Leukemia associated with magnetic levels
A new UCLA/Loma Linda University investigation of original data
from 12 studies of magnetic field exposure and childhood leukemia,
found an association between leukemia and households with high and
uncommon magnetic field exposures.
The new investigation, published in the November edition of
Epidemiology, found a 70 percent increase in childhood-leukemia
incidence among households with residential magnetic fields
stronger than 0.3 microtesla, compared with levels below 0.1
microtesla. The analysis found no association between childhood
leukemia and magnetic fields below 0.3 microtesla.
According to U.S. survey data used in the new analysis, the
average household magnetic-field strength is 0.09 microtesla. Less
than 5 percent of homes have fields above 0.3 microtesla.
Asher Sheppard, the study’s principal investigator and an
assistant research professor in the Department of Physiology and
Pharmacology at Loma Linda University, said the new analysis
exhibits an association between elevated magnetic fields and
childhood leukemia, but more research is needed to determine if a
causal relationship exists.
Scientists gain insight into bilingual
brain
By conducting an unusual brain-mapping experiment before and
during a neurosurgical procedure, UCLA researchers have advanced
our understanding of how a bilingual person processes English and
Spanish.
The study involved taking images of a patient’s exposed
brain while she performed mental tasks in both languages.
“Using a novel brain-mapping technique called optical
imaging, we have, for the first time intraoperatively, generated
maps indicating that the brain processes some aspects of each
language separately,” according to the study’s lead author,
doctoral student Nader Pouratian with UCLA’s Laboratory of
Neuro Imaging.
Scientists used an optical-imaging device, mounted on a
microscope’s video-monitor port, to measure how white light
reflected off the patient’s brain.
Variations in blood flow and other cerebral activities brought
about changes in reflection, Pouratian said.
The patient, a 43-year-old woman, had opted for a surgical
procedure to remove a tumor near the portion of her brain that
controls speech.
In the operating room, an anesthesiologist awakened the woman so
she could name various objects, in English and Spanish, while
surgeons electrically stimulated her exposed brain to check for
language disruption.
The patient recovered well from the operation and did not lose
any competency in English or Spanish. The article about her case
appears in this October’s Journal of Neurosurgery.
Researchers want HIV prevention prioritized
HIV prevention resources aren’t allocated in the most
cost-effective fashion, said researchers at the UCSF Center for
AIDS Prevention Studies.
The researchers argued that risk reduction funding is
disproportionately allocated toward preventing heterosexual
transmission of HIV, though rates of infection among heterosexuals
appear to be falling. Conversely, rates of HIV infection for gay
men have remained stable and may be increasing.
In an article in the Oct. 28 issue of Science, researchers noted
that gay men accounted for 46 percent of AIDS cases in 1999 yet
received only 28 percent of HIV risk reduction funding. Meanwhile,
risk reduction for heterosexuals accounted for 31 percent of the
spending though heterosexual transmission accounted for just 17
percent of U.S. AIDS cases.