Hurricane seasons becoming more active
STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- New research suggests hurricane seasons in the United States are not only becoming more active, but the strength of the storms has also increased.
"We are at levels now that are about as high as anything we have seen in the past 1,000 years," said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University and the lead author of the paper. Mann and colleagues Jeffrey Donnelly of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Jonathan Woodruff of the University of Massachusetts and Zhihua Zhang of Pennsylvania State University examined sediment samples from across the North Atlantic coast and statistical models of historic hurricane activities.
They said they measured the severity of hurricane seasons during the past 1,500 years and found the sediment samples matched relatively well with computer models, both of which show a period of high activity around 1,000 A.D., followed by a lull in activity The study also adds validity to the theory that the La Nina effect and higher ocean surface temperatures result in higher hurricane activity. The researchers said if climate change continues to warm ocean waters, it could lead to even more active hurricane seasons.
This hurricane season has, so far, been lighter than usual, Mann said, because of the El Nino effect that's believed to have the opposite effect of La Nina patterns.
The study is reported in the journal Nature.
Schizophrenia treatment study is started
MANHASSET, N.Y., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers have started a $40 million, six-year study of treatment effectiveness for those experiencing their first episodes of schizophrenia.
The study is to be conducted by independent research teams -- one led by Zucker Hillside Hospital at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research -- the other by Columbia University. Money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will help fund the project.
Medical scientists say studies have shown people with schizophrenia generally do not get appropriate treatments early enough in the course of the disease and that might lead to a more disabling form of the illness.
Dr. John Kane, Zucker's chairman of psychiatry, said the study "is novel because there has never been an attempt to study the impact of carefully integrated modern pharmacologic and psychosocial treatments in first-episode patients.
"This project will give us strategies that may change the course of illness for patients early in the disease process," he added.
The research will involve 200 newly diagnosed schizophrenia patients, following them during the 6-year period to determine if symptoms improve and if social and vocational functioning improves with the selected interventions. Treatment data will be compared with data from patients participating in standard psychiatric care at community clinics across the nation.
Physicists create electromagnetic gateway
HONG KONG, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Chinese physicists may not yet be able to move between parallel universes or become invisible, but they've created the first tunable electromagnetic gateway.
Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in Shanghai said their concept of "a gateway that can block electromagnetic waves, but that allows the passage of other entities" resembles "hidden portals" or "invisibility cloaks" mentioned in works of science fiction or fantasy, such as the Harry Potter series.
Previous attempts at an electromagnetic gateway were hindered by narrow bandwidth, only capturing a small range of visible light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. But the scientists said their new configuration of metamaterials can be manipulated to have optimum permittivity and permeability -- able to insulate the electromagnetic field that encounters it with an appropriate magnetic reaction.
"In the frequency range in which the metamaterial possesses a negative refraction index, people standing outside the gateway would see something like a mirror," said Huanyang Chen, who led the research. "Whether it can block all visible light depends on whether one can make a metamaterial that has a negative refractive index from 300 to 800 nanometers."
The research appears in the New Journal of Physics.
Same-sex, opposite-sex human fungus found
PROVIDENCE, R.I., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered Candida albicans, a fungus that can make people sick, pursues both same-sex and opposite-sex mating activities.
Brown University researchers said their discovery marks the first time the same-sex mode of reproduction has been identified in Candida albicans, the most common of human fungal pathogens that produces thrush and other diseases.
"This discovery really surprised us," said Assistant Professor Richard Bennett. "Candida albicans has two mating types … and it was assumed that mating could only occur between these two cell types. We now know that a mechanism exists for same-sex mating, and thus sex could be more prevalent in this species than previously recognized."
Bennett, who led the research with Kevin Alby and Dana Schaefer, said the finding means unisexual reproduction might be important for microbial pathogenesis.
The study is reported in the journal Nature.
