On May 22, 2013, it was announced that CIGNA, and several its subsidiary insurance companies - including Life Insurance Company of North America ("LINA"), Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, and Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company - entered into a Regulatory Settlement Agreement with multiple state Departments of Insurance throughout the country, including California. The Regulatory Settlement Agreement was the result of a targeted examination into CIGNA's disability insurance claims handling practices. Among other things, the Regulatory Settlement ...

From Radiological Studies to Malpractice The American College of Radiology has recognized that radiologists have a responsibility not only to accurately interpret the various radiological studies, but they also have a duty to properly communicate those findings. Ineffective communication, a major cause of medical errors, has been cited as one of the major causes of medical malpractice. Since 1991 the American College of Radiology has adopted guidelines for communication of diagnostic imaging findings. The current version of the guidelines recognizes two distinct, ...

Compliance Safety Systems (CSS), the nations leader in DOT compliance and safety technology, has announced its timely integration with FormFox, a revolutionary new system that simplifies the collection and physical exam process. CSS is known as a leader in DOT compliance within the trucking industry due to its robust software system and customer service, the integration of the CSS software with FormFox now eliminates costly errors in the drug/alcohol and physical exam process, speeding up the turnaround time for their customer. This combination enables CSS customers to ...

The Counter Terrorist Magazine is putting on its 8th annual conference in Orlando. This will be Florida's must-attend Homeland Security Conference, it promises to be the most important conference since its founding, bringing together up to 400 intelligence, law enforcement, fire, emergency medical personnel as well as military during three days of intense information exchange. "We are proud of the speaker line-up and the quality of information that will get out to this years' participants" states Sol Bradman CEO of SSI Presenters: Steve Emerson Mike ...

The proposed changes to QROPS set out today by HM Revenue & Customs will "help prevent pension-busting" and are "another indicator how mainstream and recognised QROPS have become," says the boss of the world's largest independent financial advisory organisation. The comments from Nigel Green, chief executive of the deVere Group, come after the UK's tax authority published on Friday its 2013 Draft QROPS Regulations for external comment. Mr Green explains: "We fully support these proposed changes as they will introduce even more robust ...

Most modern human mothers wean their babies much earlier than our closest primate relatives. But what about our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals? A team of U.S. and Australian researchers reports in the journal Nature May 22 that they can now use fossil teeth to calculate when a Neanderthal baby was weaned. The new technique is based in part on knowledge gained from studies of teeth from human infants and from monkeys at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis. Using the new technique, the researchers concluded that ...

New research presented today shows that formation of new neurons in the hippocampus - a brain region known for its importance in learning and remembering - could cause forgetting of old memories by causing a reorganization of existing brain circuits. Drs. Paul Frankland and Sheena Josselyn, both from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, argue this reorganization could have the positive effect of clearing old memories, reducing interference and thereby increasing capacity for new learning. These results were presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, the ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — If all the light emitted by all galaxies in the observable universe at all wavelengths during all of cosmic history were known, it would clue astronomers about the entire history of galaxy formation and evolution, and provide insights to key aspects of the expansion history of the universe. But measuring this light — known as extragalactic background light (EBL) — is no simple task, complicated by the fact that Earth is lodged inside a bright solar system and the Milky Way, a very bright galaxy, making it enormously difficult for ground-based and space-based ...

Modulating the immune system to combat metastatic cancer Cancer cells spread and grow by avoiding detection and destruction by the immune system. Stimulation of the immune system can help to eliminate cancer cells; however, there are many factors that cause the immune system to ignore cancer cells. Regulatory T cells are immune cells that function to suppress the immune system response. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Ronald Levy at Stanford University found that regulatory T cells that infiltrate tumors express proteins that ...

Cancer cells spread and grow by avoiding detection and destruction by the immune system. Stimulation of the immune system can help to eliminate cancer cells; however, there are many factors that cause the immune system to ignore cancer cells. Regulatory T cells are immune cells that function to suppress the immune system response. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Ronald Levy at Stanford University found that regulatory T cells that infiltrate tumors express proteins that can be targeted with therapeutic antibodies. Mice injected ...

In recent years, microRNAs (miRNAs) and other non-coding RNAs are small molecules that help control the expression of specific proteins. In recent years they have emerged as disease biomarkers. miRNA profiles have been used to establish tissue origin for cancers of unknown primary origin, determine prognosis, monitor therapeutic responses and screen for disease, but clinically tractable, diagnostic methods for monitoring miRNA expression in patient samples are not currently available. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Thomas Tuschl and colleagues at ...

The British Menopause Society and Women's Health Concern have today released updated guidelines on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) to provide clarity around the role of HRT, the benefits and the risks. The new guidelines appear in the society's flagship title, Menopause International, published by SAGE. Over the last 11 years, HRT has changed from being branded the "elixir of youth" to being considered extremely risky and only to be used in certain circumstances. Since the publication of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial in 2002, and the Million Women study ...

Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Contact: Alma van der Veen 49-228-731846 aveen@uni-bonn.de Global Water System Project A majority on Earth face severe self-inflicted water woes within 2 generations: Scientists Bonn Declaration issued by 500 scientists at 'Water in the Anthropocene' conference A conference of 500 leading water scientists from around the world today issued a stark warning that, without major reforms, "in the short span of one or two generations, the majority of the 9 billion people on Earth will be living under the handicap ...

A new study by archaeologists at the University of York challenges evolutionary theories behind the development of our earliest ancestors from tree dwelling quadrupeds to upright bipeds capable of walking and scrambling. The researchers say our upright gait may have its origins in the rugged landscape of East and South Africa which was shaped during the Pliocene epoch by volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates. Hominins, our early forebears, would have been attracted to the terrain of rocky outcrops and gorges because it offered shelter and opportunities to trap prey. ...

Contact: Catherine Hylas Saunders csaunders@golinharris.com 202-585-2603 Kaiser Permanente Contact: Rebecca Hughes hughes.r@ghc.org 206-287-2055 Group Health Young children who miss well-child visits are more likely to be hospitalized Missing visits even more detrimental for children with chronic health conditions Young children who missed more than half of recommended well-child visits had up to twice the risk of hospitalization compared to children who attended most of their visits, according to a study published today in the American Journal of Managed ...

How much light has been emitted by all galaxies since the cosmos began? After all, almost every photon (particle of light) from ultraviolet to far infrared wavelengths ever radiated by all galaxies that ever existed throughout cosmic history is still speeding through the Universe today. If we could carefully measure the number and energy (wavelength) of all those photons—not only at the present time, but also back in time—we might learn important secrets about the nature and evolution of the Universe, including how similar or different ancient galaxies were compared to ...

ITHACA, NY: Ernie Pyle – an iconic war correspondent in World War II – reportedly said "There are no atheists in foxholes." A new joint study between two brothers at Cornell and Virginia Wesleyan found that only part of this is true. A recent analysis of archived World War II surveys of Army Infantry after a battle showed a soldier's reliance on prayer rose from 32% to 74% as the battle intensified. "The question is whether that reliance on faith lasts over time," said Craig Wansink, author and Professor of Religion at Virginia Wesleyan College. To determine this, ...

Things not always run smoothly. It may happen, actually, that when an object slides on another, the advancement may occur through a 'stop and go' series in the characteristic manner which scientists call "stick-slip", a pervasive phenomenon at every scale, from earthquakes to daily-life objects, up to the "nano" dimension. Davide Mandelli, Andrea Vanossi and Erio Tosatti of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste have studied the conditions in which at the nanoscopic level the switch from smooth sliding to stick-slip regime occurs, simulating ...

In 1998, researchers at the ETH Zurich developed an energy policy model that could provide energy for a growing world population and at the same time protect the environment. Through the use of efficient technologies and processes, the industrialised countries should reduce their energy consumption to 2000 watts per inhabitant – the global average. The resources freed up could then help to combat poverty and hunger worldwide, without a reduction in living standards for the Western countries. The city of Basel has been acting as a pilot region and, in 2008, the residents ...

In the search for medication against Alzheimer's disease, scientists have focused – among other factors – on drugs that can break down Amyloid beta (A-beta). After all, it is the accumulation of A-beta that causes the known plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Starting point for the formation of A-beta is APP. Alessia Soldano and Bassem Hassan (VIB/KU Leuven) were the first to unravel the function of APPL – the fruit-fly version of APP – in the brain of healthy fruit flies. Alessia Soldano (VIB/KU Leuven): "We have discovered that APPL ensures that brain cells ...

This news release is available in German. Biological processes are generally based on events at the molecular and cellular level. To understand what happens in the course of infections, diseases or normal bodily functions, scientists would need to examine individual cells and their activity directly in the tissue. The development of new microscopes and fluorescent dyes in recent years has brought this scientific dream tantalisingly close. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now presented not one, but two studies introducing ...

This news release is available in German. In Parkinson's disease, the protein "alpha-synuclein" aggregates and accumulates within neurons. Specific areas of the brain become progressively affected as the disease develops and advances. The mechanism underlying this pathological progression is poorly understood but could result from spreading of the protein (or abnormal forms of it) along nerve projections connecting lower to upper brain regions. Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn have developed a novel experimental model that ...

How can healthy people who hear voices help schizophrenics? Finding the answer for this is at the centre of research conducted at the University of Bergen. Researchers from the Bergen fMRI Group at the University of Bergen (UiB) are working on how to help schizophrenics, who hear voices. The way they do this is by studying people who also hear voices, but who do not suffer from a mental illness. For a five-year period, the group is studying the brain processes causing people to hear voices. A recent report published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows some of the ...

23 May 2013, Paris, France: Routinely measuring fractional flow reserve (FFR) using pressure wire assessment during coronary angiography for diagnosis of chest pain leads to significant changes in the management of one in four patients, according to results from a study reported at EuroPCR 2013. The RIPCORD (Does routine pressure wire assessment influence management strategy at coronary angiography for diagnosis of chest pain) study was designed to assess whether routine assessment of FFR in all the main coronary branches would significantly change the management strategy ...

23 May 2013, Paris, France: A new investigational device - the Helio System (TF-FA) - being developed for use with the Sapien XT Transcatheter Heart Valve was successfully deployed in all four patients in a small, first-in-human feasibility study of its use in high-risk aortic insufficiency reported at EuroPCR 2013. The HELIO dock system acts as an anchor to help stabilise the SAPIEN XT valve for patients with aortic insufficiency. The native leaflets in the heart are captured between the transcatheter heart valve and the dock. "This is an innovative, minimally invasive ...