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GOP Ramps Up Attacks
"Emboldened by divided Democrats and polls that show rising public anxiety about President Obama"s handling of health care and the economy, Republicans on Monday launched an aggressive effort to link the two, comparing the health-care bills moving through Congress to what they labeled as a failed economic stimulus bill," The Washington Post reports. "And the news Monday that the Obama administration would delay release of a congressionally mandated report on the nation"s economic conditions only stoked the rhetoric, spawning GOP speculation that the White House is trying to avoid bad news amid the health-care debate. "The last time the president made grand promises and demanded passage of a bill before it could be reviewed, we ended up with the colossal stimulus failure and unemployment near 10 percent," Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said. "Now the president wants Americans to trust him again, but he can"t back up the utopian promises he"s making.""

The Development Of Mechanosensitivity
Researchers of the Max DelbrÃøck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have gained crucial insight into how mechanosensitivity arises. By measuring electrical impulses in the sensory neurons of mice, the neurobiologists and pain researchers Dr. Stefan G. Lechner and Professor Gary Lewin were able to directly elucidate, for the first time, the emergence of mechanosensitivity. At the same time they were able to show that neurons develop their sensitivity to touch and pain during different developmental phases but always coincidentally with the growth of the neuronal pathways. (EMBO Journal, 2009, doi:10.1038/emboj.2009.73).*
News of the day
Adult Brain Changes With Unsuspected Speed
The human brain can adapt to changing demands even in adulthood, but MIT neuroscientists have now found evidence of it changing with unsuspected speed. Their findings suggest that the brain has a network of silent connections that underlie its plasticity.
Cardiovascular

International Workshop Assesses Revisions Aimed At The Purity, Quality Of Blood Thinner

Continuing to help ensure the identity, purity and quality of heparin, the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention has revised written and physical standards for the widely used blood thinner. In February, USP released updated heparin standards at the request of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to the 2008 public health crisis in which more than 200 people died as a result of heparin adulterated for economic gain. A second phase of revisions is reflected in the newly posted standards. These developments and new information about heparin were discussed by scientists and regulators at the third International Heparin Workshop held at USP headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, July 27. "While financially-motivated adulteration of medicines is a distressingly persistent problem," noted Roger L. Williams, M.D., USP"s chief executive officer, "I"m pleased at the progress we"ve made in helping to ensure that such tragic events are minimized. Stronger methods for detecting a range of potential contaminants have been thoroughly assessed and incorporated into the new test methods, and the new physical reference standards are specific to these methods. Manufacturers - and in consequence, physicians and their patients - can feel more confident of the purity and integrity of their heparin products." The Workshop, co-sponsored by USP, the British National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), and the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM), reflected the global nature of both the problem of adulteration and the res cooperating to combat it, with attendees from more than 17 countries. The updated written standards are the Heparin Sodium Stage 2 Monograph and the Heparin Sodium Injection Stage 2 Monograph; new reference standards are Heparin Sodium for Assays, Oversulfated Chondroitin Sulfate, and Dermatan Sulfate. These and other related standards and information are available at http://www.usp.org/hottopics/heparin.html. The new standards will become official on October 1, 2009. Francine Pierson US Pharmacopeia


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