Tech

Boston, Mass. —Employing a unique quality improvement methodology, called Standardized Clinical Assessment and Management Plans (SCAMPs), physicians have demonstrated that chest pain in children, rarely caused by heart disease, can be effectively evaluated in the ambulatory setting using minimal resources, even across a diverse patient population. So found a multi-institutional study, led by cardiologists throughout New England and published September 9 in Pediatrics.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Obese teenagers who lose weight are at risk of developing eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, Mayo Clinic researchers imply in a recent Pediatrics article. Eating disorders among these patients are also not being adequately detected because the weight loss is seen as positive by providers and family members.

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 8, 2013 — The diets of people in North America shed almost 1.5 billion pounds of unhealthy saturated and trans fat over the last six years thanks to a new phase in an ongoing agricultural revolution, an expert said here today.

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 8, 2013 — A revolutionary new solar energy technology that turns water into steam without boiling the entire container of water has become the basis for new devices to sanitize medical and dental instruments and human waste in developing countries, scientists said here today.

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 8, 2013 — An ambitious partnership among more than 100 organizations and governments led by Procter & Gamble's (P&G's) nonprofit program, Children's Safe Drinking Water (CSDW), has helped provide more than 6 billion quarts of clean drinking water to families in developing countries, saving an estimated 32,000 lives. And they're just getting started.

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 8, 2013 — With almost 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) released each year from burning coal, gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels in the United States alone, scientists are seeking ways to turn the tables on the No. 1 greenhouse gas and convert that troublesome CO2 back into fuel.

Most people think of seismometers as ground-based instruments, but earthquakes can be detected by satellites too, as demonstrated by Garcia et al. using data from the European Space Agency's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission.

They call GOCE "the first seismometer in orbit around the Earth," because it was able to detect infrasonic waves in the atmosphere generated by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.

By blending their expertise, two materials science engineers at Washington University in St. Louis changed the electronic properties of new class of materials — just by exposing it to light.

With funding from the Washington University International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES), Parag Banerjee, PhD, and Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, and both assistant professors of materials science, brought together their respective areas of research.

North Carolina State University researchers have come up with a new technique for improving the connections between stacked solar cells, which should improve the overall efficiency of solar energy devices and reduce the cost of solar energy production. The new connections can allow these cells to operate at solar concentrations of 70,000 suns worth of energy without losing much voltage as "wasted energy" or heat.

In 2010, a Cathay Pacific Airways plane was arriving in Hong Kong when the engine control thrusts seized up and it was forced to make a hard landing—injuring dozens. The potential culprit? Contaminated fuel.

The probability of contamination of diesel fuel is increasing as biodiesel becomes more popular and as distribution and supply systems use the same facilities to store and transport the two types of fuels.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- In May 2009, the Mars rover Spirit cracked through a crusty layer of Martian topsoil, sinking into softer underlying sand. The unexpected sand trap permanently mired the vehicle, despite months of remote maneuvering by NASA engineers to attempt to free the rover.

Water and wastewater managers are missing substantial opportunities to save energy and money, according to a report published Wednesday (Sept. 4) by Water in the West, a research center at Stanford University. The report, "Water and Energy Nexus: A Literature Review," also identifies the amount of water used to extract resources such as natural gas, oil and coal, and to generate electricity.

A study of the photovoltaic industries in the US and China shows that China's dominance in solar panel manufacturing is not driven solely by cheaper labour and government support, but by larger-scale manufacturing and resulting supply-chain benefits.

But the researchers say a balance could be achieved through future innovations in crystalline solar cell technology, which have the potential to equalise prices by enhancing access to materials and expanding manufacturing scale across all regions.

SHERIDAN, WY—Throughout the western United States, Canada, and Mexico, Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.) is known for its pleasant fragrance and valuable wood. The juniper's wood—highly valued for its durability, rich color, and pleasant aroma—is popular for use as interior paneling, furniture, and fence posts. For centuries, the leaves and berries of Rocky Mountain juniper, which contain strongly aromatic essential oil, have been used extensively by native people of North America to treat a number of medical conditions.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University have made a significant advance in the function of metal-insulator-metal, or MIM diodes, a technology premised on the assumption that the speed of electrons moving through silicon is simply too slow.

For the extraordinary speed envisioned in some future electronics applications, these innovative diodes solve problems that would not be possible with silicon-based materials as a limiting factor.