SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, 2010 — The process that lights up big-screen plasma TV displays is getting a new life in producing ultra-clean fuels, according to a report here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). It described a small, low-tech, inexpensive device called a GlidArc reactor that uses electrically-charged clouds of gas called "plasmas" to produce in three steps super-clean fuels from waste materials. One is a diesel fuel that releases 10 times less air pollution than its notoriously sooty, smelly conventional counterpart.
Tech
SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, 2010 — Cutting back on consumption of meat and dairy products will not have a major impact in combating global warming — despite repeated claims that link diets rich in animal products to production of greenhouse gases. That's the conclusion of a report presented here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Electro-mechanical sensors tell the airbag in your car to inflate and rotate your iPhone screen to match your position on the couch. Now a research group of Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Engineering is making the technology even more useful.
Prof. Yael Hanein, Dr. Slava Krylov and their doctoral student Assaf Ya'akobovitz have set out to make sensors for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) significantly more sensitive and reliable than they are today. And they're shrinking their work to nano-size to do it.
The utilization rates of noninvasive diagnostic imaging procedures such as computed tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET) for the Medicare population vary substantially from region to region, with Atlanta, GA, having the highest utilization rate and Seattle, WA, having the lowest, according to a study in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (www.ajronline.org).
Any patient with a breast lesion classified as a radial scar classified at percutaneous biopsy should undergo a surgical excision to rule out an underlying malignancy, according to a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (www.ajronline.org).
"Radial scars are complex breast lesions that are classified as benign," said Anna Linda, MD, lead author of the study. "However up to 40 percent of them are associated with an underlying malignancy," said Linda.
Radiographs (standard X-rays) are often inconclusive in the detection of hip and pelvic fractures in the emergency department, according to a study in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (www.ajronline.org).
"The diagnosis of traumatic fracture most often begins and ends with X-rays of the hip, pelvis, or both," said Charles Spritzer, MD, lead author of the study. "In some cases though, the exclusion of a traumatic fracture is difficult," said Spritzer.
The cellphone is switched off but immediately springs into action at the point of a finger. It is not necessary to touch the display. This touchless control is made possible by a polymer sensor affixed to the cellphone which, like human skin, reacts to the tiniest fluctuations in temperature and differences in pressure and recognizes the finger as it approaches.
Reducing the cost of keeping broiler chickens warm could result from research by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and university cooperators.
ATLANTA, GA – While prevention methods appear to be helping to lower hospital infection rates from MRSA, a deadly antibiotic-resistant bacterium, a new superbug is on the rise, according to research from the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network.
New data shows infections from Clostridium difficile are surpassing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in community hospitals.
Boston, Mass. – A new understanding of a certain cell in the immune system may help guide scientists in creating better flu vaccines, report researchers from the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston (PCMM/IDI). Reporting online March 21 in Nature Immunology, they show, for the first time, that white blood cells known as resident dendritic cells (DCs) capture flu viruses and show them to B-lymphocytes, another white blood cell that recognizes germs and launches an antibody attack.
A proposed EU ban on throwing unwanted fish overboard from commercial boats could put one of the North Sea's most successful sea birds at risk, say researchers at the University of Leeds.
New research led by Dr Keith Hamer will assess the extent to which gannets rely on unwanted fish and offal thrown from fishing boats to successfully breed and raise their chicks.
For an as yet unknown reason, cancer radiotherapy can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life, a problem that is growing as more and more people survive their cancer diagnosis. New research from Karolinska Institutet now suggests that sustained inflammation induced by post-radiotherapy changes in the gene expression in the arteries could be the cause.
(PORTLAND, Ore.)—March 22, 2010— Women and men who engage in frequent heavy drinking report significantly worse health-related practices, according to a Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study in the journal Addiction Research & Theory.
Atlanta, Ga. (March 22, 2010)-- Researchers studying epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in community hospitals in the southeast U.S. found that rates of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) surpassed infection rates for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Scientists also discovered that healthcare-associated CDI, which is a bacterium that causes diarrhea and more serious intestinal conditions such as colitis, occurs more often (21 percent) than healthcare-associated infections due to MRSA.
A new study has found that when African American and white cancer patients are treated at similar, specialized cancer care institutions, mortality rates are roughly equal. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings suggest that where patients receive care may partly explain observed racial disparities in cancer mortality.