Mayo Clinic researchers are sounding an alert about side effects of shock wave lithotripsy: in a research study, they found this common treatment for kidney stones to significantly increase the risk for diabetes and hypertension later in life. Risk for diabetes was related to the intensity of the treatment and quantity of the shock waves administered; hypertension was related to treatment of stones in both kidneys.
Shock wave lithotripsy uses shock waves to break up an impassable kidne
Ultra-small particles loaded with medicine
Ultra-small particles loaded with medicine – and aimed with the precision of a rifle – are offering a promising new way to strike at cancer, according to researchers working at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
In a paper to appear the week of April 10 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reports a way to custom design nanoparticles so they home in on dangerous cancer ce
A new study of women with early stage, localized breast cancer identifies new patterns and risk factors for invasive disease that may influence how patients are treated. Published in the May 15, 2006 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study reveals that patients with lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) are actually at higher risk of developing advanced stage tumors than previously thought. In addition, women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who are un
Atopic infants may be predisposed to snoring
Young children born to parents who snore have an increased risk of snoring. New research published in the April issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), shows that infants, who had at least one parent who snored frequently, were three times more likely to snore frequently than children with no parental history of snoring. In addition, children who tested positive for atopy, an early
New findings shed light on cancer behavior
Scientists have made significant progress toward elucidating key genetic events associated with the development and progression of multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable malignancy that is the second most common cancer of the blood. The results, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, provide new genetic and biological insights that open innovative directions for the discovery of effective therapeutics that can be targeted to specific
Scientists have discovered that a stem cell factor overexpressed both in brain tumor cells and in neurons following brain injury promotes tumor survival by inducing angiogenesis. The research study, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, examines the interaction between tumor cells and surrounding tissues and may have substantial significance for design of more effective therapeutics for one of the most lethal types of tumor, malignant gliomas.
Stem cell factor (SCF) is an impo
These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show the Galle Crater, an impact crater located on the eastern rim of the Argyre Planitia impact basin on Mars.
The HRSC obtained these images during orbits 445, 2383, 2438, 2460 and 2493 with a ground resolution ranging between 10-20 metres per pixel, depending on location within the image strip.
The images show Crater Galle lying to the east of the Argyre Planitia impact basi
Polar stratospheric clouds have become the focus of many research projects in recent years due to the discovery of their role in ozone depletion, but essential aspects of these clouds remain a mystery. MIPAS, an instrument onboard ESA’s Envisat, is allowing scientists to gain information about these clouds necessary for modelling ozone loss.
“The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is unique in its possibilities to detect polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs)
Timeline of events during the Venus Orbit Insertion (VOI) manoeuvre, marking arrival of ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft at its destination on 11 April.
VOI is a series of telecommands, engine burns and manoeuvres designed to slow the spacecraft from a velocity of 29 000 kilometres per hour relative to Venus to an entry velocity some 15 percent slower, allowing it to be captured into orbit around the planet.
Time (CEST) Event
09:17 VEX main engine burn starts
We like to believe that all the thinking about development and all the assistance we give is helping the poorest people in the world. In a new dissertation, Bent Jörgensen, at Göteborg University in Sweden, maintains that assistance and economic growth in certain circumstances aggravates the situation for the poorest of the poor. The problem is primarily that the concept of development takes on another meaning.
Over the last two decades Vietnam has undergone strong economic development as
Emissions under control in coal combustion with new technology
VTT is developing technology that will allow fuels including coal to be utilised more efficiently in energy production; even without emitting any carbon dioxide.
In the new technology fossil fuels are combusted with pure oxygen separated from the air. Combustion gas consists mostly of carbon dioxide and water vapour. Carbon dioxide can be liquefied after cooling and stored in geological formations.
Anyone who has ever been told by their doctor to steer clear of certain foods, lower their calorie intake or cut down on salt knows just how hard it can be to avoid temptation and stay motivated. A virtual healthcare assistant is being developed to offer a guiding hand.
The personalised information system being created by the PIPS project will give users access to real-time healthcare advice anywhere at anytime over mobile and fixed-line devices, helping them to consistently make the best
A special issue containing a number of articles in aspects of amphioxus genetics research, authored by leading international scientists, has just been published in International Journal of Biological Sciences.
The discovery in the 1980’s that animals as diverse as flies and mouse shared a toolkit of basic developmental genes helped to unite biologists, leading to the creation of the new discipline of evolutionary developmental biology that tries to explain the evolutionary c
In the last decade, the new theory of metabolic ecology has derived general predictions for a wide range of ecological patterns from fundamental physical and biochemical principles.
Predictions for tree growth, mortality and size distributions are particularly significant in light of their potential to help explain globally important carbon stores and fluxes of tropical forests. In a forthcoming pair of papers in Ecology Letters, Muller-Landau and collaborators associated
Stem cell scientists at the University of Edinburgh have discovered that Notch, a protein first discovered more than 80 years ago in the fruit fly, directs unspecialized embryonic stem cells to become cells of the nervous system. These unexpected findings pave the way for using lab-grown cells to model disease and test the effects of new drugs, and are published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.
Embryonic stem cells have the potential to make all 200 cell types
First scientific analysis of Chinese outbreak of S.suis, spread from pigs to humans
Last year, there was major press coverage of an alarmingly large and deadly outbreak of Streptococcus suis disease in Sichuan province in China (see http://www.who.int/csr/don/2005_08_03/en/).
Now George Gao, Yu Wang, Jiaqi Tang, Xiaoning Wang and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other Chinese institutions publish
Feedback
