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New sustainable ways to manage urban water in the U.S.

America's cities face a looming water crisis, driven by climate change, growing population and a crumbling infrastructure. Recognizing the critical importance of this issue, the National Science Foundation has selected a partnership of four U.S. universities to form an Engineering Research Center (ERC) to address this challenge by developing new, sustainable ways to manage urban water.

27 Jul 2011

GlobalPost interviews PAI official regarding global gag rule

Following a House Foreign Affairs Committee vote last week to reinstate the global gag rule in the FY12 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog features an interview with "Craig Lasher, the director of U.S. government relations at Population Action International, about the global gag rule, its history, and what making it a legislative policy will mean."

27 Jul 2011

Voters offer split reactions on state abortion measures

In related news, the Washington Post reports on one doctor's experiences as a physician who provides late-pregnancy abortions.

27 Jul 2011

Cocaine-free topical anaesthetics can effectively treat pain caused by torn skin

While some pain killers need to be injected into the damaged tissue in order to work, topical anaesthetics only need to be spread on the surface. The earliest examples of "topical" anaesthetics contained cocaine, but now a new systematic review has shown that newer agents that don't contain cocaine can effectively treat pain caused by torn skin.

27 Jul 2011

Russia aiming to cut number of smokers by 15% by 2050

Russia is aiming to cut the number of smokers in the country by up to 15 percent by 2050, "huge ambitions considering 40 percent of Russians light up," VOA News reports.

27 Jul 2011

Amphetamines can control ADHD symptoms in adults

Giving amphetamines to adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can help them control their symptoms, but the side effects mean that some people do not manage to take them for very long.

27 Jul 2011

Surge of generics will trigger drop in drug prices

In the next 14 months, seven of the world's 20 best-selling drugs are scheduled to go "off patent." As they do, the brand-name drugs will lose out to generic versions, cutting costs for patients and companies that provide health benefits.

27 Jul 2011

Researchers compile first global estimates of coeliac disease and associated mortality

Researchers from Umeå University, Sweden and University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, have compiled the first global estimates of coeliac disease and associated mortality, just published in the journal PLoS ONE.

27 Jul 2011

World Food Program plans to begin airlifts to Somalia this week

The World Food Program (WFP) has said it plans to begin food airlifts by Thursday "to parts of drought-ravaged Somalia that militants banned it from more than two years ago," the Associated Press reports.

27 Jul 2011

Medicare and deal-making on the debt — voters fear result

According to a National Journal poll, voters worry that an agreement will result in cuts to Medicare and Social Security that are too deep. Meanwhile, McClatchy reports on how Medicare and the federal deficit are playing a role in this year's PAC donations. Also, iWatch News fact checks a left-leaning ad on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's Medicare proposal.

27 Jul 2011

New HIV prevention findings delay release of WHO guidelines for discordant couples

"Upbeat new HIV prevention findings presented last week at an international AIDS conference held in Rome have complicated attempts by the World Health Organization (WHO) to draft much-anticipated guidelines for heterosexual couples in which one partner is infected," ScienceInsider reports.

27 Jul 2011

Calif. Governor vetoes adult day care bill

The legislation would provide new funding to help about half the seniors and disabled residents who had been covered under an older program that the state is discontinuing.

27 Jul 2011

AACN launches mobile-friendly access to the websites of AJCC, CCN

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) launches mobile-friendly access to the websites of its award-winning bimonthly journals, American Journal of Critical Care and Critical Care Nurse.

27 Jul 2011

As partisan debt-ceiling disputes continue, entitlement reform haunts discussion

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner each delivered prime time addresses Monday night, capping an extraordinary day of partisan debt-ceiling dueling. As the clock continues to tick toward the Aug. 2 deadline, specifics from the two very different plans emerged — one offered by House Republicans and the other by Senate Democrats.

27 Jul 2011

Study reveals several compounds that block cancer cell invasion

Metastasis-the spread of cancer from the place where it first started to another place in the body-is the most common reason that cancer treatments fail. To metastasize, some types of cancer cells rely on invadopodia, cellular membrane projections that act like feet, helping them "walk" away from the primary tumor and invade surrounding tissues.

27 Jul 2011

World leaders should either scale up commitment to polio eradication significantly or abandon goal

"There are few ideas as powerful as the eradication of a human disease. But the euphoria around the world's single success to date - that of smallpox - has led to ever more costly efforts to do the same for polio. World leaders need either to radically step up their commitment or have the courage to abandon the goal explicitly," a Financial Times editorial states

27 Jul 2011

All football players do not get chronic traumatic encephalopathy

Preliminary results from the first four brains donated to the Canadian Sports Concussion Project at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, TorontoWesternHospital, reveal that two of the four former Canadian Football League (CFL) players suffered from a brain disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), while two did not show signs of CTE.

27 Jul 2011

South Africa could reduce HIV-associated costs, extend lives with earlier treatment, study says

If South Africa followed WHO recommendations for earlier therapy for people living with HIV, thousands of lives could be extended and the country would start saving money after 16 years, according to a study recently published online in PLoS One, United Press International reports.

27 Jul 2011

New Penn Center for Orphan Disease Research and Therapy

The Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania announces the launching of a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary center focused on discovering novel treatments for orphan diseases.

27 Jul 2011

Athletic trainers and coaches bear major responsibility for preventing deaths

Colleges and high schools must follow an active strategy to preventing deaths among student athletes from exertional heat stroke (EHS) and other causes, according to an editorial in a recent issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

27 Jul 2011