A research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggests that night-time illumination could help prevent the onset of diabetic retinopathy, a condition which can result in severe visual impairment in people with diabetes.

People with diabetes generally have impaired blood capillary function, which reduces oxygen uptake to body tissue, including the retina. It has been suggested that retinal damage associated with diabetes (diabetic retinopathy) might be initiated by oxygen deprivation t

Sugar refineries and distilleries produce effluent which is harmful for the environment. The sugar industry produces two tonnes of sugar cane bagasse (a straw-like material) for every tonne of refined sugar. For Cuba this translates into 10 to 20 million tonnes of bagasse per year.

Distilleries, often associated with sugar cane production, emit copious amounts of polluting volatile components (especially volatile organic compounds, VOCs). In Cuba, an estimated annual 1 600 tonnes of ethanol

Self-repairing fenders and intelligent implants – shape-memory polymers as materials of the future

With a bang, the fender is dented and has to be replaced. Wouldn`t it be nice if the dent could simply – presto! – disappear? Such “intelligent” materials are already being developed, relate Andreas Lendlein and Steffen Kelch in an overview of the field in Angewandte Chemie.

Shape-memory polymers, that`s the magic words: after an undesired deformation, such as a dent in the fend

Tritherapies using antiretroviral drugs have proved their worth in industrialized countries in the fight against Aids. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 70 % of people infected with HIV live, access to such treatments is extremely limited. High cost, complicated procedures, combined with inadequate infrastructures for following up patients or capable of delivering medicines regularly partly explain this situation. Moreover, efficacy of antiretroviral agents might not be the same for some HIV stra

Study finds statistical evidence that animal-assisted therapy reduces loneliness in LTC residents

Animal-assisted therapy can effectively reduce the loneliness of residents in long-term care facilities, according to a study by Marian R. Banks of the VA Medical Center in St. Louis and William A. Banks of St. Louis University School of Medicine, Missouri.

The doctors noted that although animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is claimed to have a variety of benefits, until now almost al

It was the early 1990s and building Jefferson Lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator was in high gear. The Accelerator Division was busy installing some 30 vacuum ion pumps in the tunnel. Simultaneously, above ground in the long, low service buildings sitting over the tunnel, workers were installing and wiring the 7 kV, high-voltage power supplies for those ion pumps.

“With the procedures we had in place we were never in danger,” recalled Rick Gonzales, Accelerator Electronics Suppo