Currently, some 20 percent of the world's industrial production is based on catalysts — molecules that can quicken the pace of chemical reactions by factors of billions. Oil, pharmaceuticals, plastics and countless other products are made by catalysts. Many are hoping to make current catalysts more efficient, resulting in less energy consumption and less pollution. Highly active and selective nanocatalysts, for example, can be used effectively in efforts to break down pollution, create hydrogen fuel cells, store hydrogen and synthesize fine chemicals. The challenge ...

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time determined that the ketogenic diet, a specialized high-fat, low carbohydrate diet, may reverse impaired kidney function in people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. They also identified a previously unreported panel of genes associated with diabetes-related kidney failure, whose expression was reversed by the diet. The findings were published in the current issue of PLoS ONE. Charles Mobbs, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Geriatrics and Palliative Care Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study in fruit flies offers a broad view of the potent and sometimes devastating molecular events that occur throughout the body as a result of methamphetamine exposure. The study, described in the journal PLoS ONE, tracks changes in the expression of genes and proteins in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) exposed to meth. Unlike most studies of meth, which focus on the brain, the new analysis looked at molecular changes throughout the body, said University of Illinois entomology professor Barry Pittendrigh, who led the research. "One of ...

Six-year-olds who spent the most time watching television, using a computer or playing video games had narrower arteries in the back of their eyes — a marker of future cardiovascular risk, in a first-of-its-kind study reported in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association. Australian researchers found that more sedentary behavior such as "screen time" was associated with an average narrowing of 2.3 microns in the retinal arteriolar caliber. A micron is one thousandth of a millimeter or one-25th of a thousandth of an inch. ...

The Woods Hole Research Center has released the first hectare-scale maps of canopy height, aboveground biomass, and associated carbon stock for the forests and woodlands of the conterminous United States. The multi-year project, referred to as the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD), produced maps of these key forest attributes at an unprecedented spatial resolution of 30 m. The digital raster data set is now freely accessible from the WHRC website at www.whrc.org/nbcd. According to Dr. Josef Kellndorfer, who led the project at WHRC, "We are excited about the ...

"The three gut types can explain why the uptake of medicines and nutrients varies from person to person," says bioinformatician Jeroen Raes of the VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, one of the two lead researchers in the study. "This knowledge could form the basis of personalized therapies. Treatments and doses could be determined on the basis of the gut type of the patient." Improved knowledge of the gut types could also lead to other medical applications, such as the early diagnosis of intestinal cancer, Crohn's disease and the adverse effects of obesity. Three ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Melting glaciers and ice caps on Canadian Arctic islands play a much greater role in sea level rise than scientists previously thought, according to a new study led by a University of Michigan researcher. The 550,000-square-mile Canadian Arctic Archipelago contains some 30,000 islands. Between 2004 and 2009, the region lost the equivalent of three-quarters of the water in Lake Erie, the study found. Warmer-than-usual temperatures in those years caused a rapid increase in the melting of glacier ice and snow, said Alex Gardner, a research fellow in the ...

A leading nanotechnology scientist has raised questions over a billion dollar industry by boldly claiming that there is a limit to how small nanotechnology materials can be mass produced. In a paper published today, Thursday, 21 April, in IOP Publishing's journal Nanotechnology, Professor Mike Kelly, Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics, University of Cambridge, stated that you cannot mass produce structures with a diameter of three nanometres or less using a top-down approach. This statement raises a major question concerning the billions of dollars that ...

This galactic grouping, found about 70 million light-years away in the constellation Sextans (The Sextant), was discovered by the English astronomer William Herschel in 1783. Modern astronomers have gauged the distance between NGC 3169 (left) and NGC 3166 (right) as a mere 50 000 light-years, a separation that is only about half the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy. In such tight quarters, gravity can start to play havoc with galactic structure. Spiral galaxies like NGC 3169 and NGC 3166 tend to have orderly swirls of stars and dust pinwheeling about their glowing centres. ...

Obscenitease(R) Apparel, a leader in counterculture apparel, recently announced a rebirth of the company. The company will remain focused on the apparel business but with a greater emphasis on its network of fans, members and visitors to the website. The rebirth includes a fully redesigned website, videos, new blog and presence on Facebook , Twitter and other networking sites. The company will continue to promote a culture of independent thought and expression, while interacting daily with its members. The new line of apparel is a reflection of that culture and expands ...

Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a common genetic variant associated with substantially increased risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis, a debilitating and life-threatening lung condition. The genetic variant is found in a region of DNA thought to regulate the production of an important mucus-forming protein. However, knowing the gene variant is not, by itself, enough for a test to determine who would be at risk of the disease, experts say. This genetic variant near the mucin 5B gene, termed rs35705950, is both fairly common and ...

CHICAGO --- Recruiting thousands of patients to collect health data for genetic clues to disease is expensive and time consuming. But that arduous process of collecting data for genetic studies could be faster and cheaper by instead mining patient data that already exists in electronic medical records, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. In the study, researchers were able to cull patient information in electronic medical records from routine doctors' visits at five national sites that all used different brands of medical record software. The information ...

A team led by researchers at National Jewish Health has discovered a new genetic variation that increases the risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis by 7 to 22 times. The researchers report in the April 21, 2011, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine that nearly two-thirds of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis or familial interstitial pneumonia carry the genetic variation. It is associated with the MUC5B gene, which codes for a mucus-forming protein. "This discovery not only identifies a major risk factor for pulmonary fibrosis, but also points us in an ...

STANFORD, Calif. — A class of engineered nanoparticles — gold-centered spheres smaller than viruses — has been shown safe when administered by two alternative routes in a mouse study led by investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine. This marks the first step up the ladder of toxicology studies that, within a year and a half, could yield to human trials of the tiny agents for detection of colorectal and possibly other cancers. "These nanoparticles' lack of toxicity in mice is a good sign that they'll behave well in humans," said Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, ...

CLEVELAND-Your 6-year-old found a nail in the garage and drew pictures across the side of your new car. Gnash your teeth now, but researchers at Case Western Reserve University, U.S., say the fix-up may be cheap and easy to do yourself in the not-too-distant future. Together with partners in the USA and Switzerland, they have developed a polymer-based material that can heal itself when placed under ultraviolet light for less than a minute. Their findings are published in the April 21 issue of Nature. The team involves researchers at Case Western Reserve University ...

A team of neuroscientists at the University of Leicester, UK, in collaboration with researchers from Poland and Japan, has announced a breakthrough in the understanding of the 'brain chemistry' that triggers our response to highly stressful and traumatic events. The discovery of a critical and previously unknown pathway in the brain that is linked to our response to stress is announced today in the journal Nature. The advance offers new hope for targeted treatment, or even prevention, of stress-related psychiatric disorders. About 20% of the population experience some ...

Summer is as good reason as any to look fabulous, whether with a full-on bright look or with a bold accessory. Go for the coveted sun-kissed, vivid Summer look with a crayon box explosion of color from Boden. From colorful kaftans to shiny shoes, the new Summer collection will brighten your look, cheer up your wardrobe and put a smile on those around you. Be beautiful and feel like a modern princess with Piazza Dress. The neck detail worthy of Cleopatra and the natural slubbiness of silk make it uniquely alluring. Top your dress off with the Printed Silk Scarf, its light-weight ...

Scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Washington, Seattle, have taken an important step towards developing control measures for mosquitoes that transmit malaria. In today's study, published in Nature, researchers have demonstrated how some genetic changes can be introduced into large laboratory mosquito populations over the span of a few generations by just a small number of modified mosquitoes. In the future this technological breakthrough could help to introduce a genetic change into a mosquito population and prevent it from transmitting the deadly ...

Current UK procedures to screen new immigrants for tuberculosis (TB) fail to detect more than 70 per cent of cases of latent infection, according to a new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. TB is caused by a bacterial infection which is normally asymptomatic, but around one in 10 infections leads to active disease, which attacks the lungs and kills around half of people affected. Today's research showed that better selection of which immigrants to screen with new blood tests can detect over 90 per cent of imported latent TB. These people can be given ...

Infants who have problems with persistent crying, sleeping and/or feeding – known as regulatory problems – are far more likely to become children with significant behavioural problems, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. Around 20% of all infants show symptoms of excessive crying, sleeping difficulties and/or feeding problems in their first year of life and this can lead to disruption for families and costs for health services. Previous research has suggested these regulatory problems can have an adverse effect ...

Children from homes that experience persistent poverty are more likely to have their cognitive development affected than children in better off homes, reveals research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Family instability, however, makes no additional difference to how a child's cognitive abilities have progressed by the age of five, after taking into account family poverty, family demographics (e.g. parental education and mother's age) and early child characteristics, UK researchers found. There is much evidence of the ...

In the past 12 years, four large-scale efficacy trials of HIV vaccines have been conducted in various populations. Results from the most recent trial—the RV144 trial in Thailand, which found a 31 percent reduction in the rate of HIV acquisition among vaccinated heterosexual men and women—have given scientists reason for cautious optimism. Yet building on these findings could take years, given that traditional HIV vaccine clinical trials are lengthy, and that it is still not known which immune system responses a vaccine needs to trigger to protect an individual from HIV ...

Imagine you're driving your own new car--or a rental car--and you need to park in a commercial garage. Maybe you're going to work, visiting a mall or attending an event at a sports stadium, and you're in a rush. Limited and small available spots and concrete pillars make parking a challenge. And it happens that day: you slightly misjudge a corner and you can hear the squeal as you scratch the side of your car--small scratches, but large anticipated repair costs. Now imagine that that you can repair these unsightly scratches yourself--quickly, easily and inexpensively. ...

Research from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found a link between the number of stressful events experienced during pregnancy and increased risk of behavioural problems in children. The study has just been published online in the latest edition of the top international journal Development and Psychopathology. Common stressful events included financial and relationship problems, difficult pregnancy, job loss and issues with other children and major life stressors were events such as a death in the family. Lead author, Registered Psychologist ...

NAIROBI (21 April 2011)— Research released in anticipation of World Malaria Day finds that plants in East Africa with promising antimalarial qualities—ones that have treated malaria symptoms in the region's communities for hundreds of years—are at risk of extinction. Scientists fear that these natural remedial qualities, and thus their potential to become a widespread treatment for malaria, could be lost forever. A new book by researchers at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Common Antimalarial Trees and Shrubs of ...