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Tamiflu-Resistant H1N1 Identified Along Texas-Mexico Border
PAHO on Monday announced it had found Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 (swine) flu along the Texas-Mexico border, Agence-France Press reports. The discovery of several cases in El Paso and McAllen, Texas, adds the U.S. to a growing list of countries with antiviral-resistant H1N1, such as Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan. "Experts had gathered in La Jolla on Monday to discuss the response to the outbreak, and warned that resistant strains were likely emerging because of overuse of antivirals like Tamiflu," the news service writes (8/3).
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Tuning In To Your Cat
Anyone who has ever had cats knows how difficult it can be to get them to do anything they don"t already want to do. But it seems that the house cats themselves have had distinctly less trouble getting humans to do their bidding, according to a report published in the July 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
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FluoroPharma To Present Phase I Study Results Of Novel Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI) Tracer
FluoroPharma Inc., a company developing breakthrough PET molecular imaging agents, announced that it will present Phase I data relating to the safety, dosimetry, and pharmacokinetics in human subjects of BFPET, its novel 18-F labeled PET tracer for myocardial perfusion imaging, at the Society of Nuclear Medicine 2009 Annual Meeting in Toronto.
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In Human-Dog Communication, Breed Is As Important As Species

Dog breeds selected to work in visual contact with humans, such as sheep dogs and gun dogs, are better able to comprehend a pointing gesture than those breeds that usually work without direct supervision. A series of tests, described in BioMed Central"s open access journal Behavioral and Brain Functions, should caution researchers against making simple generalizations about the effects of domestication and on dog-wolf differences in the utilization of human visual signals. Mç¡rta Gç¡csi, from Eç¶tvç¶s University, Hungary, worked with a team of researchers to examine the performance of different breeds of dogs in making sense of the human pointing gesture. Gç¡csi said, "It has been suggested that the study of the domestic dog might help to explain the evolution of human communicative skills, because the dog has been selected for living in a human environment and engaging in communicative interactions with humans for more than 10,000 years. However, this study is the first to reveal striking difference in the performance of breed groups selected for different characteristics." The researchers found that gun dogs and sheep dogs were better than hunting hounds, earth dogs (dogs used for underground hunting), livestock guard dogs and sled dogs at following a pointing finger. They also out-performed mongrels. Moreover, breeds with short noses and centrally placed eyes were better at interpreting the gesture than those with long noses and widely spaced eyes, which can probably be connected to a more optimal retinal location of greatest visual acuity, that might help focus their attention. According to Gç¡csi, "Although these results may appear to be unsurprising, there is a common tendency to make assumptions about genetic explanations for differences in comprehension between "dogs" and wolves. Our results show that researchers must be careful to control for animal breed when carrying out behavioral experiments." Notes: Effects of selection for cooperation and attention in dogs Marta Gacsi, Paul McGreevy, Edina Kara and Adam Miklosi Behavioral and Brain Functions (in press) http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/ Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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