The desire for a quick-fix for obesity fuels a lucrative market in so-called natural remedies. But a study of medical records in Hong Kong revealed 66 cases where people were suspected to have been poisoned by a "natural" slimming therapy. In eight cases the people became severely ill, and in one case the person died. The study is published today in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. The researchers looked at the ingredients in the 81 slimming products that these people had taken. They found 12 different agents that fell into five categories: undeclared weight-loss ...

WHAT: Two studies appearing in the October 14, 2010 New England Journal of Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health helped influence the World Health Organization (WHO) to change its guidelines this year for the treatment of HIV infection in certain women and children. The recently updated guidelines affect HIV-infected women who receive a single dose of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine to prevent HIV transmission to their babies, and infants who receive a single dose of nevirapine to prevent acquiring the virus from their HIV-infected mothers but nevertheless ...

Titusville, NJ, October 13, 2010 – According to a new survey sponsored by Janssen®, Division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc, 94 percent of psychiatric nurses feel very or extremely involved in providing care for people with mental illness. Although some psychiatric nurses believe that their specialty is as difficult as or more difficult than oncology nursing, or emergency nursing, one-third would prefer to be more involved in patient care than they are now. The survey also revealed that psychiatric nurses believe their work affects patient care, with more ...

There may be a fundamental link between aspects of an individual's personality and their capacity to exercise or generate energy, recent research suggests. Humans are not the only animals that choose to exercise and – as with people - individuals within the same species differ in their levels of activity, says Dr Peter Biro, a senior lecturer in the UNSW Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, in a review article in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, with colleague Judy Stamps of the University of California, Davis. Dr Biro is an Australian Research Council Future ...

An Australian team of scientists has uncovered a quality control mechanism that must take place for our immune system to subsequently effectively destroy harmful viruses and bacteria. The findings were published today in the prestigious international journal Nature. The team solved a 15-year puzzle by working out the structure and function of a protein called pre T alpha that is essential in guiding the correct expression of various receptors expressed by T lymphocytes, white blood cells of the immune system. These receptors, known as T cell receptors, recognise ...

Jerusalem, Oct. 13, 2010 – Unlike humans, honey bees, when thrown into highly time-altered new societal roles, are able to alter their biological rhythms with alacrity, enabling them to make a successful "quick switch" in their daily routines, according to research carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. With people, on the other hand, disturbances to their biological clocks by drastic changes in their daily schedules are known to cause problems -- for example for shift workers and for new parents of crying, fitful babies. Disturbance of the biological clock ...

Those who do a lot of driving know how tiring long car trips and night driving can be. And a simple fraction of a second can decide the difference between life and death. According to the German Road Safety Council e.V. (DVR), one in four highway traffic fatalities is the result of momentary driver drowsiness. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Ilmenau, Germany, have developed an assistant system that tracks a driver's eye movements and issues a warning before the driver has an opportunity to nod off to sleep. The special feature ...

Within the framework of this research project, "Acoplamiento y Agarre de Satélites mediante Sistemas Robóticos basado en Visión (Docking and Capture of Satellites through computer vision) (ASIROV)", the scientists have developed algorithms and strategies to dock and capture a disabled satellite through the use of a space vehicle, called a "chaser", which autonomously carries out this function. "In this way", explained the head of this research study, Mohamed Abderrahim, who is from the UC3M Department of Automated Systems Engineering, "we attempt to carry out all ...

DES MOINES, IOWA (14 October 2010)—Crop specialists in Kenya and Uganda have laid the groundwork for confined field trials to commence later this year for new varieties of maize genetically modified to survive recurrent droughts that threaten over 300 million Africans for whom maize is life, according to a speech given today by the head of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) at the World Food Prize Symposium. Scientists working with AATF believe it's important to explore the potential of biotechnology to maintain and increase food production in Africa, ...

Learning from competitors is a critically important form of learning for animals and humans. A new study has used brain imaging to reveal how people and animals learn from failure and success. The team from Bristol University led by Dr Paul Howard-Jones, Senior Lecturer in Education in the Graduate School of Education and Dr Rafal Bogacz, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, scanned the brains of players as they battled against an artificial opponent in a computer game. In the game, each player took turns with the computer to select one of four ...

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, October 13, 2010 — A new study conducted by a researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) for Jerusalem's Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel reports that Israeli's have a higher life expectancy on average than Americans and residents of other OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. According to the most recent data, from 2005, the average American life expectancy is now 78 years; for Israeli Jews, approximately 81 years and Israeli Arabs, 79 years. Japan has the highest life expectancy of OECD ...

University of Granada researchers have developed a new computer technique that allows to "train" computers to interpret the visual contents of a video or picture. This advance will allow to classify automatically pictures basing on whether individuals or specific objects are present in such images. Videos can also be classified according to specific poses. At present, computer search and classification of images is made basing on the name of the file, folder or on features as date or size, but the visual information contained was never used for classification purposes. ...

HOBOKEN, N.J. (Sept. 13, 2010) – More than 50 million Americans will experience some degree of tinnitus in their lifetime, according to the American Tinnitus Association. Tinnitus is a hearing condition that causes the constant misperception of sound, including hissing, ringing and rushing noises. A study recently published in Panminerva Medica reveals that Pycnogenol® (pic-noj-en-all), an antioxidant plant extract derived from the bark of the French maritime pine tree, is effective in relieving tinnitus symptoms by improving blood flow in the inner ear. "Impaired blood ...

San Francisco, Calif., 13 October, 2010 - Elsevier Business Intelligence, publisher of PharmAsia News, IN VIVO and "The Pink Sheet," today announced the agenda for Windhover's 2nd PharmAsia Summit (Oct. 25-26). This year's Summit will bring top biopharma leaders from Asia and the U.S. to San Francisco to share what works and what doesn't in China, India, Japan and the Pacific Rim. At the PharmAsia Summit, you'll hear Asia strategies and case studies from industry leading experts on dealmaking, commercial strategy, outsourcing, regulatory risks, IP protection, and pricing ...

(NEW YORK, NY, October 13, 2010) – Before Alzheimer's patients experience memory loss, the brain's neurons have already suffered harm for years. A new study in mouse models by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center has found that the brain's mitochondria -- the powerhouses of the cell -- are one of the earliest casualties of the disease. The study, which appeared in the online Early Edition of PNAS, also found that impaired mitochondria then injure the neurons' synapses, which are necessary for normal brain function. "The damage to synapses is one of the ...

Washington, DC, 13 October 2010 - Mental disorders in children are often difficult to identify due to the myriad of changes that occur during the normal course of maturation. For the first time, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health have reported on the prevalence data on a broad range of mental disorders in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents, which show that approximately one in five children in the U.S. meet the criteria for a mental disorder severe enough to disrupt their daily lives. The prevalence of the mental health disorders ...

Astronomers using the South Pole Telescope report that they have discovered the most massive galaxy cluster yet seen at a distance of 7 billion light-years. The cluster (designated SPT-CL J0546-5345) weighs in at around 800 trillion Suns, and holds hundreds of galaxies. "This galaxy cluster wins the heavyweight title. It's among the most massive clusters ever found at this distance," said Mark Brodwin, a Smithsonian astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Brodwin is first author on the paper announcing the discovery, which appeared in the Astrophysical ...

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — A diet rich in the plant compound luteolin reduces age-related inflammation in the brain and related memory deficits by directly inhibiting the release of inflammatory molecules in the brain, researchers report. Luteolin (LOOT-ee-oh-lin) is found in many plants, including carrots, peppers, celery, olive oil, peppermint, rosemary and chamomile. The new study, which examined the effects of dietary luteolin in a mouse model of aging, appears in the Journal of Nutrition. The researchers focused on microglial cells, specialized immune cells that reside ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The red, metal-laden sludge that escaped a containment pond in Hungary last week could be made less toxic with the help of carbon sequestration, says an Indiana University Bloomington geologist who has a patent pending on the technique. The bauxite residue now covers 40 square kilometers south of the Danube River, and has caused the deaths of eight Hungarians and injured at least 150. The residue also has caused the extinction of life in a local river and as yet unknown environmental damage elsewhere. While human deaths in the wake of the disaster ...

TORONTO, Ont., October 13, 2010 — A new material similar to that used by the U.S. Military to treat traumatic injuries is showing promise as the next novel treatment for bleeding ulcers, a condition that commonly affects up to 15 per cent of adults, according to Hong Kong physician Dr. James Lau. Dr. Lau is presenting his findings today on this world-first research at the 23rd International Course on Therapeutic Endoscopy. The course is a world-renowned international conference on the latest innovations in endoscopy organized and hosted by St. Michael's Hospital. "Nearly ...

Oct. 13, 2010 — Nutrition rating systems and symbols on the fronts of food packaging would be most useful to shoppers if they highlighted four nutrients of greatest concern – calories, saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium – says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. These food components are routinely overconsumed and associated most strongly with diet-related health problems affecting many Americans, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Given the limited space on package fronts and the information ...

(Boston) - Investigators from the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have reported that the use of a web-based questionnaire can be a cost-effective tool for obtaining survey response. The study results, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, were based on data from the Black Women's Health Study (BWHS), a large prospective cohort study of 59,000 African American women from across the U.S. conducted by investigators at the Slone Epidemiology Center since 1995. The participants are sent paper questionnaires every two ...

URBANA – When you think about "wine country," Illinois may not be the first state that comes to mind. But it's actually big business on the prairie. There are 90 wineries licensed in Illinois and 1,500 acres of wine grapes. One acre of wine grapes can bring as much as $8,000 in sales, though more commonly it's $3,000 to $5,000. The largest wineries in Illinois produce 90,000 gallons per year, while many produce 3,000 to 10,000 per year. "In many cases, growing wine grapes is supplementary to the producer's entire farming operation. The break-even point for wineries ...

Rice University research that capitalizes on the wide-ranging capabilities of graphene could lead to circuit applications that are far more compact and versatile than what is now feasible with silicon-based technologies. Triple-mode, single-transistor amplifiers based on graphene -- the one-atom-thick form of carbon that recently won its discoverers a Nobel Prize -- could become key components in future electronic circuits. The discovery by Rice researchers was reported this week in the online journal ACS Nano. Graphene is very strong, nearly transparent and conducts ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 13, 2010—Parents of children with undiagnosed learning disorders, developmental deficits, and congenital abnormalities face a host of psychological and social challenges, which are explored in detail in a reflective article in Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The article is available free online ahead of print at www.liebertpub.com/gtmb An interview-based study of parents of children with undiagnosed disorders describes the parental experience as a "journey" ...