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Blindness and Big Pharma

Pfizer recently have been faced with a media blitz covering a possible scandal involving 50 out of 23 million Viagra users. That is, a side-effect of the drug could be blindness, but Pfizer never listed this on the side of the bottle. It must be noted, however that men with heart disease and diabetes might also suffer from erectile dysfunction. Heart disease and diabetes are major contributors to adult-onset blindness. Is the drug responsible? Pfizer’s stock will hopefully… read more

Computer Scientists Optimize Online Ad Auction

Looks like Google will get even richerA 30-second prime-time television spot was once considered to be the most effective form of advertising, but search engine ads are replacing it. This year, predicts Advertising Age, the combined advertising revenues of Google and Yahoo! will rival the combined prime-time ad revenues of America’s three big television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley have discovered a computer algorithm that could further increase profits for search engine advertising. “Our algorithm balances two trade-offs in a way that optimizes revenue in Google’s advertising model,” says Vijay Vazirani, professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech.

New grief treatment more effective than standard therapy

A recently developed method for treating complicated grief, which includes discussing certain aspects of the death of a loved one, was found more effective than a standard therapy for depression, according to a study in the June 1 issue of JAMA. Many physicians are uncertain about how to identify bereaved individuals who need treatment, and what treatments work for bereavement-related mental health problems.

Violence may be viewed as infectious disease

Me, I can't usually eat 'em 'cause my girlfriend's a vegetarian. Which more or less makes me a vegetarian, but I sure love the taste of a good burger.In a study designed to isolate the root causes of violent behavior, Harvard Medical School researchers found that young teens who witnessed gun violence were more than twice as likely as non-witnesses to commit violent crime themselves in the following years. “Based on this study’s results, showing the importance of personal contact with violence, the best model for violence may be that of a socially infectious disease.”

African HIV Subtypes Identified in Minnesota Population

Men: Strong; Women: Good looking; HIV subtypes: AfricanizedPublic health researchers in Minnesota recently identified 83 persons infected with subtypes of HIV-1 that are not common in the United States, according to a report published in the June 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. Viral subtype identification may be important because subtypes may differ in terms of the efficacy of potential vaccines, diagnostic testing for HIV infection, and monitoring of the health of HIV-infected patients.

Tobacco companies designed cigarettes ‘to addict women’

A new analysis of tobacco industry documents provides evidence that cigarette companies intentionally modified their products to promote female smoking by emphasizing attributes they knew would appeal to women – stylishness and taste, as well as perceived health benefits. According to the authors, the study presents particularly troubling implications for world health, as tobacco companies seek to increase smoking among women in developing countries. The documents, made public following the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, are examined in a paper in the June 2005 issue of ADDICTION, an international scientific journal.

Love is between ears, not legs

Just don't stalk me if things go bad.You just can’t tell where you might find love these days. A team led by a neuroscientist, an anthropologist and a social psychologist found love-related neurophysiological systems inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine. They detected quantifiable love responses in the brains of 17 young men and women who each described themselves as being newly and madly in love.

NASA sees orbiting stars flooding space with gravitational waves

A scientist using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has found evidence that two white dwarf stars are orbiting each other in a death grip, destined to merge. The data indicate gravitational waves are carrying energy away from the star system at a prodigious rate, making it a prime candidate for future missions designed to directly detect these ripples in space-time.

First frozen egg baby born in Canada

The McGill University Health Center (MUHC) in Montreal is pleased to announce the first successful birth in Canada resulting from frozen eggs. A team confirmed the birth of a healthy baby boy, weighing 3740 grams on April 29. “We are the first in-vitro fertilization (IVF) Centre in Canada to achieve this success…This is fantastic news for both the family and for fertility health research and we would like to congratulate the parents on the birth of their first child.”

Richer nations at more risk of schizophrenia

More beautiful mindsSchizophrenia is more common in developed countries than poorer nations, but it is less widespread than previously thought. These findings are from a Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR) report, published in the American-based journal Public Library of Science Medicine. The report debunks a popular textbook definition that schizophrenia will affect 10 in every 1000 people no matter where patients live.