ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Biologists partner bacterium with nitrogen gas to produce more, cleaner bioethanol
• Rivers might constitute just 20 percent of continental water flowing into oceans
• Computer chips: Engineers use disorder to control light on the nanoscale
• How 'spontaneous' social norms emerge
• Simple intervention can make your brain more receptive to health advice
• RNA: The unknotted strand of life
• FDA approves new drug for binge eating disorder (BED)
• Mercury levels in Hawaiian yellowfin tuna increasing
• Tree species influence boreal forest fire behavior, subsequent effects on climate
• Winding borders may enhance graphene
• Toward the next biofuel: Secrets of Fistulifera solaris
• To save your energy while strolling, walk this sway
• Smoke from fires linked to tornado intensity
• Whose numbers determine if a targeted cancer therapy is 'worth it? '
• Orangutans take the logging road
• Study supplies insight into behavior of African monsoon
• More evidence that musical training protects the brain
• Friend, foe or queen? Study highlights the complexities of ant perception
• Wrinkle predictions: New mathematical theory may explain patterns in fingerprints, raisins, and microlenses
• Getting yeast to pump up the protein production
• Expert panel recommends new sleep durations
• Risk for autism increases for abandoned children placed in institutions
• Shrinking range of pikas in California mountains linked to climate change
• Impact of fetal gender on risk of preterm birth
• Interval between first and second pregnancy strongly impacts preterm birth risk
• Dance of the nanovortices captured and recorded with help of X-ray holography
• Physician guidelines for Googling patients need revisions
• Break on through to the other side: How HIV penetrates the blood-brain barrier
• Biological markers associated with high-risk pancreatic lesions
• Commonly used antibiotics with diuretic can double risk of sudden death in older patients
• A phone so smart, it sniffs out disease
• New mechanism of acquired resistance to breast cancer drugs
• Laying a foundation for treating ALS, spinal cord injury
• Global warming slowdown: No systematic errors in climate models, comprehensive statistical analysis reveals
• Mining the Moon becomes a serious prospect
• Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia reduces suicidal thoughts in veterans
• Peptide shows promise in penetrating heart attack scar tissue to regenerate cardiac nerves
• Top 10 challenges facing global pharmaceutical supply chains
• You can be a coward or a fighter -- just pick one and stick with it, says study
• Actions, beliefs behind climate change stance
• Pregnancy outcomes similar for women with kidney transplants as child, adult
• Review of nonmedicinal interventions for delirium in older patients
• Graphene displays clear prospects for flexible electronics
• Microscopic monitoring may yield big advances in production of consumer products, pharmaceuticals
• How immune cells hone their skills to fight disease
• To speed up magma, add water
• Scientists view effect of whisker tickling on mouse brains
• New reset button discovered for circadian clock
• Cyanobacterium found in algae collection holds promise for biotech applications
• Illusion aids understanding of autism
• Abnormalities in pregnancies with failures for noninvasive prenatal testing
• Low birth weight and preeclampsia tend to reoccur in the next generation
• Pregnancy associated hypertension associated with an increased frequency of subsequent hypertension and metabolic syndrome
• Impact of probiotics on metabolic health in women with gestational diabetes
• Effect of maternal glycemia on childhood obesity and metabolic dysfunction
• Fetal decent and maternal feedback substantially shortens second stage labor
• The effect of expanded midwifery on Cesarean delivery
• STAN as an adjunct to intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring did not improve perinatal outcomes
• New '2-in-1' test simplifies retina evaluations
• How spaceflight ages the immune system prematurely

Biologists partner bacterium with nitrogen gas to produce more, cleaner bioethanol Posted: 02 Feb 2015 06:21 PM PST Biologists believe they have found a faster, cheaper and cleaner way to increase bioethanol production by using nitrogen gas, the most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, in place of more costly industrial fertilizers. The discovery could save the industry millions of dollars and make cellulosic ethanol -- made from wood, grasses and inedible parts of plants -- more competitive with corn ethanol and gasoline.

Rivers might constitute just 20 percent of continental water flowing into oceans Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:07 PM PST The Amazon, Nile and Mississippi are mighty rivers, but they and all their worldwide brethren might be a relative trickle compared with an unseen torrent below the surface. New research shows that rivers might constitute as little as 20 percent of the water that flows yearly into the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans from the continents. The rest flows through what is termed the 'subterranean estuary,' which some researchers think supply the lion's share of terrestrial nutrients to the oceans.

Computer chips: Engineers use disorder to control light on the nanoscale Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:07 PM PST A breakthrough could lead to the more precise transfer of information in computer chips, as well as new types of optical materials for light emission and lasers.

How 'spontaneous' social norms emerge Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:07 PM PST A scientific explanation has been provided by researchers for how social conventions -- everything from acceptable baby names to standards of professional conduct -- can emerge suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, with no external forces driving their creation.

Simple intervention can make your brain more receptive to health advice Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:06 PM PST A new discovery shows how a simple intervention -- self-affirmation -- can open our brains to accept advice that is hard to hear. Psychologists have used self-affirmation as a technique to improve outcomes ranging from health behaviors in high risk patients to increasing academic performance in at risk youth, suggesting that the findings may be applicable across a wide range of interventions.

RNA: The unknotted strand of life Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:06 PM PST It had never been verified before: unlike other biopolymers, RNA, the long strand that is 'cousin' to DNA, tends not to form knots.

FDA approves new drug for binge eating disorder (BED) Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:12 PM PST The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, under the brand name Vyvanse, to treat moderate to severe binge eating disorder (BED) in adults, a first of its kind prescription drug specifically indicated for BED. Experts say that understanding the differences between obesity and BED is important for clinicians, as BED is an eating disorder that affects only a portion of those with the medical disease obesity.

Mercury levels in Hawaiian yellowfin tuna increasing Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:12 PM PST Mercury concentrations in Hawaiian yellowfin tuna are increasing at a rate of 3.8 percent or more per year, according to a new study that suggests rising atmospheric levels of the toxin are to blame.

Tree species influence boreal forest fire behavior, subsequent effects on climate Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:48 AM PST For a better understanding of how forest fires behave and interact with climate, scientists are turning to the trees. A new study shows that differences in individual tree species between Eurasia and North America alter the continental patterns of fire -- and that blazes burning the hottest actually cool the climate.

Winding borders may enhance graphene Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:11 AM PST Theoretical physicists show precise control of grain boundaries in graphene may give it predictable mechanical and semiconducting properties.

Toward the next biofuel: Secrets of Fistulifera solaris Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:11 AM PST Biofuels are an attractive alternative to fossil fuels, but a key challenge in efforts to develop carbon-neutral, large-scale methods to produce biofuels is finding the right organism for the job. One emerging candidate is the microalga Fistulifera solaris. An international collaboration of scientists has revealed the genome of F. solaris and provided exciting hints at the roots of its ability to grow and produce oil at the same time.

To save your energy while strolling, walk this sway Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:10 AM PST The first people to walk across the original Millennium Bridge may have been unnerved when it began to sway, but the bridge was actually doing them a favor: the swaying enabled them to walk the distance with 5 percent less effort, a new study shows.

Smoke from fires linked to tornado intensity Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:10 AM PST Researchers have found that smoke from fires can intensify tornadoes. They examined the effects of smoke -- resulting from spring agricultural land-clearing fires in Central America -- transported across the Gulf of Mexico and encountering tornado conditions already in process in the United States.

Whose numbers determine if a targeted cancer therapy is 'worth it? ' Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:10 AM PST "Increasingly physicians are being presented with health economic analyses in mainstream medical journals as a means of potentially influencing their prescribing. However, it is only when you understand the multiple assumptions behind these calculations that you can see that they are by no means absolute truths," says one expert.

Orangutans take the logging road Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST 'Foot' travel by Borneo's shaggy apes may be evolving more than initially thought, researchers have discovered. The Bornean orangutan not only regularly walks Wehea Forest floors to travel, but also hits newly constructed logging roads, researchers have observed.

Study supplies insight into behavior of African monsoon Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST The African monsoon's response to climate forcing is more complicated than previously understood, new research indicates. Current climate models don't do a great job of simulating the complex mechanisms behind the changes. Understanding how the monsoon will respond to gradual increases in greenhouse gases will require a better understanding of the processes, authors of a new study report.

More evidence that musical training protects the brain Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST Scientists have found some of the strongest evidence yet that musical training in younger years can prevent the decay in speech listening skills in later life. "Musical activities are an engaging form of cognitive brain training and we are now seeing robust evidence of brain plasticity from musical training not just in younger brains, but in older brains too," said the study's leader.

Friend, foe or queen? Study highlights the complexities of ant perception Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST Researchers report that trap-jaw ants recognize the unique odor of a fertile queen only if the queen also shares the workers' own chemical cologne -- a distinctive blend of dozens of smelly, waxy compounds that coat the ants' bodies from head to tarsus. The discovery offers new insights into how social animals evolved and communicate with others in their group, the researchers say.

Wrinkle predictions: New mathematical theory may explain patterns in fingerprints, raisins, and microlenses Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST As a grape slowly dries and shrivels, its surface creases, ultimately taking on the wrinkled form of a raisin. Similar patterns can be found on the surfaces of other dried materials, as well as in human fingerprints. While these patterns have long been observed in nature, and more recently in experiments, scientists have not been able to come up with a way to predict how such patterns arise in curved systems, such as microlenses.

Getting yeast to pump up the protein production Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST Researchers have genetically modified yeast to prevent it from metabolizing protein, leading to higher yields of an industrially useful product, they say. A unicellular microorganism, yeast is a top candidate for producing protein because it grows rapidly and needs few resources to thrive. But until now, the scientific community did not realize that yeast reabsorbs more than half of the protein it secretes.

Expert panel recommends new sleep durations Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:37 AM PST The National Sleep Foundation, along with a multi-disciplinary expert panel, issued its new recommendations for appropriate sleep durations. The NSF convened experts from sleep, anatomy and physiology, as well as pediatrics, neurology, gerontology and gynecology to reach a consensus from the broadest range of scientific disciplines. The report recommends wider appropriate sleep ranges for most age groups.

Risk for autism increases for abandoned children placed in institutions Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:37 AM PST Children who were abandoned to institutional care have an increased risk for behaviors similar to those seen in children with autism, including impaired social communication, research shows. When these children were moved into child-centered foster family care at a young age, their social behaviors improved.

Shrinking range of pikas in California mountains linked to climate change Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:37 AM PST The American pika, a small animal with a big personality that has long delighted hikers and backpackers, is disappearing from low-elevation sites in California mountains, and the cause appears to be climate change, according to a new study. Pika populations were most likely to go locally extinct at sites with high summer temperatures and low habitat area.

Impact of fetal gender on risk of preterm birth Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:37 AM PST Preterm birth, a delivery before 37 weeks of gestation, is one of the most serious obstetric complications affecting around 15 million pregnancies worldwide with more than one million newborn deaths each year due to complications of prematurity. So far, the underlying causes for preterm birth are still largely unknown. Preterm birth can either occur spontaneously or can be induced for medical reasons. There are various risk factors for preterm birth, of which a previous preterm birth is one of the most important. The gender of the unborn baby also seems to play a role in the process of being born prematurely.

Interval between first and second pregnancy strongly impacts preterm birth risk Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:36 AM PST The variation of interval from delivery time to conception of the next pregnancy has a strong impact on the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight.

Dance of the nanovortices captured and recorded with help of X-ray holography Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:36 AM PST It is a familiar phenomenon: If a spinning top is set in rotation on an inclined surface, it scribes a series of small arches. Researchers have now succeeded in capturing this pattern of movement in a magnetic thin film system -- in the form of small magnetic nanovortices. The researchers made a new discovery: The nanovortices possess mass.

Physician guidelines for Googling patients need revisions Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:36 AM PST With the Internet and social media becoming woven into the modern medical practice, researchers contend that professional medical societies must update or amend their Internet guidelines to address when it is ethical to 'Google' a patient.

Break on through to the other side: How HIV penetrates the blood-brain barrier Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:36 AM PST A new research report solves the mystery of how HIV penetrates the blood-brain barrier by showing that the virus relies on proteins expressed by a type of immune cell, called 'mature monocytes,' to enter the brain. These proteins are a likely drug target for preventing HIV from reaching brain cells.

Biological markers associated with high-risk pancreatic lesions Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:36 AM PST Pancreatic cancer affects approximately 46,000 people each year in the United States and ranks fourth among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Only about 6 percent of individuals with pancreatic cancer will live five years after their diagnosis. One reason for this high mortality rate is the lack of effective tools to detect pancreatic cancer early enough to allow its surgical removal. Now researchers are now one step closer to devising an approach to detect pancreatic cancer earlier.

Commonly used antibiotics with diuretic can double risk of sudden death in older patients Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:36 AM PST The combination of the commonly prescribed antibiotic trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole with the diuretic spironolactone, widely used for heart failure, more than doubles the risk of death for older patients, reports a study.

A phone so smart, it sniffs out disease Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:33 AM PST Imagine a smartphone that not only finds the nearest five-star restaurant or hails a cab with a quick click, but also diagnoses illness. New technology would enable smartphones to screen their users' breath for life-threatening diseases, developers report.

New mechanism of acquired resistance to breast cancer drugs Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:33 AM PST In the search for new approaches to treat ERBB2 positive breast cancers that have become drug-resistant, researchers have discovered a novel cancer resistance mechanism. "Approximately 25% of breast cancers overexpress and depend on the protein ERBB2 for survival," said the lead investigator. "Current therapies take advantage of this by using targeted drugs such as Trastuzumab or Lapatinib to specifically inhibit ERBB2, but eventually they become ineffective as the cancer develops resistance to those drugs."

Laying a foundation for treating ALS, spinal cord injury Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:32 AM PST A unique model for learning more about the role of human astrocytes has been published by researchers. The findings may lay a foundation for the treatment of a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and debilitating spinal cord injuries.

Global warming slowdown: No systematic errors in climate models, comprehensive statistical analysis reveals Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:46 AM PST Skeptics who still doubt anthropogenic climate change have now been stripped of one of their last-ditch arguments: It is true that there has been a warming hiatus and that the surface of Earth has warmed up much less rapidly since the turn of the millennium than all the relevant climate models had predicted. However, the gap between the calculated and measured warming is not due to systematic errors of the models, as the skeptics had suspected, but because there are always random fluctuations in Earth's climate, according to a comprehensive statistical analysis.

Mining the Moon becomes a serious prospect Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:46 AM PST With an estimated 1.6 billion tons of water ice at its poles and an abundance of rare-earth elements hidden below its surface, the Moon is rich ground for mining.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia reduces suicidal thoughts in veterans Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:46 AM PST The treatment of insomnia in veterans is associated with a significant reduction in suicidal ideation, researchers say. Results show that suicidal ideation decreased by 33 percent following up to six sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). Further analysis found that the reduction in insomnia severity achieved during CBT-I was associated with a concurrent decrease in the odds of suicidal ideation. This relationship remained significant after controlling for potential confounders such as change in depression severity.

Peptide shows promise in penetrating heart attack scar tissue to regenerate cardiac nerves Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:46 AM PST Chemical compound aimed at restoring spinal cord function may have an additional purpose: stopping potentially fatal arrhythmias after heart attack. A special peptide could address a critical cardiac issue by penetrating heart attack scar tissue to regenerate cardiac nerves, scientists report.

Top 10 challenges facing global pharmaceutical supply chains Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:46 AM PST Global pharmaceutical supply chains are fragmented and lack coordination, facing at least 10 key challenges, according to researchers. Their new article sheds light on the key areas of weakness and what specifically is needed to strengthen the pharmaceutical supply chains.

You can be a coward or a fighter -- just pick one and stick with it, says study Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:45 AM PST When the chips are down, having a strong personality may be the difference between thriving and failing, according to new research that studied how aphids reacted when faced with predatory ladybirds. The study suggests that committing to a consistent behavioural type in times of crisis results in the best overall outcome in terms of fitness and reproductive success.

Actions, beliefs behind climate change stance Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:45 AM PST Strategies for building support for climate change mitigation policies should go beyond attempts to improve the public's understanding of science according to new research. Using an online survey of climate change sceptics and believers living in the US, researchers measured differences between the two groups in terms of environmental behaviours, emotional responses, national and global identification and a number of other variables.

Pregnancy outcomes similar for women with kidney transplants as child, adult Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:44 AM PST Pregnancy outcomes appear to be similar for women who undergo kidney transplants as children or adults, according to an article. Previous studies have reported pregnancy outcomes for women with transplants, regardless of age at transplantation, and it is unclear whether their findings apply to women who received transplants as children.

Review of nonmedicinal interventions for delirium in older patients Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:44 AM PST Interventions to prevent delirium that do not involve prescription drugs and have multiple components appeared to be effective at reducing delirium and preventing falls in hospitalized older patients, according to an article.

Graphene displays clear prospects for flexible electronics Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:43 AM PST Semi-transparent, flexible electronics are no longer just science-fiction thanks to graphene's unique properties, researchers have found. Researchers now show that new 2D 'designer materials' can be produced to create flexible, see-through and more efficient electronic devices.

Microscopic monitoring may yield big advances in production of consumer products, pharmaceuticals Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:42 AM PST A team of physicists has developed a method to monitor the properties of microscopic particles as they grow within a chemical reaction vessel, creating new opportunities to improve the quality and consistency of a wide range of industrial and consumer products.

How immune cells hone their skills to fight disease Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:41 AM PST A new study helps explain how booster shots prompt immune "memory" to improve, an important step toward the development of more effective, longer-lasting vaccines. "We can now see the evolution of better protection in single memory cells as they respond to the boost," said the senior author of the new study.

To speed up magma, add water Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:41 AM PST Water dragged into Earth's interior helps melt rock, but near the Tonga trench there's the least magma where there's the most water. A three-dimensional seismic image of the mantle beneath the Lau Basin in the South Pacific has an intriguing anomaly. The image showed the least magma where the scientists expected to find the most. After considerable debate they concluded that magma with a high water content was flushed so rapidly that it wasn't showing up in the images.

Scientists view effect of whisker tickling on mouse brains Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:41 AM PST Researchers have succeeded in peering into the brains of live mice with such precision that they were able to see how the position of specific proteins changed as memories were forged.

New reset button discovered for circadian clock Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:41 AM PST A team of biologists has found a way to use a laser and an optical fiber to reset an animal's master biological clock: A discovery that could in principle be used therapeutically to treat conditions like seasonal affect disorder, reduce the adverse health effects of night shift work and possibly even cure jet lag.

Cyanobacterium found in algae collection holds promise for biotech applications Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:57 AM PST Cyanobacteria are attractive organisms for the bio-production of fuels, chemicals and drugs but have the drawback that most strains in common use grow slowly. Scientists now report that they have recovered a fast-growing strain of cyanobacteria from a stored culture of a cyanobacterium originally discovered in a creek on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in 1955.

Illusion aids understanding of autism Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:57 AM PST New research could lead to a better understanding of how the brain works in people with autism. Using the 'rubber-hand' illusion, the researchers examined how adults with autism experienced 'ownership' of a fake prosthetic hand. In the 'rubber-hand' illusion, one of the subject's hands is placed out of sight, while a rubber hand sits in front of them. By stroking the fake hand at the same time as the visible real one, the subject can be convinced the fake hand is theirs. The results of this experiment showed differences between those with autism and those without.

Abnormalities in pregnancies with failures for noninvasive prenatal testing Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:57 AM PST Researchers report on the high rate of chromosomal abnormalities in patients in whom noninvasive prenatal testing fails to provide results.

Low birth weight and preeclampsia tend to reoccur in the next generation Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:57 AM PST Researchers will present findings on a study of mothers and daughters where low birth weight and preeclampsia were found to reoccur in the next generation.

Pregnancy associated hypertension associated with an increased frequency of subsequent hypertension and metabolic syndrome Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:57 AM PST Researchers have found long term cardiovascular and metabolic abnormalities five to ten years later in women with preeclampsia/gestational hypertension during pregnancy.

Impact of probiotics on metabolic health in women with gestational diabetes Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:57 AM PST Researchers have reported on the effect of a probiotic capsule intervention on maternal metabolic parameters and pregnancy outcomes among women with gestational diabetes.

Effect of maternal glycemia on childhood obesity and metabolic dysfunction Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:56 AM PST Researchers have reported on the impact of maternal glycemia on childhood obesity and metabolic dysfunction.

Fetal decent and maternal feedback substantially shortens second stage labor Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:56 AM PST Researchers reported that the use of a system that provides precise measurement of fetal decent and maternal feedback during second stage labor substantially shortens second stage and improves outcomes.

The effect of expanded midwifery on Cesarean delivery Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:56 AM PST Researchers will report that changes to the labor and delivery care system can reduce Cesarean delivery rates.

STAN as an adjunct to intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring did not improve perinatal outcomes Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:56 AM PST Researchers have reported that use of the ST segment as an adjunct to conventional intrapartum electronic fetal heart rate monitoring did not improve perinatal outcomes or decrease operative deliveries in hospitals in the United States. STAN is used in Europe as an adjunct to conventional intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring, and was approved by the FDA for use in the US, mostly based on results of studies in Europe and one small study in the US.

New '2-in-1' test simplifies retina evaluations Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:56 AM PST A new test developed using mice can help measure two important aspects of retinal health--the function of retinal blood vessels and light-detecting cells. This approach opens new possibilities for understanding the molecular changes that occur in retinal disease and for evaluating the benefits of treatment early in the course of disease.

How spaceflight ages the immune system prematurely Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:56 AM PST As the world waits to see if Mars One can establish a human colony on Mars, scientists are working to determine the long-term consequences of living in low or no-gravity conditions, such as those that might exist on the trip to another planet. New research shows that spaceflight may be associated with a process of accelerated aging of the immune system.

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