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'Watchdog' for greenhouse gas emissions

The signatory countries of the Kyoto Protocol and the new Paris Agreement have committed to reduce global warming. The countries themselves use estimates and projections to verify whether they are actually achieving the necessary reduction in greenhouse gases. The uncertainties are considerable and mistakes do happen. Researchers funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have developed a method to independently monitor these statistics by making direct measurements of the gases in the atmosphere.

Hardly any natural gas pipeline leaks

Infrequent home computer use may be indicative of early cognitive decline

A new study sheds light on a powerful tool that may detect signs of Alzheimer's disease before patients show any symptoms of cognitive decline: the home computer.

An early online version of this paper detailing the findings has been published and is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (volume 52, issue 2).

OHSU researchers have found a significant correlation between infrequent daily computer use and brain imaging signs commonly seen in early-stage Alzheimer's patients.

Improving benchtop particle accelerators

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which helped scientists discover the Higgs boson, is a huge instrument buried under the Swiss-French border. It needs 27 kilometers of track to accelerate particles close to the speed of light before smashing them together. Yet there's another type of particle accelerator, called a laser wakefield accelerator, that requires only a fraction of the distance of conventional accelerators like the LHC.

Forensic researchers set standards for X-ray identification of bodies

Forensic researchers have for the first time established science-based standards for identifying human remains based on X-rays of an individual's spine, upper leg or the side of the skull.

Microagents with revolutionary potential

Salvador Pané was on a trolleybus in Zurich one day after work. He was deep in thought when the bus came to a sudden stop because the cable was disrupted. He was struck by an idea: "Why can't we create a microrobot that generates an electric field wirelessly?" The idea stayed with him and, as a result, the ETH researcher and his colleagues have since succeeded in creating tiny particles that can be precisely controlled by magnetic fields and also generate electric fields.

Social media use associated with depression among US young adults

PITTSBURGH, March 22, 2016 - The more time young adults use social media, the more likely they are to be depressed, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The findings could guide clinical and public health interventions to tackle depression, forecast to become the leading cause of disability in high-income countries by 2030. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is published online and scheduled for the April 1 issue of the journal Depression and Anxiety.

Carbon leads the way in clean energy

Groundbreaking research at Griffith University is leading the way in clean energy, with the use of carbon as a way to deliver energy using hydrogen.

Professor Xiangdong Yao and his team from Griffith's Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre have successfully managed to use the element to produce hydrogen from water as a replacement for the much more costly platinum.

"Hydrogen production through an electrochemical process is at the heart of key renewable energy technologies including water splitting and hydrogen fuel cells," says Professor Yao.

Out-of-hospital births are on the rise

United States' out-of-hospital births increased to nearly 60,000 in 2014, continuing a decade-long increase. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that out-of-hospital births increased from 0.87% of US births in 2004 to 1.50% in 2014, an increase of 72%. Out-of-hospital birth rates increased for all race/ethnic groups, but most rapidly for non-Hispanic white women.

Out-of hospital birth rates varied significantly by state and region of the country, with the highest rates in the Pacific Northwest, and lowest in the Deep South.

Production of butter from shea trees in West Africa pushed back 1,000 years

EUGENE, Ore. -- University of Oregon anthropologists have pushed back the history of harvesting shea trees in West Africa by more than 1,000 years earlier than previously believed.

Evidence for earlier use of the wild trees dating to A.D. 100 -- reported in the March issue of the Journal of Ethnobiology -- surfaced from excavations at the well-preserved archaeological site at Kirikongo in western Burkina Faso. Shea trees only grow in a narrow belt of fertile, well-drained soils in the savannah stretching from West Africa to East Africa.

Wrinkles and crumples make graphene better

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Crumple a piece of paper and it's probably destined for the trash can, but new research shows that repeatedly crumpling sheets of the nanomaterial graphene can actually enhance some of its properties. In some cases, the more crumpled the better.

Pumping up energy storage with metal oxides

Material scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have found certain metal oxides increase capacity and improve cycling performance in lithium-ion batteries.

The team synthesized and compared the electrochemical performance of three graphene metal oxide nanocomposites and found that two of them greatly improved reversible lithium storage capacity.

The research appears on the cover of the March 21 edition of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

ORNL-NIST team explores nanoscale objects and processes with microwave microscopy

When lots of energy hits an atom, it can knock off electrons, making the atom extremely chemically reactive and initiating further destruction. That's why radiation is so dangerous. It's also why high-resolution imaging techniques that use energetic electron beams and X-rays can alter, even obliterate, the samples they explore. For example, monitoring battery dynamics using electron microscopy can introduce artifacts that interfere with electrochemical processes. Another case in point: Employing X-ray spectroscopy to see inside a living cell annihilates that cell.

IBS Creates a wearable graphene-based biomedical device to monitor and combat diabetes

A scientific team from the Center for Nanoparticle Research at IBS has created a wearable GP-based patch that allows accurate diabetes monitoring and feedback therapy by using human sweat. The researchers improved the device's detecting capabilities by integrating electrochemically active and soft functional materials on the hybrid of gold-doped graphene and a serpentine-shape gold mesh.

Engineers adapt laser method to create micro energy units

COLUMBIA, Mo. - In the race to design smaller handheld devices and smartphones, a key factor is decreasing the sizes of components. As the demand for thinner and lighter microelectronic devices increases, manufacturers often are limited by how oddly shaped the energy sources must become to make them conform to the smaller space. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri, have developed a method of transferring an energy source to virtually any shape.

More elderly using dangerous drug combinations

One in six older adults now regularly use potentially deadly combinations of prescription and over-the-counter medications and dietary supplements -- a two-fold increase over a five-year period, according to new research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.