Tech

Dietary advice about fats and the risk of heart disease is called into question on bmj.com today as a clinical trial shows that replacing saturated animal fats with omega-6 polyunsaturated vegetable fats is linked to an increased risk of death among patients with heart disease.

The researchers say their findings could have important implications for worldwide dietary recommendations.

HOUSTON – (February 5, 2013) – American Indians are at much greater risk of suicide after acute alcohol intoxication, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

The study examined the prevalence and social demographic correlates of suicide involving acute alcohol intoxication among United States ethnic minorities. Results will be published in the May 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

• Suicide is ranked as the 10th leading overall cause of death in the United States.
• A new study recently examined suicide and acute alcohol intoxication among U.S. ethnic minorities.
• Findings show that American Indians are at much greater risk than other ethnic groups.

A pair of commentaries to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy highlight a debate within the public health community surrounding Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for treatment of exposed individuals during last year's fungal meningitis outbreak. Manuscripts of the commentaries were published ahead of print today on the journal's webpage.

ARLINGTON, Va. —The Navy's fifth Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), Milwaukee, will be the first to benefit from new high-power density waterjets aimed at staving off rudder and propeller damage experienced on high-speed ships.

The product of an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Future Naval Capabilities (FNC) program, the waterjets arrived last month at the Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin, where Milwaukee (LCS 5) is under construction.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Deaf and hard of hearing (DHoH) people must overcome significant professional barriers, particularly in health care professions. A number of accommodations are available for hearing-impaired physicians, such as electronic stethoscopes and closed-captioning technologies, but are these approaches making a difference?

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have devised a way to detect whether cells previously transplanted into a living animal are alive or dead, an innovation they say is likely to speed the development of cell replacement therapies for conditions such as liver failure and type 1 diabetes. As reported in the March issue of Nature Materials, the study used nanoscale pH sensors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines to tell if liver cells injected into mice survived over time.

ANN ARBOR—Iridescence, or sheen that shifts color depending on your viewing angle, is pretty in peacock feathers. But it's been a nuisance for engineers trying to mimic the birds' unique color mechanism to make high-resolution, reflective, color display screens.

Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to lock in so-called structural color, which is made with texture rather than chemicals. A paper on the work is published online in the current edition of the Nature journal Scientific Reports.

Modern telecommunications happens because of fast electrons and fast photons. Can it get better? Can Moore's law---the doubling of computing power ever 18 months or so---be sustained? Can the compactness (nm-scale components) of electronics be combined with the speed of photonics? Well, one such hybrid approach is being explored at the Joint Quantum Institute (*), where scientists bring together three marvelous physics research fields: microfluidics, quantum dots, and plasmonics to probe and study optical nanostructures with spatial accuracy as fine as 12 nm.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a classroom design that gives instructors increased flexibility in how to teach their courses and improves accessibility for students, while slashing administrative costs.

Specifically, the new classrooms take advantage of the fact that students are bringing their own technology – such as laptops – to class. The classrooms also include mobile infrastructure, where whiteboards, desks and tables can be reconfigured according to the needs of students and instructors.

San Diego, CA, February 5, 2013 – Understanding the relationships between lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes can be enhanced by the use of wearable cameras, concludes a collection of studies in a special theme issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Three studies report on the latest preventive medicine research using Microsoft's wearable camera, the SenseCam.

The theory that the last Neanderthals –Homo neanderthalensis– persisted in southern Iberia at the same time that modern humans –Homo sapiens– advanced in the northern part of the peninsula, has been widely accepted by the scientific community during the last twenty years. An international study, in which researchers of the Spanish National Distance Education University (UNED) participate, questions this hypothesis.

More precise optical imaging is vital for better diagnosis of breast cancer, which strikes one in eight women annually in the United States alone.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee are using the neutron imaging beam line at ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor to evaluate neutron imaging as a powerful new tool for early detection. The study, led by Dr. Maria Cekanova of UT, working with imaging instrument scientist Hassina Bilheux, is using tissue from dogs treated at the UT College of Veterinary Medicine.

State and local health departments face significant barriers and usually do not get involved when confronted with public health concerns resulting from food animal production sites, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

January 31, 2013 - At the HiPEAC 2013 conference in Berlin, KALRAY demonstrated MPPA256, the world's first supercomputer-on-a-chip, consisting of 256 computing cores. This innovative processor combines the ultimate in several processor types and will enable a whole new class of embedded and industrial applications in the fields of image processing, signal processing, control, communications and data security.