Sandia aids cleanup of Iraqi nuclear facilities, rad waste

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Sandia scientists are helping train Iraqi scientists and technicians to clean up radioactively contaminated sites and safely dispose of the radioactive wastes as part of the Iraqi Nuclear Facility Dismantlement and Disposal Program.

The Sandia work is a technical transfer of skills and knowledge that the Labs use day to day, says Sandia principal investigator John Cochran. As an example of this, Sandia has transferred its Rad Worker II training materials to the government of Iraq.

Group bragging betrays insecurity, study shows

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From partisans at a political rally to fans at a football game, groups that engage in pompous displays of collective pride may be trying to mask insecurity and a low social status, suggests new research led by University of California, Davis, psychologists.

The research will be presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology in Sacramento. Hosted this year by the UC Davis Department of Psychology, the three-day meeting will bring together about 250 research psychologists from around the world. The meeting is open to the media.

Researchers estimate lives lost due to delay in antiretroviral drug use for HIV/AIDS in South Africa

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Birth control has long-term effect on hormone exposure

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine may be one step closer to understanding why past oral contraceptive use dramatically lowers the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers later in life.

Study: Immigrants close earning gap more slowly than previously thought

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Immigrants whittle into a broad earnings gap with American-born workers only about half as fast as long-accepted estimates suggest, according to new research by a University of Illinois economist.

Darren Lubotsky says immigrants' typically low starting wages grow just 10 to 15 percent faster than native-born workers over their first 20 years in the U.S., well short of the 26 percent catch-up rate in widely used, census-based projections.

Seemingly suicidal stunt is normal rite of passage for immune cells

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St. Louis, Oct.20, 2008 — Researchers have shown that self-induced breaks in the DNA of immune cells known as lymphocytes activate genes that cause the cells to travel from where they're made to where they help the body fight invaders.

Inmates conduct ecological research on slow-growing mosses

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Nalini Nadkarni of Evergreen State College currently advises a team of researchers who sport shaved heads, tattooed biceps and prison-issued garb rather than the lab coats and khakis typically worn by researchers. Why is Nadkarni's team composed of such apparently iconoclastic researchers? Because all of her researchers are inmates at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, a medium security prison in Littlerock, Washington.

Low-carb diets alter glucose formation by the liver

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A new study shows that a low-carbohydrate diet changes hepatic energy metabolism. When carbohydrates are restricted, the liver relies more on substances like lactate and amino acids to form glucose, instead of glycerol. These findings are in the November issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). The article is also available online at Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

Hepatitis C treatment is cost-effective for the US prison population

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Treating all U.S. prisoners who have hepatitis C with the standard therapy of pegylated-interferon and ribavirin would be cost-effective, says a new study in the November issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). The article is also available online at Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

Nerve repair, biodetectors, proton therapy, microscopic medical devices

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October 20, 2008 -- Medical highlights of papers from among the 1,300 talks at the AVS 55th International Symposium next month in Boston are described below. Overall, the meeting showcases advances in technology, materials research, nanotechnology, alternative energy, and medicine.

Information for journalists, such as registration instructions and the scientists' emails can be found at the end of this release. Cool images are available to journalists for designated stories, and they may be obtained by emailing jbardi@aip.org.