218 articles from WEDNESDAY 11.12.2019

Increasing transparency in the healthcare sector: More might not be better

More isn't always better. That's what researchers say when it comes to transparency in the US healthcare system. This research, forthcoming in the INFORMS journal Operations Research, finds that in the short-term, patients who know more about hospital quality is positive, but in the long-term, the benefits may not be what you might think.

Isotope analysis points to prisoners of war

Maya archaeologists from the University of Bonn found the bones of about 20 people at a water reservoir in the former Maya city of Uxul (Mexico). They had apparently been killed and dismembered about 1,400 years ago. Did these victims come from Uxul or other regions of the Maya Area? Dr. Nicolaus Seefeld, who heads the project that is funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation at the University of...

It's time to explain country in indigenous terms

It's time to write about Indigenous Australian place relationships in a new way -- in a language that speaks in Indigenous terms first, to convey a rich meaning of Country and best identify its deep ecological and social relevance to Aboriginal people. Flinders University anthropologist Professor Amanda Kearney details the need for this shift in an expansive new research paper that considers...

MASS: An integrative software program for streamlined morphometric analyses of leaves

Analysis of leaf shape is crucial in answering a variety of ecological, evolutionary, genetic, and agricultural questions. However, most morphometric analyses require the use of multiple software packages; this is not only inconvenient, but also introduces the possibility of error. A new software package, Morphological Analysis of Size and Shape (MASS), streamlines these analyses into a single...

NASA finds Tropical Storm Belna's heavy rainfall potential shrinks

Tropical Storm Belna weakened after it made landfall in northwestern Madagascar, and infrared imagery from NASA showed how the area of strong storms within had diminished. Cold cloud top temperatures can tell forecasters if a tropical cyclone has the potential to generate heavy rainfall, and that is exactly what NASA's Aqua satellite found on Dec. 10 over a much smaller area than was occurring on...

New insights to major disease pathways

Australian researchers are making major inroads into finding the cause of heart disease, Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes and other diseases after discovering a further 148 proteins affected by oxidative stress in the human body.

New research seeks to improve safety equipment for pregnant women

As technology advances in the things we use every day, it's generally accepted they also become safer. But according to one UBC engineer, that may not be true for a large portion of the population. New research from UBC's Okanagan campus has developed a innovative model to map the impact of trauma on a pregnant woman and her uterus if she were involved in an accident--with the hopes of making...

New spray gel could help take the bite out of frostbite

Mountaineers and winter sports enthusiasts know the dangers of frostbite -- the tissue damage that can occur when extremities, such as the nose, ears, fingers and toes, are exposed to very cold temperatures. However, it can be difficult to get treated quickly in remote, snowbound areas. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering have developed a convenient gel that could...

OU research group confirm planet-mass objects in extragalactic systems

A University of Oklahoma research group is reporting the detection of extragalactic planet-mass objects in a second and third galaxy beyond the Milky Way after the first detection in 2018. With the existing observational resources, it is impossible to directly detect planet-mass objects beyond the Milky Way and to measure its rogue planetary population.

Paleontology: Experiments in evolution

A new find from Patagonia sheds light on the evolution of large predatory dinosaurs. Features of the 8-m long specimen from the Middle Jurassic suggest that it records a phase of rapid diversification and evolutionary experimentation.

Pathways toward post-petrochemistry

Ethylene, or ethene, is a primary feedstock for the chemical industry, including as a starting material for the production of a wide variety of plastics. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, scientists have now introduced a new electrochemical technique for selective and energy-efficient production of ethylene from carbon monoxide, which can be obtained from renewable resources and waste.

Plant researchers examine bread aroma: Modern and old wheat varieties taste equally good

Bread baked from modern wheat varieties are just as aromatic as that baked from old varieties. However, differences exist between the breads from different wheat varieties -- and those that were grown in different locations. These were the findings made by a team of German and Swiss researchers under the leadership of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the University of Hohenheim in...

Princeton researchers listen in on the chemical conversation of the human microbiome

The microscopic organisms populating the human body have an outsize impact on health and disease, but how these microbes communicate with each other and with human cells is currently largely unknown. By developing and employing a new suite of tools, researchers at Princeton have identified novel microbial small molecules encoded in human clinical samples, leading to new insights into...

Real-time photoacoustic thermometry of tumors during HIFU treatment in living subjects

The research team led by Professor Chulhong Kim of POSTECH(Pohang University of Science and Technology) developed a photoacoustic thermometry system combined with a clinical ultrasound imaging platform to effectively guide the high intensity focused ultrasound treatment. Their research is published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and selected as a feature article and the front cover...