Each day we are making conscious and unconscious decisions that greatly affect how much energy that we use and, therefore, how much energy is required to be produced. The cost has never been higher. The effects of our energy consumption are all around us. Just take a look at any headline in the news today. Many are energy-driven. Each time a middle eastern country has a crisis our stock market shudders at the possibility that oil production may drop off by two or three percent. Every time a storm rises in the Gulf of Mexico, or a bill in Congress on deep water drilling ...

The turmoil in oil-producing nations is triggering turmoil at home, as rising oil prices force Americans to pay more at the pump. Meanwhile, there's a growing industry that's promising jobs and access to cheaper energy resources on American soil, but it's not without its controversy. Deborah Kittner, a University of Cincinnati doctoral student in geography, presents, "What's the Fracking Problem? Extraction Industry's Neglect of the Locals in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Region," at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Kittner will be presenting ...

Pathological gambling addiction is surprisingly common in the U.S., afflicting as many as 3.4% of all adults. Like other addictions, it is highly disabling both to the individual and to society, often leading to suicide, job loss, and criminal behavior. It affects more men than women and can become worse over time. Scientists have found that a wide range of drugs can be effective for treating this disorder in the short term, including Naltrexone, used to treat alcohol addiction. Now, psychiatrist Prof. Pinhas Dannon of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine ...

Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, Netherlands) have developed a replacement for indium tin oxide (ITO), an important material used in displays for all kinds of everyday products such as TVs, telephones and laptops, as well as in solar cells. Unfortunately indium is a rare metal, and the available supplies are expected to be virtually exhausted within as little as ten years. The replacement material is a transparent, conducting film produced in water, and based on electrically conducting carbon nanotubes and plastic nanoparticles. It is made of commonly ...

Black River Computer an industry leader in business printing solutions, and the largest Dascom Americas Reseller in the Midwest, is pleased to announce website enhancements and aggressive trade-in rebate programs geared to the serial printer market. Black River has been serving prominent clients in the HP server maintenance environment and print document solutions business for over 20 years. "The enhancements to our website underscore our effort to become even more customer-centric by placing key information at the fingertips of our valued current and potential clients," ...

Measles is not always being reported in Germany as required by law, particularly when cases are sporadic. In this edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108[12]: 191𔃄), Annedore Mette's working group presents its conclusions. The WHO aims to eliminate measles in Europe by 2015. The criteria for this are for there to be no measles cases among the country's inhabitants, and for any measles arriving from abroad not to spread any further within the country, as a result of the high vaccination rate and compulsory reporting. In their study, ...

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have concluded that the anatomy of the pelvis following robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) is considerably different when compared to the anatomy of the pelvis following an open prostatectomy (OP). These findings, which are the first to ever compare pelvic anatomy following RARP and OP surgery, may have implications for patients requiring post-operative radiation. The study currently appears on-line in Practical Radiation Oncology. Prostate cancer is the most common non-cutaneous cancer ...

Could adult children's strategies for coping with pain come from watching their parents react to and deal with pain? According to Suzyen Kraljevic, from the University Hospital Split in Croatia, and colleagues, a family may have a specific cognitive style of coping with pain. Their work, which looks at the relationship between how parents and their children respond to pain, is published online in Springer's International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. It is already recognized that parents' pain behavior is associated with the way their children experience and express ...

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency draft assessment of the potential health effects associated with formaldehyde exposure needs substantial revision, says a new report from the National Research Council, which recommends improvements for EPA's final assessment. The report finds that EPA supports its conclusions that formaldehyde can cause irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat; lesions in the respiratory tract; and genetic mutations at high concentrations. Furthermore, the report finds that the evidence is sufficient for EPA to conclude that formaldehyde ...

Tampa, Fla. (April 11, 2011) – Periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) have been found to be the most efficacious of three kinds of clinically tested dental tissue-derived stem cells, reports a study published in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (20:2), freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/. According to researchers in Seoul, South Korea, transplantation of PDLSCs into beagle dogs modeled with advanced periodontal (gum) disease that affected their premolars and molars, which are morphologically similar to the corresponding ...

Unlike the situation in other caves, damage caused by tourists at the Águila cave in Ávila, Spain is "imperceptible", despite it receiving tens of thousands of visitors each year. This is the main conclusion of an international research study headed by the University of Alcalá (UAH), which measured heat variations in the cave. "Despite the tens of thousands of visitors that the Águila Cave receives each year, the temperature variations in it are related to the weather outside, while the long-term impact of tourism is virtually non-existent", David Domínguez Villar, researcher ...

In a comparison of 9 leading translation vendors, highly ranked Foreign Translations, Inc. was commended for providing "accurate translations and responsive customer service." Foreign Translations, Inc. specializes in foreign language translation, interpreting, and website localization and offers translation services for a wide range of projects, from technical manuals, legal contracts, and marketing collateral to financial statements, training manuals, websites, and software programs. To receive the Bronze Award, Foreign Translations, Inc. excelled in categories ...

WHAT: In a new study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, scientists describe successfully mutating specific genes of Chlamydia bacteria, which cause the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States as well as a type of blindness common in developing nations. The procedure they used will help advance scientists' understanding of how these bacteria cause human disease and expedite the development of new strategies to prevent and control these infections. The advance could ...

An intensive program that taught low-income, poorly educated diabetics to better manage their disease resulted in significantly improved long-term blood sugar control, according to Johns Hopkins researchers who designed and implemented the program. The findings, published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, offer clinicians a proven new tool to help those with poorly controlled diabetes make lifestyle changes to improve their health, the researchers says. They noted that many educational programs for people with diabetes typically have little impact and ...

The mere taste of something extremely bitter—even if you don't swallow it at all—is enough to cause that dreaded feeling of nausea and to set your stomach churning, according to a new study reported in the April 12th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. "This work shows that our body and our physiology anticipate the consequences of foods we might eat, even if those foods contain toxins or anti-nutrients," said Paul Breslin of the Monell Chemical Senses Center and Rutgers University. Of course, it is well known that the promise of something tempting to ...

A chance observation by a Queen's researcher might have ended a decades-old debate about the precise way antifreeze proteins (AFP) bind to the surface of ice crystals. "We got a beautiful view of water bound to the ice-binding site on the protein," says Peter Davies, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and a world leader in antifreeze protein research. "In a sense we got a lucky break." AFPs are a class of proteins that bind to the surface of ice crystals and prevent further growth and recrystallization of ice. Fish, insects, bacteria and plants that live ...

A new 600-pound cuber ice machine on average costs between $4K to $9K, while a 6-pan combi steam oven will cost about $12K to $35K. For a commercial semi-automatic espresso machine, a company has to spend between $8K to $20K. Even purchasing a 5-year old used machine, a company can expect to pay at least one-third of the new cost. With traffic only recently starting to increase after nearly a two year decline, operators have been understandably reluctant to spend on new equipment. As a result, foodservice equipment manufacturers saw a decline in sales of 15%-30%, or higher, ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A diet high in saturated fat is a key contributor to type 2 diabetes, a major health threat worldwide. Several decades ago scientists noticed that people with type 2 diabetes have overly active immune responses, leaving their bodies rife with inflammatory chemicals. In addition, people who acquire the disease are typically obese and are resistant to insulin, the hormone that removes sugar from the blood and stores it as energy. For years no one has known exactly how the three characteristics are related. But a handful of studies suggest that they ...

WASHINGTON – Fluctuations in penguin populations in the Antarctic are linked more strongly to the availability of their primary food source than to changes in their habitats, according to a new study published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Funded in part by the Lenfest Ocean Program, this research indicates that species often considered likely "winners" of changing conditions, such as large-scale ice melting, may actually end up as the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The two penguin species of focus in the study ...

Improved management of chronic pain can significantly reduce disability in older adults, according to the latest issue of the WHAT'S HOT newsletter from The Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Based largely on presentation highlights from GSA's 63rd Annual Scientific Meeting in November 2010, the current WHAT'S HOT examines the impact of pain in older adults, strategies for managing pain and preserving function, and methods to improve the assessment and management of pain for residents in long-term care facilities, including those who have dementia. Support for this ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. (April 11, 2011) – New research suggests that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could help detect Alzheimer's disease (AD) at an early stage, before irreversible damage has occurred, according to a new study published online and in the June print edition of Radiology. With no known treatment to alter its course, AD exacts an enormous toll on society. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that 5.4 million Americans are living with the disease today, and the cumulative costs for care could top $20 trillion over the next four decades. As a result, there is ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Stress not only sends the human immune system into overdrive – it can also wreak havoc on the trillions of bacteria that work and thrive inside our digestive system. New research suggests that this may be important because those bacteria play a significant role in triggering the innate immune system to stay slightly active, and thereby prepared to quickly spring into action in the face of an infection. But exactly how stress makes these changes in these bacteria still isn't quite clear, researchers say. "Since graduate school, I've been interested ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – When researchers had college-age women view magazines for five straight days that only included images of women with thin, idealized body types, something surprising happened: the readers' own body satisfaction improved. But the boost in body image came with a catch. Those women whose body satisfaction improved the most also were more likely to report that they engaged in dieting behaviors such as skipping meals or cutting carbohydrates during the course of the study. That suggests these women may be inspired by the images they view and become momentarily ...

FINDINGS: Certain differentiated cells in breast tissue can spontaneously convert to a stem-cell-like state, according to Whitehead Institute researchers. Until now, scientific dogma has stated that differentiation is a one-way path; once cells specialize, they cannot return to the flexible stem-cell state on their own. These findings hold true for normal mammary cells as well as for breast cancer cells. RELEVANCE: These findings may redefine how researchers view cancer stem cells – the cells capable of seeding new tumors at primary and distant sites in the body. Therapies ...

This release is available in German. FRANKFURT. Creating artificial structures from DNA is the objective of DNA nanotechnology. This new discipline, which combines biology, physics, chemistry and material science makes use of the ability of the natural DNA-strains' capacity for self assembly. Smileys or small boxes, measuring only 10s of nanometers (10 one-billionths of a meter) were created from DNA in a drop of water. Prof Alexander Heckel and his doctoral student Thorsten Schmidt from the "Cluster of Excellence for Macromolecular Complexes" at Goethe University were ...