More research highlights: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interdisciplinary Research Groups At Ohio State University . . . click here |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Ohio State University |
|
As one of the nation's largest public universities, Ohio State University offers a massive educational and research asset to the nation. With 57,271 students enrolled on the main Columbus campus and four regional campuses, OSU offers 10,500 individual courses spread across 170 areas of study in 18 colleges and nine schools. A major research university, last year Ohio State had more than $426 million in research awards, and placed third nationally among public universities for industry-sponsored research. In the last five years, the University has increased its research funding by a phenomenal 80 percent. With more than 40 multidisciplinary research centers on campus, scholars at OSU make discoveries and contributions to knowledge in almost every field imaginable. The list below offers a mere glimpse of the wonder unfolding at Ohio State University. The following is a sampling of important research findings revealed this year. For more information about research at Ohio State University, check out: |
Some Investors Really Can Beat The Market, Study Suggests
|
Aspirin Prevents Polyps In Colon Cancer Patients
|
Software Uses In-Road Detectors To Alleviate Traffic Jams
|
Topical Oxygen Helps Hard-To-Heal Wounds Heal Faster And Better
|
New Amino Acid Discovered; Fundamental Building Block Of Life
|
Grape Seed Extract Helps Speed Up Wound Recovery, Study Suggests
|
Latest Ice Core May Solve Mystery Of Ancient Volcanic Eruptions
|
Genetically Modified Crops May Pass Helpful Traits To Weeds, Study Finds
|
Study Reveals Top 30 Most Internet-Accessible Cities In The United States
|
Methamphetamine Drastically Increases Virus' Ability To Replicate In Brain Tissue
|
Black Holes Form First, Galaxies Follow, New Quasar Study Says
|
About 15 Percent Of Major College Athletes May Have Symptoms Of Eating Disorders, Study Suggests
5/22/03emh |
Maybe
some stock market investors really are smarter than the rest of
us. Financial advisors and researchers have long argued that it
is nearly impossible for individual investors to earn more than
the overall stock market. But a recent study suggests that a small
number of investors do indeed beat the market. Researchers found
that the top 10 percent of investors they studied earned about 38
percent above the market average per year. Overall, about 20 percent
of the investors studied were able to beat the market consistently.
Individual investors are often regarded as at best uninformed, or
at worst fools. But our study suggests that there are a few sophisticated
traders with genuine ability to pick winning stocks, said David
Hirshleifer, co-author of the study and professor of finance at
A
single tablet of aspirin a day may be one of the best ways to prevent
colorectal polyps from recurring in patients who have already had
colon cancer, a new study has shown. The finding comes from a large,
randomized, double-blind trial in which the benefits from the aspirin
were so striking that the study was stopped midway through the investigation
so that patients receiving a placebo could take the medication instead.
The study found there were 37 percent fewer patients who developed
adenomas, a precursor to colon cancer, among those taking a standard
daily dose of aspirin, compared to patients who did not. While other
research has shown that aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs) may decrease the risk of colon cancer in large populations,
this is among the first study to demonstrate the protective properties
of aspirin in people who have already had the disease, says Electra
Paskett, associate director of 
The
same in-road detectors that control traffic lights and monitor traffic
could soon respond quicker to traffic jams, thanks to software developed
by an Ohio State University engineer. In tests, the software helped
California road crews discover traffic jams three times faster than
before, allowing them to clear accidents and restore traffic flow
before many other drivers would be delayed. This technology could
also provide drivers with the information they need to plan efficient
routes, and even improve future road design, said Benjamin Coifman,
assistant professor of 
A
new study suggests that brief exposures to pure oxygen not only
help chronic and other hard-to-heal wounds heal completely, such
exposures also help wounds heal faster. Ohio State University surgical
scientists used topical oxygen therapy to treat 30 patients with
a total of 56 wounds. The therapy required placing a bag containing
pure oxygen over the wound for 90 minutes a day. More than two-thirds
of the difficult wounds healed with the oxygen treatment alone.
Wounds in this clinical study ranged from post-surgical wounds to
injuries resulting from acute trauma to ulcers such as diabetic
hand ulcers and bedsores. Many of the patients had conditions like
diabetes that hindered wound healing. Ultimately, more than two-thirds
(38 out of 56) of the wounds healed with the oxygen treatment alone.
Altogether, three-quarters of the wounds healed with the use of
topical oxygen. "The quality of closure is very impressive,"
said Chandan Sen, the study's lead author and director of the 
Two
teams of researchers in 
Grape-seed
extract may help skin wounds heal faster and with less scarring,
a new study suggests. The extract seemed to aid wound healing in
two ways: It helped the body make more of a compound used to regenerate
damaged blood vessels, and it also increased the amount of free
radicals in the wound site. Free radicals help clear potentially
pathogenic bacteria from a wound. In two related experiments, the
researchers tested the effects of grape-seed extract on mice and
on human skin cells. "It is the first evidence suggesting that
a natural extract could have such a profound effect on wound healing,"
said Chandan Sen, a study co-author and director the 
A
team of Ohio State University researchers returned from an expedition
in southeastern Alaska with the longest ice core ever drilled from
a mountainous glacier. The core measures 460 meters (1,509 feet)
and is 150 meters (492 feet) longer than the previous longest core
- a record of ice from the Guliya ice cap in western China that
eventually relinquished a climate record stretching back 760,000
years - the oldest such record retrieved to date. Visible evidence
in the new core itself suggests that the ice might reach back through
several ice ages. In April, Lonnie Thompson, professor of 
For
the first time, researchers have shown that a gene artificially
inserted into crop plants to fend off pests can migrate to weeds
in a natural environment and make the weeds stronger. Scientists
studied genetically engineered sunflowers - those modified with
a gene that produces a chemical toxic to certain insects - to see
what happened when these foreign genes, called transgenes, were
inadvertently passed along to weedy relatives. "This is the
first example of what might happen if a beneficial transgene accidentally
spread to a wild population and then proliferated in subsequent
generations," said Allison Snow, a study co-author and a professor
of 
With
the growth of the digital economy, a "Big 7" of U.S. cities
has emerged as leaders in Internet network accessibility, according
to a new study. The leading cities, all of which are among the nation's
largest, will continue to reap economic benefits because of their
telecommunications advantage, researchers say. The Big 7 are, in
order, Chicago, Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco
and Los Angeles. "The digital economy is built on accessibility
to the Internet, and cities that have the most developed Internet
infrastructure will have an economic advantage," said Morton
O'Kelly, co-author of the study and a professor of 
A
controversial research study here has found that exposing cells
infected with feline immunodeficiency virus - a surrogate for HIV
- to methamphetamine increases those cells' ability to replicate
the deadly virus as much as 15-fold. The finding, if confirmed by
ongoing animal studies, could answer important questions about how
lentiviruses such as FIV and HIV can gain a foothold in the brain.
That knowledge is vital in slowing or lessening the dementia that
often accompanies AIDS and similar diseases. The research also found
that before a nerve cell can become infected with the virus, it
must be associated with a specific type of lymphocyte, or immune
cell. Lastly, the researchers discovered that once the virus infects
the cells, it mutates into a form that no longer needs this immune-cell
association to reproduce. "We found that after about two weeks
of chronic methamphetamine exposure, the ability of these infected
cell lines to mass produce virus increases dramatically," explained
Michael Podell, a professor of 
A
study at Ohio State University has uncovered more evidence that
black holes form before the galaxies that contain them. The finding
could help resolve a long-standing debate, said Marianne Vestergaard,
a postdoctoral fellow in 
A
new survey suggests very few major college athletes suffer from
full-blown eating disorders, but slightly more than one in six may
exhibit limited symptoms of disordered eating. Results showed that
83 percent of the athletes reported no signs of an eating disorder.
Another 15 percent showed some behaviors associated with an eating
disorder - such as binge-eating and purging - but not severe enough
to be listed as a disorder. "The results are mostly good news,
but they show that even some elite athletes have eating and body
image problems that need to be addressed," said Jennifer Carter,
sports psychologist at Ohio State University. Carter helped conduct
the survey of 680 student-athletes at Ohio State. "In general,
eating disorders among college athletes are no more prevalent -
and may be slightly less prevalent - than among college students
at large," Carter said. . . .