PASADENA, Calif.—For many years, most scientists studying Tibet have thought that a very hot and very weak lower and middle crust underlies its plateau, flowing like a fluid. Now, a team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is questioning this long-held belief and proposing that an entirely different mechanism is at play. "The idea that Tibet is more or less floating on a layer of partially molten crust is accepted in the research community. Our research proposes the opposite view: that there is actually a really strong lower crust that originates ...

QuadTech (http://www.quadtech.com) a leading provider of electrical safety testers, passive component measurement solutions, ac and dc programmable power sources and dc electronic loads, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Founder and Chairman of the Board, Phil Harris, created QuadTech in March of 1991 when he bought the Precision Instrument Division of General Radio (GenRad), an electronic test equipment manufacturer and one of the most respected names in the test and measurement industry. While GenRad decided to focus their efforts on automatic test equipment (ATE) ...

New Orleans, LA – Dr. Howard Osofsky, Professor and Chair of Psychiatry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, is an author of a review article published in the April 7, 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that urgently calls for the development of protocols to deal with the health effects of disasters – before the next one occurs. One year after the largest and most devastating oil spill in United States history, the magnitude of the impact of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill on human health, the environment, and the economy remains ...

Li-air batteries are a promising opportunity for electric cars. "If we succeed in developing this technology, we are facing the ultimate breakthrough for electric cars, because in practice, the energy density of Li-air batteries will be comparable to that of petrol and diesel, if you take into account that a combustion engine only has an efficiency of around 30 percent," says Tejs Vegge, senior scientist in the Materials Research Division at Risø DTU. If batteries with an energy density this great become a reality, one could easily imagine electrically powered trucks. The ...

Scheduled or unexpected equipment downtime results in lost revenue, especially if this occurs during peak hours of operation. A failed solenoid on an ice machine can shut the system down completely. De-liming a steam oven takes time--often 2-3 hours--and can require the use of harsh chemicals. If this job is outsourced, it can cost up to $75.00 or more per hour per deliming, plus scheduling arrangements and dealing with equipment that is out of commission during the cleaning. The technical service personnel of equipment manufacturers have found that most equipment problems ...

Scientists at the University of Hull have identified a cellular 'on-off' switch that may have implications for treating cardiovascular disease and cancer. The team has found the mechanism which controls the inclusion of a protein called tissue factor into endothelial microparticles, tiny vesicles which are released from cells in the lining of blood vessels. "Although tissue factor is part of the body's natural healing process, helping create clots to stop bleeding and repair injuries, high levels circulating in the blood stream can be harmful," says lead researcher ...

Excess fat around the hips and belly may not really be compatible with current beauty ideals, but, to a certain degree, it is a normal, even vital energy store of our body. However, it is a different matter if the organism stores fat in organs such as the liver, pancreas or muscles. This is a clear sign of a metabolic disorder. Up to 80 percent of obese people develop fatty liver disease, which is regarded a typical characteristic of the dangerous metabolic syndrome. Deposition of fat in the liver may lead to chronic liver inflammation and even to liver cancer. In addition, ...

At Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), researchers of the DFG Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) succeeded in specifically cultivating cells on three-dimensional structures. The fascinating thing is that the cells are offered small "holds" in the micrometer range on the scaffold, to which they can adhere. Adhesion is possible to these holds only, not to the remaining structure. For the first time, cell adhesion and, hence, cell shape are influenced precisely in three dimensions. The team headed by Professor Martin Bastmeyer thus has achieved big progress in ...

Scientists have shed new light on how older people may lose their memory with a development that could aid research into treatments for age-related memory disorders. Many believe that stress is bad for our brains especially as we get older. Now researchers have shown how two receptors in older brains react to a stress hormone called cortisol, which has been linked to increasing forgetfulness as we age. The study, by the University of Edinburgh, found that one receptor was activated by low levels of cortisol, which helped memory. However, once levels of this stress ...

Researchers at the University of Warwick have developed a gold plated window as the transparent electrode for organic solar cells. Contrary to what one might expect, these electrodes have the potential to be relatively cheap since the thickness of gold used is only 8 billionths of a metre. This ultra-low thickness means that even at the current high gold price the cost of the gold needed to fabricate one square metre of this electrode is only around £4.5. It can also be readily recouped from the organic solar cell at the end of its life and since gold is already widely ...

Long term users of the popular recreational drug ecstasy (MDMA) risk structural brain damage, suggests preliminary research published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Other research has suggested that people who use ecstasy develop significant memory problems, so the Dutch researchers wanted to find out if there was any clinical evidence of structural changes in the brain to back this up. They focused on the hippocampus, which is the area of the brain responsible for long term memory. They measured the volume of the hippocampus using ...

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are garnering deeper use in the community hospital scene, and nearly all have been certified HITECH-ready by an official certification body. Nevertheless, a fifth of these hospitals plan to switch EMR products within the next couple of years -- even this close to meaningful use (MU) deadlines -- according to a new report by KLAS. For the new report, "Community Hospital EMRs Maturing for Meaningful Use," KLAS interviewed more than 500 healthcare professionals about their experience with various EMR systems. Of respondents, 80 percent ...

A spot of regular retail therapy really does seem to help people live longer, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. And it seems to benefit older men the most, the findings show. The authors base their findings on almost 1,850 elderly (65+) Taiwanese people who were living independently at home, and included in the nationally representative Elderly Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT Elderly), carried out in 1999-2000. Participants were asked how often they went shopping, with options ranging from "never" ...

Epileptic seizures can precede the development of a subsequent brain tumour by many years, suggests research published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The risk seems to be greatest among those aged between 15 and 44 when first admitted to hospital for an epileptic seizure, the findings show. The researchers base their findings on first time admissions for epilepsy from the Oxford Record Linkage Study (ORLS) for 1963 to 1998, and national Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data for England for 1999 to 2005. These data were then linked ...

Financial Spreads, the UK-based spread betting company, has introduced another set of improvements for their clients. This year Financial Spreads have already tightened their spreads on a number of popular markets in order to lower the cost of trading for clients. They have also introduced Guaranteed Stops in order to help clients with their risk management. The spread betting company has now introduced 'differential markets'. Financial Spreads Spokesperson Adam Jepsen says that introducing differential markets not only offers account holders more choice, but better ...

Disease-causing bacteria carrying the new genetic resistance to antibiotics, NDM-1, have been discovered in New Delhi's drinking water supply. A Cardiff University-led team found new strains of resistant bacteria in the Indian capital, including species which cause cholera and dysentery. The findings are the first evidence of the environmental spread of NDM-1, which had previously only been found in hospitals. The scientists are calling for urgent action by health authorities worldwide to tackle the new strains and prevent their global spread. The Cardiff scientists ...

A new pathway has been discovered that links a common dietary lipid and intestinal microflora with an increased risk of heart disease, according to a Cleveland Clinic study published in the latest issue of Nature. The study shows that people who eat a diet containing a common nutrient found in animal products (such as eggs, liver and other meats, cheese and other diary products, fish, shellfish) are not predisposed to cardiovascular disease solely on their genetic make-up, but rather, how the micro-organisms that live in our digestive tracts metabolize a specific lipid ...

Researchers have long known that landfills produce methane, but had a hard time figuring out why – since landfills do not start out as a friendly environment for the organisms that produce methane. New research from North Carolina State University shows that one species of microbe is paving the way for other methane producers. Specifically, the researchers found that an anaerobic bacterium called Methanosarcina barkeri appears to be the key microbe. "Landfills receive a wide variety of solid waste, and that waste generally starts out with a fairly low pH level," says ...

Scientists of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch (Germany) have demonstrated for the first time that a gene regulating neuronal cell migration during embryogenesis also plays a role in the development of the liver. Using zebrafish as a model organism, Dr. Christian Klein and Professor Ferdinand le Noble showed that the gene navigator-3 (abbreviated nav3a) regulates liver organogenesis. If nav3a is missing, the liver cannot develop (Development 2011, doi:10.1242/dev.056861)*. "Moreover, first evidence indicates," Dr. Klein said, "that the expression ...

San Diego, CA, April 6, 2011 – When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention, released its recommendations on mammography screenings for US women on November 16, 2009, there was immediate and considerable controversy. In a study published in the May 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, investigators report that these new recommendations confused women (30.0%) more than they helped them understand when to get a mammogram (6.2%). Confusion was greatest among women aged 40-49 years ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A study led by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center showed in animal studies that new cancer drug compounds they developed shrank tumors, with few side effects. The study, done in two mouse models of human cancer, looked at two compounds designed to activate a protein that kills cancer cells. The protein, p53, is inactivated in a significant number of human cancers. In some cases, it is because another protein, MDM2, binds to p53 and blocks its tumor suppressor function. This allows the tumor to grow unchecked. The new ...

esd & associates is a company that practices what it preaches. So it is only natural for San Antonio's leading digital creative agency to go digital. esd's mobile site is now live, compressing its website onto a 3x2 inch mobile display. For retailers a mobile site is mandatory. It is equally important for b2b, non-profits and others where the decision is not as immediate. "Our customers are out there and they are mobile," says Erik Simpson, esd & associates creative director. "Our mobile site leads our visitor to the material they are most likely to need on the road." The ...

"We were not expecting to find such high levels of PCBs, highly toxic compounds that are considered as priority compounds by European legislation, in a region such as the western coast of Africa", Ailette Prieto, a researcher at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU-Spain) and co-author of a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, tells SINC. PCBs, which some studies have shown to be carcinogenic compounds, were used years ago as dielectric fluids in transformers, condensers and coolants for various devices. However, their production ...

NewBlueFX, the fastest growing integrated video and audio effects provider, has announced today that NewBlueFX plugins are now compatible with Avid(r) Studio, the newly released consumer video editing solution. Avid Studio features include integrated media library, media editor, timeline editor, DVD and Blu-ray authoring tools, NewBlueFX's line of professional-grade Video Essentials, Effects and Transitions plugin packs are now fully compatible. "With increasing demand in the video hobbyist and editing enthusiast markets for easy-to-use, effective products, NewBlue ...

Move over, newts and salamanders. The mouse may join you as the only animal that can re-grow their own severed limbs. Researchers are reporting that a simple chemical cocktail can coax mouse muscle fibers to become the kinds of cells found in the first stages of a regenerating limb. Their study, the first demonstration that mammal muscle can be turned into the biological raw material for a new limb, appears in the journal ACS Chemical Biology. Darren R. Williams and Da-Woon Jung say their "relatively simple, gentle, and reversible" methods for creating the early stages ...