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Decline in ownership of life insurance

This week an insurance research firm reported that ownership in life insurance has reached a 50-year low, with nearly a third of U.S. households not having a form of this financial protection. As the benefits industry begins Life Insurance Awareness Month in September, Unum (NYSE: UNM) shares the concern that this decline exposes working Americans to financial uncertainty.

4 Sep 2010

Research provides new framework for quantifying risk of avian-borne diseases

In 2005 an outbreak of the H5N1 'bird flu' virus in South East Asia led to widespread fear with predictions that the intercontinental migration of wild birds could lead to global pandemic.

4 Sep 2010

New insight into abnormalities in cancer cells

A basic requirement for growth and life of a multicellular organism is the ability of its cells to divide. Chromosomes in the cells duplicate and are then distributed among the daughter cells. This distribution is organized by a protein complex made up of several hundred different proteins, called the centrosome. In cancer cells, the centrosome often assumes an unnatural shape or is present in uncontrolled numbers. The reasons for this were previously largely unknown.

4 Sep 2010

VOA News examines U.S. Global Health Initiative

VOA News examines President Barack Obama's $63 billion Global Health Initiative (GHI), noting the initiative's emphasis on cost-effective strategies to improve child- and maternal-health as well as programs to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. The article includes recent comments by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on the role the GHI will play in strengthening health systems and the administration's on-going commitment to global HIV/AIDS programs.

4 Sep 2010

AVAC calls for economic and political support for CAPRISA 004 microbicide trial's critical follow-up studies

AVAC today issues a call to action to donors, policy-makers, researchers and advocates to ensure that critical follow-up studies to the landmark CAPRISA 004 microbicide trial receive the economic and political support needed to move forward as quickly as possible. The call comes as a group of microbicide and public health experts have agreed upon a plan for further studies, which are expected to cost $100 million over three years, of which only $58 million has been committed.

4 Sep 2010

RIFM publishes special issue on safety assessment of unsaturated alcohols

The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials, Inc. (RIFM) has now published on the RIFM web site, in the Publications section, a special issue of Food and Chemical Toxicology, Volume 48, Supplement 3, on the RIFM Human Health Group Summary, A Safety Assessment of Non-cyclic Alcohols with Unsaturated Branched Chain when used as Fragrance Ingredients.

4 Sep 2010

Up to 5 million kids uninsured but eligible for government programs

As many as 5 million uninsured kids are eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, according to a report published Friday in the journal Health Affairs, Reuters reports.

4 Sep 2010

Uninsured minority pedestrians hit by cars are at higher risk of death: Research

Uninsured minority pedestrians hit by cars are at a significantly higher risk of death than their insured white counterparts, even if the injuries sustained are similar, new research from Johns Hopkins suggests.

4 Sep 2010

Study suggest PET/CT scanning may offer effective breast cancer detection, spread

About one-third of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer will have their cancer travel, or metastasize, to other parts of the body, with the bone being the most common site of initial detectable spread. Controversy continues to surround the question of whether CT and bone scans should be standard in evaluating patients for these metastases, or whether integrated PET/CT scanning might be more effective at detecting breast tumors that have reached nearby bones.

4 Sep 2010

IMF, World Bank announce increased aid measures for flood relief in Pakistan

"The IMF and the World Bank have stepped up aid to flood-hit Pakistan to help the country cope with its worst-ever humanitarian disaster," Agence France-Presse reports.

4 Sep 2010

Colo. lawmaker pushes bill to permit stem cell research

Politico reports that as "Congress prepares to return for a limited pre-election agenda, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said she has picked up wide support for her bill to permit embryonic stem-cell research and expects it will pass this month. Although it has been strongly opposed by anti-abortion activists, she voiced confidence that the measure will be a political boost for its backers as well as good policy.

4 Sep 2010

Research findings help understand effect of cognitive functions in people with Parkinson's disease

Researchers at Queen's University have found that people with Parkinson's disease can perform automated tasks better than people without the disease, but have significant difficulty switching from easy to hard tasks. The findings are a step towards understanding the aspects of the illness that affect the brain's ability to function on a cognitive level.

4 Sep 2010

Fatty plaque in arteries increase risk for life-threatening cardiovascular events

An international study of clinical data led by a Department of Veterans Affairs-Harvard University cardiologist found that patients with deposits of fatty plaque in their arteries are at especially high risk for life-threatening cardiovascular events if they have diabetes, disease in multiple arteries or a history of heart attack or stroke.

4 Sep 2010

Genetic predisposition reduces breast, ovarian cancer risk with preventive surgeries: Study

A long-term study of women with a genetic predisposition for breast or ovarian cancer showed that those who elected major preventive surgeries had a significantly reduced risk of those cancers.

4 Sep 2010

Food industry, USDA criticized for recent salmonella outbreak, egg recall

USA Today reports that food safety groups are slamming how well U.S. Department of Agriculture regulated the farms implicated in the salmonella outbreak.

4 Sep 2010

Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission partners with NIH, NIST to host symposium on stem cell research

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission will host the Third Annual Maryland Stem Cell Research Symposium in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Standards and Technology on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010.

4 Sep 2010

FAO calls for special meeting to address global food price spikes

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization "has called a special meeting on the recent spike in food prices, responding to fears of a repeat of the shortages that led to riots in parts of the world two years ago," the Associated Press reports.

4 Sep 2010

Myths, controversy surround health reform law

News outlets are following the politics and rhetoric surrounding the new health law.

4 Sep 2010

ISSCR comments on hESC research federal funding injunction

Vital progress in stem cell research by hundreds of U.S. laboratories is threatened after last week's injunction prohibiting federal funding for the study of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). The president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), Elaine Fuchs, Rockefeller University, U.S., stated that the setbacks for advancing biomedical research on stem cells and translating this knowledge into new and improved treatments for patients are already considerable, and escalate with each day the injunction continues.

4 Sep 2010

Research on iPS cells can imply potential cell therapy for X-linked disorders

Female induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, reprogrammed from human skin cells into cells that have the embryonic-like potential to become any cell in the body, retain an inactive X chromosome, stem cell researchers at UCLA have found.

4 Sep 2010