Tech | Page 1797 | Science Codex

More costly private model of foster care could save $6.3 billion in long term

In these times of trillion-dollar budgets and deficits, $6.3 billion may not seem like much money, but that's what the United States potentially could save on each group of adolescents who enter foster care every year.

These savings could be achieved by using a more intensive and more costly private model of foster care than programs offered by public agencies across the country, according to new research led by economists and foster care experts from the University of Washington and Casey Family Programs, a non-profit agency with offices in Washington and Oregon.

Britain's tax dollars at work: mapping penguin poo from space

Penguin poo (guano) stains, visible from space, have helped British scientists locate emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica. Knowing their location provides a baseline for monitoring their response to environmental change.

Trading energy for safety, bees extend legs to stay stable in wind

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 2, 2009 -- New research shows some bees brace themselves against wind and turbulence by extending their sturdy hind legs while flying. But this approach comes at a steep cost, increasing aerodynamic drag and the power required for flight by roughly 30 percent, and cutting into the bees' flight performance.

The findings are detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ethanol production could jeopardize soil productivity

MADISON, WI, June 1, 2009 -- There is growing interest in using crop residues as the feedstock of choice for the production of cellulosic-based ethanol because of the more favorable energy output relative to grain-based ethanol. This would also help provide a solution to the debate of food versus fuel, because less of the grain would be diverted to ethanol production, leaving more available for food and feed consumption.

Femtosecond laser creates metal that pumps liquid uphill

In nature, trees pull vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves hundreds of feet above the ground through capillary action, but now scientists at the University of Rochester have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle — but does so at a speed that would make nature envious.

Aluminum-oxide nanopore beats other materials for DNA analysis

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Fast and affordable genome sequencing has moved a step closer with a new solid-state nanopore sensor being developed by researchers at the University of Illinois.

The nanopore sensor, made by drilling a tiny hole through a thin film of aluminum oxide, could ultimately prove capable of performing DNA analysis with a single molecule, offering tremendous possibilities for personalized medicine and advanced diagnostics.

I-SPY trial offers key insights into locally advanced breast cancer

Scientists are reporting two findings that could influence the way researchers screen for, treat and assess prognosis for women with locally advanced breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease. One finding offers a critical message regarding treatment strategy, they say.

"Women with locally advanced breast cancer and their clinicians need to be aware that a growing breast mass should not be ignored even if someone has had a recent normal mammogram," says Laura Esserman, MD, UCSF professor of surgery and radiology and director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center.

Mobile health clinics: Saving lives and money

Every $1 invested in mobile healthcare for the medically disenfranchised saves $36 in combined emergency department costs avoided and value of life years saved. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medicine suggest that 'health vans' decrease both the incidence and economic burden of preventable diseases, for a net profit to the healthcare system.

Cost shifting may make arthritis medications too expensive for medicare beneficiaries

Biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) such as adalimumab, etanercept and infliximab are effective at reducing symptoms and slowing progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). These drugs act more quickly, require less laboratory monitoring, and are better tolerated than nonbiologic DMARDs, but they are also up to 100 times more expensive. Insurance plans differ greatly in their coverage of and cost sharing for biologic DMARDs, sometimes shifting a large portion of the cost of patients.

Pay-for-performance may benefit doctors who care for very sick

HOUSTON - (June 1, 2009) – Physicians who treat patients with multiple health problems will fare well under pay-for-performance, which bases physician reimbursement on the quality of care provided, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston (http://www.houston.va.gov/) in a report in the current issue of the journal Circulation.

Many US children have inadequate access to pediatric trauma care

Approximately 30 percent U.S. children live more than one hour away from a pediatric trauma center by ground or by air transportation, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

17 million US children live more than an hour away from trauma care

More than 17 million U.S. children live more than an hour away by ground or air transportation from a life-saving pediatric trauma center, according to a new study by researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. The creation of a national inventory of pediatric trauma centers may help to identify the locations of gaps and greatly improve access to care for U.S. children, the authors said.

No more Muzak: Inmamusys will compose and play original music in real time

UGR researchers Miguel Delgado, Waldo Fajardo and Miguel Molina decided to design a software programme that would enable a person who knew nothing about composition to create music. The system they devised, using AI, is called Inmamusys, an acronym for Intelligent Multiagent Music System, and is able to compose and play music in real time.

If successful, this prototype, which has been described recently in the journal Expert Systems with Applications, looks likely to bring about great changes in terms of the intrusive and repetitive canned music played in public places.

New device detects heart disease using less than one drop of blood

Testing people for heart disease might be just a finger prick away thanks to a new credit card-sized device created by a team of researchers from Harvard and Northeastern universities in Boston. In a research report published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), they describe how this device can measure and collect a type of cells needed to build vascular tissue, called endothelial progenitor cells, using only 200 microliters of blood.

In the turf war against seaweed, coral reefs more resilient than expected

There's little doubt that coral reefs the world over face threats on many fronts: pollution, diseases, destructive fishing practices and warming oceans. But reefs appear to be more resistant to one potential menace – seaweed – than previously thought, according to new research by a team of marine scientists from the United States and Australia.