�A freshly developed medical imaging technology may provide doctors with a long-awaited test for early diagnosing of degenerative arthritis (OA), scientists from New York reported at the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. By far the well-nigh common cast of arthritis, OA is a curse of the Baby Boom generation, causing joint pain and disablement for more than than half of those over 65 - intimately 21 jillion people in the United States.
Current diagnostic methods usually do not catch the disease until OA is in modern stages when joint terms may already have occurred. A method for early diagnosis could open a window of opportunity for preventing or reducing permanent damage - especially with evidence that dietary supplements like glucosamine and chondroitin can block further joint degeneration, says Alexej Jerschow, Ph.D., wHO reported on the inquiry jointly with Ravinder R. Regatte, Ph.D.
"Our methods sustain the potential difference of providing early word of advice signs for cartilage disorders like degenerative joint disease, thus potentially avoiding surgical procedure and physical therapy later on," states Jerschow. "Also, the effectiveness of early preventative do drugs therapies throne be better assessed with these methods."
Especially common in the stifle and hip, osteoarthritis amends cartilage, the tough, elastic material that cushions moving parts of joints. OA is the most common reason for total hip and add up knee replacement surgery. "It has all these atrocious consequences and makes it difficult to move - it results in a severe exit of quality of life for those who are affected by it," says Regatte.
The newfangled method uses a modified form of magnetic rapport imaging to determine the concentration of a polymer known as glycosaminogycan (GAG) that holds lots of water and gives gristle its ruffianly, elastic properties. GAG besides is a recognized biomarker for both osteoarthritis and degenerative platter disease - a vulgar cause of back painful sensation. According to Jerschow, a low denseness of GAG is known to correlate with the onset of osteoarthritis and other cartilage disorders.
The diagnostic "tags" the hydrogen atoms attached to the GAGs in a way that makes them emit a signal that can be picked up by an MRI automobile to determine the assiduousness of GAG and assess cartilage health.
Advanced OA is very soft to diagnose, Regatte points out. By then, still, joint surrogate may be the only option. With early sleuthing, physicians could prescribe dietary supplements, medicinal drug or other measures to ward off further gristle damage.
"Given the lack of knowledge about OA, I think whatever method that is noninvasive and relatively easy to apply will be quite valuable. Not only do you address diagnosis, simply you address how we can empathize OA's mechanism," says Jerschow.
The test could also be used to improve existing cartilage-boosting drugs, Regatte says. Currently, it's difficult to gauge the efficacy of these drugs without a diagnostic creature to measure their effects on cartilage.
"There are drugs on the market for OA discussion, but no one really knows how effective they are. After having done the inquiry, we got a lot of calls from pharmaceutic companies missing to show that their drugs work," says Jerschow.
The cost and time it takes for the gristle test is practically the same as a normal MRI, states Regatte. Diagnosis could be given on a same day basis.
"I really leslie Townes Hope it will develop into the gold standard technique," says Jerschow. "I'm pretty confident in saying that its ane of the better methods out in that respect for testing cartilage health."
Adam Dylewski
The American Chemical Society - the world's largest scientific high society - is a nonprofit organization organization hired by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
Source:
Charmayne Marsh
Michael Bernstein
American Chemical Society
More info
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Friday, 8 August 2008
Billie Holiday and Lester Young
Artist: Billie Holiday and Lester Young
Genre(s):
Jazz
Discography:
Lady Day and Pres 1937-1941 (Vol. 2)
Year: 2002
Tracks: 18
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Bjork - Bjork Encourages Fans To Go Green
Pop star BJORK encouraged fans to join the latest celebrity craze and "go green" at a history-making concert in her native Iceland on Saturday (28Jun08).
The It's Oh So Quiet singer joined fellow Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros on stage to play at one of the largest gigs in their country's history, billed to raise awareness about the impact of aluminium smelting on the region's landscape.
She says, "Too often battles being fought for nature turn into something negative and into mudslinging. We will not go that way, we are not saying that this and that is forbidden, we are rather asking 'What about all these other possibilities?'
"The 21st century is not going to be another oil century but rather a century where we need to recycle, think green and design both power plants and our surroundings in harmony with nature."
The gig is available for viewing via webcast from National Geographic's music website.
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Sunday, 22 June 2008
Shakatak
Artist: Shakatak
Genre(s):
Jazz
R&B: Soul
Hip-Hop
Electronic
Jazz: Funk
funk
Discography:
Emotionally Blue
Year: 2007
Tracks: 13
Very Best of Shakatak
Year: 2006
Tracks: 18
Easier Said Than Done
Year: 2005
Tracks: 2
Beautiful Day
Year: 2005
Tracks: 13
Live at Ronnie Scott S Club
Year: 2004
Tracks: 15
Smooth Solos
Year: 2003
Tracks: 15
Gold Collection
Year: 2003
Tracks: 11
Blue Savannah
Year: 2003
Tracks: 12
Dinner Jazz
Year: 2002
Tracks: 18
Under Your Spell
Year: 2001
Tracks: 13
Magic
Year: 1999
Tracks: 11
The Collection
Year: 1998
Tracks: 1
Shinin On
Year: 1998
Tracks: 12
Let The Piano Play
Year: 1997
Tracks: 13
Down on the Street
Year: 1997
Tracks: 9
Invitations
Year: 1994
Tracks: 1
Full Circle
Year: 1994
Tracks: 13
Under the Sun
Year: 1993
Tracks: 12
Christmas Dreams
Year: 1992
Tracks: 13
Bitter Sweet
Year: 1991
Tracks: 10
Perfect Smile
Year: 1990
Tracks: 1
Fiesta
Year: 1990
Tracks: 11
Turn the music up
Year: 1989
Tracks: 12
Niteflite
Year: 1989
Tracks: 14
Golden wings
Year: 1987
Tracks: 11
Into the blue
Year: 1986
Tracks: 11
Drivin' Hard
Year: 1981
Tracks: 10
Saturday, 14 June 2008
Monday, 2 June 2008
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
My Blueberry Nights - movie review
It's always a tightrope when foreign filmmakers, particularly those from the Hong
Kong market, come to American shores to ply their trade. Though it doesn't appear
that Wong Kar Wai is going to be setting up shop permanently in Hollywood (nobody's
going to be after him to direct the next Die Hard installment), My Blueberry Nights marks his
first English-language film, with an entirely American and British cast. It shows
that the director is not just a foreign-language specialty, his gifts are quite apparent
even when the veil of mystery is lifted for English-speaking audiences once the subtitles
are gone. However, My Blueberry Nights also shows that for all Wong's rightly vaunted
abilities and passionate sense of cinema, there are some glaringly obvious rough
patches in his approach, brought into sharp relief by transplanting the action from
the teeming streets of Hong Kong to the wide open spaces of America, where his instincts
for actors seem less sure.
An odd road movie of sorts that spends most of its time hanging around in diners,
bars, and casinos (and precious little of it on the road), My Blueberry Nights will be
noted in many quarters for it being the feature film-acting debut of jazz chanteuse
Norah Jones. To put it briefly: No actress is she. Playing a lovelorn young woman
named Elizabeth, she first shows up in a Brooklyn diner run by Jeremy, a charming Manches
ter immigrant played with the expected lighthearted dash by Jude Law. In the middle
of a breakup, Elizabeth moons about the caf� eating the excellent pie (best in the
city!) and chatting with Jeremy, winning his heart even as hers is breaking over some
body else. Then Elizabeth ups and skips out, landing next in Memphis, where she waitresses
at a caf� and a bar, telling everyone she's working two jobs to save up for a car.
Although the first segment is supposed to be this episodic tale's romantic backbone,
it stands in weak relief against the Memphis-set scenes. There, Elizabeth meets a
sad drunk named Arnie, played with masterful ease by David Strathairn, who seems
able to wring more pathos out of a glance than Law can in three pages worth of dialogue.
The stormy cause of Arnie's trauma, his ex-wife, comes whipping into the bar in the
form of Rachel Weisz, performing here on utter screaming overdrive and ratcheting
what had been a moody jazz number up into a raucous electric blues howler. Later, Elizabeth
washes up in the Nevada desert at a down-at-the-heels casino where she falls in with
a bleach-blonde cardsharp played by Natalie Portman with all the jagged edges of
a young Sharon Stone. Meanwhile, Elizabeth sends cryptic postcards back to Jeremy,
pining handsomely behind his diner counter.
The whole affair can appear terribly artificial, of course, what with all those iconic
bar and diner scenes, the wind-whipped desert of Nevada sequence, and the soundtrack
of Ry Cooder, Motown, and jazz standards by Jones herself. Wong keeps himself from fa
lling down the same trap of freeze-dried Americana that some foreign directors like
Wim Wenders always seem to do, and he's able to do that by hewing to the same kind
of potent heartbreak that nailed down overstylized romances like In the Mood for
Love and 2046. True, the look of My Blueberry Nights suffers somewhat from not having Wong's
usual cinematographer Christopher Doyle on deck, but Darius Khondji does admirable
work nonetheless (those close-ups of ice-cream melting in rivulets into pie). Wong's
decision to film on location across the country pays off also; although he could have easily
reconstructed most of the film's sets on a Toronto backlot, there is a certain grit
of authenticity visible behind these admittedly melodramatic stories (scripted with
a pulp writer's punch and occasional laziness by mystery author Lawrence Block).
What doesn't work in any way, really, is Jones herself. Given the dialogue's sometimes
over-obvious nature, Jones's blank expression and dull line readings bring little
to the party; she is only occasionally juiced into more expressive performance when
the actor playing opposite (particularly Strathairn and Portman) is working in overdrive.
It's a nearly soulless bit of acting, and frustrating because of how it hampers the
film from ever really taking flight. As a first English-language film, My Blueberry
Nights is mostly a success, though set apart from Wong's previous work in that it won't
have people coming back over and over again. The film does, however, whet one's appetite
for what might come next.
It's the rhubarb days that get you down.
See Also
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