Day: 08/02/2014

Australian students win Microsoft technology contest

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  • Melbourne students Jarrel Seah and Jennifer Tang crowned the winners at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle on Friday
  • The pair invented Eyenaemia, an app which screens for anemia by taking a selfie
  • Their prize includes $US50,000 and a private meeting with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates
  • The 22-year-olds hope to release the app in the next six to 12 months

Australia's very own Jennifer Tang and Jarrel Seah celebrate their victory as they hold up Microsoft's prestigious Imagine Cup

Australia’s very own Jennifer Tang and Jarrel Seah celebrate their victory as they hold up Microsoft’s prestigious Imagine Cup

Two Australian medical students have won a global competition after inventing an app that uses a selfie to detect if someone is anaemic.

Jarrel Seah and Jennifer Tang, both 22, of Melbourne’s Monash University, were crowned winners of the Microsoft Imagine Cup in Seattle on Friday after their entry beat 34 other teams from around the world.

By following their passion of using technology to solve medical problems, the duo were awarded $US50,000 and a private mentoring session with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

They won over the judges with their revolutionary phone app – called Eyenaemia – which screens for anaemia, or low red blood cell levels, when a user takes a selfie of their eye.

Mr Seah and Ms Tang developed the project while they were on a placement in rural Victoria last year and saw a need for an easier way to detect the life-threatening condition.

‘Both of us were doing placement out in Mildura [northwestern Victoria] when we found that anaemia was a common problem but people in these remote and rural areas had to travel hours just to get a blood test,’ Ms Tang told Daily Mail Australia.

‘We both like to find solutions where we see a gap and that’s what we saw with this particular project.’

Eyenaemia identifies the user’s risk for the condition by taking a photo of a person’s eye, which then analyses the conjunctiva. The results can then be sent to doctors.

The Melbourne medical students won over the judges with their phone app - Eyenaemia - which asses the risk of anaemia by taking a selfie

The Melbourne medical students won over the judges with their phone app – Eyenaemia – which asses the risk of anaemia by taking a selfie

The app identifies the user's risk for the condition by taking a photo of their eye which then analyses the conjunctiva

The app identifies the user's risk for the condition by taking a photo of their eye which then analyses the conjunctiva

The app identifies the user’s risk for the condition by taking a photo of their eye which then analyses the conjunctiva

As part of their prize, the pair will meet with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for a mentoring session

As part of their prize, the pair will meet with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for a mentoring session

‘We developed an idea where the processing is done online and would take one to two minutes, depending on how good you are at taking selfies,’ Jennifer said.

‘Through the app, we hope it detects the condition early on and helps prevent it.

‘We’re both very interested in technology and how it can improve health.

‘We believe it can change the way of the future.’

As well as winning the Imagine Cup, the pair also won the World Citizenship Championship in Seattle, a competition with the premise: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems.

‘We’re thrilled to have this kind of opportunity because both of us are so passionate about improving the world as it stands,’ Ms Tang said.

‘We knew there was a problem and wanted to solve it with a clear plan to achieve it.

‘So we’re not stopping here. We’re going to continue on with the project and see where it goes.’

Mr Seah said that he hopes the project will expand worldwide, particularly in developing countries.

(from left) General manager of Reddit.com Erick Martin, co-founder of Code.org Hadi Pavarti, Australian winning team Eyenaemia and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

‘We basically want the app to be accessible to developing countries and rural areas of Australia so we can reach out those who are more disadvantaged,’ he said.

‘So we aim to have the app available at no cost for these areas.’

They said the prize money will go towards further development of the app with the hope that Eyenaemia will be released in the next six to 12 months.

It is currently being trialed at Mildura Base Hospital and Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, southeast of Melbourne.

But just hours after their win, the two have one particular concern on their minds.

‘We weren’t expecting it, we were both so surprised,’ Jennifer said.

‘It’s very exciting and it’s finally starting to sink in a little.

‘But we’ve got three pretty big and glass trophies to take back with us – one which is the Imagine Cup and the other two which are the World Citizenship Champions.

‘The problem is that we packed so light so now we really don’t know how we’re going to bring them back home.’

 

Evidence base is still missing in pediatric bronchiolitis care.

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A recent study titled “Racial/Ethnic differences in the presentation and management of severe bronchiolitis” investigates the multiple factors related to the presentation and management of bronchiolitis in the United States and hypothesizes that there are disparities among ethnic groups.

The study also expands on the concerns that the 2006 Academy of Pediatrics Bronchiolitis guidelines are not being followed (Pediatrics 2006;118:1774-93). The study brings up important topics for practitioners, epidemiologists, and insurance companies. Jonathan Santiago, MPH, and his colleagues at Yale University, New Haven, Conn., conclude that non-Hispanic black children were more likely to receive albuterol before admission and less likely to receive chest radiographs during hospitalization while Hispanic children are most likely to be discharged on inhaled corticosteroids.

 

 

However, it is important to review the study to understand the potential implications:

The study by Mr. Santiago, a medical student at Yale, and his colleagues has significant flaws with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. These flaws could have significantly affected the authors’ conclusions. Still, the research highlights important issues: “Why are clinicians not following the guidelines for all our U.S. infants and toddlers?” And, “Why do clinicians not use evidence-based medicine?” If clinicians are treating young children from ethnic groups differently, why is that happening?

The AAP guidelines were developed with the support of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), the American Thoracic Society, and the European Respiratory Society. The guidelines outline that clinicians should diagnose bronchiolitis and assess severity based on a standard history and physical. Chest radiographs should not be routinely ordered. The guidelines also recommend that a carefully monitored trial of alpha-adrenergic or beta-adrenergic medication is an option. However, inhaled bronchodilators should be continued only if there is a documented positive response. Among many other recommendations, corticosteroids are definitively not recommended for routine bronchiolitis treatment.

The Journal of Pediatrics recently published an article by Dr. Todd A. Florin of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and his colleagues on variation in the management of hospitalized infants with bronchiolitis(2014;pii: S0022-3476[14]00507-1 [doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.05.057]). More than 60,000 hospitalizations were analyzed for infants aged 12 months and younger. After adjustment for patient characteristics, obtaining a chest radiograph was the one factor that had a great variation between hospitals. There was an 8.6% decrease in obtaining chest x-rays during the study period of 2007-2012. There also was wide variation among hospitals in regard to bronchodilator use, and there was no decrease in its use observed over the study period, despite the guidelines. Finally, a decrease of only 3.3% in corticosteroid use occurred during 2007-2012 – after the guidelines came out!

There is a theme: Family physicians, pediatricians, and other health care providers are not assessing and managing bronchiolitis using evidence-based medicine.

Mr. Santiago’s multicenter trial looked at 2,130 subjects and 24% were non-Hispanic blacks and 38% were Hispanic. Their median age was 4 months, while the mean age of the children in Dr. Florin’s study was 3.7 months. Many points of these studies can be teased out. For example, in Mr. Santiago’s study, non-Hispanic black children were more likely to receive albuterol before admission with an odds ratio of 1.58, and in the larger study by Dr. Florin, use of albuterol, in general, increased the patients’ length of stay. If Mr. Santiago’s study were expanded with stricter entry criteria and more hospitals, would a similar increased length of stay be found among non-Hispanic black children?

The guidelines are now 8 years old, and new guidelines are coming. But this important information, thoroughly analyzed by respected thought leaders, should be well disseminated among our peers. Our common goal should be to make sure that children at risk are not subjected to unnecessary x-rays, breathing treatments, and medications for bronchiolitis. The Hippocratic Oath, loosely translated, states: “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.”

 

The Sooner, The Better .

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New approaches to diagnosing bacterial infections may one day allow the identification of pathogens and their antibiotic susceptibility in a matter of hours or minutes.

Depending on the microbe’s propensity to grow in culture and the amount of it present in the sample, it can take a day or longer for the lab to identify the pathogen, and an additional one to two days to get the antibiotic susceptibility results. But in many cases it can be impractical or risky for a clinician to wait for those results before initiating treatment. Therefore, he or she will make an educated guess as to the cause of the infection and might send the patient home with a prescription for a broad-spectrum antibiotic capable of ridding the body of a number of bacterial pathogens.

This practice means that doctors sometimes prescribe antibiotics when they are not necessary, potentially leading to harmful side effects and contributing to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. In other instances, when a bacterial infection is resistant to the empiric antibiotic therapy, delays in treatment with an appropriate antibiotic may increase the risk that the infection will worsen or spread to others. “If there were rapid diagnostics available, we could provide more-targeted treatments sooner, rather than later,” says Joseph Liao, associate professor of urology at Stanford University’s medical school and the chief of urology at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in California.

To speed the diagnosis of infections, Liao and others are developing simple and inexpensive tests based on biosensors that convert the molecular recognition of a target molecule into signals that can be measured optically, electrically, mechanically, or magnetically. Well-known examples of commonly used biosensor-based assays include home pregnancy tests and handheld glucose monitors. Biosensor technologies for infectious diseases still need to clear significant regulatory hurdles before they can be used clinically, but they already show promise as portable and easy-to-use tools to rapidly identify a variety of pathogenic bacteria and to inform effective treatments. Here, The Scientistlooks at three such technologies under development.

Magnetic DNA Sandwich

Researchers: Hakho Lee, assistant professor, and Ralph Weissleder, director, Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Technology: Using a miniaturized nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) device created by Weissleder’s lab, Lee and Weissleder’s team developed an assay that can determine whether or not a sample contains virtually any species of bacteria or specifically identify 13 different bacterial pathogens in about two hours’ time (Nat Nanotechnol, 8:369-75, 2013). The researchers first isolate RNA from bacteria and use PCR to amplify a 50-70–nucleotide region of the 16S ribosomal RNA—either a region that is highly conserved among most bacterial species (for universal detection of bacteria), or a sequence that is unique to a particular pathogen of interest (for species-specific detection). Then they mix a sample of the PCR reaction with microbeads covalently coated with DNA probes 18–22 nucleotides in length that are designed to bind to one end of the PCR product. After washing away unbound DNA and beads, they add magnetic nanoparticles conjugated with DNA strands that bind to the opposite end of the PCR amplicon, forming a so-called magnetic sandwich complex with the bacteria-derived DNA in the center. “Eventually what we have are microbeads coated with these magnetic nanoparticles,” Lee says.

After further washing to rid the beads of unbound nanoparticles, the researchers place the sample inside their miniaturized NMR device. The NMR signal in samples that contain magnetic nanoparticles decays faster than in those that do not, Lee says, thus enabling detection of samples that contain bacteria.

Application: The assay was able to detect as few as one or two bacteria added to a 10-mL sample of whole blood and also provided an estimate of the number of bacteria present in a sample. It also accurately diagnosed a variety of patient specimens—including lung fluid, pelvic abscess contents, urine, and bile—as either positive or negative for bacteria. In samples positive for bacteria, the assay correctly identified all of the bacterial species that could be detected by standard culture, as well as two additional species not detected by culture.

Pros:

  • The assay can be performed using as little as 10 μL of a patient sample.
  • The detection step has very low background, because the samples have no inherent magnetic signal.
  • The miniature NMR device is small, portable, and inexpensive. Lee says the device itself costs roughly $500 to build, and estimates that the cost of the magnetic nanoparticles and other reagents is about $10 per assay.

Cons:

  • The assay involves multiple, independent steps that can increase the risk of contamination and inaccurate results.
  • No multiplexing. The assay must be repeated for each bacterial species of interest.

Other applications: Using a similar strategy, the group developed an assay for the detection of PCR-amplified DNA from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The assay is performed on a microfluidic chip that handles the PCR, bead capture and labeling, and NMR detection steps (Nat Commun, 4:1752, 2013). In addition, the team has varied the molecules used for capturing and labeling to detect other molecules of interest besides bacterial nucleic acids. For instance, Lee and Weissleder detected cancer cells in patient biopsies using magnetic nanoparticles that glom onto antibodies bound to particular cancer-related proteins present on the cell surface (Sci Transl Med, 3:71ra16, 2011).

Electric Nucleic Acid Test

CLOSING THE CIRCUIT: In the electronic chip (top), a pair of reference and counter electrodes runs along the bottom of each liquid channel, and working electrodes are situated perpendicular to and underneath the channels; gold microelectrodes (yellow) rise up from the working electrodes and into the channels. Nucleic acid probes (orange, shown in a cross-sectional view of a single microelectrode, middle) immobilized on the microelectrode capture the negatively charged target DNA (navy), attracting cations and triggering redox reactions that generate an electrical current.

Technology: Kelley’s group developed an electronic chip that can rapidly detect DNA from 20 different bacterial species that frequently cause urinary tract infections and 10 different genes that confer antibiotic resistance. The chip features a pair of counter and reference electrodes running along the inner surface of each of five liquid channels. Each channel is further subdivided into five separate wells containing an electrocatalytic solution, and an array of 20 so-called working electrodes runs perpendicular to and underneath the wells. Bushy, gold microelectrodes sprout from the working electrodes and into each well, but remain electrically isolated from the counter and reference electrode pair.

Each well’s microelectrodes are coated with a nucleic acid-based probe designed to bind only to nucleic acid from a specific target pathogen or antibiotic-resistance gene. When a probe binds its target DNA sequence, cations in the electrocatalytic solution are attracted to the negatively charged phosphate backbone of the nucleic acid. The ions in the solution then undergo a series of oxidation and reduction reactions, generating a current that flows between the working electrode and the pair of counter and reference electrodes in the well. The resulting electrical signal in each well can be measured using a simple device called a potentiostat.

Application: The chip was able to detect DNA from bacterial lysates containing as little as one bacterial cell per μL. What’s more, the electrical signal could be detected after only a two-minute hybridization between the sample and the probes (Nat Commun, 4:2001, 2013).

Pros:

  • Multiplexing. Depending on the probes present on the chip, the method can screen a sample for a variety of pathogens simultaneously, or a combination of pathogens and antibiotic-resistance genes.
  • Kelley says the reagents needed for the assay are inexpensive, and the chip itself costs only a few dollars to make.
  • Very fast.

Cons:

  • Not yet demonstrated to work with clinical samples
  • The detection limit of one cell per μL is not likely to be sensitive enough to detect bacteria in some types of patient samples, such as blood.

Vibe Monitors

MONITORING VIBRATIONS: A laser beam deflected off the surface of a cantilever can detect the nanoscale movements caused by viable bacteria.

Technology: Using a tiny diving board–like device called a cantilever that’s traditionally used in atomic force microscopy (AFM), Longo’s group devised a way to rapidly determine bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The researchers coat a chemically treated cantilever with living bacteria and immobilize one end of it inside a chamber filled with bacterial growth medium. The bacteria cause the free end of the cantilever to vibrate at a certain frequency as they move and carry out ordinary metabolic functions. Those nanoscale vibrations are monitored using a laser beam that reflects off the surface of the cantilever and into a detector.

Upon exposure to an antibiotic, the fluctuations caused by antibiotic-susceptible bacteria grind to a halt within a matter of minutes, and do not recover in the presence of fresh growth medium without the drug. By contrast, the fluctuations caused by bacteria resistant to the antibiotic initially stall in the presence of the drug, but gradually resume as the bugs ramp up the molecular pathways they need to survive the treatment.

Application: Longo’s team demonstrated that lab-grown cultures of antibiotic-sensitive Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus—two of the most common human pathogens that are rapidly developing resistance to many available antibiotics—cease to produce fluctuations of the cantilever within five minutes or less after antibiotic treatment. By contrast, fluctuations caused by antibiotic-resistant strains of the same microbes resumed within 15 minutes of antibiotic exposure (Nat Nanotechnol, 8:522-26, 2013). Although the tests were performed on a traditional atomic force microscope, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Longo says his team has developed simplified prototype versions of the instrument for $5,000–$10,000 that are designed specifically for antibiotic susceptibility testing and that don’t require expertise in AFM to operate.

Pros:

  • Fast. The team obtained their results for E. coli and S. aureus in about 30 minutes each. Longo suggests the method may be particularly useful for assessing the antibiotic susceptibility of slow-growing organisms such as M. tuberculosis, which does not grow rapidly in culture. Traditional culture-based tests of antibiotic susceptibility for M. tuberculosis can require weeks, but using this method, Longo says his team has been able to cut that time down to under four hours.
  • AFM cantilevers are fairly inexpensive, selling for around $5–$10 each.

Cons:

  • Longo’s team has not yet tested the technique with clinical samples.
  • No multiplexing. Can only analyze one sample of bacteria at a time, though Longo says his group is working on a multicantilever system.
  • Cannot yet characterize a mixture that contains more than one bacterial species. “If an antibiotic affects one species but not the other, you wouldn’t know what’s going on,” Longo says, because the drop in movement of the susceptible species would be masked by the fluctuations of the resistant species.

Technique turns bodies ‘see-through’

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3D visualization of intact kidney tissue

Scientists were able to take a closer look at organs such as the kidney

A way to turn an entire body transparent has been developed by scientists studying rodents.

Reporting in the journal Cell, they describe a technique that keeps tissues intact but allows key body parts and connections to be seen.

They say it could help visualise how separate organs interact and pave the way for a new generation of treatments.

The method may also be used to detect the spread of viruses and cancers in human tissues.

For almost a century scientists have attempted to turn opaque organs see-through, but most techniques have damaged tissues, putting a stop to further medical tests.

‘Biologists’ dream’

The fatty lipid molecules present in cells can distort light rays, rendering tissues opaque. But processes used to dissolve them have deprived organs of this key element of structural support, resulting in a shapeless mass of material.

Now researchers from the California Institute of Technology say they have achieved the “biologists’ dream”.

Building on previous work the team have developed a three-stage technique:

  • A soft plastic-like mesh provides support to tissues
  • Then a molecular detergent is continually infused via the bloodstream, dissolving away lipids and making organs transparent
  • Specific tracing dyes and tagging molecules can be added to the infusion to flag up the most important connections.

Using this method in rodents, researchers were able to clear whole kidneys, hearts, lungs and intestines within three days and the entire body within two weeks.

Visualisation of intact intestine tissue
Using this method researchers could see details of intestinal tissues

And testing the procedure on samples from cancer patients allowed them to see how far the disease had spread.

The research has been carried out on euthanased rats and human tissue samples taken during operations but not yet in living organisms.

‘Important advance’

Scientists say the technique could have many future uses, from mapping the journeys of long nerve fibres from the brain to the rest of the body to tracing exactly where different viruses hide in tissues.

The team are now collaborating with other scientists to examine brain tissue from people with dementia. They say comparing these with healthy samples will allow them to see potential differences in cell patterns and numbers in a way that has never been possible before.

Commenting on the processes this method was built upon, Thomas Insel, director of the US National Institute of Mental Health in the US said: “This is probably one of the most important advances for doing neuroanatomy in decades.”

Dr Viviana Gradinaru, a lead author on the paper, told the BBC: “This is the realisation of the biologists’ dream.

“Though scanning techniques already help doctors visualise the body they cannot show what each tissue or cell does.

“Adding tags and tracers in our method, we get crucial information on the exact identity and function of the parts of the body we want to know more about.”

BMJ ‘right’ in statins claims row

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Statins

An investigation has backed the British Medical Journal’s handling of two controversial and inaccurate articles it published on the harms of cholesterol-reducing statins.

Both claimed that 20% of users would suffer harmful side effects.

The journal withdrew the claim, but refused calls for a full retraction.

Yet prominent academics have criticised the investigation, saying the articles still damage confidence in statins and are continuing to demand a retraction.

Statins lower levels of cholesterol in the blood to reduce the odds of a heart attack or stroke.

The harms and benefits of the drugs became a hugely controversial area of medicine in the run-up to a massive expansion in prescribing in July.

Four in 10 adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now eligible for statins, even though many are at low risk of a heart attack or stroke.

How risky?

An article by Dr John Abramson, from Harvard Medical School and a separate piece by cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra claimed that side effects of statins occurred in 18-20% of people.

The research they were quoting did not adjust its findings for the level of those side effects – such as muscle problems, increased risk of diabetes and liver inflammation – which would have occurred even if people were not taking the drugs.

Leading academic Prof Rory Collins, from Oxford University, said the articles were likely to have encouraged people to stop taking statins with potentially life threatening consequences.

The 20% figure was eventually withdrawn, but the reports were not retracted.

Woman with muscle pain
Muscle pain is a reported side-effect of statins

An investigation, led by a former chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Dr Iona Heath, was launched in May.

It has concluded: “The panel were unanimous in their decision that the two papers do not meet any of the criteria for retraction.

“The error did not compromise the principal arguments being made in either of the papers.

“These arguments involve interpretations of available evidence and were deemed to be within the range of reasonable opinion among those who are debating the appropriate use of statins.”

The editor of the British Medical Journal, Dr Fiona Godlee, told the BBC there was “obviously a risk our reputation has been damaged”.

“It is wrong to pretend errors don’t happen, as soon as it was clear errors had been made, we moved to correct that and made it as public as possible.”

She added there was “no evidence” that people’s confidence in statins had been dented.

However, the panel did say the journal needed to pay “extra attention” to controversial or one-sided articles and called for a review to see how corrections to the opinion pieces could have been “made in a more timely fashion”.

statin pill

Dubious report

However, Prof Collins argues the investigation was not independent and came to the wrong conclusion.

He told the BBC: “It is not surprising the BMJ investigates itself and exonerates itself.

“The BMJ published misinformation and they’ve withdrawn one major error, but have not corrected several other major errors.

“My concern is that as before, patients and their doctors are misinformed by those papers and the BMJ’s failure to correct them.”

Prof Sir John Tooke, the president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: “There is a very real possibility that misinformation about statins could put the health of those who need them at risk.

“We are disappointed that the papers have not been retracted, but hope that a renewed focus on the evidence base can bring much-needed clarity to the debate.”

However John Deanfield, a professor cardiology at University College London said: “I don’t feel strongly that a full retraction is required, merely an acknowledgement that the views expressed were based on incorrect data.”

Nasa rover to make oxygen on Mars

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Nasa rover
Instruments on the new rover will sample the planet’s geology and atmosphere as well as making 3D movies

Nasa’s next Martian rover will attempt to make oxygen on the surface of the red planet when it lands there in 2021.

The rover will carry seven scientific projects, aimed at paving the way for future manned missions, seeking evidence of life and storing samples to be brought back in the future.

Among them is a device for turning the CO2 that dominates the thin Martian air into oxygen.

This could support human life or make rocket fuel for return missions.

The rover will also carry two cameras and an experimental weather station among its 88lb (40kg) of instruments.

“This is a really exciting day for us,” said astronaut and Nasa administrator John Grunsfeld, announcing the Mars 2020 scientific payload in Washington DC.

Mars 2020 rover

Curiosity rover
  • Planned launch in July/August 2020
  • Expected to land in 2021 after eight to nine month cruise
  • Total weight approximately 2,094lb (950kg)
  • Payload of seven scientific instruments weighing 88lb (40kg), worth $130m
  • Closely modelled on Curiosity (illustrated above)

The one-tonne, $1.9bn (£1.12bn) vehicle will be closely modelled on Curiosity, the rover that touched down on the red planet in August 2012.

Its suite of instruments is downsized compared to Curiosity, which is carrying 165lb (75kg) of scientific kit. Some of that space will be used to package up cylindrical rock samples drilled from the planet’s surface.

Nasa hopes these can be shipped home by future return flights.

Being able to produce oxygen could help with that ambition, since transporting fuel is heavy and expensive. Other Nasa spacecraft can already produce oxygen from CO2 but the new “MOXIE” device will test this capability in the Martian atmosphere, for the first time.

An oxygen supply would also be essential if people were to land on the planet.

Immersive images

This change in focus was described as a “shift in gears” by Prof Tom Pike from Imperial College, London, the co-investigator of the “MOXIE” instrument.

“It is very much about the old Star Trek ‘boldly going’, the real focus of this payload is exploration rather than science,” he told BBC News.

“There are not very many places that humans can go after the Moon. I would say it’s practically a list of one and Mars is it!”

Mars base artwork
Could Mars support human life?

Also on board the 2020 rover will be a ground-penetrating radar for analysing the planet’s geology, two arm-mounted gadgets for analysing the chemistry and structure of soil and rocks, and two cameras.

In another first, the cameras are designed so that in a particular configuration they will be able to record 3D movies.

“You’re going to feel like you’re on Mars,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of the human exploration directorate at Nasa.

The announcement comes in the same week that Nasa’s earlier Mars rover, Opportunity, clocked up a record-breaking total of 20 miles (40km) of extra-terrestrial driving since its landing in 2004.

Brain Abscess.

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Despite advances in diagnostic techniques and treatment, brain abscess remains a challenging clinical problem with substantial case fatality rates. Delays in diagnosis and treatment can result in a poor outcome. A new review summarizes current approaches to effective treatment.

Despite advances in imaging techniques, laboratory diagnostics, surgical interventions, and antimicrobial treatment, brain abscess remains a challenging clinical problem with substantial case fatality rates. Brain abscess can be caused by bacteria, mycobacteria, fungi, or parasites (protozoa and helminths), and the reported incidence ranges from 0.4 to 0.9 cases per 100,000 population. Rates are increased in immunosuppressed patients.

Clinical Pearls

• What is the epidemiology of brain abscesses?

Severe immunocompromise, resulting from immunosuppressive therapy in patients who have undergone solid-organ or hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation or from HIV infection, is often associated with tuberculosis or nonbacterial causes of infection, such as fungi or parasites. HIV infection is associated with brain abscess caused by Toxoplasma gondii, but HIV infection also predisposes patients to infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Patients who have received solid-organ transplants are at risk not only for nocardial brain abscess but also for fungal abscess (e.g., resulting from infection by aspergillus or candida species). Abscess formation may occur after neurosurgical procedures or head trauma. In these cases, infection is often caused by skin-colonizing bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis, or gram-negative bacilli. Brain abscess due to contiguous spread from parameningeal foci of infection (e.g., the middle ears, mastoids, and sinuses) is frequently caused by streptococcus species, but staphylococcal and polymicrobial abscesses (including those caused by anaerobes and gram-negative bacilli) also occur. Staphylococcus and streptococcus species are often identified in brain abscesses after hematogenous spread. The microbial flora of brain abscesses resulting from paranasal sinus or dental infection are often polymicrobial.

• What is the typical presentation of a patient with a brain abscess?

The most frequent clinical manifestation of brain abscess is headache; fever and altered level of consciousness are frequently absent. Neurologic signs depend on the site of the abscess and can be subtle for days to weeks. Behavioral changes may occur in patients with abscesses in the frontal or right temporal lobes. Patients with abscesses in the brain stem or cerebellum may present with cranial-nerve palsy, gait disorder, or either headache or altered  mental status owing to hydrocephalus. Up to 25% of patients present  with seizures.

Morning Report Questions

Q: What are the most appropriate diagnostic tools in cases of suspected brain abscess?

A: Cranial imaging should be performed in all patients with suspected brain abscess. Computed tomographic (CT) scanning with contrast enhancement provides a rapid means of detecting the size, number, and localization of abscesses. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), combined with diffusion-weighted and apparent-diffusion-coefficient images, is a valuable diagnostic tool in differentiating brain abscess from primary, cystic, or necrotic tumors. One prospective study involving 115 patients with 147 cystic brain lesions, which included 97 patients with brain abscess, showed that diffusion-weighted imaging had a sensitivity and specificity for the differentiation of brain abscesses from primary or metastatic cancers of 96% (positive predictive value, 98%; negative predictive value, 92%). Cultures of blood and cerebrospinal fluid identify the causative pathogen in approximately one quarter of patients. Cultures of cerebrospinal fluid may be valuable in patients with coexisting meningitis.  However, the risk of brain herniation must be considered in these patients.

Figure 3. Imaging Studies of Brain Abscess. 

Q: How should a brain abscess be managed?

A: Since 27% of brain abscesses are polymicrobial, broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy is advised until the results of culture of the abscess itself are known or until repeated aerobic and anaerobic cultures from blood or other sites of infection show no other pathogen. An abscess size of more than 2.5 cm in diameter has been recommended as an indication for neurosurgical intervention, but data from comparative studies are lacking, and this size cannot be regarded as a definitive indication for aspiration. Anticonvulsant treatment is not routinely indicated in patients with brain abscess. Focal neurologic deficits may develop in response to abscess growth or surrounding edema. Adjunctive glucocorticoid therapy may reduce cerebral edema and is used in about half of patients with brain abscess. Since data from randomized studies are lacking and glucocorticoids may reduce passage of antimicrobial agents into the central nervous system, their use should be limited to patients with profound edema that is likely to lead to cerebral herniation.

– See more at: http://blogs.nejm.org/now/index.php/brain-abscess/2014/08/01/#sthash.8YJjeNB3.dpuf

First Glimpse of Higgs Bosons at Work Revealed.

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An extremely rare collision of massive subatomic particles could reveal the nuts and bolts of how the subatomic particles called Higgs bosons impart mass to other particles.

an abstract version of the higgs boson

The Higgs boson particle, which was detected for the first time in 2012, is essentially tossed around like a ball between two force-carrying particles known as W-bosons when they scatter, or bounce off of one another, a new data analysis revealed.

The data comes from the ATLAS experiment, the same proton-collision experiment that revealed the Higgs boson, at the Large Hadron Collider(LHC), a 17-mille-long (27 kilometers) underground atom smasher on the border of Switzerland and France.

By studying how much the Higgs sticks to the W-bosons during this scattering process, the team could learn new details about how strongly the elusive Higgs boson interacts with the field that gives all particles their mass.

“We are basically observing the Higgs boson at work to see whether it does its job the way we expect it to,” said study co-author Marc-André Pleier, a physicist with the ATLAS project, and a researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. [Beyond Higgs: 5 Elusive Particles That May Lurk in the Universe]

Higgs Field

For decades, the Standard Model, the reigning physics theory that describes the menagerie of subatomic particles, was both astonishingly predictive and obviously incomplete.

The long-sought missing piece of the Standard Model was the Higgs boson, a particle proposed by English physicist Peter Higgs and others in 1964 to explain how certain particles get their mass. The theory held that particles like W-bosons pick up mass as they travel through a field, now known as the Higgs field. The more particles “drag” through the field, the more massive they are. If the Higgs field did exist, then by extension another particle, the now-famous Higgs boson (dubbed “the God Particle,” a nickname scientists dislike), should also exist as a vibration of that field when other subatomic particles interact with the field.

In 2012, scientists announced they had found the Higgs boson. In the years since, physicists have been busy analyzing data from collisions at the LHC to figure out exactly how the Higgs boson does its job of giving particles mass.

Impossible physics

Other parts of the Standard Model didn’t add up without the Higgs boson. For instance, in theory proton collisions could produce pairs ofW-bosons that would then scatter, or bounce off of, one another. (W-bosons mediate the weak nuclear force, which governs radioactive decay and fuels the chemical reactions at the hearts of stars, Pleier said.)

At high-enough collision energies, however, the theory predicted that W-boson scattering would occur more than 100 percent of the time, which is physically impossible, Pleier said.

So physicists proposed a subatomic game of catch, where a Higgs boson could bounce off one W-boson in a colliding pair, and be absorbed by the other member of the pair, Pleier said.

The extra Higgs, in essence, fixed the mathematical glitch in the theory.

But W-boson scattering was incredibly rare: It occurs only once in 100 trillion proton-proton collisions, so scientists never had a chance to test their theory, Pleier said.

“It’s even rarer to observe than the Higgs boson,” Pleier told Live Science.

Higgs at work

While poring over data from the ATLAS experiment, researchers saw, for the first time, glimpses of elusive W-boson scattering, Pleier said.

So far, the team has seen hints of just 34 W-boson scattering events, which showed that the Higgs boson does play some role in this scattering process.

But there is still too little data to say exactly how “sticky” the Higgs boson is to these W-bosons, which would reveal how sticky the Higgs field is. That, in turn, could help reveal more details about how the Higgs field gives other particles their mass, Pleier said.

If follow-up data reveals that the Higgs Boson doesn’t seem to be sticky enough, that’s an indication that other subatomic particles may be involved in W-boson scattering, he said.

When the LHC ramps up again in 2015 at higher energies, the team should be able to produce 150 times more data than they were collecting when the atom smasher shut down in 2013, which could help flesh out the now-shadowy picture of the Higgs boson in action.

 

Study finds running for just 5 minutes daily increases longevity, has several health benefits

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Have five minutes? Consider taking a run during that brief time to boost health.

According to a recent study in which over 55,000 adults were monitored for 15 years, it was found that the health benefits of running for five minutes had benefits on par with running for 30 minutes every day at hard speed.(1) In fact, those running a six-minute mile or those who run a little over two hours per week don’t live significantly longer than those who run as little as five minutes daily at a slow pace.(2)

However, experts aren’t suggesting that runners should cut back based on this “less is more” notion. Instead, they are looking at this study as an urging for couch potatoes to engage in activity, since five minutes worth of running has been shown to be beneficial.(1)

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Runners less likely to die from any cause than non-runners

Although the five-minute running benefit seemed to be the study’s most surprising conclusion, it was also discovered that those who ran were 45 percent less likely than those who did not run to die of heart disease and 30 percent less likely to die from any cause.(1)

The findings also note that running has health benefits even for overweight smokers; people with this lifestyle who ran were less likely to die prematurely than people who did not run, regardless of smoking habits or weight.(2)

Timothy Church, a professor at the Pennington Institute who co-authored the study, says, “We’re not talking about training for a marathon or even for a 5-kilometer race. Most people can fit in five minutes a day of running no matter how busy they are, and the benefits in terms of mortality are remarkable.”(2)

Health benefits of running are numerous, include weight loss

While there are those who don’t advise running, mostly citing its detrimental impact on joints, advocates note that joint damage and osteoarthritis is not due so much to the act of running, but rather, that it’s a matter of body weight. According to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, obese women had about four times the risk of knee osteoarthritis than non-obese women and men had five times the risk.(3)

The benefits of running include improved mood, weight loss or weight maintenance, and reduced incidences of cancers such as colon and breast cancer.(3)

When it comes to weight loss, running’s powerful effects are still in place even when a person is at rest; calories continue to burn even after a run.(4) Furthermore, compared to walking, the calories burned while running lead to 90 percent more weight loss.(4)

It’s also a stress-buster.

“Nothing beats that feeling when you settle into a strong stride with a powerful rhythm,” says Brooke Stevens, who ran the New York City marathon four times. “The tension in my neck, back, and shoulders starts to loosen up, and I can think more clearly too.”(3)

The study that assessed the 55,000-plus individuals has been published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and was based on research from experts at a variety of institutions including Iowa State University, the University of South Carolina, and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana., who utilized information from a database at the Cooper Clinic and Cooper Institute in Dallas.(1)

Sources for this article include:

(1) http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/exercise-study-finds-24754002

(2) http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/running-just-5-minutes-a-day-has-long-lasting-benefits/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

(3) http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/health-benefits-of-running

(4) http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/4-ways-that-running-is-best-for-weight-loss?page=single

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Celebrates 15th Anniversary.

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Fifteen years ago, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Since its deployment on July 23, 1999, Chandra has helped revolutionize our understanding of the universe through its unrivaled X-ray vision.

Four new Chandra images of supernova remnants

Chandra, one of NASA’s current “Great Observatories,” along with the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, is specially designed to detect X-ray emission from hot and energetic regions of the universe.

With its superb sensitivity and resolution, Chandra has observed objects ranging from the closest planets and comets to the most distant known quasars. It has imaged the remains of exploded stars, or supernova remnants, observed the region around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and discovered black holes across the universe. Chandra also has made a major advance in the study of dark matter by tracing the separation of dark matter from normal matter in collisions between galaxy clusters. It also is contributing to research on the nature of dark energy.

To celebrate Chandra’s 15th anniversary, four new images of supernova remnants – the Crab Nebula, Tycho, G292.0+1.8, and 3C58 – are being released. These supernova remnants are very hot and energetic and glow brightly in X-ray light, which allows Chandra to capture them in exquisite detail.

“Chandra changed the way we do astronomy. It showed that precision observation of the X-rays from cosmic sources is critical to understanding what is going on,” said Paul Hertz, NASA’s Astrophysics Division director in Washington. “We’re fortunate we’ve had 15 years – so far – to use Chandra to advance our understanding of stars, galaxies, black holes, dark energy, and the origin of the elements necessary for life.”

Chandra orbits far above Earth’s X-ray absorbing atmosphere at an altitude up to 139,000 km (86,500 mi), allowing for long observations unobscured by Earth’s shadow. When it was carried into space in 1999, it was the largest satellite ever launched by the shuttle.

“We are thrilled at how well Chandra continues to perform,” said Belinda Wilkes, director of the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “The science and operations teams work very hard to ensure that Chandra delivers its astounding results, just as it has for the past decade and a half. We are looking forward to more ground-breaking science over the next decade and beyond.”

Originally called the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), the telescope was first proposed to NASA in 1976. Prior to its launch aboard the shuttle, the observatory was renamed in honor of the late Indian-American Nobel laureate, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Known to the world as Chandra (which means “moon” or “luminous” in Sanskrit), he was widely regarded as one of the foremost astrophysicists of the 20th century.

“Chandra continues to be one of the most successful missions that NASA has ever flown as measured against any metric – cost, schedule, technical success and, most of all, scientific discoveries,” said Martin Weisskopf, Chandra Project Scientist at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. “It has been a privilege to work on developing and maintaining this scientific powerhouse, and we look forward to many years to come.”