Lead may pose greater leaching risk than standard tests show
In critiquing a common safety standard for brass used in plumbing, researchers have found the regimen may be flawed. As a result, they say, some of the lead that crept into tap water in Washington, D.C., and other metropolitan areas may be traceable to household fixtures, valves and other components and not just pipes and systems further from the home.
The new study looked at the American National Standards Ins
MDCT arthrography is an accurate method for assessing cartilage loss in patients with hip dysplasia and may be more reliable than MRI in such instances, says a new study by researchers from Osaka University Medical School in Japan.
Hip dysplasia is a malformation or alteration of the ball (femur head) and socket (acetabulum) joint bones of the hip that can wear away the surrounding cartilage, which can lead to arthritis and other problems. “The condition is often caused by a bir
A single dose of the contrast agent gadobenate dimeglumine can help liver donors avoid multiple MRI examinations during the screening process, cutting down on time and cost without compromising accuracy, say researchers from the Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea.
For the study, 11 potential liver donors underwent MRI examinations after a single dose of gadobenate dimeglumine in order to screen them for donor adequacy. The researchers were able to find anatomic
New images of Saturn obtained by a University of Colorado at Boulder-led team on June 21 using an instrument on the Cassini spacecraft show auroral emissions at its poles similar to Earth’s Northern Lights.
Taken with the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph aboard the Cassini orbiter, the two UV images, invisible to the human eye, are the first from the Cassini-Huygens mission to capture the entire “oval” of the auroral emissions at Saturn’s south pole. They also show similar emissio
Terrorists have just laced the water supply of a major metropolis with a chemical so lethal that only small amounts are needed to kill thousands of people. But the chemical never reaches its targets. Tiny liquid phase sensors at strategic points in the city’s water mains detect the chemical as it passes and tell a computer to close down the affected pipes.
Current technology is too cumbersome for this kind of rapid detection and response. But new advances in liquid and gas phase
More than fifty percent of the U.S. population tested positive to one or more allergens, according to a large national study. The new findings, based on data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), shows that 54.3% of individuals aged 6-59 years old had a positive skin test response to at least one of the 10 allergens tested. The highest prevalence rates were for dust mite, rye, ragweed, and cockroach, with about 25% of the population testing positive to ea
Key research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) could lead to the first early diagnostic tool for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“At the moment we don’t have any biological tests for these conditions,” said one of the authors, UNSW Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Philip Ward, who is based at Liverpool Hospital’s Schizophrenia Research Unit. “Our research could eventually lead to a simple, cost-effective and safe way to distinguish patients with schizop
MARSIS, the sounding radar on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, is collecting the first data about the surface and the ionosphere of Mars.
The radar started its science operations on 4 July 2005, after the first phase of its commissioning was concluded on the same day. Due to the late deployment of MARSIS, it was decided to split the commissioning, originally planned to last four weeks, into two phases, one of which has just ended and the second one to be started by December th
With the new reflection-technique created by a Bremen research institute, reflective surfaces can be measured more easily and quickly than before. Changes in…
A January 2004 finding by biologists at the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution added important evidence to the radical conclusion that a group of diminutive aquatic animals called bdelloid rotifers have evolved for tens of millions of years without sexual reproduction, in apparent violation of the rule that abandonment of sexual reproduction is a biological dead end. Now, MBL scientists are beginning to understand just what’s different about these creatu
A simple tank-and-siphon system for removing oil from oily water and protecting the environment is about to be launched internationally by an engineering team from the University of New South Wales.
The Extended Gravity Oil Water Separation (EGOWS) concept is an improvement on the industry-standard American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity separator that has been widely used for the last 60 years.
The API separator, originally designed for oil refineries, is not designed
Breastfeeding toddlers: it’s considered a social no-no, which means very few mothers end up breastfeeding their babies past 12 months of age. A University of Western Sydney researcher has carried out Australia’s first study of mums and bubs who breastfeed beyond infancy – looking at why these women are bucking the trend against premature weaning, and asking the toddlers themselves how they feel about breastfeeding.
Dr Karleen Gribble from the UWS School of Nursing, Famil
American Heart Association rapid access journal report:
In a study of women smokers, those whose spouses also smoked had a higher risk of stroke than those married to nonsmokers, according to a study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“There is evidence suggesting that your exposure to secondhand smoke can increase your chances of getting heart disease. We asked if that was also true for stroke,” said the study’s lead author Adnan I. Qureshi M.D.
American Heart Association rapid access journal report:
People with prehypertension are at much higher risk of heart attack and heart disease, according to a study published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“If we were to eliminate prehypertension, we could potentially prevent about 47 percent of all heart attacks,” said the study’s lead author Adnan I. Qureshi, M.D., professor and director of the Cerebrovascular Program in the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke
A discovery reported in the August 5 issue of Science could speed the design of materials that approach the hardness of diamond yet remain supple enough to be worked like metal.
In a massive computer simulation involving 128 computer processors and nearly 19 million atoms, materials scientist Izabela Szlufarska of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues at University of Southern California demonstrated the precise atomic mechanisms that explain why “nanostructured” cera
A Penn State researcher is part of the team that developed techniques that have generated insights into dietary divergences between some of our human ancestors, allowing scientists to better understand the evolutionary path that led to the modern-day diets that humans consume. “Our new techniques are allowing us to get beyond simple dichotomies and helping us understand the processes by which dietary evolution is working,” said Peter Ungar, professor of anthropology at the University of Arka
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