Since the invention of the earliest light microscopes the classification and identification of pollen and spores has been a highly subjective venture for those who use these tiny particles to study vegetation in their field palynology.
Oxidation prevention is already big business but no products available now work on the scale of
The researchers see potential for very large sheets of h-BN only a few atoms thick made by scalable vapor deposition methods.
The researchers made small sheets of h-BN via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) a process they said should be scalable for industrial production.
Ajayan is the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Mechanical engineering and Materials Science and of chemistry at Rice.
and signaling molecule in both plants and animals and plays an important role in root system formation.
Numerous studies have found this molecule to be required for lateral root development in plants such as tomatoes rice corn lupine and Arabidopsis.
and colleagues have determined that this molecule can in fact have the opposite effect as previously found
and safer for farm workerssince 1996 corn containing a gene that allows it to create a protein that is toxic to certain insects yet safe for human consumption has been grown in the United states
and marketability to genetically identical varieties that lacked Bt proteins. In 2010 and 2011 sweet corn trials were conducted in New york Minnesota Maryland Ohio
#Smoking affects molecular mechanisms, childrens immune systemsthe Leipzig Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research has gained new insights on the influence of tobacco smoke in utero.
and their children how exposure to tobacco smoke affects the development of human immune system on molecular level.
The focus thereby was on microrna--a short single-stranded RNA molecule that is now recognised as playing an important role in gene regulation.
The main objective for Dr Gunda Herberth was to reveal the influence of tobacco smoke on the development of children's immune systems--at molecular level.
However the exact molecular mechanisms and processes that are behind such developments still struggle researchers.
From the early 1990's these cell components started to become more and more of a focus in molecular and cell biology.
In the meantime for humans more than 1200 different short single-stranded RNA molecules have been named some of them playing an important role in immune response.
and/or from volatile organic compounds resulting from smoking. From the pool of mothers participating in the LINA-study 315 mothers (6. 6 percent of whom were smokers)
and cord blood it could be shown that a high exposure to inhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCS) associated with tobacco smoke coincides with high values for mir-223.
After already being able to demonstrate the influence of prenatal smoking on regulatory T-cell numbers in cord blood from our LINA study the current epidemiological investigation delves even deeper into molecular processes Dr. Gunda Herberth
Now the immunologists from Leipzig explicate we will know more about the molecular processes that trigger off stressors from smoke during pregnancy.
These compounds help to protect the developing fruit against predators pathogens and abiotic stresses. When the seeds are ripe the Anr gene is turned off.
and the synthesis of protective compounds are also important in the stigmas of the flower says Thilo Fischer.
just as effective as other chemical compounds to eradicate harmful organisms in stored grains without negative effects.
and silos was the use of chemical substances such as aluminum phosphide and methyl bromide which were effective but left toxic residue for human consumption.
#Biochar in soils cuts greenhouse gas emissionsuniversity of TÃ bingen microbiologists show soil microbe communities can be influenced to decrease nitrous oxide emissions.
they also present a new possibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Biochar is produced by high-temperature thermochemical decomposition of organic material a process known as pyrolysis.
and can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it stores carbon in the soil says Sebastian Behrens.
Indigenous peoples in tropical zones of South america and Africa were aware of biochar's positive effect on soil
which the United nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed that concentrations of the greenhouse gases CO2 methane
#Aggressive fungal pathogen causes mold in fruits, vegetablesa research team led by a molecular plant pathologist at the University of California Riverside has discovered the mechanism by
Many bacterial fungal and oomycete pathogens deliver protein effectors--molecules the pathogens secrete--into the cells of hosts to manipulate
The new study represents the first example of a fungal pathogen delivering RNA effectors specifically small RNA effector molecules into host cells to suppress host immunity
or discovered have been said proteins lead author Hailing Jin a professor of plant pathology and microbiology. Ours is the first study to add the RNA molecule to the list of effectors.
We expect our work will help in the development of new means to control aggressive pathogens.
The process is similar to how protein effectors weaken host immunity in the case of most pathogens.
Study results appear in the Oct. 2013 issue of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Organic forms of Se can alter protein conformation and cause developmental problems and inorganic forms of Se can cause oxidative stress.
or if the bee has the ability to detoxify these compounds at all Hladun said. Further research is necessary to examine the cellular and physiological effects of selenium.
The study also suggests trees might be storing more carbon than currently estimated. The take away from this is that a combination of short
and that raises questions about whether on average forests are socking away more carbon than we think.
Further the team of researchers has identified three safe compounds that mimic DEET and could one day be used to prevent the transmission of deadly vector-borne diseases such as malaria dengue West Nile virus and yellow fever.
Our three compounds which we tested rigorously in the lab do not dissolve plastics Ray said.
Using novel chemical informatics strategies Ray's lab screened half a million compounds against the DEET receptor to identify substitutes.
which compounds are predicted not only to be strong repellents but also found naturally in fruits plants or animals.
of which the researchers tested ten compounds. Of these eight were strong repellents on flies of which four were tested in Aedes mosquitoes
Of the four compounds three are approved already by the Food and Drug Administration as food additives.
All three compounds activated the same antennal cells in flies as DEET Ray said. What's really encouraging is that some of these compounds may be affordable to produce in large quantities.
In the future using this algorithm we could find chemicals that activate DEET receptors but are substantially different with far better properties than DEET.
We could find truly novel repellants that have remarkable properties such as large spatial protection and long-term protection.
In past work his lab identified compounds that mask the host from insects as well as compounds that serve as lures.
Ir40a and its related proteins are conserved not only in flies and mosquitoes but also in many other insects that are human
The three natural compounds identified by Ray's group that mimic DEET are methyl NN-dimethyl anthranilate ethyl anthranilate and butyl anthranilate.
(More than a hundred compounds still await testing in Ray's lab.)The research was supported partially by the National institutes of health's National Institute of Allergy
Second studyin a separate study published Oct 1 in the journal e-Life Ray's group discusses a computational method developed by Boyle for screening thousands of chemicals
--or odor molecules--will interact with specific odorant receptors. This research too may lead to the development of more effective insect repellents.
and used this information to screen more than 240000 different odorant-like volatile compounds. For each receptor they came up with 500 new odorants that were predicted to interact most strongly with it.
and found that approximately 71 percent of the predicted compounds activated or inhibited the receptors.
Many studies have tried to estimate the age of flowering plants from molecular data but so far no consensus has been reached.
Molecular estimates typically need to be anchored in fossil evidence but extremely old fossils were not available for flowering plants.
Scientists have used recently the Canadian Light source (CLS) to evaluate the effects of various sources of supplemental nitrogen fertilizer on the chemical composition of soil organic matter.
Gillespie and his colleagues from AAFC the University of Saskatchewan St francis Xavier University Lakehead University and the CLS tested the hypothesis that the chemical composition of SOM would be different
The invention of synthetic fertilizer where nitrogen is taken from an inert chemical form in the air and turned into ammonia has had a profound effect on nitrogen cycling.
which is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Before fertilizers nitrogen was introduced into the soil through rainfall
Specifically we found less plant-type compounds in soils receiving nitrogen. In addition we found that among the different nitrogen treatments manure-enriched soil had the highest amounts of compounds related to microbial turnover said Gillespie.
The findings will prove important for farmers and scientists alike as they work to maximize the potential growth of food
#Waviness explains why carbon nanotube forests have low stiffnessa new study has found that waviness in forests of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes dramatically reduces their stiffness answering a longstanding question surrounding the tiny structures.
Although they appear to be perfectly straight under high magnification we found waviness in the carbon nanotubes that we believe accounts for the difference in
The research which was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was published online August 31 2013 in the journal Carbon.
Carbon nanotubes provide many attractive properties including high electrical and thermal conductivity and high strength.
Individual carbon nanotubes have a modulus ranging from 100 gigapascals to 1. 5 terapascals. Arrays of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes with a low density would be expected to a have an effective modulus of at least five to 150 gigapascals Sitaraman said
but scientists have measured typically values that are four orders or magnitude less--between one and 10 megapascals.
and Ph d. students Nicholas Ginga and Wei Chen studied forests of carbon nanotubes grown atop a silicon substrate then covered the tips of the structures with another layer of silicon.
To look for potential explanations the researchers examined the carbon nanotubes using scanning electron microscopes located in Georgia Tech's Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology facilities.
We found very tiny kinks in the carbon nanotubes said Sitaraman. Although they appeared to be perfectly straight there was waviness in them.
We took into account the contact between the carbon nanotubes said Chen. This allowed us to investigate the extreme conditions under which the deformation of nanotubes is constrained by the presence of neighboring nanotubes in the forest.
The beauty of the carbon nanotubes is that they act like springs between the silicon chip
Carbon nanotubes have extraordinarily high thermal conductivity as much as ten times that of copper making them ideal for drawing heat away from the chips.
Carvajal Moreno explained that such molecule was recovered from tissue samples of liver and cervical cancer in humans therefore aflatoxins are a very important factor in triggering this diseases.
But unlike in women neither soy protein nor a common antidepressant provides relief for men according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical center.
venlafaxine an antidepressant commonly prescribed to treat hot flashes in women and milk powder protein; soy protein powder and placebo pill;
or venlafaxine and milk powder. Hot flash symptom severity and frequency and quality of life were assessed by the researchers.
The researchers found that neither venlafaxine nor soy protein alone or in combination reduced hot flashes in men.
#Biochar quiets microbes, including some plant pathogensin the first study of its kind Rice university scientists have used synthetic biology to study how a popular soil amendment called biochar can interfere with the chemical signals that some microbes
The class of compounds studied includes those used by some plant pathogens to coordinate their attacks.
-and water-holding properties of soil but its popularity in recent years also owes to its ability to reduce greenhouse gases by storing carbon in soil in some cases for many centuries.
and Technology is the first to examine how biochar affects the chemical signaling that's routinely used by soil microorganisms that interact with plants.
One strain spoke with a type of chemical communication commonly used by soil microbes and the other listened.
That upheld our hypothesis which was that biochar could interfere with cell signaling most likely by binding with the fatty-acid molecules that the speakers were using to broadcast their message.
#Niacin, the fountain of youthwho would not want to live a long and healthy life? A freely available food supplement could help in this respect scientists from ETH Zurich have demonstrated in roundworms.
Vitamin B3--also known as niacin--and its metabolite nicotinamide in the worms'diet caused them to live for about one tenth longer than usual.
As an international team of researchers headed by Michael Ristow a professor of energy metabolism has demonstrated now experimentally niacin
However this may rather be caused by other compounds contained therein such as so-called polyphenols. Fruit and vegetables are healthy
Based on the present study he concludes that niacin brings about a similar metabolic condition to exercise.
Niacin tricks the body into believing that it is exercising--even when this is not the case says Ristow.
Such compounds are known as exercise mimetics. The researchers conducted their experiments on the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans.
After all the metabolic pathway initiated by niacin is very similar in roundworms and higher organisms.
Whether niacin has similar effects on the life expectancy of mice is the subject of Ristow's current research.
Previous studies also suggest a health-enhancing effect of niacin in humans with elevated blood cholesterol levels.
Niacin and nicotinamide have been approved as dietary supplements for decades. Ristow could easily envisage the substances being used broadly for therapeutic purposes in the future.
A whole series of foods naturally contain niacin including meat liver fish peanuts mushrooms rice and wheat bran.
Disputed impact of enzymesthe latest study on the effects of niacin and nicotinamide is based on a particular class of enzymes the sirtuins
which convert niacin into nicotinamide. Moreover they are involved also in gene regulation helping to down regulate the activity of certain genes.
Instead the effect is due to the conversion of niacin into nicotinamide. Studying genetically modified roundworms that were unable to convert nicotinamide into certain other metabolic products the scientists did not observe any lifespan extension even after overexpression of sirtuins which otherwise lead to an increased life expectancy.
Rhizobia eventually developed a chemical to inhibit the defense response in legumes and make those plants recognize it as a friend.
when exposed to the chemical signal from the rhizobia bacteria. They found that the plants did receive the signal and like legumes inhibited the normal plant immune system.
hydrogenfor astrophysicists the interplay of hydrogen--the most common molecule in the universe--and the vast clouds of dust that fill the voids of interstellar space has been an intractable puzzle of stellar evolution.
Impurities and defects on the dust grains produce catalytic sites for the formation of hydrogen molecules which are ejected subsequently creating miniature rocket engines also called Purcell thrusters after Nobel laureate Edwin Purcell who studied grain alignment.
and Hoang predicts how the molecular hydrogen thrust changes grain alignment and was put to the test by Andersson's team of observers.
The observations conducted by Andersson demonstrate that intense molecular hydrogen formation on the surface of the interstellar dust grains is an important contributor to the dust grains spinning.
Hydrogen does not exist in the element's gas phase in space since the two atoms of the molecule cannot rid themselves of the formation reaction energy without a third body.
The two hydrogen atoms therefore use the surfaces of dust grains as a substrate and the force of the reaction energy is enough to set the dust grains in motion.
and pharmaceutical products into waterways is often based on a belief that as the compounds degrade the ecological risks naturally decline.
But there's growing sentiment that once in the environment some of these bioactive organic compounds may transform in a way that makes their presumed impact less certain.
In lab tests followed by field experiments the researchers found that trenbolone does not fully break down in water as believed retaining enough of a chemical residue to regenerate itself in the environment under certain conditions to an extent that the drugs'lives may be prolonged even in trace amounts.
We're finding a chemical that is broadly utilized to behave in a way that is different from all our existing regulatory
Sunlight is one catalyst for breaking down compounds in the environment. But in this study by simulating day
and night in the lab the research team found that the steroid's chemical compounds never fully disappeared in daylight.
Moreover during a simulated night under typical surface water conditions some of the compounds regenerated themselves to as much as 60 percent of the metabolite's initial mass
and when it was more acidic or alkaline the team found. The researchers validated the lab results with two experiments in the field--one with water culled from the Iowa River in Iowa City Iowa
#First long temperature reconstruction for the eastern Mediterranean based on tree ringsfor the first time a long temperature reconstruction on the basis of stable carbon isotopes in tree rings has been achieved for the eastern Mediterranean.
The analysis of carbon isotope ratios (13c/12c) in tree rings aims to close this research gap.
The carbon isotope ratios measured in individual tree rings largely depends on the environmental conditions; thus the varying tree-ring isotope values are good indicators for changes in the environment.
The carbon isotope ratios in the trees from Turkey indicate a temperature sensitivity of the trees during late winter to early spring.
In cold winters the cambium and the leaves are damaged more than usual and the following recovery in spring takes longer.
Once invasive plants become established they can alter soil chemistry and shift nutrient cycling in an ecosystem.
This can have important impacts not only on plant composition diversity and succession within a community but also in the cycling of critical elements like carbon and nitrogen on a larger potentially even global scale.
Some convert atmospheric nitrogen into bioavailable forms that are exchanged then for carbon from the plant.
Bioavailable nitrogen is frequently limiting in soils yet many invaded ecosystems have more carbon and nitrogen in plant tissues and soils compared with systems dominated by native plants.
Rout and colleagues first confirmed that the invaded soils of the prairie did indeed have higher levels of nitrogen phosphorous and iron-derived chemicals compared with the non-invaded prairie soils still dominated by native plants.
Moreover these changes to the soil chemistry not only increase the competitive edge of this invasive species but also can inhibit
The team's approach particularly the theoretical model is applicable to assess laser processing of other alloys and compounds Guan notes.
As the surface structures affect not only the mechanical and chemical properties but also the electronic thermal and optical parameters these findings will be of relevance to metals used in a variety of applications.
and many experts believe it is just a matter of time before the disease appears full force in California said plant molecular biologist Abhaya Dandekar lead author on the study.
and the bacteria are resistant to being grown in the laboratory the only option for halting transmission of citrus greening has been to apply chemical pesticides to control the insect that spreads the bacteria Dandekar said.
and other small molecules to restore the infected tree's normal metabolism or boosting the tree's innate immune response to effectively fight the infection.
comparisons of the energy consumption greenhouse gas emissions and total cost of ownership for the medium-duty vehicles.
and emit about 40 percent less greenhouse gases than diesel trucks for about the same total cost taking into account both the purchase price
The research team took into account the sources of electricity used to charge the electric vehicles in evaluating greenhouse gas emissions.
In every state in the U s. electric trucks provided some reduction in greenhouse gas emissions with urban routes providing the most advantage.
Lithium-ion battery packs are expected to last the lifetime of the trucks as much as 150000 miles for the drive cycles tested.
or duty cycle application fleet operators could enjoy higher returns on investment while saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
and Molecular Medicine Laboratory developed a pig model that closely mimics the human gastric environment.
#oepigs have greater anatomic physiologic and immunologic similarities to humans than mice the main animal model used in biomedical research said Raquel Hontecillas co-director of the Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Medicine
and waterways by agricultural chemicals as well as carbon costs because of vehicles and artificial fertiliser necessary to maintain the pasture.
(and less runoff) encourages predators of harmful animals minimizes greenhouse gas emissions improves job satisfaction for farm workers reduces injury
Another success has been in Colombia where a mixed planting of the shrub Leucaena with a common pasture grass resulted in a 27%increase in dry matter for food and 64%increase of protein production.
#Chinas synthetic gas plants would be powered greenhouse giantscoal synthetic natural gas plants being planned in China would produce seven times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional natural gas plants
Using coal to make natural gas may be good for China's energy security but it's an environmental disaster in the making said Robert B. Jackson Nicholas Professor of Environmental sciences
At a minimum Chinese policymakers should delay implementing their synthetic natural gas plan to avoid a potentially costly
As part of the largest investment in coal-fueled synthetic natural gas plants in history the central Chinese government recently has approved construction of nine large-scale plants capable of producing more than 37 billion cubic meters
of synthetic natural gas annually. Private companies are planning to build more than 30 other plants capable of producing as much as 200 million cubic meters of natural gas each year--far exceeding China's current natural gas demand.
These plants are coming online at a rapid pace. If all nine plants planned by the Chinese government were built they would emit 21 billion tons of carbon dioxide over a typical 40-year lifetime seven times the greenhouse gas that would be emitted by traditional natural gas plants Jackson said.
If all 40 of the facilities are built their carbon dioxide emissions would be an astonishing 110 billion tons Jackson said.
if the gas produced by the new plants is used to generate electricity the total lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions would be 36 percent to 82 percent higher than pulverized coal-fired power.
If the synthetic natural gas made by the plants were used to fuel vehicles the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions would be twice as large as from gasoline-fueled vehicles.
The increased carbon dioxide emissions from the nine government-approved plants alone will more than cancel out all of the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from China's recent investments in wind
While we applaud China's rapid development in clean energy we must be cautious about this simultaneous high-carbon leapfrogging.
Producing synthetic natural gas requires 50 to 100 times the amount of water you need to produce shale gas Yang said.
It will lock in high greenhouse gas emissions water use and mercury pollution for decades. Perhaps there's still time to stop it.
#Melatonin helps control weight gain as it stimulates the appearance of#beige fat that can burn calories instead of storing them,
because it stimulates the appearance of'beige fat'a type of fat cell that burns calories in vivo instead of storing them.
whereas'beige fat'(also known as'good or thinning fat')helps regulate body weight control hence its metabolic benefits.
and'white fat'is that'beige fat'cell mitochondria express levels of UCP1 protein responsible for burning calories
but scientifically simplistic perception that biofuels such as ethanol are inherently carbon neutral meaning that the heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas emitted
Decicco's direct carbon accounting examines carbon sources and sinks (storage sites such as forests or crop fields) separately an approach that lends greater clarity about options for addressing carbon dioxide emissions from liquid fuels.
But Decicco pointed out that a recent National Academy of Sciences report concluded that the Renewable Fuel Standard may not reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all once global impacts are counted.
Imagine a bubble of gas underwater--the surface between the gas bubble and the water corresponds to the heliopause.
The heliopause separates regions of different gases. In the case of the Voyager 1 crossing the heliopause separates material created by the sun from material that surrounds the stars throughout the galaxy.
At the heliopause the influence of the solar wind is no longer great enough to push back the gas
Neutral particles from space travel through the electrons and ions in the solar boundary and swap electrons with the plasma inside the boundary to generate another highly energized hydrogen atom called an energetic neutral atom (ENA.
It's the IBEX satellite that's the hawk mapping the whole of space from its Earth orbit based on energetic neutral particles that stream in to it from outer space.
Eric has sophisticated the most model to address energetic neutral atoms and the ability to use them to probe the physics of the very local interstellar medium and its magnetic field.
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