The hand-held scanners, or tricorders, of the Star Trek movies and television series are one step closer to reality now that a University of Missouri engineering team has invented a compact source of X-rays and other forms of radiation.
The radiation source, which is the size of a stick of gum, could be used to create inexpensive and portable X-ray scanners for use by doctors, as well as to fight terrorism and aid exploration on this planet and others.
“Currently, X-ray machines are huge and require tremendous amounts of electricity,” said Scott Kovaleski, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. “In approximately three years, we could have a prototype hand-held X-ray scanner using our invention. The cell-phone-sized device could improve medial services in remote and impoverished regions and reduce health care expenses everywhere.”
Kovaleski suggested other uses for the device. In dentists’ offices, the tiny X-ray generators could be used to take images from the inside of the mouth shooting the rays outward, reducing radiation exposure to the rest of the patients’ heads.
At ports and border crossings, portable scanners could search cargoes for contraband, which would both reduce costs and improve security. Interplanetary probes, like the Curiosity rover, could be equipped with the compact sensors, which otherwise would require too much energy.
The accelerator developed by Kovaleski’s team could be used to create other forms of radiation in addition to X-rays.
For example, the invention could replace the radioactive materials, called radioisotopes, used in drilling for oil as well as other industrial and scientific operations. Kovaleski’s invention could replace radioisotopes with a safer source of radiation that could be turned off in case of emergency.
“Our device is perfectly harmless until energized, and even then it causes relatively low exposures to radiation,” said Kovaleski. “We have never really had the ability to design devices around a radioisotope with an on-off switch. The potential for innovation is very exciting.”
The device uses a crystal to produce more than 100,000 volts of electricity from only 10 volts of electrical input with low power consumption.
Having such a low need for power could allow the crystal to be fueled by batteries. The crystal, made from a material called lithium niobate, uses the piezoelectric effect to amplify the input voltage. Piezoelectricity is the phenomenon whereby certain materials produce an electric charge when the material is under stress.
New research suggests that drinking sweetened beverages, especially diet drinks, is associated with an increased risk of depression in adults while drinking coffee was tied to a slightly lower risk.
The study was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013.
“Sweetened beverages, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical-- and may have important mental – health consequences,” said study author Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, with the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study involved 263,925 people between the ages of 50 and 71 at enrollment. From 1995 to 1996, consumption of drinks such as soda, tea, fruit punch and coffee was evaluated.
About 10 years later, researchers asked the participants whether they had been diagnosed with depression since the year 2000. A total of 11,311 depression diagnoses were made.
People who drank more than four cans or cups per day of soda were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than those who drank no soda.
Those who drank four cans of fruit punch per day were about 38 percent more likely to develop depression than those who did not drink sweetened drinks.
People who drank four cups of coffee per day were about 10 percent less likely to develop depression than those who drank no coffee.
The risk appeared to be greater for people who drank diet than regular soda, diet than regular fruit punches and for diet than regular iced tea.
“Our research suggests that cutting out or down on sweetened diet drinks or replacing them with unsweetened coffee may naturally help lower your depression risk,” said Chen. “More research is needed to confirm these findings, and people with depression should continue to take depression medications prescribed by their doctors.”
Female athletes are three times more likely to suffer from anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures, one of the most common knee injuries, compared to male athletes.
The ACL is one of the four main ligaments within the knee that connect the femur (upper leg bone) to the tibia (lower leg bone).
Recent research highlights the unique anatomical differences in the female knee that may contribute to higher injury rates, and should be taken into consideration during reconstructive surgery and sports training, according to a review article in the January 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS).
“As female athletes have increased their participation in sports, many studies have shown the vulnerability of female athletes to ACL ruptures,” said Karen Sutton, MD, assistant professor, Yale University Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, and lead author of the review article. “This devastating injury has a long recovery period and a slow return to sport. Thus, research has been done focusing on why women are more vulnerable to ACL injuries and how to prevent them.”
Multiple, recent research studies also have found that preseason and ongoing neuromuscular training programs as part of an overall sports training program aimed specifically at improving knee stability when jumping, landing or pivoting can significantly decrease ACL injury risk among girls and women.
Unique anatomical features of female athletes such as a larger quadriceps angle (”Q angle”)—the angle at which the femur meets the tibia—may cause a greater pull of the knee muscles during physical activity, and contribute to more ACL injuries among females.
Anatomical differences in the female knee should be taken into consideration during ACL reconstruction, said Dr. Sutton.
Females are more likely than males to have a smaller, A-shaped intercondylar notch (the deep groove between the rounded ends of the femur bone), making ACL reconstruction more challenging, and possibly requiring altered surgical techniques.
“All female athletes, starting in adolescence, should learn appropriate training techniques,” said Dr. Sutton. “This includes the appropriate way to land from a jump, increasing the strength of muscles that could have a protective affect on the ACL – core, gluteal, quadriceps and hamstring muscles, as well as working on the body’s reaction to change of direction and change of speed.”
Read about how Aimee Hartwell, Christina Gordon, and Joanne Donoghue overcame their sports-related ACL rupture injuries on www.AnationInMotion.org .
Could marriage, and associated companionship, be one key to a longer life? According to new research, not having a permanent partner, or spouse, during midlife is linked to a higher risk of premature death during those midlife years.
The work, by Dr. Ilene Siegler and colleagues from Duke University Medical Center in the US, is published online in Springer’s journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Survival through middle age to become elderly is expected; therefore understanding who does not survive to become elderly and why is important.
Siegler and colleagues looked at the effect of marriage history and timing of marriage on premature death during midlife. They were also interested in testing the role of pre-marital personality and quantifying the role of health behaviors.
The researchers analyzed data for 4,802 individuals who took part in the University of North Carolina Alumni Heart Study (UNCAHS) – an ongoing study of individuals born in the 1940s.
The authors were particularly interested in stability and change in patterns of marital and non-marital status during midlife, controlling for personality at college entry (average age 18), socioeconomic status and health risk behaviors.
They found that having a partner during middle age is protective against premature death: those who never married were more than twice as likely to die early than those who had been in a stable marriage throughout their adult life.
Being single, or losing a partner without replacement, increased the risk of early death during middle age and reduced the likelihood that one would survive to be elderly.
Even when personality and risky behaviors were taken into account, marital status continued to have a major impact on survival.
The authors conclude: “Our results suggest that attention to non-marital patterns of partnership is likely to become more important for these Baby Boomers. These patterns appear to provide different levels of emotional and functional social support, which has been shown to be related to mortality. Social ties during midlife are important to help us understand premature mortality.”