Tech

Computer imaging to predict how patients will look following plastic surgery involving the nose appears to be moderately accurate, and patients value its inclusion in the preoperative consultation, according to a report in the November/December issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels may remain high during winter months, and conditions can change rapidly, suggesting that adults participating in outdoor sports should rely on the season and time of day when judging the need for protective clothing and sunscreen, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Ultra-short X-ray beams produced at the University of Michigan could one day serve as more sensitive medical diagnostic tools, and they could work like strobe lights to allow researchers to observe chemical reactions that happen in quadrillionths of a second.

What are the key characteristics that voters consider when they're choosing their candidate for president? New research led by Judith Trent, a professor of communication at the University of Cincinnati, yields some surprising findings from surveys from the 2008 primary campaign in New Hampshire – a historic campaign in itself because of the diverse demographic characteristics of some of the leading contenders. The top ideal quality picks are a candidate's honesty and willingness to talk about the challenges affecting the nation.

Consumers value goals they've chosen on their own more than those that are imposed on them, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

"When people believe they have autonomously chosen to pursue a goal themselves, they feel the goal is increasingly valuable as they put in more effort, because they experience their own effort as signaling how much they care about it," write authors Ying Zhang (University of Texas at Austin), Jing Xu, Zixi Jiang (both Peking University), and Szu-chi Huang (University of Texas at Austin).

Adding pharmacists to the primary care team right in doctors' offices may help patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes better manage associated risks, a new University of Alberta study had found.

Tyrannosaurus rex was far from a plodding Cretaceous era scavenger whose long tail only served to counterbalance the up-front weight of its freakishly big head.

T. rex's athleticism (and its rear end) has been given a makeover by University of Alberta graduate student Scott Persons. His extensive research shows that powerful tail muscles made the giant carnivore one of the fastest moving hunters of its time.

As Persons says, "contrary to earlier theories, T. rex had more than just junk in its trunk."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois researchers are using a new kind of microsensor to answer one of the weightiest questions in biology – the relationship between cell mass and growth rate.

The team, led by electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering professor Rashid Bashir, published its results in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new supercomputer rating system will be released by an international team led by Sandia National Laboratories at the Supercomputing Conference 2010 in New Orleans on Nov. 17.

The rating system, Graph500, tests supercomputers for their skill in analyzing large, graph-based structures that link the huge numbers of data points present in biological, social and security problems, among other areas.

New evidence that homeopathic consultations can reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis has been revealed by scientists from the University of Southampton.

In a study published today in the journal Rheumatology, researchers found that arthritis patients significantly benefited when they received homeopathy alongside conventional treatment over a period of 6 months, but this improvement was due to homeopathy's consultation process and not its remedies.

Annoyed by how long it took his computer to boot up, Kläui began to think about an alternative. Hard disks are cheap and can store enormous quantities of data, but they are slow; every time a computer boots up, 2-3 minutes are lost while information is transferred from the hard disk into RAM (random access memory). The global cost in terms of lost productivity and energy consumption runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars a day.

A pioneering lighting system that can kill hospital superbugs – including MRSA and C.diff – has been developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

The technology decontaminates the air and exposed surfaces by bathing them in a narrow spectrum of visible-light wavelengths, known as HINS-light.

While automated external defibrillators improve survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, an analysis of data indicates their use for cardiac arrest in a hospital does not result in an improved rate of survival, according to a study in the November 17 issue of JAMA. The study is being released early online because it will be presented at the American Heart Association's annual meeting.