A neuroimaging study in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Sleep is the first to find that cognitive processes related to verbal fluency are compromised in people with insomnia despite the absence of a behavioral deficit. These specific brain function alterations can be reversed, however, through non-pharmacological treatment with sleep therapy.

Results of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning during verbal fluency tasks show that people with insomnia have less activation than controls in the left medial prefrontal cortex and the left interior frontal gyrus, two fluency-specific brain regions. However, participants with insomnia generated more words than controls on both the category fluency task (46.4 words compared with 38.7 words) and the letter fluency task (40.1 words compared with 32.7 words).

Global warming data can be like the weather in Kentucky - if you don't like it, just wait a few minutes and it will change. So it goes with the impact of carbon stored in frozen permafrost. In a field beset with both grant-driven hype and irrational optimism, a new study says even the hype was not scary enough.

The study, by Edward A. G. Schuur of the University of Florida and an international team of coauthors, more than doubles previous estimates of the amount of carbon stored in the permafrost: the new figure is equivalent to twice the total amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The thawing of permafrost in northern latitudes, which greatly increases microbial decomposition of carbon compounds in soil, will dominate other effects of warming in the region and could become a major force promoting the release of carbon dioxide and thus further warming, according to this new assessment in the September 2008 issue of BioScience. The authors conclude that releases of the gas from melting permafrost could amount to roughly half those resulting from global land-use change during this century.

Long procedures require long fluoroscopy times with a serious amount of radiation for physician and personnel. The idea is that both the performance of procedures can be improved by robotic navigation systems and that the amount of complications can be reduced.

At present two systems are extensively tested in cardiology: a robotic system that allows manipulating conventional catheters directly in the heart (Sensei, Hansen) and the Niobe (Stereotaxis) system that allows steering special magnetic catheters with the help of two large external magnets.

The experience with the robotic remote navigation system is limited but the published data suggests that transeptal puncture can be guided with the steerable sheath system and that pulmonary vein antra can be isolated and flutter can be done.

Men are more likely to die of heart disease compared with women of a similar age – and sex hormones are to blame, according to a new study.

The findings of a study by Dr. Maciej Tomaszewski, New Blood Lecturer in Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Leicester, suggest that this "male disadvantage" may be related to the sex-specific effects of naturally occurring sex hormones.

The research in the journal Atherosclerosis involved 933 men aged, on average, 19 years, from the Young Men Cardiovascular Association study. The researchers looked at ways that the sex hormones - estradiol, estrone, testosterone and androstenedione - interacted with three major risk factors of heart disease (cholesterol, blood pressure and weight).

HELSINKI, September 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Wärtsilä Corporation's subsidiary in Singapore, Total Automation Pte Ltd, is re-named Wärtsilä Automation Services Singapore Pte Ltd. The change is to be effective from September 1, 2008.

The new name, Wärtsilä Automation Services Singapore, will more clearly identify Total Automation as a part of Wärtsilä's global operations and it will in turn promote the company as an established and well-reputed player in the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia as well as South East Asia regions. This will support the strong synergies between the traditional field services, and Wärtsilä's automation products and services.

BURGESS HILL, England, September 1 /PRNewswire/ --

With some 20,000 UK children with Type 1 diabetes(i) about to start the new school year, new guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) looks set to revolutionise the way children manage their diabetes, granting more freedom and control for their condition, by greater access to insulin pump therapy. The new recommendations finally acknowledge key research(ii) supported by Roche, that shows the positive impact of pumps on quality of life for sufferers and their families.

LONDON, September 1 /PRNewswire/ --

LONDON, September 1 /PRNewswire/ --

- "Big Tidy Up" Launched With Recreation of 1954 Photo-Call

- With Photo

Keep Britain Tidy will turn the clock back half a century as it launches the biggest litter pick in history.

Thousands of organised clean-ups will take place as Keep Britain Tidy calls for a return to 1950s values - when people cared about their environment.

With levels of rubbish on our streets constantly unsatisfactory, the nationwide "Big Tidy Up" will see an unprecedented month-long blitz on litter.

Starting today, thousands of litter picks take place the length and breadth of the country. It's hoped half a million bin bags of litter will be collected. So far 6,000 groups have signed up.

LONDON, September 1 /PRNewswire/ --

LONDON, September 1 /PRNewswire/ --

- Parents in England Resent Government Intrusion

As parents and children prepare for the new school term in England, a new survey conducted by ICM reveals a massive 85% of parents say they should be the ones to decide what goes into their children's school lunchbox. Just 1% thinks the Government knows best.

The vast majority of parents across England (80%) reveal overwhelmingly that they trust themselves when it comes to deciding what to feed their kids in comparison to only 19% who trust the Government guidelines.(i)

Tobacco companies have no restrictions or mandatory levels for some of the major carcinogens and toxicants in cigarettes. Tobacco manufacturers can, and do, add anything they want into their goods.

But other consumer products, even something like strawberry jam, is strictly regulated and labelled and required to pass stringent tests before it can be sold.

An editorial in Respirology called “Regulation of Consumer Products: The Bizarre Case of Strawberry Jam and Cigarettes” discusses the issues surrounding tobacco regulations and how the industry could be more effectively governed.

The widely-held perception that the influenza vaccination reduces overall mortality risk in the elderly does not withstand careful scrutiny, according to researchers in Alberta. The vaccine does confer protection against specific strains of influenza, but its overall benefit appears to have been exaggerated by a number of observational studies that found a very large reduction in all-cause mortality among elderly patients who had been vaccinated.

The study included more than 700 matched elderly subjects, half of whom had taken the vaccine and half of whom had not. After controlling for a wealth of variables that were largely not considered or simply not available in previous studies that reported the mortality benefit, the researchers concluded that any such benefit "if present at all, was very small and statistically non-significant and may simply be a healthy-user artifact that they were unable to identify."

Principal investigator Sumit Majumdar, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta said the findings are a reminder to researchers that "the healthy-user effect is everywhere you don't want it to be."