Post-menopausal women with high levels of hormones such as estrogen or testosterone are known to have a higher risk of breast cancer. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research looked at eight different sex and growth hormones and found that the risk of breast cancer increased with the number of elevated hormones - each additional elevated hormone level increased risk by 16%. Researchers from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School used blood samples collected from nurses up to nine years before health information, ...

The condition tuberous sclerosis, due to mutation in one of two tumor suppressor genes, TSC1 or TSC2, causes the growth of non-malignant tumors throughout the body and skin. These tumors can be unsightly and cause serious damage to organs. Growth of tumors in the brain may cause seizures and in the kidney, liver or heart, tumors can disrupt normal function, to the extent of causing the organ to fail. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cell and Bioscience shows that the growth of glucose-dependent TSC-related tumors can be restricted by 2-deoxyglucose, ...

NOAA scientists have found that pressure from increasing coastal populations, ship and boat groundings, marine debris, poaching, and climate change are critically threatening the health of the Florida Keys ecosystem. Many historically abundant marine resources such as green sea turtles and coral habitat continue to be at risk with low rates of recovery. The findings were released today in the Condition Report 2011 for Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, describing the status and trends of the sanctuary's water quality, habitats, and marine and cultural resources, ...

DALLAS – Oct. 20, 2011 – A recent UT Southwestern Medical Center study found that estrogen regulates energy expenditure, appetite and body weight, while insufficient estrogen receptors in specific parts of the brain may lead to obesity. "Estrogen has a profound effect on metabolism," said Dr. Deborah Clegg, associate professor of internal medicine and senior author of the study published Oct. 5 in Cell Metabolism. "We hadn't previously thought of sex hormones as being critical regulators of food intake and body weight." The mouse study is the first to show that estrogen, ...

Dodo has become a major player in the Australian home services market, delivering internet, phone, and electricity to more than 300,000 households Australia wide. "In ten short years Dodo has transitioned from an innovative start-up ISP, to an Australian household name known for introducing affordable internet and telecommunications services at a time when it was very expensive," said Larry Kestelman, Founder and CEO of Dodo Australia Pty Ltd. Dodo is the largest privately owned telecommunications company in Australia and since its inception in 2001 it ...

Theoretical chemists at Emory University have solved an important mystery about the rates of chemical reactions and the so-called Polanyi rules. The findings, published in the journal Science, reveal why a reaction involving methane does not conform to the known rules, a problem that has baffled physical chemists in recent years. "We showed that a pre-reactive, long-range force can align the reaction of a chorine atom with methane, or natural gas, in a way that actually inhibits the reaction," says Joel Bowman, a professor of theoretical chemistry at Emory and the ...

DNA ANALYSIS: A new and astonishing chapter has been added to North American prehistory in regards to the first hunters and their hunt for the now extinct giant mammoth-like creatures – the mastodons. Professor Eske Willerslev's team from the Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen, has in collaboration with Michael Waters' team at the Center for the Study of the First Americans, University of Texas A&M, shown that the hunt for large mammals occurred at least 1,000 years before previously assumed. This new study concludes that the first-known hunters in North ...

Singapore is to play host to some of the most popular musicians in east Asia next month when the Sundown Festival 2011 takes place at Marina Promenade.   The annual event returns for the third year on November 26th and will once again feature some of Japan and Korea's most sought-after acts, while also introducing Taiwanese acts for the first time.   This year's roster will include top talents from Taiwan such as superstar Mandopop performer Show Luo and Hebe Tien of girl group SHE, as well as the award-winning Zhang Yun Jing, the former winner of the talent show Super ...

The Cheerleading World Championships are returning to Hong Kong next month and will see teams from around the world competing in exuberant displays of athleticism and choreography. To be held at the Hong Kong Coliseum, the event represents the sixth edition of a competition that has grown considerably since its inauguration in 2001, with past contests taking place in Japan, Finland, Germany and the UK. Whereas only eight countries took part in the maiden event, the 2011 championships are expected to welcome 70 teams from 40 different nations, with brackets available ...

LA JOLLA, CA, October 20, 2011 – A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has identified a new metabolic pathway for controlling brain inflammation, suggesting strategies for treating it. The new report, which appears in the October 20, 2011 edition of Science Express, focuses on the type of inflammation normally treatable with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin or ibuprofen. The study shows this type of inflammation is controlled by different enzymes in different parts of the body. "Our findings open up the possibility ...

Visitors to Pattaya next month will be able to enjoy a wild night out when the Amazone Night Beach Party takes place.   It comes as part of the G Session series of monthly beach parties, which are organised on the first Saturday of each month by hotel and resort chain Pullman.   The next event is to take place on November 5th from 19:00 local time until the early hours and offers an exotic Brazilian theme, with exuberant dancers set to impress audiences with their physicality.   Live music will be provided by the likes of DJ Funky Wax from Brazil, DJ Solo from Belgium ...

VIDEO: Researchers warn of a looming health crisis in the wake of rising mortgage delinquencies and home foreclosures. In this video report, Dawn E. Alley, Ph.D, assistant professor of epidemiology and... Click here for more information. Baltimore, MD – Oct. 20, 2011. Researchers warn of a looming health crisis in the wake of rising mortgage delinquencies and home foreclosures. The study, released today in the American Journal of Public Health, is the first long-term survey ...

Visitors to Seoul still have time to catch My Way, an exhibition of art by Jean-Michel Othoniel that is currently taking place at the Plateau art gallery.   The exhibition has been organised with support from the Centre Pompidou and Institut Francais and began in September 2011, with visitors able to see the show until November 27th.   My Way is a mid-career retrospective to the leading French artist, whose work includes sculptures and installations created using glass and other materials.   His art has explored a diverse range of different topics over the years, ...

BOSTON, MA (October 20, 2011) – Results from a comprehensive multi-site clinical trial demonstrated that the use of antimicrobial copper surfaces in intensive care unit rooms reduced the amount of bacteria in the rooms by 97 percent and resulted in a 41 percent reduction in the hospital acquired infection rate. According to researchers, this study is one of the first to demonstrate the value of a passive infection control intervention, one that does not rely on staff or patients remembering to take action. The results will be presented on Friday, October 21 at the 2011 ...

New research suggests that hitch-hiking, once believed to be the exclusive domain of beat poets and wanderers, is in fact an activity that daring members of the animal kingdom engage in. And it may lead to a serious ecological problem. Dr David Chapple, Dr Bob Wong and Sarah Simmonds from Monash University's School of Biological Sciences, have published two complementary studies on invasive species, which are taking the opportunity to jump on board freight and cargo transports to explore, and settle, new lands. The researchers found that particular personality traits ...

There is no link between long-term use of mobile phones and tumours of the brain or central nervous system, finds new research published on bmj.com today. In what is described as the largest study on the subject to date, Danish researchers found no evidence that the risk of brain tumours was raised among 358,403 mobile phone subscribers over an 18-year period. The number of people using mobile phones is constantly rising with more than five billion subscriptions worldwide in 2010. This has led to concerns about potential adverse health effects, particularly tumours ...

Studies of ant populations in Borneo reveal an unexpected resilience to areas of rainforest degraded by repeated intensive logging, a finding which conservationists hope will lead governments to conserve these areas rather than allow them to be cleared and used for cash crop plantations. Leaf litter ants are often used to measure the overall ecological health of an area because of the large number of species present and because the health of the leaf litter is a good indication of the overall health of the forest. It is commonly assumed that repeated logging of rainforests ...

Visitors to Puchong in Malaysia this November will have the opportunity to participate in the IOI Community Run 2011, an exciting charity race event. To be held on November 20th, the race sees families and friends banding together on a fun-filled Sunday morning to take part in a physically demanding run through Puchong in order to help raise money for charity. Partners of the IOI Community Run 2011 include relief charity World Vision Malaysia, the SSL Stroke and Welfare Development Foundation and local foster home Rumah Shalom. Those participating will be able ...

Thailand visitors will be able to enjoy a celebration of friendship and local culture during next month's Silk Phuk Siew Festival and Red Cross Fair. Running from November 29th to December 10th this year, the event has been bringing the people of the area together since 1980 and centres around the friendship-making ritual of Phuk Siew. In local culture, the principle of siew refers to the most inseparable of affectionate relationships between two people, whose ties extend across both of their families. Phuk Siew is organised concurrently with the local silk ...

We all know the feeling, the short, sharp shock of waking to the sound of an alarm clock. Whether the traditional clattering metal bells, the incessant beeping of digital or the dulcet tones of today's radio news reader. Even the chance to slap the snooze button to grab a few extra moments between the sheets does not leave everyone feeling refreshed when they finally crawl out of bed. Now, researchers in India think they have the answer. Writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, the researchers describe an alarm ...

Amateur athletes will be congregating in Phuket next month to take part in the Laguna Phuket Triathlon, which is to be held on November 27th this year.   Running for the last sixteen years, the event allows participants to put themselves to the ultimate physical test alongside top triathletes, while passing through striking tropical scenery.   Professionals such as Mark Allen, Greg Welch, Craig Alexander, Paula Newby-Fraser, Michellie Jones and Chrissie Wellington are among those who have taken part in past years.   The race starts with a 1.8 km swim from the beach, ...

A book or a screen – which of these two offers more reading comfort? There are no disadvantages to reading from electronic reading devices compared with reading printed texts. This is one of the results of the world's first reading study of its kind undertaken by the Research Unit Media Convergence of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in cooperation with MVB Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels GmbH. "E-books and e-readers are playing an increasingly important role on the worldwide book market. However, readers in Germany are particularly skeptical when ...

A healthy diet is especially important during the menopause – a period in which the risk of suffering from health problems increases. Various studies analyse the diet of peri- and postmenopausal women in Spain alongside the troubles that come with this transition. The results show that all of those groups studied have a deficient intake of vitamin D. Marina Pollán, researcher at the Carlos III Institute of Health and one of the authors of the study explains that "biological and physiological changes in women caused by the menopause come with a greater risk of developing ...

SDC and Party Erotique come together again to bring you "Party Erotique Dallas" at the Aloft Saturday, October 29th, 2011. Doors open at 9pm and *masks are required* for entry. The Aloft is located at 1033 Young St in downtown Dallas. Advance ticket purchases are only $30 and if purchased the day of the event $50. Make it an Erotique Halloween Weekend and purchase a package starting at only $199 per couple. Packages include accommodations for two at Starwood's flagship Aloft Hotel, admission to afternoon educational seminars and demos, two tickets to Party ...

"It will be the first non-destructive method. This means that measurements can be taken in closed packaging and the gas composition over time can be checked. This will make it possible to check a much higher number of products than at present", says Märta Lewander, Doctor of Atomic Physics at Lund University in Sweden. Dr Lewander developed the technique in her thesis and now works as chief technical officer for the company Gasporox, which is commercialising the technology. Today, spot checks are performed on individual samples, with the risk that damaged products ...