Geron Shuts Down Pioneering Stem-Cell Program
By Antonio Regalado
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Biotechnology firm Geron said last night that it would discontinue its stem-cell research program and halt a pioneering clinical study in people with spinal-cord injury.
The decision brings to a halt the world's largest and longest-running program to develop medical treatments from embryonic stem cells, versatile cells able to form many other types of human tissue.
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Geron plans to discontinue its work on stem cells in order to focus on cancer drugs. In a statement, John A. Scarlett, who joined Geron in September as CEO, blamed the decision on an "environment of capital scarcity and uncertain economic conditions."
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Focus On Testing Hurts Students in High School Health Classes
By (ScienceDaily)
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High school health classes fail to help students refuse sexual advances or endorse safe sex habits when teachers focus primarily on testing knowledge, a new study reveals.
But when teachers emphasized learning the material for its own sake, and to improve health, students had much better responses. In these kinds of classrooms, students had lower intentions of having sex and felt better able to navigate sexual situations.
"A focus on tests doesn't help students in health classes make healthier choices," said Eric M. Anderman, lead author of the study and professor of educational psychology at Ohio State University.
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Similar results favoring students in mastery-oriented classes occurred when students were asked about communication with parents about sex-related topics, knowledge about sex-related health issues, actual intentions to have sex, and belief about the importance of these health issues and whether they had the ability to learn more.
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Early investments matter: Infant mortality, vulnerable children, and foster care
By Liz Borkowski
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A few thought-provoking pieces I've read this week demonstrate the extent to which the US is failing to invest in our next generation. John Schmid of the Journal Sentinel points out that 44 other countries have lower infant mortality rates than the US (by UNICEF ranking), and we're tied for 45th place with Montenegro and Slovakia. Our overall national rate - 6.06 per 1,000 live births, according to the CIA World Factbook - conceals a great deal of variability by state and city, though. (See the Annie E. Casey Foundation's map for details on state-to-state differences.) Schmid zooms in on Milwaukee, where one baby under a year old dies for every 95 who lives (10.4 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, by my calculation). And then he zooms in further, to the Milwaukee zip code 53210, where "one baby dies for every 59 who make it" (16.7 per 1,000).
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Cohn also points to other recent research suggesting that the first two years of life are especially crucial for preventing some of the "dysfunctions associated with childhood hardship." But, he points out, federal investments work out to just $4,000 per child for children up to age two, compared to nearly $11,000 for those of elementary-school age. And overall, per-person taxpayer spending on children is about half of per-person spending on the elderly. This, Cohn explains, is despite evidence suggesting that improving early-childhood experience in vulnerable populations could save us money on things like lost wages for serious mental health problems and incarcerating criminals, which cost the US $200 billion and $60 billion per year, respectively.
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So it was with an unusual sense of urgency and dread that our family watched the 2010 Republican wave and the austerity budgeting that has followed in ceaseless progression. When Paul Ryan's budget, approved by 235 Republicans in the House, proposed dramatic cuts to federal Medicaid spending, it was as if they were trying to make it even more hopeless for us to find a doctor to treat Sophia's health problems. When Scott Walker in Wisconsin sought to cut the workforce that administers foster care in his state, we went up to Madison to join the protests in solidarity, because we knew how helpless we would be if there were no caseworker on the other end of the phone to answer our own urgent pleas for help and guidance. And the threats have continued, as House Republicans repeatedly propose cutting trillions of dollars in domestic spending to reduce the debt while making room for sustained upper-income tax cuts. The way this hits home for us is simple. A foster parent joins hands with the state in order to take care of a dispossessed child. For the last year, the state has been trying to slip free of our grasp.
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Earliest North American primate studied
By (UPI)
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Fossils from the earliest North American true primate suggests our forerunners may have dwelled primarily in trees like modern-day lemurs, researchers say.
Johns Hopkins researchers say they've identified the first ankle and toe bone fossils of Teilhardina, primates that first appeared just after the beginning of the Eocene Epoch about 55.5 million years ago.
The ankle bone fossils were elongated like those of present-day prosimian primates, like lemurs, that do a lot of jumping, the researchers said, suggesting Teilhardina was capable of some leaping.
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Administration Reveals Lack of CLASS
By Peter S. Arno, Michael K. Gusmano, and Deborah Viola
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The demise of the CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services and Support) Act is the calamitous result of ideological warfare and political cowardice. It would have provided a modest benefit – a basic guaranteed lifetime benefit of at least $50 a day in the event of illness or disability to be used for medical or related nonmedical needs, such as making a house wheelchair-accessible or hiring a home caregiver to assist with basic tasks. The aging of the population does not have to be a financial disaster, but it does pose real challenges, including the need to finally address long-term care.
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The CLASS Act, which was under attack from all sides, would have been no panacea to the impending long-term care crisis, but it would have been a reasonable first step. However, it was handicapped from the start by being thrust into the straightjacket of documenting financial viability over 75 years without receiving a dime of taxpayer funds. Some people also raised objections that it would not adequately deal with the long-term care needs of the elderly and disabled. That is true, but it was never meant to be a substitute for existing long-term care coverage through Medicaid or private long-term care insurance.
Republicans and their allies claimed it was a “Ponzi” scheme because, by collecting premiums over the first five years before benefits were dispensed, it disguised a “hidden” subsidy for the entire Affordable Care Act. Rather than being a Ponzi scheme, this is precisely what President Roosevelt did when Social Security was signed into law in 1935. Madoff ran a Ponzi scheme. Using that term in this context is nothing more than a politically charged, divisive scare tactic – like using “death panels” to describe the provision of palliative care.
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Actuarially speaking, the administration may have thrown in the towel too soon. Secretary Sebelius’s CLASS administrator, Kathy Greenlee, claimed that not enough individuals would have signed up, making premiums too expensive and the program not financially viable. She concluded, “I do not see a path to move forward with CLASS at this time.” We believe that relying upon assumptions based on take-up rates in the private, voluntary long-term care insurance industry is too conservative. Based on our research, at least 10 million adults provide caregiving for their aging parents and another 40-to-50 million provide care to their spouses and other family members. Wouldn’t a substantial portion of these folks be likely to choose a benefit, backed by the federal government, that would clearly be in their interest?
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Liver implant gives boy 'another chance of life'
By Fergus Walsh
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Doctors in London say they have cured a baby boy of a life-threatening disease which was destroying his liver.
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Instead of going on a waiting list for a transplant, doctors injected donor liver cells into his abdomen.
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The cells were coated with a chemical found in algae which prevented them from being attacked by the immune system.
After two weeks his own liver had begun to recover
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