Tech

Mortality rates are a poor measure of the quality of hospital care and should not be a trigger for public inquiries such as the investigation at the Mid Staffordshire hospital, argue experts in a paper published on bmj.com today.

In military and security situations, a split second can make the difference between life and death, so North Carolina State University's development of new "smart sensors" that allow for faster response times from military applications is important. Equally important is new research from NC State that will help ensure those sensors will operate under extreme conditions – like those faced in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

With just a half second's notice, a driver can swerve to avoid a fatal accident or slam on the brakes to miss hitting a child running after a ball. But first, the driver must perceive the danger.

Research shows that a rapid alert system can help mitigate the risks, fatalities and severe injuries from road accidents, says Prof. Shai Avidan of Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Engineering. He is currently collaborating with researchers from General Motors Research Israel to keep cars on the road and people out of hospitals.

New Haven, Conn.—Yale University engineers have found that the defects in carbon nanotubes cause T cell antigens to cluster in the blood and stimulate the body's natural immune response. Their findings, which appear as the cover article of the April 20 issue of the journal Langmuir, could improve current adoptive immunotherapy, a treatment used to boost the body's ability to fight cancer.

Eating a diet rich in the phenolic components of virgin olive oil represses several pro-inflammatory genes. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Genomics suggest that this partly explains the reduced risk of cardiovascular disease seen in people who eat a 'Mediterranean diet'.

PROVIDENCE, RI – A multi-center study led by a researcher at Rhode Island Hospital has determined that long-term elder care, HIV-infected and hemodialysis patients are at increased risk of carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in their nose. The study also found that patients have vastly different quantities of MRSA in their noses, a potential indicator for their risk of developing an infection after surgery. The study appears in the June 2010 edition of the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and appears online in advance of print.

DURHAM, NC -- Obstetrician/gynecologist offices may be the ideal venue for boosting vaccination rates among women, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center. They reported today on a successful pilot program focused on providing HPV (human papillomavirus) and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccines to non-pregnant and post-partum women.

The researchers say the program, funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, could be a model for ob/gyn clinics across the country to increase much-needed immunizations among eligible adults.

Washington, DC—Though airway obstructions in young children occur less often than other types of injuries, the death rate is higher, according to new research from Children's National Medical Center. The findings are published in the April issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, an affiliate of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The growing number of Americans with cardiovascular disease has caused a heightened sensitivity in the evaluation of chest pain. In a study published in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings researchers reported that patients dismissed from the hospital with noncardiac chest pain continue to experience cardiac events, which may highlight a need for more aggressive cardiovascular risk factor management in this population.

In research published this week in PLoS Medicine, Jörg Kleeff from Technische Universität München, and colleagues suggest that patients with apparently locally non-resectable tumors should be included in neoadjuvant protocols. The authors systematically reviewed studies concerning the effects of neoadjuvant therapy on tumor response, toxicity, resection, and survival percentages in pancreatic cancer.

A study published in PLoS Medicine this week finds that precursors of higher risk of diabetes in South Asian and African-Caribbean adults in the UK are increased in healthy children from these ethnic groups.

The »Fraunhofer System Research for Electromobility« makes its debut appearance at this year's Hannover Messe (April 19 - 23, Hall 2, Booth D22).

Each year, about 80,000 people in Germany become seriously ill from occlusions of veins caused by blood clots. Such thromboses can cause pulmonary embolism or even heart attacks. Even airline passengers at long distance flights can be affected by deep vein thrombosis. But with the new system, a fast and easy test of a risk of travel-related thrombosis will soon be possible.

TORONTO, ON – Placing internet ads on websites will be easier and more profitable in the future thanks to a new technology developed at the University of Toronto that allows ads to be resized to fit any available website space.

Internet ads are currently only available in three or four specific sizes, meaning websites must be designed around the ads. The size restrictions greatly limit ad placement options and affect the way ads look on mobile devices such as the iPad.

MIAMI, FL—Plastic mulches have been used in vegetable production in the United States since the 1950s. Black plastic (polyethylene) mulch, which alters the plant's growing environment by generating warmer soil temperatures and holding more moisture than bare soil, is the standard mulch used in vegetable production. A new research study evaluated the effects of colored plastic mulches with and without row covers on growth and earliness of fruit production on okra.