Mental Health
Biologists are investigating how to control when plants flower - to help farmers reap a bumper harvest.
A protein called neuroligin that is implicated in some forms of autism is critical to the construction of a working synapse, locking neurons together like "molecular Velcro," a study lead by a team of UC Davis researchers has found.
AARP announced its endorsement of the
Candela Corporation (Nasdaq: CLZR) announced that two studies have reported superior results on patients who benefited from the Candela Vbeam(R) laser treatments for bruising resulting from cosmetic procedures. The studies concluded that the Vbeam pulsed-dye laser significantly expedited the healing process, improved outcomes, and provided greater overall patient satisfaction.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Ilaris(R) (canakinumab) for the treatment of children and adults with cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS), which includes a number of rare, but life-long, auto-inflammatory disorders with debilitating symptoms and limited treatment options. The FDA granted priority review to Ilaris based on its potential to meet an important clinical need for patients with CAPS.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Midwestern Regional Medical Center, a leading provider of innovative cancer care for patients living with complex and advanced-stage disease, is the only hospital in Illinois and Wisconsin to take part in new clinical research involving a treatment designed to target ovarian cancer cells otherwise resistant to standard chemotherapy.
Doctors in the Netherlands have developed new ways to perform radiosurgery on benign acoustic tumors using fast and precise RapidArc(TM) radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR). This is among the findings in several papers published by the team at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.
Results from a small study of postmenopausal women suggest that obesity might relate to a reduced volume of gray matter in the brain. However, whether the results have relevance in a woman"s day-to-day life is unclear.
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) applauds the recommendations regarding chronic disease in the report by the Bipartisan Policy Center"s (BPC) Leaders" Project, entitled "Crossing Our Lines: Working Together to Reform the U.S. Health System." The report outlines key health care reform policy recommendations from a bipartisan perspective to ensure that all Americans have quality, affordable health care.
Roche Applied Science announced the availability of a new detection kit for the Influenza A/H1N1 virus. The detection kit is offered for use in life science research. Roche currently is filing to get approval of the local health authorities worldwide for use of the kit in emergency situations.
A Branchburg, NJ, woman was sentenced for violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, for marketing the drug Bextra for uses and dosages that were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
GENEART AG, global leader in gene synthesis and specialist in the field of Synthetic Biology, announces being awarded a contract for the design and production of two DNA vaccine candidates against HIV by the UK HVC. The genes (blueprints for virus proteins), optimized and customized by GENEART, are to be used as basis for clinical studies.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered a potential strategy for cancer therapy by focusing on what"s missing in tumors.
The GOP Can Stop ObamaCare Wall Street Journal
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in conversations with senators has indicated her support for Roe v. Wade, even if she has not explicitly stated that she supports abortion rights, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. According to the AP/Yahoo! News, Sotomayor is "following a time-honored tradition" among nominees of assuring senators that she will not aim to impose a certain agenda, while also avoiding firm commitments on how she might rule on certain issues -- such as abortion rights -- if they come before the court. In questioning Sotomayor, senators hope to obtain assurances that she will honor certain precedents, such as Roe, which allows them to justify their votes for her to their constituents, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. Doug Kendall of the Constitutional Accountability Center said, "There"s always a bit of a parlor game that develops in terms of what precisely words said by nominees mean."Because Sotomayor has never directly ruled on the key issues in Roe, advocates on both sides of the abortion-rights debate have speculated over her views on constitutional privacy rights. White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs has said that President Obama and Sotomayor discussed her "views on unenumerated rights in the Constitution and the theory of settled law." The AP/Yahoo! News reports that Gibbs" comments indicate that Sotomayor would be unlikely to overturn Roe, which supporters consider "settled law." Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), both of whom support abortion rights, said they spoke with Sotomayor about her position during private meetings and were pleased with her answers. Feinstein said that Sotomayor is "a woman who is well-steeped in the law and well-steeped in precedent, and I believe that she has a real respect for precedent." Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), an opponent of abortion rights, said that when he privately asked Sotomayor whether she believed a fetus should have any constitutional rights, she responded that she had never considered the issue (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/18).
A new, independent regulator for pharmacy professionals and pharmacy premises in Great Britain will be set up in spring 2010, Health Minister Mike O"Brien announced today.
Panasonic Toyota Racing Formula 1 drivers will team up with the
A new survey completed by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (BAAPS) suggests that patients may experience higher complication rates with permanent cosmetic fillers than with other types of cosmetic injections. The survey reveals 38.5% of surgeons saw 1-3 patients over the past year experiencing complications with permanent facial fillers, and 23% of surgeons saw 1-3 patients in the past year with complications so severe surgery was needed to treat those complications. "Permanent fillers present challenges, particularly for inexperienced injectors," says Coalition leader Julius Few, MD, a plastic surgeon practicing in Chicago, IL. "In addition to potential complications that may develop years after injection, the challenge of a permanent, synthetic filler is the anticipation of aging changes and the need for outcomes that will not look unnatural over time. To date, fat continues to be the option closest to a permanent filler with a proven safety record."
The amount of time imaging equipment is in use in outpatient settings does not approach use rates President Obama and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommend Medicare utilize to calculate reimbursement for imaging, according to data recently collected by the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA), a national association of business professionals in radiology.
Pomegranate juice may be beneficial in men who have undergone standard treatment for localized prostate cancer, according to a long-term study presented at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association.
- Using a lawn mower can be as routine as bike riding or barbeques during spring and summer months. But often, people find themselves in terrifying situations with these seemingly safe household machines. In fact, 200,000 people - 16,000 of them children - are injured in lawn mower-related accidents each year, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports. However, lawn mowers don"t "attack" on their own. Most injuries - such as severed fingers and toes, limb amputations, broken bones, burns and eye injuries - are caused by careless use and can be prevented by following a few simple safety tips.
Money spiders infected with Rickettsia bacteria are less likely to "balloon" - that is, to use their silk as sails to catch gusts of wind and travel long distances. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology suggest that it may be in the bacteria"s interests to ground the spiders and that this reduction in dispersal could reduce gene flow and impact on reproductive isolation within the meta-population.
A small study has shown that people tend to believe that bottled water is somehow healthier than water from the tap. However, the research, published in the open access journal BMC Public Health, also shows that people are unsure exactly what these benefits might be and that they are rarely the main reason for choosing bottled.
The British Climate Act is flawed and comprised of unrealistic and unobtainable targets, writes US academic Roger A Pielke Jr, in a journal paper published on the 18th June, 2009, in IOP Publishing"s Environmental Research Letters.
Inspired by the behavior of the human eye, Boston College computer scientists have developed a technique that lets computers see objects as fleeting as a butterfly or tropical fish with nearly double the accuracy and 10 times the speed of earlier methods.
Surgeons from Arizona Heart Institute performed the first procedure in the U.S. Anaconda Phase II Study using the Vascutek Anaconda Stent Graft System, an investigational, minimally invasive treatment for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).
According to a new review published in The Ulster Medical Journal, the Integrative Medicine for Children is "a useful reference for a medical library."
The Computer Vision research group at the Universitat Jaume I of CastellÃö is working with the Hospitals Consortium of CastellÃö to develop a digital analysis system of multispectral images to help physicians distinguish melanoma from other kinds of skin diseases. A cooperation agreement has been signed by UJI, the University-Business Foundation and the CastellÃö Provincial Hospital Foundation to implement this project.
Most people have experienced the odd sleepless night before a crucial exam, a job interview or before going on holiday, but few people get by with just a couple of hours of sleep a day, every day.
ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (OTC: IMUC.OB) (IMUC), a biotechnology company, announced the filing of a provisional U.S. patent application relating to its novel vaccine technology targeting cancer stem cells. The patent application relates to new peptide candidates that may significantly expand the potential target patient population for the company"s cancer stem cell vaccine product candidate, ICT-121. Many cancer therapies are limited by their ability to be used only in patients with certain human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types. Identification of the new peptides for use in IMUC"s vaccine should enable the use of IMUC"s product candidate in patients with many different HLA types. The Company currently has 25 issued or pending patents.
The Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC), an innovative research model comprised of a network of 15 academic Member Institutions across North America and leadership in Norwalk, Connecticut, announced preliminary data from an analysis showing that clinical trials opened through its clinical trials network were activated 30 to 40 percent faster than comparable clinical trials in oncology. Based on the implementation of specific business solutions, particularly scientific leadership, standardized clinical contracts and on-site project management res, the MMRC has been able to decrease by an average of 100 days the time from the development and finalization of the trial"s protocol to actual patient enrollment.
New plans to improve the support and care for individuals and their families living with dementia were announced by Health Minister Edwina Hart.
UroToday.com - My laboratory established a series of urothelial cancer cell lines at the University of Michigan. Having worked with them for more than 2 decades, I became aware of some inconsistencies in results. This led to defining the genomic signature of the cell lines to assure that contamination was not the of these errors. We did find evidence for contamination both in our lab and in the laboratories of our collaborators. Cell line verification has recently been identified by the NIH as a component of high quality research. This manuscript describes unique signatures that can be used to identify my cell lines.
More than 80% of hospitals across the U.S. have implemented automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) as an important part of their drug distribution system, making the evaluation of practices and policies surrounding this technology an essential step in ensuring patient safety. To help meet healthcare organizations" growing need for assistance in this area, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has introduced the first Medication Safety Self Assessment® for Automated Dispensing Cabinets.
As unemployment rises, the medical world prepares to create thousands of jobs as part of an industry-wide effort to transfer paper health records to electronic medical record systems, CBS News (Chicago) reports. "With the initiative of electronic health records, we expect that there will be new types of jobs," a spokeswoman for the American Health Information Management Association, an industry group that predicts the initiative will create 75,000 jobs, told CBS. People with two year associate degrees will be eligible for many of the jobs, which can carry a starting pay of $25,000 to $45,000, the spokeswoman said (Tucker, 6/18).
Bartering for health care is on the rise as the recession drags on.
AIDS Community Services of Western New York (ACS), a Buffalo-based agency that provides medical treatment and social services for individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS, has lost a $288,500 grant from the Junior League of Buffalo that was to be used to expand a primary care center, the Charlotte Business Journal reports. The Junior League of Buffalo cited a contract agreement that said construction was to be completed by Dec. 31, 2008 as the reason for the decision; construction has yet to begin. ACS President Ronald Silverio said the agency will move forward with its expansion plans, although they will be further delayed, and anticipates that they will receive other funding to replace the loss. Since the ACS began planning this project, they have also experienced cuts in state funding, according to the Journal (Drury, Charlotte Business Journal, 6/19).
To make way for a Ministry of Tourism garden, 20 families with HIV-positive members have been evicted from their homes and moved outside of the city, reports the Phnom Penh Post. The newspaper writes, "Despite municipal officials claiming that residents left voluntarily and will be better off at the new site, which has been condemned by local and international rights groups as being unsuitable for human habitation, residents said they were unhappy with the move" (Shay/Chamroeun, Phnom Penh Post, 6/18).
The Economist examines schistosomiasis in China. The disease, which is also called snail-fever, is the "world"s second-most prevalent tropical disease after malaria, affecting 207 million people of whom 726,000 are Chinese, according to the most recent official figures, from 2004," the Economist reports.
On the observation of President Obama"s first 150 days in office, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation"s largest AIDS organization, is continuing its "Change AIDS Obama" campaign with the release of a new online advocacy video chastising the president for his ongoing-and baffling-silence on AIDS.
The emergence of global health initiatives (GHIs), eg, The Global Fund and PEPFAR, has resulted in a striking expansion of key health interventions in recent years, from which millions have benefited. There is also evidence, however, that such initiatives can constrain the health systems of poor countries and that many opportunities to improve efficiency, equity, value for money and outcomes in global public health are still being missed. The health systems strengthening agenda needs more investment, and to be infused with the same sense of ambition and speed that has characterised GHIs. This is one of five key recommendations in a new multi-partner report published in a Health Policy paper in this week"s edition of The Lancet.
A new study shows that high levels of job strain during early pregnancy are associated with reduced birthweight and an increased risk of delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to switch to a new generation of animal-free tests for predicting the toxicity of chemicals to humans, according to an article scheduled for the June 22 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS" weekly newsmagazine.
Withdrawal of the painkiller co-proxamol from the UK market has led to a major reduction in suicides and accidental poisonings involving the drug, without an increase in deaths from other painkillers, finds research published on bmj.com today.
With an extensive, inoperable colon cancer and few options available, a Tennessee patient is seeing his cancer steadily regressing on a new outpatient treatment. Individuals from 26 U.S. states and four other countries have been among the first to use NeoPlas Innovation"s new protocol. The Tennessee patient"s early results mirror their successes in battling colon cancer and other very aggressive malignancies.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that $6 billion in new federal funds will be made available to states and U.S. territories for fiscal year 2009 to provide health care to millions of children across America through their Children"s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP).
When treating the diabetes patient, doctors discussed how a "one size fits all" approach to testing is not enough to reveal an individual"s risk for cardiovascular disease Saturday at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) 18th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress.
Particulate air pollution during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing constantly exceeded levels considered excessive by the World Health Organization, was far worse than other recent Olympic Games, and was about 30 percent higher than has been reported by Chinese environmental experts - even though some favorable weather conditions helped reduce the problem.
"Latest research raises important ethical issues concerning our care for patients with chronic consciousness disorders," said Professor Gustave Moonen (Liege, Belgium), past president of the European Neurological Society (ENS), at a press conference at the current ENS Congress. This major meeting in European neurology is gathering more than 2,900 experts from all over the world in Milan. "This is all the more important as studies have shown that more than a third of patients given an initial diagnosis of vegetative state or persistent vegetative state show minimal signs of consciousness under more detailed examination."
As the weather gets warmer, people often get motivated to spend more time outdoors. Whether it"s working on projects around the house, playing with the grandkids at the park or out exercising, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) stresses important that baby boomers remember their bodies are not as young as they used to be and not overdo it.
Exosome Diagnostics, Inc. ("ExosomeDX") and DxS Ltd. ("DxS") announced that they will collaborate on the development of blood-based companion diagnostics for key cancer gene mutations, such as KRAS, BRAF and EGFR. The collaboration will use DxS" industry leading Scorpions(R) real-time PCR Mutation Test Kits in conjunction with ExosomeDX"s xOS(TM) technology which harvests high-quality nucleic acids from blood exosomes.
Oncothyreon Inc. (Nasdaq: ONTY) (TSX:ONY) (the "Company") announced that Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, has initiated a global Phase 3 trial of Stimuvax(R) (BLP25 liposome vaccine, L-BLP25) in patients with hormone receptor-positive, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Stimuvax is an investigational therapeutic cancer vaccine being developed by Merck KGaA under a license agreement with Oncothyreon.
Researchers at Children"s Hospital Boston have isolated a potent inhibitor of tumor metastasis made by tumor cells, one that could potentially be harnessed as a cancer treatment. Their findings were published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of June 22.
Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced the initiation of its global Phase III clinical study of the therapeutic cancer vaccine Stimuvax® (BLP25 liposome vaccine, L-BLP25) in patients with advanced, inoperable breast cancer. The STRIDEa study will determine if Stimuvax can extend progression-free survival in patients treated with hormonal therapy who have hormone receptor-positive, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Overall survival, quality of life, tumor response and safety will also be assessed in this study. The STRIDE study will be supervised by an expert Steering Committee and is sponsored by Merck Serono, which is leading the development of Stimuvax.
"No one can figure out a politically acceptable way to pay for an overhaul of America"s health care system, and until someone does, the effort is stalled. Maybe indefinitely," McClatchy reports. Michael Tanner, a "health care analyst" at the Cato Institute, says "it"s quite feasible that the whole thing could crash and burn because of sticker shock." The Senate Finance Committee has postponed writing legislation until July. "Legislative committees plan hearings and bill-writing sessions next week, and will face two key cost-related obstacles: No one really knows any plan"s price tag, and few so far are willing to take the political risk of raising taxes to pay for it. Add to that growing public wariness: Polls show people are increasingly disturbed by record federal deficits. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted June 12 to 15 found that 58 percent said that the president and Congress should focus most on keeping the deficit down, even if that means it will take longer for the economy to recover."
Alabama"s summer climate with its extreme temperatures and high humidity can lead to heatrelated
The New York Times reports that a "rogue cancer unit" at a veteran"s hospital in Philadelphia "operated with virtually no outside scrutiny and botched 92 of 116 [prostate] cancer treatments over a span of more than six years - and then kept quiet about it, according to interviews with investigators, government officials and public records." Dr. Gary D. Kao-- was responsible for almost all of the errors, which occurred during a "common surgical procedure" in which a doctor "implants dozens of radioactive seeds to attack the prostate cancer. "The team continued implants for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation dose was broken. The radiation safety committee at the Veterans Affairs hospital knew of this problem but took no action, records show." The cancer unit lacked peer review, and "the VA"s radiation safety program; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates the use of all nuclear materials; and the Joint Commission, a group that accredited the hospital, all failed to intervene; either their inspections had been limited or they had not acted decisively upon finding problems."
New legislation giving "eligible midwives" and nurse practitioners prescribing rights on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Medical benefits Schedule (MBS) will allow more Australians to access quality, affordable health care according to the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF).
Diabetes UK would like to say a huge "thank you" to everyone who helped to make this year"s Diabetes Week such a great success - we could not have done it without you.
The largest analysis of its kind has found that Caucasians are much more likely than people in other racial/ethnic groups to develop a rare bone and soft tissue cancer called Ewing"s sarcoma. In addition, among Caucasians with this cancer, men are more likely to die than women. Published in the August 1, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that examining the gender and racial differences related to Ewing"s sarcoma could provide a better understanding of the disease and could lead to improved treatments for patients.
An immediate overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs disability claims processing system is the only way out of a fast-growing nationwide backlog of unresolved cases, American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein said after a congressional hearing last Thursday evening.
The natriuretic peptide (NP) receptor type B (NPR-B) gene was expressed in gastric smooth muscles of normal and diabetic rats and the expression was increased in diabetic rats. These results suggest that natriuretic peptide-dependent pGC-cGMP signal is up-regulated and it may contribute to diabetic gastroparesis in STZ-induced diabetic rat.
A new drug-free treatment for asthma has been shown to be effective in an international study of patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma. The results showed statistically significant improvements in quality of life and reductions in asthma attacks and emergency room visits for patients who underwent the treatment.
A study published in the July issue of Anesthesiology offers perhaps the first estimation of how genomic copy number variation (CNV) can influence anesthetic sensitivity and the magnitude of this influence.
SAS, the leader in business analytics, announced that Shire, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, has selected SAS® Drug Development as the platform for its clinical trials data.
In a paper in Nature Geoscience, a team from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS), along with colleagues from TÃøbingen (Germany) and Bristol presents a novel continuous reconstruction of sea level fluctuations over the last 520 thousand years. Comparison of this record with data on global climate and carbon dioxide (CO2) levels from Antarctic ice cores suggests that even stabilisation at today"s CO2 levels may commit us to sea-level rise over the next couple of millennia, to a level much higher than long-term projections from the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Telecoms, healthcare and display technology will be the major beneficiaries of a new generation of semiconductor lasers developed in a massive European research effort. Better cancer treatment, wider bandwidth and smaller, better displays could be on their way.
New technology to hear vibrations through the skull bone has been developed at Chalmers University of Technology. Besides investigating the function of a new implantable bone conduction hearing aid, Sabine Reinfeldt has studied the sensitivity for bone conducted sound and also examined the possibilities for a two-way communication system that is utilizing bone conduction in noisy environments.
Primary care clinicians and their staff appear to fail to inform some patients, or to fail to document informing patients, about abnormal results on outpatient medical tests, according to a report in the June 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
A good partner relationship can act as a buffer for those exposed to work-related stress.
Health workers fail to understand the importance of sex for Tanzanian children
According to a recent article in the New Yorker, college students are taking neurological drugs like Adderall and Ritalin to help them party hard -- while giving them an academic edge. What"s even worse is that this trend isn"t just occurring in colleges. Parents are giving their young kids Ritalin to help them gain a competitive advantage over their peers, even when they"re not suffering from ADD or ADHD.
Melatonin can slow down the effects of aging. A team at laboratoire Arago in Banyuls sur Mer (CNRS / Universitç© Pierre et Marie Curie) has found that a treatment based on melatonin can delay the first signs of aging in a small mammal. These results appeared in the journal PLoS ONE on 15 June 2009.
The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) released a new study which shows that the widely employed estimate of 47 million uninsured Americans is a misleading representation of the problem. The study, authored by Drs. June and David O"Neill of Baruch College and City University of New York, shows that more than 43 percent, or 18 million, of uninsured Americans ages 18-64 could likely afford health coverage and are actually "voluntarily uninsured." June O"Neill served as Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) from 1995-1999.
U.S. Senator Herb Kohl released the following statement on the announcement from U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz that banning pay-for-delay settlements that keep generic drugs off the market would save consumers at least $3.5 billion per year and provide significant cost savings for federal government, which pays approximately one-third of all prescription drug costs. Senator Kohl"s bill, the Preserve Access to Affordable Generic Drugs Act (S. 369), would prohibit the anti-consumer practice of brand-name drug manufacturers using pay-off agreements to keep cheaper generic equivalents off the market. Introduced in February with Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the bill is scheduled to be marked up by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Department of Public Health (DPH) announced that it is implementing a plan to limit the spread of novel H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, in youth camps.
Critics are saying that Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., cannot handle his role in financial regulatory reform while he sits in for ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy on the House"s health committee, Politico reports.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, is issuing an advisory about the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning when people open camps for the summer.
The California Medical Association applauded the U.S. Senate Finance Committee for producing a thoughtful analysis of ways to expand the nation"s health care coverage. The committee"s paper, titled "Expanding Health Care Coverage: Proposals to Provide Affordable Coverage to All Americans," includes certain market reforms that all participating health plans would be required to participate in.
Treating someone with an intellectual disability can be challenging for general
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ ""Anonymous" Republican Senator Obstructs Resolution To Condemn Clinic Violence," Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: On Thursday, an unnamed Republican senator "used his power to put a "hold"" on a resolution (S.R. 187) "condemning violence against women"s health providers, thereby blocking any vote on the resolution," Jacobson writes. She adds, "So much for agreeing on at least a basic premise in the debate about choice, reproductive rights or even reproductive health." Such holds, which senators can submit anonymously and without explanation, allow Republicans to "get away with sorrowful expressions to the media on violence" without having "to be put to the test of actually voting to denounce the violence against" abortion providers like George Tiller, Jacobson writes. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who introduced the resolution, "intended [it] to be non-controversial," but the "condemnation of violence is apparently too much for some Republicans to bear," Jacobson continues. She adds that the House unanimously passed a resolution (H.R. 505) last week condemning violence in places of worship. The three senators who introduced the Senate resolution "decided to move forward with their resolution" without the House"s language because they "feel condemning violence against women"s health care providers and agreeing not to use violence as a means of resolving differences are not objectionable viewpoints," Jacobson writes. She concludes, "Apparently, there is no common ground in the Senate on not using violence where women"s health is concerned" (Jacobson, RH Reality Check, 6/19).~ "Supporting MAMAs," Amie Newman, RH Reality Check: Under President Obama, who is calling for "an exploration of common ground in the abortion debate and is spearheading the fight for health care reform, we have an opportunity to re-examine the gamut of women"s reproductive and sexual health care in order to improve access to all care," Newman writes. She continues that the Midwives and Mothers in Action campaign, a collaboration of advocacy and consumer groups, is working "to ensure that health care reform remembers midwifery." The group is lobbying for federal recognition of certified professional midwives as a means to increase women"s access to affordable, quality obstetrical care and working to ensure that "Medicaid coverage for certified professional midwives is included in any health care reform," Newman writes. According to Newman, in 25 states "it is illegal to choose the care provider or setting for your birth because certified professional midwives are outlawed as birth facilitators." She continues, "As we work towards immense health care reform, the question for all reproductive health advocates should be: How much longer will we tolerate a system in which women"s and babies" health and lives are compromised, costs to the consumer are rising, access to childbirth care remains inequitable and certified professional midwives must fight for their livelihood?" Newman concludes, "Access to abortion care, contraception and childbirth care should be seen as concentric circles -- they are all connected and all part of the continuum of [women"s] reproductive and sexual health care with which reproductive [health] and rights advocates should be concerned" (Newman, RH Reality Check, 6/22).~ "Roe Protects Pregnant Women, Too," Rachel Roth, RH Reality Check: "Roe v. Wade stands for women"s reproductive self-determination: for the right to have an abortion and the right to have a baby," Roth writes. She adds, "Both dimensions of Roe"s promise are critical to women"s lives, yet most people are far more familiar with one than the other." Roth continues that although most people know that Roe "recognized women"s constitutional right to an abortion," those rights "are not absolute." According to Roth, "Roe did not establish a contest between women"s rights and "feta
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) is pleased to announce that Johnson & Johnson has become its newest member company.
RNs Protest Cuts to Public Health, Pediatrics, TB Clinic, and Other Outpatient Services at San Joaquin County
Two years ago more than one in four newborns screened for metabolic and other inherited
Older eyewitnesses can inadvertently add or change aspects of their account if they have the chance to speak to another eyewitness. This is one of the findings of Jane Montague and colleagues from University of Derby who will present their research at the British Psychological Society"s Division of Forensic Psychology"s Annual Conference today, Wednesday 24th June. The conference is being held the University of Central Lancashire, Preston.
The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, today announced the re-appointments of Dr. Jean Rouleau and Dr. Brett Finlay to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Governing Council for their second three-year terms.
Allosteric modulation company Addex Pharmaceuticals (SWISS: ADXN) announced today that its partner Ortho-McNeil- Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OMP) has started Phase I testing of ADX71149, a metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) positive allosteric modulator (PAM). This product, which has potential to treat schizophrenia, anxiety, depression and other CNS disorders, is the first PAM of any mGluR subtype to enter clinical trials. Targeting mGluR2 with a PAM is a novel approach that may offer advantages over classical drug approaches. In reaching this milestone, Addex received a EUR 1 million payment from OMP and remains eligible for additional development milestones and royalties.
Eating disorders are frequently seen as psychological or societal diseases, but do they have an underlying biological cause? A new study shows that the levels of a brain protein differ between healthy and anorexic women.
Antibiotic prescribing for respiratory illnesses should be standardised across Europe to help reduce inappropriate prescribing and resistance, say experts in a study published on bmj.com.
The European diabetes diagnostics market is poised for expansion with segments such as self-monitoring and point-of-care (POC) tests offering tremendous growth potential. Heightened efforts to generate awareness about diabetes and related diagnostic tests are a key driver in market development. For instance, limited awareness about HbA1C tests is restraining the laboratory market. However, this challenge will be curtailed with more education about the test.
A new study at the University of Leicester aims to investigate the DNA of sleep. The research in the renowned Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester is being carried out by Ms Mobina Khericha and Dr Eran Tauber. It represents a new approach to study the genetics of sleep. Using fruitflies as models the researchers aim at understanding the genetics of sleep and identifying genes involved in this process.
Genital warts are also called venereal warts or condylomata acuminate. Genital warts are one of the most common kinds of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) or STIs (sexually transmitted infections). According to Medilexicon"s medical dictionary, a genital wart is "a contagious projecting warty growth on the external genitals or at the anus, consisting of fibrous overgrowths covered by thickened epithelium showing koilocytosis, due to sexual contact with infection by human papillomavirus; it is usually benign, although malignant change has been reported, associated with particular types of the virus."
Exercise has many benefits from improving cardiovascular capacity to reducing weight, and now a new
In the recently completed 12 week Phase IIb clinical trial in 494 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), "Melogliptin", Glenmark"s investigational medicine from a new class of diabetes treatments called dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, improved glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and exhibited excellent safety and tolerability profile. In addition, patients taking Melogliptin experienced low incidence of hypoglycemia and neutral effect on body weight.
Quercetin may not be a household word -- yet.
Adding to its line up of complete total digital imaging and workflow management solutions for eyecare professionals, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in medical imaging, today introduced the CR-1 Mark II Digital Non-Mydriatic Retinal Camera.
The Northern California Melanoma Center (NCMC)"s research showed patients who received GM-CSF (Sargramostim, trade name Leukine) may experience prolonged survival. The study appears in next month"s Journal of Immunotherapy (July/August issue) and will appear online today.
Spectranetics Corporation (Nasdaq:SPNC) reported that it has received the CE mark approval for its next-generation ThromCat® XT Thrombus Removal System, a single-use, disposable device indicated for mechanical removal of thrombus from native coronary arteries and infra-inguinal arteries. The launch of the product will commence immediately within the European Union. The approval triggers a milestone payment of $1.5 million pursuant to the Company"s Amended Development and Regulatory Services agreement with Kensey Nash Corporation (Nasdaq:KNSY).
An entomology professor at the University of California, Davis who discovered a novel therapeutic target for treating inflammation, has received a three-year $750,000 grant from the American Asthma Foundation to investigate whether his discovery will work on asthma, a chronic disease affecting 300 million people worldwide, including 23 million Americans.
AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen is
Experts have long suspected that part of the process of turning fleeting short-term memories into lasting long-term memories occurs during sleep. Now, researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics of MIT"s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have shown that mice prevented from "replaying" their waking experiences while asleep do not remember them as well as mice who are able to perform this function.
The British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) is hosting a meeting at Number 11, Downing Street today to raise awareness of how more than half of Britain"s hospitals are providing patients with inadequate services. A UK-wide audit shows that 60% of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding episodes occurred out of "normal" working hours yet 45% of hospitals do not provide out of hours endoscopy.
Health Minister Edwina Hart and Minister for Rural Affairs Elin Jones will speak at an event held as part of the consultation process on a major new plan to drive forward improvements in healthcare services in rural areas.
There was more than a 50 percent drop in the total number of malaria cases reported by public facilities in Cambodia between 2003 and 2008, according to the National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control"s annual report, which was released on Tuesday, the Phnom Penh Post reports. Officials are attributing the decrease to village-based treatment and education programs.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Obama discussed efforts by congressional leaders and health care industry groups on health care reform legislation, The Hill reports. He said that "while there remains a great deal of difficult work ahead, I am heartened by what we have seen these past few days: a willingness of those with different points of view and disparate interests to come together around common goals -- to embrace a shared sense of responsibility and make historic progress" (Youngman, The Hill, 5/16). He said, "I have always believed that it is better to talk than not to talk, that it is far more productive to reach over a divide than to shake your fist across it," which has "been an alien notion in Washington for far too long, but we are seeing that the ways of Washington are beginning to change."In the Republican radio and Internet address. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), a cardiovascular surgeon, said that a "government takeover of health care will put bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions that should be made by families and doctors." He added, "It will limit treatment options and lead to rationed care," and "to pay for government health care, your taxes will be raised." Boustany, a member of the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group, said, "That is something we cannot support, and frankly, it would clearly violate some of the principles the president himself has endorsed" (Superville, AP/Washington Post, 5/16). In related news, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag on Sunday said on CNN"s "State of the Union" that the administration might support taxing health care benefits to health pay for health care reform (Barr, Politico, 5/17). Timeline
Psychopaths are more likely to use violence in a cold blooded, calculated way than non-psychopathic violent offenders.
For a fifth consecutive year Diabetes UK will be running its Volunteer Achievement Awards to celebrate and recognise the important work all its volunteers do.
The Welsh Assembly Government is today encouraging people to nominate health professionals for a major UK-wide award aimed at highlighting their contribution to the care of armed services personnel.
Scientists have uncovered a novel mechanism linking soluble amyloid í² protein with the synaptic injury and memory loss associated with Alzheimer"s disease (AD). The research, published by Cell Press in the June 25 issue of the journal Neuron, provides critical new insight into disease pathogenesis and reveals signaling molecules that may serve as potential additional therapeutic targets for AD.
Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have discovered that specific microRNAs (non-coding RNAs that interfere with gene expression) reduce HIV replication and infectivity in human T-cells. In particular, miR29 plays a key role in controlling the HIV life cycle. The study suggests that HIV may have co-opted this cellular defense mechanism to help the virus hide from the immune system and antiviral drugs. The research was published today in the journal Molecular Cell.