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Friday 1 March 2013

Announcing the winners of the January 2013 Dev Derby! ✩ Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog

This past January, creative web developers from around the world showed us what they could do with drag and drop interaction in the January Dev Derby contest. After looking through the entries, our three new expert judges -Craig Cook, Franck Lecollinet, and Guillaume Lecollinet-decided on three winners and two runners-up.

In the study, mice that ate the freeze-dried, ground tomatoes had less inflammation and reduced atherosclerosis (plaque build-up in the arteries). "We have found a new and practical way to make a peptide that acts like the main protein in good cholesterol, but is many times more effective and can be delivered by eating the plant," said Alan M.

Daily doses of a new probiotic reduces 'bad' and total cholesterol

Probiotics are live microorganisms (naturally occurring bacteria in the gut) thought to have beneficial effects; common sources are yogurt or dietary supplements. In previous studies, a formulation of the bacteria, known as Lactobacillus reuteri NCIMB 30242, has lowered blood levels of LDL or "bad" cholesterol.

The volcano Toba is located in Indonesia on the island Sumatra, which lies close to the equator. The colossal eruption, which occurred 74,000 years ago, left a crater that is about 50 km wide. Expelled with the eruption was 2,500 cubic kilometers of lava -- equivalent to double the volume of Mount Everest.

Researchers have discovered a new efficient way to pump heat using crystals. The crystals can pump or extract heat, even on the nanoscale, so they could be used on computer chips to prevent overheating or even meltdown, which is currently a major limit to higher computer speeds.

A whale that is almost unknown to science has been seen for the first time after two individuals -- a mother and her male calf -- were stranded and died on a New Zealand beach. A new report offers the first complete description of the spade-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon traversii), a species previously known only from a few bones.

"We found that familial longevity was associated with lower levels of vitamin D and a lower frequency of allelic variation in the CYP2R1 gene, which was associated with higher levels of vitamin D," writes Dr. Diana van Heemst, Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, with coauthors.

Home blood pressure monitoring may not benefit patients with stroke and hypertension

"Overall, home monitoring did not improve blood pressure control in an unselected group of patients with hypertension and a history of stroke. However, it was associated with more changes in antihypertensive treatment during the trial, which suggested more active management in the intervention group," writes Sally Kerry, Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Queen Mary, University of London, UK, with coauthors.

"Despite uncertainty regarding the long-term health benefits of vitamins, many U.S. adults take vitamin supplements to prevent chronic diseases or for general health and well-being," according to background information in the article. Individuals who believe they are deriving benefits from supplements may be less likely to engage in other preventive health behaviors.

3-D audio effects can be produced by stereo speakers, surround-sound speakers, speaker-arrays, or headphones, which essentially give an illusion to listeners that sounds are being produced in the 3-D space around them. The effects are the result of manipulating the listener's sound perception through the placement of virtual sound sources in the 3-D space to alter the way the sound is played.

Sensors built from high frequency bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators consist of a piezoelectric layer sandwiched between two electrodes, to which a variable frequency signal is applied. The resonator vibrates at a given frequency, and the properties of the resulting acoustic wave allow researchers to determine what is occurring in the environment.

New analysis of heart rate patterns on ECGs may predict death risk from all causes

In a study initially designed to determine which patients with heart failure were at highest risk of a dangerous heart rhythm disorder called ventricular tachycardia, and death, the researchers analyzed the ECGs of 850 patients using a new computer algorithm that detects abnormal heart rate patterns.

"The economy is already slowly improving, and probably will continue to do so, regardless of who's elected," he says. "What's reasonable for the candidates to promise is that they will help set the stage for more rapid, more sustainable economic growth and reduced deficits.

Researchers have succeeded in teaching computers how to identify commonalities in DNA sequences known to regulate gene activity, and to then use those commonalities to predict other regulatory regions throughout the genome. The tool is expected to help scientists better understand disease risk and cell development.

Matt Shatley, computer research specialist in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE), assembled the animation by digitally stitching together about 800 infrared images taken by GOES, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, which keeps a continuous eye on the continental United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.

Recreational cocaine users may have higher blood pressure, stiffer arteries and thicker heart muscle walls than non-users -- all of which can cause a heart attack. The Australian study is the first to document some of these cardiovascular abnormalities in seemingly healthy cocaine users long after the immediate effects of cocaine have worn off.

A Goffin's cockatoo called 'Figaro', that has been reared in captivity and lives near Vienna, used his powerful beak to cut long splinters out of wooden beams in its aviary, or twigs out of a branch, to reach and rake in objects out of its reach.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have identified components of Jatropha curcas seed oil that are responsible for mosquito repellency. Researchers at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Natural Products Utilization Research Unit (NPURU) in Oxford, Miss., often find effective plant-derived compounds to deter insects by gathering plants in the wild and investigating those used in traditional folk remedies.

Engineers have been working to create advanced materials with high-yield strength, fracture toughness and ductility. Their efforts have led to the development of a new material consisting of bainitic steels and austempered ductile iron that has all these characteristics, ultimately resisting fatigue that can cause fractures in materials often with catastrophic consequences.

The finding -- reported Nov. 4, 2012, at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions annual meeting and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association -- provides new insights into a subset of heart patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) whose risk for cardiovascular events remained unchanged despite taking medicine that successfully reduced platelet clotting function.

The study, the first ever to chart the evolution of the current pine beetle epidemic in the southern Rocky Mountains, compared patterns of beetle outbreak in the two primary host species, the ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Teresa Chapman.

Existing research suggests that emotional expressions are multi-taskers, serving more than one function. Fear signals, for example, not only help to warn others about environmental danger, they are also associated with behaviors that confer a survival advantage through sensory acquisition.

Forty-six states are implementing the Common Core math and reading standards, which nonetheless have come under fire recently by some researchers and would-be politicians. But William Schmidt, MSU Distinguished Professor of statistics and education, said the Common Core is a world-class set of standards.

Overweight patients hospitalized with pneumonia more apt to survive

For their research study, the team examined the records of 907 patients with pneumonia who were admitted to six Edmonton hospitals and also had their body mass index recorded. Two-thirds of the patients had severe pneumonia and 79 died in hospital.

Standardized booster seat laws could save lives of children

Boston Children's researchers reviewed data from Fatality Analytic Reporting System, analyzing child deaths in motor vehicle accidents, looking specifically at whether the crash and resulting deaths or injuries took place in a state with or without a booster seat law. If the state did have a booster law, the team noted its age and height requirements.

Unlike most viruses that spread to new cells by bombarding them with millions of particles, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) -- a virus that causes cold sores and genital lesions -- requires just one or two viral particles to infect a skin cell in the first stage of cold sore formation, Princeton University researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For more than 30 years, climate scientists have debated whether flood waters from melting of the enormous Laurentide Ice Sheet, which ushered in the last major cold episode on Earth about 12,900 years ago, flowed northwest into the Arctic first, or east via the Gulf of St.

The research published Nov 5 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS) shows that the body size of marine and freshwater species are affected disproportionately by warmer temperatures. This could have implications for aquatic food webs and the production of food by aquaculture.

This finding comes from the first-ever Phase I clinical study of gene therapy in a human salivary gland. Its results show that the transferred gene, Aquaporin-1, has great potential to help head and neck cancer survivors who battle with chronic dry mouth.

While earlier studies have found that erosion can bury carbon in the soil, acting as a carbon sink, or storage, the new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that part of that sink is only temporary.

New DNA vaccine technology poised to deliver safe and cost-effective disease protection

To advance this quest, a research team led by Roy Curtiss, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, and Wei Kong, a research assistant professor, at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute have taken a dramatic step forward, revealing the design of a universal platform for delivering highly potent DNA vaccines, by employing a cleverly re-engineered bacterium to speed delivery to host cells in the vaccine recipient.

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators can reduce sudden death in young patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

While the study found that the rate of possible device complications adds a level of complexity to this age group, it also demonstrated that life-saving ICD interventions were common in younger patients when terminating irregular heart rhythms, called ventricular tachyarrhythmias or fibrillation.

We're more passive than we predict when sexually harassed, new study shows

When confronted with sexual harassment, we don't stand up for ourselves to the extent we believe we will, and because we use false predictions as a benchmark, we condemn others who are passive in the face of sexual harassment, according to a new study co-authored by Ann Tenbrunsel, professor of business ethics at the University of Notre Dame.

Superbug MRSA identified in US wastewater treatment plants

The "superbug" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is prevalent at several U.S. wastewater treatment plants, according to new research. MRSA is well known for causing difficult-to-treat and potentially fatal bacterial infections in hospital patients, but is also increasingly infecting otherwise healthy people in community settings.

Kids consume more soda and calories when eating out

A new study, by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and published online by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, is the first to look separately at fast-food and full-service restaurants. The researchers examined calorie intake, diet quality, and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, particularly soda, on days when youngsters ate out as compared to days they did not.

Gels can be found everywhere: from contact lenses to ink, from sensors to medical electrodes and even breast implants. Their ultra-absorbent properties, flexibility, and grip make them appealing to researchers and manufacturers. They consist of a network of solids that can retain up to 99% of liquid while maintaining their shape.

Gait impairment is associated with functional decline in patients with PD and current therapies are inadequate at preserving mobility as PD progresses. There is growing interest in the use of exercise to improve mobility and function, the authors write in the study background. Lisa M.

Study examines smoking by inpatients during hospital stay

The Joint Commission requires accredited U.S. hospitals to have a policy prohibiting smoking in hospital buildings, but the requirement does not extend to the hospital campus. In most hospitals where a campus-wide smoking ban is not in place, hospitalized smokers can go outside the hospital to smoke, according to the study background.

The finding, published Nov. 5, 2012, in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, for the first time provides clear evidence that smaller amygdala volume is associated with PTSD, regardless of the severity of trauma. But it's not clear whether the physiological difference was caused by a traumatic event, or whether PTSD develops more readily in people who naturally have smaller amygdalas.

The study was published Nov. 5 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "We found that many people develop cardiovascular disease as they live into old age, but those with optimal risk factor levels live disease-free longer," said John T. Wilkins, M.D., first author of the study.

Children's preexisting symptoms influence their reactions to disaster coverage on TV

After a natural disaster occurs, we often find ourselves glued to the TV, seeking out details about the extent of the damage and efforts at recovery. While research has shown that exposure to this kind of coverage is associated with symptoms of traumatic stress in youths, new research suggests that the relationship isn't so simple: the amount of exposure to disaster coverage matters but children's preexisting symptoms also play an important role.

Therapy with bone marrow-derived stem cells does not improve short-term recovery after heart attack

The results of the trial, called Transplantation In Myocardial Infarction Evaluation (TIME), mirror a previous, related study, LateTIME, which found that such cells (called autologous stem cells) given two to three weeks after a heart attack did not improve heart function.

Reducing the size of photonic and electronic elements is critical for ultra-fast data processing and ultra-dense information storage. The miniaturization of a key, workhorse instrument -- the laser -- is no exception. The results are published in the journal Nano Letters.

Comedian's political humor affects potential voter's attitudes about candidates

The study, set to be published in the November 2012 issue of Mass Communication and Society, found that attitudes about a candidate were affected by viewing critical comedy content, irrespective of whether the viewer self-identified as a Republican or Democrat.

Controlling vascular disease may be key to reducing prevalence of Alzheimer's disease

"Vascular risk factors to Alzheimer's disease offer the possibility of markedly reducing incident dementia by early identification and appropriate medical management of these likely precursors of cognitive deterioration and dementia," says Guest Editor Jack C. de la Torre, MD, PhD, of the University of Texas, Austin.

The effects of these unprecedented changes would be extremely detrimental to India's economy which relies heavily on the monsoon season to bring fresh water to the farmlands. The findings have been published November 6, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, by researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Potsdam University.

Results of the study are published in this week's issue of the journal Science. Scientists John Taylor of Cambridge University and Roman Stocker at MIT found that there's a relationship between the natural movement of water in the ocean and the ability of marine bacteria to act as recyclers.

The team of researchers, led by Professor Vera Gorbunova and Assistant Professor Andrei Seluanov, found that abnormally growing cells in blind mole rats secrete the interferon beta protein, which causes those cells to rapidly die. Seluanov and Gorbunova hope the discovery will eventually help lead to new cancer therapies in humans.

Last week Jon Galloway, Damian Edwards and myself (with a raspy throat) were up in Redmond at the Microsoft Campus filming at Microsoft Virtual Academy. They've got a whole studio there so we spent the whole day presenting LIVE.

A new Dart Editor build is available at www.dartlang.org/editor. Ch a nges include: Cleanup for on.click.add => onClick.listen changes. New application wizards updated for library changes. Bug fix for debugging Dartium launches on Windows machines using IPv6.

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