Twenty-four hour cycles, known as circadian rhythms, are important for proper body functions, including for normal brain function and mental health. Disruptions of circadian rhythms and sleep-wake cycles have been observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease. A new study by Douglas Institute researchers unravels a possible basis for these perturbations. First study to show function of clock genes in multiple areas of the human brain Until now, the genes contributing to this timing, known as clock genes, have only been found to be active in areas outside the brain, such ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a protein that shows distinct changes in structure between pancreatic cancer, non-cancerous diseases and normal blood serum. The protein also changes from early stage pancreatic cancer to advanced disease. The finding suggests a blood test could serve as a potential screening tool to detect pancreatic cancer – which has the worst prognosis of any cancer type – at an earlier, more treatable stage. "One of the difficulties in screening for pancreatic cancer is distinguishing ...

British Airways has increased capacity on its popular London City to Palma service by 50 per cent to meet the demand for seats this summer. With additional frequency and larger aircraft the airline will be providing over 25,000 seats to the Spanish holiday island direct from the Docklands making holidays to Palma de Mallorca more accessible than ever before. Due to the high early season demand, the three-times-a-week flights will increase to six-days-a-week, excluding Saturdays, in July and August. The Friday and Sunday flights to Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza, on ...

University of Alberta-led research has confirmed that a relatively harmless inorganic form of mercury found worldwide in ocean water is transformed into a potent neurotoxin in the seawater itself. After two years of testing water samples across the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found that relatively harmless inorganic mercury, released from human activities like industry and coal burning, undergoes a process called methylation and becomes deadly monomethylmercury. Unlike inorganic mercury, monomethylmercury is bio-accumulative, meaning its toxic effects are amplified ...

Guoman Hotels Grand Imperial London has launched its unique take on a timeless classic by offering its customers Oriental Afternoon Tea. Recalling the glamour of the orient with a sleek modern twist, guests can unwind safe in the knowledge that even their 'chi' will get some much needed rejuvenation in an ambience designed with a Feng Shui master. The Asian-inspired tea arrives presented on a stand laden with Cantonese sweets, treats and savouries. The first course includes fresh black cod rolls, wrapped in Kataifi pastry and Char Sui Bao. Both made with the freshest ...

Edmonton – Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have made an important discovery that provides a new understanding of how our immune system "learns" not to attack our own body, and this could affect the way doctors treat patients with autoimmune diseases and cancer. When patients undergo chemotherapy for cancer or as part of experimental therapies to treat autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and lupus, the treatment kills the patients' white blood cells. What can be done afterwards, is to give these patients blood stem cells ...

Berkeley, CA-- As China's economy continues to soar, its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions will keep on soaring as well—or so goes the conventional wisdom. A new analysis by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) now is challenging that notion, one widely held in both the United States and China. Well before mid-century, according to a new study by Berkeley Lab's China Energy Group, that nation's energy use will level off, even as its population edges past 1.4 billion. "I think this is very good news,'' says Mark Levine, co-author of ...

Researchers have begun screening the first definitive collection of thousands of approved drugs for clinical use against rare and neglected diseases. They are hunting for additional uses of the drugs hoping to find off-label therapies, for some of the 6,000 rare diseases that afflict 25 million Americans. The effort is coordinated by the National Institutes of Health's Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC). "This is a critical step to explore the full potential of these drugs for new applications," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "The hope is that this process ...

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading web hosting provider, has announced a brand new mobile website builder for its hosting customers. The service enables any level of user to build a mobile compatible website in minutes.  The mobile website builder application can detect mobile visitors and provides them the choice of whether to view a mobile-friendly website or full website version.  By catering for mobile users, a business can tap into additional online revenues and ensure greater customer retention and recommendation.     More Britons are browsing the web on the ...

A new study in rats is shedding light on how sleep-deprived lifestyles might impair functioning without people realizing it. The more rats are sleep-deprived, the more some of their neurons take catnaps – with consequent declines in task performance. Even though the animals are awake and active, brainwave measures reveal that scattered groups of neurons in the thinking part of their brain, or cortex, are briefly falling asleep, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered. "Such tired neurons in an awake brain may be responsible for the attention ...

Saxo Bank, the specialist in online trading and investment, has launched four futures that will, for the first time, offer investors who are not residents in Brazil direct access to the Brazilian market. The products include the Bovespa Index and USD/BRL cross and enable investors to gain exposure to one of the currently most buoyant economies and hedge risks in their portfolios. With this launch, Saxo Bank provides investors with four futures investment instruments - the BOVESPA Index, IBOVSPA Index Mini, BMF US Dollar Future and Mini BMF US Dollar - that are available ...

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has developed a guideline for the use of external beam radiation therapy, endobronchial brachytherapy and concurrent chemotherapy to palliate thoracic symptoms caused by advanced lung cancer. The guideline will be published in Practical Radiation Oncology, an official journal of ASTRO. Many patients whose lung cancer has spread receive radiation therapy to treat symptoms related to cancer, such as cough, shortness of breath, bronchial obstruction and chest pain. However, the exact treatment approach can vary from doctor ...

Scientists from NASA and other organizations are on a mission to unlock the mysteries of why certain clouds produce copious amounts of rain. In a field mission that is now under way, aircraft are carrying instruments above and into rain clouds. Meanwhile scientists are also getting rainfall measurements on the ground. This field campaign provides the most comprehensive observations of rainfall in the U.S. through the use of aircraft, spacecraft, remote sensing and ground sensors. Convective clouds are the focus of a NASA mission that runs from April to June, 2011. Convective ...

Prudential has revealed that more than a third of people are delaying their retirement and putting their dreams on hold. More than a third (38 per cent) of people due to retire in 2011 are cancelling their plans and delaying retirement and working longer, and a significant proportion (22 per cent) of these are doing so because they can't afford to stop working. The findings, from Prudential's Class of 2011 study, revealed that those delaying retirement this year for financial reasons, had, on average, hoped to stop working at age 62 but now expect to be 68 years ...

Topshop has launched its new party dress collection called Dress Up Topshop. This debut collection of 12 statement dresses offers irreverent fun in a range of colours, shapes and styles. The collection brings the Topshop flavour to dresses that to wear with confidence by those who know how to get noticed. Each dress has its own character suiting any mood and any event, whether it's for a gig or a glam function, these dresses embrace experimentation and allow for styling and an individual approach. The collection features a black leather dress with gold studding, ...

TORONTO, Ont., April 27, 2011 –- Widespread demands in Canada for clinical trials for a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis show the growing power of the Internet and social media to influence research priorities, according to a paper published today in Nature. Paulo Zamboni, an Italian surgeon, suggested in 2008 that MS was not an autoimmune disease but rather a vascular disease caused by blockages in the brain. He proposed unblocking the veins by mechanically widening them – what he calls the "liberation procedure." His hypothesis got little public attention, ...

UPTON, NY -- Like atomic-level bricklayers, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory are using a precise atom-by-atom layering technique to fabricate an ultrathin transistor-like field effect device to study the conditions that turn insulating materials into high-temperature superconductors. The technical break-through, which is described in the April 28, 2011, issue of Nature, is already leading to advances in understanding high-temperature superconductivity, and could also accelerate the development of resistance-free electronic ...

Choice Hotels International, the global hotel group behind the Comfort, Quality and Clarion brands and one of the largest and most successful lodging franchisors in the world, has announced the opening of the Comfort Inn Hyde Park, bringing the number of Choice-branded hotels in London to eighteen. Previously independently run as the Park Lodge Hotel, the re-branded Comfort Inn Hyde Park has 29 newly re-furbished guest bedrooms, all with modern en-suites and featuring flat screen LCD televisions, free wi-fi, and tea and coffee making facilities. Guests also benefit from ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Fables have long cast scorpions as bad-natured killers of hapless turtles that naively agree to ferry them across rivers. Michigan State University scientists, however, see them in a different light. Ke Dong, MSU insect toxicologist and neurobiologist, studied the effects of scorpion venom with the hopes of finding new ways to protect plants from bugs. The results, which are published in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, have revealed new ways in which the venom works. Past research identified scorpion toxin's usefulness ...

Movie stars: Is there anything they can't tell us? According to a study published in the Spring issue of the Journal of Human Capital, marriages among movie stars can help unravel the reasons why people tend to marry partners of similar education levels. Social scientists have known for years that married people tend to be sorted by their levels of education, but the reasons for it have been elusive. It could be all about money. People may assume that a partner with similar education will have a salary that matches theirs. Or it could have to do with lifestyle factors. ...

EMC SAN provider Reliant Technology is pleased to announce the EMC CLARiiON CX3 Continuity Program. The program is designed to enable EMC storage customers with EMC CLARiiON CX3 Series systems to continue to support and upgrade their End-of-Life Systems. With EMC focusing its efforts on newer product lines, EMC CLARiiON CX3 customers are finding it difficult to obtain manufacturer support for their systems. As EMC refuses to support CX3 systems or charges expensive premiums for system support, Reliant Technology is a cost-effective option for EMC CLARiiON customers who ...

The Agulhas Current which runs along the east coast of Africa may not be as well known as its counterpart in the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream. But now researchers are taking a closer look at this current and its "leakage" from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean--and what that may mean for climate change In results of a study published in this week's issue of the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science Oceanographer Lisa Beal, suggests that Agulhas leakage could be a significant player in global ...

State Farm Agent Linda Allen takes her company's motto to heart. Like a good neighbor, Allen and her team collected and delivered donated supplies to weary firefighters in nearby Palo Pinto County. "There were numerous wildfires burning just west of my office," Allen said. "Many homes have been lost and property damaged. Firefighters were in desperate need of supplies." Allen and her team delivered over 1,200 bottles of water to the City of Hudson Oaks Volunteer Fire Department Thursday. The wildfire began Wednesday, April 13, near Possum Kingdom ...

Could veterans of war, rape victims and other people who have seen horrific crimes someday have the traumatic memories that haunt them weakened in their brains? In a new study, UCLA life scientists report a discovery that may make the reduction of such memories a reality. "I think we will be able to alter memories someday to reduce the trauma from our brains," said the study's senior author, David Glanzman, a UCLA professor of integrative biology and physiology and of neurobiology. The study appears in the April 27 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, a premier ...

WASHINGTON (EMBARGOED UNTIL 5 P.M. EST April 27, 2011) — By dividing individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) into four subtypes according to similarity of symptoms and reanalyzing existing genome-wide genetic data on these individuals vs. controls, researchers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences have identified 18 novel and highly significant genetic markers for ASD. In addition, ten of the variants were associated with more than one ASD subtype, providing partial replication of these genetic markers. This study thus identifies ...