Single-insertion, multi-sample biopsy - Flash

Single-insertion, multi-sample biopsy - Flash

Flash, a single-insertion, multi-sample (up to 15 samples) breast biopsy gadget that collects cored samples from different locations in a special chamber. Guided by ultrasound, Flash utilizes real-time visualization and automated sampling to obtain solid, contiguous biopsy cores. Other biopsy devices and techniques require several individual insertions into the patient’s breast to retrieve adequate samples for pathology analysis.



















Home Page:http://www.rubicor.com/products/flash/

Game Over For Windows Vista’s Security?

This week at the Black Hat Security Conference two security researchers will discuss their findings which could completely bring Windows Vista to its knees.

Mark Dowd of IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) and Alexander Sotirov, of VMware Inc. have discovered a technique that can be used to bypass all memory protection safeguards that Microsoft built into Windows Vista. These new methods have been used to get around Vista's Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and other protections by loading malicious content through an active web browser. The researchers were able to load whatever content they wanted into any location they wished on a user's machine using a variety of objects, such as Java, ActiveX and even .NET objects. This feat was achieved by taking advantage of the way that Internet Explorer (and other browsers) handle active scripting in the Operating System.

While this may seem like any standard security hole, other researchers say that the work is a major breakthrough and there is very little that Microsoft can do to fix the problems. These attacks work differently than other security exploits, as they aren't based on any new Windows vulnerabilities, but instead take advantage of the way Microsoft chose to guard Vista's fundamental architecture. According to Dino Dai Zovi, a popular security researcher, "the genius of this is that it's completely reusable. They have attacks that let them load chosen content to a chosen location with chosen permissions. That's completely game over."

According to Microsoft, many of the defenses added to Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008) were added to stop all host-based attacks. For example, ASLR is meant to stop attackers from predicting key memory addresses by randomly moving a process' stack, heap and libraries. While this technique is very useful against memory corruption attacks, it would be rendered useless against Dowd and Sotirov's new method. "This stuff just takes a knife to a large part of the security mesh Microsoft built into Vista," said Dai Zovi to SearchSecurity.com. "If you think about the fact that .NET loads DLLs into the browser itself and then Microsoft assumes they're safe because they're .NET objects, you see that Microsoft didn't think about the idea that these could be used as stepping stones for other attacks. This is a real tour de force."

While Microsoft hasn't officially responded to the findings, Mike Reavey, group manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center, said the company has been aware of the research and is very interested to see it once it has been made public. It currently isn't known whether these exploits can be used against older Microsoft Operating Systems, such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but since these techniques do not rely on any one specific vulnerability, Zovi believes that we may suddenly see many similar techniques applied to other platforms or environments. "This is not insanely technical. These two guys are capable of the really low-level technical attacks, but this is simple and reusable," Dai Zovi said. "I definitely think this will get reused soon."

These techniques are being seen as an advance that many in the security community say will have far-reaching implications not only for Microsoft, but also on how the entire technology industry thinks about attacks. Expect to be hearing more about this in the near future and possibly being faced with the prospect of your "secure" server being stripped completely naked of all its protection.

via Neowin

New Bloodless Diagnostic Tests

New Bloodless Diagnostic Tests

For people who dislike needles, medical tests that require a drop of saliva instead of a vial of blood will one day make a trip to a doctor or dentist much easier. But as scientists now construct the first of these saliva tests for early signs of cancer and other diseases, they continue to push the technological envelope in interesting ways.

As published in the August issue of the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, a team of researchers supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health, report they have developed an ultra-sensitive optical protein sensor, a first for a salivary diagnostic test. The sensor can be integrated into a specially designed lab-on-a-chip, or microchip assay, and preprogrammed to bind a specific protein of interest, generating a sustained fluorescent signal as the molecules attach. A microscope then reads the intensity of the fluorescent light – a measure of the protein’s cumulative concentration in the saliva sample – and scientists gauge whether it corresponds with levels linked to developing disease.


Article Title:Optical proteinnext term sensor for detecting cancer markers in saliva

Neuro-Eye Therapy (NeET)- breaking eye therapy for stroke victims

Neuro-Eye Therapy (NeET)- breaking eye therapy for stroke victims

Neuro-Eye Therapy (NeET) uses a medical device, the Vision Rehabilitation Program, designed to help those who have suffered partial blindness as a result of brain injury, most often following a stroke. Clinical trials showed that an interactive computer based vision training task, used daily, can lead to improved vision over time. This training task automatically adjusts the visual patterns to maximise improvement. Each vision rehabilitation session takes approximately 25 minutes once or twice daily for a minimum of 5 days per week and uses the Vision Rehabilitation Program installed in your home.

University of Aberdeen Media Release

Artificial Cornea

Artificial Cornea

ophthalmologists and chemical engineers from Stanford developed new kind of artificial cornea. The polymer-based cornea has not been tested in humans, but has shown promise in animal studies. Search for a safe and effective artificial cornea will be a boon for estimated 10 million people worldwide suffer from blindness due to corneal disease.

Stanford News

Vitamin C Shows Promise as Cancer Treatment

Vitamin C Shows Promise as Cancer Treatment

Vitamin C has long been one of the most respected of all vitamins, lauded for its supposed powers to treat many ills, from colds to heart disease. New research with mice suggests that intravenous doses of vitamin C could one day reduce the size of cancerous tumors in people. The new study, published in the Aug. 4-8 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Levine and his colleagues found that intravenous vitamin C produced hydrogen peroxide, which proceeded to reduce cancerous tumors in the mice by 43 percent to 51 percent.

Read full article
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/01/0804226105.abstract?sid=4b092fe0-1a67-4d86-b4d5-144f3f76a2d0
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0804226105

Regrowing hair in bald people may soon be reality

Regrowing hair in bald people may soon be reality

Here's some good news for those who fear turning bald with every strand of hair they lose - US scientists have successfully pinpointed a molecule that triggers hair follicle growth in mice, paving way for a treatment to regrow hair in humans who experience hair loss.

The Stanford University researchers said that the molecule, called laminin-511, acts like an operator, transferring messages, or proteins, between the outer and inner layers of skin, an exchange that ultimately drives hair formation.

It is expected that laminin-511 could potentially regenerate the actual follicles that grow hair, unlike existing products that slow hair loss.

"Loss of hair is not going to kill anybody. At the same time, for some people, hair loss can be a really traumatic thing, especially for women," said Dr. Peter Marinkovich, the study's senior author and an associate professor at Stanford University's School of Medicine.

He believes that the treatment could ultimately help patients who suffer from alopecia, a disorder that can cause hair loss in patches, or speed up hair growth for chemotherapy patients.

In fact, researchers also believe that the molecule might have the ability to regenerate other developing tissues, like limbs or evenorgans; but further tests are necessary to understand exactly how that process works.

In the study, mice injected with the purified molecule grew back hair in two weeks, at half the thickness of a normal rodent.

The study is published in the issue of the Journal of Genes and Development.

Title: Laminin-511 is an epithelial message promoting dermal papilla development and function during early hair morphogenesis

Full text article:
Genes & Dev., Aug 2008; 22: 2111 - 2124
Doi:10.1101/gad.1689908

Play 3gp format videos on computer

3GP PLAYER 2008

3GP Player 2008 is a Freeware

Supports all mobile phone video formats including 3GP, 3G2 (3GPP2) and MPEG-4, most of the video and audio codecs are supported. Now you can watch all your 3GP videos on your PC with this free and easy to use program.

Download it from author's site
http://www.reganam.com/3gp-player.htm

Secure Your Gmail

Secure Your Gmail

Gmail uses both http & https protocols. If use http//gmail.google.com there is possibility of leak your data on its way to server. If you use https//gmail.google.com, your information is secured. There are two options to use this. One is by manually typing https every time you login other is by changing necessary settings in your gmail. Click settings on top right side of your gmail page -> General at bottom browser connection check always use https.

Sexual Attraction And Population-control Chemicals Found

Sexual Attraction And Population-control Chemicals Found In Nematodes

Organisms ranging from humans to plants to the lowliest bacterium use molecules to communicate. Some chemicals trigger the various stages of an organism's development, and still others are used to attract members of the opposite sex.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have now found a rare kind of signaling molecule in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans that serves a dual purpose, working as both a population-control mechanism and a sexual attractant.

Full text article can be found at
A blend of small molecules regulates both mating and development in Caenorhabditis elegans.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nature07168.html
DOI: 10.1038/nature07168

Immunization against cardiovascular disease

Immunization against cardiovascular disease

Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) is an inflammatory disease in which the walls of the blood vessels are thickened and become less elastic. It can cause blood clots and other cardiovascular diseases. It is not known precisely what causes atherosclerosis, but the immune system probably plays an important role. Research scientists suspect that various oxidised forms of what is known as bad cholesterol, LDL (low-density lipoprotein), contribute to the development of the disease. A research team from Karolinska Institutet, in cooperation with Lund University, has now shown that a particular type of naturally occurring antibodies, anti-PC, which are targeted against the lipid portion of the LDL molecule, play an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease. The findings show that individuals who have low levels of anti-PC are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The risk is particularly high in men who develop stroke, with an almost fourfold increase.

This newly discovered risk factor, low levels of anti-PC, is independent of previously known risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood lipids, diabetes and smoking.

Title of article:

"Low levels of IgM antibodies against phosphorylcholine - a potential risk marker for ischemic stroke in men."

Atherosclerosis (Journal available from Sciencedirect)