Month: February 2016

Image via Image via iStock.com/AJ_Watt Whether you’re with friends or online, all the body talk recently has been body positive. That’s fantastic, and we hope it never ends. It just gets tricky when, well… when you want to lose weight, get Beyonce’s thighs, or otherwise change. How do you change the way you look and stay body positive about yourself — and the people around you — at the same time? It’s no easy question

Does “overnight success” really exist? There seem to be people who make meteoric rises. One day they’re nobody. The next day they’re a household name. It appears that way, but more often than not a lot of work went on behind the scenes. Everyone wants to be successful, but few are willing to do what it takes to succeed. While it will take some time and effort to make major progress, it doesn’t have to

As I wrote last week, today’s patients can use the Internet to become remarkably well informed about their illness or injury — and that’s usually a very good thing. Why? Because patients realize that doctors can’t know everything, that often their time is limited, and at the end of the day, the patient who has thought deeply about their symptoms and possible causes is a better informant than the one who leaves it to the

If you were at the bottom of a deep dark pit, looking up at a solitary opening that was lit with sunshine and blue skies and your life depended upon the actions you took to dig your way out, what kind of effort would you exert to reach the top? Picture it. Adrenaline pumping, laser focused actions, your mind racing with ideas – assessing and analyzing each as you are all too aware that time

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the availability of $2 million in research grants to fund natural history studies in rare diseases. The aim is to collect data on how specific rare diseases progress in individuals over time so that knowledge can inform and support product development and approval. This will be the first time the FDA will provide funding through its Orphan Products Grants to conduct these types of studies for rare

A Vermont college has banned the sale of energy drinks on campus because it said the drinks may lead to “problematic behavior” like “high-risk sexual activity” and alcohol abuse. Middlebury College, in Middlebury, Vermont, also said the beverages may affect students’ academic performance and lead to a culture of stress, Fox 2 Detroit reported. The Middlebury Campus, the college’s student newspaper, reported that the ban will take effect March 7. It applies to popular energy

Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc said its eye drug was more effective than a placebo in treating itching and tearing associated with allergic conjunctivitis in a mid-stage study. The company’s shares surged 56 percent — their record intraday percentage gain — to $5.82 on Monday, before giving up some of the gains to trade at $5.06. Aldeyra said the experimental drug, NS2, works by trapping small molecules called aldehydes, which are considered to be one of the

Monday February 29 2016 We’re unlikely to see an end to wrinkles any time soon “Powerful anti-ageing treatments which banish wrinkles for good are a step closer after scientists found the enzyme responsible for youthful skin,” says the Daily Telegraph. Researchers from Newcastle University found an enzyme called mitochondrial complex II was less active in the laboratory-grown skin cells of older people. The enzyme is found in the batteries of cells – the mitochondria – which break down

Norma had two choices. She could get treatment for uterine cancer, or she could go on the trip of a lifetime across the US. “I’m 90 years old, I’m hitting the road,” she told her doctor in July, opting to skip surgery, radiation, and chemo. Diagnosed two days after the death of her husband of 67 years, Norma is now six months into an epic adventure with her son, Tim; daughter-in-law, Ramie; and the couple’s

Want to give your memory a boost? Trying gazing at a good-looking person of the opposite sex—if you’re a man, at least. Two experiments conducted as part of a study published in December 2015 show that guys who look briefly at an image of an attractive woman fare better in memory tests than men who gaze at more “average” faces, Pacific Standard reports. “The fact that highly attractive members of the opposite sex can make

By Kathleen Mulpeter When it comes to preventive care, how does your state measure up? Today the United Health Foundation released a report that compares all 50 states based on access to health care, immunizations, and chronic disease prevention. The New England states are clear standouts: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine are ranked 1 through 6. But the report–which was put together in partnership with the American College of Preventive Medicine–is

By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) – In a group of cognitively normal adults age 55 and older in Singapore, those with certain cardiovascular risk factors were more likely than others to develop mild cognitive impairment or dementia over a six year period. The risk factors – known collectively as the metabolic syndrome – include large waist circumference, high triglyceride levels, low HDL or “good” cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and high fasting blood sugar, which

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that more than one-third of Americans are sleep deprived. But a closer look at the data shows that some groups suffer even higher rates of sleeplessness: on average, only 54.2 percent of non-Hispanic blacks got at least 7 hours of sleep a day, compared to 66.8 percent of non-Hispanic whites. This “black-white sleep gap” gained national attention last year, when a groundbreaking study on race and

By Dan Levine and Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A lawsuit that challenges the mental competence of media mogul Sumner Redstone, the former executive chairman of Viacom Inc, can proceed, a California judge said in a tentative ruling on Monday. The decision by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Cowan is a victory for Redstone’s former girlfriend, Manuela Herzer, who claims the 92-year-old billionaire was mentally incompetent when he removed her as his designated

(Reuters) – General Electric Co will continue to “aggressively” cut costs this year, Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said, reiterating the company’s target for spending on restructuring in 2016. The U.S. conglomerate in January doubled its estimate of restructuring spending for the year to $3.4 billion from the $1.7 billion it had targeted in December as it fights the effects of low oil prices and slow global growth. “We are aggressively managing our cost structure to

By Karen Freifeld NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York appeals court on Monday temporarily stopped the city from enforcing a new rule requiring chain restaurants to post warnings on menu items high in sodium, according to a lawyer for a restaurant group challenging the regulation. A judge in the Appellate Division, First Department, granted an interim stay of enforcement of the law, S. Preston Ricardo, an attorney for the National Restaurant Association, told Reuters.

IMAGE: Donald G. Phinney is a professor and acting chair of the Department of Molecular Therapeutics on the Florida campus of The view more Credit: Scripps Research Institute. Photo courtesy of The Scripps Research Institute. JUPITER, FL – February 29, 2016 – Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have for the first time developed a way to predict how a specific type of stem cell will act against different diseases. With

IMAGE: Kendall Grassland in southeastern Arizona is one of many sites in the research project. view more Credit: R.L. Scott, USDA-ARS Grasslands across North America will face higher summer temperatures and widespread drought by the end of the century, according to a new study. But those negative effects in vegetation growth will be largely offset, the research predicts, by an earlier start to the spring growing season and warmer winter temperatures. Led by ecologists Andrew Richardson

IMAGE: Membrane proteins interact with their host cell membrane, which contributes to their preference for different functional states. This happens because membrane proteins, purple, change shape as they visit different functional… view more Credit: Radda Rusinova/Weill Cornell Medical College WASHINGTON D.C., February 29, 2016 – If you suffer from atrial fibrillation (AF) — a condition where disorganized electrical signals cause the heart’s upper chambers to contract quickly and irregularly — your doctor may prescribe an antiarrhythmic

Irvine, Calif., Feb. 29, 2016 — Using a drug compound created to treat cancer, University of California, Irvine neurobiologists have disarmed the brain’s response to the distinctive beta-amyloid plaques that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Kim Green and colleagues with UCI’s Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders found that flushing away the abundant inflammatory cells produced in reaction to beta-amyloid plaques restored memory function in test mice. Their study showed that these cells,

When doctors told Christophe Novou that his leg would have to be amputated at the hip due to a raging bacterial infection, the 47-year-old Frenchman thought about killing himself. After surviving a crippling traffic accident and dozens of operations to repair the damage, to him life in a wheelchair just did not seem worth living. That’s when an article about a clinic in Georgia offering an obscure treatment for hard-to-treat infections using live virus—something called

Authorities are sounding the alarm about a new and deadly twist in the country’s drug-addiction crisis in the form of a potent painkiller disguised as other medications. Tennessee officials say they’ve seen two dozen cases in recent months of pills marked as the less potent opiates oxycodone or Percocet that turned out to contain fentanyl, a far more powerful drug. One official likened the danger to users playing Russian roulette each time they buy a

GENEVA (Reuters) – France has called for an immediate meeting of the Syria taskforce to discuss breaches of the cessation of hostilities that came into force on Friday night, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Monday. Ayrault told reporters at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that he had information about attacks against zones held by moderate rebels in Syria. (Reporting by John Irish, writing by Tom Miles; Editing by Dominic Evans) Politics

How can we constantly monitor the stability of a bridge or detect a leak in a gas pipeline in real time? A method based on optical fibers has become the norm in recent years. By carefully measuring the path of light in fibers up to 100 kilometers long, we can glean information on the temperature, pressure and intensity of magnetic fields along the entire length of the fiber. It’s similar to a nerve, which tells

IMAGE: This is a photograph of Dean Tang, M.D., Ph.D. view more Credit: MD Anderson Cancer Center A study that revealed new findings about prostate cells may point to future strategies for treating aggressive and therapy-resistant forms of prostate cancer. The study proved that the prostate basal cell layer contains adult stem cells which possess a unique gene expression profile resembling the deadliest form of prostate cancer. The research was led by The University of Texas

IMAGE: In MIDI-STEM (right), developed at Berkeley Lab, an electron beam travels through a ringed “phase plate, ” producing a high-resolution image (bottom right) that provides details about a sample containing a… view more Credit: (Colin Ophus/Berkeley Lab, Nature Communications: 10.1038/ncomms10719) Electrons can extend our view of microscopic objects well beyond what’s possible with visible light–all the way to the atomic scale. A popular method in electron microscopy for looking at tough, resilient materials in atomic

i Mosquito larvae fill the cup of stale water that entomologist Luis Hernandez dips from a stack of old tires in a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Greg Allen/NPR hide caption toggle caption Greg Allen/NPR Mosquito larvae fill the cup of stale water that entomologist Luis Hernandez dips from a stack of old tires in a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Greg Allen/NPR The Zika virus is a health threat not just to

By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia said on Monday it would donate A$10 million ($7.1 million) to fund relief efforts in Fiji, where more than 60,000 people are sheltering in evacuation centers more than a week after the Pacific island nation was hit by its worst cyclone. Tropical Cyclone Winston, the worst ever recorded in the southern hemisphere, brought wind gusts of up to 325 kph (200 mph), and wreaked devastation, killing at least

At the beginning of February, figures revealed by the UK’s Office for National Statistics showed that Northern Ireland had the highest rate of suicide in the United Kingdom. In the UK as a whole, 17 people take their own lives every day. The headlines were depressingly familiar. Northern Ireland, it seems, has always had a macabre “special relationship” with suicide. Why is this the case, and what can we do? Some blame social and economic

For many of us in recovery from a substance use disorder, we often cite our devastating experience with substance misuse as the catalyst for self-discovery and the facilitator of our own personal awakening. We frequently refer to our experience with substance use disorder as a beautiful blessing borne from a horrific curse. Even those of us who would not identify as spiritual or religious can be found regularly expressing this concept in terms of simply

By Ernest Scheyder GRAND FORKS, N.D. (Reuters) – In a basement lab of a North Dakota research center, Beth Kurz and an assistant are peering through a scanning electron microscope, studying samples from the state’s vast Bakken shale oil formation. Kurz, a hydrogeologist, is part of a team, which looks at using carbon dioxide to coax more oil out of wells that have already been hydraulically fractured, or fracked, in the process of extracting oil

Petty criminals who are black are more likely to be jailed than their white counterparts and serve longer sentences for low severity crimes, according to new research. Dr Todd Hartman, from the University of Sheffield’s Methods Institute, and Rhys Hester, of the University of Minnesota, explored if, how and when race factors in criminal sentencing by analysing more than 17,000 decisions from South Carolina in the USA. Their study, published in the Journal of Quantitative

According to a new study by Dina Krasikova, assistant professor of management at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), the key to a successful, creative leader is confidence. Krasikova, an expert in leadership, took a closer look at the modern workplace and noted that many factors lead to a productive, well-led team. “Creativity is valued in many organizations, especially places like Google, which is all about creative products,” Krasikova said. “In any type

INDIANAPOLIS — The first study to find a significant relationship between firearm crime and subsequent applications for, and issuance of, concealed-carry gun permits has been published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. The paper, “Firearm Violence and Effects on Concealed Gun Carrying: Large Debate and Small Effects,” found there is a consistent link between violent crime — especially crimes that involve guns — and an increase in the number of people issued carry permits over

IMAGE: The Regenstrief Institute is an internationally respected informatics and healthcare research organization, recognized for its role in improving quality of care, increasing efficiency of healthcare delivery, preventing medical errors and… view more Credit: Regenstrief Instiutute INDIANAPOLIS — Expectations for health information technology abound. A paper from the Regenstrief Institute takes a sweeping look at a variety of categories of health IT including electronic medical records; health information exchange; telemedicine; patient portals and personal health records;

Suffering from chronic medical conditions and engaging in unhealthy behaviors are known risk factors for early death, but findings from a longitudinal study of over 6,000 adults suggests that certain psychological factors may be even stronger predictors of how long we’ll live. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our study shows that two psychological variables, lower self-rated health and age-related decrements in processing speed, appear to

Study population The Swedish National Study on Aging and Care (SNAC) is an ongoing, population based, longitudinal study of aging and health conducted at four different sites in Sweden. We analyzed data from the baseline examination conducted in 2001–2004 from Nordanstig in the middle part of Sweden and from Kungsholmen/Essingeöarna in the central part of Stockholm. Inclusion criteria were having an address in either of the actual areas at time of birthday for the ages

Description of the data source This study was conducted using routinely collected data from the CPRD, the world’s largest population-based, longitudinal, primary care database. This data source contains anonymised patient information entered by general practice staff. Most clinical data is coded using the Read code system 11] and the database includes information on diagnoses, demographics, laboratory tests, medications, and referrals to other healthcare settings. Our study utilised information from 677 general practices, with 10,396,605 patients

Results of property tests on unmodified soils Soil classification The results of sieve analysis, natural moisture content, Atterberg limits, and AASHTO M 145 and USCS classifications of the soil samples are presented in Table 1. Nkporo Shale is classified as Organic Clay under USCS classification and A-7-5(20) under the AASHTO soil classification system, with the highest Group index value which represents the poorest subgrade rating. Ekenkpon Shale also classified as OH, while New Netim Marl classified

Two linear second order constant coefficient problems, one homogenous and the other non-homogenous are treated using the PIA(1,1) algorithm. Example Problem 1 Consider the singular perturbation problem (4) For the problem, an outer solution and an inner solution will be sought and both solutions will be matched to construct a composite solution. The outer solution To find the outer solution, the original equation is taken in the analysis (5) Before starting, one of the important

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations and partner aid organizations plan to deliver life-saving aid to 154,000 Syrians in besieged areas in the next five days, the U.N. Resident Coordinator in Damascus Yacoub El Hillo said in a statement on Sunday. Pending approval from parties to the conflict, the U.N. is ready to deliver aid to about 1.7 million people in hard-to-reach areas in the first quarter of 2016, he said. The U.N. estimates there

London (AFP) – A British nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone in 2014 was discharged from hospital in London on Sunday, five days after being admitted with complications, a statement said. Pauline Cafferkey was successfully treated within weeks of her diagnosis but suffered a relapse in October 2015, when she became critically ill with meningitis linked to the deadly virus. Again, she made a full recovery but on Tuesday she was admitted

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 28, 2016 — When it comes to cancerous mutations, cells in soft tissues like bone marrow and the brain tend to exhibit fewer irregularities than their stiffer somatic brethren in the lungs or bone. According to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, this isn’t only due to differences between the cells’ type and function, but also to the rigid forces of resistance that act on them when they move and divide. The

By Andreas Cremer BERLIN (Reuters) – The biggest engineering feat on display when Volkswagen unveils its new concept car on Tuesday will be the team developing it: a post-Dieselgate management system crafted to operate faster, cheaper and with a lighter grip on the wheel. Last year’s scandal over falsified diesel emissions tests caused a cull of top managers at Europe’s biggest automaker and brought a promise to overhaul the corporate culture. But the most meaningful

OSLO (Reuters) – A global scientific group on Sunday launched a three-year assessment of mankind’s impact on nature to help protect plants and animals from threats ranging from pollution to climate change. The study, due in 2019, would examine biodiverstiy, from bacteria to blue whales, and “ecosystem services”, which range from the value of coral reefs as nurseries for fish to the role of forests in absorbing greenhouse gases. Governments in 2010 agreed a series

By Amanda Orr HOUSTON (Reuters) – Addicts in a new study at the University of Houston will strap on virtual reality headsets and navigate a “heroin cave” to help them try and kick their addictions. Researchers are looking to see if making their way through a simulated house party crammed with stimuli aimed at evoking cravings for the drug will help better equip those who suffer from addiction to do so in the real world.

The spermatozoon is free to swim to the restricted contact area on the bottom of the oocyte membrane. Credit: Benjamin Ravaux The development of every animal in the history of the world began with a simple step: the fusion of a spermatozoon (the male gamete) with an oocyte, or egg (the female gamete). Despite the ubiquity of this process, the actual mechanisms through which fertilization occurs remain poorly understood. A new tool developed by a

In this Feb. 17, 2016 photo, plants grow at the home of Jeremy Nickle, in his backyard in Honolulu, Hawaii. Nickel, who owns Hawaiian Holy Smokes and is applying for a dispensary, grows a variety of strains and has a medical marijuana card. Those wanting to open medical marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii face unique obstacles in a state of islands separated by federal waters. (AP Photo/Marina Riker) With less than five months to go before

Sonitor Technologies, Inc., a global leader in indoor positioning technologies, announced today the expansion of its industry-leading Sonitor Sense™ RTLS open integration platform. SenseAlert™, SenseSafe™, and SmartTag™ Temperature Tags incorporate Sonitor’s proprietary SmartZoning™ ultrasound positioning technology, with Wi-Fi and LF technologies. These new advances respond to ensuring the safety of increasing patient populations at memory care facilities, the rising rate of workplace violence, and the need for temperature monitoring over a range of applications in

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year — that’s one in every four deaths. The impact of cardiovascular diseases is quite large. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is home to many talented investigators who study various aspects of heart disease within the School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiovascular Disease, at the Comprehensive Cardiovascular Center and across UAB . A

Air travel days are exciting and fun but can also wreak havoc on your health as you lose sleep, eat off your usual schedule, and share space with strangers, often in cramped quarters. The good news: there are easy travel health hacks that make flying more comfortable and help you get you off to a good start on your next trip or vacation. Common Travel Day Health Issues and Why They Arise Certain physical challenges

All parents know the difficulties involved with getting their children to have a good night’s sleep. But Dr. Marc Weissbluth, a leading physician and author of “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child,” told FoxNews.com that a lack of sleep can have a lasting effect on the health of the child and the entire family. According to Weissbluth, there is a growing trend of children receiving less and less sleep, which can lead to behavioral, emotional and

The moment Christie Maruka, 46, found out she was pregnant, she came up with a plan to eat healthy foods and exercise so she wouldn’t gain too much weight. Like many other health-conscious women, Maruka, who lives in Wall, New Jersey, worried about developing gestational diabetes and other pregnancy complications that can occur with pregnancy weight gain. As a fashion stylist and wardrobe consultant, she also feared something her clients had warned her about for

LONDON (Reuters) – A Scottish nurse, who recovered from Ebola but then suffered life-threatening complications from the virus persisting in her brain, was discharged from hospital in London on Sunday. The Royal Free Hospital said in a statement that Pauline Cafferkey was not infectious. It gave no other details. Cafferkey contracted Ebola in December 2014 when she was working in a treatment facility in Sierra Leone at the height of an epidemic of the disease

By Joan Biskupic WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday hears a major abortion case for the first time in nearly a decade, the regulations at issue will not involve fetuses or the mother, but rather standards for doctors and facilities where the procedure is performed. That the high court is taking up a case about such arcane regulations reflects the success of a legal strategy that abortion opponents embraced about a

By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A pivotal abortion case coming before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday forces the justices to ponder seemingly mundane matters such as corridor width, the swinging motion of doors, floor tiles and the angle that water flows from drinking fountains. Abortion providers have challenged a Republican-backed law passed in Texas in 2013. At issue are two provisions, one involving facility standards for abortion clinics and the other involving

Moms, busy professionals, students and many other people are so busy throughout the day that they sometimes forget to take care of their mouths. You’re so busy throughout the day that you might sometimes forget to take care of your mouth. While this is understandable, the fact that you’re busy shouldn’t mean that you neglect your oral health. When you forget or pass on brushing and flossing, you open to door to bacteria that can

You can either be at the effect (powerless) of your life or act as the cause (in power) of it. Your internal belief system about yourself and how you envision your life is the most important predictor of your success or failure. In order to train yourself to be geared towards what you envision you must undergo the emotional analysis necessary to build a sound presence of mind which is resilient to stress, change and

Participants and procedures One hundred and fifty nine different new patients (74 males and 85 females) participated in this observational, cross-sectional study. They are patients at outpatient department of the Department of Family Medicine of large-scale hospital, Japan. The patients came from both rural and urban areas and were from a wide range of socioeconomic classes. All of the patients were over 15 years of age, and most patients generally had common medical problems such as

When surgical residents need to practice a complicated procedure to fashion a new ear for children without one, they typically get a bar of soap, carrot or an apple.

Colombia has registered 42,706 cases of people infected with Zika, including 7,653 in pregnant women, the country’s National Health Institute reported on Saturday.

The don’t need the structure that dieting provides. Annoying, but true. According to Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, which surveyed healthy-weight adults to tease out common diet and exercise behaviors among them, there’s no secret diet healthy-weight people all follow to stay svelte. Instead, almost half of those surveyed responded that they’d never dieted at all, and three-quarters of the group said they “rarely dieted.” Still, participants did report health-conscious behaviors, such as eating

February 27, 2016, 6:46 PM|With Brazil being the epicenter of the Zika virus, some female athletes are saying they may not compete at the Olympics there this summer. Marlie Hall reports on the growing concern.

What is abuse in health care and why study it? Health care exists to help and alleviate patients’ suffering and should thus not be inflicting unnecessary suffering on patients, and yet this happens. The topic is not often spoken about and when it is discussed a wide range of terms are used, e.g. abuse in health care (AHC), patient dissatisfaction, medical errors, and suffering related to or caused by health care 1]. In this article

By MacDonald Dzirutwe MASVINGO, Zimbabwe (Reuters) – President Robert Mugabe marked his 92nd birthday at a nearly $1 million party organised by supporters in a drought-stricken area on Saturday, drawing criticism from opponents who said the celebrations were an affront to ordinary Zimbabweans. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s only leader since its independence from Britain in 1980, said no-one would starve as a result of a drought which has left three million people in need and prompted the

PARIS (AP) — A high-ranking French health official says a first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus has been diagnosed in France on a non-pregnant woman. Francois Bourdillon, the director general of the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance, told BFM television that “the patient had not travelled, her companion was returning from Brazil” where he was infected with the Zika virus. He says both are “doing well.” Zika is primarily spread by mosquito bites,

A two-year clinical trial that compared three drugs for diabetic macular edema (DME) found that gains in vision were greater for participants receiving the drug Eylea (aflibercept) than for those receiving Avastin (bevacizumab), but only among participants starting treatment with 20/50 or worse vision. Gains after two years were about the same for Eylea and Lucentis (ranibizumab), contrary to year-one results from the study, which showed Eylea with a clear advantage. The three drugs yielded

Allelic Diversity of OsC1 Responsible for Variation in Leaf Sheath Colors Plants accumulate anthocyanin in various tissues as an aid to survival and reproduction. In rice, anthocyanin is deposited in the root, leaf sheath, internode, leaf blade, lemma, palea, apiculus, stigma, and pericarp. Tissue-specific anthocyanin accumulation is common in numerous genotypes. Purple pigmented traits in different tissues do not always co-segregate (Sakamoto et al. 2001]). However, purple leaf sheath, apiculus, and stigma cosegregated in the

Patients This multicenter prospective observational study included adult (?18 years) incenter haemodialysis patients from the Dialysis Center Groningen and the dialysis unit of the University Medical Center Groningen (Fig. 1). They were eligible for the study when they fulfilled the following criteria: maintenance bicarbonate haemodialysis for more than 3 months, three times a week 3.5 to 4.5 h haemodialysis schedule. Fig. 1. The details of patient selection This observational study was conducted without intervention or obtaining any patient material.

Patients were mainly men (18/22), aged 61 ± 13 years and with BMI of 29.6 ± 4.5 kg/m2 (mean ± SD). Their baseline characteristics are outlined in Table 1. Reasons for the in-hospital night respiratory polygraphic recording were: unrefreshing sleep (10/22), recurrent awakenings (8/22), disturbed sleep (5/22), excessive daytime sleepiness (5/22), poor compliance to CPAP treatment (2/22) and residual AHI 20/h (1/22). From available prior home CPAP reports (n = 21), residual AHI was 5.8 ± 5.5/hr and in only three patients was ?10/hr, whereas 10 such patients were requested