Pig Genome Offers Insights Into the Feistiest of Farm Animals

The pig and its cousin the wild boar have much in common with humans. They are world travelers. They're adaptable, invasive and often damage their own habitat. They are easy to seduce (with food) and susceptible to domestication, but when conditions allow, they revert to a feral lifestyle.
A new genomic analysis reveals some new, unexpected and potentially beneficial similarities between pigs and humans, along with a few distinct differences. The International Swine Genome Sequencing Consortium -- led by researchers at the University of Illinois, Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the University of Edinburgh -- conducted the analysis. Theirs is the most thorough genomic study yet conducted of the domestic pig and its wild boar counterparts.
A report of the study appears as the cover article in the November 15, 2012, issue of the journal Nature.
"It is exciting that the genomic sequence of the domestic pig now is in the public domain and available to enable more powerful approaches to domestic swine and pork improvement," said Ronnie Green, University of Nebraska Vice Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and an early supporter of the pig genome sequencing project at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "It will also aid efforts to use the pig as a model for biomedical research and the improvement of human health."
"This new analysis helps us understand the genetic mechanisms that enable high-quality pork production, feed efficiency and resistance to disease," said Sonny Ramaswany, the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. "This knowledge can ultimately help producers breed high-quality swine, lower production costs and improve sustainability."
The researchers compared the genome of a common farm pig, Sus scrofa domesticus, with those of 10 wild boars -- all from different parts of Europe and Asia. They also compared the pig genome with the human, mouse, dog, horse and cow genomes.
The team discovered new details of Sus scrofa evolution after the ancestors of the domestic pig, which most resembled today's wild boars, first emerged in Southeast Asia and gradually migrated across Eurasia.
Comparisons of Asian and European wild boars revealed significant genetic differences, the result of their separating from one another roughly 1 million years ago, said University of Illinois Vice President for Research Lawrence Schook, a principal investigator on the study.
"They have been separated so long that the Asian and European lineages are almost sub-species now," Schook said. The European and Asian wild boars lost a lot of genetic diversity about 20,000 years ago, likely as a result of a global glaciation event.
Comparisons of domestic and wild pigs also "revealed a clear distinction between European and Asian breeds," the researchers wrote. This adds to the evidence that "pigs were independently domesticated in western Eurasia and East Asia."
"We had evidence from previous studies, but those studies focused on the mitochondrial DNA, a small DNA molecule only inherited from the mother," said Wageningen University professor Martien Groenen, also a principal investigator on the study. "With the complete genome sequence of multiple wild boars we now have a much clearer picture about these events."
"This understanding of the genetic origins of modern pigs is important as we breed pigs to meet growing demand more efficiently and to resist old and emerging diseases," said Alan Archibald, a professor at The Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh and a principal investigator on the study.
Some gene families are undergoing relatively fast evolution in the domestic pig, with immune genes and (perhaps not surprisingly) olfactory genes quickly expanding. The pig has more unique olfactory genes than humans, mice or dogs, the researchers report.
And while pigs can smell a world of things humans and many other animals can't -- think truffles -- their sense of taste is somewhat impaired.
"Pigs have a high tolerance for eating things that have a lot of salt or that we would find repulsive by taste," Schook said.
Pigs have significantly fewer bitter taste receptor genes than humans, for example, and genes involved in perception of sweet and umami (which humans perceive as meaty) flavors are also different in pigs and humans, the researchers found.
"Understanding the genes that shape the characteristics of pigs can point to how and why they were domesticated by humans," Archibald said. "Perhaps it was their ability to eat stuff that is unpalatable to us humans."
The new analysis also supports the use of the pig in studies of human diseases.
"In total, we found 112 positions where the porcine protein has the same amino acid that is implicated in a disease in humans," the researchers wrote.
By also sequencing the genomes of another 48 pigs, "we identified many more gene variants implicated in human disease, further supporting the pig as a valuable biomedical model," Groenen said.
Some of the protein aberrations pigs share with humans are associated with obesity, diabetes, dyslexia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, the researchers report.
The new analysis also has important implications for agriculture, particularly since the domestic pig still has an ancestor-like wild cousin on the loose, the researchers said. Unlike the domestic cow, whose ancestors, the aurochs, are now extinct, the porcine lineage has a lot of genetic diversity remaining.
"We can easily go find genes that might be still in the wild that we could use for breeding purposes today," said Schook, who is the Gutgsell Professor of Animal Sciences, Bioengineering, Pathobiology, Nutritional Sciences, Pathology and Surgery at Illinois.
"This study demonstrates the benefits of basic genomic research on agricultural animals and their closest living relatives," said U. of I. President Bob Easter, who helped secure funding for the pig genome sequencing effort when he was the dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois. "This work has important implications for agriculture, contributes to our understanding of evolution and will aid in human medicine," said Easter, who also is an emeritus professor of animal sciences and of nutritional sciences.

My Microbes: New Genetic Fingerprint Lives in Your Gut

Our bodies contain far more microbial genes than human genes. And a new study suggests that just as human DNA varies from person to person, so too does the massive collection of microbial DNA in the intestine.
The research is the first to catalog the genetic variation of microbes that live in the gut, where they extract nutrients from food, synthesize vitamins, protect against infections, and produce compounds that naturally reduce inflammation. The widespread genetic diversity uncovered by the scientists can help them understand how our microbial genes work together with our human genes to keep us healthy or, in some cases, to cause disease.
The study, by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, is published online Dec. 5 in Nature.
"Surprisingly, each of us can be identified by the collective DNA of our gut microbes," says corresponding author George Weinstock, PhD, associate director of The Genome Institute at Washington University."That collection is individualized, completely analogous to our human genome. Differences in the way individuals respond to various drugs or the way they use specific nutrients can be traced to the genetic variation in our microbial genes as well as in our human genes."
The researchers analyzed the microbial DNA in 252 stool samples from 207 individuals living in the United States and Europe. All the subjects had participated in one of two recent high-profile initiatives to catalog the diverse species of microbes that live in and on the body. Neither of those studies -- the Human Microbiome Project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, and the Metagenomics of the Human Intestinal Tract (MetaHIT) project, funded by the European Commission -- looked at the genetic variation of the microbial genomes in the body.
For the new study, the researchers zeroed in on 101 species of microbes commonly found in the intestine, identifying more than 10 million single-letter changes in the collective DNA of those microbes. They also found numerous other DNA alterations, including insertions, deletions and structural changes.
In 43 subjects for whom the researchers had two stool samples collected at least a month apart (most were collected six months to a year after the initial sample), the researchers found very little variability in the microbial DNA over time, although the species of microbes in the intestine fluctuated.
"The microbial DNA in the intestine is remarkably stable, like a fingerprint," Weinstock explains. "Even after a year, we could still distinguish individuals by the genetic signature of their microbial DNA."
Babies become colonized with microbes as they pass through the birth canal and into the world. Those microbes come from their mothers and from the environment. Exactly how the microbes shape our lives is not yet known, but in the gut research has suggested that an imbalance of bacteria may contribute to irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's and even obesity.
With this new catalog, the researchers can begin to understand the selective forces that shape the microbiome -- the collection of microbes and their genes -- in the intestine.
"The DNA of our microbes is a historical record of the microbial evolution in our bodies," says co-author Makendonka Mitreva, PhD, assistant professor of medicine. "Many of these organisms would have colonized us when we were very young and would have grown and evolved with us throughout our lifetimes."
The information gleaned from future studies of the gut microbiome also may help scientists determine how the microbial genes can be manipulated to improve human health and the effectiveness of certain medications, she adds.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121205132159.htm

Sleeping Giants Discovered: Largest Black Holes Ever Measured Found in 'Nearby' Galaxies

Astronomers recently discovered the most massive black holes to date. Found in two separate nearby galaxies roughly 300 million light years away from Earth, each black hole has a mass equivalent to 10 billion suns.
"We knew that really large quasars, which are powered by matter falling into black holes, existed in the early universe," said Chung-Pei Ma, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author of an article that will be published in Nature on Dec. 8.
"What we hadn't yet found was where the remnants of those quasars--equally large black holes--were in the current universe," she said. "The boisterous quasars may have passed through a turbulent youth to become the quiescent giant elliptical galaxies we see today, harboring hidden black holes at their centers."
Black holes are made of matter so dense that even light can't escape their intense gravitational fields. Exploding stars--known as supernovae--can create relatively small black holes only a few times more massive than the sun, but researchers think these monster black holes are formed in different ways, such as multiple smaller black holes merging into one, or voracious growth by swallowing vast amounts of stars and gas while galaxies are forming.
The gigantic black holes discovered by Ma and her colleagues are so enormous they are capable of consuming anything within a region five times the size of Earth's solar system.
Researchers think that most, if not all, galaxies have a black hole at the center. The larger the galaxy, the larger the black hole it contains. Researchers suggest these blacks holes consume tremendous quantities of gas and dust from the central regions of the galaxy, at which point they become "dormant." The surviving gas may become stars that orbit peacefully within the galaxy.
Their quiet nature is part of what makes these sleeping giants so difficult to observe. "Since black holes cannot be seen, we have to detect them by carefully observing their immediate surroundings," said Nicholas McConnell, first author of the paper. "These galaxies contained enormous masses within a small central volume--too much mass to come from stars alone." These and other factors led the group to conclude that most of the mass is contained in massive black holes.
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and using telescopes at the NSF-supported International Gemini Observatory, as well as the Keck and McDonald observatories, McConnell and Ma were able to map the velocities of stars orbiting the centers of massive elliptical galaxies--data the research team did not have the technical capability to obtain just a few years ago. The new results may help astronomers determine how black holes and galaxies form and develop together over the history of the universe.
"Galaxies are the places where stars and planetary systems form, and supermassive black holes in the early universe set the stage for their formation," said Tom Statler, program director for NSF's division of Astronomical Sciences.
"Black holes played a big role in making our universe what it is today."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111206115258.htm

Giant Black Hole Could Upset Galaxy Evolution Models

A group of astronomers led by Remco van den Bosch from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) have discovered a black hole that could shake the foundations of current models of galaxy evolution. At 17 billion times the mass of the Sun, its mass is much greater than current models predict -- in particular since the surrounding galaxy is comparatively small. This could be the most massive black hole found to date.
To the best of our astronomical knowledge, almost every galaxy should contain in its central region what is called a supermassive black hole: a black hole with a mass between that of hundreds of thousands and billions of Suns. The best-studied super-massive black hole sits in the center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, with a mass of about four million Suns.
For the masses of galaxies and their central black holes, an intriguing trend has emerged: a direct relationship between the mass of a galaxy's black hole and that of the galaxy's stars.
Typically, the black hole mass is a tiny fraction of the galaxy's total mass. But now a search led by Remco van den Bosch (MPIA) has discovered a massive black hole that could upset the accepted relationship between black hole mass and galaxy mass, which plays a key role in all current theories of galaxy evolution. The observations used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and existing images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
With a mass 17 billion times that of the Sun, the newly discovered black hole in the center of the disk galaxy NGC 1277 might even be the biggest known black hole of all: the mass of the current record holder is estimated to lie between 6 and 37 billion solar masses (McConnell et al. 2011); if the true value lies towards the lower end of that range, NGC 1277 breaks the record. At the least, NGC 1277 harbors the second-biggest known black hole.
The big surprise is that the black hole mass for NGC 1277 amounts to 14% of the total galaxy mass, instead of usual values around 0,1%. This beats the old record by more than a factor 10. Astronomers would have expected a black hole of this size inside blob-like ("elliptical") galaxies ten times larger. Instead, this black hole sits inside a fairly small disk galaxy.
Is this surprisingly massive black hole a freak accident? Preliminary analysis of additional data suggests otherwise -- so far, the search has uncovered five additional galaxies that are comparatively small, yet, going by first estimates, seemed to harbor unusually large black holes too. More definite conclusions have to await detailed images of these galaxies.
If the additional candidates are confirmed, and there are indeed more black holes like this, astronomers will need to rethink fundamentally their models of galaxy evolution. In particular, they will need to look at the early universe: The galaxy hosting the new black hole appears to have formed more than 8 billion years ago, and does not appear to have changed much since then. Whatever created this giant black hole must have happened a long time ago.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121128132116.htm

Searching for the Best Black Hole Recipe

In this holiday season of home cooking and carefully-honed recipes, some astronomers are asking: what is the best mix of ingredients for stars to make the largest number of plump black holes?
They are tackling this problem by studying the number of black holes in galaxies with different compositions. One of these galaxies, the ring galaxy NGC 922, is seen in this composite image containing X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (red) and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (appearing as pink, yellow and blue).
NGC 922 was formed by the collision between two galaxies -- one seen in this image and another located outside the field of view. This collision triggered the formation of new stars in the shape of a ring. Some of these were massive stars that evolved and collapsed to form black holes.
Most of the bright X-ray sources in Chandra's image of NGC 922 are black holes pulling material in from the winds of massive companion stars. Seven of these are what astronomers classify as "ultraluminous X-ray sources" (ULXs). These are thought to contain stellar-mass black holes that are at least ten times more massive than the sun, which places them in the upper range for this class of black hole. They are a different class from the supermassive black holes found at the centers of galaxies, which are millions to billions of times the mass of the sun.

Theoretical work suggests that the most massive stellar-mass black holes should form in environments containing a relatively small fraction of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, called "metals" by astronomers. In massive stars, the processes that drive matter away from the stars in stellar winds work less efficiently if the fraction of metals is smaller. Thus, stars with fewer of these metals among their ingredients should lose less of their mass through winds as they evolve. A consequence of this reduced mass loss is that a larger proportion of massive stars will collapse to form black holes when their nuclear fuel is exhausted. This theory appeared to be supported by the detection of a large number (12) of ULXs in the Cartwheel galaxy, where stars typically contain only about 30% of the metals found in the sun.
To test this theory, scientists studied NGC 922, which contains about the same fraction of metals as the sun, meaning that this galaxy is about three times richer in metals than the Cartwheel galaxy. Perhaps surprisingly, the number of ULXs found in NGC 922 is comparable to the number seen in the Cartwheel galaxy. Rather, the ULX tally appears to depend only on the rate at which stars are forming in the two galaxies, not on the fraction of metals they contain.
One explanation for these results is that the theory predicting the most massive stellar-mass black holes should form in metal poor conditions is incorrect. Another explanation is that the metal fraction in the Cartwheel galaxy is not low enough to have a clear effect on the production of unusually massive stellar-mass black holes, and therefore will not cause an enhancement in the number of ULXs. Recent models incorporating the evolution of stars suggest that a clear enhancement in the number of ULXs might only be seen when the metal fraction falls below about 15%. Astronomers are investigating this possibility by observing galaxies with extremely low metal fractions using Chandra. The number of ULXs is being compared with the number found in galaxies with higher metal content. The results of this work will be published in a future paper.
A paper describing the results for NGC 922 was published in the March 10, 2012 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. The authors were Andrea Prestwich and Jose Luis Galache of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, MA; Tim Linden from University of Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, CA; Vicky Kalogera from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL; Andreas Zezas from CfA and University of Crete in Crete, Greece; Tim Roberts from University of Durham in Durham, UK; Roy Kilgard from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT; Anna Wolter and Ginevra Trinchieri from INAF in Milano, Italy.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121206121736.htm

Compact Blue Dwarf Can’t Hide from Hubble

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new view of the dwarf galaxy UGC 5497, which looks a bit like salt sprinkled on black velvet in the image.
The object is a compact blue dwarf galaxy that is infused with newly formed clusters of stars. The bright, blue stars that arise in these clusters help to give the galaxy an overall bluish appearance that lasts for several million years until these fast-burning stars explode as supernovae.
UGC 5497 is considered part of the M 81 group of galaxies, which is located about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear). UGC 5497 turned up in a ground-based telescope survey back in 2008 looking for new dwarf galaxy candidates associated with Messier 81.
According to the leading cosmological theory of galaxy formation, called Lambda Cold Dark Matter, there should be far more satellite dwarf galaxies associated with big galaxies like the Milky Way and Messier 81 than are currently known. Finding previously overlooked objects such as this one has helped cut into the expected tally -- but only by a small amount.
Astrophysicists therefore remain puzzled over the so-called "missing satellite" problem.
The field of view in this image, which is a combination of visible and infrared exposures from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, is approximately 3.4 by 3.4 arcminutes.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120619105101.htm

Little Telescope Spies Gigantic Galaxy Clusters

Our solar system, with its colorful collection of planets, asteroids and comets, is a fleck in the grander cosmos. Hundreds of billions of solar systems are thought to reside in our Milky Way galaxy, which is itself just a drop in a sea of galaxies.
The rarest and largest of galaxy groupings, called galaxy clusters, can be the hardest to find. That's where NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) can help. The mission's all-sky infrared maps have revealed one distant galaxy cluster and are expected to uncover thousands more.
These massive structures are collections of up to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. They were born out of seeds of matter formed in the very early universe, and grew rapidly by a process called inflation.
"One of the key questions in cosmology is how did the first bumps and wiggles in the distribution of matter in our universe rapidly evolve into the massive structures of galaxies we see today," said Anthony Gonzalez of University of Florida, Gainesville, who led the research program. The results are published in the Astrophysical Journal.
"By uncovering the most massive of galaxy clusters billions of light-years away with WISE, we can test theories of the universe's early inflation period."
WISE completed its all-sky survey in 2011, after surveying the entire sky twice at infrared wavelengths. The 16-inch (40-centimeter) telescope ran out of its coolant as expected in 2010, but went on to complete the second sky scan using two of its four infrared channels, which still functioned without coolant. At that time, the goal of the mission extension was to hunt for more near-Earth asteroids via a project called NEOWISE.
NASA has since funded the WISE team to combine all that data, allowing astronomers to study everything from nearby stars to distant galaxies. These next-generation all-sky images, part of a new project called "AllWISE," will be significantly more sensitive than those previously released, and will be publicly available in late 2013.
Gonzalez and his team plan to use the enhanced WISE data to hunt for more massive galaxy clusters. The first one they spotted, MOO J2342.0+1301, is located more than 7 billion light-years away, or halfway back to the time of the Big Bang. It is hundreds of times more massive than our Milky Way.
By scanning the whole sky with the improved AllWISE data, the team will sleuth out the true monsters of the bunch, clusters as big as thousands of times the mass of the Milky Way, assembled even earlier in the history of the universe.
Galaxy clusters from the first half of the universe are hard to find because they are so far away and because not very many had time to assemble by then. What's more, they are especially hard to see using visible-light telescopes: light that left these faraway structures in visible wavelengths has been stretched into longer, infrared wavelengths due to the expansion of space. WISE can hunt some of these rare colossal structures down because it scanned the whole sky in infrared light.
"I had pretty much written off using WISE to find distant galaxy clusters because we had to reduce the telescope diameter to only 16 inches [40 centimeters] to stay within our cost guidelines, so I am thrilled that we can find them after all," said Peter Eisenhardt, the WISE project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. and an author of the new paper. "The longer exposures from AllWISE open the door wide to see the most massive structures forming in the distant universe."
Other projects planned for the enhanced WISE data include the search for nearby, hidden cool stars, including those with masses as low as planets. If a large planet or tiny star does exist close to our solar system, an object some call "Tyche," then WISE's infrared data may reveal it.
Other authors of the new study are: Daniel Gettings and Conor Mancone of the University of Florida; Adam Stanford of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif., and University of California, Davis; Mark Brodwin of University of Missouri, Kansas City; Daniel Stern of JPL; Gregory Zeimann of University of California, Davis; Frank Masci of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Casey Papovich of Texas A&M University, College Station; Ichi Tanaka of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; and Edward (Ned) Wright of UCLA.
JPL manages, and operated, WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Edward Wright is the principal investigator and is at UCLA. The mission was selected competitively under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise , http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise .
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121206160001.htm

High-Efficiency Low-Cost Silicon Solar Cell Demonstrated

IMEC, one of the leading European research centers in photovoltaics, and BP Solar, a leading energy company, demonstrated a 18% conversion efficiency for silicon solar cells made of BP Solar’s newly developed Mono2^TM silicon. By combining IMEC’s advanced processing techniques with BP Solar’s high-quality low-cost substrates, the companies demonstrated that Mono2 has a good potential to become a new base material for low-cost highly-efficient solar cells.BP Solar’s Mono2 production process delivers a promising new wafer platform for solar cells with the potential to become a low-cost alternative to the more expensive Czochralski silicon substrates because it combines extremely low defect densities and high conversion efficiencies with production costs that are comparable to the costs of traditional multicrystalline substrates. The production of Mono2 involves a proprietary growth nucleation process for the casting of ingots used to produce single crystal bricks and wafers whereby preferred crystallographic orientations can be achieved. This feature allows further improvement in cell efficiencies. BP Solar’s Mono2 was developed with support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Technologies Pathways Partnership.
IMEC’s cell production process is feasible as an industrial production process as it only adds three processing steps to the standard industrially applied process of full aluminum back surface field.
IMEC’s solar cells are 130μm thick and cover an area of 156mmx156mm. Using IMEC’s advanced processes such as dielectric passivation and a localized back surface field, a conversion efficiency of 18% for the new low-cost Mono2 silicon solar cells, which is in the range of the current commercial solar cells, has been demonstrated with a dramatic reduction in cell thickness.
Jef Poortmans, Program Director Photovoltaics said, “IMEC’s photovoltaic research aims towards a sharp reduction in production cost and at the same time an increase of the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. Our partners can leverage our advanced processing techniques, to create high-efficiency low-cost solar cells based on their proprietary high-quality materials and knowhow.”
Eric Daniels, BP Solar’s vice president, global technology said “BP Solar is working to leverage such key technology developments to further reduce the cost of PV electricity. Working with R&D centers such as IMEC and key customers, we are commercializing this technology and seek to provide a better platform for the current and next generation solar cells. This collaboration with IMEC represents significant progress towards that goal.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091006104500.htm

Cutting Costs in Silicon Production

Elkem Solar, a Norwegian producer of solar-grade silicon, has combined basic and applied research to develop production methods that cut costs and consume less energy than conventional silicon production.
The Kristiansand-based company has now accomplished its three primary objectives. Silicon production costs have been significantly reduced compared to conventional production. Energy consumption has been cut dramatically. All the while, its efficient methods preserve the power output of silicon-based solar cells manufactured at its facilities, compared to silicon solar cells produced by traditional means.
Traditional production of silicon involves first gasifying the raw material, a costly and energy-intensive method. Elkem's method is based on traditional metallurgy; the raw material is melted and then undergoes several processing stages to prepare 10-kg silicon blocks for sale to solar cell producers. This method makes production more cost-effective and energy-efficient and is suitable for large-quantity production.
"The market potential is vast, but the financial crisis has led to major reductions in the market price for our product," says Dr Tronstad. "To be competitive it's essential to drive production costs down."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100415085313.htm

Flexible Silicon Solar-Cell Fabrics May Soon Become Possible

For the first time, a silicon-based optical fiber with solar-cell capabilities has been developed that has been shown to be scalable to many meters in length. The research opens the door to the possibility of weaving together solar-cell silicon wires to create flexible, curved or twisted solar fabrics. 
The findings by an international team of chemists, physicists and engineers, led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, will be posted by the journal Advanced Materials in an early online edition on Dec. 6 and will be published on a future date in the journal's print edition.
The team's new findings build on earlier work addressing the challenge of merging optical fibers with electronic chips -- silicon-based integrated circuits that serve as the building blocks for most semiconductor electronic devices such as solar cells, computers and cellphones. Rather than merge a flat chip with a round optical fiber, the team found a way to build a new kind of optical fiber -- which is thinner than the width of a human hair -- with its own integrated electronic component, thereby bypassing the need to integrate fiber-optics with chips. To do this, they used high-pressure chemistry techniques to deposit semiconducting materials directly, layer by layer, into tiny holes in optical fibers.
Now, in their new research, the team members have used the same high-pressure chemistry techniques to make a fiber out of crystalline silicon semiconductor materials that can function as a solar cell -- a photovoltaic device that can generate electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct-current electricity. "Our goal is to extend high-performance electronic and solar-cell function to longer lengths and to more flexible forms. We already have made meters-long fibers but, in principle, our team's new method could be used to create bendable silicon solar-cell fibers of over 10 meters in length," Badding said. "Long, fiber-based solar cells give us the potential to do something we couldn't really do before: We can take the silicon fibers and weave them together into a fabric with a wide range of applications such as power generation, battery charging, chemical sensing and biomedical devices."
Badding explained that one of the major limitations of portable electronics such as smartphones and iPads is short battery life. Solar-boosted batteries could help solve this problem. "A solar cell is usually made from a glass or plastic substrate onto which hydrogenated amorphous silicon has been grown," Badding explained. "Such a solar cell is created using an expensive piece of equipment called a PECVD (plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition) reactor and the end result is something flat with little flexibility. But woven, fiber-based solar cells would be lightweight, flexible configurations that are portable, foldable and even wearable." This material could then be connected to electronic devices to power them and charge their batteries. "The military especially is interested in designing wearable power sources for soldiers in the field," Badding added.
The team members believe that another advantage of flexibility in solar-cell materials is the possibility of collecting light energy at various angles. "A typical solar cell has only one flat surface," Badding said. "But a flexible, curved solar-cell fabric would not be as dependent upon where the light is coming from or where the sun is in the horizon and the time of day."
Pier J. A. Sazio of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and one of the team's leaders added, "Another intriguing property of these silicon-fiber devices is that as they are so compact, they can have a very fast response to visible laser light. In fact, we fabricated fiber-based photodetectors with a bandwidth of over 1.8 GHz."
In addition to Badding and Sazio, other researchers who contributed to this study include lead author Rongrui He, Todd D. Day, Mahesh Krishnamurthi, Justin R. Sparks and Venkatraman Gopalan from Penn State.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, Penn State's Materials Research Institute Nano Fabrication Network, and the United Kingdom's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121206094701.htm

Resolving the Paradox of the Antarctic Sea Ice

While Arctic sea ice has been diminishing in recent decades, the Antarctic sea ice extent has been increasing slightly. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology provide an explanation for the seeming paradox of increasing Antarctic sea ice in a warming climate.
The paper appears in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science the week of August 16, 2010.
"We wanted to understand this apparent paradox so that we can better understand what might happen to the Antarctic sea ice in the coming century with increased greenhouse warming," said Jiping Liu, a research scientist in Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Currently, as the atmosphere warms, the hydrological cycle accelerates and there is more precipitation in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. This increased precipitation, mostly in the form of snow, stabilizes the upper ocean and insulates it from the ocean heat below. This insulating effect reduces the amount of melting occurring below the sea ice. In addition, snow has a tendency to reflect atmospheric heat away from the sea ice, which reduces melting from above.
However, the climate models predict greenhouse gases will continue to increase in the 21st century, which will result in the sea ice melting at a faster rate from both above and below. Here's how it works. Increased warming of the atmosphere is expected to heat the upper ocean, which will increase the melting of the sea ice from below. In addition, increased warming will also result in a reduced level of snowfall, but more rain. Because rain doesn't reflect heat back the way snow does, this will enhance the melting of the Antarctic sea ice from above.
"Our finding raises some interesting possibilities about what we might see in the future. We may see, on a time scale of decades, a switch in the Antarctic, where the sea ice extent begins to decrease," said Judith A. Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech.

NASA Study Examines Antarctic Sea Ice Increases

NASA and British Antarctic Survey scientists have reported the first direct evidence that marked changes to Antarctic sea ice drift caused by changing winds are responsible for observed increases in Antarctic sea ice cover in the past two decades. The results help explain why, unlike the dramatic sea ice losses being reported in the Arctic, Antarctic sea ice cover has increased under the effects of climate change.
Research scientists Ron Kwok of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Paul Holland of the Natural Environment Research Council's British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom, used maps created by JPL from more than five million individual daily ice-motion measurements. The data, captured over a period of 19 years by four U.S. Defense Meteorological satellites, show, for the first time, long-term changes in sea ice drift around Antarctica.
"Until now, these changes in ice drift were only speculated upon, using computer models of Antarctic winds," said Holland, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. "This study of direct satellite observations shows the complexity of climate change. The total Antarctic sea ice cover is increasing slowly, but individual regions are actually experiencing much larger gains and losses that are almost offsetting each other overall.
"We now know that these regional changes are caused by changes in the winds, which, in turn, affect the ice cover through changes in both ice drift and air temperature," he continued. "The changes in ice drift also suggest large changes in the ocean surrounding Antarctica, which is very sensitive to the cold and salty water produced by sea ice growth."
Holland said sea ice around Antarctica is constantly being blown away from the continent by strong northward winds. "Since 1992, this ice drift has changed," he said. "In some areas, the export of ice away from Antarctica has doubled, while in others it has decreased significantly."
Sea ice plays a key role in Earth's environment, reflecting heat from the sun and providing a habitat for marine life. At both poles, sea ice cover is at its minimum during late summer. However, during the winter freeze in Antarctica, this ice cover expands to an area roughly twice the size of Europe. Ranging in thickness from less than three feet (a meter) to several meters, the ice insulates the warm ocean from the frigid atmosphere above.
This new research also helps explain why observed changes in the amount of sea ice cover are so different in the two polar regions. The Arctic has experienced dramatic ice losses in recent decades, while the overall ice extent in the Antarctic has increased slightly. However, this small Antarctic increase is actually the result of much larger regional increases and decreases, which are now shown to be caused by wind-driven changes. In places, increased northward winds have caused the sea ice cover to expand outwards from Antarctica. In contrast, the Arctic Ocean is surrounded by land, so changed winds cannot cause Arctic ice to expand in the same way.
"The Antarctic sea ice cover interacts with the global climate system very differently than that of the Arctic, and these results highlight the sensitivity of the Antarctic ice coverage to changes in the strength of the winds around the continent," said Kwok.
Climate change has had contrasting impacts across Antarctica in recent decades. The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed as much as anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere, while East Antarctica has shown little change or even a small cooling around the coast. The new research improves understanding of present and future climate change. The authors note it is important to distinguish between the Antarctic Ice Sheet -- glacial ice -- which is losing volume, and Antarctic sea ice -- frozen seawater -- which is expanding.
The research was funded by NASA and the Natural Environment Research Council.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121113141936.htm

Antarctic Sea Ice Increase Not Linked to Ozone Hole, New Research Shows

While sea ice extent has declined dramatically in the Arctic in recent years, it has increased slightly in the Antarctic. Some scientists have suggested that increased Antarctic sea ice extent can be explained by the ozone hole over Antarctica. Previous simulations have indicated that the ozone hole induces a large change in atmospheric circulation in austral summer and that this change in circulation could contribute to the changing Antarctic sea extent.
To learn more, M. Sigmond, of the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, and J. C. Fyfe, of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Environment Canada, used a climate model, forced by monthly varying observed stratospheric ozone changes from 1979 to 2005, to simulate the effects of stratospheric ozone depletion on Antarctic sea ice extent.
Contrary to predictions of previous studies, their model finds that ozone depletion would lead to a year-round decrease in Antarctic sea ice extent rather than the increase that was observed. The results suggest that processes other than ozone depletion must be causing the observed increase in Antarctic sea ice extent.
It remains unclear why Southern Hemisphere sea ice trends differ so greatly from Northern Hemisphere trends.
The research appears in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101005141516.htm

Massive Crevasses and Bendable Ice Affect Stability of Antarctic Ice Shelf

Gaping crevasses that penetrate upward from the bottom of the largest remaining ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula make it more susceptible to collapse, according to University of Colorado Boulder researchers who spent the last four Southern Hemisphere summers studying the massive floating sheet of ice that covers an area twice the size of Massachusetts.
But the scientists also found that ribbons running through the Larsen C Ice Shelf -- made up of a mixture of ice types that, together, are more prone to bending than breaking -- make the shelf more resilient than it otherwise would be.
The research team from CU-Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences presented the findings Dec. 6 at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in San Francisco.

The Larsen C Ice Shelf is all that's left of a series of ice shelves that once clung to the eastern edge of the Antarctic Peninsula and stretched into the Weddell Sea. When the other shelves disintegrated abruptly -- including Larsen A in January 1995 and Larsen B in February 2002 -- scientists were surprised by the speed of the breakup.
Researchers now believe that the catastrophic collapses of Larsen A and B were caused, at least in part, by rising temperatures in the region, where warming is increasing at six times the global average. The Antarctic Peninsula warmed 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the middle of the last century.
The warmer climate increased meltwater production, allowing more liquid to pool on top of the ice shelves. The water then drained into surface crevasses, wedging them open and cracking the shelf into individual icebergs, which resulted in rapid disintegration.
But while the meltwater may have been responsible for dealing the final blow to the shelves, researchers did not have the opportunity to study how the structure of the Larsen A and B shelves may have made them more vulnerable to drastic breakups -- or protected the shelves from an even earlier demise.
CU-Boulder researchers did not want to miss the same opportunity on the Larsen C shelf, which covers more than 22,000 square miles of sea.
"It's the perfect natural laboratory," said Daniel McGrath, a doctoral student in the Department of Geography and part of the CIRES research team. "We wanted to study this shelf while it's still stable in order to get a better understanding of the processes that affect ice shelf stability."
McGrath worked with CIRES colleagues over the last four years to study the Larsen C shelf in order to better understand how the warming climate may have interacted with the shelf's existing structure to increase its vulnerability to a catastrophic collapse.
McGrath presented two of the group's key findings at the AGU meeting. The first was the role that long-existing crevasses that start at the base of the shelf and propagate upward -- known as basal crevasses -- play in making the shelf more vulnerable to disintegration. The second relates to the way a type of ice found in areas called suture zones may be protecting the shelf against a breakup.
The scientists used ground penetrating radar to map out the basal crevasses, which turn out to be massive. The yawning cracks can run for several miles in length and can penetrate upwards for more than 750 feet. While the basal crevasses have been a part of Larsen C for hundreds of years, the interaction between these features and a warming climate will likely make the shelf more susceptible to future disintegration. "They likely play a really important role in ice-shelf disintegration, both past and future," McGrath said.
The research team also studied the impact of suture zones in the ice shelf. Larsen C is fed by 12 distinct glaciers, which dump a steady flow of thick ice into the shelf. But the promontories of land between the glacial outlets, where ice does not flow into the shelf, allow for the creation of ribbon-like suture zones, which knit the glacial inflows together and which turn out to be important to the ice shelf's resilience. "The ice in these zones really holds the neighboring inflows together," McGrath said.
The suture zones get their malleable characteristic from a combination of ice types. A key component of the suture zone mixture is formed when the bottoms of the 12 glacial inflows begin to melt. The resulting freshwater is more buoyant than the surrounding seawater, so it rises upward to the relatively thinner ice zones between the glacial inflows, where it refreezes on the underside of the shelf and contributes to the chaotic ice structure that makes suture zones more flexible than the surrounding ice.
It turns out that the resilient characteristics of the suture zones keep cracks, including the basal crevasses, from spreading across the ice shelf, even where the suture zone ice makes up a comparatively small amount of the total thickness of the shelf. The CIRES team found that at the shelf front, where the ice meets the open sea, suture zone ice constitutes only 20 percent of the total thickness of the shelf but was still able to limit the spread of rifts through the ice. "It's a pretty small part of the total ice thickness, and yet, it still has this really important role of holding the ice shelf together," McGrath said.
Other CU researchers involved in the Larsen C project were Konrad Steffen, former director of CIRES; Ted Scambos, of CIRES and CU-Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center; Harihar Rajaram, of the Department of Civil Engineering; and Waleed Abdalati, of CIRES.
CIRES is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121207174522.htm

Copper, Gold and Tin for Efficient Chips

With gold, copper or tin and special galvanizing processes, scientists are improving the function of semi-conductors and making the manufacture of microelectronic systems a child's play. Especially the LED industry could profit from this.
They are particularly small, durable and economical: LEDs have conquered the automotive industry; it is already possible today to recognize the make of a car by the design of the LED headlights. Whether in the interior, displays, infotainment system or brake lights, parking lights or fog lights -- a modern car offers many possibilities for LED technology to be used for lighting. Unlike the traditional halogen or xenon lights, light emitting diodes need LED drivers. Their most important task: they must continuously supply the light diodes with power. In addition, they are to carry out complex tasks and to control, for example, several LEDs in series, or switch individual ones on in multiple stages if the interior lighting is to be dimmable.

The requirements relating to the drivers are enormous: they must be immune to the high temperature and voltage differences in a car or be resistant to aggressive chemicals. In order to guarantee reliable luminosity, a higher voltage must flow through the circuits of the LED drivers. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS offer manufacturers a process to manufacture the chips that suit these applications: it is based on galvanization, a process in the semiconductor industry, in which special metals are deposited on the semiconductors.
Copper for increased current flow
However, Prof. Holger Vogt's department at the IMS, is backing copper, in particular. "This way, we can have more current flow through the chips," explains Vogt. That is important, because for most applications the chips must become smaller and smaller -- the current that flows through them, however, stays the same. However, integrating new materials, such as a layer of copper, is not always without problems, since there are limits to the regular processes for manufacturing chips. It is for this reason that the scientists at the IMS specifically constructed a manufacturing line for "post processing" -- the MST Lab & Fab -- to be able to subsequently improve the chips on the substrate wafers, depending on the requirements of the application.
In addition to copper, the engineers are also able to deposit other metals or compounds such as copper-tin or gold-tin onto the chips. "These layers can be soldered," explains Vogt. That offers a substantial advantage: the cover can be soldered onto the chip, right there on the wafer. "The result is the smallest housing for a chip that can be had," says Vogt. It can be used to surround and protect sensitive sensors without negatively affecting their functionality. One example is bolometers, sensors that are used to measure temperature. Because the housings for bolometers must additionally also be put into a vacuum environment to provide accurate measurements, their manufacture to date has been very complex and thus expensive. However, with the help of the MST Lab & Fab, housings that are cost-effective and therefore suitable for mass production can be manufactured.
In addition, the researchers in the MST Lab & Fab have been able to construct complex components within a single housing. The are able to solder two chips, such as an opto-chip with highly sensitive photo sensors with a CMOS-Chip (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) which can measure individual photons, to each other, using the copper galvanization process. Such microelectronic components are suitable for night-vision devices or for low-light microscope applications.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121206121858.htm

Sun Darkens Electronics: Space Physicists and Atmospheric Scientists Can Now Predict Disruptions Caused by the Sun's Coronal Mass Ejections

Solar activity can wreak havoc in communications systems -- particularly during coronal mass ejections, when plumes of electrically charged particles hit earth's atmosphere. Scientists can now track the plumes down to the single affected cities, helping to predict disruptions.
WESTFORD, Mass.--The sun guides our daily routine and impacts us in ways you may not even notice. In fact, the sun can play havoc with our communications systems. Now, a new discovery may help predict when and where this will happen and help keep your cell phone static free.
TVs, radios, cell phones -- modern-day conveniences most of us can't live without, but solar activity could jeopardize our way of life. During coronal mass ejections, electrically charged particles from the sun collide with earth's atmosphere.
John Foster, a space physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory in Westford, Mass., says, "This material flies through inner-stellar space and impacts the Earth like a solar hammer hitting the Earth's magnetic field." This solar hammer can cause communication disruptions on the ground and a plume of electrically charged particles high in the earth's atmosphere.
Now, atmospheric scientists at MIT may have discovered a way to predict space weather disruptions by identifying these plumes over the United States.
"What we are seeing is a pattern in where these plumes are forming," says Anthea Coster, an atmospheric research scientist at MIT Haystack Observatory.
Scientists hope to detect these patterns with the ISIS instrument. ISIS picks up radio signals and measures plume movement. Then, a supercomputer processes this data, which will alert scientists where the plumes occur, pinpointing down to the state -- even city -- that will be affected.
Foster says, "Predicting these would be a great benefit to any systems users, people who really rely on communications or navigation systems. Military operations, for one, would very much like to know what the space weather conditions would be like tomorrow."
Scientists say in the near future ISIS instruments will be distributed throughout the United States.
BACKGROUND: Bursts of matter from the sun, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), have long been known to affect cell phone reception, TV and radio signals, and how much radiation exposure we receive while flying in the upper atmosphere. Now, researchers have detected plumes that tell them where the radiation form the ejection is concentrated and what places will be influenced the most by the CME.
CME OR SOLAR FLARE?: People sometimes confuse CMEs with solar flares, but they are different phenomena. Solar flares are explosions on the sun that occur when energy build up around sunspots, becoming so hot -- millions of degrees Fahrenheit -- that they produce a burst of electromagnetic radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to x-rays and gamma rays. CMEs were once thought to be the result of solar flares, but while they sometimes accompany solar flares, there is no direct relation between the two. They occur when a large bubble of plasma escapes through a star's corona and travels through space to the earth at high speeds over the course of several hours. If a CME collides with the earth, it can produce a geomagnetic storm, which can cause electrical power outages and damage communications satellites and electronic equipment. Solar flares, on the other hand, affect radio communications.
WHAT ARE PLASMAS: A plasma is essentially electrically charged (ionized) gas, consisting of free-moving electrons and ions (atoms that have lost electrons). Applying a surge of energy -- with a laser, for example -- knocks electrons off gas atoms, turning them into ions and creating a plasma. Unless this energy is sustained, however, plasmas will recombine back into a neutral gas. On earth, we are familiar with the ordinary states of matter: solids, liquids and gases. But in the universe at large, plasma is by far the most common form. Plasma in the stars and the space between them makes up 99 percent of the visible universe.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0312-sun_darkens_electronics.htm

Einstein Rings: Astronomers Discover Eight New Gravitational Lenses with Hubble Telescope

Images from the Hubble telescope reveal eight new Einstein rings, joining only three others previously known. Einstein rings are pairs of galaxies, with a foreground galaxy bending the light of a background galaxy into a ring by gravitational effects. The ring helps astronomers precisely estimate the mass of the foreground galaxy.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass--Ever look at the stars and wonder how it all came to be? Astronomers are now proving how our universe was created.
Seventy years ago, Einstein predicted how his theory of relativity could be demonstrated in space. Today, astronomers are using the Hubble telescope to confirm Einstein's prediction and shed light on how the world formed.
It starts when we're children ... Looking high in the sky and wondering how this was all created. Adam Bolton and a team of astronomers are one step closer to unraveling the mystery, with the discovery of these eight new Einstein rings. "The Einstein Rings are a pair of galaxies -- one, say, 4-billion light years away or so, and another one, maybe twice as far," says Adam Bolton, an astronomer at Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
In 1936, Albert Einstein wrote a paper using his theory of relativity, predicting the formation of the rings. Today, combining his information plus new data and photos from the Hubble telescope astronomers can find the rings. Bolton says, "What Hubble can do that telescopes on the ground cannot do is resolve very, very fine detail in images."
The phenomenon that created the rings is called gravitational lensing. The gravity of the nearer galaxy bends the path of light from the galaxy in the background, creating a dramatic bull's-eye. By studying the rings, astronomers precisely measure the mass of the closer galaxy.
"It teaches us more about the whole picture of the universe and, by extension, about how we fit into that," Bolton says.
Before this discovery only three other Einstein rings were visible. Astronomers believe they will discover even more.
BACKGROUND: Astronomers have combined two major astronomical projects -- the Hubble Space Telescope and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey -- to discover eight new rings of light, an optical illusion predicted by Albert Einstein. Previously, only three such rings have been observed in visible light.
WHAT CAUSES THE RINGS: "Einstein rings" are an optical illusion created when the fabric of spacetime is warped by the presence of massive objects, like stars or entire galaxies. The effect is known as gravitational lensing, and it is nature's equivalent to having a giant magnifying glass in space that bends and amplifies the light of more distant objects. Light from a distant galaxy can be deflected by an intervening galaxy to create an arc or multiple separate images. When both galaxies are exactly lined up, the light forms a bulls-eye pattern -- the Einstein ring -- around the foreground galaxy.
GENERAL RELATIVITY BASICS: Albert Einstein proposed his theory of general relativity in 1917. This attributes the force of gravity to the unseen warping of the fabric of spacetime, caused by the presence of mass (or energy). In a 1936 paper, he used general relativity to predict that the gravitational field formed by a massive object could not only warp space and deflect light, but in special cases, the light from a distant object could be so distorted it would create a complete ring.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN: "Einstein rings" serve as guideposts to help astronomers map the distribution of matter creating the warp in spacetime, and precisely determine the mass of the foreground galaxies. By studying this data, astronomers can glean more knowledge about the unseen "dark matter." This is an invisible and exotic form of matter that can't be seen, but its existence can be inferred by measuring its gravitational influence. Dark matter makes up most of the matter in the universe. Astronomers also hope to test the notion that galaxies form from collision, and through mergers of smaller galaxies.
HOW HUBBLE WORKS: Hubble has a long tube that is open at one end, with mirrors to gather and focus light to its "eyes" -- various instruments that enable it to detect different types of light. Light enters the telescope through the opening and bounces off a primary mirror to a secondary mirror, which reflects the light through a hole in the center of the primary mirror to a focal point behind the primary mirror. Smaller mirrors distribute the light to the various scientific instruments, which analyze the different wavelengths. Each instrument uses charge-coupled devices instead of photographic film to capture light -- the same array of photosensitive diodes that are used in digital cameras. The captured light is stored in on-board computers and relayed to Earth as digital signals, and this data is then transformed into images.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0408-einstein_rings.htm

Smoking Affects Allergy-Relevant Stem Cells

Environmental contaminants, such as smoking, are harmful to the human organism in relation to the occurrence of allergies. This is known. Until now, researchers had never investigated whether and to what extent environmental contaminants also affect allergy-relevant stem cells. For the first time a team at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has found evidence for this: Smoking affects the development of peripheral allergy-relevant stem cells in the blood. In order to present this result Dr. Irina Lehmann and Dr. Kristin Weiße chose a new scientific path: The combination of exposure analysis and stem cell research.
Stem cells are not specialised, propagate without limit and can develop to different cell types. From these the different cell and tissue types of the human organism, including the allergy-promoting eosinophil granulocytes, are differentiated. Progenitor cells, e.g. eosinophil/basophilic progenitors, which mature in the bone marrow and are then washed out into the bloodstream -- the so-called periphery -- function as a link between unspecialised stem cells and specialised tissue and organ cells. Until now, whether and to what extent environmental contaminants affect this maturation and release has not been investigated.
The UFZ team of Dr. Irina Lehmann and Dr. Kristin Weiße undertook their investigations from this point. Two facts were already known from a number of earlier studies: Firstly that the blood of allergy sufferers -- whether children or adults -- shows evidence of increased eosinophil/basophil progenitor levels. Secondly, that the occurrence of such peripheral progenitors in the blood of the umbilical cord indicates a higher risk for subsequent allergies. For the first time, the hypothesis which Dr. Kristin Weiße and Dr. Irina Lehmann developed on this basis combined this knowledge from stem cell research with the results of many years of exposure research at the UFZ. The researchers characterise their approach in the following way: "We wanted to clarify the relationship between environmental influences and the maturation and differentiation of the progenitor cells on the one hand and its contribution to the occurrence of allergies on the other hand. Specifically, we wanted to know whether the occurrence of allergy-relevant progenitor cells in the blood of infants can be changed by environmental influences."
The results of the study, based on the data collected from 60 children aged one year, were recently published in the British medical journal "Clinical & Experimental Allergy": It was found that children with skin manifestations, such as atopic dermatitis or cradle cap, have increased levels of eosinophil progenitors in their blood. In this connection, it was shown for the first time that children already afflicted show particularly sensitive reactions when exposed to environmental contaminants: The offspring of families exposed to significant levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC) at home were found to have considerably higher allergy-relevant eosinophilic/basophilic progenitor cell levels. "That VOCs, large amounts of which are released with cigarette smoke, have the greatest effect on stem cells was not entirely unexpected," explains Dr. Irina Lehmann. "Just as important, however," adds Dr. Kristin Weiße, is "that we can show that alterations in the number of stem cells as a result of harmful substances take place only in children who have already been afflicted with skin manifestations." This leads to the conclusion: There is a relationship between the genetic predisposition for a disease and environmental influences -- there are environmental and life style factors which determine whether a genetic predisposition is in fact realised or not.
Considerable logistical effort underlies this knowledge: On the one hand there is the long-term study "LiNA -- Life Style and Environmental Factors and their Influence on The Risk of Allergy" in Newborn Children, a joint project of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the Städtisches Klinikum St. Georg in Leipzig. 622 mothers, with a total of 629 children born, were recruited for the study between 2006 and 2008. In order to also take prenatal environmental influences into account -- in contrast with earlier comparable studies of newborn children -- mothers were already included in the investigations during pregnancy and the children from the time of birth. At the same time, it was necessary to become familiar with the methods required for stem cell analysis at the laboratory of the Canadian cooperation partner, Professor Judah Denburg of the McMaster University in Hamilton and to transfer this knowledge to Germany. Dr. Kristin Weiße spent six months in Canada working in the group of Professor Denburg in order to acquire the necessary know-how and profit from the experience of the Canadian partners. Dr. Lehmann and Dr. Weiße agree that "with the subject of environmental contamination and stem cells we have established an exciting new field of research." The UFZ team is currently the only one in the world investigating this relationship with analytical precision and methodical patience. The LiNA study, in the course of which mothers and their children can be observed over several years, represents a unique basis.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121114083926.htm

An Egg a Day to Keep Allergies Away?

Avoiding sweet treats like pumpkin bread and cookies this holiday season might not be necessary for children with egg allergies. New studies presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting found 56 percent of allergic children can tolerate baked hen's egg, while 55 percent outgrow their egg allergy entirely.
"More than half of egg allergic children can tolerate hen's eggs when they are baked at 350 degrees in products such as cakes and breads," said allergist Rushani Saltzman, M.D., lead study author and ACAAI member. "Dietary introduction of baked egg by an allergist can broaden a child's diet, improve quality of life and likely accelerate the development of an egg tolerance."
The median dose tolerated was 2⁄5 baked hen's egg. The products tested were all baked at 350 degrees for a minimum of 30 minutes.
In a separate study also presented at the meeting, Ruchi Gupta, M.D., lead study author and pediatrician, found that out of the eight common food allergens, children most commonly outgrew egg allergy.
"Food tolerance was observed in one in four children, with 55 percent outgrowing their egg allergy by age seven," said Dr. Gupta. "Developing an egg tolerance is the most common for children, followed by milk. A small proportion outgrew shellfish and tree nut allergies."
If children have shown a severe reaction to eggs in the past they are less likely to outgrow the allergy, according to researchers. Severe symptoms include rapid swelling of the skin and tissue, difficulty breathing and life-threatening anaphylaxis.
"While these studies show many positive findings for children with egg allergy, parents must practice caution," said allergist Richard Weber, M.D., ACAAI president-elect. "Introducing an allergen back into a child's diet can have severe consequences, and only should be done under the care of a board-certified allergist."
Parents can find a board-certified allergist in their area at AllergyAndAsthmaRelief.org. More news and research from the annual meeting, being held Nov. 8-13, 2012 in Anaheim, Calif. can be followed via Twitter at #ACAAI.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121109083748.htm

New Target Discovered for Food Allergy Treatment

Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered a novel target for the treatment of food allergies. Erwin Gelfand, MD, and his colleagues report in the October 2012 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that levels of the enzyme Pim 1 kinase rise in the small intestines of peanut-allergic mice. Inhibiting activity of Pim 1 markedly reduced the allergic response to peanuts.
"Pim 1, and its associated transcription factor, Runx3, play a crucial role in allergic reactions to peanuts," said Dr. Gelfand, senior author and chair of pediatrics at National Jewish Health. "As such, they offer promising new targets for the treatment of allergic reactions to peanuts, and possibly other foods."
Pim1 kinase is involved in many signaling pathways and is expressed in T cells and eosinophils, cell types linked to allergic diseases. Runx3 is a transcription factor associated with the regulation of T cells.
In a mouse model of food allergy, the researchers found that Pim1 kinase levels increased in the intestines of allergic mice that had been fed peanuts, as did various inflammatory cells and levels of cytokine molecules associated with allergies. Levels of Runx3 mRNA, however, dropped significantly in the allergic mice. When researchers administered a small molecule that inhibits the activity of Pim 1 kinase, mice no longer experienced diarrhea and other symptoms associated with their peanut allergy.
Plasma levels of histamine, a potent cause of allergy symptoms, dropped to almost baseline levels after administration of AR460770, which is produced by Array Biopharma. Inflammatory mast cells, eosinophils, and CD4 and CD8 T cells all increased only slightly in response to peanuts. Levels of several cytokine signaling molecules associated with allergies, IL-4, IL-6 and IL-13, also dropped after treatment with the Pim 1 inhibitor. Runx3 mRNA, rose back to near baseline levels.
"Our data identified for the first time that Pim1 kinase contributes in important ways to the development of peanut-induced allergic responses, " said Dr. Gelfand. "Targeting this novel regulatory axis involving Pim 1 kinase and Runx3 offers new therapeutic opportunities for the control of food-induced allergic reactions."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121101131605.htm

Sugar and Spice and Everything Not So Nice: Spice Allergy Affects Foodies and Cosmetic Users Alike

Imagine a world where you could never dine away from home, wear makeup, smell of sweet perfumes or eat a large percentage of food on store shelves. According to allergists at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting that is kicking off today in Anaheim, Calif., that is the world for 2 to 3 percent of individuals living with a spice allergy.

Spices are one of the most widely used products found in foods, cosmetics and dental products. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not regulate spices, meaning they often are not noted on food labels, making spices possibly the most difficult allergen to identify or avoid. According to rough estimates, spice allergy is responsible for 2 percent of food allergies. However it is underdiagnosed, particularly due to the lack of reliable allergy skin tests or blood tests.

"While spice allergy seems to be rare, with the constantly increasing use of spices in the American diet and a variety of cosmetics, we anticipate more and more Americans will develop this allergy," said allergist Sami Bahna, M.D., ACAAI past president. "Patients with spice allergy often have to go through extreme measures to avoid the allergen. This can lead to strict dietary avoidance, low quality of life and sometimes malnutrition."

In his presentation, Dr. Bahna noted that due to the wide use of spice in cosmetics, women are more likely to develop spice allergy. Makeup, body oils, toothpaste and fragrances can all include one or more spices. Those with birch pollen or mugwort (a traditional herbal medicine used to relieve inflammatory conditions) allergy are also more prone to spice allergy.

Common spice allergy triggers include cinnamon and garlic, but can range from black pepper to vanilla. Several spice blends contain anywhere from three to 18 spices, and the hotter the spice, the greater the chance for allergy.

"Boiling, roasting, frying and other forms of applying heat to spices may reduce allergy causing agents, but can also enhance them depending on the spice," said Dr. Bahna. "Because of this allergy's complexity, allergists often recommend a treatment plan that includes strict avoidance which can be a major task."

An allergic reaction can be caused from breathing, eating or touching spices. Symptoms range from mild sneezing to a life-threating allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis. According to Dr. Bahna, spice allergy should be suspected in individuals that have multiple reactions to unrelated foods, or those that react to foods when commercially prepared but not when cooked at home.

Even someone that is allergic to only one known spice can have a reaction to several spice blends. According to Dr. Bahna's presentation, there are several unique characteristics about spice blends, including:

• A Five-Spice blend has seven spices, yet Allspice has one
• The same blend name doesn't mean same components
• There are several types of Curry, each is a different blend of many spices

Those that suspect they may have a spice allergy should see a board-certified allergist for proper diagnosis and a custom-made management plan. Patients should carefully keep track of what foods and other products trigger their allergy with MyNasalAllergyJournal.org.

Information about allergies and asthma can be found at AllergyAndAsthmaRelief.org. More news and research from the annual meeting, being held Nov. 8-13, 2012 can be followed via Twitter at #ACAAI.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121108073639.htm

Dichlorophenol-Containing Pesticides Linked to Food Allergies, Study Finds; Chemical Also Used to Chlorinate Tap Water

The study reported that high levels of dichlorophenols, a chemical used in pesticides and to chlorinate water, when found in the human body, are associated with food allergies.
"Our research shows that high levels of dichlorophenol-containing pesticides can possibly weaken food tolerance in some people, causing food allergy," said allergist Elina Jerschow, M.D., M.Sc., ACAAI fellow and lead study author. "This chemical is commonly found in pesticides used by farmers and consumer insect and weed control products, as well as tap water."
Among 10,348 participants in a US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2006, 2,548 had dichlorophenols measured in their urine and 2,211 were included into the study. Food allergy was found in 411 of these participants, while 1,016 had an environmental allergy.
"Previous studies have shown that both food allergies and environmental pollution are increasing in the United States," said Dr. Jerschow. "The results of our study suggest these two trends might be linked, and that increased use of pesticides and other chemicals is associated with a higher prevalence of food allergies."
While opting for bottled water instead of tap water might seem to be a way to reduce the risk for developing an allergy, according to the study such a change may not be successful.
"Other dichlorophenol sources, such as pesticide-treated fruits and vegetables, may play a greater role in causing food allergy," said Dr. Jerschow.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an increase in food allergy of 18 percent was seen between 1997 and 2007. The most common food allergens are milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, tree nuts, soy, fish, and shellfish.
Food allergy symptoms can range from a mild rash to a life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis. The ACAAI advises everyone with a known food allergy to always carry two doses of allergist prescribed epinephrine. A delay in using epinephrine is common in severe food allergic reaction deaths.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Elina Jerschow, Aileen P. McGinn, Gabriele de Vos, Natalia Vernon, Sunit Jariwala, Golda Hudes, David Rosenstreich. Dichlorophenol-containing pesticides and allergies: results from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2006. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, 2012; 109 (6): 420 DOI: 10.1016/j.anai.2012.09.005
2. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121203081621.htm

Can Your Home Trigger Asthma?

Environmental Toxicologists Link Household Bacteria to Asthma

Scientists have found that chemicals called endotoxins can inflame airways and trigger asthma. Endotoxins are shed by bacteria in household dust. Experts say better home hygiene, washing bed linens in hot water at least once a week, and using allergen-prevention pillow cases and mattress covers can reduce the risk of asthma attacks. 

IOWA CITY--Researchers say asthma and allergy triggers may be commonly found at home. That means there are things you can do to reduce the cause of your family's symptoms.

Steven Pannkuk loves playing with his kids but he worries about their health. "I have some asthma and allergies in my genetics," he says. While genetics do play a role, environmental toxicologists say the bigger culprit may be in the carpet and other places that collect dust.

A new study indicates bacteria in household dust releases chemicals called endotoxins, which can inflame airways and trigger asthma.

Peter Thorne, an environmental toxicologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City says, "If you think of a bacterium as an orange, the endotoxin is the material that makes up the peel. It's the outer layer. And this becomes shed from bacteria, and it's everywhere in the environment.

Researchers found the bedroom had fewer endotoxins, but it had a greater impact on a child's health. After all, that's where kids spend almost half their day. Plus, they have closer contact with the endotoxins. "Endotoxin in the home is related to higher rates of asthma," Thorne says.

There are things you and your family can do to lower the amount of endotoxins: wash your bed linens in hot water at least once a week, reduce clutter so you can clean better, purchase allergen-prevention pillow cases and mattress covers and don't eat in bed.

"I just try and be a little more conscious inside of what I can do so I can control my environment on the inside," Pannkuk tells DBIS. He is stuck with his seasonal allergies but is happy he can control environmental factors that affect his family.

Another cause of asthma in the home is pet dander. Cases of asthma tripled among newborns to 4-year-olds between 1980 and 2000.

BACKGROUND: Bacteria lurking in household dust produces chemicals that may trigger asthma symptoms, whether a person suffers from asthma or allergies or not. The results, from the first nationwide study of toxins made by bacteria in households, indicate that it's not just the concentration of the bacteria-made toxin that is important. Other factors, such as how long and when a person is exposed to the bacterial toxin, as well as genetic factors, may contribute to the development of asthma.
THE STUDY: The nationwide study involved the analysis of more than 2,500 dust samples from 831 homes across the U.S. Results showed a strong association between the levels of toxins made by bacteria -- called endotoxins -- and the prevalence of diagnosed asthma, asthma symptoms and wheezing. People in households with higher endotoxin concentrations had higher instances of respiratory symptoms.
ABOUT ENDOTOXINS: Endotoxins are found in the cell wall of bacteria and are only released when the cell ruptures or disintegrates. Because bacteria can be found everywhere in the home, the likelihood of such a release is very high. Once released, endotoxins can cause inflammation of the airways and lead to asthma symptoms. Endotoxin levels can be reduced in the same way that allergy symptoms can be reduced: by removing dust, keeping the floors as clean as possible, keeping moisture low, repairing water damage, cleaning bed linens, and using a high-efficiency vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter, among other actions.
ASTHMA OR ALLERGIES? Asthma is a chronic disease affecting the airways that carry air in and out of the lungs. The inside walls of the airways become inflamed (swollen) and narrower so less air can flow through the lung tissues. This in turn causes wheezing, coughing, tightness in the chest, and trouble breathing. Asthma is linked to allergies, although not everyone with asthma has allergies. People with allergies tend to react more strongly to the presence of allergens such as animal dander, dust mites, pollen or mold, as well as cigarette smoke and air pollution.
The American Society for Microbiology contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0305-can_your_home_trigger_asthma.htm