Science & Health News from Colleges Across the U.S.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving feasts, we've cooked up some sources and recent developments in science, health and environmental areas.

PREGNANCY FEVER LINKED TO OFFSPRING DISORDERS – Women who experience fever during their second trimester of pregnancy are more likely to give birth to children who develop emotional and psychological disorders – including inhibition, negative emotionality and attention deficits. Dr. Stefan Dombrowski, assistant professor of graduate education at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., along with Dr. Roy P. Martin of the University of Georgia; and Dr. Matti Huttunen of the University of Helsinki, report that elevated temperatures during that time may have an adverse effect on the development of the central nervous system of the fetus. Among their findings: 1) Infants (age 6 months) became significantly more distressed around new situations or strange adults; 2) Preschool children (age 5) could not attend to play and learning materials as long as their peers, and are more socially inhibited in the presence of strange adults or children; and 3) At age 12, the children are at greater risk for reduced academic performance and decreased ability to focus on tasks. The study, “Association Between Maternal Fever and Psychological/Behavior Outcomes: A Hypothesis,” is now available online to subscribers of the journal, Birth Defects Research Part A: Clinical and Molecular Teratology. It will be published in hard copy this month. Dombrowski and his colleagues obtained data for the study from the Helsinki Longitudinal Project. The sample consisted of 6,388 children born between July 1, 1975, and June 30, 1976, in Helsinki, and two adjacent suburbs.

WHERE YOUR CITY RANKS ON URBAN SPRAWL -- Research by a University of Denver geographer shows that urban sprawl occurs most often in midwest and southern metropolitan areas. California cities, by contrast, appear to be doing well at containing sprawl. "Western cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco have lower levels of urban sprawl than inland and mid-western cities such as Atlanta, St. Louis and Minneapolis," says Paul C. Sutton, professor of geography. Dr. Sutton examined urban sprawl in all US metro areas with populations of 50,000 or more. His research is described in the August 2003 issue of the journal Remote Sensing of Environment (Vol. 86, Issue 3) in a paper titled "A Scale-Adjusted Measure of Urban Sprawl Using Nighttime Satellite Imagery." The metro area that is doing the worst at containing sprawl? That's Denison-Sherman, TX. Doing the best: Monterey, CA. CONTACT: To see where your city ranks, or to get a copy of the paper, give us a call or e-mail.

BATTLE AGAINST EATING DISORDERS FOUGHT IN DENTIST’S CHAIR – More dentists are being encouraged to recognize the early signs of anorexia nervosa and bulimia when they show up in the mouths of patients. “There’s no question that the average dentist has to be more aware of it,” says Dr. Michael Siegel, professor and chair of diagnostic sciences at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who has authored a dental textbook chapter on eating disorders and oral health. Because up to 10 percent of sufferers will die of their illness, more dentists – who are likely to be the first medical professionals to notice the signs, including tooth erosion from purging – are getting involved in ensuring patients get the treatment they need, both for their bodies and their teeth. “With proper care, patients suffering from an eating disorder do not need to suffer from the decay and erosion I have,” says Michele Toomey, who overcame her eating disorder but spent years searching for a dentist with expertise to treat her condition, before finding Dr. Siegal and his wife, Sharon (also a dentist).

SPECIFIC PROGRAM REDUCES HIP FRACTURES, COSTS – Hip fractures and millions of dollars in related medical costs can be reduced in female osteoporosis patients ages 55 and older if their health care provider organizes a program to aggressively diagnose and treat the disease. That’s according to a study by researchers from the Geisinger Health System, which provides health care services to 2.5 million patients in 38 primarily rural counties of Pennsylvania and has one of the largest rural HMO’s in the country. Dr. Eric D. Newman, director of the Department of Rheumatology at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., joined colleagues Dr. William T. Ayoub, Dr. Ralph H. Starkey, Jessica M. Diehl of the system’s Community Outreach program, and G. Craig Wood from its Weis Research Center, to produce a paper, “Osteoporosis Disease Management in a Rural Health Care Population: Hip Fracture Reduction and Reduced Costs in Post-Menopausal Women After 5 Years,” published in a recent edition of Osteoporosis International. The study is the first to suggest that an organized osteoporosis disease management program delivered by a health care system can result in increased evaluation and treatment of osteoporosis, as well as a reduction in hip fracture. This resulted in a reduction in health care costs to the Geisinger Health Plan (GHP) of $7.8 million from 1996 to 2000. For women over 55 enrolled in GHP, the rate of hip fractures fell from 7.9 to 5.1 per thousand person-years. Significant reductions were noted within the 65-74, 75-84, and 85-plus age groups, where the hip fracture rate per thousand person-years fell from 5.0 to 2.8, 20.1 to 12.5, and 53.5 to 33.4 respectively. “Our research has shown that with an organized program, as outlined, there can be significantly improved bone health for a number of patients,” says Newman. The researchers used the cost of testing plus the cost of medication and the cost of fractures in their cost analysis.

CHECKING POWER LINES FOR BREAKS - Rahmat Shoureshi, dean of the University of Denver School of Engineering, has developed an easy-to-use sensor that inspects electric power lines. The sensor sends a displacement wave rippling through an energized line. If the wave encounters an anomaly, such as a broken strand within a cable, the wave is reflected back to the unit which can determine the location and severity of the problem. This would be a real advance in power line inspection. At present, the methods are difficult and expensive. Power companies can fly over the lines with video equipment but that is not reliable. Closer inspection requires de-energizing the line and dismantling the connectors and related equipment. Shoureshi's device is being beta-tested by utilities in Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Georgia and France.

COALITION CLEANS UP COAL MINE DRAINAGE -- Abandoned coal mines have created the most extensive water-pollution problem in Pennsylvania, contaminating nearly 3,000 miles of streams. After decades of living with orange streams that mine water from the Pittsburgh Coal Seam – which produced most of our nation’s coal right up until the 1970s – a group of local people within the Loyalhanna Watershed, in Latrobe, Pa., decided to do something about it. The resulting mission -- he Saint Vincent College (Latrobe, Pa) Monastery Run Wetlands Project – uses man-made, passive wetlands to treat pollution. After ten years, the wetlands now contain 260 pounds of iron oxide pollutants every day, or an estimated 40 tons of iron per year.

MOUNTAIN LAKE DEFIES SCIENTIFIC PREDICTIONS ONCE AGAIN – Mountain Lake in Giles County, Virginia -- a natural oddity that’s puzzled residents and scientists alike for 250 years by disappearing for decades at a time and then unexpectedly refilling to its normal depth of over 100 feet – has defied prediction again. The mystery of the disappearing lake, which was the setting for the 1986 blockbuster movie “Dirty Dancing”, was finally solved a year ago by Jon Cawley, visiting assistant professor of biology at Roanoke College in Salem, Va. whose study showed a leaky bottom in the bedrock 110 feet below the surface. He found the water flows through the hole – like the drain in a bathtub – and runs along an underground fault before resurfacing half a mile away in the lake’s only outlet stream. A long drought and the lake’s natural “drain” combined to sap the lake more than halfway, but a rainy summer has stemmed what some had predicted to be a decades-long disappearing act by the lake. According to Cawley, the hole periodically widens, allowing more water to escape, then earthquakes pinch the hole shut, letting it refill. “That’s sort of a sliding scale,” explains Cawley. “The wetter the year it is, the less water actually drains from the lake.”

FALLEN LEAVES NOT THE ONLY THING LITTERING THE HIGHWAYS – In some leafy neighborhoods, dead squirrels are lying two or three to a block this fall. The reason? “The fall shuffle,” explains Dr. Michael Steele, associate professor of biology at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa and co-author of North American Tree Squirrels. The quality of “mast” – the seed and nut crops that squirrels and other small wildlife depend on – is not uniform. “When squirrels recognize by mid-August that the crops are not good in one area, they move to another,” he says. That means more squirrels are moving back and forth across roads. The resulting carnage is as much a signal of autumn as falling leaves, he says.

MICHIGAN HARD OF HEARING AMONG THE FIRST TO GET “LOOPED” – The 24 million people suffering from hearing loss in the United States often lose more than their hearing. They lose the ability to participate in public activities, since most venues aren’t wired to provide them any hearing assistance. But Dr. David Myers, a social psychologist at Hope College in Holland, Mich., and author of A Quiet World: Living with Hearing Loss, is changing that by leading an effort to bring an Induction Loop System, which transmits magnetic energy from an amplifier through a wire surrounding the seating area to his town -- making Holland a model looped community, one where most churches and public facilities and a growing number of homes are looped, and where audiologists are equipping hearing aids to serve as loudspeakers. Loop systems are becoming omnipresent in Europe. By the end of 2004, United Kingdom legislation will mandate that any business or service to the general public must have a loop system fitted wherever verbal information is provided. Now an American initiative is being considered. “A national initiative that promotes hearing aid compatibility for both telephones and assistive listening systems is under consideration,” Myers writes in the Nov/Dec 2003 issue of Hearing Loss. “And Michigan state legislators will soon be considering a proposed legislative mandate that would require newly-constructed buildings with ADA-mandated assistive listening to install equipment that broadcasts directly to hearing aids.” For more information, visit his website at http://www.hearingloop.org.

USING TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER TECHNOLOGY – When the goal of an NSF-funded project is the development of laser technologies to create the smallest, most powerful computer circuits ever developed – providing technology to allow others access from afar would seem logical. That’s what’s happening for students and faculty at Sewanee, the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., who will benefit from collaborations with the Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology (ERC). Headquartered at Colorado State University, and a joint collaboration between Colorado State, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of California, Berkeley, the ERC has received a $17 million NSF grant for the project. Ben Szapiro, associate professor of physics at Sewanee, has been involved in extreme ultraviolet research for the last 15 years. Szapiro said that Sewanee’s affiliation with the ERC will create year-round research opportunities for students and faculty, provide access to the center’s sophisticated equipment and resources, and allow participation in on-site and online courses taught by leading specialists. The goal of the center is to develop solutions to challenging scientific and industrial problems by using short wavelength light in the extreme ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The NSF currently funds 24 engineering research centers nationwide. The centers are designed to partner university researchers with industry and government practitioners, in order to tackle issues too complex and expensive for one sector alone.