Researchers from Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., report wearing ionized bracelets for the treatment of muscle and joint pain was no more effective than wearing placebo bracelets in the November 2002 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Authors of the published study randomly assigned 305 participants to wear an ionized bracelet for 28 days and another 305 participants to wear a placebo bracelet for the same duration.
The study volunteers were men and women 18 and older who had sel
Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have unraveled a mysterious connection – a potential mechanism that links brain injuries in infants to an infection in the mother’s placenta.
Their findings, published in the October edition of Pediatrics, could eventually lead to diagnostic tests for infants and mothers that could help prevent brain injury.
“The most critical issue in preventing and treating brain injury in infants is figuring out where the damage begins
Scientists have recreated a temperature not seen since the first microsecond of the birth of the universe and found that the event did not unfold quite the way they expected, according to a recent paper in Physical Review Letters. The interaction of energy, matter, and the strong nuclear force in the ultra-hot experiments conducted at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) was thought to be well understood, but a lengthy investigation has revealed that physicists are missing something in their mo
It has hitherto not been known that higher organisms, such as green algae, can communicate with bacteria. But Debra Milton, associate professor at Umeå University in Sweden, shows in the recent issue of the prominent journal Science that bacteria attract green algae with the aid of signal molecules. Surfaces under water are rapidly colonized by bacteria, which cover the surface with a thin film known as biofilm. Within this biofilm bacteria coordinate activities among the cells with the help of chem
In reality, Ulm was the site of a full-scale trial of the new DELTASS (Disaster Emergency Logistics Telemedicine Advanced Satellites System) system, developed by a team lead by CNES for the European Space Agency (ESA).
DELTASS uses both geo
A rapid and inexpensive blood test that measures levels of a hormone predicted the long-term health of patients with heart attack and chest pain, according to a study published in today’s rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
This hormone – B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) – is elevated when the heart is damaged. A fragment of this hormone called the N-terminal fragment (N-BNP), can provide a clearer picture of a patient’s likelihood of surv
Better educating physicians, using computers to order drugs and improving the system for policing inappropriate medication use can help reduce potentially deadly errors among cardiovascular patients, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement published in today’s Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Several reports have blamed medical errors for thousands of adverse events and deaths among patients in recent years. One study estimates that medi
The successful transfusion of a cell-free blood product on a 14-year-old Jehovah’s Witness may offer a solution for patients opposed to blood transfusions due to religious or personal beliefs.
“This was the first successful use of a human cell-free hemoglobin solution in a pediatric patient to manage life-threatening anemia due to an autoimmune disease,” says Dr. Brian Kavanagh, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and staff physician in critical care medicine at T
The reputation of an organization can convince scientists of the value of the research it produces even when there is no supporting data, says a University of Toronto geologist.
Professors Andrew Miall of U of T’s geology department and Charlene Miall of sociology at McMaster University have found that reputation alone can significantly influence the legitimacy placed on scientific results produced by an organization. The researchers have named this phenomenon the Exxon factor – in the
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have averted the onset of neurodegenerative disease in fruit flies by administering medication to flies genetically predisposed to a disorder akin to Parkinson’s disease.
The result suggests a new approach to the treatment of human disorders including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Penn biologist Nancy M. Bonini and graduate student Pavan K. Auluck report the finding in the November issue of Nature Medicine.
Radioactive spheres delivered via blood flow to tumor
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is offering the latest advancement for treating inoperable liver tumors.
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) targets a very high radiation dose to tumors within the liver, regardless of their cell of origin, number, size or location. The procedure uses biocompatible radioactive microspheres (SIR-Spheres®) that contain yttrium-90 and emit high energy beta radiation.
“T
Researchers from Midwestern University in Illinois, Curtin University of Technology in Australia, and Illinois State University have found that when bacteria become resistant to pine oil cleaners (POC), a common household disinfectant, they may also be resistant to some antibiotics. Their findings appear in the November 2002 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
In the study, POC-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were found to also be resistant to the antibiotics, vancomycin and ox
A new study of elderly Americans shows a strong link between air pollution and higher costs of medical care, both inpatient and outpatient, and especially for respiratory ailments.
Millions of Medicare records of whites between the ages of 65 and 84 from 1989 to 1991 provided a study sample for researchers Victor R. Fuchs, professor emeritus at Stanford University, and Sarah Rosen Franks, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley. They write in the November/December issue
Technical Insights’ Sensor Technology Alert
Flip chip packaging delivers enhanced electrical performance, saves space, and provides high conduction speed, making it an ideal technology for use in handheld devices and medical electronics, among other applications.
“As integrated circuit fabrication advances rapidly and the market for faster, smaller, yet less expensive electronic products accelerates, flip chip packaging comes into play,” says Technical Insights Research Ana
Global Environment Facility Funds New UNEP Poverty-Busting Project Promising New Hope to People and Wildlife
A pioneering new project to heal dying and degraded lands fringing Africa`s mighty deserts was launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
The project, marking a new phase of the five year-old Desert Margins Programme, has numerous aims including conserving the rich and uni
When it comes to sleuthing in science, few are better than the intrepid investigators at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). For example, take the “Case of the Stray Electrons.”
NIST researchers have created nanoscale devices that manipulate electrons in order to count them one at a time. Such counting is critical to the development of new fundamental electrical standards. When two electrons are bound in pairs (called Cooper pairs) in a superconductor, they can be man
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