Biomarkers: Hormones Can Predict Menopause
Investigators have provided new information about hormonal biomarkers that can address the beginning of the menopause transition.
For many women, for example those who choose later-in-life pregnancy, predicting their biological clock's relation to the timing of their menopause and infertility is important. "The information provides a roadmap as to how fast women are progressing through the different elements of their reproductive life", said lead researcher MaryFran Sowers. Sowers and her team examined the naturally occurring changes in three different biomarkers over the reproductive life of more than 600 women: follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and inhibin B.

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Scientists say they have a working prototype of a fully artificial heart ready for implanting in humans. The device beats almost exactly like the real thing using electronic sensors to regulate heart rate and blood flow. Developers Carmat now need approval from the French authorities before pushing ahead with clinical trials. But heart experts warned it was still early days as previous attempts to create a fully artificial heart had failed during human testing. Several teams from around the world have been working to develop the perfect artificial heart that could be fitted into the 20,000 patients worldwide unable to receive a life-saving heart transplant because of a shortage of donor organs.

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The Associated Press: Americans with diabetes nearly doubled their spending on drugs for the disease in just six years, with the bill last year climbing to an eye-popping $12.5 billion.
Newer, more costly drugs are driving the increase, said researchers, despite a lack of strong evidence for the new drugs' greater benefits and safety. And there are more people being treated for diabetes.

The new study follows updated treatment advice for Type 2 diabetes, issued last week. In those recommendations, an expert panel told doctors to use older, cheaper drugs first. And a second study, also out Monday, adds to evidence that metformin -- an inexpensive generic used reliably for decades -- may prevent deaths from heart disease while the newer, more expensive Avandia didn't show that benefit.

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The call comes through. A young female has collapsed in the street outside a nightclub. The paramedic is dispatched to the scene, parks his ambulance and starts to assess the situation. The young woman appears drunk and is singing in a slurred way, but after an examination and blood and glucose tests the paramedic discovers she is also diabetic and in need of immediate treatment. It's a testing scenario for a student paramedic, and one where there is the potential to make some dangerous errors.

But this is one time when errors do not matter - for this is Second Life, a 3D virtual world where characters can create their own scenarios. Paramedic students at St George's Hospital, University of London and Kingston University use Second Life to aid their learning.
In the virtual world they can treat patients by checking a pulse, dressing wounds and administering drugs.

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Nine of 10 American workers are losing sleep over financial worries, according to a survey released Monday by a company that helps workers deal with wellness issues.
Keeping up with the rising cost of living and credit card debt were top concerns preventing people from falling asleep, according to the results from ComPsych Corporation, which surveyed employees of companies it serves. Thirty percent of respondents reported worrying about the cost of living while 29 percent cited credit-card debt.

Making mortgage payments and building retirement accounts also kept people awake, with 14 percent and 13 percent, respectively, listing those as their main concerns, the survey said. How to afford childrens' school tuition and health care costs robbed just three percent of sleep, the survey said.

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Tennis line judges are more likely to make mistakes when calling balls "out" rather than "in", say researchers. Californian scientists found that of 83 incorrect calls, 70 of the errors were wrong "out" calls. This was down to a time lag of a few hundred milliseconds between an image hitting the retina and the viewer processing it, the team said.

This bias, revealed in Current Biology, could enable players to exploit the "challenge" system, they suggested.Decoding information about the position of objects is a complex task, as the brain has to allow not only for the movement of the object, but also for the movement of the eye relative to it.

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The Director of Hanwei Eggs was contrite. "We solemnly apologize to consumers," said Han Wei. "We apologize to the distributors. We solemnly declare that our company has never purchased melamine. We have never adopted melamine to the feeds or products." But somehow melamine got into eggs produced at the company's plant in Dailin in northeast China.

Melamine is a chemical used in making plastics and fertilizer. But in recent times, it has become the badge of shame for the Chinese food industry after being illegally added to food products to suggest they contain a higher level of protein. U.N. officials are concerned that melamine has been introduced to animal feed and may turn up in chicken, pork, farmed fish and other products.

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