Tech

AUSTIN, Texas—Relocation substantially lowers the likelihood of re-incarceration for parolees, according to new research at The University of Texas at Austin.

Using the occurrence of Hurricane Katrina––which ravaged numerous neighborhoods throughout the Louisiana Gulf Coast—as a natural experiment, David Kirk, sociologist at The University of Texas at Austin, was able to examine how consequential a change of residence is to behavioral outcomes such as crime. His findings will be published in the June issue of American Sociological Review.

Recent clinical trials show that a new colon cancer screening technique created by Northwestern University researchers has a high enough sensitivity that it could potentially be as or more successful than a colonoscopy in screening for colon cancer.

Despite the great difficulties in quantifying all the environmental and human factors that affect sediment discharge by rivers into the sea, a group of Catalan scientists has compiled data to describe and evaluate the solid sediment discharge from nine river basins in Catalonia – the Ter, Foix, Gaia, Besós, Llobregat, Francolí, Tordera, Muga, and Fluvia. "This was a slow job, with its fair share of difficulties", Miquel Canals, one of the authors of the study and a senior professor in Marine Geology at the University of Barcelona (UB), tells SINC.

Electrical engineers from UC San Diego have created high-performance W-Band silicon-germanium (SiGe) radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for passive millimeter-wave imaging. This advance could lead to significantly less expensive imaging systems for identifying concealed weapons, for helping helicopters to land during dust storms, and for high frequency data communications. Electrical engineers from UC San Diego presented this circuit at the 2009 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium on June 9.

Australian researchers have developed gene expression biomarkers which can accurately discriminate pre-cancerous and cancerous colorectal growths from non-cancerous controls.

Being presented today at the Digestive Disease Week conference in Chicago, the preliminary findings are the result of a collaborative study – involving CSIRO, Flinders University and Australian healthcare company, Clinical Genomics Pty Ltd – designed to develop an improved screening/diagnostic test for detecting bowel cancer and significant pre-cancer lesions.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. –According to a research abstract that will be presented on Tuesday, June 9, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, adolescent obesity is associated with having less sleep. Reduction in sleep could be related to a higher caffeine intake, more hours of technology use and increased symptoms of sleep disorders (such as snoring).

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – Individuals with insomnia and objective short sleep duration are at increased risk for developing diabetes, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Tuesday, June 9, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Snakes use both friction generated by their scales and redistribution of their weight to slither along flat surfaces, researchers at New York University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have found. Their findings, which appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, run counter to previous studies that have shown snakes move by pushing laterally against rocks and branches.

Alzheimer's disease and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, appear to be associated with an increased risk of death among both white and African American older adults, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

CHICAGO – Alzheimer's disease and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, appear to be associated with an increased risk of death among both white and African American older adults according to a new, long-term research study by neurological experts at the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. The study findings are published in the June issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Scientists studying the impact of climate change on the Arctic need to consider ways to reduce their own carbon footprints, says a researcher who regularly flies north to study the health of caribou.

In the June issue of Arctic, the journal of the University of Calgary's Arctic Institute of North America, postdoctoral fellow Ryan Brook calls on scientists to show leadership by examining and sharing ways to reduce the impact of working in polar regions.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. –According to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday, June 8, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, both long and short sleepers are at greater risk for diabetes. Individuals sleeping for more than eight hours per night may be particularly vulnerable.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – Men with insomnia and sleep duration of six or fewer hours of nightly sleep are at an increased risk for mortality, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday, June 8, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies

Results indicate that compared to people who sleep six hours or more, men with insomnia and less than six hours of nightly sleep were at highest risk of mortality. The mortality rate of the sample was 19.6 percent for men versus 10.3 percent for women.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – According to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday, June 8, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, active problem solving strategies are associated with successful use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – According to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday, June 8 at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, days with increased activity were followed by nights with lower total sleep time (TST), while nights with lower TST were followed by increased activities during the next day.

Results indicated that total sleep time increased by an average of 42 minutes a night only after days with low activity. In related findings, increased activity was seen in participants with higher body mass index (BMI).