State Pushes Zero Tolerance for Underage Drinking and Driving Offenses July 14th, 2011, marked the 17th anniversary of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which required all states to pass legislation setting 21 years old as the minimum age to drink or purchase alcohol. States that did not comply faced a 10 percent penalty in their federal highway funding. The law was enacted as a measure to combat the problem of underage drinking and associated traffic fatalities. In 2007, nearly 31 percent of teen drivers killed in highway crashes had been drinking, and ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Slim down by targeting the hormone uroguanylin The number of people who are obese and suffer one or more of its associated health problems (including type 2 diabetes) is escalating dramatically. Researchers are seeking to identify new targets for therapeutics that could limit appetite and thereby obesity. A team of researchers, led by Scott Waldman, at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, has now uncovered one such potential target by studying the molecular control of appetite in mice. In the study, Waldman and colleagues found that nutrient intake ...

National Institutes of Health researchers have found that Parkin, an important protein linked with some cases of early-onset Parkinson's disease, regulates how cells in our bodies take up and process dietary fats. Parkinson's disease is a complex, progressive, and currently incurable neurological disorder characterized by shaking, stiffness, slowed movement, and impaired balance. Parkinson's primarily affects people over 50, but in about 5 to10 percent of cases it occurs in people as young as their 20s. This form of the disease, which affects actor, author, and Parkinson's ...

Seeing a need to increase ways for small businesses to boost efficiency during the prolonged recession, Halfpricesoft.com gives away check writing software for FREE though online special offer at http://www.halfpricesoft.com. "It's a win-win-win-win situation: the customer gets free product, we make sales, the TrialPay advertiser makes sales, and TrialPay gets commissions. " said Dr Ge, the founder of halfpricesoft.com. ¡°In a down economy, companies need to streamline and increase efficiency, so they can be more productive with every minute and every dollar. ...

Researchers have today revealed a new gene associated with osteoarthritis. This is only the third gene to be identified for this painful and debilitating disease that affects more than 40 per cent of people aged more than 70 years. The disease-associated variant, in the gene MCF2L, was discovered when Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute researchers used data from the 1000 Genomes Project to increase the power of their genome-wide association scan. The preliminary stage of the original arcOGEN study, funded by Arthritis Research UK, compared the genomes of 3,177 people with ...

Canadian researchers have discovered that a tumor cell marker is a receptor for measles virus, suggesting the possible use of measles virus to help fight cancer. Their findings appear in the Open Access journal PLoS Pathogens on August 25th. Viruses cause infection by attaching to specific proteins on cell surfaces called receptors. Dr. Chris Richardson of Dalhousie Medical School in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and colleagues found that the tumor cell marker, PVRL4 (Nectin 4), is a receptor for measles virus. The PVRL4 receptor is found in airway cells, and measles ...

MFGpartners.net, the online trade association & national networking portal for the custom manufacturing industry is at it again with its enter into the competitive Californian marketplace. The company, founder of the American Machine Shops Network (AMSN) says it has approved over 70 California machine shops profiled on its website at http://mfgpartners.net/category/california-shops/ serving markets throughout Los Angeles, Fresno, Anaheim, Long Beach, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Ana, Northbridge, San Jose, Oakland and numerous other cities and counties ...

New Orleans, LA – Research led by Dr. Melinda Sothern, Professor of Public Health and Jim Finks Endowed Chair in Health Promotion at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that obese 7-9-year-old children had nearly three times the liver fat and almost double the belly fat of their nonobese counterparts and that insulin resistance was more than double and insulin sensitivity less than half respectively. The study is the first to use a combination of advanced measurements in healthy obese and nonobese children in this age group prior to entering puberty. The findings ...

The independent authority on search vendors in Canada, canada.topseos.com has declared the best SEO Service providing companies for the month of August 2011. 1st on the List Promotion Inc, a well-respected and acknowledged SEO service providing company earned rank #2 among other top SEO agencies in the industry. It has demonstrated services that have earned them a higher position among thousands of the top SEO service providers. 1st on the List Promotion Inc gained their position by hard work and unique technology in the field of SEO service that was determined by an ...

The discovery has been made by an international research team, led by Professor Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and is reported in the journal Science. The researchers, from The University of Manchester as well as institutions in Australia, Germany, Italy, and the USA, first detected an unusual star called a pulsar using the Parkes radio telescope of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and followed up their discovery with the Lovell radio telescope, based at Jodrell Bank Observatory ...

PHILADELPHIA—The hormone receptor guanylyl cyclase C (GCC) has been established as a suppressor of colorectal cancer tumors, but new evidence from Thomas Jefferson University suggests it may also help fight one of the country's biggest pandemics: obesity. Reporting in the August 25 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Scott Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Jefferson, and colleagues found that silencing GCC affected appetite in mice, disrupting satiation and inducing obesity. Conversely, ...

Join Simply Ghost Nights as we 'have taken over the asylum'... for a night. The Lawn is a Greek style building with it's four columns and Doric entrance it is truly an architectural masterpiece, it's name is derived from the sprawling area in which it is situated. The Lawn was opened under the stewardship of the Reverend Doctor Willis in 1820 as the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum. It was one of the first asylums in the U.K, to treat patients with a caring and sympathetic manner, rather than the oppressive restrain and isolation method that was prevalent at the time. It is ...

Life expectancy is increasing all the time due to better quality of life and better health care. Despite this, increases in life expectancy can be patchy, with some sources reporting that the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor is getting bigger as time goes on. However, BioMed Central's open access journal International Journal for Equity in Health is pleased to report that the life expectancy for people living in deprived areas in Campinas, Brazil, is catching up, rising at three times the rate of people living in more affluent areas. Researchers from the State ...

STANFORD, Calif. — For a few years now, scientists have known that humans and their evolutionary cousins had some casual flings, but now it appears that these liaisons led to a more meaningful relationship. Sex with Neanderthals and another close relative — the recently discovered Denisovans — has endowed some human gene pools with beneficial versions of immune system genes, report researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in an article to be published online by the journal Science at the Science Express website on August 25. Although modern humans, ...

End2End Business Solutions, one of Australia's trusted outsourced HR outsourcing companies, shares how effective human resources planning can be highly beneficial to an organization. Skills development for both employees and managers is an important factor to the growth, stability and success of any business. Relying on its track record of strategic and operational human resources management, End2End Business Solutions emphasizes the importance of incorporating the human resource planning process right from the start-up phase of a company, through to its growth or retrenchment ...

San Diego, CA, August 30, 2011 – The benefits of physical activity accumulate across a lifetime, according to a new study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Researchers in England and Australia examined the associations of leisure time physical activity across adulthood with physical performance and strength in midlife in a group of British men and women followed since birth in March 1946. "Maintaining physical performance and muscle strength with age is important given that lower levels in older populations are associated with ...

A new scoring system can more reliably predict whether patients with advanced cancer are likely to survive for "days", "weeks" or "months" finds a study published on bmj.com today.Patients with advanced cancer and their carers often wish to know how long they have left to live. This information is also important for clinicians to help them plan appropriate care. Clinician predictions of survival are the mainstay of current practice, but are unreliable, over-optimistic and subjective. So a team of researchers, led by Dr Paddy Stone at St George's, University of London, ...

Fragrance Foundation Arabia - the Middle East wing of The Fragrance Foundation, the international industry body, has signed up Business Unlimited Zone - Management & Marketing Consultancy [BUZ-MMC] to act as its official Strategic Communications Partner for the Middle East Fragrance Summit 2011 & FiFi Awards 2011 (the Oscars of the Fragrance industry). BUZ has a proven track record to deliver end to end solutions to Organizations in both Government & Private sectors. The company currently handles the Dubai Shopping Malls Group (Industry Association of Shopping ...

Children in low and middle income countries should be given vitamin A supplements to prevent death and illness, concludes a study published on bmj.com today. The researchers argue that the effectiveness of vitamin A supplementation is now so well-established that further trials would be unethical, and they urge policymakers to provide supplements for all children at risk of deficiency. Vitamin A is an essential nutrient that must be obtained through diet. Vitamin A deficiency in children increases vulnerability to infections like diarrhoea and measles and may also ...

Alan N. Carlson, M.D. — Professor of Ophthalmology and Chief of the Corneal and Refractive Surgery Services at the Duke Eye Center, is honored as one of the top ophthalmologists in North Carolina with a place on the list of Best Doctors 2011 - 2012. With this award, Dr. Carlson, who specializes in laser vision correction surgery at the Duke Eye Center in Durham, North Carolina, has been recognized by his colleagues as one of the most accomplished ophthalmologists working in North Carolina and the U.S. This latest award marks the 15th year in a row that Dr. Carlson's ...

S. Stanley Young, assistant director for bioinformatics at the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS), and Alan Karr, director at NISS, have published a non-technical article in the September issue of Significance magazine pointing out that medical and other observational studies often produce results that are later shown to be incorrect, and—invoking a quality control perspective—suggest ways to fix the system. Their central point is that the current system of publication in peer-reviewed journals relies on post-production inspection to ensure quality, a ...

Cold Spring Harbor, NY – Like all living things, plants depend for their growth and sustenance on elaborate signaling networks to maintain stem cells, cells that have an almost magical regenerative capacity. The signals sent through these networks convey an incredible diversity of instructions, which make it possible for plants to follow genetic and cellular programs regulating growth, shape, and energy production and consumption. A team of plant biologists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) led by Professor David Jackson has pioneered the use of genetics to discover ...

Fantasy football season is upon us and twelve of the industry's top personalities will be competing in the Fantasy Football Nerd's Experts League for charity. Each expert has chosen a charity to play for and FantasyFootballNerd.com will make a financial donation to the winning expert's charity. "We have assembled some of the best folks in the industry for this league. They are some of the brightest and most dedicated professionals. They are each naturally competitive so this should be a fun time for everyone. The fact that everyone gets to play for their favorite ...

Stem cell therapies promise to regenerate the infarcted heart through the replacement of dead cardiac cells and stimulation of the growth of new vessels. New research has found the transplantation of stem cells that reside in human veins can help in the recovery of a heart attack. The findings could lead, in the next few years, to the first human clinical trial. The study, led by Professor Paolo Madeddu, Chair of Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine in the School of Clinical Sciences at the University of Bristol and colleagues in the Bristol Heart Institute, is published ...

Reducing the risks of catching E. coli O157 in the countryside is everyone's problem. That means we should all take responsibility - individual residents and visitors, as well as farmers and government - according to researchers working on the Research Councils UK Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU). E. coli O157 is the most common of the harmful strains of the bacteria and this interdisciplinary research has investigated not just its characteristics, but also how people understand E. coli O157 and how their behaviour affects the threats that it poses. E. coli ...