"I hope that unraveling the way Skywalker works will not only teach us more about the way neurons communicate with each other but will also lead to new diagnostics and therapies for neurological diseases such as Parkinson's," says Verstreken. Communication between brain cells Brain disorders take a major toll on society. More than 8% of the population in the West depends on analgesics. Twenty per cent suffers from a mental disturbance and the number of people suffering from the effects of neurological diseases is estimated at 1 billion. Many of these problems are caused ...

New research from the University of Cincinnati provides food for thought. The research examined how short-term and long-term hunger affected mate selection and aggression in female wolf spiders (Schizocosa ocreata) commonly found in the eastern United States and Canada. These female spiders are potentially aggressive and cannibalistic when approached by a courting male. The research is published in the April 2011 print issue of the journal, "Animal Behavior." It was carried out by George Uetz, UC professor of biology, and former UC doctoral student Brian Moskalik, ...

More than half of the commercial vehicle drivers who responded to United Safety Alliance, Inc.'s online survey admitted to deliberately violating federal Hours of Service (HOS) regulations. Those regulations aim to keep highways safe by limiting driving time so commercial vehicle drivers get enough rest. Currently, HOS compliance is monitored through paper logs and supporting documentation such as toll receipts. However, paper logs allow for falsification. For that reason, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is looking to shift to an automated means ...

Planting short rotation energy crops on England's unused agricultural land could produce enough biomass to meet renewable energy targets without disrupting the food industry or the environment, according to research led by Professor Gail Taylor from the University of Southampton. The study, funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), is a rare investigation into energy crop supply which looks at the potential of planting short rotation coppice (poplar and willow) in England, taking into account social, economic and environmental constraints. It found that with efficient ...

January 2011 was the snowiest January that Connecticut has seen since records were first kept in 1905. While one would expect snow and ice accumulation to impact commute times, such accumulation also has had impact on sidewalks, making outside entrances to businesses and houses slippery and dangerous. In fact, according to the Brookfield Patch, snow and ice-related accidents are unusually high this year. Tom Rizzo, spokesman for the Westchester District of the United States Postal Service, also told the Yorktown Patch that there have been 57 accidents due to slips and falls ...

Federal legislation proposed by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch seeks to force local law enforcement agencies to further assist federal immigration policy or lose funding. Senate Bill 332, the Strengthening Our Commitment to Legal Immigration and America's Security Act, also eliminates the diversity visa, an immensely popular program that allows for 50,000 lottery-based visas every year. Several other provisions involving exit procedures, welfare benefits and drug crimes round out the wide-ranging bill. But some commentators are already calling the effort a political ploy ...

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is often diagnosed too late in children and adolescents. In the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108: 173-79), Susanne Walitza and her colleagues point out that appropriate early recognition and treatment can positively affect the course of the disease. Compulsive washing, the most common obsessive-compulsive manifestation among children and adolescents, is present in up to 87% of all patients; other common types are compulsive repetitive behavior and checking, and obsessive thoughts of an aggressive ...

The dormouse in Alice in Wonderland was well advised to stay asleep – especially as doing so did not prevent it from taking a full part in the tea-time conversation. Dormice in Europe spend about eight months of the year asleep and are extremely safe during this extended period, with almost all of them surviving the winter. This result comes from a study of dormouse survival rates in Austria, the Czech Republic, England, Germany and Italy. Karin Lebl was a PhD student in Ruf's group. Together with collaboration partners in these countries, she examined how the survival ...

A potential new experimental diagnostic test able to quickly distinguish individuals with active tuberculosis (TB) from those with latent TB infection has been developed. If the preliminary results of the study will be confirmed in a larger population sample, the new diagnostic system could allow more effective strategies to control the spread of the re-emerging pathology. The work was performed by a group of scientists from the Catholic University of Rome, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases "L. Spallanzani" of Rome and the University of Sassari, in a study ...

A recent survey performed by the Pew Hispanic Center (PHC) found that over 60 percent of Hispanics polled still feel that they are the victims of national origin bias. The PHC -- a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group -- is focused on tracing trends in attitude and lifestyle that affect Latinos and others of Hispanic origin living in America. The striking percentage of disenfranchised Hispanics is a sharp uptick in the numbers of those who felt discriminated against in recent years, and most blame the rise in bias as being the direct result of America's highly publicized ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Engineers at Oregon State University have invented a new way to use surface-mount adhesives in the production of low-temperature, microchannel heat exchangers - an advance that will make this promising technology much less expensive for many commercial applications. This type of technology will be needed, researchers say, in next-generation computers, lasers, consumer electronics, automobile cooling systems, fuel processors, miniature heat pumps and more. New industries and jobs are possible. A patent has been applied for, the findings reported in ...

LA JOLLA, CA—When cells find themselves in a tight spot, the cell cycle regulator p21 halts the cell cycle, buying cells time to repair the damage, or if all else fails, to initiate programmed cell death. In contrast to other stress-induced genes, which dispense with the regular transcriptional entourage, p21Cip1 still requires SKIP, a transcription elongation factor that also helps with the editing of transcripts, to be expressed, found researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In the absence of SKIP, the expression of p21Cip1 is rapidly down-regulated, ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Most parents get their information about vaccines from their children's doctors, but some also consider public health officials, other parents, friends and family members and even celebrities as sources of vaccine information. These are the results of a national survey conducted by University of Michigan researchers to determine how much parents trust different sources of information in regards to vaccines, as well as to determine what disseminating methods would be most effective for those distributing evidence-based information about vaccines. The ...

In late January, a district court judge in Florida issued a lengthy opinion holding that the new federal health care reform act shepherded into law by President Obama is unconstitutional. Although news of the ruling has traveled fast, many are wondering just what the decision means for the future of the health care law. The Case In a joint lawsuit involving 26 states, Federal District Court Judge Roger Vinson found that the health care law popularly known as Obamacare overstepped the authority granted to Congress by the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, Judge Vinson ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- An award-winning Loyola University Health System study includes some unexpected findings about the immune systems of smoke-inhalation patients. Contrary to expectations, patients who died from their injuries had lower inflammatory responses in their lungs than patients who survived. "Perhaps a better understanding of this early pulmonary immune dysfunction will allow for therapies that further improve outcomes in burn care," researchers reported. Results were released at the 43rd annual meeting of the American Burn Association. The project won the 2011 ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A low dose of insulin has been found to suppress the expression in the blood of four precursor proteins involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, according to new clinical research by University at Buffalo endocrinologists. The research, published in March online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, suggests that insulin could have a powerful, new role to play in fighting Alzheimer's disease. "Our results show clearly that insulin has the potential to be developed as a therapeutic agent for Alzheimer's, for which no satisfactory ...

Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hotel company and a member of Dubai Holding, has announced the soft opening of its first five-star luxury hotel in China at the Himalayas Centre in Pudong, Shanghai. Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel Shanghai features 401 contemporary Chinese-style guestrooms, including 62 suites and residences, four restaurants and lounges, a 24-hour fitness centre and indoor swimming pool. The hotel also offers extensive meeting, conference and event facilities, including two grand ballrooms and a 5000m2 rooftop Infinity Garden, perfect for weddings and ...

Prudential has revealed that more than a third (35 per cent) of people planning to retire in the UK this year will do so with incomes below the poverty line. To meet its minimum income standard the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the charity that funds a large, UK-wide research and development programme, estimates that a single person in the UK needs at least GBP14,400 a year, yet 35 per cent of those retiring in 2011 will have a retirement income below this level, up from 32 per cent in 2010. Prudential's Class of 2011 study surveyed people intending to retire this year ...

CORDOBA, SPAIN—Irrigating agricultural crops places huge demands on water resources around the globe. In Spain for instance, where agriculture is a major contributor to the nation's economy, 85% of country's total water demand comes from the agricultural sector. The excessive use of irrigation water has resulted in serious environmental concerns in Mediterranean countries, where rising demand has deteriorated groundwater resources, depleted aquifers, and accelerated saltwater intrusion. Scientists in Spain are working on new technologies to classify and monitor irrigated ...

HOUSTON - High-density lipoprotein's hauls excess cholesterol to the liver for disposal, but new research suggests "good cholesterol" can also act as a special delivery vehicle of destruction for cancer. Synthetic HDL nanoparticles loaded with small interfering RNA to silence cancer-promoting genes selectively shrunk or destroyed ovarian cancer tumors in mice, a research team led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of North Texas Health Science Center reports in the April edition of Neoplasia. "RNA interference has ...

Betfair Casino has announced the addition of live dealers to its website. This new feature will mean that live dealers who are situated in actual casinos around Europe will be featured on the Betfair Casino website on a number of games. Playing on the site will never be the same as users can now virtually step into one of a variety of top casinos. The only difference is that users can do it all from the comfort of their living room but are still able to experience the look and feel of a real casino and get dealt cards by an actual dealer. Live dealers are a new way ...

Barclaycard Freedom, the loyalty scheme from Barclaycard, celebrates strong figures on its progress since launch one year ago. The scheme has encouraged Barclaycard Freedom cardholders to spend on average 14% more in launch partner stores than other credit card customers. There are now one million active Barclaycard Freedom customers earning and redeeming Reward Money across over 20,000 coalition partners. Over the last 12 months, the average value redeemed has doubled. Joint promotions have driven much of this growth, with cardholders who have benefited from retailer ...

AMES, IA—Dr. Ann Marie VanDerZanden is preparing students in her horticulture classes for challenging careers by boosting their critical thinking capacity. "Horticulture graduates entering the field of landscape design and installation must be able to integrate technical skills with practical applications. This requires higher-order thinking skills such as analysis and synthesis", VanDerZanden explained. The Iowa State University professor designed a curriculum that integrates reflective writing into a landscape design course and discovered that students' quiz scores increased ...

Tubal Reversal Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, announces the birth of a baby following successful completion of sterilization reversal of the Essure procedure, previously considered a permanent form of female birth control. Essure Procedure Three months following her successful Essure reversal procedure at Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center, Michelle, a patient of Dr. Gary Berger and Dr. Charles Monteith, became pregnant and gave birth to her baby Elizabeth on February 28th, 2011. "Essure does not have to be permanent and Essure removal and reversal are possible," ...

PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have determined that a well-known chemical process called acetylation has a previously unrecognized association with one of the biological processes associated with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. The findings were published in the latest issue of Nature Communications. Tau is one of the primary disease proteins associated with a suite of neurodegenerative diseases. Tau proteins are expressed primarily in the central nervous system where they help with the assembly and stability ...