Focus: Hidden - Maryland

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The star-nosed mole has several unusual abilities. One of them is “sniffing” underwater by blowing bubbles and quickly re-inhaling them, detecting odors of its prey through the water. The moles’ “star” nose features a ring of tiny, pink tentacles and is the most sensitive known touch organ of any mammal. Researchers will present their work exploring the star-nosed moles’ unusual underwater sniffing ability during the 70th meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, Nov. 19-21, 2017.

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The stinging cells of jellyfish, called nematocytes, have evolved to be one of the world’s most efficient predation tools. The nematocysts consist of a capsule and folded tubule, and use high pressure and acceleration for defense and locomotion and, more importantly, to capture prey. Inconsistencies in a previous conceptual explanation of the stinging cell mechanism were identified using a microfluidic system and mathematical models. Researchers will share their mathematical model of nemotocytes at the 70th meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, Nov. 19-21, 2017. The model demonstrates how environmental modifications can reduce the impact of jellyfish stinging capacity.

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The Obesity Society Perspective paper encourages patient-centered approach to childhood obesity

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Cooking in a frying pan with oil can quickly become dangerous if “explosive” hot oil droplets jump out of the pan, leading to painful burns. But these droplets may be doing something even more damaging: contributing to indoor air pollution. A group of researchers exploring these “explosive droplets” will present their work to uncover the fluid dynamics behind this phenomenon during the 70th meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, Nov. 19-21, 2017.

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Germanium was the material of choice in the early history of electronic devices, and due to its high charge carrier mobility, it’s making a comeback. It’s generally grown on expensive single-crystal substrates, adding another challenge to making it sustainably viable for most applications. To address this aspect, researchers demonstrate an epitaxy method that incorporates van der Waals’ forces to grow germanium on mica. They discuss their work in the Journal of Applied Physics.

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Johns Hopkins Nursing researcher Janiece Taylor lets frustration drive her instead of holding her back. She has learned that it doesn't hurt to try something new.

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Never-before-seen images of mouse immune system proteins and bacterial bits reveal an inspection strategy that identifies pathogens.

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Swift action by two Army medical department officers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences saved the life of a Texas woman who went into cardiac arrest on Veterans Day.

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The Association for Molecular Pathology, the premier global, non-profit molecular diagnostics professional society, today published 17 consensus recommendations to help clinical laboratory professionals achieve high-quality sequencing results and deliver better patient care.

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Anaheim Convention Center Anaheim, California Nov. 11-15

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Study led by University of Maryland School of Social Work's Jodi Frey has resulted in more than 1,750 mental health screenings.

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Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering faculty and graduate students, global health experts and technology specialists will receive $100,000 to further develop a phone-based system enabling mothers in remote villages to spot serious health problems during newborn babies’ critical first week.

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Sometimes during catalytic hydrogenation, the partially hydrogenated products become volatile, melting and evaporating away before they can bind to more hydrogen atoms. Now, researchers have explored how and why this volatility varies during hydrogenation, suggesting that a previously underappreciated effect from carbon-hydrogen bonds in the molecule is the main culprit. The new analysis, published in The Journal of Chemical Physics, can help chemists identify the ideal conditions needed for catalytic hydrogenation so they can better remove excess hydrogen.

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New research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that the system for choosing transplant recipients in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may underestimate how long a person might survive without a lung transplant and therefore, may mislead clinicians.

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Soft magnetic core engineering plays a key role in high-efficiency electric motors, but for higher-frequency applications, soft magnetic composites are also promising. Each stage of motor construction affects the material’s microstructure, and understanding the details of the microstructure is paramount to reaching higher efficiency for electrical motors. In this week’s AIP Advances, researchers created an advanced characterization method to closely examine microscale structural characteristics and changes during manufacturing processes using electron backscatter diffraction.

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In motors, generators and similar electric machines, the electrical current that powers them generates magnetic fields that magnetize some of the metallic components. Choosing the right magnetic material is crucial for designing efficient machines, so researchers in Germany analyzed the existing system for characterizing soft magnetic materials, which are easily magnetized. To identify a better system for quality control, they looked at several factors that can affect the uncertainty inherent in the measurement of magnetic properties. Their results are in this week’s AIP Advances.

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Is more always better? Researchers in Kyoto, Japan, sought to find out if that was the case for measuring magnetic field strengths. Their paper, appearing this week in AIP Advances, from AIP Publishing, examines whether a double H-coil method or a single H-coil method is a more accurate way to measure magnetic field strength.

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Getting more sleep may help wound healing, and a nutrition supplement may also help, according to a new study. The paper, published ahead of print in the Journal of Applied Physiology, was chosen as an APSselect article for November.

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The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is pleased to announce the 2017 cohort of ASCB Fellows. The honor of being named an ASCB Fellow is bestowed to ASCB members by their peers. Fellows are recognized for their meritorious efforts to advance cell biology and its applications and for their service to ASCB.

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In experiments with mice that have a rodent form of Marfan syndrome, Johns Hopkins researchers report that even modestly increasing stress on the animals’ hearts — at levels well-tolerated in normal mice — can initiate heart failure. The findings, described August 4 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, revealed a novel cellular pathway in heart tissue that leads to heart failure and may serve as a model for a new standard of treatment for children with this aggressive form of Marfan syndrome.