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Preterm births linked to depression during pregnancy

Fri, 24/10/2008 - 11:11 by Pragati Khond

California, October 24: Depression in early pregnancy puts a woman at high risk of preterm delivery, which is the principal cause of infant mortality, says a recent study.

Researchers studied 791 women from San Francisco who were near to 10th week of their pregnancy. Out of these 41 percent reported "significant" symptoms of depression, while 22 percent reported "severe" symptoms.

The study indicated that women reporting severe symptoms were at double risk of delivering early, precisely before 37 weeks of gestation whereas women with significant symptoms had a 60 percent risk of early birth.

Depressive women were found to be younger than 25, unmarried, less educated, poorer, black, and with a history of preterm delivery.

Not much is known about causes of preterm birth, and the findings will prove to be significant in this field, noted Dr. De-Kun Li, lead author of the study. He is a perinatal epidemiologist and senior research scientist at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland, California.

New lung cancer genes identified

Thu, 23/10/2008 - 17:38 by Pragati Khond

Washington, October 23: Adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer is associated with 26 genes, which is double the number of genes ever known to be involved with the disease, according to a research. The gene-identification will prove beneficial in developing diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.

The research termed as the Tumor Sequencing Project, has important implications for the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, said study co-author Richard Wilson, director of Washington University's Genome Sequencing Center in St. Louis in a teleconference.

"But we consider it just a beginning. Over the next few years, we expect to extend this study both in terms of the number of individual cases that we study and the extent of the cancer genome we can explore," said Wilson. "Although similar, smaller cancer gene sequencing projects have been reported, our study is the largest to date and provides the statistical power to detect significantly mutated genes," he added.

50,000 join stride against breast cancer on Jones Beach

Mon, 20/10/2008 - 17:57 by Pragati Khond

United States, October 20: Paulette Schultz, 62 and Rita Cortese, 40 were amongst the many who walked the Jones Beach stretch for a stride against breast cancer.

As many as 50,000 people joined a stride against breast cancer at Jones beach to remember who died and cheer those who survived.

The chill and the winds could not discourage huge number of walkers from marching the five-mile route along the wooden boardwalk at Jones Beach, Long Island.

People were seen assembling around a long fence called "memory fence" located midway on the boardwalk covered with ribbons, photos and remembrances.

The event involving enthusiastic walkers raised $3 million for breast cancer research, education and advocacy, according to spokeswoman Sheri Richardson, American Cancer Society.

Nvidia graphics accelerator unveiled

Fri, 17/10/2008 - 23:48 by Pragati Khond

United States, October 17: Nvidia unveiled Quadro CX GPU for 'Adobe Creative Suite' as the new enhanced performer for graphics and videos.

The new graphics accelerator will offer better choices to graphics professionals looking for optimum output. It was launched just a day after Nvidia’s introduction of graphics processor for notebooks in the market.

Quadro CX is intended to enhance Adobe Creative Suite’s performance which includes Photoshop, After Effects and Premier Pro, and gets plugged into a PC's PCIe slot.

The accelerator is said to speed up rendering for advanced effects, and generate perfect previews of video before the final output with 30-bit color or uncompressed 10-bit/12-bit SDI (serial digital interface) which is a part of professional video equipment.

Heart patients respond well to Taxus, says study

Thu, 16/10/2008 - 22:24 by Pragati Khond

New York, October 16: A clinical study on two Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX) stents offered insight into successful and safer treatment of heart patients using drug coated stent instead of bare metal stent.

The study data was released in Washington at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation's annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics symposium.

The research involved 3000 patients with each of them having one of the two stents. In the course of treatment it was found that patients with drug coated stents or Taxus stents responded better to the treatment.

Stents are tiny devices used to prop open previously clogged heart arteries. Taxus, in addition, use medication to fight vessel reclogging.

Medical practitioners have doubts about the drug coated stent over causing blood clots than bare ones. Hence, patients are usually treated with a bare stent along with aspirin and anti-clotting drugs like Plavix. Drug-coated stents are used for opening clogged heart vessels but in emergency situations most of the doctors use bare-metal stents.

Washington Mutual Replaces CEO Killinger

Mon, 08/09/2008 - 21:40 by Pragati Khond

Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger will be replaced by Alan Fishman, former COO of Sovereign Bank.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the nation's largest thrift will appoint Alan Fishman, Chairman of Meridian Capital Group, a New York based commercial mortgage broker.

Fishman has earlier served as president and chief operating officer of Sovereign Bank , said to be the nation's second-largest thrift in Philadelphia.

In the last year, Wamu's shares lost almost 85% of their value, when Killinger commented that the company could sustain losses around $12-19 billion. Housing prices have seen a quick fall in the states where the thrift does maximum business. It holds over $50 billion in risky option adjustable-rate mortgages.

Pennsylvania Dentist Charged With Dumping Debris

Mon, 08/09/2008 - 17:25 by Pragati Khond

A dentist from Pennsylvania has been charged for spoiling a New Jersey beach by dumping his medical waste, forcing beach closures in peak vacation season.

The Dentist, Thomas McFarland,59, from Wynnewood dumped the waste containing needles, gauze pads and other materials with the help of his motorboat at Townsend Inlet near Avalon on Aug 22. According to police statement, McFarland admitted he threw the debris from his boat.

Charges of discharging polluting matter and unlawful disposal of regulated medical waste are levied on him. Each charge carries a maximum term of five years in prison. If he is convicted for both, then he would be liable to pay a fine of $125,000 also.

New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram confirmed a complaint been sent to his lawyer. But he neither revealed the dentist’s explanation as to why he dumped the waste on beach location nor his location.

Nuri Causes Hong Kong To Close

Fri, 22/08/2008 - 16:13 by Neka Sehgal

Hong Kong wears a deserted look as markets, stock offices and business areas stayed close in preparation for Typhoon Nuri.

Threat To Endangered Species Act

Tue, 12/08/2008 - 14:52 by Pragati Khond

Certain rules pertaining to endangered species listed in Endangered Species Act will be loosened by the Bush government soon, putting the efforts of many wildlife conservationists in danger.

The governments plans to give this authority to the federal agencies to decide whether certain projects including highways, dams, mining, etc will pose danger to these rare species.

The new set of rules don’t require Congress approval and is said to cut down on the obligatory independent reviews by scientists, a practice being followed for around 35 years, stated a draft by The Associated Press. This will forbid federal agencies from evaluating the effect of emissions from the projects on rare species and their habitats.

Dirk Kempthorne, Interior Secretary, said that changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a "back door" to regulate the gases blamed for global warming. The polar bear has recently figured in the endangered species list due to climate change.

FBI to examine computers in anthrax probe

Sat, 09/08/2008 - 15:19 by Nisha Bhatia

As per the new case documents, Federal agents are hoping that the two computers which they have secured from a public library of Frederick, Maryland would bring forth some significant indications about the prime suspect in anthrax case, Bruce Ivins.

Viagra Benefits Women On Antidepressants

Wed, 23/07/2008 - 12:03 by Nisha Bhatia

Do you suffer from depression? And take antidepressants on a regular basis to elevate your mood? If yes, it is almost certain you endure a problematic sex life also. A study claims that Viagra can be really helpful for the women who are on antidepressants and face debilitating sexual desires.

Denosumab – An Anti-Bone Loss Drug

Tue, 15/07/2008 - 21:32 by Nisha Bhatia

In a study, Amgen Inc. (AMGN) found that those men who are under the medication of prostate cancer drugs usually experience bone loss, which can be cured and even prevented with the help of an effective drug called Denosumab.