891,395 articles

Canada's universal health care system should fund in-vitro fertilization

Canada should extend universal health coverage to fund in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, writes Dr. Renda Bouzayen, Division Head, Reproductive Endocrine and Infertility, Dalhousie University in an editorial with the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) editorial writing team.

Childhood obesity: The increasing vascular drama

Obesity is one of the most important health problems in industrialized countries irrespective of socio-economic status, age, sex or ethnicity. The prevalence of childhood obesity in children has reached alarming levels, even in developing countries. It is estimated that about 1 billion people worldwide are overweight, with 22 millions being under the age of 5 years and 300 million people are...

How much omega-3 fatty acid do we need to prevent cardiovascular disease?

A team of French scientists have found the dose of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) that is "just right" for preventing cardiovascular disease in healthy men. In a research report appearing in the September 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, the scientists show that a 200 mg dose of DHA per day is enough to affect biochemical markers that reliably predict cardiovascular problems, such as those...

New developments in reproductive medicine

Three out of ten women who undergo polar body diagnosis go on to have a child. The extensive technique of polar body analysis (PBA) is described by researchers in reproductive medicine at Lübeck, Germany, in an article in the current edition of Deutsches Ärtzeblatt International, in which they present three successful cases and one failure.

New family care model aids at-risk families

Many families struggle on a day-to-day basis with insufficient in-home care or problematic out-of-home care for their emotionally or behaviorally troubled children and adolescents. Researchers have recently shown that an integrative family care model, which incorporates the strengths of external agencies and care providers, may be the answer. The latest issue of Family Process features this new...

New study will contribute to better understanding of nuclear ignition

As the nation's nuclear weapons are aging (think the beginning of the Cold War), the U.S. government is turning to researchers and scientists at universities such as UC San Diego to figure out safe and reliable ways to estimate their longevity and to understand the physics of thermonuclear reactions in the absence of underground testing currently prohibited under law. One of them is Hoanh Vu, a...

The effect of economic recessions on population health

Paradoxically, mortality rates during economic recessions in developed countries decline rather than increase, according to an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). In poor countries with less than $5000 GDP per capita, economic growth appears to improve health by increasing access to food, clean water and shelter as well as basic health services.

AMD Ships Low-Power Operton EE for Cloud Computing

On Monday, Advanced Micro Devices shipped its latest generation of processors with cloud-computing and dense-computing environments in mind. The new six-core Opteron EE processor, code-named Istanbul, promises increased performance in the same 40-watt ACP power band as previous generations. AMD said the Opteron EE delivers up to 31 percent higher performance per watt over standard quad-core AMD...

Access to motorbikes without taking a prior exam increases the number of accidents

Pedestrians and motorcyclists continue to be those most vulnerable in traffic accidents. A team of researchers has demonstrated an increase in the number of injuries among users of lightweight motorcycles after a law was passed in 2004 allowing the riding of motorbikes with a class B licence (for cars). In contrast, the study, focusing on Barcelona and published in the latest issue of the WHO...

Bioavailable contaminants come from the Exxon Valdez oil catastrophe

Contaminants from natural coal deposits in the Gulf of Alaska are not easily bioavailable, unlike the crude oil from the Exxon Valdez tanker catastrophe. This clearly disproves the theory that natural coal deposits were the cause of observed environmental damage. PAH pollutants were blamed for the continuing degradation of the ecosystem off the coast of Alaska. Then a dispute erupted over the...

Finding the ZIP-code for gene therapy: Scientists imitate viruses to deliver therapeutic genes

A research report featured on the cover of the September 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal describes how Australian scientists developed a new gene therapy vector that uses the same machinery that viruses use to transport their cargo into our cells. As a result of this achievement, therapeutic DNA can be transferred to a cell's nucleus far more efficiently than in the past, raising hopes for...

German court rules against Google's terms

(AP) -- A German court has ruled that Google Inc. must change terms of service that could be interpreted to compromise a user's rights, a decision the consumer advocacy group that brought the suit welcomed Monday as a victory for online transparency.

Moths cloaked in color

Travelers to the neotropics -- the tropical lands of the Americas -- might be forgiven for thinking that all of the colorful insects flittering over sunny puddles or among dense forest understory are butterflies. In fact, many are not. Some are moths that have reinvented themselves as butterflies, converging on the daytime niche typically dominated by their less hairy relatives. Now, a new...