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Titania nanotubes make supersensitive hydrogen sensors

Titania nanotubes are 1500 times better than the next best material for sensing hydrogen and may be one of the first examples of materials properties changing dramatically when crossing the border between real world sizes and nanoscopic dimensions, according to a Penn State materials scientist. “Historically, we have viewed sensor technology and enhancements from the point of view of surface area,” says Dr. Craig A. Grimes, associate professor of electrical engineering and materials science and engineering. “The principle in play in titania nanotubes is not surface area, but connectivity of the tiny tubes and we see an incredible change in electric resistance.”

Destruction of ozone layer is slowing after worldwide ban on CFC release

The rate at which ozone is being destroyed in the upper stratosphere is slowing, and the levels of ozone-destroying chlorine in that layer of the atmosphere have peaked and are going down — the first clear evidence that a worldwide reduction in chlorofluorocarbon pollution is having the desired effect, according to a new study. “This is the beginning of a recovery of the ozone layer,” said Professor Michael Newchurch of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), the scientist who led the ozone trend-analysis research team. “We had a monumental problem of global scale that we have started to solve.”

Tip to elderly: Get hitched

Healthy older people living with a partner feel they have the highest quality of life, whilst those in residential homes are likely to report the poorest, according to new research funded by the Economic & Social Research Council as part of its Growing Older Programme. A three-year-long study of residents aged between 65 and 98 in the London Borough of Wandsworth was carried out by a team led by Professor Graham Beaumont and Dr Pamela Kenealy of the University of Surrey Roehampton and the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability. They found that next to having a partner, older people identified family and good health as important to their quality of life.

HAART prolongs survival in AIDS patients with nervous system lymphoma

AIDS patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma who receive the HAART “cocktail” therapy live much longer than those not treated with the therapy, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas found. A study published in today’s issue of the journal AIDS reports that patients treated with HAART ? Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy ? survived at least 22 months, compared with a median of 29 days for those who didn’t take the prescription drug regimen.

Music therapy strikes a chord with cancer patients

Music therapy for patients who have undergone a bone-marrow transplant reduces their reports of pain and nausea and may even play a role in quickening the pace at which their new marrow starts producing blood cells, according to a pilot study to be published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. The patients who met twice each week for music-assisted relaxation and imagery reported significantly less pain and nausea ? on average, they rated both their pain and nausea “severe” before sessions, but “moderate” after sessions. Their new bone marrow took hold faster, too: The average time until patients began producing their own white blood cells was 13.5 days in the group receiving music therapy, compared to 15.5 days in the control group.

Anthrax Research Might Provide More Time for Treatment

Researchers have been awarded new federal grant money to develop experimental compounds that may someday extend the period during which a person exposed to anthrax can be treated successfully. Ravi Kane, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer, has been awarded a grant of $500,000 from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to develop inhibitors of the anthrax toxin. The inhibitors will be tested in collaboration with Dr. Jeremy Mogridge at the University of Toronto.

Ewe! Sheep provide perfect model for study of menopause

Colorado State University research points to the use of sheep – instead of laboratory rats – to more accurately study the effects of menopause after several research projects verify that under induced menopause the animal experiences similar symptoms and conditions as do women. Older ewes – female sheep – experience hot flashes, eye trouble, bone density loss and other symptoms of menopause when their ovaries are removed, which means that research that would benefit menopausal and post-menopausal women, such as research about estrogen replacement therapy, osteoporosis treatments, and prevention of arthritis and sight-inhibiting changes can be conducted on ewes.

Map of Dark Matter Reveals How Giant Structures Formed

Astrophysicists have had an exceedingly difficult time charting the mysterious stuff called dark matter that permeates the universe because it’s–well–dark. Now, a unique “mass map” of a cluster of galaxies shows in unprecedented detail how dark matter is distributed with respect to the shining galaxies. The new comparison gives a convincing indication of how dark matter figures into the grand scheme of the cosmos.

Music instruction aids verbal memory

Those dreaded piano lessons pay off in unexpected ways: According to a new study, children with music training had significantly better verbal memory than their counterparts without such training. Plus, the longer the training, the better the verbal memory. These findings underscore how, when experience changes a specific brain region, other skills that region supports may also benefit ?- a kind of cognitive side effect that could help people recovering from brain injury as well as healthy children.

Violence, harsh punishments in youth ups risk for adult partner violence

Children who witness their parents using violence against each other and who regularly receive excessive punishment are at increased risk of being involved in an abusive relationship as an adult, according to a 20-year study that followed children into adult romantic relationships. In partner violence cases that result in injury, the study finds that being the victim of physical abuse and conduct disorders as a child are also important risk factors. The findings are reported on in the August issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Cholesterol drug helps heart failure patients without high cholesterol

People with heart failure and normal cholesterol may benefit from cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, researchers report. “This is the first prospective study to show that statins have beneficial effects in heart failure in the absence of coronary artery disease or high blood cholesterol,” says senior author James K. Liao, M.D., director of vascular medicine research at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. “This was a surprising finding in that the benefits occur after only 14 weeks of treatment and with a very low dose of the drug.”