UT Southwestern Medical Center ophthalmologists will be the first in the area to insert a new type of implanted lens to fix nearsightedness.
“Think of it as a contact lens inside your eye,” said Dr. Wayne Bowman, who is inserting the new implantable collamer lens, or ICL, today for the first time at UT Southwestern University Hospitals.
The ICL can replace or reduce the need for glasses by permanently placing the specially fitted artificial lens in front of the eye’s n
While biologists sort out what levels of noise go unnoticed, are annoying or cause harm to marine mammals, physical oceanographer Jeff Nystuen is giving scientists and managers a way to sift through and identify the sounds present in various marine ecosystems.
Nystuen, from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory, presented his latest findings this week at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu.
Knowing what sound is already there is needed when tr
Mayo Clinic researchers working in concert with other North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) investigators have found that administering epoetin alfa for anemia once every three weeks to patients with anemia and cancer, instead of the traditional weekly epoetin treatments, maintains similar levels of red blood cells. Results of the study are available online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Anemia is a common complication of cancer and can significantly impair a patient’s
A simple, low-tech garment has the potential to prevent a major cause of death among women who give birth in many Third World countries, according to a new study by maternal health researchers.
Study findings show the use of a neoprene suit can save the lives of women suffering from obstetrical hemorrhaging due to childbirth. Hemorrhaging accounts for about 30 percent of the more than 500,000 maternal deaths worldwide each year due to childbirth, nearly all in poor countries, acco
Elusive smad dephosphorylase identified
In the March 15th issue of G&D, Dr. Lan Xu and colleagues (UMASS Medical School) identify the long sought-after phosphatase for Smad in the BMP signal transduction pathway.
In organisms as diverse as worms, fruit flies and humans, the Smad family of intracellular messenger proteins are activated upon phosphorylation by TGFbeta and BMP signaling pathways. Dr. Xu’s new paper now reveals the elusive Smad phosphatase in the BMP path
Dr. Lizi Wu (Dana Farber Cancer Institute) and colleagues report on a critical role for one of the three mammalian mastermind genes (Maml1) in myogenesis – assigning that first biological function to the mammalian MAML Notch co-activators.
“Our study uncovered an exciting and essential regulatory role for Maml1 in muscle development,” says Wu.
Dr. Wu and colleagues generated MAML1-deficient mice, which displayed severe muscular dystrophy. The researchers showed that the
A study of elderly Dutch men indicates that eating or drinking cocoa is associated with lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death, according to an article in the February 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Cocoa has been linked to cardiovascular health benefits since at least the 18th century, but researchers are just beginning to collect scientific evidence for these claims, according to background information in the article. Cocoa is
Einstein researchers report findings in March issue of Diabetes
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have documented a dramatic upsurge in diabetes-related deaths and illnesses in New York City–including a sharp increase in diabetic patients hospitalized with heart attacks. They warn that this upsurge in diabetic complications may end the long-term trend of progressively fewer heart attacks and heart-attack deaths in the U.S.
Mystery of why women die more often than men after bypass operations may be rooted in preventable or treatable causes
For years, experts have puzzled over the fact that women who have heart bypass surgery are far more likely than their male counterparts to die within days or weeks of their operation. This gender gap means many “extra” female deaths among the 270,000 Americans who have bypass surgery each year.
Now, a new University of Michigan study suggests that the an
’Staggeringly stronger’ immune response may be why socially isolated women seem to be less susceptible to illness and death than isolated men. Gender difference in immune inflammatory response may be related to demands of motherhood.
Socially isolated female rats that experience stress generate a “staggeringly stronger” response to an immune challenge than similarly isolated and stressed males, according to a new study.
The difference in the female rats’
Combining aggressive HIV therapy and chemotherapy significantly improves the survival rates of HIV-positive men and women treated for lymphoma, according to a new study. Published in the April 1, 2006 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study reveals that combination therapy showed the greatest benefit for HIV patients suffering from aggressive malignant non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This benefit was most pronounced in HIV patients without severely impaired
Body weight-supported treadmill training isn’t more effective than conventional mobility rehabilitation for restoring movement to those with partial spinal cord injury, according to a new study. But an unexpectedly high number of patients achieved functional walking speeds regardless of treatment type. The study is published in the February 28, 2006, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).
The multicenter trial analyzed 117 individua
New research shows women who experience hysterectomy and oophorectomy are at higher risk for low sexual desire
A cross-sectional survey of European women shows that surgically menopausal women are at increased risk for low sexual desire. In the March 2006 issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers have published the first-ever multi-cultural prevalence study using multi-dimensional psychometrically valid outcomes to determine if women who undergo surgical menopause h
This new Hubble image reveals the gigantic Pinwheel galaxy, one of the best known examples of “grand design spirals”, and its supergiant star-forming regions in unprecedented detail. The image is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy ever released.
Giant galaxies weren’t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (the Pinwheel Galaxy). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy bey
Romania has strengthened its relations with ESA by signing the European Cooperating State Agreement, becoming the third European country to join this status. Hungary was the first in April 2003 followed by the Czech Republic in November of the same year.
The ceremony took place in Bucharest with the participation of Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, Prime Minister of Romania, Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, Anton Anton, Romanian Secretary of State for Science and Technology, Marius-Ioa
From one international cooperation to another, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS), American William McArthur and Russian Valery Tokarev, yesterday congratulated the Olympic athletes gathered in Turin, Italy, for the closing ceremony of the 20th Olympic Winter Games.
In a special message played to athletes and spectators gathered in the Stadio Olimpico, McArthur and Tokarev, the ISS Expedition 12 crew, applauded the accomplishments of the world’s athletes who competed in the
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