Regenerative medicine in spinal cord injuries (SCI) is proving to help the human body create new cell and nerve connections that are severed during this type of injury. In a review of current scientific research for stem cell treatment in SCI published this month in the Springer journal Neurotheraputics, Dr. Michael Fehlings and Dr. Reaz Vawda from the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, Canada, provide evidence that supports researchers moving beyond the lab to conduct human clinical trials for stem cells. Spinal cord injuries remain one ...

Athens, Ga. – If genes provide the blueprint for life and proteins are the machines that do much of the work for cells, then carbohydrates that are linked to proteins are among the tools that enable cells to communicate with the outside world and each other. But until now, scientists have been unable to determine the structure of a biologically important so-called GAG proteoglycan—or even to agree whether these remarkably complex molecules have well-defined structures. In a paper published in the early online edition of the journal Nature Chemical Biology, however, a ...

(Baltimore, MD) — Learning from one's mistakes may be better than practicing to perfection, according to a new study appearing in the October 19 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute found that forcing people to switch from a normal walking pattern to an unusual one — and back again — made them better able to adjust to the unusual pattern the following day. The findings may help improve therapy for people relearning how to walk following stroke or other injury. Previous studies in the lab of Amy Bastian, PhD, Director of ...

A new analysis has found that coughing may signal trouble for patients with the lung-scarring disease known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The study, published in the journal Respirology, found that patients with the condition who also cough are more likely to develop advanced forms of the disease that may be life threatening. When idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis develops, tissue deep in the lungs becomes thick and scarred, likely due to a response to an unknown substance. The condition affects approximately 100,000 individuals in the United States, and up to half die ...

Global digital marketing company bigmouthmedia has announced the results of its annual affiliate marketing survey. Titled 'Exploring Online Affiliate Marketing Trends', the survey of UK based affiliates took in the views and opinions of a number of affiliate marketers to reveal insights on how this market is performing and indicates key technology and operational trends on where it is going. In particular the survey analyses and identifies key insights in to the relationships between affiliate marketers and agencies, the impact of Google (as an affiliate) and Google's ...

For better and for worse, human health depends on a cell's motility –– the ability to crawl from place to place. In every human body, millions of cells –are crawling around doing mostly good deeds ––– though if any of those crawlers are cancerous, watch out. "This is not some horrible sci-fi movie come true but, instead, normal cells carrying out their daily duties," said Florida State University cell biologist Tom Roberts. For 35 years he has studied the mechanical and molecular means by which amorphous single cells purposefully propel themselves throughout the body ...

Scientists have increased the estimate on the number of humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean in a paper published in the journal Marine Mammal Science. The increase follows a refined statistical analysis of data compiled in 2008 from the largest whale survey ever undertaken to assess humpback whale populations throughout the North Pacific. The number of North Pacific Humpback Whales in the 2008 study known as the Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks, or SPLASH, was estimated at just under 20,000 based on a preliminary look at the ...

Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast today announced the appointment of Charles G. Alvarez as Chief Financial Officer. With over 30 years in financial management, Mr. Alvarez has held a number of executive-level financial positions in the Silicon Valley and will now be responsible for the long-term business and financial strategies of the council. "We are thrilled that Mr. Alvarez will be bringing his breadth of financial management experience to the council," said Sherry Sybesma, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast. "His ...

Being hospitalized for heart failure (HF) was about 30 percent less likely in 2008 than in 1998, according to a study by Yale physicians in the Oct. 19 issue of JAMA. The team also found that the rate of hospitalization for black men dropped at a lower rate, and that one-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remained high. Led by Jersey Chen, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, the study examined data from 55,097,390 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized in the United States and Puerto Rico ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – America's elderly population will nearly double by 2050, according to a Pew Research report. As baby boomers enter retirement, concern exists as to who will care for them as they age. Traditionally, children have accepted the caregiving responsibilities, but those caregiving roles are becoming blurred as more families are affected by divorce and remarriage than in previous decades. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that relationship quality trumps genetic ties when determining caregiving obligations. Lawrence Ganong, a professor and co-chair ...

Napa Technology, developer of the WineStation Intelligent Preservation and Dispensing System, commissioned a survey of 40 top wine retailers nationwide on wine purchasing trends and best practices for increasing bottle sales. Respondents agreed that today's consumers are willing to pay more, when given the opportunity to sample wine before they buy. And those retailers willing to look outside the wine bottle for creative and technologically innovative solutions are seeing the profits pour in. The survey found that 76 percent of retailers agree that wine buying customers ...

It's a pattern that no doubt repeats itself daily in hundreds of millions of offices around the world: People sit down, turn on their computers, set their mobile phones on their desks and begin to work. What if a hacker could use that phone to track what the person was typing on the keyboard just inches away? A research team at Georgia Tech has discovered how to do exactly that, using a smartphone accelerometer—the internal device that detects when and how the phone is tilted—to sense keyboard vibrations and decipher complete sentences with up to 80 percent accuracy. ...

A UCSF study gives hope to those suffering from severe cases of bacterial corneal ulcers, which can lead to blindness if left untreated. The use of topical corticosteroids in a randomized controlled trial was found to be neither beneficial nor harmful in the overall patient population in the study. However, it helped patients who had more serious forms of bacterial corneal ulcers, according to UCSF researchers. In a paper published this month in the Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, researchers found significant vision improvement—one and a ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — First results from a large-scale Phase III trial of RTS,S*, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), show the malaria vaccine candidate to provide young African children with significant protection against clinical and severe malaria with an acceptable safety and tolerability profile. The results were announced today at the Malaria Forum hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington. Half the world's population is at risk of malaria. The disease is responsible for close to 800,000 deaths each year, ...

Book Espana has found that there are 693 active matadors in Spain during the 2011 bullfighting season and 2582 aspiring matadors. It appears the amount of bullfighters has increased slightly in 2011 compared to 2010, even if bullfighting in Barcelona has ended recently, mainly due to political reasons. This year Spain has held 648 traditional bullfights, 130 bullfights with the matador riding on a horseback and 1070 bullfights with younger bulls. It appears about 12 500 bulls has been killed in Spanish bullfights during the 2011 season, while zero matadors has been killed ...

Genetic resistance to a parasitic nematode that infects sheep has been discovered by a team of scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The researchers are the first to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL), genetic locations on chromosomes, for resistance to gastrointestinal nematode parasites in a double-backcross population derived from African native sheep. The parasites, common in tropical regions, cause significant economic and production losses in Africa each year. Sheep infected with parasites ...

Evolution of a Stream: Plants and sea-life claim new territory as glaciers retreat in Glacier Bay, Alaska As tidewater glaciers beat a hasty retreat up Glacier Bay in southeast Alaska, they uncover rocky, barren landscapes and feed cold lakes and streams — new habitat for life's hardy explorers. In the October issue of Ecology, researchers from the Universities of Birmingham, Roehampton and Leeds describe the evolution and assembly of a stream ecosystem in newly de-glaciated terrain, from early insect and crustacean invaders to the arrival of migrating salmon. Sampling ...

Contact: Preeti Singh psingh@burnesscommunications.com 301-280-5722 703-862-2515 Kelsey Mertes kmertes@path.org 202-540-4422 301-312-7844 PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative First results from Phase 3 trial show malaria vaccine candidate reduces the risk of malaria First results from ongoing Phase III trial show malaria vaccine candidate, RTS,S* reduces the risk of malaria by half in African children aged 5 to 17 months Seattle, 18 October 2011 — First results from a large-scale Phase III trial of RTS,S, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine ...

The custom framing industry has not yet made its mark on the Internet due to the fact that custom frames are not simple products. Customizable products have just recently begun to penetrate into the world of e-commerce due to advancements in development platforms and connection speeds. Frames4Less.com, a Menache Ecommerce company, aims to bring custom frames within reach of the general population using a fancy new website equipped with a state of the art Custom Framing Interface. Custom picture frames are expensive and time consuming to order, many don't resort to ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A new study by researchers at Indiana University and George Mason University found the sexual repertoire of gay men surprisingly diverse, suggesting that a broader, less disease-focused perspective might be warranted by public health and medical practitioners in addressing the sexual health of gay and bisexual men. The study, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, tapped the largest sample of its kind in the United States to examine the sexual behaviors of gay and bisexual men. In collaboration with the OLB Research Institute ...

Smithsonian scientists have discovered two new, closely related bee species: one from Coiba Island in Panama and another from northern Colombia. Both descended from of a group of stingless bees that originated in the Amazon and moved into Central America, the ancestors of Mayan honeybees. The presence of one of these new species on Coiba and Rancheria Islands, and its absence from the nearby mainland, is a mystery that will ultimately shed light on Panama's history and abundant biodiversity. At almost 200 square miles, Coiba Island is the largest offshore island along ...

PHILADELPHIA — An experimental vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine is the first veterinary cancer vaccine of its kind that shows an increase in survival time for dogs with spontaneous non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The work shows for the first time the feasibility and therapeutic efficacy of this alternative cell-based vaccine, which could be employed in the treatment of a number of different cancer types. The research was conducted by Nicola Mason, assistant professor of medicine at Penn Vet; Robert ...

On October 13, with little fanfare, Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (NE-1) introduced the Veterans Entrepreneurial Transition (VET) Act of 2011, a landmark new GI Bill that would allow veterans to use their already budgeted educational benefits earned under existing GI Bills, to start up new small businesses. The VET Act (H.R. 3167) is a GI Bill aimed at addressing the unacceptably high veteran unemployment rate, as well as to help quickly re-build a new generation of veteran-owned small business enterprises across America as the backbone of new job creation. This GI ...

Why did the approval ratings of President George W. Bush— who was perceived as indecisive before September 11, 2001—soar over 90 percent after the terrorist attacks? Because Americans were acutely aware of their own deaths. That is one lesson from the psychological literature on "mortality salience" reviewed in a new article called "The Politics of Mortal Terror." The paper, by psychologists Florette Cohen of the City University of New York's College of Staten Island and Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College, appears in October's Current Directions in Psychological Science, ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Oct. 18, 2011 – Family matters, especially when it comes to African-Americans and living kidney donation. In a study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, researchers found that African-Americans donate almost exclusively to family members for living kidney transplants, as compared to Caucasians. The retrospective study, published in the September/October online issue of the journal Clinical Transplantation, compared medical records of all former successful kidney donors at Wake Forest Baptist between Jan. 1, 1991, and Dec. 31, 2009. The ...