Alcoholism is a tough addiction to kick. Eventually, most people return to drinking. But some Dutch and German psychological scientists have tested a short-term regime that promises to help alcoholics stay sober. Their study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association of Psychological Science. Heavy drinkers tend to behave impulsively in response to temptation. Meanwhile, their "reflective," or controlled, responses—the thoughts that would help them resist drinking—are often weak. Most therapies, including Cognitive Behavior Therapy, primarily ...

Mild heart failure patients with a particular condition that results in disorganized electrical activity throughout the heart benefit substantially from cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator (CRT–D), according to a study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. In patients with the condition, known as left bundle branch block or LBBB, CRT-D therapy reduced heart failure progression and the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmias, fast and potentially life-threatening heart rhythms. Heart failure patients without LBBB did not receive ...

Many people suffer from a devastating condition known as critical limb ischemia (CLI) that can lead to muscle wasting and even amputation. The disease is linked to the blockage of blood flow to the skeletal muscle and current treatment options include rehabilitative exercise and surgical bypass of blood vessels. New preclinical research suggests there may be a way to restore blood supply in skeletal muscle without traditional intervention. Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies ...

WASHINGTON, March 1—The world's largest international conference on optical communications will take place March 6-10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) is the premier telecom meeting where experts from industry and academia share their results, experiences, and insights on the future of electronic and wireless communication and optical technologies. More than 10,000 attendees and an exhibit with 500 companies are expected. CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS Plenary ...

An AIDS vaccine tested in people, but found to be ineffective, influenced the genetic makeup of the virus that slipped past. The findings suggest new ideas for developing HIV vaccines. The results were published Feb. 27 in Nature Medicine. This is the first evidence that vaccine-induced cellular immune responses against HIV-1 infection exert selective pressure on the virus. "Selective pressure" refers to environmental demands that favor certain genetic traits over others. The senior author of the multi-institutional study is Dr. James I. Mullins, University of Washington ...

Tropical Cyclone Atu had a brief but memorable life last week, and NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a day-by-day look at its growth and death. AIRS provides infrared images of atmospheric phenomena, oceans and land areas around the world. Basically, infrared data takes the temperature of these things. When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Tropical Cyclone Atu from February 21 through the 25 it saw thunderstorm cloud tops grow colder as the clouds grew higher and thunderstorms became more powerful. When ...

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Glory spacecraft is scheduled for launch on Friday, March 4. Technical issues with ground support equipment for the Taurus XL launch vehicle led to the scrub of the original Feb. 23 launch attempt. Those issues have been resolved. The March 4 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is targeted for 5:09:43 a.m. EST, in the middle of a 48-second launch window. Spacecraft separation occurs 13 minutes after launch. Data from the Glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols ...

INDIANAPOLIS – Tanning bed exposure can produce more than some tanners may bargain for, especially when they self-diagnose and use the radiation to treat skin eruptions, according to research conducted by the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Dermatology. "There are many reasons to be cautious of tanning bed radiation but some people use tanning beds to 'self-treat' skin eruptions," said Jeffrey B. Travers, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of a study published online in the Archives of Dermatology. "If the skin eruption is eczema or even psoriasis, a tanning ...

Indiana University scientists have solved a perplexing mystery regarding one of the body's main energy storage molecules, in the process shedding light on a possible route to treatment of a rare but deadly disease in teenagers. The disease occurs when a genetic mutation causes excessive amounts of phosphate to build up in glycogen. Glycogen is a chain-like molecule the body uses to temporarily store glucose when it's not needed to provide energy for cellular activities. The excess phosphate causes unnatural glycogen structures to appear in the body, including the brain, ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- When a disaster's physical evidence is gone -- debris removed, shooter arrested, ashes cold -- the psychological effects of the disaster on emergency responders and civilians involved still may burn. Emergency mental health, a field often overlooked in the chaos, is a vital component of any disaster response, but may not be well represented in emergency preparedness planning. Trained mental health responders to the Continental Flight 3407 disaster outside Buffalo in 2009 share their lessons learned on mental health preparedness in an article that ...

Guojun Liu has discovered a way to use nanotechnology to reduce friction in automobile engines and machines. "The technology should be useful in a wide range of machineries other than automobile engines," says Dr. Liu, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and an expert in polymer synthesis. "If implemented industrially, this nanotechnology should help prolong machine life and improve energy efficiency." Dr Liu's team prepared miniscule polymer particles that were only tens of nanometers in size. These particles were then dispersed in automobile engine base oils. ...

This press release is available in German. Many materials, when observed over a sufficiently long period of time, show changes in their mechanical properties. The exact course of these developments depends on the underlying microscopic mechanisms. However, the microscopic structure and the complexity of the systems make direct observation extremely difficult. That is why a team led by Professor Andreas Bausch from the Chair of Cellular Biophysics resorted to a model system that can be precisely controlled using actin filaments, a biopolymer that, among other things, ...

The spiral galaxy NGC 247 is one of the closest spiral galaxies of the southern sky. In this new view from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope in Chile large numbers of the galaxy's component stars are clearly resolved and many glowing pink clouds of hydrogen, marking regions of active star formation, can be made out in the loose and ragged spiral arms. NGC 247 is part of the Sculptor Group, a collection of galaxies associated with the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253, also shown in eso0902 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0902/ - and eso1025 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1025/). ...

Existing plans for antiviral and antibiotic use during a severe influenza pandemic could reduce wastewater treatment efficiency prior to discharge into receiving rivers, resulting in water quality deterioration at drinking water abstraction points. These conclusions are published this week (2 March 2011) in a new paper in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, which reports on a study designed to assess the ecotoxicologic risks of a pandemic influenza medical response. The research was carried out by a team from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UK), the Institute ...

Experts agree that long-term alcohol abuse is detrimental to memory function and can cause neuro-degenerative disease. However, according to a study published in Age and Ageing by Oxford University Press today, there is evidence that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption may decrease the risk of cognitive decline or dementia. Estimates from various studies have suggested the prevalence of alcohol-related dementia to be about 10% of all cases of dementia. Now researchers have found after analyzing 23 longitudinal studies of subjects aged 65 years and older that the impact ...

(Mar. 2, 2011) – HOBOKEN, NJ – The American Heart Association estimates 35 percent of adults in the U.S. suffer from metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors characterized by obesity and the simultaneous presence of heart disease risk factors with high blood pressure, blood sugar and lipids. In patients with metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure and blood glucose gradually impair kidney function, which in turn affects the organ's ability to filter waste from the body. A study published in the June 2010 issue of Panminerva Medica reveals Pycnogenol® (pic-noj-en-all), ...

The 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections is being held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston from February 27 through March 2. Day three of this major HIV/AIDS research conference included the following selected presentations from scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. iPrEx Update Robert M. Grant, M.D., of the J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, presented an update on the results of the iPrEx study. As reported in November 2010, this ...

Completely newly designed web site allows website visitors opportunity to find the best deals and discounts from Ladbrokes Promotion Codes. It really is distinctive for the reason that it offers its visitors the opportunity to find multiple promotion codes all in one place. What this means is that users can easily navigate through Ladbrokes Promotion Codes to find the ones that are best for them. In addition you will find these significant features: - Easy to navigate - The best deals and promotions available - Something for Everyone. webmaster Andrew Jenkins pointed ...

China's Economy: China ran its first monthly trade deficit in six years in March. Walter Parker Group is specifically designed to provide value orientated services in the areas of strategic planning, business development, and mergers and acquisitions. We assist our clients in building equity by improving the effectiveness and efficiencies of their organizations. With imports of commodities surging in February, China swung to a trade deficit of $7.24 billion in March from a surplus of $7.61 billion in February. The cumulative trade surplus for the first quarter of ...

Allcon Roofing, Inc., which saw record growth during the recessionary year of 2010, has expanded to the mid-west by opening a satellite operation in Phoenix, AZ. With two installation crews and a sales manager on site, the Phoenix staff shares office space with Pestrivas Construction, a highly regarded Arizona contractor. "We decided to partner to establish our presence there more quickly," said Craig Perfect, President of Allcon Roofing. "Pestrivas needed a roofing division with expertise in roof replacement, which we have, and we wanted to expand in that area of the ...

LightManTools has announced LightMan TagEditor version 1.2.0 LightMan TagEditor is was designed to make tag processing easy for those who are first of all music lovers and not tech savvies. With LightMan TagEditor you can fill missing ID3 tag fields even if you only have parts of filenames and folder names to help you in the process (such as title, artist, album, year, genre, comments and other info you think would be useful for tagging a file). The program can be used with various formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, WV, M4A, AAC, MPC files. In some ...

Pop / Rock artist Aitan has announced a March 8, 2011 release date for his new studio EP Top Of The World. Aitan worked on Top Of The World with producer Stewart Cararas (Katie Cole, All Time Low, American Idol) in his Los Angeles based studio. The EP shows a mix of his known pop sensibility with a well-crafted arsenal of club worthy beats and electronic hooks. The official track listing for "Top of the World" is below. 1. Top Of The World 2. Nothing Without You 3. All Over You 4. Rock Baby Red 5. Heartache The first single from Top Of The World is "Nothing Without ...

VRCities, Inc. announced the launch of its health and wellness membership site to meet the complete wellness needs of every individual. This aligns with the company's Wellness Initiative to build a system that encourages total wellness living. "10's of millions of people are looking every month and must not be finding," stated Dr. Jim Namaste, Director of Program Development. "The word health gets more than 45,000,000 searches each month; fitness, more than 20,000,000 and diet 16,000,000. This means that there are more searches for these three words every four months ...

Blue Asset Management LLC has recently closed on a multi-family building in Weehawken, New Jersey, according to Charles Blumenkehl, managing partner for Blue Asset Management. According to Blumenkehl, "Weehawken, in its close proximity to New York City and the Lincoln Tunnel, combined with a great school system, is a mecca for New York commuters who want to enjoy the city life without living in the middle of it. The town is well maintained, well managed, and provides some of the greatest up-close views of Manhatten across the Hudson you could ever see from our location." Blumenkehl ...

A fundraising event hosted by Jolane Crawford of Jet Methods and Laura Barry of Barry Estates in Rancho Santa Fe will be held at a private residence on the evening of Thursday, March 10, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to benefit the The Jammer Family Foundation. Guests are invited to mingle over select wine and appetizers while previewing the new line of Choo 24:7 Bags. A percentage of all sales from the event are being donated back from Jimmy Choo in support of the Jammer Family Foundation. Inspired by jet-setting women who travel with practical needs and following ...