First amphetamine-based long-acting stimulant offers all-day symptom control in children
A research team led by a Massachusetts General Hospital investigator has found that a long-acting form of the stimulant medication Adderall is effective in controlling symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children when taken in a single morning dose. The standard form of Adderall, which is made up of several amphetamine-based drugs, is only effective for four hours. This new f
Industrial fishing poses the biggest threat to life and fin for sharks, dolphins and billfish that inhabit the tropical and northern Pacific Ocean, says a new study forecasting the effects of commercial fishing on ocean ecosystems.
Though not targeted by the fishing industry, some ocean species often get caught unintentionally in nets or lines used to catch tuna and other commercially valuable fish, says a study presented to scientists today, Aug. 5, at the annual meeting of the Ecological
In the northeastern corner of Minnesota stand towering groves of red pine trees stretching some 80 feet into the sky.
But these red pine groves could eventually vanish from Minnesota’s Boundary Water Canoe Area if what we usually view as a foe to forests — fire — fails to sweep the terrain occasionally, says a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The big, natural groves of red pine are one of the most unique features of the BWCA. But, because of fire suppres
A new and somewhat controversial study published in the August issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine suggests that 18F-FDG PET results obtained after the first cycle of treatment can better predict progression-free survival in patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) or Hodgkin’s disease (HD) than PET scans conducted at the end of treatment.
Physicians at the Weill Medical College of Cornell and the New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York reported on 23 patients
For years, physicians have noticed surprising similarities in the factors that seem to trigger attacks in such episodic neurological disorders as migraine and dyskinesia. Common triggers include psychological stress, caffeine or alcohol ingestion, fatigue, hormonal fluctuations and exercise.
A new study shows that a mouse model can be used to investigate how these substances and environmental factors trigger symptomatic attacks. The researchers also identified two drugs that can prevent at
Ironing must surely be one of the most dreaded household activities. Local entrepreneur Jonathan Nwabueze from Guildford, got so fed up with ironing and being delayed in the morning because of last minute ironing that he invented an iron that works without the need for a board.
His invention, featured on Tomorrow’s World on 24 July 2002, takes the drudgery out of ironing by using a heated vacuum to remove the creases from clothes. The 30-year old entrepreneur said “it can even smooth out wri
Researchers at Oxford University’s Department of Materials have devised a new method of coating materials that are to be implanted into bone, resulting in encouraged bone in-growth and bonding while reducing the possibility of loosening implants.
Bone implants are desirable and/or essential in various medical procedures, and are often metallic and secured by an adhesive. Inert materials such as metals do not bond to the surrounding tissue and adhesives eventually degrade, allowing the implan
Researchers in Oxford University¡¦s Department of Chemistry have devised a new method of selectively oxidising terpenes to produce compounds of particular interest to the perfumery, flavour and pharmaceutical industries.
Terpenes and their derivatives are commonly used in industry to modify flavours and fragrances, and new compounds for trial are continuously needed. The terpenes themselves are not of commercial interest, but rather the derivatives that commonly require stereoselective funct
On July 30th 2002, the engineers and scientists of the Association Euratom-CEA in Cadarache (France) have achieved a three and a half minutes long plasma discharge on Tore Supra, sustained by 3MW of current drive power, thus requiring to exhaust more than 600 Megajoules of thermal energy during the experiment. It establishes a new world record in this domain after the 280MJ discharges of 1996. Prior to the record discharge, a number of long pulse shots have been achieved, demonstrating the capability
Satellite data since 1998 indicates the bulge in the Earth’s gravity field at the equator is growing, and scientists think that the ocean may hold the answer to the mystery of how the changes in the trend of Earth’s gravity are occurring.
Before 1998, Earth’s equatorial bulge in the gravity field was getting smaller because of the post-glacial rebound, or PGR, that occurred as a result of the melting of the ice sheets after the last Ice Age. When the ice sheets melted, land t
A recently released study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes that hybrid buses operate with lower emissions and greater fuel efficiency than conventional diesel buses.
The year long evaluation of 10 prototype diesel hybrid-electric buses in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s New York City Transit (NYCT) fleet of 4,489 buses showed that these hybrid buses have a 10 percent higher in-service fuel economy. Ac
How can new technologies help to reveal the hidden lives of tropical animals and plants?
Difficult environmental conditions and complex biological interactions make it tough for tropical biologists to understand animal behavior, climate change effects and highly biodiverse plants and forest organisms. On Monday, July 29, 2002, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) convened a diverse group of rainforest biologists with engineers at the forefront of sensor and communicatio
Health officials fear that lifesaving drugs can lose their effectiveness when overused. They are especially concerned about anti-microbial additives, found in everything from kitchen cleaners to face soaps, because the bacteria they try to kill are becoming resistant. Clemson University scientists have found a new bacteria fighter that does not promote bacterial resistance.
Food microbiologist Susan Barefoot and doctoral student researcher Priya Ratnam uncovered a new acne treatment that a
A physics professor’s invention to decontaminate industrial wastewater could become a powerful new weapon against anthrax.
Peter McIntyre and a group of colleagues at Texas A&M University have developed a cost-effective device to produce high energy electron beams that can break down harmful organic molecules in water – and destroy bacteria such as anthrax in food – or even on mail.
“William Cooper at the University of North Carolina showed that high-powered beams of e
Scientists in the past decade have discovered that remnants of ancient germ line infections called human endogenous retroviruses make up a substantial part of the human genome. Once thought to be merely “junk” DNA and inactive, many of these elements, in fact, perform functions in human cells.
Now, a new study by John McDonald of the University of Georgia and King Jordan at the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Institutes of Health, suggests for the first time th
When you gaze at a bowl of fruit, why don’t some of the bananas look red, some of the apples look purple and some of the grapes look yellow?
This question isn’t as nonsensical as it may sound. When your brain processes the information coming from your eyes, it stores the information about an object’s shape in one place and information about its color in another. So it’s something of a miracle that the shapes and colors of each fruit are combined seamlessly into distinct objects when you lo
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