Individuals who suffer from autoimmune diseases also display a tendency to develop atherosclerosis – the condition popularly known as hardening of the arteries. Clinical researchers at LMU, in collaboration with colleagues in Würzburg, have now discovered a mechanism which helps to explain the connection between the two types of disorder. The link is provided by a specific class of immune cells called plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs). pDCs respond to DNA released from damaged and dying cells by secreting interferon proteins which stimulate the immune reactions that underlie ...

A study based on the National Health and Sexuality Survey, involving nearly 2000 people, describes the sexual practices of senior citizens in Spain. The most common are kisses, caresses and vaginal penetration. The main causes of sexual inactivity are physical illness and widowerhood. A new study published in one of the world's biggest sexuality journals the Journal of Sexual Medicine analyses the factors that influence sexual activity amongst elderly people in Spain. "This research lets us know the reality of a social phenomenon which is not tackled enough in Spain: ...

Recently launched in the heart of Notting Hill, 'Colchis' Georgian Restaurant and Bar has not disappointed it's rich neighbouring surroundings. Hill Cross Furniture was delighted to fully furnish and work with appointed interior design firm, Design LSM and owner Giorgi Sulkanishvilli in transforming this 150 sq ft interior into a classic regency dining experience. Exploring Georgia�EUR s affluent heritage, both in location and design, Colchis boasts beautifully adorned dark wooden panelling, marble table tops, bold upholstery and candle-lit ambience at its best. The ...

Good HR management is important for any company. However, employee time tracking can be very time-consuming. But 2012 should be a year to celebrate for those employer and managers who get overwhelmed by employee attendance, sick, PTO, vacation time tracking headaches, thanks to the newly revamped ezTimeSheet employee time tracking software from halfpricesoft.com (http://www.halfpricesoft.com). Answering the demand of customers, the new features come with this release include: - Employee level vacation and leave accrual plan. - Auto-calculate PTO, leave time, vacation ...

To most of us, electricity is a matter of course. At the push of a button the light turns on and the TV starts. In reality, a tremendous amount of effort lies behind a secure supply of power. Because of the demand fluctuations, specialists must calculate precisely how much power is needed and when. Weekends, for instance, when offices and stores are closed, require less energy than Mondays. And when it is gray and rainy outside, the lights get turned on earlier than on sunny days. More than anyone else, transmission grid operators have to know in time, when electricity ...

Listening to the radio is a favorite German pastime. Every day, more than 60 million people turn their radios on, especially while driving, and studies show that one in two of them are unwilling to give up enjoying radio programs behind the wheel. But in the vehicle of the future, the electric car, listening to the radio is in principle not possible, since electrical interference impedes the reception of radio waves. These disruptions are caused by the frequency converter, which changes electrical energy into mechanical energy so as to control the electric motor's speed ...

Roam4Less (www.roam4less.com), the leader in roaming solutions via international cell phone & SIM cards, and PokeTALK (www.poketalk.com), a technology innovator in telephony services, have merged companies with the vision to create a global ecosystem. The two entities will be jointly named eMobile Ecosystems. Two of the most frustrating areas in the industry are traveling and calling overseas. International travelers must deal with outrageous roaming charges and the hassles of keeping track of multiple SIM cards. Plus, if you want to call overseas, the fees are ...

Cheshire based business, Lords Wines has over a decades worth of experience in supplying the on-trade and independent off-trade with an exciting range of competitively priced wines. However, over recent years the growing demand from businesses wanting to use wines for trade incentives and consumer promotions has led Lords to devise a new scheme to help others grow their businesses. Business owner, Jonathan Lord described how "With the current economic climate, more and more businesses are realising the importance of incentive schemes in terms of bringing in new ...

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory and respiratory disease caused by an abnormal reactivity to allergens in the environment. Of the several avenues of exploration that are currently being developed, vaccination appears to be the most promising approach. In a publication soon to appear in the review Human Gene Therapy, the research scientists at Inserm and CNRS ( Institut du thorax, CNRS/Inserm/University of Nantes) reveal an innovatory vaccine against one of the allergens most frequently encountered in asthma patients. After vaccine was directly injected into the muscle ...

Scientists analysing prehistoric global warming say thawing permafrost released massive amounts of carbon stored in frozen soil of Polar Regions exacerbating climate change through increasing global temperatures and ocean acidification. Although the amounts of carbon involved in the ancient soil-thaw scenarios was likely much greater than today, the implications of this ground-breaking study are that the long-term future of carbon deposits locked into frozen permafrost of Polar Regions are vulnerable to climate warming caused as humans emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide ...

With over 67,000 registered sites, Moodle is the most popular Learning Management System globally. Moodle HQ is now fully focused on the Moodle 2.x series and ends support for Moodle 1.9 security fixes in June 2012. To ease the concerns of organisations that are not quite ready to upgrade to Moodle 2, Totara Learning Solutions is sponsoring support for serious security issues with Moodle 1.9 until December 2013. As with any software product, Moodle releases have a specific life cycle for support. From time to time legacy functionality will be discontinued or replaced ...

A new gene that causes early-onset of Alzheimer's disease has been discovered by the research team of Dominique Campion at the Insert unit 1079 "Genetics of cancer and neuropsychiatric diseases" in Rouen. The research scientists showed that in the families of 5 of 14 patients suffering from the disease, mutations were detected on the gene SORL1. This gene regulates the production of a peptide involved in Alzheimer's disease. The results of this study have been published in the review Molecular Psychiatry issued April 3rd. Precise genetic mutations have been seen to ...

Some people quit smoking on the first try while others have to quit repeatedly. Using such mobile technology as hand-held computers and smartphones, a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh is trying to find out why. "One thing that really stood out among the relapsers is how their urge to smoke just never dropped, in contrast to those who were successful in quitting for a month -- their urge dropped quickly and systematically -- almost immediately upon quitting," said Stephanie Lanza, scientific director of The Methodology Center at Penn ...

Novosoft, the developer of award-winning backup software and enterprise resource planning systems, presented an official strategy for resolving data breach issues from the latest Verizon report which regard data backup. The strategy is based upon applying the best practices for different versions of Handy Backup, the backup software, depending of a company size and IT infrastructure. The backup software strategy whitepaper is available by request. "The annual report Verizon on global data breaches is a must-read for any company having more than zero computers. The ...

AMHERST, Mass. – In a new study reported in Nature, climate scientist Rob DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues elsewhere propose a simple new mechanism to explain the source of carbon that fed a series of extreme warming events about 55 million years ago, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), and a sequence of similar, smaller warming events afterward. "The standard hypothesis has been that the source of carbon was in the ocean, in the form of frozen methane gas in ocean-floor sediments," DeConto says. "We are instead ascribing the ...

Oil & Gas IQ are delighted to confirm that Stuart Gregory, Senior Policy Advisor from HM Treasury, and Hugh Hedges, Head of North Sea Policy Team, HMRC will be making a presentation on the new UK decommissioning budgetary changes during the Decommissioning Liabilities Focus Day taking place Monday 23rd April 2012 as part of the 10th Annual Acquisition & Divestiture Summit. "We are very excited to have confirmed the HM Treasury for the Focus day as it offers delegates a unique chance to ask direct questions to the formulators of policy about what the new ...

Hidden in the mud, the cone snail Conus purpurascens lies in wait for its victims. It attracts its prey, fish, with its proboscis, which can move like a worm, protruding from the mud. Once a fish approaches out of curiosity, the snail will rapidly shoot a harpoon at it, which consists of an evolutionarily modified tooth. The paralyzed victim then becomes an easy meal. It takes the venomous cone snail about two weeks to digest a fish. During this time, its venomous harpoon is also replaced. Prof. Dr. Diana Imhof from the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Bonn, ...

RingCentral, Inc., a leading provider of cloud business phone systems, today launched RingCentral CloudFax(SM), the first ever cloud-based, fully integrated fax service offering the ability to send documents directly from Box, Dropbox and Google Docs. With just a few clicks, RingCentral CloudFax(SM) enables users to seamlessly fax any document stored in the cloud from a single web page - improving workflow and boosting productivity. "RingCentral allows us to send and receive faxes from anywhere, which enables us to respond to our clients quickly from wherever we're ...

Usain Bolt can achieve faster running times with no extra effort on his part or improvement to his fitness, according to a study published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. Cambridge Professor of Mathematical Sciences John D. Barrow illustrates how, based on concrete mathematical evidence, Bolt can cut his world record from 9.58 seconds to 9.45. Usain Bolt holds the current 100m world record, at 9.58s, and has been described as the best sprinter there has ever been, dramatically reducing his ...

New research into the impact of climate change on Chinese cereal crops has found rainfall has a greater impact than rising temperature. The research, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that while maize is sensitive to warming increases in temperature from 1980 onwards correlated with both higher and lower yields of rice and wheat. The study was carried by Dr. Tianyi Zhang, from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, and Dr. Yao Huang, from the Institute of Botany, both at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The paper is part of a special ...

Children with moderate or severe asthma attacks who are treated with systemic corticosteroids during the first 75 minutes of triage in the Emergency Department (ED) were 16% less likely to be admitted to hospital. This highlights the importance of adopting a strategy to rapidly identify and begin treating children with moderate or severe asthma attacks directly after triage, according to a team of investigators working at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center (UHC), the University of Montreal, McGill University and the Research Institute of the McGill University ...

AMHERST, Mass. – The U.S. National Research Council this week released a synthesis of reports from thousands of scientists in 60 countries who took part in the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08, the first in over 50 years to offer a benchmark for environmental conditions and new discoveries in the polar regions. University of Massachusetts Amherst geosciences researcher and expert in the paleoclimate of the Arctic, Julie Brigham-Grette, co-chaired the NRC report, "Lessons and Legacies of the IPY 2007-08" with leading Antarctic climate scientist Robert Bindschadler ...

In a report in Energy Digital, SOCWA sets the standard for its methods of handling wastewater in a way that respects its customers as much as the environment. Ever wonder what happens to the water that goes down the drain after you brush your teeth in the morning, take a shower, flush the toilet or run the washing machine or dishwasher? For most of us, the answer is no—what's out of sight is out of mind. But as water becomes an increasingly valuable resource, especially to Californians, it's about time we start taking a look at just how important the process of treating ...

Nashville, TN -- Mutations in hundreds of genes involved in wiring the brain may contribute to the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). That is one of the rather daunting conclusions of a paper published in the current issue of the journal Nature by a multi-institutional team that included researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. But while there is no simple explanation for ASD, the researchers identified a few genes as "genuine risk factors," raising hopes that they will be able to discover the underlying biological cause of these disorders. ...

BOSTON (April 4, 2012) – Improving or maintaining physical fitness appears to help obese and overweight children reach a healthy weight, reports a new study from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Researchers analyzed four years of data from in-school fitness tests and body mass index (BMI) measurements of students in grades 1-7 in the city of Cambridge, Mass. In the study published online March 15 by the journal Obesity, Sacheck and colleagues examined the association between weight status and fitness levels by assessing student ...