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Tips for parents to help their kids get a smart start to the academic year

The first day of school always requires preparations -- notebooks, pens and a new set of clothes. But don't forget to prepare for your child's health, says Dr. Joan Bregstein, a physician in the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.

30 Aug 2012

Drug-resistant tuberculosis levels described as alarming by international study

A large, international study published Online First in The Lancet reveals alarming levels of tuberculosis (TB) that are resistant to both first-line and second-line drugs. The findings show high prevalence of resistance to at least one second-line drug (43.7%) among multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB patients from eight countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Worse still, the study found higher than expected overall levels of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB.

30 Aug 2012

DNA synthesis in the 3’ and 5’ direction possible using new template-directed method

When a cell divides, it passes on genetic information by producing copies of its DNA. Chemists have also learned to copy DNA. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a German team has now introduced a new copying technique that uses a single strand of DNA as the “master copy”, like a cell, but does not require enzymes.

30 Aug 2012

Guinea worm disease on verge of eradication, WHO reports

"The World Health Organization reports Guinea worm disease, which has plagued people for thousands of years, is on the verge of eradication," VOA News reports. "The U.N. agency says fewer than 400 cases of the infectious parasitic disease exist in four African countries, and that it will soon become only the second, after smallpox, to be wiped off the face of the earth," the news service writes.

30 Aug 2012

New book on medical screening to be launched on Sep. 4

Delegates from around the world will gather for the launch of a new book on medical screening edited by University of Leicester academics.

30 Aug 2012

Poll: Abortion not decisive issue for more than half of voters

While the 2012 presidential race has energized pro- and anti-abortion rights groups, a new CBS News poll shows that as many as 57 percent of registered voters in both parties say it's possible they would vote for a candidate who disagreed with them on the issue. However, women are less likely than men to say that.

30 Aug 2012

Removing entire pancreas does not result in unmanageable diabetes in patients with cancer

Removing the entire pancreas in patients with cancer or precancerous cysts in part of the organ does not result in unmanageable diabetes — as many physicians previously believed, research at Mayo Clinic in Florida has found.

30 Aug 2012

Full-term pregnancy benefits many U.S. babies

More U.S. babies are getting the benefit of a full-term pregnancy, according to a new government report that shows that 61 percent of births now happen at 39 weeks of pregnancy or later, a five percent increase between 2006 and 2010.

30 Aug 2012

Judge rewords Mo. health insurance exchange ballot measure

A judge has reworded a ballot measure that would require that state's governor to seek legislative or voter approval before establishing a health insurance exchange over charges that the secretary of state's ballot language was misleading.

30 Aug 2012

Stowers investigators define factors that regulate size of cellular fat pools

As the national waistline expands, so do pools of intra-cellular fat known as lipid droplets. Although most of us wish our lipid droplets would vanish, they represent a cellular paradox: on the one hand droplets play beneficial roles by corralling fat into non-toxic organelles. On the other, oversized lipid droplets are associated with obesity and its associated health hazards.

30 Aug 2012

Residency cap may hamper efforts to expand number of doctors

Bloomberg examines the need for more primary care physicians and the limit on the number of slots for training doctors.

30 Aug 2012

Strong neural communication between the hemispheres predicts math performance

A new study by researchers at UT Dallas' Center for Vital Longevity, Duke University, and the University of Michigan has found that the strength of communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain predicts performance on basic arithmetic problems. The findings shed light on the neural basis of human math abilities and suggest a possible route to aiding those who suffer from dyscalculia-- an inability to understand and manipulate numbers.

30 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Clarity needed on GOP health plan; Blaming the poor

As soon as he moves into the White House, Mitt Romney promises, he will demand that Congress repeal the health care reform law that is President Barack Obama's signature achievement. Far less clear is how Romney and Republicans in Congress would replace the Affordable Care Act. That is a critical question for Florida, which has nearly 4 million uninsured residents and has failed to develop its own solution.

30 Aug 2012

UAB Center of Research Translation to improve health of patients with gout, hyperuricemia

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is establishing a Center of Research Translation to improve the health of an increasing number of patients with gout and hyperuricemia.

30 Aug 2012

Global guidance on bednet purchasing needed, analysis suggests

"According to analysis led by Kanika Bahl and Pooja Shaw of Results for Development's (R4D's) Market Dynamics team, improved global incentives and information on cost-effectiveness could save the fight against malaria up to $630 million over the next five years and encourage manufacturers to produce better-performing nets," Bahl, a managing director for R4D, and Shaw, a program officer in the Market Dynamics Practice at R4D, write in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

30 Aug 2012

Janssen receives FDA Priority Review for ZYTIGA sNDA to treat mCRPC

Janssen Research & Development, LLC, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Priority Review to the supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for ZYTIGA (abiraterone acetate) administered in combination with prednisone for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic after failure of androgen deprivation therapy.

30 Aug 2012

Georgia Governor rejects Medicaid expansion

Gov. Nathan Deal told reporters at the GOP convention that he has no intention of expanding the program because the federal government's commitment to pay the full cost for three years, and 90 percent thereafter "is probably unrealistic." An estimated 650,000 Georgians would gain health coverage under an expansion.

30 Aug 2012

New York State Department of Health issues license to Veracyte's Afirma Gene Expression Classifier

Veracyte, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company pioneering the emerging field of molecular cytology, and Genzyme, a Sanofi company, today announced that the New York State Department of Health has issued a license enabling Veracyte's Afirma Gene Expression Classifier to be offered to patients in the state.

30 Aug 2012

Medicaid cuts hit dental services; Minn. seeks waiver to save $151 million

The New York Times looks at the problems that come when the health care program for low-income people doesn't meet their dental needs. At the same time, Minnesota news outlets report on an effort by the governor to get federal authorities to approve changes in the Medicaid program there.

30 Aug 2012

MU medicinal chemists create more potent, efficient weapon against cancer

Legend has it that Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." University of Missouri researchers are doing just that, but instead of building mousetraps, the scientists are targeting cancer drugs. In a new study, MU medicinal chemists have taken an existing drug that is being developed for use in fighting certain types of cancer, added a special structure to it, and created a more potent, efficient weapon against cancer.

30 Aug 2012