Genetic engineering in plants
This plant genetic engineering lecture explains different process and techniques used in plant biotechnology in overview session. For more information, log o...
By: Suman Bhattacharjee
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Genetic engineering in plants - Video
Even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on his US visit, the Sangh Parivar has come out with its demands. Vijnana Bharati, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-inspired organisation working in the field of science, told Modi, through an open letter, not to invite any sort of investments in the field of genetic engineering technologies to produce seeds in India.
"Indian farmers and scientific community are engaged in a relentless war against the field trials announced by the Union government and the introduction of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) without adequate research," said A Jayakumar, secretary-general, Vijnana Bharati.
According to Jayakumar, the PM had already mentioned he would seek investments in the biotechnology sector during his US visit.
"While investments in other fields of biotechnology might be desirable, investments in genetic engineering for producing seeds should be strictly avoided due to certain critical factors. Most importantly, genetic engineering technologies go hand-in-hand with royalties. The monopoly of Monsanto in Maharashtra has led to serious debts incurred by farmers resulting in large-scale suicides," the open letter said.
The letter noted the experience in the US, where herbicide-resistant GMO seeds have led to the emergence of super weeds, which are uncontrollable.
"As the Technical Expert Committee appointed by the Supreme Court has rightly recommended, there is no place for herbicide-tolerant GMO crops in small farms of India. Besides, organic, agro-ecological systems are proven over the tides of time to be the best path to food security," it said.
Sangh Parivar organisations such as Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh had been instrumental in the government holding back its decision on allowing field trials for GM crops. There is a feeling within the Parivar that the government is under pressure from US seed companies to introduce GM crops in India.
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
25-Sep-2014
Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline
New Rochelle, NY, September 25, 2014The staggering growth rate of the global population demands innovative and sustainable solutions to increase food production by as much as 70-100% in the next few decades. In light of environmental changes, more drought-tolerant food crops are essential. The latest technological advances and future directions in regulating genes involved in stress tolerance in crops is presented in a Review article in OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, the peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the OMICS website.
Coauthors Roel Rabara and Paul Rushton, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Dallas, TX, and Prateek Tripathi, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, focus on the role of transcription factors, described as "master regulators" because they are important components of many genetic regulatory pathways and may be able to control clusters of genes. Drought tolerance is a complex trait that is regulated by multiple genes.
In the article "The Potential of Transcription Factor-Based Genetic Engineering in Improving Crop Tolerance to Drought," the authors describe current strategies for using transcription factors to improve drought tolerance and discuss how novel, advanced technologies will help study promising, genetically engineered food crops under field growing conditions.
"With limited water supply continuing to constrain food crop production, understanding and improving crop tolerance to drought is a grand challenge for 21st century biology and medicine, and to feed a massive world population," says OMICS Editor-in-Chief Vural zdemir, MD, PhD, DABCP, Gaziantep University, Faculty of Communications and Office of the President, Gaziantep, Turkey, and Co-Founder, the Data-Enabled Life Sciences Alliance International (DELSA Global), Seattle, WA. "Transcription factors are veritable candidates for innovation in the next generation of transgenic crops because of their natural role in plant growth and development. Field studies (not only greenhouse measures) will provide additional insights to measure their actual impact and innovation. This state of the art review article offers a timely analysis and topline summary distilled from the past several decades of leading literature."
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About the Journal
OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online, which covers genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and multi-omics innovations. The Journal explores advances in the era of post-genomic biology and medicine and focuses on the integration of OMICS, data analyses and modeling, and applications of high-throughput approaches to study biological problems. Social, ethical, and public policy aspects of the large-scale biology and 21st century data-enabled sciences are also considered. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the OMICS website.
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Can genetic engineering help food crops better tolerate drought?
With genetically engineered therapies for the infectious disease, Ebola, currently undergoing testing for safety and efficacy, GMO Answers is highlighting the use of genetic engineering in other biomedical applications. The posts author, Richard Green, also looks at whyGMOs, though used in both agriculture and medicine, are more controversial in agricultural applications.
The technology of genetic modification orgenetic engineeringwas first developed in the early 1970s, commercialized in pharmaceutical applications in the early 1980s, and then agricultural applications in the early 1990s.
The technology has been around for 40 years. It is hardly new. Perhaps if you compare it to the internal combustion engine it is new, but compared to something as recent and ubiquitous as flat screen HDTVs, DVRs, andWi-Fi-friendly touch screen devices like iPhones and Tablets, it is a time tested technology.
In medicine,genetic engineering(GE) is used to make biopharmaceutical drugs. Various organisms are engineered for use as factories to produce the drug product.Bacteriaare the preferred option, as they are the easiest to grow and scale-up for production, but depending on the complexity of the drugs molecular structure, other organisms such as yeasts, mammalian cells,etc., can also be used toexpressthe drug product. The first GE drug approved for use wasinsulin. By the year 2000, there were over100GE drugs on the market. Currently, peoples lives are changed every day by drugs likeRemicade,Epo,Avastin, andNeulasta
Whilegenetic engineeringis used in both agriculture and medicine, it is far more controversial in agriculture. Here is an explanation that helped shape my point of view: intellectually, I can grasp that adding or silencing a few well-characterizedgenesout of thousands is a drop in thegenomebucket, but for me it makes it a bit more real to think of it in terms of people. Just look at the variety among us. Variations between our thousands ofgenesare why we are all different from each other, but even with those differences, we are all human. It is similar with plants. Changing one, or as we get better, a few genes, in the plantgenomeis barely a blip compared to the normal diversity between individuals. To paraphrase what a wise man once said,GE corn is just corn.
We encourage you to visit our GMO Answers site and read GMOs in Food and Medicine: An Overview in its entirety.
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GMO Answers Provides an Overview of GMOs in Medicine
Sep 24, 2014 Before (top) and after (bottom) images of gold nanoprobe tests. In DNA samples containing no genetic variations, the pink solution became colorless within 10 minutes. Credit: A*STAR Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Tests for identifying genetic variations among individuals, which can be used to develop precisely targeted drug therapies, are a current focus in the emerging field of pharmacogenomics. A*STAR researchers have now developed and patented a customized and elegant nanoprobe for assessing sensitivity to the drug warfarin.
To develop the nanoprobe, Jackie Ying at the A*STAR Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and co-workers in Singapore, Taiwan and Japan devised a relatively simple procedure that uses standard laboratory equipment and can be easily adapted for other genetic tests.
"Our method is faster, more cost-effective and more accurate than existing alternatives," says Ying.
Ying's method detects genetic variations known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that differ in only a single-nucleotide building block of DNA. In the case of warfarinthe most frequently prescribed anticoagulantthere are SNP differences in specific parts of the genome that indicate whether a patient will tolerate the drug or suffer serious side effects.
The researchers used gold nanoparticles attached to short sections of DNA that bind to specific complementary sequences of DNA through the base pairing that holds together double-stranded DNA. These nanoprobes were exposed to fragments of DNA that had been cut out and amplified from a patient's genome.
The nanoprobes are initially pink due to surface plasmonic effects involving ripples of electric charge. When analyzed, if the probes do not bind to the DNA fragments, they aggregate and become colorless on exposure to a salt solution. If they do bind to the target, they will not aggregate but will remain pink until heated to a 'melting temperature' at which the base pairing is disrupted and the DNA strands of the probe and the genome fragments separate. For cases of partial complementarityin which the fragments are mismatched by a single nucleotidethe melting temperature is lowered by an amount depending on the level of mismatch. This allows SNPs to be detected through their different melting temperatures.
The resulting color change is easily visible to the human eye but can also be evaluated automatically (see image). The system can also distinguish between homozygous genotypes (where a person caries the same SNP on each member of a pair of chromosomes) and heterozygous genotypes (where a person carries different SNPs on each chromosome).
"The patented warfarin test kit is available for commercialization or licensing," says Ying. "We have developed and are validating assay kits for several other applications in pathogen detection, pharmacogenomics and genetic disease screening."
Explore further: Using gold nanoprobes to unlock your genetic profile
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Gold nanoparticles linked to single-stranded DNA create a simple but versatile genetic testing kit
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
25-Sep-2014
Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline
New Rochelle, NY, September 25, 2014The increasing popularity of social media, online dating sites, and mobile applications for meeting people and initiating relationships has made online dating an effective means of finding a future spouse. The intriguing results of a new study that extends this comparison of online/offline meeting venues to include non-marital relationships, and explores whether break-up rates for both marital and non-marital relationships differ depending on whether a couple first met online or offline are reported in an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website until October 25, 2014.
In the article "Is Online Better Than Offline for Meeting Partners? Depends: Are You Looking to Marry Or to Date?" Aditi Paul, Michigan State University, East Lansing, provides data showing higher break-up rates for couples who met online compared to offline whether they were in marital or non-marital romantic relationships. Additional factors besides the meeting venue can help predict whether a couple will stay together or break up, according to the author; these may differ for marital versus non-marital relationships and include the quality and duration of the relationship.
"The time-tested qualities of trust and intimacy still remain important factors on determining whether a couple stays together, regardless of whether they meet offline or online," says Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium and Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California.
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About the Journal
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies, plus cybertherapy and rehabilitation. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.
About the Publisher
Excerpt from:
Looking for a spouse or a companion
Robert Priest_Idea For Genetic Engineering
By: Linda Stitt
Link:
TIME Ideas Science If Synthetic Biology Lets Us Play God, We Need Rules MOLEKUULBrand X/Getty Images
Zocalo Public Square is a not-for-profit Ideas Exchange that blends live events and humanities journalism.
Synthetic biology has been called genetic engineering on steroids. Its also been described as so difficult to pin down that five scientists would give you six different definitions. No matter how this emerging field is characterized, one thing is clear: the ability to synthesize and sequence DNA is driving scientific research in brand-new and exciting directions.
In California, scientists have created a breakthrough antimalarial drugbakers yeast made in a lab that contains the genetic material of the opium poppy. The drug has the potential to save millions of livesand to ensure drug production that independent of poppy flowers. At MIT, researchers are working on a way for plants to fix their own nitrogen, so farmers will no longer need to use artificial fertilizers. And, in the far future, scientists and NASA researchers are looking to create a digital biological teleporter to bring to Earth life forms detected on Mars via a sort of biological fax.
What should we worrying about in this moment of tremendous, and potentially cataclysmic, scientific discovery? In advance of the Zcalo/Arizona State University event How Will Synthetic Biology Change the Way We Live?, we asked experts the following question: Soon well be able to program DNA with the same ease we program computers. What new responsibilities will be imposed on us?
1) Stepping ahead of technology to imagine the world we want to live in
Synthetic biology sees life as an engineering project a repertoire of processes that can be reprogrammed to produce technologies and products. It envisions powerful new tools for constructing biological parts. Many in synthetic biology celebrate technologies like automated DNA synthesis as agents of democratization, potentially allowing easy and widespread access to custom-made DNA. According to their vision, these technologies will enable bioengineers to freely experiment with living systems, accelerating progress in innovation and producing enormous benefits for society.
But there are risks. The question is often raised: How can we prevent these technologies from falling into the wrong hands? DNA synthesis machines cannot distinguish between tinkerers and terrorists. Though this question is crucially important, it is revealing for what it leaves unasked. Why are synthetic biologys tinkerers presumed to be the safe hands for shaping the technological future? Why do we defer to their visions and judgments over those that we collectively develop?
We tend to focus governance not on projects of innovation, but on how resulting technologies might be used in society. By attending primarily to technologys misuses, impacts, and consequences, we confine ourselves to waiting until new problemsand responsibilitiesare imposed upon us. Science is empowered to act, but society only to react. This leaves unexamined the question of who gets to imagine the future and, therefore, who has the authority to declare what benefits lie ahead, what risks are realistic, and what worries are reasonable and warrant public deliberation?
Our imaginations of the future shape our priorities in the present. It is a task of democracy, not science, to imagine the world we want to live in. Genuine democratization demands that we embrace this difficult task as our own, rather than wait to react to the responsibilities that emerging technologies impose upon us.
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
23-Sep-2014
Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline
New Rochelle, NY, September 23, 2014New technology and better screening strategies can lower the rate of false-positive results, which impose a substantial financial and psychological burden on women. The many misperceptions about breast cancer screening options and risks, the benefits and costs of screening, and the need for new approaches and better education are discussed in a series of articles in a supplement to Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The supplement is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://online.liebertpub.com/toc/jwh/23/S1.
In the article "The Patient Burden of Screening Mammography Recall," the authors report that among more than 1.7 million women aged 40-75 years who underwent screening mammography and were not diagnosed with breast cancer, 15% were recalled for further testing. The cumulative risk of a false-positive result after 10 years of annual screening mammograms is an estimated 61%. Coauthors Matthew Alcusky, PharmD, MS, Janice Clarke, RN, BBA, and Alexandria Skoufalos, EdD, Jefferson School of Population Health; Liane Philpotts, MD, FSBI, Yale University School of Medicine; and Machaon Bonafede, PhD, MPH, Truven Health Analytics, evaluate the direct cost burden of recall, the indirect costs associated with missed work time, travel, and substitute caregivers, for example, and the physical or psychological effects of a false-positive result, which may include unnecessary anxiety and reduced quality of life.
In an accompanying review article on "Understanding Patient Options, Utilization Patterns and Burdens Associated with Breast Cancer Screening," authors Susan C. Harvey, MD, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions; Sharon Mass, MD, FACOG, Morristown Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates; and Ashok Vegesna, PharmD, Janice Clarke, RN, BBA, and Alexandria Skoufalos, EdD, Jefferson School of Population Health, attribute much of the confusion women face in making informed decisions about breast cancer screening and recall options to a lack of consensus among the organizations developing screening guidelines and the mixed messages they deliver. The authors call for a more thoughtful approach to breast cancer screening and research that takes into account the tangible and intangible costs that women now bear.
"The articles in this supplement are timely and reveal surprisingly complex issues," says Susan C. Harvey, MD, in her Editorial, "The Charge and the Challenges of Breast Cancer Screening." Collectively, the articles "illustrate the need for a more tailored approach to breast cancer awareness, education, and screening. The goal is to make appropriate screening and diagnosis easier on women and more responsive to the changing face of value-based health care."
"The direct and indirect cost burden of inconclusive mammography screenings and recalls is significant and indicates a need for new approaches to breast cancer screening," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.
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The supplement was funded by an educational grant from Hologic, Inc.
Continued here:
Opportunities to reduce patient burden associated with breast cancer screening
Genetic engineering of plants has come a long way in recent years. It was first used to make more robust crops, then more nutritious and efficient crops. Now, scientists at the University of New Hampshire are tweaking tea plants to create an un-caffeinated variety.
Camellia sinensis is the plant from which virtually all caffeinated teas derive. UNH neuroscience major Laura Van Beaver has been working to flip one particular gene like a switch, which changes the plant in a significant way.
then it essentially isnt functional because its in the wrong direction. And it will stop the biosynthetic pathway of the production of caffeine.
RL: And in laymans terms that means
That caffeine wont be produced.
You heard right. Genetically decaffeinated tea. The process was first demonstrated in Japan on coffee. Van Beaver is essentially following the same procedure. Shes isolated the gene and the school lab already has a means of introducing it to a tea plant.
Yea, lets see the gun. The gene gun.
Professor Subhash Minocha shows me a metal box about the size of a waste basket connected by a tube to a tall air tank. The target is a petri dish of plant cells.
"Tea is the most widely drunk beverage on earth."
Minocha loads the gene gun with a tiny dab of gene-carrying plasmids mixed into some very fine gold dust. When it fires, the gold particles spray down onto the cells in the petri dish.
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UNH Undergrad Seeks To Produce First Genetically Decaffeinated Tea Plant
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Sep-2014
Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline
IMAGE: Industrial Biotechnology, led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, CEO and President, Taxon Biosciences, Tiburon, CA, is an authoritative journal focused on biobased industrial and environmental...
New Rochelle, NY, September 22, 2014Cassava, also known as tapioca, has large starch-filled roots and can grow at high yields in areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America where corn and sugarcane are not commonly grown. With the availability of novel enzymes and processes designed to break down tapioca starch into sugars that can then be used to produce sweeteners such as glucose, fructose, or maltose syrup, tapioca may be an ideal alternative to corn, as described in a Review article in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available for free on the Industrial Biotechnology website.
In the article "Cassava, the Next Corn for Starch Sweeteners", Jay Shetty, DuPont Industrial Biosciences (Palo Alto, CA), Bruce Strohm, Grain Enzyme Technology (Beloit, WI), and Sung Ho Lee and David Bates, and Gang Duan, from DuPont Industrial Biosciences in Cedar Rapids, IA and Wuxi, China, respectively, describe the current geographic distribution of cassava cultivation, and the composition and utility of the starch that comprises 24-30% of the cassava tuber. The authors discuss the variety of enzymes and processing steps available to convert tapioca starch to glucose via liquefaction and saccharification.
"Novel enzyme discovery and development continues to be core to expanding industrial biotechnology opportunities," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Professor, Biological & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
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About the Journal
Industrial Biotechnology, led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, CEO and President, Taxon Biosciences, Tiburon, CA, is an authoritative journal focused on biobased industrial and environmental products and processes, published bimonthly in print and online. The Journal reports on the science, business, and policy developments of the emerging global bioeconomy, including biobased production of energy and fuels, chemicals, materials, and consumer goods. The articles published include critically reviewed original research in all related sciences (biology, biochemistry, chemical and process engineering, agriculture), in addition to expert commentary on current policy, funding, markets, business, legal issues, and science trends. Industrial Biotechnology offers the premier forum bridging basic research and R&D with later-stage commercialization for sustainable biobased industrial and environmental applications.
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Can tapioca replace corn as the main source for starch sweeteners?
David Pearce - The World Transhumanist Association (WTA)
David Pearce (born 3 April) is a British philosopher. He promotes the idea that there exists a strong ethical imperative for humans to work towards the abolition of suffering in all sentient...
By: Adam Ford
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David Pearce - The World Transhumanist Association (WTA) - Video
How Much Do You Know About GMOs?
Did you know that farmers and gardeners have been genetically modifying their plants to express desired traits through selective breeding for thousands of years? From taste, color and hardiness...
By: KickedUp Media Group
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WARNING: Ebola the Days of Noah - Mass Scale Genetic Engineering of the Human Race
In this radio broadcast, Tim Alberino is interviewed by the fellas from the blogtalkradio program "We Are The Essential Resistance" concerning a conspiracy to conduct mass scale genetic alterations...
By: Genesis 6 Giants (official Steve Quayle channel)
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WARNING: Ebola & the Days of Noah - Mass Scale Genetic Engineering of the Human Race - Video
WARNING: Ebola the Days of Noah - Mass Scale Genetic Engineering of the Human Race
In this radio broadcast, Tim Alberino is interviewed by the fellas from the blogtalkradio program "We Are The Essential Resistance" concerning a conspiracy to conduct mass scale genetic alterations...
By: Genesis 6 Giants (official Steve Quayle channel)
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WARNING: Ebola & the Days of Noah - Mass Scale Genetic Engineering of the Human Race - Video
Bio Farma Speech Entry: The Ethics of Genetic Engineering
By: panji ramdhana
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Bio Farma Speech Entry: The Ethics of Genetic Engineering - Video
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
18-Sep-2014
Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline
New Rochelle, NY, September 18, 2014An Emergency Room Decision-Support (ERDS) program can significantly reduce ER visits and hospital admissions among older adults on Medicare. This could have important economic implications, helping to reduce the nearly 33% of avoidable ER visits that contribute to about $18 billion in unnecessary healthcare costs each year. Details of a successful ERDS program that had a positive return on investment are published in an article in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Population Health Management website until October 18, 2014.
Jessica Navratil-Strawn and colleagues from Optum (Golden Valley, MN; Ann Arbor, MI; and Phoenix, AZ), Richard Migliori MD, UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, MN), and Charlotte Yeh, MD, AARP Services (Washington, DC), show that participation in an ERDS program by Medicare users who previously had three or more visits to the ER within a 12-month period could improve care coordination, decrease ER visits and hospital admissions, and increase office visits compared to similar individuals not involved in ERDS. In the article "An Emergency Room Decision-Support Program That Increased Physician Office Visits, Decreased Emergency Room Visits, and Saved Money," the authors report that for every dollar invested in the ERDS program, $1.24 in healthcare costs was saved.
"While visits to the ER are climbing around the nation, we need solid research like this study to help us make important policy decisions and to better allocate healthcare resources," says Editor-in-Chief David B. Nash, MD, MBA, Dean and Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor, Jefferson School of Population Health, Philadelphia, PA.
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About the Journal
Population Health Management is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that reflects the expanding scope of health care management and quality. The Journal delivers a comprehensive, integrated approach to the field of population health and provides information designed to improve the systems and policies that affect health care quality, access, and outcomes. Comprised of peer-reviewed original research papers, clinical research, and case studies, the content encompasses a broad range of chronic diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, depression, and obesity) in addition to focusing on various aspects of prevention and wellness. Tables of Contents and a sample issue may be viewed on the Population Health Management website. Population Health Management is the official journal of the Population Health Alliance.
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Decision-support program helps keep seniors out of the emergency room
BRATTLEBORO -- Contending Vermont's GMO labeling law is meant "to pacify a vocal segment of the population that opposes genetic engineering," the Grocery Manufacturers Association is asking a federal court to prevent the state from implementing Act 120 until its lawsuit against Vermont "has run its course."
Act 120, which establishes labeling requirements for what it calls genetically engineered foods, was passed by the Legislature earlier this year and signed into law in May by Gov. Peter Shumlin.
According to the motion for an injunction, because GE varieties of corn and soybean account for 90 percent of those types of plantings in the United States, Act 120 will affect most of the grocery products sold in Vermont.
"Federal law does not require food labeling to also include plant labeling because there is no rational justification for such a regime," wrote attorneys for the GMA, the Snack Food Association, the International Dairy Association and the National Association of Manufacturers. "Act 120, however, is not concerned with rational justification. It caters to beliefs and biases that a government has no business endorsing."
Not only does Act 120 not serve any legitimate governmental interests, wrote the attorneys, it violates the First Amendment and intrudes upon federal labeling requirements, and is thus preempted by the Supremacy Clause.
In addition, they wrote, the members of the associations bringing suit against the state "will suffer irreparable injury" without an injunction because they have no way "to reliably distinguish ingredients derived from genetically engineered plant varieties from those that are not."
"The changes manufacturers would need to demand from their suppliers and initiate in their own facilities to segregate ingredients require money and time -- much more time than the Act's July 1, 2016, effective date allows," wrote the attorneys.
And then there are the costs related to building out Vermont-specific supply and distribution chains that do not currently exist.
"Plaintiff's members will not be able to recoup the cost of those efforts from the State if they prevail, nor could they easily return their business to the status quo ante."
Even though the plaintiff's plan to present evidence that food produced from genetically engineered crops is safe, "vehement opposition to genetic engineering persists," wrote the attorneys. Much of that opposition is based in philosophical or religiousbeliefs, concerns about large-scale agricultural operations, or biases against certain companies, maintain the attorneys.
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Products containing genetically modified ingredients would have to disclose that information on the back of the package near the nutritional facts under Vermont s bill. (Photo by John Herrick/VTDigger)
BRATTLEBORO -- Contending Vermont's GMO labeling law is meant "to pacify a vocal segment of the population that opposes genetic engineering," the Grocery Manufacturers Association is asking a federal court to prevent the state from implementing Act 120 until its lawsuit against Vermont "has run its course."
Act 120, which establishes labeling requirements for what it calls genetically engineered foods, was passed by the Legislature earlier this year and signed into law in May by Gov. Peter Shumlin.
According to the motion for an injunction, because GE varieties of corn and soybean account for 90 percent of those types of plantings in the United States, Act 120 will affect most of the grocery products sold in Vermont.
"Federal law does not require food labeling to also include plant labeling because there is no rational justification for such a regime," wrote attorneys for the GMA, the Snack Food Association, the International Dairy Association and the National Association of Manufacturers. "Act 120, however, is not concerned with rational justification. It caters to beliefs and biases that a government has no business endorsing."
Not only does Act 120 not serve any legitimate governmental interests, wrote the attorneys, it violates the First Amendment and intrudes upon federal labeling requirements, and is thus preempted by the Supremacy Clause.
In addition, they wrote, the members of the associations bringing suit against the state "will suffer irreparable injury" without an injunction because they have no way "to reliably distinguish ingredients derived from genetically engineered plant varieties from those that are not."
"The changes manufacturers would need to demand from their suppliers and initiate in their own facilities to segregate ingredients require money and time -- much more time than the Act's July 1, 2016, effective date allows," wrote the attorneys.
And then there are the costs related to building out Vermont-specific supply and distribution chains that do not currently exist.
"Plaintiff's members will not be able to recoup the cost of those efforts from the State if they prevail, nor could they easily return their business to the status quo ante."
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Sep-2014
Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline
New Rochelle, NY, September 17, 2014Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), a specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that detects microstructural changes in brain tissue, can help physicians better predict the likelihood for poor clinical outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury compared to conventional imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT), according to a new study published in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma website until October 17, 2014.
The ability to predict which patients who experience an acute head injury such as mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are likely to suffer ongoing dysfunction 3 or 6 months post-injury is important for providing optimal care. Esther Yuh and coauthors from University of California, San Francisco, Erasmus MC-University Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York, NY), Seton Brain and Spine Institute (Austin, TX), University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (PA), University of Texas (Austin), Antwerp University Hospital (Edegem, Belgium), and University of Cambridge Addenbrooke's Hospital (Cambridge, UK), present the results of the first published study that compares DTI to conventional imaging and clinical factors for outcome prediction in individual patients with mTBI. DTI showed significant differences between the white matter of mTBI patients who had positive versus negative findings on CT and MRI evaluation, as described in the article "Diffusion Tensor Imaging for Outcome Prediction in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A TRACK-TBI Study."
John T. Povlishock, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Neurotrauma and Professor, Medical College of Virginia Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, notes that "this exceptionally well done study addresses an issue of continuing controversy and confusion. The authors make an extremely important observation that MRI studies, including DTI parameters, are integral in informing prognosis after mild TBI. When taken together with the other publications from the TRACK-TBI Study Group, these findings should prove invaluable in assessing the occurrence of mild TBI and informing patient outcome."
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About the Journal
Journal of Neurotrauma is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 24 times per year in print and online that focuses on the latest advances in the clinical and laboratory investigation of traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. Emphasis is on the basic pathobiology of injury to the nervous system, and the papers and reviews evaluate preclinical and clinical trials targeted at improving the early management and long-term care and recovery of patients with traumatic brain injury. Journal of Neurotrauma is the official journal of the National Neurotrauma Society and the International Neurotrauma Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Neurotrauma website.
About the Publisher
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New MRI technique helps clinicians better predict outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury