Stimulation technique holds new promise for spinal cord injuries
...d FES (FunctionalElectrical Stimulation) Center to assess the feasibility of neural prostheses based on microstimulation inside of the spinalcord. The Cleveland FES Center is a consortium of CWRU, the Cleveland VA Medical Center, and the MetroHealth MedicalCenter. Neural prostheses technology uses electrica...Salamanders may one day monitor degradation in small streams
...mphibians and may offer another biological tool to assess stream habitatquality, especially where fish and bugs are absent." While wildlife experts monitor streams for acidity, temperature andpollutants directly, these factors say little about how environmentaldegradation affects animal populations......h. (The level of accuracy demanded by the USGS to assess the effects on water quality is a minute amount -- sometimes parts per trillion -- that is well below the threshold used for setting standards and guidelines.) In addition, potential effects on reproductive, nervous and immune systems, as wel...New computer programme could help assess cancer risks
...amme, to help family doctors work with patients to assess their genetic risk of cancer, seems to have faired well in initial trials, the results of which are published in this week's BMJ. A collaboration between the Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, risk assessment in genetics...APS launches new online journal to focus on link between genes and function
...cal medicine: "We willsoon have the opportunity to assess individual variation in normal and diseasephenotypes. Understanding the variation in these processes will elucidate howsmall yet different perturbations can produce the same overt disease in twoindividuals who have dramatically different responses to...Drug users, Native Americans susceptible to infectious diseases
...al exams were routinely conducted for two years to assess theparticipant's physical health. People infected with HTLV-II were statistically more likely than the controlgroup to acquire bronchitis (16 percent versus 9 percent), bladder or kidneyinfections (15 percent versus 8 percent) and oral herpes (5 perc...Mechanical forces found to exert larger role in blood vessel health and disease
...l through sandstone. Infuture studies they hope to assess the relevance of the computational findingson live animals in addition to the cell culture systems they are currentlystudying. Certain effects of fluid flows on smooth muscle cells become especiallyimportant when these cells are exposed directly to b...Genes play a bigger role in women's depression than in men's, twin study finds
...yinterviewers used a list of questions designed to assess whether the subjectshad ever experienced symptoms of various psychiatric disorders, includingdepression. Each twin was unaware of how his or her twin responded. Bierut and colleagues used the data from these interviews for their analyses.Because ......i Medical Center are launching a clinical trial to assess whethereating certain plant compounds can have positive effects on the lining of theuterus. These plant compounds, called "isoflavones," are found in particularlyhigh amounts in clover and soybeans. Isoflavones are also known as"phytoestrogens" becau...Ice-covered antarctic lake may harbor unknown life
...oring the lake. The SCAR meeting also will assess the risk of contamination posed byvarious exploration techniques and will consider a schedule for accomplishingthe scientific goal of exploring the lake....High HIV RNA levels major risk factor for mother-to-child HIV transmission
...her baby," explains Dr. Garcia. "We also wantedto assess whether the risk of transmission correlated more closely with highviral loads earlier in pregnancy rather than later." Slightly more than 20 percent (114 of 552) of the infants in the study becameinfected with HIV. The average HIV level in women who...Smog impacts: Hurtling through airways, tiny particles may do more damage than previously assumed
...use thebolus-injection technique to non-invasively assess the lung function of peoplewith asthma and others with impaired respiratory function. Along with Sarangapani and Wexler, this research team includes UD undergraduateMark Mathre, whose work also is supervised by Ajay K. Prasad, an associateprofessor o...Electronic dental anesthesia helps allay needle injection pain
...d during the procedure to assess four behaviors: quiet; crying; movement; and struggling with crying. They found thatthe children receiving the activated EDA cried and movedless frequently than those who didn......rials for cracks and weaknesses could helprescuers assess buildings for earthquake damage and help engineers design betterearthquake-proof buildings. The technique measures sound waves as they passthrough a material, monitoring the changes in tone and resonance caused bycracks or deformations allowing engi......han 4,000 babies, with a plan totest 8,000 more to assess their genetic susceptibility to the disease. Fortifiedby a $2 million grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health this month, they will use the information to trackthose considered to be at high risk and try to determine what sets off thedisor...USGS fire research in the southeast
...private institutions, had been mobilizedto rapidly assess and study the ecological and economic impacts of t... the goals of the interagency research team was to assess the value ofprescribed burning for reducing timber losses from severe wildfires. The 1998fires were ...USGS releases assessment of nation's biological resources
...cal perspective of ecosystemsacross the country to assess how the nation's resources are changing. The reportalso covers the major factors that affect biological resources nationwide. The report, said Groat, documents that the major land-use changes negativelyaffecting the health of biological resources ar...USGS studies wildfire ecology in the western United States
...ants and rodents from some of his plots, Esque can assess how the presence or absence of seed-eaters, along with changes in the surface vegetation and soil nutrients caused by fire, interact to determine the course of weed invasion and habitat transformation. Esque also takes advantage of the "natural ...As Hurricane Floyd moves up the Atlantic Coast . . . .
...ts are gearing up in the wake of HurricaneFloyd to assess damage to wildlife and habitat from Florida to Maine. USGS biologists will use computer models to predict effects on wildlife habitat;remote sensing and geographic information systems will be used to study andmonitor wetland responses to hurricanes;......dimentary rocks,scientists may have found a way to assess microbial populations across time andspace, opening a window to the early history of life on Earth and possibly otherplanets. Writing this week in the journal Science, a team of scientists led by Universityof Wisconsin-Madison geochemist Brian L. Bea...