More than 40 years ago, pioneering tectonic geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson published a paper in the journal Nature describing how ocean basins opened and closed along North America's eastern seaboard. His observations, dubbed "The Wilson Tectonic Cycle," suggested the process occurred many times during Earth's long history, most recently causing the giant supercontinent Pangaea to split into today's seven continents. Wilson's ideas were central to the so-called Plate Tectonic Revolution, the foundation of contemporary theories for processes underlying mountain-building ...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released its final report on its study of the June 18, 2007, fire at the Sofa Super Store in Charleston, S.C., that trapped and killed nine firefighters, the highest number of firefighter deaths in a single event since 9/11. The final report is strengthened by clarifications and supplemental text based on comments provided by organizations and individuals in response to the draft report of the study, released for public comment on Oct. 28, 2010. The revisions did not alter the study team's main finding: the ...

It's been more than 20 years since scientists first discovered the gene that causes cystic fibrosis (CF), yet questions about how the mutated gene causes disease remain unanswered. Using a newly created pig model that genetically replicates the most common form of cystic fibrosis, University of Iowa researchers have now shown that the CF protein is "misprocessed" in the pigs and does not end up in the correct cellular location. This glitch leads to disease symptoms, including gastrointestinal abnormalities and lung disease in the pigs, which mimic CF in humans. The findings ...

SEATTLE—Online messaging can deliver organized follow-up care for depression effectively and efficiently, according to a randomized controlled trial of 208 Group Health patients that the Journal of General Internal Medicine e-published in advance of print. After five months, compared to the half of the patients randomly assigned to receive usual care, the half who had three online care management contacts with a trained psychiatric nurse were significantly more likely to feel less depressed, take their antidepressant medication as prescribed, and be "very satisfied" ...

By national publicity expert, Annie Jennings, of the famous PR firm, Annie Jennings PR Authors are flocking to print on demand publishing and other non-traditional methods of publishing their book. With this growth of authors hitting the scene, so do a myriad of ways to promote a book. With so many choices available to them, how do author choose the right book marketing and book promotion strategy for them. National publicity expert, Annie Jennings PR, whose national PR firm has worked with thousands of book authors, shares 3 ways to tell if you like your book marketing ...

Scientists have long been aware of a link between naval sonar exercises and unusual mass strandings of beaked whales. Evidence of such a link triggered a series of lawsuits in which environmental groups sued the U.S. Navy to limit sonar exercises to reduce risk to whales. In 2008, this conflict rose to the level of the US Supreme Court which had to balance potential threat to whales from sonar against the military risk posed by naval forces inadequately trained to use sonar to detect enemy submarines. The court ruled that the Navy could continue training, but that it was ...

It's increasingly difficult to keep up with all the vulnerabilities present in today's highly complex operating systems and applications. Attackers constantly search for and exploit these vulnerabilities to commit identity fraud, intellectual property theft and other attacks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released two updated publications that help organizations to find and manage vulnerabilities more effectively, by standardizing the way vulnerabilities are identified, prioritized and reported. Computer security departments work behind ...

The Aesthetics of Mould is a new art exhibition in Naples that examines the creative process and compares it to the way nature evolves. Running from March 25th to April 30th 2011, it will see the work of the production duo Ttozoi displayed at the Piazza S Eframo Vecchio. The strange and captivating images created by the artists are very modern in their approach, but lean heavily on movements such as Gutai and abstract expressionism. According to the organisers, the art on show is a perfect example of how a piece is born when the creator finishes painting it, but ...

NASA's Aqua and TRMM satellites are providing data to scientists about the Southern Atlantic Ocean Sub-tropical Storm Arani, a rare occurrence in the southern ocean. Rainfall data and cloud top temperatures revealed some heavy rain and strong thunderstorms exist in Arani as it continues to pull away from Brazil. NOAA's Satellite and Information Service classified Arani as a T1 on the Dvorak intensity scale which would indicate an estimated wind speed of about 29 knots (~33 mph). During the daytime on Tuesday, March 15 at 1820 UTC (2:20 p.m. EST) NASA's Tropical Rainfall ...

Washington, D.C. (March 16, 2011) -- A team of physicists in the United Kingdom has taken a giant step toward realizing efficient single-photon sources, which are expected to enable much-coveted completely secure optical communications, also known as "quantum cryptography." The team presents its findings in Applied Physics Letters, a journal published by the American Institute of Physics. Fluorescent "defect centers" in diamond act like atomic-scale light sources and are trapped in a transparent material that's large enough to be picked up manually. They don't need to ...

GRENOBLE, France -- (March 16, 2011) -- An international team of computing experts from the United States, Switzerland and Singapore has created a breakthrough technique for doubling the efficiency of computer chips simply by trimming away the portions that are rarely used. "I believe this is the first time someone has taken an integrated circuit and said, 'Let's get rid of the part that we don't need,'" said principal investigator Krishna Palem, the Ken and Audrey Kennedy Professor of Computing at Rice University in Houston, who holds a joint appointment at Nanyang Technological ...

Durham, NC — A new study of more than three dozen bacteria species — including the microbes responsible for pneumonia, meningitis, stomach ulcers and plague — settles a longstanding debate about why bacteria are more likely to steal some genes than others. While most organisms get their genes from their parents just like people do, bacteria and other single-celled creatures also regularly pick up genes from more distant relatives. This ability to 'steal' snippets of DNA from other species — known as lateral gene transfer — is responsible for the rapid spread of drug resistance ...

There is a treat in store for flamenco enthusiasts spending time in Seville next month, as critically acclaimed dancer and choreographer Belen Maya is going to take the stage. She will perform a piece entitled CIA with Olga Pericet, accompanied by singers and guitarists. The show will take place on April 5th at the Teatro Lope de Vega and its tagline translates as 'joyful dances for sad people'. Maya is the daughter of renowned flamenco performer Mario Maya, who passed away in 2008, but she has carved out a reputation of her own. Born in New York, she started ...

What's in a name? Letters. And psychologists have posited that the letters—particularly the first letter of our names—can influence decisions, including whom we marry and where we move. The effect is called "implicit egotism." In 2008, two Belgian researchers found that workers in their country were more likely to choose a workplace if the first letter of its name matched their own. A commentary published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, revisited the study with similar U.S. data and found that the ...

Rockville, MD — It is no surprise to scientists that the largest social network on the web is called Facebook. Identifying people by their face is fundamental to our social interactions, one of the primary reasons vision researchers are trying to find out how our brain processes facial identity. In a study recently published in the Journal of Vision, scientists used an original approach — a method that "shakes" the brain gently and repeatedly by making an image appear and disappear at a constant rate — to evaluate its sensitivity to perceiving facial identity. The technique ...

Typical clovers have three leaves, unless you happen to be lucky, and NASA's Aqua satellite has provided three different views of Ireland to mark Saint Patrick's Day on March 17, 2011. With the luck o' the Irish, NASA's Aqua satellite was fortunate to capturemostly clear views of the Emerald Isle in these near-infrared/visible, infrared and microwave light views acquired by Aqua's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on March 3, 2011, at 13:11 UTC. Ireland, located in the Atlantic Ocean, is the third-largest island in Europe, and originated the St. Patrick's ...

Salman Rushdie will appear at the Bilbao international literature festival Gutun Zuria next month to kick off proceedings and lead a discussion. The author of Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses will help to inaugurate this year's edition of the event alongside Slovaj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist. Gutun Zuria will take place from April 7th to 10th at the Alhondiga Bilbao and feature a varied programme of music, film and debate, all relating to literature. One of the highlights of the festival looks set to be a talk by Rushdie, who ...

BINGHAMTON, NY -- Vishal Gupta believes the way that entrepreneurship is presented, discussed and taught must change — especially for women. "Where are the role models for women?" asks Gupta, an assistant professor of strategy at Binghamton University. "Pick up any book on entrepreneurship: It's all about men. Switch on the TV, and when it comes to entrepreneurs, it is Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Where are the women entrepreneurs? They're not being talked about." Of course, there have been many high-profile female entrepreneurs over the past half-century. The accomplishments ...

Travellers and tourists can enjoy the best value for money Barbados car hire when holidaying on the tropical island thanks to new deals from award-winning online hire comparator Carrentals.co.uk. The website helps travellers save on car rental in more than 10,000 places around the world. The Carrentals.co.uk service compares deals from all over the web to help tourists save, and offers the best deals from providers like Thrifty, Sixt, Budget, Enterprise and Hertz. So if the traveller wants to source and secure the best value car hire Barbados deals around, whether on ...

VIDEO: Physicist Guannan Zhao, Ph.D. student at the University of Miami, and his collaborators have developed a mathematical model to describe the timing of price changes of currencies and the overall... Click here for more information. Physicist Guannan Zhao, Ph.D. student at the University of Miami, and his collaborators have developed a mathematical model to describe the timing of price changes of currencies and the overall dynamics of the Foreign Exchange (FX) market. Zhao ...

Washington, DC – Stephen J. Teach, MD, MPH, Medical Director and Principal Investigator of IMPACT DC, a program of pediatric asthma care and research at Children's National Medical Center, served as the Site Principal Investigator for a new study that may advance asthma treatment and outcomes, specifically for inner-city children and teens. Findings from a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were published and released in the March 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. As noted in the NIH announcement, the investigational use ...

Nurses are the front-line caregivers to hospital patients, coordinating and providing direct care and delivering it safely and reliably. The goal for any hospital is to ensure that each of its patient-care units has an adequate number of nurses during every shift. Ideally, the proper number of hours nurses work — known as the "target level" — should be adjusted each shift, depending on the ebb and flow of patients and their need for care. Too many nurses can be costly for hospitals; too few can put patients' health in danger. In a new study, a team of researchers ...

A new exhibition has recently opened at the Diocese Museum in Milan entitled The Eyes of Caravaggio, which explores the famous Italian painter's formative years. The show runs until July 3rd 2011 and gives an idea of how Caravaggio - real name Michelangelo Merisi - formulated his distinctive style. By exploring the work of his predecessors and contemporaries, as well as his own pieces, the organisers demonstrate his progression into one of the most talked-about artists of all time. More than 60 paintings are being showcased and a host of contextual information ...

A dendritic cell vaccine personalized for each individual based on the patient's own tumor may increase median survival time in those with a deadly form of brain cancer called glioblastoma, an early phase study at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found. Published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Cancer Research, the study also identified a subset of patients more likely to respond to the vaccine, those with a subtype of glioblastoma known as mesenchymal, which accounts for about one-third of all cases. This is the first time in brain ...

Researchers at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a way to produce normal butanol — often proposed as a "greener" fuel alternative to diesel and gasoline — from bacteria at rates significantly higher than those achieved using current production methods. The findings, reported online in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, mark an important advance in the production of normal butanol, or n-butanol, a four-carbon chain alcohol that has been shown to work well with existing energy infrastructure, including in vehicles ...