四平工业吸尘器(荆州工业吸尘器) (今日更新中)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers have demonstrated for the first time that the brain is a key player in regulating glucose (sugar) metabolism in humans.The findings, published Monday in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest that drugs targeting the brain and central nervous system could be a novel approach to treating diabetes."The brain is the body's only organ that needs a constant supply of glucose to survive, so it makes sense that it would have some say over how much glucose is produced," said study leader Meredith Hawkins, professor of medicine and director of the Global Diabetes Initiative at Yeshiva University, in a statement. "This role for the brain was demonstrated in earlier studies in rodents, but there was considerable controversy over whether the results could be applied to humans. We hope this study helps to settle the matter."In an earlier study in rodents, researchers showed that activation of potassium channels in the brain's hypothalamus sends signals to the liver that dampen its production of glucose. Those findings, published in Nature in 2005, challenged the conventional thinking that blood sugar production by the liver (the body's glucose factory) is regulated only by the pancreas (which makes insulin to metabolize glucose). But carefully performed studies on dogs, conducted at Vanderbilt University, failed to replicate the results, suggesting the Einstein findings in rodents might not be relevant to higher mammals, including humans.The current study, involving people, was aimed at resolving this controversy. Ten nondiabetic subjects were given oral diazoxide, a drug that activates potassium channels in the hypothalamus. (The drug is not used to treat diabetes.) Hormone secretion by the pancreas was controlled to ensure that any change in sugar production would only have occurred through the drug's effect on the brain. After the researchers administered the drug, blood tests revealed that patients' livers were producing significantly less glucose than before.Hawkins and her team then repeated this in rats, again giving diazoxide orally, achieving similar results. They confirmed that sufficient amounts of diazoxide crossed the blood-brain barrier to affect potassium channels in the hypothalamus. Additional experiments confirmed that diazoxide was working through the brain. Specifically, the researchers were able to completely block the effects of diazoxide by infusing a specific potassium channel blocker directly into the brain."This study confirms that the brain plays a significant role in regulating glucose production by the liver," said lead author Preeti Kishore, assistant professor of medicine. "We are now investigating whether this 'brain-to-liver' pathway is impaired in people with diabetes. If so, we may be able to restore normal glucose regulation by targeting potassium channels in the brain."

MILAN, Italy, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Italy has a new HIV infection every three hours on average, the national department of health said in a statement during the World AIDS Day commemoration Thursday.According to the statement, there were about 3,000 new infections in the country in 2010, with nearly one third of those affecting a foreigner.At least 157,000 people are presently estimated to be HIV-positive in Italy, though the country's AIDS infections and deaths continue to register a negative trend.Nearly 90 percent of the new patients acquired the virus through unprotected sex, and were mostly from the northern regions.People discovered to be HIV-positive in 2010 had an average age of 39 for men and 35 for women, more than a third of whom were diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease, the statement said.Misinformation and a lack of preventive measures are a great cause for concern, Milan's councillor for social services and health Pierfrancesco Majorino told Xinhua at a campaign launched in Milan's La Scala Square."We have to keep in mind that AIDS is something very close to each of us, and adopt all most effective campaigns to provide complete and correct information," he said.A red ribbon -- the international symbol of AIDS awareness -- was formed by a group of people at the center of the square to remind everyone to stay alert to the disease.On World AIDS Day, disease prevention and health information campaigns were launched throughout Italy, including free ultra-rapid HIV-screening tests.

OTTAWA, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Canadians are working about three years longer before retirement than they were in the 1990s, and have a longer life in retirement, an official study said Wednesday.Statistics Canada, the federal statistics agency, reports that Canada' s men and women, who don't face compulsory retirement, are increasingly choosing to delay retirement, as part of a long-term trend that has begun before the recent recession.The trend of later retirement dates back to the mid-1990s, when a 50-year-old employee could expect to work another 12.5 years before retiring from the daily grind.Today, that same 50-year-old worker could expect another 16 years of employment.The study says that 34 percent of Canadians aged 55 and older were employed in 2010, compared to just 22 percent in 1996.A longer working life would unnecessarily imply a shorter life in retirement due to increased life expectancy, the study says.The study notes that men and women leaving the work force today are spending as much time in their post-career life as many of their predecessors did.For example, between 1977 and 1994, the typical retirement length for a man in Canada rose from 11.2 to 15.4 years; as of 2008, it was 15 years.For women, the average retirement length similarly rose from 16.4 to 20.6 years between 1977 and 1996; as of 2008, it was 19 years.From another point of observation, 50-year-old men can expect to spend 48 percent of their remaining years of life in retirement in 2008,compared with 45 percent in 1977.In 2008, 50-year-old women could expect to spend 55 percent of their remaining years of life in retirement, nearly identical to the proportion in 1977.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Hewlett-Packard(HP) on Thursday announced that it will keep its personal systems group ( PSG) and continue to sell personal computers."HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It's clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees," Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.On Aug. 18, former CEO Leo Apotheker said HP was considering spin off the PC business, which drove shares of the company to plunge 20 percent the following day.HP then said its board of directors has authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives for the PSG, and it will consider a broad range of options that may include a full or partial separation of the PC business through a spin-off or other transaction.According to HP, the review so far revealed the depth of the integration of its PC division that has occurred across the company's key operations including supply chain and procurement.In addition, it indicated that the division has made significant contributions to HP's solutions portfolio and overall brand value."Finally, it also showed that the cost to recreate these in a standalone company outweighed any benefits of separation," HP said in a press release announcing the latest decision.HP is now the world's largest PC-maker with revenues of the PC division totaling 40.7 billion U.S. dollars for fiscal year 2010, according to figures from the company.A recent report from market research firm Gartner found that in the third quarter of 2011, HP's PC shipments grew 5.3 percent year- on-year, faster than the industry average of 3.2 percent, and its share in global PC market actually increased slightly to 17.7 percent.Though the PC division has a lower margin, the position and scale as the world's No. 1 PC-vendor gives HP advantage to negotiate with other suppliers and helps its other businesses, analysts said.The announcement to keep the PC unit is seen as the first major move of HP under new CEO Whitman, who took the job just over a month ago after replacing Apotheker on Sept. 22.

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