Monthly Archives:: August 2012

eSTEMers Welcome New Students!

Posted by & filed under eSTEM, News.

The eSTEMers were out in full force Friday, August 24 to welcome new students to PCC on the 10th annual Welcome Day.  Incoming students and their families were able to take tours of the campus and ask questions to PCC students and staff. New students also had the opportunity to meet professors and obtain information on where to find classrooms, purchase textbooks, ID cards and parking permits.

Latex hunt produces key results in Europe

Posted by & filed under Chemistry.

The Dutch tyre company Apollo Vredestein has successfully produced the first prototypes of tyres obtained from natural latex from guayule and Russian dandelion plants. An outcome of the EU-PEARLS ('EU-based production and exploitation of alternative rubber and latex sources') project, the prototypes will be tested before their production is initiated. The researchers say these tyres could find a solid niche in the global market, helping Europe compete against Asian rubber manufacturers. EU-PEARLS received almost EUR 5.9 million under the 'Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology' (KBBE) Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

Traumatic childhood may increase the risk of drug addiction

Posted by & filed under Health Sciences.

Previous research has shown that personality traits such as impulsivity or compulsiveness are indicators of an increased risk of addiction. Now, new research suggests that these impulsive and compulsive personality traits are also associated with a traumatic upbringing during childhood.

An open platform improves biomedical-image processing

Posted by & filed under Health Sciences.

A new open source platform allows for application sharing as a way of improving biomedical-image processing. Fiji has become a de facto standard that assists laboratories and microscope companies in their development of more precise products, researchers involved in the work say.

Immune system protein could explain pancreatitis

Posted by & filed under Health Sciences.

There is now a clear target for the treatment of acute pancreatitis, according to researchers in Sweden, who have discovered that a well-known protein plays a central role in the development of the disease. It is likely that the protein is also highly significant for other inflammatory diseases.

Too much protein HUWE1 causes intellectual disability

Posted by & filed under Health Sciences.

Two to three percent of children are born with an intellectual disability. Possibly by a genetic defect, but in 80 percent of these cases, we do not know -- yet -- which genes are responsible. Increased production of the HUWE1 protein is the cause in some patients, new research shows.

How gene profiling in emphysema is helping to find a cure

Posted by & filed under Health Sciences.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the United States and is thought to affect almost three million people in the UK. New research has identified genes whose activity is altered with increasing lung damage and, using a database of drug effects on gene activity (the Connectivity Map), finds that the compound Gly-His-Lys (GHK) affects the activity of these genes.

No more sneezing: Allergen-free house plants

Posted by & filed under Health Sciences.

New research shows how targeting two bacterial genes into an ornamental plant Pelargonium, can produce long-lived and pollen-free plants. Pelargoniums (‘Geraniums’ and ‘Storkbills’) have been cultivated in Europe since the17th century and are now one of the most popular garden and house plants around the world.

First implantation of prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes: ‘All of a sudden I could see a little flash of light’

Posted by & filed under Health Sciences.

In a major development, researchers in Australia have successfully performed the first implantation of an early prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes. A patient with profound vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition, has now received the implant that enables her to experience some vision.
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