Human stem cells capable of giving rise to any fetal or adult cell type are known as pluripotent stem cells. It is hoped that such cells, the most well known being human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), can be used to generate cell populations with therapeutic utility. In this context, neural derivatives of hESCs are being tested in clinical trials. However, Natalie Lefort and colleagues, at the Institute for Stem cell Therapy and Exploration of Monogenic diseases, France, have now generated cautionary data that suggest that additional quality controls need to be put in place ...

PHILADELPHIA -- Glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer, is one of the most resistant to available therapies and patients typically live approximately 15 months. Previous research has focused on the activation of the apoptosis, or cell death, pathway using therapeutic agents such as tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL); however, the vast majority of these experiments have been stymied by resistance. "Scientists in this field have been hoping to treat this cancer with this new type of apoptosis pathway-targeted therapeutic drug, and this new information ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Brown fat burns calories in adult humans Brown adipose tissue (often known as brown fat) is a specialized tissue that burns calories to generate body heat in rodents and newborn humans, neither of which shiver. Recently, adult humans have also been found to possess brown fat. This fact piqued the interest of researchers seeking to combat the obesity epidemic, the thought being that if they could develop ways to increase the amount of brown fat a person has that person will become slimmer. One hitch to this idea is it has never actually been shown definitively ...

North Carolina Wedding Venues, SC wedding photographers, wedding planners in North Carolina and so much more for brides planning their wedding can be found on Wedding Carolina. For the next 2 months brides can takes advantage of special offers and deals from affiliated Wedding Carolina partners as they celebrate the launch of their Carolina wedding planning site. Wedding Carolina is the new wedding planning website that just launched for brides in North Carolina and South Carolina as they work on their wedding plans with Charlotte wedding planners in North Carolina or without ...

CHICAGO – Children without symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux whose asthma was being poorly controlled with anti-inflammatory treatment did not have an improvement in symptoms or lung function with the added treatment of the proton pump inhibitor lansoprazole, compared to patients who received placebo, according to a study in the January 25 issue of JAMA. Use of lansoprazole was associated with increased adverse events. "Asthma and gastroesophageal reflux (GER) disease are both common disorders in children, and symptoms of GER are frequently reported among children with ...

CHICAGO – Among women with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer, patients having a germline (gene change in a reproductive cell that could be passed to offspring) mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes was associated with improved 5-year overall survival, with BRCA2 carriers having the best prognosis, according to a study in the January 25 issue of JAMA. "Germline mutations in the tumor suppressor genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the strongest known genetic risk factors for both breast and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and are found in 6 percent to 15 percent of women with EOC," ...

CHICAGO – Elevated exposures in children to perfluorinated compounds, which are widely used in manufacturing and food packaging, were associated with lower antibody responses to routine childhood immunizations, according to a study in the January 25 issue of JAMA. "Fluorine-substituted organic compounds have thousands of important industrial and manufacturing applications and occur widely in surfactants and repellants in food packaging and textile impregnation. The perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are highly persistent and cause contamination of drinking water, food, ...

Boston, MA—A new study finds that perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), widely used in manufactured products such as non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing, and fast-food packaging, were associated with lowered immune response to vaccinations in children. It is the first study to document how PFCs, which can be transferred to children prenatally (via the mother) and postnatally from exposure in the environment, can adversely affect vaccine response. The study appears in the January 25, 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "Routine childhood ...

Wetland restoration is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States that aims to create ecosystems similar to those that disappeared over the past century. But a new analysis of restoration projects shows that restored wetlands seldom reach the quality of a natural wetland. "Once you degrade a wetland, it doesn't recover its normal assemblage of plants or its rich stores of organic soil carbon, which both affect natural cycles of water and nutrients, for many years," said David Moreno-Mateos, a University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow. "Even after ...

TeamSupport.com (http://www.TeamSupport.com) - the popular provider of web-based customer support and help desk software solutions - today announced the release of a powerful new screen capture capability. It gives users the ability to record audio and video of a discrepancy and embed it in tickets submitted to a TeamSupport-enabled customer portal. Available to users of both TeamSupport's basic and advanced ticket submission portals, the option offers an "Add Screen Recording" button below the description box when filling-out a new support request. Users ...

Asthma and gastroesophageal reflux (GER) are both common illnesses in children. GER in children often occurs without the typical symptoms of heartburn, and physicians frequently prescribe the acid reflux drug lansoprazole to supplement the standard inhaled steroid treatment for children with uncontrolled asthma regardless of GER symptoms. However, a randomized clinic trial conducted by the American Lung Association's Asthma Clinical Group found that the addition of lansoprazole does not improve asthma symptoms or the control of asthma in children and may increase the risk ...

A new method for identifying bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) will lead to much faster, more effective treatment as well as a reduction in costs. The procedure, described in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, could eventually be used for the identification of micro-organisms in other bodily fluids, including blood and spinal fluid. Scientists at the University Hospital Essen in Germany tested urine samples from in-house patients and were able to effectively separate and accurately identify bacteria using a technique called Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption ...

Teaching children with autism to 'talk things through in their head' may help them to solve complex day-to-day tasks, which could increase the chances of independent, flexible living later in life, according to new research. The study, led by Durham University, found that the mechanism for using 'inner speech' or 'talking things through in their head' is intact in children with autism but not always used in the same way as typically developing children do. The psychologists found that the use, or lack of, thinking in words is strongly linked to the extent of someone's ...

The mating habits of marine turtle may help to protect them against the effects of climate change, according to new research led by the University of Exeter. Published today (25 January 2012) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study shows how the mating patterns of a population of endangered green turtles may be helping them deal with the fact that global warming is leading to a disproportionate number of females being born. The gender of baby turtles is determined by the temperature of the eggs during incubation, with warmer temperatures leading to ...

New Jersey families continue to suffer through the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Many unemployed workers still cannot find work and their debt only "snow-balls" - often to the point where it is impossible to get out from underneath it. For many of these struggling families, the only option they can turn to for assistance during these dire times is bankruptcy. Often individuals consider bankruptcy as a response to mounting credit card debt. Generally, credit card debt is one of the largest unsecured debts held by most people filing for ...

Los Angeles, CA – Experts from the International Headache Society (IHS) have developed new recommendations for conduct of acute and preventive migraine clinical trials. The third edition of Migraine Clinical Trials Guidelines is now available in the IHS journal Cephalalgia, which is published by SAGE. The new guidelines represent an expert consensus summary, and recommend a contemporary, standardized, and evidence-based approach to investigators conducting and reporting randomised, controlled migraine clinical trials. Migraine clinical research has increased exponentially ...

– A pair of studies by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm® identify factors that may lead teens to drive with multiple peer passengers and, then, how those passengers may affect their driver's behavior just before a serious crash. The studies were published today in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Experts have long known that peer passengers increase teen driver crash risk. What hasn't been well understood was how they increase crash risk. "These studies help us understand the factors that may predispose teens to drive with multiple friends ...

New software has significant benefits for primary school children and their understanding of elementary physics, research shows. Studies funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) focused on what primary school children know when they begin studying physics, and how much they still have to learn. The studies looked at how much children understand about the movement of objects such as direction and speed. The studies show that the tasks used in schools to assess how children understand the movement of objects seriously underestimate how much they know already. ...

Eating food fried in olive or sunflower oil is not linked to heart disease or premature death, finds a paper published on bmj.com today. The authors stress, however, that their study took place in Spain, a Mediterranean country where olive or sunflower oil is used for frying and their results would probably not be the same in another country where solid and re-used oils were used for frying. In Western countries, frying is one of the most common methods of cooking. When food is fried it becomes more calorific because the food absorbs the fat of the oils. While ...

Scientists have traced the origin of the 'speed gene' in Thoroughbred racehorses back to a single British mare that lived in the United Kingdom around 300 years ago, according to findings published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The origin of the 'speed gene' (C type myostatin gene variant) was revealed by analysing DNA from hundreds of horses, including DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of 12 celebrated Thoroughbred stallions born between 1764 and 1930. "Changes in racing since the foundation of the Thoroughbred have shaped the distribution ...

A new study on living animals has shown for the first time that eating cocoa (the raw material in chocolate) can help to prevent intestinal complaints linked to oxidative stress, including colon carcinogenesis onset caused by chemical substances. The growing interest amongst the scientific community to identify those foods capable of preventing diseases has now categorized cocoa as a 'superfood'. It has been recognised as an excellent source of phytochemical compounds, which offer potential health benefits. Headed by scientists from the Institute of Food Science and ...

To many, planning for their death or the event of incapacitation is simply superstitious or morbid. Passing away without an end of life plan, unfortunately, is all too common. However, in the wake of the aging baby boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964), having a living will or plan in place is more important than ever. Unfortunately, according to the Associated Press, it is estimated that roughly 64 percent of boomers do not have one. What is a Living Will? A living will is a document created by individuals who outline specific medical care instructions ...

Philadelphia, PA, January 24, 2012 – Changes in the endocannabinoid system may have important implications for psychiatric and addiction disorders. This brain system is responsible for making substances that have effects on brain function which resemble those of cannabis products, e.g., marijuana. The endocannabinoid system is of particular interest in the field of schizophrenia research because exposure to cannabis products during adolescence and young adulthood appears to increase the risk for developing schizophrenia. Also, in studies examining brain tissue collected ...

Ottawa, Ontario –To fully understand the causes of the obesity epidemic in Aboriginal children requires an understanding of the unique social and historical factors that shape the Aboriginal community. A review article published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism emphasizes that early childhood obesity prevention efforts should begin focusing with the parents before and during pregnancy and on breastfeeding initiatives and nutrition in the early childhood development stages. "There needs to be a focus on improving the risk factors such as income and education" ...

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), along with other funding agencies, helped a Rice University research team make graphene suitable for a variety of organic chemistry applications—especially the promise of advanced chemical sensors, nanoscale electronic circuits and metamaterials. Ever since the University of Manchester's Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking graphene experiments, there has been an explosion of graphene related discoveries; but graphene experimentation had been ongoing ...