Latest News

• share
• favorite_border

Highlights from the June issue of AHCPR's monthly publication, Research Activities: 1) Health Insurance Plans Vary Dramatically in Their Coverage of New Technologies; 2) Higher Dental Prices Often Denote Higher Quality of Care; 3) Evidence Does Not Yet Support Annual Screening of Men Over 50 to Detect Prostate Cancer; 4) Broad Exposure to Other Children and Being Poor Are Linked to Increased Risk for Childhood Middle-Ear Effusion

• share
• favorite_border

1) Most nature trails emphasize flora and fauna. This week, though, the spotlight is on the wild and varied climate of Colorado's Front Range; 2) A computer forecasting system for Analysis and Prediction of Storms has won a first prize in the 1997 Discover Magazine Awards for Technological Innovation; 3) Global climate change: A recent modeling study predicts that developed countries--the primary emitters of carbon dioxide--would benefit while underdeveloped countries would suffer.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists from Cornell University will help the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in Seneca Falls, N.Y., exact revenge against purple loosestrife, a beautiful but prolific weed that strangles wetlands. More than 20,000 Galerucella pusilla and G. calmariensis -- leaf-eating beetles without a common name -- will be released Thursday, July 17, at 9 a.m. at the refuge.

• share
• favorite_border

Frozen concentrated orange juice generally has the highest vitamin C levels compared to other commercial orange and grapefruit juice products, but even if you favor one of the others, you're probably still getting your daily requirement of the vitamin. That's according to a new, ten-year study reported in the July 16 issue of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

• share
• favorite_border

Montreal, July 13 -- More than 175 of the world's top high school chemistry students arrive here today for the 29th annual International Chemistry Olympiad, which runs through July 21st. The Olympians, who represent 47 countries, will attempt laboratory experiments and a rigorous exam designed at a level that would challenge most second or third-year college students

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Sidney Harris has begun his duties as the new dean of the College of Business Administration at Georgia State University, effective July 15. The 47-year-old Atlanta native is the university's first African-American dean and represents only one of about 3 percent of African-American business school deans in the country.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study of patients with heart disease who used nicotine patches shows that the patches are a safe smoking cessation therapy for this group, and that they may also improve blood and oxygen flow to the heart.

• share
• favorite_border

The $368.5 billion proposed tobacco settlement does not address the needs of communities of color. While the recent Koop-Kessler report provides a starting point for discussion among these communities, the American Lung Association encourages a comprehensive analysis of the settlement's impact on communities of color.

• share
• favorite_border

Recent revelations about the cause of a 1979 flash off South Africa point to an ongoing concern for the capability of satellites looking for clandestine nuclear weapons.

• share
• favorite_border

The current method of surgical bunion repair is too costly. Researchers in Nebraska have discovered that the common practice of internal fixation -- using surgical screws or other hardware to hold an injured joint in place during the healing process -- does not significantly improve healing or pain reduction in certain bunion repair procedures, yet this hardware can cost in excess of $1,200.

• share
• favorite_border

New information reported at the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society's (AOFAS) 13th Annual Summer Meeting will allow surgeons to treat more people with diabetes -- a population group popularly thought too risky for surgery -- normally and without fear of serious complications.

• share
• favorite_border

Basic logic tells us making two surgical repairs in one operation is more cost-effective than performing each repair separately. A study presented today at the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society's 13th Annual Summer Meeting reveals that in some cases this "doubling-up" is not only cost-effective, it leads to better healing and greater patient satisfaction as well.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have shown that radiation from radon gas does not need to hit a cell nucleau -- or even the cell itself -- to create DNA-damaging effects.

• share
• favorite_border

U.S. and Mexican researchers are perfecting methods for sampling volcanic discharges from safe distances.

• share
• favorite_border

Researhers from the UCSD School of Medicine report the first successful use of gene therapy to achieve partial recovery from spinal cord injuries.

• share
• favorite_border

TipSheet from the American College of Physicians: 1) Muscle dysfunction, rather than osteoarthritis, results in weak quadriceps muscles in the knee. 2) Protease inhibitor indinavir can cause kidney problems. 3) African American women have higher heart disease rates than white women, while African-American men have a lower rate than white men.

• share
• favorite_border

A twofold increased risk of heart attack was found among women who have higher than normal blood levels of the protein homocysteine and lower than normal blood levels of the vitamin folate, according to a study in today's American Heart Association journal Circulation.

• share
• favorite_border

British researchers say they have demonstrated for the first time that signs of a common respiratory infection can be a useful yardstick for predicting whether survivors of heart attack will suffer another attack, which may be fatal, or need treatment to restore blood flow to their hearts. Antibiotic treatment appears to quickly nullify the risk for these heart disease problems, the scientists report in today's American Heart Association journal Circulation.

• share
• favorite_border

A readily available, but underused, diagnostic test could help prevent unnecessary angioplasties, a procedure used to clean out blocked blood vessels to the heart, report researchers in today's Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.

• share
• favorite_border

A twofold increased risk of heart attack was found among women who have higher than normal blood levels of the protein homocysteine and lower than normal blood levels of the vitamin folate, according to a study in today's American Heart Association journal Circulation.

• share
• favorite_border

"Younger At Last: The New World of Vitality Medicine" (Simon & Schuster), by Steven Lamm, M.D., is based on a revolutionary new program designed for a culture where success personally and professionally is increasingly linked to the attributes of youthfulness. Dr. Lamm's book features a chapter on Pycnogenol (R) French maritime pine bark extract. This supplement functions as both an antioxidant and as a circulation enhancer throughout the body.

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Michael L. Hergert has been appointed Dean of the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University effective July 1. The announcement was made by SDSU Vice President for Academic Affairs Ronald Hopkins.

• share
• favorite_border

Ecologists at the Savannah River Site are finding high levels of heavy metals in animals exposed to coal fly ash left over from burning coal at the federal reservation, and they suspect that the same problems are widespread because gigatons of coal are burned around the world every year.

• share
• favorite_border

In the new movie "Contact," astronomer Ellie Arroway, played by actress Jodie Foster, searches for signs of extraterrestrial life using massive, Earth-bound radio telescopes.

• share
• favorite_border

When Purdue University geneticist Rick Vierling first looked for ways to add value to soybeans, he didn't expect that he could help doctors diagnose AIDS in China. But that's exactly where his research is leading.

• share
• favorite_border

1) Fusion -- Smooth Skies; 2) Materials -- Letting Off Steam; 3) Space -- Next Stop, Mars; 4) Environment -- A Spreading Problem

• share
• favorite_border

Significant progress in controlling poultry-borne infection was reported recently at a Cornell University meeting, the 69th Northeastern Conference on Avian Diseases. Still, two diseases (avian influenza or AI and infectious laryngotracheitis or ILT) threaten the economic health of the American poultry industry and at least one (Salmonella enteritidis) worries Americans who eat eggs.

• share
• favorite_border

Cornell nutritionists play key roles in calling for and constructing new international growth references for infants and children. Current standards result in too many faulty decisions.

• share
• favorite_border

Universities nationwide are using new tools to prepare future executives for a complex business environment. It all happens in the computer lab, which simulates an entire firm's data flow.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has asked the science and engineering (S&E) community to contribute its views on two significant agency-wide efforts this year.

• share
• favorite_border

Eight Sandia winners of R&D 100 awards proposed devices -- newly or nearly in use -- in fields ranging from medicine to computers, and from manufacturing to resource exploration to the prevention of widespread power failures.

• share
• favorite_border

The hormones oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) play a vital role in influencing complex social behaviors such as affiliation, parental care, territorial aggression and several behaviors associated with monogamy (pair bonding, paternal care, mate guarding). Scientists at Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University are examining these hormones in rodents to eventually help develop treatments for autism and schizophrenia, both of which result in social isolation and detachment.

• share
• favorite_border

A nutrition project being conducted by Pauline Samuda, a University of Maine graduate student, has global implications, particularly for developing countries struggling with malnutrition and hunger. Samuda, who grew up in Manchester, Jamaica, is on leave from her job as a public health nutitionist in the Jamaican Ministry of Health. The result of her efforts will be the most accurate picture to date of the nutrients in the foods Jamaicans eat. The bottom line, Samuda says, is improved food and nutrition information to guide school lunch programs, food import policies, nutrition education and special diets for people with diabetes, heart disease and other health problems.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Michigan laser performs high-precision corneal surgery not possible with current technology.

• share
• favorite_border

A neonatologist in NY, using the internet, saves the life of a premature infant in Argentina.

• share
• favorite_border

Antex Biologics, SmithKline Beecham, and the United States Navy today jointly announced the start of a Phase II clinical trial for Antex's Campylobacter vaccine. This study will evaluate the efficacy of this oral vaccine against infectious Campylobacter, which causes 400-500 million cases of diarrhea annually.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Massachusetts graduate is the chief scientist on NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission. Matthew Golombek, who has worked with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the mission since its inception five years ago, studied the geology of Mars, Earth, and the moon while earning his master's and doctoral degrees in geology from the University in 1978 and 1981, respectively.

• share
• favorite_border

Lucent Technologies will receive a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in ceremonies in Beverly Hills, Calif., Thursday (July 10) for its work on digital television as part of the High-Definition TV (HDTV) Grand Alliance.

• share
• favorite_border

Linda Alexander, who has a strong military and academic background and specializes in women's health, is the new president and CEO of the 83-year-old American Social Health Association. ASHA is dedicated to stopping sexually transmitted diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

Only Finnish children read better than U.S. kids--yet, too many 17-year-old minority children read at roughly the same level as the average 13-year-old white child, a University of Delaware educator reported July 10, when he urged U.S. policymakers to help correct such "huge inequalities."

• share
• favorite_border

Castration has long been the primary strategy for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer. However, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have identified new androgen inhibitors that they believe could supplant castration as the primary method of treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) has released its report on graduate education in biomedical sciences.

• share
• favorite_border

A recently graduated geologist is one of the two scientists with University of Massachusetts degress who are working on NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission. Nathan Bridges earned his doctorate in geology this past April, before being hired by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for a postdoctoral position.

• share
• favorite_border

In a study that sheds new light on how the brain organizes language, researchers report that the organization of the brain's language-production region in bilingual individuals is directly related to whether they learned a second language as toddlers (simultaneously with their native language) or as young adults. Using a new, non-invasive imaging method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers found that bilingual persons who acquire a second language as young adults have distinct areas in the brain associated with their native and second languages.

• share
• favorite_border

Goodyear and the U.S. Department of Energyís Sandia National Laboratories will work together to develop new and more efficient manufacturing processes.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Missouri-Rolla is leading a team of five universities in a five-year project to develop new methods to detect and neutralize the concealed land mines that currently endanger the populations of more than 60 nations. Research includes the use of sound waves, ground-penetrating radar, electromagnetic pulses, robotic vehicles and shooting streams of water underground to look for and "float" the mines to the surface.

• share
• favorite_border

Who will train today's medical students to become tomorrow's doctors and deal with the constantly-changing realities of health care? The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has overhauled its curriculum and will begin to implement Curriculum 2000, beginning with the August 1997 class. Curriculum 2000 represents the first time a major medical school has revamped its entire four-year curriculum to better train students for the future of medicine as practicing physicians.

• share
• favorite_border

There is now a way to increase marketing sales by 239 percent, an amount which should have all sales executives and representatives paying attention. New research has unearthed a key to increased sales compliance, a key neither expensive nor time consuming...

• share
• favorite_border

Working fathers involved in child care tend to do more of the low-stress, pre-arranged activities and less of the unpredictable situations such as staying home when a child suddenly gets sick, according to a University of Tulsa professor.

• share
• favorite_border

The trajectory of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendevzous (NEAR) spacecraft was adjusted July 3 to target the spacecraft for an Earth swingby in 1998.