12-hour self-management program for individuals with advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) leads to lasting improvements in mood and function, especially in depressed patients, and decreases the development of clinical depression in AMD patients over time, according to a University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Shiley Eye Center study published in the January 2005 Archives of Ophthalmology.
In this study, individuals who participated in a structured group session des
Many interventional cardiologists opt out of treating patients if chance of death is high
Nearly 80 percent of interventional cardiologists in New York State admit they have avoided performing a risky but potentially life-saving angioplasty on a patient, out of fear that if the patient dies it skews the doctor’s personal mortality “report card,” according to a University of Rochester survey.
The anonymous poll was designed to measure whether the state Department of
To celebrate the New Year – and to mark the formal debut of its online Image Gallery – the Gemini Observatory has released three striking new images.
The first, taken by the Gemini North telescope atop Mauna Kea on the big island of Hawaii, was made public on New Year’s Eve, 2004, and shows the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 ablaze with galactic fireworks. Each explosion of pink is a region of active star formation, where the fierce light of newborn stars is exciting the sur
So-called nuptial gifts – often consisting of food or tokens – are typically bestowed by males on females as part of courtship and copulation rituals in many species. By manipulating the nuptial gifts that female insects receive during copulation, researchers have now shown that female preferences can be exploited by males who are “cheating” on their reproductive investment by presenting easily obtainable token gifts.
Gift-giving during courtship and copulation occurs across the
Large and powerful predators such as swordfishes, tunas, and many sharks are unique among fishes in that they possess physiological mechanisms that warm their eyes. A new investigation reported this week sheds important light on the purpose of warming the eyes and the advantage that “warm eyes” confer on ocean predators.
Swordfishes, which hunt in water as cold as 3°C (about 37°F), can maintain their brain and eye temperatures 10°C–15°C (18°F –27°F) above ambient temperatures by u
The care of rural stroke patients was improved when an urban stroke center offered telephone assistance in treatment, according to a study published in the January 11 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The stroke center doctors helped decide when and how to treat patients with the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator, called tPA. The drug can reduce disability and save lives, but its use is complicated. The treatment carr
Dementia-associated weight loss begins before the onset of the definite dementia symptoms and accelerates by the time of the diagnosis, according to a study in the January issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Weight loss in old age is common and may be related to various diseases, according to background information in the article. “It has long been observed that weight loss is common in Alzheimer disease (AD), but this has been documented in people
Corticosteroids can be beneficial in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and can be offered as a treatment option, according to the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society in a new practice guideline published in the January 11 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder linked to the X-chromosome. It is the most common form of muscular dystrophy in children a
An international team of astronomers has discovered within the heart of a nearby spiral galaxy a quasar whose light spectrum indicates that it is billions of light years away. The finding poses a cosmic puzzle: How could a galaxy 300 million light years away contain a stellar object several billion light years away?
The team’s findings, which were presented today in San Diego at the January meeting of the American Astronomical Society and which will appear in the February 10 issue
Patient education on aerosol therapy key to effective asthma control
New evidence-based guidelines for the selection of aerosol medication devices conclude that health-care providers should avoid basing device selection exclusively on device efficacy. Instead, the choice should be based on other patient-related factors. All aerosolized medication delivery systems are equally effective when used properly. Aerosolized medication is typically used to treat patients with respiratory
Telling your house to turn on the lights or record a TV programme may be the ultimate high-tech luxury, but for elderly and disabled people voice-operated smart homes could dramatically improve quality of life. INSPIRE has successfully tested such a system.
Based on the results of the 30-month IST programme INSPIRE project, the partners are confident that they will be able to have a commercial version of their system on the market within two years. It will be geared initially towar
Unique follow up observations carried out with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are providing important supporting evidence for the existence of a candidate planetary companion to a relatively bright young brown dwarf star located 225 light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile detected a planet candidate in April 2004 with infrared observations using adaptive optics to sharpen th
The recent tragedy striking the coastlines of the Indian Ocean has highlighted the benefits of international cooperation in Earth Observation for the management of disaster relief, while demonstrating the scope for improved cooperation in the future.
International Charter on Space and Major Disasters
Immediately after the first tsunami struck in the Eastern Indian Ocean the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was invoked by three different agencies. I
Arts/science video installation to open in London (January) and Scotland (February).
Two 19th century scientists, each involved with a mountain top observatory, and who each in their own way contributed to the development of ‘big science’ research in the 20th-21st centuries, are to be celebrated by an arts initiative to which University of Leicester space scientists have made an important contribution.
The “Little Earth” project relates to the points of contact between Kristian
An enduring mystery for allergy researchers has been the unpredictable distribution of allergens in plants. For example, being allergic to birch pollen can predispose a person to allergy from distantly related plant foods such as celery, apple or soy.
Most allergens are proteins. Research published on Tuesday identifies 129 plant allergens in just four main protein families. “Knowing what makes a protein more likely to become an allergen could make it easier for manufacturers to
Medical Research Council (MRC) scientists have uncovered an important clue to understanding the origins of the AIDS epidemic. The work suggests that harnessing natural mechanisms of resistance to HIV infection might provide new methods for combating AIDS.
The research team at the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research pinpointed crucial differences in a gene found in rhesus monkeys that can prevent HIV infection, and its human counterpart, that cannot.
The differe
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