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A.
A Study Questions Age-based Cancer Screenings for
the Frail Elderly
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A new study questions the
practice of routinely encouraging elderly women
in poor health to have mammograms. Dr. Louise Walter
of the University of California, San Francisco,
says their study suggests age-based cancer screening
guidelines should be more individualized.
Walter:
The idea was to try and bring screening more
into thinking about the benefit and the risk in
involving patient preferences in the decision, as
opposed to just screening to a certain age and then
stop - based on some guideline that you read.
Narrator:
Walter says that's because there's so much variability
in older patients.
Walter:
For example, if you have a very healthy eighty-year
old person - life expectancy of this person is going
to be at least ten years. And they're therefore
likely to benefit from screening, because usually
screening's meant to detect something that occurs
five to ten years down the road. So it's generally
agreed that you have to have a five to ten year
life expectancy if you're going to get any benefit
from a cancer screening test. So you could see that
person as potentially benefiting as opposed to a
seventy-year old with severe congestive heart failure.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
An Innovative Way to Measure Heavy-duty Diesel Emissions
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Measuring emissions generated
from engines under "real world" operating
conditions is difficult because the results can vary
greatly. But researchers at the University of California,
Riverside are now using a high-tech, lab-on-wheels
to measure the emissions produced by heavy-duty diesel
engines. Joe Norbeck is director of the university's
Center for Environmental Research and Technology.
Norbeck: We've put together
an emissions laboratory that's unique in the world.
We took a fifty-five foot trailer that you see driving
along these large trailers that heavy-duty diesel
engines pull and we put a very elaborate and sophisticated
emissions laboratory inside this 55-foot trailer.
Narrator: The diesel tractors then pull
around this trailer, while instruments inside take
detailed measurements of the composition of the exhaust.
Norbeck:
We're now
going to not only be able to understand better the
emissions of the current vehicle fleet, but to see
what the impact will be with control strategies.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Can Consumers Avoid G.M.O.'s?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. As the controversy over genetically
modified organisms, or G.M.O.'s, continues to swirl,
one thing is clear - it's becoming almost impossible
for consumers to avoid them. Norman Ellstrand, a professor
of genetics at the University of California, Riverside,
says it would be hard to avoid eating food in this
country that doesn't have some portion that was genetically
engineered in the last twenty-four hours.
Ellstrand:
All our processed food has items in them from
soybeans and corn, which the vast majority of both
crops in the United States are genetically engineered
now, so it's very likely that if you eat processed
foods, you're going to contact something that's genetically
engineered.
Narrator:
Regardless of one's opinion of G.M.O.'s, Ellstrand
emphasizes it's an important industry and people need
to educate themselves on the topic.
Ellstrand:
I think the other thing I would emphasize is nobody
should listen to one person, that scientists are all
specialists and each of us specialists - like the
blind men of India - touch a different piece of the
elephant and come up with a different view. The best
way to get educated is to seek a lot of information.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Clinical Trials Begin for a New 'Bionic Ear'
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A new cochlear implant called
the Bionic Ear is set to begin clinical trials at
the University of California, San Francisco and other
leading medical centers nationwide. Jan Larky, an
audiologist at the university, says the study is targeting
adults with profound hearing loss.
Larky:
Even though the implant may not give somebody perfect
hearing, this implant really has the ability to allow
people to connect with other people through communication
and most of these people will come in and say, "I
can't communicate with my family. I feel totally isolated
socially, because I can't hear them".
Narrator:
Aside from these feelings of isolation, Larky says
these implants greatly impact feelings of safety.
Larky:
Many people live alone and with an implant you can
hear if somebody's knocking on your door. Sounds around
the house that are normal and not normal. So there's
a certain amount of safety that comes from being able
to hear.
Narrator:
Those interested in the Bionic Ear trial should contact
their local audiologist. For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
E.
A Better Understanding of non-REM Sleep
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A recent University of California,
San Francisco study linking sleep to significant early
brain development, has uncovered an interesting finding.
According to the study's lead investigator, Dr. Marcos
Frank, their results suggest it's non-rapid eye movement,
or non-REM sleep, that seems to be important in this
process.
Frank:
This seems a little counter-intuitive for most
folks because people tend to think of rapid eye movement
sleep as where all the business must be with sleep
because the brain looks very much like waking during
this time - there's lots of activation of the brain.
Narrator:
But Frank says their results don't rule out a role
for REM sleep in the process of learning and memory.
Frank:
What they really show is that it's the deep kind of
slumber, where the brain is firing in a very peculiar
way during this time. It's firing in an synchronized,
bursting sort of way, so the whole brain is oscillating
on and off and we think that this reverberation activity
through the circuits is responsible for the strengthening
of the effects of prior waking experience.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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