Scientists finally zero in on a cause for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Scientists finally zero in on a cause for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Author cobster | 13.10.2009 | Category Science

Scientists are hopeful that a cause has finally been discovered for the baffling illness known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

Dubbed “yuppie flu” back in the 1980s as sufferers developed inexplicable and long-lasting exhaustion and achiness, chronic fatigue syndrome has baffled doctors for a couple of decades. 

 The discovery of a virus called XMRV in the blood of 68 out of 101 CFS patients has led scientists to believe they’ve nailed the cause, according to the Daily Mail. The study was published in the journal Science. Though 67 percent of CFS patients tested positive for XMRV, the virus only showed up in eight of 218 healthy people, according to the newspaper.
 

Lead scientist Judy Mikovits of the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Nevada says additional blood tests showed that 95 percent of chronic fatigue syndrome patients had antibodies to the virus, which means they’d been infected with XMRV, reports the Daily Mail.

“With those numbers, I would say, yes, we’ve found the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome,” she told the Daily Mail. “We also have data showing that the virus attacks the human immune system.”
 

More study is necessary, Mikovits told the Daily Mail, but she said the research holds out hope that effective treatments for CFS may be on the way. Patients could be treated from a cocktail of drugs meant to fight AIDS, inflammation and cancer, according to the Daily Mail.

Symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome range from muscle pain and headaches to swollen lymph nodes and sore throats. Memory and concentration problems also are common. About 4 million people in the U.S. have chronic fatigue syndrome, according to the CFIDS Association of America, a charitable organization devoted to CFS.

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Cloned Puppy Glows in the Dark

Author janet | 28.04.2009 | Category Science

The Seoul National University in South Korea has cloned five beagle puppies and genetically modified their DNA to make them glow red under ultraviolet light. The team was led by Byeong-Chun Lee who cloned the first male dog in 2005. The purpose of the team’s study is to create dogs that will be carriers for human illnesses and become models for future scientific research. These dog’s can then be used to study illnesses such as cancer and other types of virus infections.

Although these studies can be useful for scientific research, as a dog owner I find these methods can be debateable. I see no difference in using clones instead of real animals in the name of science and progress. And besides, who needs a glowing dog?

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Sanitize with a “Magic” wand

Author JoeDigital | 10.03.2009 | Category Science, Technology

One of the gadgets that were shown in a gathering of companies held somewhere in New York Times Square just last February 2009 was this UV Sanitizer Wand. As the title of the product speaks for itself, the portable wand-like device can sanitize germs over a surface with the use of natural “UV-C” light, which is what is used in hospitals to kill germs.

It’s simple to use: you just scan any surface you want to sanitize with the device, making sure that the object of sanitation is exposed to the UV-C light. You can do this on towels, kitchen and bathroom sinks, counters, linen and even your shoes. You can also bring this around with you, so you can sanitize publicly used stuff before you use them yourself.

While the device is yet to be critiqued by consumers, this device does not sound at all farfetched. And considering that it’s worth $60, it is certainly a product “neat freaks” would want to look into.

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Laser Printers: A Health Hazard?

Author JoeDigital | 18.02.2009 | Category Computers, Science

While some types of older printers were said to have harmful effects to one’s health, this new surprising finding from an Australian research group on laser printers showed that even top of the line printers can produce harmful toxic elements as well. The study basically showed that these printers produced materials as harmful as cigarette smoke. This alarmed many printer companies as much as it got the attention of consumers, and reactions and denials were all over the place.

And now those same researchers are back with new findings. After testing it on two types of laser printers – one that produces little particulate matter and another that makes 1000 times as much – the researchers pointed out that the combined activity of the toner, lubricating oil, paper, and other parts of the printer reacts at a certain temperature and produces harmful emissions into the air.

However, without any further testing on the matter laser printers cannot be directly blamed with this kind of “harmful effect”. Inkjet printers in general, however, remain to be safe, as this study was only for laser printers.

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Wheelchair that has own mechanical arm

Author JoeDigital | 09.02.2009 | Category Robotics, Science, Technology

 

There are a growing number of people today who are confined to a wheelchair for the major portion of their lives, and an increasing number of them are completely dependent on assistance from others. Powered wheelchairs have helped a great deal, but computer technology and robotic technology have taken a bold step forward, and added a mechanical arm to a wheelchair, giving a literal helping hand to people who haven’t had one of their own for years. 

Because such problems are often indicative of complete paralysis, the robotic arm is controlled using EEG, which amount to brain waves. This isn’t exactly the same as human to machine telepathy, but it sure looks a lot like it to people who aren’t familiar with today’s computer aided machines.

This chair, which is not yet ready for market, but may be available within the next five years, was developed by a team at the University of South Florida. Not only does the device offer a mechanical arm to manipulate objects, but it gives a paralyzed owner something that is not available with any form of human assistance: self-respect and personal esteem.

Initial testing by human users has successfully proven that the WMRA control system can be used without having the user to use even a single muscle. The WMRA also will not use any pre-programmed movements unless chosen by the user beforehand. Rajiv Dubey, professor and chair of the USF Department of Mechanical Engineering, and director of the Center for Rehabilitation Engineering & Technology, has mentioned in passing that such a design (in the field of intelligent therapeutic and assistive robotic systems such as the WMRA) is based on sensor-fusion technology, which is utilized to map limited human input into complex motion via a method known as “sensor-assisted scaled teleoperation.” 

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The Sony Mofiria

Author JoeDigital | 04.02.2009 | Category Computers, IT Security, Science

For most of us, a fingerprint is the height of personal identification, but for some applications, something a bit more secure is necessary. For that, Sony is introducing the Mofiria, which can use near-infrared to look at the veins in your finger.

Fingerprints, as we’ve all seen in movies, can be altered or removed, and a wiley criminal can even mimic someone else’s prints under certain circumstances. But the veins in your finger are as unique as your fingerprint, and there is currently no known way of altering them without extensive and expensive surgery. And even that surgery could only alter yours, it can not currently be used to simulate someone else’s.

This is exactly what the mofiria is designed to indentify. It uses near
infrared LEDs on the side of the user’s finger, and then CMOS sensors
can capture the scattered light inside the finger veins.

Sony hopes to have these devices available sometime during the fiscal 2009 year, and reports that these devices, like their fingerprint scanning countrparts, are flat, which will allow for easy integration into mobile devices.

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Nano ‘Tractor Beam’ Traps DNA

Author JoeDigital | 12.01.2009 | Category Science, Technology

Using a beam of light shunted through a tiny silicon channel, researchers have created a nanoscale trap that can stop free floating DNA molecules and nanoparticles in their tracks. By holding the nanoscale material steady while the fluid around it flows freely, the trap may allow researchers to boost the accuracy of biological sensors and create a range of new ‘lab on a chip’ diagnostic tools.

“For this research to emerge in the marketplace in a device such as a ‘lab on a chip’, it is essential for engineers to be able to manipulate matter at the scale of molecules and atoms, particularly while the matter is contained within a fluid stream only slightly larger than the particles themselves,” says William Schultz, the National Science Foundation (NSF) program officer who oversaw the researchers’ grant. “NSF and other funding agencies have made nano-science and -technology a high priority. The Cornell researchers have made an important step in realizing the full potential of these devices.”

“At the nanoscale, we can think of light like a series of massless particles called photons,” says Cornell engineer David Erickson, one of the co-authors of the study. “We’ve demonstrated a way to condense these photons down to a very small area and stream them along a special type of waveguide, a device that acts like a nanoscale optical fiber. When pieces of matter, like DNA or nanoparticles, float near these streaming photons, they are sucked in and pushed along with the flow. The effect is sort of like moving a truck by throwing baseballs at it. The trick is that we found a way to have a large number of highly efficient “collisions” between the photons and the nanoparticles, getting them to stay in our device and keep them moving along it.”

The breakthrough is the use of the slot waveguide, which condenses a light wave’s energy to scales as small as the target molecules, overcoming prior limitations caused by light diffraction. Because the waveguide is also a “nanochannel” it can both trap and transport objects using light.

“What we’re hoping to do now is better understand some of the underlying physics to see what else might be possible with this approach,” adds Erickson. “Ultimately we imagine being able to take all the ultrafast and highly efficient optical devices that have been developed for communications and other applications over the last 20 years and apply them to the manipulation of matter in different types of nanosystems. Hopefully in the future we can shuttle around individual strands of DNA the same way we now shuttle around light.”

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Toshiba Begins Solar Photovoltaic Business

Author JoeDigital | 12.01.2009 | Category Science, Technology, Technology Viewpoint

Toshiba Corp has announced its full-scale entry into the solar photovoltaic systems business. On January 1, Toshiba’s Transmission Distribution & Industrial Systems Co established the Photovoltaic Systems Division, a business management and promotion organization that will take the initiative in responding to a surge in demand for solar photovoltaic systems, widely recognized as a key measure against global warming.

Solar photovoltaic systems are moving beyond residential applications to large, megawatt-scale projects for utility and industrial plants. According to Toshiba, it will secure orders for large solar power generation systems by drawing on its competitive advantages. In components, the company’s expertise includes high-efficiency power conditioning systems and the SCiB, the super charge ion battery, a breakthrough rechargeable battery claimed to offer excellent safety, long life and rapid charging.

In system integration, the company said it can point to world-class capabilities in system integration, particularly in connecting generation systems to distribution systems; in microgrids that connect and manage dispersed small-scale power generation sources, including renewable energy sources; and in large plant system engineering capabilities.

Toshiba will promote business expansion by utilizing existing global sales channels and expects to achieve an annual business scale of about ¥200 billion (approximately US$2.2 billion) by fiscal year 2015.

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Science Tech 2008: Large Haldron Collider

Author JoeDigital | 09.01.2009 | Category Science, Technology, Technology Viewpoint

The year 2008 brought about something that highest of all high techs have longed to have for years. What I’m talking about is the fabled Large Hadron Collider, at CERN.For many, the LHC was as mysterious, and carried the same alarm as the thought of nuclear power reactors once did. Since it is designed to work with some of the smallest particles known, there was little knowledge to back up theories behind what it was intended to do. For most, however, fears of a black hole suddenly swallowing the Earth were just amusing statements.

Making history as the biggest physics experiment ever built, the LHC was designed primarily as a tool to search for the Higgs boson, which is theorized to carry the force that gives all matter in the universe its mass. The LHC went online as planned, and initial tests were very positive, but a transformer was damaged in the first days, and an elecrical short caused severe damage to one section, knocking the LHC offline again for several months.

Just as the Hubble Telescope began it’s continuing journey of history making, initial flaws are delaying the great discoveries that are sure to be made, but the LHC is still expected to be fully operational as early as the second quarter of 2009.

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Nanotechnology device Allows Precise Drug Timing

Author JoeDigital | 09.01.2009 | Category Science, Technology, world news

Researchers at MIT have managed to use nanotechnology to accurately time the release of drugs within a body. Before you get a picture in your head of super-tiny robots running around spraying drugs, let me point out that nanoparticles and nanorobots are two entirely different things. The concept is really a simple one: different particles melt when exposed to different levels of infrared light.

This method of administering medication has an advantage over traditional methods, because it allows the chemical to be placed directly at the site where it is needed, rather than infusing the entire circulatory system. This means that particularly lethal medications can be pinpointed to the tumors they are intended to affect, without damaging the tissue around it.

The way it works is that a particular drug is covered in a nanoparticle, sometimes of gold, and then administering using traditional methods. Once the drug has arrived at the site where it is needed, and then the nanoparticle is melted using mnear-infrared light, releasing the drugs exactly where it can do the most good. This process will even allow multiple drugs to be given in one dosage, and then activated at the required time individually.

By using nanoparticles that melt at different wavelengths, it vbecomes possible to adminiter sever drugs at once, and then activate them when the time is right to do so. “Just by controlling the infrared wavelength, we can choose the release time,” said Andy Wijaya, the report’s lead author.

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