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Dust storms in Africa affect air quality in US and the Caribbean

You might find it hard to believe that dust clouds from the African Sahara can travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, but it does every year and in large quantities. In a recent study, Joseph Prospero, professor emeritus at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and collaborators at the University of Houston and Arizona State University found that the average air concentrations of inhalable particles more than doubled during a major Saharan dust intrusion in Houston, Texas.

19 Sep 2013

Patient participation in high-risk research could benefit novel drug trials

Individuals have a right to participate in risky research trials, which might harm their health or even kill them, and institutional review boards (known as research ethics committees in the UK) – which are responsible for deciding whether a particular research trial can take place in a given institution – are potentially impeding the progress of research by rejecting such studies on ethical grounds, according to a Viewpoint published in The Lancet today [Wednesday 18 September].

19 Sep 2013

New blood test accurately differentiates viral and bacterial infections

A blood test developed by researchers at Duke Medicine showed more than 90-percent accuracy in distinguishing between viral and bacterial infections when tested in people with respiratory illnesses.

19 Sep 2013

Labor Department mandates overtime pay, minimum wage for home health workers

The Obama administration approved new rules that beginning Jan. 1, 2015, extend minimum wage and overtime payment to nearly 2 million home healthcare workers. Many in the mostly female and minority workforce are paid more than federal minimum wage, now $7.25 an hour, but don't get time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours a week.

19 Sep 2013

Wide variation among states in access to care, coverage for poor

There is wide variation in access to health care for the poor among the states, with the higher-performing states making it more likely that their poorer residents have health coverage and get preventive care, a new study finds.

19 Sep 2013

Comprehensive changes in lifestyle could reverse ageing

A pilot study, published in The Lancet Oncology, shows that comprehensive lifestyle changes may increase the length of telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that control cell ageing.

19 Sep 2013

New information about how estrogens regulate memory formation

The loss of estrogens at menopause increases a woman's risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, yet hormone replacement therapy can cause harmful side effects.

19 Sep 2013

NW ENT adopts Restech Dx-pH Measurement System to detect acid reflux in upper airway

The Restech Corporation announced that Northwest ENT & Allergy Center, Atlanta, GA, has adopted the Restech Dx-pH Measurement System to detect acid reflux in the airway.

19 Sep 2013

University of Nebraska-Lincoln to offer Transdisciplinary Childhood Obesity Prevention graduate program

One-third of all children and adolescents in the United States are overweight or obese. In South Dakota, 32.5 percent of children ages 5 to 19 are overweight or obese. Among Native American children in the state, that number is 48.1 percent.

19 Sep 2013

First clinical trials to diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s disease

More than a century ago, Alois Alzheimer, a Bavarian physician, first identified the neurodegenerative brain condition that came to be known as Alzheimer's disease. Finding ways to diagnose and treat this disease has frustrated scientists and clinicians ever since.

19 Sep 2013

OGT to share expertise in NGS assay design through live webinar presentation

Oxford Gene Technology, provider of innovative genetics research and biomarker solutions to advance molecular medicine, will share its expertise in NGS assay design by hosting a live webinar entitled ‘Enhanced bait design strategies that deliver more reliable NGS panel assays’ on 3rd October 2013, at 3:00pm (BST).

From Oxford Gene Technology 19 Sep 2013

Study sheds new light on the dark matter of genome

Using technology he helped develop, Vanderbilt University scientist Bryan Venters, Ph.D., has shed new light on the "dark matter" of the genome and has begun to explore a possible new approach to treating cancer.

19 Sep 2013

Putting the health law puzzle pieces together, and making sense of it

News organizations help make sense of all the different moving parts of the health law -- attitudes, concerns, lawsuits and business decisions -- as the nation gears up for Oct. 1's launch of the health insurance exchanges.

19 Sep 2013

Inhaled corticosteroid increases risk for pneumonia reoccurrence

A University of Alberta researcher says health professionals should be cautious about prescribing inhaled corticosteroids to high-risk patients such as pneumonia survivors, citing a twofold risk for repeat infection.

19 Sep 2013

K2M enters French spinal device market with MESA Deformity Spinal System

K2M, Inc., the largest privately held spinal device company in the world focused on developing innovative solutions for the treatment of complex spinal pathologies and minimally invasive procedures, today announced at the Scoliosis Research Society’s 48th Annual Conference in Lyon, France, that it has entered the spinal device market in France.

19 Sep 2013

Researchers identify likely molecular pathway that causes untreatable neurodegenerative diseases

University of Adelaide researchers have identified a likely molecular pathway that causes a group of untreatable neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease.

19 Sep 2013

New evidence suggests that taking vitamin B supplements may help reduce risk of stroke

New evidence suggests that taking vitamin B supplements may help reduce the risk of stroke. The research appears in the September 18, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

19 Sep 2013

New gonorrhea treatment eliminates gonococcal infection from female mice

A new gonorrhea treatment, based on an anti-cancer therapy developed by a Buffalo startup company, has successfully eliminated gonococcal infection from female mice and prevented reinfection, according to research published today by University at Buffalo scientists in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

19 Sep 2013

SHBG protein indicates risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome years in advance

Over the last decade researchers have amassed increasing evidence that relatively low levels of a protein called sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) can indicate an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome years in advance.

19 Sep 2013

Mayo Clinic receives grant from NIH to support medical research on metabolomics

Mayo Clinic is one of six new federally-funded Comprehensive Metabolomics (met-ah-bol-OH-mics) Centers to support medical research on metabolomics -- the study, at the cellular level, of how molecules are metabolized in the body.

19 Sep 2013