A simple and efficient method that facilitates Parkinson’s disease treatment has been developed by researchers of the Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy of Sciences. Influence of feeble electric current on the brain via electrodes laid on the head skin – the so-called transcranial electric polarization (TCEP) – reduces muscle tone and partially restores patients’ movements. In combination with antiparkinsonian drug intake, TCEP reduces their side effect.
Parkinson’s disease is a c
Solid oil waste should be processed into compost. Specialists of Kazan State University and the Open Joint-Stock Company “Nizhnekamskneft” stick to this opinion. The obtained compost is practically nontoxic, and bio-utilization of waste may be an excellent alternative to harmful waste storage and combustion.
Solid waste of petrochemical production (oil-slimes) belongs to the most persistent environment pollutants. Oil-slimes consist of oil carbohydrates and products of their pro
VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland, announced a new product development technology for the software industry. By using VTT’s new agile methods, savings of as much as 70 per cent can be gained in the development of new software products. The method developed by VTT is being introduced in several Finnish and European companies.
VTT has developed an agile method called Mobile-D, the results of which have been transferred to industry at a fast pace. In the pilots for the software
New research led by biologists at the University of Warwick has revealed a new technique that could become a valuable way of identifying badger setts that harbour TB diseased and infectious badgers in regions where TB in cattle, caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), is problematic.
The research paper published on Thursday 23rd March 2006, in the Royal Society’s scientific journal Biology Letters entitled “Is Mycobacterium bovis in the environment important for the
Organizers of a 20-year global effort to eliminate a parasitic infection that is a leading cause of disability have an early victory to savor: a five-year Egyptian elimination campaign has mostly succeeded, according to a new report in the March 25 issue of The Lancet. Infection with the parasites, threadlike filarial worms, can lead to the dramatic, disfiguring swelling known as elephantiasis.
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Ain Shams University
Unique public-private partnership creates RNAi-based inhibitors for nearly every human and mouse gene, makes them available to all genetic researchers
An international public-private research team led by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced today the construction and availability of an extensive library of molecular reagents to silence most human and mouse genes. As described in the March 24 issue of Cell, this library consists of small RNA molecules t
Rise of seismic activity linked to the movement of glaciers may be a response to global warming
Seismologists at Columbia University and Harvard University have found a new indicator that the Earth is warming: “glacial earthquakes” caused when the rivers of ice lurch unexpectedly and produce temblors as strong as magnitude 5.1 on the moment-magnitude scale, which is similar to the Richter scale. Glacial earthquakes in Greenland, the researchers found, are most common in July a
Newfound temblors, most common in summer months, have proliferated in recent years
Seismologists at Harvard University and Columbia University have found an unexpected offshoot of global warming: “glacial earthquakes” in which Manhattan-sized glaciers lurch unexpectedly, yielding temblors up to magnitude 5.1 on the moment-magnitude scale, which is similar to the Richter scale. Glacial earthquakes in Greenland, the researchers found, are most common in July and August, and have mo
The Earth’s warming temperatures are on track to melt the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets sooner than previously thought and ultimately lead to a global sea level rise of at least 20 feet, according to new research.
If the current warming trends continue, by 2100 the Earth will likely be at least 4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than present, with the Arctic at least as warm as it was nearly 130,000 years ago. At that time, significant portions of the Greenland and Antarctic Ic
Everyone is equipped with a biological clock, a region in the brain the size of a corn kernel, which dictates our sleep-wake cycles, and plays a major role in our physical and mental health. Pioneering research conducted by Kent State professor Dr. David Glass has shown the body’s clock can be re-set – good news for people who work swing shifts, experience jet lag or take anti-depressants.
Glass, known internationally as the first researcher to measure serotonin release from the brai
Dry Umbilical Cord Care in Developing Countries Should Be Reconsidered
A topical antiseptic reduces umbilical cord infections and infant mortality risk, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In a study conducted in southern Nepal, babies who received umbilical cord cleanings after their cords were cut with chlorhexidine, a topical antiseptic, were 75 percent less likely to experience severe infections of their umbilical cor
Evidence never dies in the popular TV show Cold Case. Nor do some traces of life disappear on Earth, Mars, or elsewhere. An international team of scientists,* including researchers from the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, has developed techniques to detect miniscule amounts of biological remains, dubbed biosignatures, in the frozen Mars-like terrain of Svalbard, a island north of Norway. This technology will be used on future life-search missions to the Red Planet. The work is
Rocky planets such as Earth and Mars are born when small particles smash together to form larger, planet-sized clusters in a planet-forming disk, but researchers are less sure about how gas-giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn form. Is core accretion–the process that creates their smaller, terrestrial cousins–responsible? Or could an alternate model known as disk instability–in which the planet-forming disk itself actually fragments into a number of planet-sized clumps–be at work? Could bot
Since the mid-1990s a great debate has raged over whether organic compounds and tiny globules of carbonate minerals imbedded in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 were processed by living creatures from the Red Planet. The materials have been under intense scrutiny ever since. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, with colleagues,1 have taken a fresh look at how material associated with carbonate globules was created using sophisticated instrumentation and they co
A team from the Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Keele University has developed a technique to identify corroded steel within concrete by non-destructive means.
Reinforced concrete can suffer dangerous and potentially catastrophic deterioration when the reinforcing steel becomes corroded, making regular assessment critical. Commercial techniques currently available involve invasive procedures including damaging the concrete or provide ind
Sudden death is a health problem with a rate of one in every thousand inhabitants per annum. The crisis appears suddenly, although the prompt application – within a period of a few minutes – of an elecrtical discharge from a defibrillator – makes the difference between life and death. Persons with a high risk of suffering sudden death have an internal automatic defibrillator (IAD) implanted.
Between 800 and 1000 people die in Gipuzkoa each year as a result of sudden death. These deaths are
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