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Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) professor David Jackson, Ph.D., and a team of plant geneticists have identified a gene essential in controlling development of the maize plant, commonly known in the United States as corn. The new research extends the growing biological understanding of how the different parts of maize arise--important information for a plant that is the most widely planted crop in the U.S. and a mainstay of the global food supply.

College Park, Md. - The economic impact of climate change will cost a number of U.S. states billions of dollars, and delaying action will raise the price tag, concludes the latest series of reports produced by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER).

The new reports project specific long-term direct and ripple economic effects on North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. In most cases, the price tag could run into billions of dollars.

A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder reveals that air quality regulations may not effectively target a large source of fine, organic particle pollutants that contribute to hazy skies and poor air quality over the Los Angeles region.

The incidence and mortality of tumor keep ascending all over the world. Gecko had definite effect on malignant tumor in clinical practices reports. However, there was no study on the pharmacological studies of Gecko and its mechanisms of anti-tumor action remained unclear.

A research team led by Prof. Wang from Henan University of China addressed this question, and their findings were published on 7 July 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

A research article to be published on 28 June 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addressed this question. The research team led by Prof. Serhat Aymaz from Cologne City Hospital presented a new type of stent design for transcardial application, which is intended to prevent bleeding due to mechanical mucosal lesions caused by the distal end of the stent extending into the stomach.

IOUS is an important tool in the fields of surgery for liver tumors, but it also has some drawbacks such as lacking of specificity to differentiate cirrhotic nodules from small malignant nodules. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound was shown with improved nodule characterization by recent studies.

The report about sphincter of oddi hypomotility and sphincter of oddi dilation was relatively rare. Whether sphincter of oddi hypomotility and duodenal-biliary reflux existed in these patients and if these patients had abnormal secretion of gastrointestinal hormones need further research.

It is estimated that the risk of neoplasia in Barrett esophagus, through the intermediate step of dysplastic transformation of the columnar epithelium, is 125-fold higher than in general population. But scarce data are available on genetic alterations occurring in metaplasia-dysplasia-adenocarcinoma sequence of Barrett esophagus. A research group in China investigated the microsatellite alterations on D2S123, D3S1616, D3S1300, D5S346, D17S787, D18S58 and BATRII loci, using the technique of dilution polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Puli et al did a search to evaluate the accuracy of EUS in staging gastric cancers, and their results were published on 7 July 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Since the successful introduction of laparoscopic colectomy by Jacobs et al, laparoscopic surgery, especially laparoscopic rectal surgery has been developed considerably. Compared with open operation, the laparoscopic operation has many advantages such as less pain, little blood loss, small incision, good exposure of the pelvic cavity, an earlier return to daily activities and so on while preserving the oncologic radicality of the procedure, but the laparoscopic operation is more difficult than the open operation.

According to Reeders et al, ischemic colitis involves the left colon in 75% of the cases and the right colon in 8%. While surgery is indicated for the treatment of the gangrenous type of ischemic colitis, many patients with the transient or stricture type of the disease improve with bowel rest by fasting and parenteral fluid administration alone. However, healing is frequently delayed in patients with ulcerative lesions. Recently, the efficacy of rebamipide enema in the treatment of ulcerative colitis has been reported in Japan.

The percentage of older patients suffering from AUGIB has been increasing rapidly over the last years in the Western World. Elderly patients constitute a subgroup with special characteristics, which need careful handling during their hospitalization, because it is a population with considerable co-morbidity, higher medication use and greater risk for further complications. There has been limited information on the clinical outcome of the very elderly patients with AUGIB.

Conventional snare polypectomy or endoscopic mucosal resection often presents an unsatisfactory result in complete resection of rectal carcinoids. It was perfomed EMR-L with 3D-EUS for rectal carcinoids and compared between EMR-L with 3D-EUS and EMR-L alone. The rate of complete resection and the vertical resection margin has been reported.

BOSTON -- Concerns regarding the association of hormone therapy used to treat prostate cancer with cardiovascular disease in some older men may lead doctors to forgo hormone treatment solely on the basis of age. But a new study by physicians at Fox Chase Cancer Center shows that men over age 70 with high-risk prostate cancer lived longer and experienced increases in PSA less frequently when treated with long-term androgen deprivation therapy.

Chicago, IL – Harms and adverse events (untoward side effects of surgery or medicine) have been under-reported or poorly described at an alarming low rate by the publishing authors in the four leading otolaryngology medical journals, according to new research presented at the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, in Chicago, IL.