Think how many lives could be saved if emergency services were alerted the moment a pedestrian is run over. Think how much more fun snowboarding could be if you could emote your feelings electronically to ski-buddies. Breakthroughs in capturing and transmitting ambient intelligence could make these scenarios a reality. The My Space/Facebook phenomenon has shown how we love to share personal information. But will we take the next step and share our feelings and emotions across the ether? Whether it is sensors on our skin, in our clothing or embedded in the environment, research into ambient intelligence is advancing in leaps and bounds. We could soon be using technology in a whole new, human-centric way.
A compound formed during insulin production and once dismissed as irrelevant in diabetes may be a key to preventing the complications that make Type 1 diabetes such a serious disease, according to a new article. Type 1 diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes, afflicts about 800,000 people in the U.S. alone, sharply increasing their risk of heart attacks, vision loss, kidney failure, and other complications.
Sexually-active gay men are many times more likely than others to acquire a new, highly antibiotic-resistant strain of the so-called MRSA bacteria widely know as the "superbug," a new study shows. The bacteria appear to be transmitted most easily through intimate sexual contact, but can spread through casual skin-to-skin contact or contact with contaminated surfaces. The scientists are concerned that it could soon gain ground in the general population.
Significant public attention has recently been focused on the development of new anti-influenza vaccines that provide protection against a broad spectrum of viral strains. One proposed strategy is to utilize conserved viral protein, M2. New findings indicate that unmodified M2 may have a negative effect on anti-influenza vaccination. The researchers also demonstrated how this detrimental effect of M2 can be eliminated, thereby allowing any future M2-containing vaccine to be both broadly protective as well as safe.
A specially developed carrot has been produced to help people absorb more calcium. Researchers studied the calcium intake of humans who ate the carrot and found a net increase in calcium absorption. Adding this carrot to the diet can help prevent such diseases as osteoporosis.
Every year, 759,000 children with asthma may be at risk of a major asthma attack while they have no health insurance. About 30 percent of those families earn more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, putting them above the threshold for the state children's health insurance program in most states. Chronic asthma requires ongoing treatment to avoid hospitalizations.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected plump black holes where least expected -- skinny galaxies. Like people, galaxies come in different shapes and sizes. There are thin spirals both with and without central bulges of stars, and more rotund ellipticals that are themselves like giant bulges. Scientists have long held that all galaxies except the slender, bulgeless spirals harbor supermassive black holes at their cores. Furthermore, bulges were thought to be required for black holes to grow.
Astronomers have announced that a mystery object orbiting a star 170 light-years from Earth might have formed from the collision and merger of two protoplanets. The object, known as 2M1207B, has puzzled astronomers since its discovery because it seems to fall outside the spectrum of physical possibility. Its temperature, luminosity, age, and location do not match up with any theory.
In some individuals, the specialized immunoregulatory T-cells that regulate the body's autoimmune reactions may lose their effectiveness and become "lazy" over time, leading to the onset of type 1 diabetes.
Researchers have for the first time attempted to count the number of genes that contribute to obesity and body weight. The findings suggest that over 6,000 genes -- about 25 percent of the genome -- contribute to help determine an individual's body weight. This high degree of complexity suggests that a quick fix to the obesity problem is unlikely.
Cool, wet conditions in the Northwest, frigid weather on the Plains, and record dry conditions in the Southeast, all signs that La Niña is in full swing. With winter gearing up, a moderate La Niña is hitting its peak. And we are just beginning to see the full effects of this oceanographic phenomenon, as La Niña episodes are typically strongest in January. A La Niña event occurs when cooler than normal sea surface temperatures form along the equator in the Pacific Ocean, specifically in the eastern to central Pacific. The La Niña we are experiencing now has a significant presence in the eastern part of the ocean.
A rapid and accurate DHPLC assay for determination of apolipoprotein E genotypes has been developed by researchers from the Department of Medical Genetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. This assay combines PCR and DHPLC and can be used to conduct efficient genotyping of the human population, which in turn will help in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
The same community ecology principles that determine how different animal species on the savannah affect each other's population sizes through competition for food and hunting by predators also affect parasite species interacting within the microcosm of a single host. The research has implications for treating many human and animal infections.
Patients who are undernourished when they enter the hospital with an acute ischemic stroke -- the most common type of stroke, in which blood flow to the brain is blocked -- are likely to remain undernourished in the hospital and may have worse clinical outcomes, according to a new article.
