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Showing posts from December, 2013

Major reductions in seafloor marine life from climate change by 2100

Major reductions in seafloor marine life from climate change by 2100 An international team of scientists predict seafloor dwelling marine life will decline by up to 38 per cent in the North Atlantic and over five per cent globally over the next century. These changes will be driven by a reduction in the plants and animals that live at the surface of the oceans that feed deep-sea communities. As a result, ecosystem services such as fishing will be threatened. In the study, led by the National Oceanography Centre, the team used the latest suite of climate models to predict changes in food supply throughout the world oceans. They then applied a relationship between food supply and biomass calculated from a huge global database of marine life. The results of the study are published this week in the scientific journal Global Change Biology. These changes in seafloor communities are expected despite living on average four kilometres under the surface of the ocean. This is because their food ...

How emotions are mapped in the body

How emotions are mapped in the body Dec. 31, 2013 — Researchers found that the most common emotions trigger strong bodily sensations, and the bodily maps of these sensations were topographically different for different emotions. The sensation patterns were, however, consistent across different West European and East Asian cultures, highlighting that emotions and their corresponding bodily sensation patterns have a biological basis. Share This: "Emotions adjust not only our mental, but also our bodily states. This way the prepare us to react swiftly to the dangers, but also to the opportunities such as pleasurable social interactions present in the environment. Awareness of the corresponding bodily changes may subsequently trigger the conscious emotional sensations, such as the feeling of happiness," tells assistant professor Lauri Nummenmaa from Aalto University. "The findings have major implications for our understanding of the f...

Vitamin E may delay decline in mild-to-moderate Alzheimers disease

Vitamin E may delay decline in mild-to-moderate Alzheimers disease Dec. 31, 2013 — Difficulty with activities of daily living often affect Alzheimer's patients, which is estimated to affect as many as 5.1 million Americans. These issues are among the most taxing burdens of the disease for caregivers, which total about 5.4 million family members and friends. New research from the faculty of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai working with Veterans Administration Medical Centers suggests that alpha tocepherol, fat-soluble Vitamin E and antioxidant, may slow functional decline (problems with daily activities such as shopping, preparing meals, planning, and traveling) in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease and decrease caregiver burden. There was no added benefit for memory and cognitive testing with the vitamin. Share This: The study is published online first in the Jan. 1 Journal of the American Medical Association . ...

New studies give strong boost to binary-star formation theory

New studies give strong boost to binary-star formation theory Astronomers know that about half of all Sun-like stars are members of double or multiple-star systems, but have debated over how such systems are formed. "The only way to resolve the debate is to observe very young stellar systems and catch them in the act of formation," said John Tobin, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). "That's what we've done with the stars we observed, and we got valuable new clues from them," he added. Their new clues support the idea that double-star systems form when a disk of gas and dust whirling around one young star fragments, forming another new star in orbit with the first. Young stars that still are gathering matter from their surroundings form such disks, along with jet-like outflows rapidly propelling material in narrow beams perpendicular to the disk. When Tobin and an international team of astronomers studied gas-enshrouded young stars roughly 1,...

Researchers use Hubble Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world

Researchers use Hubble Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world A team of scientists led by researchers in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago report they have definitively characterized the atmosphere of a super-Earth class planet orbiting another star for the first time. The scrutinized planet, which is known as GJ1214b, is classified as a super-Earth type planet because its mass is intermediate between those of Earth and Neptune. Recent searches for planets around other stars ("exoplanets") have shown that super-Earths like GJ 1214b are among the most common type of planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Because no such planets exist in our Solar System, the physical nature of super-Earths is largely unknown. Previous studies of GJ 1214b yielded two possible interpretations of the planet's atmosphere. Its atmosphere could consist entirely of water vapor or some other type of heavy molecule, or it could contain high-altitude clou...

Cloudy weather revealed on alien world

Cloudy weather revealed on alien world Dec. 31, 2013 — Weather forecasters on exoplanet GJ 1214b would have an easy job. Today's forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: overcast. Extended outlook: more clouds. Share This: A team of scientists led by researchers in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago report they have definitively characterized the atmosphere of a super-Earth class planet orbiting another star for the first time. The scrutinized planet, which is known as GJ1214b, is classified as a super-Earth type planet because its mass is intermediate between those of Earth and Neptune. Recent searches for planets around other stars ("exoplanets") have shown that super-Earths like GJ 1214b are among the most common type of planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Because no such planets exist in our Solar System, the physical nature of super-Earths is largely unknown. Previous studies of GJ 1214b yielded two poss...

Earth's crust was unstable in Archean eon; dripped down into mantle

Earth's crust was unstable in Archean eon; dripped down into mantle According to the calculations, this dense primary crust would have descended vertically in drip form. In contrast, the movements of today's tectonic plates involve largely lateral movements with oceanic lithosphere recycled in subduction zones. The findings add to our understanding of how cratons and plate tectonics, and thus also Earth's current continents, came into being. Because mantle temperatures were higher during the Archean eon, Earth's primary crust that formed at the time must have been very thick and also very rich in magnesium. However, as Johnson and his co-authors explain in their article recently published in Nature Geoscience, very little of this original crust is preserved, indicating that most must have been recycled into Earth's mantle. Moreover, the Archean crust that has survived in some areas such as, for example, Northwest Scotland and Greenland, is largely made of tonalite-t...

Testosterone in male songbirds may enhance desire to sing, but not song quality

Testosterone in male songbirds may enhance desire to sing, but not song quality Dec. 30, 2013 — For the male canary, the ability to sing a pitch-perfect song is critical to wooing female canaries. As the seasons change, so does song quality and frequency. The hormone testosterone plays a role in this changing song behavior. Share This: Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have found that introducing testosterone in select areas of a male canary's brain can affect its ability to successfully attract and mate with a female through birdsong. They also found that enhancing song activity based on testosterone in one brain area can change the size of a separate brain area that regulates song quality. These findings could shed light on how testosterone acts in the human brain to regulate speech or help explain how anabolic steroids affect human behaviors. In a paper recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci...

Business 110 inch TV goes on sale for £100,000

Business 110 inch TV goes on sale for £100,000 2013/12/31 The world’s largest TV at 110 inches went on sale today for £100,000 from Samsung. The TV uses ultra-high definition technology – said to have 4x higher pixel density than HD. The TV is 102 inches wide and 70 inches tall. Samsung says it has had ten orders already. The previous biggest TV was 85 inches. UHDTV was developed by NHK and adopted as a standard by the CEA. It applies to TVs with an aspect ratio of at least 16:9 and at least one digital input capable of carrying and presenting native video at a minimum resolution of 3,840 × 2,160 pixels. Welcome to SUV System Ltd! SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distributor with 10 years of experiences. We have built up long term business relationship with about many companies which are stockers and authorized agents. we have a steady and reliable supply to meet customer...

Viewpoints EDA tools and IP are still design differentiators, says Synopsys

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Viewpoints EDA tools and IP are still design differentiators, says Synopsys 2013/12/30 Gabriel Lezmi The European macro environment has been showing signs of uncertainty, and the continued pressure of this economic squeeze is challenging. Simultaneously, our customers continue to have a high degree of focus on aggressive design activity, writes  Gabriel Lezmi , vice president of Synopsys sales in Europe. The result is a strong demand for advanced tools and silicon intellectual property (IP). For our customers, high-impact EDA and IP are more differentiating than ever before, making deep collaboration with the right supplier crucial. Synopsys benefits from these trends and our important investments in R&D continue to pay off. Looking at the continued technology evolution, Synopsys enables the most advanced designs in the world. Be it design at the most innovative FinFET technology nodes, or advanced design at more established nodes, customers rely on Synopsys whenever they ...