Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Research on antibiotic use, drug resistant organisms and effectiveness of electronic faucets

WHAT: A special media phone briefing with leading infectious disease scientists and healthcare-associated infection experts who will headline the 2011 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America's (SHEA) Annual Meeting

WHO: Arjun Srinivasan, MD, Associate Director of Healthcare-associated Infection Prevention Programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Steven Gordon, MD, President, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Makoto Jones, MD, Salt Lake City VA Healthcare System Dawn Terashita, MD, MPH, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Emily Sydnor, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

WHEN: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 1 p.m. ET

RSVP: Contact Tamara Moore, tmoore@gymr.com, to receive the conference number and embargoed materials

Selected studies include:

A study from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has determined that electronic faucets are more likely to become contaminated with unacceptably high levels of bacteria compared with traditional manually operated faucets. (Embargoed for Thursday, March 31 at 7 am CT).

About SHEA's 2011 Annual Meeting:

SHEA's Annual Scientific Meeting is the premier scientific meeting for healthcare epidemiologists and other individuals working in the field of healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. The meeting will take place April 1-4, 2011 in Dallas, TX.

SHEA is a professional society representing more than 1,800 physicians and other healthcare professionals around the world with expertise in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. SHEA's mission is to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections and advance the field of healthcare epidemiology. The society leads this field by promoting science and research and providing high-quality education and training in epidemiologic methods and prevention strategies. SHEA upholds the value and critical contributions of healthcare epidemiology to improving patient care and healthcare worker safety in all healthcare settings.

Tamara Moore | EurekAlert!
Further information:
http://www.shea-online.org

Im Focus: Spider silk key to new bone-fixing composite

University of Connecticut researchers have created a biodegradable composite made of silk fibers that can be used to repair broken load-bearing bones without the complications sometimes presented by other materials.

Repairing major load-bearing bones such as those in the leg can be a long and uncomfortable process.

Im Focus: Writing and deleting magnets with lasers

Study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces is the outcome of an international effort that included teams from Dresden and Berlin in Germany, and the US.

Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) together with colleagues from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Virginia...

Im Focus: Gamma-ray flashes from plasma filaments

Novel highly efficient and brilliant gamma-ray source: Based on model calculations, physicists of the Max PIanck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg propose a novel method for an efficient high-brilliance gamma-ray source. A giant collimated gamma-ray pulse is generated from the interaction of a dense ultra-relativistic electron beam with a thin solid conductor. Energetic gamma-rays are copiously produced as the electron beam splits into filaments while propagating across the conductor. The resulting gamma-ray energy and flux enable novel experiments in nuclear and fundamental physics.

The typical wavelength of light interacting with an object of the microcosm scales with the size of this object. For atoms, this ranges from visible light to...

Im Focus: Basel researchers succeed in cultivating cartilage from stem cells

Stable joint cartilage can be produced from adult stem cells originating from bone marrow. This is made possible by inducing specific molecular processes occurring during embryonic cartilage formation, as researchers from the University and University Hospital of Basel report in the scientific journal PNAS.

Certain mesenchymal stem/stromal cells from the bone marrow of adults are considered extremely promising for skeletal tissue regeneration. These adult stem...

Im Focus: Like a wedge in a hinge

Researchers lay groundwork to tailor drugs for new targets in cancer therapy

In the fight against cancer, scientists are developing new drugs to hit tumor cells at so far unused weak points. Such a “sore spot” is the protein complex...