According to Temple University’s Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active.

“One’s lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness,” said Maselko, an assistant professor of public health and co-author of the study, which appears in the January issue of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active.

PRINCETON, New Jersey, December 31 /PRNewswire/ --

Pharmasset, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRUS), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing and commercializing novel drugs to treat viral infections, reported audited financial results for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007. Pharmasset reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of US$6.8 million, or US$0.46 per share, as compared to a net loss attributable to common stockholders of US$12.4 million, or US$1.19 per share for the same period in 2006.

LONDON, December 31 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey from Red Kooga shows a trend towards doing more rather than giving things up for the New Year.

Typical resolutions like giving up smoking and junk food are being replaced by resolutions to learn new skills, take up more hobbies and be more active.

Over half of the 2,546 people surveyed (56%) are vowing to do more exercise in 2008 - this is up from 43% of people in 2007. This time last year people were more likely to be trying to give up smoking (16% in 2007 down to 13% for 2008), possibly due to the impending ban.

HATBORO, Pennsylvania, December 31 /PRNewswire/ --

IGCE '08, the International Gaming Conference & Expo (IGCE, scheduled for Lisbon, Portugal, April 22-24 of 2008 has emphasized its concentration on the legal aspects of the gaming and sports industries in an effort to avoid what a spokesperson for the organization has referred to as the "current, inevitable glut of conferences that are occurring on an international basis."

"IGCE is the conference division of The Sports Network, the premiere real-time sports wire service in the United States," stated Amanda Manero, Conference Coordinator for IGCE, "and their reputation for providing first class service and accommodation to their client base has extended itself with regard to the upcoming conference.

Cells keep a close watch over the transcriptome – the totality of all parts of the genome that are expressed in any given cell at any given time. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of Missouri-Kansas City teamed up to peel back another layer of transcriptional regulation and gain new insight into how genomes work.

Converting the “genetic blueprint” into molecular building blocks requires two basic processes: transcription, which copies the information from DNA into RNA transcripts and takes place in the cell’s nucleus, and translation, where the RNA serves as a template to manufacture proteins outside the nucleus.

This is one of those good-fat–bad-fat stories for your holiday reading.

Ma et al. examined the lipid regulation of an ApoE/low-density lipoprotein receptor, the neuronal sortilin-related receptor (SorLA or LR11).

LR11 can reduce â-amyloid production by guiding APP in recycling Golgi and early endosome pathways, thus trafficking APP away from â- and ã-secretase. Polymorphisms that reduce LR11 expression also have been associated with increased Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk.

The authors report that the essential omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) increases LR11 in a neuronal cell line and in primary neurons. DHA also increased LR11 in membrane fractions from aged normal mice and in transgenic mice that overexpressed APP.

An article in the Journal of Neuroscience by Sam A. Deadwyler, Linda Porrino, Jerome M. Siegel, and Robert E. Hampson might appeal to the beleaguered hospital intern or the college student during finals week - anyone who has to combat sleep deprivation or who just wants to stay awake for a long time.

The loss of the hypothalamic neurons that produce orexin-A causes narcolepsy, and the administration of orexin-A produces arousal and increased attention.

This week, Deadwyler et al. provide further evidence that orexin-A can counteract the effects of sleep deprivation. Adult rhesus monkeys were sleep deprived for 30–36 h using a combination of videos, music, treats, gentle rattling of their cages, and constant supervision by laboratory personnel.

Stem cells, popularly known as a source of biological rejuvenation, may play harmful roles in the body, specifically in the growth and spread of cancer. Amongst the wildly dividing cells of a tumor, scientists have located cancer stem cells. Physician-scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College are studying these cells with hopes of combating malignant cancers in the brain.

"Some patients' brain tumors respond to chemotherapy and some don't," says Dr. John A. Boockvar, the Alvina and Willis Murphy Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery and head of the Brain Tumor Research Group at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "We believe cancer stem cells may be the cause."

If you're going to experience a period of helplessness, it's best to be alone. New research at the University of Haifa found that laboratory rats that were on their own when exposed to uncontrollable conditions, which create a feeling of helplessness, learned to avoid situations which create such feelings better than rats that were exposed to uncontrollable conditions in pairs.

The way laboratory rats react to uncontrollable situations in which their behaviors have no influence on subsequent events has been researched in the past.

People who bake aren't fans of sugar substitutes. 'Equal' does well in hot things like coffee that just require absorption but, for the most part, sugar remains king in the oven.

Natur Research Foods Inc. announced that it has developed and is now distributing an all-natural sugar substitute, Natur Baker's Blend Natural Sweetener, for the purpose of baking.

According to their press release, it has 40 percent fewer calories than sugar and has been tested as low-glycemic. They say it bakes, rises, caramelizes, provides a crust and preserves similar to cane sugar.