Culture | Science Codex

Leaky water pipes problem solved by Sheffield engineers

Leaky pipes are a common problem for the water industry: according to UK regulator, Ofwat, between 20 and 40 per cent of the UK's total water supply can be lost through damaged pipes. Developing more accurate ways of finding leaks would enable water companies to save revenue and reduce their environmental impact.

The system invented at Sheffield tests pipes by transmitting a pressure wave along them that sends back a signal if it passes any unexpected features, such as a leak or a crack in the pipe's surface.

Heart muscle cell grafts suppress arrhythmias after heart attacks in animal study

In this study, the guinea pigs' hearts had an injury to the left ventricle, the thick walled lower chamber in the heart that pumps oxygenated blood to the body. The injury left a scar and thinned the ventricle, which showed both reduced pump function and greater susceptibility to arrhythmias.

Injured hearts that received the human cardiac muscle cell grafts showed partial re-muscularization of the scarred left ventricle.

Consistent with previous studies, tests showed that the injured hearts with the human cardiac cell grafts had improved mechanical function.

What you don't know can hurt you

Is it possible for a health care system to redesign its services to better educate patients to deal with their immediate health issues and also become more savvy consumers of medicine in the long run?

The answer is yes, according to a study led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) that was recently reported by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

Research collaboration among multiple institutions is growing trend

A new report found that research collaboration among multiple institutions is a growing trend.

The conclusion was drawn by noting increases in the amount of total expenditures for research and development that universities pass through to other institutions and receive from other institutions.

Depressive symptoms and cancer survival correlated

HOUSTON — Research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has found that symptoms of depression in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic kidney cancer are associated with survival and inflammatory gene regulation may explain this link.

MAK value lowered for chlorinated biphenyls

Added benefit of linagliptin is not proven

Linagliptin (trade name: Trajenta®) has been approved since August 2011 to improve blood glucose control ("glycaemic control") in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus whose elevated blood glucose levels are inadequately controlled by diet and exercise. It is an option for patients who do not tolerate or should not take the usual treatment with the drug metformin. Moreover, linagliptin can be added if treatment with metformin alone is not sufficient.

Susan G Komen for the Cure under fire for overstating benefits of mammography

The Susan G Komen for the Cure charity took an unpopular position regarding abortion and now the knives are out, including among the very people who praised them for so long. Here is the latest salvo against them.

Professors Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin of the Center for Medicine and the Media at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice argue that last year's breast cancer awareness month campaign by Susan G Komen for the Cure "overstates the benefit of mammography and ignores harms altogether."

Study shows higher healing rate using unique cell-based therapy in chronic venous leg ulcers

Treating chronic venous leg ulcers with a topical spray containing a unique living human cell formula provides a 52 percent greater likelihood of wound closure than treatment with compression bandages only.

That's the conclusion of a new study conducted in part at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and published online by The Lancet this week.

5-year survey confirms banning smoking reduces smoking in Uruguay

The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (the ITC Project) today launched a new report on the effectiveness of tobacco control policies in Uruguay. The ITC Uruguay Survey (the Survey) found that the country's world-leading, comprehensive tobacco control strategy has had positive effects on raising awareness of the true harms of smoking, reducing misperceptions about "light/mild" cigarettes, reducing exposure to secondhand smoke, and reducing the demand for tobacco products through tax increases.

Judging the role of religion (or not) in law

Religious reasoning should not affect how judges decide cases—and may even infringe on religious freedom, says a scholar. There's a passage in the Old Testament's Deuteronomy that says if a case too difficult to decide comes before the courts, it should be brought to the Levite priests who will render a verdict in God's name. However, one University of Alberta researcher says that may be taking religious freedom a step too far.

Embryonic blood vessels that make blood stem cells can also make beating heart muscles

The team used the yolk sac – the first tissue where blood cells are made - from embryos that lacked Scl and within four hours of plating on the culture dish, the tissue had generated beating cardiomyocytes. The team also found similar cardiomyocyte potential in Scl-deficient embryos in the endocardium that lines the heart chambers. They also looked for genetic signatures that would suggest that these endothelial precursors could potentially also make other closely related tissues such as skeletal muscle, bone or kidney, but found no evidence of such plasticity.

Polyandry: Having multiple husbands works in some cultures

Marrying multiple husbands at the same time, or polyandry, creates a safety net for women in some cultures, according to a recent study by a University of Missouri researcher. Extra husbands ensure that women's children are cared for even if their fathers die or disappear. Although polyandry is taboo and illegal in the United States, certain legal structures, such as child support payments and life insurance, fill the same role for American women that multiple husbands do in other cultures.

Disorders of consciousness: How should clinicians respond to new therapeutic interventions?

New tools have confirmed high rates of misdiagnosis of patients with chronic disorders of consciousness, such as the vegetative state. An increasing number of patients' families wish to use these novel techniques for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. An international team of researchers, including Dr. Éric Racine, researcher at the IRCM, analyzed the clinical, social and ethical issues that clinicians are now facing. Their article is published in the August edition of The Lancet Neurology, a renowned journal in the field of clinical neurology.

Detecting thyroid disease by computer

Researchers in India have developed an improved expert system for the diagnosis of thyroid disease. They describe details of their approach to screening medical data in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering.