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Teen drinkers spend more time on computers frequenting social networking sites

Teenagers who drink alcohol spend more time on their computers for recreational use, including social networking and downloading and listening to music, compared with their peers who don't drink.

10 May 2011

UCSF scientists receive CIRM grants to advance degenerative muscle disease research

Three UCSF scientists have received grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to advance their investigations of treatment strategies for degenerative muscle diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, and heart disease, and to determine why human embryonic stem cells are susceptible to forming tumors.

10 May 2011

Acceleron presents RAP-661 preclinical data in osteopenic mice at international meeting

Acceleron Pharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing protein therapeutics for cancer and orphan diseases, presented preclinical data highlighting the significant anabolic bone effects in normal and osteopenic mice of RAP-661.

10 May 2011

Starpharma inks licence agreement in Japan with Okamoto for VivaGel-coated condoms

Starpharma Holdings Limited today announced that it has signed a licence agreement with Okamoto Industries Inc in relation to the VivaGel(r)-coated condom for the Japanese market. Okamoto is the market leader for condoms sold in Japan, the world's second largest condom market.

10 May 2011

15% strokes occur during sleep making treatment difficult: Study

According to a new study nearly 15 percent of people who have a stroke are not eligible for clot-busting treatment because the stroke happened while they slept. These clot breaking drugs can prevent permanent disability after a stroke - but the treatment must be given within a four-and-a-half-hour window after the stroke symptoms begin say experts. Since people who have a stroke while asleep can't know when it occurred, they can't get the treatment if they slept for more than four and a half hours, explained study author Dr. Jason Mackey at the University of Cincinnati. “They can't get the drug,” he said. “That's a big issue.”

10 May 2011

Breastfeeding leads to better behaviour in kids: Study

A new study shows that just four months of breastfeeding can cut the risk of children becoming badly behaved by almost a third. It found 16 per cent of children brought up on formula milk had problems including anxiety, lying, stealing and hyperactivity – more than double the proportion breastfed for at least four months.

10 May 2011

Genetic mutation linked to Kufs disease

According to a new study, a genetic mutation thought to be responsible for the rare hereditary brain disorder Kufs disease is finally identified. The research was carried out by Dr Melanie Bahlo and her team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's bioinformatics department in Parkville, Australia, in partnership with neurologist and epilepsy specialists Professor Sam Berkovic and Dr Todor Arsov from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

10 May 2011

Painkiller warning for heart patients: Study

According to the latest study, taking some commonly prescribed painkillers for even a short while might increase the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke. The study also reports that when heart attack survivors took the drugs for as little as a week, it appeared to boost their risk of another heart attack, stroke or sudden death. The results, published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association, surprised even the researchers.

10 May 2011

Research finds 'no safe window' for painkiller use among heart attack survivors

Even short-term use of some painkillers could be dangerous for people who've had a heart attack, according to research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

10 May 2011

USPTO grants patent to Rosetta's human hsa-miR-497 for use in diagnostic tests

Rosetta Genomics today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 7,943,745, which is related to human hsa-miR-497 and its variants and covers the composition of matter.

10 May 2011

New research shows iPhone app can accurately detect stroke

New research from the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine shows that doctors can make a stroke diagnosis using an iPhone application with the same accuracy as a diagnosis at a medical computer workstation.

10 May 2011

Ecstasy use falls while synthetic versions grow in popularity

Where on one hand the use of ecstasy is falling in Australia, experts are warning that the use of dangerous designer synthetic drugs, which can be made legally, may begin to rise. Ecstasy, one of the most popular “recreational” drugs in Australia over the past two decades is becoming less popular with regular users, consistent with global trends, say the authors of a new report from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW.

10 May 2011

Abbott, Sucampo present lubiprostone phase 3 trial data in Japanese CIC at DDW 2011

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Abbott today reported data from a phase 3 clinical efficacy trial in 124 Japanese chronic idiopathic constipation patients as well as from a phase 3 long-term safety trial in an additional 209 Japanese CIC patients.

10 May 2011

Opinions: Democracy needed in epidemic outbreaks; U.S. food aid; development partnerships in Africa

After mentioning the riots that broke out in Haiti after the start of the cholera epidemic last year, Richard Evans, a professor of history and president of Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge, writes in a Guardian opinion piece that "popular disturbances during epidemics are nothing new." He goes on to provide several other examples.

10 May 2011

Health Net achieves reaccreditation from URAC

Health Net Federal Services, LLC, part of the Government Contracts segment of Health Net, Inc., announced today it has been awarded full Health Network Reaccreditation, effective July 1, 2011 - July 1, 2014, from URAC, a Washington, DC-based health care accrediting organization that establishes quality standards for the health care industry.

10 May 2011

WCP joins with veteran healthcare executives to acquire Revenue Cycle Solutions

Waud Capital Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm, today announced that it has joined with veteran healthcare executives Mike Jacoutot and Mary Ann McLaughlin to acquire Revenue Cycle Solutions, Inc.

10 May 2011

Teen alcohol consumption associated with computer use

Teenagers who drink alcohol spend more time on their computers for recreational use, including social networking and downloading and listening to music, compared with their peers who don't drink.

9 May 2011

When Government usurps responsibility, people are more likely to abdicate

We hear much talk about preventive care, but nobody has defined it. From the content of the discussions, I deduce that what the health bureaucrats actually refer to would be better characterized as “early detection.” Early detection is what occurs when a physician finds a disease in its early stages that might have been prevented by earlier measures. But who can take those measures? Not the physician, only the patient. There is only one person living the patient’s life; it is the patient. I cannot live his life for him.

9 May 2011

Scientists reveal nerve cells' navigation system

Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered how two closely related proteins guide projections from nerve cells with exquisite accuracy, alternately attracting and repelling these axons as they navigate the most miniscule and frenetic niches of the nervous system to make remarkably precise connections.

9 May 2011

Uganda: First vaccination for GMZ2 malaria vaccine trial

Today, the EDCTP-funded GMZ2 consortium starts volunteer enrolment for the phase IIb clinical trial of the candidate malaria vaccine GMZ2 in Uganda. This is the third trial site to initiate volunteer recruitment for this multi-country study. Vaccination is already underway at trial sites in Gabon (November 2010) and Burkina Faso (April 2011). The Uganda site is in the peri-urban area of Iganga/Mayuge, at the Iganga Hospital. Akin to most areas in Uganda, malaria is one of the major health problems in this district. A team from Makerere University (Kampala) is conducting the trial.

9 May 2011