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Minority patients more likely to have surgeries at centres handling low numbers of similar procedures

Minority patients in New York City appear less likely than white patients to have surgeries performed by surgeons or at facilities that have handled large numbers of similar procedures in the past, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

16 Feb 2010

Nascent symptoms of autism in infants emerge during latter part of first year of life

A study of the development of autism in infants, comparing the behavior of the siblings of children diagnosed with autism to that of babies developing normally, has found that the nascent symptoms of the condition - a lack of shared eye contact, smiling and communicative babbling - are not present at 6 months, but emerge gradually and only become apparent during the latter part of the first year of life.

16 Feb 2010

Over 96% of SIDS cases due to known risk factors

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) continues to be the third leading cause of infant death, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), despite a decline in SIDS that is associated with a rise in safe-sleep practices for newborns and infants. A new study by Barbara M. Ostfeld, PhD and Thomas Hegyi, MD, professors in the Department of Pediatrics at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has identified that more than 96 percent of infants who died of SIDS were exposed to known risk factors, among them sleeping on their side or stomach, or exposure to tobacco smoke, and that 78 percent of SIDS cases contained multiple risk factors.

16 Feb 2010

Study: Common underlying mechanism causes complex defects in brain development and function

A new study reveals that a common underlying mechanism is shared by a group of previously unrelated disorders which all cause complex defects in brain development and function. Rett syndrome (RTT), Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) and Alpha-Thalassemia mental Retardation, X-linked syndrome (ATR-X) have each been linked with distinct abnormalities in chromatin, the spools of proteins and DNA that make up chromosomes and control how genetic information is read in a cell.

16 Feb 2010

Pipe and cigar smoking linked to decreased lung function

Pipe and cigar smoke may be more harmful than once thought. While some believe pipes and cigars are healthier than cigarettes, a major known cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study directly links pipe and cigar smoking to decreased lung function.

16 Feb 2010

Tinnitus not a highly inherited condition, says study

Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, does not appear to be a highly inherited condition (i.e., does not pass frequently from parents to offspring), according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

16 Feb 2010

'Crowding' helps see things better

'Crowding', the phenomenon when people are less able to differentiate letters if they are surrounded by other letters, actually leads to better vision. This is the conclusion of Dr Frans Cornelissen, who together with Dr Ronald van den Berg and Prof. Jos Roerdink is the first to succeed in explaining crowding with a mathematical model. 'At this moment in time our model is mainly interesting in a fundamental sense', says Cornelissen. 'In the long term, however, it may acquire practical applications, for example when designing learning material for children with dyslexia.'

16 Feb 2010

Research findings highlight the vital need for better secondary stroke prevention

New research finds that one out of 12 people who have a stroke will likely soon have another stroke, and one out of four will likely die within one year. Researchers say the findings highlight the vital need for better secondary stroke prevention. The study is published in the February 16, 2010, issue of Neurology-, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

16 Feb 2010

U.S. Department of Labor awards $4.95M grant for BRIDGE biotechnology project

San Diego State University, BIOCOM, San Diego Workforce Partnership, and the Southern California Biotechnology Center at Miramar College today announced the award of a three-year, $4.95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor aimed at assisting the economic growth of the San Diego region's life sciences industry. The Biotechnology Readiness, Immersion, Certification and Degrees for Gainful Employment (BRIDGE) project will provide education, training, and placement services to more than 1,000 veterans, incumbent workers and dislocated and unemployed workers within the San Diego region.

16 Feb 2010

UCSF researchers: B1N1 protein is necessary for heart to contract

UCSF researchers have discovered that a protein called B1N1 is necessary for the heart to contract. The findings, published in the Feb. 16 issue of the open access journal PLoS Biology, shed light not only on what makes a heart beat but also on heart failure, a disease where cardiac cells are no longer able to contract and pump blood through the body.

16 Feb 2010

Researchers discover new mechanism within human cells that constantly protects against disease

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered a new mechanism within human cells that constantly protects us against disease. P. Michael Conn, Ph.D., a researcher at the OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center directed the work. The findings are reported in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

16 Feb 2010

RI-MUHC and McGill University teams receive $5M CIHR grant for environmental and reproductive health studies

Two teams from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University received significant support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) amounting to $5 million over five years.

15 Feb 2010

Calcium waves could be relevant for understanding the origin of Alzheimer's disease

New insights on what causes Alzheimer's disease could arise from a recent discovery made by bioengineers from the University of California, San Diego. The finding concerns the infamous amyloid beta peptides (Aβ)-fragments of which form plaques thought to play a role in Alzheimer's disease.

15 Feb 2010

Surgical outcomes for hip and knee replacement better at specialized hospitals

The more specialized a hospital is in orthopedic surgical care, the better the outcomes appear to be for patients undergoing hip and knee replacement surgery, University of Iowa researchers report in a new study of Medicare patients.

15 Feb 2010

Tobacco users with HPV-positive head and neck cancers at increased risk of recurrence

Patients with head and neck cancer linked to high risk human papillomavirus, or HPV, have worse outcomes if they are current or former tobacco users, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

15 Feb 2010

Study shows severe OSA suppresses cognitive experience of nightmare recall

A study in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) report a significantly lower frequency of nightmares than patients with mild or no sleep apnea, indicating that OSA suppresses the cognitive experience of nightmare recall.

15 Feb 2010

Researchers use $1.3M grant from NIH to study on obesity and Type 2 diabetes

A team of Northern Arizona University-led researchers is using nearly $1.3 million in new funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue with the world's longest-running study on obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

15 Feb 2010

SRC-3 gene sends signal to cell membrane to promote cell motility

The master gene called SRC-3 (steroid receptor coactivator 3) not only enhances estrogen-dependent growth of cancer cells by activating and encouraging the transcription of a genetic message into a protein, it also sends a signal to the cell membrane to promote cell motility or movement - a key element of cancer spread or metastasis, said Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) researchers and collaborators in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

15 Feb 2010

Plagiocephaly babies need to be screened and monitored early in life for possible cognitive, motor delays

In a new study, infants averaging six months of age who exhibited positional plagiocephaly (flat head syndrome) had lower scores than typical infants in observational tests used to evaluate cognitive and motor development. Positional or deformational plagiocephaly may occur when external forces shape an infant's skull while it is still soft and malleable, such as extended time spent lying on a hard surface or in one position. This is the first controlled study to suggest that babies who have flattened areas on the back of their heads during the first year of life may be at risk for developmental delay.

15 Feb 2010

Air pollution linked to increased risk of atherosclerosis

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), in collaboration with international partners in Spain and Switzerland and colleagues in California, have found that exposure to air pollution accelerates the thickening of artery walls that leads to cardiovascular disease.

15 Feb 2010

Medical Research News

Minority patients more likely to have surgeries at centres handling low numbers of similar procedures

Nascent symptoms of autism in infants emerge during latter part of first year of life

Over 96% of SIDS cases due to known risk factors

Study: Common underlying mechanism causes complex defects in brain development and function

Pipe and cigar smoking linked to decreased lung function

Tinnitus not a highly inherited condition, says study

'Crowding' helps see things better

Research findings highlight the vital need for better secondary stroke prevention

U.S. Department of Labor awards $4.95M grant for BRIDGE biotechnology project

UCSF researchers: B1N1 protein is necessary for heart to contract

Researchers discover new mechanism within human cells that constantly protects against disease

RI-MUHC and McGill University teams receive $5M CIHR grant for environmental and reproductive health studies

Calcium waves could be relevant for understanding the origin of Alzheimer's disease

Surgical outcomes for hip and knee replacement better at specialized hospitals

Tobacco users with HPV-positive head and neck cancers at increased risk of recurrence

Study shows severe OSA suppresses cognitive experience of nightmare recall

Researchers use $1.3M grant from NIH to study on obesity and Type 2 diabetes

SRC-3 gene sends signal to cell membrane to promote cell motility

Plagiocephaly babies need to be screened and monitored early in life for possible cognitive, motor delays

Air pollution linked to increased risk of atherosclerosis

From street to lab: Advancing controlled substance testing with handheld Raman and FTIR

Reimagining light scattering for biotherapeutics

Empowering genomics research with cloud-based innovation

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