INDIANAPOLIS -- The major challenge for public health in the era of genomics is to generate the base of evidence necessary to demonstrate when use of genomic information in public health can improve health outcomes in a safe, effective and cost-effective manner, participants at an international meeting have concluded. In their report, "Public health in an era of genomic and personalized medicine," experts in medicine, law, bioethics, public health, and genetics have identified key issues for the future of global public health in light of rapid developments in genomic ...

Growing corn for biofuels production is having unintended effects on water quality and quantity in northwestern Mississippi. More water is required to produce corn than to produce cotton in the Mississippi Delta requiring increased withdrawals of groundwater from the Mississippi River Valley alluvial (MRVA) aquifer for irrigation. This is contributing to already declining water levels in the aquifer. In addition, increased use of nitrogen fertilizer for corn in comparison to cotton could contribute to low dissolved oxygen conditions in the Gulf of Mexico. These are ...

Could making child pornography legal lead to lower rates of child sex abuse? It could well do, according to a new study by Milton Diamond, from the University of Hawaii, and colleagues. Results from the Czech Republic showed, as seen everywhere else studied (Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sweden, USA), that rape and other sex crimes have not increased following the legalization and wide availability of pornography. And most significantly, the incidence of child sex abuse has fallen considerably since 1989, when child pornography became ...

The well-reported arsenic contamination of drinking water in Bangladesh – called the "largest mass poisoning of a population in history" by the World Health Organization and known to be responsible for a host of slow-developing diseases – has now been shown to have an immediate and toxic effect on the struggling nation's economy. An international team of economists is the first to identify a dramatic present-day consequence of the contaminated groundwater wells, in addition to the longer-term damages expected to occur in coming years. According to research published ...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2010 — The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning podcast series, "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions," focuses on the discovery that black rice — a little-known variety of the grain that is the staple food for one-third of the world's population — may help soothe the inflammation involved in allergies, asthma and other diseases. In the podcast, Mendel Friedman, Ph.D., and colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., describe results of a study published in ...

Montreal, November 30, 2010 – Approximately 13 percent of parents turn to alternative therapies to treat their children's asthma, according to a new study from the Université de Montréal. The findings, published recently in the Canadian Respiratory Journal, suggest that this trend is associated with a two-fold higher rate of poor asthma control in children. "Previous studies have shown that close to 60 percent of parents believe that complementary and alternative medicines are helpful," says seniour author Francine M. Ducharme, a Université de Montréal professor and pediatrician ...

An Italian research team confirmed that the scoring system for Wilson's disease (WD) provides good diagnostic accuracy with 93% positive and 92% negative predictive values, respectively in children with mild liver disease. In asymptomatic children, a urinary copper excretion above 40 μg/24 hours was suggestive of WD, however the penicillamine challenge test (PCT) did not provide an accurate diagnosis in this patient subset. Results of the study appear in the December issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for ...

A mysterious high-altitude layer of sulphur dioxide discovered by ESA's Venus Express has been explained. As well as telling us more about Venus, it could be a warning against injecting our atmosphere with sulphur droplets to mitigate climate change. Venus is blanketed in sulphuric acid clouds that block our view of the surface. The clouds form at altitudes of 50󈞲 km when sulphur dioxide from volcanoes combines with water vapour to make sulphuric acid droplets. Any remaining sulphur dioxide should be destroyed rapidly by the intense solar radiation above 70 km. So ...

New research shows that anti-microbial medications are a common cause of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) leading to acute liver failure (ALF), with women and minorities disproportionately affected. While ALF evolves slowly, once it does occur a spontaneous recovery is unlikely; however liver transplantation offers an excellent survival rate. Full findings of this ten-year prospective study are published in the December issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Patients with liver failure resulting from DILI may experience ...

DURHAM, N.H. – Once lost in the mists of time, the colonial hydrology of the northeastern United States has been reconstructed by a team of geoscientists, biological scientists and social scientists, including University of New Hampshire Ph.D. candidate Christopher Pastore. The results, which extend as far back as the year 1600, appear in the current issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology in the article "Tapping Environmental History to Recreate America's Colonial Hydrology." The findings provide a new way of uncovering the hydrology of the past and will ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have shown why, in a minority of HIV patients, immune function improves despite a lack of response to standard anti-retroviral treatment. In these cases, researchers say, the virus has lost its ability to kill immune cells. The findings appear in the online journal PLoS Pathogens. The goal of current treatments for HIV is to block the virus from reproducing, thereby allowing the immune system to repair itself. These findings show for the first time that not all HIV viruses are equally bad for the immune system. Patients who ...

BOSTON – November 30, 2010 – The brain contains more cholesterol than any other organ in the body, has to produce its own cholesterol and won't function normally if it doesn't churn out enough. Defects in cholesterol metabolism have been linked with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Now researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered that diabetes can affect how much cholesterol the brain can make. Scientists in the laboratory of C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., head of Joslin's Integrative Physiology and Metabolism research section, found that brain ...

GLENDALE, Arizona (November 30, 2010)—What are the earliest brain changes associated with the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease? A scientific report published in the October Journal of Alzheimer's Disease finds reduced activity of an energy-generating enzyme in deceased young adult brain donors who carry a common genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease—before the protein changes or microscopic abnormalities commonly associated with the disease and almost five decades before the age at which they might have developed memory and thinking problems. Arizona researchers ...

Despite medical advances enabling those with diabetes to live longer today than in the past, a 50-year-old with the disease still can expect to live 8.5 years fewer years, on average, than a 50-year-old without the disease. This critical finding comes from a new report commissioned by The National Academy on an Aging Society and supported by sanofi-aventis U.S. The analysis — based on data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) — found that older adults with diabetes have a lower life expectancy at every age than those without the disease. At age 60, for example, ...

PHILADELPHIA — Scientists working with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and The Academy of Natural Sciences have made an important discovery in the Delaware River between Chester, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey: beds of freshwater mussels. This includes several uncommon species, two of which were previously believed to no longer exist in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. "Freshwater mussels are very sensitive to a variety of problems, including pollution, dams, water flows, loss of forests, and harvesting for their shells and as bait," said Dr. Danielle ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – New research shows the NSAID Celebrex may help prevent some non-melanoma skin cancers from developing in patients who have pre-cancerous actinic keratoses lesions and are at high risk for having the disease. The researchers, led by University of Alabama at Birmingham dermatologist and the study's lead author, Craig Elmets, M.D., evaluated the efficacy and safety of celecoxib as a chemo-preventive agent for actinic keratoses. The results were published online Nov. 30, 2010, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It will appear in the print ...

Most Americans receive health insurance coverage through their employer, or through an employed family member's dependent coverage. Yet having a job is no guarantee of coverage, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Using data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the brief's authors found that one-fifth of Californians under age 65 who lived in households with at least one employed family member — or 5.7 million – had no access to job-based health insurance in 2007. Adults without access to job-based insurance ...

(ORLANDO, November 30, 2010) – The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will host its 52nd annual meeting at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL, December 4-7. More than 20,000 attendees are expected for this event, which will highlight emerging research trends in the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of blood disorders. "It gives me great pleasure to host the 2010 ASH annual meeting, which provides a stellar educational and scientific program for hematologists across the globe," said ASH President Hal E. Broxmeyer, PhD, Distinguished Professor of ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — In what might be one of the world's first medicinal body piercings, UC Davis Health System surgeons announced today that they have successfully implanted an experimental device in the throat of a man that will enable him to manually control his ability to swallow. The device, which could offer an effective treatment option for people suffering from severe swallowing problems, is controlled by pulling on a tiny metal pin that extends through the skin in the neck. The post, when pulled forward, manually opens the esophagus and allows food and water ...

In summer Russia's largest grain processor in Siberia and the Far East has signed a contract with a wholesaling company from the capital of Khabarovsk territory, which enabled the Company to add cereals and feed mixes to the range of shipped products. PAVA has long history of shipping flour to Komsomolsk-on-Amur but up until recently the Company only worked with manufacturers of bread, bakery and pasta products. According to Company's representatives, the flour is shipped to one of the best producers in the city. From now on PAVA's flour is also supplied to wholesalers. ...

Spinal decompression therapy and chiropractic care in San Diego may put an end to the back pain. Those forced to quit because of frustrating back pain are finding new relief. At New Century Spine Centers in San Diego, the chiropractic doctor Carissa Hang, DC regularly treats patients with back pain right after starting an exercise program. "Exercise should not hurt" says Dr. Carissa Hang, DC. The Marines have a slogan that says, "Pain is merely weakness leaving the body." That may be okay for preparing 18 year old men and women for battle, but it is not okay or the reality ...

Single adults of all ages are invited to meet new friends who love to travel, at exotic destinations worldwide. "Most singles have delayed their travel plans over the past two years, due to the Great Recession," says Ann Thomas, Director of The Singles Travel Company. "But there are great bargains out there, especially if you can avoid the dreaded singles supplement by traveling with a roommate, which we guarantee for everyone who wants one." Ann Thomas is the veteran of numerous interviews, including The New York Times, Houston Chronicle, Frommer's Budget Travel, Los ...

Every Tuesday evening at 7:03 PM eastern time, you can listen to Wellness, Wholeness & Wisdom radio with host Psychologist Parthenia Izzard, CNHP. The program is archived within minutes of the live broadcast on the internet and rebroadcast Saturday mornings at 9:03 AM eastern time. On your computer go to http://www.amtherapies.com and click on the Radio link to listen to the show live online or on your phone! Program topics range from authors like Bishop Jordan, James Redfield, Immaculee Ilibagiza, and William Tiller to owners of products like Rishi Teas, and Dr. Kracker. ...

The American Academy of Dance is pleased to present "A Holiday Festival of Dance" at 1:00 pm on Saturday, December 4 at the Pollak Theater on the campus of Monmouth University to benefit The New School of Monmouth County. Contact The New School at 732-787-7900 for advance ticket sales or purchase at the door, $15. Under the direction of owner Melissa Fagliarone, The American Academy of Dance is celebrating its tenth year, offering classes in ballet, tap, jazz, musical theater and hip hop for children ages 3-18, as well as adult dance classes. Ms. Fagliarone's commitment ...

Independent and unsigned music website Boost Independent Music (www.boostindependentmusic.com) invites music lovers to celebrate this Festive Season with Christmas themed songs from one of the world's leading music download sites. Boost Independent Music features a huge collection of independent and unsigned artists and bands from around the world, and has nearly 20,000 songs to choose from. The Boost website offers easy to use search functionality by music style or country location, making it easy for music lovers to find the exact music they are looking for to suit ...