Tech
Bottom Line: This observational study looked at patterns of use for computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound and nuclear medicine imaging in the United States and in Ontario, Canada, from 2000 to 2016. Medical imaging use increased rapidly from 2000 to 2006 and this analyzes its use in more recent years among 16 million to 21 million patients enrolled in seven U.S. health care networks and for patients in Ontario, Canada. The analysis included 135 million imaging examinations.
Plasmonic nanostructures have been widely used for enhancing light-matter interactions due to the strong local field enhancement in deep subwavelength volumes.
Localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) and propagating surface plasmon resonances (SPR) both suffer from low quality factors and limited field enhancements, resulting in restricted performance in applications. By patterning metal nanoparticles in arrays, plasmonic surface lattice resonances (SLRs) can have lower radiation loss, higher quality factors, and larger field enhancements over large volumes.
Prospective digital data storage devices predominantly rely on novel fundamental magnetic phenomena. The better we understand these phenomena, the better and more energy efficient the memory chips and hard drives we can build. Physicists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have now completed the essential fundamental work for future storage devices: Using a creative approach of shaping magnetic thin films in curved architectures, they validated the presence of chiral responses in a commonly used magnetic material.
Quantum information relies on the possibility of writing messages in a quantum particle and reading them out in a reliable way. If, however, the particle is relativistic, meaning that it moves with velocities close to the speed of light, it is impossible for standard techniques to unambiguously decode the message and the communication fails. Thanks to the introduction of a new method to write and read the message researchers at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences guarantee the reliable decoding of quantum messages which are transmitted extremely fast.
Implantable defibrillators can save lives, but also harbor risks. A major European study headed by three researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), LMU München and University Medical Center Göttingen has found that a special ECG method can help to identify the patients most likely to benefit from these devices. The results of the study have now been published in The Lancet.
Researchers at the University of Göttingen have developed a new method that takes advantage of the unusual properties of graphene to electromagnetically interact with fluorescing (light-emitting) molecules. This method allows scientists to optically measure extremely small distances, in the order of 1 ångström (one ten-billionth of a meter) with high accuracy and reproducibility for the first time. This enabled researchers to optically measure the thickness of lipid bilayers, the stuff that makes the membranes of all living cells. The results were published in Nature Photonics.
A phenomenon that is well known from chaos theory was observed in a material for the first time ever, by scientists from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. A structural transition in the ferroelastic material barium titanate, caused by an increase or decrease in temperature, resembles the periodic doubling seen in non-linear dynamical systems. This 'spatial chaos' in a material was first predicted in 1985 and could be used in applications such as adaptable neuromorphic electronics. The results were published in Physical Review Letters on 22 August.
Amsterdam, September 3, 2019 - Globally, dementia cases are increasing at a rate of more than 20% a year. Most of these cases are in low- to middle-income countries.
Europe has enough solar and wind resources to meet its electricity demand entirely from renewable sources. A new study by researchers at the Institute for Transformative Sustainability Research (IASS) in Potsdam shows that many regions and municipalities could meet their electricity demand using electricity systems based exclusively on renewables. However, their development would exacerbate land use pressure around metropolitan areas and larger conurbations.
Providing a glimpse the hidden workings of evolution, a group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that embryos that appear the same can start out with surprisingly different instructions.
"We found that a lot of undercover evolution occurs in early embryos," said Joel Rothman, a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, who led the team.
When reading words on a screen, the human brain comprehends words placed on the right side of the screen faster. The total amount of presented information on the screen also affects the speed and accuracy of the brain's ability to process words. These are the findings of HSE University researchers Elena Gorbunova and Maria Falikman presented in an article that was published in the journal, Advances in Cognitive Psychology.
OAK BROOK, Ill. - Researchers in South Korea have found that patients with family and personal history of allergic reactions to contrast media are at risk for future reactions, according to a large study published in the journal Radiology. Allergic reactions to commonly used CT contrast media may be prevented by premedicating patients with antihistamines and using a different type of contrast agent.
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology have used DNA testing to prove close genetic kinship between three individuals buried in a mass grave following the capture of the Russian city Yaroslavl by Batu Khan's Mongol army in 1238. This confirms the hypothesis made by archaeologists and anthropologists after studying the remains of 15 persons interred on a historic estate.
At first glance, the numbers recorded between 1980 and 2012 appear to be quite balanced. 68 of the 158 bird species that inhabit the area around Lake Constance became more populous, while 67 species declined; each of these figures approximates to 43 percent of all the bird species in the region. The total number of species has even increased slightly: although eight species have died out, 17 have either returned to the region or settled there for the first time.
The discoveries in the cellular and molecular biology of cancer, the development of drugs against specific genetic mutations, and the emergence of immunotherapy are allowing the cure or improvement of the quality of life and life expectancy of patients with tumors. However, there is a type of cancer that resists this encouraging news: the brain tumor.