Tech

"There are two pieces to the program," said Dr. Michele Anderson, ONR's program officer responsible for the effort. "One is a hardware demonstrator that is a hybrid photovoltaic battery system to enable the Marine Corps to use solar energy."

"The other piece is a tool kit," Anderson continued. "In other words, a Marine can enter into the GREENS computer what their expected mission profile is, and it will tell them which components of the GREENS system to pull out and take with them in order to provide their renewable power needs."

New York, NY, December 8, 2009 – Oral disease, primarily dental caries, is the most common pediatric disease and can lead to physical and psychological disabilities as well as significant morbidity in adulthood. In May 2000, Dr David Satcher's landmark report, Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General, highlighted the state of oral health for children and adults in the United States and offered strategies to improve oral health outcomes.

Vienna, Austria - The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) calls the attention of the delegates of the UN COP15 to the important contribution of the waste sector to reduce substantial CO2-emissions.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest regional burden of blindness and visual impairment in the world (it has 11% of the world's population, but around 20% of the world's blindness). But simply putting in place more clinically trained manpower alone will not be sufficient to meet eye care needs, say Susan Lewallen (Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology, Good Samaritan Foundation, Moshi, Tanzania) and Amir Bedri Kello (Light for the World, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). Dedicated managerial support will also be needed, they argue.

HOUSTON – Breast cancer screening guidelines generally recommend mammography begin at age 40. However, based on prior national research, an estimated 34 percent of non-Hispanic black women, 30 percent of non-Hispanic white women and 22 percent of Hispanic women aged 30 to 39 have reported having a mammogram.

HOUSTON – Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, primarily found in fish and seafood, may have a role in colorectal cancer prevention, according to results presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held Dec. 6-9, 2009, in Houston.

TEMPE, Ariz.- An Arizona State University research team has developed a process that removes a key obstacle to producing lower-cost, renewable biofuels. The team has programmed a photosynthetic microbe to self-destruct, making the recovery of high-energy fats--and their biofuel byproducts--easier and potentially less costly.

Air Force Office of Scientific Research and National Science Foundation-funded professor, Dr. Xiang Zhang has demonstrated at the University of California, Berkeley the world's smallest semiconductor laser, which may have applications to the Air Force in communications, computing and bio-hazard detection.

The semiconductor, called a plasmon, can focus light the size of a single protein in a space that is smaller than half its wavelength while maintaining laser-like qualities that allow it to not dissipate over time.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified three principal factors linked to whether caregivers place infants to sleep on their backs. Those three factors are: whether they received a physician's recommendation to place infants only on their backs for sleep, fear that the infant might choke while sleeping on the back, and concerns for an infant's comfort while sleeping on the back.

Placing infants on their backs for sleep can help reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). But a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues shows that while the practice helped reduce the incidence of SIDS, it has reached a plateau since guidelines were released by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Cui had previously created nanomaterial energy storage devices using plastics. His new research shows that a paper battery is more durable because the ink adheres more strongly to paper (answering the question, "Paper or plastic?"). What's more, you can crumple or fold the paper battery, or even soak it in acidic or basic solutions, and the performance does not degrade. "We just haven't tested what happens when you burn it," he said.

An ultra-high-resolution imaging technique using X-ray diffraction is a step closer to fulfilling its promise as a window on nanometer-scale structures in biological samples. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report progress in applying an approach to "lensless" X-ray microscopy that they introduced one year ago. They have produced the first images, using this technique, of biological cells – specifically the intriguing polyextremophile Deinococcus radiourans.

After an exhaustive study of air and water pollution along the Athabasca River and its tributaries from Fort McMurray to Lake Athabasca, researchers say pollution levels have increased as a direct result of nearby oil sands operations.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- For more than 30 years, scientists have been trying to harness the power of terahertz radiation. Tucked between microwaves and infrared rays on the electromagnetic spectrum, terahertz rays can penetrate clothing, plastic, and human tissue, but they're thought to be safer than x-rays. Since they're absorbed to different degrees by different molecules, they can also tell chemicals apart: a terahertz scanner at an airport checkpoint, for example, could determine whether a vial in a closed suitcase contained aspirin, methamphetamines or an explosive.

NEW ORLEANS ― The second-generation proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib is showing noteworthy response rates and low levels of adverse side effects among multiple myeloma patients in a phase II clinical trial, researchers reported today at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

The updated data from the 17-site study focuses on patients with relapsed or resistant multiple myeloma who have received one to three prior therapies, but not the drug bortezomib, the original proteasome inhibitor.