Countless mice, rats and rabbits die every year in the name of science – and the situation is getting worse. While German laboratories used some 2.41 million animals for scientific research in 2005, by 2009 this number had grown to 2.79 million. One third were destined for fundamental biology research, and the majority were used for researching diseases and developing medical compounds and devices. People demand medicines that are safe and therapies that are tolerable, but hardly anyone is happy to accept the need for animal testing. This is why scientists have spent years ...

A group of experts has prepared a report on vitamin D supplementation for menopausal women after it was revealed that Europeans have suffered an alarming decrease in their levels of this vitamin. In their opinion, the ideal would be to maintain blood levels above 30 ng/ml. Vitamin D is essential to the immune system and processes such as calcium absorption. "We believe that many diseases can be aggravated by a chronic deficiency of vitamin D," states Faustino R. Pérez-López, researcher at the University of Zaragoza. In particular, this is worse during the menopause as ...

Total Mortgage Services, LLC, a leading mortgage lender, announced today the hiring of Neil Bader as the Company's National Retail Sales Manager. To this important management position, Mr. Bader brings more than 25 years of production, leadership, and entrepreneurship within the mortgage industry. In his new role, Mr. Bader will be responsible for expanding Total Mortgage's successful retail channel, as it continues its nationwide growth. Mr. Bader will be based in Milford, Connecticut and report directly to John Walsh, President of Total Mortgage. "Neil is a focused ...

Daejeon, Republic of Korea, January 10, 2012—Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced today that its research team headed by Professor Howon Lee from the IT Convergence Research Institute has developed a technology that will make reading on smartphones and tablet PCs easier than now. The technology, called the "Smart E-book System," allows users of smartphones and tablet PCs to effortlessly flip through the pages of an e-book or cross-reference its contents, just as they would with paper-based books and magazines. Unlike conventional displays ...

A new study supports previous findings that children delivered by cesarean section have an increased risk of developing asthma. The study from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) suggests that children delivered by cesarean section have an increased risk of asthma at the age of three. This was particularly seen among children without a hereditary tendency to asthma and allergies. Data from more than 37 000 participants in the MoBa study were used to study the relationship between delivery method and the development of lower respiratory tract infections, ...

Fusion plasma researchers at the University of Warwick have teamed up with Cambridge neuroscientists to apply their expertise developed to study inaccessible fusion plasmas in order to significantly improve the understanding of the data obtained from non-invasive study of the fast dynamics of networks in the human brain. Unless they undertake invasive techniques, neuroscientists are limited to external sensing when studying live brains. One key method the researchers turn to is magnetoencephalography (MEG) in which sensors measure the tiny magnetic fields outside the ...

A new study by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy illustrates a disconnect between government funding of biomedical research by young investigators and a novel standard by which to judge it: the Nobel Prize. The study found the average age of biomedical researchers getting their first grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2008 was 42. Over the past 30 years, the average age of Nobel winners when they performed their groundbreaking research was 41. That should trouble those concerned about the United States' standing as a biomedical powerhouse, ...

Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden are now launching a plan to effectively treat psoriasis. An estimated 125 million people worldwide suffer from the difficult to treat disease, which manifests itself in scaly and often itchy patches on the skin. The reason is that cells divide without restraint as new blood vessels form in the deeper layers of the skin. An important component is the psoriasin protein (S100A7), which are abundant in psoriasis-affected skin but rarely in normal skin. The same protein is also assumed to be a factor in the development of breast ...

Van Trader, leading website in the UK for the purchase and sale of used vans, launched a competition in collaboration with Talksport Radio, 1089/1053am, giving fans and listeners the chance to win a new van. The competition, sponsored by the sister company of the network of online car dealers offer new and used cars, Auto Trader, is an airborne "Van in the Van" questionnaire on the basis of famous football players with the name of ... Van. The listener who knows their Van stuff how to win Van Nistelrooy Van Persie will come out with a Citroen Berlingo of more ...

Boston, MA – Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have successfully tested a controllable endoscopic capsule, inspired by science fiction, that has the ability to "swim" through the body and could provide clinicians with unprecedented control when photographing the inside of the human body. The capsule is designed to be swallowed like a pill and can be equipped with a camera. Once inside the patient's digestive track, a doctor can "steer" the capsule through the body using an MRI machine, photograph specific areas of interest, and view those pictures wirelessly. With ...

When nerve cells communicate with one another, specialized receptor molecules on their surfaces play a central role in relaying signals between them. A collaborative venture involving teams of chemists based at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich and the University of California in Berkeley has now succeeded in converting an intrinsically "blind" receptor molecule into a photoreceptor. They achieved this feat by using molecular genetic techniques to attach what amounts to a light-controlled chemical "switch" to a macromolecular receptor that is normally activated ...

OzeVision Web Hosting snatches the distinction of ranking 10th amongst the "Top 25 Most Poplar" web hosting companies in the category "Australian Web Hosting Directory" by WebHostDir.com. The awards page can be viewed at: http://ozevision.com/web_hosting/top-25-most-popular-webhosting-awards.html WebHostDir.com appraise the 25 most liked companies in the category "Australian Web Hosting Directory" on monthly basis. The "25 Most Popular List" is based on the number of online votes a webhost company receives and the number of ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Eastern view of parenting, as defined by best-selling author and self-described "tiger mother" Amy Chua, is that children should be pushed to excel at all costs. Parents needn't worry about their happiness, she argues, only their success. But now a Michigan State University scholar is refuting that theory. In her research, Desiree Baolian Qin – who, like Chua, is a Chinese mother – found that high-achieving Chinese students were more depressed and anxious than their white counterparts. And contrary to the tiger mother philosophy, Qin said, ...

MadCap Software, Inc., the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a showcase company for Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft XPS, today announced that it has published a new case study on athenahealth, Inc. Using the MadCap technical communications suite, the company's current technical writing team is able to publish new versions of its print and online documentation each month, even as the number of topics has tripled from 15 to 45. More than 29,000 medical providers nationwide take advantage of the athenahealth cloud-based, practice management, electronic ...

CLEVELAND -- Bladder cancer, most frequently caused by smoking and exposure to carcinogens in the workplace, is one of the top 10 most common forms of cancer in men and women in the U.S. More than 70 percent of bladder cancers are diagnosed in stage T1 or less and have not invaded the muscle layer. At these early stages, standard treatment is surgery (transurethral resection) and the burning away of tumors with high energy electricity (fulguration). Many patients also may receive subsequent intravesical chemotherapy because there is often a high-risk for cancer recurrence. ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A study from Rhode Island Hospital has found that collaborative behavioral management may be effective in reducing substance abuse among convicted marijuana users who are paroled. The findings have important implications for the management of a substantial proportion of the U.S. community correctional population. The study is published in Addiction and is available online in advance of print. In the U.S., over 700,000 inmates leave prisons each year and over two-thirds of those inmates have a drug problem. The return of these inmates to the community ...

A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder has used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to uncover a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of construction -- the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe. In a random sky survey made in near-infrared light, Hubble spied five small galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. They are among the brightest galaxies at that epoch and very young, living just 600 million years after the universe's birth in the Big Bang. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles. Galaxy clusters ...

Dr. Matt DiDuro of Health Choice Chiropractic Center, Alpharetta chiropractic, further informs patients of valuable chiropractic health care topics via his new practice blog. Whether they are current patients, or simply searching for a chiropractor in Alpharetta and surrounding areas, Dr. DiDuro is excited to offer increased chiropractic knowledge through his practice blog. "With the chiropractic industry advancing, we recognize the importance of keeping our patients and visitors up-to-date with all of the new and exciting things taking place at our practice. With ...

In the world of biomolecules such as proteins and the hereditary nucleic acids DNA and RNA, three-dimensional structure determines function. Analysis of the passage of such molecules through nanopores offers a relatively new, but highly promising, technique for obtaining information about their spatial conformations. However, interactions between the test molecules and the proteins used as pores have so far hindered quantitative analysis of the behavior of even simply structured molecules within nanopores. This problem must be solved before the technique can be routinely ...

Dr. Timothy Byrd, dentist in Alpharetta, GA, of Byrd Dental Group is pleased to maintain three convenient office locations for easy access to dental health care for patients. Dr. Byrd invites patients to visit any of Byrd Dental Group's three locations for increased convenience and care. All three offices strive to deliver quality dental care to informed patients in Woodstock, Douglasville and Alpharetta, GA areas. With three offices, patients can visit the location that is closest for them. Each office offers general and cosmetic dental care, including dental implants, ...

As mosquito-borne viral diseases like West Nile fever, dengue fever, and chikungunya fever spread rapidly around the globe, scientists at Virginia Tech are working to understand the mosquito's immune system and how the viral pathogens that cause these diseases are able to overcome it to be transmitted to human and animal hosts. In nearly every part of the world, humans and animals experience high levels of morbidity and mortality after being bitten by mosquitoes infected with viruses. More than 100 different viruses transmitted by blood feeding arthropods like mosquitoes ...

The only thing better than getting great software, is getting great software FREE! SoftwareMedia is hosting a month-long software giveaway extravaganza, wherein fans of their Facebook page or followers of their Twitter page have the chance to win free software. What's the catch, you ask? SoftwareMedia is expanding its Social Media efforts and is trying to get word out about its company. All you need to do is "Like" or "Follow" and you're one step closer to winning your own copy of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, Flash Drives, and more! SoftwareMedia has been ...

WASHINGTON — With recent advances in technology and design, treating municipal wastewater and reusing it for drinking water, irrigation, industry, and other applications could significantly increase the nation's total available water resources, particularly in coastal areas facing water shortages, says a new report from the National Research Council. It adds that the reuse of treated wastewater, also known as reclaimed water, to augment drinking water supplies has significant potential for helping meet future needs. Moreover, new analyses suggest that the possible health ...

Street gangs, drug addiction, child prostitution, homelessness, abuse and neglect are major concerns that affect millions of American youth. According to studies, half of the U.S. youth population (17.6 million kids) is considered "at-risk" of getting into trouble with the law, or "high-risk" and already in trouble. Our kids need help. January is National Mentoring Month. A study done by Public/Private Ventures in Philadelphia showed that children matched with mentors through Big Brothers Big Sisters were 46% less likely to begin using illegal ...

Montreal, January 10, 2012 — Adults from 30 to 60 years old, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, aren't consuming the daily recommended levels of fruits and vegetables. Quebecers, however, eat more of nature's produce than their fellow Canadians. These are some of the findings of a new Concordia University study, published by Nutrition Journal, which sheds light on who reaches in their fridge crisper often enough to gain the health benefits of a balanced diet comprised of fruits and vegetables. "People from the Atlantic to the western provinces ...