Northwestern University

Cancer “Kill Switch

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A Northwestern University team spent about eight years meticulously studying the human genome and all of its various chemicals and processes it uses to regulate itself, and it has discovered what it bills as a seemingly foolproof “self-destruct pathway,” that could be utilized for healing, to destroy any type of cancer cell one can think of.

The mechanism they found involves the creation of things called siRNAs, small RNA molecules that serve to interfere with a multitude of genes that are essential to the destructive proliferation of malignant, fast-growing cells. It is said that these siRNAs reportedly have little effect on our healthy, good cells. However, one might see already that if this cancer fighting strategy has risks, people should take a very close look at them.

They say insight was provided by two recent studies, and Marcus Peter, the research leader along with his colleagues have outlined in detail the series of events that the siRNA molecules trigger in our bodies.

They called this process of siRNA molecules causing cancer cell death DISE, or Death By Induced Survival gene Elmination. The team managed to identify six-nucleotide-long sequences that would be required for inducing this state of “DISE.”

It was explained that when researchers examined the nucleotide sequences of the various noncoding, non-protein translating RNA molecules our bodies produce naturally to selectively inhibit the expression of genes, they made the discovery that DISE-associated sequences are there, present at one end of several tumor suppressing RNA strands.

Yet another investigation concluded that those sequences can also be found throughout the genome, embedded in protein-coding sequences.

“We think this is how multicellular organisms eliminated cancer before the development of the adaptive immune system, which is about 500 million years old,” Peter said last year, in a statement. “It could be a fail-safe that forces rogue cells to commit suicide. We believe it is active in every cell protecting us from cancer.”

However, there was one small problem: they still had to determine just how the body produces these free siRNAs that are capable of producing DISE. That’s how complicated the body gets.

In another new study, a breakthrough came as it was published last month in eLife, and in that one Peter and his team observed the body making these molecules, as our cells basically chop a larger strand of RNA, that codes for a cell death cycle protein known as CD95L, into multiple siRNAs.

A series of experiments were conducted, and then they managed to show that the exact same cellular machinery could be utilized in converting other large protein-coding RNAs into these DISE siRNAs.

Even more remarkably, they found that somewhere around three percent of all the coding RNAs in our entire genome could be “processed” to serve the purpose.

“Now that we know the kill code, we can trigger the mechanism without having to use chemotherapy and without messing with the genome,” Peter said last month in a press conference.

Now, they want to make “next-generation medications” and “gene therapy,” and while this sounds like it makes a lot of sense, it’s true that people would be wise to keep their wits about them and know just what they are signing up for if they proceed with some new treatment resulting from this research.

Device Mimicking Female Reproductive Cycle Could Aid Research

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EVATAR is a book-size lab system that can replicate a woman’s reproductive cycle. Each compartment contains living tissue from a different part of the reproductive tract. The blue fluid pumps through each compartment, chemically connecting the various tissues.

Courtesy of Northwestern University

Scientists say they’ve made a device in the lab that can mimic the human female reproductive cycle.

The researchers hope the device, assembled from living tissue, will lead to new treatments for many medical problems that plague some women, ranging from fibroids and endometriosis to infertility, miscarriages and gynecologic cancers.

The researchers described the device Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications and dubbed it the EVATAR. The name, they say, is a play on the word “avatar.”

“An avatar is kind of a digital representation of an individual in a virtual environment,” says Teresa Woodruff, a biomedical engineer in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University who helped create the system. “So when we thought about this synthetic version of the female reproductive tract we thought of the word EVATAR.”

'Minibrains' Could Help Drug Discovery For Zika And For Alzheimer's

To create the EVATAR, the researchers used tissues from human fallopian tubes, a uterus and cervix donated by women who had undergone surgery.

The researchers placed each tissue type in separate plastic chambers that were connected through passageways that allow fluid to circulate among them.

One chamber contained ovarian tissue from mice because human ovarian tissue is difficult to obtain.

The device is about the size of a paperback book. It also includes human liver tissue to filter toxins from the system.

The researchers were able to trigger the system to produce the cascade of hormones that usually occur during a woman’s 28-day reproductive cycle. The cycle culminated in the ovarian tissue releasing an egg.

“We were able to recapitulate the full menstrual cycle — a complete menstrual cycle,” Woodruff says.

The scientists hope to use the system to learn more about the basic biology of how the female reproductive tract functions.

“EVATAR allows us to think about all the organs kind of connected in a way that eventually we hope will be the future of personalized medicine,” Woodruff says.

Lansing Taylor, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Drug Discovery Institute, who was not involved in developing the system, says it could be especially useful in research because of the complexity of the female reproductive system.

“It’s a very important paper,” Taylor says. “Human reproductive tissues and organs have been particularly difficult to investigate.”

The scientists stress that they only want to use the EVATAR to study anatomy and try to develop new treatments.

Embryo Experiments Reveal Earliest Human Development, But Stir Ethical Debate

But at least one bioethicist wonders if others may someday try to combine this kind of technology in worrisome ways with other advances in reproductive medicine.

“Certainly the technologies are rapidly moving forward where one could imagine these technologies being used to create a baby outside the womb in the laboratory,” says Insoo Hyun, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University.

That would raise many ethical issues.

“If, hypothetically, you can fertilize an egg outside a body and carry it all the way to term outside the body, then who’s responsible for this baby now?” Hyun says. He also stresses that scientists are nowhere near being able to do that yet.

In the meantime, the Northwestern researchers have already started to work on a male equivalent of the EVATAR.

They’ve created a system involving male testes and prostate tissue they call the “Dude Cube.” They are working on a more complex system that would connect the Dude Tube to other parts of the anatomy — a system they dub the “ADATAR.”

Source:http://www.npr.org/

Team develops compact, high-power terahertz source at room temperature

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Terahertz (THz) radiation—radiation in the wavelength range of 30 to 300 microns—is gaining attention due to its applications in security screening, medical and industrial imaging, agricultural inspection, astronomical research, and other areas. Traditional methods of generating terahertz radiation, however, usually involve large and expensive instruments, some of which also require cryogenic cooling. A compact terahertz source—similar to the laser diode found in a DVD player —operating at room temperature with high power has been a dream device in the terahertz community for decades.

Manijeh Razeghi, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University‘s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, and her group has brought this dream device closer to reality by developing a compact, room-temperature source with an of 215 microwatts.

Razeghi presented the research October 7 at the International Conference and Exhibition on Lasers, Optics & Photonics in San Antonio, and will also present at the European Cooperation in Science and Technology conference in Sheffield, England on October 10. The findings were published July 1 in the journal Applied Physics Letters and was presented at the SPIE Optics + Photonics conference in August in San Diego.

Razeghi’s group is a world leader in developing quantum cascade lasers (QCL), compact semiconductor lasers typically emitting in the mid-infrared spectrum ( of 3 to 16 microns).

Terahertz radiation is generated through nonlinear mixing of two mid-infrared wavelengths at 9.3 microns and 10.4 microns inside a single quantum cascade laser. By stacking two different QCL emitters in a single laser, the researchers created a monolithic nonlinear mixer to convert the mid-infrared signals into , using a process called difference frequency generation. The size is similar to standard , and a wide spectral range has already been demonstrated (1 to 4.6 THz).

“Using a room-temperature mid-infrared laser to generate terahertz light bypasses the temperature barrier, and all we need to do is to make the output power high enough for practical applications,” said Razeghi, who leads Northwestern’s Center for Quantum Devices (CQD). “Most applications require a minimum of microwatt power levels, but, of course, the higher the better.”

The achieved output power, 215 microwatts, is more than three times higher than earlier demonstrations. This dramatic boost is due to a number of novelties, including Cherenkov phase matching, epilayer down mounting, symmetric current injection, and anti-reflection coating.

Nanoparticles from rice husks set for use in batteries.

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Rice farmers may soon have a more lucrative use for a common low-value byproduct: rice husks, the hard, protective coverings around the edible grains.

nano rice
The husks contain natural silicon nanoparticles that can easily be extracted and used in battery manufacture, a study shows.

The simple and low-cost process for recovering the nanoparticles and using them in the lithium-ion batteries, which are commonly found in portableelectronics, was published in Scientific Reports last month (29 May).

Silicon nanomaterials have various industrial applications but they are complicated, costly and energy-intensive to produce.

“China plays an important role in battery manufacturing, so the rice nano-silicon could be locally integrated into battery manufacturing.”

Speed read

  • Inedible rice husks contain silicon nanoparticles that can be extracted for use in batteries
  • Rice husks are usually low-value, but farmers could sell them to battery manufacturers
  • Researchers hope to link up with battery firms to push for rice husk use

 

Meanwhile, 120 million tonnes of rice husks are produced as byproducts of rice agriculture worldwide each year.

“The novelty of this paper is the high-yield and low-cost recovery of nano-structured silicon from an agriculturalbyproduct. And the morphology of the recovered silicon is ideal for direct application in high-energy, lithium-ion batteries,” Yi Cui, study coauthor and associate professor at Stanford University, United States, tellsSciDev.Net.

“A lot of developing countries, such as China and India, produce a huge amount of rice husks each year. Currently, the rice husks only have some low added-value applications,” he says.

The new procedure, Cui says, could allow these countries to use the husks to build batteries, and his team is trying to establish links with battery companies to achieve this.

“China plays an important role in battery manufacturing, so the rice nano-silicon could be locally integrated into battery manufacturing,” he adds.

Jie Xiao, a senior scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, United States, says the “approach is interesting and promising” but warns that “more research needs to take place before this method would be useful on a broad scale”.

Farmers will probably be unable to directly sell rice husks to battery companies since most of these firms do not make their own raw materials, she says. “However, companies that supply [battery] electrode materials, or chemical factories, could build [production] lines to process husks and harvest [their] silicon for battery use,” she adds.

Cary Hayner, chief technology officer of SiNode Systems — a materialsventure based out of Northwestern University that is commercialising novel silicon-based battery anode technology — says the study demonstrates what could be a tremendous opportunity to make use of an abundant agricultural byproduct.

“Farmers would be best served by selling their rice husks to a company that will transform the husks into the useful silicon,” he says.

Source: http://www.scidev.net

 

 

 

Fashion Statement: Designer Creates Line of Drone-Proof Garments to Protect Privacy .

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drone-proof-anti-infrared-apparel_1

As debate over the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the U.S. rages on, a fashion designer introduces clothing that blocks drone-mounted infrared cameras

As the U.S. government draws up plans to use surveillance drones in domestic airspace, opposition to what many consider an unwarranted and significant invasion of privacy is mounting across the country, from rural Virginia to techopolis Seattle. Although officials debate anti-drone legislation at federal, state and local levels, one man is fighting back with high-tech apparel.

A New York City privacy advocate-turned-urban-guerilla fashion designer is selling garments designed to make their wearers invisible to infrared surveillance cameras, particularly those on drones. And although Adam Harvey admits that his three-item Stealth Wear line of scarves and capes is more of a political statement than a money-making venture, the science behind the fashion is quite sound.

“Fighting drones is not my full-time job, but it could be,” says Harvey, an instructor of physical computing at Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts and the creator of the CV Dazzle project, which seeks to develop makeup and hairstyles that camouflage people from face-recognition cameras and software.

Harvey’s newest medium, metalized fabric, has been around for more than 20 years. It holds in body heat that would burn bright for infrared cameras—a characteristic that could prove attractive to those who do not want unmanned aerial vehicles spying on them.

Metalized fabric
Metal is very good at absorbing and scattering infrared light, says Cheng Sun, a Northwestern University assistant professor of mechanical engineering. In that sense there is nothing exotic in how metalized fabric works—it “would strongly attenuate the [infrared] light,” he says. The metal would dissipate heat to surroundings as well, making the wearer harder to pinpoint.

To date, the fabric has primarily been used in tape and gaskets to protect electronics and communications equipment from static electricity and electromagnetic interference, according to Larry Creasy, director of technology for metalized fabric-maker Laird Technologies, based in Saint Louis.

Here’s how metalizing works, at least at Laird: Woven fabric, commonly nylon or polyester, is coated with a special catalyst—a precious metal Creasy declined to specify—that helps copper bind to the fiber. Once dry, the fabric is submerged in a copper sulfate–plating bath and dried. A nickel sulfamate bath follows to help the finished fabric withstand the elements and abrasions. The result is a flexible, breathable fabric that can be cut with ordinary tools but that protects against electromagnetic interference and masks infrared radiation, Creasy says. The process adds weight to the original fabric. An untreated square yard of nylon weighs about 42.5 grams. Treated, the same patch weighs more than 70 grams.

The fashion
Harvey’s fabric is coated with copper, nickel and silver, a combination that gives his scarves, head-and-shoulders cloak and thigh-length “burqa” a silvery and “luxurious” feel. The material blocks cell signals, as well, adding an element of risk to tweeting, texting and other mobile activities, as the wearer must break cover to communicate.

Stealth Wear is sold only via a U.K. Web site. The burqa goes for about $2,300, the “hoodie” is $481 and the scarf is $565—luxury items, but so, too, is privacy today, Harvey says.

The impetus
The high cost and limited availability are significant drawbacks—Harvey says he’s only sold one Stealth Wear item online, a scarf. But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts 10,000 commercial drones will ply domestic airspace by 2017—almost twice the that of the U.S. Air Force’s current fleet of unmanned aircraft. The number of drones flying in the U.S. today is hard to pin down because not every company and agency that gets FAA approval to fly a drone actually puts one in the air. In fact, 1,428 private-sector and government requests have been approved since 2007, according to the FAA. A Los Angeles Times report states that 327 of those permits are still active. Meanwhile, President Obama signed a law in February 2012 that gives the FAA until September 2015 to draw up rules that dictate how law enforcement, the military and other entities may use drones in U.S. airspace.

As of October 2012, 81 law agencies, universities, an Indian tribal agency and other entities had applied to the FAA to fly drones, according to documents released by the FAA to the Electronic Freedom Frontier following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Government entities as diverse as the U.S. Department of State and Otter Tail County, Minn., are among them.

Discomfort rising
Although Harvey’s anti-drone fashions are not currently flying off the shelves, he could soon find himself leading a seller’s market if recent events are any metric:

  • The Charlottesville, Va., city council has passed a watered-down ordinance that asks the federal and commonwealth governments not to use drone-derived information in court. Proponents had sought to make the city drone-free (pdf).

 

  • Virginia, Minnesota, Oregon, Montana, Arizona (pdf) and Idaho legislators are trying to at least regulate or even prohibit, drones in their skies.

 

 

  • A bipartisan pair of U.S. Representatives has introduced legislation to limit information-gathering by government-operated drones as well as prohibit weapons on law-enforcement and privately owned unmanned aerial vehicles.


Drone advocates defend the use of the technology as a surveillance tool. “We clearly need to do a better job of educating people about the domestic use of drones,” says Ben Gielow, government relations manager for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. Gielow says U.S. voters must decide the acceptability of data collection from all sources, adding, “Ultimately, an unmanned aircraft is no different than gathering data from the GPS on your phone or from satellites.”

GPS does not use infrared cameras, however, and satellites are not at the center the current privacy debate brewing in Washington—factors that could make Harvey’s designs all the more fashionable.

Source: Scientific American.

Why can’t we predict earthquakes yet?

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775px-sanfranciscoearthquake1906At least 50 people died in a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that hit China this morning, and another 20,000 homes were damaged. The quake hit Yunnan, and the nearby Guizhou provinces, home to some of China’s poorest people. Of course, they didn’t see it coming.

From who will win the most Olympic medals, to Nobel Prizes, humans – and the machines they’ve designed – have gotten pretty good at predicting things. Complicated computer models can tell us where wildfires will spread, when two planets might collide and how high our oceans might rise due to melting ice caps. But we still can’t predict earthquakes. What gives? Shouldn’t we be able to figure out where the plates will give and when?

Well, you’re not the only one asking. Science wants the answer to that question too. To find out, researchers recently looked at the three deadliest earthquakes in recent history: Wenchuan, China in 2008, Leogane, Haiti in 2010 and Tohoku, Japan in 2012. They found that all three occurred in places where even the hazard maps – out best guesses for earthquake prediction – didn’t expect them to be.

“We’re playing a complicated game against nature,” the study’s first author, Seth Stein of Northwestern University, said in the press release. “It’s a very high stakes game. We don’t really understand all the rules very well.”

This is a big deal not just to save lives, but to save money too. Countries each spend a certain amount of money to prevent damage from natural disasters. Knowing where to spend that money could save both lives and the economy.

The inability to predict earthquakes often confuses us non-scientists too. “The public is accustomed to the uncertainties of weather forecasting, but foreseeing where and when earthquakes may strike is far more difficult. Too much reliance on earthquake hazard maps can have serious consequences,” Mian Liu, another researcher on the study, staid in the press release.

In Italy, six seismologists were even tried for manslaughter in court for failing to predict an earthquake. The New York Times explains why that trial has outraged scientists all over the world:

Earthquakes differ from other types of natural disasters. Meteorologists can track a hurricane with precision, but seismologists cannot predict exactly when and where an earthquake will occur. Scientists have condemned the Italian prosecution for this reason, saying the defendants are on trial for failing to do something that is impossible.

For the researchers, there were a few standout reasons that hazard maps failed. First, earthquakes are complicated. Second, historical records in most places don’t go back long enough to get a good sense for patterns – since earthquake trends tend to emerge only on long time scales. The combination of bad and incomplete data, with a complicated system, means that hazard maps are guesses at best. The study writes:

As a result, key aspects of hazard maps often depend on poorly constrained parameters, whose values are chosen based on the mapmakers’ preconceptions. When these are incorrect, maps do poorly. This situation will improve at best slowly, owing to our limited understanding of earthquake processes.

What can we do about it? Well, we can wait to gather more data. Which means waiting for more earthquakes to happen. We can also test the maps, the authors say. Which, of course, isn’t so easy either. Even they admit that, “There are likely, however, limits on how well hazard maps can ever be made because of the intrinsic variability of earthquake processes.”

Source: Smart Planet.

 

 

Testosterone Surge after Exercise May Help Remodel the Mind .

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Most of the praise associated with exercise is typically geared toward its cardiovascular benefits and its role in weight loss and muscle toning/strength.

Often overlooked is the phenomenal role exercise plays in supporting your brain health and even spurring the creation of new brain cells (a process called neurogenesis).

Now researchers have revealed one of the mechanisms that makes exercise such a powerful tool for brain health: a natural boost in testosterone.

Exercise Boosts Brain Testosterone Levels, Builds New Brain Cells

The hippocampus is a major component of your brain. It belongs to the primitive part of your brain known as the limbic system and plays an important role in the consolidation of information from your short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation. A new animal study found that not only does mild exercise activate hippocampal neurons, it actually promotes their growth. In the brain, this also, in turn, helps with the creation of new brain cells.1 Even though the study included only male rats, the scientists believe the results apply to humans.

Interestingly, researchers at Northwestern University‘s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago have discovered a couple of other mechanisms that help explain how exercise helps new brain cells to form.

It appears that exercise lowers the activity of bone-morphogenetic protein or BMP, which slows the production of new brain cells. At the same time, exercise increases Noggin, a brain protein that acts as a BMP antagonist. The more Noggin present in your brain, the less BMP activity there is, and the more stem cell divisions and neurogenesis (production of new brain cells) takes place.2

What’s the Best Type of Exercise for Boosting Testosterone?

Researchers from the featured study found that even mild to moderate exercise boosts testosterone enough to improve brain health. Short periods of intense exercise also have a proven positive effect on increasing testosterone levels and preventing its usual age-related decline (which typically begins around age 30 in men).

Additionally, combining short bursts of high-intensity exercise like Peak Fitness with intermittent fasting will also boost your growth hormone levels. Intermittent fasting boosts testosterone by increasing the expression of satiety hormones including insulin, leptin, adiponectin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), colecystokinin (CKK) and melanocortins, all of which are known to potentiate healthy testosterone actions, increase libido and prevent age-related testosterone decline.

You can find more information about this in an article previously written on intermittent fasting, and here’s a summary of what a typical high-intensity Peak Fitness routine might look like:

  • Warm up for three minutes
  • Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you couldn’t possibly go on another few seconds
  • Recover at a slow to moderate pace for 90 seconds
  • Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

As you can see, the entire workout is only 20 minutes. That really is a beautiful thing. And within those 20 minutes, 75 percent of that time is warming up, recovering or cooling down. You’re really only working out intensely for four minutes. It’s hard to believe if you have never done this, that you can actually get that much benefit from only four minutes of intense exercise, but that’s all it is

If You Want a Healthy Brain, Exercise is a Must

Exercise boosts brain health through multiple pathways, many of them likely yet to be discovered. One study, for instance, revealed that when mice exercised, they grew an average of 6,000 new brain cells in every cubic millimeter of tissue sampled.3 The growth occurred in the hippocampus, which is considered the memory center of your brain, and the mice showed significant improvements in the ability to recall memories without any confusion.

Exactly why exercise has this effect isn’t entirely known, but researchers speculated it could be due to higher levels of hormones released, as discussed earlier, increased blood flow to your brain, or even stress reduction (the stress hormone cortisol may inhibit the growth of new brain cells).

Animal tests have illustrated that during exercise their nerve cells release proteins known as neurotrophic factors. One in particular, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health, and has a direct benefit on cognitive functions, including enhanced learning. Further, exercise provides protective effects to your brain through:

  • The production of nerve-protecting compounds
  • Greater blood flow to your brain
  • Improved development and survival of neurons
  • Decreased risk of heart disease and stroke

So if you value your brainpower, you’ll want to make certain that exercise is a regular part of your life. Staying active with a variety of activities is best, as each type of exercise may offer unique benefits for your brain health and may even help your brain to grow as you get older, rather than shrink – which is the norm, sadly, as many people do not stay active as they age. Exercise is so powerful, yet it remains one of the most neglected areas of health. If you’re not already an avid exerciser, what’s holding you back?

Perhaps you believe your size is preventing you from exercising, or that it won’t make a big difference. Perhaps you have a handicap, or feel like you’re too old, too out of shape, or too frail to exercise.

Whatever your reason might be, try reading these examples of exercise inspiration. By the end, I suspect you may be ready to change your tune, and I hope, for your sake, that you are.

Exercising sets into motion a beneficial feedback loop that leads to greater levels of health body-wide, while lack of exercise makes your health spiral downward and opens the door to disease and premature aging. Health benefits of exercise expand far beyond even your muscles and your brain to include:

Improving your brainpower and boosting your IQ Lowering your risk of heart disease and cancer Building strong bones
Lowering your blood pressure Curing insomnia Losing weight
Relieving pain Balancing your mood and fighting depression Increasing your energy levels
Acquiring fewer colds Lowering your risk of diabetes and reversing pre-diabetes Slowing down your aging process
   

Source: Dr. Mercola

 

How liquids boil without bubbling?

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Explosions caused by boiling liquid could be reduced by suppressing the liquid from bubbling, according to a new University of Melbourne study.

The research, which is the first of its kind, has identified a specially engineered steel surface that allows liquids to boil without bubbling.

“This would be advantageous for use in industrial situations such as nuclear power plants, where vapour explosions are best avoided, or where gentle heating is desirable” said Professor Derek Chan, from the University’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

The study suggests that the new surface could also be applied to other situations that involve the transfer of heat, such as reducing fogging and preventing ice or frost formation on windows.

“Our results show the potential of using this textured surface to control heating and cooling events that affect the formation of frost on windows and ice on the control surfaces of aircrafts or even refrigeration units,” he said.

The international study was done in collaboration between the University of Melbourne and Dr Neelesh Patankar from the Northwestern University in the United States and Dr Ivan Vakarelski and his team at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia where the experimental studies were carried out.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

The research found that a textured, highly water-repellent steel surface controls the boiling process of a liquid and stops it from bubbling up the sides of a container and boiling over.

This is achieved by using a textured surface structure to control the stability of the vapour layer, that is, the layer of steam that forms on a surface when water is boiled.

“In most smooth surfaces, heat transfer from the surface to the liquid is prevented by the low thermal conductivity of the vapour layer,” said Professor Chan.

“This vapour layer collapses when the surface cools, which could result in an explosion.”

Professor Chan said that in textured surfaces, the vapour layer is maintained until the surface is completely cooled, preventing the liquid from bubbling and boiling over.

“The discovery shows how the texture of surfaces can combine to control the boiling of liquid in a way that was not thought to be possible”, he said.

Source: Science Alert

 

 

Normal weight at diabetes diagnosis associated with higher mortality among adults.

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Patients who develop diabetes at a normal weight may be at higher risk for mortality compared with those who are overweight or obese at diagnosis, according to data from a pooled longitudinal analysis of five cohort studies.

The study included 2,625 patients (aged >40 years, 50% women) from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, Framingham Offspring Study (FOS), and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) who developed incident diabetes.

Researchers chose the studies based on repeated measures of body weight, fasting glucose level and medication use. Other factors included demographic characteristics, health behaviors and clinical factors, as well as follow-up for events and mortality, researchers wrote.

Mercedes R. Carnethon, PhD, from the department of preventive medicine at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, and colleagues found that the portion of patients who were normal weight at the time of incident diabetes ranged from 9% to 21% (overall 12%). Additional data found that 449 patients died during follow-up, including 178 from cardiovascular causes, 253 from noncardiovascular causes and 18 causes not classified.

Within the pooled patient sample, total (284.8 per 10,000 person-years); CV (99.8 per 10,000 person-years); and non-CV mortality (198.1 per 10,000 person-years) were higher in normal-weight patients, compared with rates among overweight or obese patients.

“These patterns are consistent for total and non-CV mortality within each cohort and present for CV mortality in CHS and FOS,” researchers wrote. “Mortality rates were markedly higher in CHS cohort participants who were older, on average, than other cohort participants.”

Once adjustments were made for demographic characteristics and BP, lipid levels, waist circumference and smoking status, HRs compared normal-weight patients with overweight/obese patients for total (HR=2.08; 95% CI, 1.52-2.85); CV (HR=1.52; 95% CI, 0.89-2.58); and noncardiovascular mortality (HR=2.32; 95% CI, 1.55-3.48).

Researchers concluded that the mechanisms to explain their findings remain unknown. They recommend further studies research normal-weight patients with diabetes as they apply to other mechanisms, such as inflammation, distribution and action of adipose tissue, atherosclerosis and position of fatty plaques and pancreatic beta-cell function.

  • Source: Endocrine Today.

 

Normal weight at diabetes diagnosis associated with higher mortality among adults.

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Patients who develop diabetes at a normal weight may be at higher risk for mortality compared with those who are overweight or obese at diagnosis, according to data from a pooled longitudinal analysis of five cohort studies.

The study included 2,625 patients (aged >40 years, 50% women) from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, Framingham Offspring Study (FOS), and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) who developed incident diabetes.

Researchers chose the studies based on repeated measures of body weight, fasting glucose level and medication use. Other factors included demographic characteristics, health behaviors and clinical factors, as well as follow-up for events and mortality, researchers wrote.

Mercedes R. Carnethon, PhD, from the department of preventive medicine at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, and colleagues found that the portion of patients who were normal weight at the time of incident diabetes ranged from 9% to 21% (overall 12%). Additional data found that 449 patients died during follow-up, including 178 from cardiovascular causes, 253 from noncardiovascular causes and 18 causes not classified.

Within the pooled patient sample, total (284.8 per 10,000 person-years); CV (99.8 per 10,000 person-years); and non-CV mortality (198.1 per 10,000 person-years) were higher in normal-weight patients, compared with rates among overweight or obese patients.

“These patterns are consistent for total and non-CV mortality within each cohort and present for CV mortality in CHS and FOS,” researchers wrote. “Mortality rates were markedly higher in CHS cohort participants who were older, on average, than other cohort participants.”

Once adjustments were made for demographic characteristics and BP, lipid levels, waist circumference and smoking status, HRs compared normal-weight patients with overweight/obese patients for total (HR=2.08; 95% CI, 1.52-2.85); CV (HR=1.52; 95% CI, 0.89-2.58); and noncardiovascular mortality (HR=2.32; 95% CI, 1.55-3.48).

Researchers concluded that the mechanisms to explain their findings remain unknown. They recommend further studies research normal-weight patients with diabetes as they apply to other mechanisms, such as inflammation, distribution and action of adipose tissue, atherosclerosis and position of fatty plaques and pancreatic beta-cell function.

  • Source: Endocrine Today.