Chevy Chase, MD—The Hormone Foundation, the public education affiliate of The Endocrine Society, in collaboration with the National Alliance for Caregiving, today released key findings from a first-of-its-kind survey (http://www.hormone.org/Public/diabetes_caregiver.cfm) aimed at better understanding the daily needs and struggles of unpaid caregivers of people with diabetes.
Tech
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2009 — A scientific trend to view the world's biggest cities as analogous to living, breathing organisms is fostering a deep new understanding of how poor air quality in megacities can harm residents, people living far downwind, and also play a major role in global climate change. That's the conclusion of a report on the "urban metabolism" model of megacities presented here today at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Pasadena, Calif.—Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and IBM's Almaden Research Center have developed a new technique to orient and position self-assembled DNA shapes and patterns—or "DNA origami"—on surfaces that are compatible with today's semiconductor manufacturing equipment. These precisely positioned DNA nanostructures, each no more than one one-thousandth the width of a human hair, can serve as scaffolds or miniature circuit boards for the precise assembly of computer-chip components.
University of California, San Diego computer scientists have created software that they hope will lead to data centers that logically function as single, plug-and-play networks that will scale to the massive scale of modern data center networks. The software system—PortLand—is a fault-tolerant, layer 2 data center network fabric capable of scaling to 100,000 nodes and beyond.
Microscopic magnetic particles have been used to bring stem cells to sites of cardiovascular injury in a new method designed to increase the capacity of cells to repair damaged tissue, UCL scientists announced today.
Two nanoscale devices recently reported by University of Pittsburgh researchers harness the potential of carbon nanomaterials to enhance technologies for drug or imaging agent delivery and energy storage systems, in one case, and, in the other, bolster the sensitivity of oxygen sensors essential in confined settings, from mines to spacecrafts.
Utilizing fractal patterns similar to those created by lightning strikes, Victor Ugaz, associate professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has created a network of microchannels that could advance the field of tissue engineering by serving as a three-dimensional vasculature for the support of larger tissue constructs, such as human organs.
Ugaz's work, which was undertaken with colleague Arul Jayaraman and appears in the July online version of "Advanced Materials," is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Education on asthma management in children delivered in small, interactive groups improved asthma outcomes and the overall care of children with asthma, found researchers in a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj080947.pdf (www.cmaj.ca).
Prevention of H1N1 influenza virus through vaccination must be our top priority if disease patterns in the northern hemisphere follow those in the southern hemisphere this fall, writes Paul Hébert, Editor-in-Chief of CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) in an editorial.
However, Canada and many other Western countries lack experience in mass immunization campaigns. In fact, we have been below vaccination target levels in such outbreaks as the resurgence of mumps in young adults in Canada last year. We need to plan now on how to overcome these problems.
Language is a central element of social life. It is not only a prerequisite for personal relationships, but also for employment prospects. If a child's language development is impaired, this can have far-reaching negative consequences. Thus, it would be beneficial if those children who would benefit from targeted help could be identified at a very early stage.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2009 — The American Chemical Society's (ACS) 238th National Meeting here will be the site of a rare "thought experiment" intended to focus the creative genius of hundreds of scientists on solutions to one of the 21st Century's most daunting problems: Finding sustainable new sources of energy. The exercise will use a computer game format in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, where more than 12,000 chemists and others will gather this week.
University of Utah mathematicians developed a new cloaking method that might someday shield buildings from earthquakes and oil rigs and coastal structures from tsunamis.
"We have shown that it is numerically possible to cloak objects of any shape that lie outside the cloaking devices, not just from single-frequency waves, but from actual pulses generated by a multi-frequency source," says Graeme Milton, senior author of the research and a distinguished professor of mathematics at the University of Utah.
Because the new device, called a "spaser," is the first of its kind to emit visible light, it represents a critical component for possible future technologies based on "nanophotonic" circuitry, said Vladimir Shalaev, the Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2009 — Cleaning oily smears from kitchen countertops, mirrors, garage floors, and other surfaces with plain water — rather than strong detergents or smelly solvents — may seem like pure fantasy. But scientists in Indiana today describe what they believe to be a simple and effective state-of-the-art oil stain remover. They have developed a new coating for glass, plastics, and a range of other materials that would enable consumers to wipe away those pesky oils with plain water.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2009 — After searching for more than 50 years, scientists finally have discovered a number of new mosquito repellents that beat DEET, the gold standard for warding off those pesky, sometimes disease-carrying insects. The stuff seems like a dream come true. It makes mosquitoes buzz off three times longer than DEET, the active ingredient in many of today's bug repellents. It does not have the unpleasant odor of DEET. And it does not cause DEET's sticky-skin sensation.