Financial incentives work for doctors. Could they work for patients, too? Could they encourage them to change unhealthy behaviors and use preventive health services more? In some cases, yes, according to Dr. Marita Lynagh from the University of Newcastle in Australia, and colleagues. Their work, looking at why financial incentives for patients could be a good thing to change risky health behaviors, indicates that incentives are likely to be particularly effective at altering 'simple' behaviors e.g. take-up of immunizations, primarily among socially disadvantaged groups. ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Nov. 21, 2011) -- An anti-cancer drug used extensively in chemotherapy binds pervasively to RNA -- up to 20-fold more than it does to DNA, a surprise finding that suggests new targeting approaches might be useful, according to University of Oregon researchers. Medical researchers have long known that cisplatin, a platinum compound used to fight tumors in nearly 70 percent of all human cancers, attaches to DNA. Its attachment to RNA had been assumed to be a fleeting thing, says UO chemist Victoria J. DeRose, who decided to take a closer look due to recent ...

Disney on Ice: Princesses and Heroes is heading to the Czech capital next month.   The spectacular ice skating show, which will be staged at the Tesla Arena on Saturday December 3rd and Sunday December 4th, should provide a pre-Christmas treat for families in the city.   Members of the audience can expect to see many of their favourite characters from Disney's most popular films, including Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine from Aladdin and Ariel from The Little Mermaid.   There will also be plenty of daring high jumps and acrobatic feats from the skaters, as well as ...

AMES, Iowa - Research at Iowa State University has led to discovery of a genetic method that can increase biomass in algae by 50 to 80 percent. The breakthrough comes from expressing certain genes in algae that increase the amount of photosynthesis in the plant, which leads to more biomass. Expressing genes means that the gene's function is turned on. "The key to this (increase in biomass) is combination of two genes that increases the photosynthetic carbon conversion into organic matter by 50 percent over the wild type under carbon dioxide enrichment conditions," said ...

The joys of Christmas pantomimes are to be brought to Pattaya in a fun-filled production of Cinderella this winter.   Staged by the Pattaya Players, a popular amateur theatre troupe, the show premieres on November 25th and 26th, with further dates on December 1st, 3rd, 4th, 9th and 10th.   Attendees will be able to experience all the fun of the famous fairytale story in this British panto classic, which has been adapted for local audiences by writer Ray Lightbown and director Wendy Khan.   Kids and grown-ups alike will delight in the antics of Cinderella, Buttons, ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Nursing is among construction and law enforcement as one of seven professions reporting the most on-the-job injuries, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Sprains, strains or tears due to overexertion account for many of the injuries. Those injuries often can be attributed to improperly lifting, handling and moving patients. Now, nursing students at the University of Missouri have a new facility that will help them develop skills to keep themselves and their patients safe. An unused locker room in the Sinclair School of Nursing has been ...

WASHINGTON -- The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. And the more urgent the issue, the more people want to remain unaware, according to a paper published online in APA's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "These studies were designed to help understand the so-called 'ignorance is bliss' approach to social issues," said author Steven Shepherd, a graduate ...

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, which is scheduled to launch this week, has the potential to be the most productive Mars surface mission in history. That's due in part to its nuclear heat and power source. When the rover Curiosity heads to space as early as Saturday, it will carry the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars' surface. Those instruments will get their lifeblood from a radioisotope power system assembled and tested at Idaho National Laboratory. The Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator is the ...

Tourists travelling to Phuket over the festive period will be able to enjoy a bustling Christmas Market on December 10th 2011.   Sponsored by local publication the Phuket Gazette, the event will be held at Da Vinci's Restaurant between 15:00 and 18:00 local time and will see a wide variety of different goods on sale.   Among the wares on offer will be gifts, decorations, jewellery and homeware, as well as traditional festive snacks such as mince pies, Christmas cookies and cakes.   Meanwhile, various stalls and events will be in place to entertain families, including ...

A study using genetically modified zebrafish to visualize early events involved in development of human atherosclerosis describes an efficient model – one that the researchers say offers many applications for testing the potential effectiveness of new antioxidant and dietary therapies. The research, led by scientists from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has been published online by the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and will appear in print in the December 1 issue of the journal. Atherosclerosis is a process of lipid deposition and inflammation ...

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 21, 2011 — UC Irvine and Italian researchers have discovered a new means of enhancing the effects of anandamide – a natural, marijuana-like chemical in the body that provides pain relief. Led by Daniele Piomelli, UCI's Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences, the team identified an "escort" protein in brain cells that transports anandamide to sites within the cell where enzymes break it down. They found that blocking this protein – called FLAT – increases anandamide's potency. Previous work by the researchers indicates that compounds boosting ...

California lemon law attorney Michael R. Vachon, Esq. has filed a lawsuit in the California Superior Court for the County of San Diego alleging that Mossy Automotive Group, Inc. (a San Diego, California car dealership that operates under the name "Mossy Toyota") has an illegal practice of inserting double charges into vehicle lease contracts. The lawsuit alleges that this practice amounts to common law fraud, and violates California's consumer protection statutes. The lawsuit also alleges violations of the California lemon law. The Plaintiff seeks monetary damages ...

A team of researchers from several universities and institutions, including University of Notre Dame physics faculty Chris Howk and Nicolas Lehner, has demonstrated how galaxies continue to form stars by recycling vast amounts of hydrogen gas and heavy elements across billions of years. The researchers also identified large masses of previously undetected material surrounding galaxies, and described the large-scale flows of this gas. The results were published in three papers in the Nov. 18 edition of the journal Science. The leaders of the three studies are Lehner ...

PORTLAND, Ore. November 21, 2011. Log and lumber exports from Washington, Oregon, northern California, and Alaska in the first three quarters of 2011 already surpass the total exports of 2010 according to the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station. "The increasing shipments to China are the main driver of the hike in log and lumber exports from the west coast," says Xiaoping Zhou, a research economist with the station. "The log exports to China in 2010 (664.2 million board feet) was over 40 times of that in 2005 (15.8 million board feet). The ...

New benchmark research from Ventana Research finds that while insurance companies are advancing in their ability to apply analytics, there is still significant room for improvement in their analytics processes and technology. Insurance companies, under more pressure than ever to operate efficiently and make the right decisions regarding customers, policies and claims that can optimize the full potential from business analytics to be effective. This new benchmark research from Ventana Research, the leading business technology research firm, presents comprehensive, research-based ...

PITTSBURGH—Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have made advances in better understanding correlated quantum matter that could change technology as we know it, according to a study published in the Nov. 20 edition of Nature. W. Vincent Liu, associate professor of physics in Pitt's Department of Physics and Astronomy, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Hamburg in England, has been studying topological states in order to advance quantum computing, a method that harnesses the power of atoms and molecules for computational ...

Drug companies currently developing therapeutic cancer vaccines may be determining the cancers they target based on the number of annual cases, not the number of deaths they cause. This approach may limit the patient benefits of such drugs, according to a new University of Michigan report. Therapeutic vaccines, an alternative form of cancer treatment that may be more effective than traditional cancer therapies, are currently being tested in clinical trials around the world. Early studies on these vaccines, which trigger patients' immune systems to attack cancer ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ╨ Future astronauts spending Thanksgiving in space may not have to forgo one of the most traditional parts of the day's feast: fresh sweet potatoes. Cary Mitchell, a Purdue University professor of horticulture, and Gioia Massa, a former postdoctoral researcher at Purdue, developed methods for growing sweet potatoes that reduce the required growing space while not decreasing the amount of food that each plant produces. Their findings were published in the journal Advances in Space Research. Sweet potato plants have main vines with many shoots ...

Dazadi.com's revamped e-commerce website offers an all new and easier to use layout, just in time for this holiday season. Dazadi features competitive, low-price deals on sporting good products like basketball hoops, ping pong tables and pool tables. Outdoor living products and workout equipment including affordable deals on stair climber machines make the perfect holiday gift. "It was just time for an update utilizing the latest and greatest in development technology. This new platform will allow us to specialize the buying experience on Dazadi over the coming ...

As used medical equipment is a very practical solution to upgrading medical facilities at a fraction of the cost; more and more professionals are taking advantage of the wide availability of good-quality used devices on the market. For hospital administrators, department heads, and other personnel involved in the purchase of medical equipment, MedWOW has published and upgraded its Medical Equipment Buying Guide, to assist professionals in getting the most out of their new and used medical equipment purchases. The eBook is a downloadable PDF-ready file with easy printing ...

In 2009, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommended that Hemoglobin A1c be exclusively used for the diagnosis of diabetes in children. The simple test measures longer-term blood sugar levels -- without requiring patients to fast overnight. However, a new U-M study has shown that these tests are not very accurate in children. "We found that Hemoglobin A1c is not as reliable a test for identifying children with diabetes or children at high risk for diabetes compared with other tests in children," says Joyce M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and a ...

In 1991, a team led by Washington University in St. Louis paleoanthropologist Glenn Conroy, PhD, discovered the fossils of the first — and still the only — known pre-human ape ever found south of the equator in Africa after only 30 minutes of searching a limestone cave in Namibia. Traditionally, fossil-hunters often could only make educated guesses as to where fossils lie. The rest lay with chance — finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. "I don't want to say it's total luck," says Conroy, professor of physical anthropology in Arts & Sciences, "but it's a combination ...

Research by a team of Michigan State University scientists has shed new light on why some body parts are more sensitive to environmental change than others, work that could someday lead to better ways of treating a variety of diseases, including type 2 diabetes. The research, led by assistant zoology professor Alexander Shingleton, is detailed in the recent issue of the Proceedings of the Library of Science Genetics. In particular, Shingleton is studying the genetics of fruit flies and zeroing in on why some of the insects' body parts will grow to full size even when ...

For most Californians, a vehicle is not just a mode of transportation. Automobiles are an investment, a daily asset, and a necessary tool that many rely on. This is why it can become a major headache when those minor cracks and dings begin to crop up the windshield or other pieces of auto glass. For those that have had enough of unsightly and unsafe auto glass, there is now a great solution. Los Angeles auto glass repair is now easier and more affordable than ever as one of the most trusted local companies, PG Auto Glass, is offering a 10% discount on all of their services. Auto ...

HONOLULU—A new study from the University of Hawaii Cancer Center reveals that PEA-15, a protein previously shown to slow ovarian tumor growth and metastasis, can alternatively enhance tumor formation in kidney cells carrying a mutation in a cancer-promoting gene called H-Ras. The H-Ras oncogene is mutated in many human malignancies, and previous reports have shown the ability of H-Ras to contribute to the development, proliferation and metastasis of these tumors. Conversely, PEA-15 had been reported to inhibit tumor cell proliferation and metastasis by opposing H-Ras ...