Tech

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Victims of domestic violence endure significantly higher health costs than other women for three years after the abuse ends, a new study finds.

Abuse victims had health care costs that averaged more than $1,200 above non-abused women for the first two years after the abuse ended and about $400 above others in the third year.

YELLOWKNIFE, NT – APRIL 2010 – High in the Mackenzie Mountains, scientists are finding a treasure trove of ancient hunting tools being revealed as warming temperatures melt patches of ice that have been in place for thousands of years.

Tom Andrews, an archaeologist with the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife and lead researcher on the International Polar Year Ice Patch Study, is amazed at the implements being discovered by researchers.

"We're just like children opening Christmas presents. I kind of pinch myself," says Andrews.

Preeclampsia is a high blood pressure syndrome in pregnant mothers that is caused when the blood supply in the placenta of the developing baby is restricted. The blood-deprived placenta releases factors that cause the raise in blood pressure in the mother. Doctors have to monitor these women closely and they may be forced to deliver the baby early to protect the mother and the baby. Most women's blood pressure returns to normal levels after they deliver the placenta.

A Risk With Benefits

About two thirds of the American population is overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk for health problems such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. The obesity epidemic in America is the result of poor eating habits, genetics, and a lack of exercise. It's therefore difficult for public health officials to get people to make a conscious effort to control their weight.

The Cell Phone Device That Helps You Exercise

RUSTON, La. – Dr. Ville Kaajakari, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University, is being featured by MEMS Investor Journal, a national online industry publication, for developing a technology that harvests power from a small generator embedded in the sole of a shoe.

MEMS are tiny "smart" devices that combine computer chips with micro-components such as sensors, gears, flow-channels, mirrors and actuators.

PITTSBURGH—The same inexpensive, but high-quality optical sensors employed in the common computer mouse can enable small mobile phones and digital music players to be used as their own pointing and gestural input devices, say researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII).

The Basque Neiker-Tecnalia technological centre, in collaboration with the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), has demonstrated the benefit of alperujo as a supplement to the diet of dairy sheep during periods when grazing is not available.

DENVER, CO—April 26, 2010—A new study from the Journal of Marriage and Family reveals that teenagers who have experienced several family changes are more likely to engage in delinquent behaviour, become sexually active early, or become parents outside of marriage, than kids who have always lived in the same family arrangement (whether with married parents or a single parent). The findings show that white adolescents, compared to their African-American peers, are more likely to become sexually active earlier, and experience a nonmarital birth.

St. Louis, MO, April 26, 2010 – Energy in, energy out, it's the basic equation to weight loss, or is it? With more than two thirds of Americans classified as overweight or obese1, a study in the May/June 2010 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior examines how motivation might be a large contributor to sticking with weight loss programs.

"Just think how often your fancy new mobile phone or computer has become little more than a paperweight because the battery lost its zeal for doing its job," says John Chmiola, a chemist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). "At a time when cellphones can do more than computers could do at the beginning of the Clinton presidancy, it would be an understatement to say that batteries have not been holding up their end of the mobile device bargain."

EAST LANSING, Mich. —States aiming to lead the emerging biofuel industry may need to ante up substantial subsidies and tax incentives to ethanol producers just to get in the game, Michigan State University researchers say.

"State subsidies have played an important role in ethanol plant location decisions," explained Mark Skidmore, MSU professor of agricultural, food and resource economics. "The size of the incentives is important, too –– the larger the subsidy or tax credit, the more likely it is that an ethanol plant will locate in that state."

MADISON, WI, April 26, 2010-Grass buffer strips are commonly used in crop production to reduce herbicide runoff. These practices are encouraged through incentives, regulations or laws, and are effective at lowering herbicide concentration in runoff. However, subsurface filtration (under the buffer strips) is not as well documented, and neither are the effects of trees integrated into buffer strips with grasses. Understanding these effects is crucial as agriculture producers continue to adopt these strategies.

In this week's BMJ, Nigel Hawkes, freelance journalist and Director of Straight Statistics, a campaign for the better use of statistical data, investigates how the way that patients are allocated diagnostic codes by a hospital can have a big effect on a hospital's performance.

It follows two articles published by the BMJ last week arguing that using death rates to judge hospital performance is a bad idea.

Breastfeeding is best, but what happens when something goes wrong? And why do so many women struggle with this "natural" process even after carefully following all the well-meaning advice they've gotten from their health care providers? Not surprisingly, some women have more difficulty than others and there are many factors associated with experiencing breastfeeding problems – especially in the first week after birth. For example, being African-American, having less than a high school education, and being poor are all associated with suboptimal breastfeeding outcomes.

We all know that eating a calcium-rich diet is important for keeping our bones healthy and strong. This concept is clearly on display in any elementary school cafeteria where the walls are decorated with colorful posters with celebrity icons encouraging children to make sure they drink milk every day. However, emerging research suggests that urging school-aged children to pay attention to their dairy intake might actually be too late to optimize their bone health.