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A major new investigation by Australian scientists has revealed that rising carbon dioxide levels in the world’s oceans could deliver a disastrous blow to the ability of coral reefs to withstand climate change.The investigation has revealed that acidification of the oceans from human CO2 emissions has the potential to worsen the impact of the bleaching and death of reef-building organisms expected to occur under global warming.

The study, by a team led by Dr Ken Anthony of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the University of Queensland, concludes that earlier research may significantly understate the likely damage to the world’s reefs caused by man-made change to the Earth’s atmosphere.

In a large experiment on Australia’s Heron Island, the team simulated CO2 and temperature conditions predicted for the middle and end of this century, based on current forecasts of the world’s likely emission levels and warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The results of their analyses of the bleaching, growth and survival of a number of organisms including corals indicates that a number of very important reef builders may be completely lost in near future.

“We found that coralline algae, which glue the reef together and help coral larvae settle successfully, were highly sensitive to increased CO2. These may die on reefs such as those in the southern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) before year 2050,” said Dr Anthony.

The CoECRS team erected 30 large aquaria in the waters of Heron Island in the southern GBR and studied the combined effects of warming, high CO2 and sunlight on a large range of reef organisms for eight weeks.

“The results, frankly, are alarming,” said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. “They clearly suggest that previous predictions of coral bleaching have been far too conservative, because they didn’t factor in the effect of acidification on the bleaching process and how the two interact,” he added.

The results of the team’s analyses of the bleaching, growth and survival of key coral reef species indicate that a number of very important reef builders may be completely lost in the near future.

According to Dr Guillermo Diaz-Pulido, “This is an important discovery that can buy the reef time while the nations of the world work together to stabilize CO2 emissions.”

The results of the research are being offered to reef managers to help them develop strategies to protect the reefs that are most at risk.

A new study has found that drugs widely used to treat type 2 diabetes can have long-term effects if they are used in moderation.The research team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said that efficacy of drugs, sulfonylureas, used to treat type 2 diabetics substantially declines after several years of use, causing insulin secretion to shut down.

“Why this happens isn’t clear yet, but we’ve found what may be cause for hope,” said senior author Colin G. Nichols, Ph.D., the Carl F. Cori Professor and professor of cell biology and physiology.

“We’ve shown in a mouse model that whatever causes this shutdown doesn’t kill the insulin-making beta cells of the pancreas or stop them from making insulin. Instead, it somehow stops them from secreting insulin,” he said.

When they stopped receiving the drug, beta cells began secreting insulin again hours later, added Nichols.

“I find these experimental observations very exciting,” said Alan Permutt, M.D., professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology.

“But I’m very cautious that patients understand that the relevance of this model to human diabetes and its treatment still needs to be tested,” he added.

Nichols said that if human beta cells also survive and could continue to produce insulin after long-term sulfonylurea exposure, it might be possible to rethink treatment strategies.

“Doctors now prescribe new long-acting sulfonylureas to establish a chronic presence of the drug in the bloodstream,” he said.

“But it may be beneficial to use the older drugs that go away more quickly, allowing the beta cells time to recover,” he added.

Nichols said that alternating periods of drug treatment with periods when the patient’s symptoms are managed by insulin injection might help in treating the condition.

The researchers tested long-term failure of sulfonylureas with the availability of an implantable time-release capsule form of one of the drugs, glibenclamide.

They implanted the capsules in the necks of mice. The drugs initially caused mouse beta cells to release more insulin and blood sugar levels dropped rapidly.

Within a few days, though, the response to the drug reversed: Insulin secretion levels dropped, and blood sugar levels rose dramatically.

Examination of the pancreas showed that the animals’ beta cells were still alive and contained normal levels of insulin.

The findings appear in Public Library of Science Medicine.

Businesses need more than money to survive. They need that business sense and proper organization and planning to excel. Small things are also significant in business. Take for example business cards. A business card gives the first impression of your business. Thus, a business card should be able to reflect your business values. Wouldn’t it be great to create a business card on your own and print it at your own convenience? The concept of printable business cards helps you do just that.

This concept lets you design your business card with the help of some templates and provides you with high quality business card paper compatible with all types of printers so that you can print your business cards as and when you need them. A printable business card helps make business easy.

Media labels are another way to organize your business’ workplace. Your business media does not only look organized but also makes sense for clients if labeled properly. Labels that are easy to print as well as convenient to use make for good business planning. It is a good practice to use media labels to categorize, classify, order, and group all types of media in any business.

If you want to cheap wheels for your car then you should have to keep one thing in mind that you don’t have to comprise on their quality as if you made a purchase of low standard custom wheels then you may have to pay a big price in the form of any mishap or any accident. To get cheap wheels you may contact to internet as well. Only you have to do is to search out for cheep wheels with the help of search engine. You may also get cheap wheels through sales as well. So you have to check out all around you that which offer suit you and is affordable according to your estimated budget. You can also get custom tires on discounted rates with the help of internet. For this purpose only you have to do is to search out with the keyword of “discount tires” and you would get a list of those companies or websites which would provide you tires on discounted rates. So it’s up to you that from either which way you want to buy cheap customized wheels for your car so that you can save a handsome amount and can spend those dollars on your another need.

A Soyuz capsule carrying an American and two Russians touched down on target in Kazakhstan on Friday after a descent from the international space station, safely delivering the first two men to follow their fathers into space.

The Soyuz TMA-12 capsule landed at 9:37 am local time, about 55 miles north of Arkalyk in north-central Kazakhstan, Russian Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin told reporters.

Search and recovery crews buzzed in on Mi-8 helicopters and extracted Richard Garriott, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko from the gumdrop-shaped capsule, which landed on its side on the brushy surface under a clear sky.

“What a great ride that was,” said Garriott, an American computer game designer who paid some USD 30 million for a 10-day stay on the space station.

Sitting in an armchair and wrapped in a blue blanket against the near-freezing temperature on the steppe, he smiled broadly.

“This is obviously a pinnacle experience,” Garriott said in footage on Russian and NASA TV.

Garriott was greeted by his father Owen Garriott, a retired NASA astronaut who flew on the U.S. space station Skylab in 1973.

“Hey, Papa-san,” said Richard Garriott. The pair shook hands.

“I’m looking forward to some fresh food and to calling my loved ones,” said Garriott, 47, who lives in Austin, Texas. He was seen off by his girlfriend and bother, among others, when he rocketed up to the station on another Soyuz craft on Oct. 12.

“I’ve got my father here, but I’ve got other family back home I want to get a hold of.”

Volkov sat next to Garriott. The son of a cosmonaut, he beat out Garriott as the first human being to follow a parent into space when he flew up to the space station six months ago. Kononenko, who also spent 199 days in space, was the last out of the capsule and could not be seen in the footage.

The head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, Anatoly Perminov, said on state-run Vesti-24 television that Kononenko had a tougher time than his crew mates during the descent but “feels good now.” It was the first space mission for all three men.

The uneventful descent was a relief for space officials — and the crew — after “ballistic re-entries” put the last two crews returning from the station hundreds of miles off course and subjected them to stronger gravitational force than usual.

The separation of the modules of the Soyuz before it entered the atmosphere went without a hitch, avoiding a ballistic re-entry. Russian space officials said changes had been made to equipment and computer programming to prevent the problem from happening again.

There are a number of companies that are switching over to the Macintosh setup for their standard business use. This decision has worked to provide an effective computer that is well suited to the demands of a large network. The problem is that a number of employees are probably not used to using Macs and they will probably need a bit of training to get them in line.

This isn’t a problem since there are many options for Mac OS X leopard training. This latest operating system from Mac offers a lot of cool features and a sleek decision, but it is worthless if the employee doesn’t know how to make the most of it. Just spending a little money on a refresher course should have all your workers doing much better on the new system and greatly improving your overall efficiency. This could take place in the form of a seminar or a course. There are also online options that they can take in the background of normal business. This may be a better way to get the training done if your employees already know some of the basics.

If you want to make the jump to Macintosh, then you should remember to include Mac leopard training in the package.

Those who simply pray or meditate are more likely to keep depression at bay, compared to the people who frequently visit church and offer religious services, suggest a new study.The new research led by Temple University researchers has revealed that a person’s religiousness - also called religiosity - can offer insight into their risk for depression.

In the study involving 918 participants, lead researcher Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., characterized the religiosity in three domains.

Religious service attendance, which refers to being involved with a church; religious well-being, which refers to the quality of a person’s relationship with a higher power; and existential well-being, which refers to a person’s sense of meaning and their purpose in life.

They found that those who attended religious services were 30 percent less likely to have had depression in their lifetime.

Maselko said that involvement in the church provides the opportunity for community interaction, which could help forge attachments to others, an important factor in preventing depression.

On the other hand, those who had high levels of existential well-being were 70 percent less likely to have had depression than those who had low levels of existential well-being.

The group with higher levels of religious well-being were 1.5 times more likely to have had depression than those with lower levels of religious well-being.

“People with high levels of existential well-being tend to have a good base, which makes them very centred emotionally,” said Maselko.

“People who don’t have those things are at greater risk for depression, and those same people might also turn to religion to cope.”

She said that those with higher levels of existential-well being have a strong sense of their place in the world.

The study is published on-line this month in Psychological Medicine.

AT&T is preparing for a Election Day sales surge on Nov. 4, when Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Bold will launch at AT&T’s stores nationwide for $299. RIM’s new 3G smartphone, which features a QWERTY-style keypad and trackball navigator, represents another AT&T exclusive for its U.S.-based customers, said AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega.

“The BlackBerry Bold is the complete package, providing customers with an absolutely outstanding mobile experience whether doing e-mail, browsing the Web, viewing streaming video, or simply making a phone call,” he said. “And it is being introduced in the U.S. only from AT&T.”

Iconic Display Graphics

Housed within a satin chrome-finished frame, RIM’s sleek and stylish smartphone is an all-band cellular handset that supports the full spectrum of UMTS/HSPA and GPRS/EDGE. The good news is that users will be able to simultaneously hold phone conversations even as they check for e-mail, browse the Web, or use another data application.

Measuring 4.88 x 2.6 x 0.59 inches and weighing 4.8 oz, the BlackBerry Bold sports a vibrant 65K color TFT display with support for both full-screen and widescreen formats. Featuring a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels, the display area also sports an iconic set of desktop-style graphics, which makes the Web-browsing experience a breeze. But unlike two other AT&T exclusives — the Apple 3G iPhone and the new Samsung Epix — RIM’s BlackBerry Bold does not incorporate any touchscreen capabilities.

The new smartphone features a 624-MHz processor; built-in Bluetooth 2.0, GPS and Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) radios; 1GB of built-in memory; a speakerphone; a 2.0-megapixel camera/camcorder with flash and digital zoom; and a microSD/SDHC expansion slot that can accept memory cards with storage densities of up to 16GB. Moreover, the handset’s removable 1500mAh battery supplies up to 4.5 hours of talk time and up to 13.5 days of operation in standby mode.

Locked and Loaded

Blackberry Bold users will be able to download and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using the preloaded DataViz Documents to Go software suite. The smartphone features password protection and a keyboard lock and supports RIM’s lineup of BlackBerry professional software for small business applications.

Enterprise-class e-mail gets a major assist from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which gives IT administrators the ability to secure messages in the IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novel GroupWise e-mail environments through the use of AES or Triple DES encryption. Additionally, push-based access to as many as 10 supported work or personal e-mail accounts is provided through the BlackBerry Internet Service.

In addition to its onboard media player, the BlackBerry Bold also comes with Roxio Media Manager, which enables users to organize music tracks and other audio content in multiple file formats. The program also optimizes video files for smooth full-screen playback, although the DivX 5/6 and XviD formats are only partially supported.

The new handset’s navigational capabilities are powered by TeleNav, which provides international navigation capabilities. With TeleNav, users can receive spoken or text-based turn-by-turn directions, and automatic rerouting should the user miss a turn. Users also will be able to find nearby businesses, restaurants and other venues by entering addresses and viewing their locations on maps.

Tried every possible way to shed those extra pounds but unable to get results? Well, a new weight loss drug may address the problem effectively.The powerful new drug, known as tesofensine, which was originally developed as a treatment for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, can help users shed two stones in six months.

It is twice as effective as current treatments and can see overweight patients lose up to 10 per cent of their body weight quickly.

In tests, obese patients given the medication daily for 24 weeks lost around two stones in weight.

Tesofensine targets chemicals in the brain to suppress hunger, helping patients to overcome the temptation to over-eat.

Researchers said that It was ‘very effective’ as a weight-loss drug, and further tests are being conducted.

“If we could treat obesity like we treat high blood pressure, with safe, effective and affordable drugs, this would be an enormous boon to health care,” the Daily Express quoted Professor Steve O’Rahilly, of Cambridge University, as saying.

The number of prescriptions for slimming pills passed the one million mark last year, but there has been concern that those currently available on the NHS do not help patients lose enough weight.

Research suggests the new drug is five times more effective than going on a diet and taking a dummy pill, and up to twice as effective as a diet combined with current weight-loss pills.

If further tests prove tesofensine to be safe, it could be licensed within three years.

The report’s authors, led by Professor Arne Astrup, of the University of Copenhagen, concluded: “This phase two study shows that the drug tesofensine is very effective in producing weight loss in patients over six months.”

According to the research, current side-effects of tesofensine include nausea and bowel problems.

The findings are published in The Lancet Online.

Researchers are on the verge of harnessing the power of boron in a new generation of drugs and therapies.

Boron, an element, and one of biology’s best kept secrets, is now drawing the attention of the pharmaceutical industry to tackle cancer and infectious diseases with new drugs, overcoming limitations and side effects of current products.

European Science Foundation (ESF) workshop ‘Biobor’ set the stage for a new era of boron therapies going beyond the current application in cancer radiotherapy, said its convenor Zbigniew Lesnikowski.

“Yes, it became obvious during the workshop that there is now sufficient knowledge and enough compounds to support a broad programme of screening in the quest for new anti-viral and anti-cancer drugs containing essential boron components,” said Lesnikowski.

The applications in bio-sensing, bio-materials, and drug development all spring from the fundamental chemical properties of boron. All life is derived ultimately from the element carbon, which lies next to boron in the periodic table of elements, their respective atomic numbers being six and five.

Boron compounds share some similarities with carbon but also have important differences. It is the combination of these similarities and differences that give boron its unique potential in medicine, said an ESF press release.

The important similarity is that boron, like carbon, combines with hydrogen to form stable compounds that can participate in biochemical reactions and syntheses.

The key difference is that these compounds have distinctive geometrical shapes and electronic charge distributions with greater 3-D complexity than their carbon based equivalents.