Engineering experts see how buildings and materials fared against walls of water
An inspection of Thai villages and ports struck by tsunami waves has uncovered some engineering lessons that might reduce casualties and destruction in future oceanic upheavals, a Johns Hopkins researcher said.
Robert A. Dalrymple, an internationally recognized expert on water waves and coastal engineering, was part of a nine-member team that recently toured southern Thailand, examining
Device features on computer chips as small as 40 nanometers (nm) wide–less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair–can now be measured reliably thanks to new test structures developed by a team of physicists, engineers, and statisticians at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), SEMATECH, and other collaborators. The test structures are replicated on reference materials that will allow better calibration of tools that monitor the manufacturing of
Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered one reason why infants with low birth weight have a high potential of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. In studies of mice, the researchers found that poor prenatal nutrition impairs the pancreas’s ability to later secrete enough insulin in response to blood glucose.
“The bottom line is that if you don’t have delivery of enough nutrients from the mother to the baby, the baby’s pancreatic cells will be prog
Porthole used in both odor-detecting cells and digestion-aiding cells
A cellular “porthole” known best for its role in the digestive system apparently has a major role in helping the brain sense odors, Johns Hopkins scientists report in the Feb. 17 issue of Neuron. The porthole, which lets chloride into cells, is also critical in digestion, hearing, balance, and fertility. The researchers suggest that digestive system cells and odor-detecting cells use the same chloride porthole,
New imaging technologies are enabling doctors to not only diagnose a variety of orthopaedic and musculoskeletal conditions with more accuracy, but also to determine with unprecedented precision whether clinical recovery from bone, joint or tendon damage is actually complete and not simply a “placebo effect.”
Radiologists examining patients with damaged tissue are increasingly using ultrasound and specialized MRI techniques that allow examination with great detail – to provi
Early Alzheimer’s disease may be precipitated by a “traffic jam” within neurons that causes swelling and prevents proper transport of proteins and structures in the cells, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers.
In mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease and in human brain samples from people with the disease, researchers observed a characteristic breakdown in neurons that appears to prevent the normal movement of critical proteins to the commu
Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers demonstrated that a gel applied in the vagina provides protection from both the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the herpes simplex Virus. The study, presented at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, is the first to show that a gel can retain anti-viral activity within the human vagina.
The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigated the efficacy of PRO 2000, a topi
Women who need treatment for osteoporosis–thinning of the bones–may not be receiving it because their history of fractures is not being considered by physicians, according to a study done in part at the University of Alberta.
Previous fractures indicate that bones are weaker than normal, but the information isn’t being taken into account when treating for osteoporosis, said Dr. Kerry Siminoski, professor of radiology and diagnostic imaging at the University of Alberta.
The spontaneous mutation was discovered in a strain of Fox Chase laboratory mice—a potentially useful new research tool for studying the development of immune response
A team of Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists led by immunologist Dietmar J. Kappes, Ph.D., has identified the genetic mutation that keeps a mouse strain from developing white blood cells, or lymphocytes, called helper T cells. The report by Kappes and his colleagues appears in the Feb. 24 issue of Nature. Kappes’
For young patients who grow to adulthood with a chronic illness, leaving behind the pediatrician who may have saved their lives can be a tough transition.
More than half a million children with special health-care needs will turn 18 this year, the first generation to reach adulthood since sweeping medical advances ensured an unprecedented number would survive congenital conditions that until recently would have killed them. The influx is straining an already burdened health-care
Since they began clearing valleys and slopes for agriculture more than 9,000 years ago, and continuing with the construction of roads, buildings and cities, people have been altering landscapes. UVM geologists explore the link between human actions and landscape–and reach some important conclusions–in the cover article of the March issue of GSA Today. Produced by the Geological Society of America, the prestigious monthly journal goes to more than 20,000 geologists and libraries worldwide.
Researchers at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) have been awarded a $1.5 million dollar grant from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality and the National Institutes of Health to study disease management technologies in patients with heart failure, and patients with both heart failure and diabetes. The principal investigator for the two-site trial is Lee Goldberg, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Heart-Lung Transplant Program.
Operative delivery and postnatal depression: a cohort study BMJ Online First
Elective caesarean section does not protect women from postnatal depression, according to a study published on bmj.com today. Furthermore, neither emergency caesarean section nor assisted vaginal delivery (use of forceps or vacuum extraction) is associated with an increased risk of postnatal depression.
These findings challenge the theory that women at risk of postnatal depression should be m
A genetic analysis of viral RNA from 10 heterosexual couples, in which one partner has sexually transmitted HIV to the other, provides the first documentation of some differences in how the virus infects males and females. According to the Hopkins researchers who led the study, this initial research is essential to understanding why these differences occur and for future development of a vaccine or other preventive methods that could stop sexual transmission of HIV-1.
The couples in the
Data from the Cassini-Huygens satellite showing oxygen ions in the atmosphere around Saturn’s rings suggests once again that molecular oxygen alone isn’t a reliable indicator of whether a planet can support life.
That and other data are outlined in two papers in the Feb. 25 issue of the journal Science co-authored by University of Michigan engineering professors Tamas Gombosi, J. Hunter Waite and Kenneth Hansen; and T.E. Cravens from the University of Kansas. The papers b
Scientists have found that the bacterium that causes dysentery uses a ’sword and shield’ approach to cause infection.
According to research published today in Science, the team from Imperial College London and Institut Pasteur, Paris, found that shigella, the bacteria which causes dysentery, is able to invade cells, while stopping any response from the immune system.
They found that shigella was able to infect cells by using a secretion system to inject proteins
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