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Policy/Ethics
Key: Meeting Journal Funder
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
Report calls for new initiative to improve math education for preschoolers
To ensure that all children enter elementary school with the foundation they need for success, a major national initiative is needed to improve early childhood mathematics education, says a new report from the National Research Council.

Contact: Sara Frueh
news@nas.edu
202-334-2138
National Academy of Sciences

Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
Cell Stem Cell
Bioethicists lead call for public debates on future uses of stem cells
More than 40 scientists, bioethicists, lawyers and science journal editors are calling on their colleagues, policy makers and the public to begin developing guidelines for the research and reproductive use of stem cell-derived eggs and sperm, even though such use may be a decade or more away.

Contact: Christen Brownlee
cbrownlee@jhmi.edu
410-955-7832
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
Science
Stanford bioethicist and colleagues call for federal regulation of genetic ancestry testing
The lack of federal regulation in instances of DNA use will be addressed in the Policy Forum section in the July 3 issue of Science by Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, Ph.D., of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, and colleagues from four other universities. The need for a clear set of rules governing genetic ancestry testing is becoming more urgent, Lee said, given the proliferation of private corporations that promise consumers insight into their genetic origins.

Contact: Jonathan Rabinovitz
jrabin@stanford.edu
650-724-2459
Stanford University Medical Center

Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
IOM comparative effectiveness research priorities report
A new report from the Institute of Medicine recommends 100 health topics that should get priority attention and funding from a new national research effort to identify which health-care services work best.

Contact: Christine Stencel
news@nas.edu
202-334-2138
National Academy of Sciences

Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
Optics Letters
Zooming in to catch the bad guys
A new "perfection tool" from Tel Aviv University researchers enhances video to catch criminals and terrorists.

Contact: George Hunka
ghunka@aftau.org
212-742-9070
American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
Nature Biotechnology
Anti-biotech groups obstruct forest biotechnology
The potential of forest biotechnology to help address significant social and environmental issues is being "strangled at birth" by the rigid opposition of some groups and regulations that effectively preclude even the testing of genetically modified trees, scientists argue in a new report.
National Science Foundation

Contact: Steven Strauss
steve.strauss@oregonstate.edu
541-760-7357
Oregon State University

Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
Improving math education in early childhood
Though many consider teaching math to young children to be unnecessary or inappropriate at this stage in their educational development, research shows that as early as infancy, children start to think about the world in mathematical ways

Contact: Sara Frueh
news@nas.edu
202-334-2138
National Academy of Sciences

Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Police work undermines cardiovascular health, comparison to general population shows
It is well documented that police officers have a higher risk of developing heart disease: The question is why. In the most recent results coming out of one of the few long-term studies being conducted within this tightly knit society, University at Buffalo researchers have determined that underlying the higher incidence of subclinical atherosclerosis -- arterial thickening that precedes a heart attack or stroke -- may be the stress of police work.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Contact: Lois Baker
ljbaker@buffalo.edu
716-645-5000 x1417
University at Buffalo

Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
JAMA
Bad medicine
Are individuals, families, communities and employers getting their money's worth from US health care? That's the big question in the news today, pushed further into the spotlight by the Obama administration. Charles M. Kilo, M.D., M.P.H, CEO of GreenField Health in Portland, Oregon, and co-author Eric B. Larson, M.D., M.P.H., of Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, Washington, explore this important question in their commentary "Exploring the Harmful Effects of Health Care" in the July 1 JAMA.

Contact: Kimberly Walgraeve
Kim.Walgraeve@GreenFieldHealth.com
503-442-0328
Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies

Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
HealthGrades study: Top hospitals for women's health/maternity care have lower mortality/morbidity
Wide gaps in quality outcomes for women persist, not only when compared to men, but among hospitals and states, according to a new study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent health-care ratings organization.
HealthGrades

Contact: Scott Shapiro
sshapiro@healthgrades.com
720-963-6584
HealthGrades

Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Tunnel vision
They're digging tunnels along the US border at a fast and furious pace, but not a single one of them has ever been discovered by US border patrol agents using technology. That's going to change.
US Department of Homeland Security

Contact: John Verrico
john.verrico@dhs.gov
202-527-3625
US Department of Homeland Security - Science and Technology

Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Ecology
Water webs: Connecting spiders, residents in the Southwest
If you are a cricket and it is a dry season on the San Pedro River in Arizona, on your nighttime ramblings to eat leaves, you are more likely to be ambushed by thirsty wolf spiders. A potential horror story for any cricket. However, it is also a tale of water limitation that looks beyond how most ecosystem studies are considered.
National Science Foundaiton

Contact: Margaret Coulombe
margaret.coulombe@asu.edu
480-727-8934
Arizona State University

Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Journal of Medical Devices
Stanford researchers publish comprehensive model for medical device development
In an effort to increase understanding of the medical device development process and help companies execute the bench-to-bedside process of product development more effectively, researchers at Stanford University have published the first comprehensive model representing the medical device development process.
Institute for Health Technology Studies

Contact: Robyn Stein
Robyn.Stein@gabbe.com
212-220-4444
InHealth: The Institute for Health Technology Studies

Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
ESHRE 2009
Ovarian transplantation: First baby is born after a new technique
On June 22, a baby girl was born to a mother who had been menopausal for two years as a result of treatment for sickle cell anemia, after a new, two-step method of ovarian transplant that worked to restore ovarian function quickly. It is the first birth after ovarian autotransplantation in France and the first in the world after treatment for sickle cell anemia.

Contact: Mary Rice
mary@mrcommunication.org
European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology

Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
PLoS Medicine
Water should be a human right
In this month's PLoS Medicine editorial, the editors argue that -- despite recent international objections -- access to clean water should be recognized as a human right. At the March 2009 United Nations meetings, coinciding with the World Water Forum, Canada, Russia and the United States refused to support a declaration that would recognize water as a basic human right. But this flies in the face of considerable evidence that access to water, which is essential for health, is under threat, argue the editors.

Contact: Andrew Hyde
press@plos.org
44-122-346-3330
Public Library of Science

Public Release: 28-Jun-2009
GP bodies support guidelines for use of patient records in medical research
The two leading bodies representing GPs in the UK have backed a call by the Wellcome Trust for clearer guidance for GPs to ensure medical records can be safely used in research.
Wellcome Trust

Contact: Craig Brierley
c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
44-207-611-7329
Wellcome Trust

Public Release: 26-Jun-2009
Ethnicity & Disease
Race origins and health disparites
To understand health disparities, researchers need to understand how today's racial categories evolved from the negative assumptions made hundreds of years ago to justify slavery.

Contact: John L. Mitchell
johnmitchell@cdrewu.edu
323-563-4981
Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science

Public Release: 26-Jun-2009
DOD, VA should take stronger steps to combat tobacco use in military, veteran populations
Because tobacco use impairs military readiness, harms the health of soldiers and veterans, and imposes a substantial financial burden on the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, these agencies should implement a comprehensive strategy to achieve the Defense Department's stated goal of a tobacco-free military, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

Contact: Sara Frueh
news@nas.edu
202-334-2138
National Academy of Sciences

Public Release: 26-Jun-2009
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine
Sightseeing helicopter crashes in Hawaii decrease following FAA regulations
An emergency rule intended to reduce the number of deaths and injuries associated with Hawaiian air tours was followed by a 47 percent reduction in sightseeing crashes, according to a new study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. However, the proportion of crashes that resulted in lives lost actually increased after the rule change due to an increase in crashes that resulted from poor visibility.
Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Reseach and Policy

Contact: Tim Parsons
tmparson@jhsph.edu
410-955-7619
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Public Release: 25-Jun-2009
Taxpayer Alliance applauds bill to broaden access to federal research results
Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John Cornyn today introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act, a bill to ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of research funded by 11 US federal agencies. The proposed bill is welcomed by the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, a coalition of research institutions, consumers, patients and others formed to support open public access to publicly funded research.

Contact: Jennifer McLennan
jennifer@arl.org
202-296-2296
SPARC

Public Release: 25-Jun-2009
Judicature
Bush's court appointments emphasized ideology over diversity
The judicial appointments of former president George W. Bush suggests that his motivation for appointing nontraditional judges was driven more by ideology and strategy than concerns for diversity, a new analysis shows.

Contact: Rorie Spill Solberg
rorie.spillsolberg@oregonstate.edu
541-737-2811
Oregon State University

Public Release: 25-Jun-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
MU scientists convert pigs' connective tissue cells into stem cells
Scientists at the University of Missouri have developed the ability to take regular cells from a pig's connective tissues, known as fibroblasts, and transform them into stem cells, eliminating several of the hurdles associated with stem cell research. The new study appeared in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Contact: Christian Basi
BasiC@missouri.edu
573-882-4430
University of Missouri-Columbia

Public Release: 25-Jun-2009
Jurors fail to understand rape victims
Rape trial juries need better guidance in the courtroom -- and a better understanding of rape victims -- to help them reach their verdict.

Contact: Professor Vanessa Munro
vanessa.munro@nottingham.ac.uk
44-115-846-6312
University of Nottingham

Public Release: 25-Jun-2009
Nature
Stem cell surprise for tissue regeneration
Scientists working at the Carnegie Institution's department of embryology have overturned previous research that identified critical genes for making muscle stem cells. It turns out that the genes that make muscle stem cells in the embryo are surprisingly not needed in adult muscle stem cells to regenerate muscles after injury. The finding challenges the current course of research into muscular dystrophy, muscle injury and regenerative medicine; it also favors using age-matched stem cells for therapy.
Carnegie Institution, National Institutes of Health, Riley Children's Foundation

Contact: Christoph Lepper
lepper@ciwemb.edu
410-246-3039
Carnegie Institution

Public Release: 24-Jun-2009
New detectors for nuclear, radiological material in cargo should not be acquired until testing deficiencies fixed, cost-benefit analysis completed
A thorough cost-benefit analysis that includes an assessment of meaningful alternatives is needed to reveal the potential security advantages of deploying new detector systems to screen cargo for nuclear and radiological materials at US ports and border crossings. It is likely that the costs will exceed the savings gained from improved efficiency of the screening systems, says a new report from the National Research Council.

Contact: Jennifer Walsh
news@nas.edu
202-334-2138
National Academy of Sciences