Common genetic variations affecting nicotine receptors in the nervous system can significantly increase the chance that European Americans who begin smoking by age 17 will struggle with lifelong nicotine addiction, according to researchers at the University of Utah and their colleagues at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The study highlights the importance of public health efforts to reduce the number of youth who begin smoking.

These common gene variations - single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - are changes in a single unit of DNA. SNPs that are linked and inherited together are called a haplotype. The researchers found that one haplotype for the nicotine receptor put European American smokers at greater risk of heavy nicotine dependence as adults, but only if they began daily smoking before the age of 17. A second haplotype actually reduced the risk of adult heavy nicotine dependence for people who began smoking in their youth.

Indiana Jones isn't the only one who has great adventures, apparently proteins do also. Researchers have uncovered a a slippery tube that funnels proteins into a 'chamber of doom' where they are shredded and recycled into the building blocks of new proteins.

The tube is part of the 26S proteasome, an enzyme that acts as the cell’s protein garbage disposal. As described by researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the tube is a concentric stack of rings wrapped in molecular motors that speed the proteins toward the proteasome’s slicing and dicing core.

Bats, outnumbered only by rodents in number of species and thus the second largest group of mammals, are a remarkable evolutionary success story. Now they have gotten even more interesting. Researchers of the Leibniz-Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin (Germany) and Boston University (U.S.A.) have discovered a place that harbors the highest number of bat species ever recorded.

In just a few hectares of rainforest in the Amazon basin of eastern Ecuador, they have found more than 100 species of bats.

Dr. Katja Rex and colleagues captured bats at several biodiversity hotspots in the New World tropics, in the lowland rainforest of Costa Rica, the slopes of the Andes and a site in the Amazon rainforest of Eastern Ecuador, at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station located adjacent to the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve.

HALIFAX, England, July 12 /PRNewswire/ --

New research from Halifax Financial Services shows that the cost of a private school education has increased by more than twice the rate of inflation since 2003.

For a copy of the full release - embargoed until 0001 hrs Saturday 12th July - please contact the Press Office on +44(0)207-997-2710 or +44(0)207-997-2709.

Like birds of a feather bikers in a peloton stick together. The formation used by competitive bikers, especially in the Tour De France, has to do with energy conservation and courtesy.

Peloton is a French word meaning “rolled up ball.” In English it is referred to as a “platoon.” It is crucial for cyclists who are expending a lot of energy for a significant amount of time to take advantage of this pack.

In the 2003 book “High-Tech Cycling” by Edmund R. Burke, he talks about the peloton as a huge source of energy in some cases reducing drag against wind up to 40 percent.

Like birds of a feather bikers in a peloton stick together. The formation used by competitive bikers, especially in the Tour De France, has to do with energy conservation and courtesy.

Peloton is a French word meaning “rolled up ball.” In English it is referred to as a “platoon.” It is crucial for cyclists who are expending a lot of energy for a significant amount of time to take advantage of this pack.

In the 2003 book “High-Tech Cycling” by Edmund R. Burke, he talks about the peloton as a huge source of energy in some cases reducing drag against wind up to 40 percent.

It looks almost scary with its one armed, three fingered, 1.45-meter-high, flexible physique. However the extent that it will rid its master’s house of any mess is anything but daunting.

Research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, Germany have developed a new top-of-the-line robot they call “Care-O-bot® 3,” which is predicted to revolutionize modern housekeeping styles.

LONDON, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Goldshield Group UK, the pharmaceutical and healthcare company, said today a judge had refused the application of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to amend its indictment of Goldshield Group Plc and two of its former directors (and others) for the offence of conspiracy to defraud the Department of Health in relation to allegations of anti-competitive conduct between 1996 and 1999. Mr. Justice Pitchford also refused the SFO's application for permission to appeal.

In a video interview Goldshield Chairman Keith Hellawell and CEO Rakesh Patel say the ruling vindicates the company and they can now "get back to business". They explain what the ruling means for the company going forward.

LONDON, July 11 /PRNewswire/ --

Silence Therapeutics plc (London AIM: SLN), a leading European RNA interference (RNAi) focused biotechnology company, announced today the successful opposition of a fundamental Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. European patent resulting in the patent being revoked in its entirety.

The Opposition Division of the European Patent Office, following a three day hearing, announced its decision to revoke European Patent EP 1 230 375, exclusively licensed to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals from Cancer Research Technology, Ltd (UK). The Patent, commonly referred to as the "Glover" patent, broadly relates to medicaments comprising an RNA interference mediating RNA molecule.

BUFFALO GROVE, Illinois, July 11 /PRNewswire/ --

Eagle Test Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGLT), announced today that Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation has selected the ETS-364/RF6000 platform to test its RF CMOS and Mixed Signal Communication Devices.

"Our team completed a comprehensive review of multiple ATE suppliers with RF test capability," said Vince DeMaioribus, Director, Assembly and Test Operations, Peregrin Semiconductor. "Eagle's ETS-364/RF6000 clearly demonstrated advantages that will enable Peregrine to achieve the most competitive overall cost-of-test results."

LONDON, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- A series of online NHS Health Guides for people with long-term conditions have been launched today on the national NHS website, NHS Choices http://www.nhs.uk

These online guides take patients through each stage of the journey, from before diagnosis, and through to how to live and self -manage the condition. Throughout the next year, NHS Choices will be rolling out more guides from the 60 most common long-term conditions, giving people the information they require to make their own choices and decisions about their treatment.

The first one's are for diabetes, stroke, asthma, dementia, depression and heart disease.

See links below: