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Economic Crisis Already Crippling Global HIV/AIDS Treatment, Prevention Programs, UNAIDS, World Bank Report Says
Global HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs are already feeling the effects of the global economic crisis, according to a report (pdf) released Monday by UNAIDS and the World Bank, AFP/Google.com reports (7/6).
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Pluronic L-81: A Potential Anti-Diabetic Drug?
Pluronic surfactants are synthetic copolymers based on ethylene oxide and propylene oxide. It has been reported that a nonionic L-81, effectively inhibits absorption of dietary lipids from the intestine and secretion of VLDL and LDL from the liver. Although L-81 is a potent anti-obesity drug, its potential in alleviating obesity-induced insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes has not been fully explored.
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California Rulings: State Can Cut Medi-Cal Benefits But Not Home Care Wages
"A federal judge on Thursday blocked a $2 hourly wage cut for California in-home care workers that was slated to begin July 1, potentially increasing California"s budget deficit by another $98 million," The Sacramento Bee reports. In an oral injunction, the judge ordered the state "to continue paying up to $12.10 in wages and benefits to In-Home Supportive Services workers, according to parties on both sides of the suit. As part of the February budget deal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature approved a cut to $10.10 per hour - $9.50 in wages and 60 cents in benefits." The lawsuit was filed by The Service Employees International Union, which represents IHSS workers. "IHSS advocates say the system saves the state money because recipients would otherwise use more costly care provided by nursing facilities. But the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes this year also found that the IHSS program lacks sufficient oversight and suffers from fraud and abuse" (Yamamura, 6/26).
Oncology

A Potential Treatment For Gastric Motility Disorders

GES or pacing has been under investigation as a potential therapy for gastrointestinal motility disorders. Conventionally, GES is performed using a single pair of electrodes or single-channel GES. However, few studies have investigated the effects of two-channel GES with trains of pulses on gastric motility, such as gastric slow waves and gastric emptying. The research team led by Prof. Chen from University of Texas Medical Branch studied the effects of two-channel GES with trains of pulses on gastric slow waves and gastric emptying in healthy dogs. Most previous studies showed that long pulse GES was able to entrain gastric slow waves in human and animals. None of previous studies have investigated the effect of GES with trains of pulses on gastric slow waves. It has been indicated that GES with trains of short pulses was able to improve symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting of gastroparesis, but was not capable of entraining gastric slow waves or normalizing gastric dysrhythmias. In this study, we have shown that GES with trains of pulses is able to entrain gastric slow waves when the pulses in the train are of a width of 4ms or higher. Recently, a few studies were performed to investigate the efficiency of multi-channel GES on gastric emptying and entrainment of slow waves. Some studies indicated that multi-channel stimulation with long pulses was more efficient than single-channel stimulation for the entrainment of slow waves and the acceleration of gastric emptying. To date, no study has investigated the effects of multi-channel GES with trains of pulses on gastric emptying. In our experiment, we found two-channel but not single-channel GES with trains of pulses significantly accelerated gastric emptying. The results of our study suggest that 2-channel GES with trains of pulses may be applicable for the treatment of gastroparesis and normalization of gastric dysrhythmia. GES with trains of pulses is technically more attractive than long pulse GES. Currently, most of commercially available implantable stimulators use trains of pulses. However, none of available implantable stimulators are capable of generating pulses with a width equal to or larger than 4ms. Therefore, new hardware design and development are needed. Reference: Yang B, Hou XH, Song GQ, Liu JS, Chen JDZ. Effect of two-channel gastric electrical stimulation with trains of pulses on gastric motility. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(19): 2406-2411 Correspondence to: Dr. Jiande DZ Chen, Department of Gastroenterology, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd, Basic Science Building, Room 433, Galveston, TX 77555-0655, United States. Jian-Xia Cheng World Journal of Gastroenterology


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