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Language skills are essential to a child’s ability to communicate and develop. These skills enable children to engage with other people and learn from their surroundings and in the classroom.

ADAO reaffirms the need for banning asbestos

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) today reaffirmed the need for an asbestos ban this Labor Day, as America honors the workforce that continues to power the nation, even in the wake of the economic downturn.

7 Sep 2009

New web resource launched for AAC community supporters

Prentke Romich Company (PRC), the leading manufacturer of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices for individuals with speech disabilities, today announced the launch of AAC Language Lab, a comprehensive new web resource for speech professionals, teachers, and parents who support the AAC community.

4 Sep 2009

Expectations high for Obama's 'Major Address' to Congress on health reform

President Obama plans to address Congress on Wednesday, only a day after lawmakers return from their August break, to spell out in detail his vision for overhauling health care, The Associated Press reports. The move signals that "Democrats have all but given up hope for a bipartisan breakthrough by Senate Finance Committee negotiators," because that committee - the only one seeking across-the-aisle compromise - had been given a Sept. 15 deadline.

4 Sep 2009

RanBP9 protein targeted for developing new Alzheimer's drugs

"N60" might not be the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Alzheimer's disease, but thanks to researchers from the United States, South Korea and France, this might change. That's because these researchers have found that the N60 section of a protein called "RanBP9" might be the key that unlocks an entirely new class of Alzheimer's drugs, and with them, hope. In a research report published online in The FASEB Journal, these scientists describe how the N60 fragment of the RanBP9 protein increases the production of the amyloid beta protein, which is present in excessive amounts in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.

3 Sep 2009

Health insurers ask employees to lobby Congress to weaken health reform

Consumer Watchdog today asked California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to investigate major health insurers that have asked their workers to lobby Congress -- during business hours -- to weaken health reform. United Healthcare and Wellpoint have launched national campaigns to individually "assist" employees in writing and calling members of Congress.

3 Sep 2009

SRC raises funds through concert to help autistic children

The Sensory Research Center (SRC) held its first benefit, dessert and silent auction concert featuring LA Collaboration on the last week of August 2009. SRC Founder, Jennifer Hoffiz, said, "The concert was well attended and the talent of the performers was absolutely amazing. The concert and the silent auction allow SRC to offer 3 or 4 scholarships for children, whose parents/grandparents simply can not afford the neurosensory program, to receive this much needed therapy." One grandparent, Juanita Torres, who takes care of her twin autistic grandchildren, shared what it would mean to their family to receive a scholarship.

3 Sep 2009

Accuracy of the LENA Autism Screen increased

LENA Foundation has increased the accuracy of the LENA Autism Screen (LAS) to 91 percent for children 24 to 48 months. LAS - the first automatic and totally objective autism screen - is now as accurate or more accurate than other autism screens currently available to parents and clinicians.

3 Sep 2009

New research reveals that swearing can increase pain tolerance

While swearing is often a common response to pain, Richard Stephens and his colleagues, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, were surprised to discover that no links had been established between swearing and the actual experience of physical pain. Since swearing often has a 'catastrophising' or exaggerating effect, serving to embellish or overstate the severity of pain, Stephens and his team hypothesised that swearing would actually decrease the individual's tolerance of pain.

2 Sep 2009

JAMA study reveals the genetic signature of brain cancer

A pair of studies in the July 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) spell out how much closer science has come to unraveling the genetic signature of brain cancer, according to a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Boris Pasche, M.D., Ph.D., director of the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology, believes these studies represent a new vanguard in the still-changing field of DNA analysis.

2 Sep 2009

Playing Tetris may increase brain efficiency

Brain imaging shows playing Tetris leads to a thicker cortex and may also increase brain efficiency, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Research Notes. A research team based in New Mexico is one of the first to investigate the effects of practice in the brain using two image techniques.

2 Sep 2009

Republicans keeping August heat on in September

Republicans hoping to continue their efforts to win public support against a public plan in health care reform pledge to keep their steam in September while Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley's position on the public option is assailed by liberals.

2 Sep 2009

FDA: Earlier methods likely underestimated lead levels in lipsticks

A study by the Food and Drug Administration found lead in lipstick at levels much higher than those detected by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) in a 2007 study that received international attention.

2 Sep 2009

Research reveals that practicing Tetris increases brain efficiency

Researchers at the Mind Research Network today announced the findings of a scientific study that used brain imaging and Tetris to investigate whether practice makes the brain efficient because it increases gray matter. Over a three-month period, adolescent girls practiced Tetris, a computer game requiring a combination of cognitive skills. The girls who practiced showed greater brain efficiency, consistent with earlier studies. Compared to controls, the girls that practiced also had a thicker cortex, but not in the same brain areas where efficiency occurred.

1 Sep 2009

Brain research reveals that juggling practice increased gray matter in the motor areas of the brain

1 Sep 2009

GenoCAD project receives financial support from NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a three-year $1,421,725 grant to Jean Peccoud, associate professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, to develop GenoCAD - a web-based Computer Assisted Design environment for synthetic biology.

1 Sep 2009

AAO-HNSF to issue the first guideline for helping physicians manage dysphonia

The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) will issue the first--and only--national clinical practice guideline to help healthcare practitioners identify and manage patients with hoarseness, also known as dysphonia. The guideline emphasizes evidence-based management of hoarseness by clinicians, and educates patients on the prevalence of this common vocal health issue.

1 Sep 2009

New research shows how brain function reflects the process of learning new words

Our vocabulary continues to grow and expand even in adulthood. Just ten years ago, the word 'blog' did not yet exist - and now we no longer remember when we heard this word for the first time or when we learned its meaning. At some stage new words become just as familiar to us as words we have learned earlier. One of the areas of interest in the Academy of Finland's Neuroscience Research Programme (NEURO) is how the process of learning new words is reflected in the function of the brain.

29 Aug 2009

Rhonix - a new online medical translation community forum from ENLASO

ENLASO Corporation, a leading provider of medical and life sciences translation and localization solutions, today announced that it has launched a new social networking forum dedicated to helping improve the quality in medical and life sciences translations.

28 Aug 2009

Research study associates KIAA0319 gene on Chromosome 6 with variability in language abilities

A new candidate gene for Specific Language Impairment (SLI) has been identified by a research team directed by Mabel Rice from the University of Kansas, in collaboration with Shelley Smith, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Javier Gayán of Neocodex, Seville, Spain.

28 Aug 2009

New technology based on the Lombard effect for improving speech and voice in Parkinson's patients

Researchers have developed a new technology that helps Parkinson's patients overcome the tendency to speak too quietly by playing a recording of ambient sound, which resembles the noisy chatter of a restaurant full of patrons.

28 Aug 2009