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Fast-Tracking Novel Leukemia Therapy by US Regulators

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An experimental immunotherapy agent was put on the fast track to market approval by US regulators on Monday, after 89 percent of leukemia patients in early trials saw their cancers disappear. The personalized immunotherapy known as CTL019 was developed by the University of Pennsylvania and was designated a "breakthrough therapy" by the US Food and Drug Administration. That means the experimental therapy will benefit from a speedier than average review ...

Mortality in Moms and Kids Reduced by Home Visits by Nurse

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Home visits by nurse during prenatal, infant/toddler growth reduced likeliness of mortality in mothers and children than the women or children who were not visited by nurses. It was also found that children whose mothers were visited by nurses were less likely to have died by age 20 from preventable causes. Since 1990, the authors have been conducting a randomized clinical trial of a program of prenatal and infant/toddler home visits by nurses for very low-income, ...

Dark Chocolate Helps Artery Disease Patients Walk Better: Study

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Dark chocolates can improve walking ability in people with artery diseases, says study. People with peripheral artery disease (PAD) who ate a dark chocolate bar were able to slightly increase the time and distance they walked a couple of hours later, compared to people who ate milk chocolate, Fox News reported. Lead author Dr. Lorenzo Loffredo, from Sapienza University in Rome, said that nutrients were the key components of health and disease, and ...

Sex Difference in Marathon Pacing

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Men are more likely to slow their pace in marathon than women, reveals a new study led by a Grand Valley State University researcher. The findings were published in iMedicine (and) Science in Sports (and) Exercise/i. The study, led by Robert Deaner, associate professor of psychology at Grand Valley State, was based on 14 marathons that occurred in the U.S. in 2011, and it included almost 92,000 performances. On average, men ran the second half of the marathon 15.6 percent ...

Ergonomics

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Ergonomics is a multi disciplinary field that deals with designing for people as they interact with products, systems or processes.

Philippine Bishops Agree For Use of Marijuana in Terminally Ill

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Senior church leaders in the conservative Philippines agree to support the use of marijuana to ease the pain of the terminally ill, they said Monday, but not for recreational reasons. The leaders outlined their stance after a bill was filed in the legislature which would legalize the medical use of marijuana. Tough laws at present call for life imprisonment for possession of just 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of the drug. The head of the Catholic ...

IBM Agree to Help Curb Pollution in China

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An agreement to help curb pollution in China has been signed by IBM, they said on Monday, starting with the dangerous smog that afflicts Beijing. The US computing giant said it would launch a 10-year program called "Green Horizon" that would "support China in transforming its national energy systems and protecting the health of citizens." IBM said one of the first partners to come on board is the Beijing municipal government. "The collaboration ...

Heart Health also Affected by Sitting too Much, Not Just Lack of Exercise

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Sedentary behaviors may lower cardiovascular fitness levels, find cardiologists at UT southwestern Medical center. New evidence suggests that two hours of sedentary behavior can be just as harmful as 20 minutes of exercise is beneficial. The study, published in today's online edition of iMayo Clinic Proceedings/i, examined the association between fitness levels, daily exercise, and sedentary behavior, based on data from 2,223 participants in the National Health ...

Paris Fashion Visits History With Christian Dior

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Paris fashion went on a journey through history with a haute couture collection by Christian Dior designer Raf Simons, in which Edwardian coats and bodices met flapper dresses and space suits. A-listers Sean Penn, girlfriend Charlize Theron and Marion Cotillard were among those on the front row of the show, held in Paris's Rodin Museum. Always a highlight of Paris fashion, guests arriving for the show were invited to walk along a pale grey carpet laid ...

In-Utero Exposure to Low-level Arsenic Revealed by Infant Toenails: Dartmouth Study

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Arsenic exposure before birth can be estimated reliably by examining infant toenails, a Dartmouth College study shows. The findings appear in the iJournal of Exposure Science (and) Environmental Epidemiology/i. A PDF of the study is available on request. A growing body of evidence suggests that in utero and early-life exposure to arsenic may have detrimental effects on children, even at the low to moderate levels common in the United States and elsewhere. ...

Chobani Greek Yogurt Poses a Threat to Consumers

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i Mucor circinelloides f. circinelloides /i(Mcc) strain of the fungus responsible for an outbreak of contaminated Greek yogurt is commonly associated with human infections, reveals study published in imBio/i. In September 2013, customers of Chobani brand Greek yogurt complained of gastrointestinal (GI) problems after consuming products manufactured in the company's Idaho plant. The company issued a recall, and it was believed at the time that the fungal ...

Time of Day Crucial to Accurately Test for Diseases

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Time of day and sleep deprivation have a significant effect on our metabolism, reveals study published in emPNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)/em. The finding could be crucial when looking at the best time of day to test for diseases such as cancer and heart disease, and for administering medicines effectively. Researchers from the University of Surrey and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, investigated the links between sleep deprivation, ...

BAE Systems Says It can Build Small Drones Through 3D Printing by 2040

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Advances in futuristic technology such as 3D printers could help in the creation of small drones by 2040, British defense and aerospace company BAE Systems has claimed. It was suggested by the defence firm's scientists and engineers that these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) could potentially be used as a group of wide-winged aircraft for protracted or enduring surveillance or as rotary-winged UAVs to rescue single civilians or soldiers from dangerous situations, ...

American Youth Ditching Cigarettes for Hookahs

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Around 18 percent of high school seniors in the United States admit to have taken up smoking hookah even as figures show that the use of cigarette has declined sharply among the youth. Researchers affiliated with New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) have identified how prevalent Hookah use is and which teens are most likely to be using it. The study used data from Monitoring the Future (MTF), a nation-wide ongoing annual study of the ...

Duck-Billed Dinosaurs' Footprints Discovered in Alaskan Park

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Paleontologists at Alaska's Denali National Park have discovered a new tracksite filled with footprints of duck-billed dinosaurs or hadrosaurs. The discovery has demonstrated that they not only lived in multi-generational herds but thrived in the ancient high-latitude, polar ecosystem. Anthony R. Fiorillo, curator of earth sciences at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science along with Stephen Hasiotis of the University of Kansas and Yoshitsugu Kobayashi ...

Genetic Pathway That Controls Plants' 'Breathing Pores' Discovered

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A genetic pathway that controls the density of breathing pores in response to elevated CO2 levels in plants has been discovered by American researchers. Julian Schroeder, biology professor, said that for each carbon dioxide molecule that was incorporated into plants through photosynthesis, a plant loses about 200 hundred molecules of water through their stomata. He further explained that because elevated CO2 reduces the density of stomatal pores in leaves, ...

Evangelicals Turn World Cup into a Canvassing Ground for New Believers

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With football fans from across the world traveling to Brazil for the World Cup, the country's strong evangelical movement has not wasted the chance and is out canvassing for more believers among the tourists. One group went to proselytize on Rio's tourist magnet of Copacabana Beach, a gathering place for hedonistic hordes enjoying their soccer rituals. As Brazil prepared to see off Colombia to march into the semi-finals, around 100 evangelicals descended ...

Research Suggests Pseudogenes may Provide Clearer Understanding of Biomarkers

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The pseudogenes are dysfunctional, unloved and seemingly useless entities having lost their protein-coding abilities. They contain material not essential for an organism's survival and are the "last stop" for removal of genomic waste. Not any more. The pseudogene's day may have arrived thanks to scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Han Liang, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Bioinformatics ...

Physicist Says AI Will Take Over Humans Over the Next Three Decades

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Stoking the worst nightmare of numerous sci-fiction stories, American physicist Louis Del Monte claimed that the next three decades will see humans being taken over by the new artificial intelligence (AI) technology. According to Business Insider, Del Monte said that today there's no legislation regarding how much interconnected and intelligent the machines could be and if this exponential trend kept on going, then many experts have predicted that they would reach ...

Antarctic Ice Sheet Holds a Record of 2,000 Years of Volcanic Eruptions

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Sulphate dust deposits drilled deep from the West Antarctic ice sheet have provided a glimpse into the history of over 2,000 years of volcanic eruptions. A team of scientists led by Michael Sigl and Joe McConnell of Nevada's Desert Research Institute (DRI) has completed the most accurate and precise reconstruction to date of historic volcanic sulfate emissions in the Southern Hemisphere and Sigl said that this record provided the basis for a dramatic improvement ...

Court Crackdown on Consumption of Endangered Animals in China Lacking Sufficient Bite

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Despite courts banning the consumption of endangered animals in China, shops continue to openly display cages of porcupines, tortoises and snakes in the market. The diners of southern China have long had a reputation for exotic tastes, with locals sometimes boasting they will "eat anything with four legs except a table". China in April raised the maximum sentence for anyone caught selling or consuming endangered species to 10 years in prison, but lax ...

"The Mall of the World" Complete With a Theme Park to be Built in Dubai

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Dubai will be host to the world's largest shopping mall, called "The Mall of the World", which will come with its own theme park, its ruler said. The largest shopping mall will have its own theme park, 20,000 hotel rooms and a inside climate-controlled dome, Metro.co.uk reported. Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that this project complemented their plans to transform Dubai into a cultural, tourist and economic hub for the 2billion ...

Researchers Discover New Type of Soot Particle from Wildfire Emissions

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Previous research has shown that wildfires clear millions of hectares of land and emit around 34-percent of global soot mass into the atmosphere each year. In certain regions, such as Southeast Asia and Russia, these fires can contribute as much as 63-percent of regional soot mass. In a paper published in Nature iScientific Reports/i, a team of scientists led by Rajan Chakrabarty from Nevada's Desert Research Institute report the observation of ...

Mystery of Asthma Cure Teen Solved by Indian Doctors

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Doctors at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital have finally solved the tricky case of 16-year old Shobha who was struggling to eat or breathe despite being prescribed asthma medication. Doctors led by Deepak Rosha have detected a small hole connecting Shobha's windpipe with her food pipe which was the cause of her problems. Shobha comes from a family that is below the poverty line (BPL) and her father Chattu Prasad could not afford to take her to private hospitals. ...

Oz Study Claims Children on Same Sex Couples are Healthier

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While the general assumption is that children of same-sex parents tend to have a miserable life, a new study conducted by researchers at University of Melbourne reveals that they are in fact healthier and happier than those belonging to heterosexual parents. The researchers observed around 500 children with 315 same-sex parents, with 80 percent having female parents while 18 percent had male parents. The researchers found that children with same-sex parents ...

Chronic Stress Caused by Neglect Could Shrink Kids' Brains

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A new study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry suggests that chronic stress caused by poverty, neglect and physical abuse among children could shrink parts of their brain that are responsible for memory, learning and processing emotion. The study has been conducted by researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison who observed 128 children around 12 years of age and documented their behavioral problems and the level of stress in their lives. Based ...

Diabetes Toll in Britain Nearing a 'Health Emergency': Charity

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With 280,000 people diagnosed with diabetes annually in Britain, the disease is becoming a "national health emergency", risking unsustainable strain on health services, Charity Diabetes UK said on Monday. The charity said 738 people each day are told that they have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to being overweight. "This clearly shows the frightening scale of what is fast becoming a national health emergency," the charity's Chief Executive Barbara ...

Striking Similarity in Size Seen in Babies Born to Healthy Mums Worldwide

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Babies born to healthy, well-educated and well-nourished mothers show striking similarity world over, in growth in the womb and their size at birth, especially their length. That's the finding of a landmark international study, INTERGROWTH-21st, led by Oxford University researchers, which involved almost 60,000 pregnancies in eight defined urban areas in Brazil, China, India, Italy, Kenya, Oman, the UK and USA. Worldwide there are wide disparities in ...

Salvadoran President's Home Is Now A Gallery With Focus on Poor

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A posh home in an upscale San Salvador district, the Salvadoran president's residence reopened Sunday as a museum with a focus on welcoming the poor. New leftist President Salvador Sanchez Ceren -- an ex-rebel commander who has decided to keep living in his family home in a middle-class area of the city -- reopened the building as a place where the socially excluded can come to reflect on their country and its artistic wealth. The president and First ...

Jennifer Lopez Star Power Of Versace At Paris Fashion

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As designer Donatella Versace kicked off six days of haute couture catwalk shows, Jennifer Lopez provided the star power at the Paris fashion on Sunday. The Italian designer sent out opulent blue fur coats, voluminous silk ball gowns and gold-buckled corsets in what she called a celebration of "construction and deconstruction". In a string of a asymmetrical looks, jackets and trousers were cut away to one side while one skirt was slashed so high it revealed ...

700,000 Participants for Cologne Gay Pride

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Streets of Cologne in Germany were filled with hundreds of thousands of people, in colourful costumes on Sunday for the city's annual Gay Pride parade. Turnout reached 700,000, police told AFP, in the city often described as Germany's gay capital, having earned a reputation for its acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Organizers said the event was the largest of its kind in Europe. Wearing sequined costumes, ...

Designer Skull Cap Sales Boost During Ramadan

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Ramadan has spurred sales of variety of designer skull caps in the local markets, imported from various countries across the globe. Aurangabad, also known as the 'city of gates', is witnessing a sales surge of western designer skull caps during the holy month of Ramadan and are attracting the buyers because of their fine quality and attractive patterns. Skull caps are being imported from China, Indonesia, Turkey, Sudan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The ...

Study Shows How Tumors Remodel Their Surroundings to Grow

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A team of scientists have found that the loss of a protein called p62 in the cells and tissue surrounding a tumor can enhance the growth and progression of tumors. The scientists were from Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham). The study suggests that therapies targeting the tumor microenvirnoment may be as important as targeting the tumor itself. The findings, published July 3 in iCancer Cell/i, contribute to the increasing ...

LA's First Ever Pot Farmer's Market

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It resembles just any other American farmer's market. Buyers sniff the wares, test weights and compare, while vendors tout their product. But the only produce on offer is cannabis -- organic, of course. "We have lollipops for (Dollar) 7, chocolate bars to help you relax for (Dollar) 13, and 'cosmic dust,'" said Bill Harrison, a seller who also stocks plain old smokable marijuana. The Heritage Farmer's Market -- held over the July 4th long weekend -- was the first of ...

New Research Helps Explain How Brown Fat Burns Energy

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Our body contains two types of fat cells, easily distinguished by color: brown and white. While white fat serves to store excess calories until they're needed by the body, brown adipocytes actually burn fat by turning it into heat. Ever since it was discovered that adult humans harbor appreciable amounts of brown fat, investigators have been working to better understand its thermogenic fat-burning properties with the ultimate goal of developing novel therapies ...

Sounds of 'Yodelayheehoo' Fills Davos at the Swiss Yodeling Festival

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A huddle circle of men, dressed in round black hats and bright red waistcoats, burst into a song of "Yodelayheehoo" in their falsetto voices that echo across the mountain valley. High in the Alps, the resort of Davos is playing host to the Swiss Federal Yodeling Festival, a three-yearly magnet for lovers of mountain folk music and the region's centuries' old traditions. "It's all in the technique," said 35-year-old Roger Bider, as bystanders applauded ...

Pope Francis Denounces 'scourge of Unemployment'

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Pope Francis said that businesses had a responsibility to help people get back to work, and has denounced the scourge of unemployment recently. "It is necessary to put human dignity at the centre of every point of view and every action. Other interests, even if legitimate, are secondary," he told a crowd of thousands during a mass in the Molise region. "Employment is a challenge that is the particular responsibility of institutions, the financial world ...

Revellers Cram Madrid in Gay Parade

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In the biggest gay parade in Europe, vast crowds roam around in figure hugging dresses, wigs and high heels. Tens of thousands crammed one of the Spanish capital's broad central avenues, the Paseo del Prado, in the early evening to the din of drums and whistles in a parade scheduled to last seven hours. Organisers expected more than a million people at the evening parade, the main event in five days of festivities by defenders of lesbian, gay, bisexual ...

Car Rally to Spread Road Safety Awareness in Bihar

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In order to spread awareness about road safety, a car rally was flagged off from Patna to Bodh Gaya. Speaking to mediapersons, the organizer, Sumita Sahay, said that the purpose of the rally was to create awareness on road safety. "The purpose of this rally is that driving is a safe skill and whenever a driver has to drive a car, he must be safe. This time, we are promoting safe driving and saving fuel. Our biggest agenda is that the drivers should be ...

Schizophrenia-Linked Gene Variation Affects Brain Cell Development: Research

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have begun to connect the dots between a schizophrenia-linked genetic variation and its effect on the developing brain. As they report July 3 in the journal iCell Stem Cell/i, their experiments show that the loss of a particular gene alters the skeletons of developing brain cells, which in turn disrupts the orderly layers those cells would normally form. "This is an important step toward understanding what physically ...

Examining the Gut Improved With 'Nanojuice'

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Many difficulties are faced during the examination of small intestine as it is located deep in the human gut. X-rays, MRIs and ultrasound images provide snapshots but each suffers limitations.Help is on the way.University at Buffalo researchers are developing a new imaging technique involving nanoparticles suspended in liquid to form "nanojuice" that patients would drink. Upon reaching the small intestine, doctors would strike the nanoparticles with a harmless laser ...

Snake Discovered in Mid-Day Meal in Bihar

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Around 54 students from Bihar fell ill today after a snake was discovered in their meal which was a part of the mid-day meal programme. A local named Vimal Saha said, "There was a dead snake found; We must first check the food materials before preparing the food. How come they didn't come to know about the dead snake while preparing the food.I think we should scrap off the mid- day meal scheme from schools." A Government hospital doctor attending the ...

Bone Marrow Fat Tissue Secretes Hormone That Keeps the Body Healthy

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Bone marrow fat has been known for its flavorful addition to soups and as a delicacy for dogs but it may also have untapped health benefits, new research finds. A University of Michigan-led study shows that the fat tissue in bone marrow is a significant source of the hormone adiponectin, which helps maintain insulin sensitivity, break down fat, and has been linked to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity-associated cancers. The findings ...

Juicy Japanese Grapes Cost (Dollar) 5,400 a Bunch

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A bunch of fresh juicy grapes cost a whopping (Dollar) 5,400 and will be featured as a special treat at a Japanese wedding hall for bridal couples. A wedding hall operator bought the Ruby Roman grapes at auction for 550,000 yen ( (Dollar) 5,400) on Saturday, the first day of the buying season in Ishikawa prefecture, central Japan, local media reported. The bunch of around 30 grapes weighed some 800 grammes (28 ounces), Japan's public broadcaster NHK said, adding that ...

New Robot Helps You Park Easily!

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Thanks to a new robot, the cumbersome process of parking is now easy. In Germany, Dusseldorf airport has recently started using this technology where travelers can drop their car at arrival level of the 'parking plus' structure, CNN reported. People can confirm if the car is vacant with one touch, and the valet robot nicknamed 'Ray', who also weighs the car for the standard weight of up to 3.31 tons, takes the car and parks it. This entire ...

Boosting Brain Cells' Appetites may Help Fight Disease: Research

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Deep inside the brains of people with Lou Gehrig's disease and dementia, globs of abnormal protein gum up the inner workings of brain cells - dooming them to an early death. But boosting those cells' natural ability to clean up those clogs might hold the key to better treatment for such conditions. That's the key finding of new research from a University of Michigan Medical School physician scientist and his colleagues in California and the United ...

Do You Know How Does Your Garden Grow?

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Growing plants in a microscope is helping scientists to view roots developing in real time and in 3D. "With the growth conditions under our control, we can explore how roots respond to different environmental conditions", says Professor Ernst Stelzer (Goethe Universitat Frankfurt am Main, Germany). "This could help plant breeders to select crops which are more resistant to drought or flooding."Scientists already know that lateral roots in plants develop ...