Body

A new, late-ripening apple named WineCrisp™ which carries the Vf gene for scab resistance was developed over the past 20 plus years through classical breeding techniques, not genetic engineering. License to propagate trees will be made available t nurseries through the University of Illinois.

Researchers believe that local online forums could play a key role in helping new mothers to share experiences and concerns, according to a study published in the January issue of the UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Professor Wendy Hall from the University of British Columbia and Assistant Professor Valerie Irvine from the University of Victoria, Canada, studied online communication threads between a group of 40 women, who had all given birth in the same year and joined a local forum based in a moderate-sized Canadian city.

According to Professor Demain, the petroleum-based economy in the US is getting close to the end of its lifecycle. Global oil reserves and new petroleum discoveries will not be enough to meet the annual demand worldwide. It is therefore essential to anticipate and avoid any shortfall in future supply and to provide access to new bioenergy alternatives for the marketplace.

New York, NY, January 22, 2009 – Kidney transplants are the best available therapy for end stage renal disease. Because of the shortage of deceased organ donors, living donor transplantation is rapidly growing and has the advantage of improved outcomes over deceased donor transplants. In fact, a transplant candidate may now have several potential living donors and the clinician may need to identify which donor would yield the best results.

New York, NY, January 22, 2009 – Although primary prostate surgery or radiotherapy is successful in many cases of prostate cancer, some patients will suffer a recurrence of the disease, which is most often first detected by a measurable PSA blood test. This so-called biochemical recurrence affects 30% to 40% of patients after surgery. One risk factor for recurrence, the presence of cancer potentially outside the prostate after surgery, will affect about a third of men. Two studies in the March 2009 issue of The Journal of Urology report on clinical studies of treatment options.

A recent survey by Medical College of Wisconsin researchers of over 1,800 patients seen in the Froedtert Hospital Emergency Department revealed that Metro Milwaukee residents may not personally be as well prepared for disasters as the rest of the country.

Survey results will be presented at the National Association of Emergency Medical Service Physicians meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., January 22, 2009.

While the treatment of heart failure has improved over the past two decades, a new study reported in the European Journal of Heart Failure finds that "the use of evidence-based treatments appears to be imbalanced according to the gender of the patient".

In particular, the study found

Trust in the media promotes health. A study of people from 29 Asian countries, reported in the open access journal BMC Medicine, has shown that individuals with high levels of trust in the mass media tend to be healthier.

(Boston) — A researcher from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has determined that a 9-month old infant who was admitted to a local Boston hospital with seizures and a bulging soft spot was actually suffering from rickets caused by vitamin D deficiency. This case study describing the findings appear in the January 22nd issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

A new study by researchers at Brigham Young University and Harvard School of Public Health shows that average life expectancy in 51 U.S. cities increased nearly three years over recent decades, and approximately five months of that increase came thanks to cleaner air.

Measuring a child's kidney function has traditionally been time-consuming, costly, and difficult to perform, but a new equation that uses parameters collected at routine office visits can effectively accomplish this, according to a study appearing in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The formula could prove useful for measuring kidney function when young patients are given antibiotics, chemotherapy, and other drugs that could potentially injure the kidneys.

A new and simple urine test can detect polyomavirus nephropathy, a relatively new and serious complication that affects up to 9% of kidney transplant recipients, according to a study appearing in the February 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The advance could lead to better diagnosis and treatment of patients with this condition.

A new study from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry has found that a common treatment for wheezing in preschool children is no more effective than a placebo.

The findings, reported in the January edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, call into question national guidelines for the treatment of viral-induced wheezing.

COLUMBIA, Mo. –An incurable, paralyzing disease in humans is now genetically linked to a similar disease in dogs. Researchers from the University of Missouri and the Broad Institute have found that the genetic mutation responsible for degenerative myelopathy (DM) in dogs is the same mutation that causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the human disease also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

CHAPEL HILL – Women with low levels of sexual desire, often as a result of menopause, are more likely to be depressed and to suffer physical symptoms such as back pain and memory problems than women who report higher levels of desire, according to a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals.