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Boston University joins research partners across the nation in an alliance to build the infrastructure that will link many of the world's most advanced computers into a network that will allow researchers to solve complex problems in fields such as cosmology, molecular biology, nanomaterials and environmental hydrology. In anticipation of this effort Boston University has added 128 processors to its Silicon Graphics (SGI) Origin2000TM system, giving it a total of 192 processors, and making it one of the most powerful systems available on any US university campus.

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A trial now underway at Temple University Hospital will examine the efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of using the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) as a permanent treatment of end-stage heart failure. The LVAD -- about the size of an outstretched hand -- is a two-pound mechanical device that pumps blood out of the heart to the body. In recent years, it has been used as a temporary "bridge" to heart transplant, keeping the sickest transplant candidates alive until they receive a new heart. This trial will push the limits of the LVAD.

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By further tracking nitric oxide's actions in the brain, Johns Hopkins scientists report they have figured out what may be a universal sequence of biochemical events from stroke to brain cell death.

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A contaminated endoscope that may have transmitted tuberculosis (TB) between two hospital patients has highlighted the need for scrupulous adherence to endoscope cleaning procedures and the value of maintaining TB DNA fingerprint registries.

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Nine months ago, New York City and the upstate New York towns in the New York City watershed formally settled their differences over environmental restrictions in the watershed region, but close to a third of the upstate residents don't know about the agreement, according to Cornell University rural sociologists.

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New data from a clinical trial of the injectible antibiotic MERREM I.V. a (meropenem for injection) demonstrate that the drug is effective against the major pathogens associated with pediatric meningitis and is well tolerated among patients participating in the study.

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Mass. educators who specialize in media literacy--critical thinking about television, newspapers, radio, magazines, movies. and the Internet--are the recent recipients of a $50,000 grant from the Felton Media Literacy Scholars Program. Renee Hobbs, associate professor, communication, Babson College will direct the program scheduled to begin this spring for 15 Boston-area educators and media professionals.

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Rensselaer researcher Michael Savic has developed an electronic device that acts as an early warning system for leaks and explosions in pipelines and storage tanks. Savic's patented system extends his earlier work to detect problems in underground pipelines.

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US FDA cleared Zeneca Pharmaceutical's Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate) tablets for marketing on Sept. 29, 1997. Seroquel is a new oral medication indicated for the management of the manifestations of psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects nearly three million Americans and results in as much as $65 billion annually in direct medical costs and lost productivity.

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Cartilage is the body's shock absorber, a cushion of durable tissue that protects the knee from a lifetime of walking, bending and running. Now a team of bioengineers at the UC San Diego School of Engineering has described in detail for the first time what happens to each of these regions when cartilage is squeezed and flattened as it absorbs impact.

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To loosely paraphrase Shylock, the lead character from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, bleeding is something we all do, regardless of heritage. So it is with clotting, a process that in the parlance of the theater, prevents bleeding from lowering the final curtain on us all.

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Technology developed in Minnesota will radically change water quality testing and monitoring across the world. RUSS, a Remote Underwater Sampling Station, can remotely gather, measure, analyze, chart, store and report water quality data. RUSS does the work of several scientists within a matter of minutes and has the capability to operate continuously from a remote location.

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"The dietary supplement industry can and will proceed to implement full nutrition labeling for our products now that FDA has published final dietary supplement labeling regulations, said John Cordaro, President and Chief Executive Office of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN). "The new label format will help consumers better understand and compare dietary supplements," he added.

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A revolutionary treatment for chronic urinary incontinence, developed by a University of Colorado Health Sciences Center urologist, has been approved by the US Food and Durg Administration (FDA).

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Tips from Annals of Internal Medicine, published by the American College of Physicians: 1) No increase or decrease in the rate of myocardial infarction was found in postmenopausal women currently on hormone replacement therapy, 2) Social class has a substantial effect on the rate of recovery from myocardial infarction, 3) Paper reviews advances in geriatrics, 4) Nearly 100 medical journals are calling on investigators to register results from randomized, controlled trials that have not been published.

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When African women work outside the home, their families reap more income but often with potentially deleterious consequences on the health of their very young children and at the expense of daughter's education, according to new Cornell University research.

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James Garbarino, Cornell University's top child abuse expert, advocates viewing parental smoking as child abuse.

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A new book from Cornell University Press, "Rethinking Home Economics," reviews the history and evolution of the home economics professions.

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A very thin coating developed at Sandia National Laboratories improves sensor sensitivity 500 times in detecting the lethal gas Sarin,improves more usual environmental monitoring, helps separate molecules in oil refining and drug manufacturing -- and barely increases the size of the sensor.

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A Purdue University animal scientist has figured out why livestock have trouble gaining weight on a diet of tannin-rich sorghum. His work eventually may help livestock, and people, get more nutrition out of lower-cost, tannin-rich grains.

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Neurosurgical specialists, reporting at the 47th annual meeting of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) next week, will describe how the Digital Holographyô System from VoxelÆ (NASDAQ:VOXL) is helping them plan and perform complex neurosurgical procedures.

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Nationwide study indicates a 15% increase in drug resistance over the last three years, suggesting that office physicians need to look out for antibiotic resistance in their patients and prescribe antibiotics appropriatley. Investigators collected over 8,000 samples from around the country of the Haemophilus influenzae bacteria which causes chronic bronchitis, middle-ear infections and sinusitis.

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Scientists at Columbia University have developed a new topical hand cream that may prevent the two most common latex allergy reactions-- sensitization to latex after prolonged exposure and contact dermatitis. Over 100,000 people in the United States are at risk for latex allergies, which causes itching and redness and in severe cases can lead to respiratory distress or even death.

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Newborn babies may avoid lifelong vision problems thanks to a discovery in rhesus monkeys at the Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University. Scientists there have found that a dramatic reorganization of brain cells occurs in infant monkeys in the first three weeks of life, corresponding in humans to the first three months. These neural connections turn out to be the building blocks of a healthy visual system, allowing for a baby's sudden ability to see three-dimensionally, and as the years go by, to avoid a series of irreversible visual defects.

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Biographies of John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry, inventors of the first digital computer.

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ISU officials today (Oct. 8) unveiled and operated a full-scale replica of the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff- Berry Computer (ABC) at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The replica is a working model of original ABC, built in 1939 - 42.

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Tobacco and pharmaceutical drug companies to compete for the hearts and lungs of nicotine-dependent consumers in emerging, multi-billion dollar, nicotine maintenance market, says U-M health policy researcher.

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Busy emergency room doctors now have a new ally in their fight to save heart attack victims from dying. The ally is a computerized decision-making aid built into the standard electrocardiograph (EKG) machine that instantly prints predictions, based on the patient's EKG and other clinical information, of whether that individual is likely to benefit from potentially lifesaving treatment with thrombolytic (clot-dissolving) drugs.

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The following are findings described in the September issue of Research Activities from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research: 1) Prophylactic Mastectomy Provides Substantial Gains in Life Expectancy for Women With Cancer-Disposing Genes, 2) Amoxicillin is Often Prescribed to Prevent Middle Ear Infections in Young Children, But it is Only Marginally Effective, 3) Many Physicians Have Not Fully Adopted Recommended Cholesterol Management Practices, 4) Duration of Maternity Work Leave Significantly Affects Maternal Health

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The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and the American Association of Health Plans' Foundation today announced a joint call for studies to determine the impact of different features of health plans on the quality of care provided to patients with chronic illnesses and on outcomes. The two groups will together provide up to $7 million over a three-year period to support peer-reviewed, outcomes-focused studies.

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Tips from the National Science Foundation--9/26/97: 1) University of Miami Joins Suny Buffalo to Study Airborne Contagions; 2) Skeletal Muscle May Repair Heart Damage, 3) President's Budget Continues Shift to Civilian R&D

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University of Maryland researchers have confirmed the link between a calcium-handling enzyme and the strength of the heart's beat. They also have been able to enhance the heart's beating strength using a genetically altered adenovirus to give heart muscle cells extra copies of the gene that produces the crucial enzyme, ATPase.

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Tips from the American Psychiatric Association -- September, Part 2: 1) Two Decades of Psychiatric Leadership: An Interview with Melvin Sabshin, M.D., 2) Meeting on Psychiatric Services Held in October, 3) Mark Your Calendars: American Psychiatric Association Calendar Listings, 4) Free APA Resources for Media

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Tips from the American Psychiatric Association, -- September, Part 1: 1) Schizophrenia Tied to Complications at Birth, 2) Antidepressants in Breast Milk: No Negative Impact, 3) Homeless People with Mental Illness Find Support in the Community, 4) Mental Illness Seen in Young Adults Abusing Drugs and Alcohol, 5) Violence May Be Predictable

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African Americans with higher income and education levels are less likely to suffer the consequences of hypertension because of their awareness of the benefits of a heart healthy diet.

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Nick Irons swam the length of the Missisippi River, from Minneapolis to Baton Rouge, to raise awareness of the neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) and to raise money for MS research. His father, Dr. John Irons, has lived with MS for over a decade, and currently uses one of the latest treatments available, called AVONEX, to delay the progression of disability which normally occurs with the disease.

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Latin American markets are accurately characterized as being among the riskiest capital markets in the world, but Latin American markets have outperformed the Standard & Poor's over the last 20 years. That's according to research by two professors at Texas Christian University who have researched Latin American market's performance as compared with the S&P 500 over the last 20 years.

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Tips from the American Psychiatric Association Journals - Part 3: 1) 49th Institute on Psychiatric Services Provides Dozens of Story Ideas, 2) Mark Your Calendars - APA Event Listing, 3) Free Resources for Media from the APA

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Tips from the American Psychiatric Association - Part 2: 1) 10 Percent of Patients Report Insomnia, 2) Confining Sex Offenders: the Supreme Court Decision, 3) New Technique Bridges the Communication Gap for Patients with Schizophrenia, 4) Persons with Mental Illnesses Benefit from Community Care

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Tips from the American Psychiatric Association Journals: 1) New Insights into Late Life Depression; 2) Screening Leads to Treatment for Depression; 3) Life Expectancy Shortened by Mental Disorders

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Cornell gerontologist, Karl Pillemer, has developed a program and published a manual called "Partners in Caregiving" to improve communication between nursing home staff and families of residents.

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Thanks to the confluence of a new technology in virology and a recent patent in rearing insects, scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research Inc. (BTI), located at Cornell University, have found a better way to produce commercial quantities of pharmaceutical proteins out of insect larvae.

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Winston-Salem -- In what could be the most exciting advance in the treatment of AIDS to date, Bowman Gray School of Medicine scientists today reported a novel way to block the deadly HIV virus from ever invading white blood cells.

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A team of Miami University researchers has discovered another part of the process that allows certain reptiles and amphibians to freeze solid and then thaw back to healthy life. Glucose, key to preserving wood frogs when they freeze during winter, is not flushed out of a frog's body when it thaws, but is reabsorbed into the bloodstream through the frog's urinary bladder, according to research by Drs. Jon Costanzo, Phyllis Callahan and Richard Lee, professors of zoology, and Michael Wright, research associate, all at Miami.

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Experimental psychologists have discovered that babies as young as 8 months are quite good at learning and remembering words.

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A genetically engineered thyroid-stimulating compound may be used safely and effectively to screen for recurrence of thyroid cancer after surgery and cause fewer side effects than the traditional test, according to a national study led by two Baltimore physicians.

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When you're upset, putting the hurt into words is probably the best thing you can do to get over it, says a Purdue University expert on communication.

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A Purdue University study sheds new light on the old practice of marrying for money. "Marriage has a lot to do with wealth accumulation," says Janet Wilmoth, assistant professor of sociology. "Getting and staying married appears to provide institutional benefits that greatly impact long- term economic well-being."

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First lady Rosalynn Carter was awarded the National Mental Health Association's "Into the Light" award for her decades of dedication to mental health advocacy. The award was presented at NMHA's annual tribute dinner in Washington, DC, September 25.

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Notes in Brief: 1. A BU School of Medicine research team has deemed a transplant involving pig cells to be safe. The transplant is designed to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and will shortly begin controlled trials. 2. Teenagers in Massachusetts are unlikely to seek HIV testing, although a majority believe that they are at least "a little likely" to become infected with the virus, a BU School of Public Health researcher finds.