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Montreal, 2 October 2008 - The earlier a cancer is detected, the better the patient's chances of survival, particularly if the patient is a child. Graduate student Tam Dang-Tan, under the supervision of Dr. Eduardo Franco of the Research institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), developed a pioneering study to categorize and analyze the timeframes involved in getting pediatric oncology patients to initial therapy. This study was carried out in partnership with Health Canada and was recently published in Pediatric Blood and Cancer.

Boston, MA – October 2, 2008 – One of the most notable recent developments in the U.S. hospital industry is the rapid rise of small hospitals specializing in cardiac, orthopedic, or surgical services which have tripled in number over the past 15 years. A new study in Health Services Research compared the costs of physician-owned specialty hospitals with those of full-service hospitals. Results show that specialty hospitals are not more cost-efficient than the full-service hospitals with whom they compete.

As part of the ongoing poll series, Debating Health: Election 2008, the Harvard Public Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Harris Interactive® conducted a new survey focused on how voters think the presidential candidates' health care reform plans would affect them personally – rather than how they think the plans would affect the nation as a whole. The survey found that voters view the candidates' plans differently from this perspective.

Vinegar flies (Drosophila melanogaster) show a highly selective behavior towards odor stimuli. A series of behavioral studies showed that a single olfactory stimulus is often not sufficient for immediate attraction to potential food sources or oviposition sites. Interestingly, the behavior differed between investigated D. melanogaster varieties, so-called "wildtypes". Natural odors (bananas, mangos) were preferred by most flies, whereas artificial flavors induced a more differentiated behavior.

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC (October 2, 2008) More and more persons with mental illnesses, addiction disorders, and chronic and infectious diseases receive their medical care in a jail or prison, according to the October issue of the Journal of Correctional Health Care (JCHC), published by SAGE. As of mid-2007, approximately 13 million inmates had been admitted to U.S. jails during the previous 12 months.

The fossils revealed a herd of dinosaurs that perished in a catastrophic event 72.5 million years ago. The animals are characterized by a bony frill on the back of the skull ornamented with smaller horns. They also had large bony structures above their nose and eyes which lends them their name: Pachyrhinosaurus (thick-nosed lizard). These structures probably supported horns of keratin.

The latest figures on the global carbon budget to be released in Washington and Paris indicate a four-fold increase in growth rate of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions since 2000.

"This is a concerning trend in light of global efforts to curb emissions," says Global Carbon Project (GCP) Executive-Director, Dr Pep Canadell, a carbon specialist based at CSIRO in Canberra.

Releasing the 2007 data, Dr Canadell said emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change almost reached the mark of 10 billion tonnes of carbon in 2007.

October 2, 2008, New York, NY—A new report from The Commonwealth Fund examines key differences and areas of agreement in the health system reform proposals of presidential candidates Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama. In the report, The 2008 Presidential Candidates' Health Reform Proposals: Choices for America, the authors describe how both plans seek to expand health insurance, but Senator McCain would encourage individuals to select their own coverage through the individual insurance market while Senator Obama would strengthen employer coverage and public programs.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---As computer processor chips grow faster and more complex, they are likely to make it to market with more design bugs. But that may be OK, according to University of Michigan researchers who have devised a system that lets chips work around all functional bugs, even those that haven't been detected.

October 2, 2008 – Our genome contains many genes encoding proteins that are similar to those of other organisms, suggesting evolutionary relationships; however, protein-coding genes account for only a small fraction the genome, and there are many other DNA sequences that are conserved across species. What are these sequences doing, and do we really need them at all?

STANFORD, Calif. — Small stretches of seemingly useless DNA harbor a bigsecret, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.There's one problem: We don't know what it is. Although individuallaboratory animals appear to live happily when these genetic ciphers aredeleted, these snippets have been highly conserved throughout evolution.

Individuals with bipolar disorder are usually treated with 'mood stabilizing' drugs, one of which is lithium — an inhibitor of GSK-3 proteins. As new drugs that are more powerful inhibitors of GSK-3 are under development despite controversial studies suggesting a link between lithium therapy and congenital heart defects, Thomas Force and colleagues, at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, set out to determine whether GSK-3 proteins are important for heart development in mice.

NEW YORK (Oct. 2, 2008) -- As many as one quarter of HIV patients have drug resistance, limiting their treatment options and raising their risk for AIDS and death. Now, maraviroc, the first of a new class of HIV drugs called CCR5 receptor antagonists, has been shown to be effective over 48 weeks for drug-resistant patients with R5 HIV-1, a variation of the virus found in more than half of HIV-infected patients.

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. (Wednesday, October 1, 2008) – Biological research has long relied on a small number of model organisms, species chosen because they are amenable to laboratory research and suitable for the study of a range of biological problems.

Researchers at NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) and Northwestern University have discovered that fiber optic technology can for the very first time effectively measure blood levels in the colonic lining (mucosa) in humans, thus having potential applications for analyzing risk of colon cancer.

The study appears in the October 2008 issue of Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.