General Motors recently announced that it would be teaming up with coverage provider MetLife to offer car insurance with no down payment and no payments for the entire first year following the purchase of certain GM models in Oregon and Washington. What's surprising about the financial protection provided for free through the offer is that it far exceeds the requirements set by law in the two states. Washington currently requires drivers to only carry $25,000 in bodily injury liability protection per person and $50,000 total per accident, along with $10,000 in property ...

The ever-expanding number of technology applications, combined with meaningful use and other initiatives, results in the increasing demand for application interoperability in healthcare organizations. This in turn places greater pressure and incentive on those organizations to find better and easier ways to facilitate interfacing. Providers want all the horsepower of a robust, scalable, and flexible interface engine (IE) wrapped up in an easy-to-use package. KLAS' new report entitled "Interface Engines: Beyond Interoperability" scrutinizes vendor performance, ...

The team of researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Queensland (Australia), Oxford, Texas and Toronto, used a technique called genome-wide association where millions of genetic markers are measured in thousands of people that have the disease and thousands of healthy individuals. Markers which are more frequent in individuals with the disease are more likely to be involved in the condition. Using this approach the investigators found an additional seven genes likely to be involved in the condition, bringing the total number of genes known to predispose to AS ...

A study involving over 5,000 people living with the joint disorder ankylosing spondylitis has identified a series of genetic variants associated with increased susceptibility to the condition as well as providing new clues to how the condition may be treated in the future. The study, a collaboration between the Australo-Anglo-American Spondyloarthritis Consortium and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, also provides one of the first confirmed examples of gene-gene interaction seen in humans. Ankylosing spondylitis is an autoimmune disease that affects as many ...

New York, NY — July 10, 2011 — Researchers at Columbia Engineering School have built optical nanostructures that enable them to engineer the index of refraction and fully control light dispersion. They have shown that it is possible for light (electromagnetic waves) to propagate from point A to point B without accumulating any phase, spreading through the artificial medium as if the medium is completely missing in space. This is the first time simultaneous phase and zero-index observations have been made on the chip-scale and at the infrared wavelength. The study, to ...

TORONTO, ON – University of Toronto researchers have derived inspiration from the photosynthetic apparatus in plants to engineer a new generation of nanomaterials that control and direct the energy absorbed from light. Their findings are reported in a forthcoming issue of Nature Nanotechnology, which will be released on July 10, 2011. The U of T researchers, led by Professors Shana Kelley and Ted Sargent, report the construction of what they term "artificial molecules." "Nanotechnologists have for many years been captivated by quantum dots – particles of semiconductor ...

Researchers at the Emory Vaccine Center have developed a method for predicting whether someone will produce high levels of antibodies against a flu shot a few days after vaccination. After scanning the extent to which carefully selected genes are turned on in white blood cells, the researchers can predict on day three, with up to 90 percent accuracy, who will make high levels of antibodies against a standard flu shot four weeks later. The results were published online July 10 in the journal Nature Immunology. "It often takes several weeks after vaccination for an ...

VIDEO: This is a video of a violent interaction between the mother and the perpetrator recorded on the first day of infanticide recorded on April 28, 2010. Click here for more information. Finding their young dead in the nest is not uncommon for bird mothers. In many bird species some of the nestlings die before they leave the nest. This is known as "brood reduction", a common form of infanticide that the parents are to blame. On the other hand, witnessing a perpetrator killing ...

Olympia, site of the famous Temple of Zeus and original venue of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, was presumably destroyed by repeated tsunamis that travelled considerable distances inland, and not by earthquake and river floods as has been assumed to date. Evidence in support of this new theory on the virtual disappearance of the ancient cult site on the Peloponnesian peninsula comes from Professor Dr Andreas Vött of the Institute of Geography of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Vött investigated the site as part of a project in which he and his team are ...

They attack other colonies, plunder and rob, kill other colonies' inhabitants or keep them as slaves: Ants are usually regarded as prototypes of social beings that are prepared to sacrifice their lives for their community, but they can also display extremely aggressive behavior towards other nests. The evolution and behavior of ants, in particular the relationship between socially parasitic ants and their hosts, is the research topic of a work group headed by Professor Dr Susanne Foitzik at the Institute of Zoology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Evolutionary ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Osteoporosis and low bone density are common in people in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study published in the July 12, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "We've known that people who have had MS for a long time are at a greater risk of low bone density and broken bones, but we didn't know whether this was happening soon after the onset of MS and if it was caused by factors such as their lack of exercise due to lack of mobility, or their medications or reduced ...

There is no difference between brand-name and generic drug formulations of amiodarone — taken to control arrhythmia – in the incidence of thyroid dysfunction, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/site/embargo/cmaj101800.pdf. Amiodarone, prescribed to control irregular heartbeats, is known for causing hypo- and hyper-thyroidism. Amiodarone is available in Canada in brand-name formulations as well as less costly generic versions. Generic formulations may be substituted if considered bioequivalent ...

Current alcohol consumption guidelines are inadequate for the prevention of cancer and new international guidelines are needed, states an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/site/embargo/cmaj110363.pdf. Guidelines in some countries are not currently based on evidence for long-term harm. Most guidelines are based on studies that assessed the short-term effects of alcohol, such as social and psychological issues and hospital admissions, and were not designed to prevent chronic diseases. As well, in some countries, ...

Power and Potential of Mobile Sensing Devices to Improve Health Care Researchers from Dartmouth offer a provocative glimpse into the possibilities of wireless mobile technology to measure elderly patients' physical activity and social interactions and improve detection of changes in their health. Sensors on a waist-mounted wireless mobile device worn by eight patients aged 65 and older continuously measured patients' time spent walking level, up or down an elevation, and stationary (sitting or standing), and time spent speaking with one or more other people. Researchers ...

A new study has found that almost all patients with high-grade noninvasive bladder cancer do not receive complete care as recommended by current guidelines. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that efforts are needed to identify and overcome barriers to providing optimal care to patients with bladder cancer. High-grade noninvasive bladder cancer has up to a 70 percent chance of recurring after treatment and up to a 50 percent chance of progressing to a more invasive tumor. Effective treatment for ...

Genetic instructions for developing limbs and digits were present in primitive fish millions of years before their descendants first crawled on to land, researchers have discovered. Genetic switches control the timing and location of gene activity. When a particular switch taken from fish DNA is placed into mouse embryos, the segment can activate genes in the developing limb region of embryos, University of Chicago researchers report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The successful swap suggests that the recipe for limb development is conserved in species ...

Durham, N.C., U.S. and Melbourne, Australia -- A team of Duke University Medical Center and Australian scientists has found that addictive drugs may have hijacked the same nerve cells and connections in the brain that serve a powerful, ancient instinct: the appetite for salt. Their rodent research shows how certain genes are regulated in a part of the brain that controls the equilibrium of salt, water, energy, reproduction and other rhythms – the hypothalamus. The scientists found that the gene patterns activated by stimulating an instinctive behavior, salt appetite, ...

MADISON - The continued growth of cropland and loss of natural habitat have increasingly simplified agricultural landscapes in the Midwest. A Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) study concluded that this simplification is associated with increased crop pest abundance and insecticide use, consequences that could be tempered by perennial bioenergy crops. While the relationship between landscape simplification, crop pest pressure, and insecticide use has been suggested before, it has not been well supported by empirical evidence. This study, published online in ...

A broad, regional system to lower the temperature of resuscitated cardiac arrest patients at a centrally-located hospital improved outcomes, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Cooling treatment, or therapeutic hypothermia, is effective yet underused, researchers said. A network of first responders, EMS departments and more than 30 independent hospitals within 200 miles of Minneapolis, Minn., and Abbott Northwestern Hospital collaborated to implement the protocol. "We've shown that a fully integrated system of care, from ...

Obstructive sleep apnea may cause changes in blood vessel function that reduces blood supply to the heart in people who are otherwise healthy, according to new research reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. However, treatment with 26 weeks of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) improved study participants' blood supply and function. Obstructive sleep apnea, which causes periodic pauses in breathing during sleep, affects about 15 million adults in the United States, according to the American Heart Association. The sleep disorder ...

A study at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that nearly all patients with high-grade, non-invasive bladder cancer are not receiving the guideline-recommended care that would best protect them from recurrence, a finding that researchers characterized as alarming. In fact, out of the 4,545 bladder cancer patients included in the study, only one received the comprehensive care recommended by the American Urology Association and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Receiving the recommended comprehensive care for high-grade bladder cancer is critical ...

Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability and death in the United States. A team of researchers — led by Gregory Bix, at Texas A&M College of Medicine, College Station — has identified a way to exploit one of the brain's self-repair mechanisms to protect nerve cells and enhance brain repair in rodent models of stroke. The authors suggest that this approach could provide a nontoxic treatment for stroke. The most common form of stroke (ischemic stroke) occurs when a blood vessel that brings oxygen and nutrients to the brain becomes clogged, for example with a blood ...

Several chemicals that can accumulate to high levels in our body (for example BPA and some pesticides) have been recently linked to an increased risk of cancer and/or impaired responsiveness to anticancer drugs. A team of researchers, led by Sridhar Mani, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, has now identified a potential mechanistic link between environmental exposure to these foreign chemicals (xenogens) and cancer drug therapy response and survival. PXR is one protein by which cells (including tumor cells) can sense xenogens. In their study, Mani and colleagues ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Do-it-yourself brain repair following stroke Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability and death in the United States. A team of researchers — led by Gregory Bix, at Texas A&M College of Medicine, College Station — has identified a way to exploit one of the brain's self-repair mechanisms to protect nerve cells and enhance brain repair in rodent models of stroke. The authors suggest that this approach could provide a nontoxic treatment for stroke. The most common form of stroke (ischemic stroke) occurs when a blood vessel that brings oxygen and ...

New research reports a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency among patients with psoriatic arthritis. Seasonal variation in vitamin D levels was not observed in patients in southern or northern locations. The findings published today in Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), also show no association between disease activity and vitamin D level. Psoriasis is a common chronic skin disorder, likely caused by an autoimmune response, and is characterized by red scaly patches on the surface of the skin. When ...