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A.
Good News for Chocolate Lovers
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Chocolate connoisseurs will
be heartened to learn that a clinical study has
linked cocoa flavanols found in dark chocolates
to improved blood vessel function. Researcher Mary
Engler of the University of California, San Francisco's
School of Nursing, says for two weeks, study participants
ate a flavanol-rich, dark chocolate bar and researchers
measured their baseline functions.
Engler:
And what we found was that there was at least a two
percent increase when you look at the difference between
baseline and two weeks between the two groups. And
in fact, the ones that had the low flavanoid had a
trend to decrease in their endothelial function, whereas
the ones who had the high flavanoid had an improved
endothelial function, which simply means that their
blood vessel was able to dilate more.
Narrator:
Dark chocolate has a higher percentage of flavanoids,
but consumers can't yet readily measure this content.
Engler:
But what is now in process from the USDA,
they're analyzing chocolate products, so we're going
to have a database that actually has the amount
percentage of these flavanoids.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Like Owner, Like Horse? Maybe . . .
Narrator:
For Science Today. Obesity rates in this country continue
to climb and it seems pets with overweight owners
are more susceptible to becoming obese … and not just
house pets. Jan Roser, an animal scientist at the
University of California, Davis says this trend is
becoming apparent among horses.
Roser: The owners do have a tendency
to transfer their lifestyle onto their horse, particularly
since horses are now becoming more and more of a companion
animal. And people don't recognize when a horse is
too fat and when it isn't.
Narrator: Roser says there's often a
lack of knowledge about the nutritional needs of horses
and that overfeeding them supplements and especially,
an unbalanced, high protein diet, cause them to put
on excess weight and this puts strain on their feet.
Roser:
And certainly,
medically it's not in a fit condition, so if you try
to push this kind of horse, it'll get fatigued earlier
than a more conditioned horse would.
Narrator:
And so, like humans, a better, more balanced diet and
plenty of exercise are essential for horses. For Science
Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Surgical Training Using Virtual Simulations
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Across the country, virtual
reality simulations are being used to teach first
year medical students how a real surgery looks and
feels. Martin Banks, a professor of optometry and
psychology at the University of California, Berkeley,
is at the forefront of this movement and explains
how his development of force feedback technology is
changing modern medicine.
Banks:
What we can do is create a visual touch, virtual
environment that simulates the patient and the patient's
heart. And what that means is when went in with a
scalpel in this device we can actually create the
visual impression of a heart and the feel that a heart
would return to the scalpel.
Narrator:
: By using virtual reality to create accurate simulations,
students can encounter unusual heart conditions and
practice their technique without putting a patient
at risk. Banks also hopes to advance capabilities
for remote surgery, which would allow the surgeon
and the patient to be in different locations. For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A New Approach for Designing Marine Reserves
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A new approach for designing
marine reserves in an effort to protect biodiversity
and threatened species in the Gulf of California has
been developed by researchers at the University of
California's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Diving surveys, led by Scripps' researcher Enric Sala,
were conducted at sixty sites along the gulf, which
is also called the Sea of Cortés.
Sala:
During these surveys, we obtained the first large-scale
biodiversity survey in the Gulf of California. We
started studying coastal communities and re-fished
communities and we studied reproduction, also the
connectivity between different habitats and populations
all along the Sea of Cortés.
Narrator:
The
researchers then input all this information into a
computer software program.
Sala:
We used a geographic information system and a mathematical
model to put all the information we have been collecting
on a map, basically. And our mathematical model plays
with all the different variables that we have been
studying and selects the best objective location for
a network of marine reserves that should protect biodiversity
and endangered species in the Sea of Cortés.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Merging Eastern and Western Medical Treatment
Narrator:
This
is Science Today. Recent studies have proven the effectiveness
of combining Chinese medicine with Western conventional
care for the treatment of certain chronic diseases.
But what will it take to popularize this combination?
Michael McCulloch, an epidemiology researcher at the
University of California, Berkeley, and a long-time
practitioner of Chinese medicine, says it will be
a shared effort.
McCulloch:
On the manufacturers' end, there's an obligation to
be aware of what their products are made of and how
they're manufactured. On the part of practitioners,
I believe the obligation is to take a more studied
and more scientific approach to evaluating clinical
evidence. And to being aware of what's out there in
the scientific literature.
Narrator:
And McCulloch says there is a great need for better
reporting.
McCulloch:
On the researchers end, particularly researchers
in China, there's a huge obligation to apply better
quality of reporting in clinical studies. And one
of our goals in this collaboration is to contribute
to the improvements in the quality of scientific reporting
in the Chinese journals.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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