Last week in Washington, David Brailer — the national health information technology coordinator– told a conference of over 1,000 attendees that the United States Department of Health and Human Services will form a technology leadership panel to explore what immediate steps the public and private sectors should take to spur the federal government’s plan to advance health information technology. Over two months ago, President Bush announced the plan, which includes helping the private sector org
The latest scientific and clinical advancements in head and neck cancer, one of the most deadly forms of this disease, will be presented at the 6th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer being held August 7-11, 2004, at the Wardman Park Marriott in Washington, DC. The meeting, sponsored by the American Head and Neck Society, will host world renowned experts in the diagnosis, treatment, reconstruction, rehabilitation, and basic science of head and neck oncology.
Head and neck canc
The presence and severity of peripheral arterial disease, as measured by comparing blood pressures in the arm and leg, and the nature of the leg symptoms a patient experiences can be used to identify those at highest risk of decline in walking endurance, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a chronic condition that results from narrowing of the vessels that supply oxygen-rich blood to
Robert L. Fisher, research geologist emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, has been awarded the inaugural Drake Medal by the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) organization. Fisher received the medal at a reception hosted by the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies on July 7 in Woods Hole, Mass.
The Drake Medal was created specifically to honor Fisher and is a replica of the medal given to Sir Francis Drake by England’s Qu
Result is part of a national survey
Hyperhidrosis, or excessive sweating, affects a much larger proportion of the U.S. population than previously reported, according to new research. Dee Anna Glaser, M.D., professor of dermatology at Saint Louis University, said that an estimated 7.8 million people in the United States suffer from hyperhidrosis.
“I was a little surprised at the high percentage of those affected,” she said. Glaser conducted a national survey of 150,000 house
Scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University have uncovered the genes that enable plants to interact with beneficial soil dwelling fungi and to access phosphate delivered to the roots by these fungi — a first step, they say, toward enhancing the beneficial relationship for crop plants , while reducing fertilizer use and phosphate pollution in the environment.
Discovery of the phosphate-transport genes was announced today (July 28, 2004) by Maria Har
A five-nation oceanographic team is taking the first steps in a $3.6 million project studying the major flow of ocean currents between Asia and Australia and how they influence rainfall across Southern Australia and Indonesia.
Scientists are investigating fluctuations in the flow of warm waters from the western Pacific Ocean draining through the Indonesian Archipelago into the Indian Ocean north of Australia.
“Our climate, and particularly the amount of rainfall across the
Discovery suggests presence of diamonds in northern Saskatchewan
Researchers at the University of Alberta have found evidence that a 2,000-kilometre corridor stretching diagonally across northern Canada was under tremendous pressure to split in two about 2.7 billion years ago. It is the first evidence suggesting enormous continental landforms and plate tectonics existed that long ago. “Rifts are one hallmark of plate tectonics, and there is a huge debate in our field about wheth
Red Storm to be assembled in New Mexico
Red Storm will be faster, yet smaller and less expensive, than previous supercomputers, say researchers at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia National Laboratories, where the machine will be assembled.
The first quarter of the $90 million, 41.5 teraflops (trillion operations/second) machine should be installed at Sandia by the end of September and fully up and running by January, says Bill Camp (Sandia’s Director of Co
Swapping spectacles for contact lenses was once a right-of-passage for young teenagers. But new research suggests that 8- to 11-year-olds can handle the responsibility of contact lenses just as well as their older peers.
A three-month study included 10 nearsighted children who wore daily disposable contact lenses. By the end of the study, nine of the children had little to no problems with handling the lenses.
“Many parents don’t realize that their 8-year-old child can handle
Emory University scientists have for the first time used a new class of luminescent “quantum dot” nanoparticles in living animals to simultaneously target and image cancerous tumors. The quantum dots were encapsulated in a highly protective polymer coating and attached to a monoclonal antibody that guided them to prostate tumor sites in living mice, where they were visible using a simple mercury lamp. The scientists believe the ability to both target and image cells in vivo represents a significant s
Trees and grass are usually the only “heroes” that come to mind for consuming carbon dioxide and producing oxygen for planet Earth, but they have allies in the water: phytoplankton, or in another word, algae.
Phytoplankton are mostly single-celled photosynthetic organisms that feed fish and marine mammals. They are responsible for nearly 50 percent of the earth’s annual carbon-dioxide consumption and more than 45 percent of the oxygen production. Despite the important roles of modern p
Living in New Orleans means having to live with water. It’s everywhere. The city’s elevation ranges from about 12 feet (3.65 meters) above sea level to as much as six-and-a-half feet (2 meters) below sea level. Some believe the city faces an ongoing battle against submersion by the rising Gulf of Mexico.
New research reported by a team led by a University of Illinois at Chicago earth scientist suggests the sea level in the lower Mississippi delta near New Orleans has been rising a
Scientists at Johns Hopkins are calling for simultaneous evaluation of both genetic and epigenetic information in the search to understand contributors to such common diseases as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Writing in the August issue of Trends in Genetics, available now online, the scientists provide a framework for systematically incorporating epigenetic information into traditional genetic studies, something they say will be necessary to understand the genetic and environmental factors be
Two of the biggest physics breakthroughs during the last decade are the discovery that wispy subatomic particles called neutrinos actually have a small amount of mass and the detection that the expansion of the universe is actually picking up speed.
Now three University of Washington physicists are suggesting the two discoveries are integrally linked through one of the strangest features of the universe, dark energy, a linkage they say could be caused by a previously unrecognized subatomic
This perspective image of a fractured crater near Valles Marineris on Mars was obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the ESA Mars Express spacecraft.
The image was taken during orbit 61 in January 2004 with a resolution of 12. 5 metres per pixel. It shows part of a cratered landscape to the north of the Valles Marineris, at 0.6° S latitude and 309° E longitude, with this crater having a fractured base.
This crater has a rim diameter of 27.5 kilometres
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