Tech

Patients who have excessive oxygen levels in arterial blood (hyperoxia) following resuscitation from cardiac arrest have a higher rate of death in the hospital than similar patients without arterial hyperoxia, according to a study in the June 2 issue of JAMA.

In a study that included data from more than 1.5 million patients, use of vascular closure devices and the anticoagulant bivalirudin were associated with significantly lower bleeding rates for patients following a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries), according to a study in the June 2 issue of JAMA. The researchers also found that patients who may benefit most from these treatments, those at greatest risk of bleeding, were least likely to receive them.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State University scientists who have developed a unique computer model with a knack for predicting hurricanes with unprecedented accuracy are forecasting an unusually active season this year.

Irvine, Calif., June 1, 2010 — By discovering how adult neural stem cells navigate to injury sites in the central nervous system, UC Irvine researchers have helped solve a puzzle in the creation of stem cell-based treatments: How do these cells know where to go?

Tom Lane and Kevin Carbajal of the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center found the answer with the body's immune system.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers, working with high-performance computing experts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, have created an automated program to "debug" simulations used to more efficiently certify the nation's nuclear weapons.

The program, called AutomaDeD (pronounced like automated), finds errors in computer code for complex "parallel" programs.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Office of Naval Research (ONR) successfully completed multiphase testing of the Large Vessel Interface Lift On/Lift Off (LVI Lo/Lo) Crane technology demonstrator recently, marking a major milestone in at-sea, ship-to-ship cargo transfer capabilities.

Healthcare reform -- and the many options for fixing a broken system -- have appeared in the news headlines for months. According to an article in the June issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS), Medicare patients – many who suffer from disabling arthritis of the hip and knee, among other age-related ailments – may end up facing an accessibility crisis to medical care.

In the largest study to date evaluating erectile dysfunction (ED) and coronary artery calcification, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have determined that men with ED are at a significantly increased risk of high coronary artery calcification scores (CACS), a known predictor of future cardiovascular events. The research was presented this week at the American Urological Association (AUA) meeting in San Francisco.

An organic molecule that has been found to be effective in making silicon-based electronics may be viable for building electronics on sheets of carbon only a single molecule thick. Researchers at the Max Plank Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart report the advance in a paper appearing online in the journal Physical Review B on June 1.

This month's Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, includes new studies on links between eye diseases and two widely-prescribed drugs: SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants, and amantadine, a Parkinson's disease treatment.

Some Antidepressants May Bump Up Cataract Risk

DURHAM, N.C. – A team of Duke University chemists has perfected a simple way to make tiny copper nanowires in quantity. The cheap conductors are small enough to be transparent, making them ideal for thin-film solar cells, flat-screen TVs and computers, and flexible displays.

"Imagine a foldable iPad," said Benjamin Wiley, an assistant professor of chemistry at Duke. His team reports its findings online this week in Advanced Materials.

Nanowires made of copper perform better than carbon nanotubes, and are much cheaper than silver nanowires, Wiley said.

The Georgia Institute of Technology announces the release of the developer preview of Kamra, the first mobile augmented reality (AR) browser for the KHARMA (KML/HTML Augmented Reality Mobile Architecture) development platform based on open Web standards. The developer preview will be released at ARE2010 - Augmented Reality Event in Santa Clara, CA June 2. The release of Kamra for the iPhone in the iTunes Store is expected before the end of June.

What Kamra is:

Montreal, Quebec – June 1, 2010 – A pilot study of teens and their use of Web 2.0 technologies confirms what most parents probably already know: Teens are really good at it.

But what surprised the researcher doing the study is how the teens she talked to were able to use technological tools in new and innovative ways to connect with each other – ways that the creators of the tools had probably never thought of.

As their autonomy fades, tomorrow's elderly will need to create non-traditional support networks or pay for the care they receive.

This is the conclusion of Jacques Légaré, professor at the Université de Montréal, who studies aging baby-boomers, a generation for whom children are relatively rare and stable couples almost an exception.

In a paper presented at the 2010 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, held this week at Concordia University in Montreal, Mr. Légaré shows how the family circle available to the elderly will evolve from now until 2030.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that applying a small electric field results in faster formation of ceramic products during manufacture at lower temperatures, and enhances the strength of the ceramic itself.