Icanbuy the leading provider of mortgage rates comparison shopping website today announced that Safa Rashtchy, former Managing Director at Piper Jaffray, was appointed to Icanbuy' s Board of Directors. "Safa has tremendous insight into what consumers are looking for on the Internet. We are very excited to welcome him to Icanbuy's board," said Alex Aydin, Icanbuy's CEO. "I believe that Icanbuy's innovative technology can transform the way consumers shop for the lowest mortgage rates," said Rashtchy. "I am very thrilled to serve on the board of such an exciting startup ...

Since graphene was first isolated in 2004 with the help of Scotch tape, researchers have excitedly turned to the material to discover its potential applications. A single layer of carbon atoms whose applications range from ultrafast electronics to biosensors to flexible displays, graphene is strong, light, transparent, and a conductor of heat and electricity. But what can we do with this new material? As researchers across the globe peel away layer after layer of potential application, Milan Begliarbekov, a doctoral candidate at Stevens Institute of Technology, has found ...

University of Alberta researchers have unearthed a mysterious link between bones of an ancient lizard found in Africa and the biggest, baddest modern-day lizard of them all, the Komodo dragon, half a world away in Indonesia. Biologists Alison Murray and Rob Holmes say the unique shape of the vertebrae links the 33-million-year-old African lizard fossil with its cousin the Komodo, which has only been around for some 700,000 years. "The African fossil was found on the surface of a windswept desert," said Holmes. "It's definitely from the lizard genus Varanus and there ...

1. Early Dialysis Recommendations May Cause More Harm than Good Starting Dialysis when Kidney Function is High Increases Risk of Premature Death Recent guidelines that recommend that kidney disease patients start dialysis before their kidney function has significantly declined may potentially cause harm to patients. When William Clark, MD (Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute and Professor at The University of Western Ontario, in London, Canada) and his colleagues studied 25,901 patients who started dialysis in Canada between 2001 and 2007, they found that ...

Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who are admitted to the hospital during the weekend are at increased risk of death, according to a study presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 43rd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition. "Our study highlights poor outcomes for patients with ESRD admitted over the weekend," comments Ankit Sakhuja, MD, a third year resident in internal medicine at The Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. "Further research is needed to identify the reasons for this 'weekend effect' and to institute appropriate interventions." Using ...

Studies in recent years have claimed multiple health benefits of pomegranate juice, including that it is a good source of antioxidants and lowers both cholesterol and blood pressure, especially in diabetic and hypertensive patients. A preliminary study now suggests that it can ward off a number of complications in kidney disease patients on dialysis, including the high morbidity rate due to infections and cardiovascular events, according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 43rd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Denver, CO. Batya ...

"We were able to show that the benefit of social bonding accrues through 'the manipulation of ones' own and others' social relationships,' which is one definition of politics," said Oliver Schülke of Georg August University Göttingen in Germany. "The bond does not directly affect access to desirable resources but helps males to climb up the social ladder and to stay up there at the cost of other males that lose their status." Earlier evidence had shown that female animals live longer and have more offspring when they form strong bonds with other females. The benefit of ...

TAAD causes thousands of deaths in the United States each year. Although timely surgical repair of aneurysms can prevent death, thoracic aneurysms are often asymptomatic until dissection (tearing of the vessel wall), and there are few recognized risk factors that can be used for screening. "Prospective identification of patients at risk for TAAD using a genetic strategy will be critical to prevent sudden deaths from this treatable disease," explains senior study author Dr. John W. Belmont from Baylor College of Medicine. To begin to unravel the genetic origins of TAAD, ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- The review process being used by the Food and Drug Administration to assess the safety of a faster-growing transgenic salmon fails to weigh the full effects of the fish's widespread production, according to analysis by a Duke University-led team in this week's Science. The salmon, whose genome contains inserted genes from two other fish species, could become the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption in the United States. The FDA held two days of hearings in September to assess the fish's human and environmental health risks. ...

The pathogen Shigella flexneri invades the cells that line the gut and causes Shigellosis, a disorder characterized by diarrhea and sometimes even death in humans. S. flexneri subverts the normal immune response of the host by interfering with the ability of the infected cell to secrete chemicals called chemokines that stimulate inflammation. Inflammation is a complex response to pathogens that attracts white blood cells to destroy the bacteria. Despite the documented ability of S. flexneri to suppress inflammation in infected cells, intestinal cells do secrete large amounts ...

Researchers have uncovered a fundamental link between the two defining properties of quantum physics. Stephanie Wehner of Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies and the National University of Singapore and Jonathan Oppenheim of the United Kingdom's University of Cambridge published their work today in the latest edition of the journal Science. The result is being heralded as a dramatic breakthrough in our basic understanding of quantum mechanics and provides new clues to researchers seeking to understand the foundations of quantum theory. The result addresses the ...

Panama Canal, PanNew data suggest that the Limon and Pedro Miguel faults in Central Panama have ruptured both independently and in unison over the past 1400 years, indicating a significant seismic risk for Panama City and the Panama Canal, according to research published today by the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA). The Panama Canal is undergoing expansion to allow for greater traffic of larger ships, scheduled for completion by 2014. As part of a seismic hazard characterization for the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) expansion project, Rockwell, ...

Over the last 15 years, astronomers have detected nearly 500 planets orbiting stars in our cosmic neighbourhood, but none outside our Milky Way has been confirmed [1]. Now, however, a planet with a minimum mass 1.25 times that of Jupiter [2] has been discovered orbiting a star of extragalactic origin, even though the star now finds itself within our own galaxy. It is part of the so-called Helmi stream — a group of stars that originally belonged to a dwarf galaxy that was devoured by our galaxy, the Milky Way, in an act of galactic cannibalism about six to nine billion years ...

Understanding the evolution of life-threatening viruses like influenza, Ebola and dengue fever, could help us to minimize their impact. New research points the way to a fossil record of viruses that have insinuated themselves into the genomes of insects and other animals, providing clues about their evolutionary history. The findings, published online on November 18 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, could enable scientists to elucidate general principles in virus evolution from their genetic "fossils", which in turn could inform approaches for controlling disease. Robert ...

LA JOLLA, CA – November 16, 2010 – A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has solved the structure of one of the receptors that responds to the neurotransmitter dopamine. Although dopamine transmission is essential to normal brain functioning, the biological assembly of the molecules involved in this crucial neuronal interplay had not been known—until now. The work was reported in the November 19, 2010, issue of the journal Science. In the new study, whose authors included collaborators from Weill Cornell Medical College, Receptos, the National Institute ...

As experts gather in St Petersburg, Russia for next week's Tiger Summit, fewer than 3,200 tigers survive in the wild worldwide. More than half live in India, where they are spread over a vast area (100,000 sq km) of forest. According to Dr Yadvendradev Jhala of the Wildlife Institute of India, lead author of the new study: "Tigers are cryptic, nocturnal and occur at low densities so they are extremely difficult to monitor. Unless we know how many tigers are left in the wild, and whether their numbers are increasing or decreasing, we will not be able to conserve them." Until ...

Cough medicine could be used as way of predicting how well individual patients metabolise tamoxifen used in the treatment of their breast cancer, according to new research presented at the 22nd EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Berlin today (Friday). The findings suggest that it could be possible to use cough suppressant syrup as a probe, which would enable doctors to identify patients with altered metabolism and use this information to improve individual treatment, making it more effective and reducing the chances of side-effects. ...

Researchers have found that a newly developed drug, which is aimed at a particular receptor involved in the development of blood vessels that sustain tumour growth, is active in patients with advanced cancers and, in some cases, has halted the progress of the disease. The drug, ACE-041, targets a different molecular pathway to other anti-angiogenesis drugs and may provide a new option to treat cancer. Results from a phase I clinical study of ACE-041 were presented at the 22nd EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Berlin today (Friday). ...

UCLA researchers have pinpointed the culprit behind chronic rejection of heart, lung and kidney transplants. Published in the Nov. 23 edition of Science Signaling, their findings suggest new therapeutic approaches for preventing transplant rejection and sabotaging cancer growth. The team focused on the mechanism behind narrowing of the donor's grafted blood vessels, which blocks blood from reaching the transplanted organ. Starved of oxygen and other nutrients, the organ eventually fails, forcing the patient back on the transplant waiting list. "Chronic rejection ...

It may have been 1 billion years since plants and animals branched apart on the evolutionary tree but down through the ages they have developed strikingly similar mechanisms for detecting microbial invasions and resisting diseases. This revelation was arrived at over a period of 15 years by teams of researchers from seemingly disparate fields who have used classical genetic studies to unravel the mysteries of disease resistance in plants and animals, according to a historical overview that will appear in the Nov. 19 issue of the journal Science. The report, written ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Universal access to lifesaving AIDS drugs — a United Nations' Millennium Development Goal that officials hoped to accomplish by 2010 — would require a staggering $15 billion annual investment from the international community at a time when the economic downturn is challenging continued funding for relief efforts, according to a new analysis by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study underscores the need for groups combating AIDS to rethink how they allocate scarce resources, as what was once the centerpiece of the movement ...

GALVESTON, Texas — In a comprehensive global survey, researchers in Texas and England have concluded that improving the mental and physical health of inmates will improve public health. In their article, "The health of prisoners," Seena Fazel of the University of Oxford and Jacques Baillargeon of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, write that caring for the mental and physical health of prisoners has a direct and important impact on public health that should be recognized. Their findings, to be published Online First in the British medical journal The ...

A clearer understanding of the Universe, its origins and maybe even its destiny is a significant step closer, thanks to new research. As part of a major international experiment called ALPHA*, based at CERN in Switzerland, researchers have helped to achieve trapping and holding atoms of 'anti-hydrogen', which has not previously been possible. The project involves physicists at Swansea University led by Professor Mike Charlton, Dr Niels Madsen and Dr Dirk Peter van der Werf and the University of Liverpool under Professor Paul Nolan, all supported by the Engineering ...

Like gangsters running a protection racket, drongos in the Kalahari Desert act as lookouts for other birds in order to steal a cut of their food catch. The behaviour, revealed in research funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) published in Evolution and reported in Nature's Research Highlights today (18 November), may represent a rare example of two species evolving from a parasitic to a mutualistic relationship. The team from the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Cape Town showed that victimised pied babblers gained a mitigating ...

Different techniques should be used to remove single stones that have become lodged in the distal ureter after being expelled by the kidney, depending on whether they are under or above one centimetre, according to the December issue of BJUI. Surgeons from the Department of Urology at University Federico II, Naples, Italy, believe that extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) - which uses a non-invasive acoustic pulse to break down ureteric stones - should be the treatment of first choice in patients with a stone of up to 1cm. Patients with a stone over 1cm should ...