The press release
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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Stem cell materials could boost research into key diseases

Stem cell manufacturing for drug screening and treatments for diseases such as Huntington's and Parkinson's could be boosted by a new method of generating stem cells, a study suggests. Scientists have developed a family of compounds that can support the growth of human embryonic stem cells on a large scale for use in drug testing or treatments. The new materials, which are water-based gels, act as a tiny scaffold to which cells can cling as they grow. Normally cells must be grown on expensive biological surfaces that can carry pathogens and contaminate cells. Once ...

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Social Science8 Jan 2013

Surprising teaching tool in K-12 science education -- Zebrafish research

New Rochelle, NY, January 8, 2013—The world's leading zebrafish researchers contribute to the community's active global efforts to promote science education. Scientific papers, many authored by students in grades K-12, as well as articles highlighting innovative curricula and educational tools, a collection of abstracts (including student, parent, and teacher authors), and an informative report from the recent Zebrafish in Education Workshops are featured in a special issue of Zebrafish, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The special issue ...

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Environment8 Jan 2013

Study finds Jurassic ecosystems were similar to modern: Animals flourish among lush plants

VIDEO: SMU study finds Jurassic ecosystems were similar to modern: animals flourish among lush plants. In modern ecosystems, it's widely known that animals flourish in regions where the climate and landscape produce... Click here for more information. In modern ecosystems, it's known that animals flourish in regions where the climate and landscape produce lush vegetation. A new study set out to discover whether that same relationship held true 150 million years ago ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet for Jan. 8, 2013

A panel of experts has released a new 33-item protocol checklist focusing on clarifying the content of clinical trials. While the protocol of a clinical trial serves as the foundation for study planning, conduct, reporting, and appraisal, trial protocols and existing protocol guidelines vary greatly in content and quality. Adherence to SPIRIT would enhance the transparency and completeness of trial protocols and could help ensure that protocols contain the requisite information for critical appraisal and interpretation. High-quality protocols can provide important ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Study: Parkinson's disease itself does not increase risk of gambling, shopping addiction

MINNEAPOLIS – Parkinson's disease itself does not increase the risk of impulse control problems such as compulsive gambling and shopping that have been seen in people taking certain drugs for Parkinson's disease, according to new research published in the January 8, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "We've known for some time that these behaviors are more common in people taking certain Parkinson's medications, but we haven't known if the disease itself leads to an increased risk of these behaviors," said study ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

More changes in health care needed to fulfill promise of health information technology

Despite wide investments nationally in electronic medical records and related tools, the cost-saving promise of health information technology has not been reached because the systems deployed are neither interconnected nor easy to use, according to a new RAND Corporation analysis. The potential of health information technology to both improve patient care and reduce spending are unlikely to be realized until health care providers reengineer their processes to focus on the benefits that can be achieved, according to the paper published in the January edition of Health ...

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Space8 Jan 2013

Simulated mission to Mars reveals critical data about sleep needs for astronauts

PHILADELPHIA – In the first study of its kind, a team of researchers led by faculty at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Baylor College of Medicine, has analyzed data on the impact of prolonged operational confinement on sleep, performance, and mood in astronauts from a groundbreaking international effort to simulate a 520-day space mission to Mars. The findings, published online-first in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed alterations of life-sustaining sleep patterns and neurobehavioral consequences for ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Can blood pressure drugs reduce the risk of dementia?

SAN DIEGO – People taking the blood pressure drugs called beta blockers may be less likely to have changes in the brain that can be signs of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. The study involved 774 elderly Japanese-American men who took part in the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Autopsies were performed on the men after their death. Of the 774 men, 610 had high blood pressure or were being treated with medication ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Many physicians often fulfill patient requests for brand-name drugs instead of equivalent generics

More than a third of U.S. physicians responding to a national survey indicated they often or sometimes prescribed brand-name drugs when appropriate generic substitutes were available simply because patients requested the brand-name drug. Survey respondents who had marketing relationships with industry were more likely to fulfill such patient requests than were those without those relationships. The report from investigators at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy (MIHP) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) will appear in JAMA Internal Medicine (formerly Archives ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

HPV-associated cancer incidence rates point to needed efforts to increase HPV vaccination coverage

Despite the decline in cancer death rates in the U.S., there is an increase in incidence rates for cancers associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and more efforts are needed to increase HPV vaccination coverage levels to prevent the occurrence of these cancers in the future according to a study published January 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Targeting hepatitis C treatment: The importance of interleukin (IL)-28

A metanalysis published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine has confirmed that polymorphisms (SNP) in the gene coding for interleukin-28 (IL28B) influence natural hepatitis C viral (HCV) clearance and response to pegylated interferon-α plus ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV). Information about IL28B genotype could be used to provide personalized medicine and target treatment options effectively. Over 200 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and about a quarter of these will go on to develop cirrhosis of the liver. Treatment ...

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Science8 Jan 2013

Songbird sings in 3D

The question 'How do songbirds sing?' is addressed in a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Biology. High-field magnetic resonance imaging and micro-computed tomography have been used to construct stunning high resolution, 3D, images, as well as a data set "morphome" of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) vocal organ, the syrinx. Like humans, songbirds learn their vocalizations by imitation. Since their songs are used for finding a mate and retaining territories, birdsong is very important for reproductive success. The syrinx, located at the ...

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Science8 Jan 2013

How do songbirds sing? In 3D!

January 8, 2013 – A multinational team of researchers made a significant step forward in trying to understand how birds produce their beautiful songs. "We used cutting-edge 3D imaging techniques to understand the complicated structure of the vocal organ of songbirds, the syrinx", says Dr. Coen Elemans, from the University of Southern Denmark, the senior author on the study. Elemans and his colleagues are publishing their findings January 8, 2013 in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Biology. Communicating with sounds is central to the life of most animals and they ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Costly breast cancer screenings don't add up to better outcomes

Even though Medicare spends over $1 billion per year on breast cancer screenings such as a mammography, there is no evidence that higher spending benefits older women, researchers at Yale School of Medicine found in a study published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Led by Cary Gross, M.D., associate professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine and director of the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center at Yale, the study sought to provide a comprehensive understanding of breast cancer ...

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Environment8 Jan 2013

Giant fossil predator provides insights into the rise of modern marine ecosystem structures

An international team of scientists has described a fossil marine predator measuring 8.6 meters in length (about 28 feet) recovered from the Nevada desert in 2010 as representing the first top predator in marine food chains feeding on prey similar to its own size. A paper with their description will appear the week of January 7, 2013 in the EE (early electronic) issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists who studied the fossil include lead author Dr. Nadia Fröbisch and Prof. Jörg Fröbisch (both at Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- ...

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Science8 Jan 2013

Looming malpractice

The average physician can expect to spend nearly 11 per cent of his or her career with a malpractice claim waiting to be resolved. Some specialists will spend nearly a third of their careers with open claims. The length of time it takes to resolve a malpractice claim is a stress on patients, physicians and the legal system. The time spent with open claims may be even more distressing for physicians than the financial costs of malpractice claims. "We believe that the time required to resolve malpractice claims may be a significant reason that physicians are so vocal ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Centralization to fewer surgeons results in better survival after esophageal cancer surgery

Patients who undergo surgery for oesophageal cancer have a much greater chance of long term survival if the operation is carried out by a surgeon who has performed this particular operation many times before. This according to a new, large-scale study conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. In their article, the researchers conclude that oesophageal cancer surgery should be concentrated – or centralised – to fewer surgeons. Surgery is the most widely established curative treatment for oesophageal ...

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Science8 Jan 2013

The reason we lose at games

Writing in PNAS, a University of Manchester physicist has discovered that some games are simply impossible to fully learn, or too complex for the human mind to understand. Dr Tobias Galla from The University of Manchester and Professor Doyne Farmer from Oxford University and the Santa Fe Institute, ran thousands of simulations of two-player games to see how human behaviour affects their decision-making. In simple games with a small number of moves, such as Noughts and Crosses the optimal strategy is easy to guess, and the game quickly becomes uninteresting. However, ...

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Social Science8 Jan 2013

High salt intake linked to social inequalities

People from low socio-economic positions in Britain eat more salt than the well off, irrespective of where they live, states a paper led by Warwick Medical School published on Tuesday in the BMJ Open journal . The research was carried out by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nutrition , based in the Division of Mental Health & Wellbeing of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick. The study looked at the geographical distribution of habitual dietary salt intake in Britain and its association with manual occupations and educational attainments, ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Modified antibodies trigger immune response, point to novel vaccine design strategies

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (January 7, 2013) – In an approach with the potential to aid therapeutic vaccine development, Whitehead Institute scientists have shown that enzymatically modified antibodies can be used to generate highly targeted, potent responses from cells of the immune system. The approach, referred to as "sortagging," relies on the bacterial enzyme sortase A to modify antibodies to carry various payloads, such as peptides, lipids, fluorophores, and proteins. In this case, the scientists, whose findings are reported online this week in the journal PNAS, attached ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Untreated Parkinson's disease patients no more likely to have impulse control disorders

PHILADELPHIA - While approximately one in five Parkinson's disease patients experience impulse control disorder symptoms, the disease itself does not increase the risk of gambling, shopping, or other impulsivity symptoms, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. A new study is the first to show in a large sample that people with untreated Parkinson's were no more likely to have an increased impulsivity than people without the disease. Published in the January 8, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Comprehensive public health approach urged to curb gun violence in US

Boston, MA -- In the wake of the horrific school shootings in Newtown, Conn. in December, three Harvard experts say the best way to curb gun violence in the U.S. is to take a broad public health approach, drawing on proven, evidence-based strategies that have successfully reduced other public health threats like smoking, car crashes, and accidental poisonings. The authors make the case for a comprehensive public health approach to gun violence in a viewpoint article published online January 7, 2013 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). For instance, ...

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Medicine8 Jan 2013

Molecular '2-way radio' directs nerve cell branching and connectivity

Working with fruit flies, Johns Hopkins scientists have decoded the activity of protein signals that let certain nerve cells know when and where to branch so that they reach and connect to their correct muscle targets. The proteins' mammalian counterparts are known to have signaling roles in immunity, nervous system and heart development, and tumor progression, suggesting broad implications for human disease research. A report of the research was published online Nov. 21 in the journal Neuron. To control muscle movements, fruit flies, like other animals, have a set of ...

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Energy8 Jan 2013

UI researcher learns mechanism of hearing is similar to car battery

University of Iowa biologist Daniel Eberl and his colleagues have shown that one of the mechanisms involved in hearing is similar to the battery in your car. And if that isn't interesting enough, the UI scientists advanced their knowledge of human hearing by studying a similar auditory system in fruit flies—and by making use of the fruit fly "love song." To see how the mechanism of hearing resembles a battery, you need to know that the auditory system of the fruit fly contains a protein that functions as a sodium/potassium pump, often called the sodium pump for short, ...

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Science8 Jan 2013

AMSSM issues position statement on sport-related concussions

Philadelphia, Pa. (January 7, 2013) - Athletes with concussions must be held out of practice or play until all symptoms have resolved, to avoid the risk of further injury during the vulnerable period before the brain has recovered. That's among the key recommendations in the new American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) position statement on concussions in sport, which appears in the January issue of Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. At a time of increased concern ...

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