August 3, 2007, 5:22 AM CT

Detecting Problems With Artificial Hip Joints

Engineers at the University of Bath have developed a diagnostic test which measures the frequency of sound produced when the femur bone in the leg is vibrated.

The new method is much more sensitive than the traditional method of using x-rays to detect the loosening of implants, and so can diagnose much smaller gaps around the implanted joint.

Around 50,000 people receive total hip replacements in the UK each year, and a number of will go on to develop pain from them. It is estimated that within 10 years of having an implant, about a quarter of patients will suffer pain from a loosening of the joint, which are joined to their leg bone by a special cement.

Surgeons find it difficult to know whether this from an infection, which can be cured by antibiotics, or because the joint has loosened, which means surgery is needed. A reliable diagnostic test is vital to save patients undergoing unnecessary surgery.

Dr James Cunningham, of the University of Bath's Department of Mechanical Engineering, has developed the method of placing a piece of vibrating equipment on to the patient's knee, which vibrates the femur and the hip joint.

An ultrasound device is attached to the hip and this picks up sound vibrations from the vibrating joint. If the sound's frequencies are 'pure' - a regular wave of increasing and decreasing frequencies - then they know the joint is firmly fastened to the bone. If the sound waves are impure and irregular then they know that the joint has come loose......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 3, 2007, 5:17 AM CT

Overstretched armed forces leading to mental health problems

Prolonged periods of deployment among Britains armed forces is associated with mental health problems, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

Deployment is an essential ingredient of military life. However, research shows that an increase in the pace of military operations operational tempo may have an effect on health and place strain on families.

The UK armed forces have recommended deployment levels called the harmony guidelines, reflecting the need to balance rest and recuperation with deployment. In times of simultaneous major operations, such as those in Iraq and Afganistan, this tool is helpful for monitoring overstretch as a measure of over-commitment.

So a study carried by Professor Roberto Rona and colleagues at Kings College London, set out to assess whether deployments above these guidelines (calculated as 13 months or more in a three year period) have an effect on psychological health.

They studied the number and duration of deployments in the last three years of a random sample of 5,547 regular military personnel. Mental health and alcohol use were assessed using recognised scoring methods.

Other outcomes included intentions to stay in the military and problems at home during and after deployment.

All analyses were adjusted for factors such as age, gender, rank, marital status and Service. Further adjustments were made for role in theatre (combat or support), type of deployment (war or peace enforcement operations), and time spent in a forward area in close contact with the enemy......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 3, 2007, 5:10 AM CT

Aging Adults Have Choices Confronting Mental Declines

Aging adults may joke about memory lapses and "early Alzheimer's." They may worry when they can't understand a drug plan or lose track of the characters in a novel.

But they have more control over their "cognitive vitality" than they may realize, says Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois, who has spent 20 years studying learning throughout the lifespan.

Aging adults have choices in the way they allocate effort in everyday mental tasks like reading, Stine-Morrow said. They can compensate for subtle age-related changes rather than either giving in to them or giving up completely on the activity, she said. They also have choices in the way they stay mentally engaged and embrace challenges throughout their lifetimes and into older age.

It's all part of what she has playfully named the "Dumbledore hypothesis of cognitive aging," based on a line from the headmaster Dumbledore in the third Harry Potter novel: "It is our choices..... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities".

Certain "fluid abilities," or "mental mechanics," do tend to decline with age, Stine-Morrow said, but it matters how we respond. "Minor glitches in the cognitive system can loom larger than they perhaps need to because we've got these preconceived ideas about what happens with aging," she said......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:11:21 GMT

Demand Indigenous Health Equality

Oxfam Australia’s activist group, Close The Gap, has recently unveiled an advertisement campaign to draw governments attention towards Aboriginal health problems. The billboard and poster advertisement campaign is aimed at telling the nations leaders that there is no quick fix solution to Aboriginal health problems. The Australian federal government is at present taking steps to detect and deal with child abuse in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. The Close The Gap campaign is focusing on the huge life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. The advertisements are showing photographs of indigenous Australians who are in persistent need of appropriate medical facilities.

The advertisements, other than photographs, have given many startling facts related to the problem. The poster campaign was launched at the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, asking Australian governments to take measures to achieve health equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders within 25 years. The presentation of the campaign is simple and straight. Its punch line reads, Demand indigenous health equality.

Via Duncans Print Posted by: Balendu      Read more     Source

August 1, 2007, 8:36 PM CT

Cost-effective method for gene silencing

Nearly a decade ago, now-Nobel laureates Craig Mello and Andrew Fire discovered that they could insert short RNA molecules into worms and shut down specific genes. Today, researchers routinely use this powerful method, termed RNA interference, to study the functions of specific genes in mammalian systems.

In order to conduct these experiments, researchers generally rely on chemical synthesis of RNA molecules, which can be quite costly. A freely accessible article from this months release of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols (www.cshprotocols.org) addresses this problem; it describes a cost-effective approach for generating silencing RNAs, called esiRNAs, to efficiently target virtually any gene in mammalian cells.

The protocol (http://www.cshprotocols.org/cgi/content/full/2007/16/pdb.prot4824) describes how to enzymatically generate RNA molecules in vitro, using the cloned gene of interest as a template. The RNA molecules are then randomly cleaved into short fragments, purified, and used in RNA interference experiments.

The procedure was developed by Dr. Frank Buchholzs group at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Gera number of), and can be used to generate large sets of esiRNA libraries to be applied to large-scale studies of gene function (http://www.mpi-cbg.de/esiRNA/)......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 30, 2007, 10:05 PM CT

Negative effects of plastic's additive blocked by nutrient supplements

DURHAM, N.C. Experiments in animals have provided additional and tantalizing evidence that what a pregnant mother eats can make her offspring more susceptible to disease during the later part of life.

This susceptibility is the result of a process that alters how a gene is expressed without actually changing or mutating the gene itself. Appreciation of this phenomenon has spawned a new avenue of genetic research known as epigenetics, a name which refers to changes happening over and above the gene sequence without altering its code.

In their most recent experiments, Duke University Medical Center researchers demonstrated that exposure within the womb to bisphenol A (BPA), an ubiquitous chemical used in the production of plastics, caused noticeable changes in the offspring without altering any of the offsprings genes. Additionally, the scientists discovered that administration of folic acid or genistein, an active ingredient in soy, during pregnancy protected the offspring from the negative effects of BPA.

The results of the study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, were published early online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science July 30.

In their experiments, the Duke team studied a well-documented strain of animals known as agouti mice. Normally, these mice tend to be slender and brown. While past epigenetic research at Duke has focused on nutrients given to pregnant agouti mice, the current experiments represented the first tests of a potential environmental toxin......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 30, 2007, 10:01 PM CT

Prenatal Smoking Raises Blood Pressure In Infants

Infants whose mothers smoke during pregnancy have substantially higher blood pressures in their first months of life, Dutch scientists reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

A study of 456 infants in The Netherlands showed that, by age 2 months, babies born to mothers who smoked had higher systolic blood pressures in comparison to those whose mothers didnt smoke and werent exposed to smoke during pregnancy.

Our findings indicate maternal smoking during pregnancy has a direct substantial impact on systolic blood pressure in early infancy and is another reason for women not to smoke during pregnancy, said Caroline C. Geerts, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care at the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands. This association appears to occur in utero and doesnt appear to be due to the postnatal environment of the infant.

Infants born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy had 5.4 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) higher systolic blood pressure levels than babies whose mothers were not exposed to tobacco smoke during pregnancy. This estimate was obtained after controlling for birth weight, infant age, gender, nutrition and age of the mother all factors that could affect the blood pressure of the infant, scientists said......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 30, 2007, 9:59 PM CT

First mouse model of schizophrenia

Johns Hopkins scientists have genetically engineered the first mouse that models both the anatomical and behavioral defects of schizophrenia, a complex and debilitating brain disorder that affects over 2 million Americans.

In contrast to current animal studies that rely on drugs that can only mimic the manifestations of schizophrenia, such as delusions, mood changes and paranoia, this new mouse is based on a genetic change relevant to the disease. Thus, this mouse should greatly help with understanding disease progression and developing new therapies.

Animal models of schizophrenia have been hard to design since a number of different causes underlie this disease. However, Akira Sawa, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and neuroscience and director of the program in molecular psychiatry and colleagues took advantage of the recent discovery of a major risk factor for this disease: the DISC1 gene (short for disrupted in schizophrenia), which makes a protein that helps nerve cells assume their proper positions in the brain.

As reported online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists generated mice that make an incomplete, shortened form of the DISC1 protein in addition to the regular type. The short form of the protein attaches to the full-length one, disrupting its normal duties......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 30, 2007, 9:46 PM CT

Goat Milk Is More Beneficial To Health Than Cow Milk

It helps to prevent diseases such as anaemia and bone demineralisation.

UGR scientists have carried out a comparative study on the properties of goat milk in comparison to those of cow milk. Rats with induced nutritional ferropenic anaemia have been used in the study.

-Goat milk helps digestive and metabolic utilisation of minerals such as iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium.

-Part of the results of this research have been reported in the prestigious scientific journals International Dairy Journal and Journal Dairy Science.

C@MPUS DIGITAL Research carried out at the Department of Physiology of the University of Granada has revealed that goat milk has more beneficial properties to health than cow milk. Among these properties it helps to prevent ferropenic anaemia (iron deficiency) and bone demineralisation (softening of the bones).

This project, conducted by Doctor Javier Díaz Castro and directed by professors Margarita Sánchez Campos, Mª Inmaculada Lopez Aliaga and Mª Jose Muñoz Alferez, focuses on the comparison between the nutritional properties of goat milk and cow milk, both with normal calcium content and calcium enriched, against the bioavailability of iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. To carry out this study, the metabolic balance technique has been used both in rats with experimentally induced nutritional ferropenic anaemia and in a control group of rats......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 26, 2007, 9:35 PM CT

Hepatitis C helicase unwinds DNA in a spring-loaded, 3-step process

The process by which genes are duplicated is mysterious and complex, involving a cast of characters with diverse talents and the ability to play well with others in extremely close quarters. A key player on this stage is an enzyme called a helicase. Its job is to unwind the tightly coiled chain of nucleic acids the DNA or RNA molecule that spells out the organisms genetic code so that another enzyme, a polymerase, can faithfully copy each nucleotide in the code.

Scientists at the University of Illinois, Yale University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have shed new light on how the Hepatitis C helicase plays this role, using a technique developed at Illinois that can track how a single molecule of RNA or DNA unwinds. Their research findings appear tomorrow in the journal, Science.

Getting at the underlying mechanisms of replication is no easy task. Structural studies involve crystallizing the DNA-protein complexes to see how they interact. Biochemists look at the agents of a reaction, the energy used and how much time lapses between steps. Such studies measure the behavior of hundreds of thousands of molecules at a time, and the results describe a whole population of reactions.

Using single-molecule fluorescence analysis, the research team tracked how the hepatitis C helicase, NS3, unwound a duplexed DNA molecule tagged with a fluorescent label on each strand of its double-stranded region. (The NS3 helicase is primarily involved in unwinding the single-stranded RNA of the hepatitis virus, but it can also act on DNA. This suggests that the helicase plays a role in unwinding double-stranded host DNA during infection. The duplex created for the experiment included both single- and double-stranded DNA; fluorescent labels were located in the double-stranded region.)......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source