The United States and many other heavily populated countries face a growing threat of severe and prolonged drought in coming decades, according to results of a new study by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Aiguo Dai. The detailed analysis concludes that warming temperatures associated with climate change will likely create increasingly dry conditions across much of the globe in the next 30 years. The drought may reach a scale in some regions by the end of the century that has rarely, if ever, been observed in modern times. Using an ensemble ...

Procedural sedation and analgesia is an essential element of care for children requiring painful procedures in the emergency department. The practice of combining ketamine and propofol, two common medications used in emergency departments, has become more popular. However, until recently, it was unclear whether this practice was superior to the use of either agent alone, especially in children. Research led by Drs. Amit Shah, Gregory Mosdossy and Michael Rieder of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario and Lawson Health Research ...

AMES, Iowa – The eyes of sheep infected with scrapie – a neurological disorder similar to mad cow disease – return an intense, almost-white glow when they're hit with blue excitation light, according to a research project led by Iowa State University's Jacob Petrich. The findings suggest technologies and techniques can be developed to quickly and noninvasively test for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, progressive and fatal neurological diseases such as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Petrich, in fact, is working to develop ...

Clear-cut logging and related road-building in the 1950s and 1960s in southern Oregon's Siskiyou Mountains disrupted soil stability and led to unprecedented soil erosion made worse during heavy rainstorms, report University of Oregon researchers. While logging practices have improved dramatically since then, the damaged landscape -- the removal of low vegetation that helps to protect hillsides during fires and rain -- continues to pose a threat into the foreseeable future, said Daniel G. Gavin, professor of geography, and postdoctoral doctoral researcher Daniele Colombaroli. Their ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 – One of the main techniques for measuring and monitoring mental activity, called functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), can often be impaired because a person's hair gets in the way. But now, thanks to a team of researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas at Arlington, a novel device called a "brush optrode" is providing increased sensitivity with fiber tips designed to thread through hair to enhance scalp contact. Details of the device will be presented at the Optical Society's (OSA) 94th annual meeting, ...

PHILADELPHIA (October 19, 2010)—Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), an aggressive and rare malignancy, is often initially misdiagnosed as an infection or rash. However, getting the correct diagnosis quickly is critical for patients because the disease spreads beyond the breast in a matter of just days or weeks. With that in mind, leading specialists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Fox Chase Cancer Center have written a review of the current scientific and medical understanding of IBC, which includes key information on diagnosis, imaging, treatment, ...

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Oct. 19, 2010 -- The Cold Triple Axis spectrometer, a new addition to Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor and a complementary tool to other neutron scattering instruments at ORNL, has entered its commissioning phase. The CTAX uses "cold" neutrons from the HFIR cold source to study low-energy magnetic excitations in materials. Cold neutrons are slower than their "thermal" neutron counterparts, and thus perfect for probing low-energy dynamics. The instrument, which moves by way of air pads on an epoxy surface known as the "dance ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - While America continues to become more religiously diverse, the belief that America is a Christian nation is growing more intense, according to research from Purdue University. "America is still predominantly Christian, but it is more diverse than ever," said Jeremy Brooke Straughn, an assistant professor of sociology who studies national identity. "At the same time, many people feel even more strongly that America is a Christian country than they did before the turn of the century. This is especially true for Americans who say they are Christians ...

PULLMAN, Wash. - For the chance to watch the sun rise over Olympus Mons, or maybe take a stroll across the vast plains of the Vastitas Borealis, would you sign on for a one-way flight to Mars? It's a question that gives pause to even Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a Washington State University associate professor, who, with colleague Paul Davies, a physicist and cosmologist from Arizona State University, argues for precisely such a one-way manned mission to Mars in an article published this month in the "Journal of Cosmology." In the article, "To Boldly Go: A One-Way Human Mission ...

Washington, D.C. (October 19, 2010) -- In its current early stage of development, digital memory circuits that use organic elements instead of silicon or other inorganic materials have a seemingly endless list of variables and options to consider, test, and optimize. While organic electronics are immediately attractive for their potential for extremely low cost and flexible substrates, many design aspects that are now taken for granted in the mature silicon-circuit world must be examined anew from the ground up. A group led by Takhee Lee from Korea's Gwangju Institute ...

Washington, D.C. (October 19, 2010) -- We talk about synchronization a lot. We synch up; synch our computers; and get in synch. And synchronous behavior underlies many natural systems, events and phenomena. Understanding conditions that cause oscillators -- which are common electronic components that produce a repetitive electronic signal -- to get in synch or fall out of synch, is necessary to achieve the optimal functioning of oscillator networks that underlie many technologies. The transition from synchronization to desynchronization is the subject of a new investigation ...

DALLAS – Oct. 20, 2010 – New findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggest a novel role for the brain in mediating beneficial actions of the hormone leptin in type 1 diabetes. "Our findings really pave the way for understanding the mechanism by which leptin therapy improves type 1 diabetes," said Dr. Roberto Coppari, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study involving laboratory mice. "Understanding the mechanism is important, because if we can determine how leptin drives these benefits, then we may be ...

DENVER (October 19, 2010) - Long derided as mere entertainment, new research now shows that organizations using video games to train employees end up with smarter, more motivated workers who learn more and forget less. A University of Colorado Denver Business School study found those trained on video games do their jobs better, have higher skills and retain information longer than workers learning in less interactive, more passive environments. "Companies have been designing video games for employees for years but so far it has all been done on a hunch. They suspected ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 – When the military needs to send the key to encrypted data across the world, it can't necessarily rely on today's communication lines, where the message could be covertly intercepted. But physicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta are developing a new, more secure way to send such information across far distances, using existing cables and the laws of quantum mechanics. Alex Kuzmich and colleagues have built a critical component of a quantum repeater, a device that allows quantum communications -- such as the encryption keys used ...

Proton beam therapy is safe and effective and may be superior to other conventional treatments for Stage I inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, according to a study in the October issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death for men and women, according to the American Cancer Society. The standard treatment for early-stage lung cancer is surgery to remove all or part of the lung, but for patients ...

Many of the assumptions people have about black youth—that they are politically detached and negatively influenced by rap music and videos—are false stereotypes, according to a new University of Chicago study by Prof. Cathy Cohen, based on surveys and conversations with the youth themselves. Black youth say they are politically involved, critical of many messages in rap and skeptical of the idea that the country has entered a post-racial era. They also are socially conservative on political issues such same-sex marriage, said Cohen, the David and Mary Winton Green Professor ...

AUSTIN, Texas — Because of impairments in their insulin sensitivity, obese individuals demonstrate different brain responses than their normal-weight peers while completing a challenging cognitive task, according to new research by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin. The results provide further evidence that a healthy lifestyle at midlife could lead to a higher quality of life later on, especially as new drugs and treatments allow people to live longer. "The good thing about insulin sensitivity is that it's very modifiable through diet and exercise," ...

URBANA – University of Illinois scientists think they have solved an interesting problem: how to get protein-deficient Indian schoolchildren to consume soy, an inexpensive and complete vegetable protein. What's more, they've joined forces with an Indian foundation that can get the high-protein soy snack they've developed into the hands of 1.2 million hungry kids who need it. "Although the country has decidedly vegetarian tastes, the Indian people just don't care for soy," said Soo-Yeun Lee, a U of I associate professor of food science and human nutrition. India is ...

Washington, D.C. (October 19, 2010) -- In the world of the very small, researchers at Shanxi University in China have announced progress in understanding the single-molecule magnet, which combines the classical macroscale properties of a magnet with the quantum properties of a nanoscale entity. In the Journal of Applied Physics, Hai-Bin Xue and colleagues studied the statistics of how electrons move through a single-molecule magnet to better understand the magnet's inner level structure. Understanding the single-molecule magnet inner level structure is an important step ...

In a world first, a completely robotic surgery and anesthesia has been performed at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). The DaVinci surgical robot, which lets surgeons work from remote locations, was put to work this summer, whereas the anesthesia robot, nicknamed McSleepy, has been providing automated anesthesia since 2008. The two combined to perform the first all-robotic surgery on a prostatectomy patient at the Montreal General Hospital. "Collaboration between DaVinci, a surgical robot, and anesthetic robot McSleepy, seemed an obvious fit; robots in medicine ...

Princeton engineers have developed a sensor that may revolutionize how drugs and medical devices are tested for contamination, and in the process also help ensure the survival of two species of threatened animals. To be fair, some of the credit goes to an African frog. In the wild, the African clawed frog produces antibacterial peptides -- small chains of amino acids -- on its skin to protect it from infection. Princeton researchers have found a way to attach these peptides, which can be synthesized in the laboratory, to a small electronic chip that emits an electrical ...

Outgoing. Assertive. Calm. Practical. Decisive. These are obvious qualities that one would want in their leaders. But what about, say, arrogant, hesitant, overly dramatic, inflexible, or being a "yes-man"? A new study has found that when it comes to leading, some of those negative personality traits aren't such a bad thing, either. The work, by researchers in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Business Administration, studied the development of leaders over a three-year period. Prior research had established that clearly positive personality qualities ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 19, 2010—In response to a study regarding fish oil use during pregnancy published in the October 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the leading trade association for the dietary supplement industry, reminds pregnant and lactating women of the undisputed importance of consuming the recommended amounts of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) throughout pregnancy. This can be done by eating two servings of fatty fish, such as sardines or anchovies, per week, or taking fish oil supplements ...

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics went to the two scientists who first isolated graphene, one-atom-thick crystals of graphite. Now, a researcher with the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering is trying to develop a method to mass-produce this revolutionary material. Graphene has several properties that make it different from literally everything else on Earth: it is the first two-dimensional material ever developed; the world's thinnest and strongest material; the best conductor of heat ever found; a far better conductor of electricity than copper; it is virtually ...

Athens, Ga. – When we make decisions based on what we think someone else will do, in anything from chess to warfare, we must use reason to infer the other's next move—or next three or more moves—to know what we must do. This so-called recursive reasoning ability in humans has been thought to be somewhat limited. But now, in just-published research led by a psychologist at the University of Georgia, it appears that people can engage in much higher levels of recursive reasoning than was previously thought. "In fact, they do it fairly easily and automatically," said Adam ...