Tech

PROVIDENCE, RI -- Studies have shown a high rate of depression among elderly homebound individuals, and few patients receive adequate treatment, if any. To address this issue, researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and other organizations have developed a telemedicine-based depression care protocol in home health care. The early findings from their pilot study will be presented at the 29th Annual Meeting and Exposition of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice on October 3.

A diet rich in walnuts and walnut oil may prepare the body to deal better with stress, according to a team of Penn State researchers who looked at how these foods, which contain polyunsaturated fats, influence blood pressure at rest and under stress.

(Garrison, NY) The researcher whose revelations about unethical U.S. studies on syphilis in Guatemala in the 1940's led to apologies from the Obama administration last week has written a commentary for Bioethics Forum, the Hastings Center's online publication. She calls for the need to learn from history to better protect human subjects in the developing world.

NASA satellites have collected data as the Atlantic Ocean's Tropical Depression 17 has undergone two changes in less than 24 hours. Since Oct. 6, the depression has strengthened and has tropical storm-force winds and has morphed from a sub-tropical storm into a tropical storm.

Does thinking about time or money make you happier? A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people who are made to think about time plan to spend more of their time with the people in their lives while people who think about money fill their schedules with work, work, and—you guessed it—more work.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — As the United States seeks to lessen its reliance on foreign oil, biodiesel is expected to play a role. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a branch of the Department of Energy, biodiesel "represents a significant energy resource and could someday supply 3 percent to 5 percent of the distillate fuel market."

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and the U.K. has found that the low rate of energy conversion in all-polymer solar-cell technology is caused by the structure of the solar cells themselves. They hope that their findings will lead to the creation of more efficient solar cells.

October 7, 2010—America continues to lag behind other nations when it comes to gains in life expectancy, and commonly cited causes for our poor performance—obesity, smoking, traffic fatalities and homicide—are not to blame, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The study looked at health spending; behavioral risk factors like obesity and smoking; and 15-year survival rates for men and women ages 45 and 65 in the U.S.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have taken the first step to building a computer capable of operating in the heat of a jet engine or the sunny side of the planet Mercury.

Te-Hao Lee, Swarup Bhunia and Mehran Mehregany, have made electromechanical switches – building blocks of circuits - that can take twice the heat that renders electronic transistors useless. Their work was published in Science last month.

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- A Loyola University Hospital study has demonstrated how the hospital has improved patient safety and cut costs by reducing the number of blood transfusions.

In 2009, the average amount of blood products transfused per patient at Loyola was 10 percent lower than it was in 2008, saving $453,355. The average amount of blood products transfused dropped from 2.03 units per patient in 2008 to 1.82 units per patient in 2009.

Results were reported at the recent annual meeting of the College of American Pathologists.

New York, NY, October 6, 2010 – In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the October issue of Disability and Health Journal has brought together a series of articles to examine whether the ADA has in fact improved the health of people with disabilities. Areas of progress are identified, most notably acknowledging physical barriers and need for better staff training and communication about and with people with disabilities.

New York, NY, October 7, 2010—The United States continues to lag behind other nations when it comes to gains in life expectancy, and commonly cited causes for our poor performance—obesity, smoking, traffic fatalities, and homicide—are not to blame, according to a Commonwealth Fund-supported study published today as a Health Affairs Web First. The study, by Peter Muennig and Sherry Glied at Columbia University, looked at health spending; behavioral risk factors like obesity and smoking; and 15-year survival rates for men and women ages 45 and 65 in the U.S.

NASA wrapped up one of its largest hurricane research efforts ever last week after nearly two months of flights that broke new ground in the study of tropical cyclones and delivered data that scientists will now be able to analyze for years to come.