Health News from Medical News Today
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07/29/2010 What Are Proteins? What Is A Protein? How Much Protein Do I Need? Proteins are large molecules consisting of amino acids which our bodies and the cells in our bodies need to function properly. Our body structures, functions, the regulation of the body's cells, tissues and organs cannot exist without proteins. Our muscles, skin, bones and many other parts of the body contain significant amounts of protein. Protein accounts for 20% of total body weight. Enzymes, hormones and antibodies are proteins. Proteins also work as neurotransmitters and carriers of oxygen in the blood (hemoglobin)...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 ACT Files Documentation With FDA For Clinical Trials Using ES Cells To Treat Eye Disease Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. ("ACT"; OTCBB:ACTC) announced that it has submitted documentation and a complete response to substantively address the issues raised by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in connection with the Company's plans to initiate a Phase I/II multicenter study using embryonic stem (ES) cell derived retinal cells to treat patients with Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy (SMD). In November 2009, ACT filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application to commence treating patients...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 HemoBioTech Announces New Patent For Treating Acute Blood Loss HemoBioTech (Pink Sheets:HMBT) announced the issuance of a new patent US 7,759,306 B2, "Methods of Treating Acute Blood Loss." HemoBioTech has an exclusive worldwide license from Texas Tech University to commercialize the technology. The new patent continues to May 16, 2026. The new patent involves HemoTech which induces the production of new red blood cells in the body. Uses for HemoTech could involve the treatment of acute blood loss and anemia in trauma, surgery, cancer, kidney disease and heart disease. The market for treatment of acute anemia is over $2 billion...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Limerick BioPharma Announces Positive Phase 1b Data For LIM-0705 In Preventing Toxicities Associated With The Transplant Drug, Tacrolimus Limerick BioPharma, Inc., a developer of innovative therapies that help cells pump out unwanted or toxic substances, will announce new results from human trials of its lead compound, LIM-0705, at the 23rd International Congress of the Transplantation Society in Vancouver, Canada, in an oral presentation on August 19, 2010. The results will be presented by Dr. Daniel C. Brennan, Professor of Medicine and Director of Transplant Nephrology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. LIM-0705 is a small molecule that stimulates lipid transport...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Do You Know What To Do In A Dental Emergency? Having to deal with a dental emergency is not something people think about. However, being prepared can make the difference between saving or losing a tooth. And in the case of a toothache, if it involves a bacterial infection, it can be a life-threatening situation. Here are a couple of common dental emergency situations and what to do about them. A tooth is knocked out This is a very common sports injury. First, call your emergency dentist if you have one. It is imperative that you get to the dentist in thirty minutes. Always handle the tooth by the crown and not the root...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 REM Sleep Disorder Could Be Early Warning Of Parkinson's, Dementia That Develops Decades Later American neurologists and sleep experts suggest in a recent study that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder could be an early sign of Parkinson's disease or dementia that develops up to 50 years later. You can read how neurologist and sleep specialist Dr Bradley F. Boeve and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota arrived at their findings in an online before print issue of a paper published in the journal Neurology on 28 July...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 What Is Infection? What Causes Infections? A human with an infection has another organism inside them which gets its sustenance (nourishment) from that person, it colonizes that person and reproduces inside them. The human with that organism (germ) inside is called the host, while the germ or pathogen is referred to as a parasitic organism. Another name for an organism that causes infection is an infectious agent. It is only an infection if the colonization harms the host. It uses the host to feed on and multiply at the expense of the host to such an extent that his/her health is affected...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Etubics Enters Phase I Cancer Clinical Trials Focused On Colorectal Cancer Etubics Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company developing "next generation" vector vaccines, has entered into Phase I trials at Duke University with its ETBX-011, a therapeutic vaccine candidate that is intended to treat Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA)-expressing cancers such as colorectal cancer. Etubics dosed its first patient yesterday. Etubics was recently granted clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Investigational New Drug (IND) application to begin studying ETBX-011 in humans. Michael Morse, M.D...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 PCMA: Increased Focus On Combating Fraud Integral To Medicare Program Integrity Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) President and CEO Mark Merritt issued the following statement today on a provision in the U.S. Senate's small business legislation that would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to work with outside companies to target fraud, waste, and abuse in states across the country: "Following the passage of health reform, an increased emphasis on overall program integrity and safeguarding taxpayer money is more important than ever. Focusing on preventing fraud, waste, and abuse is integral to these efforts...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Advaxis Phase I Survival Update Advaxis, Inc., (OTCBB: ADXS), the live, attenuated Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) immunotherapy company, has updated the survival information from its phase 1 trial of ADXS11-001 which assessed the safety of this agent in advanced, metastatic, progressive cervix cancer in women whose disease progressed subsequent to treatment with cytotoxic therapy. The principal investigator for this study has reported that the two (2) patients who were alive in March of 2010 are still alive at 3.9 and 3.5 years post dosing...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Biology, Computer Science Combine Efforts To Fight Cancer The University of Houston (UH) received a $2.4 million grant to fund the most promising young cancer researchers who are working at the cutting-edge of a new multidisciplinary approach to fighting cancer. The award is part of the latest round of grant disbursements from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), which oversees the state's new billion-dollar war on cancer. It is UH's second CPRIT grant, and the first in the science and engineering fields...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Pioneer In 'Ultraslow-Motion' Imaging Receives American Chemical Society's Highest Honor Ahmed H. Zewail, Ph.D., 1999 Chemistry Nobel Laureate and Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry & Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology, has been named winner of the 2011 Priestley Medal by the American Chemical Society (ACS). The award recognizes Zewail's revolutionary methods for developing "ultraslow-motion" imaging for the study of ultrafast processes in chemistry, biology and materials science. His work is providing deep new insights into materials behavior and biological processes that determine health and disease...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 NCCN Receives $4 Million In Oncology Research Funding From GlaxoSmithKline The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has been awarded two individual $2 million grants from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to support clinical studies of ofatumumab (Arzerra®, GlaxoSmithKline) in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and pazopanib (Votrient®, GlaxoSmithKline) in the treatment of solid tumors...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 GCU Forms Partnership With India To Enhance Life Sciences Glasgow Caledonian University and Fergusson College in Pune, India, have signed a Letter of Intent that will see them collaborate on key academic partnerships in the field of Life Sciences. The agreement, which was facilitated through the British Council, was signed by Professor Pamela Gillies, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University and Dr Ravindrasinh Pardeshi, Principal of Fergusson College on June 30th 2010...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 American Academy Of Ophthalmology Wins Award Of Excellence For Haiti Relief Efforts The American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy) is one of only 21 organizations nationally to receive an Award of Excellence for its Task Force on Haiti Recovery work from the ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership as part of their Associations Advance America (AAA) program. The Academy's Task Force on Haiti Recovery was created to respond to the urgent and ongoing need for quality eye care in Haiti and to coordinate ophthalmic recovery efforts...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Kan. Medical Board Files Complaint Against Abortion Provider The Kansas Board of Healing Arts has filed an 11-count disciplinary complaint against Ann Neuhaus, a doctor who provided second opinions to abortion provider George Tiller, who was murdered last year, alleging that in some of her second opinions she failed to properly evaluate whether an abortion later in pregnancy was necessary to preserve the life or health of the woman, the AP/Miami Herald reports. Kansas law requires a second opinion be provided for any abortion performed after 21 weeks' gestation...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Minister Announces Appointment Of Dr Frank Dolphin As Next Chairman Of Health Service Executive, Ireland The Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, T.D. has announced the appointment of Dr Frank Dolphin as the next Chairman of the Health Service Executive to succeed Mr Liam Downey who has completed two terms as Chairman. The Minister said, "The creation of the Health Service Executive was probably the largest single governance and change management challenge in our country's history. "The value of a unified health service has already been demonstrated in many areas and further benefits for patients will continue to be realised in the coming years...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Insurers Post Strong Earnings, But May Hold Back On Bragging Rights Two leading insurers reported second-quarter earnings with rising profits this week. First, on Tuesday night, Aetna said its second-quarter profits rose 42 percent, with a net income of $491 million, compared with $346.6 million for the same quarter last year, The Associated Press reports. "Aetna credited its earnings increase on a higher commercial underwriting margin from favorable prior-quarter reserve development and improved performance...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Hospitals Focus On Forming ACOs, Resolving Insurer Disputes News outlets report on hospital issues, including forming accountable care organizations and disputes with insurers. Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx "is pioneering a new model of healthcare delivery, endorsed by the architects of health reform, that promises to radically change the current fragmented system in which the family doctor may have no idea what happens during a hospital stay," U.S. News & World Report writes. "As an 'accountable care organization,' or ACO, Montefiore, along with Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Company Health Plans May Increasingly Demand Proof Family Is Family CNNMoney: "Think your whole family is covered by your company health plan? Get ready to prove they're actually your kin." Under the new health overhaul law, starting next year "employers will have to provide coverage for dependents of employees [until] age 26. That will further inflate coverage costs for companies at a time when employers are already bracing for a 9% jump in their health care plan expenditures in 2011...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Rite Aid Agrees To Pay $1 Million To Settle Medical Privacy Questions The Wall Street Journal: "Rite Aid Corp. agreed to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of government privacy rules after regulators said it failed to protect customers' and employees' financial and medical information. The drug-store chain's agreement with the Federal Trade Commission requires the company to establish an information-security program and obtain a third-party audit of its compliance to that effect every two years for the next 20 years...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 FAO Launches Initiative To Curb Animal Diseases In an effort to prevent and control outbreaks of animal diseases and the associated costs, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday announced a new five-year initiative "to improve global response to disease outbreaks, implement effective prevention and containment strategies and manage risks," PANA/Afrique en ligne reports (7/28)...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Confronting Prejudice More Likely When There Is Belief That Personalities Can Change Confronting someone who makes a prejudiced remark can be a good thing - but not everyone does it. Researchers at Stanford University studied how and when targets of bias will speak up, and found that they're more likely to do so if they hold a particular belief: that people's personalities can change. In one experiment, students (who were all ethnic minorities and/or women) were told they were going to discuss college admissions with another Stanford student over instant message. (The other student was actually a researcher...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Ortho Kinematics Launches Multi-Site Clinical Study Of KineGraph VMA™ Ortho Kinematics, a privately held spine diagnostics company focused on revolutionizing spine motion analysis, announced today that it has begun a multi-site clinical study of the KineGraph VMA™, and that the initial 23 patients have been enrolled. The study will help determine which types of patients are best evaluated with KineGraph VMA testing. The KineGraph VMA is designed to provide functional diagnostic information to spine surgeons to be used in conjunction with MRI and plain X-rays...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 New Surgery Without Incisions Shows Promise For Prostate Cancer Treatment With a recent first of its kind surgery, physicians at Mayo Clinic in Arizona have developed a new surgical procedure for the treatment of prostate cancer using natural orifices - signaling the next step in the evolution of minimally invasive surgery. Removing the prostate is a common treatment for patients with prostate cancer, which affects one in six men in the U.S. according to the American Cancer Society. Mitchell Humphreys, M.D...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 2 Potent New Predictors Of Suicide Risk Developed By Psychologists Two powerful new tests developed by psychologists at Harvard University show great promise in predicting patients' risk of attempting suicide. The work may help clinicians overcome their reliance on self-reporting by at-risk individuals, information that often proves misleading when suicidal patients wish to hide their intentions. Both new tests are easily administered within minutes on a computer, giving quick insight into how patients are thinking about suicide, as well as their propensity to attempt suicide in the near future...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Water Purification Using Nanotechnology Nanotechnology refers to a broad range of tools, techniques and applications that simply involve particles on the approximate size scale of a few to hundreds of nanometers in diameter. Particles of this size have some unique physicochemical and surface properties that lend themselves to novel uses...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Treating Multiple Sclerosis With Antihypertensive Drug Researchers in Heidelberg and Stanford have discovered a new signalling pathway of brain cells that explains how widely used antihypertensive drugs could keep inflammation in multiple sclerosis (MS) in check. The peptide angiotensin not only raises blood pressure but also activates the immunological messenger substance TGF beta on a previously unknown communication pathway in the brain. The study was conducted by Professor Lawrence Steinman at Stanford University in California together with the group of Professor Platten and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Florida Company Smart Nutra Inc. Makes Breakthough Advancement In The Treatment Of Lice According to Smart Nutra Inc., there were 6-12 million outbreaks of head lice reported in the United States this year. Large outbreaks of louse infestations have also been reported from all over the world including Israel, Denmark, Sweden, U.K., France and Australia. The number of cases of human louse infestations (or pediculosis) worldwide is in the hundreds of millions. Studies show that girls are up to 4 times more frequently infested than boys. Children between 4 and 13 years of age are the most frequently infested group. Researchers have warned for years that head lice in the U.S...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Dispensary Of Hope Welcomes Sanofi-Aventis U.S. As Latest Participant In The Continued Access Program The Dispensary of Hope is pleased to announce that sanofi-aventis U.S., the U.S. affiliate of sanofi-aventis, a leading global pharmaceutical company, has become the latest pharmaceutical company to participate in the Dispensary's Continued Access Program, which provides uninsured patients with access to medicines that they otherwise couldn't afford. As part of the Continued Access Program, sanofi-aventis U.S. will assist the Dispensary of Hope in providing access to prescription medications. Sanofi-aventis U.S...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Discovery Provides New Hope For Huntington Disease Treatment Australian scientists have identified the behaviour of the mutant protein 'huntingtin' which leads to the fatal Huntington's disease providing potential targets to treat the disease, a University of Melbourne study reveals. Huntington's disease is a genetic disease with no cure, characterized by a steady decline in motor control and the dysfunction and death of brain cells. The cause of the disease has long baffled scientists. Symptoms tend to first appear when the person is in their thirties or forties. The most common symptom is jerky movements of the arms and legs...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 NRC, UOttawa Scientists First To Watch A Chemical Bond Break Using Molecule's Electrons Scientists at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) enjoyed a bird's eye view of a chemical bond as it breaks. The making and breaking of chemical bonds underlie the biochemical processes of life itself. A greater understanding of the quantum processes that lead to chemical reactions may lead to new strategies in the design and control of molecules - ultimately leading to scientific breakthroughs in health care and diagnostic medicine, quantum computing, nanotechnology, environmental science and energy. The NRC-uOttawa team, led by Dr...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 D.C. Health Dept. Pushes Female Condoms In HIV Outreach Initiative The Washington, D.C., health department has launched a campaign to promote use of the female condom as a way to help curb the spread of HIV in the city, the AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. A 2009 study found that about 3% of the city's population over age 12 is HIV-positive. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an epidemic is "severe" when more than 1% of residents are living with the virus. Five community groups are promoting female condoms through outreach initiatives, which are funded in part by a $500,000 grant from the MAC AIDS Fund...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 More Research Needed To Address Female Sexual Dysfunction, Report Says Women who experience sexual dysfunction or female orgasm disorder do not have enough treatments or medications to address the issue, according to a report published recently in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Live Science/MSNBC reports. According to Live Science/MSNBC, one out of every four women has trouble reaching orgasm during sex. Despite the high number of women affected by the condition, treatment can be difficult because there are few tests to diagnose the problem and few clinical treatments to address it...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 GOP Continues Call For Health Law Repeal; Census Releases Uninsured Data The Washington Post: New census data reveal big differences among states in the rate of uninsured people under age 65. Massachusetts has the lowest rate, 7.8 percent, and Texas the highest, 26.8 percent. "The statistics are for 2007 and show health insurance coverage by state and for each of the country's roughly 3,140 counties. The numbers do not include the impact on millions of people who lost their jobs and health insurance after the recession began in December 2007...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 States Continue Push For Extension Of Extra Medicaid Funds News outlets report on state budget gaps and lobbying for extra Medicaid funds from the federal government. Bloomberg: "U.S. state governments project revenue will climb in the current fiscal year after they raised taxes and cut spending to close budget gaps of $84 billion, a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures found." But "deficits of more than $12 billion may open for at least 29 states should Congress fail to extend extra aid, while two-thirds already forecast fiscal 2012 gaps of $72 billion, according to the conference's survey...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Senate Subcommittee Approves HHS Funding Bill, Other Health Care Bills Readied CongressDaily: The Senate Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee approved a draft funding bill Tuesday for HHS, "moving a bill that would provide $170 billion in discretionary spending to related federal agencies, nearly $1 billion under the president's request." The bill gives $732 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services, $306 million more than the administration requested. "The House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee gave the health agency a similar boost in funding." Sen...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Anti-Fraud Efforts Backed By AARP; Seniors Cautioned About Rebate Cons AARP on Tuesday "threw its influence" behind a number of plans to reduce Medicare fraud, including the bipartisan Medicare Fraud Enforcement and Prevention Act, which would increase penalties on nabbed fraudsters and supply more claims data to enforcers, The Hill reports. Separate legislation, "the Fighting Fraud with Innovative Technology Act, would bolster Medicare's claims screening process before payments are sent out" (Lillis, 7/27). American Medical News: An existing anti-fraud effort announced record arrests earlier this month...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Mayo Leaps Into Social Media Marketing The Mayo Clinic is opening a school of social media for health providers, the (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Star Tribune reports. The new "Center for Social Media... [will] train other health care organizations to use Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to connect patients and doctors. The new center will run workshops, offer consulting and host conferences." The Star Tribune writes that it is an unusual approach for the hospital industry, which is typically worried about the risk of a public relations mistake and prefers more conservative approaches...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Texas Raises Organ Donor Registry; D.C. Not Ready For Medical Marijuana Sales; L.A. Health Department Facing Major Service Cuts The Houston Chronicle: "Though Texas has the nation's lowest percentage of registered organ and tissue donors, several recent initiatives have more than doubled the state's donor rolls this year. The number enrolled in the Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry has ballooned since Jan. 1, when state law required Department of Public Safety clerks to ask all driver's license and ID card applicants whether they would like to register as organ donors. Since then, nearly 70,000 donors a month have joined the pool" (George, 7/27)...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 College Of GPs Welcomes New Regulations For Collaborative Care, Australia The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has welcomed the new regulations for collaborative care arrangements contained in the Health Insurance Amendment Regulations 2010. These changes provide further clarity regarding the nature of the collaborative care arrangements between medical practitioners, nurse practitioners and midwives...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Today's Opinions: Exchanges Reach Beyond Political Squabbles; Missouri's Choice On Nullification; Losing Jobs For Health Reform A Fair Exchange The New York Times The battle over health care reform won't end just because Republicans and Democrats find they can cooperate on exchanges. But a commitment to establishing exchanges in a constructive, nonpartisan fashion could bring relief to the real casualties in this fight: those who can't afford decent insurance coverage for themselves or their employees (Frank Micciche, 7/27)...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 African Leaders Agree To Expand Maternal Health Campaign As AU Summit Concludes African leaders participating in the 15th African Union (AU) Summit, which concluded on Tuesday, agreed to expand a campaign aimed at curbing maternal mortality on the continent and adopted other "key actions" in an effort to reduce infant and maternal mortality, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports. Summit attendees agreed to extend the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA), Bience Gawanas, the AU's commissioner for social affairs, said...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Mapping NTDs Is Critical For Controlling, Treating Diseases Mapping neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is vital for efforts to control and treat diseases, write the authors of an editorial published Tuesday in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, ANI/Sindh Today reports (7/28). "Accurate and up-to-date maps of different NTDs can help improve the precision of decision-making in NTD control," write Peter Hotez of George Washington University Medical Center, Simon Brooker of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Donald Bundy of the World Bank in the editorial that examines new diagnostic and mapping technologies...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Also In Global Health News: House Passes Bill Including Haiti Relief; Kenya Adopts Safer ARVs; Florida At Risk Of Dengue Outbreak; Merck, More House Passes War Supplemental Spending Bill; Includes Fund For Haiti The House on Tuesday passed a $59 billion war supplemental spending bill by a vote of 308-114, which will now be sent to President Barack Obama "for his signature," CongressDaily reports (Sanchez, 7/28). The bill includes "$2.8 billion for relief efforts in Haiti," Foreign Policy's blog "The Cable" notes (Rogin, 7/27)...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Stuck On BAND-AID(R) Brand? Sing The Famous Jingle To Support Safe Kids Canada "I am stuck on BAND-AID® Brand..." Know that famous jingle? Nearly 70 per cent of Canadian moms do, according to a recent Angus Reid Public Opinion poll. Now, moms and their families will have the chance to record their best rendition of the tune for a great cause at the BAND-AID® Brand mobile recording studio, back by popular demand this summer at community events across the country. BAND-AID® Brand promotes healthy and active kids...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Abbott Fund-Sponsored Laboratory Training Initiative Helps Stem Critical Shortage Of Medical Professionals In California Imagine needing a critical test at your local hospital, but having to wait days to be tested because there was no laboratory professional available to run the tests. This scene seems unimaginable, but with the federal government estimating that nearly 140,000 new medical lab professionals are needed by 2012 and only 50,000 are expected to be trained on time, this scenario is a reality in some parts of the country. Some states, like California, are taking aggressive action to reverse this trend...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Abbott's SIMCOR(R) (Niacin Extended-Release / Simvastatin) Receives FDA Approval For New Dosage Strengths Abbott received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for two new dosage strengths of SIMCOR®, a cholesterol medication. The new SIMCOR dosage strengths combine 40 mg of simvastatin - the most commonly prescribed dose of simvastatin - with either 500 mg or 1,000 mg of niacin extended-release. SIMCOR is the first treatment to combine Abbott's proprietary niacin extended-release and simvastatin, the most commonly used statin. SIMCOR is a prescription medication used along with diet in people who cannot control their cholesterol levels by diet and exercise alone...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Building A Creativity Collective: Using The Crowd To Solve Societal Problems Recently funded by the National Science Foundation, Jeffrey V. Nickerson, and Yasuaki Sakamoto of Stevens Institute of Technology are conducting research on how well design can be accomplished by a set of individuals quickly assembled online - a cyber crowd. Over the next three years, their research project entitled, "Crowdsourcing Creativity: Experiments in Design," will build an idea ecology. Concepts will be treated like the chromosomes of a population that evolves in order to solve a problem. The crowd generates the ideas, selects the fittest, and combines them to create new ideas...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Child Abuse Education, Elderly Care, Nursing Students To Benefit From Grants Texas-based Scott & White Healthcare has received three grants that provide education support to working nursing students, set up a senior health research center, and establish systems for treating child abuse and educating those who treat it. The three grants, totaling nearly $2 million, include: Nursing education...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Critical Role Of African Women In Agricultural Research Highlighted By AWARD Fellowship A passion fruit pathologist, a catfish breeder, and a pigeon pea researcher are among the 60 outstanding women agricultural scientists from 10 African countries who received a fellowship from African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD). The fellowship will help these top researchers strengthen their research and leadership skills, and enhance their contributions to poverty alleviation and food security across the continent...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Abraxis BioScience And Specialised Therapeutics Announce Approval To Market ABRAXANE For Metastatic Breast Cancer In New Zealand Abraxis BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABII), a fully integrated, global biotechnology company, and Specialised Therapeutics Ltd. today announced that MEDSAFE, the New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority, has approved for marketing ABRAXANE® (nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel) for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer after failure of anthracycline therapy. Abraxis BioScience granted exclusive marketing rights to Specialised Therapeutics for ABRAXANE in New Zealand...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Face Recognition Study May Lead To Improved Computer Face Recognition Algorithms A specific area in our brains is responsible for processing information about human and animal faces, both how we recognize them and how we interpret facial expressions. Now, Tel Aviv University research is exploring what makes this highly specialized part of the brain unique, a first step to finding practical applications for that information. In her "Face Lab" at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Galit Yovel of TAU's Department of Psychology is trying to understand the mechanisms at work in the face area of the brain called the "fusiform gyrus" of the brain...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Our Genes Influence How Well Fad Diets Work Ever notice some people seem to eat anything they want and never gain a pound, while others seem to gain weight just by looking at fattening foods? You may be seeing things correctly after all. According to research published in the July 2010 issue of Genetics, this may have a biological cause. Using fruit flies, researchers have found that genes interacting with diet, rather than diet alone, are the main cause of variation in metabolic traits, such as body weight...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 e-Cigarette Aerosol Decreases Over Time In Smoke-Out Interval, Requiring Stronger Puffs Stronger suction is required to smoke "electronic cigarettes" - marketed as tobacco-free nicotine delivery systems - than conventional brands, with possible adverse effects on human health, researchers at the University of California, Riverside report. The researchers used a smoking machine to compare the smoking properties of eight conventional cigarettes with five e-cigarette brands. They examined the vacuum required to produce smoke (in the case of conventional cigarettes) or aerosol (in the case of e-cigarettes), and compared the density of the smoke/aerosol over time...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 American Red Cross Statement On Compression-Only CPR "Articles published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) cite a pair of studies on Compression-Only Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), sometimes called continuous chest compressions, Hands-Only CPR, or cardio cerebral resuscitation (CCR). "These articles validate the American Red Cross guidance on Compression-Only CPR. The Red Cross encourages everyone to be trained in full CPR and how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED)...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Study Reveals Nearly 1 In 5 Californians Report Need For Mental Health Services In a comprehensive new study of mental health status and the use of mental health services by Californians, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that nearly one in five adults in the state - about 4.9 million people - said they needed help for a mental or emotional health problem. In addition, approximately one in 25, or more than 1 million, reported symptoms associated with serious psychological distress (SPD), which includes the most serious kinds of diagnosable mental health disorders...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Treating Severe Pain With Sea Snail Saliva Scientists have developed a new version of a medication, first isolated from the saliva of sea snails, that could be taken in pill form to relieve the most severe forms of pain as effectively as morphine but without risking addiction. An article on the topic appears in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine. C&EN Senior Editor Bethany Halford notes that a sea snails' saliva contains chemicals that help the slow-moving creatures catch prey...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 People With Mental Health Problems Must Be Heard On Welfare Reform, UK Mind's Chief Executive Paul Farmer has joined a scrutiny group which will advise and challenge the independent review set up to look at the fairness and accuracy of the Work Capacity Assessment (WCA), a move which will ensure that the voices of people with experience of mental distress are represented at the highest level in the ongoing review of welfare reform...
Read more at this website... 07/29/2010 Research On Enzyme For Activating Promising Disease-Fighters Co-Authored By Middle School Students Grown-ups aren't the only ones making exciting scientific discoveries these days. Two middle school students from Wisconsin joined a team of scientists who are reporting the first glimpse of the innermost structure of a key bacterial enzyme. It helps activate certain antibiotics and anti-cancer agents so that those substances do their job. Their study appears in ACS' weekly journal Biochemistry...
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