Multi-sensory user interface technologies as effective assistive devices

A project led by Ph.D. Assistant professor Marjatta Kangassalo and Professor Roope Raisamo is developing a learning environment that can be used by both normally seeing and vision impaired children. Until now, vision impaired children have been at a disadvantage compared to normally seeing children. Teaching programmes developed for general use have not been of any help because they rely heavily on pictoria

It is well established that small class size in the early elementary grades boosts student achievement in those grades and allows students to be more engaged in learning than they are in larger classes. But there has been little research on the long-term effects of small class size. A new study involving a large sample of students followed for 13 years shows that four or more years in small classes in elementary school significantly increases the likelihood of graduating from high school, espec

Exercise in cold water instead of warm water may increase people’s appetites, making it harder for them to lose extra pounds, a University of Florida study finds.

Results indicate people may consume more calories after exercising in cold water, according to Lesley White, a UF researcher who designed the study to better understand why aquatic exercise is often less successful than equal amounts of jogging or cycling for people who want to lose weight. “It’s possible that

Milk thistle, a widely used alternative medicine, is not proven effective in lowering mortality in alcoholic or hepatitis B or C liver disease, according to a systematic review of current evidence.

While some studies found that liver-related mortality may be significantly reduced in patients treated with milk thistle, these findings were not duplicated in the higher quality clinical trials.

However, milk thistle was found safe to us with no serious side effects and with

Pregnant women present during the September 11 World Trade Center collapse have passed on markers of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to their unborn babies through transgenerational transmission. The findings strengthen the evidence for in utero or early life risk factors for the later development of adult mental or physical disorders. The study will be published online today in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, one of the four journals produced by The Endocrine Society.

More than one-half of adults surveyed nationwide had seen or heard celebrity endorsements of cancer screening tests, and more than one-fourth of those who had seen or heard an endorsement reported that it made them more likely to undergo the promoted screening test, according to a new study in the May 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Celebrity endorsements of cancer screening are becoming increasingly common. High-profile people, such as former New York City Mayor R

Patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumor cells contain extra copies of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene may be more likely to respond to the drug gefitinib (Iressa), and this high gene copy number may be an effective predictor of gefitinib efficacy, according to a new study in the May 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

NSCLC is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. In patients with advanced disease, chemoth

A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center team is launching a high-tech study to determine if early screening using a special camera and images transmitted over the Internet can prevent blindness in Medicaid patients with diabetes.

“Medicaid patients are rarely screened and are at risk of becoming blind,” said Ramon Velez, M.D., M. Sc., the principal investigator. Diabetes is the leading cause of preventable blindness in the United States and Velez said the study will

Many studies have shown that children living in a single-parent family tend to do worse academically and receive less intellectual stimulation than children living with married parents. Having a grandparent in the home, however, appears to buffer some of these negative effects, according to a new Cornell University study.

“When looking at children’s test scores, we find that children who live with a single mom and a grandparent fare just as well as children living with marrie

A low-fat diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans has twice the cholesterol-lowering power of a conventional low-fat diet, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

In other words, a meal of spinach salad, egg and oatmeal-carrot cookies is healthier for your heart than stir-fried lean beef and asparagus and low-fat chocolate chip cookies – even when both meals contain the same amount of saturated fat and cholesterol.

Th

A University of Minnesota study is the first to show that if you eat too much fat, it can go straight to your liver and damage it.

In obese people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), fat from the diet ends up “stuck” in the liver, where it doesn’t belong. It was known that the livers of NAFLD patients accumulated fat, but its origin was unknown. The new work implicates fat from the diet as one cause of NAFLD and shows that fat buildup in the liver results when the

New York Medical College researchers publish new findings on the spread of lyme disease bacteria

The results of a five-year study, published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine by researchers at New York Medical College, reveal intriguing new data on the spread of the Lyme disease bacteria through the blood stream. The ability to find the Lyme spirochete–the tick-borne agent responsible–in the blood is itself an achievement because existing methods of culturing blood

Study will help policymakers consider cost-benefit of cleaning up polluted coastal waters

Analyzing data from two popular Orange County beaches, Newport and Huntington, researchers estimate that swimming in these coastal waters costs the public $3.3 million per year in health-related expenses. The calculation is based on lost wages and medical care to treat more than 74,000 incidents of stomach illness, respiratory disease and eye, ear and skin infections caused by exposure

Cornell University researchers have revealed a process that has stumped scientists for many years: exactly how an acid derived from vitamin A enters a cell’s nucleus, where it has strong anti-carcinogenic effects.

Discovery of this basic transport mechanism opens a new door for future research on related compounds. The finding has important implications for the fight against cancer and other diseases.

The research, which appears in a recent issue of the journal

A new study finds that E. coli bacteremia — a potentially life-threatening bloodstream infection caused by a common bacteria also associated with less dangerous urinary tract infections — poses a significant public health threat in the United States, especially among seniors.

The study, published by Group Health researchers in the May issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, finds E. coli bacteremia may affect as many as 53,000 non-institutionalized people, aged 65 and ol

Being social has its rewards.

Men who are socially isolated have elevated levels of a blood marker for inflammation that’s linked to cardiovascular disease, according to data from the Framingham Heart Study presented today at the American Heart Association’s 45th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

“Our analyses suggest that it may be good for the heart to be connected,” said Eric B. Loucks, Ph.D., an instructor in the depar