Nearly 700 people around the country - almost 50 of them in New Jersey - have been infected with fungal meningitis transmitted in tainted steroid injections prepared by a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy. Six clinics in New Jersey, among them orthopedists, surgeons and pain management facilities, received the infected medications and injected them into patients seeking relief from chronic back pain. The source Health officials around the country, including those at the Federal Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control, have identified the ...

Americans of substantial means have struggled in recent years with tax and estate planning in part because the federal estate tax has become something of a wild card. With the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act, known as ATRA, the federal estate tax rate is finally settled, at least for the foreseeable future. Fiscal cliff averted As the new year of 2013 approached, Congress and the president were embroiled in tough, high-pressure negotiations to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff." The fiscal cliff is an expression coined to describe federal deficit-cutting ...

Last year, the Federal Drug Administration issued a Class I recall notice for GranuFlo and NaturaLyte Dry Acid Concentrates. A spike in the sudden cardiac arrests and deaths of dialysis patients across the country and in Pennsylvania necessitated the drug recall. The drugs are used to treat acute and chronic kidney failure. When a patient's kidney function falls to 10 to 15 percent, hemodialysis is required. In dialysis, a machine filters wastes, salts and fluids from the blood because the patient's kidneys can no longer do this work. Some of the most common causes of ...

Over the last few decades, societal attitudes about marijuana have changed dramatically. Increasingly, many Americans -- especially young people -- are starting to think of marijuana as being more like alcohol than like heroin, cocaine or other harder drugs. Unfortunately, this outlook sometimes leads people to ignore the serious criminal penalties that can come from Alabama drug charges. Law enforcement in Alabama continues to aggressively investigate and prosecute suspected marijuana crimes. A recent illustrative example lies in the case of a Birmingham man who ...

Virginia is known for having some of the toughest DUI/DWI laws in the country, and that hard-nosed stance extends to those who are involved in injury-causing accidents while they are driving under the influence. The law refers to the offense colloquially as "DUI maiming," and while it doesn't get much public attention, it is still one of the most serious alcohol-related offenses, and a conviction will come with harsh, long-term consequences. The Womick case A recent high-profile case involving a DUI maiming has thrust the issue back into the spotlight. The ...

In today's information age, knowledge is power. More and more companies nowadays are in the business of profiting by using and selling information, rather than by manufacturing goods. As a result, a company's "trade secrets" or confidential information are its stock-in-trade. Lose them, and profits nosedive. Our society recognizes the importance of keeping the confidentiality of certain information and as a result, 40 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act ("UTSA"), with some modification in each state. Among ...

Winner.com is proud to announce the launching of Winner Games. Comprised of a collection of instant win and casual games, Winner features new hits such as Avengers Scratch, Rubik's Riches and Captain America Scratch. Visitors to Winner Games will find categories such as Sports & Virtual with casual horseracing and football games. Avengers Scratch is a new game that takes players through scenes from the hit Avengers movie. Players match The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Iron Man and collect Marvel-ous payouts. The Avengers Scratch jackpot is won by matching the S.H.I.E.L.D. ...

The richer the assortment of amphibian species in a pond, the more protection that community of frogs, toads and salamanders has against a parasitic infection that can cause severe deformities, including the growth of extra legs. The findings, published in a paper in this week's issue of the journal Nature, support the idea that greater biodiversity in large-scale ecosystems, such as forests or grasslands, may also provide greater protection against diseases, including those that affect humans. A larger number of mammal species in an area may curb cases of Lyme disease, ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- As the emerald ash borer ravages North American ash trees, threatening the trees' very survival, a team of entomologists and engineers may have found a way to prevent the spread of the pests. Emerald ash borers (EABs), a type of beetle native to Asia, first appeared in the U.S. about 20 years ago. They are now moving east from Michigan, killing ash trees on the Eastern Seaboard as far south as North Carolina. "Within 25 years, practically no ash trees may remain on either side of the St. Lawrence Seaway," said Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Children who overreact to stressors may be at risk of becoming overweight or obese, according to researchers at Penn State and Johns Hopkins University. "Our results suggest that some children who are at risk of becoming obese can be identified by their biological response to a stressor," said Lori Francis, associate professor of biobehavioral health. "Ultimately, the goal is to help children manage stress in ways that promote health and reduce the risks associated with an over- or under-reactive stress response." Francis and her colleagues ...

Recent studies have identified correlations between cigarette smoke-induced microRNA (miRNA) expression and different aspects of lung cancer; however, it is unclear how miRNA expression directly contributes to carcinogenesis. MiRNAs regulate the expression of target genes and can have a significant impact on when and how well different gene products are expressed. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, David Schrump and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, measured miRNA expression in normal human lung cells exposed to cigarette ...

Diabetic patients are more than twice as likely to die from a heart attack as non-diabetic patients, but the mechanisms that underlie increased heart attack-related mortality in diabetic patients are unknown. High levels of the oxidized form of the protein CamKII (ox-CaMKII) have been linked to increased risk of sudden death after heart attack. Additionally, hearts from diabetic patients have significantly greater ox-CAMKII compared to hearts from non-diabetic patients. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Min Luo and colleagues at the University of Iowa ...

A smoking gun in lung cancer epigenetics Recent studies have identified correlations between cigarette smoke-induced microRNA (miRNA) expression and different aspects of lung cancer; however, it is unclear how miRNA expression directly contributes to carcinogenesis. MiRNAs regulate the expression of target genes and can have a significant impact on when and how well different gene products are expressed. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, David Schrump and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, measured miRNA expression in normal ...

In the most comprehensive report in a half century, experts today described fundamental changes needed in the education of the scientists whose work impacts medicine, drug discovery and virtually every other discipline. The result of a year-long project of a presidential commission of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, the report was the topic of a symposium here at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Although it concluded that the state of graduate education in the chemical ...

From sore feet to backaches, blame it on human evolution. "Because we are the only mammals to walk on two feet," says Bruce Latimer, an anthropologist from the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine. Latimer will present "A Backache of Longstanding: An Evolutionary Perspective on the Human Vertebral Column" at the 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Boston, Feb. 14-18. His talk will be featured in the session, "The Scars of Human Evolution." Latimer and other panelists will explain how adapting to upright ...

BOSTON - The notion of "personalizing" health care through the use of an individual's genetic code has attracted considerable enthusiasm and investment. Impressive examples, confirmed through formal studies of clinical validity and utility, suggest that we have only scratched the surface of applications to treat disease more precisely, identify risk factors for complex disease, and guide preventative measures. As the cost of sequencing entire genomes falls, the opportunities for people around the world to take possession of their entire genetic code will proliferate. ...

When it comes to healing the terrible wounds of war, success may hinge on the first blood clot – the one that begins forming on the battlefield right after an injury. Researchers exploring the complex stream of cellular signals produced by the body in response to a traumatic injury believe the initial response – formation of a blood clot – may control subsequent healing. Using that information, they're developing new biomaterials, including artificial blood platelets laced with regulatory chemicals that could be included in an injector device the size of an iPhone. Soldiers ...

More people are meeting recommended goals in the three key markers of diabetes control, according to a study conducted and funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report, published online February 15 in Diabetes Care, shows that, from 1988 to 2010, the number of people with diabetes able to meet or exceed all three of the measures that demonstrate good diabetes management rose from about 2 percent to about 19 percent. Each measure also showed substantial improvement, with over half of people meeting each individual ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Throughout 2012, the United States was battered by severe weather events such as hurricanes and droughts that affected both pocketbooks and livelihoods. Research suggests that in the coming years, U.S. five-day forecasts will show greater numbers of extreme weather events, a trend linked to human-driven climate change. Donald Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will discuss extreme weather in a presentation Feb. 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ...

LA JOLLA, CA – February 15, 2013 – Doctors currently struggle to determine whether a breast tumor is likely to shift into an aggressive, life-threatening mode—an issue with profound implications for treatment. Now a group from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has identified a mechanism through which mitochondria, the powerhouses of a cell, control tumor aggressiveness. Based on their findings, the team developed a simple treatment that inhibits cancer progression and prolongs life when tested in mice. The research team, which describes its results February 15, 2013, ...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. –Feb. 14, 2013– The pharmaceutical industry's efforts to self-regulate its direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising are "an industry-sponsored ruse," intended to deflect criticism and collectively block new Federal regulation, a study released today in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law found. The paper, "The Politics and Strategy of Industry Self-Regulation: The Pharmaceutical Industry's Principles for Ethical Direct-to-Consumer Advertising as a Deceptive Blocking Strategy," was written by Denis Arnold, Associate Professor of Management and Surtman ...

In our ongoing quest for alternative energy sources, researchers are looking more to plants that grow in the wild for use in biofuels, plants such as switchgrass. However, attempts to "domesticate" wild-growing plants have a downside, as it could make the plants more susceptible to any number of plant viruses. In a presentation at this year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Michigan State University plant biologist Carolyn Malmstrom said that when we start combining the qualities of different types of plants into one, there can be ...

(Boston) – A breast cancer risk prediction model developed for African Americans tends to underestimate risk in certain subgroups, according to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University. The model predicted estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer, which is a more aggressive form of breast cancer that disproportionately affects African American women, more poorly than ER-positive breast cancer. The study, published online today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was led by Deborah Boggs, ScD, postdoctoral associate at ...

HEIDELBERG, 15 February 2013 – Researchers from King's College London have discovered that neuronal activity can stimulate tau release from healthy neurons in the absence of cell death. The results published by Diane Hanger and her colleagues in EMBO reports show that treatment of neurons with known biological signaling molecules increases the release of tau into the culture medi-um. The release of tau from cortical neurons is therefore a physiological process that can be regulated by neuronal activity. Tau proteins stabilize microtubules, the long threads of polymers ...

WATERLOO, Ont. (Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013) A team of researchers at the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing has proposed a new computational model that may become the architecture for a scalable quantum computer. In a paper to be published in the journal Science this week, the research team of IQC Associate Professor Andrew Childs, post-doctoral fellow David Gosset and PhD student Zak Webb proposes using multi-particle quantum walks for universal computation. In a multi-particle quantum walk, particles live on the vertices of a graph and can move between ...