Privacy legislation and protocols to safeguard the health information of members of the military are lacking, and the head of Canada's military must take action to ensure health privacy for all staff, states an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CAMJ) http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/doi/10.1503/cmaj.101630. Recent violations at Veterans Affairs Canada of privacy regarding sensitive health information raise questions about the military's ability to protect personal health information. "Few of the world's armed forces provide complete confidentiality of personal ...

New evidence has emerged that the use of mild painkillers such as paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen, may be part of the reason for the increase in male reproductive disorders in recent decades. Research published in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction today (Monday 8 November) shows that women who took a combination of more than one mild analgesic during pregnancy, or who took the painkillers during the second trimester of pregnancy, had an increased risk of giving birth to sons with undescended testicles (cryptorchidism) – a condition that ...

Scientists have made a significant discovery about how the body defends itself against snail fever, a parasitic worm infection common in developing countries. Researchers studied the immune response in mice infected with snail fever parasites. They found that a particular type of immune cell, known as the dendritic cell, is responsible for triggering the immune system's defence against the invading parasite. The development, by scientists at the University of Edinburgh, could point towards new avenues of research into treatments for the condition, which causes long-term ...

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examines the burden of HIV and sexually transmitted disease among male clients of the commercial sex industry in China's Sichuan province. Since 2007, heterosexual transmission has replaced injecting drug use as the primary transmission mode of all HIV infections in China. The study is available online in advance of publication in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. "We found a large burden of syphilis infection coupled with high-risk sexual and substance use behaviors among male ...

BOSTON – Using a novel, real-time imaging system, scientists have tracked a group of near-infrared fluorescent nanoparticles from the airspaces of the lungs, into the body and out again, providing a description of the characteristics and behavior of these minute particles which could be used in developing therapeutic agents to treat pulmonary disease, as well as offering a greater understanding of the health effects of air pollution. Led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Harvard School of Public Health, the findings are described ...

Glaciers of large mountain regions contribute, to some extent considerably, to the water supply of certain populated areas. However, in a recent study conducted by Innsbruck glaciologists and climatologists it has been shown that there are important regional differences. The results of the study are published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In their recently published study the glaciologists and climatologists, headed by Prof. Georg Kaser and Dr. Ben Marzeion from the Institute of Geography of the University of Innsbruck, ...

Astronomers have discovered a new way of locating a natural phenomenon that acts like a zoom lens and allows astronomers to peer at galaxies in the distant and early Universe. These results are from the very first data taken as part of the "Herschel-ATLAS" project, the largest imaging survey conducted so far with the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, and are published today (November 4 2010) in the prestigious scientific journal Science. The magnification allows astronomers to see galaxies otherwise hidden from us when the Universe was only a few billion ...

The use of experimental techniques in Economics in recent years has demonstrated that decision making of individuals' is guided not only by an individual's own benefit, but also by material gains that other individuals can have in their social network; in a nutshell, out of envy. But within this research framework there is still another challenge: the discovery of the evolutionary origin of envy and theoretical proof of its possible effects on companies. This is what Antonio Cabrales, Full Professor of the UC3M Economics Department, has tried to do in a new research ...

Breast cancer patients are more likely to have joint pain from taking aromatase inhibitors (AIs) if they have advanced stage cancer, according to a study presented at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting, held Nov. 7-11, in Atlanta. The study is one of the first to identify factors that increase the likelihood that a patient will suffer joint pain from AI therapy. AIs, the standard adjuvant therapy for post-menopausal breast cancer, can cause joint pain in patients, mostly in the hands and wrists. This pain can sometimes be debilitating. "Patients complain ...

Patients who undergo total hip replacements are more at risk for having a serious fall while recovering in the hospital than patients undergoing other orthopedic procedures, according to a recent study. The study, which will be presented at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting, Nov. 7-11, in Atlanta, also identified other factors involved in patient falls that could help hospitals devise strategies to reduce these accidents. "Patients undergoing total hip replacements (THR) appear more likely to have more serious falls than other orthopedic patients, ...

"The results of this study show that fearless behavior in children can be identified and is related to neurological and genetic predisposition. This type of behavior has less correlation – at least in infancy – with standards of educational processes or parenting practice," says Dr. Inbal Kivenson-Baron, who carried out the study. Preschool-aged children who demonstrate fearless behavior also reveal less empathy and more aggression towards their peers. This has been shown in a new study that was carried out at the University of Haifa's Faculty of Education. "The results ...

According to research on fatty acids conducted at the universities of Helsinki and Tampere, the consumption of canola-type rapeseed oil decreases the level of fibrinogen detrimental to health in the body. The increased fibrinogen level, caused by an imbalance in essential fats in one's diet, decreases when saturated fatty acids are replaced with rapeseed oil. The research results were published in the journal Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids. A complex state of balance, the haemostatic balance, prevails in the bloodstream. One player in this balancing ...

Geneva, 8 November 2010. Four days is all it took for the LHC operations team at CERN* to complete the transition from protons to lead ions in the LHC. After extracting the final proton beam of 2010 on 4 November, commissioning the lead-ion beam was underway by early afternoon. First collisions were recorded at 00:30 CET on 7 November, and stable running conditions marked the start of physics with heavy ions at 11:20 CET today. "The speed of the transition to lead ions is a sign of the maturity of the LHC," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. "The machine is running ...

UPTON, NY In theory, plants could be the ultimate green factories, engineered to pump out the kinds of raw materials we now obtain from petroleum-based chemicals. But in reality, getting plants to accumulate high levels of desired products has been an elusive goal. Now, in a first step toward achieving industrial-scale green production, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Dow AgroSciences report engineering a plant that produces industrially relevant levels of compounds that could potentially be used ...

The messenger interleukin-27 plays an important role when the human body blocks inflammations. This was discovered by an international research team, of which the Kiel Professors Joachim Grötzinger and Stefan Rose-John, as well as the doctoral candidate, Björn Spudy, are a part of. The research findings of the scientists from Kiel, the US and Great Britain were published yesterday, Sunday (7 November 2010), in the online advance edition of Nature Immunology. The human immune system reacts to bodily injuries and infections with inflammation. This is important for the healing ...

Cars and trucks race down the highway, turn off into town, wait at traffic lights and move slowly through side streets. Electricity flows in a similar way – from the power plant via high voltage lines to transformer substations. The flow is controlled as if by traffic lights. Cables then take the electricity into the city centre. Numerous switching points reduce the voltage, so that equipment can tap into the electricity at low voltage. Thanks to this highly complex infrastructure, the electricity customer can use all kinds of electrical devices just by switching them on. ...

BOSTON, November 8, 2010 – California pistachios took center stage at this year's American Dietetic Association's annual Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE), the industry's premier conference where thousands of registered dietitians gather to learn about innovative nutrition research and emerging health trends. Pistachios led with a strong presence with new research on the importance of mindful eating and, for the first time ever, participating in a session on emerging green food issues and solutions designed to sustain the environment along with good health. The ...

Learning a hobby or other complex task in childhood with assistance from a trusted adult may help guard against the emergence of a personality disorder (PD) later on in life, reports a study in the current issue of the journal, Development and Psychopathology. Spending time with a child by reading with them, helping with homework or teaching them organizational skills helps to foster better psychological health in adulthood. "The strong interpersonal connectedness and social skills that children learn from having active, healthy engagements with adults fosters positive ...

What do diapers, wiping cloths, wall paneling, sticking plasters and Ultrasuede covers for upholstered furniture have in common? All these products are made of nonwovens. There is hardly any other fabric that is as versatile. Last summer the operators of the Zugspitze railroad even used sheets of nonwovens to prevent the snow melting away on Germany's highest mountain. The quality of this textile, however, varies considerably. It is generally true to say that the firmer, the smoother and the freer of marks the nonwoven is, the higher the quality. In the search for the perfect ...

A team of Italian scientists has fired a laser beam into a hunk of glass to create what they believe is an optical analogue of the Hawking radiation that many physicists expect is emitted by black holes. Although the laser experiment superficially bears little resemblance to ultra-dense black holes, the mathematical theories used to describe both are similar enough that confirmation of laser-induced Hawking radiation would bolster confidence that black holes also emit Hawking radiation. When Stephen Hawking first predicted the radiation bearing his name in 1974, he hypothesized ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Door-to-balloon time has dropped dramatically as hospitals rush heart attack patients into treatment, but a five-year study released Monday shows quicker hospital care has not saved more lives. Heart attacks are a medical emergency and hospitals race against the clock to open the clogged artery causing the attack in 90 minutes or less. Door-to-balloon time is the amount of time between a heart attack patient's arrival at the hospital to the time he or she receives an intervention, such as a balloon angioplasty, to open the artery. The study published ...

A new study shows how an amphibious fish stays alive for up to two months on land. It's all in the skin. Mangrove killifish are small fish—only about an inch or two long—that live in temporary pools in the coastal mangrove forests of Central and South America and Florida. During dry seasons when their pools disappear, the fish hole up in leaf litter or hollow logs. As long as they stay moist, they can survive for extended periods out of water by breathing air through their skin. But oxygen isn't the only thing a fish out of water needs to worry about, according to Professor ...

Chapel Hill - A new discovery by UNC scientists describes how cells infected by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) produce small vesicles or sacs called exosomes, changing their cellular "cargo" of proteins and RNA. This altered exosome enters cells and can change the growth of recipient cells from benign to cancer-producing. In this way, virus-infected cells can have wide-ranging effects and potentially manipulate other cells throughout the body. The findings are reported in the November 8, 2010 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Nancy ...

University of Toronto scientists have found that chemicals used to line junk food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags are migrating into food and being ingested by people where they are contributing to chemical contamination observed in blood. Perfluorinated carboxylic acids or PFCAs are the breakdown products of chemicals used to make non-stick and water- and stain-repellant products ranging from kitchen pans to clothing to food packaging. PFCAs, the best known of which is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are found in humans all around the world. "We suspected that ...

The GOES-13 satellite is watching a flurry of activity in the Atlantic Ocean today as a cold front approaches the remnants of Hurricane Tomas and threatens to swallow it in the next couple of days. Tomas is now a remnant low pressure area is located in the Atlantic near 26 North and 68 West hundreds of miles south-southwest of Bermuda and has a minimum central pressure of 994 millibars today, Nov. 8. A cold front off the U.S. East Coast however, is stalking Tomas' remnants and moving east threatening to swallow the former hurricane. The Geostationary Operational Environmental ...