Coloured transparent organic-inorganic hybrid coatings
Interior design is set to utilise a new era in coloured materials if a team of researchers from Mexico have their way. The researchers have developed hard, coloured, transparent, organic–inorganic hybrid coatings for a range of materials. The success of the coatings comes from the formation of a composite or bio-mineral system at the nanoscopic or molecular level.
In a paper published in AZojomo*, the researchers, J.
The continuing trend toward higher circuit density in microelectronic devices has motivated research efforts in varieties of high-resolution lithography techniques, including electron beam (EB), X-ray, and deep UV irradiation. Use of ultra-thin films and new materials have been proposed as approaches to improve resolution in lithography. The Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique is very effective method used to prepare well-defined ultra-thin film with controlled thickness and orientation at a mol
Nearly seven years after setting off in pursuit of comet Wild 2, the Stardust return capsule streaked across the night sky of the Western United States early Sunday, making a soft parachute landing in the Utah desert southwest of Salt Lake City.
Special helicopter-borne teams secured and recovered the capsule, containing tens of thousands of comet grains and as many as 100 bits of interstellar dust, shortly after it landed. The capsule was moved to a clean room at the Air Forc
New insight into related disorders
An international research collaboration led by Mayo Clinic has identified a new gene involved in causing the inherited kidney disorder, Meckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS). Children with MKS have central nervous system deformities as well as abnormal cysts in their kidneys, and usually die shortly after birth. The findings appear in the current edition of Nature Genetics (http://www.nature.com/ng/index.html). In addition to Mayo Clinic, the collaborati
Older adults who exercised at least three times a week were much less likely to develop dementia than those who were less active, according to a new study. The study did not demonstrate directly that exercise reduces risk of dementia, but it joins a growing body of observational research pointing to an association between exercise and cognitive decline, say scientists at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human
In this study, members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) health equity research group examined access to general practitioners and medical specialists in 21 OECD countries.
After taking into account the age, sex and reported level of health of respondents to national surveys, the authors found that – although in many countries general practitioner care is distributed fairly equally and is often even pro-poor (more visits among poorer households)
Sulfonylurea drugs, used in the treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus to lower blood sugar levels, have been suspected since the 1970s of increasing cardiovascular mortality as well.
In this careful study, some 5800 patients treated with pills for their diabetes were monitored for an average of about 5 years. Patients who were prescribed a sulfonylurea drug (chlorpropamide, tolbutamide or glyburide) experienced higher mortality rates than those who received metformin. Mortality f
The absence of a key protein may lead to infertility.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report that experiments involving mice — to be detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — indicate that the transcription factor protein C/EBPb must be present in the uterus for pregnancy to occur. The study appears online this week at the PNAS Web site.
Without it, they say, an embryo cannot survive in uterine tissue or attach to
You may think making a three-point turn in your car is easy, but how about doing the same with a single-charged atom?
That’s what scientists have achieved for the first time, marking a major breakthrough for physics and a first step towards creating the complicated labyrinth of ’atomic motorways’ needed for a quantum computer.
The microscopic motoring manoeuvre was performed by University of Sussex physicist Dr Winfried Hensinger with colleagues at the Uni
In the world of genetic engineering one often talks about ‘transgenic organisms’. These are organisms that have been modified by the insertion of an alien gene into their genome. Now it turns out that there are naturally occurring transgenic plants. One such instance was found by Dr Lena Ghatnekar from the research team for evolutionary genetics at Lund University in Sweden. Her findings have just been published in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society in London.
Sheep’s fescu
The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) has started work on determining the dynamic characteristics of an average woman. These will be used in developing the first crash test dummy in the world that is based on an average woman. Existing dummies have been developed with reference to an average male.
The fact that there is no model of an average woman at present may impose limitations on how well existing crash test dummies can evaluate the protection provided by
Concepción Lecároz, a researcher from the University of Navarra, has developed a new therapy against brucellosis. This zoonosis —a disease or infection of animals which can be transmitted to humans under natural conditions— annually affects 500,000 people worldwide. This research project forms part of her doctoral thesis, defended at the University’s School of Pharmacy.
This study has permitted the development of a new treatment which significantly reduces infections in mice, a
While there are clear guidelines about the best way to treat cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the first large scale global study on cardiac care has revealed that there is a gap between what is recommended and what is practiced worldwide.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)(1), analyzes information collected by the Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) Registry, th
Investigators still recommend procedure, although they want patients aware of risks
A new Mayo Clinic study finds that vertebroplasty, a procedure used to treat painful compression fractures in the spinal vertebrae due to osteoporosis, appears to increase the risk for new fractures in adjacent vertebrae. The study also found vertebrae adjacent to fractures treated with vertebroplasty fracture significantly sooner than more distant vertebrae. Findings will be published in the
Scientists generally agree that all cloned animals are biologically flawed. But they don’t agree about what that means for stem cells derived from cloned embryos, the basis for therapeutic cloning.
Also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, therapeutic cloning is a promising approach to create individually customized cellular therapies for treating certain disorders. Demonstrated in mice but not in humans, it begins with stem cells derived from a cloned embryo. But if clo
Regular exercise is associated with a delay in the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to a Group Health Cooperative/University of Washington study that will appear in the January 17 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The study–the most definitive investigation of exercise and dementia to date–also found that the more frail a person is, the more he or she may benefit from exercise.
“Even those elderly people who did modest amounts of gentle exercise, suc
Feedback
