WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers at Purdue University are studying the effects of fire on steel structures, such as buildings and bridges, using a one-of-a-kind heating system and a specialized laboratory for testing large beams and other components. Building fires may reach temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius, or more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, said Amit Varma, a Purdue associate professor of civil engineering who is leading the work.g1 "At that temperature, exposed steel would take about 25 minutes to lose about 60 percent of its strength and stiffness," he ...

PITTSBURGH—A computer algorithm developed at Carnegie Mellon University matched living kidney donors with medically compatible transplant candidates late last month as the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), operated by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), began a national pilot program to increase the number of kidney paired-donation (KPD) transplants. The initial run of the computer matching process included just 43 kidney transplant candidates and 45 potential living donors, but a national KPD pool eventually could include as many ...

Three days of critical international discussion and debate, led by a panel of experts from the International Society of Clinical Densitometry (ISCD) and the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), have served to clarify a number of important questions pertaining to the interpretation and use of FRAX® in clinical practice. The WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX®), with models for some 26 countries, is an important new online tool that is being used by a steadily increasing number of physicians around the world. FRAX® is country-specific and calculates a patient's ...

Strokes, seizures and other neurological complications related to heart surgery account for "considerable morbidity and mortality," Loyola University Health System neurologists report in the November issue of the journal Hospital Practice. Other complications include delirium, central nervous system infections, pituitary gland problems, spinal cord or peripheral nerve injuries, residual effects of anesthesia and medication toxicity. Complications can involve any part of the central and peripheral nervous systems. "Neurologic complications are always a risk with cardiac ...

University of Alberta research has discovered a strong link between depression and risky sexual behaviours such as improper condom use, transactional sex and relationship violence among young people in South Africa. The research shows that depression is common among young South Africans, and could be making a significant contribution towards the HIV epidemic. As well, the researchers believe that depression could be contributing to risky sexual behaviours around the world, and that preventing or treating it may reduce the global burden of sexually transmitted diseases, ...

November 16, 2010 -- Scientists who study acoustics (the "science of sound") have over the years developed a variety of techniques to probe the hidden depths of oceans. This week, many of these acoustic researchers will come together to discuss how these technologies were used to monitor April's Deepwater Horizon oil spill, to present new data on the gusher's ecological impacts, and to highlight new techniques under development that could improve our ability to detect oil in ocean water. This special session will take place on November 17, 2010 at the 2nd Pan-American/Iberian ...

By examining the distinct wave patterns formed from complex biochemical reactions within the human body, diseased organs may be more effectively identified, says Zhengdong Cheng, associate professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, who has developed a model that simulates how these wave patterns are generated. His findings, which appear in the October issue of the journal "Physical Review E," detail Cheng's work with a system designed to model cells in a biochemical environment, similar to what occurs inside the human body. His ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to a popular hypothesis, grasses such as maize, sugar cane, millet and sorghum got their evolutionary start as a result of a steep drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during the Oligocene epoch, more than 23 million years ago. A new study overturns that hypothesis, presenting the first geological evidence that the ancestors of these and other C4 grasses emerged millions of years earlier than previously established. The findings are published in the journal Geology. C4 plants are more efficient than C3 plants at taking up atmospheric ...

Two new studies have shown that a unique program in East Harlem that helps middle school students learn practical health skills and gain a better understanding of medical conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, resulted in increased interest in college attendance and medical careers among the students who attended the program. The results were presented at the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting this month in Denver. The MedStart Summer Enrichment Program was created in the summer of 2009 by Edward Chu and Melissa Schneiderman, two third-year ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Almost a third of cerebral malaria survivors developed epilepsy or other behavioral disorders in the most comprehensive study to date of the disease in African children, solidifying the link between malaria and neuropsychiatric disorders that affect hundreds of thousands of children. The research – led by Gretchen Birbeck, an associate professor of neurology and ophthalmology in Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine – appears in the current edition of The Lancet Neurology. Cerebral malaria is a severe form of malaria affecting ...

Using particles that are 1/100,000 the width of a human hair to deliver drugs to cells or assist plants in fighting off pests may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but these scenarios may be a common occurrence in the near future. Carbon nanotubes, cylindrically shaped carbon molecules with a diameter of about 1 nanometer, have many potential applications in a variety of fields, such as biomedical engineering and medical chemistry. Proteins, nucleic acids, and drugs can be attached to these nanotubes and delivered to cells and organs. Carbon nanotubes ...

BERKELEY, Calif.—The Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), already one of the world's leading centers for scientific productivity, is now home to the fifth most powerful supercomputer in the world and the second most powerful in the United States, according to the latest edition of the TOP500 list, the definitive ranking of the world's top computers. NERSC's newest supercomputer, a 153,408 processor-core Cray XE6 system, posted a performance of 1.05 petaflops (quadrillions of calculations per second) running the Linpack benchmark. ...

With the help of babies and more than 5,000 of their diapers, Emory University researchers have developed an accurate, noninvasive method to determine estrogen levels in infants. The method, previously used in nonhuman primates, will allow researchers to learn more about the association between estrogen levels in human infants and their long-term reproductive development as well as the development of sex-specific behaviors, such as toy preference or cognitive differences. What's more, the method will also allow researchers to look at how early disruption of the endocrine ...

VIDEO: University of Cincinnati researcher Denis Conover has cataloged countless plant species in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area in recent years. Click here for more information. According to research published today by a University of Cincinnati faculty member, native plants in southwestern Ohio are flowering significantly earlier, a finding he attributes, at least in part, to global warming. UC biologist Denis Conover, field service associate professor, has spent countless ...

CINCINNATI—Cardiac researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found a new cellular pathway that could help in developing therapeutic treatments for obesity-related disorders, like diabetes and heart disease. This research is being presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Session in Chicago Nov. 16. Tapan Chatterjee, PhD, and researchers in the division of cardiovascular diseases found that action by the enzyme histone deacetylase 9 (HDAC9) can lead to obesity-induced body fat dysfunction and that HDAC9-regulated pathways could be targets for ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Transforming vacant urban lots into farms and community gardens could provide Detroit residents with a majority of their fruits and vegetables. As city officials ponder proposals for urban farms, a Michigan State University study indicates that a combination of urban farms, community gardens, storage facilities and hoop houses – greenhouses used to extend the growing season – could supply local residents with more than 75 percent of their vegetables and more than 40 percent of their fruits. The study, which appears in the current issue of The Journal ...

(CHICAGO) – New results from a study by neuroscientists at Rush University Medical Center suggest that people at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease exhibit a specific structural change in the brain that can be visualized by brain imaging. The findings may help identify those who would most benefit from early intervention. The study will be presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting for the Society of Neuroscience in San Diego, Calif., on Wednesday, November 17. "One of the main challenges in the field of Alzheimer's disease is identifying individuals at ...

VIDEO: The binary star system J0923+3028 consists of two white dwarfs that are gradually spiraling in toward each other. In about 100 million years they will merge. Since their combined mass... Click here for more information. Sometimes when you're looking for one thing, you find something completely different and unexpected. In the scientific endeavor, such serendipity can lead to new discoveries. Today, researchers who found the first hypervelocity stars escaping the ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Patients with head and neck cancer who have never smoked have much better survival rates after radiation therapy than patients with a history of smoking, new research from UC Davis Cancer Center has found. The study by Allen M. Chen and colleagues in the UC Davis radiation oncology and otolaryngology departments is among the first of its kind to examine prognosis differences based on smoking history in patients with head and neck cancer who are treated with radiation therapy. The study, published online in American Journal of Clinical Oncology, ...

How you think about your goals—whether it's to improve yourself or to do better than others—can affect whether you reach those goals. Different kinds of goals can also have distinct effects on your relationships with people around you, according to the authors of a paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. People with "mastery goals" want to improve themselves. Maybe they want to get better grades, make more sales, or land that triple toe loop. On the other hand, people with what psychologists ...

SAN DIEGO — New research indicates that the integration of senses and functions in the brain is common. About two percent of the population has a condition called synesthesia, in which two different sensations, like color and sound, are experienced at once. Although this condition is rare, the new findings suggest the brain is wired in complex and sometimes overlapping ways to help people interpret and understand their environments. The research was presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging ...

A Princeton scientist with an interdisciplinary bent has taken two well-known problems in mathematics and reformulated them as a physics question, offering new tools to solve challenges relevant to a host of subjects ranging from improving data compression to detecting gravitational waves. Salvatore Torquato, a professor of chemistry, has shown that two abstract puzzles in geometry -- known as the "covering" and "quantizer" problems -- can be recast as "ground state" problems in physics. Ground state problems relate to the study of molecule systems at their lowest levels ...

Bioengineers from the University of California, San Diego have achieved the "Triple Crown" of stem cell culture – they created an artificial environment for stem cells that simultaneously provides the chemical, mechanical and electrical cues necessary for stem cell growth and differentiation. Building better microenvironments for nurturing stem cells is critical for realizing the promises of stem-cell-based regenerative medicine, including cartilage for joint repair, cardiac cells for damaged hearts, and healthy skeletal myoblasts for muscular dystrophy patients. The advance ...

SAN DIEGO — New human and animal studies released today uncover the extensive brain wiring used in communication and provide new insights into how the brain processes and produces language, accents, and sounds. The research also explores the brain abnormalities in people with speech and language problems, such as stuttering, suggesting future treatment avenues. The new findings were presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health. Communication involves a complex ...

SAN DIEGO — New studies identify brain changes in people with Alzheimer's disease. The results give researchers a greater understanding of the disease and may help at-risk individuals by improving early detection. New animal research also shows a novel approach to Alzheimer's vaccine design that may avoid dangerous side effects. These new results were reported at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health. About 5.3 million people have Alzheimer's disease, according ...