The Microsoft Kinect game controller could cut the US healthcare bill by up to $30 billion by allowing physicians and other medics to interact with patients remotely so reducing the number of hospital visits and the associated risk of infection. Writing in the latest issue of the International Journal of Electronic Finance, Janet Bailey of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is working with Bradley Jensen of Microsoft Corporation, in Irving, Texas, to explain how gaming technology could be used to "teleport" the knowledge and skills of healthcare workers to where ...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Co-sponsors of the 2013 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium announced today important research to be presented at this year's meeting, taking place February 14-16 at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida. Three of the featured studies focus on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancers; another study looks at a new immunotherapy for metastatic kidney cancer. Thursday, February 14 Presentations Abstract # 10: Long-term survival of subjects in the prostate cancer prevention trial. General Poster Session A Thursday, February 14, ...

A team of researchers from Russia, Spain, Belgium, the U.K. and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory announced findings last week that may represent a breakthrough in applications of superconductivity. The team discovered a way to efficiently stabilize tiny magnetic vortices that interfere with superconductivity—a problem that has plagued scientists trying to engineer real-world applications for decades. The discovery could remove one of the most significant roadblocks to advances in superconductor technology. Superconductors are extremely ...

Electric rocket engines known as Hall thrusters, which use a super high-velocity stream of ions to propel a spacecraft in space, have been used successfully onboard many missions for half a century. Erosion of the discharge channels walls, however, has limited their application to the inner solar system. A research team at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., has found a way to effectively control this erosion by shaping the engine's magnetic field in a way that shields the walls from ion bombardment. Ions are produced in Hall thrusters when electrons ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (February 13, 2013) – Whitehead Institute researchers have identified a previously unrecognized layer of genetic regulation that is necessary for the generation of undesirable white fat cells. When this regulation is disrupted, white fat cells are unable to accumulate lipid droplets or mature from their precursors. "We're trying to figure out what the mechanism is—what it takes to make fat cells," says Whitehead Founding Member Harvey Lodish, who is also a professor of biology and a professor of bioengineering at MIT. "The obvious reason we're interested ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (February 13, 2013) – For many patients with difficult-to-treat neuropathic pain, deep brain stimulation (DBS) can lead to long-term improvement in pain scores and other outcomes, according to a study in the February issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. About two-thirds of eligible patients who undergo DBS achieve significant and lasting benefits in terms of pain, quality of life, and overall health, according to the ...

A new University of Alberta study shows that busy beavers are helping Canada geese get an earlier start when the birds fly home and begin spring nesting. Ponds in Alberta where beavers were active tended to result in earlier thaw of winter snowpack, giving the geese a better chance at reproductive success, according to the study, published recently in Mammalian Biology. The study is the first to link beavers to early season nesting habits of Canada geese in a Northern climate. A team led by Glynnis Hood, an associate professor in the Department of Science at the ...

Government limits on mold toxins present naturally in grain crops should be expanded to include so-called "masked mycotoxins" that change from harmless to potentially harmful forms in the body, a new study concludes. It appears in ACS' journal Chemical Research in Toxicology. Chiara Dall'Asta and colleagues explain that molds growing naturally on wheat, corn and other plants produce toxic substances termed mycotoxins. Some health experts regard mycotoxins as the most serious chronic dietary risk factor, greater than the potential health threats from pesticides and insecticides. ...

February 13, 2013 Cambridge, MA: The nanotechnology research space is rapidly growing, with vast implications for the healthcare, consumer electronics, surveillance, and defense industries. However, a major limitation to this research is the ability to create particles that vary in shape and function on a micrometer or nanometer scale. To overcome these limitations, chemical engineers at Johns Hopkins University have developed self-assembling particles that are inspired by origami, the traditional Japanese art of folding paper into complex three-dimensional shapes. ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Silicon, the material of high-tech devices from computer chips to solar cells, requires a surface coating before use in these applications. The coating "passivates" the material, tying up loose atomic bonds to prevent oxidation that would ruin its electrical properties. But this passivation process consumes a lot of heat and energy, making it costly and limiting the kinds of materials that can be added to the devices. Now a team of MIT researchers has found a way to passivate silicon at room temperature, which could be a significant boon to solar-cell ...

HOUSTON - Researchers have identified a pivotal protein in a cellular transformation that makes a cancer cell more resistant to treatment and more capable of growing and spreading, making it an inviting new target for drug development. Additionally, the international team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found the cancer drug sunitinib potentially has a new role in treating triple-negative, claudin-low breast cancer, a particularly resistant version of a type of cancer that is already difficult to treat. "We found that FOXC2 lies ...

New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The remnant appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star. The remnant, called W49B, is about a thousand years old as seen from Earth and located about 26,000 light-years away. "W49B is the first of its kind to be discovered in the galaxy," said Laura Lopez, who led the study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It appears ...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Feb. 13, 2013) — By relying on hunches rather than posing a few screening questions, primary care clinicians may be missing three-fourths of the alcohol problems in their patients, a newly released analysis shows. "It's often off the radar — people come in for hypertension and are not asked how much they drink," said study co-author Barbara J. Turner, M.D., M.S.Ed., M.A., M.A.C.P., of UT Medicine San Antonio. Primary care offices typically don't have good systems to administer questionnaires to screen for certain problems, including alcohol consumption, ...

About 60 percent of pediatric cancer patients experience malnourishment during treatment. At that point, patients and families have a choice: tube feeding or IV nutrition supplement. Which would you choose? A study published this week in the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing shows that families' perceptions, especially of the discomfort of tube feeding, leads to choosing IV over tube – despite the fact that tube feeding is usually the better choice, associated with better gut function and lower rates of infection. "Despite the benefits of tube feeding, we found a ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A molecule already implicated in a number of diverse cellular functions can suppress the growth of tumors in the liver, a Mayo Clinic Cancer Center study has found. Its name is IQGAP1, and when the molecule is active in the cells that surround a tumor cell, this "tumor microenvironment" becomes less hospitable to cancer growth. When the molecule is deficient, cancer thrives. Results of the study appear in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The findings give new insight into cancer metastasis, the ability of a tumor to spread from its primary site ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 13, 2013 – University of Utah engineers demonstrated it is feasible to build the first organic materials that conduct electricity on their edges, but act as an insulator inside. These materials, called organic topological insulators, could shuttle information at the speed of light in quantum computers and other high-speed electronic devices. The study published this week in the journal Nature Communications will help pioneer a new field of research in materials science, in the same way organic materials lowered the cost and eased production of light-emitting ...

PHILADELPHIA — The recently published genome sequences of seven well-studied ant species are opening up new vistas for biology and medicine. A detailed look at molecular mechanisms that underlie the complex behavioral differences in two worker castes in the Florida carpenter ant, Camponotus floridanus, has revealed a link to epigenetics. This is the study of how the expression or suppression of particular genes by chemical modifications affects an organism's physical characteristics, development, and behavior. Epigenetic processes not only play a significant role in many ...

Contact: Bingyun Sun, 778.782.9097, bingyun_sun@sfu.ca Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca Simon Fraser University is Canada's top-ranked comprehensive university and one of the top 50 universities in the world under 50 years old. With campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey, B.C., SFU engages actively with the community in its research and teaching, delivers almost 150 programs to more than 30,000 students, and has more than 120,000 alumni in 130 countries. Simon Fraser University: Engaging Students. Engaging Research. Engaging Communities. ...

Creeping climate change in the Southwest appears to be having a negative effect on pinyon pine reproduction, a finding with implications for wildlife species sharing the same woodland ecosystems, says a University of Colorado Boulder-led study. The new study showed that pinyon pine seed cone production declined by an average of about 40 percent at nine study sites in New Mexico and northwestern Oklahoma over the past four decades, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Miranda Redmond, who led the study. The biggest declines in pinyon pine seed cone reproduction were at the ...

Miniaturized laboratory-on-chip systems promise rapid, sensitive, and multiplexed detection of biological samples for medical diagnostics, drug discovery, and high-throughput screening. Using micro-fabrication techniques and incorporating a unique design of transistor-based heating, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are further advancing the use of silicon transistor and electronics into chemistry and biology for point-of-care diagnostics. Lab-on-a-chip technologies are attractive as they require fewer reagents, have lower detection limits, ...

A multi-site clinical trial including the University of Colorado Cancer Center shows that the benefit of Bright IDEAS problem-solving skills training goes beyond teaching parents to navigate the complex medical, educational, and other systems that accompany a child's diagnosis of cancer – the training also leads to durable reduction in mothers' levels of anxiety and symptoms of posttraumatic stress, and improves overall coping with a child's illness. Results of the study were published online last week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "Earlier research shows that ...

PHILADELPHIA – A recently described master regulator protein may explain the development of aberrant cell growth in the pancreas spurred by inflammation A team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania profiled gene expression of mouse pancreatic ductal and duct-like cells from different states - embryonic development, acute pancreatitis and K-ras mutation-driven carcinogenesis - to find the molecular regulation of these processes. Broadly speaking, two cellular compartments are important in a normal pancreas, endocrine cells, which produce ...

In certain circles, such as publishing, it has been well-documented that female authors have taken male pen names to attract a larger audience and/or get their book published. But should marketers actually highlight gender and activate stereotypes to sell more products? A new study by USC Marshall Professor Valerie Folkes and Ohio State University Professor Shashi Matta looks at the issue of product perception of consumers through the lens of gender stereotypes. The researchers conclude that while traditional gender stereotypes can still have a significant influence on ...

TORONTO, ON – Cities around the world can significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by implementing aggressive but practical policy changes, says a new study by University of Toronto Civil Engineering Professor Chris Kennedy and World Bank climate change specialist Lorraine Sugar, one of Kennedy's former students. Kennedy and Sugar make the claim in 'A low carbon infrastructure plan for Toronto, Canada,' published in the latest issue of The Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering. The paper aims to show how cities can make a positive difference using realistic, ...

Ants are just about everywhere you look, and yet it's largely unknown how they manage to be so ubiquitous. Scientists have understood the carnal mechanism of ant reproduction, but until now have known little of how successful the daughters of a colony are when they attempt to found new colonies. For the first time, Stanford biologists have been able to identify specific parent ants and their own children in wild ant colonies, making it possible to study reproduction trends. And in a remarkable display of longevity, an original queen ant was found to be producing new ...