More than ever before, building design and construction can be significantly improved to reduce wind pressures on building surfaces and to help better resist high winds and hurricanes in residential or commercial construction, said NJIT architecture professor Rima Taher, PhD. Taher, who is also a civil/structural engineer, teaches at the New Jersey School of Architecture. Courses taught by her include topics related to wind and earthquakes with guidelines and recommendations for better design and construction in hurricane and earthquake prone areas.
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The continued decline of the nursing home — once the mainstay care for the frail elderly — and an upsurge in popularity of assisted living will lead to many dramatic changes in long-term care, according to a University of Florida expert and editor of a new book on the subject.
BERKELEY, CA For the first time, scientists from Rice University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have measured — in the field rather than in the laboratory — how changes in stress in rocks affect changes in the speed of seismic waves at depths where earthquakes begin. The measurements could lead to a "stress meter" for better understanding how fault-zone stress is related to earthquakes.
CHAPEL HILL Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have created a list of prescription drugs that increase the risk of falling for patients aged 65 and older who take four or more medications on a regular basis.
"Falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries for adults 65 and older, and research suggests that those taking four or more medications are at an even greater risk than those who don't perhaps two to three times greater," said Susan Blalock, Ph.D., an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
Durham, NC (July 9, 2008) MED-EL Corporation announced today new data regarding FineHearingTM technology, available only with the MAESTRO Cochlear Implant System. In addition to hearing in "high definition" with FineHearing, MED-EL's MAESTRO system offers the smallest internal implant and the thinnest, lightest externally-worn speech processor available.
Extinction risks for natural populations of endangered species are likely being underestimated by as much as 100-fold because of a mathematical "misdiagnosis," according to a new study led by a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher.
Consistently maintaining certain blood levels of markers of bone metabolism and disease can prolong the lives of patients on hemodialysis, according to a study appearing in the September 2008 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The findings indicate that keeping parathyroid hormone, calcium, and phosphorous levels in control is critically important for dialysis patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
DURHAM, N.C. Now that Duke University Medical Center scientists have figured out how the virus that causes cold sores hides out, they may have a way to wake it up and kill it.
Cold sores, painful, unsightly blemishes around the mouth, have so far evaded a cure or even prevention. They're known to be caused by the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1), which lies dormant in the trigeminal nerve of the face until triggered to reawaken by excessive sunlight, fever, or other stresses.
St. Louis, June 30, 2008 — Researchers have shown that they can put mouse embryonic stem cells to work building the heart, potentially moving medical science a significant step closer to a new generation of heart disease treatments that use human stem cells.
Monash University scientists have started clinical trials to find a successful vaccine against footrot in sheep.
The trials have been made possible with funding of $663,000 from Australian Wool Innovation (AWI)
The trials over three years are taking place at Monash University's Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics and the University of Sydney.
Chief investigator Professor Julian Rood said it was an exciting development for his team of researchers.
Delaying childbirth has substantially contributed to recent rises in caesarean section rates, according to a paper published this week by scientists at Cambridge University.
The findings come from an analysis of a large body of Scottish data performed by a team under Professor Gordon Smith, at the University's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
With the goal of developing an accurate, powerful and fast method to automate the analysis of bone strength, scientists of the ETH Zurich Departments of Mechanical and Process Engineering and Computer Science teamed up with supercomputing experts at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory. The breakthrough method developed by the team combines density measurements with a large-scale mechanical analysis of the inner-bone microstructure.
COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. (Tuesday, July 1, 2008) To aid in the study of genetic diseases, scientists with the International Haplotype Map Project have developed a haplotype map of the human genome, a tool that displays common patterns of genetic variation. While data from the project are available for unrestricted public use from the project's website (www.hapmap.org), the new tools needed to browse the map can be difficult to master for the beginner.
COLUMBIA, Mo. In the first study of its kind, using sophisticated methods to measure body composition, the nationally known commercial weight loss program, Weight Watchers, was compared to gym membership programs to find out which method wins in the game of good health. A University of Missouri researcher examined the real-life experiences of participants to determine which program helps people lose pounds, reduce body fat and gain health benefits. The answer is that both have pros and cons and that a combination of the two produces the best results.