Intradiscal biacuplasty is an effective procedure to treat chronic discogenic pain, report researchers at the 23rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine in New Orleans. Improvement in pain scores and functional capacity can be observed much earlier with intradiscal biacuplasty than with intradiscal electrothermal therapy suggesting some additional or/and different mechanisms of action. It also appears to be more effective than intradiscal electrothermal therapy producing more than 50% of the pain relief in more than 50% of patients.

Intradiscal electrothermal therapy has produced variable results in the pain reduction and functional improvement in patients with axial discogenic pain.

Researchers have identified new genetic variations that may be associated with the risk of developing nonfatal venous thrombosis in postmenopausal women, according to a study in the February 7 issue of JAMA.

Deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the thigh or leg) and pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the arteries leading to the lungs) cause significant illness and death in adult women, according to the background information in the article. The authors note that despite improved preventive treatments in high-risk patients, the incidence of venous thrombosis (VT) has not decreased.

In this study, Nicholas L.

Whether in the form of sensors in the refrigerator which automatically order more milk or in the car sounding an alarm when the driver starts to become drowsy, "Ambient Intelligence" is the next computer technology revolution. But networked objects equipped with intelligence will only be able to establish themselves if they take proper consideration of users' misgivings, in particular with regard to data protection.

A new theory to explain the high-energy gamma-ray emissions from collapsing stars has been put forward by an international team of researchers. Their results will be published shortly in the Monthly Notices of the RAS.

Long duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), first discovered in the 1970s, are the most explosive events in the Universe. Finding out what happens during these cataclysmic events is a major challenge, partly because they usually occur at the edge of the visible Universe and partly because the bursts last only a matter of seconds.

The mention of facial composites often conjures up images of a sinister criminal, skillfully depicted by a sketch artist using pencil and paper. In reality, the vast majority of law enforcement agencies use mechanized methods, usually computer software, when creating facial composite. By having a vast repertoire of eyes, ears, hair and so on at their disposal, witnesses have the ability to create an image that ideally encompasses all of the features of the perpetrator. So have these technological advances improved our ability to identify and apprehend criminals?

Since the spring of 2005, scientists working for the Institute of Systems Biology and Ecology (ISBE) from the Czech Academy of Sciences have been focusing on research aimed at designing a physically-based algorithm to scale spectral and spatial data on vegetation, which is relevant to the development of the Sentinel-2 mission.