Ultrasonix Medical Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of high quality diagnostic ultrasound imaging systems is pleased to announce today the introduction of SonixVCR, a software-based innovation that records, stores, and exports entire exams in a standard digital format. SonixVCR is an easy to use on-board recording feature that is enabled with the click of 1-button. Available on the Sonix Series ultrasound systems, SonixVCR can record up to 60 minutes of imaging per file, the same way an external VCR or digital recorder would - without the need for any ...

Managed Services Provider University (MSPU), the largest consultancy and online resource dedicated to business transformation and improvement strategies for information technology (IT) professionals and managed services providers worldwide, announced today the launch of Healthcare IT University - a new Healthcare IT-focused website at www.hitu.us, and the concurrent release of its inaugural 2-volume publication titled The Guide to a Successful Healthcare IT Practice. Healthcare IT University is designed to provide IT professionals and organizations the resources, education ...

Just about everyone has a story about being trapped in the wrong job, flip-flopping careers in search of one that fits, or just wasting time with the guidance counsellor. Imagine the impact of a new system that would easily and accurately identify individual strengths, point people toward occupations in demand, estimate the likelihood that they would be good at them and help determine whether they would enjoy them. It would be the human resources equivalent of speed-dating, but with a higher chance of going home happy. "This is going to seriously improve people's ability ...

Understanding how the brain recognizes objects is a central challenge for understanding human vision, and for designing artificial vision systems. (No computer system comes close to human vision.) A new study by MIT neuroscientists suggests that the brain learns to solve the problem of object recognition through its vast experience in the natural world. Take for example, a dog. It may be sitting nearby or far away or standing in sunshine or shadow. Although each variation in the dog's position, pose or illumination produces a different pattern of light on the retina, ...

A new study uncovers a protein modification that may contribute to the formation of neuron-damaging neurofibrillary tangles in the human brain. The research, published by Cell Press in the September 23 issue of the journal Neuron, may lead to new strategies for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases that result from pathological aggregation of tau protein. Tau protein is common in the central nervous system where it helps to stabilize microtubules that form the neuronal cytoskeleton. Tau mutations have been linked with dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and accumulation ...

Many genes code for proteins that have a "polyglutamine tract," several glutamine amino acid residues in a row. Nine inherited neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease and spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1), are associated with mutations that cause abnormally long polyglutamine tracts. One theory suggests that accumulation of proteins with extra glutamines damages and kills neurons. However, there is evidence that glutamine tract expansion alone is not sufficient to cause disease. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the September 23 issue ...

Two remarkable new species of horned dinosaurs have been found in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. The giant plant-eaters were inhabitants of the "lost continent" of Laramidia, formed when a shallow sea flooded the central region of North America, isolating the eastern and western portions of the continent for millions of years during the Late Cretaceous Period. The newly discovered dinosaurs, close relatives of the famous Triceratops, were announced today in PLoS ONE, the online open-access journal produced by the Public Library of Science. The ...

A study led by researchers at UC Davis has found how the bacteria Salmonella enterica — a common cause of food poisoning — exploits immune response in the human gut to enhance its own reproductive and transmission success. The strategy gives Salmonella a growth advantage over the beneficial bacteria that normally are present in the intestinal tract and promotes the severe diarrhea that spreads the bacteria to other people. The findings are published in the Sept. 23 issue of the journal Nature. "The human body normally has 10 times more microbes than human cells that ...

LA JOLLA, CA – September 20, 2010 –– A team at The Scripps Research Institute has detailed the structure of a member of the only remaining class of multidrug resistance transporters left to be described. The work has implications for combating dangerous antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, as well as for developing hardy strains of agricultural crops. The study was published in an advance, online issue of the journal Nature on September 22, 2010. "Now with our crystal structure, scientists can for the first time figure out exactly how this transporter works," ...

Osteoporosis, a medical condition in which bones become brittle and fragile from a loss of density, is among the most common diseases in aging bones: In Germany around a quarter of the population aged over 50 is affected. Patients' bone material shrinks rapidly, leading to a significantly increased risk of fracture. In clinical research to date, osteoporosis is diagnosed almost exclusively by establishing an overall reduction in bone density. This approach, however, gives little information about the associated, and equally important, local structure and bone density changes. ...

Women who survive breast cancer often suffer from functional limitations that affect motion, strength and dexterity, which may adversely affect all-cause and competing-cause survival but not breast cancer survival, according to a study published online September 22 in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Breast cancer survivors who have functional limitations that affect motion, strength, and dexterity are at the same risk of dying from a recurrence of breast cancer as physically fit survivors, but are more likely to die from other causes. Breast cancer survivorship ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—September 23, 2010—Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) have uncovered new approaches to reduce toxic proteins in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. The results might lead to new treatments for these diseases. "We examined a protein called tau that has been strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease," said Li Gan, PhD, senior author on the study. "Tau forms toxic protein aggregations in the brains of Alzheimer patients." Tau is a common protein in the central nervous system where it helps ...

FORT COLLINS – The hiatus of global warming in the Northern Hemisphere during the mid-20th century may have been due to an abrupt cooling event centered over the North Atlantic around 1970, rather than the cooling effects of tropospheric pollution, according to a new paper appearing today in Nature. David W. J. Thompson, an atmospheric science professor at Colorado State University, is the lead author on the paper. Other authors are John M. Wallace at the University of Washington, and John J. Kennedy at the Met Office and Phil D. Jones of the University of East Anglia, ...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered that a form of cell division typically associated with cancer called multipolar mitosis can yield diverse, viable cells capable of protecting the liver from injury and poisonous substances, such as pesticides, carcinogens or drugs. Their findings are published online in the journal Nature. "Our findings show that the liver, which is known to have a tremendous capacity for regeneration, also has an amazing degree of diversity. A better understanding of this process may reveal why some individuals ...

Spanish researchers have confirmed there is a genetic risk factor for osteoporosis and bone fractures. Although more studies are still needed, these findings will make it possible to take preventive measures. Scientists from the University of Barcelona (UB) have discovered that the genetic variant 677C>T (a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that is very well known in genetic studies) is linked to osteoporotic vertebral fractures, which many women suffer from after the menopause. "In this genetic variant, the women that displayed a TT combination (or genotype) had ...

Women who smoke during pregnancy run the risk of adversely affecting their children's coordination and physical control according to a new study from Örebro University, Sweden, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. – Moreover, we discovered that boys' abilities may be affected to a greater extent than those of girls, says Professor Scott Montgomery at Örebro University. – There is a link between nicotine and testosterone. Nicotine can influence development of the brain and interacts with testosterone particularly during the foetal stage, and ...

Why do airline tickets become more expensive as the travel date approaches whereas theater tickets are sold at half price in Leicester Square on the day of the performance? In their recent article published in the Economic Journal, ("Advance Purchase Discounts versus Clearance Sales"), Professors Marc Möller and Makoto Watanabe from the UC3M Department of Economics have considered the pricing of products that can be purchased in advance, i.e., long before their actual date of consumption. Further examples include seasonal products like the newest skiing equipment or entry ...

NGC 1365 is one of the best known and most studied barred spiral galaxies and is sometimes nicknamed the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy because of its strikingly perfect form, with the straight bar and two very prominent outer spiral arms. Closer to the centre there is also a second spiral structure and the whole galaxy is laced with delicate dust lanes. This galaxy is an excellent laboratory for astronomers to study how spiral galaxies form and evolve. The new infrared images from HAWK-I are less affected by the dust that obscures parts of the galaxy than images in visible ...

To most air travelers, it is an annoying fact of life: the prohibition of liquids in carry-on luggage. Under aviation security regulations introduced in Europe in November 2006, passengers who wish to take liquids such as creams, toothpaste or sunscreen on board must do so in containers no larger than 100 ml (roughly 3.4 fluid oz.). The EU provisions came in response to attempted attacks by terrorist suspects using liquid explosives on trans-Atlantic flights in August 2006. Now, travelers have a reason to hope to see the prohibition lifted. On November 19, 2009, the EU ...

The greater one's responsibilities, the more a person grows. The same principle applies to the human bone: The greater the forces it bears, the thicker the tissue it develops. Those parts of the human skeleton subject to lesser strains tend to have lesser bone density. The force of stress stimulates the growth of the matrix. Medical professionals will soon be able to utilize this effect more efficiently, so that implants bond to their patients' bones on more sustained and stable basis. To do so, however, the bone replacement must be shaped in a manner that fosters ingrowth ...

Taking part in sports is good all round for young teens: physically, socially, and mentally, according to a new study1 by Dr. Keith Zullig and Rebecca White from West Virginia University in the US. Their research shows that middle-school teenagers who are physically active and play on sports teams are more satisfied with their life and feel healthier. Zullig and White's paper is published online in Springer's journal Applied Research in Quality of Life. Although the benefits of physical activity are well documented among teenagers, middle school children are an understudied ...

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and 50 other centers found that weight-based dosing of taribavirin reduces rates of anemia while increasing sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV). Full details of this study are available in the October issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Chronic HCV is typically treated with ribavirin (RBV). When used in combination with peginterferon alfa (peg-IFN), RBV significantly enhances on-treatment ...

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a dramatic view of gas and dust sculpted by intense radiation from hot young stars deep in the heart of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8). This spectacular object is named after the wide, lagoon-shaped dust lane that crosses the glowing gas of the nebula. This structure is prominent in wide-field images, but cannot be seen in this close-up. However the strange billowing shapes and sandy texture visible in this image make the Lagoon Nebula's watery name eerily appropriate from this viewpoint ...

A new study published in the October issue of the journal Hepatology found that patients with severe portal-hypertensive bleeding who are treated with terlipressin may experience an acute reduction of sodium in their blood. This reduction in serum sodium, known as hyponatremia, can cause adverse reactions such as neurological complications, and is rapidly reversible upon terlipressin withdrawal. Researchers suggest that serum sodium should be closely monitored in these patients and caution that use of solutions with high sodium content to treat this condition may cause ...

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have discovered that cuckoo eggs are internally incubated by the female bird for up to 24 hours before birth, solving for the first time the mystery as to how a cuckoo chick is able to hatch in advance of a host's eggs and brutally evict them. Published today (22 September 2010) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B, the research shows that internal incubation allows the cuckoo chick to hatch before its nest mates, evict them, and monopolise the food brought by the foster parents. Although previous ...