February 2011
News You Can Use
Less Greenhouse Gas from Farming
The majority of the world's nitrous oxide emissions come from agriculture in the U.S. But researchers at the University of Missouri – Columbia have found a way to limit the greenhouse gas without making farmer's lives more difficult. In fact the technique can also help farmers save money and improve their yields.
“The main goal for our team has been to identify agricultural practices that maintain or increase production while reducing the environmental impact,” said Peter Motavalli of the University of Missouri.
The university researchers experimented with the technique of tilling strips of the field about a foot wide and eight to nine inches deep. This allows farmers to use less gas in their tractors while still leaving crop residues, like corn stalks, on the field's surface to prevent erosion.
Professor Taking Knee Replacements from Bionic to Biological
It pained James Cook to watch his grandfather hobble on arthritic, achy knees. Cook said he vowed at age 8 to become a doctor or a scientist and fix it so that “no one would ever have to suffer through what my grandpa did.”
Cook is getting close. The professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Missouri said he thought he and team members were on the brink of changing the way the human knee was replaced. The goal, Cook said, “is to put metal and plastic joints out of business."
"If we continue to prove the safety and efficacy of this biologic joint replacement strategy, then we can get FDA approval for use of this technology for joint replacements in people,” Cook said.
From the Lab
Current U.S. Juvenile Treatment Methods for Violent Offenders Costly, Ineffective, Researcher Finds
In a time of shrinking budgets, one University of Missouri professor believes that the current approach to juvenile crime is much too expensive to continue -- and he has the numbers to prove it.
Charles Borduin, a professor of psychological sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science finds that multisystemic therapy (MST) is more effective in the lives of troubled youth and costs less.
Borduin has pioneered the model for the treatment and prevention of serious mental health problems in children and adolescents throughout the course of his career. MST interventions involve the offender's entire family and community, as opposed to the current method of individual therapy, where the offender visits a therapist who offers feedback, support and encouragement for behavior change.
Brain Scans Aid Understanding of Memory
A new study gives researchers insight into the brain and memory and may aid researchers in treating a variety of disorders.
Nelson Cowan, director of the brain-imaging-center at the University of Missouri, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to gain a better understanding of abstract working memory.
Previous studies identified an area of the brain responsible for holding abstract working memory, although it was assumed by some researchers to hold only visual information.
Cowan found that this same part of the brain can hold auditory information as well. For example, when people hear “Jingle Bells” they relate it to the Christmas season and retain the meaning of the song temporarily.