Tech

People with Alzheimer's disease experience a rate of cognitive decline four times greater than those with no cognitive impairment according to a new study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The results of the study, which is only the second population-based study to quantify the rate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease, are published in the March 23, 2010 issue of the journal Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

College-educated mothers in the United States are caught up in a "rug rat race." They are going to extremes to secure elite college admission for their kids, say University of California, San Diego economists Garey and Valerie Ramey. Since the mid-1990s, these women have dramatically increased the time they spend coordinating and driving their children to organized activities, trading in nine hours of their own leisure time every week to do so. All in the name of landing their progeny a seat at a top university.

MADISON — For more than 30 years, scientists have known that multiple sclerosis (MS) is much more common in higher latitudes than in the tropics. Because sunlight is more abundant near the equator, many researchers have wondered if the high levels of vitamin D engendered by sunlight could explain this unusual pattern of prevalence.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, 2010 — Label directions for using some household pesticides are written in a way that may leave consumers with the impression that "if a little is good, more is better," according to a study presented here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). As a result, consumers may use excessive amounts of pesticides that could subject family members and pets to increased exposures.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, 2010 — The process that lights up big-screen plasma TV displays is getting a new life in producing ultra-clean fuels, according to a report here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). It described a small, low-tech, inexpensive device called a GlidArc reactor that uses electrically-charged clouds of gas called "plasmas" to produce in three steps super-clean fuels from waste materials. One is a diesel fuel that releases 10 times less air pollution than its notoriously sooty, smelly conventional counterpart.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, 2010 — Cutting back on consumption of meat and dairy products will not have a major impact in combating global warming — despite repeated claims that link diets rich in animal products to production of greenhouse gases. That's the conclusion of a report presented here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Electro-mechanical sensors tell the airbag in your car to inflate and rotate your iPhone screen to match your position on the couch. Now a research group of Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Engineering is making the technology even more useful.

Prof. Yael Hanein, Dr. Slava Krylov and their doctoral student Assaf Ya'akobovitz have set out to make sensors for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) significantly more sensitive and reliable than they are today. And they're shrinking their work to nano-size to do it.

The utilization rates of noninvasive diagnostic imaging procedures such as computed tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET) for the Medicare population vary substantially from region to region, with Atlanta, GA, having the highest utilization rate and Seattle, WA, having the lowest, according to a study in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (www.ajronline.org).

Any patient with a breast lesion classified as a radial scar classified at percutaneous biopsy should undergo a surgical excision to rule out an underlying malignancy, according to a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (www.ajronline.org).

"Radial scars are complex breast lesions that are classified as benign," said Anna Linda, MD, lead author of the study. "However up to 40 percent of them are associated with an underlying malignancy," said Linda.

Radiographs (standard X-rays) are often inconclusive in the detection of hip and pelvic fractures in the emergency department, according to a study in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (www.ajronline.org).

"The diagnosis of traumatic fracture most often begins and ends with X-rays of the hip, pelvis, or both," said Charles Spritzer, MD, lead author of the study. "In some cases though, the exclusion of a traumatic fracture is difficult," said Spritzer.

The cellphone is switched off but immediately springs into action at the point of a finger. It is not necessary to touch the display. This touchless control is made possible by a polymer sensor affixed to the cellphone which, like human skin, reacts to the tiniest fluctuations in temperature and differences in pressure and recognizes the finger as it approaches.

Reducing the cost of keeping broiler chickens warm could result from research by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and university cooperators.

ATLANTA, GA – While prevention methods appear to be helping to lower hospital infection rates from MRSA, a deadly antibiotic-resistant bacterium, a new superbug is on the rise, according to research from the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network.

New data shows infections from Clostridium difficile are surpassing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in community hospitals.

Boston, Mass. – A new understanding of a certain cell in the immune system may help guide scientists in creating better flu vaccines, report researchers from the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston (PCMM/IDI). Reporting online March 21 in Nature Immunology, they show, for the first time, that white blood cells known as resident dendritic cells (DCs) capture flu viruses and show them to B-lymphocytes, another white blood cell that recognizes germs and launches an antibody attack.

A proposed EU ban on throwing unwanted fish overboard from commercial boats could put one of the North Sea's most successful sea birds at risk, say researchers at the University of Leeds.

New research led by Dr Keith Hamer will assess the extent to which gannets rely on unwanted fish and offal thrown from fishing boats to successfully breed and raise their chicks.