Duty-free islands exempted from GST

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October 20, 2014

The tax exemption would benefit the islands and residents and would not have a negative impact to their economy.

LABUAN:Duty-free islands of Langkawi, Tioman and Labuan will be exempted from the Goods and Services (GST), said Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan.

He said the tax exemption would benefit the islands and residents and would not have a negative impact to their economy.

Addressing a GST briefing here on Sunday, he said the government would take measures to ensure that the transition from the Sales and Services Tax to the GST from April next year would not be drastic to ease the burden of the people.

He said the government would strengthen the GST Enforcement Unit with an addition of 2,270 members, 1,300 Price-Watch Team members and 202,800 Consumer Squad members as well as the inclusion of 579 penghulu and penggawa.

The Price watch team, made up of consumer associations, have been allocated funds to monitor profiteering by traders, he said.

- BERNAMA

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Duty-free islands exempted from GST

Ebola Session Panel – What is it about Ebola that makes health care workers so susceptible to it? – Video

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Ebola Session Panel - What is it about Ebola that makes health care workers so susceptible to it?
Rush University Medical Center held three Ebola education sessions on Oct. 16 and 17, during which Rush leaders took questions from employees about Ebola and how might care for an Ebola patient.

By: Rush Internal Communications

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Ebola Session Panel - What is it about Ebola that makes health care workers so susceptible to it? - Video

Mid Coast Walk-In Medical Clinic Tour Review – Brunswick Maine Health Care – Video

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Mid Coast Walk-In Medical Clinic Tour Review - Brunswick Maine Health Care
Mid Coast Walk-In Medical Clinic Tour Review - Brunswick Maine Health Care - http://www.midcoasthealth.com http://www.midcoasthealth.com/primarycare/walk-in-vs-emergency-room.aspx This ...

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Digital medicine? High-tech health care on the way

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"We still rely on desktop computers and pagers. The NHS has more functioning fax machines that the rest of industry in Britain put together," he said. "Digital health is the idea that we use mobile phones and tablet devices to make health care delivery more effective and cost effective."

Saving lives

And it goes beyond communication, with Kelsey highlighting that technology can help reduce the thousands of avoidable deaths recorded by the NHS each year: "It is quite genuinely about saving lives."

One key way of doing this is by tracking diseases digitally. Patients have been monitoring their blood pressure or blood-sugar levels at home for some time now, this data can be automatically synced to smartphones and doctors' databases. Glooko, for instance, is an app which allows users with diabetes to download their blood glucose readings to their smartphones, and share it with their health care team.

It's not just small start-ups getting in on the act. Samsung and Apple are also offering health-tracking apps, with Apple Health allowing users to log and keep track of cholesterol readings, blood work data and more.

"There are dozens of companies who are trying to do things directly with the consumer - almost taking doctors out of the equation," King said. "They're offering apps which allow people to manage their diabetes without ever having to go to a hospital unless things go dramatically wrong."

Risky business?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has led to some concerns about the potential consequences of "taking doctors out of the equation".

Bleddyn Rees, head of health care at law firm Wragge Lawrence Graham, highlighted concerns about the accuracy of healthtech devices. Generally, even if you provide doctors with data collected from such a device, they will repeat the test.

Read MoreThe future of medicine means part human, part computer

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Cross border health care inquiry comes to Hereford

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CROSS-border health care is on the agenda as a special Welsh Affairs inquiry rolls into Hereford next month.

In July, the Hereford Times revealed the Wye Valley NHS Trust has to find around 12 million a year to cover the cost of Welsh patients who cant go home because care packages arent in place.

Last year, when the Hereford Times highlighted the postcode lottery that pushed NHS patients on the Herefordshire side of the border into NHS Wales for treatment, the row went all the way to parliament.

As a result, the Welsh Affairs Committee inquiry into cross-border health care is coming to Hereford and a venue yet to be confirmed on Monday, November 24.

The committee is looking to take evidence from patients, medical professionals and social care practitioners.

The five years since the committee last examined the issue in 2009 have seen an increasing divergence between the healthcare systems of England and Wales, which has implications for patients in border areas.

In April last year, NHS Wales and the NHS Commissioning Board (CB) England agreed a Protocol for Cross-border Healthcare Services but it is not clear how well this has been functioning to date.

The Silk Commission has also made recommendations to improve cross-border health delivery, and the Government is preparing its response.

The Committee is inviting written evidence on some, or all, of the following issues:

* The impact of the increasing policy divergence in the health systems of England and Wales on cross-border healthcare services, and on medical practitioners and patients in border regions in England and Wales.

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Cross border health care inquiry comes to Hereford

Looking at early 1900s health care in a different light

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Even a little light reading about what Sir Wilfred Grenfell found in his travels around the northern end of the province a century ago paints a picture of a bleak existence, particularly when it comes to the health of the people living there. But a talk given at a symposium at The Rooms during the weekend called 100 years of the international Grenfell association and the delivery of healthcare in Newfoundland and Labrador looked at whether the situation was truly that bad.

MUN medical historian Jim Connor didnt try to paint a picture of a health-care paradise, but he raised some evidence that perhaps things were alright in our end of the world.

You have to understand things in the context of (their) time, Connor said.

Comparing the pre-Confederation health care to todays wouldnt paint an accurate picture. But comparing it to that of other larger areas during the same period does offer some surprising insight.

Grenfells hospital on the Northern Peninsula brought people from all over the island who had certain health needs, although the majority treated did come from the region. Typically, any patient who was admitted stayed for 30 days and, according to Connors, that is comparable to if you stayed elsewhere in the U.S. or U.K. during that period.

At Grenfells hospital, you sometimes also ended up helping to run the place as you recovered. But the conditions for which you could be admitted ran the full spectrum of ailments, much as you would find available in other hospitals.

This question of infectious disease, tuberculosis, malnutrition all get rolled into a very, very bad picture of poor health, Connor said.

Surprisingly, iridium treatments werent unheard of during Grenfells time here up through the pre-Confederation 1900s. The only place on the island where you could get the treatment for cancer was in St. Anthony, Connor said.

Infection played a large role in ending many peoples lives. The age of antibiotics was close, but not yet a reality. Tuberculosis was also an ordeal. Orthopedic surgeries were very common as many accidents happened on boats.

This (hospital) was a busy place, said Connor.

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Shopping for an egg donor: Is beauty, brains, or health most important?

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

20-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 20, 2014When it comes to picking an egg donor, until recent years, recipients tended to prefer someone with a similar appearance. Donor trait choices are changing, though, and which traits are now more preferable and why is the focus of "Beauty, Brains or Health: Trends in Ovum Recipient Preferences," an article published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/jwh.2014.4792 until November 20, 2014.

Homero Flores, MD and coauthors from Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, NY) reviewed the requests of ovum donor recipients over a 5-year period and assessed their preferences for donor traits, categorizing them by appearance, ethnicity, intellect, ability, and mental health. The authors documented statistically significant increases and decreases in the different categories over the years, with more "practical traits" that would improve offspring's overall quality of life tending to increase compared to "self-reflective" traits.

"As social acceptance of ovum donation has increased, and donor selection has become more sophisticated, couples are changing their preferences for what donor characteristics they value most for their future offspring," 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.

###

About the Journal

Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. Journal of Women's Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.

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Interleukin-27: Can a cytokine with both pro & anti-inflammatory activity make a good drug target?

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

20-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 20, 2014Interleukin-27 (IL-27), a member of the interleukin family of cytokines that help regulate the immune system, has a mainly anti-inflammatory role in the body, and its dysfunction has been implicated in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. More recently, IL-27's proinflammatory activity and role in chronic inflammatory diseases is becoming increasingly clear, and a new Review article that explores the potential to target a range of diseases that share common IL-27-activated mechanisms is presented in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the JICR website until November 20, 2014.

Christopher Wynick, Carlene Petes, and Katrina Gee, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, explain how IL-27 can contribute to the control of both anti- and proinflammatory responses depending on the predominant type of immune response elicited in the body, the disease type, and the disease severity. They focus primarily on the proinflammatory activity of the cytokine in the article "Interleukin-27 Mediates Inflammation During Chronic Disease".

"IL-27 is emerging as a significant determinant of the character of inflammatory response and this review provides an important perspective," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio.

###

About the Journal

Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, PhD, Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that covers all aspects of interferons and cytokines from basic science to clinical applications. JICR is an official journal of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR) website.

About the Publisher

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Interleukin-27: Can a cytokine with both pro & anti-inflammatory activity make a good drug target?

Exome Sequencing Becoming A Powerful New Diagnostic Tool For Genetic Disorders

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Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine Medical Genetics Laboratories and the UCLA Clinical Genomics Center are at the forefront of a new technique that could be a powerful tool for diagnosing rare genetic conditions.

The technique is known as whole-exome sequencing and involves using cutting edge sequencing techniques to analyze the coding regions or exomes of thousands of genes at the same time, Baylor researchers Dr. Yaping Yang, Dr. Christine M. Eng and their colleagues explained in a recent edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Sequencing a patients exome and comparing it to a normal reference sequence allows researchers to identify variations in that individuals DNA sequence. Those variations can then be related back to the patients health issues in an attempt to locate the specific genetic cause of that medical condition, the authors added.

The researchers studied a group of 2,000 patients that had been referred for evaluation of suspected genetic conditions, and found that the use of whole-exome sequencing led to the discovery of a molecular diagnosis (meaning that a genetic mutation or variation associated with a specific disease) in roughly 25 percent of them.

The findings in this report, I believe, will forever change the future practice of pediatrics and medicine as a whole, study co-author Dr. James R. Lupski, a professor of molecular and human genetics and pediatrics at Baylor, said in a statement. It is just a matter of time before genomics moves up on the physicians list of things to do and is ordered before formulating a differential diagnosis. It will be the new family history that, better yet, gets you both the important variants inherited from each parent and the new mutations that contribute to disease susceptibility.

In the study, the use of whole-exome sequencing identified ways in which medical professionals could clinically intervene in order to alleviate or eliminate symptoms and give patients families more information about the disease and treatment. Furthermore, many of the diagnoses made using the technique involved patients inheriting a new mutation previously undetected in their parents, the researchers will report Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) in San Diego.

The clinical whole-exome sequencing analyzed as part of the study took place between June 2012 and August 2014, and the tests had been ordered by the patients physician for suspected genetic conditions. The process involved the collection of peripheral blood, tissue, or extracted DNA samples which were collected from patients or their parents, and the majority (87.8 percent) of those analyzed were found to have neurological disorders or developmental delay.

A molecular diagnosis was reported for 504 patients (25.2 percent), with 58 percent of the diagnostic mutations not previously reported, the researchers said. Molecular diagnosis rates for the physical manifestation or phenotypic category was 27.2 percent for the neurological group, 24.6 percent for the neurological plus other organ systems group, 36.1 percent for the specific neurological group, and 20.1 percent for the nonneurological group.

Clinical exome sequencing can assist diagnosis in a wide range of disorders that are diagnostic dilemmas, said Lupski. Rare variants and Mendelian disease are important contributors to disease populations We find rare variants in aggregate actually contribute to disease susceptibility in a big way. The individual diseases may be rare, but there are thousands of such diseases and many more being defined through genomics.

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Genetic variant protects some Latina women from breast cancer

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An international research collaboration led by UC San Francisco researchers has identified a genetic variant common in Latina women that protects against breast cancer.

The variant, a difference in just one of the three billion "letters" in the human genome known as a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), originates from indigenous Americans and confers significant protection from breast cancer, particularly the more aggressive estrogen receptor-negative forms of the disease, which generally have a worse prognosis.

"The effect is quite significant," said Elad Ziv, MD, professor of medicine and senior author of the study. "If you have one copy of this variant, which is the case for approximately 20% (the range being 10 to 25 percent) of U.S. Latinas, you are about 40 percent less likely to have breast cancer. If you have two copies, which occurs in approximately 1% of the US Latina population, the reduction in risk is on the order of 80 percent."

Published in the October 20, 2014 issue of Nature Communications, the new study showed that women who carry the variant have breast tissue that appears less dense on mammograms. High "mammographic density" is a known risk factor for breast cancer.

"We have detected something that is definitely relevant to the health of Latinas, who represent a large percentage of the population in California, and of other states such as Texas," said first author Laura Fejerman, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and a member of UCSF's Institute of Human Genetics. "This work was done as a collaboration of multiple investigators, many of us originally from Latin America. As a Latina myself, I am gratified that there are representatives of that population directly involved in research that concerns them."

Epidemiological data have long demonstrated that Latina women are less susceptible to breast cancer than women of other ethnicities. According to National Cancer Institute data from 2007 to 2009, whites have about a 13 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer, blacks about 11 percent, and Hispanics less than 10 percent. The lifetime risk among Hispanics with indigenous American ancestry is even lower.

For several years Fejerman and Ziv have studied Latina populations in search of genetic and biological explanations for these differences. "After our earliest studies we thought there might be a genetic variant that led to increased risk in European populations," said Ziv. "But what this latest work shows is that instead there is a protective variant in Native American and Latina populations."

In the new study, Fejerman, Ziv, and colleagues performed successive genome-wide association analyses of datasets from the Cancer Prevention Institute of California (CPIC) and a study known as the Multiethnic Cohort. They replicated their initial findings in data from the Women's Health Initiative study, from a study of breast cancer in Colombian women known as COLUMBUS, and from a study conducted in Mexico, ultimately incorporating DNA data from a total of 3,140 women with breast cancer and 8,184 healthy controls.

"Our breast cancer registry has recruited and followed more than 4,000 breast cancer families. For this study, we provided cases and controls who self-identified as Latina or Hispanic," said CPIC Senior Scientist Esther M. John, PhD, MSPH. "The DNA samples and data shared from these cases, combined with other samples from the San Francisco Bay Area, contributed to a total of 977 breast cancer cases and 722 controls that led to this important genetic discovery."

The newly discovered SNP is on Chromosome 6, near a gene coding for an estrogen receptor known as ESR1. Fejerman and Ziv said that the biological basis of the association between the variant and reduced breast cancer risk is still not known, but their preliminary experiments indicate that the variant interferes with the action of transcription factors, proteins that regulate the expression of the ESR1 estrogen receptor.

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Genetic variant protects some Latina women from breast cancer

Interleukin-27: Can a cytokine with both pro & anti-inflammatory activity make a good drug target?

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

20-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 20, 2014Interleukin-27 (IL-27), a member of the interleukin family of cytokines that help regulate the immune system, has a mainly anti-inflammatory role in the body, and its dysfunction has been implicated in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. More recently, IL-27's proinflammatory activity and role in chronic inflammatory diseases is becoming increasingly clear, and a new Review article that explores the potential to target a range of diseases that share common IL-27-activated mechanisms is presented in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the JICR website until November 20, 2014.

Christopher Wynick, Carlene Petes, and Katrina Gee, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, explain how IL-27 can contribute to the control of both anti- and proinflammatory responses depending on the predominant type of immune response elicited in the body, the disease type, and the disease severity. They focus primarily on the proinflammatory activity of the cytokine in the article "Interleukin-27 Mediates Inflammation During Chronic Disease".

"IL-27 is emerging as a significant determinant of the character of inflammatory response and this review provides an important perspective," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio.

###

About the Journal

Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, PhD, Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that covers all aspects of interferons and cytokines from basic science to clinical applications. JICR is an official journal of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR) website.

About the Publisher

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Interleukin-27: Can a cytokine with both pro & anti-inflammatory activity make a good drug target?