Category Health/Medical

Salk scientists move one step closer to developing ‘exercise-in-a-pill.’ Partial view of a mouse calf muscle stained for different types of muscle fibers: oxidative slow-twitch (blue), oxidative fast-twitch (green), glycolytic fast-twitch (red). Credit: Salk Institute/Waitt Center

For the elderly, obese or otherwise mobility-limited, the rewards of aerobic exercise have long been out of reach. Salk Institute scientists, building on earlier work that identified a gene pathway triggered by running, have discovered how to fully activate that pathway in sedentary mice with a chemical compound, mimicking the beneficial effects of exercise, including increased fat burning and stamina...

With the new infrared 3D scanner, people can be measured without disturbing projections. Credit: Image courtesy of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Infrared 3D scanners have been used in video games for quite some time. Whereas in video games the scanners are, for example, only able to identify if a player throws his arms up in the air while playing virtual volleyball, the new 3D scanner of Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering is able to be much more precise. With a resolution of 1 million pixels and real-time data processing, numerous applications are possible with this new device.

“The measuring technology works in a similar way to human vision. However, instead of 2 eyes we are using 2 near-infrared cameras,” Stefan Heist from Fraunhofer IOF explains...

The “Smart Scar-Care” pad designed by Professor Cecilia Li-Tsang in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, PolyU, serves the dual functions of reinforcing pressure and occlusion. It can treat hypertrophic scars from burns, surgeries and trauma. Credit: Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

An innovative pad with dual functions of reinforcing pressure and occlusion has been designed by researchers to treat hypertrophic scars from burns, surgeries and trauma. It showed good performance in reducing pigmentation and vascularity, improving elasticity and preventing dehydration in a clinical trial. It is more durable and user-friendly compared with the traditional pad (polyethylene foam) as reported by the patients...

Photographs of hydrogel dressing in the original form (a) and with the addition of chitosan (132 kg mol−1, 0.5% (w/v)) dissolved in LA (b).

A new dressing, a type of compression held in place by a bandage, uses an antibacterial substance formed from the shells of crustaceans like shrimps. Antimicrobial resistance is becoming a worldwide health threat. A recent report by the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance warns that antimicrobial resistance could kill 10 million people each year by 2050, dwarfing even the number of estimated deaths from cancer. Because of this, preventing infection has never been more important.

The protective dressing was developed by Dr. Radoslaw Wach and his colleagues from Lodz University of Technology in Poland...