أن يكون طبيب قلب بارز في بريطانيا العظمى فهذا إنجاز كبير لا يحلم به أحد، وأن يحقق إنجازات طبية كبيرة في مجاله ويجري أكثر من عشرين ألف عملية قلب فهذا شيء من المستحيل في عقول الناس الذين لا يعرفون إنجازاته الإنسانية الواضحة، والأكثر من ذلك انه أنشأ مركزاً طبياً في بلده ليعالج الأطفال والكبار ويجري العمليات الصعبة مع فريقه الطبي حتى أصبح مقصد الجميع ممن يعانون من امراض القلب على اختلافها.
Submitted by NoraDrenaline on Thu, 30/07/2009 - 10:45am.
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by Claudine Zap and Vera H-C Chan; The Buzz Log
Ever take the inkblot test—or at least see one administered on TV (like in any "Law & Order" episode)? If so, then you know that there are no right or wrong answers on a Rorschach test, but responses do provide insight to the test-taker's state of mind.
And yet, a controversy about the posting of 10 Rorschach inkblots on Wikipedia is rocking the scientific community, according to The New York Times. In addition to the blots themselves, the Wikipedia entry also includes the most common interpretations of what these blots look like—the old bison vs. butterfly vs. moth.
Taking the Test
The Rorschach test—a series of ink blots shown to patients, who are then asked to explain what they see—is named after Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach. Five of the blots are black-and-white, two are black, white, and red, and the last three are in pretty colors. (Or not pretty, depending on your view.)
The test-taker is evaluated on 100 variables, which will show what he/she truly feels deep inside—not just separating psychotic thinking from "normal" thought. One Rorschach FAQ site describes it as asking "How does someone view and organize the world around them?"
One nonprofit parenting site, SPARC, explains that it's not only what patients say in describing what they see, but also what "hand gestures and body movements" they make. (Interestingly, SPARC precedes its lengthy description of the whole process with a disclaimer, posted "after repeated letters from dozens of outraged psychologists and psychiatrists.")
Illuminating or Cheating?
Is the test's public availability stimulating free debate, or enabling test-takers to "cheat"? Depends on how you look at it:
• From the Wiki view: Supporters say it's informative—and searches on Yahoo! for "rorschach" have popped up 111% in the past week.
Submitted by NoraDrenaline on Sat, 18/07/2009 - 12:52pm.
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SPACE.com staff; posted: 17 July 2009, 12:44 pm ET
For stubborn folks who still believe the Apollo astronauts never landed on the moon, NASA has new images - definitive proof - that clearly show the Apollo 11 lander that carried the first astronauts to the lunar surface 40 years ago.
The images, taken by NASA's first lunar scout in more than a decade, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), show the Eagle lunar lander at Tranquility Base, where Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969. They were snapped between July 11 and 15 of this month and released by NASA today.
"The LROC team anxiously awaited each image," said LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University. "We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill -- and to see how well the cameras had come into focus. Indeed, the images are fantastic and so is the focus."
The image does not reveal whether the U.S. flag planted there is still standing or not. Whether or not the flag will be visible in later images isn't uncertain, Robinson said, adding that he thinks the Apollo 11 flag was knocked over by the thrusters when the astronauts left the moon's surface.
The Indian and Japanese missions have also snapped images of the Apollo 11 site, but they don't have the high resolution of LRO's images, Robinson said.
The Apollo 11 landing site wasn't the only one that the LRO camera (dubbed LROC) photographed: It also snapped pictures of the landing sites of the other five Apollo landings. (The remaining site, for Apollo 12, is expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.) The lunar modules for all of these sites imaged are visible as small dots; their shadows can also be seen. A few more details can be seen in the image of the Apollo 14 landing site, taken only two days ago, including scientific instruments and astronaut footprints.
Submitted by NoraDrenaline on Wed, 15/07/2009 - 12:51am.
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MARIA CHENG, Ap Medical Writer – Tue Jul 14, 12:40 am ET
LONDON – British doctors designed a radical solution to save a girl with major heart problems in 1995: they implanted a donor heart directly onto her own failing heart.
After 10 years with two blood pumping organs, Hannah Clark's faulty one did what many experts had thought impossible: it healed itself enough so that doctors could remove the donated heart.
But she also had a price to pay: the drugs Clark took to prevent her body from rejecting the donated heart led to malignant cancer that required chemotherapy.
Details of Clark's revolutionary transplant and follow-up care were published online Tuesday in the medical journal Lancet.
"This shows that the heart can indeed repair itself if given the opportunity," said Dr. Douglas Zipes, a past president of the American College of Cardiology. Zipes was not linked to Clark's treatment or to the Lancet paper. "The heart apparently has major regenerative powers, and it is now key to find out how they work."
In 1994, when Clark was eight months old, she developed severe heart failure and doctors put her on a waiting list to get a new heart. But Clark's heart difficulties caused problems with her lungs, meaning she also needed a lung transplant.
To avoid doing a risky heart and lung transplant, doctors decided to try something completely different.
Sir Magdi Yacoub of Imperial College London, one of the world's top heart surgeons, said that if Clark's heart was given a time-out, it might be able to recover on its own. So in 1995 Yacoub and others grafted a donor heart from a 5-month-old directly onto Clark's own heart.
After four and a half years, both hearts were working fine, so Yacoub and colleagues decided not to take out the extra heart.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 27/06/2009 - 6:49am.
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CNN.com - http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/jackson/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Michael Jackson, the show-stopping singer whose best-selling albums -- including "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad" -- and electrifying stage presence made him one of the most popular artists of all time, died Thursday, CNN has confirmed.
He was 50.
He collapsed at his residence in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, California, about noon Pacific time, suffering cardiac arrest, according to brother Randy Jackson. He died at UCLA Medical Center.
Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said an autopsy would probably be done on the singer Friday, with results expected that afternoon.
"Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color," the Rev. Al Sharpton said. "To say an 'icon' would only give these young people in Harlem a fraction of what he was. He was a historic figure that people will measure music and the industry by."
Jackson's blazing rise to stardom -- and later fall from grace -- is among the most startling of show business tales. The son of a steelworker, he rose to fame as the lead singer of the Jackson 5, a band he formed with his brothers in the late 1960s. By the late '70s, as a solo artist, he was topping the charts with cuts from "Off the Wall," including "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough."
In 1982, he released "Thriller," an album that eventually produced seven hit singles. An appearance the next year on a Motown Records 25th-anniversary special cemented his status as the biggest star in the country.
For the rest of the 1980s, they came no bigger. "Thriller's" follow-up, 1987's "Bad," sold almost as many copies. A new Jackson album -- a new Jackson appearance -- was a pop culture event.
The pop music landscape was changing, however, opening up for rap, hip-hop and what came to be called "alternative" -- and Jackson was seen as out of step.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Fri, 15/05/2009 - 12:57pm.
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http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NDAyODY3MjA2
In the early hours of the morning, most Polyclinics in Kuwait are packed with patients, all waiting for an answer to their health concerns. And the only people who could help them are the doctors.
Medical care may stand on the shoulder of nurses, but doctors provide the care and carry the burden of any flaw in the health system. Those who answer the questions, diagnose the problem and try their best to relieve any pain, think the problem sometimes lies in miscommunication.
"There is no adequate health education; the expectations of doctors are wrong," said Dr Ebi Dambo who has been working in the industrial medical field for almost 13 years. He also noted that patients flood the hospitals on a daily basis with various minor problems thinking that at hospitals "they will get better treatments than polyclinics."
In a recently published article, Dambo noted that the clinics are not as bad as we might believe. "One can get the best out of them if there is a good understanding of their capabilities and limitations as well as relating properly with the health staff, especially those attending to you."
What patients don't realize, however, is that the health care system in Kuwait is designed in such a way all health issues start at major clinics and move on from there; "Doctors could refer you to the hospital or to a specialist clinic" depending on the case at hand."
Dambo admits that there might be a problem especially in terms of language barriers. In his article, he writes about misdiagnosis by a doctor due to misunderstanding the patient.
"Sometimes it is difficult to communicate with someone when you don't speak their language, but there should be translators so the doctor could understand what is wrong with the patient," one women said noting that perhaps the misdiagnosis for her maid was due to the doctor not understating "what was wrong with her".
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Fri, 15/05/2009 - 12:55pm.
Source:
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTg2NzE1OTQ2
Medical care stands on the shoulders of nurses," said one patient who receives monthly check-ups at a Kuwaiti public hospital. "They take care of everybody, so it seems.
However, nurses face problems and rarely are they heard when voicing their concerns about their own issues. From unfair salary rankings to understaffing, nurses in Kuwait feel frustrated and aggrieved by a system which does not listen to their concerns and does not respond to their needs. Shortages, overwork and unequal pay can lead to resentment and low morale at hospitals. This in turn undermines the quality of medical care patients receive.
Patients waiting outside their doctor's office have one thing to say about those who assist them: there's a shortage of nurses. "You go in a hospital and see two to three nurses in the morning and they are met by 30 or more patients," a Kuwaiti patient said.
One nurse, who has been working in the medical field for 37 years, agrees with such claims. "Whenever I submit a vacation request, they turn me down saying there won't be enough staff left if I take some time-off," said Noha, who would not give her real name. That, in turn, creates a burden on the medical system itself since nurses are 'overworked.'
Noha notes that the Ministry of Health offers 45 days for nurses as vacation time including the holidays but under her contract she receives 30 days. "Exclude holidays from those 30 days and I'm left with 25...I can't even take these days off since there is a shortage of required staff nurses.
This problem has been fairly addressed according to a retired Lebanese nurse. "There is no pressure at work anymore since they made people go to their assigned district hospitals requiring their civil ID," Mary said. She has worked in the medical field for over 15 years.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Fri, 15/05/2009 - 12:52pm.
Source:
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTQwOTk1MTE0NQ==
"In my opinion, you should just forget about the pain," was one doctor's advice to a woman suffering from inner ear syndrome. To many, that advice would seem a bit odd, especially considering it came from a doctor. But stories about patients being misdiagnosed, mistreated or hardly treated in Kuwait are commonplace.
People tend to put their trust in doctors and expect solutions through their advice, which they usually expect to be professionally sound recommendations. However, what some patients are discovering is that some advice from doctors is far from sound, jeopardizing the trust that is supposed to be present in doctor-patient relationships.
Um Rashid, who has been living in Kuwait for more than 20 years, has had many bad experiences with doctors, especially when it concerned diagnosing her daughter. "My daughter had some problems with her eyes, allergies mainly. A doctor in Fahaheel gave her Cortisone treatment for three years straight, and she started having really bad side effects like weight gain and joint pains," said Um Rashid. After the side effects became a problem, she decided to take her daughter to a private doctor.
"It turns out the type of medication the doctor recommended should only have been prescribed for no more than a month!" said Um Rashid, with an expression of awe on her face. She added that her daughter's eyes were now more sensitive and allergy-prone and furiously asked, "Whose fault is that?
Another Kuwaiti resident was surprised at the kind of treatment given to lower class residents. "My Sri Lankan maid had sharp pains in her stomach that were so intense she sometimes fainted. I took her to many doctors who just gave her medications for six months," said Huda. She later asked doctors to do some x-rays on her maid. "But they refused and said it was no big deal," she said.
Submitted by NoraDrenaline on Fri, 01/05/2009 - 9:12am.
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FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 30, 7:02 pm ET
GENEVA – The World Health Organization announced Thursday it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. The policy shift came a day after Egypt began slaughtering thousands of pigs in a misguided effort to prevent swine flu.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork products and order the slaughter of pigs.
"Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," Thompson said.
The swine flu virus originated in pigs, and has genes from human, bird and pig viruses. Scientists don't know exactly how it jumped to humans. In the current outbreak, WHO says the virus is being spread from human to human, not from contact with infected pigs.
Egypt began slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs Wednesday even though experts said swine flu is not linked to pigs and not spread by eating pork. Angry farmers protested the government decree.
In Paris, the World Organization for Animal Health said Thursday "there is no evidence of infection in pigs, nor of humans acquiring infection directly from pigs."
Killing pigs "will not help to guard against public or animal health risks" presented by the virus and "is inappropriate," the group said in a statement.
China, Russia, Ukraine and other nations have banned pork exports from Mexico and parts of the United States, blaming swine flu fears.
Most in the Muslim world consider pigs unclean animals and do not eat pork because of religious restrictions. The farmers in Egypt raise the pigs for consumption by the country's Christian minority.
Submitted by M.R.T. on Mon, 13/04/2009 - 1:33am.
Source:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/588968?sssdmh=dm1.438947&src=nldne
March 3, 2009 — Men with male factor infertility have an increased risk for the subsequent development of testicular cancer, according to the results of a study reported in the February 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"The risk of testicular cancer is thought to be higher among men seeking infertility treatment compared with the general population," write Thomas J. Walsh, MD, MS, from University of California–San Francisco and colleagues. "Confirmation of this risk in a large US cohort of at-risk patients is lacking. This study explored the association between male infertility and subsequent development of testicular cancer in a US-based cohort."
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sun, 12/04/2009 - 5:02pm.
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CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/04/12/saudi.child.marriage/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
A Saudi mother is expected to appeal a judge's ruling after he once again refused to let her 8-year-old daughter divorce a 47-year-old man, a relative said.
Sheikh Habib Al-Habib made the ruling Saturday in the Saudi city of Onaiza. Late last year, he rejected a petition to annul the marriage.
The case, which has drawn criticism from local and international rights groups, came to light in December when Al-Habib declined to annul the marriage on a legal technicality. His dismissal of the mother's petition sparked outrage and made headlines around the world.
The judge said the mother, who is separated from the girl's father, was not the legal guardian and therefore could not represent her daughter, the mother's lawyer, Abdullah al-Jutaili, said at the time.
The girl's husband pledged not to consummate the marriage until the girl reaches puberty, according to al-Jutaili, who added that the girl's father arranged the marriage to settle his debts with the man, who is considered "a close friend."
In March, an appeals court in the Saudi capital of Riyadh declined to certify the original ruling, in essence rejecting al-Habib's verdict, and sent the case back to al-Habib for reconsideration.
Under the Saudi legal process, the appeals court ruling meant that the marriage was still in effect, but that a challenge to the marriage was still ongoing.
The relative, who said the girl's mother will continue to pursue a divorce, told CNN the judge "stuck by his earlier verdict and insisted that the girl could petition the court for a divorce once she reached puberty."
The appeals court in Riyadh will take up the case again and a hearing is scheduled for next month, according to the relative.
Child marriages have made news in Saudi Arabia in the past year.
In a statement issued shortly after the original verdict, the Society of Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia said the judge's decision went against children's "basic rights."
Submitted by Dr.bisho on Sat, 28/03/2009 - 1:06pm.
Source:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/590110?sssdmh=dm1.449375&src=nldne
March 25, 2009 — Male circumcision significantly reduced the incidence of HIV and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection and the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, suggesting potential public health benefits, according to the results of a randomized controlled trial reported in the March 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Submitted by Amal M.D. on Tue, 24/03/2009 - 7:56pm.
Source:
http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/589571?src=cmemp
March 13, 2009 — Lower serum levels of creatinine are associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a brief report in the March issue of Diabetes Care.
The authors note that creatinine in serum is a direct indicator of total muscle mass. "Although skeletal muscle is one of the major targets of insulin," write Dr. Tomoshige Hayashi, from Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, and colleagues, "to our knowledge, no prospective study has investigated the association between total skeletal muscle mass and type 2 diabetes."
The current investigation included 8570 men in the Kansai Healthcare Study, an ongoing project examining risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases. The participants were between 40 and 55 years of age and nondiabetic at entry.
Incident diabetes was diagnosed if fasting glucose levels reached 126 mg/dL or higher or if treatment with an oral hypoglycemic agent or insulin was initiated.
After 4 years of follow-up, 877 men were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. "The multiple-adjusted odds ratio for those who had serum creatinine between 0.40 and 0.60 mg/dL was 1.91 compared with those who had levels between 0.71 and 0.80 mg/dL," the investigators report.
They conjecture that, because resistance training is known to cause muscular hypertrophy, it might be worth exploring whether such training could increase creatinine levels and thereby cut the risk of diabetes.
Diabetes Care. 2009;32:424-426.
Reuters Health Information 2009. © 2009 Reuters Ltd.
Clinical Context
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 21/03/2009 - 12:24pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7951331.stm
A pink baby elephant has been caught on camera in Botswana.
A wildlife cameraman took pictures of the calf when he spotted it among a herd of about 80 elephants in the Okavango Delta.
Experts believe it is probably an albino, which is an extremely rare phenomenon in African elephants.
They are unsure of its chances of long-term survival - the blazing African sunlight may cause blindness and skin problems for the calf.
Mike Holding, who spotted the baby while filming for a BBC wildlife programme, said: "We only saw it for a couple of minutes as the herd crossed the river.
"This was a really exciting moment for everyone in camp. We knew it was a rare sighting - no-one could believe their eyes."
Documented evidence
Albino elephants are not usually white, but instead they have more of a reddish-brown or pink hue.
While albinism is thought to be fairly common in Asian elephants, it is much less common in the larger African species.
Ecologist Dr Mike Chase, who runs conservation charity Elephants Without Borders, said: "I have only come across three references to albino calves, which have occurred in Kruger National Park in South Africa.
"This is probably the first documented sighting of an albino elephant in northern Botswana.
"We have been studying elephants in the region for nearly 10 years now, and this is the first documented evidence of an albino calf that I have come across."
He said that the condition might make it difficult for the calf to survive into adulthood.
"What happens to these young albino calves remains a mystery," said Dr Chase.
"Surviving this very rare phenomenon is very difficult in the harsh African bush. The glaring sun may cause blindness and skin problems."
However, he told BBC News that there might be a ray of hope for the pink calf as it already seemed to be learning to adapt to its condition.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 21/03/2009 - 12:17pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7954451.stm
Two studies have pinpointed a single gene as key to the development and treatment of schizophrenia.
A US team from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute found that a mutated version of the DISC1 gene disrupts the growth and development of brain cells.
And a team from the University of Edinburgh showed that the gene affects how patients respond to treatment.
Both studies, published in the journals PLoS One and Cell, raise hopes of more effective treatment for schizophrenia.
The condition is a common form of mental illness, affecting up to 1% of adults worldwide.
Symptoms tend to appear in late adolescence or early adulthood, and can include delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and depression.
The US team showed that DISC1 plays a key role in normal brain development and the growth of individual neurons. However, carrying the wrong version of the gene can make this process go awry.
Working on mice, they showed that DISC1 was active, both in cells taken from embryos and in brain stem cells taken from adult mice.
When DISC1 levels were reduced in adult mice their brain cells failed to divide, and the animals developed symptoms mimicking schizophrenia in humans.
Further tests showed that DISC1 acts like lithium, a drug commonly prescribed as mood stabiliser to patients with mental illness, inhibiting the action of a key chemical in the brain.
When mice with depressed levels of DISC1 were treated with this chemical, their symptoms began to improve.
Lead researcher Dr Li-Heui Tsai said: "We need to get a handle on the genetics of schizophrenia, but now we know how DISC1 probably contributes to the disorder, which is a big step."
Impact on treatment
The Edinburgh researchers analysed data generated by the Human Genome Project, set up to decode the complete genetic blueprint of humans.
They showed DISC1 affects a number of other genes current medications are designed to target.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 21/03/2009 - 12:06pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7954741.stm
If regular elections are a sign of a functioning democracy, politics in Kuwait are in excellent health.
Only 10 months after the last parliamentary elections were held in the oil-rich emirate, Kuwaitis will once again head to the polls, following the decision by the Emir to dissolve parliament.
Since 1991, Kuwaitis have voted six times - in 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2006 and 2008.
Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah's decision this time was taken after a familiar crisis crippled the country's political system.
Opposition MPs were eager to question the prime minister over allegations of government corruption and mishandling of economic policy.
Rather than face questioning, the prime minister handed in his resignation.
As head of state and the country's highest political authority, the Emir stepped in, dissolved parliament and called new elections.
He also addressed the nation and delivered a scathing critique of what he saw as abuse by some MPs of their right to question the prime minister, which led to a "distortion of Kuwaiti freedom and democracy".
Force of tradition
The reason Kuwaitis are being called back to the polls so frequently is that the underlying reason for the crises is never addressed.
The public grilling process, which could lead to a vote of confidence in the prime minister, is seen by many as too humiliating for a member of the ruling family.
Analysts stress that from a legal perspective the MPs, however aggressive in their questioning, are within their constitutional rights.
But the force of tradition and respect for the ruling family stops the process of questioning in its tracks.
Observers speak of two possible solutions to this problem.
The first is installing a "popular government", a term used in Kuwait to describe a cabinet without members of the ruling family.
Supporters say that that would end the sensitivity about holding prime ministers and ministers to account.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 21/03/2009 - 12:03pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7946232.stm
The resignation of Kuwait's government has been accepted by the ruling emir, according to state television.
Critics of the government say the move is designed to avert questioning of the prime minister in parliament about alleged misuse of funds.
It is the second resignation of the cabinet in six months.
Ruler Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah has asked the government to continue dealing with urgent matters, state television reported.
The government's critics want to question Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a nephew of the emir, over his role in a range of issues, including claims that he mismanaged ministries and misused public money.
Sheikh Nasser has been under constant political pressure ever since he became prime minister in February, 2006.
He has been forced to resign four times and reshuffle his cabinets on two other occasions.
The most recent of his five cabinets was appointed in January.
No prime minister in the Gulf state has ever allowed themselves to be questioned.
Under Kuwaiti law, the emir had the power to accept or reject the resignation.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Wed, 11/03/2009 - 4:12pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7931945.stm
A hot day can spell bad news for migraine sufferers, increasing their risk of an attack the next day, US research suggests.
The risk went up by 7.5% for every five degree Celsius increase in temperature revealed the study of more than 7,000 patients, published in Neurology.
The same applied to people who suffer from non-migraine headaches too.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Wed, 11/03/2009 - 4:09pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7935592.stm
Nanotechnology has been used for the first time to destroy cancer cells with a highly targeted package of "tumour busting" genes.
The technique, which leaves healthy cells unaffected, could potentially offer hope to people with hard-to-treat cancers where surgery is not possible.
Although it has only been tested in mice so far, the researchers hope for human trials in two years.
The UK study is published online by the journal Cancer Research.
The genes were wrapped up in microscopic nano-particles which were taken up by cancer cells, but not their healthy neighbours.
Once inside, the genes stimulated production of a protein which destroys the cancer.
The researchers say the technology could potentially be particularly relevant for people with cancers that are inoperable because they are close to vital organs.
They hope it will eventually also be used to treat cancer that has spread.
'Exciting step'
Lead researcher Dr Andreas Schatzlein, from the School of Pharmacy in London, said: "Gene therapy has a great potential to create safe and effective cancer treatments but getting the genes into cancer cells remains one of the big challenges in this area.
"This is the first time that nanoparticles have been shown to target tumours in such a selective way, and this is an exciting step forward in the field.
"Once inside the cell, the gene enclosed in the particle recognises the cancerous environment and switches on. The result is toxic, but only to the offending cells, leaving healthy tissue unaffected.
"We hope this therapy will be used to treat cancer patients in clinical trials in a couple of years."
Traditional chemotherapy indiscriminately kills cells in the affected area of the body, which can cause side effects like fatigue, hair loss or nausea.
It is hoped that gene therapy will have fewer associated side effects by targeting cancer cells.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Wed, 11/03/2009 - 4:02pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7936137.stm
Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are acidifying the oceans and threaten a mass extinction of sea life, a top ocean scientist warns.
Dr Carol Turley from Plymouth Marine Laboratory says it is impossible to know how marine life will cope, but she fears many species will not survive.
Since the Industrial Revolution, CO2 emissions have already turned the sea about 30% more acidic, say researchers.
It is more acidic now than it has been for at least 500,000 years, they add.
The problem is set to worsen as emissions of the greenhouse gas increase through the 21st Century.
"I am very worried for ocean ecosystems which are currently productive and diverse," Carol Turely told BBC News.
"I believe we may be heading for a mass extinction, as the rate of change in the oceans hasn't been seen since the dinosaurs.
"It may have a major impact on food security. It really is imperative that we cut emissions of CO2."
Dr Turley is chairing a session on ocean acidification at the Copenhagen Climate Change Congress.
Testing times
The problem is most acute for creatures which make calcified shells.
Laboratory tests suggest starfish may be wiped out before the end of the century if current emissions trends continue.
Scientists fear mussels may not be able to cope, either. Oysters may be less vulnerable, and farmed oysters may fare better than wild oysters.
"One thing is certain," says Dr Turley. "Things will change. We just don't know yet exactly how they will change.
"It is not a very wise experiment to be making."
Professor Andy Watson, an ocean biologist from the University of East Anglia, believes climate change and overfishing may ruin the seas before acidification does.
He condemns increases in CO2 from human activities, but points out that ocean acidity also fluctuates naturally.
He also wonders if some creatures might adapt to the changes over time.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Wed, 11/03/2009 - 3:39pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7935482.stm
Scientists have discovered a highly unusual fish with fangs made of bone.
Dubbed the "Dracula" fish, the creature is about 17mm (0.7 inches) long and has been found in only one Burmese stream.
The researchers, from London's Natural History Museum (NHM), believe the fish lost its teeth over evolutionary time, but later evolved the bone fangs.
Writing in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings B, they say the males use the fangs to jostle each other - but do not appear to draw blood.
"When you watch them in captivity you can see the males sparring," said NHM's Ralf Britz.
"They display with their lower jaws open incredibly widely, then they nudge each other; but we don't see any wounds."
Dr Britz, who has worked with Burmese wildlife for more than a decade, named the species Danionella dracula in honour of mythology's most eminent fanged predator.
Early developer
The tiny specimens came to the UK in a consignment of aquarium fish, and at first the researchers mistook them for another related species.
"After a year or so in captivity they started dying; and when I preserved them and looked at them under the microscope, I thought 'my God, what is this, they can't be teeth'," Dr Britz told BBC News.
"And when I looked in more detail, and stained the bone and cartilage with different colours and used an enzyme to dissolve away the muscle, I saw they clearly were not teeth."
Instead, the jawbones appear to have developed rows of sharp protrusions resembling teeth and presumably serving the same purpose - plus, in the males, these extraordinary fangs.
Using DNA data to place the new species in its family tree, the researchers believe the lineage lost its teeth about 50 million years ago.
Compared to relatives, they appear to reach sexual maturity when their bodies have not fully developed.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Fri, 27/02/2009 - 12:22am.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7907774.stm
HIV is evolving rapidly to escape the human immune system, an international study has shown.
The Nature study highlights just how tough it could be to develop a vaccine that keeps pace with the changing nature of the virus.
The researchers showed HIV was able to adapt rapidly to counter human genes controlling immune system molecules that can target it for destruction.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Fri, 27/02/2009 - 12:17am.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7912688.stm
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed al-Sabah and Hoshyar Zebari
Kuwait's foreign minister has flown to Iraq for the highest-level visit since Iraq's armed forces invaded its southern neighbour in 1990.
Sheikh Muhammad al-Sabah, who is also Kuwait's deputy prime minister, met Iraq's PM and other top officials.
They discussed joint oilfields, maritime borders and war reparations, exactly 19 years after Iraqi forces were expelled from Kuwait.
Iraqi officials said it was "illogical" to continue paying Kuwait compensation.
Many countries have written off their debts to help Iraq get back on its feet since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by a US-led invasion in 2003.
However Kuwait, which has so far received $13.3bn in compensation from Iraq, is holding out for more. Iraq currently pays 5% of its oil revenues as compensation to Kuwait.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Kuwaiti parliament, and not their government, shown to decide on the matter.
On Wednesday night, Kuwait celebrated its liberation for the first time at a banquet in their Baghdad embassy.
Kuwait's first ambassador to Iraq since the 1990-91 war, Ali al-Momen, said: "It means a great deal to me, to my people, to my leadership, having this celebration on this land."
"We have a great task ahead of us and we will work very hard," he added.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani visited Kuwait in January for an Arab economic summit.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Wed, 25/02/2009 - 11:27pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7909464.stm
Long working hours may raise the risk of mental decline and possibly dementia, research suggests.
The Finnish-led study was based on analysis of 2,214 middle-aged British civil servants.
It found that those working more than 55 hours a week had poorer mental skills than those who worked a standard working week.
The American Journal of Epidemiology study found hard workers had problems with short-term memory and word recall.
Lead researcher Dr Marianna Virtanen, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, said: "The disadvantages of overtime work should be taken seriously."
It is not known why working long hours might have an adverse effect on the brain.
However, the researchers say key factors could include increased sleeping problems, depression, an unhealthy lifestyle and a raised risk of cardiovascular disease, possibly linked to stress.
The civil servants who took part in the study took five different tests of their mental function, once between 1997 and 1999, and again between 2002 and 2004.
Those doing the most overtime recorded lower scores in two of the five tests, assessing reasoning and vocabulary.
Cumulative effect
The effects were cumulative, the longer the working week was the worse the test results were.
Employees with long working hours also had shorter sleeping hours, reported more symptoms of depression and used more alcohol than those with normal working hours.
Professor Mika Kivimäki, who also worked on the study, said "We will go on with this study question in the future.
"It is particularly important to examine whether the effects are long-lasting and whether long working hours predict more serious conditions such as dementia."
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Wed, 25/02/2009 - 11:06pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/24/health.vitamind.cold/index.html
Vitamin D may protect people -- especially those with asthma and other chronic lung conditions -- from colds and other respiratory tract infections, according to the largest study to date to look at the link.
Unlike other vitamins, a deficiency of vitamin D (which is known as the sunshine vitamin because sun exposure triggers production in the body) is quite common in the United States -- particularly in winter.
At least 50 percent of people in the new study, which included nearly 19,000 people 12 and older, had levels that suggested less-than-optimal protection against respiratory tract infections, according to the report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"People think that if they have a good, balanced diet that they will get enough vitamin D, and that's actually not true," said Dr. Michal Melamed, an assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "Unless you eat a lot of fish and drink a lot of milk, you can't get enough vitamin D from diet."
In the study, Dr. Adit Ginde of the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston found that people who had low blood levels of vitamin D were more likely to report having had a recent cold than those with higher amounts. What's more, the risk of a recent cold or other respiratory infection seemed to rise as vitamin D levels dropped.
Overall, 24 percent of people with the lowest levels (under 10 ng/ml) had had a recent cold, compared with 20 percent of those with slightly higher levels (10 to 29 ng/ml) and 17 percent of those with the highest levels (30 ng/ml or more).
The link was even stronger in people with asthma, who had about six-fold greater risk of colds with low vitamin D, and in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, who had a two- to three-fold greater risk.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Mon, 16/02/2009 - 4:55pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/15/saudi.female.minister/index.html
The appointment of a Saudi woman as a vice minister in the country's government is a "first step" for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, but "more serious changes" are needed, an outspoken advocate said Sunday.
"It is something really great, and we are very proud of our king that he took this decision," Wajeha al-Huwaider told CNN. "And I think it's going to be the first step toward the reform that he promised."
King Abdullah on Saturday appointed Norah al-Faiz to serve as the newly created vice minister for women's education as part of a major Cabinet reshuffling. It is the highest rank a woman has achieved in the Saudi government.
"I'm very proud to be nominated and selected for such a prestigious position," al-Faiz told CNN on Saturday. "I hope that other ladies, females, will follow in the future."
Al-Faiz said she's confident her appointment is not simple tokenism.
"I think by being the second person after the minister, I think I have enough power to work in the improvement of girls' education," she said.
But al-Huwaider said it is unclear if al-Faiz will have any real power, or if she will follow the path of other Saudi women who had been appointed to lower councils but were never heard from.
She noted that Saudi women still do not have the right to drive and are still recognized under Saudi law as the property of men.
"Even this minister now ... she is not really in control of her life," al-Huwaider noted. "It is not up to her, it's up to her male guardian."
She said the "guardianship system" is the first thing that should be removed by the new Saudi government.
"This is the main thing that is controlling our life," al-Huwaider said. "We want to be able to drive our cars, you know, to feel like we are just like the rest of the world."
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Mon, 16/02/2009 - 12:39am.
Source:
CNN - http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/14/boy.baby.dad.england/index.html?iref=mpstoryview; http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/15/boy.baby.dad.england/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
UK: 13-Year Old Becomes A Dad :
The birth of a child fathered by a 13-year-old boy has sparked an uproar in Britain.
Alfie Patten, who was only 12 when the baby was conceived with his girlfriend, Chantelle Steadman, 15, was first pictured on the front of Friday's tabloid Sun newspaper with his daughter, Maisie Roxanne, after her birth Monday.
He told the newspaper that he thought "it would be good to have a baby."
"I didn't think about how we would afford it. I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10. When my mum found out, I thought I was going to get in trouble. We wanted to have the baby but were worried about how people would react. I didn't know what it would be like to be a dad. I will be good, though, and care for it."
Chantelle, meanwhile, said, "I'm tired after the birth. I was nervous after going into labor, but otherwise I was quite excited."
She later told the Sun that they wanted to "prove to everyone" that they could give Maisie a "great future" and said both of them planned to stay in school.
The Sun reported that police had investigated but said they were not going to prosecute, as it was "not in anyone's interests."
Conservative party leader David Cameron told the British Press Association that parenthood should not be something the teenagers should even have been contemplating.
Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who runs the Centre for Social Justice think tank, told PA that the birth highlighted another case of "broken Britain" where "anything goes."
"It's not being accusative; it's about pointing out the complete collapse in some parts of society of any sense of what's right and wrong.
"There is no opprobrium any more about behavior, and quite often, children witness behavior that's aggressive, violent, rude and sexual. It's as if no one is saying this is wrong."
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 07/02/2009 - 2:53pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/diet.fitness/02/06/papa.johns.pizza.obesity/index.html
The founder of one of America's largest pizza chains has offered unexpected advice to his customers to limit themselves to only one or two slices.
During an interview on BBC's Radio Four program in the United Kingdom, John Schnatter, said, "you can't eat five or six slices."
He was responding to a question from presenter Adam Shaw about whether he was concerned about the impact of the British government's anti-obesity drive on pizza sales.
"No. Pizza's actually healthy for you if you don't eat too much of it," Schnatter replied, adding, "You can't eat five or six slices but if you eat one or two slices it's very nutritious."
The pizza chain boss had just finished telling BBC listeners that the UK market was a "huge priority for Papa John's International."
The company has 118 outlets in the United Kingdom, its second biggest market outside the U.S. after China.
Sales in the UK jumped 60% on Monday alone after heavy snowfalls were estimated to have encouraged around one in five workers to stay at home.
Schnatter is in the United Kingdom for the annual franchisee conference, a marketing tool to encourage more small business owners to buy into the Papa John's brand.
While it's impossible to know whether his comments have dissuaded anyone from investing in the company, BBC presenter Shaw suggested shareholders might take issue with his suggestion.
"I'm not sure your investors would want to hear you tell people don't eat too much of our pizzas," he laughed before thanking Schnatter for his time.
Schnatter opened his first shop in 1985, after selling his beloved Camaro to buy his first pizza oven. There are now more than 3000 restaurants worldwide.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 07/02/2009 - 2:05pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/06/florida.abortion/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
A doctor's license was revoked Friday in the case of a teenager who planned to have an abortion but instead gave birth to a baby she says was killed when clinic staffers put it into a plastic bag and threw it in the trash.
The doctor, Pierre Jean-Jacques Renelique, also is the subject of a criminal investigation. Renelique was not present when the baby was born, but the Florida Medical Board upheld Department of Health allegations that he falsified medical records, inappropriately delegated tasks to unlicensed personnel and committed malpractice.
Joseph Harrison, the attorney representing Renelique at the license revocation hearing in Tampa, said Renelique has not decided whether to appeal.
The state attorney's office, meanwhile, said its criminal investigation into the incident is ongoing and no charges have been filed. A fetus born alive cannot be put to death even if its mother intended to have an abortion, police said when the incident occurred in 2006.
The baby's mother, Sycloria Williams, sued Renelique, the clinic and its staff in January, seeking damages.
She alleges in her suit that "she witnessed the murder of her daughter" and said she "sustained severe emotional distress, shock and psychic trauma which have resulted in discernible bodily injury."
"This is not about a pot of gold," said Tom Pennekamp, her attorney. "What this is about is right and wrong and making a statement, making sure it doesn't happen to other young women."
According to the suit, Williams, then 18, discovered while being treated for a fall that she was 23 weeks pregnant. She went to a clinic to get an abortion on the morning of July 20, 2006, after receiving medication and instructions the previous day.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sun, 01/02/2009 - 5:53pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/29/waterproof.rice/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
If every scientist hopes to make at least one important discovery in her career, then University of California-Davis professor Pamela Ronald and her colleagues may have hit the jackpot.
1 of 3 Ronald's team works with rice, a grain most Americans take for granted, but which is a matter of life and death to much of the world. Thanks to their efforts to breed a new, hardier variety of rice, millions of people may not go hungry.
About half the world's population eats rice as a staple. Two-thirds of the diet of subsistence farmers in India and Bangladesh is made up entirely of rice. If rice crops suffer, it can mean starvation for millions.
"People [in the United States] think, well, if I don't have enough rice, I'll go to the store," said Ronald, a professor of plant pathology at UC-Davis. "That's not the situation in these villages. They're mostly subsistence farmers. They don't have cars."
As sea levels rise and world weather patterns worsen, flooding has become a major cause of rice crop loss. Scientists estimate 4 million tons of rice are lost every year because of flooding. That's enough rice to feed 30 million people.
Rice is grown in flooded fields, usually to kill weeds. But rice plants do not like it when they are submerged in water for long periods, Ronald said.
"They don't get enough carbon dioxide, they don't get enough light and their entire metabolic processes are thrown off. The rice plant tries to grow out of the flood, but when it does, it depletes its sugar reserves. It starts to break down its chlorophyll, important for photosynthesis. It grows really quickly, and then when the flood recedes, it just dies. It's out of gas."
Normal rice dies after three days of complete flooding. Researchers know of at least one rice variety that can tolerate flooding for longer periods, but conventional breeding failed to create a strain that was acceptable to farmers.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 31/01/2009 - 12:05pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7851932.stm
"Tadpoles could hold the key to developing effective skin cancer drugs according to researchers at the University of East Anglia.
The scientists have identified a compound which blocks the movement of the pigment cells that give the tadpoles their distinctive markings.
It is the uncontrolled movement of pigment cells that causes skin cancer in both humans and frogs.
The next step, the researchers say, is to test the compound in other animals.
The man-made compound, NSC 84093, was chosen out of a list of 3,000 which were screened to see if they affected the pigment cells.
It produced a distinct change in the colour markings on the tadpoles at very low concentrations.
The continuous stripe along the back of a wild tadpole was replaced by a pattern of individual blocks of colour.
The study is published in the journal, Chemistry & Biology.
Grant Wheeler, a developmental biologist and lead researcher at the University of East Anglia, said: "Forty of the compounds gave us an interesting difference which we wanted to follow up."
"The reason we were able to look at so many compounds was because it's very easy to look at the embryos and see the colour change."
"The pigment cells are interesting for a number of reasons.
"The first is that the place where they develop is not where they end up - they move through the embryo in a process called cell migration."
Invasive melanomas : when melanoma cells migrate through the body to the organs and cause secondary tumours that the disease becomes deadly.
Melanomas are one of the most dangerous forms of skin cancer because they are highly invasive and resistant to treatment.
Scientists hope that if they can block this process they can halt the cancer.
The compound in this study works by inhibiting matrix metaloproteinases (MMP) which are expressed by melanoma tumours in both humans and frogs.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 31/01/2009 - 12:00pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7862353.stm
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip has hit southern Israel, exploding near the city of Ashkelon, the Israeli military has said.
No casualties were reported from the rocket, which landed in a field.
It is one of several rocket attacks from the territory since Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, declared ceasefires on 18 January.
Israel fought a three-week offensive in Gaza to try to stop militants firing rockets into Israel.
The ceasefires, independently declared by each side, have been violated several times.
An Israeli soldier was killed in a bomb attack on the Gaza border on Tuesday. Israel responded with air raids and a brief ground incursion by soldiers and tanks.
About 1,300 Palestinians and 10 Israeli soldiers were killed in the three weeks of Gaza fighting. Three Israeli citizens died in rocket attacks.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 31/01/2009 - 11:56am.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/31/iraq.elections/index.html
Voting in Iraq began early Saturday in the war-ravaged country's important provincial elections.
1 of 2 Images on Iraqi television showed voters casting ballots in many cities amid tight security. One of the many voting Saturday morning was Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Al-Maliki told reporters gathered at the polling station that the election was evidence that Iraqi people live under a high level of safety.
Iraqi, American, and U.N. officials consider the vote a major event in the new Iraq. Staffan de Mistura, the top U.N. official in Iraq, said in an interview with CNN the polls are "iconic" and could represent "a symbolic message."
"It is the opportunity for the Iraqis to show that democracy can go forward, and we can move forward from bullets to ballots," de Mistura said.
All 6,000 polling centers except for four opened on time. The four stations were delayed for logistical reasons, election officials said.
At a polling center in the Anbar province, voters were excited with some saying that this was the first time they had participated in an election.
Officials have increased heightened security measures throughout Iraq, especially around polling stations. Those measures also include vigorous searches. Only emergency, military and officially marked security vehicles will be permitted on roads.
Three mortars exploded near a polling station in central Tikrit, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Baghdad on Saturday, an official with the Interior Ministry told CNN. There were no reports of any casualties.
More than 14,400 candidates from more than 400 political entities have been registered and approved, and 15 million Iraqis have registered to vote. Each voter will emerge with one finger swiped with purple ink as proof of voting.
The first provincial elections held after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime were staged in January 2005.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 31/01/2009 - 11:53am.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/19/health.men.hunger/index.html
When presented with a juicy cheeseburger, cinnamon bun, or other tempting treat, women may have a tougher time reining in their desire to eat when they are on a diet than their equally hungry male counterparts.
In a new brain-scan study, researchers flashed tasty food in front of men and women who hadn't eaten anything in at least 17 hours. Both were told to fight their hunger, but only men showed a drop in activity in brain regions involved in emotion and motivation.
Men may have better tools for appetite control, which may help explain why women are more likely to be obese than men and have a tougher time dieting, according to the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Something happens in the brains of men which does not happen in the brains of women. It's quite amazing," said Paul A. M. Smeets, of the Image Sciences Institute at the University Medical Center Utrecht, in the Netherlands.
"[The findings] suggest that in real life there might be a difference in how good men and women are at suppressing this kind of desire," said Smeets, who studies hunger and satiety using brain imaging, but was not involved with the current research.
Dr. Gene-Jack Wang, of Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, and his colleagues used positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to observe brain activity in 23 normal-weight (or, at most, slightly overweight) people -- 13 women and 10 men. They asked the volunteers to choose their favorite food from a list that included fried chicken, lasagna, barbecued ribs, ice cream, or pizza.
Then, 17 to 19 hours after their last meal, the volunteers had a brain scan while they looked at one of their favorites. Study participants could smell the food as well as see it (the researchers warmed it up to waft fumes throughout the room), and also were given a taste with a cotton swab placed on their tongue.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sat, 31/01/2009 - 11:49am.
Source:
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/12/decision.making/index.html
We all make bad decisions sometimes. In some contexts, to a certain extent, psychologists know why.
Much research on the subject was done by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for their models of how intuitive reasoning is flawed in predictable ways. Kahneman is now professor emeritus at Princeton University, and Tversky died in 1996.
But other researchers are working on showing that, when it comes to more basic judgments, we're not so bad.
Research in the current issue of the journal Neuron offers a mathematical model for how people make decisions about visual stimuli on a computer screen. They found that humans make accurate judgments about cues they can see.
"We're discovering that humans aren't so stupid after all," said Alexandre Pouget, co-author of the study and associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester in New York.
Participants were asked to look at moving dots on a screen. Many of the dots moved randomly, but some moved in one clear direction. Researchers found that people very quickly realized which way the non-random dots were going.
The work complements that of Kahneman and Tversky in that it shows humans are good at lower-level, nonlinguistic tasks, while perhaps not so good at higher-level probability problems involving words, he said.
"In simple perceptual decisions -- you have a visual stimulus on the screen and you have to make decisions about it -- it looks like you do accumulate the evidence optimally, given that uncertainty," Pouget said.
Psychologists believe the human mind has two systems for decision-making: intuitive and reasoning. The intuitive system is emotional, fast, automatic but slow-learning, while the reasoning system is emotionally-neutral, slow, controlled, and rule-governed. Neither, of course, is always right, but there are certain simple problems that reveal flaws in intuition.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Tue, 27/01/2009 - 1:26pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/26/california.octuplets/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
A woman in California delivered what may be the nation's second live-born set of octuplets on Monday morning, surprising doctors who expected seven babies.
The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound 8 ounces to 3 pounds 4 ounces -- were generally doing well in incubators following their Caesarean-section delivery at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, California, doctors said.
Three of the babies need breathing assistance, but otherwise the eight don't appear to have serious problems, doctors said at a news conference Monday evening.
"It was a truly amazing delivery," said Dr. Karen Maples, chief of the hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department.
Doctors initially believed the mother -- whom they did not identify -- was pregnant with seven fetuses. The woman was 23 weeks pregnant when she was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest.
Over a seven-week period, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday -- more than nine weeks before the babies would be full term -- they were in for a surprise.
"After we got to Baby G, we were surprised by the discovery of a Baby H," Maples said.
Getting the number correct with ultrasounds before delivery is difficult with so many babies, said Dr. Harold Henry, the hospital's chief of fetal medicine.
"It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're expecting seven," Henry said.
The hospital said the woman didn't want her personal information released to the news media, and it would not answer questions about whether she'd had fertility treatments.
Preliminary research indicates this is the second set of live-born octuplets in the United States, according to the hospital.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Tue, 27/01/2009 - 1:23pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/27/obama.arabia/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
President Obama said his administration will offer a hand of friendship to the Muslim world, but will hunt down terrorist organizations that kill innocent civilians.
"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," Obama said in an interview with the Al-Arabiya satellite television network. "We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect."
In his run for the White House, Obama pledged to improve ties with the Muslim world, draw down U.S. troops in Iraq and close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The president has also pledged to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital in the first 100 days of his administration. No location has been announced.
Obama said the United States will go after terrorist organizations that kill innocent civilians, but will do so while respecting the rule of law. The president said that difference makes America great.
The Obama administration has also taken an early interest in the Middle East peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians, with the president naming former Sen. George Mitchell as his special envoy to the region.
"I think the most important thing is for the United States to get engaged right away," Obama told Al-Arabiya's Washington Bureau Chief Hisham Melhem. "I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people."
A tentative cease-fire between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza began January 21 after a three-week military operation by Israeli troops in the Palestinian territory.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Fri, 23/01/2009 - 11:33am.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/23/stem.cell/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Federal regulators have cleared the way for the first human trials of human embryonic stem-cell research, authorizing researchers to test whether the cells are safe to use in spinal injury patients, the company behind the trials announced Friday.
The tests could begin by summer, said Dr. Thomas Okarma, president and CEO of the Geron Corporation. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the trials, which will use human stem cells authorized for research by then-President George W. Bush in 2001.
The patients will be those with the most severe spinal cord injuries, called complete spinal cord injuries.
"A complete spinal cord injury has no hope of recovery below the injury," Okarma told CNN. "This is significant because it's the first clinical trial of a human embryonic-based product."
The primary purpose of the trial will be to see whether injecting these cells into patients is safe, but Okarma said researchers will also look for any signs of recovery. Scientists will monitor the patients for a year after the injections to see if they are regaining any function below the injured point.
"If there is any movement below the injury, they will measure that and record it," he said.
The trials will involve eight to 10 patients who are completely paralyzed below the third to tenth vertebra, and who sustained their spinal cord injury within seven to 14 days. The tests will use stem cells cultured from embryos left over in fertility clinics, which otherwise would have been discarded.
Using the stem cells, researchers have developed cells called oligodendrocytes, which are precursors to nerve cells and which produce a protective layer around nerve cells known as myelin. Researchers will inject these nerve cells directly into the part of the spine where the injury occurred.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Mon, 19/01/2009 - 2:52pm.
Source:
Kuwait Times: http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=ODI4NjQwNDY2
Arab leaders hold their first economic summit in Kuwait today, aiming to boost cooperation amid deep political divisions exposed by the deadly Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip. The January 19-20 meeting was planned to be non-political, but Israel's war on Hamas and the failure of the Arab League to convene a separate emergency summit has pushed Gaza high on to the agenda.
Israel's unilateral ceasefire which went into effect early yesterday may reduce the immediate urgency of the summit's discussion on Gaza but leaders will still plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In addition to political aspects, they will look at proposals for a multibillion dollar fund to help reconstruct the battered enclave, which has been devastated by the three-week Israeli onslaught. Kuwait has said that all the Arab leaders will be present - a marked departure from an emergency Arab meeting held in Qatar to cope with the offensive.
Qatar on Friday hosted the Arab meeting on Gaza for which it failed to gather the needed quorum to turn it into an official Arab League emergency summit. Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia had ignored Qatar's invitation and instead hastily organized a Gulf summit on Thursday addressing the Gaza crisis. The "Arab situation is in very big chaos... It is regrettable and harmful," Arab League chief Amr Moussa said, acknowledging the division in Arab ranks on the issue.
The Arab ship is really sinking and Kuwait's summit ... might save it," he said. Arab foreign ministers have already said the leaders were committed to rebuilding the coastal territory - a task that will cost about $2 billion at a time when even the wealthiest of the Arab nations are struggling under the weight of falling oil prices that complicate their own development goals.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Mon, 19/01/2009 - 2:31pm.
Source:
BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7836518.stm
A new surgical treatment offering hope to patients with corneal blindness is to be trialled in Scotland.
Doctors in Edinburgh and Glasgow will work together using an innovative technique involving adult stem cells.
About 20 patients will take part in the initial tests, using cells cultivated before being transplanted onto the surface of the cornea.
Millions of people worldwide suffer from corneal blindness, 80% of whom are elderly.
Stem cells are a source of great scientific interest as a result of their ability to renew and multiply indefinitely, potentially regenerating entire organs from only a few cells.
Unlike the more controversial embryonic stem cell research, the technique takes stem cells from dead adult donors.
The trial is being led by Prof Bal Dhillon at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh, working with the Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow.
Prof Dhillon said: "This study is the first of its kind anywhere in the world and it is exciting to be involved in such groundbreaking work.
"I probably see two or three new cases of corneal disease every month. On a larger scale, it's a significant problem."
The trial will hope to emulate the success of a similar study in the US in September last year.
In trials at the University of Pennsylvania, subjects with inherited blindness experienced dramatic improvements in vision after a corrective gene was injected into the eye.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sun, 18/01/2009 - 8:14pm.
Source:
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/01/16/aa.electric.cars.debut/index.html
"At the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and MINI showed the world what electric vehicles of the future will look like. And the future of driving looks fun.
Those in the know realize that sometime in the future, the vast majority of light cars and trucks in the US will feature electric final drive systems.
The motors used in these systems will be powered by batteries, fuel cells, on-board generators, and perhaps even the sun ... but this open issue doesn't change the inevitably of this reality.
Given our current economic times, reality demands practical, tangible, and achievable ideas of what electric vehicles (or "EVs" for short) might actually look like. This is it...
Chrysler
Three of the four electric vehicles Chrysler showed in Detroit, Michigan, were shown at other events and even to Washington bureaucrats. Each of these vehicles is a running prototype, not some pie-in-the-sky-we'll-never-build that idea.
ENVI is the special group of engineers at Chrysler that develops the company's EVs. To date, the ENVI group has developed four electrically powered models, each quite different from the other: a Dodge Circuit EV sports car (rear-wheel drive), a Chrysler Town & Country minivan (front-wheel-drive), a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (all-wheel-drive), and now a Jeep Patriot (front-wheel-drive).
Chrysler promises to offer at least one of these models in 2010, and three more by 2013.
Chrysler approaches electric vehicles with simple plug-and-play engineering. Every one of their vehicles uses similar electric drive motors (only varying in power output), advanced lithium-ion batteries, and a power management controller. Each plugs in to 110- or 220-volt household outlets for recharging.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sun, 18/01/2009 - 7:54pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/15/social.conformity.brain/index.html
You're in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others?
Decades of research show people tend to go along with the majority view, even if that view is objectively incorrect. Now, scientists are supporting those theories with brain images.
A new study in the journal Neuron shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal. A zone of the brain popularly called the "oops area" becomes extra active, while the "reward area" slows down, making us think we are too different.
"We show that a deviation from the group opinion is regarded by the brain as a punishment," said Vasily Klucharev, postdoctoral fellow at the F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands and lead author of the study.
Participants, all female, had to rate 222 faces based on physical beauty on a scale from 1 to 8. Afterwards, researchers told each participant either that the average score was higher or that it was lower than her rating. Some participants were told the average rating was equal to her rating. The researchers then chatted with the participant before suddenly asking the participant to do the rating again. Most subjects changed their opinion toward the average.
The two leading theories of conformity are that people look to the group because they're unsure of what to do, and that people go along with the norm because they are afraid of being different, said Dr. Gregory Berns, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Berns' research, which he describes in the book "Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently," found that brain mechanisms associated with fear and anxiety do play a part in situations where a person feels his or her opinion goes against the grain.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sun, 18/01/2009 - 7:45pm.
Source:
CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/18/china.bird.flu/index.html
A 2-year-old girl in northern China has tested positive for bird flu, the World Health Organization said Sunday. It is China's second confirmed case of the virus this month.
The girl fell ill on January 7 in the central Hunan province and was taken to her home province of Shanxi in northern China, the state-run news agency Xinhua said.
The report did not say how the girl became infected.
On January 5, a 19-year-old Beijing woman died of bird flu after handling poultry, officials said.
Xinhua said the woman bought nine ducks at a market in Beijing's neighboring Hebei province and cleaned their organs.
Since the end of 2003, the H5N1 virus has infected numerous species of birds in more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. It has not been found in birds in North or South America, including the Caribbean, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The country reported its first human infection case in 2005. So far, 30 cases have been confirmed. Twenty of them have been fatal, Xinhua said. On Friday, China announced it was setting up a nationwide network to test for the virus.
[The virus] has killed more than 200 people since 2003.
Officials worry the virus could mutate and become a deadly pandemic.
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Sun, 18/01/2009 - 7:37pm.
Source:
Al-Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009118123631230393.html
Hamas and their allied Palestinian factions have announced an immediate one-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, giving Israel a week to pull out of the territory.
The move, following a meeting of the factions in Damascus on Sunday, comes a day after Israel called a unilateral truce, ending its 22-day offensive in Gaza which led to the deaths of 1,203 Palestinians.
"Hamas and the factions announce a ceasefire in Gaza starting immediately and give Israel a week to withdraw," Ayman Taha, a senior Hamas official talking from Cairo, said.
Hamas also demanded that Israel open all of the Gaza Strip's border crossings to allow in food and other goods to meet the "basic needs for our people".
The Palestinian factions at the Damascus meeting also included Islamic Jihad, Al Nidal, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and al Saeqa.
Israel had already said on Sunday that it will not consider a timetable for withdrawing all of its forces from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other groups cease their fire.
Cease rocket fire
Palestinian factions have continued to fire rockets into southern Israel since the beginning of the offensive, killing three Israelis, out of a total of 13 Israelis that have died since the begining of the war.
They have also been fighting Israel's ground forces which enterd the Gaza Strip in the second week of the offensive.
An end to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel was the stated aim of the Israeli offensive.
Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday, with Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, stating that they had achieved their objectives.
"We have reached all the goals of the war, and beyond," he said. "[But] if our enemies decide to strike and want to carry on, then the Israeli army will regard itself as free to respond with force."
Olmert also said the war boosted Israel's deterrence and that Hamas's actions would decide when the military would withdraw.
Submitted by NoraDrenaline on Mon, 12/01/2009 - 11:33pm.
FRIDAY, Jan. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Measuring nitric oxide levels in an asthmatic child's breath every day does not improve the effectiveness of adjusting the child's medications, a new study shows.
Nitric oxide (NO) amounts in an asthmatic's breath can foretell the worsening of symptoms or even an attack. But a 30-week Dutch study of children with the breathing condition found basing daily asthma management on this added knowledge did not improve exacerbation rates, symptoms, or the use of medications any more than just calibrating medication use based on the child's symptoms alone.
However, those in the study -- in which families were regularly contacted by doctors to report on symptoms and receive instructions on adjusting medication -- showed a greater overall improvement in symptoms while cutting inhaled steroid doses in half, regardless of whether their fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) was being checked.
"We speculate that daily supervision and frequent phone contacts have produced an improvement that could not be beaten by additional monitoring of FeNO, most likely because of a ceiling effect on compliance," Dr. Johan C. de Jongste, of the Erasmus University Medical Center-Sophia Children's Hospital in the Netherlands, wrote in the study.
The findings were published in the second January issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Those in the study's FeNO group had nearly twice as many changes in medication as the symptom-only group, but the cost of the additional monitoring and its lack of apparent benefit would rule out adding this regimen to most asthmatic children's routine.
Submitted by admin on Tue, 30/12/2008 - 10:41pm.
Source:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/176300
The Story of Power
Jon Meacham
The study of power is not only diverting (which Homer and Shakespeare knew), but illuminating. A biography of an ancient human impulse.
Preview Article
1: Barack Obama
2: Hu Jintao
3: Nicolas Sarkozy
4-5-6: Economic Triumvirate
7: Gordon Brown
8: Angela Merkel
9: Vladimir Putin
10: Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud
11: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
12: Kim Jong Il
13-14: The Clintons
15: Timothy Geithner
16: Gen. David Petraeus
17: Sonia Gandhi
18: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
19: Warren Buffett
20: Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
21: Nuri al-Maliki
22-23: The Philanthropists
24: Nancy Pelosi
25: Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
26: Mike Duke
27: Rahm Emanuel
28: Eric Schmidt
29: Jamie Dimon
30-31: Friends of Barack
32: Dominique Strauss-Kahn
33: Rex Tillerson
34: Steve Jobs
35: John Lasseter
36: Michael Bloomberg
37: Pope Benedict XVI
38: Katsuaki Watanabe
39: Rupert Murdoch
40: Jeff Bezos
41: Shahrukh Khan
42: Osama bin Laden
43: Hassan Nasrallah
44: Dr. Margaret Chan
45: Carlos Slim Helú
46: The Dalai Lama
47: Oprah Winfrey
48: Amr Khaled
49: E. A. Adeboye
50: Jim Rogers
Submitted by admin on Sun, 28/12/2008 - 12:30am.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7800985.stm
Massive Israeli air raids on Gaza
The missile strikes caused panic in Gaza
Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Mon, 22/12/2008 - 10:07pm.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7791252.stm
When it comes to transplanting lungs, 80% of donated lungs are unsuitable because they were damaged during death or because of intensive care treatment.
A team of Canadian doctors at Toronto General hospital have been able to "recondition" lungs, making them eligible for transplant. They were able to keep the lungs stable outside the body and were able to repair them.
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