Children growing up in the West today cannot imagine a world without mobile phones. They use high-tech gadgets without thinking much about them. An international research project will now examine what these skills mean for the society.

“We call them ‘power users of technology’ – I haven’t found a good Norwegian expression for it yet,” says Barbara Wasson, Professor at the Department for Information Science and Media Studies and researcher at InterMedia.

The project is an ini

Despite aggressive treatment, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) – the most common and deadly of brain cancers – usually claims the lives of its victims within six to 12 months of diagnosis. This statistic has changed little over the years, largely because the cancer grows so quickly that neither surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy can stop it.

Now, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have found that a small protein called hsFlt3L delivered via a genetically engineered virus incr

Cuba, South Africa, India, China, Brazil among nations showing the way

Study co-authors are available for advance interviews Friday Dec. 3. Please call to schedule a time. The study will be published as a special supplement Mon. Dec 6 in Nature Biotechnology. The embargoed study can be previewed by media online at http://www.utoronto.ca/jcb/home/news_nature.htm

Cuba, South Korea, and India make and export their own biotech vaccines, Egypt manufactures recombinant insulin

In the first epidemiological study designed and executed specifically to determine the heart-attack risk associated with COX-2 inhibitors rofecoxib (Vioxx) and celecoxib (Celebrex), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found a greater risk of heart attack associated with Vioxx than Celebrex, although neither of the two drugs showed a statistically significant elevated risk of heart attack relative to people who did not use the drugs. In addition, the researchers found

Doctors appear willing to use intensive treatment to lessen otherwise untreatable pain or other severe symptoms in dying patients even if the treatment, at least in theory, risks hastening the dying process, according to two University of Iowa and Yale University studies on end-of-life care.

Known as “terminal sedation,” the practice involves the use of sedating medications to control a patient’s symptoms even if it results in decreased or complete loss of consciousnes

Imagination is alive and thriving in the minds of America’s school-age children. It is so prevalent that 65 percent of children report that, by the age of 7, they have had an imaginary companion at some point in their lives, according to a new study by University of Washington and University of Oregon psychologists.

The research also indicates that having an imaginary companion is at least as common among school-age children as it is among preschoolers. Thirty-one percent of

When a community finds that water it relies on for drinking or recreation contains E. coli (Escherichia coli), a bacterium found in the feces of warm-blooded animals that indicates fecal contamination, residents and officials naturally want to find the cause and fix it — quickly. But several testing methods using E. coli to identify the sources of fecal contamination were less accurate in field application than previously reported, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report pu

There is no such thing as a ‘bog standard comprehensives’ when it comes to deciding which students are entered for GCSE examinations such as French, Geography or History, according to a new Economic and Social Research Council-funded study published today.

Researchers from Staffordshire University and the University of Durham found that there were big variations between and within schools in the extent to which students are entered for different GCSE subjects. Those differences h

NU biologist isolates gene making infections drug-resistant

Northeastern University today announced that biologist Kim Lewis has discovered the gene that prevents antibiotics from successfully destroying infections within biofilm. For years, scientists have struggled to understand why a certain type of infection – known as biofilms – are often resistant to antibiotics. Biofilms contain cells that are identical to the infecting cells, but are not corrupted and destroyed by anti

An antimicrobial agent found in many shampoos and hand lotions and widely used in industrial settings inhibits the development of particular neuron structures that are essential for transmitting signals between cells, according to a University of Pittsburgh study presented today at Cell Biology 2004, the 44th annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. The meeting is being held Dec. 4 – 8 at the Washington Convention Center.

Prolonged exposure to low levels of me

U of MN researcher will present findings at the American Society of Hematology Conference

A University of Minnesota Cancer Center study indicates natural killer cells obtained from a family member and artificially stimulated may provide renewed hope for some patients who have advanced acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a highly fatal cancer of the bone marrow, that has become resistant to standard treatment with chemotherapy. Natural killer cells are part of the body’s immune system

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stopped early a clinical trial studying whether children with sickle cell anemia at high risk for stroke could at some point after a minimum of 30 months (range 30-91 months) safely stop receiving the periodic blood transfusions that prevent strokes. The study found a return to high risk of stroke in children who stopped receiving the transfusions. The NHLBI is issuing a clinical alert on the st

Responses to imatinib found to be durable at 42 months

CHU in Poitiers, France, today announced results of a study showing that newly diagnosed patients with a certain form of leukemia who are treated early with imatinib are more likely to achieve complete cytogenetic responses (the elimination of leukemic cells, a major goal of therapy) and have improved long-term outcomes.

New data from the largest study of CML patients (1106 patients included) ever conducted Internatio

A new research tool developed by an interdisciplinary team of psychologists and economists could help social scientists more accurately evaluate how well individuals and society are faring. The method offers a new way to characterize the daily life experience of individuals, aimed at providing a measure that could be used in assessing social interventions, including clinical trials. Its developers are working on a way to use the method in calculating a “National Well-Being Account,” to provide a

Princeton researchers develop method to better measure people’s quality of life

A new research method that quantifies people’s quality of life — beyond how much money they make — could lead to a national index of well-being, similar to key measures of economic health. The Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), developed by Princeton researchers and colleagues from three universities, creates an “enjoyment scale” by requiring people to record the previous day’s activities

Obesity is likely to affect individuals in low-income areas where fresh fruits and vegetables may not be as plentiful, according to a new University of Houston study.

The finding is suggested in a study on the availability and quality of produce in high-income versus low-income urban neighborhoods. The study was made possible by a two year, $110,000 grant from the American Heart Association Heartland Affiliate. “Obesity disproportionately burdens low-income, ethnic minority popul