It may begin as a feeling of unease that overtakes you as you cautiously make your way inside a long-abandoned house.  The air is thick; musty and stale.  Yet somehow it is laced with the underlying scent  of a burning fire… even though the cold crumbling fireplace hosted its last fire long ago.
 
As your eyes adjust, you begin to notice the stillness. There is absolutely no noise.  In fact, the silence is so oppressive, it presses in on your eardrums like the weight of an ocean… seeking to snuff out the sound of anything that should trespass upon it.  You get the distinct feeling it would like to quiet even the uneven sound of your shallow breaths… and then move on to silence the thump of your increasingly racing heartbeat.

The 2008 presidential campaign, as reflected in candidates' television spots, has been one of the most negative campaigns in history. A University of Missouri professor analyzed this year's candidates' television spots, including last night's 30-minute ad by Sen. Barack Obama and found that only one other campaign matched this level of negativity.

William Benoit, professor of communication in the College of Arts and Science, found that in television spots from 1952-2004, candidates averaged 40 percent attacks in their ad statements. In this year's race, the statements in Obama's ads were 68 percent negative compared to 62 percent for Sen. John McCain.

According to new research from the Monell Center, the degree of change in blood triglyceride levels following a fatty meal may indicate susceptibility to diet-induced obesity. The findings open doors to new methods of identifying people, including children, who are at risk for becoming obese. 

Triglycerides are a form of fat that is transported in the blood and stored in the body's fat tissues. They are found in foods and also are manufactured by the body. 

The largest such study ever published finds that while about 40 percent of women surveyed report having sexual problems only 12 percent indicate that those issues are a source of significant personal distress. The report led by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) physician appears in the November issue of Obstetrics&Gynecology. 

You have a burning chest pain and a doctor looks at a squiggly-lined graph to determine the cause. That graph, an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), can help the doctor decide whether you're having a heart attack or an acid attack from last night's spaghetti. Correct interpretation may prompt life-saving, emergency measures; incorrect interpretation may delay care with life-threatening consequences. Currently, there is no uniform way to teach doctors in training how to interpret an ECG or assess their competence in the interpretation.

PLEASANTON, California, October 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Improved laboratory efficiencies and standardization to personalize patient care

Roche Molecular Diagnostics today announced that the U.S. Food Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the COBAS(R) AmpliPrep / COBAS(R) TaqMan(R) HCV Test for use in the United States. The test uses Roche's proprietary real-time PCR technology to quantify the amount of Hepatitis C RNA in a patient's blood. Physicians use Hepatitis C viral load testing results to establish a baseline level of hepatitis C infection and to serially monitor viral load levels and treatment effectiveness in patients on therapy.

BOSTON and VALENCIA, Spain, October 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Groundbreaking Oct. 16 for cutting-edge campus created by U.S. Music College and Spanish Performance Rights Organization -

Berklee College of Music President Roger Brown and Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE) CEO Eduardo Bautista have announced an unparalleled cultural partnership to build a new college for global, contemporary music education in Valencia, Spain. Berklee Valencia will be the largest offshore U.S. music college in the world. Programs will offer music education that is new to Europe, focusing on contemporary music, international business, and the latest developments in leading-edge music technology.

RESTON, Virginia, October 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Service introduces the first GRP measurement of online ads and offers capabilities for more granular advertising planning and analytics by agencies and publishers

Just last month, Hubble Space Telescope's main instruments were idled by a computer failure, but not to worry, thanks to NASA engineers, who successfully transferred the work of the failed science data downlink computer to a backup system, Hubble is up and running just a couple of days after the orbiting observatory was brought back online.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Exhibiting at Booth #159 -

Technical communicators and information managers who face changes in their localization needs can glean best practices for aligning localization strategy with corporate goals during a talk titled Developing a Localization Strategy on November 6 at tcWorld in Germany.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070208/JONCKERSLOGO)

The talk will be delivered by Ian Butler, vice president of business development for Jonckers Translation Engineering -- Europe, which has a 15-year track record of serving corporate leaders in Europe from its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and offices in London, England; Dublin, Ireland; and Brno, Czech Republic.