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Which Plants Will Survive Droughts, Climate Change?

By Guest PostApril 9, 2012Environmentagaves, alahee, cacti, california, carbon dioxide, cell level loss, chaparral shrubs, China, christine scoffoni, climate change, desert plants, drought tolerance, ecosystems, extinction, faith inman narahari, hawaiian drought, lawren sack, megan bartlett, photosynthesis, plant species, psydrax odorata, sandalwood, santalum paniculatum, stiff cell wall, stomata, sunflower, tropical botanical gardens, turgor loss point, turgor pressure, xishuangbanna, yuccas, yunnan

New research by UCLA life scientists could lead to predictions of which plant species will escape extinction from climate change.

Droughts are worsening around the world, posing a great challenge to plants in all ecosystems, said Lawren Sack, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the research. Scientists have debated for more than a century how to predict which species are most vulnerable.

Sack and two members of his laboratory have made a fundamental discovery that resolves this debate and allows for the prediction of how diverse plant species and vegetation types worldwide will tolerate drought, which is critical given the threats posed by climate change, he said. (more…)

Internet Use Promotes Democracy Best in Countries That Are Already Partially Free

By Guest PostApril 9, 2012Politics, Technologyafrobarometer, arab world, asia, asian barometer, autocratic regime, democracy, democratic revolution, elizabeth stoycheff, erik nisbet, frequency, internet, internet use, katy pearce, Kenya, mobilize citizen, mozambique, ohio state university, political change, political regime, pro democratic attitude, senegal, singapore, sociodemographic factor, sub-saharan africa, Tanzania, uganda, zambia

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Although use of the internet has been credited with helping spur democratic revolutions in the Arab world and elsewhere, a new multinational study suggests the internet is most likely to play a role only in specific situations.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that the internet spurs pro-democratic attitudes most in countries that already have introduced some reforms in that direction. (more…)

Images Capture Split Personality of Dense Suspensions

By Guest PostApril 9, 2012Sciencedna microarray, drop forms, heinrich jaeger, jeffrey morris, marc miskin, mathematical model, nozzle diameter, particle, phenomena, steve koppes, university of chicago, viscosity, viscous, viscous liquids, viscous mixture, zirconium dioxide

Stir lots of small particles into water, and the resulting thick mixture appears highly viscous. When this dense suspension slips through a nozzle and forms a droplet, however, its behavior momentarily reveals a decidedly non-viscous side. University of Chicago physicists recorded this surprising behavior in laboratory experiments using high-speed photography, which can capture action taking place in one hundred-thousandths of a second or less.

UChicago graduate student Marc Miskin and Heinrich Jaeger, the William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor in Physics, expected that the dense suspensions in their experiments would behave strictly like viscous liquids, which tend to flow less freely than non-viscous liquids. Viscosity certainly does matter as the particle-laden liquid begins to exit the nozzle, but not at the moment where the drop’s thinning neck breaks in two. (more…)

Sediment Chemicals in Coastal Rivers Overall Lower in U.S. than Worldwide Averages

By Guest PostApril 8, 2012Environmentcoastal rivers, sediment chemicals, sediment erosion, sediment load, suspended sediment

Almost all the sediment-associated chemical concentrations found in 131 of the nation’s rivers that drain to the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts are lower than worldwide averages, according to a new study by the USGS. These coastal rivers are a significant pathway for the delivery of sediment-associated chemicals to the world’s coastal zones and oceans. (more…)

Huntington’s Disease

By Guest PostApril 8, 2012Healthalzheimer's disease, amyloid fiber, amyloid seeding assay, asa, brain tissue, david w colby, fluorescent detector, hd, huntingtin, huntingtons disease, monomeric polyglutamine peptide, neurological disease, novel technology, prion disease, protein, sharad gupta, shyann jie, thioflavin t, university of delaware

UD researchers develop novel technique for early detection of misfolded protein

University of Delaware assistant professor David W. Colby is co-author of a paper in the March 23 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry that suggests protein misfolding may occur early in the pathogenesis, or development, of Huntington’s disease.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is one of several neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or prion disease, associated with proteins that fold into abnormal structures. HD is characterized by progressive motor impairment, cognitive decline and behavioral abnormalities, and ultimately death. (more…)

Fewer Deaths, Complications with Robotic Bladder Cancer Surgery, But Cost is Higher

By Guest PostApril 8, 2012Healthadam s kibel, bladder, bladder cancer, cancer, european urology, georgetown university hospital, hua yin yu, intravenous nutrition, jim hu, parenteral nutrition, paul l nguyen, radical cystectomy, robot, robotic assisted surgery, robotic surgery, statistical analysis

With technological advancements opening the door to less invasive medical procedures, robotic-assisted surgery is becoming increasingly popular, despite being more expensive than traditional surgery. Robotic-assisted surgical removal of the bladder due to cancer is a new approach to the traditional “open” — or more invasive — operation called a radical cystectomy.

Bladder cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, and the American Cancer Society estimates that 73,500 people will be diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2012. A third of those will require a radical cystectomy. (more…)

Can Inflammation Predict Heart Disease and Stroke?

By Guest PostApril 7, 2012Healthanti inflammatory medication, asthma, blood clots, blood test, c reactive protein, cardiovascular disease, cholesterol, chronic inflammation, crp, disease, heart attack, heart disease, inflammation, protein, stroke

Can Inflammation Predict Heart Disease and Stroke?

Groundbreaking research may be able to help predict how likely it is that a person will have heart disease or a stroke in the future. Studies have linked inflammation to the risk of cardiovascular disease because of the association between the release of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and heart disease.

What is C-Reactive Protein (CRP)?

The National Institute of Health explains that CRP is a protein that is released when there is inflammation present in the body. The liver produces the protein and a blood test can be done to find out how much CRP is present in a person’s body.

What is inflammation?

John W. Kimball maintains a website describing in depth how inflammation develops in the body. Inflammation develops as a result of injury to the body. It can often be recognized by swelling and redness at the site of inflammation and may be accompanied by pain. Although inflammation often occurs on the surface of the skin, it can also occur internally. (more…)

Thawing Permafrost 50 Million Years Ago Led To Warm Global Events, Says New Study

By Guest PostApril 7, 2012EnvironmentAntarctica, arctic permafrost, carbon, climate, climatic threshold, CO2, earth, eccentric orbits, ecosystem, Environment, floor sediment, fossil fuel, frozen-soil, greenhouse gas levels, italy, kevin schaefer, methane gas, ocean, orbit, organic matter, paleocene eocene, permafrost, permafrost thaw, petm, rob deconto, soil, source, thermal maximum, university of urbino

A new study led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and involving the University of Colorado Boulder proposes a simple new mechanism to explain the source of carbon that fed a series of extreme warming events on Earth about 50 million years ago called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, as well as a sequence of similar, smaller warming events afterward.

“The standard hypothesis has been that the source of carbon was in the ocean in the form of frozen methane gas in ocean-floor sediments,” said lead study author Rob DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “We are instead ascribing the carbon source to the continents in polar latitudes where permafrost can store massive amounts of carbon that can be released as CO2 when the permafrost thaws.” (more…)

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