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Two clones of highly antibiotic-resistant organism strains, which previously had only been identified in the United States, are now causing serious sickness and death in several Colombian cities including the capital Bogotá, say researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. The study, done in collaboration with Universidad El Bosque in Bogotá, is presented in a research letter published in the Nov. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

African-American patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) and previously treated depression that persists at their MI hospitalization have an increased risk of post-MI death, according to Emory researcher Susmita Parashar, MD, MPH.

Parashar, a member of the cardiology division, Emory University School of Medicine, presented findings Nov. 12 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions conference in New Orleans.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A five-year study that could help increase disease resistance, stress tolerance and plant yields is under way at Purdue University.

The $4 million project uses a new technique called "mutant-assisted gene identification and characterization," or MAGIC, to identify potentially useful gene combinations in crop species.

"If we can understand these genes better, we could engineer plants to be immune to most diseases," said principal investigator Guri Johal, an associate professor of botany and plant pathology.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a term that refers to both ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). IBD occurs most frequently in people in their late teens and twenties. There have been cases in children as young as two years old and in older adults in their seventies and eighties; men and women have an equal chance of getting the disease.

In recent years, women, particularly younger women, experienced larger improvements in hospital mortality after myocardial infarction than men, according to a new study.

Over the last decade some studies showed that younger women, but not older ones, are more likely to die in the hospital after MI than age-matched men. A team of researchers led by Emory University examined whether such mortality differences have declined in recent years.

PORTLAND, Ore. – According to Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute researchers, there is strong evidence that patients can have varying clinical responses to medications depending on the specific makeup of their cancer. The study, which focused on, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, also called GIST, found that the genetic variations in their disease appear to determine which medications will be most effective.

Four in five Americans support the idea of a nationwide study to investigate the interactions of genes, environment and lifestyle, and three in five say they would be willing to take part in such a study, according to a survey released today. The research was conducted by the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University with funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Training physicians and caregivers to improve cultural sensitivity and communication with economically disadvantaged African-American patients could influence these women to get mammograms that could save their lives, according to a new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Imagine a scenario where doctors from different hospitals can collaborate on a surgery without having to actually be in the operating room. What if doctors in remote locations could receive immediate expert support from top specialists in hospitals around the world?

This environment could soon become a reality thanks to research by a multi-university partnership that is testing the live broadcast of surgeries using the advanced networking consortium Internet2.

Short term counselling followed by a modest cut in work hours may help reduce emotional exhaustion (burnout) and sick leave in doctors, according to a study published on bmj.com today.

It is well known that doctors have higher rates of depression and suicide than the general population and are less likely to seek help. There have been calls for early intervention programmes to help doctors with mental distress and burnout before their problems interfere with the welfare of patients.

A radical overhaul of sperm donation services is needed to address the critical shortage of sperm donors in the UK, say two fertility experts in an editorial on bmj.com today.

Mark Hamilton, Chairman of the British Fertility Society, and Allan Pacey, Secretary of the British Fertility Society, say that the UK is struggling to meet the demand for donated sperm and many clinics have long waiting lists or have been forced to stop providing services altogether.

CLEMSON — Clemson physics professor Apparao Rao and his team are researching nano-scale cantilevers that have the potential to read and alert us to toxic chemicals or gases in the air. Put them into a small handheld device and the potential is there for real-time chemical alerts in battle, in industry, in health care and even at home.

"The ability to build extremely small devices to do this work has been something we've only seen so far in science-fiction movies," Rao said.

November 09, 2008─Bronx, NY─ In a breakthrough study appearing in advance online publication of Nature Methods, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University describe for the first time a method of viewing individual breast cancer cells for several days at a time. The study, by scientists in Einstein's Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center, provides detail on how cancer cells invade surrounding tissue and reach blood vessels. These movements are the first steps of the potentially deadly stage of cancer known as metastasis.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Despite common assumptions, new research suggests that women are not more likely to be sexually harassed when they are the minority or majority in a work group.

Instead, researchers found that in most cases, women were sexually harassed at work when their work group had a similar proportion of males and females.

Previous research has shown that expressing preference for two commercial products makes us more willing to purchase not only one of these products but also different products that we consider later on. The increased purchase intentions are due to a mind-set that is activated in the process of comparing those products. Once developed, the mind-set prevents consumers from thinking about the option of not making a purchase at all and increases their purchase intentions. Moreover, the mind-set may persist to influence decisions that consumers make in subsequent situations.