After much doom and gloom in the media surrounding the travel industry recently, most notably the near-collapse of one of Britain's biggest tour operators, alongside the economic issues in much of Europe, we'd be forgiven for choosing to abscond from holidays abroad this year. However, Ocean Florida notes that it has seen a significant rise in departures to Orlando for the often-quieter winter months November, December and January, as off-peak prices are too good to ignore. The weather in Florida is more temperate and the parks are less crowded and this has resulted in ...

Offices across the UK are said to be stocking up on their cleaning supplies as the norovirus threat continues to spread through the work place. Click Cleaning have seen a significant increase in their office related cleaning products since the rise of the norovirus epidemic. It has been reported by The Health Protection Agency that the freezing weather we have been experiencing in Britain could lead to an increase of norovirus cases. Ensuring most bacteria are killed using antibacterial sprays is vital when fighting against the epidemic, especially when working in an ...

SalesFUSION, the maker of SalesFUSION 360, an integrated sales and marketing demand generation platform that integrates to Dynamics CRM, today announced it will be showcasing a new version of its Microsoft CRM integration at this year's Convergence conference. SalesFUSION is a provider of enterprise marketing automation software designed for B2B companies. The SalesFUSION360 marketing platform provides a host of core marketing technology including email marketing, lead scoring, landing pages, web visitor tracking, integrate to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and 2011. SalesFUSION ...

Advancement in technology and resources has paved the way for online pawn shop for jewelry. Pawn shops offer people the opportunity to pawn personal items in exchange for a loan. The positive experience of getting fast cash and quality merchandise attracts people from all walks of life. Ipawn offers smart solutions and advantages of getting financial services online. The Internet is a great resource that allows people to pawn jewelry online and get cash in the fastest way possible. Unexpected things can happen and a poor credit record is enough reason to be turned down ...

The co-host actress Wendy Raquel Robinson of the hit show, "The Game" and actor Terry Crews of the popular sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris" and the upcoming film "The Expendables 2," honored Loretta Devine, Bill Duke and Curtis King, highlighted some of Hollywood's most inspirational who have overcome hurdles and persevered through faith. Curtis L King has distinguished himself and his non-profit organization, The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, Inc. (TBAAL), not only in Dallas, but nationally and internationally, by promoting and perpetuating ...

Tracy Hayward, CEO of The Perfect Puree of Napa Valley announced today the addition of three new flavors to the company's Beverage Artistry product line: Thyme & Citrus, Thai Basil & Black Pepper and Chipotle Sour. As mixologists continue to seek complex flavor profiles for innovative cocktails and beverages, the new flavors provide sour, savory and surprising twists that are sure to excite the palate and impress guests. Available in March, these blends offer unique combinations that add an element of complexity to cocktails that can be made with ease. "While ...

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it is revising safety information on the labels of some statins (cholesterol lowering drugs). Statins are a class of drugs that work in the liver to prevent the formation of cholesterol. They are most effective at lowering the LDL (bad) cholesterol, but also have modest effects on lowering triglycerides (blood fats) and raising HDL (good) cholesterol. High cholesterol is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke. The FDA changes to the statin labels include: Revising the drug labels to remove ...

It had long been assumed that the human sperm cell's mission in life ended once it had transferred its freight of parental DNA to the egg. More recently however, other components of sperm have been implicated in fertilization, and perhaps even in subsequent embryonic development. In a new study appearing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Timothy Karr, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, along with colleagues from the Universities of Cambridge and Bath, England, examine messenger RNA (mRNA) transcripts present in the sperm of both fruitflies ...

The prevailing model for planetary accretion, also called fractal assembly, and dating back as far as the 18th century, assumes that the Solar System's planets grew as small grains colliding chaotically, coalescing into bigger ones, colliding yet more until they formed planetesimals. The planetesimals then collided until they formed planets as varied as the Earth and Jupiter. The model assumes that this occurred in an extremely hot (as high as 1,600 degrees Celsius) environment for the inner Solar System, fostered by a dusty, two-dimensional disk post-dating the Sun. The ...

People with schizophrenia who completed 80 hours of intensive, computerized cognitive training exercises were better able to perform complex tasks that required them to distinguish their internal thoughts from reality. As described in the journal Neuron (2/22/12), a small clinical study conducted at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), tested the digital exercises as a new therapy for schizophrenia. "We predicted that in order to improve complex cognitive functions in neuropsychiatric illness, we must ...

MadCap Software, Inc. (http://www.madcapsoftware.com), the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a showcase company for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Visual Studio and Microsoft XPS, today announced that the newest release of MadPak is now available. MadPak (http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx) is the industry's most comprehensive authoring suite, featuring integrated, XML-based products for complete end-to-end technical communication. The latest release of the suite offers four new product versions: MadCap Flare 8.0 for single-source, multi-channel ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Feb. 29, 2012) -- A rare and endangered monkey in an African equatorial rainforest is providing a look into our climatic future through its DNA. Its genes show that wild drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus), already an overhunted species, may see a dramatic population decline if the forest dries out and vegetation becomes sparser amid warming temperatures, researchers report. Looking for clues amid 2,076 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA -- genes passed down along female lineages -- researchers discovered genetic signs that coincide with the conditions that ...

Patients who had leaky mitral heart valves repaired along with bypass surgery had with healthier hearts than those who had bypass only, according to new research presented in the American Heart Association's Emerging Science Series webinar. The mitral valve separates the heart's left atrium (upper chamber) from the left ventricle (lower chamber). It has two flaps, or cusps, and if the flaps don't close properly, the valve will leak. "Many patients who need bypass surgery have mild to moderately leaky mitral valves because coronary artery disease causes the heart to enlarge ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mitochondria -- subunits inside cells that produce energy -- have long been thought to play a role in Alzheimer's disease. Now Mayo Clinic researchers using genetic mouse models have discovered that mitochondria in the brain are dysfunctional early in the disease. The findings appear in the journal PLoS ONE. The group looked at mitochondria in three mouse models, each using a different gene shown to cause familial, or early-onset, Alzheimer's disease. The specific mitochondria changes corresponded with the mutation type and included altered mitochondrial ...

MadCap Software, Inc. (http://www.madcapsoftware.com), the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a showcase company for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Visual Studio and Microsoft XPS, today announced the launch of MadCap Flare 8.0. Flare is the industry's leading technical authoring application for publishing online Help, knowledge bases, policy and procedure manuals, user manuals, and other forms of content. Only MadCap Flare lets authors create a single project and then directly publish it in multiple formats optimized for the Web, mobile devices, desktops, and print ...

HOUSTON - A drug that relieves the severe symptoms of a life-threatening bone marrow cancer called myelofibrosis also improves the survival of patients with the disease, according to a phase III clinical trial published in the March 1 edition of New England Journal of Medicine. "The Phase I/II clinical trial showed that ruxolitinib improves quality of life for many patients with myelofibrosis and now this phase III study indicates that the drug extends survival in a patient population that has lacked effective treatments," said study principal investigator Srdan Verstovsek, ...

STANFORD, Calif. — People with a blood cancer — myelofibrosis — can benefit from a drug called ruxolitinib, according to a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial that included patients and researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The results of the multi-site phase-3 trial, which will be published in the March 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, led the Food and Drug Administration to approve the drug in November as treatment for people with intermediate or advanced cases of the disease. Ruxolitinib is marketed as Jakafi ...

Since 2008, Habitatter.com has been offering the highest quality in home decorating accessories. Now, they are adding some additional product lines, including kick plates, wall trim and picture frames. Greg Simerlink, owner of Habitatter.com, said, "I am very excited to introduce these new product lines. We are always striving to expand our offerings, and are looking to become one-stop shopping for all your home decor needs." To celebrate, Habitatter.com is offering 10% off their Muscle Car Accessories collection for the entire month of March. Muscle Car ...

BOSTON, MA – February 29, 2012 – TREM Rx, Inc., a biotechnology company with a proprietary technology platform for novel vaccines delivered to the skin, announced today the results of an in vivo preclinical study that shows, for the first time, that powerful cells of the immune system called TREMs (T Resident Effector Memory cells) prevalent in the skin can mediate a protective immune response that is far stronger than memory T cells that circulate in the bloodstream. The study was published in today's online edition of Nature and was led by TREM Rx scientific founder, ...

Sophia Antipolis, 1 March 2012: In a groundbreaking White Paper published today in the European Heart Journal, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has set out its perspective on the relationship between the healthcare industry and professional medical associations with regard to the funding and delivery of continuing medical education (CME). Essential in helping to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease across Europe – the ESC's over-arching mission – physicians have both a professional and ethical duty to undertake CME in order to provide the highest level ...

Blue whale vocal behavior is affected by man-made noise, even when that noise does not overlap the frequencies the whales use for communication, according to new research published Feb. 29 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The whales were less likely to emit calls when mid-frequency sonar was present, but were more likely to do so when ship sounds were nearby, the researchers report. The study was conducted in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California by Mariana Melcon and her colleagues from University of California San Diego. Blue whale vocalizations ...

Knowledge about animal diet can inform conservation strategy, but this information can be difficult to gather. A new DNA-based method, which analyzes genetic material from feces, could be a useful tool, and researchers have shown its utility to characterize the diet of snow leopards in Mongolia. The full results are reported Feb. 29 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. Analysis of DNA from 81 fecal samples showed that the leopards ate mostly Siberian ibex, followed by domestic goats and wild sheep. Most of the animals eaten were wild (79 %), with a relatively low proportion ...

Millions of years after its extinction, Triceratops is inciting controversy about how to classify the ancient animals. New analysis, published Feb. 29 in the open access journal PLoS ONE, suggests that the specimens in question should be classified into two separate groups, Triceratops and Torosaurus, and are not individuals of different ages from the same genus, as others have proposed. The researchers, led by Nicholas Longrich of Yale University, performed detailed morphological and computational analysis of 35 specimens and found evidence that Triceratops and Torosaurus ...

"We used a trick called earthshine observation to look at the Earth as if it were an exoplanet," says Michael Sterzik (ESO), lead author of the paper [1]. "The Sun shines on the Earth and this light is reflected back to the surface of the Moon. The lunar surface acts as a giant mirror and reflects the Earth's light back to us — and this is what we have observed with the VLT." The astronomers analyse the faint earthshine light to look for indicators, such as certain combinations of gases in the Earth's atmosphere [2], that are the telltale signs of organic life. This method ...

A repression of gene activity in the brain appears to be an early event affecting people with Alzheimer's disease, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have found. In mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, this epigenetic blockade and its effects on memory were treatable. "These findings provide a glimpse of the brain shutting down the ability to form new memories gene by gene in Alzheimer's disease, and offer hope that we may be able to counteract this process," said Roderick Corriveau, Ph.D., a program director at NIH's National Institute of Neurological ...