Blog – Page 708 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Geothermal Energy Keeps Turkeys Comfortable and Saves Farmers’ Money; Prototype Designed by MU Engineer

COLUMBIA, Mo. — While Americans prepare to cook millions of turkeys for Thanksgiving, a geothermal energy system developed by a University of Missouri engineer will be keeping live turkeys toasty during the chilly autumn weather. In a prototype facility, designed by a University of Missouri engineer, environmentally and economically friendly geothermal energy is keeping turkeys comfortable during both cold and hot weather. The system is designed to reduce utility costs while improving the air quality for the birds.

“This is our first prototype of a geothermal system in a commercial livestock operation,” said Yun-Sheng Xu, associate research professor in civil and environmental engineering. “Our first set of performance data suggests that farmers could cut their heating costs in half at current propane prices. Currently, two units are installed at the test farm. Other farmers could begin installing units on their turkey farms as soon as next year, for use by next winter.” (more…)

Skin Care During Pregnancy!

Small Business

Aggravated hormone level brings about numerous changes to almost every part of woman’s body, from body structure to skin to overall health. A woman can look most entrancing and delightful during her pregnancy. And this is certainly not just an old wife’s tale; it’s a widely accepted truth. While some ladies look luscious during their pregnancies, for others, all the elevated hormonal levels can have entirely opposite effects, leading to many pregnancy skin problems.

On your countdown to motherhood variety of changes take place on your skin and even a slight change from normal on it is evident. There are many skincare products or tropical treatments can get absorbed into your skin and then into your baby’s. So skincare during this nine months countdown requires special attention. (more…)

Jan. 8-22: ‘The Abolitionists’

Culture

UD’s Armstrong Dunbar a featured expert in PBS series ‘The Abolitionists’

The Abolitionists, airing on PBS this month, is timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, but it offers viewers “a real understanding of the complexities of what it took to end slavery” beyond Lincoln’s proclamation itself, a University of Delaware historian featured in the series says.

Erica Armstrong Dunbar, associate professor of history with joint appointments in Black American Studies and in women and gender studies, was approached by creators of the three-part series to provide her perspective on the issues and individuals featured. The Abolitionists is part of the “American Experience” series and is scheduled to air Tuesday nights, Jan. 8, 15 and 22. (more…)

Amazon Marketplace Sellers Enjoy High Growth Holiday Season

Technology

Third-party selling on Amazon grew more than 40 percent year-over-year during the holiday season

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 2, 2013– Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that 2012 was a record-breaking holiday season for businesses selling on Amazon. The more than 2 million third-party sellers worldwide on Amazon experienced record holiday growth: unit growth solely from sellers in the U.S. increased more than 40 percent year-over-year. For the year, sellers on Amazon sold hundreds of millions of units worth tens of billions of dollars worldwide.

“We value the breadth and depth of selection that businesses selling on Amazon offer our more than 188 million active customers worldwide,” said Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace. “The entire Amazon Seller organization is focused on helping third-party businesses succeed and grow on Amazon. We do this by creating a dynamic marketplace platform that helps every seller deliver the best possible selection, service and prices to all Amazon customers.” (more…)

UMass Amherst Biochemists Trap a Chaperone Machine in Action, Opening Pathway to Possible New Cancer Treatment

Science

AMHERST, Mass. – Molecular chaperones have emerged as exciting new potential drug targets, because scientists want to learn how to stop cancer cells, for example, from using chaperones to enable their uncontrolled growth. Now a team of biochemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Lila Gierasch have deciphered key steps in the mechanism of the Hsp70 molecular machine by “trapping” this chaperone in action, providing a dynamic snapshot of its mechanism.

She and colleagues describe this work in the current issue of Cell. Gierasch’s research on Hsp70 chaperones is supported by a long-running grant to her lab from NIH’s National Institute for General Medical Sciences. (more…)

Research by CU-Boulder Physicists Creates ‘Recipe Book’ for Building New Materials

Science

By showing that tiny particles injected into a liquid crystal medium adhere to existing mathematical theorems, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have opened the door for the creation of a host of new materials with properties that do not exist in nature.

The findings show that researchers can create a “recipe book” to build new materials of sorts using topology, a major mathematical field that describes the properties that do not change when an object is stretched, bent or otherwise “continuously deformed.” Published online Dec. 23 in the journal Nature, the study also is the first to experimentally show that some of the most important topological theorems hold up in the real material world, said CU-Boulder physics department Assistant Professor Ivan Smalyukh, a study senior author. (more…)

Targeted Micro-Bubbles Detect Artery Inflammation, MU Study Finds

Health

Procedure done in pigs could potentially detect heart disease early in humans

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Heart disease is a leading cause of death throughout the world. Doctors say that it is important to detect heart disease early before it becomes too serious. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found a way that they believe could help detect heart disease before it progresses too far as well as identify patients who are at risk for strokes.

In a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Isabelle Masseau, an assistant teaching professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, found that she could use targeted micro-bubbles to detect artery inflammation in pigs. She says that this procedure may help detect patients with heart disease or who are at risk for strokes before those ailments become too serious by monitoring artery inflammation, as that is an early warning sign of health problems. She says this procedure may also help monitor the effectiveness of artery inflammation treatments. (more…)

U of T Researchers Uncover Major Source of Evolutionary Differences among Species

Nature, Science

TORONTO, ON – University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine researchers have uncovered a genetic basis for fundamental differences between humans and other vertebrates that could also help explain why humans are susceptible to diseases not found in other species.

Scientists have wondered why vertebrate species, which look and behave very differently from one another, nevertheless share very similar repertoires of genes. For example, despite obvious physical differences, humans and chimpanzees share a nearly identical set of genes. (more…)