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Violent video games can increase aggressive behavior in children and adolescents

...both in the short- and long-term, according to an empirical review of the last 20 years of research. These findings are presented at the 113th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC.

22 Aug 2005

Japanese encephalitis in Indian province - update

Health officials say nine more people have now died from Japanese encephalitis in India's Uttar Pradesh state, taking the death toll from the mosquito-borne disease to 99.

22 Aug 2005

Brits get ready for bird flu pandemic

Before the onset of winter and the annual flu outbreak, doctors around the UK will be preparing for a much more worrying influenza epidemic this season.

22 Aug 2005

Stockings which provide an alternative to physiotherapy

A team of researchers at Imperial College London have developed inflatable stockings to give relief to elderly people with mobility problems.

22 Aug 2005

Argument smoulders on while groups argue about total smoking ban

A new survey in the UK is suggesting that the majority of people in England and Wales would support a complete ban on smoking in workplaces.

22 Aug 2005

First instance of avian flu (H5N1) occurring in wild migratory birds

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has positively identified the pathogenic form of avian flu--H5N1--in samples taken from birds last week in Mongolia by field veterinarians from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). It is the first instance of this viral strain occurring in wild migratory birds with no apparent contact to domestic poultry or waterfowl.

22 Aug 2005

Best treatment for the immobilizing trauma of spinal cord compression in metastatic cancer

In this week's Lancet, Patchell's UK research team evaluate traditional surgical and radiation therapy options and conclude that direct decompressive surgery plus postoperative radiotherapy is more effective than either radiotherapy alone or other surgical options.

22 Aug 2005

Effective new tool to improve management of stroke patients

The Stroke Transfer of Care (ToC) document was launched nationally today, following a successful pilot, to improve the delivery and continuity of care for those who have suffered a stroke.

22 Aug 2005

A cell's energy level is critical to its survival

In an ongoing effort to fight disease by manipulating energy regulation of cells, a collaborative study led by Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) has demonstrated that cells lacking a tumor-suppressing kinase called LKB1 can still maintain healthy energy levels when they become stressed.

22 Aug 2005

Non-invasive imaging may help predict type 1 diabetes and response to treatment in humans

A key obstacle to early detection of type 1 diabetes - as well as to rapid assessment of the effectiveness of therapeutic intervention - has been the lack of direct, non-invasive technologies to visualize inflammation in the pancreas, an early manifestation of disease.

22 Aug 2005

Newl workplace safety models

Tools for assisting organizations in their efforts to more accurately calculate, analyze, interpret and communicate the costs and benefits of workplace safety and health programs are featured as part of published proceedings released on July 29th in the National Safety Council's Journal of Safety Research (JSR).

22 Aug 2005

First proof of how the rare disorder Fanconi anemia causes chromosomal instability

The scientists found a gene mutation not previously known to be related to Fanconi anemia, and they say that BRIP1 is the first gene associated with the disease whose protein has a known function.

22 Aug 2005

Novel vaccine strain with high efficacy against tuberculosis

Tuberculosis remains a major global health threat. Although more than 3 billion doses of the BCG vaccine have been administered to fight tuberculosis, the ability of the BCG vaccine to protect adults is very limited, as is its efficacy against newly emerging isolates.

22 Aug 2005

New method to predict protein separation behavior directly from protein structure

Applying math and computers to the drug-discovery process, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a method to predict protein separation behavior directly from protein structure.

22 Aug 2005

Butterbur extract should be considered as an alternative treatment for hayfever

The largest trial so far conducted using Butterbur extract to treat intermittent allergic rhinitis (hay fever) shows that this plant extract is as effective as a commonly used antihistamine (Telfast 180).

22 Aug 2005

Medulloblastoma irradiation may impair reading skills in young children

Irradiation therapy for the brain cancer medulloblastoma is more likely to impair IQ and reading skills of younger children than older children even if the dose of radiation is reduced, according to the results of the largest study of its kind, conducted by investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Texas Children's Cancer Center (Houston) and Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne, Australia).

22 Aug 2005

Enzyme in the blood that could be a potential marker for heart failure

A team of scientists led by Walter Koch, Ph.D., director of the Center for Translational Medicine in the Department of Medicine in Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, previously showed that an enzyme called GRK2 or beta-adrenergic kinase (ßARK1) is critically important in heart function.

22 Aug 2005

Paroxetine linked to higher rate of suicide

Adult patients taking the antidepressant drug paroxetine are at higher risk of attempting to commit suicide than those not taking medication.

22 Aug 2005

Early clinical signs of ovarian cancer

Many women diagnosed with ovarian cancer actually complained of symptoms of the disease at least four months before they were diagnosed, according to a new study to be published in the October 1, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

22 Aug 2005

Many phase I trials for new cancer fighting drugs never get reported in peer-reviewed journals

A new study finds many phase I trials for new cancer fighting drugs never get reported in peer-reviewed journals, and says investigators should be committed not just to finding novel compounds, but also to make sure final results of their studies be disseminated to the medical community.

22 Aug 2005