Southwest Media Group, the Southwest's premier media services company, will host its fourth-annual digital summit, "Immersion 2013: Explore Your Digital Soul," Feb. 6-7, 2013, at The House of Blues in Dallas. The event's condensed educational platform exposes attendees to a wide variety of emerging technologies, services and thought leaders in one setting. It combines speaker presentations, hands-on technology immersion sessions and fireside chats, as well as panel discussions and "ignite" mini presentations. "Explore Your Digital Soul is ...

ABC News delivered a realistic look at the body ad tattoo phenomenon, a trend that grew in popularity with the internet boom, but did not bust along with many of the dotcoms that still appear on Mr. Gibby (watch the ABC's video clip about online pawn shop tattoo here). Despite what many people think, body billboard advertising is still going strong, and PawnUp.com online pawn shop is in good company on Mr. Gibby's body, with websites such as GoldenPalace.com, who many say pioneered the ad tattoo craze when they tattooed champion boxer Bernard Hopkins in 2001. By doing ...

October is National Dental Hygiene Month, and in keeping with this year's theme "Keep them healthy. Keep them clean.", Plackers, a leading provider of oral care products, surveyed Americans about their oral hygiene habits and asked why they don't floss as often as they should. The American Dental Hygienists' Association recommends that people floss daily as part of their oral health routine, but studies have shown only about one in five people do so. In Plackers' latest national survey of adults, 40 percent say it is because they forget and 30 percent indicate ...

SGI Group Inc. today announced that its DMS Collaborative Documents solution version 1.0 has achieved SAP certification as powered by the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. The solution has been proven to integrate with SAP solutions and provides highly flexible workflow processes for managing the lifecycle of document management system (DMS) documents. The SAP Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC) has certified that DMS Collaborative Documents 1.0 integrates with SAP NetWeaver 700 as an add-on to the ABAP programming language for the SAP ERP 6.0 application ...

NEW ORLEANS — New studies presented today offer vivid examples of how advances in basic brain research help reduce the trauma and suffering of innocent landmine victims, amateur and professional athletes, and members of the military. The research was presented today at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. From the playing field to the battlefield, neuroscientists are gaining better understanding of what happens to the brain when it suffers traumatic injury ...

Rapamycin, a drug used to prevent rejection in transplants, could delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. This is the main conclusion of a study published in the Nature in which has collaborated the researcher Isidro Ferrer, head of the group of Neuropathology at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the Bellvitge University Hospital and Full Professor of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Barcelona. The research was led by researchers from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste ...

Cyclists who died of a head injury were three times as likely to not be wearing a helmet compared with those who died of other injuries, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "We saw an association between dying as a result of sustaining head injury and not wearing a helmet," states Dr. Navindra Persaud, Keenan Research Centre and the Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, with coauthors. "These results are consistent with a protective effect of helmets on cycling deaths." There is scant evidence ...

A technique called the "mother's kiss" for removing foreign objects from the nasal passages of young children appears to be a safe and effective approach, found a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "The mother's kiss appears to be a safe and effective technique for first-line treatment in the removal of a foreign body from the nasal cavity," writes Dr. Stephanie Cook, Buxted Medical Centre, Buxted, United Kingdom, with coauthors. "In addition, it may prevent the need for general anesthesia in some cases." The technique, known since the ...

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that affects approximately 2% of the world's population. A group of inflammatory molecules known as interleukins activate an immune response that causes itchy skin, but it is unclear how the skin cells and immune cells communicate. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Manfred Kopf at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland found that mice lacking interleukin-36 (IL-36) were protected from immune-mediated skin inflammation. These results indicate that IL-36 ...

Scratching the surface of psoriasis Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that affects approximately 2% of the world's population. A group of inflammatory molecules known as interleukins activate an immune response that causes itchy skin, but it is unclear how the skin cells and immune cells communicate. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Manfred Kopf at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland found that mice lacking interleukin-36 (IL-36) were protected from immune-mediated skin inflammation. ...

A molecule involved in asthma and allergies has now been shown to make mice resistant to skin cancer, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The molecule, called TSLP (thymic stromal lymphopoietin), is produced by damaged skin and activates the immune system. Chronic low levels of TSLP are suspected in making the immune system oversensitive to what should be a harmless environment, leading to the skin rashes and overproduction of mucus common in allergies and asthma. "But at extremely high levels, TSLP appears to train the ...

"Addiction is a brain disease" was the title of an editorial in the renowned journal "Science" 15 years ago. The author argued that recognising addiction as a disorder of the brain can impact society´s overall health and social policy strategies and help diminish the health and social costs associated with drug abuse and addiction (Leshner, 1997). Such a presentation of the complex concept of addiction was revolutionary, as social and psychological aspects were largely considered as the most important, although not the only ones involved. Some years later, clinicians ...

A study by researchers from Emory University and Indiana University found that the beneficial effects daily exercise can have on the regeneration of nerves also require androgens such as testosterone in both males and females. It is the first report of both androgen-dependence of exercise on nerve regeneration and of an androgenic effect of exercise in females. "The findings will provide a basis for the development of future treatment strategies for patients suffering peripheral nerve injuries," said Dale Sengelaub, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain ...

Three years ago University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researchers helped to discover water on the surface of the moon. Now, they are piecing together the origin of that water: solar wind. A new study confirms solar wind as a source for water embedded in the lunar surface. Solar wind is the continuous flow of charged particles from the sun. Scientists have speculated it to be responsible for water on the surface of the moon. Last year Larry Taylor, distinguished professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, confirmed comets as the source for water ...

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 15, 2012) – Currently, there are approximately 25 million people in the United States who suffer from the lifelong effects of asthma – wheezing, breathlessness, tightness in the chest, coughing – and the numbers are rising each year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of people in the United States diagnosed with asthma grew by 4.3 million from 2001 to 2009. Approximately 1 in 10 children and 1 in 12 adults suffer from asthma; the numbers are even higher among racial/ethnic groups, with 1 in 6 children in the ...

Contact: Coimbra Sirica csirica@burnesscommunications.com 44-743-538-4915 Burness Communications Annmarie Leadman aleadman@aeras.org 301-332-8252 Aeras Urgent need for tuberculosis vaccines; experts report progress, obstacles in growing drug resistance As World Health Organization prepares to release report on global TB incidence, researchers say UK at forefront of efforts to develop critical medical tools London (October 15, 2012) – Drawing on recent findings of a significant rise in cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the UK and globally, top TB researchers ...

Bochum biophysicists in collaboration with the MPI Dortmund have for the first time measured the orientation of the Ras protein bound to the cell membrane. The RUB team combined the use of three biophysical methods - infrared spectroscopy, computer simulations and fluorescence measurements - and came to the surprising conclusion that two Ras molecules form a pair to take an upright position on the membrane. It was previously assumed, based on computer simulations, that the protein is located horizontally on the membrane as single molecule. Ras is the central "switch" for ...

Researchers from the University of Seville (Spain) have used mathematical tools to assess what has been known for centuries: the temperature inside the typical Mediterranean courtyard is cooler than that of the street. Though seemingly common sense, understanding such information in detail helps to save energy and money, which is the objective of eco-efficient buildings. The inhabitants of Mediterranean regions have known for centuries that during the summer their courtyards are cooler than the street. "Why then put air conditioning extractor units on rooftops or outer ...

An experiment carried out on rodents exposed to fuel similar to that of the Prestige tanker oil spill – which took place nearly a decade ago – shows that inhalation of the fuel causes damage to genetic material. According to the study, led by the University of A Coruña, the results could be used in relation to people who carry out the industrial cleaning of coasts. On 19 November, it will be ten years since the sinking of the Prestige, which caused one of Spain's largest ecological disasters. The oil spill reached the coasts of Galicia and the rest of the Cantabrian coast, ...

Philadelphia, PA, October 15, 2012 – One of the biggest challenges in psychiatric genetics has been to replicate findings across large studies. Scientists at King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry have now performed one of the largest ever genetic replication studies of bipolar affective disorder, with 28,000 subjects recruited from 36 different research centers. Their findings provide compelling evidence that the chromosome 3p21.1 locus contains a common genetic risk for bipolar disorder, the PBRM1 gene. The locus at 3p21.1 has also been previously associated ...

Playing soccer (football) could be the best way for people with high blood pressure, known as hypertension, to improve their fitness, normalise their blood pressure and reduce their risk of stroke. Research from Universities of Exeter and Copenhagen, and Gentofte University Hospital in Denmark, published today (Monday 15 October 2012) in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, suggests that soccer training prevents cardiovascular disease in middle-aged men with hypertension and is more effective than healthy lifestyle advice currently prescribed by GPs. After ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (October 15, 2012) – State physician health programs (PHPs) play a key role in helping doctors with substance abuse problems. But the current PHP system is inconsistent and prone to potential conflicts of interest and ethical issues, according to a review available as publish ahead of print content from the December 2012 issue of Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part ofWolters Kluwer Health. In the article, Drs J. Wesley Boyd ...

A film historian at Queen Mary, University of London has been uncovering the secret past of British cinema in a private collection of production records for thousands of films, including such iconic titles as Dr No, The African Queen, and Zulu. The unique production archive is owned by Film Finances Ltd, underwriters of many major British films made since the 1950s. The company has kept complete documentation for every production it has guaranteed, including letters, telegrams, shooting schedules, scripts, storyboards and even doctors' certificates. In 2009, Film Finances ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed new techniques for stretching carbon nanotubes (CNT) and using them to create carbon composites that can be used as stronger, lighter materials in everything from airplanes to bicycles. By stretching the CNT material before incorporating it into a composite for use in finished products, the researchers straighten the CNTs in the material, which significantly improves its tensile strength – and enhances the stiffness of the composite material and its electrical and thermal conductivity. State-of-the-art ...

Many diseases are caused by proteins losing their natural three-dimensional structure and thus their function. In most cases, the damaged proteins are degraded by different systems in the cells, but in some cases, the proteins begin to aggregate and form very well-organised rope-like structures called fibrils. These structures have now been linked to many different diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes and corneal dystrophies (opaqueness in the cornea). It has long been known that corneal dystrophy is caused by a mutation of a protein called TGFBIp ...