The new method uses a modified form of magnetic resonance imaging to determine the concentration of a polymer known as glycosaminogycan (GAG) that holds lots of water and gives cartilage its tough, elastic properties. GAG also is a recognized biomarker for both osteoarthritis and degenerative disc disease — a common cause of back pain. According to Jerschow, a low concentration of GAG is known to correlate with the onset of osteoarthritis and other cartilage disorders.

The diagnostic "tags" the hydrogen atoms attached to the GAGs in a way that makes them emit a signal that can be picked up by an MRI machine to determine the concentration of GAG and assess cartilage health.

Advanced OA is very easy to diagnose, Regatte points out. By then, however, joint replacement may be the only option. With early detection, physicians could prescribe dietary supplements, medication or other measures to ward off further cartilage damage.

"Given the lack of knowledge about OA, I think any method that is noninvasive and relatively easy to apply will be quite valuable. Not only do you address diagnosis, but you address how we can understand OA's mechanism," says Jerschow.

The test could also be used to improve existing cartilage-boosting drugs, Regatte says. Currently, it's difficult to gauge the efficacy of these drugs without a diagnostic tool to measure their effects on cartilage.

"There are drugs on the market for OA treatment, but no one really knows how effective they are. After having done the research, we got a lot of calls from pharmaceutical companies wanting to show that their drugs work," says Jerschow.

Press release: New test to diagnose osteoarthritis early

Image: Anatomy, illustrating osteoarthritis changes in articular cartilage. Wellcome Images.

Today at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), the keynote speaker from Intel foreshadowed a device that the company promised to unveil tomorrow. In the meantime, a Panasonic-branded device that looks curiously similar was displayed somewhere else on the floor of the conference.

Ubergizmo snapped some shots of what looks like a new version of the C5 portable clinical tablet computer.

More from Ubergizmo...

(hat tip: SlashGear)

From MIT Technology Review:

Working with dermatologists at the University of Pennsylvania, Gallagher and Preti recruited 11 people with basal cell carcinoma for the study, as well as controls matched for age, gender, and ethnicity. The volunteers went through a weeklong "wash-out" process in which they used fragrance-free shampoo and soap and wore T-shirts provided by the researchers to eliminate odors from external sources.

The researchers then collected odor samples by placing a funnel with an absorbent fiber over the volunteers' skin for 30 minutes. They also washed the skin with an alcohol solution to collect compounds sitting on the surface. "We found two chemicals in particular that were significantly different when you compared a cancer patient with a healthy subject," Gallagher says. Both compounds were present in the healthy volunteers, but one compound was at a higher concentration and the other at a lower concentration above the tumors in the cancer patients.

More from MIT Technology Review...

In one paper, Fordham University psychologist Fran C. Blumberg, PhD, and Sabrina S. Ismailer, MSED, examined 122 fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders' problem-solving behavior while playing a video game that they had never seen before to show that playing video games can improve cognitive and perceptual skills.

As the children played the game, they were asked to think aloud for 20 minutes. Researchers assessed their problem-solving ability by examining the types of cognitive, goal-oriented, game-oriented, emotional and contextual statements they made.

"Younger children seem more interested in setting short-term goals for their learning in the game compared to older children who are more interested in simply playing and the actions of playing," said Blumberg. "Thus, younger children may show a greater need for focusing on small aspects of a given problem than older children, even in a leisure-based situation such as playing video games."

In a second paper, Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile, PhD, and William Stone, BS, described several studies involving high school and college students and laparoscopic surgeons that looked at their video game usage and its effects.

Findings from the student studies confirmed previous research on effects of playing violent games: Those playing violent games were more hostile, less forgiving and believed violence to be normal compared to those who played nonviolent games. Players of "prosocial" games got into fewer fights in school and were more helpful to other students.

Other studies involving students showed that those who played more entertainment games did poorer in school and were at greater risk for obesity.

A study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors compared to those who did not play video games, said Gentile.

Advanced video game skill and experience are significant predictors of suturing capabilities, the researchers found, even after controlling for sex, years of medical training and number of laparoscopic surgeries performed.

A second study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons (82 percent men; 18 percent women) also showed that surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster at their first attempt and across all 10 trials than the surgeons who did not the play video games first.

"The big picture is that there are several dimensions on which games have effects, including the amount they are played, the content of each game, what you have to pay attention to on the screen, and how you control the motions," said Gentile. "This means that games are not ‘good' or ‘bad,' but are powerful educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they could."

In another paper, researchers Constance Steinkuehler, PhD, and Sean Duncan, MA, of the University of Wisconsin at Madison looked at how game-based learning can supplement textbooks and science labs in fostering scientific thinking. They analyzed a random sample of nearly 2,000 discussion posts in November 2006 where participants talked about various game-related topics.

Using codes based on national benchmarks for scientific literacy, discussions of the multiplayer online game World of Warcraft were examined to see what types of conversations took place, such as social bantering versus problem-solving, that classified as scientific reasoning. The game set in a fantasy world had players of various classes hunt, gather, battle and craft in order to strengthen or move their character up in "levels." Characters move faster when they work together.

The codes addressed a different aspect of scientific thinking, including reasoning using systems and models, understanding feedback, predicting and testing and using math to investigate a problem.

Full story: PLAYING VIDEO GAMES OFFERS LEARNING ACROSS LIFE SPAN, SAY STUDIES

Image: Sean D.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory released the following explanation:

Researchers have been trying to make thin films of helical peptides for many years. Because the peptides line up in an orderly fashion, the overall chemical nature of the thin films make them useful for a variety of technological applications. They can be modified with light sensitive molecules and turned into components of solar cells; or designed to change shape when a current is applied for molecular electronics. Also, the helices themselves can be used to elicit cues about how proteins function.

After making the thin films out of generic peptides previously, Laskin and Wang wanted to use this method to make a film out of helical peptides, and compare it with a more common method called electrospray.

To do so, Laskin and Wang began with peptides made almost entirely of the amino acid alanine. Due to alanine's chemical nature, long chains of it naturally form so-called α helices. The researchers ended the alanine chain with the amino acid lysine, which stabilizes the helix and allows the coiled chain to be chemically attached to the surface.

Working with a specially designed mass-selected ion deposition instrument at EMSL, DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus, they deposited the peptides on the support layer in one of two ways, starting either from a liquid form for electrospray or from a gaseous mixture for soft-landing. In each case, the chemists began with the peptides (either in liquid or gas), zapped them to give them a slight electrical charge and blew them onto the surface.

When the chemists examined the peptide shapes in the solution and the resulting thin film, they found, unexpectedly, that most of the peptides failed to form helices. Instead, the majority of peptides took on a flat shape known as a β sheet. The dearth of helices in liquid form surprised the researchers.

When the researchers next used soft-landing to form thin layers, they didn't know if the peptides would form helices before landing on the surface. "Because we were starting from something that wasn't α-helical in solution, we were a little pessimistic whether it would work at all," Wang said.

But work it did. Depositing the peptides with soft-landing, the chemists found that nearly all of them alighted as helices. In addition, they could chemically connect the helices to the surface using a related technique called reactive-landing. When the chemists treated the thin layer with sound waves to test how easily the peptides fell off or changed shape, they found that some loosely bound peptides fell off, but those remaining retained their helical forms.

"They formed a nicely organized, beautiful layer," says Wang.

Next, the team would like to create thin peptide layers using different support surfaces and a different mix of peptide shapes, to learn how to control the design of the thin films precisely.

Full story: Chemists make beds with soft landings...

The Japanese are rightfully tired of all the shacking going on in their country on a regular basis. Earthquakes create rubble and trap helpless victims deep within, making it difficult to locate them while the clock is ticking. At Tohoku University researchers have developed what we'll call a rubllescope, an endoscopic snake-like device that can move by vibrating its ciila. The device is designed to crawl through narrow channels, giving rescuers a view from within via a light and camera located at the snake's head.

Video demonstrating the device is embedded below.

Gizmodo has more info about the device here...

Here's a video demonstrating the workings of the Occiflex:

From the product page:

Device Therapy: Non-invasive, naturally therapeutic, gentle and safe

Muscular Treatment: Restores normal neck muscle activation patterns

Treatment Optimization: Uses real-time patient data to provide optimal treatment

Efficient reduction in pain: Passive movement, enabling a significant decrease of head and neck muscle activation which is crucial for a full span of muscle relaxation

User Experience: Occiflex treatment is expected to create a positive experience that will leave the patient eager to come back for treatment

Cost Effectiveness: Occiflex has the flexibility and mobility to be attached to an existing treatment table

Device page: Occiflex

More at ISRAEL21c...

Here's a short video explaining the basics of the system:

More about the software from IBM:

Today's mobile devices have an endless number of functions that can record data in real time. IBM's new software blends techniques from image processing, GPS information, smart clustering, optical character recognition, speech recognition, and information retrieval to index and tag the information.

Researchers at IBM's Haifa Research Lab in Israel are pairing advanced mobile technologies with memory cues to develop a system that can analyze acquired data, create hooks to related experiences, and use them to populate a person's information management applications. Once the address books and calendars are updated, the technology enables memory recall triggered by time, location or the introduction of related information.

For example, if you meet someone at a conference and use your phone to take a picture of him or her and another picture of that person's business card, the new technology will associate the two pieces of data because they were taken at the same time and location. It then creates a virtual briefcase of data that includes the person's image, the name of the conference where you met, the date and time, and any other relevant data.

The knowledge base is unique in its ability to integrate contextual information with image, time, and location data. Prior to a future meeting with the same person, you can be prompted by your calendar to review your notes about that person, along with other facts you may have recorded or items the system associated for you.

Press release: Made in IBM Labs: IBM Research Develops Technology to Aid Human Memory

The Boston Globe has an incredible photo essay on the Large Hadron Collider.

Press release: CERN announces start-up date for LHC...

From the abstract:

Methods. Bicycle police officers from five U.S. metropolitan areas were recruited for this study. Officers completed: (i) the International Index of Erectile Function Questionnaire (IIEF); (ii) computerized pressure measurements at the points of contact on the bicycle; the handlebars, the pedals, and the saddle; (iii) one night of nocturnal Rigiscan® assessment; (iv) penile vibrotactile sensitivity threshold assessed by computerized biothesiometery. Officers selected a no-nose saddle for their bicycles and were asked to use the intervention saddle exclusively for 6 months, at which point they were retested.

Results. After 6 months, 90 men were reassessed. Only three men had returned to a traditional saddle. The results are presented for those who used the no-nose saddle continuously for 6 months. There was a 66% reduction in saddle contact pressure in the perineal region (P < 0.001). There was a significant improvement in penis tactile sensation (P = 0.015). There was a significant improvement in erectile function assessed by IIEF (P = 0.015). There were no changes noted in the Rigiscan® measures. The number of men indicating they had not experienced urogential paresthesia while cycling for the preceding 6 months, rose from 27% to 82% using no-nose saddles.

Abstract in Journal of Sexual Medicine...