Housework Can Be a Heart Disease Factor
A good excuse for people who dislike housework: it can be hard on your heart.
A study led by Faculty of Nursing professor Colleen Norris, '78 Dip(Nu), '82 BScN, '92 MN, '02 PhD, followed nearly 1,000 men and women under the age of 55 who suffer from heart disease. Women in the study had worse health than men one year after their diagnosis; a stressful family environment, smaller paycheques and more time doing housework were all factors.
Statistics Canada studies show that women work on chores several more hours per week than men. -KFOR-TV
Helping Fish Thrive in Oil Country
When an energy company destroys fish habitat in Alberta's oilsands region, it has to build fake lakes nearby, as mandated by the 2012 Fisheries Act. Mark Poesch wants to make sure those companies know how to create a "compensation lake" that fish can love.
Poesch, an assistant professor in the Department of Renewable Resources, and his students are using sonar and DNA samples to take an inventory of fish in Horizon Lake north of Fort McMurray, Alta., the first compensation lake built in the oilsands area. They have been surveying the lake since July 2015 and will continue to take inventory for three to five years.
The project will help establish guidelines for how to run a compensation lake that helps fish populations thrive. Poesch would like to eventually collaborate with researchers to study other compensation lakes. -Edmonton Journal
An Apple a Day
The benefits of eating fruit can begin as early as in the womb.
A U of A study, published in the journal EBioMedicine, showed that infants of mothers who ate six or seven servings of fruit a day during pregnancy placed six or seven points higher on an intelligence test at one year of age. The study used a cognitive development assessment known as the Bayley Scale of Infant Development that looks at factors such as visual preference, attention, memory and exploration.
Piush Mandhane, senior author of the paper and associate professor of pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, made the discovery using data from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development Study - a nationwide study of more than 3,500 infants and their families. Researchers examined data from 688 Edmonton children, controlling for factors that affect development, such as family income, paternal and maternal education, and the child's gestational age.
"Having one more serving of fruit per day in a mother's diet provides her baby with the same benefit as being born a whole week later," says Mandhane.
However, Mandhane cautions against overconsumption during pregnancy due to the risk of gestational diabetes and other conditions linked to increased natural sugar intake. -CTV News
An 'Ironclad' Solution to Combat Algal Blooms
Researchers test treatment that reduces swimmers' scourge
"Do not swim" orders that often plague lakes in the summer may one day be a thing of the past. A U of A researcher has discovered an environmentally friendly treatment for lakes plagued by algal blooms, slimy green scum you see swirling in the water.
The algal blooms, which occur in lakes around the world, often result from high concentrations of phosphorus released from sediment at the lake bottom. The blooms produce toxins that can cause illness or death in humans, pets and livestock.
Freshwater ecologist Diane Orihel, '13 PhD, conducted a study to see if iron could lock up the nutrients algae need to grow. She added iron to 15 mesocosms - big test tubes - in Nakamun Lake, about 60 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, and monitored nutrient concentrations and algal growth.
The iron treatment kept more phosphorus captured in the lake's sediment, reducing the amount of algae produced. Since iron occurs naturally in lakes, researchers call this treatment a "green solution." It's an alternative to adding toxic chemicals to the lake.
This is the first published study of iron treatment in a Canadian lake.
-Kristy Condon
Biomedical Engineering Chair Wins Inaugural Governor General's Award
A U of A researcher is one of six Canadians to win the inaugural round of the Governor General's Innovation Awards.
Rob Burrell, chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Nanostructured Biomaterials, was awarded the prize for an invention that transformed wound care. His creation is called Acticoat, a wound dressing that uses nanocrystalline silver to fight bacteria and inflammation in wounds. It also increases healing rates, reduces the need for skin grafts and cuts down on long-term scar management problems. The dressing was the world's first therapeutic use of nanotechnology and has saved thousands of lives and limbs.
The awards recognize "exceptional and transformative work" that has helped shape our future and improve our quality of life.
-Richard Cairney
Solar Power Is Saving Sick Children
A solar-powered oxygen delivery system is saving children's lives in Africa.
The system, created by Michael Hawkes, an assistant professor in the University of Alberta's Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, is already in use in two hospitals in Uganda to treat children suffering from severe pneumonia.
Hawkes and his colleagues came up with the idea of using solar energy to power the oxygen system since power outages are common. They hope to expand the system to hospitals across Uganda.
-Sandra Kinash with files from Ross Neitz
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