Tech

For obese seniors, dieting and exercise together are more effective at improving physical performance and reducing frailty than either alone.

The research, by a team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is reported March 31 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Older adults who are obese face severe health risks, including high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, which can be compounded by a lack of mobility.

TORONTO, ON - Essays are being written, final exams are looming and classes are reaching their busy conclusion. With conflicting demands from work, home and the classroom, this hectic time of year can be filled with stress. But according to new research from the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), a little self-reflection could do us all a world of good.

ATLANTA – The American College of Rheumatology has developed new guidelines for starting and monitoring treatments for children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. These are the first JIA guidelines endorsed by the ACR, with the goal of broad acceptance within the rheumatology community.

Created as a guide for health care providers, the guidelines focus on the initiation and safety monitoring of multiple medications used in the treatment of JIA, including:

Engineering scientists at the University of Southampton have reached above the clouds in a first-of-its-kind experiment to develop new technologies that probe the stratosphere using an unmanned vehicle.

Innovations relating to mobility, energy, bionics, and nano- and microtechnologies will be presented by KIT at the 2011 Hannover Messe from April 4 – 8. At its stand (Hall 2, stand C18), KIT will present a hybrid Porsche racing car, developments in battery research, materials and processes for printable electronics, the KIC InnoEnergy for a European energy supply system, and the Energy Solution Center (EnSoC) competence network. Moreover, KIT contributes to other stands and special exhibitions.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have investigated the viability of a technique called "spincasting" for creating thin films of nanoparticles on an underlying substrate – an important step in the creation of materials with a variety of uses, from optics to electronics.

Spincasting, which utilizes centrifugal force to distribute a liquid onto a solid substrate, already has a variety of uses. For example, it is used in the electronics industry to deposit organic thin films on silicon wafers to create transistors.

Could electronic components made from human blood be the key to creating cyborg interfaces? Circuitry that links human tissues and nerve cells directly to an electronic device, such as a robotic limb or artificial eye might one day be possible thanks to the development of biological components.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 devastated the Gulf of Mexico ecologically and economically. However, a new study published in Conservation Letters reveals that the true impact of the disaster on wildlife may be gravely underestimated. The study argues that fatality figures based on the number of recovered animal carcasses will not give a true death toll, which may be 50 times higher than believed.

A major UK study on complications of anaesthesia has shown that obese patients are twice as likely to develop serious airway problems during a general anaesthetic than non-obese patients. 'The airway' means the air passages from the outside world to the lungs, which must be kept open to keep the patient alive.

ANAHEIM, March 29, 2011 — Help for a bioterrorist attack involving ricin, one of the most likely toxic agents, may be as close at hand as the laundry shelf, according to a report presented here today at the 241st National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). It concluded that ordinary household bleach appears to be an effective, low-cost, and widely available way to decontaminate food preparation surfaces in homes, restaurants, and processing plants that are tainted with ricin.

ANAHEIM, March 29 , 2011 — Encapsulating antibiotics inside nanofibers, like a mummy inside a sarcophagus, gives them the amazing ability to destroy drug-resistant bacteria so completely that scientists described the remains as mere "ghosts," according to a report today at the the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Neglected infections of poverty are the latest threat plaguing the poorest people living in the Gulf Coast states and in Washington, D.C., according to Dr. Peter Hotez, Distinguished Research Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at The George Washington University and President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, in an editorial published in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases on March 29th.

NEW YORK (March 29, 2011) -- Bariatric surgery is an especially cost-effective therapy for managing Type 2 diabetes in moderately and severely obese patients. These findings and others were presented today at the 2nd World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes, hosted by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College.

ANAHEIM, March 29, 2011 — Coating concrete destined to rebuild America's crumbling bridges and roadways with some of the millions of tons of ash left over from burning coal could extend the life of those structures by decades, saving billions of dollars of taxpayer money, scientists reported here today at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. They reported on a new coating material for concrete made from flyash that is hundreds of times more durable than existing coatings and costs only half as much.

RENO, Nev. – A new air-quality measuring instrument invented by Pat Arnott and Ian Arnold of the University of Nevada, Reno that is more economical, more portable and more accurate than older technologies has been licensed for commercial development by Droplet Measurement Technologies of Boulder, Colo.