PHILADELPHIA – Patients with end-stage liver disease complicated by the most common type of liver cancer – hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – are less likely to die or become too sick for a transplant while waiting for a new liver than those with other complications of end-stage liver disease, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The investigators say their findings should prompt a re-examination of the criteria used to prioritize liver transplant candidates. Only three percent of patients with this common form ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Based on a recent study, University of Missouri and Oregon researchers believe a legal definition for what constitutes "cruelty-free" labeled products should be determined and manufacturers should be required to abide by the legal use of the label. Many consumers intentionally buy products manufactured in ways that do not exploit child labor or cause minimal harm to animals or the environment. Many businesses, such as shampoo, cosmetic, fragrance and pharmaceutical companies, use the term cruelty-free to attract buyers, giving consumers the impression that ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. - If a paramedic suspects a patient is having a stroke, the paramedic is probably right, a Loyola University Medical Center study has found. Researchers examined the records of 5,300 patients who were brought to Loyola's emergency room by emergency medical services (EMS). Paramedics were able to identify stroke patients with a 99.3 percent specificity. (In diagnosing disease, a high specificity rate indicates there's a high probability the patient actually has the disease.) "If a paramedic thinks a patient is having a stroke, that should be a reliable indicator ...

Researchers from Emory and the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed a new treatment approach that appears to halt the spread of cancer cells into normal brain tissue in animal models. Treating invasive brain tumors with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation has improved clinical outcomes, but few patients survive longer than two years after diagnosis. The effectiveness of treatment is limited by the tumor's aggressive invasion of healthy brain tissue, which restricts chemotherapy access to the cancer cells and complicates surgical removal of the tumor. The ...

Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hospitality company and a member of Dubai Holding, is proud to announce the winner of its second Arts and Culture Award winner, presented at the 16th Annual Luxury Briefing Awards, celebrating the best in the luxury industry and taking place last week at The Corinthia Hotel in London. The Jumeirah Group Arts and Culture Award celebrates leading international enterprises that are supporting artists and advancing artistic practice through innovative creative collaborations in the business arena. The second instalment of the award ...

Cleveland . . . A team of scientists has announced the discovery of a 3.4 million-year-old partial foot from the Woranso-Mille area of the Afar region of Ethiopia. The fossil foot did not belong to a member of "Lucy's" species, Australopithecus afarensis, the famous early human ancestor. Research on this new specimen indicates that more than one species of early human ancestor existed between 3 and 4 million years ago with different methods of locomotion. The analysis will be published in the March 29, 2012 issue of the journal Nature. The partial foot was found in ...

WASHINGTON — The traditional separation between primary health care providers and public health professionals is impeding greater success in meeting their shared goal of ensuring the health of populations, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Integration of these fields will require national leadership as well as substantial adaptation at the local level, said the committee that wrote the report. The report recommends ways that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) could foster integration ...

The manager of a luxury resort in Shropshire this week offered his advice to jobseekers on how to make themselves stand out. Terence Southward, the general manager at Macdonald Hill Valley Hotel Golf hotel in Shropshire said it was important to show initiative in the current climate. "Our business is about personality, commitment and get-up-and-go so just putting in that little bit of extra effort can make all the difference," he said. Terence, a father of one, started his career at 21 waiting tables at Butlins but is now manager of the luxury hotel ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A team of physicists at UC Santa Barbara has seen the light, and it comes in many different colors. By aiming high- and low-frequency laser beams at a semiconductor, the researchers caused electrons to be ripped from their cores, accelerated, and then smashed back into the cores they left behind. This recollision produced multiple frequencies of light simultaneously. Their findings appear in the current issue of the science journal Nature. "This is a very remarkable phenomenon. I have never seen anything like this before," said Mark Sherwin, ...

Lebara Mobile, Australia's leading telecoms operator for migrant communities, has launched its new and improved Mega Plan service, providing unlimited standard calls and SMS in Australia as well as 1GB of mobile internet at no extra cost. As before, the Mega Plan continues to include an amount of call credit for low-cost international calls. "We believe this new Mega Plan offers the best value package for customers who make both national and international calls, as well as those who access the internet from their phones." said Warren Hardy, managing director ...

Look at a middle school assembly – during their lifetime one in 50 of these kids will develop melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer that kills 48,000 people every year, worldwide. Now look at these kids again – which are at highest risk? You can't tell, but a study recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology shows that UV photography might provide important information about risk, not visible to the naked eye. The amount of sun damage in UV photographs taken of a large cohort of 12-year-old's correlated with known melanoma risk factors ...

A hidden and never before recognized layer of information in the genetic code has been uncovered by a team of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) thanks to a technique developed at UCSF called ribosome profiling, which enables the measurement of gene activity inside living cells — including the speed with which proteins are made. By measuring the rate of protein production in bacteria, the team discovered that slight genetic alterations could have a dramatic effect. This was true even for seemingly insignificant genetic changes known as "silent ...

Cache Metals, a leading Canadian based gold and silver bullion wholesaler, announced the launch of phase one of their online property, http://www.cachemetals.com. The new website includes real-time precious metals market news, gold, silver, platinum and palladium live spot charts, historical price charts, as well as bullion investment resources and daily market reports. Clients and investors can continue buy and sell gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion bars and coins from Cache Metals. The re-design of CacheMetals.com was due to in part to a growing industry ...

Schoolteachers who underwent a short but intensive program of meditation were less depressed, anxious or stressed – and more compassionate and aware of others' feelings, according to a UCSF-led study that blended ancient meditation practices with the most current scientific methods for regulating emotions. Teachers who practiced meditation in a short yet intensive program were more calm and compassionate, according to a new study led by UCSF. A core feature of many religions, meditation is practiced by tens of millions around the world as part of their spiritual beliefs ...

ROCKVILLE, MD, March 28, 2012 -- Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: CUR) announced that safety results from the first 12 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) to receive its stem cells were reported online in the peer-reviewed publication, Stem Cells, on March 13th. "Lumbar Intraspinal Injection of Neural Stem Cells in Patients with ALS: Results of a Phase I Trial in 12 Patients" reports that one patient has shown improvement in his clinical status, even though researchers caution that the study was not designed to show efficacy. Additionally, ...

While most Jewish women and men spend the days leading up to Passover scrubbing their floors, cleaning the dirt from their homes, and banishing their kitchens of every single crumb, Jewish singles are using this time of the year to clean out their social lives. According to a poll conducted by Jewish dating site, Jewcier (http://www.jewcier.com), Jewish singles will use Passover as an excuse to clean out their cell phone contacts and declutter their Facebook accounts. In a new poll of more than 1,120 Jewish singles, 68% of women, and 65% of men said that cleaning out ...

WASHINGTON (March 28, 2012)—A study by The Genographic Project has found that the majority of all known ethnic Afghans share a unique genetic heritage derived from a common ancestral population that most likely emerged during the Neolithic revolution and the formation of early farming communities. Through detailed DNA analysis of samples from 27 provinces, the Genographic team found the inter-Afghan genetic variability to be mostly attributed to the formation of the first civilizations in the region during the Bronze Age. The study finds these early civilizations may ...

States are doing an effective job of monitoring air quality, but the federal government remains the primary player in clearing the air, according to a new study by Rice University. In a recent study published by the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, the Rice research group of environmental engineer Daniel Cohan looked at state implementation plans (SIPs) mandated by the United States Clean Air Act. SIPs detailed how states would attain standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for cutting ozone and other ground-level contaminants by ...

MADISON – An independent commission of scientific leaders from 13 countries today released a detailed set of recommendations to policymakers on how to achieve food security in the face of climate change. In their report, the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change proposes specific policy responses to the global challenge of feeding a world confronted by climate change, population growth, poverty, food price spikes and degraded ecosystems. The report highlights specific opportunities under the mandates of the Rio+20 Earth Summit, the United Nations Framework ...

BOSTON—A report from the nation's leading cancer organizations shows rates of death in the United States from all cancers for men and women continued to decline between 2004 and 2008. The findings come from the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. The report also finds that the overall rate of new cancer diagnoses for men and women combined decreased an average of less than one percent per year from 1998 through 2006, with rates leveling off from 2006 through 2008. Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, president of Dana-Farber Cancer in Institute in Boston, ...

Britain's best loved playwright, William Shakespeare, is to be commemorated this year with a series of global events and performances, starting on the occasion of his birthday (and anniversary of his death), the 23rd April. The World Shakespeare Festival will run until November. To help travelling fans find a reasonably priced London hotel, website LondonTown.com has announced details of discounted hotel rooms close to the Globe. 37 international companies, performing in 37 different languages will be taking part in 37 plays, from a Korean Midsummer Night's Dream ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – March 28, 2012 – Recent clinical studies have shown that general anesthesia can be harmful to infants, presenting a dilemma for both doctors and parents. But new research at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center may point the way to treatment options that protect very young children against the adverse effects of anesthesia. As detailed in a study published in the March 23 online edition of the journal Neuroscience, Wake Forest Baptist scientists explored a number of strategies designed to prevent anesthesia-induced damage to the brain in infants. Using ...

The Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks should win their divisions, while the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds will make it to Major League Baseball's post-season as wild card teams in the National League (NL) in 2012, according to NJIT's baseball guru Bruce Bukiet. The San Francisco Giants, Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Marlins could be close on the heels of the Reds and Braves but should miss out on the post-season by 3 or 4 wins. For more than a decade, Bukiet, an associate professor and associate dean, has applied mathematical ...

Environmental issues like global warming, climate changes and climate-linked disasters are threats to human beings. They affect access to food, water and housing and they also affect our health and well-being. The occurrence and severity of extreme weather such as heavy rainfall, floods, storms and hurricanes have risen in recent years. They affect millions of people around the globe and cause damages amounting to billions of dollars. Immediate action is needed to deal with climate-linked and natural disasters. To bring about changes require coordination and cooperation ...

TAMPA, Fla. (March 28, 2012) – Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., and colleagues from the UF Shands Cancer Center in Gainesville, Fla., have found that cases of myeloid malignancies are being underreported since a change in registry protocols and laboratory practices starting in 2001. Their study is published in a recent issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Since the 1970s, cancer registries have monitored myeloid leukemia incidence in the United States," said study ...