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Govs brace for impact of scheduled cuts in home states

The nation's governors met in Washington over the weekend, and among their hottest topics: a White House warning regarding the state-by-state impact of sequestration, which is scheduled to kick in March 1.

26 Feb 2013

Natalizumab may be second-line option for pediatric MS patients

Natalizumab may be an effective and well tolerated second-line treatment for pediatric patients with highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, say researchers.

26 Feb 2013

‘Traffic light’ guide for pediatric bacterial infection needs refining

Study results suggest that a “traffic light” system for categorizing the severity of infections in children fails to detect a substantial number of serious bacterial infections, particularly urinary tract infections.

26 Feb 2013

University of Alberta researchers help children with Down syndrome

Researchers from the University of Alberta are helping children with Down syndrome who stutter find their voice and speak with ease.

26 Feb 2013

Access to contraception a 'core human right' for women everywhere

"The right to decide whether to have children, how many to have, and when to have them is a core human right for women everywhere, and having the option of a full range of contraceptive methods ensures that this right can be upheld," Pamela Barnes, president and CEO of EngenderHealth, writes in the Huffington Post's "Global Motherhood" blog.

26 Feb 2013

Airborne dust exposure leads to seasonal fluctuation in blood lead levels among children

A new nine-year study of more than 367,000 children in Detroit supports the idea that a mysterious seasonal fluctuation in blood lead levels - observed in urban areas throughout the United States and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere - results from resuspended dust contaminated with lead.

26 Feb 2013

Wnt-induced Lgr5 expression marks stem cell production in the liver

For decades scientists around the world have attempted to regenerate primary liver cells known as hepatocytes because of their numerous biomedical applications, including hepatitis research, drug metabolism and toxicity studies, as well as transplantation for cirrhosis and other chronic liver conditions. But no lab in the world has been successful in identifying and growing liver stem cells in culture -- using any available technique - until now.

26 Feb 2013

Children with autism have higher levels of several toxic metals in their blood and urine

In a recently published study in the journal Biological Trace Element Research, Arizona State University researchers report that children with autism had higher levels of several toxic metals in their blood and urine compared to typical children.

26 Feb 2013

DHA supplementation during pregnancy reduces very low birth weight and early preterm delivery

University of Kansas researchers have found that the infants of mothers who were given 600 milligrams of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA during pregnancy weighed more at birth and were less likely to be very low birth weight and born before 34 weeks gestation than infants of mothers who were given a placebo. This result greatly strengthens the case for using the dietary supplement during pregnancy.

26 Feb 2013

Research roundup: Patients hesitant to focus on costs; Increase in primary care demand is uneven

One way to contain health care spending is to get patients involved in weighing costs of treatment options with their doctors. Researchers recruited 211 medically insured participants to assess their willingness to consider costs when choosing treatments. The authors found that participants generally "preferred better care, even when the relative benefit it offered was marginal, and even when told that the second-best choice still met the threshold of 'good enough' care from a clinician's perspective.

26 Feb 2013

Experts analyse biological function of Shewanella-like protein phosphatase

Experts have disabled a unique member of the signalling proteins which are essential for the development of the malaria parasite. They have produced a mutant lackingthe ancient bacterial Shewanella-like protein phosphatase known as SHLP1 (pronounced shelph). This mutant is unable to complete its complex life cycle and is arrested in its development in the mosquito.

26 Feb 2013

Low-birth-weight babies with brain abnormality are at increased risk for autism

Low-birth-weight babies with a particular brain abnormality are at greater risk for autism, according to a new study that could provide doctors a signpost for early detection of the still poorly understood disorder.

26 Feb 2013

Insight into cellular operations that give extraordinary staying power to S. mansoni

From the point of view of its ultimate (human) host, the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni has a gruesome way of life. It hatches in feces-tainted water, grows into a larva in the body of a snail and then burrows through human skin to take up residence in the veins. Once there, it grows into an adult, mates and, if it's female, starts laying eggs. It can remain in the body for decades.

26 Feb 2013

Viewpoints: Health care 'price gouging;' Health law pushing employers to cut workers' hours; Medicare spending must be tamed

Steven Brill's cover story on the Looking Glass world of healthcare pricing may be the longest article Time Magazine has ever published, but more importantly, it is a fresh sign that the medical-industrial complex should be worried as the deadline for launching Obamacare rolls closer.

26 Feb 2013

Survey finds 65% of Missouri salons would allow pre-teens to use tanning beds

A survey of tanning salon operators in Missouri shows that 65 percent would allow children as young as 10 to 12 years old to use tanning beds. That's despite evidence that any tanning bed use increases the risk of all skin cancers, including melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, later in life.

26 Feb 2013

Early lymphoid progenitors thrive in an osteoblastic niche: Study

The Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern has deepened the understanding of the environment within bone marrow that nurtures stem cells, this time identifying the biological setting for specialized blood-forming cells that produce the infection-fighting white blood cells known as T cells and B cells.

25 Feb 2013