Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
freegames
Popular Articles

Sotomayor's Record Contradicts Conservatives' Claims Of Radicalism, Washington Post Columnist Writes
"If Sonia Sotomayor is a radical activist eager to push the law leftward or to rule according to personal whims rather than constitutional commands, she"s done an impressive job of hiding it all these years," Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus writes, adding that the "amazing thing about the case against Sotomayor is how thin it is." She writes, "If Sotomayor is the judicial radical of conservative imaginings, certainly there ought to be something more in her paper trail."Marcus continues that an "examination of Sotomayor"s decisions shows a careful judge who tends to rule for the government over criminal defendants; who has been skeptical of most civil rights claims that have come before her; and who, to the extent that she has ruled on cases that touch on abortion, has come down against the abortion-rights side." According to Marcus, Sotomayor is "not apt to be David Souter in reverse -- a Democratic pick who turns out to be a close conservative." However, there also is "no evidence that she will be outside the liberal mainstream on the current court," Marcus writes. Marcus notes that Sotomayor "has ruled in favor of abortion protesters who claimed police used excessive force in removing them from outside a clinic," and she "refused to overturn the federal policy barring international family planning funds to organizations that perform or promote abortion," known as the "global gag rule." Marcus concludes, "Perhaps Sotomayor the radical has been biding her time, awaiting the day when the freedom of a Supreme Court seat would liberate her from precedent and moderation," but "the record suggests" that outcome is "unlikely" (Marcus, Washington Post, 6/3).
generic viagra online
11 West African Countries To Partake In Polio Vaccination Campaign; Benin Campaign Postponed Due To Health Worker Strike
A health workers" strike has caused Benin to indefinitely delay a polio vaccination campaign, part of a regional effort taking place in several West African countries, IRIN reports. The Benin campaign was due to start on May 29.
News of the day
Technology Discovered At University of Virginia Now Helps Men To Monitor Their Fertility After Vasectomy
A new home test kit called SpermCheck Vasectomy, based on a protein discovered at the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System, marks the launch of a product line that could revolutionize the way men monitor their reproductive status. Based on antibodies that bind to SP-10, a protein discovered in the laboratory of John C. Herr, PhD, SpermCheck Vasectomy is the only FDA-approved immunodiagnostic test for monitoring sperm after vasectomy.
Health Insurance

Study Confirms Effectiveness Of Innovative Prism Glasses For Hemianopia Patients

In a study of specially designed peripheral prism glasses for hemianopia patients (blinded in half the visual field in both eyes), scientists found that two-thirds of patients continued to wear the glasses at the end of the study period and beyond, indicating a high level of success. They also found that the brains of patients had not fully remapped to adjust for the prisms, which means that improved training in their use could further enhance the benefits, says principal investigator, Dr. Eli Peli, a senior scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute and inventor of the glasses. The study, published in the May 2009 issue of Optometry and Vision Science, not only reaffirms previous clinical studies, but also adds a deeper understanding of the neurological processes at play when a patient uses prisms for this purpose, adds Peli. More than a million Americans suffer from hemianopia, which blinds the vision in one half of the visual field in both eyes -- the result of strokes, tumors or trauma. Hemianopia patients are often unaware of what they cannot see and frequently bump into walls, trip over objects or walk into people on the side where the visual field is missing. The prisms, attached above and below the center of a spectacle lens in Peli"s invention, shift images from one side of the visual field to the other side and alert patients to objects and obstacles not otherwise visible to them. Alerted to the existence of these objects, patients turn to look, or, if their brains are fully adapted (remapped), perceive quickly where the objects are and automatically avoid them without turning their eyes and head. (In earlier designs by other scientists, the prism was in the middle of the lens and caused double vision.) "The best case scenario," says Peli, "is for a patient to be able to make rapid decisions based on the perception rather than moving their heads when an unseen object is detected." Peli and his team asked 28 patients with complete hemianopia to wear the peripheral prism glasses as much as possible for the duration of the study, which averaged about nine weeks. Success was measured by continued wear, visual field expansion, perceived direction (caused by brain remapping), and perceived improvement in quality of life. The research team found that 67 percent of patients chose to continue to wear the glasses at the end of the study. They also found that all patients had expansion of their visual field of about 22 degrees and expressed reduced difficulty in noticing and avoiding obstacles. On the other hand, only two patients demonstrated even an intermittent adaptation to the change in visual direction produced by the peripheral prism glasses, which means that no patient had remapped his or her brain to automatically make the perceptual adjustment. Based on these results, Dr. Peli and his team plan to conduct future research that will examine the best way to train patients to reprogram their brains to perceive direction automatically. The research team consisted of Mr. Robert Giorgi and Drs. Russell Woods and Eli Peli, all of the Schepens Eye Research Institute. This study was conducted with a prototype of the glasses, on which the prisms are temporarily applied. There are now permanent prism glasses available, which continue to be studied and perfected in on-going multi-center trials. Schepens Eye Research Institute is an affiliate of Harvard Medical School and the largest independent eye research institute in the nation. Schepens Eye Research Institute


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009