Word: stiffening
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...1700s, when doctors discovered bony material in heart vessels, physicians have known that some blood-vessel cells can morph into bony tissue. Now we know that excess cholesterol tends to trigger this process in the arteries that feed the heart. Calcium can then build up in the vessels and stiffen them, laying the foundation for heart disease. Getting one's calcium score is as simple as getting a quick injection of a contrast agent in the arm and a zap from an ultrafast X ray, either by electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) or by multidetector CT. Studies show that...
...platoons leave Terrorist Café and proceed down the next dark alley, some dogs begin to howl. The soldiers stiffen and point their gun-mounted flashlights in all directions. "The dogs are the Iraqi early-warning system," alerting insurgents to the approach of strangers, Stubbs says. "They're very effective." Half an hour later, the patrol ends without event. The platoons get back on their humvees and return to their forward operating base, known as Gunslinger. Stubbs is relieved to have completed the mission but can't shake his suspicion--one that is heightened when, a few blocks from the mosque...
...they did not commit. When the heat of his struggle with Quinn subsides, Blunkett - if he survives as Home Secretary - will be standing in a landscape littered with evidence that even good people can do screwy things. The next time Britain's top cop is writing a bill to stiffen punishments or restrict liberties, that's something he would do well to remember...
...quiet country refuge transforms into a station of some nightmarish and unknown plot. Harper’s futile attempts at explanation and soothing stiffen the audience’s resolve that something is terribly wrong, but plant the seeds of doubt that things aren’t necessarily that clear...
...brief physiology lesson helps explain why a heat wave affects older people disproportionately. When a younger body warms up, the blood vessels expand and blood flows to the skin, dissipating heat. With age, blood vessels tend to thicken and stiffen, making them less able to expel heat. Sweating, another key way of giving off heat, also tends to diminish with age and with getting out of shape. "Basically, the elderly are vulnerable to heat both because they have greater difficulty in regulating their core temperature and because increased prevalence of diseases and medicines impair the ability to dissipate heat," says...