On August 7-11, 2013, the much anticipated Vegas Exchange 2013 will finally come into reality as a successor to the Lifestyle Conventions. The event will be held on the famous Las Vegas party place, the Palms Casino resort. A thousand of swingers are expected to attend of what is now considered as the "Lifestyle Event of the Decade." In order to make the event more fun and exciting, a celebrity will be hosting the opening as well as the rest of the events in the Vegas Exchange 2013. The celebrity who was chosen to facilitate this most awaited event is none ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Habits are behaviors wired so deeply in our brains that we perform them automatically. This allows you to follow the same route to work every day without thinking about it, liberating your brain to ponder other things, such as what to make for dinner. However, the brain's executive command center does not completely relinquish control of habitual behavior. A new study from MIT neuroscientists has found that a small region of the brain's prefrontal cortex, where most thought and planning occurs, is responsible for moment-by-moment control of which habits ...

URBANA – Along with the growing interest in biomass energy crops as renewable alternatives to fossil fuels comes a growing list of questions from corn and soybean farmers about what it will cost them to switch. University of Illinois agricultural economist Madhu Khanna developed a customizable online calculator to eliminate some of the guesswork and help farmers make the decision. "We've been doing calculations on what it would cost to produce energy crops in Illinois and other states for quite some time, and we realized that it could be useful to people who want to be ...

ANN ARBOR—Nisin, a common food preservative, may slow or stop squamous cell head and neck cancers, a University of Michigan study found. What makes this particularly good news is that the Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization approved nisin as safe for human consumption decades ago, says Yvonne Kapila, the study's principal investigator and professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. This means that obtaining FDA approval to test nisin's suggested cancer-fighting properties on patients in a clinical setting won't take as ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Predation by otters keeps urchin populations in check, allowing kelp –– a favorite food of urchins –– to flourish. But what if otters were harvested to near extinction for their fur? The resulting overabundance of urchins would decimate the kelp forest, leaving little food or shelter for fish and invertebrates. And so it may go, as declines in these species are likely to affect others. Such is the potential trickle-down effect on the food chain of even subtle shifts in a single species –– tipping points that can induce wholesale, sometimes irreversible ...

This press release is available in German. Hematite, the mineral form of iron oxide (or trivially, rust), is a promising anode material for photoelectro-chemical cells (PEC) because of its affordability, availability, high stability and good spectral match to the solar spectrum. Although it has the potential of a 15% solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency, its actual efficiency is lower than that of other metal oxides. This is due to hematite's electronic structure, which only allows for ultrashort electron-hole excited-state lifetimes. Helpful holes in hematite Electrons ...

The UK Government has recently imposed a ban on importing foreign ash trees in order to prevent the spread of fungal disease Chalara, which kills the trees and has entered the country via imports from Europe. Imperial College London researchers argue that the nursery trade, horticultural stakeholders and the plant buying public need to be more aware of the risks to tree health posed by imported plant pathogens. They say it is far better to prevent the entry of a tree disease than to attempt to contain it once it is established. Based on the findings of a report published ...

This press release is available in French. Blocking the action of a particular protein in our skin could improve the treatment of skin cancers, according to a study published in Oncogene yesterday by Philippe Roux, a researcher at the University of Montreal's Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC). "Our findings reveal part of the mechanisms responsible for the resistance of melanoma to anti-cancer treatments, and suggest that a particular protein in our bodies called RSK may be targeted in combination therapies to overcome drug resistance," Roux explained. Although ...

(BOSTON) – Documenting adverse events improves perceptions of safety and may decrease incidents in multi-site clinical practices, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results of the year-long study, which focused on the Radiation Oncology department's workflow, show a strong correlation between the implementation of a Conditions Reporting System and increasingly positive responses to staff surveys focusing on the culture of safety within the department. The findings of the study will be presented ...

This press release is available in French. A single junk food meal – composed mainly of saturated fat – is detrimental to the health of the arteries, while no damage occurs after consuming a Mediterranean meal rich in good fats such as mono-and polyunsaturated fatty acids, according to researchers at the University of Montreal-affiliated ÉPIC Center of the Montreal Heart Institute. The Mediterranean meal may even have a positive effect on the arteries. The findings are being presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, which runs in Toronto until Wednesday, by ...

The next generation of electronic displays – e-Readers, smartphones and tablets – is closer thanks to research out today from the University of Cincinnati. Advances that will eventually bring foldable/rollable e-devices as well as no pixel borders are experimentally verified and proven to work in concept at UC's Novel Devices Laboratory. That research is published today in the journal "Nature Communications." The UC paper, "Bright e-Paper by Transport of Ink through a White Electrofluidic Imaging Film," is authored by College of Engineering and Applied Science doctoral ...

Most people think of galaxies as huge islands of stars, gas and dust that populate the universe in visual splendor. Theory, however, has predicted there are other types of galaxies that are devoid of stars and made predominately of dense gas. These "dark" galaxies would be unseen against the black backdrop of the universe. Now, an international team of astronomers has detected several dark galaxies by observing the fluorescent glow of their hydrogen gas, illuminated by the ultraviolet light of a nearby quasar. But what exactly are dark galaxies, and what role do they ...

Justin Crepp, assistant professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, provided the high-contrast imaging observations that confirmed the first extrasolar planet discovered in a quadruple star system. He is a coauthor on a paper about the discovery, "Planet Hunters: A Transiting Circumbinary Planet in a Quadruple Star System," recently posted to the open-access arXiv.org, and submitted for publication to the Astrophysical Journal. Crepp's images revealed that the system involved two sets of binary stars. The planet was first noticed by volunteer citizen scientists ...

CHICAGO --- Women who exercise regularly spend as much time sitting as women who don't, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. Emerging research shows that prolonged sitting has significant health consequences---and the new Northwestern study suggests that being a dedicated exerciser doesn't prevent women from spending too much of their day sitting. This research is the latest indication that public health recommendations should be established to encourage Americans to limit the amount of time they spend sitting every day, said Lynette L. Craft, first author ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Controlling depression in patients with heart failure can improve health status, social functioning and quality of life, according to a new study by psychiatrists and cardiologists at the UC Davis and Duke University schools of medicine. While depression is known to worsen a variety of diseases, the current study is one of the first to show that reducing symptoms of the mental health condition can benefit physical health. The study is available online now and will be distributed in the print issue of Circulation: Heart Failure on Nov. 20. "The ...

There is an urgent need for new drugs to treat Rett syndrome, a rare and severe neurological disease mainly affecting girls. A bottleneck in drug development for this syndrome is a lack of clarity at the level of preclinical research. Key researchers in this field now tackle this issue, proposing standards and guidelines for Rett syndrome research, in an Open Access review article published on Oct. 31, 2012 in Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM) at http://dmm.biologists.org/. This "state of the science" assessment serves as a comprehensive resource of all findings and citations ...

BOSTON, MA (October 31, 2012)—A routine blood test may help predict survival in patients with an aggressive form of skin cancer known as Merkel cell carcinoma, according to new findings by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers. The results will be presented on Wednesday, October 31 at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's 54th Annual Meeting. "With such a fast-growing cancer, we get one question a lot: 'how long do I have?'," says Matthew Johnson, MD, a resident physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Fox Chase and lead author on the study. "That's ...

This colourful view of the globular star cluster NGC 6362 was captured by the Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. This new picture, along with a new image of the central region from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, provide the best view of this little-known cluster ever obtained. Globular clusters are mainly composed of tens of thousands of very ancient stars, but they also contain some stars that look suspiciously young. Globular star clusters are among the oldest objects in the Universe, and NGC 6362 ...

The risk of maternal complications and preterm deliveries is significantly higher for women undergoing their fifth or more caesarean section, finds a new study published today (31 October) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The study explored the incidence of UK women having Multiple Repeat Caesarean Sections (MRCS), defined as five or more, and the outcomes for them and their babies compared to women having their second to fourth caesarean section. The researchers, from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the University of Oxford ...

CLEVELAND – A first-of-its-kind clinical trial conducted at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center has shown encouraging results for the use of stereotactic radiosurgery to treat kidney cancer. This non-invasive treatment technique may represent a potential new non-surgical option for patients with this deadly disease who have limited treatment options. Rod Ellis, MD, lead author of the study along with Lee Ponsky, MD, who is the Principal Investigator, presented results of a Phase 1 clinical trial in 20 patients with localized primary renal ...

In response to the on-line publication by the European Journal of Human Genetics today (Wednesday) of an article by US researchers led by Dr. Robert Cook-Degan, a former member of the US Office of Technology Assessment, showing that Myriad Genetics, providers of the BRCA1/2 genetic test in the US, has amassed vast quantities of clinical data without sharing it, Professor Martina Cornel, chair of the European Society of Human Genetics' Professional and Public Policy committee, said: "We are very concerned that such important data is being withheld from those who most need ...

Veterinary scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that, like humans, obese dogs can experience metabolic syndrome, a condition that describes multiple health issues that occur in the body at the same time. The condition occurs when a number of health problems, such as increased blood glucose and increased cholesterol levels, develop together, with the potential to increase the risk of other diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Although canine obesity is known to cause insulin resistance, mild hypertension, and high blood cholesterol ...

Wide differences in death rates from disease still persist throughout England – but effective healthcare can help to reduce these inequalities, a new study has discovered. Researchers from the University of Leicester led a two-year project funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) into why differences in death rates from diseases like heart disease, strokes, lung disease and cancers still persist. They found that age and poverty were among the biggest factors that accounted for the differences – but they also discovered that effective delivery of healthcare ...

WASHINGTON--Around the globe, mariners and navies alike have long observed and included weather and sea states in navigational planning when plotting course or developing military strategy. And although forecasting had become an integral function by the start of the 20th century, these predictions were often crude and qualitative. For the U.S. Navy, the years 1941 through 1946 provided an unusual stimulus to ocean wave research, according to pioneer World War II oceanographer Charles Bates. During this brief five-year period, theory, observation, and prediction of sea, ...

City leaders aspiring to transform their cities into models of sustainability must look beyond city limits and include in their calculation the global flow of goods and materials into their realm, argue researchers in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences journal Ambio. Many cities are now developing sustainable strategies to reduce pollution and congestion, improve the quality of life of their citizens, and respond to growing concern about human impact on climate and the environment. But sustainable city initiatives often ignore the environmental footprint from imported ...