What helps can sometimes hurt.     ERBB4, a gene known to be important in cardiac development, has been associated with congenital heart malformations that result in obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract. 

Left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) malformations, including aortic valve stenosis, coarctation of the aorta, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, Shone complex and interrupted aortic arch type A, are responsible for a major portion of childhood death from congenital heart malformations. Yet it is often unclear how these defects develop.

Obese mothers are putting babies at risk for iron deficiency, which could affect infant brain development, according to research presented today at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Denver.

In non-pregnant adults, obesity-related inflammation hinders the transport of iron through the intestine, increasing the risk of iron deficiency anemia. When a woman is pregnant, iron is transferred through the intestine to the placenta, but it is not known how maternal obesity affects newborn iron status. Fetal iron status is important because 50 percent of the iron needed for infant growth is obtained before birth.

A few Science 2.0 readers may recall that I tried out some ideas for a book here in 2009, and the immediate feedback was encouraging and helpful. The book is called First Life and is about to be published by UCPress. (One of my colleagues mentioned that advance copies are already available from Amazon.com.) I thought it might be interesting to say a bit more about how a book can emerge from the chaos of daily life, and how the effort has affected what I am doing now.

Have you ever noticed that you function better when you feel comfortable and confident in your surroundings and that when you are unsure of yourself, you are more likely to stumble? The same is true for our kids. In their element, where they are sure of all the important variables and comfortable expressing themselves, they make better eye contact, engage more willingly in communication, show attachment, and function at their best.

Remove them from their comfort zones and we have vastly different children. We have children who may have been singing at the top of their lungs only an hour before now displaying selective mutism when we take them somewhere new, or who were happy and cheerful now pensive and moving towards serious meltdown.

The U.S. Federal Court of Appeals has overturned an August 2010 limitation on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.  Since 2001, federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research had been limited to existing lines.  Private and state funding of hESC research was unimpeded and funding was allowed for lines that had already been created prior to 2001.   In 2009, Pres. Obama issued a memorandum lifting restrictions while cautioning that policies would have to be in place to prevent use in cloning and other unethical scenarios.

"A podcaster, an editor, a policy wonk and a NASA engineer walk into a bar..."  At the DCSWA workshop, regional media talents attempted to answer the unanswerable: what is the future of science writing and science journalism?

Deborah Ager (of Bolt and also ClickWisdom), noted, without irony, that "in 2011, everyone is a newspaper (or thinks they are)".

What kind of funeral should one as a semi rational person insist on? My immediate reflexive answer is “don’t give a something, stuff me in the thrash chute if you must”. However, a burial or cremation is not about the deceased but about those left behind. I thought something up, but before writing a post, one better searches the internet - surely somebody has covered this already much better.

What I found searching for “Atheist Funeral” and similar however was a bunch of crap, like replacing religious themes with 'spiritual' ones. Toss the bible out to roll the crystal ball in – great.

PHILADELPHIA, April 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Shire plc today announced positive results from a signal-finding study of Vyvanse(R) (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) Capsules (CII) assessing its effect in a prospective examination of adults with negative symptom predominant schizophrenia. This study met its pre-defined primary end points. Vyvanse is a prescription medicine currently approved in the US, Canada, and Brazil for the treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Vyvanse should only be used to treat ADHD. 

CLEVELAND, April 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Simbionix USA Corporation has announced its new training simulator for pelvic floor repair, to be exposed for the first time at the ACOG 59th Annual Clinical Meeting in Washington, DC, April 30- May 4, 2011. 

CRAWLEY, England, April 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) techniques have enhanced radiotherapy precision, Elekta continues working to decrease treatment session times through automated IGRT tools. Odense University Hospital (OUH, Odense, Denmark) clinicians are the first in the world to use a 3D seed matching feature of Elekta's Intuity(TM) IGRT package. The software quickly and automatically pinpoints the position of gold seeds that doctors implant in the prostate to confirm the organ's position before each treatment.

3D detection provides boost to proven gold seed method