Contrary to the traditional views of the music industry, removal of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions can actually decrease piracy, according to new research from Rice University and Duke University. Marketing professors Dinah Vernik of Rice and Devavrat Purohit and Preyas Desai of Duke used analytical modeling to examine how piracy is influenced by the presence or absence of DRM restrictions. They found that while these restrictions make piracy more costly and difficult, the restrictions also have a negative impact on legal users who have no intention of ...

Parents of young caffeine consumers take heed: that high-calorie energy drink or soda might present more than just obesity risk. In fact, according to a double-blind, placebo-controlled study that examined responses to stimulants, an individual's subjective response to caffeine may predict how he or she will respond to other stimulant drugs, possibly reflecting differences in risk for abuse of other more serious drugs of abuse, such as amphetamine and cocaine. The new findings are reported in the November issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence by Stacey Sigmon, ...

AMHERST, Mass. – Using one of the most sensitive neutrino detectors on the planet, an international team including physicists Laura Cadonati and Andrea Pocar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are now measuring the flow of solar neutrinos reaching earth more precisely than ever before. The detector probes matter at the most fundamental level and provides a powerful tool for directly observing the sun's composition. Pocar, Cadonati and colleagues report in the current issue of Physical Review Letters that the Borexino instrument has now measured with high precision ...

Monaco Yacht Show 2011 marked the end of the summer season in the Mediterranean, and charter yachts are readying to head towards warmer climates. Second in size only to the combined charter grounds of the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Bahamas offer over 10,000 islands, islets, reefs and cays cruising. Luxury charter yachts in the Caribbean - M/Y Seven Sins - launched in 2005, Seven Sins has a proven charter record for delivering excellence at sea. Cherry wood has been chosen to give the interior a warm and welcoming feel whilst Indonesian ...

For immediate release – October 7, 2011 – (Toronto) – A new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has found evidence that a specific gene is linked to suicidal behaviour, adding to our knowledge of the many complex causes of suicide. This research may help doctors one day target the gene in prevention efforts. In the past, studies have implicated the gene for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in suicidal behaviour. BDNF is involved in the development of the nervous system. After pooling results from 11 previous studies and adding their own study ...

Friday, October 7, 2011, Cleveland: Researchers have discovered a cellular pathway that promotes inflammation in diseases like asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis. Understanding the details of this pathway may provide opportunities for tailored treatments of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Discovery of this pathway was the work of an active collaboration between Xiaoxia Li, Ph.D., and Thomas Hamilton, Ph.D., Department Chair, both of the Department of Immunology at Lerner Research Institute of Cleveland Clinic. ...

BATON ROUGE – A major concern related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 was the impact on people living in coastal areas. News reports provided anecdotal evidence that those living along the coast and reliant on the fishing or oil and gas industries for their livelihoods were very distressed and worried about the impact of the spill on their future. Two decades of social science research has reported that people who are more attached to their communities are better off. They are happier, less depressed and physically healthier than those who have weak attachments ...

A series of novel imaging agents could make it possible to "see" tumors in their earliest stages, before they turn deadly. The compounds, derived from inhibitors of the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and detectable by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, may have broad applications for cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment. Vanderbilt University investigators describe the new imaging agents in a paper featured on the cover of the October issue of Cancer Prevention Research. "This is the first COX-2-targeted PET imaging agent validated for use in animal models ...

Award-winning tour operator Israel Tour Connection, LLC (ITC) has announced its 2011 Interfaith Israel Adventure. Led by Rabbi Leonard Cahan and Pastor Jan Lookingbill, the Interfaith Israel Adventure is designed to deepen mutual respect and understanding between followers of both faiths. Rabbi Cahan and Pastor Lookingbill strive to make Israel come alive for visitors of all ages with their collective energy, knowledge, creativity, and experience. ITC's Interfaith Israel Adventure caters to Jewish and Christian individuals, as well as interfaith couples and families. ...

A new study presents the first evidence that a basic sense of fairness and altruism appears in infancy. Babies as young as 15 months perceived the difference between equal and unequal distribution of food, and their awareness of equal rations was linked to their willingness to share a toy. "Our findings show that these norms of fairness and altruism are more rapidly acquired than we thought," said Jessica Sommerville, a University of Washington associate professor of psychology who led the study. "These results also show a connection between fairness and altruism in ...

The largest survey to date of distant exploding stars is giving astronomers new clues to what's behind the Type Ia supernovae they use to measure distances across the cosmos. These stellar explosions helped astronomers conclude more than a decade ago that dark energy is accelerating the expansion of the universe, and this week earned the discoverers -- including UC Berkeley physicist Saul Perlmutter -- the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. But what caused them was a mystery. Many astronomers thought white dwarf stars were pulling matter from their normal stellar companions ...

Research sometimes means looking for one thing and finding another. Such was the case when biology professor Alice Gibb and her research team at Northern Arizona University witnessed a small amphibious fish, the mangrove rivulus, jump with apparent skill and purpose out of a small net and back into the water. This was no random flop, like you might see from a trout that's just been landed. The rivulus seemed to know what it was doing. They hadn't expected to see that behavior, even from a fish known to spend time out of the water. So before long, what began as a study ...

The creators of Economic Gateway and Economic GateKeeper have partnered with Mark Lautman to provide local community leaders and economic developers a forum to discuss new ways to think about, plan, and measure economic development. Golden Shovel is known for helping communities improve their online economic development presence with social media and professional websites, and Mark Lautman is at the forefront of helping communities change their economic development paradigm. Together, Golden Shovel and Mark Lautman, will host a series of webinars designed to help community ...

Results of a study by a group of University of Notre Dame researchers represent a promising step on the road to developing new drugs for a variety of neurological diseases. The group from the University's Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biological Sciences and the Friemann Life Sciences Center focused on the design, synthesis and evaluation of water-soluble "gelatinase inhibitor" compounds. Gelatinases, a class of enzymes, have been implicated in a host of human diseases from cancer to cardiovascular conditions and in particular neurological conditions ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- University of Illinois physicists have experimentally demonstrated for the first time how three-dimensional conduction is affected by the defects that plague materials. Understanding these effects is important for many electronics applications. Led by physics professor Brian DeMarco, the researchers achieved complete localization of quantum matter waves in three dimensions, first theorized roughly half a century ago. The group published its findings in the Oct. 7 issue of the journal Science. Defects in materials are inevitable, but their effects ...

Viaden Gaming Ltd., one of the premier online casino software developers announced the updated online casino release with feature-rich functionality, new payment options and multiple usability improvements. Here are the major updates that are pushed live with the new version: Featured Games To enable the operators to promote the hottest and newest games, the recent online casino solution involves the 'Featured Games' option. From now on the players visiting the web-site will have the opportunity to quickly access the games recommended by the casino. User Analytics ...

You already know what we're going to say. We're Social Security Disability lawyers. Our clients, New Yorkers from the Finger Lakes region and elsewhere throughout the state, know who we are. And not a single one of them is lazy. Not a single one of them would call their disability benefits a welfare check. Not a single one of them would consider what they have already earned to be an "entitlement." Earned Wages in Exchange for Labor The state of New York subscribes to "at-will" employment, as do most (if not all) states, which means ...

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – In order for cells of different types to maintain their identities even after repeated rounds of cell division, each cell must "remember" which genes were active before division and pass along that memory to its daughter cells. Cells deal with this challenge by deploying a "bookmarking" process. In the same way a sticky note marks the last-read page in a book, certain molecules tag the active genes in a cell so that, after it divides, the same genes are reactivated right away in the new cells. "What we didn't know, however, was how bookmarking ...

Research which claims to show that the introduction of patient choice in the NHS reduced deaths from heart attacks is flawed and misleading, according to a report* published in The Lancet today (Monday). The original study was used by the Government to advance its controversial Health and Social Care Bill 2011 and was the basis for the Prime Minister's statement that 'competition is one way we can make things work better for patients'. In today's report, academics - led by Professor Allyson Pollock of Queen Mary, University of London - point out a series of errors in ...

Rodriguez MD, a Lawrenceville clinic and bilingual Lawrenceville family practice in Gwinnett County, GA, opened an onsite Center for Medical Weight Loss on Monday October 3, 2011. Striving to help patients safely and effectively lose weight, Rodriguez MD now offers comprehensive, personalized weight loss programs. This includes: - Body composition analysis - Doctor-supervised food plans - Metabolism regulation - Appetite management - Lifestyle and motivational coaching - Science-based activity recommendations Medical weight loss is physician-directed weight ...

For some people, the glass is always half full. Even when a football fan's team has lost ten matches in a row, he might still be convinced his team can reverse its run of bad luck. So why, in the face of clear evidence to suggest to the contrary, do some people remain so optimistic about the future? In a study published today in Nature Neuroscience, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) show that people who are very optimistic about the outcome of events tend to learn only from information that reinforces their rose-tinted ...

Could controlling cell-membrane fat play a key role in turning off disease? Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago think so, and a biosensor they've created that measures membrane lipid levels may open up new pathways to disease treatment. Wonhwa Cho, distinguished professor of chemistry, and his coworkers engineered a way to modify proteins to fluoresce and act as sensors for lipid levels. Their findings are reported in Nature Chemistry, online on Oct. 9. "Lipid molecules on cell membranes can act as switches that turn on or off protein-protein interactions ...

Often, in this economy, it is easy to get behind. You know you owe taxes to the IRS, but every day bills and financial obligations begin to take priority in order to maintain a reasonable standard of living. This is the situation Michael (Tecumseh, Kansas) found himself in when he called the offices of Blue Tax in desperation looking for some guidance on how to get the IRS to cease sending him threatening letters about levies and garnishments, knowing that he owed back taxes. Michael's goal in retaining Blue Tax's services was to protect him from possible collection ...

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers – along with collaborators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals – have found a way to block, in an animal model, the damaging inflammation that contributes to many disease conditions. In their report receiving early online publication in Nature Biotechnology, the investigators describe using small interfering RNA technology to silence the biochemical signals that attract a particular group of inflammatory cells to areas of tissue damage. "The white blood cells known as monocytes ...

One of the most successful strategies in pest control is to endow crop plants with genes from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for short, which code for proteins that kill pests attempting to eat them. But insect pests are evolving resistance to Bt toxins, which threatens the continued success of this approach. In the current issue of Nature Biotechnology, a research team led by UA Professor Bruce Tabashnik reports the discovery that a small modification of the toxins' structure overcomes the defenses of some major pests that are resistant to the natural, ...