Science and Enterprise

Category: New products

  • Blood Protein Test Can Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions

    A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland indicates that a routine test for a protein in blood can reduce the number of hospital readmissions due to congestive heart failure. Their findings appear online in the American Journal of Cardiology (paid subscription required). Johns Hopkins research fellow Henry Michtalik and colleagues tested…

  • Laser Suturing in Development for Minimally Invasive Surgery

    Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT) in Aachen, Germany are developing a laser-based suturing process for use in minimally-invasive surgeries. The new process can simplify current methods with a form of laser welding replacing knots. More abdominal surgeries are being carried out in a minimally invasive manner, where the surgeon needs only…

  • USDA Tests Climate Change Impact on Arizona Wheat

    Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) research center in Maricopa, Arizona devised a method of testing the potential impact of warming temperature from climate change on the wheat crop in the U.S. southwest. The technology and the results are discussed in the February issue of USDA’s Agricultural Research magazine, and earlier in the…

  • Ultrasound Advances to Bedside for Routine Diagnoses

    Clinicians at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut report on advances in ultrasound technology that make it a tool used increasingly for specialties outside of radiology. Yale medical school faculty members Christopher Moore and Joshua Copel describe these advances in this week’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (paid…

  • Nanotech Emergency Water Treatment Technology Devised

    Chemistry researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada have developed a technology for a cheap, portable, paper-based water treatment system when disasters like floods or earthquakes strike. The team’s findings were published earlier this month in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (paid subscription required). The researchers, led by industrial chemistry professor Derek Gray,…

  • Grad Student Creates, Markets Rural Water Conveyance Device

    Cynthia Koenig, a business school graduate student at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, created a rolling water barrel and started an enterprise to distribute the device in developing countries. Koenig plans to pilot test the device, called the WaterWheel, in India. The WaterWheel is a 20-gallon rolling plastic barrel that provides enough water for…

  • Nanoparticles Increase Survival Chance After Blood Loss

    Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York have used nitric oxide particles reduced to nanoscale size to improve survival after life-threatening blood loss. Their results were reported in the 21 February online edition of the journal Resuscitation (paid subscription required). Nanoparticles — particles measured in nanometers, or billions of…

  • Neuroscience, Computational Physics Help Diagnose Autism

    A team led by a computational physicist and neuroscientist at Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts have devised a technology that can lead to noninvasive tests for evaluating the risk of autism in infants. Their findings appear today in the journal BMC Medicine. The technology combines the standard electroencephalogram (EEG), which records electrical activity in the…

  • FDA Approves Hepatitis C Virus Test

    OraSure Technologies Inc. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania says that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its OraQuick HCV Rapid Antibody Test to detect hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies with a fingerstick whole blood sample. The test, says the company, provides results in 20 minutes. OraSure says the OraQuick HCV test is the only…

  • Univ. Adapts Commercial Technology in Blood Pressure Method

    Researchers at University of Leicester in the U.K. and Singapore medical device manufacturer HealthSTATS International developed a new method of non-surgically measuring blood pressure near the heart. The team published their findings in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (paid subscription required). The traditional cuff-style blood pressure monitor inflates…