U.S. doctor Solomon Kamson, MD, PhD, founder of Spine Institute Northwest (https://www.fixmypain.ca), is offering a free medical seminar on minimally invasive surgery options for treating back and neck pain on May 3, 2013, in Alberta at the Delta Calgary South Hotel. Dr. Kamson, President of the Society for Advanced Spinal Intervention and global lecturer on the topic, will be there to provide a brief educational session on his minimally invasive surgical techniques, and to answer patients' questions. Patients are encouraged to bring MRI or CT scans to be reviewed by Dr. ...

Digital Learning Now! (DLN) today released its sixth white paper in the DLN Smart Series, "Funding Students, Options, and Achievement." The authors assert that shifts in the nature of teaching and learning, as well as the growing trend toward online and blended learning options, necessitate shifts in the way education is funded to create a more student-centered system. "Student-centered systems recognize diverse student needs, allow dollars to follow students to the best learning options, create mechanisms to ensure quality, and foster innovation," ...

McCusker & Company, a leading worldwide provider of consumer and commercial extended warranty services, today took another step towards expanding its data management, e-commerce and technology capability. David Perrier has been named the new Director of IT for the firm with the goal to develop the next generation of technology applications to expand market share and enhance the customer experience. "David is a bright technology visionary that has the capability, expertise and knowledge to continue our leadership in technology applications for the extended warranty ...

The Ignatian Solidarity Network will honor Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J., with the "Robert M. Holstein: Faith that Does Justice Award" on Tuesday, May 7, 2013, at an award reception in New Orleans, Louisiana. Sr. Prejean is an internationally-recognized advocate against the death penalty whose passion is rooted in experiences of ministering to death row inmates. She has spoken around the globe and authored two books including Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty, which held a spot on the New York Times Bestseller List for thirty-one weeks in ...

ControlCam is pleased to announce the recent hire of Kenneth Anderson, who will join the team as Vice President of Sales. Kenneth brings over eleven years of experience in the aerial imagery industry. Kenn has an extensive track record creating and building technological sales organizations in both the geospatial industry as well as telecommunications. He has spent most of the past decade helping develop a leading provider of oblique aerial imagery services. Kenn's experience includes designing, selling and implementing ground breaking technology into both the local, ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Marine scientists have long understood the detrimental effect of fossil fuel emissions on marine ecosystems. But a group led by a UC Santa Barbara professor has found a point of resilience in a microscopic shelled plant with a massive environmental impact, which suggests the future of ocean life may not be so bleak. As fossil fuel emissions increase, so does the amount of carbon dioxide oceans absorb and dissolve, lowering their pH levels. "As pH declines, there is this concern that marine species that have shells may start dissolving or may ...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- That jutting jawline may not be as universally attractive as scientists have assumed. One of the theories behind universal facial attractiveness (UFA) is that some facial features are universally preferred because they are reliable signals of mate quality. But a new Northwestern University study tests one of the assumptions that the chin, commonly discussed in UFA literature, is consistent in shape across human populations. Researchers found significant differences in chin shape across populations. "This suggests that either sexual selection hasn't ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The largest genetic search for "obesity genes" in people of African ancestry has led to the discovery of three new regions of the human genome that influence obesity in these populations and others. University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences Department of Epidemiology and Population Health researcher Kira Taylor, PhD, and her team today (April 14, 2013), published their findings in Nature Genetics. The study involved more than 70,000 men and women of African ancestry, making it one of the largest genome-wide association ...

New York, NY, April 14, 2013 – Genetic variants have been identified which can increase serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentrations and prostate cancer risk. A new study published in The Journal of Urology® reports that correcting PSA levels for these genetic variants can have significant consequences, including avoiding unnecessary biopsies for some men and eliminating false complacency for others. In this study of 964 healthy Caucasian men, correcting individual PSA levels for these genetic variants led to an 18.3 percent reduction in the number of men who ...

NEW ORLEANS (April 15, 2013)—Kidney failure patients on dialysis derive long-term benefit from the minimally invasive placement of a stent that improves the function of dialysis access grafts, according to 12-month trial results being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans. "Results of the study exceeded our expectations, and that is a boon for dialysis patients," said Ziv J Haskal, M.D., FSIR, lead author and professor of vascular and interventional radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine ...

NEW ORLEANS (April 15, 2013)—Men with a common condition that causes frequent nighttime trips to the bathroom can get relief with a minimally invasive treatment that shrinks the prostate, suggests a study being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans. The early findings hail from the first prospective U.S. trial of prostatic artery embolization (PAE), which reduces blood flow to the prostate, thus shrinking it. "Nearly all men eventually suffer from an enlarged prostate as they age, and this treatment is almost ...

NEW ORLEANS (April 15, 2013)—A new, minimally invasive treatment that uses lasers to melt fat could replace the "tummy tuck," suggests research on more than 2,000 people being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans. Without the risks of a surgical procedure (such as the tummy tuck) and when used in combination with standard liposuction, the fat-melting action of laser lipolysis, a minimally invasive treatment, has the added benefit of producing new collagen (collagen is the main protein that gives the skin ...

Researchers untangle molecular pathology of giant axonal neuropathy Giant axonal neuropathy (GAN) is a rare genetic disorder that causes central and peripheral nervous system dysfunction. GAN is known to be caused by mutations in the gigaxonin gene and is characterized by tangling and aggregation of neural projections, but the mechanistic link between the genetic mutation and the effects on neurons is unclear. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Robert Goldman and colleagues at Northwestern University uncover how mutations in gigaxonin contribute ...

Giant axonal neuropathy (GAN) is a rare genetic disorder that causes central and peripheral nervous system dysfunction. GAN is known to be caused by mutations in the gigaxonin gene and is characterized by tangling and aggregation of neural projections, but the mechanistic link between the genetic mutation and the effects on neurons is unclear. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Robert Goldman and colleagues at Northwestern University uncover how mutations in gigaxonin contribute to neural aggregation.They demonstrated that gigaxonin regulates the degradation ...

Platinum compounds, such as cisplatin and carboplatin, induce DNA cross-linking, prohibiting DNA synthesis and repair in rapidly dividing cells. They are first line therapeutics in the treatment of many solid tumors, but cancer cells frequently develop resistance to these drugs. Mechanisms of resistance typically include reduced platinum uptake and increased platinum export. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Anil Sood and colleagues at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center identified a cellular membrane protein, ATP11B, that mediates cisplatin resistance in ...

Their study is the first to evaluate a smartphone app as the sole method for monitoring weight loss, with researchers creating My Meal Mate to trial against similar products for monitoring food intake, an online food diary and the traditional paper version. The My Meal Mate app allows users to monitor their food intake and exercise, set a weight loss target and sends a weekly update on progress via text message. The smartphone app was used on average every other day in the trial, whilst the average use of the website and paper diary was about once a week. As a result, ...

High blood levels of the serum C-peptide are linked to heart disease and death in people without diabetes, according to a large study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Researchers looked at data from the Third Nutrition and Health Examination Survey (NHANES III) and the NHANES III Linked Mortality File to determine the link between C-peptide levels and death from all causes as well as from heart disease. They looked at mortality data on 5902 adults aged 40 years or older representative of the US population. People with high serum C-peptide levels ...

Cognitive training exercises — or mental exercise — may help prevent cognitive decline in healthy older adults, while evidence for the benefits of pharmacologic substances and exercise is weak, outlines a review published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Mild cognitive impairment (cognitive decline that is more than normal for someone of a specific age) affects 10%-25% of people over age 70. The annual rate of decline to dementia (which is cognitive decline in several areas along with some functional ability) is about 10%. With an aging population, it is ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The taste of beer, without any effect from alcohol itself, can trigger dopamine release in the brain, which is associated with drinking and other drugs of abuse, according to Indiana University School of Medicine researchers. Using positron emission tomography (PET), the researchers tested 49 men with two scans, one in which they tasted beer, and the second in which they tasted Gatorade, looking for evidence of increased levels of dopamine, a brain neurotransmitter long associated with alcohol and other drugs of abuse. The scans showed significantly more ...

This press release is available in German. A team led by the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger has now carried out an experiment with photons, in which they have closed an important loophole. The researchers have thus provided the most complete experimental proof that the quantum world is in conflict with our everyday experience. The results of this study appear this week in the renowned journal Nature (Advance Online Publication/AOP). When we observe an object, we make a number of intuitive assumptions, among them that the unique properties of the object have been ...

The invasive kudzu bug has the potential to be a major agricultural pest, causing significant damage to economically important soybean crops. Conventional wisdom has held that the insect pests will be limited to areas in the southern United States, but new research from North Carolina State University shows that they may be able to expand into other parts of the country. Kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria) are native to Asia, and were first detected in the U.S. in Georgia in 2009. They have since expanded their territory as far north as Virginia. The bugs have an interesting ...

Women who had sufficient amounts of vitamin D were 32 percent less likely to develop fibroids than women with insufficient vitamin D, according to a study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Fibroids, also known as uterine leiomyomata, are noncancerous tumors of the uterus. Fibroids often result in pain and bleeding in premenopausal women, and are the leading cause of hysterectomy in the United States. The study of 1,036 women, aged 35-49, living in the Washington, D.C., area from 1996 to 1999, was led by Donna Baird, Ph.D., a researcher at the National ...

South Africa is home to the largest HIV epidemic in the world with a total of 5.6 million people living with HIV. Large-scale clinical trials evaluating combination methods of prevention and treatment are often prohibitively expensive and take years to complete. In the absence of such trials, mathematical models can help assess the effectiveness of different HIV intervention combinations, as demonstrated in a new study¹ by Elisa Long and Robert Stavert from Yale University in the US. Their findings appear in the Journal of General Internal Medicine², published by Springer. Currently ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Patients whose severe depression goes into remission for six months following electroconvulsive therapy report a quality of life similar to that of healthy individuals, researchers say. "If we can get you into remission, you get this big, big improvement in quality of life at six months such that our patients' quality of life is as good as that of the overall general population," said Dr. W. Vaughn McCall, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University. Researchers looked at ...

URBANA – Approximately 55 percent of the horseradish produced in the United States is grown in the Collinsville, Ill., area, the self-proclaimed "Horseradish Capital of the World." The product is of such high quality that Europeans import it for gourmet and industrial use. But when crop sciences professor Mohammad Babadoost first arrived at the University of Illinois in 1999, he was told that growers had been experiencing significant yield reductions due to internal discoloring and root rot. "If the roots are discolored, they are not accepted for processing," Babadoost ...