Forcing German industry and energy companies to buy permits for their greenhouse gas emissions from 2013 at auction will drive up energy prices and burden power customers, energy users’ group VIK said on Tuesday.

VIK put the possible cost to German industry of auctioning permits to emit carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, at well over 100 billion euros ($155.8 billion) in the years between 2012 and 2020.

“There will not be one more tonne of CO2 emissions saved through such an auction,” it said in a statement. “But power prices would be rising further for consumers.”

The United Nations is to set up a task force to tackle the global food crisis.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, said the rise in food prices around the world had turned into a challenge of global proportions.

The task force, chaired by Mr Ban, will be made up of the heads of UN agencies and the World Bank.

It will explore both emergency and long-term measures to tackle the crisis caused by the recent sharp rise in the price of staple foods such as wheat.

New research demonstrates that curbing harmful antioxidant processes in the brain’s vasculature can reverse some of the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease. A natural enzyme of the immune system — NADPH oxidase — has been found to have toxic side effects, producing free radicals in the brains of mice. Identification of the enzyme’s role in dementia might translate into a new drug target for Alzheimer’s disease in humans, according to new findings published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. After the offending enzyme was genetically “switched off,” mice with a type of dementia mimicking Alzheimer’s regained important cognitive abilities, even though the amount of Alzheimer’s-linked amyloid plaques in their brains remained unchanged. These results suggest that the enzyme independently influences the progression of dementia.

The researchers, led by Dr. Costantino Iadecola, the George C. Cotzias Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and chief of the Division of Neurobiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, also genetically engineered mice that produced a mutated form of NADPH enzyme that did not produce the toxic free radicals.

The result: The formerly “demented” mice regained their healthy, exploratory behaviors, just as non-demented mice do. According to the authors, the findings suggest that neurological damage from Alzheimer’s may not be permanent and might even be reversed through antioxidant treatment.

Responding to the announcement of a deal between the Government and energy providers to help households with fuel bills, Kate Jopling, Head of Public Affairs at Help the Aged, says:
‘While it is promising that the Government and energy providers are working together to try to alleviate fuel poverty, this initiative will only just begin to scratch the surface. We cannot ignore the fact that fuel poverty is actually increasing and nearly three million households in England are struggling to heat their homes.
‘The Government cannot shirk its own responsibility to tackle this serious and growing problem. It must stop relying on ‘quick wins’ to resolve a long-term problem. It must develop a far more effective and comprehensive programme of domestic energy efficiency, to simultaneously end suffering from fuel poverty and tackle climate change.
‘Help the Aged has joined forces with Friends of the Earth to launch a legal challenge to the Government to ensure it is held to its legal obligation to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016.’
www.helptheaged.org.uk

The antioxidant activity of flavonoids from banana (Musa paradisiaca) was studied in rats fed normal as well as high fat diets.

Concentrations of peroxidation products namely malondialdehyde, hydroperoxides and conjugated diens were significantly decreased whereas the activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase were enhanced significantly. Concentrations of glutathione were also elevated in the treated animals.

Department of Zoology, NSS College Manjeri.

Acai (ah-sigh-ee) grows wild on palm trees that are native to the rainforests of Brazil and the Amazon basin. Each of the Acai palm trees is able to produce around 20 kilograms of fruit annually. Acai’s dark purple color comes from polyphenolic compounds present in the fruit.
Historically, Brazilians have used Acai berries to treat digestive disorders and skin conditions.
The antioxidant benefits of the Acai berry, combined with the fatty acids it contains, make this one of the most important superfoods. The Acai berry is thought to have 10 times more antioxidants than red grapes, 10 to 30 times the anthocyanins of red wine and twice as much as that found in blueberries. The Acai berry is widely acknowledged to have the highest nutritional value of any fruit in the world, and this has earned the Acai berry the title of superfood.

Ten Chicago-area patients have tested positive for an unusual type of drug-resistant influenza, prompting concern and increased surveillance by local and federal health officials.

The strain of flu can be treated successfully with some drugs, but it does not respond to Tamiflu, the most common anti-viral medication for flu. The Illinois Department of Public Health issued a health alert to doctors and hospitals Thursday, suggesting that flu patients who are in intensive care receive a combination of drugs until their virus can be analyzed.

Officials said eight of the Tamiflu-resistant infections came from an outbreak at a single Chicago health-care facility, the name of which has not been released.

A deadly strain of the superbug MRSA which can lead to a flesh-eating form of pneumonia has emerged.
Research suggests it may be more prevalent among the gay community - the gay San Francisco district of Castro appears to have been hardest hit.

So far only two cases of the new form of the USA300 strain of the bug have been recorded in the UK.

It is not usually contracted in hospitals, but in the community - often by casual contact.

The new strain is resistant to treatment by many front-line antibiotics.

It causes large boils on the skin, and in severe cases can lead to fatal blood poisoning or necrotising pneumonia, which eats away at the lungs.

Researchers say the bug has so far been 13 times more prevalent in gay men in San Francisco than in other people.

In the Castro district - where more gay people live than anywhere else in the US - about one in 588 people are carrying the bug.

In the general San Francisco community the figure was around one in 3,800.

Cold sufferers deciding whether to go to work or stay at home simply can’t win according to new research from Boots. While nearly half (47 per cent) of UK workers would rather their colleagues took time off and kept their germs to themselves, another third (33 per cent) equated time taken off for a cold as skiving.

Guilt and confusion over how best to balance colleagues and cold symptoms mean that over half of workers (56 per cent) never take any time off at all to recover, potentially putting others at work at risk of infection. Furthermore, the report from Boots showed that only eight per cent of people admit to taking as much time off as they actually needed to get better.

When you think of hypnosis, it seems easy enough. You dangle a charm in front of someone's eyes and speak softly, telling them they're getting sleepy and, pretty soon, they're under and you have free reign over their subconscious. You can make them bark like a dog, cluck like a chicken or you can even make them get up and dance ballet. However, hypnosis is a lot more complicated than that. It takes a professional to put someone in a truly hypnotized state. Hypnosis should only be handled by a professional, too, because a hypnotist has a lot of power over a hypnotized person. A hypnotist could potentially abuse that power and, for this reason, the power should be handled only by an ethical professional. If you're going to learn hypnosis, make sure you keep this in mind every time you put someone in a relaxed state. You should use hypnosis to help people, not to harm them.

Hypnosis Schools

To learn hypnosis, you have several options. The best, of course, is to attend a hypnosis school. A hypnosis school allows you to learn the ropes of hypnosis in an academic setting. You will participate in examples and you will witness actual hypnosis sessions. This allows you to overcome any issues you may have as well as the benefit of watching experienced hypnotists in action. By the time you graduate, you will be a certified hypnotist, having learned hypnosis from the best.

Another way to learn hypnosis is to read up on the subject. There are many books on the subject and they should help you at least learn the basics of hypnosis. They won't give you the benefit of hearing from an actual hypnotist, in person that is, and this can make the difference between the right and wrong technique.

You could, of course, ask a local hypnotist to help you learn hypnosis. Ask them if they recommend any tips or tricks. They hypnotist will undoubtedly tell you to be careful, as hypnotists have a lot of power over their subjects. They will probably ask what you intend to use hypnosis for and who you plan to use it on. If you can't come up with a good answer, or an answer they approve of, many accredited hypnotists won't help you learn hypnosis, as you may give them a bad name, especially if you live in a small town.

The best way to learn hypnosis is to educate yourself as much as possible on the subject. Only then can you effectively put someone in a relaxed state to help them with whatever they need help with. If you're going to learn hypnosis, just make sure that you use the new power you have responsibly as the subconscious mind is nothing to tinker with, especially for your own amusement.