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Ebola Outbreak Monitored by US, Aiding Bid to Stop Spread

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The outbreak of deadly Ebola virus, which has now reached Nigeria, is being closely monitored by US officials who are working with governments and aid groups to try to stop the spread. "Our thoughts and prayers are with those fighting the virus," Will Stevens, spokesman for the State Department's Africa bureau, told AFP. "The US government continues to provide a comprehensive, multi-agency response to assist those countries affected by the Ebola virus ...

'Solar Flare' in 2012 Could Have Pushed Earth into Dark Age

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Earth nearly missed a solar flare, revealed NASA recently, a Coronal Mass Ejection that might have plunged the planet towards a global catastrophe on July 23, 2012. Earth just got lucky and avoided the event, caused from the most powerful solar storm on the sun in over 150 years, as the sun's aim narrowly turned away from Earth. Had it occurred a week earlier when it was pointing at the planet the result could have been frighteningly different, News.com.au reported. ...

Obese People are Less Productive in the Workplace, Need Longer Breaks to Rest: Study

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Obese people are less productive in the workplace, claims a new research. The study adds that they get injured easily and need longer rest breaks than employees of normal weight. The study was conducted at iVirgina Tech/i and the iUniversity of Buffalo/i. The researchers examined how people of different weights accomplished work tasks and found that obese people had about 40 percent shorter endurance times. Of the 32 people studied ...

Secret Lymphatic Identity of the Schlemn's Canal Uncovered

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Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, the major risk factor being elevated eye pressure due to poor drainage of aqueous humor, the fluid that provides nutrients to the eye. A specialized structure, called Schlemm's canal funnels aqueous humor from the eye back into circulation. Schlemm's canal function is critical to prevent pressure build up in the eye. In this issue of the iJournal of Clinical Investigation/i, two research groups reveal ...

Trees Save 850 Lives Every Year, Says the U.S. Forest Service

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Reminding the significance of protecting trees, a study conducted by the U.S. Forest Service has showed that trees save approximately 850 lives every year. Besides, they also help people suffering from acute respiratory distress, approximately 670,000 cases per year. The study says that trees save people by removing pollution from the air. The study was conducted by the National Forest Service (NFS) taking into account of the fact that hundreds of deaths in ...

Tips for Healthy Fasting During Ramadhan

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Ramadhan calls for a change in your food habits, and to help you glide through it easily, here we've put down some effective tips. Read on to know more.

Preventing Cervical Cancer by Clearing Cells

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Removing a discrete population of cells in the cervix, a novel approach to prevent cervical cancer, has been described in a study published online in the emInternational Journal of Cancer/em earlier this month. The procedure is based on findings showing successful reduction in the risk of cervical cancer after removal of a discrete population of cells in the cervix. The findings come from a study that looked at squamocolumnar junction cells, or SCJ cells. These ...

Key Protein manipulating Genes in Brain to Control Obesity and Diabetes

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Specific areas of the brain that regulate metabolism can be manipulated with a protein that controls when genes are switched on or off, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. The research potentially could lead to new therapies to treat obesity and diabetes, since the transcription factor involved - spliced X-box binding protein 1 (Xbp1s) - appears to influence the body's sensitivity to insulin and leptin signaling. Insulin and leptin are hormones ...

One Minute of Workout Twice a Week can Boost Health of the Elderly

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Pensioners' can dramatically boost their health and enthusiasm by doing just one minute of intense work out twice a week, says a new study. The study found that in just six weeks the physical fitness of older people enhanced significantly and blood pressure became low. Partakers in the study were put through an exercise regime involving two parts of high-intensity training a week, with six-second sprints on an exercise bike. That ...

Yoghurt With Prebiotics and Probiotics for That Healthy Gut Flora

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Constipation is associated with infrequent and/or painful defecation, fecal incontinence as well as abdominal pain. Even though it is quite bothersome, it is something that we are shy to discuss about and avoid in our usual conversations! It not only causes distress to an individual, but has a significant impact on health care cost too. Eating foods containing plenty of a href="http:www.medindia.net/patients/lifestyleandwellness/benefits-of-dietary-fibre.htm" target="_blank" ...

Overweight Boys may Benefit from Living With Adult Who Has Bariatric Surgery

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A new study published in iObesity /ifinds a parent's bariatric surgery could be an opportunity to break the cycle of obesity in an overweight son-body mass index (BMI) of 85 to 94. The Geisinger study is considered the largest study of the effect of an adult's Roux-enY (RYGB) gastric bypass surgery on the weight of children in the same household. Leveraging Geisinger's advanced electronic health record and its existing bariatric surgery database, ...

Canola Oil Benefits Type 2 Diabetes Patients

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In people with type 2 diabetes canola oil can help control blood glucose (blood sugar) levels, reveals study published in iDiabetes Care./i i /i The study of Canadian adults with type 2 diabetes shows that adding canola oil to the diet is a simple way of helping control blood glucose and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Diabetes affects about 3.3 million Canadians (9 percent) and 26 million Americans (8.3 percent). In the multicenter, ...

Reason Men Prefer Nice Women

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Emotional reactions and desires of people in initial romantic encounters determine the fate of a potential relationship. Responsiveness may be one of those initial "sparks" necessary to fuel sexual desire and land a second date. However, it may not be a desirable trait for both men and women on a first date. Does responsiveness increase sexual desire in the other person? Do men perceive responsive women as more attractive, and does the same hold true for women's perceptions ...

Research Offers New Hope for Powdery Mildew Resistant Barley

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At the University of Adelaide, new research has opened the way for the development of new lines of barley with resistance to powdery mildew. In Australia, annual barley production is second only to wheat with 7-8 million tonnes a year. Powdery mildew is one of the most important diseases of barley. Senior Research Scientist Dr Alan Little and team have discovered the composition of special growths on the cell walls of barley plants that block the penetration ...

To Promote Peripheral Nerve Regeneration, NRG1 Isoforms Could Be An Effective Therapeutic Candidate

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Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) is a pleiotropic factor, which is characterized by the existence of numerous isoforms arising from alternative splicing of exons that confer to the protein deeply different characteristics. NRG1 plays an important role for both the myelination occurring during development and the different phases occurring after injury in the peripheral nerve: axon degeneration, axon regrowth, remyelination and target reinnervationResearchers at the University ...

Researchers Investigate the Functional Performance in Children With Spina Bifda

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A complex congenital central nervous system disease, spina bifda (SB) is caused by the incomplete closing of the neural tubes during the embryonic phase. Many patients have varying degrees of spasticity, urinary and fecal incontinence and neurocognitive retardation. Such problems decrease the patients' functional independence and their quality of life. Researchers at Ankara Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Education and Research Hospital, Turkey ...

Social Connections During Childhood can Help Develop Adult Character

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Connecting and interacting with others in childhood can help you become a better person by molding and developing your adult character, a new study reveals. The early relationships help people learn to think beyond themselves as well as to understand the values and desires of others. Dr. Theodote K. Pontikes, child and adolescent psychiatrist at Loyola University Health System, said that as human beings, people are social creatures at every developmental ...

Barcelona is the New Amsterdam Thanks to Cannabis Clubs

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As Susana relaxes on the sofa with her mother Juana and lights up a joint, a faint smell of cannabis permeates the air. Welcome to Pachamama -- one of the hundreds of cannabis clubs that are making Barcelona rival Amsterdam as a smoker's haven. With shelves full of books and board games the place could be someone's sitting room, but for a hookah pipe and photographs of hemp plants like the ones the club grows. "This is the safest way to know ...

Helping the Elderly Overcome the Technology Barrier to Keep Alive Family Links

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A French-Romanian startup is offering a new service that will help technologically challenged elderly to use internet in order to keep in touch with their relatives. The system -- the work of a startup called Hubert -- began operating in the United States and in Europe on crowd-funding website Indiegogo this month. "Everything started after one of my grandmothers died in a home for dependent seniors in France," Stephane Lucon, a Frenchman who co-founded ...

Leicester Mayor Unveils Visitor Center at Richard III's Makeshift Grave

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The grave of King Richard III, which was found under a car park in Leicester in 2012, is now open to public viewing. Around a hundred visitors were on hand to watch city mayor Peter Soulsby cut the ribbon on the 4 million ( (Dollar) 6.8 million, 5 million euro) new visitor centre at the discovery site. Early arrivals at the building, in an abandoned school close to Richard's grave, were able to examine a replica of his skeleton made using a 3D printer. One ...

China's Ageing Millions Look Forward to Dreary Future

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He Xiangying is too busy sending her son money and raising a stranger's child to worry about who will eventually look after her, as she nears retirement along with millions of other Chinese. The nanny's plan is to work until her health fails, then go back to her home village in the Chinese countryside and grow vegetables to save money. She holds out little hope of help from her jobless son. "If he isn't doing well for himself then why would ...

Risk of Dementia High Among People Who Walk Slowly and Complain of Memory Problems

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People who have slow walking speed and complain of memory problems are at an increased risk of dementia, a new study reveals. The scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, who put 27,000 older adults on five continents to a simple test measuring walking speed and cognitive problems, found that nearly 1 in 10 met criteria for pre-dementia. The new test diagnoses motoric cognitive risk syndrome ...

Crop Production to Slow Down Over the Next Two Decades Due to Climate Change

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Crop production across the globe will see a major slowdown over the next two decades due to climate change, a new study reveals. The experts from Stanford University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research found that the odds of a major production slowdown of wheat and corn, even with a warming climate, were not very high. But the risk was about 20 times more significant than it would be without global warming, and it might require planning by organizations ...

After Plague Death, China Reopens Town

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A town in China sealed off after a man died of plague, re-opened after authorities found no further cases of the illness, state media said. Authorities barred 30,000 people living in Yumen in the northwestern province of Gansu from leaving, while road blocks prevented others from entering, after a 38-year-old died from plague last week. "We have not discovered any new plague cases," the state-run China News service cited Gansu's health bureau as saying. ...

Over a Million Followers to Celebrate 100th Anniversary of Philippine Christian Church

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More than one million followers are expected to take part in the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of a Philippine Christian church that is known its discipline, money and political power. The Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) members will congregate at a giant complex especially built for the occasion near Manila, in an event that will showcase the religion's stunning success at home and abroad. "The pace of the spread of Iglesia... has exploded," ...

Toward an Oral Therapy for Treating Alzheimer's Disease

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Currently, no cure exists for Alzheimer's disease -the devastating neurological disease affecting nearly 5 million Americans. But scientists are now reporting new progress on a set of compounds, initially developed for cancer treatment, that shows promise as a potential oral therapy for Alzheimer's. Their study appears in ACS' iJournal of Medicinal Chemistry/i. Carlo Ballatore, Kurt R. Brunden and colleagues explain that in a healthy brain, the ...

Research Sheds Light on Neurologic Recovery from Corticospinal Tract Injury Due to Subfalcine Herniation

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The workings of the brain and spinal cord have only recently become clear thanks to the development of new imaging techniques. After development of diffusion tensor tractography (DTT), which is derived from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), three-dimensional reconstruction and estimation for three motor tracts, such as the corticospinal tract, the rubrospinal tract, and the corticoreticular pathway became possible. The corticospinal tract is known to be ...

Choosing Between Two Positive Outcomes Leads to People Experiencing Paradoxical Feelings of Pleasure and Anxiety

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Researchers led by Amitai Shenhav at Princeton University have found that people who choose between two or more positive outcomes display paradoxical feelings of pleasure and anxiety. In one experiment, 42 people rated the desirability of more than 300 products using an auction-like procedure. Then they looked at images of paired products with different or similar values and were asked to choose between them. Their brain activity was scanned using functional magnetic ...

Study Identifies Genes Linked to Breast Cancer in East Asian Women

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A new study in East Asian women has identified three genetic changes associated with increased risk of breast cancer. The research, led by Vanderbilt University investigators, was published online July 20 in iNature Genetics/i. While breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies among women worldwide, most studies of the genetic risk factors for the disease have focused on women of European ancestry. Given the differences in genetic ...

Cell Therapy for Treating Multiple Sclerosis Closer to Reality: NYSCF Researchers

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A cell replacement therapy that can treat multiple sclerosis by using a patient's own cells is close to becoming a reality, researchers at The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute reveal. For the first time, NYSCF scientists generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells lines from skin samples of patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis and further, they developed an accelerated protocol to induce these stem cells into becoming ...

Diabetics Have Increased Risk of Developing Head and Neck Cancers

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A new study reveals that people suffering from diabetes have an increased risk of developing head and neck cancer. Overall, head and neck cancer is the sixth most common type of cancer. It accounts for about 6 percent of all cases and for an estimated 650,000 new cancer cases and 350,000 cancer deaths worldwide each year. The authors used Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Research Database to examine the risk of HNC in patients with DM. The authors ...

Anti-Aging Protein can Slowdown or Prevent Alzheimer's Disease

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Using anti-aging protein Klotho in pretreatment of neurons can prevent neuron death in the presence of the toxic amyloid protein and glutamate, thereby slowing down or even preventing Alzheimer's disease, a new study conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry reveals. Alzheimer's disease is the most frequent age-related dementia affecting 5.4 million Americans including 13 percent of people ...

Increasing Temperatures Hinder Indian Wheat Production

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At the University of Southampton, geographers have found a link between increasing average temperatures in India and a reduction in wheat production. Researchers Dr John Duncan, Dr Jadu Dash and Professor Pete Atkinson have shown that recent warmer temperatures in the country's major wheat belt are having a negative effect on crop yield. More specifically, they found a rise in nighttime temperatures is having the most impact. Dr Jadu Dash said: "Our ...

Bringing Hepatitis Treatment Programs Up to Level of Those Tackling HIV can be Effective in Beating the Disease

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Urging the governments across the world to step up their battle against hepatitis, leading experts said that the cancer-causing disease can be beaten, but only if treatment programs are brought up to the level of those tackling the likes of HIV. Viral hepatitis is a group of infectious diseases known by the letters A, B, C, D or E, which attack the liver. Despite killing close to 1.4 million people every year -- with Asia the hardest-hit region -- hepatitis ...

Scotland Throws Weight Behind Glasgow's Games

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After its famed whisky, some of Scotland's best-loved exports will help kick off the Commonwealth Games, the beginning of a two-week party in Glasgow. Singer Susan Boyle has already been announced as a star of Wednesday's opening ceremony, while veteran mod icon Rod Stewart will perform in a homecoming of sorts. Boyle has sold 19 million albums since her breakthrough performance on a television talent show in 2009, when she left judges speechless with ...

UN Urges Chile to Relax Its Blanket Abortion Ban

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Asking Chile to relax its blanket abortion ban, the UN Human Rights Committee urged the government to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest and where the health of the mother was in danger. Chile is one of the few countries in the world that prohibits abortions for any reason. Legislation that would create exceptions has been blocked in the Chilean parliament. In a periodic report on Chile, the committee said it "should establish exceptions ...

Spain Reports Record Number of Foreign Tourists in First Half

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The government said that a record 28 million foreign tourists flocked to Spain during the first half of the year, with British and German holidaymakers leading the wave. The number of foreign visitors was up 7.3 percent over the figure for the same time in 2013, when the country set a new record for tourist arrivals, the tourism ministry said. Tourism is a main pillar of Spain's economy, struggling to gain strength after a decade-long property boom ...

Computational Method That can Determine Gene Changes in Breast Cancer Cells Developed

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A new computational method that can be used to determine how gene networks are rewired after normal breast cells turn malignant has been developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University who made use of high-throughput data generated by breast cancer biologists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This method for analyzing how genes interact with each other in laboratory-grown cells is described in a report published today by the online journal emPLOS ...

Try, Try Until You Succeed

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Adults and children have different strengths when it comes to learning languages. Adults excel at absorbing the vocabulary needed to navigate a grocery store or order food in a restaurant, but children have an uncanny ability to pick up on subtle nuances of language that often elude adults. Within months of living in a foreign country, a young child may speak a second language like a native speaker. Brain structure plays an important role in this "sensitive ...

Eliminating Hepatitis C Virus can Provide Economic Benefits and Improve Healthcare Disparities

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Stating that the elimination of hepatitis c virus infection is feasible, The Miriam Hospital's Lynn Taylor said that it can also lead to economic benefits, enhance capacity to address other health challenges, and improve health care disparities, a new report published in Rhode Island Medical Journal reveals. Barriers to eliminating HCV in the United States, Taylor says, include lack of funding earmarked for HCV research, sparse federal funding for HCV prevention ...

Microbial Environment in Semen can Play an Important Role in Sexual Transmission of HIV

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A new study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens reveals that the microbiome present in semen plays an important role in the sexual transmission of HIV as the infection can alter the relationship between semen bacteria and immune factors, affecting the viral load, or the amount of the virus present in semen. Researchers led by Lance Price, from the Translational Genomics Research Institute, USA, and Rupert Kaul, from the University of Toronto, Canada, studied ...

Viruses can be an Ally in Destroying Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

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A team of German researchers reveal that a type of virus known as bacteriophage can prove to be an effective weapon in destroying Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that has emerged as a serious problem, especially in hospitals and healthcare institutes, a new study published in PLOS Pathogens reveals. The study, by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, could help bring about a new way of fighting this and other bacteria. ...

After Oil Rig Row, Chinese Tourists Abandon Vietnam

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Nguyen Huu Son has guided Chinese tourists around Vietnam's popular coastal city Danang for years, but a bitter maritime dispute between Hanoi and Beijing means he is now out of work. Relations between the communist neighbours plunged to their lowest point in decades when Beijing moved a deep-sea oil rig into disputed waters in the South China Sea in early May, triggering deadly riots in Vietnam. The rig has since been withdrawn. But the Chinese tourists ...

Immune System may Play a Negative Role in Brain Injuries and Other Disorders

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Researchers at Cleveland Clinic suggest that the body's immune system may play a negative role in impairment and cognitive dysfunction among patients suffering from conditions such as chronic epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and concussions, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE reveals. The study focuses on the role of a protein known as S100B, which serves as a biomarker for brain damage. Normally, S100B is found only in the brain and spinal column. However, ...

Duke Medicine Researchers Identify Mechanism for Developing Protective Antibodies in HIV Patients

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A new study published in the journal Cell reveals that a immunologic mechanism that can be used to produce broadly neutralizing antibodies in HIV-1 infected patients has been discovered by researchers at Duke Medicine, a finding that can be used in potential development of HIV vaccine. The research team found that two distinct B-cell lineage antibodies teamed up to stimulate the highly sought-after broadly neutralizing antibodies to HIV. The team was led by Barton ...

US Doctor Infected With Ebola: Liberia

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In Liberia an American doctor battling West Africa's Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease. Samaritan's Purse, a Christian charity, said Dr Kent Brantly had been isolated at the group's Ebola treatment center at the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. "Dr. Brantly is married with two children," the group said, in a statement posted to its website on Saturday. "Samaritan?s Purse is committed to doing everything ...

World Hepatitis Day 2014

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World Hepatitis Day is a global platform for raising awareness about hepatitis and brings about real change in prevention, testing and treatment of hepatitis, and is an initiative by the World Health Organization with its global partners. More than 194 governments adopted a resolution to work in collaboration with local policymakers and health workers, on increasing access to awareness and treatments with its "Think Again" campaign. The Global Hepatitis Program followed a World ...