Have you been wearing your retainer? It's a question countless parents ask of their children post-braces. Now Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine researchers are getting serious about the question. "We found little written about the kinds of retainers prescribed and how compliant patients are in using them," said Case Western Reserve's Manish Valiathan, an assistant professor of orthodontics and a member of the American Board of Orthodontics. He notes that there is a dearth of information despite the devices being common in orthodontics practice. Consequently ...

In a deal that is 99% complete and yet to be announced publicly, we can exclusively reveal that Victory Poker is due to leave the Cake Network to join The Cereus Poker Network imminently. Meanwhile Cake has news of its own: it is now owned by the PokerListings affiliate group. Victory Poker, currently stable to pros such as Antonio Esfandiari, Lee Markholt, Paul Wasica and Andrew Robl to name but a few of the 20, only joined the Cake Network in the last quarter of 2010. But they are already on their way to greener pastures. The Cereus network is currently only made ...

Diabetes type 2 is caused by insufficient levels of insulin to keep blood glucose under control. Excessive levels of another hormone, glucagon, can also contribute to diabetes type 2 by causing the liver to flood the body with stored glucose. Diabetes type 2 does not arise overnight, but slowly progresses for many years as a condition known as prediabetes. In prediabetes, blood sugar rises to excessive levels after a meal, but is normal or nearly normal after an overnight fast. Researchers are seeking ways to prevent prediabetes from progressing to diabetes. Besides diet ...

New evidence has emerged from studies in mice that short telomeres or "caps" at the ends of chromosomes may predispose people to age-related diabetes, according to Johns Hopkins scientists. Telomeres are repetitive sequences of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes, and they normally shorten with age, much like the caps that protect the end of shoelaces. As telomeres shorten, cells lose the ability to divide normally and eventually die. Telomere shortening has been linked to cancer, lung disease, and other age-related illnesses. Diabetes, also a disease of aging, ...

Arlington, Va. (March 24, 2011) – Researchers with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health have found high rates of the multi-drug resistant pathogen, carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) among the patient population in long-term acute care hospitals compared to general acute care hospitals across the county. These findings are particularly important because CRKP was thought to be contained to East Coast facilities and communities. These findings will be presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) ...

Leading Park Ridge dentist, Dr. Daniel Hogan invites patients to visit the practice's website for new educational resources, including the extensive patient library covering a wide array of topics related to the different phases of dentistry. Patients are encouraged to look through the topics whenever they have an interest or a concern that may arise about the function, appearance, comfort or health of the teeth. Providing patients with the opportunity to learn more about various procedures and treatments creates a welcoming environment for this cosmetic dentist in ...

This press release is available in French and Spanish. Researchers from the Department of Optics of the University of Granada, belonging to the Laboratorio de Ciencias de la Visión y Aplicaciones, have developed a programme for testing alterations in night vision, and the tool required to implement it, which has been named "halometer". This instrument consists on a software named Software Halo v1.0, and a computer where the mouse is used as a response button, and a chin cup with a forehead holder to fix the observer's position. Software Halo v1.0 was initially ...

Contact: Carl Blesch cblesch@ur.rutgers.edu 732-932-7084 x616 Rutgers University Megan Watzke mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu 617-496-7998 Chandra X-Ray Center Exploding stars and stripes Pattern of X-ray 'stripes' in supernova remnant could explain how cosmic rays are produced NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The discovery of a pattern of X-ray "stripes" in the remains of an exploded star may provide the first direct evidence that a cosmic event can accelerate particles to energies a hundred times higher than achieved by the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth. This ...

CLEMSON, S.C. — Biomechanics researchers Timothy Higham of Clemson University and Andrew Clark of the College of Charleston conclude that moving quickly in a forward, firm-footed stance across a slippery surface is less likely to lead to a fall than if you move slowly. Approaching a slippery surface slowly hinders the necessary task of shifting the center of mass forward once foot contact is made. The researchers studied helmeted guinea fowl strutting along a six-meter runway that either had a rough-surface section (150-grit sandpaper) or a slippery one (polypropylene ...

Washington, D.C. – A national survey of U.S. family medicine residency programs finds that most limit pharmaceutical and other industry interactions with residents while many exclude all interactions. The results, published in the May issue of Academic Medicine, suggest a major shift away from acceptance of food, gifts, samples, and industry-supported events. The survey was a joint effort between Georgetown University Medical Center and the American Medical Student Association (AMSA). There are more than 400 accredited family medicine residency programs in the country ...

A number of American men who have sex with men are supportive of couples-based voluntary HIV counseling and testing (CVCT), in which couples receive counseling and their HIV test results together, according to a new study by Dr. Rob Stephenson from Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, USA, and his colleagues. The authors argue that there may be a demand among gay men for this effective strategy, used in Africa amongst heterosexual couples, albeit with some adaptations to the protocol to make it relevant in the US. The work is published online in Springer's journal, ...

If it bleeds, it leads, or so the old journalistic adage goes. Not necessarily, say researchers from McGill University and the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital. In a first-of-its kind study that analyzes how cancer is portrayed in Canadian newspapers today versus 20 years ago, positivity and hope seem to be winning out. "Our focus was on the media's potential impact on patient perspectives," said Dr. Melissa Henry, the study's lead author from McGill's Dept. of Oncology and the Segal Cancer Centre at the Jewish General Hospital ...

Music Elbow 'Build a Rocket Boys' - Release date: 7th March 2011 Manchester-based indie rock five-piece Elbow follow-up the 2008 Mercury Prize winning 'The Seldom Seen Kid' with their fifth studio album, 'Build A Rocket Boys'. The Strokes 'Angles' - Release date: 21st March 2011 'Angles' is the fourth album from The Strokes - one of New York City's finest exports of indie rock of their generation DVD Saw DVD - Release date: 7th March 2011 The final part of the long standing Saw movie franchise and the first of the films available in 3D. Despite poor ...

If you seek America's most diverse, densely packed human population, head for New York's Manhattan, but if it's lichens you fancy instead of people, then Southwestern Florida is your best bet. This special kind of symbiotic fungus thrives in the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park not far from the Everglades National Park, and its remarkable diversity was documented in a census led by Robert Lücking, collections manager and adjunct curator in the botany department of The Field Museum, Chicago, and organized by William Safranek, assistant professor at the College of ...

Philadelphia, PA, 24 March 2011 - Studies in twin pairs suggest that 40% of the risk for panic disorder is heritable, yet the manner in which genes contribute to the risk for panic disorder is far from clear. To date, variations in a growing number of genes have been implicated in the risk for panic disorder, but the magnitude of the impact of each individual gene is relatively small. The pattern of these implicated genes raises the question of whether there might be molecular "switches" that control the function of groups of genes in a coordinated fashion, which would ...

This press release is available in German. The use of different resources by males and females exacerbates the estimation of population sizes. However, the monitoring of population sizes, particularly for rare and threatened species, is pivotal to quick and effective conservation action. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell investigated the ecological niches of male and female parti-colored bats (Vespertilio murinus) and found out that the sexes use entirely different foraging grounds. With their results they can show that a finer ...

VIDEO: A new study led by Leonard Mermel, D.O., Sc.M., medical director of the department of epidemiology and infection control at Rhode Island Hospital, has found a significant increase in the... Click here for more information. PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A new study from Rhode Island Hospital has found a significant increase in the occurrence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in the summer and autumn months. The increase was more pronounced in the ...

Right Casino Media, a UK based online casino portal operator, today launched their latest website LiveCasinos.co.uk. The site's primary goal is to independently help players find reputable live online casinos whilst providing exclusive bonuses and background casino information. The website, tailored towards the UK player market, was designed to specifically help players looking to find a trustworthy casino in the live dealer niche. It contains exclusive live casino bonuses, live dealer galleries, specific game video insights as well as independent reviews written by ...

Simulated acupuncture - sometimes referred to as placebo - is just as beneficial as real acupuncture for treating nausea in cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet and Linköping University in Sweden. Patients, who received only standard care including medications for nausea, felt significant more nausea than patients in both the acupuncture groups. "The beneficial effects seem not to come from the traditional acupuncture method, but probably from the patients' positive expectations and the extra care that the treatment ...

Washington, D.C.—Recent climate modeling has shown that reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would give the Earth a wetter climate in the short term. New research from Carnegie Global Ecology scientists Long Cao and Ken Caldeira offers a novel explanation for why climates are wetter when atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations are decreasing. Their findings, published online today by Geophysical Research Letters, show that cutting carbon dioxide concentrations could help prevent droughts caused by global warming. Cao and Caldeira's new ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- After age 21, problem gambling is considerably more common among U.S. adults than alcohol dependence, even though alcohol dependence has received much more attention, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions. In results published this month in the Journal of Gambling Studies, John W. Welte, principal investigator on the study and a national expert on alcohol and gambling pathology, concluded that there is a distinct inconsistency between his research and much of the other research literature. Other research ...

INDIANAPOLIS – An orphan drug originally used for HIV treatment has been found to short-circuit the process that results in additional sensitivity and pain from opioid use. The study by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine is reported in the March 25, 2011 issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity. The researchers say the finding in animal models may ultimately make morphine a safer and more effective drug. Traditionally opioids were used to relieve pain following surgery, from cancer and at the end of life. Today opioids are used widely for chronically ...

JackpotFinder.com, a 2iventures website, just launched a new online casino slots finder to help players locate the perfect game. Jackpot Finder is a leading online gambling site directory designed to help players find trusted places to gamble on the Internet. The website first launched in 2003, and over the years it has grown to become one of the largest and most comprehensive guides to the world of online gambling. This new and improved slots section follows a major redesigning of the site, which introduced a number of comprehensive improvements. The heart of Jackpot ...

Two satellites designed and constructed by students at the Cockrell School of Engineering successfully separated in space March 22, completing the most crucial goal of the mission since its Nov. 19 launch and making them the first student-developed mission in the world in which satellites orbit and communicate with each other in real-time. The satellites separated March 22 at 6:35 a.m. Central Standard Time. Now that they're apart, the 60-plus pound, tire-sized satellites will be able to perform the main goals of the project and could pave the way for more complex satellite ...

Research presented today at the European Congress on Osteoporosis & Osteoarthritis by investigators from the UK and Sweden estimates that the economic burden of fragility fractures in five major European countries totals 31 billion Euro, with Germany bearing the highest costs. A majority of the economic burden is shown to be related to the costs incurred during the 1st year after the fracture, while pharmacological prevention and treatment management constitutes only a marginal share of the total economic cost. Hip fractures contributed 56% to the overall costs, vertebral ...