Tech

Washington, D.C. (September 28, 2010) -- The second law of thermodynamics is a big hit with the beret-wearing college crowd because of its implicit existential crunch. The tendency of a closed systems to become increasingly disordered if no energy is added or removed is a popular, if not depressing, "things fall apart" sort-of-law that would seem to confirm the adolescent experience.

Detection of acute HIV infection (the stage of disease immediately after HIV acquisition but before HIV antibodies are detectable) with pooled nucleic acid amplification testing (that detects the presence of HIV genetic material in the blood before antibodies are detectable) is feasible but not cost-effective in all settings.

In a very large cohort of African-American women in the US, the association between the consumption of alcohol, tea, and coffee and the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (late onset diabetes) was studied for 12 years. Tea and decaffeinated coffee showed no relation with diabetes, but the regular moderate intake of both caffeinated coffee and alcohol appeared to reduce the risk of contracting late onset diabetes significantly.

In comments sent to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) called out 10 specific challenges to proposed modifications to HIPAA Privacy and Enforcement Rules. AMIA's comments, sent on behalf of its membership of 4,000 informatics professionals, detail key issues of concern related to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on HIPAA modifications, along with suggestions for models of change. The following areas were cited:

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FORT WORTH, TEXAS, USA, September 28, 2010—The outbreak of whooping cough in Texas, California, and other states this year underscores the critical importance of widespread vaccination coverage, both locally as well as around the world, said a leading global health official attending conferences on world affairs and immunization in Fort Worth this week.

A study carried out by Spanish researchers has shown that the presence of chemical contaminants can interact with noise and modify, for good or for bad, the way in which work-related "deafness" – which is increasingly common among young people – manifests itself. Noise-related hearing loss is the most common occupational disease in Europe.

Dairy farmers can greatly reduce ammonia emissions from their production facilities by injecting liquid manure into crop fields below the soil surface, according to research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Healthcare professionals are still not receiving the appropriate training and support they need to help people who self-harm and this can result in negative attitudes and inadequate levels of care.

Those are the key findings of a research review carried out by mental health specialists from the University of Nottingham, UK, and published in the October issue of the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing.

CSIRO scientists have developed a revolutionary technique for the rapid on-site detection and quantification of petroleum hydrocarbons (commonly derived from crude oil) in soil, silt, sediment, or rock.

Developed in collaboration with waste technology specialist, Ziltek Pty Ltd, the technique means that the presence of petroleum hydrocarbons can now be quantified simply by using a hand-held infrared spectrometer to take readings at the site of interest, without the need to take samples or perform any kind of processing.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Using incidental findings from routine diagnostic CT, radiologists may be better able to identify people at high risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new study appearing online and in the November issue of Radiology.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Computers might one day recycle part of their own waste heat, using a material being studied by researchers at Ohio State University.

The material is a semiconductor called gallium manganese arsenide. In the early online edition of Nature Materials, researchers describe the detection of an effect that converts heat into a quantum mechanical phenomenon – known as spin – in a semiconductor.

Once developed, the effect could enable integrated circuits that run on heat, rather than electricity.

While both black patients and white patients appear to benefit from end of life discussions with their physician, black patients are less likely to experience end-of-life care that accurately reflects their preferences, according to a report in the September 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

HOUSTON (Sept. 27, 2010) – Children who practice healthy lifestyle habits such as eating fruits and vegetables and engaging in physical activity may be negatively impacting their health because they tend to consume large amounts of flavored and sports beverages containing sugar, according to research at The Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

Washington, D.C. (September 21, 2010) -- Research is closing in on the next-generation of ultra-high-density magneto-optical storage devices that could store more than 6,000 Terabits (6 petabits) of data, more than 70 times the contents of the entire U.S. Library of Congress, on a single 5-inch disc. Yet the vast storage amount is limited by the ability to write data quickly enough to the device.