PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a new study, scientists report that they substantially curbed weight gain, improved metabolism, and improved the efficacy of insulin in mice by engineering them to express a specific human enzyme in their fat tissue. Although the obesity prevention came at the significant cost of widespread inflammation, the research offers new clues about the connections among obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and inflammation. "Turning on this molecule has a very dramatic impact on lipid metabolism," said Haiyan Xu, assistant professor ...

Marion's Smart Delights is proud to announce that it won the Gourmet Product Awards. Marion's Gluten-Free Cookie and Muffin Mix won for best baking mix. The versatile, allergy-friendly, and Kosher mix can be used to create everything from fancy party treats to vegan, dairy-free, and even heart-healthy versions of scrumptious muffins, holiday cookies, pies, tarts, and more. The reduced sugar and low-sodium mix is packed with nutritious whole grains, including quinoa, millet, and amaranth. It is one of a few gluten-free dessert mixes in the market carrying the Whole Grain ...

Washington — Scientists are discovering promising approaches to treating pain, one of the most common and debilitating neurological complaints, according to research released today at Neuroscience 2011, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. Studies show that "mirror box therapy" can help reduce arthritis-related pain, and that a new opioid-like drug may be able to relieve acute pain without the euphoric effects that can lead to dependency. Additional research also identifies the ...

Tuberculosis, which kills over 2 million people each year, is caused primarily by infectious bacteria known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis – or Mtb. Mtb targets human immune cells as part of its strategy to avoid detection, effectively neutralizing the body's immune response. Up until now, scientists had a general understanding of the process, but researchers in the Immunity and Infection Research Centre at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and the University of British Columbia have shown Mtb produces a specific protein that allows it to defuse and bypass ...

Increases in air pollution and other particulate matter in the atmosphere can strongly affect cloud development in ways that reduce precipitation in dry regions or seasons. This while increasing rain, snowfall and the intensity of severe storms in wet regions or seasons, according to results of a new study. The research provides the first clear evidence of how aerosols--soot, dust and other particulates in the atmosphere--may affect weather and climate. The findings have important implications for the availability, management and use of water resources in regions ...

From Enron in the United States to Satyam in India, there are plenty of examples of corporate managers lying about their companies' earnings and ultimately hurting themselves and the businesses they work for. Why do they do it? A limited capacity to see the whole picture – known as "bounded rationality" -- combined with a faulty ethical compass are two big reasons, shows a new study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The study also finds that shareholders are just as guilty of the same weaknesses and that insider trading is linked to earnings ...

CHICAGO (November 14, 2011) – According to the results of a new study published in the November 2011 Journal of the American College of Surgeons, malpractice lawsuits against U.S. surgeons occur often and can take a profound personal toll on the surgeon, resulting in emotional exhaustion, stress, and professional dissatisfaction. The researchers examined personal and professional characteristics and found malpractice lawsuits were strongly and independently linked to surgeon depression and career burnout. The stress caused by malpractice litigation was rated as equivalent ...

Imagine a cellphone battery that stayed charged for more than a week and recharged in just 15 minutes. That dream battery could be closer to reality thanks to Northwestern University research. A team of engineers has created an electrode for lithium-ion batteries -- rechargeable batteries such as those found in cellphones and iPods -- that allows the batteries to hold a charge up to 10 times greater than current technology. Batteries with the new electrode also can charge 10 times faster than current batteries. The researchers combined two chemical engineering approaches ...

Orlando –A new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and collaborators at various institutions, presented at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, shows that a novel, non-invasive measurement of arterial wave reflections may be able to predict who is most at risk for heart failure. The authors presented data from an ancillary study of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). When the heart contracts it generates a pulse or energy wave that travels through the arteries. This wave gets reflected ...

BINGHAMTON, NY -- Online retailers have long wondered if trumpeting consumer-behavior statistics on their websites could hurt business. New findings from Binghamton University should ease their fears, just in time for Cyber Monday. Qi Wang, an associate professor of marketing at Binghamton University, studied the effects of user comments and sales statistics that accompany products offered on e-commerce sites. While the impact of positive and negative feedback has been well understood, much less was known about so-called "observational behavior" - aka a person's tendency ...

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have found a possible link between norovirus, a virus that causes "stomach flu" in humans, and food allergies. The findings are published in The Open Immunology Journal, Volume 4, 2011. Mitchell H. Grayson, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, medicine, microbiology and molecular genetics at the Medical College, and a pediatric allergist practicing at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, is the corresponding author of the paper. The researchers took mice infected with norovirus and fed them egg protein. They then examined ...

Just in time for the holidays, Charles Smith, owner of RAJA Concepts, LLC, announced the availability of The Chessboard. The innovative, elaborate three-dimensional board makes a perfect holiday gift for players, collectors and chess aficionados alike. It is a perfect gift to bring the family together during the holiday season, as well as a beautiful collector's piece. "The Chessboard a perfect accompaniment for match play and a consummate conversation piece for collectors," said Smith. "Its 3-D design heightens players' excitement over the flat board ...

Researchers and conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Guatemala Program, WCS's Bronx Zoo, the National Park Service of Guatemala, and other groups report a major conservation victory from Central America: a bumper crop of magnificent scarlet macaw fledglings that have now taken flight over the forests of Guatemala. The newly fledged birds total 29 macaws, a big success for conservationists working in the Maya Biosphere Reserve who were hoping to record at least one fledgling from each monitored nest (24 nests in total) during the 2011 season. The monitoring ...

InetSoft Technology (www.inetsoft.com), an innovator in data mashup driven dashboard and reporting solutions, announced that the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University is joining InetSoft's Academic Alliance Program with the goal of providing students in the Computing and Decision Sciences department access to BI tools. The Academic Alliance program is a global initiative that offers Universities with the opportunity to use InetSoft's BI software within the classroom setting. For Dr. David Rosenthal, Chair of the Department of Computing and Decision Sciences, ...

Total Mortgage Services, LLC, a leading mortgage lender, announced today that it is registered with the state of Ohio's Department of Commerce, Division of Financial Institutions, under the Mortgage Broker Act Mortgage Banker Exemption, and is now entitled to broker residential mortgage loans as a Freddie Mac seller/servicer, Fannie Mae seller/servicer, VA non-supervised automatic lender, and FHA non-supervised mortgagee. Total Mortgage can now originate residential mortgage loans in 24 states and the District of Columbia, with 5 additional state licenses pending. "With ...

Hospitals that do not have cardiac surgery capability can perform nonemergency angioplasty and stent implantation as safely as hospitals that do offer cardiac surgery. That is the finding of the nation's first large, randomized study to assess whether patients do just as well having nonemergency angioplasty performed at smaller, community hospitals that do not offer cardiac surgery. Results of the study, called the Cardiovascular Patient Outcomes Research Team Elective Angioplasty Study (C-PORT-E), are being presented on Nov. 14, at the American Heart Association's Scientific ...

Space around Earth is anything but a barren vacuum. The area seethes with electric and magnetic fields that change constantly. Charged particles flow through, moving energy around, creating electric currents, and producing the aurora. Many of these particles stream in from the solar wind, starting out 93 million miles away on the surface of the sun. But some areas are dominated by particles of a more local source: Earth's atmosphere. These are the particles being watched by FASTSAT's Miniature Imager for Neutral Ionospheric Atoms and Magnetospheric Electrons (MINI-ME) ...

Today, Punchbowl.com, the leader in start to finish party planning and digital greeting cards, announced a beautiful new collection of free eCards for Thanksgiving. With stunning designs and endless customization options, senders can gobble up the chance to share warm greetings with friends and family for the holiday. During the whirlwind period of Thanksgiving planning and traveling, free eCards for Thanksgiving are a convenient and thoughtful way to celebrate with loved ones near and far. The digital greeting cards for Thanksgiving feature festive seasonal motifs that ...

Geologists have long thought the loess—or fine silt—that accumulated on the Chinese Loess Plateau was carried on winds from desert regions to the northwest over the past 2.6 million years. New research indicates the loess may actually have come from due west, which would change conventional thinking about wind patterns during that period. A team of geologists from the U.S. and China—led by the University of Rochester—compared the composition of uranium and lead in zircon crystals excavated from the Chinese Loess Plateau and potential source sites. The scientists found ...

Alexandria, VA – What do geology and textiles have in common? More than you might think. Since the 1980s, coastal, ocean and hydraulic engineers have been reinforcing coastlines and cleaning up contaminated water from dredge materials and other sludges and slurries with a revolutionary fabric that combines the strength of certain textiles with geoscientific know-how. So far, geotubes have been an integral tool in protecting our delicate coastlines; however, the relative infancy of the innovation leaves many questions unanswered about how these geotechnical marvels will ...

A new University of Minnesota study reveals that the release of treated municipal wastewater – even wastewater treated by the highest-quality treatment technology – can have a significant effect on the quantities of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, often referred to as "superbacteria," in surface waters. The study also suggests that wastewater treated using standard technologies probably contains far greater quantities of antibiotic-resistant genes, but this likely goes unnoticed because background levels of bacteria are normally much higher than the water studied in this ...

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ORLANDO -- Mayo Clinic researchers have amassed additional evidence that secondhand smoke kills and smoke-free workplace laws save lives. The study will be presented to the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions on Monday in Orlando. Their research shows that the incidence of heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths was cut in half among Olmsted County, Minn., residents after a smoke-free ordinance took effect. Adult smoking dropped 23 percent during the same time frame, as the rates of other risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes ...

Washington — What makes us decide to play it safe or take a risk? Scientists presented research today identifying regions and functions of the brain involved in such decisions to provide fresh insights into how humans explore the unknown. These findings also add to a relatively new area of inquiry — neuroeconomics and the study of economic behavior. The research was presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. Specifically, today's new findings show that: The ...

Whole-body-vibration, a popular exercise which uses a vibrating platform, is sometimes advertised as being able to boost bone density. However, a one-year-study on healthy postmenopausal women has shown that it has no such effect. The study entitled, "Effects of 12 Months of Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) on Bone Density and Structure in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial", is published in the November 15, 2011 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. This study was led by University Health Network (UHN) researchers, Drs. Angela Cheung, Shabbir Alibhai and ...