Insurance premiums continue to rise for individuals who smoke, so now many are looking to Quit Smoking and one creative alternative is the e cig. Allen Tanner, CSMO of the E Cig Brand Starter Kit Site, is offering smokers a free trail to assist them in making an informed decision before purchasing an E Cig. "E Cigs are a smart alternative to conventional smokes," said Tanner. "The e cig is free of 4,000 plus chemicals found in conventional smokes. The active chemical found in the e cig is nicotine, which is relatively safe in and of itself." Users ...

Cambridge, Mass. – July 30, 2012 – Biofilms may no longer have any solid ground upon which to stand. A team of Harvard scientists has developed a slick way to prevent the troublesome bacterial communities from ever forming on a surface. Biofilms stick to just about everything, from copper pipes to steel ship hulls to glass catheters. The slimy coatings are more than just a nuisance, resulting in decreased energy efficiency, contamination of water and food supplies, and—especially in medical settings—persistent infections. Even cavities in teeth are the unwelcome result ...

Two new targets have been discovered for antiviral therapies and vaccines strategies that could enhance the body's defenses against such infectious diseases as West Nile and hepatitis C. The targets are within the infection warning system inside living cells. No vaccines exist for the viruses that cause West Nile or hepatitis C. New therapies are urgently needed to prevent and treat serious infections by these and related viruses. The University of Washington is engaged in a major, multipronged effort to design therapeutics that harness the warning signals the body ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A team of researchers from the University of Bristol, Natural History Museum of London, the University of Missouri and Ohio University has discovered the eating habits of Diplodocus using a three-dimensional model of the dinosaur's skull. The eating habits of the herbivore have been uncertain since its discovery more than 130 years ago. Understanding these behaviors could help scientists better understand extinct and modern ecosystems and what it takes to feed these giant herbivores, as well as today's living animals. Diplodocus was a giant, herbivorous ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – As liver cancer develops, tumor cells lose the ability to produce and release glucose into the bloodstream, a key function of healthy liver cells for maintaining needed blood-sugar levels. The findings come from a study by scientists at The Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). The loss of this type of glucose production, a process called gluconeogenesis, is caused by the over-expression of a molecule called microRNA-23a. The change might aid cancer-cell growth ...

PHILADELPHIA, July 30, 2012 -- The American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) explore the ethical dimensions of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) in a new position paper published by the Journal of General Internal Medicine: "The Patient-Centered Medical Home: An Ethical Analysis of Principles and Practice." The text is also available on ACP's website (http://www.acponline.org/running_practice/ethics/issues/policy/). "The PCMH model of care aligns well with the traditional principles of medical ethics and professionalism, ...

Just grin and bear it! At some point, we have all probably heard or thought something like this when facing a tough situation. But is there any truth to this piece of advice? Feeling good usually makes us smile, but does it work the other way around? Can smiling actually make us feel better? In a study forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman of the University of Kansas investigate the potential benefits of smiling by looking at how different types of smiling, and ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a link between patients who undergo total nephrectomy - complete kidney removal - and erectile dysfunction. Results from the multi-center study were recently published online in the British Journal of Urology International. "This is the first study in medical literature to suggest that surgery for kidney removal can negatively impact erectile function while partial kidney removal can protect sexual function," said Ithaar Derweesh, MD, senior author, associate professor of surgery, ...

Your best chance to see a female athlete endorsing a product will be during the next few weeks. The Olympics' commercial breaks may be littered with female swimmers, runners and gymnasts, but don't expect to see them much again until the next Olympics. American companies rarely employ female athletes as spokespeople and when they do, according to two University of Delaware professors, they most often do it poorly. John Antil and Matthew Robinson's upcoming article in the Journal of Brand Strategy suggests advertisers' tactics are creating a cycle of failure for female ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Water pollution from surface coal mining has degraded more than 22 percent of streams and rivers in southern West Virginia to the point they may now qualify as impaired under state criteria, according to a new study by scientists at Duke and Baylor. The study, published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology, documents substantial losses in aquatic insect biodiversity and increases in salinity linked to sulfates and other pollutants in runoff from mines often located miles upstream. "Our findings offer concrete evidence ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Large numbers of humpback whales are remaining in bays along the Western Antarctic Peninsula to feast on krill late into the austral autumn, long after scientists thought their annual migrations to distant breeding grounds would begin, according to a new Duke University study. The study, published July 30 in the journal Endangered Species Research, provides the first density estimates for these whales in both open and enclosed habitats along the peninsula in late autumn. It suggests that the little-studied bays are late-season feeding grounds for humpback ...

If doctors want to develop a strong rapport with parents of overweight children, it would be best if physicians used terms like "large" or "gaining too much weight" as opposed to the term "obese." These were findings recently published by medical researchers at the University of Alberta. Geoff Ball, a researcher in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry with the Department of Pediatrics, worked with department colleagues Amanda Newton and Carla Farnesi to review articles about the important relationship between families and health professionals when it comes to addressing ...

One person dies every hour from melanoma skin cancer in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. A technique, known as photoacoustics, can find some forms of melanoma even if only a few cancerous cells exist, but a recent study by MU researchers found that the technique was limited in its ability to identify other types of cancer. Attaching markers, called enhancers, to cancer cells could improve the ability of photoacoustics to find other types of cancer and could save lives thanks to faster diagnosis, but the technique is in its early stages. "Eventually, ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—In the first human study of its kind, researchers found that using stem cells to re-grow craniofacial tissues—mainly bone—proved quicker, more effective and less invasive than traditional bone regeneration treatments. Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and the Michigan Center for Oral Health Research partnered with Ann Arbor-based Aastrom Biosciences Inc. in the clinical trial, which involved 24 patients who required jawbone reconstruction after tooth removal. Patients either received experimental tissue repair cells ...

Parents concerned about their children's slothful ways can do something about it, according to research at National Jewish Health. They can increase their own activity. In the July 2012 issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, Kristen Holm, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at National Jewish Health, and her colleagues report that, when parents increase their daily activity, as measured by a pedometer, their children increase theirs as well. "It has long been known that parent and child activity levels are correlated," said Dr. Holm. "This is the first ...

Irvine, Calif., July 30, 2012 – UC Irvine scientists have discovered intriguing differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every moment of their lives since about age 10. The phenomenon of highly superior autobiographical memory – first documented in 2006 by UCI neurobiologist James McGaugh and colleagues in a woman identified as "AJ" – has been profiled on CBS's "60 Minutes" and in hundreds of other media outlets. But a new paper in the peer-reviewed journal Neurobiology of Learning & Memory's July issue ...

Typhoon Saola looks like a monster tropical cyclone in infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite today, July 30. Although Saola's center is over 300 nautical miles (368 miles/592 km) south-southeast of Taiwan, it stretches over the north and central Philippines and has triggered a number of warnings throughout the country. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Typhoon Saola approaching Taiwan on July 30 at 0215 UTC (July 29 at 10:15 p.m. EDT). The image showed a ragged eye in the storm's center ...

Tropical Storm Damrey appears to be a compact tropical storm on NASA satellite imagery as it heads west. It is expected to pass north of Iwo To, Japan and later south of Kyushu, one of Japan's large islands. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Damrey on July 30 at 03:21 UTC (July 29 at 11:21 p.m. EDT) and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an infrared image of the storm. It showed that strong, high, cold cloud tops of thunderstorms were in a tight circle around the center of circulation. There were bands of thunderstorms mostly north ...

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers have identified how one of the genes most commonly mutated in lung cancer may promote such tumors. The investigators found that the protein encoded by this gene, called EPHA3, normally inhibits tumor formation, and that loss or mutation of the gene – as often happens in lung cancer – diminishes this tumor-suppressive effect, potentially sparking the formation of lung cancer. The findings, published July 24 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, could offer direction for personalizing cancer treatments and development ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories' wind energy researchers are re-evaluating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) to help solve some of the problems of generating energy from offshore breezes. Though VAWTs have been around since the earliest days of wind energy research at Sandia and elsewhere, VAWT architecture could transform offshore wind technology. The economics of offshore windpower are different from land-based turbines, due to installation and operational challenges. VAWTs offer three big advantages that could reduce the cost of wind energy: a ...

Montreal, July 30, 2012 – Rows of chip bags in a vending machine, endless bottles of shampoo on pharmacy shelves, long lines of books arranged in the bestsellers section at the bookstore. From supermarket shelves to barroom beer selection, long lines of horizontally arranged products are the norm when it comes to the shopping experience. But how does where a product is placed on the storeroom shelf influence which option a consumer will ultimately choose? It turns out that the shopper's eye has a very central focus. "Consumers are more likely to purchase products ...

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that variations in the long-term reversal rate of the Earth's magnetic field may be caused by changes in heat flow from the Earth's core into the base of the overlying mantle. The Earth is made up of a solid inner core, surrounded by a liquid outer core, in turn covered by a thicker or more viscous mantle, and ultimately by the solid crust beneath our feet. The magnetic field is generated by the motions of the liquid iron alloy in the outer core, approximately 3,000 km beneath the Earth's crust. These motions ...

WASHINGTON, DC, July 25, 2012 — Policies that reward abstinence from terrorism are more successful in reducing such acts of violence than tactics that aim to punish terrorists, suggests a new study in the August issue of the American Sociological Review. Titled, "Moving Beyond Deterrence: The Effectiveness of Raising the Expected Utility of Abstaining from Terrorism in Israel," the study looked specifically at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and found that between 1987 and 2004, Israeli policies and actions that encouraged and rewarded refrain from terrorist acts were ...

A new strain of influenza virus found in harbor seals could represent a threat to wildlife and human health, according to the authors of a study appearing July 31 in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. It is crucial to monitor viruses like this one, which originated in birds and adapted to infect mammals, the authors say, so that scientists can better predict the emergence of new strains of influenza and prevent pandemics in the future. "There is a concern that we have a new mammalian-transmissible virus to which humans haven't ...

Alexandria, VA – One man's trash is quickly becoming society's new treasure. In the August issue of EARTH Magazine, we explore how materials that were once considered garbage are now being recognized for their true potential as valuable energy resources capable of solving multiple problems at once. If successful, these "waste-to-energy" options could serve as a silver bullet – displacing fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and decreasing the amount of trash that winds up in already teeming landfills. Although several of these options have existed for many ...