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Less than two years after the HPV vaccine was approved as a routine vaccination for girls aged 11 and older, one-quarter of California adolescent girls have started the series of shots that protect against human papillomavirus, which is strongly linked to cervical cancer.

Additionally, a majority of teen girls, parents and young women in California say they would like to have the vaccine, according to a new policy brief released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

TUSKEGEE, AL—Because of the distinct lack of grocery stores in outer space, scientists are looking for ways to provide food for long-term space missions.

Desmond G. Mortley and colleagues from the Center for Food and Environmental Systems for Human Exploration of Space, G.W. Carver Agricultural Experiment Station, and the Kennedy Space Center undertook a study on microgravity's effects on sweetpotato. The study findings were published in the Journal of American Society for Horticultural Science.

PORTLAND, Ore. – New research at Oregon Health & Science University's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute suggests vaccines that specifically target HIV in the initial stages of infection before it becomes a rapidly replicating, system-wide infection - may be a successful approach in limiting the spread of the disease. The research is published in the early online edition of the journal Nature Medicine and will appear in a future printed edition.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a decrease in catheter-associated bloodstream infections caused by both methicillin-resistant and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus. The 10-year national study, 'Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections in US Intensive Care Units, 1997,' reported data from both the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance (NNIS) and its successor, the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Feb. 17, 2009 -- In the blink of an eye, people at risk of becoming blind can now be screened for eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.

Using a technology originally developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to understand semiconductor defects, three locations in Memphis have been equipped with digital cameras that take pictures of the retina. Those images are relayed to a center where they are analyzed and the patient knows in minutes whether he or she needs additional medical attention.

PORTLAND, Ore. – New research at Oregon Health & Science University's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute suggests vaccines that specifically target HIV in the initial stages of infection before it becomes a rapidly replicating, system-wide infection - may be a successful approach in limiting the spread of the disease. The research is published in the early online edition of the journal Nature Medicine and will appear in a future printed edition.

Children whose asthma improved while taking steroid drugs for several years did not see those improvements continue after stopping the drugs, new results from a comprehensive childhood asthma study show.

Troy, N.Y. — When a promising cancer drug reached clinical trials in the 1990s, researchers were disappointed by the debilitating side effects that limited the trials. The drug inhibited a family of enzymes known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Now, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have shown that creating drugs that inactivate a different part of the MMP enzyme could have the capacity to target the tumor without the damaging side effects. Their findings, which hold promise for improved cancer therapies, were published Feb.

Less than two years after the HPV vaccine was approved as a routine vaccination for girls aged 11 and older, one-quarter of California adolescent girls have started the series of shots that protect against human papillomavirus, which is strongly linked to cervical cancer.

Additionally, a majority of teen girls, parents and young women in California say they would like to have the vaccine, according to a new policy brief released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Most emergency medical services (EMS) professionals believe that they should also participate in injury and disease prevention programs, according to a national survey by emergency medicine researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

"Emergency medical service providers are the only health care providers who see people in their homes at unscheduled times, and are the most likely to identify safety or health issues in the community that need to be addressed," says study author E. Brooke Lerner, Ph.D., associate professor of emergency medicine.

FRANKFORT, KY—As the popularity of organic produce increases with consumers, growers need more options to manage pests naturally.

Montreal, February 17, 2009 – Providing heroin to drug addicts at medically supervised clinics does not pose risks to surrounding neighbourhoods, according to a new study by Serge Brochu, a researcher at the Université de Montréal School of Criminology. Brochu found that the Montreal leg of the NAOMI project, otherwise know as the North American Opiate Medication Initiative, didn't have a negative impact on its surrounding neighbourhood.

PHILADELPHIA –- In a new, year-long University of Pennsylvania survey of dog owners who use confrontational or aversive methods to train aggressive pets, veterinary researchers have found that most of these animals will continue to be aggressive unless training techniques are modified.

The study, published in the current issue of Applied Animal Behavior Science, also showed that using non-aversive or neutral training methods such as additional exercise or rewards elicited very few aggressive responses.

FAYETTEVILLE, AR—Introducing 'Natchez', the twelfth release in a series of erect-growing, high-quality, productive, floricane-fruiting blackberry (Rubus L. subgenus Rubus Watson) cultivars developed by the University of Arkansas.

Plant cells communicate via microscopic channels called plasmodesmata that are embedded in their cell walls. For the stem cells in the plants' growing tips, called "meristems," the plasmodesmata are lifelines, allowing nutrients and genetic instructions for growth to flow in.