Amplidata announces it has opened its US headquarters in Redwood City. The office will be the home base for the US sales, product management and support teams headed by VP Business Development Craig Stevens and VP Products Paul Speciale. Amplidata's engineering teams and EMEA sales will remain in the European Headquarters in Belgium and across its offices in Germany, Egypt and India. With the opening of the US headquarters, Amplidata strengthens its position in the US market. The local sales team will target key customers with specific needs for large-scale, highly reliable ...

UC Davis researchers have found a new pathway for repairing DNA damaged by oxygen radicals. The results are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This new inducible pathway gives cells greater capacity to repair oxidative damage," said Peter Beal, professor of chemistry at UC Davis and senior author of the paper. As part of its inflammatory response, the body's immune system produces oxygen radicals, or reactive oxygen species, to kill bacteria, parasites or tumors. But chronic inflammation, for example in the gut, has ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Younger adult cancer patients have the most difficulty coping with the pain and emotional issues of cancer, in spite of their potentially better survival odds, according to a University of Michigan Health System study. The study, which included mostly breast and lung cancer patients, appears in the November issue of Pain Medicine, a journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. Adult cancer patients age 40 and under had more pain flares and more difficulty thinking quickly and logically six months after their diagnosis compared to older adults. ...

VIDEO: A UCSF-led team has discovered a neural mechanism that allows the translucent juvenile zebrafish to parse out large background patterns from its perception of visual surroundings, enabling it to see... Click here for more information. A tiny, translucent juvenile zebrafish, on the hunt for even littler prey, has offered up a big insight into how a specific circuit of nerve cells functions in the brain. The technique used to illuminate this circuitry, and the fish model ...

PHILADELPHIA — Men with history of fracture and comorbidities are at an increased risk of fracture after long-term use of androgen deprivation therapy, and initiating this therapy should be carefully considered in older men with localized prostate cancer. In addition, the longer duration of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Gn-RH) use and history of orchiectomy (removal of the testicles to stop testosterone production, which prostate cancer needs to continue to grow) are also associated with an increased risk of fracture among men with prostate cancer. These study results ...

PHILADELPHIA — Ninety percent of children who lived in a house where an adult smoked had evidence of tobacco-related carcinogens in their urine, according to research presented at the Ninth AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held here from Nov 7-10, 2010. The average amount of tobacco metabolites in children aged one month to 10 years old was 8 percent of what is found in a smoker, said the lead researcher Janet L. Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral medicine at the University of Minnesota. "This finding is striking, because while ...

PHILADELPHIA — Women planning on taking hormone therapy for the treatment of menopausal symptoms should be aware of a possible increased risk for ovarian cancer, according to data presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held here Nov. 7-10, 2010. "This study is consistent with previous recommendations that say if women are going to take hormones they should only take them in the short term," said Konstantinos Tsilidis, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. Tsilidis and ...

PHILADELPHIA — Women being treated for breast cancer with aromatase inhibitors may experience extremely low estrogen levels resulting in a wide variety of side effects that a typical postmenopausal woman without cancer may not experience. Data presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Conference, held here Nov. 7-10, 2010, showed that women assigned to take aromatase inhibitors had increases in side effects such as hot flashes, decreased appetite, fatigue, fever, breast sensitivity, etc. "Aromastase inhibitors represent one of the most major ...

PHILADELPHIA — Women who exercise for 150 minutes a week or more may see a reduced risk of endometrial cancer, despite whether or not they are overweight, according to data presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held here Nov. 7-10, 2010. "This study is consistent with other studies that strongly support the association between physical activity and lower risk of endometrial cancer," said Hannah Arem, a doctoral student at Yale School of Public Health. Arem and colleagues examined data collected from a case-control study ...

PHILADELPHIA — Researchers have further established that long-term use of statins is unlikely to substantially increase or decrease overall cancer risk, according to study results presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held Nov. 7-10, 2010, in Philadelphia. Statins are a class of drugs commonly used in the United States to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. While study results to date have shown that short-term use of statins has little effect on risk of developing cancer, not much is known ...

PHILADELPHIA — Despite strong evidence of its effectiveness, few of the young women who are eligible for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine take it, according to research presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held Nov. 7-10. What's more, many of the teens who begin treatment do not complete the recommended three-dose regimen. "Only about one-third of young women who begin the three-dose series actually complete it; this means that large numbers of teenagers are unprotected or under-protected from strains of HPV that ...

An analysis of nationally representative data suggests that being obese in adolescence increases the risk of being severely obese in adulthood, with the risk higher in women, and highest for black women, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA. Individuals with severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] 40 or greater) encounter serious and potentially life-threatening health complications. "In 2000, an estimated 2.2 percent of adults, or 4.8 million individuals, were severely obese, with a disproportionately higher prevalence in women and racial/ethnic minorities. ...

Implementation in Massachusetts of a computer-automated safety surveillance system of clinical outcomes registries for cardiovascular devices resulted in the identification of a drug-releasing stent that had significantly higher rates of major adverse cardiac events than similar stents, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA. The findings indicate that this type of system appears feasible and useful in identifying new cardiovascular devices with early low-frequency potential safety issues that are not observed in premarket approval studies. "Monitoring ...

In England, a country with a universal access health care system, there is wide variation between local populations in the rate of death from coronary heart disease, which is largely explained by population characteristics such as low socioeconomic factors, white ethnicity, levels of smoking, and diabetes, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA. "Although mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) has been steadily decreasing since the 1970s, it is still responsible for 15 percent of all deaths and nearly half of all circulatory disease deaths in England. ...

The quality of public reporting of bloodstream infection rates among hospitals may be effected by the variation in surveillance methods, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA. "Public reporting of hospital-specific infection rates is widely promoted as a means to improve patient safety. Central line [central venous catheter]-associated bloodstream infection (BSI) rates are considered a key patient safety measure because such infections are frequent, lead to poor patient outcomes, are costly to the medical system, and are preventable. Publishing infection ...

DNA methylation plays an important role in many processes such as animal development, X-chromosome inactivation, and carcinogenesis. Understanding the mechanisms and functions of DNA methylation and how it varies from tissue to tissue and between individuals will have profound implications for human health and disease. A team of Chinese researchers decoded the essentially complete methylome (an inventory of all the bases that are methylated) of the human genome using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The results will be published in the online, open access journal ...

Probiotic bacteria given as therapies for diarrhoea reduce the length of time sufferers are affected and lessen the chance of episodes continuing for more than four days. These are the findings of a new systematic review by Cochrane researchers. Every year, diarrhoeal diseases kill nearly two million people in developing countries, mostly young children. The main treatment is rehydration fluids, but these do not tend to reduce the length of illness, which is crucial in reducing the risk of persistent diarrhoea. Probiotics, so-called "good bacteria", may help in a variety ...

Working to change the behaviour of family members may be an effective treatment for people with schizophrenia, according to a new Cochrane systematic review. The researchers reviewed the most up-to-date evidence on the subject and found that patients whose families received the interventions were less likely to relapse. It has long been known that people who have schizophrenia are more likely to relapse if they come from families where they experience high levels of criticism, hostility and over involvement. New psychosocial interventions that aim to reduce levels of ...

A gene thought to be responsible for initiating human cancer has been identified by researchers at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. The study - published online today (9 November) in the journal Cancer Research - paves the way for developing early cancer diagnostic tests, and finding new treatments that prevent or stop the spread of cancer cells at an early stage. Led by Dr Muy-Tek Teh of the Institute of Dentistry at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry researchers have shown that a gene called FOXM1 exploits the inherent self-renewal ...

BOSTON, MA (Nov. 9, 2010) - With so few Americans consuming the recommended amounts of fruit each day, finding quick and simple ways to add additional fruit servings – and the important nutrients they provide – is more critical than ever. Although USDA recognizes that 4-oz of 100 percent juice supplies one serving (1/2 cup) of fruit, there is still confusion regarding the healthfulness of juice. New research presented today at the American Dietetic Association (ADA) Annual Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) clearly highlights the benefits of 100 percent juice, ...

CLEVELAND – November 9, 2010—Texting while driving can be a deadly combination for anyone. Yet, new data released today reveal that the dangers of excessive texting among teens are not limited to the road. Hyper-texting and hyper-networking are now giving rise to a new health risk category for this age group. Scott Frank, MD, MS, lead researcher on the study and director of the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine Master of Public Health program, presented the findings today at the American Public Health Association's 138th Annual Meeting & Exposition in Denver. Researchers ...

Young children who don't like school are more likely to be involved in underage drinking and sexual activity. A study reported in BioMed Central's open access journal Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy, has found that pupils' general wellbeing and specific satisfaction with school were both associated with the incidence of risky behaviors. Professor Mark Bellis worked with a team of researchers from the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, to carry out the study in more than 3500 11-14 year olds from 15 schools in the North West of ...

While policy and research traditionally have focused on universities' contributions to technology transfer - such as patents, licences and spin-outs - the findings show that the impact from knowledge exchange is much more wide-ranging. Survey data revealed that business motivations to enter into partnerships with researchers include service development, human resource management, training and marketing. "Our findings show that technology transfer is important, but this presents an incomplete representation of the wide process of knowledge exchange that takes place between ...

Your postcode could affect your risk of dying from a heart attack, a new study from the University of Leicester has discovered. Medical researchers from the University set out to determine why death rates from coronary heart disease (heart attacks) varied around the country and found that living in a deprived area contributed to your risk. The study has for the first time established an association at national level between detection of hypertension and death rates from coronary heart disease. The Leicester team, from the Department of Health Sciences, analysed whether ...

Researchers at the University of Derby and colleagues at the University of Cambridge believe they have found which species has the largest testicles in relation to body weight on the planet – and why! Yet the research team also discovered that large testes did not necessarily relate to a larger amount of sperm produced – which goes against traditional thinking in the science world. Biologists at the University of Derby, which led the research project, say that the Tuberous Bushcricket (Platycleis affinis) produces testes which are 14% of the male body mass, according ...