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DIY high-tech microscope

A resourceful lecturer at the University of Essex has turned his hand to a spot of DIY and built a high-tech microscope that will transform the university's ability to undertake specialist medical and biological research.

3 Nov 2008

Warnings in NSW of whooping cough outbreak

An outbreak of whooping cough in New South Wales is causing some concern - the NSW Health Department says infection rates have soared from 2,000 cases last year, to 3,800 cases this year, and the increase is more so in some areas.

27 Oct 2008

Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale reports WHO's Commission

A child born in a Glasgow, Scotland suburb can expect a life 28 years shorter than another living only 13 kilometres away. A girl in Lesotho is likely to live 42 years less than another in Japan. In Sweden, the risk of a woman dying during pregnancy and childbirth is 1 in 17 400; in Afghanistan, the odds are 1 in 8. Biology does not explain any of this. Instead, the differences between - and within - countries result from the social environment where people are born, live, grow, work and age.

28 Aug 2008

Conference on understanding the mystery of human consciousness

World leaders in the science of the mind gathered in Edinburgh recently for a pioneering conference on understanding the mystery of human consciousness.

12 Aug 2008

New HIV/AIDS threat in India found among youth working at call centers

Unprotected sex with multiple partners among young staff in India's call centers has emerged as a new HIV/AIDS threat in the country, Suniti Solomon, the researcher who detected the first HIV case in India in 1986, told the International Congress on Infectious Diseases on Saturday, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports.

24 Jun 2008

Scientists image a single HIV particle being born

A mapmaker and a mathematician may seem like an unlikely duo, but together they worked out a way to measure longitude - and kept millions of sailors from getting lost at sea. Now, another unlikely duo, a virologist and a biophysicist at Rockefeller University, is making history of its own.

25 May 2008

Length of telomeres in blood cells tied to breast cancer survival rates

Researchers at Umea University in Sweden have shown that the length of telomeres in blood cells in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients is tied to survival rates. The study, published in the journal Cancer Research, was carried out by a research team headed by Professor Goran Roos at the Department of Medical Bioscience, Pathology.

15 May 2008

New Wilmot Cancer Center offers expanded care, research for cures

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) today celebrates the expansion of cancer care and research as it dedicates the new James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. The Center introduces leading-edge technology, greater access to multidisciplinary care, a new model for breast care, and more opportunities to receive tomorrow's therapies today.

15 May 2008

New study finds widespread gambling activity among adolescents and young adults in U.S.

Gambling activity is widespread among U.S. adolescents and young adults ages 14 through 21, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA).

6 May 2008

Atherotech VAP cholesterol test meets updated ADA, ACC measurement and treatment guidelines for high risk patients

The determination of LDL, non-HDL and apoB are now recognized as valid, accurate and recommended methods of guiding and achieving the best treatment goals for patients with cardiometabolic risk (CMR).

22 Apr 2008

Diabetes worst in the developing world

Eighty per cent of people with diabetes in the world live in developing countries, where the number of people with diabetes is predicted to increase by 150% in the next 25 years, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

21 Apr 2008

Genetics, environment differently influence the 'pathway of risk' leading to alcohol dependence

Alcohol dependence (AD) is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, and its development involves "transitioning" through multiple stages of drinking behaviors.

4 Apr 2008

Drug use trends affect risk of marijuana in deviance prone boys, but not girls

When national drug use trends among adolescents go up or down, the risk of marijuana use among deviance-prone male youth also goes up or down.

6 Mar 2008

Moss protein plays role in Alzheimer's disease

Preventing Alzheimer's from developing is a goal of Raphael Kopan, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the Washington University School of Medicine.

11 Feb 2008

Sixty percent of psychotherapy clients felt therapy didn't end on time

Sixty percent of private practice dynamically oriented psychotherapy clients felt that their therapy either lasted too long or ended too soon, according to recent research conducted by Prof. David Roe, Head of the Department of Community Mental Health, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences at the University of Haifa.

10 Jan 2008

Four-fold increase in UK soldiers testing positive for cocaine

The British Army is losing the equivalent of one battalion a year as a result of illegal drug-use, more than the number of fatalities and serious casualties in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

17 Dec 2007

Gender and friendship influences adolescent alcohol use

Adolescents who drink alcohol, smoke and/or use drugs tend to have peers who do the same.

27 Nov 2007

MedPAC finds uneven quality in newer Medicare Advantage plans

Medicare Payment Advisory Commission officials at a meeting on Friday expressed concern over data showing differences in quality among newer Medicare Advantage plans and increasing enrollment in private fee-for-service MA plans, CQ HealthBeat reports.

12 Nov 2007

Watching TV found to be linked to obesity and now hypertension in kids

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego; the Rady Children's Hospital - San Diego; the University of California, San Francisco; and the University of South Alabama determined that television viewing is not only linked to childhood obesity, but also to hypertension in children, according to a study published in the December 2007 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

31 Oct 2007