas north of the equator. Just ...

As spring continues to unfold on Saturn, April showers on the planet's largest moon, Titan, have brought methane rain to its equatorial deserts, as revealed in images captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This is the first time scientists have obtained current evidence of rain soaking Titan's surface at low latitudes. The observations are released today in the journal Science. "Titan continues to surprise and amaze us," said Alfred McEwen, a planetary scientist at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Lab and a co-author on the paper. "After years of dry weather in the tropics, ...

The Temporomandibular Joints, or TMJ, are the two joints on either side of your lower jawbone that connect your lower jaw to your upper jaw. The TMJ allow for the full range of motion of your jaws. Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD) can affect your joints resulting in chronic pain and difficulty opening and closing your jaws. There are many TMJ treatments that can correct TMD and relieve you of pain. In rare cases, TMJ surgery is needed when other treatments fail to fully correct the cause of TMD. Neuromuscular dentistry is the field of dentistry that diagnoses and ...

Philosophers have argued for centuries, millennia actually, about whether our lives are guided by our own free will or are predetermined as the result of a continuous chain of events over which we have no control. On the one hand, it seems like everything that happens has come kind of causal explanation; on the other hand, when we make decisions, it seems to us like we have the free will to make different decisions. Most people seem to favor free will, and while many, across a range of cultures, reject what is referred to as determinism, they remain conflicted over ...

When combined with on-Oahu wind farms and solar energy, the Interisland Wind project planned to bring 400 megawatts (MW) of wind power from Molokai and Lanai to Oahu could reliably supply more than 25% of Oahu's projected electricity demand, according to the Oahu Wind Integration Study (OWIS). For the purposes of the research project, the OWIS released today studied the impact on the Oahu grid of a total of 500 MW of wind energy and a nominal 100 MW of solar power, though a good deal more utility-scale and customer-sited solar power is expected on Oahu. The study ...

Starting February 16, 2011, New York State is increasing the penalty for using a cell phone while driving, an initiative supported by New York personal injury lawyer David Perecman. There will be two driver penalty points, in addition to the fine of $100 for violations of the cell phone law. "This could mean more fines and court appearances for drivers who refuse to stop talking on a cell phone while driving, or texting while driving in New York, and the hope is that drivers will think harder before they use a cell phone or text while driving in New York," personal injury ...

More than half of the world's population now lives in cities, yet we know little about how urbanization affects biodiversity. In one the first studies of its kind, ecologists in Indianapolis, USA have used 70 year-old dried plant specimens to track the impact of increasing urbanization on plants. The results are published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Ecology. Lead by Dr Rebecca Dolan, director of the Friesner Herbarium, Butler University, the team examined 2,800 dried plants collected around Indianapolis before 1940 and compared these with ...

Cases of police and prosecutorial misconduct continuously pop up in the media. Television stations report stories of defendants wrongfully convicted who serve years in prison for crimes they didn't commit. Luckily, the law says that defendants in certain situations who are erroneously sent to prison can seek compensation in civil court for constitutional violations or illegal procedures committed by overzealous prosecutors. But, obtaining legal recourse in these instances isn't as easy as it sounds. In most cases, state actors acting in their official capacity are immune ...

In the wake of last year's rejection of damages caps under Illinois law, recently introduced federal legislation seeks to limit non-economic damages in nursing home negligence and medical malpractice claims while reducing the statute of limitations. Yet again, some politicians choose to ignore the evidence that such measures have a negligible effect on overall costs while drastically curtailing individual legal rights. The Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-Cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011 (H.R. 5), introduced in January, would also restrict liability in cases ...

NH Hotels, the Spanish hotel company leader, and AMResorts, the North American hotel company, have signed a strategic agreement to develop a new formula of collaboration which will join together their commercialisation activities, brand management and hotel management. The pilot plan for this alliance will be implemented in two NH hotels in Dominican Republic, both located in Bavaro Beach (Punta Cana). From the 1st of May, the NH Royal Beach and NH Real Arena will be operated by NH, but under AMResorts' luxury brands Secrets Resorts & Spas and Now Resorts & Spas. AMResorts ...

Pat Vitucci, a Bay area independent financial advisor, and KGO Radio host Len Tillem*, a Bay area estate planning attorney, will launch a "virtual seminar" available to the public through the KGO Radio website. The 1 hour financial seminar covering numerous financial topics from retirement planning and asset allocation strategies to estate planning and tax strategies, will be available beginning Friday, April 1st at noon through Sunday, April 3rd. Anyone can view the event on their own time starting on the KGO Radio home page. "Len and I have done financial seminars ...