The Viira Outlook Suite is the first and only GTD software application to bring together the power of Microsoft Outlook and a BlackBerry smartphone into a personal productivity solution that helps users stay organized and get things done from wherever they are. Based on David Allen's bestselling Getting Things Done, the Viira Outlook Suite applies the power and reliability of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to provide near-instant synchronization of to-dos, projects, priorities and commitments between Microsoft Outlook and a BlackBerry device. The Viira Outlook Suite ...

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, March 7, 2011 – Elderly drivers are half as likely to see pedestrians on the sidewalk due to a limited field of view, and compensate in part by driving more slowly, according to a study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers. In the online edition of Accident Analysis and Prevention, the study compared reaction times and perception of pedestrians as hazards between experienced elderly and non-elderly drivers. The study was conducted in response to an increasing number of pedestrian-related accidents among elderly drivers. Age 65 ...

His design has earnt a spot on the first-round shortlist of one of the world's most prestigious design competitions - the Australian Design Award/James Dyson Award. Twenty-four-year-old Ching-Hao (Howard) Hsu, who graduated with a Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design) at the end of 2010, designed the 'arthritis handle' after observing several sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis performing cooking tasks in their own kitchens. RA is a chronic disease affecting one percent of the population - about 500,000 Australians. It involves inflammation of the joints, which can lead ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 7, 2011) -- All our daily activities, from driving to work to solving a crossword puzzle, depend on signals carried along the body's vast network of neurons. Propagation of these signals is, in turn, dependent on myriad small molecules within nerve cells -- receptors, ion channels, and transmitters -- turning on and off in complex cascades. Until recently, the study of these molecules in real time has not been possible, but researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Munich have attached light-sensing modules to ...

Chinese people with a body mass index (BMI) of 24-25.9 had the lowest risk of death, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj101303.pdf Obesity has increased significantly across the globe and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese by 2015. Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases. As white populations ...

Stroke patients who also suffer from an irregular heartbeat are at double the risk of developing dementia, according to a new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA). Published tomorrow in the journal Neurology, the findings show that stroke survivors with an irregular heartbeat – or atrial fibrillation - are 2.4 times more likely to develop dementia than stroke survivors without the heart condition. The researchers analysed 15 studies with more than 45,000 participants and an average age of 72. They compared patients with and without atrial fibrillation, and ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Stroke survivors who have an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation may be at higher risk of developing dementia than stroke survivors who do not have the heart condition, according to research published in the March 8, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Atrial fibrillation affects more than two million Americans, and it is more common as people age. About 15 percent of strokes occur in people with atrial fibrillation. The heart's two upper chambers do not beat effectively in the condition, ...

The Mediterranean diet has proven beneficial effects not only regarding metabolic syndrome, but also on its individual components including waist circumference, HDL-cholesterol levels, triglycerides levels, blood pressure levels and glucose metabolism, according to a new study published in the March 15, 2011, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The study is a meta-analysis, including results of 50 studies on the Mediterranean diet, with an overall studied population of about half a million subjects. "The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome is ...

San Diego, CA, March 8, 2011 – In the 1960s, a group of U.S. states with high age-adjusted stroke mortality defined a "stroke belt." Until recently, geographic patterns of diabetes had not been specifically characterized in the same manner. In an article published in the April 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers were able to identify clustered high prevalence areas, or a "diabetes belt" of 644 counties in 15 mostly southeastern states using data compiled for the first time of estimates of the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes for every ...

PHILADELPHIA (March 7, 2011) – A new research study dramatically increases knowledge of how taste cells detect sugars, a key step in developing strategies to limit overconsumption. Scientists from the Monell Center and collaborators have discovered that taste cells have several additional sugar detectors other than the previously known sweet receptor. "Detecting the sweetness of nutritive sugars is one of the most important tasks of our taste cells," said senior author Robert F. Margolskee, M.D., Ph.D., a molecular neurobiologist at Monell. "Many of us eat too much sugar ...

The intestinal epithelium consists of four main specialized cell lineages: absorptive enterocytes and three secretory cell types known as enteroendocrine, Paneth, and goblet cells. But a rare, fifth type of intestinal cell called tuft cells also exists. Defined by the thick brush of long microvilli that project from their apical surface, tuft cells are seen in several epithelial tissues, yet little is known about their function due to a lack of tuft cell–specific markers. In the March 7 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org), a team of French researchers ...

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suffer a specific loss of dopaminergic neurons from the midbrain region that controls motor function. The exact mechanism of this selective neurodegeneration is unclear, though many lines of evidence point to dysfunctional mitochondrial complex I as one root cause of the disease. Yet new research now suggests that defective regulation of microtubules may be responsible for at least some cases of PD. The study appears in the March 7 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org). Mitochondria were first implicated in PD when ...

The immune system is capable of recognizing tumor growth, and naturally mounts an anti-cancer defense. Dendritic cells (DCs) can take up tumor-derived molecules (antigens) and present them to T cells, and those "primed" T cells are then able to recognize and kill tumor cells. In recent years, researchers have attempted to capitalize upon these natural immune responses to develop new therapies- namely, by generating a pool of tumor antigen-pulsed DCs that might be used as vaccines to augment the T-cell responses of cancer patients. In clinical trials, these DC vaccines have ...

EDITOR'S PICK Using a molecular switch to turn on cancer vaccines The immune system is capable of recognizing tumor growth, and naturally mounts an anti-cancer defense. Dendritic cells (DCs) can take up tumor-derived molecules (antigens) and present them to T cells, and those "primed" T cells are then able to recognize and kill tumor cells. In recent years, researchers have attempted to capitalize upon these natural immune responses to develop new therapies- namely, by generating a pool of tumor antigen-pulsed DCs that might be used as vaccines to augment the T-cell responses ...

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – March 7, 2011 – Researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues reported today on a new advance in tissue engineering. The team is the first in the world to use patients' own cells to build tailor-made urinary tubes and successfully replace damaged tissue. In an article published Online First by The Lancet, the research team reports replacing damaged segments of urinary tubes (urethras) in five boys. Tests to measure urine flow and tube diameter showed that the engineered tissue ...

The use of media characters on cereal packaging may influence children's opinions about taste, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "The use of trade (e.g. Ronald McDonald) and licensed (e.g. Shrek) spokescharacters is a popular marketing practice in child-directed products because the presence of these figures helps children identify and remember the associated product," the authors write as background information in the article. Because children remember nonverbal representations ...

On International Women's Day (8th March), the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is calling for action to reduce the gender disparities that are currently resulting in women receiving second rate cardiovascular (CV) care. Studies published online today in the European Heart Journal (EHJ), ¹ ² the official journal of the ESC, show a persistent under-utilisation of guideline recommended treatments for heart disease in women compared to men. "The ESC wants to raise awareness, among both cardiologists and the public, that women still are not receiving equal access to ...

Most young adults who grow up with chronic illness graduate high school and have employment, but those with cancer, diabetes, or epilepsy are significantly less likely than their healthy peers to achieve important educational and vocational milestones, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "In the United States, despite the variation in estimates, it is generally accepted that as many as 12 percent of children have special health care needs, including physical and emotional problems," ...

Middle school-aged children who participated in interactive digital gaming activities that feature player movement (exergaming), such as dancing or boxing, increased their energy expenditure to a level of moderate or vigorous intensity, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the July print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "The prevalence of overweight children and adolescents has increased drastically over the past several decades. This increase is troubling given the potentially numerous ...

Eating disorders are prevalent in the general U.S. adolescent population and are associated with other psychiatric disorders, role impairment, and suicidality, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the July print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Although the lifetime prevalence estimates of eating disorders from population-based studies of adults are relatively low, their severity and dramatic effects have been repeatedly demonstrated through elevated rates of impairment, medical complications, other illnesses, ...

Despite international variation in prevalence rates of bipolar spectrum disorder, the severity and associated disorders are similar and treatment needs are often unmet, especially in low-income countries, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Bipolar disorder (BP) is responsible for the loss of more disability-adjusted life-years than all forms of cancer or major neurologic conditions such as epilepsy and Alzheimer disease, primarily because of its early onset and chronicity across the life span," ...

Residing in a psychosocially hazardous neighborhood is associated with worse cognitive function in older age for persons with the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (an alternative form of the gene), according to a report in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "A prominent genetic factor of relevance to cognitive decline is the ε4 variant of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, a strong predictor of increased risk and earlier onset of Alzheimer disease," the authors write as background information in the article. Apolipoprotein ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An analysis conducted by Ohio State University cancer researchers has found that adding the targeted therapy bevacizumab to the treatment of patients with advanced ovarian cancer is not cost effective. The findings comparing the relative value of various clinical strategies will be published online March 7 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The researchers performed a cost-effectiveness analysis looking at a clinical trial conducted by the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) studying the use of bevacizumab along with standard chemotherapy for patients ...

UPTON, NY — A study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory demonstrated that drug addicted individuals who have a certain genetic makeup have lower gray matter density – and therefore fewer neurons – in areas of the brain that are essential for decision-making, self-control, and learning and memory. Nelly Alia-Klein, a study coauthor who is a Brookhaven Lab medical scientist, said, "This research shows that genes can influence the severity of addiction. The results suggest that addicted individuals with low MAOA [monoamine oxidase ...

Glaucoma is the second-most common cause of blindness in the US, and occurs due to loss of retinal ganglion cells and degeneration of the optic nerve. Although it is known that high levels of pressure within the eye predispose individuals to the development of glaucoma, the molecular mechanisms involved are poorly defined. In new research from The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, Simon John and colleagues analyzed gene expression patterns in the retina and optic nerves of mice that develop age-related glaucoma. Using a method that involved the clustering of ...