Indian School Principal Who Didn’t Remit Students’ Examination Fees Hangs Himself

A young school principal in Bangalore, capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, hanged himself Friday, apparently overpowered by guilt.


Vivek Vardhan, 29, had failed to remit examination fees collected from students to the government, thus preventing them from sitting for their examinations.

When repeated knocks on his doors by the maid went unanswered, friends and staff broke in, only to find Vivek hanging from a ceiling fan. They rushed him to a nearby hospital, but he was declared brought dead.

A suicide note blaming himself for the sorry turn of events was found in the house.

He had become a father only five months ago, but was at the time alone, as his wife was away, living with her mother.

Last fortnight anxious parents of 18 of his students had sought his help as their wards had not received their hall tickets, only on production of which one can take one’s examinations.

Vivek promised them not to worry. They would get them anyway.

Days passed, still the hall tickets were not materializing. Only then the parents learned that even the students' examination application forms had not been forwarded to the relevant authorities. And of course the fees they had paid had not been remitted.

Even as they were agonizing what to do next, Vivek had ended his life, reports Times of India.

"We are all devastated. We don’t know what happened and why he didn't pay the fees. My daughter is inconsolable, not because of the uncertainty over the examinations, but due to the principal's death. He was a good teacher," said Anand, a parent.

On coming to know of Vivek’s suicide, the Karnataka State Secondary Education Board has decided to allow the defaulting students too to take their examinations, which start on March 31.

Source-Medindia
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11-year-old Girl Dies of Diabetes in US as Parents Opt to Pray and Not Take Her to Doctor

Blind faith has claimed the life of a 11-year-old girl in the state of Wisconsin in the US. Her parents chose to pray instead of taking her to hospital.


Madeline Neumann died Sunday of a treatable form of diabetes, known as diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that leaves too little insulin in the body.

The poor girl had probably been sick for about a month, with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness, Everest Metro police Chief Dan Vergin said.

The girl’s mother, Leilani Neumann, said she and her family believed in the Bible and healing came from God alone.

But then they did not belong to an organized religion or faith nor were they fanatical about religion, she maintained. Certainly they had nothing against doctors.

She insisted her youngest child, a wiry girl known to wear her straight brown hair in a ponytail, was in good health until recently.

"We just noticed a tiredness within the past two weeks," she said Wednesday.

"And then just the day before and that day [she died], it suddenly just went to a more serious situation. We stayed fast in prayer then."

"We believed that she would recover. We saw signs that to us, it looked like she was recovering."

Her daughter — who hadn’t seen a doctor since she had some shots as a three-year-old — had no fever and there was warmth in her body, she said.
The girl’s father, Dale Neumann, a former police officer, said he started CPR "as soon as the breath of life left" his daughter’s body.


Family members elsewhere called authorities to seek help for the girl.

"My sister-in-law, she’s very religious, she believes in faith instead of doctors," the girl’s aunt told a sheriff’s dispatcher Sunday afternoon in a call from California.

"And she called my mother-in-law today … and she explained to us that she believes her daughter’s in a coma now and she’s relying on faith."

The dispatcher took more information from the caller and asked whether an ambulance should be sent.

"Please," the woman replied. "I mean, she’s refusing. She’s going to fight it…. We’ve been trying to get her to take her to the hospital for a week, a few days now."

The aunt called back with more information on the family’s location, emergency logs show. Family friends also made a 911 call from the home. Police and paramedics arrived within minutes and immediately called for an ambulance that took the girl to a hospital.

But less than an hour after authorities reached the home, Madeline — a bright student who left public school for home schooling this semester — was declared dead, news agency AP reports.

She is survived by her parents and three older siblings.

"We are remaining strong for our children," Leilani Neumann said. "Only our faith in God is giving us strength at this time.

The Neumanns said they moved from California to a modern, middle-class home in woodsy Weston, just outside Wassau in central Wisconsin, about two years ago to open a coffee shop and be closer to other relatives.

Leilani Neumann said she and her husband are not worried about the investigation because "our lives are in God’s hands."

"We know we did not do anything criminal. We know we did the best for our daughter we knew how to do."

Source-Medindia
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Gene Mutation may Be Underlying Cause of Schizophrenia

Researchers at the University of Washington and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories have found a link between genetic errors and schizophrenia.


Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder in which people suffer from hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking, and are at risk for unusual or bizarre behaviours.

Researchers found that deletions and duplications of DNA are more common in Schizophrenics, and that many of those errors occur in genes related to brain development and neurological function.

As a part of the study, boffins led by Tom Walsh, Jon McClellan, and Mary-Claire King at the UW, and Shane McCarthy and Jonathan Sebat at Cold Spring Harbor, compared DNA from 150 people with schizophrenia and 268 healthy individuals.

They found rare deletions and duplications of genes present in 15 percent of those with schizophrenia, versus only 5 percent in the healthy controls.

The rate was even higher in patients whose schizophrenia first presented at a younger age, with 20 percent of those patients having a rare mutation.

Based on this, the researchers theorized that rare mutations found only in schizophrenic patients would be more likely to disrupt genes related to brain functioning and thus may cause schizophrenia.

The findings of a second research team led by Anjene Addington and Judith Rapoport at the National Institutes of Mental Health, further supported this theory by discovering a higher rate of rare duplications or deletions in patients whose schizophrenia began before age 12 years, a very rare and severe form of the disorder.
In individuals with schizophrenia, mutations were more likely to disrupt signalling genes that help organize brain development. Each mutation was different, and impacted different genes. However, several of the disrupted genes function in related neurobiological pathways.


The findings suggest that schizophrenia is caused by many different mutations in many different genes, with each mutation leading to a disruption in key pathways important to a developing brain.

Thus, for most cases of schizophrenia, the genetic causes may be different.

This observation, the researchers state, has important implications for schizophrenia research.

The findings appear in the March 27 online edition of the journal Science.

Source-ANI
VEN/M

Gene Mutation may Be Underlying Cause of Schizophrenia

Researchers at the University of Washington and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories have found a link between genetic errors and schizophrenia.


Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder in which people suffer from hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking, and are at risk for unusual or bizarre behaviours.

Researchers found that deletions and duplications of DNA are more common in Schizophrenics, and that many of those errors occur in genes related to brain development and neurological function.

As a part of the study, boffins led by Tom Walsh, Jon McClellan, and Mary-Claire King at the UW, and Shane McCarthy and Jonathan Sebat at Cold Spring Harbor, compared DNA from 150 people with schizophrenia and 268 healthy individuals.

They found rare deletions and duplications of genes present in 15 percent of those with schizophrenia, versus only 5 percent in the healthy controls.

The rate was even higher in patients whose schizophrenia first presented at a younger age, with 20 percent of those patients having a rare mutation.

Based on this, the researchers theorized that rare mutations found only in schizophrenic patients would be more likely to disrupt genes related to brain functioning and thus may cause schizophrenia.

The findings of a second research team led by Anjene Addington and Judith Rapoport at the National Institutes of Mental Health, further supported this theory by discovering a higher rate of rare duplications or deletions in patients whose schizophrenia began before age 12 years, a very rare and severe form of the disorder.
In individuals with schizophrenia, mutations were more likely to disrupt signalling genes that help organize brain development. Each mutation was different, and impacted different genes. However, several of the disrupted genes function in related neurobiological pathways.


The findings suggest that schizophrenia is caused by many different mutations in many different genes, with each mutation leading to a disruption in key pathways important to a developing brain.

Thus, for most cases of schizophrenia, the genetic causes may be different.

This observation, the researchers state, has important implications for schizophrenia research.

The findings appear in the March 27 online edition of the journal Science.

Source-ANI
VEN/M

Scientists Reveal How Dengue Virus Matures, Becomes Infectious

Biologists at Purdue University have found how the dengue virus matures and becomes infectious.


Dengue is prevalent in Southeast Asia, Central America and South America. The virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, infects more than 50 million people annually, killing about 24,000 each year, primarily in tropical regions.

The researchers found that critical changes take place as the virus is assembled and moves from the inner to the outer portions of its host cell before being secreted so that it can infect other cells.

They noted that virus particles are exposed to progressively less acidic conditions as they traverse this "secretory pathway," and this changing acidity plays a vital role in its maturation.

The study was led by Michael Rossmann, the Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, Jue Chen, an associate professor of biological sciences, and I-Mei Yu, a postdoctoral research associate working with Chen; and Long Li, a doctoral student working with Rossmann.

The dengue virus moves through compartments inside the cell called the endoplasmic reticulum and the trans-Golgi network.

While immature, virus particles are incapable of fusing with cell membranes, preventing them from infecting their own host cells and ensuring their maturation. Once mature, however, it is able to fuse to cell membranes, a trait that enables virus particles to infect new host cells.

As a virus particle matures along the pathway through the host cell, it changes the protein structure, or "conformation," in its outer shell.
Researchers mimicked the trans-Golgi network environment in test tubes, enabling them to study the virus's changing structure with increasing acidity.


They noted that the surface of each virus particle contains 180 copies of a component made of two linked proteins called precursor membrane protein and envelope protein.

The precursor membrane protein prevents the immature virus from fusing with membranes by covering an attachment site in the envelope protein.

During maturation, an enzyme called furin snips the connection between the two proteins, eventually exposing the envelope protein site and enabling the virus to fuse with membranes.

Yu learned, however, that the precursor membrane protein remains in place until the virus is ready to exit the original host cell. The researchers used a technique called cryoelectron microscopy to gain a more detailed view of the virus.

"So, the precursor membrane protein is retained on the virus surface even after the enzyme detaches the two proteins. This is a critical step because the virus is ready to mature but still is incapable of fusing with membranes until after it exits its own cell," Chen said.

The researchers also determined that the environment must be acidic before the enzyme will snip the two proteins, and they examined the structure to learn specifically why the increased acidity is needed.

Li used fruit fly cells to produce large quantities of the linked proteins so that researchers could study them with a method called X-ray crystallography. Using crystallography, the researchers were able to visualize and study the combined structure of the precursor membrane and envelope proteins.

To produce the complex of the two proteins, Li first had to replace the insoluble "transmembrane region" of the protein with a soluble segment, a step essential for using the fruit fly cells to manufacture the proteins. He also had to mutate the protein to remove sites where furin normally attaches, preventing the proteins from being snipped apart.

The precursor membrane protein is about as wide as 50 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, and the envelope protein is about 3 nanometers, or nearly atomic-scale. A nanometer is about the size of 10 hydrogen atoms strung together.

The research has been funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health. Rossmann's and Chen's research laboratories are affiliated with Purdue's Markey Center for Structural Biology.

The study and its findings are published in two back-to-back research papers appearing Friday (March 28) in the journal Science.

Source-ANI
VEN/M

Restoring Rainforests is a Realistic Possibility

A new research has determined that it may be possible to restore a tropical rainforest ecosystem.


Carried out by researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute in US, the research involved planting a sampling of local trees, native species in worn-out cattle fields in Costa Rica.

The results revealed that the newly planted native species began to move in and flourish; raising the hope that destroyed rainforests can one day be replaced.

This research was part of the Tropical Forestry Initiative, which began in 1992 in Costa Rica by Carl Leopold and his partners, who planted trees on worn-out pasture land.

The group chose local rainforest trees, collecting seeds from native trees in the community. They planted mixtures of local species, trimming away the pasture grasses until the trees could take care of themselves.

This was the opposite of what commercial companies have done for decades, planting entire fields of a single type of tree to harvest for wood or paper pulp.

The trees the group planted were fast-growing, sun-loving species. After just five years, those first trees formed a canopy of leaves, shading out the grasses underneath.

"One of the really amazing things is that our fast-growing tree species are averaging two meters of growth per year," said Leopold.

As to how could soil so long removed from a fertile rainforest support that much growth, Leopold said that may be because of mycorrhizae, microscopic fungi that form a symbiosis with tree roots.
Research at Cornell and BTI shows that without them, many plants can't grow as well. After 50 years, the fungi seem to still be alive in the soil, able to help new trees grow.


These results mean that mixed-species plantings can help to jump-start a rainforest.

According to the research, local farmers who use the same approach will control erosion of their land, while creating a forest that can be harvested sustainably, a few trees at a time.

"By restoring forests we're helping to control erosion, restore quality forests that belong there, and help the quality of life of the local people," said Leopold.

Source-ANI
LIN/M

Pammy Still 'traumatised' by Leech Attack

Leeches might have proven to be the beauty secret for Demi Moore, but they were certainly traumatising for Pamela Anderson, who was attacked by the blood-sucking organisms while swimming in a lake as a child.


Showing of her scars, the Baywatch hottie spoke up after Demi Moore revealed on The David Letterman Show that her latest beauty secret is letting leeches feast on her blood to detoxify her.

The busty bombshell was being interviewed on 'The Craig Ferguson Show' and made public her scars, which are on the same arm as her infamous barbed wire tattoo.

The blonde actress cum model was swimming near her childhood home in British Columbia, Canada when she was bitten.

"I was attacked by leeches - look at my arm. It's been there since I was nine - its very traumatic. A bunch of them jumped on me in a lake while I was swimming under the water," The Sun quoted her, as telling.

Meanwhile, Pammy finally divorced Rick Salomon this month.

Source-ANI
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S.Africa Launches TB Tracer Teams

South Africa on Friday launched a four million dollar programme to track down tuberculosis patients who have defaulted treatment, leading to resistant strains of the illness.


Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, speaking in the Northern Cape on TB Day, said all nine provinces had established TB tracer teams of nurses and community health workers to follow up on patients who had defaulted treatment. "These teams visit homes to find patients so that they can put them back on treatment. To further strengthen this programme, the national department has deployed an additional 72 teams in sub-districts which have poor TB outcomes," she said.

Tshabalala-Msimang said the 33 million rand (four million dollars / 2.5 million euros) programme hoped to improve treatment outcomes and prevent the development of drug resistant TB.

South Africa is desperately trying to curb its heavy caseload of TB. With more than 340,000 South Africans infected, patients defaulting from treatment have developed multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extreme drug resistant (XDR) TB.

Resistance to TB drugs can develop when patients fail to take their medication as prescribed, and in a minority of cases through direct transmission from person to person.

MDR-TB fails to react to the two most powerful anti-TB drugs, while XDR-TB is resistant to these and at least two others.

Nearly 400 cases of XDR-TB were diagnosed in 2007.

Tshabalala-Msimang said 400 million rand devoted by government to fighting TB was being used to improve the conditions of hospital isolation of patients.
The government decided to isolate people who have a history of defaulting treatment. Patients have broken out of hospital in frustration at the lengthy time medical care takes.


"It is in the interest of the public as well as these patients that XDR and MDR patients remain in hospital until they are discharged," the minister said.

She said TB plans had already brought defaulter rates to 8.8 percent in the first half of 2006 down from 9.7 percent in 2005, while the national cure rate went from 68.3 percent to 73.6 percent in the same period.

Source-AFP
SPH/L

Britney Undergoing Colon Cleansing Sessions to Detox

Britney Spears' is reportedly undergoing regular colon cleansing sessions in a bid to improve her messy lifestyle.


According to sources, the singer is having lingering traces of Frappucino and Cheeto flushed out of her system at a Beverly Hills clinic as part of a new health kick.

"Cleansing a few times a week gets rid of lingering stuff in the colon," the Mirror quoted a source at the clinic, as saying.

The 'Toxic' singer has had the same treatment in the past and is quite content with the results.

"Britney's had the treatment before and says it makes her feel great, more upbeat and energetic," said the source.

Source-ANI
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'Braille Mitra' Simplifies Reading for Visually Impaired

A device called `Braille Mitra' brought out for the first time in India at Pune has made reading books a lot easier for the visually impaired.


Modular InfoTech has come up with `Braille Mitra' of two sizes, one, weighing I kg while the other weighs 70 gm.

"This device named `Braille Mitra' will help the blind students, who know Braille, to read easily. A pen drive with a 1 GB memory can be fitted in this device. The content of around 1000 textbooks can be saved in the pen drive and the blind students can read the books line by line," said BR Deshpande, Director, Modular Infotech.

Visually impaired students who face difficulties in reading and carrying conventional bulky, Braille books can now heave a sigh of relief.

"This device is our friend because when we read a book it becomes our friend. When we read an autobiography or any other book, we get engrossed in the book," said Vinita, a visually challenged student.

Books in different languages can be read with the help of this device.

The price of this machine ranges from 40 thousand rupees to 60 thousand rupees.

Source-ANI
LIN/M

Key Loopholes in Breast Cancer Treatment Identified

In a comprehensive review of breast cancer research, Britain’s most influential breast cancer experts have identified the key loopholes in breast cancer treatment, warning that thousands of women die from the disease each year because current treatments are not always effective and in some cases fail to stop the disease.


The report by Breast Cancer Campaign, a UK based charity, has identified the key research gaps and priorities for the greatest potential impact on patients.

The report gas highlighted that though breast cancer treatment has improved over the past few decades and led to increased survival rates and better quality of life, over 44,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

Unfortunately, not enough is known about why treatments don’t work for some patients or why breast cancer can return, sometimes many years later, says Breast Cancer Campaign.

The researchers say that the new study, one of the largest ever carried out in the UK, is a unique insight into the current state of breast cancer research and its future challenges.

Gaps in key areas of breast cancer research such as prevention, detection, spread or recurrence of the disease, treatment, pathology, physiology, genetics and psychosocial aspects of the disease, have been identified in the report.

Breast Cancer Campaign has also put forth some recommendations for future research priorities. These are - identify new ways to predict and prevent breast cancer; predict who will develop advanced or secondary disease; determine how and why breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body; devise a suitable method to determine the effectiveness of a treatment at an early stage; understand more about the psychosocial and psychological impacts of breast cancer.
Pamela Goldberg, Chief Executive Breast Cancer Campaign said, “Breast cancer research has made considerable progress over the past two decades and vital work is still underway. But there are still significant knowledge gaps.”


“Greater attention must be paid to all stages of breast cancer. The experiences of older women and those from minority ethnic groups must be considered, particularly in light of recent research showing breast cancer develops earlier in black women and their survival rates are poorer,” she added.

The study is published by the open access journal Breast Cancer Research.

Source-ANI
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Supermodel Kate Moss Goes on 'Sex Diet'!

English supermodel Kate Moss has adopted a spanking new diet, involving lots and lots of sex.


The reason behind Kate’s high libido is her desire to have another baby.

Sources reveal that Moss, who already has five-year-old daughter Lila Grace from Jefferson Hack, wants to start a family with Hince as soon as possible.

"Kate's really hanging out for another baby and knows that at 34, the biological clock is ticking,” News of the World quoted a source as saying.

"She also wants to look radiant for the wedding—it's done a load for her sex drive because Jamie's been smiling lots recently," the source added.



Source-ANI
SRM/C

Stem Cells from Hair Follicles may Help Engineer New Blood Vessels

Scientists at the University of Buffalo have suggested that stem cells derived from hair follicles have the potential to be formed into new blood vessels.


The study, led by Stelios T. Andreadis, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, points out that stem cells from hair follicles can be used to engineer new blood vessels and regenerate new skin tissue.

"Engineering blood vessels for bypass surgery, promoting the formation of new blood vessels or regenerating new skin tissue using stem cells obtained from the most accessible source -- hair follicles -- is a real possibility," said Andreadis, associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Previous studies have shown that hair follicles contain stem cells.

During the study, UB researchers showed that stem cells isolated from sheep hair follicles contain the smooth muscle cells that grow new vasculature.

The group recently produced data showing that stem cells from human hair follicles also differentiate into contractile smooth muscle cells.

"We have demonstrated that engineered blood vessels prepared with smooth muscle progenitor cells from hair follicles are capable of dilating and constricting, critical properties that make them ideal for engineering cardiovascular tissue regeneration," said Andreadis.

Moreover, this new, accessible source of cells may make possible future treatments that allow for the regeneration of these damaged organs.

Source-ANI
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Three Children Succumb to Measles in Northern Nigeria

Measles has killed three children in northern Nigeria, a news agency reported Saturday, a day after health officials said the disease had caused the deaths of 165 in the region.Three out of some 105 children infected in Wamakko local government area of Sokoto state had died in one week, and 30 villages had been hit by the disease, the News Agency of Nigeria said.

On Friday, health officials in the northern state of Katsina said 165 children out of more than 3,000 infected had died in the past three months.

"The fatalities are unprecedented and the high rate of infection can be attributed to low immunization as 90 percent of the infected children have not been immunized against measles," Halliru Idris, director of disease control in the state’s health ministry, told AFP by phone from Katsina.

He blamed parents for failing to take their children to hospital for routine immunization.

A similar outbreak has affected another northern state, Kano, in the past months.

Health officials in northern Nigeria note that parental attitudes towards infant vaccinations in general appeared to change after a 2003-2004 campaign conducted by a handful of radical Muslim clerics who claimed that immunization was a western ploy to render Muslim girls infertile.

That theory has been debunked but parents still tend to see immunization as something their children can do without.

Measles is an air-borne viral infection among children. The symptoms include fever, sores, rashes, coughing and convulsions.

If not treated in time, it can lead to nervous disorders, conditions such as deafness and paralysis, and death.

Source-AFP
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Hackers Seek to Inflict Physical Harm on Epileptic Patients

Computer hackers have sought to bombard an epilepsy support message board and trigger headaches and even seizures in visitors.


The hackers used JavaScript code and flashing computer animation as their weapons against helpless epileptic patients, it has been reported.

The nonprofit Epilepsy Foundation, which runs the support message board, briefly closed the site Sunday to purge the offending messages and to boost security.

’We are seeing people affected,’ says Ken Lowenberg, senior director of web and print publishing at the Epilepsy Foundation. ’It’s fortunately only a handful. It’s possible that people are just not reporting yet -- people affected by it may not be coming back to the forum so fast.’

The incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on the victims, began Saturday, March 22, when attackers used a script to post hundreds of messages embedded with flashing animated graphics, says the online magazine Wired.

The attackers turned to a more effective tactic on Sunday, injecting JavaScript into some posts that redirected users’ browsers to a page with a more complex image designed to trigger seizures in both photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics.

RyAnne Fultz, a 33-year-old woman who suffers from pattern-sensitive epilepsy, says she clicked on a forum post with a legitimate-sounding title on Sunday. Her browser window resized to fill her screen, which was then taken over by a pattern of squares rapidly flashing in different colors.
Fultz says she ’locked up.’


’I don’t fall over and convulse, but it hurts,’ says Fultz, an IT worker in Coeur d’Alene, Ohio. ’I was on the phone when it happened, and I couldn’t move and couldn’t speak.’

After about 10 seconds, Fultz’s 11-year-old son came over and drew her gaze away from the computer, then killed the browser process, she says.

’Everyone who logged on, it affected to some extent, whether by causing headaches or seizures,’ says Browen Mead, a 24-year-old epilepsy patient in Maine who says she suffered a daylong migraine after examining several of the offending posts. She’d lingered too long on the pages trying to determine who was responsible.

Circumstantial evidence suggests the attack was the work of members of Anonymous, an informal collective of griefers, says the Wired magazine.

Griefers are the Internet equivalent of playground bullies, who find fun in pushing others around.

Fultz says the attack spawned an uncommonly bad seizure. ’It was a spike of pain in my head,’ she says. ’And the lockup, that only happens with really bad ones. I don’t think I’ve had a seizure like that in about a year.’

But she’s satisfied with the Epilepsy Foundation’s relatively fast response to the attack, about 12 hours after it began on Easter weekend. ’We all really appreciate them for giving us this forum and giving us this place to find each other,’ she says.

Epilepsy affects an estimated 50 million people worldwide, about 3 percent of whom are photosensitive, meaning flashing lights and colors can trigger seizures.

Source-Medindia
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Da Vinci, the Robot, Proves a Hit in Toronto Hospital

Da Vinci, a $4.5 million robotic system, is proving a sensation in Toronto, Canada.


It is the first advanced surgical system of its kind in the Greater Toronto Area, points out Dr. Ken Pace of the St. Michael’s Hospital.

It performs minimally invasive surgery more quickly and safely. Besides doctors hope patients who get robot-assisted surgery will recover faster and have less post-operative pain and chance of infection.

"Everybody recognizes this is the present, or the future, of surgery," urologist Pace says.

"There is no question we can do better surgery with this than we can with the traditional laparoscopic approaches and even open surgery. It’s going to push us to the next level, allow us to do better surgery for our patients, and have a better outcome."

Urologists are the first to use the robot, primarily for prostate cancer surgeries but also for kidney blockages. The robot will also be called on by gynecologists doing hysterectomies, as well as general surgeons. Cardiac specialists intend to use the robot to replace some types of heart valves, writes Megan Ogilvie in Toronto Star.

The robot was designed to push the boundaries of laparoscopic surgery, in which a surgeon operates on a patient using long instruments inserted through "keyhole" incisions in the skin.

The robot’s main advantage is that its arms act like a surgeon’s hand, beyond the scope of a simple tool, says Pace, holding out a traditional laparoscopic instrument to make his point.
"These are long sticks that kind of just open and close," he says, making the pincers on the end of the instrument snap shut. "They can’t bend, they can’t twist, so they can’t do this" – Pace swivels his wrist in rapid circles – "like the hand can."


The robot’s full range of motion helps surgeons manoeuvre the curved suture needles at tricky angles and gives them more precision during delicate procedures. The robotic instruments are electromechanically enhanced and have what are called "endo-wrists" attached to curved pincers that are roughly one centimetre in size.

Pace says they can do everything a human hand can, surgically speaking.

"It’s almost like you shrunk yourself, dropped inside the patient and are doing the surgery from the inside."

Technically, the da Vinci, a creation of California-based Intuitive Surgical, Inc., is more a remote-control system than a robot, says Pace. The surgeon sits at a console, away from the operating table, and manipulates the four robotic arms using joystick controls. The system replicates the surgeon’s movements in real time.

"It’s completely under the surgeon’s control, does nothing on its own," says Pace.

Three of the robotic arms do surgery while the fourth acts as camera operator and light source. The camera projects a view of the surgical site – in high-definition – onto flat-screen TVs arrayed in the OR to guide the surgeon at the console.

Pace says the magnified 3-D vision gives him a better view of fine-detailed surgery than if he was at the patient’s side, especially since the robot filters out tremors and translates a surgeon’s real-time movements into a smaller scale.

London Health Sciences Centre at University of Western Ontario was the first Canadian purchaser of a da Vinci system, in 2003. There are now eight up and running in this country, including two in London.

Dr. Christopher Schlachta, medical director of St. Mike’s CSTAR robotics program, says prostrate patients, in particular, prefer to have robot-assisted surgery, owing to preliminary evidence that its precision better preserves urine control and erectile function, two potential side effects.

The St. Mike’s robot was put into use for the second time yesterday when Pace and his team performed prostate cancer surgery on a 70-year-old. The first operation, also to remove a cancerous prostate, was done March 20.
As Pace sat working the console controls as head surgeon, the robot’s four arms slowly twisted and turned inside the patient’s inflated abdomen. For four hours, Pace patiently worked the pincers to nip at fat and muscle and get at the walnut-sized prostate.

John Honey, head of urology at St. Mike’s, is sold on the system.
"It makes the operation half as long, with a quicker recovery time – it gets patients home quicker and back to work," he says.

"It’s so easy to use. You could sit (at the controls) and I could give you a suture and you could tie a knot, the first time ...
"If you can tie your laces, you can use this machine."



Source-Medindia
GPL/S

Sexual Dissatisfaction Not Linked to Cardiovascular Risk in Postmenopausal Women

A new study from Boston University has revealed that decreased sexual satisfaction among postmenopausal women may not be linked to cardiovascular disease.


Female sexual dysfunction is a common condition and has been linked to a higher burden of medical illnesses that can cause cardiovascular disease.

The researchers analysed the data of sexually active postmenopausal women between 50 to 79 years, from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and followed up for 8-12 years.

The participants were then categorized into sexually satisfied or dissatisfied and cardiovascular disease was the baseline for the analysis.

During the study, cardiovascular disease was defined as a self-reported history of acute myocardial infarction, stroke, or coronary revascularization procedure. They also examined congestive heart failure, peripheral arterial disease and angina.

The team found that there was a modest link between being dissatisfied with sexual activity and having peripheral arterial disease, and angina was decreased among those dissatisfied with sexual activity.

However, there was no association between sexual dissatisfaction and the presence of any other form of cardiovascular disease including heart attack or stroke.

"Our study of sexually active postmenopausal women found dissatisfaction with sexual activity was not predictive of incident cardiovascular disease which may be due to physiological differences in sexual functioning between men and women, or to difficulty measuring sexual dysfunction in women," said Dr Jennifer McCall-Hosenfeld, lead author, a fellow in the Department of General Internal Medicine at BMC and Women's Health at BUSM.

The study appears in the April 2008 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

Source-ANI
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Early Marriage may Be a Productive Option for Some Young Adults

While people argue about the ideal marriageable age for youngsters, a new study has suggested that getting married or living together and having children is beneficial for some young adults.


The study, led by Alan Booth, distinguished professor of sociology, human development and demography, conflicts people’s tendency to encourage youngsters to complete their education and postpone marriage and children to achieve more rewarding lifestyles.

"In industrial countries, young people age 18 to 25 are expected to explore their identity, work and love by delaying marriage and parenthood. It is believed that those individuals who fail to postpone these family transitions miss out on better career opportunities, make poor choices on partners, and may experience problems,” said Booth.

“However, our research has shown that early family choices may be a productive option for many young adults, especially those who are disadvantaged with respect to family income, parental education and structure, mother-child relationship, verbal ability, school attachment and delinquent behaviour," he added.

For the study, the researchers examined the family and personal characteristics of more than 8,000 young adults who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health).

They observed that over a five-year period half of the sample made an early family transition and half did not. Later they compared the depressive symptoms of those who made a transition with those who did not, and found very few differences in depressive symptoms between the two groups.
"The only exception was women who experienced a breakup of their live-in relationship. They were more likely to see an increase in depression compared to women who did not break up with the live-in partner or did not make a transition," noted Booth.


However, just 14 percent of those who made a transition belonged to this category. The researchers selected depressive symptoms as a measure of wellbeing because they are linked to many types of adversity such as poor physical health, unemployment and harsh family relationships, and apply to males and females and people of all ages.

"The findings are even more remarkable when we take into account that young adults who transitioned into early families were more likely to come from low-income families, had parents with lower levels of education and likely lived in a household with one or no biological parents," said Booth.

In families with low-income, teens may experience a disruptive home environment and parents with poor parenting skills. The study stated that if they leave to live together, marry or have children, it might provide an opportunity to escape from an unloving home and create a more positive family.

Booth added that the difference between men and women on early family transitions and protective family factors requires more study.

"Most research on emerging adulthood has been on college students. Our study highlights the importance of study early family transitions in context, in light of the range of opportunities open to a person. Post-high school experiences of young adults are more diverse than popular belief, and early co-habitation or marriage and parenting may be productive for many young people, at least over the short haul,” he said.

The team's findings were published in a recent (February) issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Source-ANI
SRM/S

Pussycat Dolls' Penalized for Being too Sexy

American pop and R&B quintet girls group the ‘Pussycat Dolls’ has been fined 3400 dollars for displaying much more than their singing talent during a concert in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last July.


The group caused quite a stir with a few wardrobe malfunctions, which started off with Carmit Bachar exposing a breast, and Ashley Roberts revealing her private parts after her tiny pair of shorts left little to the imagination.

Absolute Entertainment who were the Promoters for the concert were fined for allowing the group to perform sexually suggestive routines in the strict Muslim country.

The council, which manages the Kuala Lumpur suburb where the event took place, imposed the penalty.

The band was slapped with fine after Malaysia’s culture minister Rais Yatim complained that the group’s concert featured ‘scantily dressed performers’ and ‘sensuous elements’.

"I believe the way the ‘Pussycat Dolls’ behaved on stage amounted to gross indecency," News.com.au quoted Yatim, as saying.

According to the country’s Muslim laws, a female performer must be dressed from her shoulders to her knees.

Besides this, jumping, shouting or throwing of objects onstage or at the audience are all also banned.

Source-ANI
SRM/C

Study Shed Light on Origins of April Fools' Day

For an average person, April Fools' Day might be a date to play pranks, but for some experts the day has more to it than just the fun element.


April Fools' Day is believed to be several hundred years old. However, experts say that its origins are still shrouded in mystery.

According to the most popular theory, France changed its calendar in the 1500s so that the New Year would begin in January to match the Roman calendar instead of the start of spring in late March or early April.

However word of the change traveled slowly, and many people in rural areas continued to celebrate the New Year in the spring.

These country dwellers became known as 'April fools'.

Alex Boese, curator of the Museum of Hoaxes in San Diego, California Boese, who has studied the holiday's origin, however, disagrees with this interpretation.

"[The French] theory is completely wrong, because the day that the French celebrated the beginning of the year legally was Easter day, so it never really was associated with April first," National Geographic quoted him, as saying.

"Traditionally it was only a legal start to the year-people in France did actually celebrate [the New Year] on January first for as long as anybody could remember," he added.

Instead, Boese believes that April Fools' Day simply grew out of age-old European spring festivals of renewal, in which pranks and camouflaging one's identity are common.


Joseph Boskin, professor emeritus of American humor at Boston University, has offered his own interpretation of the holiday's roots -as a prank.


In 1983, Boskin said that the April Fools' Day idea came from Roman jesters during the time of Constantine I in the third and fourth centuries A.D. As the story goes, jesters successfully petitioned the ruler to allow one of their elected members to be king for a day.

So, on April first, Constantine handed over the reins of the Roman Empire for one day to King Kugel, his jester. Kugel decreed that the day forever would be a day of absurdity. Incidentally, Kugel is an Eastern European dish that one of Boskin's friends had been craving.

Source-ANI
SRM/S

Surfing the Net Between Office Hours Improves Concentration, Productivity

For many people, taking a break from work means getting away from the computer screen. However, a new study by a leading human-response research group has shown that working at your comp and surfing the internet for a few minutes each working day can actually boost concentration and allow a person to be more productive.


According to many people, using computer during a break from work could prove more stressful.

But the new study has shown that using the web is as good as the office tea break.

"Many people think that using a computer just means stress and more work, but what we found was the converse," the Scotsman quoted Mind Lab scientist Duncan Smith, as saying.

For the study, the researchers recruited women from seven European countries, and asked them to complete difficult computer-based intelligence tests to increase their stress levels.

After a period of crunching numbers and working out intellectual puzzles at speed, the researchers gave the test subjects a 10-minute break to relax by doing whatever they wanted online. Then they got back to the tests.

With the help of sensors, the researchers monitored the brain activity of the participants and found that after a break the women were not only more relaxed, but also more productive.

The effects were regardless of the activity the women participated in.

"Whether they just go and have a look at photos, chat with people or even just play an internet game, we've found that that really made a difference," Smith said.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Men are Blind to the Subtle Seduction Techniques of Women

The flutter of eyelashes, the sparkling smile, the chuckle after a lame joke – nothing will help you entice the attention of the man you desire, not because you’re doing it wrongly, but because your male interest can’t understand the signals.


According to a new research, men are blind to the subtle seduction techniques of the opposite sex.

The study suggests that apart from pouncing on the object of her lust, a woman's non-verbal signals of sexual interest often prove sadly lost on the young male brain.

In the study of nearly 300 undergraduates of both sexes, researchers at Indiana University tested students' abilities to spot a come-on.

The students were asked to view images of women and categorize them as friendly, sexually interested, sad or rejecting.

Each undergraduate reported on 280 photographs, which had been sorted into the four categories based on surveys by different groups of students.

Male students scored worse for accuracy than females - and they were particularly confused by amiability and amorousness. The men commonly mistook women's sexual signals as merely friendly and were prone to see friendliness as a blatant advance.

According to the researchers, rather than going through life thinking: "She wants me", men often find themselves trying to navigate a foreign world of social signals without a phrasebook.

"Women are fluent in body language, men just have the gift of the grab,” the Telegraph quoted Kathy Lette, the best-selling author, as saying.


"It is really confusing for women. The average bloke either doesn't realise that we fancy them until we are giving birth to their children in the labour ward; or he presumes all women fancy him all the time.


"God was playing some kind of prank when he developed two sexes,” she added.

But the research does not mean that women might as well ditch the lipstick. Not all flirting gets lost in translation.

"These are average differences. Some men are very skilled in reading clues,” said Coreen Ferris, the lead researcher.

The study is published in Psychological Science.

Source-ANI
SRM/C

The Success of 'Tele-learning' in Remote Amazon Schools

In some parts of the world, a television in the classroom might be a diversion for students.


But in remote areas of the immense Amazon jungle in Brazil, it's an educational lifeline, a key tool for learning that helps break the tyranny of distance.

Some 2,500 primary school pupils in rural parts of the vast northern Acre state depend on video courses shown on small televisions in viewing rooms to keep up with their urban counterparts who have greater access to teachers, cultural excursions and libraries.

"Tele-learning" started five years ago, when authorities decided to put into practice ideas first formulated by Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, who died in 1997, to counter an obvious shortfall in basic education.

Acre's governor, Jorge Vianna, described how a visit to a remote school in the forest rammed home the need to improve teaching methods.

"I remember visiting a school and meeting a girl of 19 years who was doing third grade for the fifth time. She told me she had already passed third grade, but as there were no more options or grades to go on to, she had to keep going back to the same level," he told AFP.

An agreement with the Roberto Marinho Foundation, named after the founder of Brazil's biggest private media group O Globo, opened the way for the introduction of video courses based on Sunday morning educational television shows.


Vilma Guimaraes, the head of the foundation's educational projects unit, and a former disciple of Freire, personally visits each of the schools in the program.


If the hard slog of travelling hours or days over pitted dirt roads and along jungle paths weighs on her 60-plus years, it doesn't show. She may turn up at the schools covered in dust or mud, but also with her lipstick firmly applied.

-- 'In five years, 11,000 students have graduated' --

"In five years, this system has allowed nearly 11,000 students to graduate in Acre," she said with pride.

According to Brazil's education ministry, Acre state came last in a 1999 ranking of all the country's 27 states in terms of primary school results.

Since the program has been implemented, it has leapt to 11th place, 2005 figures show. "We want Acre to be in the top 10 this year," Vianna said.

The success of the scheme is all the more striking when put in the context of the huge disadvantages suffered by pupils in the sparsely populated state.

For instance, to get to the Sao Pedro school in the Bomlevar catchment, a reserve where latex is extracted from plants, it is a bone-jarring three-hour journey by truck along a rutted dirt road from the nearest town of Xapuri.

Then comes an hour-long trek through dense Amazonian rainforest.

The school's teacher, Lisandro Augusto, is a former trucker who switched professions when he saw the educational difficulties faced by his son.

He receives a dozen students, many of whom sleep at the school during the week because their family homes are too far for a daily commute.

Such distances also preclude laying electrical cables to power the classroom television set, so a solar panel is used.

On this day, the panel was not working properly, and the screen got only a few minutes of play.

"But for the kids, that's enough, because the discussion that comes afterwards is the what interests them most," Augusto said.

The students have well-defined tasks at the school. While some clean the building in the morning, others prepare the papers for the day's exercises or revision texts.

Half-way between the school and Xapuri is another school, in Tupa county. There, teacher Antonia Lima also stays during the week to watch over her boarding students, on whose families she depends.

"The parents of some of the students send me food, and I return to Xapuri only on weekends," she said.

Among the students in her school's sole classroom sat an adolescent with long hair, Marcia Valeria Leite, trying to divide her attention between the lesson and her one-year-old baby.

"I have to bring him, because there's no-one to leave him with at home," she said. "He likes playing here at school."

Outside, Maria Neucilene Lopes, another teacher who is also a regional school coordinator, said the relative isolation she faces was in no way intimidating.

"I arrived at this school in 2006. I came from Xapuri on a motorbike, and when I arrived I just stopped and cried. But today, I wouldn't change these schools for anything," she said.

Source-AFP
SRM/C

Teenagers' Brains are Different from Those of Children and Adults: Study

A new study has confirmed what many parents have believed till now - that their teenage offspring's brain is very much different from those of children and adults.


According to a new research, which used MRI to examine the brains of volunteers, natural changes in adolescents' brains affect their cognition, emotion and behaviour.

The researchers found that brain gray matter increases in volume until the early teens, then decreases until old age.

The data for the research was based on the NIMH Longitudinal Brain Imaging Project, which began in 1989.

Participants visit the NIMH at approximately two-year intervals for brain imaging, neuropsychological and behavioral assessment and collection of DNA.

As of September 2007, approximately 5000 scans from 2000 subjects have been acquired. Of these, 387 subjects, aged 3 to 27 years, have remained free of any psychopathology and served as the models for typical brain development.

From the analysis, three themes emerged. The first is functional and structural increases in connectivity and integrative processing as distributed brain modules become more and more integrated.

Using a literary metaphor, maturation would not be the addition of new letters but rather of combining earlier formed letters into words, and then words into sentences and then sentences into paragraphs.

The second is a general pattern of childhood peaks of gray matter (frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe and occipital lobe) followed by adolescent declines. As parts of the brain are overdeveloped and then discarded, the structure of the brain becomes more refined.


The third theme is a changing balance between limbic/subcortical and frontal lobe functions that extends well into young adulthood as different cognitive and emotional systems mature at different rates.


The cognitive and behavioral changes taking place during adolescence may be understood from the perspective of increased "executive" functioning, a term encompassing a broad array of abilities, including attention, response inhibition, regulation of emotion, organization and long-range planning.

"Adolescence is a time of substantial neurobiological and behavioral change, but the teen brain is not a broken or defective adult brain. The adaptive potential of the overproduction/selective elimination process, increased connectivity and integration of disparate brain functions, changing reward systems and frontal/limbic balance, and the accompanying behaviors of separation from family of origin, increased risk taking, and increased sensation seeking have been highly adaptive in our past and may be so in our future," said Dr. Jay N. Giedd, MD of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

"These changes and the enormous plasticity of the teen brain make adolescence a time of great risk and great opportunity," he added.

The study 'The Teen Brain: Insights from Neuroimaging' is published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Source-ANI
SRM/S

Brain can Detect Calorie Content Even When One Doesn’t Taste the Food

Brain can detect calorie content even when one doesn’t taste the food, new study seems to suggest.


Researchers at the Duke University Center in Durham, North Carolina first genetically altered the brains of mice, making them unable to taste "sweet."

They then had the sweet-blind mice undergo tests in which they were given a choice of a sugar solution and one sweetened with the non-caloric sweetener sucralose.

They found the mice showed a decided preference for the higher-calorie sugar solution — indicating that the calorie content — not the taste — likely governed their decision.

The researchers also discovered that the reward response in the brains of the mice triggered the release of dopamine, a brain chemical associated with pleasure.

The preference for the sugar developed after ten minutes of an hour-long feeding session, they found.

The study shows that even in the absence of taste, physiologic changes in the body let the brain know a high-calorie food has been ingested. "Our findings suggest that calorie-rich nutrients can directly influence brain reward circuits that control food intake independently of palatability or functional taste transduction," the authors write.

They say this finding could change how obesity is tackled, viewing the consumption of foods as a process that is driven not only by taste but also by caloric training of the brain.

This means that if a person is dieting and consuming lower-calorie foods, the body will still sense that it isn't getting enough calories.

The study is published in the March 27 issue of the journal Neuron.

Source-Medindia
GPL/S

New Non-invasive Method Helps to Detect Cancer Early

Early detection of cancer could soon be possible with the help of a new non-invasive instrument, called a P-scan, developed by a scientist at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.


The instrument, developed by Dr. Yinfa Ma, Curators' Teaching Professor of chemistry at Missouri ST, will provide pre-cancer screening that not only detects cancer in the body, but is also capable of predicting the cancer's type and severity using a group of biomarkers.

"Cancer is the second-highest cause of death among all diseases. Early diagnosis of cancer is crucial, but not many people want to go to the hospital to undergo costly, invasive cancer screening," said Ma.

This study comes in line with the existing knowledge of pteridines, compounds found within the body that serve as important cofactors to regulate the metabolism of cells.

In the course of this study, Ma discovered that six pteridine derivatives can be detected in urine samples, and that levels for some pteridines increase significantly if there is a tumour inside the body.

Essentially, it was found that one molecule, called oncopterin, exists only in the urine of cancer patients, but not in healthy human subjects. However, further testing for oncopterin, using different techniques is still required.

Ma developed a prototype of a P-scan, and can be used to screen urine for oncopterine and the six other pteridine biomarkers. The oncopterin level in urine can be used to find out if cancer is going to develop, and varying levels of the six pteridines can actually provide a "fingerprint" of the type of cancer.
Ma hopes to develop the P-scan for commercial use in clinical laboratories for non-invasive early cancer screening.


"I won't give up. I will continue to work on this project until we have succeeded and can market the instrument to save people's lives," said Ma.

Source-ANI
SRM/S

Indian Origin Doctor can Be Sacked for Unethical Tests on Mentally Ill Patients

Dr. Tanmoy Sharma, a former senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, is expected to be sacked this weekend after being found guilty of conducting unethical drug tests on mentally ill patients.


The General Medical Council has found that Dr. Sharma had wrongly recruited patients in unsolicited telephone calls without contacting their nurses or carers.

On a number of occasions, Dr. Sharma failed to obtain approval from proper ethical committees before testing drugs on patients.

After being paid to conduct the tests by drug companies, he failed to seek proper approval from medical bodies and then misled the companies about his methods, The Times reported.

The paper said that Dr. Sharma not only lied about his academic credentials, but was also instrumental in being the leader of a global research fraud in the pharmaceutical sector involving theft of pharmaceutical drug on Schizophrenic patients.

The General Medical Council ruling, which examined Dr. Sharma's research over 10 years, could force the pharmaceutical industry to re-examine the way in which research on psychiatric drugs is commissioned and conducted.

A report by the GMC's Fitness To Practise panel concluded this week that Dr Sharma had put mentally unwell patients at risk and ethical rules had been wilfully flouted.

Dr. Sharma (42), who trained in India, was a prominent psychiatrist who often appeared on the BBC and wrote books on mental illness.
Leading drug companies such as Novartis and Sanofi paid him from 1996 to conduct trials of anti-psychotic drugs on patients with schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.


He worked as a consultant psychiatrist for the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and recruited patients in Kent and parts of the capital for the research, according to reports.

His position at the institute helped him to secure funding, said to be almost one million pounds, from five drug companies. Most of the money was channelled through a private company that he had set up called Psychmed.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry asked the GMC to examine his conduct two years ago after concerns that he had failed to obtain proper approval from ethical committees to conduct the tests.

These approvals are vital in any trial to protect the patients taking part.

Source-ANI
SRM/S

People With Diabetes Experience Faster Loss of Lung Capacity

A new study has cited that people with diabetes experience a faster loss of lung capacity as compared to those who do not have the disease, a finding that may have further implications for the potential use of inhaled insulin.


The lung research was essentially a part of a larger investigation known as the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, which confirmed previous indications that the lung is a target organ for diabetic injury and that lung abnormalities speed up once diabetes takes hold.

In an earlier study led by Dr. Fred Brancati, researchers established that decreased lung capacity precedes and may predict a diagnosis of diabetes. The new study also suggests that diminished lung function may contribute to diabetes morbidity and mortality.

In particular, the study discovered that people with type 2 diabetes encountered a more rapid decline in forced vital capacity, the measure of how well the lungs fill with air, than people who did not have diabetes. Although everyone experiences a decline in forced vital capacity with age, people with diabetes undergo a more rapid loss that shows before the diabetes diagnosis and accelerates after the disease sets in.

The researchers explained the reason behind this saying that it may be because high blood sugar levels harden the lung tissue or that the fat tissue in the chest and abdomen may confine the lungs more in people with diabetes.
Finally, they concluded the study with advice to clinicians to "pay heightened attention to pulmonary function in their patients with type 2 diabetes."


"Think of the lung as a crime victim who unwittingly abets the perpetrator to hasten the demise of the host," wrote Dr. Connie Hsia, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center's Department of Internal Medicine.

She suggested that the loss of pulmonary function could add to diabetic morbidity and mortality, and raised concerns about the potential use of inhaled insulin, since it may "trigger or exacerbate pulmonary dysfunction."

Of late, makers of inhaled insulin have pulled their products from the market owing to of poor sales or halted product investigations, though several companies continue to explore this type of insulin delivery.

"Manufacturers of inhaled insulin should find these data useful as they study potential long-term effects of their product on lung functionThe results suggest that doctors and patients should keep an eye on the literature about diabetes and the lung down the road, since there's a stronger connection than we previously thought," said Brancati.

The study is appearing in the latest issue of Diabetes Care.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Bitter Melon Offers Sweet News to Diabetics

Bitter melon, a vegetable and traditional Chinese medicine, contains a powerful treatment for Type 2 diabetes, Sydney-based researchers have found.


The research team from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica pulped roughly a tonne of fresh bitter melon and extracted four very promising bioactive components.

These four compounds all appear to activate the enzyme AMPK, a protein well known for regulating fuel metabolism and enabling glucose uptake.

"We can now understand at a molecular level why bitter melon works as a treatment for diabetes," said Professor David James, Director of the Diabetes and Obesity Program at Garvan. "By isolating the compounds we believe to be therapeutic, we can investigate how they work together in our cells."

People with Type 2 diabetes have an impaired ability to convert the sugar in their blood into energy in their muscles. This is partly because they don’t produce enough insulin, and partly because their fat and muscle cells don’t use insulin effectively, a phenomenon known as ’insulin resistance’.

Exercise activates AMPK in muscle, which in turn mediates the movement of glucose transporters to the cell surface, a very important step in the uptake of glucose from the circulation into tissues in the body. This is a major reason that exercise is recommended as part of the normal treatment program for someone with Type 2 diabetes.

The four compounds isolated in bitter melon perform a very similar action to that of exercise, in that they activate AMPK.
Researchers Drs Jiming Ye and Nigel Turner both stress that while there are well known diabetes drugs on the market that also activate AMPK, they can have side effects.


"The advantage of bitter melon is that there are no known side effects. Practitioners of Chinese medicine have used it for hundreds of years to good effect," Ye said.

Professor Yang Ye, from the Shanghai Institute and a specialist in natural products chemistry, isolated the different fractions from bitter melon and identified the compounds of interest.

"Bitter melon was described as ’bitter in taste, non-toxic, expelling evil heat, relieving fatigue and illuminating’ in the famous Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen (1518-1593), one of the greatest physicians, pharmacologists and naturalists in China’s history," said Professor Ye.

"It is interesting, now that we have the technology, to analyse why it has been so effective," she added.

The study is published in the international journal Chemistry and Biology.

Source-ANI
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People With Schizophrenia Have Unique Genetic Mutations: Study

People with schizophrenia have high rates of rare genetic mutations which appear to disrupt the developing brain, according to a study released Thursday.


Individuals with the devastating mental condition have three and sometimes four times the number of rare genetic abnormalities that healthy individuals do, and more of them affect genes regulating brain function.

The abnormalities consist of duplicated or deleted strands of DNA and differ from person to person, so much so that the genetic fingerprint of the disease is unique for every individual.

"We speculate that most people with schizophrenia have a different genetic cause," said Mary-Claire King, professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, who collaborated on the study.

"The mutations are individually rare, but share consequences downstream."

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder that afflicts about one percent of the population. People with the illness suffer from hallucinations, delusions, feelings of persecution and disorganized thinking.

Some of the symptoms can be managed with anti-psychotic medications, but there is no cure.

Prior to the publication of this study in Science, it was assumed that genetic studies like this one would trace the origins of the illness back to a cluster of common, or high frequency, genetic mutations.

But this paper suggests the genetic signature of schizophrenia, much like autism, is more complicated than that, involving dozens or even hundreds of genes, whose function has been disrupted by duplications or deletions of DNA.
For this paper, the researchers from University of Washington, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and the National Institutes of Health studied a relatively modest number of people: 150 individuals with schizophrenia and 268 healthy patients.


The study implicated 24 different genes in the disease, and yet virtually every single mutation or copy number variation was different, which suggests that studies of larger populations will implicate even larger number of genes.

Many copy number variations are benign, but the researchers looked only at rare abnormalities, and not only were they much more abundant in the people with the disorder, but a preponderance of them were in genes that affect communication between brain cells.

Specifically, 15 percent of schizophrenia patients who developed the illness as adults had these rare DNA errors versus just five percent of healthy controls.

The rate jumped to 20 percent among patients who had a more severe form of the illness that began in childhood or adolescence.

"This is an important new finding in the genetics of schizophrenia," said Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

"Identifying genes prone to harbouring these mutations in brain development pathways holds promise for treatment and prevention of schizophrenia, as well as a wide range of other neurodevelopmental brain disorders."

Source-AFP
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Are E-mails and Text Messages Your Obsessions? You may Be Mentally Ill!

If you are one of those who send excessive emails and text messages, then chances are that you are suffering from a mental illness, according to a new research.


The new research suggests that people who leave office, only to log on to their PCs as soon as they reach home, could be suffering from another form of mental illness.

The article, by Dr Jerald Block, said there were four symptoms: suffering from feelings of withdrawal when a computer cannot be accessed; an increased need for better equipment; need for more time to use it; and experiencing the negative repercussions of their addiction.

Block said that although text messaging was not directly linked to the Internet, it was a form of instant messaging and needed to be included among the criteria.

"The chief reasons I see to consider it are motor vehicle accidents that are caused by cell phone instant messaging, stalking and harassment via instant messaging, and instant messaging at social, educational, (and) work functions where it creates problems," News.com.au quoted him, as saying.

"It should be a pervasive and problematic pattern, though, not isolated incidents," Block added.

The study is published in American Journal of Psychiatry.

Source-ANI
SPH/M

Breech Deliveries may Be Hereditary: Study

A baby is twice as likely to be born bottom-first if either or both of its parents themselves were also "breech" deliveries, according to a paper released on Friday by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).


Fewer than five percent of births are breech delivery, which carries higher risks of mortality and health problems for the infant than for head-first births.

The known risk factors for breech births include if the baby is the mother's first child or if the mother has a contracted pelvis, is of high maternal age or has a uterine abnormality. What has been unclear, though, is whether there could be a genetic link.

Investigators from the University of Bergen in Norway pored over data for all the births in Norway between 1967 and 2004 and compared this with all the information available on men and women and their first-born children.

Pooled together, the datasets amounted to 232,000 mother-child comparisons and 154,000 father-chld comparisons.

The researchers found that men and men and women who had been breech-delivered ran more than twice the risk of breech delivery in their own first pregnancies. The risk was the same for men and women alike.

In addition, babies that had been delivered naturally, rather than by caesarean, were at the biggest risk of a breech delivery.

In an editorial, the BMJ said the research was interesting. But, it cautioned, more evidence was needed of a genetic link before doctors warned mothers of a higher risk of breech delivery if their parents had also been born bottom-first.

Source-AFP
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Viagra: Pros and Cons

Ten-years ago, on March 27,1998 to be precise, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved of Viagra, the blue pill that gave a new lease of life to men with erectile dysfunction.


There has been no looking back since then as Viagra went on to become part of “popular culture” and raked in millions for Pfizer, the company that introduced it.

In the first month of its release Viagra was prescribed 500,000 times.

An estimated 30 million men have been prescribed the drug so far and statistics show that millions more have taken it without a prescription.

Other companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer came up with Levitra and El Lilly while ICOS came up with Cialis.

None of these drugs have come close to even match the record sale of Viagra, leave alone beating it.

According to health experts normal people should not take the drug just for sexual pleasure.

Also people who are already on nitrates, the drugs prescribed to lower the blood pressure, should not take Viagra because there are chances of their blood pressure dropping drastically.

Viagra is known to trigger side effects like headaches, facial flushing, stomach disorder, bluish vision, blurred vision and sometimes sensitivity to light.

According to statistics provided by Pfizer, an average of about three Viagra tablets were dispensed each second between its launch and the end of last year.

The drug was tested in over 120 clinical trials involving more than 16,000 men.

Viagra was also tested in roughly 3,000 women as a potential treatment for sexual arousal disorders. These trials were "inconclusive," and in 2004, Pfizer announced that it had stopped them.

Source-Medindia
THK/L

Are TV Quiz Shows a Bad Influence On Kids?

TV quiz shows might be keeping you at the edge of your couch but they're a bad influence on kids and are fuelling bullying in schools, warn UK teachers.




Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of England's National Union of Teachers (NUT), said that he was stunned by some of the 'cruel" insults celebrities dished out to each other on the TV shows.

He warned that kids ape the abusive behaviour of celebs they see on programmes like - 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' and 'They Think It's All Over' and, use 'grossly offensive and sexist' language in the playground.

"We've drawn attention to the appalling language of some young people which is often directed at each other and their teachers," The Scotsman quoted Sinnott, as saying.

"This language is too often grossly offensive and sexist," he added.

Sinnott accused television shows for allowing bad language to be broadcast and encouraging pupils to bully each other over their size.

"Too often such cruel behaviour can be seen on television programmes like Never Mind The Buzzcocks. When I watch that programme, I am quite shocked at the personal nature of some of the attacks by celebrities on other celebrities.

"We are promoting a type of speaking to each other that diminishes other people.

"I think it's being picked up by other youngsters who are developing it and are, I think, exceeding norms of decency," he added.

Source-ANI
SPH/L

Are Fat Women Discriminated?

Discrimination against fat people, particularly women, is as common as racial bias, says a new study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.


According to study's lead author, Rebecca Puhl, the study shows the need to treat weight discrimination as a legitimate form of prejudice, comparable to other characteristics like race or gender that already receive legal protection.

"These results show the need to treat weight discrimination as a legitimate form of prejudice, comparable to other characteristics like race or gender that already receive legal protection," said Puhl.

The study documented the prevalence of self-reported weight discrimination and compared it to experiences of discrimination based on race and gender among a nationally representative sample of adults aged 25- to 74-years-old.

For the research, the data was obtained from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States.

The study also revealed that women are twice as likely as men to report weight discrimination and that weight discrimination in the workplace and interpersonal mistreatment due to obesity is common.

The researchers found that men are not at serious risk for weight bias until their body mass index (BMI) reaches 35 or higher, while women begin experiencing a notable increase in weight discrimination risk at a BMI level of 27.

BMI (Body Mass Index) is the measure of body fat based on height and weight.
Co-author Tatiana Andreyava of Yale said weight discrimination is more prevalent than discrimination based on sexual orientation, nationality/ethnicity, physical disability, and religious beliefs.


"However, despite its high prevalence, it continues to remain socially acceptable," she said.

The study is published in International Journal of Obesity.

Source-ANI
SPH/M

Cabinet Approves Establishment of Ayurveda, Homeopathy Institute in Shillong

The Union Cabinet today approved the establishment of the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy in Shillong as an autonomous organization under the Department of AYUSH at a cost of Rs. 67.51 crore.


The decision will facilitate promotion of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy, the expansion of health care, improvement in the doctor-population ratio and R and D on bio-resources in the North East.

There are a total of 225 Ayurveda colleges and 181 Homoeopathy colleges in the country, out of which only one Ayurvedic College in Assam and three Homoeopathy colleges in Assam and Arunachal pradesh are in the North East.

There are no teaching institutions in other States of the North East, even though there is considerable demand for Ayurveda and Homoeopathic systems in North Eastern States.

Shillong is a central place in the north East where students and patients from the other North Eastern states can avail the facilities of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy in the proposed institute.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Indian School Student Thrashed by Teacher Dies

A 15-year-old school student, thrashed by her teacher, died in New Delhi on Wednesday.


Rinki Kaushik, a student of class X had been battling her injuries for more than three months.

Doctors said, "She had been suffering from a major complication in the brain which was aggravated due to the assault. We operated on her to treat the problem. For some time, she even responded. However, the prolonged illness left her immune system weak and she developed major chest complications while at the hospital. She was on ventilator from February 26."

Rinki’s father Naresh Kumar has charged that Dheerendra, a teacher in the Dinkar National Model School in the Indian capital had thrashed her mercilessly for not taking tuition from him. He is also the son of the school principal.

“Rinki initially took private tuitions from Dheerendra, who taught Mathematics and English for Rs 400. We discontinued the tuition since he was not good,” said Kumar.

Thereafter Dheerendra constantly snubbed the girl, according to the First Information Report (FIR) lodged with the police.

The situation took an ugly turn on November 3. “When she raised a doubt in the class, Dheerendra taunted her saying that she could consult her private tuition teacher and Rinki retorted saying he had better answer because she was paying the school fees,” said Kumar.

An enraged Dheerendra slapped the girl and hit her with a stick repeatedly. She fell unconscious when she received blows on her head.
“Seeing her collapse, Dheerendra asked the other students to go home and the school was closed abruptly. My daughter was locked inside the classroom till she regained consciousness,” said Kumar.


Dheerendra and the school principal then allegedly threatened to ruin the girl’s career if she discussed the incident with anyone.

The girl initially told her parents that she was down with fever. Her condition deteriorated within a week, and her parents took her to a private hospital where tests revealed that a vein in her brain had been damaged, leading to a clot.

“We admitted her in Maharaja Agrasen Hospital where she underwent an operation on January 7,” said Kumar. She was in the ICU ever since.

Kumar leased his house to raise money for her treatment. He lodged a police complaint and even wrote to the state Education Minister and the Joint Commissioner of Police, following which only a case was registered, a month after the incident.
Dheerendra has since then been absconding.

The school though claims that that the girl has died of an old injury received in an accident.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Biologists Shed Light on How Deadly Virus Becomes Infectious

Biologists have mapped how a deadly class of viruses including dengue, West Nile, yellow fever and encephalitis become infectious in a pair of studies published in the journal Science.


"This is possibly the most detailed understanding of how any virus matures," said study author Michael Rossmann of Purdue University in Indiana.

Rossmann and his colleagues detailed critical structural changes that take place as the dengue virus moves from the inner to the outer portions of its host cell.

The findings pertain to all viruses in the family of flaviviruses which are carried by mosquitoes and ticks.

They found that a protein which coats the genome of the virus particle undergoes large changes in its structure so that it becomes capable of fusing with cell membranes.

This structural change, which occurs as the virus is being secreted from its host, allows the protein to infect other cells rather than attaching itself to its host.

"It's like a bird being pushed out of the nest and suddenly being able to fly," Rossmann said in a telephone interview.

This transformation occurs as the virus is exposed to progressively less acidic conditions which change the protein structure in its outer shell.

"This change in acidity was already known, but its impact on the maturation process was not known until these new findings," Rossmann said.

This discovery could help researchers develop an antiviral treatment for dengue fever, which infects more than 50 million people and kills about 24,000 each year.


"There are a number of places where small drug compounds might interfere with the changes which we describe," he told AFP.


A vaccine has not yet been developed for dengue fever because multiple exposures can actually increase the risk of developing the more deadly dengue dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Source-AFP
SRM/L

Genetic Variant That Predisposes People to Tuberculosis Identified

A genetic variant that predisposes people to developing a lethal form of tuberculosis (TB), tuberculous meningitis, if they are infected with a strain of TB known as the Beijing strain has been identified by the researchers working in Vietnam.


The research underlines the importance of studying both sides of the complex host-pathogen interaction and its role in susceptibility to disease.

TB, which kills over 2 million people each year, is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is estimated that well over 2 million people are infected with M. tuberculosis, though the majority will never show symptoms.

Some will develop a latent infection, with symptoms only showing if they become sick or immunocompromised, for example through HIV infection.

A small number will develop an active TB infection, usually in their lungs, occasionally progressing to "disseminated TB" - a condition in which failure of the immune system to control the infection allows its spread to other parts of the body.

Some of the risk factors that determine whether individuals develop active TB following exposure are well known; these include HIV infection, malnutrition and smoking.

In the study, Caws and her colleagues have shown that the predisposition to developing TB meningitis appears to be strongest in people who carry the variant of TLR2 and who are infected with the specific Beijing strain of TB.

"We are seeing an increasing number of cases of the Beijing strain worldwide, a strain that is becoming more and more resistant to drugs," said Dr Caws.


"Our findings are important because they show that we need to look at both the patient's susceptibility to the disease and the genetics of the pathogen that is infecting them at the same time. Many studies have shown a genetic association with disease in one population but the finding has not been repeated in different populations. This might be not only because of ethnic differences in the population, but also because the pathogen populations are different.


"Understanding the mechanisms that influence our susceptibility to infectious diseases may allow us to develop more sophisticated and targeted treatments and vaccines. This is particularly important in this era of emerging 'untreatable' bacterial infections due to antibiotic resistance," she added.

The study has been published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Does the Human Nose Sniff Lurking Danger?

Your nose is a quick learner when it comes to the thousands of scents it encounters in its daily travels. Now, researchers have found that emotion plays a huge part when it comes to differentiating between similar smells.


Northwestern University researchers proved the surprising connection by giving volunteers electric shocks while they sniffed novel odours.

The study shows that a single negative experience linked to an odour rapidly teaches us to identify that odour and discriminate it from similar ones.

"It's evolutionary. This helps us to have a very sensitive ability to detect something that is important to our survival from an ocean of environmental information. It warns us that it's dangerous and we have to pay attention to it," said Wen Li, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at the Feinberg School.

In the study, subjects were exposed to a pair of grassy smells which were nearly identical in their chemical makeup and perceptually indistinguishable.

The subjects received an electrical shock when they were exposed to one scent, but not when they were exposed to the other similar one.

After being shocked, the subjects learned to discriminate between the two similar smells. This illustrates the tremendous power of the human sense of smell to learn from emotional experience.

Odours that once were impossible to tell apart became easy to identify when followed by an aversive event.


The research team also found specific changes in how odour information is stored in "primitive" olfactory regions of the brain, enhancing perceptual sensitivity for smells that have a high biological relevance.


The study is published in the journal Science.

Source-ANI
SPH/M

B Vitamin Folate can Help Blunt Damaging Effects of Heart Stroke

Eating leafy green vegetables, beans and nuts not only keeps the heart healthy but the B vitamin folate found in them also help blunt the damaging effects of heart stroke, says a new study.


According to the study, the B vitamin folate was found to blunt the damaging effects of heart attack when given in short-term, high doses to test animals.

In the new study, which was conducted by an international team of heart experts at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere, rats fed 10 milligrams daily of folate, also known as folic acid or vitamin B9, for a week prior to heart attack had smaller infarcts than rats who took no supplements.

On average, researchers say, the amount of muscle tissue exposed to damage and scarred by the arterial blockage was shrunk to less than a tenth.

Lead investigator An Moens, M.D., suggests that folate acts as an energy reserve in the heart, “providing much needed energy for muscle contraction, in the form of ATP, at the same time the heart is being starved for oxygen-carrying blood by a blocked artery.”

According to Moens, a postdoctoral cardiology research fellow at Johns Hopkins, study results showed that high-energy phosphate levels went down 43 percent in the blood of treated rats, but levels dropped by one-third more in untreated rats.

“With more fuel, the heart kept pumping even though its blood flow was reduced. The smaller heart attacks seemed related to this better energy balance in the heart produced by the folate,” Moens said.


In the study, heart function was monitored by more than two dozen key tests, such as echocardiogram and magnetic resonance imaging, as well as by blood analysis before, during and after the heart attack, when blood flow was allowed to resume in the coronary artery that had been blocked.


Among the research team’s other findings that backed up the protective effects of folate on the heart were mild, slight dips in systolic blood pressure during heart attack in treated rats, while pressure fell in untreated animals by 25 percent.

Similarly, blood flow was stable in the treated group, but dropped by 40 percent in untreated animals. Post-heart attack buildup of dangerous chemicals, known as reactive oxygen species, was halved in treated rats. And fatal arrhythmias, unstable heartbeats that can immediately follow a heart attack, also went down from 36.7 percent to 8.3 percent in the supplement-fed group.

“We want to emphasize that it is premature for people to begin taking high doses of folic acid,” said senior study investigator David Kass, M.D., a professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute.

“Folic acid is already well known to be safe to consume in high doses in the short term, and it is very inexpensive, costing pennies per milligram, so its prospects look promising. But if human studies prove equally effective, then high-dose folate could be given to high-risk groups to guard against possible heart attack or to people while they are having one,” said Kass.

The more likely and most practical advantage to ingesting supplements, he said, lies in folic acid’s potential to act as a short-term buffer for people who may be having a heart attack and who rush to their local emergency room complaining of chest pain.

He cautioned, “we do not yet know if folate is safe to consume in this high a dose, or how much or how little of it is needed to be effective,” citing 25 milligrams per day as the highest dose previously tested safe to consume in adults as.

Kass said that such large amount of folate may also yield unpredictable side effects.

The study is published in the journal Circulation.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Two Brazil Nuts a Day may Protect You from Wide Range of Diseases

Otago University scientists say that eating two Brazil nuts everyday may help reduce the risk of a wide range of conditions, including cancer and heart disease.


Professor Christine Thomson says that Brazil nuts may provide such beneficial health effects by helping maintain the levels of selenium, a trace mineral essential for producing antioxidant enzymes and other proteins that protect cells from damage.

The researcher, who led the first ever research into how much of the essential micronutrient people can obtain from Brazil nuts, pointed out that people in New Zealand generally had "marginal" selenium levels because the soil was deficient in selenium.

"There is mounting evidence that a marginal selenium status can lead to an increased risk for a range of conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular disease," stuff.co.nz quoted her as saying.

During the study, described in the American Clinical Journal of Nutrition, 60 volunteers were divided into three groups - one ate two Brazil nuts a day, one received a 100 microgram selenium supplement, and one was given a placebo.

After 12 weeks, the researchers observed a 64.2 per cent increase in the blood selenium concentrations among participants who ate Brazil nuts, compared with 61 per cent in the selenium supplement group.

Upon measuring the activity levels of a key antioxidant, the researchers noted that the Brazil nut eaters' levels went up by 13.2 per cent, compared with 5.3 per cent in the supplement group.


The study report says that research is underway to investigate the link between low selenium levels and higher rates of cancer and heart disease.


"Kiwi farmers have been feeding selenium supplements to their cattle for years ... but it's only in the past few years that people have cottoned on to the fact it might be good for them too," Wellington Nut Store co-owner David Upchurch said.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

French Disfigured Woman Died After Taking Barbiturates Overdose: Prosecutor

A severely disfigured French woman, found dead this month after a court rejected her request for euthanasia, took a lethal overdose of barbiturates, a prosecutor said on Thursday.


Former schoolteacher Chantal Sebire, 52, asked for the right to die to alleviate the suffering caused by a rare and incurable tumour, which deformed her face, causing her to lose her eyesight and the senses of smell and taste.

Her body was found at her home in eastern France on March 19, two days after a high court decided current French law did not allow her doctor to prescribe her lethal drugs.

"We can say that Mrs Sebire did not die of natural causes, as shown by the autopsy, but from absorbing a lethal dose of barbiturate," prosecutor Jean-Pierre Alacchi told reporters in the eastern city of Dijon.

Post-mortem tests revealed "the presence in the blood of a toxic concentration of barbiturate, Pentobarbital... (at) three times the lethal level for this product," he said.

Pentobarbital is commonly used for animal euthanasia and can be legally prescribed for assisted human suicide in Switzerland, Belgium and the US state of Oregon.

Investigators were trying to establish how Sebire obtained the drug, which is not delivered by French pharmacies, to establish whether her death was a case of suicide or assisted suicide.

Chantal Sebire's lawyer Gilles Antonowicz said she "put an end to her own suffering, she delivered herself, but I do not want to talk of suicide, because that was not Mrs Sebire's intention."


Sebire's case prompted doctors, politicians and intellectuals to call for a national debate on a change to French law to allow assisted suicide or euthanasia in exceptional cases.


In her request to the high court, Sebire had said she wanted to put an end to "atrocious suffering" and an irreversible worsening of her condition, called an esthesioneuroblastoma.

The mother-of-three had said she would not appeal the decision and that she would find life-terminating drugs through other means.

Before-and-after pictures of Sebire, along with her account of frightened children who ran away at the sight of her, attracted a strong outpouring of sympathy in France.

French legislation adopted in 2005 allows families to request that life-support equipment for a terminally-ill patient be switched off, but does not allow a doctor to take action to end a patient's life.

Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are the only European Union countries that currently allow active euthanasia.

Source-AFP
SRM/L

Pregnancies Over Summer Could Lead to Healthier Babies: Japanese Study

A Kyoto University Hospital studied more than 1100 newborns in Japanese hospitals and observed that pregnancies over winter could lead to problems in babies.


Dr Tohru Yorifuji who led the research team said, “Craniotabes, the softening of skull bones, in otherwise normal newborns has largely been regarded as a physiological condition without the need for treatment.”

“Our findings, however, show that this untreated condition may be the result of a potentially dangerous vitamin D deficiency.”

The researchers found that 22 per cent of babies studied had craniotabes. It was also observed that the incidence of craniotabes was highest in babies born in April-May. Since these babies were carried in the womb in the winter months it is possible that their mothers lacked enough vitamin D, which is absorbed from sunlight.

Babies born in November had the lowest incidence of craniotabes, possibly because their mothers had a steady supply of vitamin D in the summer months when they carried the babies in their wombs.

“Otherwise, the incidence of craniotabes was not significantly related with the maternal age, number of pregnancies, birth weight, or weeks of pregnancies,” said the researchers.

Dr Yorifuji said mothers should take care to ensure that their babies get sufficient vitamin D while feeding.

“Until more research is done on the effects of perinatal vitamin D deficiency, we suggest treating breast-fed infants with craniotabes with vitamin D, or preferably, treating all pregnant women with vitamin D,” Dr Yorifuji said.

According to the research paper to be published in the May edition of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, persistent vitamin D deficiency can lead to skeletal problems, as well as to higher risks of diabetes and colon cancer.

Source-Medindia
THK/L

Results of Trials on Injectible Male Contraceptive to Be Unveiled in India in April

The results of trials on an injectible male contraceptive will be unveiled in April, authorities of the Indian technical institution behind the project have said.


It is an invention of Sujoy Kumar Guhaof the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and is based on a technique called Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance, (RISUG).

It involves an injection into the vas deferens, the vessel through which the sperm moves before ejaculation. In a matter of minutes, the injection coats the walls of the vas with a clear gel prepared through irradiation.

Dr.Guha says it works, is non-surgical, and is long-lasting, a single 60 mg injection can be effective for at least ten years. It is convenient, one doesn’t have to run around to looking for contraceptives when in the throes of passion and has few side effects.

It is also reversible, the vas deferencs can be flushed.

Speaking to Business Standard, Manoj Mondal, senior administrative officer, finance and project management, sponsored research and industrial consultancy (SRIC) cell, IIT-Kharagpur, said, "We have been trying to develop a non-surgical male contraceptive for ten years now. A single 60 mg injection can be effective for at least 10 years.

A single dose, which may cost the manufacturer Rs 50, is expected to be marketed at close to Rs 200. This innovation will be made public along with around 50 others patented by the institute on April 5-6.


The institute will host IndAc 2008, a two-day curtain-raiser, to showcase these innovations to pharma majors, corporate entities and entrepreneurs.


"We plan to either sell the technology to corporates and entrepreneurs or get into a revenue-sharing model for their use. All our innovations are ready for commercialisation," Mondal said.

"Currently, we are testing the contraceptive on humans in Pune and Kolkata. We will disclose the results and a complete report during IndAc 2008," he added.

Way back in October 2002, India’s Ministry of Health had aborted the clinical trials on the contraceptive following reports of albumin in urine and scrotal swelling in Phase III trial participants.

The ICMR noted that dimethyl sulfoxide used as a solvent for the injection is known to cause kidney damage. Although the ICMR has reviewed and approved the toxicology data three times, some United States researchers say that the studies were not done according to recent international standards.

RISUG was resubmitted for a new round of tests at a US lab, and was approved as non-mutagenic in July 2005.

Subsequently in March 2006, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) announced that Phase III trials of RISUG could resume at 4 centers around India. And in January last its Deputy Director-General R.S. Sharma had said the trials were being extended to six other states.

Meantime the Kharagpur IIT is promising to announce the results of its trials and is also going ahead with its marketing proposal.

Though the price has not been fixed, officials say it will be a multi-crore deal.

The Centre spent at least Rs 10 crore on the research. "Naturally, the price of acquiring the technology will be steep. We had foreign companies lining up, but we turned them down because we want an Indian company to buy it," said Partha Pratim Chakra-borty, dean of the institute’s Cell for Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy.

Technologies to be showcased include a nano particle drug against prostate cancer. The institute is looking for industry partners to engage in collaborative research to take this forward.

The institute has also invented an artificial substitute for a human heart, made of polymer and is powered by battery. The innovation is ready for clinical trials.

Other innovations include a heart sound analyser, a knee joint simulator, packaged coconut water, technology to manufacture curd powder, a device for cryogenically freezing fish, meat, fruits and vegetables and a device for cryogenic grinding of spices, vegetables and foodgrain.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Study Identifies Protein That Kills Brain Cells After Stroke, Seizure

Researchers at Emory University claim to have identified a protein that kills brain cells after a stroke or a seizure.


The study found a protein called asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) that unleashes enzymes that break down DNA of brain cells, leading to brain damage.

"This was a very surprising result because previously we had no idea that AEP was involved in this process," said Keqiang Ye, senior author an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory.

It is found at its highest levels in the kidney.

Stroke impedes the flow of blood to the brain, and lack of oxygen increases lactic acids, the same chemical that appears in the muscles during intense exercise.

Moreover, a flood of chemicals that brain cells usually use to communicate with each other over-excites the cells. Epileptic seizures can have similar effects.

The team suspected that another class of proteases called caspases was involved in programmed cell death and controlled DNA damage after a stroke.

They focussed their study on proteins that stick to another protein called PIKE-L that they previously studied because of its ability to interfere with programmed cell death in brain cells.

The findings revealed that PIKE-L sticks to SET, a protein that other scientists had found regulates DNA-eating enzymes involved in programmed cell death. In addition, PIKE-L appears to protect SET from attack by AEP.

While conducting the study on mice, researchers found that a drug that scientists use to mimic the acidic overload induced by stroke activates AEP, driving it to break down DNA in brain cells.

"Finding drugs that block AEP may help doctors limit permanent brain damage following strokes or seizures," said Ye.

The study is published in the March 28 issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Professional Singers in North India Increasingly Overuse Vocal Chords and Require Treatment

Entertainment industry in India might be experiencing unprecedented growth, but professional singers pay a price. They suffer voice loss. That seems to be particularly the case in the northern region.


Bhojpuri singer Satyendra Kumar, 24, visits New Delhi from a small town in Bihar for voice treatment every two months. Doctors say the long hours of singing are taking a toll on his vocal chords.

Of the 25 patients who come to the speech clinic at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the national capital every week, 50 per cent are professional voice users. “Besides singers, there are television anchors, teachers, call-centre employees and radio jockeys,” says Dr KK Handa, associate professor, ENT department at AIIMS.

Thanks to the popularity of music talent hunts, aspiring singers like Satyendra, even child prodigies, are losing their voices. The pressure to perform and long hours of practice are the biggest causes.

A young winner at a popular music talent hunt approached a city doctor for voice correction a couple of years ago. “The boy of seven was made to devote eight hours to sing a day. We had to counsel the parents before the child. Unrealistic ambitions and lack of knowledge were playing havoc with the child,” says Dr Handa.

Repeated abuse of voice often leads to development of nodules and polyps in vocal chords. If not treated in time, it could lead to permanent damage, reports the Hindustan Times.


The US-based National Center for Voice and Speech has noted, “Assaults from the environment - pollution, sudden changes in humidity or exposure to pharmacological agents - can make vocal fold tissues irritated or vulnerable to damage. In other cases, disease or trauma impairs the vocal folds, larynx or surrounding tissues. Genetic factors also play a role; some individuals’ vocal folds appear to be naturally more robust than others. Finally lifestyle choices are significant.


“About 25 percent of the population engages in work that is “vocally demanding.” For these individuals, either their jobs require excessive vocalization or their work environments force them to speak above a high noise level. Examples of professionals with heavy vocal demands include: teachers, lawyers, auctioneers, aerobic instructors, singers, actors and manufacturing supervisors.

"These factors, or a combination of them, converge on an organ whose primary function is not voice production at all, but airway protection. It should come as no surprise that clinics see an increasing number of patients whose vocal systems are mismatched to the load being placed upon them. Patients often report significant work loss and early abandonment of careers in occupations with high voice use.

"Historically, speech-language pathologists and otolaryngologists encouraged their patients to allow their voices to rest. However, sometimes this simple advice isn’t feasible. Telling a politician not to talk is like telling a football player not to get tackled or a ballerina not to get on her toes.

For this reason, an emphasis should go beyond therapy, or rehabilitation. Training in optimal usage of the voice under less than ideal circumstances, or habilitation, is also a task set before the speech-language pathologist specializing in vocology.”

Dr Ameet Kishore, senior consultant at Apollo Hospital, receives about five patients with voice problems a week. “We often have to guide patients about using their voice in the correct manner,” he says.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Normal Weight People too are Not Spared from Heart, Metabolic Problems

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have found that people with normal Body Mass Index (BMI) who have the highest percentage of body fat are also at a risk of metabolic disturbances linked to heart disease.


The results are in contrast to the long-held belief that maintaining a normal weight automatically guards against disorders such as high levels of circulating blood fats and a tendency to develop metabolic syndrome, which often leads to type 2 diabetes.

The researchers defined "normal weight" by body mass index (BMI) as a condition of having a normal BMI with high body fat percentage.

"Using the term ’normal weight obesity’ is really a way of being more precise about the changing conceptualization of obesity, because the real definition of obesity is excess body fat. Our study demonstrates that even people with normal weight may have excessive body fat, and that these people are at risk for metabolic abnormalities that lead to diabetes and, eventually, to heart disease," said Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, M.D., a cardiologist on the Mayo research team.

For the study, the researchers examined 2,127 adults, equally divided between men and women, who had normal weight (BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 units).

Later they assessed the participants’ body composition, with their risk factors for metabolic and heart disease being collected by the U.S. government in its Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Using this data, it was found that normal weight obesity was highly prevalent, affecting more than half of patients with a normal weight as defined by the BMI.

When they controlled for age, sex and race, it was found that normal weight obesity subjects had significantly higher rates of several alterations in blood chemistry that can negatively affect heart and metabolism health.


These markers of disregulation include altered blood lipid profile, such as cholesterol; high leptin, a hormone found in fat and other tissues and is involved in appetite regulation; higher rates of metabolic syndrome.

The study is significant, as heart disease remains the major cause of death and disability in Western countries.

The study suggested that the time has now come for a new measure of body fat.

"Combined, the data from our earlier work and the current study suggest it’s time for a new measure of body fat as a risk factor of heart disease," said Dr. Lopez-Jimenez.

The results of this study will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session next week in Chicago.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

More ATMs in rural Bangladesh

Over 300 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) would be set up in rural areas of Bangladesh to provide improved banking services to the rural populace deprived of these services.

In lieu of this, Cash Link Bangladesh and Euronet Worldwide have tied up to set up 505 automated teller machines (ATMs) across the country in next three years, of which more than 60 per cent would be in rural areas.

As per the agreement, Euronet will work as the Cash Link’s technology operations management partner, reports Daily Star.

According to the project proposal, the project is estimated to cost US $17 million, of which entrepreneurs will contribute US $4 million as equity and the remaining money will be financed from bank loans.

Meanwhile, central bank has set a branch opening guideline for the banks, which says that a bank has to open at least one branch in rural area if it opens four urban branches. But most of the private banks are reluctant to open branches in rural areas to avert losses.

With the help of this project, the country is aiming to make cashless banking happened not only in urban areas but also in the rural, with issuing over three million debit and pre-paid cards by 2010.

Besides ATMs, some 10,000 point-of-sale (POS) centres, 9.5 lakh debit and 22.55 lakh pre-paid cards will be marketed under the project by 2010, according to Daily Star report.

Asia HIV graph to jump 150% by 2020

Unless Asia mounts a more effective step to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS, the number of HIV infective people in Asia could jump by more than 150 per cent or eight million by 2020.

According to a new report ‘Redefining AIDS in Asia - Crafting an Effective Response’ presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon , the number of people newly infected by 2020 can be kept to three million if Asian leaders implement priority interventions right away.

The report from the Commission on AIDS in Asia further stated that nearly five million people are living with HIV in Asia, with 4.4 lakh people dying each year. However, without concerted efforts, the annual death toll will increase to almost five lakh by 2020.

An annual investment of only 30 cents per capita on focused prevention programmes can reverse the epidemic, the report added, which was presented by the Commission’s Chairman Chakravarthi Rangarajan.

AIDS is the most likely cause of death and work days lost among 15-44-year olds in Asia, according to the commission, which worked on the report for 18 months.

Asia ranks second regionally in HIV cases behind Sub-Saharan Africa, which has an estimated 22.5 million people living with HIV, the commission’s report revealed.

The report called for the creation of the political will of governments and the involvement of community-based organizations to scale up response, noting that countries in Asia have the resources, technology and organisational capacity for the response.

Speaking on the occasion, Ki-moon said that Asia has proved before that it can act decisively and effectively in the face of grave threats, as seen in the swift and resolute response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) five years ago.

Noting that Asian countries have the capacity to tackle AIDS with the same resolve and creativity, he said that it will require a collective effort on all fronts—from gender inequality to stigma, discrimination and marginalisation of populations such as migrants and ethnic minorities.

The Secretary-General added, “If we invest early enough and judiciously, we can achieve an effective response.”

Rangarajan, who is also the Chairman of Indian Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, stated that the problem of HIV in Asia is assuming proportions which demand and which require greater focus and attention.

He further said that the report looked at three aspects of the epidemic, which include the seriousness of the problem, the nature of the problem and the kinds of policies required.

“It is estimated that HIV may emerge as the single largest cause of death for adults in the age group 15-42,” Rangarajan said, adding that the three major drivers of the disease are commercial sex workers and their clients, injection drug users and men having sex with men.

The Commission recommends that watchdog bodies be set up to monitor national programmes, and that activities such as commercial sex and injection drug use be decriminalised, besides additional resources are also critical to scaling up efforts to tackle the problem.

“By implementing the recommendations of the commission, Asian countries can avert massive increases in infections and death, prevent economic losses and save millions of people from poverty,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

He further added that the report tackles some really tough issues and calls for stronger leadership to address problems such as discrimination and to support HIV prevention among commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men and injection drug users.

“In addition, the report emphasises the need to increase the involvement of communities and people living with HIV from token involvement to full partnership,” Piot stated.

The commission said efforts to develop policies to combat HIV also must directly include the communities most affected by the disease.

No work, all pay: Courtesy DPAR

The Personal Secretaries (PS) of at least two Union Ministers in the Government of India are feeling the heat of biased governance.

The PS to Minister of State (MoS) for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, V B Singh, a 1985 batch IES cadre officer has no work since last five months. The reason: Singh’s style of working does not match the likes of his boss—Md Taslimuddin.

The controversial minister involved in many criminal cases is said to be a blue-eyed nominee of Railways Minister Lalu Prasad in the UPA Government.

He has shown his instincts in the ministry as well by ordering removal of Singh’s name plate from his chamber.

Disgusted with the behaviour of the minister, Singh wrote to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) seeking transfer to some other office, but his request was yet to be heard.

Singh has now no option but to pass his hours in the same office without any work, awaiting instructions from the Personnel Department.

Taslimuddin, on the other hand, refuted the charges of Singh saying he had already released him from office. Why he released Singh from his office is a question Taslimuddin does not want to give an answer.

Another PS Vimal Kirti Singh, who is attached with the MoS for Food and Public Distribution, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, is also waiting for his posting in the new cadre post since last one year.

The 1986- batch Jharkhand cadre IAS officer was promoted to Supertime Scale (18400-500-22400) last year and as a norm should have been given a posting matching his seniority.

But despite his requests to the concerned department for the same he is yet to get his new work order.

When contacted, an official in the DPAR said the applications were being processed on priority basis.

India okays Rs 3,780 Cr for minority development

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in India has given a go ahead to the Rs 3,780 crore development programme for 90 minority concentration districts in the country.

The centrally sponsored ‘Multi-sectoral Development Programme’ is a part of the 15-point package for minority development conceived by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and promoted by the newly constituted Minority Affairs Ministry.

Under the programme, 100 per cent central assistance would be provided during the Eleventh Five Year Plan for improving socio-economic parameters and basic amenities of the people in these districts.

It would also include absolutely critical infrastructure linkages like connecting roads, basic health infrastructure, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centres, skill development.

Besides, marketing facilities required for improving living conditions and economic opportunities and catalysing the growth process would also be eligible for inclusion in the plan.

According to the government spokesperson, the programme will mainly focus on rural and semi-rural areas of the identified 90 minority concentration districts and will be implemented by the Panchayati Raj institutions, scheduled area councils and other such local representative bodies.

Financial assistance would made available to these districts to address the ‘development deficits’ that were either not met fully by existing schemes and programmes or catered to by any scheme and programme of the state or central government.

However, the fund for the programme will be released only to those states and Union Territories (UTs) committing to constituting a state and district level committee for implementation of the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities.

Besides, the states and UTs would also need to notify a department with clear responsibility to deal with schemes and set up IT-enabled cell to look after the implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the programme.

While the government has earmarked Rs 120 core for the scheme during fiscal 2007-08, it plans to spend Rs 800 crore in 2008-09.

The government has also decided that identified ‘development deficits’ would be made up through a district specific plan for provision of better infrastructure for education, sanitation, pucca housing, drinking water and electricity supply, besides beneficiary oriented schemes for creating income generating opportunities.

The CCEA also envisaged putting in place a suitable monitoring system, where an independent in-depth evaluation would be made after two years to assess the need for any mid-term correction.

Railways moots $160 mn modernisation plan

The Indian Railways is expected to invest approximately $23.5 million for procurement of machines and approximately $140 million for modernisation of workshops over the next one year.

According to Member Mechanical RK Rao “the concept of ‘workshop modernisation’ itself has undergone a sea change The rapidly growing Indian economy is making huge demands on the infrastructure and logistics. The sprawling Indian rail network has a definite edge in providing the most critical input to the economy namely transportation.

To retain this edge improve further, the Indian Railways have a massive investment plan of Rs. 2,50,000 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan, Rao said. He was speaking at a two-day International Seminar on “Railway Workshop Modernisation & New technology in Machine Tools” organized by the Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers, Central Organization for Modernization of Workshops (COFMOW) Chapter.

Indian Railways has more than 50 independent Mechanical Engineering Workshops and Production Units which undertake manufacturing, overhaul and repair activities for locomotives, coaches, wagons and other railway assets.

Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers has been actively engaged in dissemination of Railway Engineering knowledge among its members, industry and users through a large pool of distinguished technical experts.

Intel gifts 300 PCs to Chhattisgarh

Intel on Wednesday donated 300 PCs to Chhattisgarh to enable government-run schools reap full benefits of effective technology integration in teaching and learning and through its computers and teacher training program.

This includes 250 computers and 50 Classmate PCs, which would help in extending the company’s World Ahead Programme to deeper beneficiaries in the education system, such as Ashramshalas and schools for girls.

The company further stated that over 50 schools in Chhattisgarh would benefit, with each school receiving minimum of five PCs for usage in classrooms.

The initiative also aims at strengthening the Intel Teach Program that helps classroom teachers effectively integrate technology to enhance student learning.

Over 2,000 teachers have so far been trained under the programme in Chhattisgarh, who in turn have reached 3.6 lakh students, enabling them to take up socially relevant issues as part of their curriculum.

“With quality education and access to technology, school children are able to creatively apply their learning to improve the environment they live in,” Intel South Asia Corporate Affairs Director and India Business Operations Manager Rahul Bedi said.

The PCs will be used to further improve education and increase access to the state’s vast resources of information, besides they will be wireless-enabled and supported with Internet connectivity and basic software applications and digital educational resources.

Intel is also working with the Chhattisgarh Government towards equipping uninitiated teachers into using technology by conducing regular refresher courses, enhancement workshops, technology workshops and principal seminars to sustain and promote ICT integration in government schools.

The company plans to train 7,000 teachers in the next two years, and adopt various schools for technology aided learning implementation.

Keeping alive this initiative in India, Intel plans to donate 10,000 PCs to state governments and teacher training institutions, as well as train one million teachers on the application of technology to improve classroom learning by 2008.

CII-KPMG launches Tsunami measures in TN

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with the support of leading corporate houses in India has launched long-term rehabilitation measures for the Tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Under the capacity building operations, it has launched a series of rehabilitation projects for the Tsunami victims at Tiruvallur District.

CII along with KPMG launched a healthcare centre and two desalination plants at Pazhaverkadu Village of Tiruvallur District in Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 77 lakh.

The much-needed healthcare centre at Andal Madam in Pazhaverkadu would be utlised by over 50,000 people living in Pazhaverkadu and adjoining villages. Presently, the people in these villages need to travel 20-25 km to access medical services.

The healthcare centre along with a mobile medical unit has been handed over to the NGO AIM for Seva who will be run and maintain this for the benefit of the community.

This centre will have one doctor a nurse to serve the people of Pazhaverkadu and surrounding areas.

It would provide basic and emergency medical care for all people in the vicinity, besides providing modern medicines along with Ayurveda, homeopathy, yoga techniques in specific cases.

The healthcare centre will focus on reproductive and child health—ante natal care, post natal care, child vaccination, monitoring the child health upto the age of five, educating the mother on child health and nutrition.

It will also hold medical camps for eyes and dental health, periodically and operate mobile medical services, besides imparting health education to the villagers.

According to CII, the desalination plants at Arangan Kuppam and Thirumalai Nagar, Pazhaverkadu would provide quality drinking water to the people at Pazhaverkadu and neighboring villages.

The plant will have a capacity to treat 1,000 litres of drinking water per hour through reverse osmosis and ultra-violet (UV) treatment.

The project would serve around 350 families in Arangan Kuppam and 400 families in Thirumalai Nagar and would help the villages in tackling the acute water shortage and difficulty in ferrying water from the main land, CII added.

The CII Southern Region CSR Sub-Committee Chairman TT Ashok said that Tsunami rehabilitation initiatives like the one at Pazhaverkadu is a classic example of how the private sector can play a key role in building sustainable social partnership for long-term benefits to the affected people.

Ordinance soon to promote Punjabi language

The Punjab Vidhan Sabha has unanimously passed two resolutions that will help promote and preserve Punjabi language.

As per the first resolution, the House sought making use of Punjabi mandatory for all government officials, including IAS and IPS officers working for the Punjab government.

The second resolution has sought that teaching of Punjabi should be made compulsory in all schools up to class X, irrespective of their affiliation to any board.

The state Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur initiated the resolution after Congress MLA Ajit Inder Singh Mofar brought up a calling attention notice drawing the notice of the minister for Languages towards the resentment among the people due to the non-implementation of the use of Punjabi language in the offices of the Punjab government.

The Minister was quick to respond by saying that it was mainly IAS and IPS officers who did not follow the legislation on the use of Punjabi, suggesting that the Act in question be amended to make non-use of Punjabi punishable.

“I recommend that the house brings a resolution making the use of Punjabi mandatory in all government offices and provide for disciplinary action against those who do not conduct regular work in Punjabi,” Kaur said.

The state government is now expected to bring an ordinance to implement these resolutions. Prior to bringing the resolution, the minister said instructions on the use of Punjabi in official work in government offices already existed.

“However, it is the attitude of officials towards the Punjabi language that matters,” she said while pointing towards the state’s bureaucrats.

Hyperactive Girls More Likely to Face Serious Problems as Adults: Study

Young hyperactive girls are more likely to get hooked on to smoking, under-perform in school or jobs and gravitate towards mentally abusive relationships as adults, says a new study.


The study, conducted by researchers from the Universite de Montreal and the University College London (UCL), followed 881 Canadian girls from the ages of six to 21 years to see how hyperactive or aggressive behaviour in childhood could affect early adulthood.

The research team found that one in 10 girls monitored showed high levels of hyperactive behaviour. Another one in ten girls showed both high levels of hyperactive and physically aggressive behaviour.

“Few studies have looked at the consequences of aggressive and hyperactive behaviour in girls,” said Nathalie Fontaine, UCL lead researcher.

“This study shows that hyperactivity combined with aggressive behaviour in girls as young as six years old may lead to greater problems with abusive relationships, lack of job prospects and teenage pregnancies,” Fontaine said.

Girls with hyperactive behaviour, i.e. restlessness, jumping up and down, a difficulty keeping still or fidgety, while girls exhibiting physical aggression i.e. fighting, bullying, kicking, biting or hitting were found to have a high risk of developing adjustment problems in adulthood.

The study also found that hyperactive or aggressive girls were more vulnerable to grow into smoking, psychologically abusive partners and poor performance in school. What’s more, females with both hyperactivity and physical aggression reported physical and psychological aggression towards their partner, along with early pregnancy and dependency on welfare.
"Our study suggests that girls with chronic hyperactivity and physical aggression in childhood should be targeted by intensive prevention programmes in elementary school, because they are more likely to have serious adjustment problems later in life,” said Fontaine.


“Programmes targeting only physical aggression may be missing a significant proportion of at-risk girls. In fact, our results suggest that targeting hyperactive behaviour will include the vast majority of aggressive girls,” added Fontaine.

The study is published in Archives of General Psychiatry.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Genes and Environment Play Crucial Role in Causing PTSD in Adults

A new study has suggested that people who have been abused as kids and who have variations of a gene, FKBP5, related to stress response may be at an increased risk of suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms as adults.


Researchers led by Dr Rebekah G. Bradley conducted the study in a sample of highly traumatized, low-income men and women living in an urban area. The research appears in the March 19 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on Genetics and Genomic.

The researchers tried to determine the role of variations (polymorphisms) in FKBP5 in predicting PTSD symptoms, and whether these genetic variations interact with increasing levels of both child abuse and other types of trauma exposure to be a predictor of PTSD symptoms during adulthood.

“Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating stress-related psychiatric disorder, with prevalence rates of at least 7 percent to 8 percent in the U.S. population, and with much higher rates among combat veterans and those living in high-violence areas. Initially viewed as a potentially normative response to traumatic exposure, it became clear that not everyone experiencing trauma develops PTSD. Thus, a central question in research on PTSD is why some individuals are more likely than others to develop the disorder in the face of similar levels of trauma exposure,” wrote the authors.

They also added that it is becoming clear that there are critical roles for pre-disposing genetic and environmental influences in determining the psychological risk to the traumatized individual, with child abuse appearing to provide significant risk for the development of PTSD.
The study involved an examination of genetic and psychological risk factors in 900 general medical clinic patients with significant levels of childhood abuse as well as other types of trauma, using a survey combined with genetic testing (single-nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] genotyping).


The participants were largely urban, low-income, black men and women looking for care in the general medical care and obstetrics-gynaecology clinics of an urban public hospital, between 2005 and 2007.

It was found that both the level of child abuse and level of other types of trauma each separately predicted level of adult PTSD symptomatology.

Though genetic variations (FKBP5 SNPs) did not directly foretell PTSD symptom outcome or interact with level of non–child abuse trauma to predict PTSD symptom severity, four variations (SNPs) in the FKBP5 locus (the specific site of a particular gene on its chromosome) significantly interacted with the severity of child abuse to predict level of adult PTSD symptoms.

However, this gene-environment interaction was not considered significant enough while controlling for depression severity scores, age, sex, levels of trauma exposure other than child abuse and genetic ancestry.

“The most novel and important finding of our study was the interaction between FKBP5 polymorphisms and child abuse history to predict the levels of adult PTSD symptoms. These genotypes potentially serve as predictors of both risk and resilience for adult PTSD among survivors of child physical and sexual abuse,” said the authors.

The findings of this study were presented at a JAMA media briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Study of Prisoners’ Mental Health to Be Taken Up in Southern India

A systematic study of the mental health of prisoners is being taken up in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) is conducting the study, the first of its kind in the country.


The Department of Prisons and the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA) will be assisting the prestigious institute in the effort. Governor Rameshwar Thakur launched the project in Bangalore Central Prison on Wednesday.

The findings will be used to sensitise prison staff to the problems of their charge. Hopefully they will lead to better conditions inside the prison.

According to Director and Vice-Chancellor of NIMHANS D. Nagaraja, two per cent of population suffers from serious mental disorders, while about 7 per cent has general mental problems.

And the incidence of such disorders among prisoners is about three times than those who are not incarcerated.

This 18-month project has been divided into three phases, with the first phase assessing the mental health morbidity of prison inmates.

P. Rajini of Bangalore Prison Hospital, who is one among the five psychiatrists involved in the study, said answers to a detailed 40-page questionnaire would be elicited from about 5,000 detenus — including long term under-trials and freshers.

The responses would be studied by the five member investigation team headed by Suresh Bada Math, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, NIMHANS.

In the second phase, the institute is to conduct a series of training programmes for officials of the Central Prisons in Bangalore, Mysore, Dharwad, Belgaum, Bellary, Gulbarga and Bijapur.
In the third phase, NIMHANS will publish its findings and recorded data in a book that could serve as a guide for managing prisons.


Speaking on the occasion, Governor Rameshwar Thakur said though prison inmates underwent a lot of physical and mental stress, they did not receive adequate attention.

There was a pressing need to improve the identification and management of mental disorders at the primary care level, he said.

Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court Cyriac Joseph, who is also the chief patron of KSLSA, said the authority was proud to be associated with the project that would serve as an example for other States to emulate. The authority had financed the project and had released Rs. 13.72 lakh for the purpose.

He stressed that notwithstanding the restrictions on their movement, the prisoners had the right of access to healthcare as those outside.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Folate Intake Keeps Men’s Sperm Normal

Men who take folic acid supplements and who eat a diet rich in green vegetables, fruit and lentils have fewer abnormal sperm, according to a research at the University of California.


Pregnant women take vitamins known as folates to prevent birth defects.

The men who took folic acid supplements and ate folate-rich foods had “fewer abnormal sperm in which a chromosome had been lost or gained, known as aneuploidy.”

Researches said this is the first study to investigate the effects of diet on sperm quality. American scientists involved in the research found that an intake of high levels of vitamin B could reduce the number of abnormalities in sperm and could reduce the number of children being born with conditions such as Down's syndrome.

"We found a statistically significant association between high folate intake and lower sperm aneuploidy," said Brenda Eskenazi, who helped lead the research team.

"There was increasing benefit with increasing intake, and men in the upper 25th percentile who had the highest intake of folate between 722-1150 micrograms, had 20 percent to 30 percent lower frequencies of several types of aneuploidy compared with men with a lower intake," added Eskenazi.

However, lead authors of the study said they couldn’t be sure that it is the high intake of folate that leads directly to fewer sperm abnormalities. It may also be that the men were generally on the healthy side.

If further researches confirm the findings of this study it may lead to recommendations for men as well as women to take folic acid before trying to conceive.

The study was based on 89 healthy men and is reported in the journal Human Reproduction.

Source-Medindia
THK/L

Indian Government to Prepare National Action Plan to Deal With Climate Change: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his Government is preparing a National Action Plan at the highest level to deal with the issues of climate change, including corrective measures for mitigating its impact on food grain production.


Noted scientist and nominated member M.S. Swaminathan raised an issue in the Rajya Sabha and asked whether the Government was drawing contingency plans for dealing with the impact of environment change on specific crops like potato and wheat.

While responding to the issue, Singh said the impact of climate change has gained the attention of the Government and preparing a National Action Plan to deal with the issues of climate change was in the process.

Singh said there was a need for such plans to deal with a situation arising out of wheat being used for feeding the birds and maize being diverted to make ethanol. Singh also said he had convened a meeting of the concerned ministers in this regard only two days ago.

Meanwhile, Environment Minister N N Meena said the report of an expert committee working under the guidance of the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Changes would submit its report before June this year.

Meena said the Prime Minister has directed both the Department of Agriculture and the Planning Commission to prepare a comprehensive plan to deal with the impact of climate change on foodgrains production.

Source-ANI
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HDL-associated Protein Tied to Heart Disease Risk

A new study has found a link between the gene for the HDL-associated protein paraoxonase 1 (PON1) and adverse cardiac events such as coronary artery disease.


Researcher Stanley L. Hazen, M.D., Ph.D of the Cleveland Clinic and colleagues have also found that the variations in both the PON1 gene and its enzyme activity might increase the likelihood of cardiovascular disease events.

For the study, Dr. Hazen and colleagues examined the link between PON1 activity (such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities) and whether a PON1 gene variation (polymorphism) Q192R was linked to a higher rate of cardiovascular disease and major adverse cardiac events.

In the study, the researchers included 1,399 patients who elected to undergo diagnostic coronary angiography between September 2002 and November 2003, and were followed-up until December 2006.

Hazen and colleagues found that participants in the highest PON1 activity quartile (7.3 percent for paraoxonase) were significantly less likely to have major adverse cardiac events as compared to those in the lowest activity quartile (25.1 percent for paraoxonase).

The study also indicated that variations of the PON1 gene demonstrated significant dose-dependent associations with decreased levels of serum PON1 activity and increased levels of measures of oxidative stress and that the PON1 Q192R polymorphism and serum PON1 activity were associated with both coronary artery disease and adverse cardiovascular events over the ensuing three year period after enrollment in the study.

“The current findings provide direct prospective evidence of an important mechanistic link between the PON1 gene and PON1 systemic activity measures with both multiple quantitative indices of oxidative stress and atherosclerotic heart disease development in humans,” the researchers said.
“Paraoxonase 1 is [strongly] associated with HDL particles within the circulation and has been argued to promote some of the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects attributed to HDL.


“Thus, the present studies also provide further support for the concept that functional properties beyond the ability of HDL and its associated proteins to promote reverse cholesterol transport contribute to the overall ability of this lipoprotein to reduce or prevent development of atherosclerosis,” the researchers added.

The study is published in the March 19 issue of JAMA.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Teen Pregnancies can Be Reduced by Comprehensive Sex Education

Comprehensive sex education might lead to less teen pregnancy, says a new research which found no indications that such knowledge boosts the levels of sexual intercourse or sexually transmitted diseases.


The study, led by Pamela Kohler, a program manager at the University of Washington in Seattle, stated that it is not harmful to teach teens about birth control in addition to abstinence.

“It is not harmful to teach teens about birth control in addition to abstinence,” Kohler said.

The findings were based on the results of the 2002 national survey, which involved 1,719 teens, and focused on heterosexual teens ages 15 to 19.

The researchers found that one in four teens received abstinence-only education. Nine percent, particularly the poor and those in rural areas, received no sex education at all. The other two-thirds received comprehensive instruction with discussion of birth control.

Teens who received comprehensive sex education were 60 percent less likely to report becoming pregnant or impregnating someone than those who received no sex education. The likelihood of pregnancy was 30 percent lower among those who had abstinence-only education compared to those who received no sex education, but the researchers deemed that number statistically insignificant because few teens fit into the categories that researchers analyzed.

The findings support comprehensive sex education, Kohler said.

“There was no evidence to suggest that abstinence-only education decreased the likelihood of ever having sex or getting pregnant,” she said.
Don Operario, Ph.D., a professor at Oxford University in England, said the study provides “further compelling evidence” about the value of comprehensive sex education and the “ineffectiveness” of the abstinence-only approach.


The study is published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Depressed Women Likely to Have More Active Sexual Lives

Women who are depressed tend to have more sex than their happier counterparts, even if they aren’t in a relationship.


The finding is based on a survey of 107 depressed and non-depressed Aussie women who were in relationships.

The researchers found that not only did women suffering from mild to moderate depression have more active sexual lives, but also had sexually liberated attitudes, a bigger variety of sexual experiences, but also if single, they also tended to indulge in casual sex.

"It was more sex and more of everything from kissing to petting, foreplay and intercourse," News.com.au quoted lead author Dr Sabura Allen, as saying.

"We knew this anecdotally from clinical samples but this is the first time it's been shown in research," she added.

Dr Allen said that the reason depressed women were more likely to have sex was that it helps them feel secure.

"When people are depressed they feel more insecure about their relationships and concerned that their partner may not care about them or find them valuable. Having sex helps them feel that closeness and security," she said.

The study, soon to be published in a British medical journal, was presented at the International Congress on Women's Mental Health in Melbourne.

Source-ANI
SRM/M

Cortisol Could Afford Relief to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Sufferers

Stress hormone cortisol could afford considerable relief to those suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, a California study finds.


Chronic fatigue is a condition in which people have debilitating fatigue that may be get worse with activity and is not relieved by rest.
Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by multiple pain points in muscles throughout the body and fatigue. Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia affect 0.5 to five per cent of the population, according to the study's authors.

They reviewed 50 published studies to find that in people suffering from such problems their adrenal glands don’t work effectively. These glands produce sex hormones and cortisol, it may be noted.

"My review of existing studies suggests that a treatment protocol of early administration of cortisol may help improve and reduce the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia," said Dr. Kent Holtorf, medical director of the Holtorf Medical Group Center for Endocrine, Neurological and Infection Related Illness in Torrance, California, in a release.

Holtorf also conducted an observational study with 500 patients from his clinic, who received cortisol as part of their treatment. He found that by the fourth visit, 84 per cent reported improvement, with 75 per cent showing "significant improvement," and 62 per cent reporting substantial improvement.

The typical dose of cortisol adminstered to patients was 5 to 15 mg. Concentrations in the body were measured throughout the study using urine analysis.
"Cortisol treatment carries significantly less risk and a greater potential for benefit than treatments considered to be the standard of care for both conditions," said Holtorf.


The study is published in the winter issue of the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Dysfunctional Migration System has Put Indonesia's Migrant Workers in a tight spot

Denied food and cooped up for two months as a virtual prisoner in northern Iraq, Indonesian migrant worker Darmiati said she is a victim of abuse that started even before she left her country.


A recruitment agency in Indonesia told the 22-year-old it could get her a job in Iraq despite the fact that tests showed she had Hepatitis B.

Once there, Darmiati was held by an Iraqi agency who, enraged to learn their Indonesian partners had sold them a woman too sick to work, took her passport and held her until she could repay the 2,500 dollars they said they were owed.

Darmiati's plight, and many like it, is, according to observers, ultimately the fault of a dysfunctional migration system in Indonesia, where weak legal protection, corruption and bad policy are failing migrant workers.

'Indonesia only sees migrant workers as commodities,' said Henny Wiludjeng, a law lecturer at Atma Jaya University.

Labour export is a big earner for Indonesia, where the country's 4.3 million workers abroad brought in 13 billion dollars in 2007, according to BNP2TKI, the government agency set up in 2006 to look after the welfare of such workers.

But standards are often shoddy among the government-approved migration agencies that have the sole right to send workers overseas, said Anis Hidayah, director of advocacy group Migrant Care.

She said tight control of the movement of migrant workers -- from village to foreign workplace -- means they are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse every step along the way.
The path to migrant work usually starts in villages, where recruiters entice workers with the promise of around 100 to 150 dollars a month. Agents then put together travel documents for the workers and find them a job abroad.


But about half of all such documents are faked in some way, said Hidayah and Wiludjeng.

Darmiati's friend, Elly Anita, 26, said her passport was falsified to show her age as 34 to increase her chance of being hired as a domestic worker in the Middle East, where housewives are often jealous of younger women.

Hidayah said migration agents routinely fake details to shirk responsibility if something goes wrong.

'There have been cases where a migrant worker dies, their address and name are wrong so their body is sent to the wrong address,' Hidayah said.

Before they leave, migrant workers must spend at least one month of training at compounds set up by the employment agencies, where they are meant to be taught unfamiliar tasks such as changing disposable nappies.

Hidayah said complaints of squalid conditions and poor training are common in the centres, which dot Jakarta's outer suburbs and are closed off by high walls 'like jails'.

'When... Indonesian migrant workers stay in recruitment agency offices, I think no one can monitor what happens inside. We just know if someone maybe runs away and calls us that something happened to them, like abuse,' she said.

An inspection of 181 training centres earlier this year found about 40 percent were below minimum standards.

Jumhur Hidayat, the head of BNP2TKI, acknowledges the poor training and said his agency is working to improve standards.

Still, he said a lack of training is a key reason Indonesian domestic workers suffer abuse at the hands of foreign bosses frustrated by their lack of language and work skills.

Such cases are well known here in Indonesia. In January, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Nirmala Bonat, an Indonesian maid whose breasts and back were severely burned with an iron by her Malaysian boss after she broke a mug.

lDarmiati, who along with Anita managed to win freedom after two months by secretly making outside contact, said she suffered in the agency's office in Iraq where she was held with 24 other Indonesian women.

'Each day I'd cry with my friends, pretend to be sick, not eat. The guard, a Turkish man, was very fierce and if he busted one of us we'd all be punished and not be allowed to eat, up to a week not eating,' she said.

According to Anita, at least 24 women -- and possibly more than 50 -- were still being held by the Iraqi agency. The Indonesian agent who organised Darmiati's trip overseas, Gunawan, is awaiting trial for human trafficking.

The womens' case highlights the fact that Indonesia does not have a law requiring destination nations to abide by minimum labour standards, as does the Philippines, said lecturer Wiludjeng, leaving the migrants more vulnerable to abuse.

Despite the problems, the BNP2TKI's Hidayat said he doesn't see a need to change Indonesia's migration programme -- and that it was still better for migrant workers than letting them find work on their own.

'The migrant workers, usually they are domestic workers, are naive, they bring quite a lot of money, they bring big luggage and they are women,' he said.

Source-AFP
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Thai Military to Create 'New Category' for Transsexuals

Thailand's military will stop branding transsexual conscripts as mentally disturbed, and will list them in a new "third category" as neither male nor female, a senior officer said Wednesday.


Thai men are required to report for the draft once they turn 21. Under the current system, transsexuals are rejected as suffering from "a mental disorder."

Gay rights groups complained that the label penalises transsexuals for the rest of their lives, because men are required to prove if they have completed their national service when they apply for jobs or bank loans.

When transsexuals submit their military rejection forms declaring they have a mental disorder, they are automatically disqualified from many jobs and mortgages.

Lieutenant General Somkiat Suthivaiyakij, head of the defence ministry's Reserve Command Department, said the military would immediately stop using the mental disorder label.

The military is trying to find a new word for a "third category" that is neither male nor female, that would not discriminate against transsexuals, he said.

Until the army decides on the new category, transsexual conscripts will be turned away with a form saying they have an illness that cannot be cured within 30 days.

"It's a temporary measure to deal with the problem as the defence and interior ministries work on a permanent solution," Somkiat told AFP.

To qualify for the third category, transsexuals will have to report for the draft for three years in a row to prove they are really trying to live as women, he added.

The annual draft takes place in April, and transsexuals make up less than one percent of the conscripts each year, Somkiat said.

Source-AFP
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Shrinking Water Resources Threatening World Population

A world without fresh water would be a world bereft of humans, and yet one in five people lacks regular access to this most basic of life-sustaining substances.


By 2025, fully a third of the planet's growing population could find itself scavenging for safe drinking water, the United Nations has warned ahead of World Water Day on Saturday.

More than two million people in developing countries -- the vast majority children -- die every year from diseases associated with unsanitary water.

There are a number of interlocking causes for this scourge.

Global economic growth, population pressures and the rise of mega-cities have all driven water use to record levels.

Mexico City, Jakarta and Bangkok, to name a few, have underground water sources -- some of them nonrenewable -- depleting at alarming rates.

In Beijing, home to 16 million, aquifers have fallen by more than a dozen metres (40 feet) in 30 years, forcing the government to earmark tens of billions of dollars for a scheme to ferry water from the Yangzte River in the south to the country's parched north.

Aggravating the shortages are pathogen and chemical pollution, which have transformed many primary sources of water in the developing world into toxic repositories of disease.

Desperation forces people to consume these contaminated waters.

"In the coming decades, water scarcity may be a watchword that prompts action ranging from wholesale population migration to war, unless new ways to supply clean water are found," comment a team of researchers in a review of water purification technology published Thursday in the British journal Nature.
But even as scientists and governments look for ways to satisfy a thirsty world, another threat looms on the horizon: global warming.


Rising sea levels are already forcing salt water into aquifers beneath megadeltas that are home to tens of millions, and changing weather patterns are set to intensify droughts in large swathes of Africa, southern Europe and Asia, according to UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).

Experts and policy makers point to three broad categories of initiatives to ease the shortage of clean, drinkable water, especially in the world's poorest regions: sanitation, purification, and water management.

"Poor sanitation combines with a lack of safe drinking water and inadequate hygiene to contribute to the terrible global death toll," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said earlier this month.

"Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of the abysmal sanitation conditions endured by some 2.6 billion people globally," he said in launching the International Year of Sanitation.

Less than half the households in major Asian cities are connected to sewers, which means that tonnes of raw sewage runs into rivers and oceans, according to the UN.

In Latin America and Africa that figure drops to 40 and 20 percent, respectively.

While governments attempt to improve sanitation infrastructure, scientists are developing new technology to purify the water available, said Mark Shannon, a professor at the University of Illinois and Director of the US government funded Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems.

"Desalination with reverse osmosis is already the largest single growth area in terms of new water supplies," he told AFP in an interview.

New techniques of reverse osmosis use membranes with nanometer-size pores to filter out salt and other contaminants from water, and could for the first time pave the way for industrial-scale use.

Micro-filters are also used to decontaminate bodies of water increasingly laced with pesticides, arsenic, heavy metals, nitrates and pharmaceutical derivatives.

Current methods of decontamination, however, remain "challenging, expensive and unreliable," said Shannon, and will take years to perfect.

A third method of purification -- and the one most relevant to the poor nations -- is removing or killing bacteria, viruses and other pathogens through disinfection.

"Pathogens are still the biggest problem in the world today in terms of safe water," Shannon said.

With worldwide food production set to expand 50 percent by 2030, scientists are also developing genetically modified grain plants that consume less water and can withstand harsh conditions.

Researchers in the US, for example, have developed genetically engineered rice with a higher tolerance for drought, salt and low temperatures, the three main causes of crop failure.

Source-AFP
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Disfigured French Woman Who Sought Euthanasia Found Dead

A severely disfigured French woman was found dead at her home Wednesday, a local prosecutor said, only two days after a court rejected her request for the right to die, in a case that has stirred much emotion in France.


The high court in Dijon, eastern France, decided Monday to side with the prosecution which argued that current legislation does not allow the doctor of 52-year-old former schoolteacher Chantal Sebire to prescribe lethal drugs.

In her appeal to the court, Sebire had said she did not want to endure further pain and subject herself to an irreversible worsening of her condition. She asked the court to allow her doctor to help her end her life.

Sebire's body was found at her home in the eastern town of Plombieres-les-Dijon in the Bourgogne region on Wednesday afternoon.

The cause of her death was not immediately known, Dijon prosecutor Jean-Pierre Allachi said.

A mother of three, Sebire attracted a strong outpouring of sympathy when she appealed in a television interview last month for the right to "depart peacefully".

Before-and-after pictures of the woman, her face severely deformed, have been featured in the press along withd her account of frightened children who ran away at the sight of her.

Sebire learnt in 2002 that she had developed an esthesioneuroblastoma, an uncommon malignant tumour in the nasal cavity, which she said had led to "atrocious" suffering.
"In 2000, I lost the sense of smell and taste... and I lost my sight in October 2007," she said in the television interview.


"One would not allow an animal to go through what I have endured," she said before urging President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene and grant her request.

Commenting on the case, Justice Minister Rachida Dati said last week that "doctors were not there to prescribe lethal drugs."

Legislation adopted in 2005 allows families to request that life-support equipment for a terminally-ill patient be switched off, but does not allow a doctor to take action to end a patient's life.

Sarkozy asked his chief adviser on health issues to contact Sebire and seek a second opinion on her condition.

Sebire had said she would not appeal the decision rendered Monday and that she would find life-terminating drugs through other means.

"I now know how to get my hands on what I need and if I don't get it in France, I will get it elsewhere," she said.

Only 200 cases of the disease have been recorded worldwide in two decades.

Sebire's death came on the same day as 78-year-old Belgian author Hugo Claus's death by euthanasia while suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are the only European Unions that currently allow euthanasia.

Source-AFP
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Now a Single Jab Could Prevent Two Dangerous Tick Diseases

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, have developed an injection that protects against two severe diseases transmitted by tick bites: Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis.


In 2006, the US saw nearly 20,000 cases of Lyme disease and there are up to 2,000 cases a year in the UK, a figure that is increasing steadily.

However, now researchers have said that it might get cured with a single injection.

“Along the North-eastern seaboard of the US, ticks are often co-infected with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis,” said Dr Nordin Zeidner.

“Currently there is no vaccine to protect against either organism. We have shown that a single injection of sustained-release antibiotics can prevent both diseases in mice,” Zeidner added.

During the study, the researchers found that a single dose of doxycycline given orally is only 20-30 percent effective at preventing these diseases in mice.

However, a new formulation of doxycycline hyclate that is programmed to release the drug over a 20-day period is 100 percent effective.

“The underlying copolymer formulation has been in use for over 20 years. It has no adverse effect on humans and it can be programmed to release a drug over several weeks to several months,” Zeidner said.

“We plan to test the doxycycline formulation to develop different release kinetics and delivery methods. For example, a slow release patch could be used in conjunction with current recommended protection against ticks, such as repellents and personal tick checks,” Zeidner added.

The study is published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

Source-ANI
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Compounds That may Provide Promising Therapies for Cystic Fibrosis Identified

University of Toronto scientists say that they have identified several compounds that may pave the way for developing innovative therapies against cystic fibrosis, a serious disease that causes blockages in the lungs and other organs like the liver and the pancreas.


Professor Igor Stagljar, who led the research project, says that one of the compounds identified by his team, exosin, has been found to significantly inhibited infections in mammalian cells, suggesting that it has the potential to improve the effectiveness of antibiotics in the treatment of chronic and acute bacterial respiratory infections in cystic fibrosis patients.

Previous studies had suggested that the onset of certain chronic or deadly infections in cystic fibrosis patients could be prevented by administering them early antibiotic treatment.

However, the current availability of antibiotics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen that may cause a host of infections, is limited. Moreover, the pathogen has started to show signs of drug resistence these days.

Professor Stagljar now says that he and his colleagues have identified several drugs that block a key protein that underpins Pseudomonas aeruginosa's ability to spread infections, called exoenzymeS (ExoS).

"These studies created a road map to the rational design of more potent, highly selective inhibitors against other similar toxins using a totally novel yeast-based approach," says lead author Professor Stagljar.

He says that his research may also serve as a model for future therapies against the HIV virus.
“This innovative approach is an important advance, not only for the value it may have in cystic fibrosis treatment, but also because this technique could be used to design novel therapies for any bacterial pathogen as well as the HIV virus,” he adds.


Professor Stagljar and his colleagues are gearing up to test their inhibitors on an animal model of cystic fibrosis.

Source-ANI
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Researchers Zero in on Molecular Pathways Underlying Sleep Apnea

US researchers have, for the first time, provided a detailed look at the molecular pathways underlying sleep apnea, which may lead to new treatments for the condition.


Sleep apnea is characterized by temporary breathing interruptions during sleep, in which disruptions can occur dozens or even hundreds of times a night.

The research team found that in an animal model of sleep apnea, poorly folded proteins accumulate in one compartment of a muscle nerve cell, which, under certain conditions, tells a cell to heal itself or destroy itself.

“Muscles relax as a normal part of sleep, causing the airway to close,” said senior author Sigrid C. Veasey, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, at the Penn Center for Sleep.

“But in patients with sleep apnea, oxygen levels in cells drop too low, sending an arousal signal to wake by gasping for air. This happens all night long, so patients experience bad quality sleep. In addition to problems with sleepiness, subtle peripheral neural injury occurs,” Veasey added.

In a mouse model of sleep apnea, the researchers found that motor neurons of the jaw and face had swollen endoplasmic reticula, the part of the cell where proteins get folded properly.

They surmised that misfolded proteins accumulated as the endoplasmic reticula of mice were exposed to decreased oxygen and oxygen fluctuations during sleep over eight weeks. The involvement of the endoplasmic reticula has never been shown before in explaining the physiology of sleep apnea on a cellular level, says Veasey.
Sensor proteins sitting on the surface of the endoplasmic reticula get activated by poorly folded proteins within.


The research team worked with one of those proteins, called PERK. When PERK gets activated, two things can happen: The cell can take a pathway to fix itself or one that leads to self destruction. The cell makes that decision based on its initial health.

“If a patient has sleep apnea with healthy cells, the cells will take the fix-it path. Then good things happen; the cell activates another molecule called eIF-2alpha, which turns on helpful molecules like anti-oxidants that degrade the misfolded proteins,” said Veasey.

However if cells are unhealthy to begin with, the PERK pathway can also turn on molecules that cause the cell to turn on itself and activate apoptosis or cell death.

“In this event, we predict that patients with sleep apnea may lose motor neurons. Eventually sleep apnea could continue to worsen since the few remaining neurons are already stressed when gasping for air during sleep,” added Veasey.

The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Source-ANI
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Damage to D1 Neurons too Could Lead to Huntington’s Disease

Australian researchers have found that damage to D1 neurons too could lead to the Huntington’s disease. Thus far the focus had been on D2 neurons only.


In Huntington’s disease, the first evidence of damage in the brain occurs in the part of the brain called the striatum; D1 and D2 neurons constitute 90% of neurons in the striatum.

It was previously thought that dopamine neurons, called D2 neurons, were responsible for the devastating symptoms seen in Huntington’s disease but researchers at Melbourne’s Howard Florey Institute have proven that loss of D1 neurons causes many of the disabling symptoms of the diseases.

Their discovery could be said to have opened up new treatment possibilities for the Huntington’s.

Research leader John Drago, said now that the importance of D1 neurons in HD had been established, they could work towards therapies that focused on both D1 and D2 neurons.

“Currently there is no effective treatment for Huntington’s disease and patients suffer from debilitating movement, memory, and psychiatric problems,” he said.

Drago’s discovery was made after he genetically engineered a mouse with damaged D1 neurons alone but which still developed the Huntington’s.

While a mouse model that carries the human Huntington's disease gene already exists, Drago’s mouse model is the first in the world to accurately mimic the death of the D1 neurons in the striatum.

“Despite the widespread death of D1 neurons, the mouse was healthy, apart from having HD symptoms,” he said.
“This indicates that there is potential for a tremendous amount of natural repair occurring in the Huntington’s diseased brain.”


“Now the challenge is to thoroughly understand how this natural repair occurs so we can develop a therapy that encourages and enhances repair in human patients.”

“Using the brain’s own adult stem cells to naturally repair and prevent further damage is one treatment possibility that we eventually hope to explore,” he said.

In addition to his research career, Drago is a neurologist at the St Vincent’s Hospital Movement Disorder Clinic, where he treats patients with HD.

“It was the lack of effective treatments for patients that inspired me to undertake this research, so it is extremely satisfying to solve another piece of the Huntington’s disease puzzle and work towards a cure for this progressive genetic disease,” he said.

His research was published in the 26 February 2007 edition of the highly prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

He was assisted by Dr Ilse Gantois, a postdoctoral researcher from Belgium, and the Florey’s Neuroimaging group led by A/Prof Gary Egan, who undertook MRI scans of the mouse model to show its shrinking striatum as D1 neurons were dying and the response of the brain by making glial cells.

The Florey is taking two different approaches to its Huntington's disease research with this investigation and also Dr Anthony Hannan's environmental enrichment research, which has shown that physical and mental stimulation, can delay the onset of the disease and slow the progression of symptoms.

By tackling HD from two different angles, the Florey researchers hope to accelerate their discoveries into clinical outcomes to benefit HD patients.

The Howard Florey Institute is Australia’s leading brain research centre. Its scientists undertake clinical and applied research that can be developed into treatments to combat brain disorders, and new medical practices. Their discoveries will improve the lives of those directly, and indirectly, affected by brain and mind disorders in Australia, and around the world. The Florey’s research areas cover a variety of brain and mind disorders including Parkinson’s disease, stroke, motor neuron disease, addiction, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, autism and dementia.

Source-Medindia
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Gene Variants Blamed for Bone Fractures, Low Bone Mineral Density Risk

A new study have suggested that variants of the gene LRP5 are linked with an increased risk of fractures and lower levels of bone mineral density in the spine and hip.


The study, led by Joyce B. J. van Meurs, Ph.D., of Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has indicated a 20 percent increased risk of fractures

One of the main characteristics of Osteoporosis is low bone mineral density (BMD), deterioration of bone and increased risk for fractures. Earlier studies have shown that genetic factors determine up to 80 percent of the variance in BMD, which is a major predictor of osteoporotic fractures.

Though the genes that contribute to differences in risk for osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures are unknown, it is believed that the risk of developing osteoporosis is dependent on several common gene variants.

Variations of the gene LRP5 have been linked to bone mass accumulation and susceptibility to osteoporosis, and it has also been suggested that some of these variants contribute to change in BMD in the general population. However, owing to the small sample size the results have been full of loopholes.

For the study, the researchers assessed the link between variants to the genes LRP5 and LRP6 to BMD and risk of fracture using large-scale evidence, with the combined analysis of individual-level data of the full Genetic Markers for Osteoporosis (GENOMOS) consortium, including data from 37,534 individuals from 18 participating teams in Europe and North America.
They also examined bone mineral density through dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (an imaging technique). Fractures were identified via questionnaire, medical records, or radiographic documentation; new fracture data were available for some groups, determined via routine surveillance methods, including radiographic examination for vertebral fractures.


“In this large-scale multicenter collaborative study, we obtained evidence that genetic variation of the LRP5 gene is associated with both BMD and fracture risk. The magnitude of the effects was modest but very consistent across studies. Based on the general acceptance that a 1-standard deviation reduction in bone mass doubles the fracture rate, an increase of fracture risk of about 15 percent to 20 percent is expected. This is similar to the observed effects on fracture, although adjustment for BMD only partly reduced the increase in fracture risk. This could raise the possibility of effects on bone quality, bone dimension, or other nonskeletal determinants of fracture, but also could be due to error in measurement of BMD. Further work will be required to address this point,” said the authors.

They added: “Our findings demonstrate that the modest effects of common genetic variations in complex diseases can be effectively addressed through large consortia and coordinated, standardized analysis. Such effects might be missed by smaller and potentially underpowered individual studies. This prospective collaborative study with individual level-data of 37,534 participants shows an effect of LRP5 genetic variation on both BMD and risk of fracture. While some other common variants have been associated previously with osteoporosis phenotypes [physical manifestations] with large-scale evidence, this may be the first time that an association in this field crosses the threshold of genome-wide statistical significance.”

“Although the magnitude of the effect was modest, the effect was very consistent in different populations and independent of sex or age. This suggests a role for LRP5 in determining BMD and fracture risk throughout life in the general population. Although any single marker explains only a small portion of the phenotype risk, identification of several such osteoporosis risk variants may eventually help in improving clinical prediction. Single genetic risk variants such as LRP5 may also offer useful insights about mechanisms and pathways that may be useful in drug development,” the researchers conclude.

The findings of the study are published in the recent issue of JAMA, a theme issue on Genetics and Genomics and were presented at a JAMA media briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Source-ANI
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Patient Choice About Their Treatment is a Double-edged Sword, Say Doctors

Patients deserve real choice when making decisions about their treatment, but exercising that choice may destabilise existing services, the BMA warns as the Department of Health announces changes to provision of elective hospital care from 1st April 2008 in England.


Dr Jonathan Fielden, Chairman of the BMA’s Consultants Committee, says: “Patients should have real choice about their treatment. This is best led in consultation with their doctor and needs accurate information to help them make that decision. Whilst it is likely that most patients will choose their local hospital, because it is close to where they live and easier to get to, there is a risk that by opting for another provider some other local services would be cut back because of the loss of funding. This may mean, for example, that crucial emergency services would be threatened or that patients would need to travel further from their home than they do now for some conditions.

“I am also worried that it will be difficult for patients to make informed choices. We still have a long way to go in collecting and having access to accurate, reliable and meaningful data that enables patients, working with their doctors, to make full knowledgeable choices about their treatment.”

“Finally the instability of local services will have major impacts on their ability to plan ahead, innovate for the future and train the doctors, nurses and other professionals the NHS requires.”
Responding to the publication of “The Code of Practice for Promotion of NHS Services”, Dr Fielden says: “Patients and doctors should have the best information available to aid their decisions on treatment. However, there is a major risk, as we see in other countries, that opening the floodgates to advertising may dilute the availability of accurate information rather than increase it.


“We are encouraged that the advertising standards authority will oversee the application of the code but it must ensure clear rules and the use of objective, substantiated information.

“We are however most concerned that this will divert desperately needed funds from patient care into the coffers of advertising agencies. Quality care should speak for itself, not be distorted by glamorous pictures and spin to meet the needs of an unhelpful extension of the market in health."

Source-BMA
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Toddler Defies All Odds to Survive After Four Heart Attacks!

A British toddler beat the odds by surviving four heart attacks when he was just 11-weeks old.


Oliver, who was born on January 16, 2007 at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, London, had medical complications since the time he was born.

The doctors at the hospital found he had an irregular heartbeat.

And one day, the child’s parents, Bryan and Anna noticed that Oliver wasn't feeding and had become drowsy.

The doctors informed the couple that their child’s condition was critical. Three times doctors tried to shock Oliver's heart back to a normal rhythm, without success. So he was shifted to another hospital, where he went on ECMO machine, which pumps blood around the body.

Oliver's heart had enlarged, and so he needed bypass surgery.

At the new hospital, the boy suffered a cardiac arrest and was being shocked again.

Although the underlying syndrome couldn't be cured, medics hoped that ECMO machine would keep him stabilized enough so that the condition could be treated with medication. But the solution was a short-term one.

For 18 days, the parents stayed by Oliver's bed, praying that their son's heart would be strong enough to keep him alive when they took him off the machine.

But three attempts failed, leaving his parents in despair.

On the day 18, the couple was told that their son was fine.

For the next two months, Oliver’s parents kept a close eye on the heart monitor next to his bed.
But, just as things started to look better with Oliver, he suffered a terrifying setback - due to toxic poisoning from one of his medicines.


He suffered three cardiac arrests over two days.

Just as the couple strengthened themselves to bid farewell to their beloved son, the moment of Oliver's most dramatic fightback.

"He's so strong. To think someone so tiny can go through so much and survive,” Mirror quoted Anna, as saying about his miracle baby.

Source-ANI
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Urban Sprawl Poses an Extra Risk to Teen Drivers

The wide expansion of cities’ residential, commercial, recreational and public spaces, otherwise known as urban sprawl poses an extra risk to teen drivers, says a new study.


According to Dr. Matthew Trowbridge, emergency medicine physician and lead researcher, teens on an average drive more miles per day in areas with greater sprawl and have a higher rate of fatalities per miles driven than adults.

“While sprawl has been examined for its public health risks including the driving hazards it presents for adults; no one had ever studied its specific impact on teen drivers,” Trowbridge said.

“Over 3,500 teen drivers are killed each year in the United States. Teen driver fatality rates are 4 to 8 times higher than adult drivers. Therefore, environmental characteristics that increase daily miles driven by teens increase their risk of being killed in a motor vehicle crash. This makes it particularly important to study how environment affects the driving behavior of this age group,” Trowbridge added.

The results were based on driving and demographic data gathered from the National Household Transportation Survey.

The research team developed an algorithm to measure sprawl, daily miles driven by teens, demographic characteristics and the probability of teens driving more than 20 miles each day in counties with varying degrees of sprawl.

Of the 4,528 teens surveyed, 48 percent reported that they didn’t drive. 27 percent drove less than 20 miles and 25 percent drove greater than 20 miles. More pronounced sprawl was associated with increased daily mileage.
“Teens in more sprawling counties were more likely to drive more than 20 miles per day than similar teens living in more compact areas. Moreover, this association was stronger among the youngest and least experienced teen drivers,” Trowbridge said.


The researchers concluded that the increased efforts to understand and modify the effects of urban sprawl are necessary to improving teen driver safety.

The study is published in American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

Source-ANI
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Yale Receives $2.2mn Grant to Study Exercise for Women With Cancer

A Yale-developed exercise program designed to reduce bone loss and prevent weight gain in women with cancer is being funded with a $2.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute.


The principal investigator, M. Tish Knobf, the American Cancer Society Professor at Yale University School of Nursing and a member of Yale Cancer Center, said there are more than 10 million cancer survivors in the United States, and 22 percent are women diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Cancer survivors face persistent physical symptoms as well as psychological distress when treatment ends,” Knobf said. “For long-term survivors, there are additional concerns related to late effects of cancer therapy, such as bone loss.”

She and her team conducted a pilot study to look at the effects of exercise and found that 88 percent of the women adhered to the program, maintained their weight, had no changes in bone mass, and improved psychologically.

“Weight gain, changes in body composition, decreased physical functioning, bone loss, and menopause in women treated for cancer may increase risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis,” Knobf said. “With an estimated 64 percent of cancer survivors now living longer than five years, interventions are needed to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence, secondary cancers, and health risks for other chronic illnesses.”

Co-investigators Lyndsay Harris, M.D., and Karl Insogna, M.D., will provide additional expertise to help monitor the women enrolled in the study. Harris, associate professor of medical oncology and director of the Yale Cancer Center Breast Cancer Program, studies the molecular classifications of breast cancer, particularly in minority women. Insogna, director of the Yale Bone Center and professor internal medicine, has clinical expertise on the disease-related causes of bone loss.

Source-Yale University
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Search for New Marine Medicines Enhanced by Technology

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego say that they have identified novel techniques which can add some strength to scientific efforts for locating potent natural compounds in the sea that may be used as medicines to treat diseases like cancer.


Mass spectrometry, an imaging technique that deciphers the size, structure and properties of molecules, is key to the novel techniques that scientists have described in two research papers in the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and Molecular Biosystems.

One such technology is called natural product MALDI-TOF (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight) imaging mass spectrometry, an imaging technique that can uniquely probe the inner workings of marine organisms.

The researchers say that this technique may be helpful to marine biologists and chemists in discerning the specific processes that produce possible therapeutic compounds within sponges, mollusks and other marine invertebrates.

They say that the technique allows them to uniquely peer into algae and sponges, thereby narrowing the locations where beneficial molecules are being created.

According to them, the novel technology has enabled them to pinpointed clusters of known and unknown molecules from marine cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and within a cross-section of a sponge, some of which have promising therapeutic properties.

The researchers say that the development of natural product npMALDI-I mass spectrometry is quite significant because traditional mass spectrometric methods are not able to ionize organic molecules directly from sponge tissue in this manner.


Knowing that co-existing microorganisms tend to populate specific regions of sponge tissue, correlating the sites where the organic molecules were found to these specific regions suggests that "the microorganisms are responsible for the production of at least some of the compounds," says Pieter Dorrestein of the UCSD Skaggs School.


"An analytical approach such as this may become useful in the discovery of the organisms that are responsible for the production of natural products that can be used to treat diseases," the researcher adds.

William Gerwick of the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego says: "Ultimately, we need to know who holds the genes that produce the promising compounds. That's a fundamental question with lots of implications. It's been very difficult to answer, but now we are showing that mass spectrometry offers some new ways to interrogate these kinds of issues.

Source-ANI
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People Infected With HPV, Periodontitis are More Susceptible to Tongue Cancer

Persons with periodontitis who also are infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) are at increased risk of developing tongue cancer, new research conducted at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine has shown.


Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that destroys connective tissue and bone supporting the teeth. It has been associated with various systemic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.

Researchers from UB and Roswell Park Cancer Institute published the first study showing an association between long-standing periodontitis and risk of tongue cancer in the May 2007 issue of Archives of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. Studies conducted elsewhere have found that HPV is an independent risk factor for a subset of head and neck cancers.

The UB researchers now have shown that the two infections appear to work in tandem to boost the chances of developing tongue cancer.

Mine Tezal, D.D.S., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, UB dental school, and research scientist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, presented results of this research today (April 4, 2008) at the 2008 American Association of Dental research meeting in Dallas, Texas.

Evidence of periodontitis-HPV synergy has important practical implications," said Tezal, "because there is a safe treatment for periodontitis, but no treatment for HPV infection. If these results are confirmed by other studies, this has a tremendous relevance in
predicting and intervening in the initiation and prognosis of HPV-related diseases, including head and neck cancers."
The study involved 30 patients newly diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma on the base of the tongue between 1999 and 2005 at Roswell Park Cancer Institute for whom data was available on both periodontitis and tumor HPV status. Cumulative history of periodontitis was determined by assessing the loss of alveolar bone, the bones that underlie and support the teeth, via X-ray.


Tumor status was identified from paraffin-embedded tumor samples analyzed by polymerase chain reaction. Analysis concentrated on the presence of tumors containing the DNA of two of the most common types of HPV virus associated with oropharyngeal cancers, HPV-16 and HPV- 18.

Results showed that 63 percent, or 19 out of 30 patients, had tumors that were positive for HPV-16 DNA; none of the tumor samples were found to contain HPV-18 DNA. In addition, 90 percent of patients with tumors positive for HPV had periodontitis, and 79 percent of patients whose tumors showed no presence of HPV did not have periodontitis.


"HPV infection is a necessary, but not sufficient, cause of head and neck cancer," said Tezal. "Although the majority of the population is infected with HPV at least once in their lives, most infections are cleared rapidly by the immune system and do not result in pathology.

"Persistence of HPV infection is the strongest risk factor for carcinogenesis," she said. "Thus, the identification of factors that influence the persistence of HPV infection is critical to facilitate efforts to prevent head and neck cancers. This study implicates that chronic inflammation and co-infection with oral bacteria may be significant factors in the natural history of HPV infection."

The study was supported by a grant to Tezal from the National Cancer Institute of NIH.

Source: UB-News Service
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Artificial Muscle That Generates Electricity Developed

California researchers have developed an artificial muscle that can heal itself while generating enough electricity to charge an iPod.


Parts of the new research are already being used in Japan to generate electricity from ocean waves and it could also be used to make walking robots and develop better prosthetics.

"We've made an artificial muscle that, when you apply electricity to it, it expands more than 200 percent. The motion and energy is a lot like human muscles,” quoted Qibing Pei, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and study author, as saying.

Artificial muscles were introduced long ago but some get so big that they tear, developing uneven film thickness and random particles that leads to muscle failure.

Now, the researchers in California have created an artificial muscle using flexible, ever-more ubiquitous carbon nanotubes as electrodes instead of other films, often metal-based, that fail after repeated use.

In the new artificial muscle, even if an area of the carbon nanotube fails, the region around it seals itself by becoming non-conductive and stops the fault from spreading to other areas.

Pei tested the model by stabbing it with pins. If there was any other artificial muscle, it would have failed, but the self-healing muscle kept working.

"During long-term tests with the new device the actual material experiences a number of events but still worked," said Pei.

The new artificial muscle is also energy efficient.
"It conserves about 70 percent of the energy you put into it," said Pei.


As for generating electricity, when the material contracts after an expansion the rearranging of the carbon nanotubes generates a small electric current that can be captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery.

Japanese researchers charge batteries from ocean waves using the same idea and other scientists believe that the artificial muscle could be used to capture wind energy.

"The way he's put these carbon nanotubes together is really quite innovative. Some people want to use this to charge their batteries," said Kwang Kim, a material scientist at the University of Reno who was not involved in the research.

The research is published in the January issue of Advanced Materials.

Source-ANI
SPH/M

'Jumping Gene' may Augment Premature Aging Syndrome

Researchers at the University of Washington have identified a fusion protein that may contribute to Cockayne syndrome (CS), a devastating disease characterized by developmental defects, neurodegeneration, severe wasting, and premature aging.

Scientists already know that genetic defects in certain DNA repair factors like the CSB protein cause premature aging, but the reasons are still not clear.

In most cases, recessive mutations in the CSB gene leads to premature aging syndrome, yet some people with inherited mutations that cause complete loss of the CSB protein are nearly unaffected.

Therefore, the implication is that the loss of functional CSB protein is not solely responsible for CS, but it is also caused by continued expression of CSB-related proteins or protein fragments.

The research team, led by Alan Weiner, had been studying the normal function of the CSB gene when co-author John Newman stumbled across hints that the human CSB gene harboured a previously unsuspected guest.

The previously unsuspected guest was a ‘domesticated’ PiggyBac transposon – a formerly selfish ‘jumping gene’ that had settled into the CSB gene over 40 million years ago before marmosets diverged from humans.

As a result, the CSB gene started making two equally abundant products – the normal CSB protein, and a fusion protein in which the beginning of the CSB protein was fused to the DNA transposase encoded by the PiggyBac element.

During the study, the researchers found that the fusion protein continued to be expressed in almost all CS patients, but not in the individual who was unaffected by a complete loss of the CSB protein.
The researchers said that the conserved fusion protein is clearly advantageous for the human species in the presence of the CSB protein, but potentially devastating for individuals in the absence of the CSB protein.


"The discovery of the fusion protein complicates an already complicated situation. Now we have a whole new set of questions to answer," Newsman said.

The study is published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

Source-ANI
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HIV/AIDS Greatly Impacts Democracy, Governance in Southern Africa

The Institute for Democracy in South Africa recently released a study that found HIV/AIDS is threatening democracy and governance in some Southern African countries, South Africa's Mercury reports.


For the study, Kondwani Chirambo, head of the Governance and AIDS Program at IDASA, and colleagues examined the impact of HIV/AIDS in Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The study, titled "The Political Costs of AIDS in Africa," found that in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, deaths from undisclosed causes among Members of Parliament younger than age 55 was the main cause of vacancies during the last 15 years. In South Africa, 23 MPs had died of various causes since 1994, the study found.

"Not a single elected representative has been known to" have died of AIDS-related causes, "despite that this mortality profile seems to mimic the pandemic's effect," the study said. The study said that "because there is no further information on whether these deaths were as a result of disease, car accidents or other causes, no inferences have been drawn by IDASA regarding trends." However, the study noted that there are "higher levels of stigma and discrimination" related to HIV/AIDS "among political elites, given that not a single elected representative has been known to live with or die" from AIDS-related illnesses.

Because of the increased number of deaths among MPs in the countries studied, organizational and financial restraints have left the positions vacant for longer periods of time, the SAPA/Polity.org.za reports. The vacancies also have "opened the door" to less qualified replacements, which might affect the quality of service, the SAPA/Polity.org.za reports. "A viable option would be to simply allow political parties to replace the deceased through appointment," IDASA said. In addition, Chirambo said that new electoral models should be developed to address the effect of HIV/AIDS on Africa.
The study also found that deaths from AIDS-related causes among voters have hindered the ability to maintain registers. "AIDS is a much bigger problem than simply a health crisis," Chirambo said. He added that there are a "number of worrying revelations in this study," including the "large number of younger voters who have died; the rising deaths among MPs and the loss of representation attributed to these deaths; the impact on small or under-resourced opposition parties; and the implications for democratic accountability.


Source-Kaiser Family Foundation
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Smell Impairment Could Be an Early Indicator of Parkinson's

A new study has found that smell impairment could be an early indicator of Parkinson's disease (PD).


In the study, led by G. Webster Ross of the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System and the Pacific Health Research Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, researchers found that an impaired sense of smell could precede the development of PD in men by at least four years.

The researchers included 2,267 men from the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study who received olfactory testing at least once, either between 1991 and 1993 or between 1994 and 1996, and were followed for up to eight years to find out if they developed PD.

During the course of follow-up, the researchers found that 35 men developed the disease.

The findings showed that an odour identification deficit could predate the development of PD by at least four years, although it was not a strong predictor beyond this time period.

Odour identification deficit was linked to older age, smoking, more coffee consumption, less frequent bowel movements, lower cognitive function and excessive daytime sleepiness.

However, even after taking into account these factors, those with the lowest olfactory scores, meaning they had the poorest odour identification, had a five times greater risk of developing PD than those with the highest scores.

“One interpretation of this finding is that the relationship of olfactory deficits to higher risk of future PD begins to weaken beyond a threshold of approximately four years between testing and diagnosis,” the researchers said.
The fact that the time from olfactory testing to diagnosis was shortest among those with the lowest olfactory scores supports this.


Also, previous studies suggest that olfactory impairment starts between two and seven years before the diagnosis, and according to neuroimaging and pathological studies, there is a period of about five to seven years between the onset of nerve loss in an area of the brain affected by PD and diagnosis of the disease.

Although, the pathology of impaired sense of smell in PD is not completely understood, nerve loss and the formation of Lewy bodies, abnormal clumps of proteins inside nerves cells that are thought to be a marker of PD, are known to take place in the olfactory structures of patients with the disease.

The researchers note that one study involving brain dissection of deceased patients with neurological disease found that olfactory structures are the earliest brain regions affected by Lewy degeneration, which contributes to the idea that an impaired sense of smell could be one of the earliest signs of the disease.

Impaired nerve cell formation might be responsible for olfactory deficits in PD. The olfactory bulb is one of two regions in the brain that receives new neurons throughout life, and dopamine depletion, which occurs in PD, has been shown to impair nerve cell growth in this structure in rodents.

There is a also a possibility that olfactory deficits are not directly related to the structures themselves, but originate in the amygdala, an area of the brain affected by PD that is known to be involved in smell function.

Impaired sniffing might be another motor symptom of PD, for it could also cause an impaired sense of smell.

The study is published in the Annals of Neurology.

Source-ANI
SRM/L

Negligence and Malpractice Leads to HIV Infection of Kyrgyzstan Children

Negligence and malpractice could have led to HIV infection of as many as 42 Kyrgyzstan children. 14 healthworkers have been charged in the case.


The accused include doctors, nurses and a chief administrator. They had shown extreme carelessness during injection or blood transfusion, it is said.

If convicted, they face prison terms of between five and 10 years.

The BBC's Natalia Antelava in Almaty, in neighbouring Kazakhstan, points out that this is not the first such case in central Asia, and says the outbreak shows a dangerous trend of hospitals becoming the cause, rather than the cure, of infectious diseases across the region.

Last year, 21 medical workers were sentenced to prison terms for infecting 150 children with HIV in Kazakhstan.

The Kyrgyz case has deepened public concern over conditions in hospitals and the quality of health workers.

At least 30 other children tested positive for HIV since the investigation into the outbreak first began last summer, and new cases continue to emerge all the time.

The outbreak is surrounded by secrecy and confusion.

In the predominantly Muslim and deeply traditional region, HIV care is an enormous stigma, and families are extremely protective of the identity of their children.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one international aid worker in Kyrgyzstan said that this stigma and the atmosphere of secrecy meant that outbreaks of hospital-acquired infections were extremely common, but most of them simply did not get reported.
Once largely confined to drug addicts and sex workers, HIV is now spreading across the community at large, says Abdumomun Mamaraimov, a contributor to Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IPWR).


Doctors are warning that the HIV is spreading fast in southern Kyrgyzstan, partly as a result of poor hygiene in hospitals but also through ignorance about how the virus is contracted.

Until recently, the incidence of infection was highest among drug users and sex workers, but the virus is now becoming more common among other parts of the population, including children.

The southern region of Osh has become the epicentre for new cases. Tugolbay Mamaev, senior doctor at the region’s AIDS Centre, said infection rates had now reached a worrying level.

The Kyrgyz health ministry recorded a total of 1,500 cases of infection among the total population of five million in 2007, a 15-fold increase on the level recorded in 2002. Almost half the figure for 2007 - which include existing cases as well as new ones - were in Osh region, and one-third of the total were in the city of Osh itself.

“The distribution of the virus has shifted from the high-risk category to the general population,” said Mamaev, adding that undergoing treatment at beauty salons and tattoo parlours, and also the circumcision ceremony that is standard practice for this predominantly Muslim population, could all be potential sources of transmission.

While officials investigate the rise in infections, many pregnant women believe poor standards of hygiene in the hospitals are at least partly to blame.

One woman named Anna spoke of her concerns when she and her child underwent hospital treatment in Osh.

“What are you supposed to do when you go to hospital for medical treatment and contract a fatal infection as a result?” she asked.

Anna said she had been forced to pay three times the normal fee to ensure that clean new syringes were used for her intravenous injections.

Despite this, she noted that needles from different patients were used to draw the anaesthetic novocaine from one common container.

“I told the doctors about it many times but they didn’t care,” she said. “They were completely indifferent.”

When she heard that HIV had been detected in the hospital, Anna got herself and her baby tested. “Everything turned out fine,” she recalled with relief.

While patients query standards of hygiene in hospitals in southern Kyrgyzstan, doctors insist the main factor behind rising infection rates is the low level of awareness about HIV/AIDS, and the poor quality of the information available.

“Given the current level of awareness, nobody around here is safe from HIV infection,” said Dr Mamaev.

Mamytbek Ismailov, senior doctor at the AIDS centre in the neighbouring region of Jalalabad, agreed. Printed literature about HIV/AIDS had been issued in a variety of local languages but it was clearly not enough, he said.

International donors have done much to help combat the growth of HIV in Kyrgyzstan. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has given the country 17 million dollars over the last four years and has pledged a further 28 million over the next five years.

But the money does not filter down to remote country districts, especially in the south. “Nobody seems concerned with the HIV/AIDS problem in rural areas,” said Dr Ismailov.

Azat Kerimbaev, deputy senior doctor at the Osh Regional AIDS Centre, said getting the message across about safe sex was not easy, and at times the staff faced open hostility from traditionally-minded locals.

He doctor recalled one angry parent telling him, “You’re just advertising condoms. If I find a condom in my son’s pocket, I’ll kill him”.

Several years ago a new book for older children called “Healthy Lifestyle”, caused controversy in Kyrgyzstan because it contained a chapter on safe sex. Some public figures considered it outrageous and accused the book’s authors of encouraging teenage depravity.

Since then, public figures such as the clergy have tried to be more constructive, helping shoulder the burden of public education on this sensitive topic.

Muslim clerics have discussed HIV/AIDS with their congregations, but according to one imam who wished to remain anonymous, the campaign has not yielded much in the way of results.

“First, the imams themselves know little about this issue. Second, the people who visit mosques are devout people who are usually far removed from the world of drug addiction and prostitution,” he said, adding that in his view it was the latter groups that needed education programmes.

Osh’s role as a hub for HIV infection reflects its strategic position on international drug routes. The city acts as depot and transmission point for heroin and opium coming in from Afghanistan via Tajikistan for onward shipment to Kazakstan, Russia and the rest of Europe.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, told a meeting of former Soviet heads of state in October that more than 200 tons of heroin - 20 per cent of Afghan production – was smuggled through Central Asia in a year. Kyrgyz security officials say between five and seven per cent of Afghan exports pass through their country, which would mean 10 to 14 tons based on the UNODC estimates. Much of this goes via Osh.
.
Inevitably, the flow of illicit drugs means they are cheap and readily available at this early stage in their journey, and the seemingly unstoppable growth in Afghan opium production has inevitably fuelled heroin use in southern Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyz police say there are 7,500 officially registered drug addicts, of whom 4,200 are intravenous users. More than 1,700 of these addicts live in the Osh region, and most inject drugs.

Many young drug users have criminal records and according to Dr Kerimbaev, are extremely careless about their health.

“These people care about absolutely nothing,” he said. “I never saw any of them in hysterics or even shedding a tear after receiving a positive test result for HIV.”

He sees a clear connection between organised crime and the rise of HIV. “I’ve never heard of the drug mafia suffering a setback, so the number of people with HIV/AIDS is bound to increase,” he said.

Another factor behind the intensive spread of HIV is that prostitution has become big business in the south. Local newspapers are fuller than ever of advertisements for apartments rented by the hour or night.

“You have such apartments in every high-rise block,” one resident of Osh city claimed, adding that many of the “night moths”, as prostitutes are known here, come from neighbouring Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan is thought to have the highest rate of HIV infection in the region, with about 38 carriers for every 100,000 members of the population, and the rate of new cases is rising fast.

Clearly the situation is reaching alarming proportions across the region.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Los Angeles Hospital Penalized Over Drug Overdose in Twins

Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai hospital has been fined 25,000 dollars for a blunder that saw actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins given a massive overdose of a blood thinner, a statement said Thursday.


California's Department of Public Health cited "systemic, unsafe medication practices," at the facility, which is the hospital of choice for Hollywood stars and one of the most prestigious in the United States.

Quaid's children -- Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace -- were left fighting for their lives last November when they were given 1,000 times the normal dosage of anti-clotting drug heparin.

Heparin is used to flush out intravenous tubes and prevent blood clots. Babies typically receive 10 units of the drug, but Quaid's children were given 10,000 units before the alarm was raised.

The children survived after being given a drug treatment to reverse the effects of the overdose. Another child at Cedars-Sinai was also given an incorrect dosage of the drug.

Cedars was one of 11 hospitals in California to be penalized for violations likely to cause serious injury or death to patients, California's deputy health care director Kathleen Billingsley said in a statement.

Quaid is suing the makers of the blood-thinner, saying the labeling of the drug was to blame for the mishap.

Source-AFP
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Are Dual Cord Blood Banks the Answer to Increasing Stem Cell Demand?

Demand for stem cells from cord blood is greater than supply. In this week’s BMJ, two senior doctors, Professors Nicholas Fisk and Rifat Atun, analyse the UK’s growing cord blood banking industry and the potential impact of a new bank that provides blood for both personal and public use.


Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells that can be used in a way similar to bone marrow to treat diseases such as childhood leukaemia. In future, it might also be used to repair damaged tissues in a range of diseases such as strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure, and diabetes.

Cord blood banks generally fall into two groups. Public banks collect cord blood which has been altruistically donated at birth and the blood is available to everyone. The value of public banks is now well established, but currently only a handful of UK hospitals collect cord blood for the public bank and coverage is insufficient to meet demand.

In contrast, commercial (private) banks offer parents the chance to store their child’s cord blood as biological insurance, in case it is needed to treat some future disease in the child or close family member. Customers typically pay £1500 for a 20-25 year service, but the chances of the blood being used are very small and these banks have been opposed by numerous medical bodies.

Private banks also raise serious resource issues for the NHS and are at risk of corporate failure.
Virgin recently introduced the concept of dual public-private banking. Virgin Health Bank stores 20% of the sample for private use and 80% for public use and uses some of the proceeds to support stem cell research.


In this way, Virgin has addressed the impasse between parents’ desire to store their baby’s cord blood and the unmet need for public banks, say the authors. Nevertheless, Virgin’s service still has many of the core disadvantages of private banking.

To succeed, Virgin will need to get the support of midwives and obstetricians who collect the blood and advise prospective customers, they write. The logistics of collection must also be streamlined to minimise burden on staff.

The charitable intent and public provision may help overturn entrenched professional opposition to commercial banking, say the authors, but fears about risks of private sector involvement in cord blood banking remain high.

These need allaying through greater transparency, strict regulation of financial practices, and greater accountability to public sector bodies through an appropriate regulatory framework, they conclude.

Source-BMJ
SRM/M

A Baby Born 4 Years After Her Dad’s Death!

A woman has given birth to her husband’s child - almost four years after he died.


Lisa Roberts and her husband, James, had decided to have his sperm frozen before his treatment for cancer started.

The couple had been married for six years when James had a cancerous leg tumour diagnosed early in 2004.

Medics had told him that the treatment would leave him infertile so he had his sperm frozen for future use.

Its “ownership” was signed over to his wife in case of legal problems.

James died in October 2008, but his wife wanted to have a child, even though doctors gave her only a 20 per cent chance of becoming pregnant.

Mrs. Roberts gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Jaimie-Rose.

“I can’t believe that something so lovely can come from something so tragic. I hope James is looking down on us with a smile on his face,” Times Online quoted Lisa, as saying.

“James always wanted a family,” Lisa said.

Source-ANI
SPH/M

MicroRNA That may Help Stop Lung Cancer Growth Identified

Researchers at Yale University and Asuragen, Inc say that a small RNA molecule, known as let-7 microRNA (miRNA) may play a direct role in stopping cancer progression after finding that it can considerably reduce cancer growth in multiple mouse models of lung cancer.


Lung cancer is the most common and deadly form of cancer worldwide. This study led by Frank Slack, associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale, introduces a new theory of using miRNAs as effective therapeutic agents to treat human cancer.

“We believe this is the first report of a miRNA being used to a beneficial effect on any cancer, let alone lung cancers, the deadliest of all cancers worldwide,” said Slack.

Firstly, the researchers located the let-7 miRNA in C. elegans, a tiny worm used as a model system for studying how organisms develop, grow and age. Later they demonstrated that in humans, let-7 negatively regulates a well-known determinant of human lung cancers, the RAS oncogene.

The Slack lab in collaboration with scientists at Asuragen, studied the tumour suppressor activity of this small RNA and found that let-7 is usually present at substantially reduced levels in lung tumours, and that these reduced levels likely contribute to tumour development.

The researches also demonstrated that let-7 can be used as an intranasal drug for reducing tumour formation in a RAS mouse model lung cancer.

“We believe that our studies provide the first direct evidence in mammals, that let-7 functions as a tumour suppressor gene. Because multiple cell lines and mouse models of lung cancer were used, it appears that therapeutic application of let-7 may provide benefits to a broad group of lung cancer patients,” said Slack.


He added: “This has been a very productive industry-academic collaboration between Yale and Asuragen scientists” commented Matt Winkler CEO of Asuragen. This work provides further evidence of the importance of miRNAs in the development of cancer and provides additional support for miRNA replacement therapy as an important component of effective cancer treatment regimens of the future.”


The study is published in the journal Cell Cycle.

Source-ANI
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UN Outlines the Multi-fold Benefits of Spending on Sanitation in Poor Countries

Sanitation investment of 1 dollar in poor countries would return 9 dollars in productivity, health and other benefits, say UN experts.


Experts said that for every dollar invested installing toilets for people in countries that today are off-track in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation will return 9 dollars in productivity, health and other benefits.

Some argue that meeting the sanitation MDG is also a prerequisite to the goals of reducing global poverty.

Achieving the sanitation goal – to simply halve the number of people without access to a toilet by 2015 – would cost 38 billion dollars, less than 1 percent of annual world military spending.

That investment, however, would yield 347 billion dollars worth of benefits – much of it related to higher productivity and improved health.

According to UN figures, meeting the sanitation MDG target would add 3.2 billion annual working days worldwide. Universal coverage would add more than four times as many working days.

Some 2.6 billion people – over a third of humanity – lack access to adequate sanitation. Each of those devotes a conservatively estimated 30 minutes a day queuing for public toilets and / or seeking seclusion. The cumulative time involved equals about two working days per month.

According to various studies, children living in an environment where sanitation facilities are provided learn more than children suffering from worm infections, which sap nutrients and calories and lead to listlessness and trouble concentrating.


Also, schools without private and separate sanitation facilities for boys and girls have higher incidence of diarrheal disease but also lower attendance and a higher dropout rate.


Many UN studies have shown that public- and private-sector investment into sanitation can lead to economic benefits for communities. In particular, small entrepreneurs can benefit from infrastructure development. That, in turn, requires enabling policies to be in place.

Source-ANI
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Men Blamed for Motivating Pregnant Women to Use Drugs, Alcohol, Cigarettes

Despite extensive health campaigns, a number of women continue to use substances such as tobacco, marijuana and alcohol during pregnancy. They tend to revive their usage to pre-pregnancy levels within two years of having a baby, says a new study, which blames dads for it.


According to the study’s lead authors Jennifer Bailey and Karl Hill, who are affiliated with the Social Development Research Group in the University of Washington’s School of Social Work, men’s level of binge drinking and substance abuse remains stable before, during and after pregnancy, making it harder for mums to stop smoking or drinking.

“The months after childbirth are critical for intervening with mothers,” said Bailey, who is a UW research scientist.

“For example, many already have done the hard work of quitting smoking and haven’t smoked a cigarette in six months or more. We should support that effort so that they can continue as nonsmokers. However, we know if dad is smoking or drinking it is more likely that mom will resume smoking or drinking,” Bailey added.

The research is the first comprehensive look at mothers’ and fathers’ substance use on a month-by-month basis during a three-year period that included pregnancy.

The data for the study came from the Seattle Social Development Project which is following the development of 808 Seattle children who are now young adults.

The participants are interviewed every three years, and for this study data covered the period when they were 21 to 24 years of age. In interviews, they were asked about their month-by-month incidences of binge drinking (5 or more alcoholic drinks in a two-hour period) and their use of cigarettes and marijuana.


They were also asked a number of questions about life events, including the birth of a child. One hundred and thirty-one women and 77 men reported the birth of 244 children during this period.


The study found that 77 percent of women cigarette smokers and 50 percent of the women who smoked marijuana used those substances at some time during pregnancy.

38 percent of women cigarette smokers and 24 percent of marijuana users reported using those substances throughout their pregnancies.

While overall rates of cigarette and marijuana use and binge drinking for women declined during pregnancy, those rates began rising again during the first six months following the birth of a baby.

Month by month during pregnancy, rates of smoking among all pregnant women varied between 17 percent and 21 percent, binge drinking was between 2 percent and 3 percent and marijuana use was between 8 percent and 9 percent.

The researchers said that the findings emphasize the need for more public health messages and preventive interventions.

The study is published in the journal Birth Issues in Perinatal Care.

Source-ANI
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Health Minister Urges Nigerian Pharmaceuticals To Produce Malaria Drugs Locally

Nigeria's Minister of State for Health Gabriel Aduku called on the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development to focus its efforts on producing malaria drugs to fight the disease more effectively in the country, the Daily Trust/AllAfrica.com reports.


Aduku spoke at the opening ceremony for the International Workshop on Green Chemistry and Essential Drug Production in Developing Countries in Abuja, Nigeria.

Aduku said that it is necessary to explore internal approaches to controlling malaria because the price of artemisinin-based combination therapies has increased significantly since the World Health Organization began recommending the drugs. He also noted that the cost for generic essential drugs is high partly because their active pharmaceutical ingredients for local production are imported.

NIPRD has produced a new malaria drug from local natural products, which is undergoing clinical trials, according to Aduku. He added that experts still need to evaluate the full development and production of the drug and consider the effect on governments' annual budgets.

The collaboration between NIPRD and other experts will provide helpful learning and networking opportunities for researchers in developing countries to work with colleagues in industrialized countries, Ufot Inyang, director-general of NIPRD, said.

Source-Kaiser Family Foundation
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Darzi Review is Expected to Strengthen the Primary Care

As health minister Lord Darzi undertakes a major review of the NHS, an editorial in this week’s BMJ assesses which options are most likely to produce an effective, efficient, and patient centred health service.


The review needs to strengthen primary care, writes Martin Roland, Director of the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre. The UK system of universal registration with a single general practitioner must be retained, even though patients may occasionally consult other practitioners, for example, a doctor near their workplace.

In terms of polyclinics, which provide a range of services under one roof, Roland believes that providing good premises and facilities in highly deprived areas could make a big difference to care. However, he points out that the NHS goal of increased patient choice requires more high quality practices, not the small number of large practices that some polyclinic models suggest.

Some models for polyclinics also include a greater role for specialists working in the community (bringing services “closer to home”), and government policies are already moving specialists out of hospitals and training primary care staff to take on new specialist roles. However, specialists may be less efficient when deployed outside hospitals, warns Roland.

Better support is also needed for patients with long term conditions, and several changes are necessary to improve continuity and coordination of care for patients with multiple conditions, he adds.

Vigorously pursued policies may deliver on their stated goals but have other unintended effects, he argues. For example, strategies designed to reduce waiting times to see general practitioners have made it more difficult for patients to book in advance.

He concludes: Now is the time to look at both the system and the patient as a whole. That is the challenge for the Darzi review.

Source-BMJ
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New Healthcare Commissioning Policy is Neglecting Patients, Warn Doctors

The government’s new healthcare commissioning policy for England has not only jeopardised the future of many hospitals but has also led to considerable frustration and disappointment among patients, argue senior doctors in this week’s BMJ.


Under the new policy, primary care trusts or general practitioners directly commission specialised services and the trusts pay for the treatment of their patients in hospitals. The aim of such commissioning is to save huge sums of money by using hospital services as sparingly as possible.

But Rahij Anwar and colleagues believe that weaknesses in the referral system mean that their patients are not receiving appropriate care.

The worst affected patients, they explain, are those who have more than one condition at the same time because to primary care trusts these are very “expensive” patients, and therefore some of their problems might be “downplayed” to be managed in the community, and referrals to specialists are filtered.

Constant reminders to comply with trusts’ policy in relation to clinic times and referrals also mean that patients are often sent back to their GPs if they have a new problem for which a referral has not yet been made.

The crux of the matter is that these patients could well have received better care had they been treated in the traditional system, where there were no “time bound appointments,” “designated payment pots,” and “referral politics,” they argue.

Patients should be given sufficient time and opportunity to discuss their problems properly, so that the problems may be dealt with concurrently, not consecutively, they say. Hospital specialists should also be allowed to generate a fresh “episode of treatment” if a patient develops a condition related to the same specialty while he or she is waiting for an appointment.

This will not only significantly lessen the workload of general practitioners but would also help to reduce waiting times, paperwork, and inconvenience to patients.

Although we all are expected to use the meagre resources of the NHS wisely in these difficult times, we should not forget that our foremost duty is to safeguard the interests of our patients, they write.

We should continue to question all policies that adversely affect the care of patients, and we believe that “one way healthcare commissioning” is one such policy.

Source-BMJ
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Demi Moore Owes Her Sexy Look to Leeches

American actress Demi Moore has revealed her secret to looking sexy even at the age of 45 - medical leeches.


Demi revealed on the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’, how she went for body cleansing to Australia, and how the treatment included leech therapy.

The ‘Flawless’ star explained how "the highly trained medical leeches" were first placed in her belly button.

"You feel [them] bite down on you, and you want to go, 'You bastard!' and then you relax and watch it swell up," Usmagazine.com quoted her as saying.

"They have a little enzyme that when they are biting down in you, it gets released in your blood and generally you bleed for quite a bit – and your health is optimized," she said.

"It detoxifies your blood – I'm feeling very detoxified right now," she added.

Demi has admitted that even though at first it feels "worse then feels better," she plans on "going back – as she only got 4 leeches and feels a bit cheated."

Source-ANI
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Forcing a ‘love Shot’ is Equal to Sexual Harassment: SKorean Court

South Korea's "love shot" drinking ritual amounts to sexual harassment if the woman in question is unwilling to take part, the country's top court ruled Tuesday.

The Supreme Court found a 48-year-old man guilty of sexual harassment for forcing restaurant waitresses to do a "love shot," in which two people snuggle close and drink with their arms entwined.

"Forcing a love shot when women refuse it... is tantamount to sexual harassment," Judge Kim Hwang-Sik said in his ruling quoted by Yonhap news agency.

The man offered 30,000 won (30 dollars) to a 28-year-old waitress in return for a love shot with him at a restaurant in a provincial golf course in 2005.

After she refused, he falsely claimed to be the number two man at the course and threatened that she would lose her job. He then threw his arm around her neck and did a love shot, rubbing his cheek against hers.

The unidentified man also forced another waitress to do a love shot with his friend. He had been fined three million won by a lower court but appealed.

Source-AFP
SRM/L

Kids Who Bully Tend to Have Difficulties With Other Relationships

The bullies at school are found to be problem children not only at school but also at home and the neighborhood. The researchers at York and Queens University found them to be non adjusting with their parents as well as friends.


They also found that targeting those relationships, as well as the problems children who bully have with aggression and morality, may offer ideas for intervention and prevention.

For the study, the researchers looked at 871 students, out of which 466 were girls and 405 were boys, for seven years from ages 10 to 18.

Each year, the kids were asked questions about their involvement in bullying or victimizing behaviour, their relationships, and other positive and negative behaviours.

On asking the questions, 9.9 percent of the students reported engaging in consistently high levels of bullying from elementary through high school.

Some 13.4 percent reported that they bullied at relatively high levels in elementary school but dropped to almost no bullying by the end of high school.

Some 35.1 percent of the kids said that they bullied peers at moderate levels. And 41.6 percent said they almost never bullied across the adolescent years.

After the analysis, the researchers found that children who bullied tended to be aggressive and lacking in a moral compass and they experienced a lot of conflict in their relationships with their parents.


Also, their relationships with friends also were marked by a lot of conflict, and they tended to associate with others who bullied.


Lead author Debra Pepler, Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at York University and Senior Associate Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children, said that the findings provide clear direction for prevention of persistent bullying problems.

"Interventions must focus on the children who bully, with attention to their aggressive behaviour problems, social skills, and social problem-solving skills," Pepler said.

"A focus on the child alone is not sufficient. Bullying is a relationship problem that requires relationship solutions by focusing on the bullying children's strained relationships with parents and risky relationships with peers.

"By providing intensive and ongoing support starting in the elementary school years to this small group of youth who persistently bully, it may be possible to promote healthy relationships and prevent their 'career path' of bullying that leads to numerous social-emotional and relationship problems in adolescence and adulthood," Pepler added.

The study is published in the March/April 2008 issue of the journal Child Development.

Source-ANI
CGP/L

New Research Provides Insight into the Development of Seizures

A study by University of California Irvine (UCI) has cited that a large number of neuron "hubs" in the epileptic brain account for the seizures in epilepsy, offering new insight into the development of this severe disorder.


The researchers led by Robert Morgan and Ivan Soltesz with the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology discovered that these hubs, which are a small number of highly connected neurons, are formed in the hippocampus during the transition from a healthy brain to an epileptic one.

It was found that this abundance of connections among these hubs circulate and augment signals so much that they overpower brain networks, resulting in epileptic seizures.

"The structure of the epileptic brain differs substantially from that of a he