(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A potent drug derived from an evergreen tree may soon save the lives of some patients with the deadliest form of breast cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer will claim approximately 40,000 lives in the U.S. this year. Scientists at UC Santa Barbara, in cooperation with scientists in the pharmaceutical industry, have discovered the mechanism by which this drug kills cancer cells. The team has isolated the drug's action in the test tube as well as in cancer cells. The results are reported in two studies published ...

DALLAS – Oct. 14, 2010 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that fluctuations in internal body temperature regulate the body's circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle that controls metabolism, sleep and other bodily functions. A light-sensitive portion of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) remains the body's "master clock" that coordinates the daily cycle, but it does so indirectly, according to a study published by UT Southwestern researchers in the Oct. 15 issue of Science. The SCN responds to light entering the eye, and so is sensitive ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In as many as 8 percent of pregnancies worldwide, women who seem fine for months develop preeclampsia, a serious complication causing symptoms including high blood pressure, severe swelling, and problems with placental development. The untreatable and unpredictable condition, with no known cause, often requires premature delivery, and can sometimes kill the mother and the fetus. In a new study, researchers led by a team at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital describe two major advances: a well-defined animal model of preeclampsia ...

Human blood is famously fraught with fats; now researchers have a specific idea of just how numerous and diverse these lipids actually are. A national research team, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has created the first "lipidome" of human plasma, identifying and quantifying almost 600 distinct fat species circulating in human blood. "Everybody knows about blood lipids like cholesterol and triglycerides," said Edward A. Dennis, PhD, distinguished professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego and ...

It could happen to students cramming for exams, people working long hours or just about anyone burning the candle at both ends: Something tells you to take a break. Watch some TV. Have a candy bar. Goof off, tune out for a bit and come back to the task at hand when you're feeling better. After all, you're physically exhausted. But a new study from Stanford psychologists suggests the urge to refresh (or just procrastinate) is – well – all in your head. In a paper published this week in Psychological Science, the researchers challenge a long-held theory that willpower ...

New research by University of British Columbia physicists indicates that high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxides is linked to what they term 'incoherent excitations'--a discovery that sheds light on the electronic response of these materials before they become superconducting. The study marks the first time researchers have been able to directly measure when electrons in a super conductor behave as independent well-defined particles, and when they evolve into ill-defined many-body entities. "We've never been able to directly quantify the nature of electron ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buy something online, enter your credit card number and mailing address. Simple. Then you come to the box with the CAPTCHA, the Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. Here, the website attempts to confirm that you're a human, not some robot about to commit a cybercrime. You dutifully copy down the warped, watery-looking letters. Incorrect. Another captcha appears. You try again. Also incorrect. A third captcha appears. You start rethinking your purchase. University at Buffalo computer scientist Venu Govindaraju, ...

Columbus, Ohio (Oct. 14, 2010) – An Ohio State University astronomer is working to unlock some of the mysteries surrounding the formation of vast galaxies and the evolution of massive black holes with his own large constellation of silicon wafers. Over the last year, two research teams led by Stelios Kazantzidis, a Long-Term Fellow at the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics (CCAPP) at The Ohio State University, have used what would average out to nearly 1,000 computing hours each day on the parallel high performance computing systems of the Ohio Supercomputer ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have succeeded in combining laser light with trapped electrons to detect and control the electrons' fragile quantum state without erasing it. This is an important step toward using quantum physics to expand computing power and to communicate over long distances without the possibility of eavesdropping. The work appears online today at Science Express. The research, led by David Awschalom, professor of physics, electrical and computer engineering, and director of UCSB's Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation, ...

Little kids believe the darnedest things. For example, that a fat man in a red suit flies through the air on a sleigh pulled by reindeer. A new study on three-year-olds, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that they aren't just generally trusting. They're particularly trusting of things people say to them. Previous research has found that three-year-olds are a credulous bunch; they believe most things they're told, and skepticism doesn't kick in until later. Vikram K. Jaswal, of the University of Virginia, ...

Stem cells, the prodigious precursors of all the tissues in our body, can make almost anything, given the right circumstances. Including, unfortunately, cancer. Now research from Rockefeller University shows that having too many stem cells, or stem cells that live for too long, can increase the odds of developing cancer. By identifying a mechanism that regulates programmed cell death in precursor cells for blood, or hematopoietic stem cells, the work is the first to connect the death of such cells to a later susceptibility to tumors in mice. It also provides evidence of ...

CHICAGO –For nearly 40 years a class of drugs known as beta blockers have been proven to increase patients' survival prospects following a heart attack by decreasing the cardiac workload and oxygen demand on the heart. In a breakthrough study released in the American Heart Journal, Northwestern Medicine cardiologist Jeffrey J. Goldberger found the majority of patients are frequently not receiving a large enough dose of these drugs, which can put their recovery from heart attacks and overall health into peril. "Only 46% of patients studied were taking 50% or more of the ...

NEW YORK -- Water vapor and clouds are the major contributors to Earth's greenhouse effect, but a new atmosphere-ocean climate modeling study shows that the planet's temperature ultimately depends on the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide. The study, conducted by Andrew Lacis and colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, examined the nature of Earth's greenhouse effect and clarified the role that greenhouse gases and clouds play in absorbing outgoing infrared radiation. Notably, the team identified non-condensing greenhouse gases -- ...

A potential solution for global energy demands is the use of Poplar, a fast-growing tree with high yields, for biofuels. To get the most out of Poplar plantations, varieties that are the best fit for the conditions—ones with disease resistance or higher yields, for example—are desired. But do these plantations of new, non-native (exotic) species impact nearby native populations of Poplar? In particular, is the genetic makeup of the native populations being altered by interactions with the exotic species? In the October issue of the American Journal of Botany (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/97/10/1688), ...

Human adhesives are famed for their fallibility. Gooey glues soon lose their grip, are easily contaminated and leave residues behind. But not gecko feet. Geckos can cling on repeatedly to the smoothest surfaces thanks to the self-cleaning microscopic spatula-shaped hairs (setae) that coat the soles of their feet. Back in 2002, Kellar Autumn found that these dry hairs are in such intimate contact with surfaces that the reptiles 'glue' themselves on by van der Waals forces with no need for fluid adhesives. More recent studies had suggested that geckos might benefit from additional ...

DARIEN, IL – A study in the Oct. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that adults with fibromyalgia had a much higher prevalence and risk of restless legs syndrome than healthy controls. The study suggests that treating RLS may improve sleep and quality of life in people with fibromyalgia. Results show that the prevalence of restless legs syndrome was about 10 times higher in the fibromyalgia group (33 percent) than among controls (3.1 percent). After statistical adjustments for potential confounders such as age, gender and ethnicity, participants ...

This week's PMI (Project Management Institute) Global Congress 2010 in Washington DC marked the official launch of BeMo - Project Intelligence, a specialized online marketplace for Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solutions and related services. BeMo founders Bruno Lecoq and Joel Lachance have created the business to help individuals or companies of any size, manage any and all of their projects online - quickly and easily. While a few key players like ProjectHosts, EPM Live are already in the burgeoning Microsoft Project Server 2010 hosting market, the BeMo - Project ...

My911, a SmartPhone application, has recently been marketed to bicyclists, offering them additional safety when things go bad. The app utilizes both the accelerometer and GPS technologies in order to automatically notify an ambulance when the user gets into an accident. One user claimed the app is "like having OnStar on your bike". The GPS location is given to the ambulance, allowing help to come quickly, without requiring any description of where the accident occurred. If you were biking in the mountains or in some national park, how long would it take to describe to ...

How can we help? Our senior home care and caregiver services center around only the best caregivers in the Algonquin, Mount Prospect and the surrounding areas. Home Care services for the Elderly is our specialty and we take the 'art of caregiving' very seriously. Right at Home caregivers focus on helping individuals maintain their independence and dignity while assisting with a variety of everyday tasks including: âEUR Senior Companionship âEUR Assistance with personal care including bathing and dressing âEUR Meal Preparation âEUR Light Homemaker & Housekeeping ...

"Multi-generational holidays are becoming an increasingly popular travel option amongst Kiwis," says Melissa Rendell, marketing manager at leading New Zealand travel company, Adventure World, who says that New Zealanders are beginning to pick up on what has become a huge international trend in travel. "People live very busy lives these days, and are spending less and less time together as a family. Multi-generational holidays provide the perfect opportunity for families to spend quality time together." While there was a time when multi-generational travel was limited ...

Open source companies Open-Xchange and eZuce, Inc. today announced a strategic collaboration that for the first time offers fully integrated open communications to address the evolving requirements of mid-size to large enterprises, institutes of higher education and government agencies. Available on-premises or Communications-as-a-Service (CaaS), Open-Xchange and eZuce openUCTM feature voice, video, instant messaging, presence, conferencing, collaboration, unified messaging, e-mail, call center, calendar and task management, and smartphone support for enterprises with ...

In what promises to be an eye-popping and insightful interview, winner of the 2010 Miss USA title, Rima Fakih graces the cover of the next issue of ALO Magazine. Holding one of the most prestigious crowns in the world, she discusses to ALO the reality behind what shapes the American Dream. The hot topic of this upcoming issue focuses on art of living in fashion, lifestyle, culture, social philosophy and architectural elegance. ALO is America's Top affluent American Middle Eastern Lifestyle Magazine, a cultural attraction of the elite lifestyle enthusiasts who want to ...

It's hard to believe something as simple as a postcard could have these dentists abuzz with excitement, but there is no denying the truth - they have rediscovered the proven marketing strategy of direct mail postcards, and are amazed by the results! Practitioners from Sierra Dental, Albert Family Orthodontics and Transitions Dental are ecstatic about the number of patients and responses they are getting from their dental postcard marketing campaigns, and have nothing but glowing reviews for PostcardMania, the postcard marketing firm in Clearwater, FL that helped them ...

A Neumann & Associates (www.neumannassociates.com), respected business brokers and business valuation firm in New Jersey, announced they will assist New Jersey business owners and buyers expedite the business transfer process in order to take advantage of a limited-time tax break. Last month the Small Business Jobs Act was signed into law in large part to help entrepreneurs with tax cuts and loan availability. The bill provides more than $12 billion in tax breaks, and is of significant interest to New Jersey business buyers and sellers in that it eliminates all capital ...

How do you begin to get control over your parent's affairs and all the clutter that they have accumulated over the years? And how do you do this in a way that is collaborative and allows you to deal with the stress without going crazy? The Center for Life Transitions is offering a free workshop to provide you with essential tips to cut through the clutter, knowing what to keep and what to release: - The art of letting go - The 3 Golden Rules to managing the clutter - Managing your time and stress - productively - Effectively working with the person whose belongings ...