Tech

The effectiveness of ordinary surgical masks as opposed to respirators in protecting health care workers against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus has been the subject of debate. An observational study published in the April 1, 2010 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, available online (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/651159), suggests that surgical masks are just as effective as respirators in this regard.

Queensland, Australia was recently hit by its second tropical cyclone of the season.

Tropical Cyclone Olga, which made landfall on the east coast of Queensland just south of Cairns back in late January, brought widespread rains to the region. The most recent cyclone to hit Queensland is Tropical Cyclone Ului, which also made landfall on the east coast of Queensland but much farther south near Airlie Beach south of Townsville.

Scientists from Frankfurt´s Goethe University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) developed a system that substantially reduces the energy consumption for processing huge amounts of data. They improved over the power efficiency of the former record holders from Stanford University by a factor of three to four. The record is listed in the "sort benchmark", which is published by companies like Hewlett-Packard und Microsoft.

Just like the old song by Buck Owens, "Tiger by the Tail," NASA satellite imagery showed that Imani appears to have developed a "tail" of clouds extending southeast from its center. It has indeed become a "tiger" because it is now a category one cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as it continues to move through the Southern Indian Ocean.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Cyclone Imani on March 25 at 0747 UTC (3:47 a.m. EDT) and it showed Imani developed a "tail" of clouds, extending to its southeast.

Like playing a game of scissors-paper-rock, a team of scientists led by Thornton E. (Ernie) Glover of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source (ALS), Linda Young of Argonne National Laboratory, and Ali Belkacem of Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division has used laser light to control x-ray beams – by first changing the material medium through which the x-rays pass.

As a new generation of powerful light sources comes online, intense x-ray beams may be able to control matter directly and allow one beam of x-rays to control another.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 25, 2010 — Scientists in Wisconsin are reporting discovery of a way to lower the cost of converting wood, corn stalks and leaves, switch grass, and other non-food biomass materials into ethanol fuel. They describe their process, which reduces amounts of costly enzymes needed to break down tough fibrous cellulose matter in biomass for fermentation into alcohol, here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Decision making within families is an important way for young people to gain independence and responsibility, and adolescence is a time of increasing autonomy. A longitudinal study by Penn State researchers in the College of Health and Human Development concludes that teens have more say in certain areas than in others, and that some teens have more autonomy than others.

Having a large-scale boreal forest biomass inventory would allow scientists to understand better the carbon cycle and to predict more accurately Earth's future climate. However, obtaining these maps has been wrought with difficulty – until now.

A new study carried out by Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel and Dr. Tzachi Ben Zion has found that women who were victims of sexual abuse in childhood reported higher levels of depression and symptoms of post-trauma during pregnancy.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 24, 2010 — That bracing morning shower and soothing bedtime soak in the tub are potentially important but until now unrecognized sources of the hormones, antibiotics, and other pharmaceuticals that pollute the environment, scientists reported here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. The first-ever evaluation, they said, could lead to new ways to control environmental pollution from active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which has been the source of growing concern.

A large population-based study of diabetes in China conducted by investigators from Tulane University and their colleagues in China has concluded that the disease has reached epidemic proportions in the adult population of China. The study estimates that 92.4 million adults age 20 or older (9.7 percent of the population) have diabetes and 148.2 million adults (15.5 percent) have prediabetes, a key risk factor for the development of overt diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The results are published in the March 25 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Young adults, a generally healthy population, are increasingly flocking to emergency departments (EDs) instead of outpatient clinics for medical treatment. Young adults remain the most likely age group to lack health insurance and often lose their insurance during this pivotal transition period between adolescence and adulthood.

UCSF researchers have shown that delivering HIV prevention services to people living with HIV in clinical settings can sharply reduce their sexual risk behaviors.

The findings are available now in the online edition of the journal "AIDS and Behavior" and are scheduled for publication in an upcoming print issue.

This World TB Day (March 24), researchers at Sydney's Centenary Institute announce they have made an exciting discovery that could lead to the first new drug for Tuberculosis (TB) in almost fifty years.

Dr Nick West, Associate Faculty of the Mycobacterial group at Centenary, is looking at the genetics of TB in the hope they will reveal a way to reduce the impact of one of the deadliest diseases in the world.

Dr West, explains, "When someone is infected with TB they either become sick immediately or the disease stays inactive, latent."