Development Levels

An online calculator says it can predict at birth a baby's likelihood of becoming obese in childhood, according to a paper in PLOS ONE.

They estimate the child's obesity risk based on its birth weight, the body mass index of the parents, the number of people in the household, the mother's professional status and whether she smoked during pregnancy.

The researchers think their prediction method will be used to identify infants at high risk and help families take steps to prevent their children from putting on too much weight. Like what, getting mom a better job land quitting smoking before pregnancy? 

The winners of the 2012 Semantic Web Challenge (SWC), determined by a jury from both academia and industry, were announced at the International Semantic Web Conference held in Boston. The challenge and allocated prizes were sponsored by Elsevier. 

 In 2003, the SWC was set up to showcase the very latest in semantic web technology and every year the final rounds of this competition take place at the annual International Semantic Web Conference. Semantic Web Challenge contestants competed in any of two challenge categories: 'Open Track' and 'Billion Triples Track'. 

There are lots of diagnostic tests available outside of the conventional medical system and those include tests for food intolerance, like vega testing, kinesiology, hair "body field analysis" testing, cytotoxic and live blood testing. 

Doctors and medical practitioners can be justified in assuming the worst and dismissing test results that originate from services such as 'mail order laboratory testing services', as there is no way for them to distinguish between those results which have an evidence basis with clinical data and those that claim results without any real evidence. 

Elsevier has launched a new, international, open access journal, Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis. 

A global poll of executives found  that e-commerce giant Amazon is more admired than its Californian rival on all major supply chain attributes - except innovation. 

Amazon is more respected than Apple for supply chain excellence and the Seattle-based retailer also came out top on three of the four supply chain attributes that survey participants were asked to rate the two companies on - agility, collaboration and execution - according to research published today by SCM World, the leading global community of supply chain practitioners.  Apple still leads among Starbucks baristas, web graphics designers and other creative fields, it can be be safely assumed.

A study today highlighted a new therapeutic technique to repair and rebuild muscle for sufferers of degenerative muscle disorders. The therapy brings together two existing techniques for muscle repair, cell transplantation and tissue engineering - mesoangioblast stem cells delivered via a hydrogel cell-carrier matrix.

Bones are resilient and heal well after most fractures but in cases of traumatic injury, where large pieces of bone are missing, healing is much more difficult and sometimes impossible.

"Large segmental defects" are a major clinical problem,  especially among the military in places like Afghanistan, and orthopedic surgeons struggle to treat them but new research results confirm that the bone healing process of large segmental defects is sensitive to its mechanical environment and suggests that "reverse dynamization," a straightforward and inexpensive process, could help speed healing of these traumatic injuries.

Elsevier has launched a new open access, online journal, Leukemia Research Reports. It will publish  a range of peer-reviewed short form papers, including brief communications, case reports, letters to the editors, images and debate articles about basic and/or applied clinical research in leukemias, lymphomas, multiple myeloma and other hematologic malignancies. 

The editors of Leukemia Research Reports are: Dr Suneel Mundle (Janssen Services LLC and Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL) and Dr Meir Wetzler (State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and Roswell Park Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY).