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London (March 31, 2010) – In recent years the UK Government has been placing less emphasis on the idea of probation as a form of rehabilitation, instead re-framing it as 'punishment in the community,' with a focus on protecting the public. However, according to new research appearing this month in the Probation Journal published by SAGE, recently recruited probation officers may not be completely in step with the Government's approach.

Women conducting research in the life sciences continue to receive lower levels of compensation than their male counterparts, even at the upper levels of academic and professional accomplishment, according to a study conducted by the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. In their report in the April issue of Academic Medicine, the research team also finds differences in the roles female faculty members take as they advance in their careers.

"Blindsnakes are not very pretty, are rarely noticed, and are often mistaken for earthworms," admits Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State University. "Nonetheless, they tell a very interesting evolutionary story." Hedges and Nicolas Vidal, of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, are co-leaders of the team that discovered that blindsnakes are one of the few groups of organisms that inhabited Madagascar when it broke from India about 100 million years ago and are still living today.

Delimiting Species without Nuclear Monophyly in Madagascar's Mouse Lemurs.

Changes are urgently needed to end the secrecy surrounding approval of new drugs in Europe, argue experts on bmj.com today.

Questions about the benefits of the flu drug oseltamivir in otherwise healthy people have fuelled debate about the secrecy surrounding the documentation submitted by drug companies to obtain approval of new drugs, write Silvio Garattini and Vittorio Bertele' from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Italy.

Since the discovery of gene sequencing in the late 1970s, it was predicted that genetics would revolutionise medicine and provide answers to the causes of many of our common killers. But has genetic research delivered its promise? Experts debate the issue on bmj.com today.

London GP, James Le Fanu argues that the influence of modern genetics on everyday medical practice "remains scarcely detectable."

Some neurons from spinal cord have quite long neurites, but the molecular mechanism of long-neurite outgrowth has been still mysterious. The research team led by Assistant Professor Koji Shibasaki in Gumma University and Professor Makoto Tominaga in National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS) in Japan, reported that TRPV2 receptor can act as mechanical stretch-sensor in developing neurons to help their neurites grow much longer. They report their finding in Journal of Neuroscience published on March 31, 2010.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The age-old maxim "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper" may in fact be the best advice to follow to prevent metabolic syndrome, according to a new University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) study.

Metabolic syndrome is characterized by abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, insulin resistance and other cardiovascular disease-risk factors.

Hemophilia, a disease linked with legends of European monarchs, frail heirs and one flamboyant charlatan called Rasputin, still afflicts many people today.

And the very treatments that can help can also put patients' lives at risk.

The standard treatment is infusion with an expensively produced protein that helps the blood to clot. But in some patients the immune system fights the therapy, and in a subset of those, it sets off an allergic reaction that can result in death.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Eating foods containing flavonoids -- orange juice, in this case -- along with a high-fat, high-carbohydrate fast-food meal neutralizes the oxidative and inflammatory stress generated by the unhealthy food and helps prevent blood vessel damage, a new study by University at Buffalo endocrinologists shows.

(Edmonton) A University of Alberta-led research team has discovered an influenza detector gene that could potentially prevent the transmission of the virus to humans.

A unique collection of St. John's wort (Hypericum) curated by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Ames, Iowa, is providing university collaborators with genetically diverse, well-documented sources of this herb to use in studies examining its medicinal potential.

Hamilton, ON (March 30, 2010) – Aspirin, ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) remain the most common treatment to relieve symptoms of arthritis and other inflammatory disorders. But despite their widespread use (around 2.5 million Canadians have osteoarthritis) these medications are also known to cause severe, sometimes life-threatening adverse effects within the body, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Amphibians—frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts—are disappearing worldwide, but the stream salamanders of the Appalachian Mountains appear to be stable. This region is home to the largest diversity of salamanders in the world (more than 70 species reside here), and scientists want to understand what contributes to the stability of these salamander populations.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - One of the most common house ant species might have been built for living in some of the smallest spaces in a forest, but the ants have found ways to take advantage of the comforts of city living.