Tampa, FL (Feb. 22, 2012) -- A nicotinic drug approved for smoking cessation significantly improved the walking ability of patients suffering from an inherited form of ataxia, reports a new clinical study led by University of South Florida researchers. The randomized controlled clinical trial investigated the effectiveness of varenicline (Chantix®) in treating spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, or SCA3. The findings were published online earlier this month in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neuroscience. Lead author Dr. Theresa Zesiewicz and colleagues ...

Following their recent string of promotions this festive season, Sky Poker is now offering players membership to the Sky Poker Priority Club, aimed to benefit and reward those who regularly play poker online with Sky. To join, players simply need to accrue over 10,000 Sky Poker Points each month by entering online games and tournaments. The membership status of each player is determined Sky Poker according to the previous months' play. Some of the fantastic advantages available to Sky Poker Priority Club members are: Direct Buy-ins to Sky Poker Tour events If playing ...

As scientists warn that the Earth is on the brink of a period of mass extinctions, they are struggling to identify ecosystem responses to environmental change. But to truly understand these responses, more information is needed about how the Earth's staggering diversity of species originated. Curiously, a vexing modeling mystery has stymied research on this topic: mathematical models have told us that complex ecosystems, such as jungles, deserts and coral reefs, in which species coexist and interact with another, cannot persist--even though they obviously do. But now, ...

Despite brutal cold and lingering darkness, life in the frigid waters off Alaska does not grind to a halt in the winter as scientists previously suspected. According to preliminary results from a National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded research cruise, microscopic creatures at the base of the Arctic food chain are not dormant as expected. After working aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy for six weeks in waters where winds sometimes topped 70 knots, wind chills fell to -40 degrees and samples often had to be hustled safely inside before seawater froze to the ...

Troy, N.Y. – A new study led by nanotechnology and biotechnology experts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is providing important details on how proteins in our bodies interact with nanomaterials. In their new study, published in the Feb. 2 online edition of the journal Nano Letters, the researchers developed a new tool to determine the orientation of proteins on different nanostructures. The discovery is a key step in the effort to control the orientation, structure, and function of proteins in the body using nanomaterials. "To date, very little is known about how ...

VIDEO: Connective tissue is stripped of heart muscle cells through a cleansing process, freeze-dried and milled into powder form, and then liquefied into a fluid that can be easily injected into... Click here for more information. University of California, San Diego researchers have developed a new injectable hydrogel that could be an effective and safe treatment for tissue damage caused by heart attacks. The study by Karen Christman and colleagues appears in the Feb. ...

WASHINGTON – It takes a lot of energy to extract heavy, viscous and valuable bitumen from Canada's oil sands and refine it into crude oil. Companies mine some of the sands with multi-story excavators, separate out the bitumen, and process it further to ease the flow of the crude oil down pipelines. About 1.8 million barrels of oil per day in 2010 were produced from the bitumen of the Canadian oil sands – and the production of those fossil fuels requires the burning of fossil fuels. In the first look at the overall effect of air pollution from the excavation of oil sands, ...

This press release is available in Spanish. (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — UC Davis scientists have uncovered a key suspect in the destructive inflammation that underlies heart disease and diabetes. The new research shows elevated levels of a receptor present on leucocytes of the innate immune response in people at risk for these chronic diseases. The receptors are the body's first line of defense against infectious invaders, and they trigger a rush of cytokines, the body's aggressive immune soldiers, into the bloodstream. The research, published in the journal Diabetes Care ...

Was your favorite childhood book crawling with wild animals and set in places like jungles or deep forests? Or did it take place inside a house or in a city, with few if any untamed creatures in sight? A new study has found that over the last several decades, nature has increasingly taken a back seat in award-winning children's picture books -- and suggests this sobering trend is consistent with a growing isolation from the natural world. A group of researchers led by University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociology professor emeritus J. Allen Williams Jr. reviewed the winners ...

Mindfulness meditation has moved from the mountains of eastern Asia to the modern computer monitor in everyone's home. MindfulnessMeditation.org has recently launched semi-weekly online meditation sessions, letting people from all over the globe participate in a meditation community online. Mindfulness meditation, the art and science of paying attention to the moment, is a set of meditation techniques that have been applied not only to spiritual growth but also to medical recovery, healthy emotional development and even corporate performance. Online group meditations have ...

By global standards, health risks caused by environmental factors are low in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), new studies by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers show. In an effort to keep those risks low, Emiratis are working with UNC public health researchers to find ways now to avoid problems in the future. What's more, researchers and officials believe their approach could be used to address similar issues in other rapidly developing nations and regions. The Middle Eastern nation is one of the fastest growing countries in the world, moving in ...

MADISON – A new study reveals a dazzling degree of biological diversity in an unexpected place – a single neural connection in the body wall of flies. The finding, reported in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, raises several interesting questions about the importance of structure in the nervous system and the evolution of neural wiring. "We know almost nothing about the evolution of the nervous system, although we know it has to happen – behaviors change, complexity changes, there is the addition of new neurons, formation ...

Investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and 12 other centers in the United States and Australia have found that a new drug for patients with metastatic melanoma nearly doubled median overall survival. More than half of patients who were treated with the novel drug vemurafenib, known commercially as Zelboraf, responded to treatment and experienced an impressive median overall survival of nearly 16 months – far longer than the typical survival of just six to 10 months for most patients whose melanoma has spread beyond the initial tumor site. Results ...

JUPITER, FL, February 22, 2012 – While RNA is an appealing drug target, small molecules that can actually affect its function have rarely been found. But now scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time designed a series of small molecules that act against an RNA defect directly responsible for the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy. In two related studies published recently in online-before-print editions of Journal of the American Chemical Society and ACS Chemical Biology, the scientists show that these ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The more afraid a person is of a spider, the bigger that individual perceives the spider to be, new research suggests. In the context of a fear of spiders, this warped perception doesn't necessarily interfere with daily living. But for individuals who are afraid of needles, for example, the conviction that needles are larger than they really are could lead people who fear injections to avoid getting the health care they need. A better understanding of how a phobia affects the perception of feared objects can help clinicians design more effective treatments ...

NEWS ARTICLES LINKING ALCOHOL TO CRIMES OR ACCIDENTS INCREASE SUPPORT FOR LIQUOR LAW ENFORCEMENT COLUMBUS, Ohio – Reading a newspaper article about the role alcohol played in an injury accident or violent crime makes people more supportive of enforcing alcohol laws, a new study suggests. Researchers had participants read actual news reports, randomly selected from newspapers across the United States, about violent crimes and various accidental injuries – half of which were edited to mention the role of alcohol and half of which were edited not to make such mention. Those ...

PawnUp.com's management has made a decision to include high-end laptops and tablets to its list of accepted items for pawn loans and sales in their online pawn shop. This decision is based on the company's commitment to continue widening the range of items it accepts in order to help more people get cash fast from a reliable source. Today, there are many people that purchase the most cutting-edge electronic devices on a regular basis, right after they become available on the market. At the same time, it makes most of the previously purchased items outdated - usually, ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Computed tomography (CT) colonography can be used as a primary screening tool for colorectal cancer in adults over the age of 65, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. Some previous medical studies have found no significant difference in the diagnostic accuracy of CT colonography, also known as "virtual colonoscopy," and traditional optical colonoscopy. This study looks at whether both exams are as effective for adults over 65 as they are for adults between 50 and 65 years of age. In the study, C. Daniel Johnson, M.D., ...

Philadelphia (Feb. 23, 2012) — Computerized tomographic (CT) colonography (CTC), also known as virtual colonoscopy, is comparable to standard colonoscopy in its ability to accurately detect cancer and precancerous polyps in people ages 65 and older, according to a paper published online today in Radiology. This is consistent with results of the ACRIN National CT colonography Trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008, which demonstrated CT colonography can serve as a primary colorectal cancer screening option for adults ages 50 and older, but did ...

In response to a study published online Feb. 23 in Radiology which showed that virtual colonoscopies are comparably affective to standard colonoscopy at detecting colorectal cancer and precancerous polyps in adults ages 65 and older, the Colon Cancer Alliance and the American College of Radiology released a joint statement demanding Medicare cover seniors for screening virtual colonoscopies — also known as CT colonography. "The minimal invasiveness and lower cost of CT colonography can attract more seniors to be screened if Medicare will cover them for the exam. Many ...

After we sense a threat, our brain center responsible for responding goes into gear, setting off a chain of biochemical reactions leading to the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands. Dr. Gil Levkowitz and his team in the Molecular Cell Biology Department have now revealed a new kind of ON-OFF switch in the brain for regulating the production of a main biochemical signal from the brain that stimulates cortisol release in the body. This finding, which was recently published in Neuron, may be relevant to research into a number of stress-related neurological disorders. ...

The coming weekend will be host to two highly visible events, the 2012 NBA All-Star Game and the 85th Annual Academy Awards, and despite recent media trends toward live event streams, neither of the marquee programs will be available online. As a result, Internet users have instead shifted their attention to the weekend's sideshows, ESPN's NBA Celebrity Game and E! Online's pre-Oscar red carpet coverage, both of which will be streamed live for free over the Internet, and now a Facebook app developed by FreeCast.com is drawing even more attention to these secondary events ...

Sugar, cholesterol, phosphates, zinc – a healthy body is amazingly good at keeping such vital nutrients at appropriate levels within its cells. From an engineering point of view, one all-purpose model of pump on the surface of a cell should suffice to keep these levels constant: When the concentration of a nutrient, say, sugar, drops inside the cell, the pump mechanism could simply go into higher gear until the sugar levels are back to normal. Yet strangely enough, such cells let in their nutrients using two types of pump: One is active in "good times," when a particular ...

Technetium, an Orlando-based brand marketing agency, was recently recognized with a Silver ADDY at the 2012 AAF-Orlando ADDY Awards for their work on the SOUL by Ludacris package design. Technetium's work on the SOUL by Ludacris brand included consumer package design, a global marketing campaign and all support materials for the 2011 U.S. product launch. Technetium's leadership in the design and development of the branding campaign has led to international success and a very excited consumer base. "We're honored to be recognized by our peers for our work with ...

Printing a personalized check with logo and signature in house is easy and affordable with ezCheckPersonal software. For this Valentine¡¯s Day, shoppers of halfpricesoft.com (http://www.halfpricesoft.com) can get a present, the new FREE bank check writing and printing software, for themselves with the bouquet they give. "Everyone loves getting free stuffs. But through our partnership with TrialPay, consumers can get their favorite software for free and get something else they want in the process," said Dr Ge, the founder of halfpricesoft.com. "It's a remarkable ...