For Mireille Gingras, the road to China's up-and-coming life science community is very much a two-way street. Unlike many U.S. biotechs and pharmaceutical companies that are setting up shop there to take advantage of cheap research labor and manufacturing, Gingras' San Diego-based Huya International is working with Chinese universities and fledgling biotechs to license promising Chinese drug candidates and bring them to the U.S. for further development.   TOP STOP - Scott Southwood, a scientist at ... [full story]

Strictly Organic Coffee Company made two big business decisions recently; to open a retail shop at 6 SW Bond in Bend and to begin buying Blue Sky renewable energy from Pacific Power. For seven years, Strictly Organic has maintained a loyal, wholesale customer base by selling Certified Fair Trade and Organic coffees to consumers, restaurants and grocery stores. Now the company is greening its power as well as its beans.   Strictly Organic Coffee Company is located ... [full story]

Dec. 16 Reports: Lynna Kristen Elliott, 25, was arrested on a probation violation warrant. (NE 3rd St. & NE Greenwood Ave.) Felicia Ray Turner, 25, was arrested after admitting to taking a wallet and assisting with taking $100. (SE 3rd St.) Michael Wayne Maestas, 26, was arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants. (SE Tempest Dr., SE Wildcat Drive) Dec. 17 Reports: Mark Steven Badgley, 50, was arrested for identity theft, forgery, fraudulent use of a credit ... [full story]

Dec. 11 Reports: Rhonda Mechelle Crabtree, 32, was arrested on an outstanding warrant. (NW Drake Road) Dec. 12 Reports: Gerardo Zuniga reported his vehicle’s window was shot out by a BB gun while traveling on 27th Street near Reed Market Road. James Guy reported his vehicle was scratched, perhaps keyed, leaving a seven-foot long mark. (NW Georgia Ave.) Dustin Heidtke reported someone stole 35 gallons of gasoline from trucks parked on the Terminex parking lot. (SE Bridgeford Blvd.) Brandi ... [full story]

A power of attorney is a valuable estate planning tool; however, it has the potential for perpetrating fraud.  It can be used to deplete an estate. That is what happened in a case brought to the USD Senior Legal Helpline by a 69-year-old woman who was named in an aunt’s will to receive a parcel of farmland.  When the aunt died six months ago at age 82, the caller learned that the land had been ... [full story]

Treating ear infections in children with ear tubes using antibiotic eardrops has been shown again to be more effective than using oral antibiotic treatments, reports a University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researcher. A recent study involving 80 children showed that antibiotic eardrops performed better and faster in treating middle ear infections in children with ear tubes than antibiotics in tablet or liquid form. The findings are available online in the journal Pediatrics. "With the ... [full story]

Once Dr. Martin Gilboa figures out the iPod Nano his kids gave him for his 60th birthday, he can turn up the volume on his exercise routine. "I may just keep running all the way up the coast," he says. Workouts are almost always a day at the beach for Gilboa. If he's not taking the low tide in stride, he's communing with the ospreys, hawks, egrets and herons and changing flora of Southern California's ... [full story]

“Dignified” might not always equal healthy. Sit­ting straight up­right strains the back un­nec­es­sar­ily, caus­ing po­ten­tially chron­ic pain prob­lems over the long run, a new study has found.The sci­en­tists pre­sented the find­ings Nov. 27 in Chi­ca­go at the an­nu­al meet­ing of the Ra­di­o­log­i­cal So­ci­e­ty of North Amer­i­ca.   Sit­ting at 135 de­grees rath­er than 90 de­grees could im­prove back health, re­search­ers say. “A 135-degree body-thigh sit­ting pos­ture was dem­on­strat­ed to be the best bio­me­ch­a­n­i­cal sit­ting po­si­tion, as ... [full story]

New Vaccine Puts the Pox on Shingles for Adult Sufferers of the Painful Infection PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The new vaccine for adult shingles is now available free of charge to Medicare members of FamilyCare. Known as Zostavax, the vaccine is used in adults age 60 and older and reduces the incidence of shingles by half and pain and discomfort by nearly two-thirds according to Merck research. "This vaccine helps prevent an illness ... [full story]

It may sound like a recurring theme, but medical research shows that sleep is essential to both physical and mental health, especially among the elderly. That point was driven home in a November report from the International Longevity Center-USA, which is affiliated with the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. "The prevalence of sleep-related problems increases with age," said Dr. Harrison Bloom, co-author of the study report and senior associate with the center. ... [full story]