Tech

Frying meat on a gas hob may be more harmful to health than using an electric hob, because of the type of fumes it produces, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Professional chefs and cooks may be particularly at risk.

Cooking fumes produced during high temperature frying have recently been classified as "probably carcinogenic" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

An international team of researchers has created a genome-scale map of 26 different cancers, revealing more than 100 genomic sites where DNA from tumors is either missing or abnormally duplicated compared to normal tissues. The study, the largest of its kind, finds that most of these genetic abnormalities are not unique to one form of cancer, but are shared across multiple cancers. The work appears in the February 18 issue of the journal Nature.

Preparing vaccines that do not need refrigeration has been identified as one of the major unsolved problems in global health.

Nova has now proved the potential to solve many of the problems that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have around stabilising the medicines of tomorrow, while offering significant practical advantages and reducing costs. Its patented technologies were also designed for ease and convenience of administration – and true availability at the 'point of care'.

Chapel Hill, N.C. - More than 57,000 Americans face a diagnosis of kidney cancer each year. Now patients with advanced disease may soon have another treatment option. Physicians who conducted a pilot study at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center found that therapy before surgery with the drug sorafenib can reduce the size of large tumors and could be safely undertaken administered without adding significantly to the risks of surgery.

Their results are published in the Feb. 16, 2010 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Nurses who provide telephone advice services have to balance the conflicting demands of providing appropriate medical advice and acting as a gatekeeper to limited healthcare services, according to a review in the March issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Canadian researchers reviewed 16 studies carried out over the last two decades, covering more than 700 nurses in the UK, Canada, the USA and Sweden. The studies included interviews, videotaped consultations, simulated calls and stimulated recall.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – What if it were possible to go to the store and buy a kit to quickly and accurately diagnose cancer, similar to a pregnancy test? A University of Missouri researcher is developing a tiny sensor, known as an acoustic resonant sensor, that is smaller than a human hair and could test bodily fluids for a variety of diseases, including breast and prostate cancers.

Modern methods can answer a multitude of questions, but sometimes traditional techniques are superior. Authorities in northern Quebec, Canada, found this to their cost, when they relied upon statistical data to monitor moose populations.

Food packaging and other disposable plastic items could soon be composted at home along with organic waste thanks to a new sugar-based polymer.

The degradable polymer is made from sugars known as lignocellulosic biomass, which come from non-food crops such as fast-growing trees and grasses, or renewable biomass from agricultural or food waste.

It is being developed at Imperial College London by a team of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council scientists led by Dr Charlotte Williams.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---An artificial foot that recycles energy otherwise wasted in between steps could make it easier for amputees to walk, its developers say.

"For amputees, what they experience when they're trying to walk normally is what I would experience if I were carrying an extra 30 pounds," said Art Kuo, professor in the University of Michigan departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.

Compared with conventional prosthetic feet, the new prototype device significantly cuts the energy spent per step.

Evidence for the safety and efficacy of influenza vaccines in the over 65s is poor, despite the fact that vaccination has been recommended for the prevention of influenza in older people for the past 40 years. These are the conclusions of a new Cochrane Systematic Review.

Adults aged 65 and over are some of the most vulnerable during influenza season and a priority for vaccination programmes. However, very few systematic reviews of the effectiveness of vaccines in this group have ever been carried out.

Building on his Nobel Prize-winning work creating fluorescent proteins that light up the inner workings of cells, a team of researchers led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Roger Tsien, PhD, professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center has developed biological probes that can stick to and light up tumors in mice.

INDIANAPOLIS – In an essay in the February 2010 issue of Health Affairs, a special issue of the journal devoted to global e-health, William Tierney, M.D., of Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, and colleagues, who like Dr. Tierney have significant experience in the development of workable health information technology systems in low-income countries, identify critical steps toward allowing developing countries to cross the "digital divide" to realize the full potential of e-health to improve the quality and efficiency of their health care systems.

MADISON, WI, February 15, 2010 -- Agricultural nonpoint source pollution has been listed as one of the leading sources of pollution in rivers and water bodies throughout the world. Environmental regulators and scientists are making concerted efforts to reduce these pollutions using mitigation tools called best management practices (BMPs). As promising and effective BMPs, vegetated buffers are gradually gaining in popularity. However, lack of quantification on their mitigation efficacies limits their implementation in agricultural fields to reduce nonpoint source pollutions.

URBANA - Illinois farmers know corn nematodes are a problem. Nearly 80 percent of attendees at the Illinois Corn & Soybean Classics agreed this was true in surveys conducted across the state by U of I Extension Nematologist Terry Niblack. However, fewer than 20 percent plan to do anything about it.

"Farmers think corn nematodes are a big problem, but they're someone else's problem," Niblack said. "Nematodes are the most frequently overlooked cause of disease in Illinois corn."

Chestnut Hill, Mass. (February 15, 2009) – A tiny scaffold-like titanium structure of Nanonets coated with silicon particles could pave the way for faster, lighter and longer-lasting Lithium-ion batteries, according to a team of Boston College chemists who developed the new anode material using nanotechnology.