Author Archives: karen
Recovery of fingermarks from fired and unfired cartridge cases
Fingermarks present at crime scenes can be successfully used by forensic examiners to identify possible offenders. There are a lot of techniques designed to develop fingermarks on a wide variety of surfaces and the market nowadays offers
Data storage – Quo vadis?
The amount of digital data created by mankind is increasing exponentially. Big companies have evolved addressing the need to store and manage such data masses. Google, Microsoft, and others are challenged to save several petabytes (1 PB
Can bacteria resist a new antibacterial method?
Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is on the rise worldwide, making some previously-treatable infections incurable or even life-threatening. Thus there is a growing need for the discovery and development of new antibacterial methods of disinfection. Ideally these methods
The birth of neurons, steered by the antenna of the cell
Millions of neurons that constitute the human nervous system are generated during fetal development from stem cells that reside at the ventricle, a liquid-filled space found deep within the brain. How the fate of a stem cell
Palpating the brain with MR Elastography to diagnose normal pressure hydrocephalus
Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a treatable cause of dementia that accounts for about 6% of dementia cases. It is a condition of elderly individuals of unknown cause, and is characterized by the presence of excessive fluid
Spinal tumors in children: a rare disease
Tumors of the Central Nervous System (CNS) are one of the first causes of morbidity and mortality in children in developed countries. Among them, spinal tumors are estimated to account for less than 10% of the cases,
Proposed novel therapy for a sexually transmitted disease
Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) is one of the seven pathogens that cause sexually transmitted disease, also popularly known as venereal disease. The NG infections are contagious. Their prevalence is higher among women than in men, high among sexually
Consumer and genetically modified food
Nowadays quality and safety influence consumers’ behaviour of food products more and more: so, food labeling has really an important role in the food system and marketing policy. Also the use of new biotechnologies into agri-food system
Probing the past with state of the art science
One of the breakthroughs in textile coloration achieved during the 19th century was the development of synthetic dyestuffs and in particular those with the colour purple. Prior to this time purple textiles were expensive and relegated to
Signaling in the brain studied – a role for receptor clustering?
Olfactomedin-1 is a signaling protein in the brain that plays various roles during early brain development. Brain cells (neurons) secrete the protein to the extracellular matrix, where it is known to be involved in several signaling pathways.
Putting mammalian target of rapamycin on track
Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is the target protein of rapamycin, a bacterial metabolite in Streptomyces hygroscopicus primarily found in the soil sample from Easter Island in South America thirty years ago. Since mTOR was discovered in
Replacing diseased arteries: are we close enough?
Medical device technology has advanced to an extent that artificial heart, kidney, arteries, and prosthetic limbs are available as commercial market products. It is now a matter of choice for the patient and the surgeon to choose
Roots of risky decisions in drug dependence
Decision-making is a key activity of everyday life. Consequently, disturbances in the ability to make appropriate decisions or anticipate their possible consequences can result in massive social, medical, and financial problems. In the Iowa gambling test developed
Applicability of alkaline hydrolysis at medical waste
Although definition of medical waste (MW) is not universal and relatively variable worldwide, it can be defined as “all the waste generated by healthcare establishments, research facilities and laboratories”. This waste is a small fraction of total
Morgellons disease: the search for a perpetrator
Morgellons disease is a poorly understood skin condition associated with Lyme disease. Patients suffering from the disease often have spontaneously-appearing, slowly-healing skin ulcers and may have crawling or stinging sensations in their skin. They may have one
Foraging gone wrong: a case of poisoning from wild mushrooms
A previously healthy 52-year-old woman presented to the emergency department in early August with abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Approximately 12 hours earlier, she had harvested wild mushrooms from a local park with her husband, who
Fast electric characterization of biological cells using an old idea of Maxwell
In his treatise, James Clerk Maxwell (1873) did not only derive his famous equations but he also provided the mathematical description of the direct current (DC) resistance for dilute suspensions of shelled spherical objects. At his time,
A novel reovirus mutant: toward the next generation of viruses for cancer treatment?
In the last decade or so, it has been realized that viruses are not only foes to fight, but possible therapeutics against diseases such as cancer. Most of these so-called oncolytic viruses are engineered to acquire desirable
Total ankle replacements in diabetics
Diabetes is a growing public health concern with 380 million people worldwide projected to have the disease by 2025. With over 1% of the world’s population having ankle arthritis, many diabetic patients will require operative treatment. Modern
A central theory of biology
Like all sciences, Biology began with the systematic categorization of plants and animals, beginning with Linnaeus’s Binomial Nomenclature. That process was based on the appearance of organisms, which we know is subjective due to the way that
