Infants who live in "moldy" homes are three times more likely to develop asthma by age 7—an age that children can be accurately diagnosed with the condition. Study results are published in the August issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). "Early life exposure to mold seems to play a critical role in childhood asthma development," says Tiina Reponen, PhD, lead study author and University of Cincinnati (UC) professor of environmental health. "Genetic factors are also ...

ITHACA, N.Y. — U.S. physicians spend nearly $61,000 more than their Canadian counterparts each year on administrative expenses related to health insurance, according to a new study by researchers at Cornell University and the University of Toronto. The study, published in the August issue of the journal Health Affairs, found that per-physician costs in the U.S. averaged $82,975 annually, while Ontario-based physicians averaged $22,205 – primarily because Canada's single-payer health care system is simpler. Canadian physicians follow a single set of rules, but U.S. doctors ...

SEATTLE—Fatal overdoses involving prescribed opioids tripled in the United States between 1999 and 2006, climbing to almost 14,000 deaths annually—more than cocaine and heroin overdoses combined. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits related to prescription opioid pain medicines such as oxycodone (brand name Oxycontin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin) also increased dramatically in the same period. Now a report in the August issue of Health Affairs describes a major initiative at Group Health to make opioid prescribing safer while improving care for patients with chronic ...

Wearing compression stockings may be a simple low-tech way to improve obstructive sleep apnea in patients with chronic venous insufficiency, according to French researchers. "We found that in patients with chronic venous insufficiency, compression stockings reduced daytime fluid accumulation in the legs, which in turn reduced the amount of fluid flowing into the neck at night, thereby reducing the number of apneas and hypopnea by more than a third," said Stefania Redolfi, MD, of the University of Brescia in Italy, who led the research. CVI occurs when a patient's veins ...

A scientist at the Gladstone Institutes has discovered a novel way to convert human skin cells into brain cells, advancing medicine and human health by offering new hope for regenerative medicine and personalized drug discovery and development. In a paper being published online today in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell, Sheng Ding, PhD, reveals efficient and robust methods for transforming adult skin cells into neurons that are capable of transmitting brain signals, marking one of the first documented experiments for transforming an adult human's skin cells into ...

Boston, MA (July 28, 2011) — Researchers have developed a toolkit that enables them to turn off targeted cell populations while leaving others unaffected. Led by Susan Dymecki, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, the group focused on serotonin-producing neurons, observing how mice behave in a normal environment when suddenly their serotonin neurons are turned down. While their findings affirm earlier studies, the researchers used a technique that is non-invasive and does not require anesthesia, surgeries, or knocking out a gene—each of which can cause ...

Shade & Shutter Expo and Markomm have entered into an agreement where Markomm, a SEO Denver Internet Marketing Firm, will provide PPC services to Shade & Shutter Expo. The multi layered campaign was launched July 21st in Myrtle Beach, SC and the surrounding areas. These campaigns will help Shade & Shutter Expo gain a stronger presence on the search engines, and result in more clients and sales. Consumers today live in the information age. Technology has allowed consumers to have information at their fingertips and easily searchable through Google, Bing, Yahoo, ...

New research sheds light on why, after 300,000 years of domination, European Neanderthals abruptly disappeared. Researchers from the University of Cambridge have discovered that modern humans coming from Africa swarmed the region, arriving with over ten times the population as the Neanderthal inhabitants. The reasons for the relatively sudden disappearance of the European Neanderthal populations across the continent around 40,000 years ago has for long remained one of the great mysteries of human evolution. After 300 millennia of living, and evidently flourishing, ...

Breast cancer screening has not played a direct part in the reductions of breast cancer mortality in recent years, says a new study published on bmj.com today. An international team of researchers from France, the UK and Norway found that better treatment and improving health systems are more likely to have led to falling numbers of deaths from breast cancer than screening. The number of deaths from breast cancer is falling in many developed countries, but it is difficult to determine how much of that reduction over the past 20 years of mammography screening is due ...

William D. Truax E.A. Tax Advisors, Inc. are urging those enacting a plan for estate or trust inheritance to speak with a professional tax advisor to ensure all matters of estate and trust tax are accounted for, relieving beneficiaries of the tax burden. William D. Truax and his associates have over 30 years of experience working in the field of tax preparation. Just one of the fields his firm specializes in is estate and trust tax preparation. Effective estate and gift planning ensures the orderly transfer of assets to a client's beneficiaries. Security in these matters ...

The introduction of legislation that restricts unhealthy food, for example by reducing salt content and eliminating industrial trans fats, would prevent thousands of cases of heart disease in England and Wales and save the NHS millions of pounds, finds research published on bmj.com today. Heart disease and stroke cause over 150,000 deaths every year in the UK and yet over 80% of premature heart disease is avoidable, say the authors. They add that established research has already indicated that individuals who consume too much salt and eat food which is high in industrial ...

Permeon Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering a novel class of intracellular protein biologics, today announced the discovery of an entirely new class of naturally occurring human supercharged proteins called Intraphilins™. The sequence and structure of these naturally supercharged human proteins enable biologic drugs to penetrate and function inside of mammalian cells. This new class of proteins is the foundation of Permeon Biologics' novel Intraphilin™ Technology Platform and provides an innovative approach to develop intracellular protein biologic drugs, ...

Boston, MA – Global population is expected to hit 7 billion later this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. Between now and 2050, an estimated 2.3 billion more people will be added—nearly as many as inhabited the planet as recently as 1950. New estimates from the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations also project that the population will reach 10.1 billion in 2100. These sizable increases represent an unprecedented global demographic upheaval, according to David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and ...

According to Dr. Ramzi W. Saad, Board Certified dermatologist and partner at South Shore Skin Center and Spa, "UV damage can happen at any age, but it begins to occur during childhood. The more frequent the exposure to Ultraviolet A (UVA) and Ultraviolet B (UVB) rays without protection, the greater the risk of developing melanoma or skin cancer as an adult. Parents and caregivers are responsible for protecting the very young, so knowing HOW to best protect them is key." The dermatologists at South Shore Skin Center and Spa provide the following expert advice ...

Alexandria, VA, USA – The International and American Associations for Dental Research have released in its Journal of Dental Research a study that investigated bone fluoride levels in individuals with osteosarcoma, which is a rare, primary malignant bone tumor that is more prevalent in males. Since there has been controversy as to whether there is an association between fluoride and risk for osteosarcoma, the purpose of this study, titled "An Assessment of Bone Fluoride and Osteosarcoma," was to determine if bone fluoride levels were higher in individuals with osteosarcoma. ...

Tel Aviv — For years, teachers have been complaining about large class sizes, an old-fashioned learning environment and a lack of support for students with different learning styles. Now Dovi Weiss, a Ph.D. student from Tel Aviv University's Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education and the Chief Pedagogical Officer of the Israeli company Time To Know, has developed a new digital teaching platform integrating technology, a digital curriculum, real-time class participation, and instant educator empowerment — and it's already revolutionizing classrooms in New York and ...

Nottingham-based design agency, Distinction, is proud to be celebrating their first 10 years in business, and have big plans for the next decade. Distinction is an integrated design agency, providing strategy-led creative, digital and marketing services. Operating from a design studio in Nottingham and a regional sales office in London, Distinction was awarded Recommended Agency status in 2010, and was most recently shortlisted for the 'Best in Effectiveness' 2011 RAR awards. Since their inception in 2001, Distinction has grown organically to become one of the ...

"I don't know about anyone else but I am tired of watching some of my co-workers collect a free paycheck. They come to work each day and do absolutely nothing of value for the company they work in. They spend a considerable amount of time surfing the internet, talking on personal phone calls and taking long lunches" - Posted by "Serious 12" on an internet forum entitled, "Useless Employees". It is inevitable that, in large corporations and behemoth government agencies with thousands of employees, there will be slackers. And some slackers, ...

Science usually progresses in small steps, but on rare occasions, a new combination of research expertise and cutting-edge technology produces a 'great leap forward.' An international team of scientists, whose senior investigators include Salk Institute plant biologist Joseph Ecker, report one such leap in the July 29, 2011 issue of Science. They describe their mapping and early analyses of thousands of protein-to-protein interactions within the cells of Arabidopsis thaliana -a variety of mustard plant that is to plant biology what the lab mouse is to human biology. "With ...

With the release of the new album, "Rock on Sat Nam!" by Larisa Stow & Shakti Tribe, the lead singer has leaped onto the continent for a word-of-mouth-media EU tour. "The feedback on the streets of EU for their new release has been amazing and we are excited to have Larisa performing here live," notes manager Leanne Wood. "In putting her lyrics of peace and harmony to a rock beat, Larisa is already breaking a lot of rules, so why not break a few rules of touring?" adds Wood. Playing in Italy (or perhaps France or England) right now, ...

Most synthetic chemical products used in consumer goods end up unchanged in the environment. Given the risks this could pose for the environment and human health, researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) have developed a new tool to effectively predict what will happen to current and future pharmaceutical products. Thousands of pharmaceutical products, which are increasingly diverse and increasingly used, are "partially" metabolised by the human body. Those that remain unchanged pass into the waste water treated at sewage plants, which are not always ...

A young commis chef, trained and working in Scotland, has been chosen by a panel of judges led by Heston Blumenthal as the Young Chef of the Year at the Academy of Culinary Arts (ACA) Annual Awards of Excellence 2011 held in London. Dimitar Angelkovski, a trainee chef at the world famous Turnberry Resort, fought off competition from some of the most admired chefs in the business from restaurants such as Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, The London Ritz and Claridges. The ten kitchen finalists also included Turnberry Sous Chef Ryan Murphy, and a senior chef from the Royal ...

Carlo A. Basile, a veteran aerospace and automotive industry engineer, has joined Lighthouse for the Blind-St. Louis as Interim Director of New Business Development with responsibility for customer relations, sales management support, new product development support, quality documentation, plus additional productivity and customer-directed quality initiatives. A U.S. Navy Viet Nam era veteran, Mr. Basile's professional expertise includes process engineering, productivity improvement, project management and manufacturing engineering management roles with Boeing, Ford ...

Laxenburg, Austria – 28 July 2011 -- Future trends in global population growth could be significantly affected by improvements in both the quality and quantity of education, particularly female education. Projections of future population trends that do not explicitly include education in their analysis may be flawed, according to research published today in the journal Science (July 29 2011). The study uses a novel "multi-state" population modeling approach to incorporate education attainment level, along with age and sex. The integration of education in the analyses ...

Forty years ago, Americans could expect to live slightly longer than Europeans. This has since reversed: in spite of similar levels of economic development, Americans now live about a year-and-a-half less, on average, than their Western European counterparts, and also less than people in most other developed nations. How did Americans fall behind? A study in the July 2011 issue of Social Science & Medicine is the first to calculate the fiscal consequences of the growing life expectancy gap over the next few decades. The study also pinpoints the crucial age at which U.S. ...