Posted on 31 July 2010.
BRISTOL, England, July 31 (UPI) — British researchers say they are looking at urine as a possible energy source for fuel cells that could power autonomous robots.
Scientists at the University of Bristol say the waste product could serve as the fuel for microbial fuel cells, which use bacterial cultures that digest waste to create power, ScienceDaily.com reported Wednesday.
A team at the university’s Bristol Robotic Lab has spent more than 3 years developing EcoBot-III, a robot that can power itself by converting waste such as rotten fruit and grass clippings into power.
As part of their research to find the best waste materials that create the most energy, they will look at urine as a “food” for the microbial power units, the team leader says.
“Urine is chemically very active, rich in nitrogen and has compounds such as urea, chloride, potassium and bilirubin, which make it very good for the microbial fuel cells,” Dr. Ioannis Ieropoulos says.
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Posted in Fuel Cells, Other
Posted on 31 July 2010.
SAN ANTONIO, July 31 (UPI) — Researchers in the United States and Australia say they are conducting a study to determine whether aspirin prolongs life or reduces disability.
“We really need to know if something as simple as taking a baby aspirin each day can change the trajectory of mental and physical decline that we so often see in our older patients,” Dr. Michael L. Parchman of the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine says in a statement.
Aspirin is known to prevent heart attacks and strokes in those with heart disease — a benefit that outweighs any risks associated with aspirin, such as bleeding — but how aspirin affects those without a history of cardiovascular disease is less certain.
“In the U.S., Australia and elsewhere, people are living longer, so identifying treatments to prolong life free of physical disability and memory problems is increasingly important,” Dr. Anne Murray of the University of Minnesota says in a statement. “Aspirin is a potentially useful drug, as it is cheap and widely available.”
The study will enroll 6,500 healthy U.S. adults age 70 and older and another 12,500 in Australia, Parchman says.
All eligible participants will be randomly assigned to take either low-dose aspirin or placebo daily for about five years.
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Posted in History, Other
Posted on 31 July 2010.
BUFFALO, N.Y., July 31 (UPI) — Resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes and red wine, appears to suppress inflammation in humans, U.S.researchers say.
Senior author Dr. Paresh Dandona and first author Husam Ghanim of the University at Buffalo used a nutritional supplement containing 40 milligrams of resveratrol for the study involving 20 participants who were randomized into two groups of 10.
One group received the supplement, while the other group received a placebo once a day for six weeks. Fasting blood tests were conducted at the beginning of the study, week one, week three and week six.
The study, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, finds blood samples from those who took resveratrol showed suppression of the inflammatory protein tumor necrosis factor, which causes insulin resistance and the risk of developing diabetes. Blood samples from those who received the placebo showed no change in the pro-inflammatory markers.
Long-term inflammation affects development of type 2 diabetes, aging, heart disease and stroke, Dandona says.
“The product we used has only 20 percent resveratrol, so it is possible that something else in the preparation is responsible for the positive effects,” Dandona says.
Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.
Posted in Other
Posted on 31 July 2010.
SHEFFIELD, England, July 31 (UPI) — Alcohol consumption reduces the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, as well as its severity, researchers in Britain say.
First author Dr. James Maxwell, a rheumatologist at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust and honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Sheffield, looked at 873 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and compared them with a control group of 1,004 people who did not have rheumatoid arthritis.
Study leader Gerry Wilson of the University of Sheffield asked both groups how frequently they had drunk alcohol in the month preceding the study. The study participants also completed a questionnaire, had X-rays and blood tests and an experienced research nurse examined their joints.
The study, published online in the journal Rheumatology, finds patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently had symptoms that were less severe than those who had never, or infrequently, consumed alcohol.
The X-rays showed less joint damage, the blood tests showed lower levels of inflammation and there was less joint pain, swelling and disability, the study says.
Non-drinkers were four times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than people who drank alcohol more than 10 days a month, Maxwell says.
Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.
Posted in Consumption, Other
Posted on 30 July 2010.
ATLANTA, July 30 (UPI) — U.S. health insurance officials advise caregivers of the elderly that there may be help for their spouse or parent they don’t know about.
Experts at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia in Atlanta say those enrolled in a Medicare plan may have access to free programs administered by nurses and others to help manage chronic diseases and prevent acute episodes. Many only learn of these programs after hospitalization, the officials say.
“These programs are above and beyond those offered by original Medicare,” Krista Bowers, senior vice president of senior products, says in a statement. “It’s important for caregivers to know about them and encourage their loved ones to participate.”
Bowers suggests getting a copy of a member’s explanation of coverage from the insurer to find out what’s available.
For information about eligibility for another source of “extra help” — assistance with monthly prescription drug premiums, annual deductibles and prescription co-payments for low income seniors — go to www.socialsecurity.gov/extrahelp.
Even if a loved one doesn’t qualify for extra help from Social Security, the experts say there are resources available at the state and community levels. The Web site www.benefitscheckuprx.org, which counts Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia among its sponsors, tracks more than 1,550 benefit programs throughout the United States.
Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.
Posted in Other
Posted on 30 July 2010.
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif., July 30 (UPI) — A U.S. researcher says New York state has granted approval for a new test to identify Fragile X syndrome.
The syndrome is considered the leading inherited cause of mental retardation and is the most common known single gene link to autism.
Dr. Charles Strom of the Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., says New York’s approval is significant because it means Quest’s new genetic analysis technique for Fragile X fulfills quality standards widely regarded in the lab industry as highly rigorous.
“Fragile X can be a devastating diagnosis, given the severe disability it causes many patients,” Strom says in a statement. “While it is highly prevalent, Fragile X is not widely tested for, due in part to technical limitations with conventional tests that our XSense technique largely surmounts.”
Strom and colleagues say they may be offering a laboratory test suitable for screening for Fragile X — especially in female carriers. Women unaffected or slightly affected by Fragile X syndrome are at risk of passing it to offspring.
The test currently in use — the Southern Blot DNA analysis — can take several days or weeks to perform while the Quest test results are reported in about a week for most patients, Strom says.
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Posted in Other
Posted on 30 July 2010.
SIEVERDING, Germany, July 30 (UPI) — A German researcher says men who have never been tested for cancer are more motivated to be tested when they learn most men have been tested at some time.
Monika Sieverding of the University of Heidelberg and colleagues find men never tested for cancer were less likely to say they would be tested in the next year after learning 16 percent of German men had been screened for cancer in the past year.
However, the study, published in Psychological Science, found men never yet tested for cancer were much more likely to say they would have cancer testing in the coming year after learning 65 percent of German men — at some time in their life — had been tested for cancer.
“For us it is so interesting because this is very easy to change,” Sieverding says in a statement. “You cannot change attitudes easily, or the image of the average cancer screening patient, but it is easy to change the framing of the campaign.”
Sieverding and the other researchers approached men age 45 or older in the pedestrian areas of two large German cities and surveyed the men who had never been tested for cancer.
Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.
Posted in Other
Posted on 30 July 2010.
GALVESTON, Texas, July 30 (UPI) — University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers say obesity rates in Latin America and the Caribbean are rising, along with disability rates.
The study, published in American Journal of Epidemiology, finds in six major cities — including Havana — obese seniors more likely to have significant trouble walking and doing daily tasks. The study suggests there is a need to prevent obesity in these populations.
“This greater prevalence of obesity is a new thing in Latin America and the Caribbean, the result of people moving from rural to urban areas and shifting their nutritional habits and other aspects of their lives to a more Western pattern,” lead author Soham Al Snih says in a statement. “At the same time, we’re seeing a substantial increase in life expectancy.”
Snih and colleagues analyzed data from a Pan-American Health Organization and National Institute on Aging survey that included more than 6,000 people age 65 and older in six major cities in Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay. A body mass index — a measure combining height and weight — of 30 or more was considered obese.
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Posted in Other
Posted on 30 July 2010.
NEW YORK, July 30 (UPI) — Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have had no reports of wild poliovirus cases for more than a year, the United Nations Children’s Fund says.
“Today marks a step towards the achievement of a major objective of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s new strategy — stopping polio in Africa,” officials of the United Nations Children’s Fund says in a statement.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was spearheaded by national governments, the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and UNICEF.
From March 2008 to July 2009, more than 100 children in several African countries became paralyzed by polio. During the outbreak, health officials used the Short Interval Additional Dose strategy, in which children are immunized at short intervals with type-specific vaccine to more rapidly raise population immunity levels.
The plan calls for the cessation by mid-2010 of all polio outbreaks and aims to build on success in key endemic countries, such as Nigeria, where the number of polio cases has dropped by more than 99 percent — from 312 cases last year to three in 2010, U.N. officials say.
Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.
Posted in Other
Posted on 30 July 2010.
WASHINGTON, July 30 (UPI) — The Food and Drug Administration has given approval to proceed with the world’s first human clinical trial of a human embryonic stem cell-based therapy.
Geron Corp., headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., says it will proceed with its trial of GRNOPC1, a stem-cell therapy intended to treat patients with acute spinal cord injury, a company release said Friday.
“We are pleased with the FDA’s decision to allow our planned clinical trial of GRNOPC1 in spinal cord injury to proceed,” Geron President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas B. Okarma said. “Our goals for the application of GRNOPC1 in subacute spinal cord injury are unchanged — to achieve restoration of spinal cord function by the injection of … progenitor (stem) cells directly into the lesion site of the patient’s injured spinal cord.”
“The neurosurgical community is ready to begin the clinical testing of this new approach to treating devastating spinal cord injury,” said Richard Fessler, professor of neurological surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. “If found to be safe and effective, the therapy would provide a viable treatment option for thousands of patients who suffer severe spinal cord injuries each year.”
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Posted in Other
