Washington, Oct 2 (ANI): Ahead of today's crucial vice-presidential debate, a new poll conducted by a leading American daily has found that Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's popularity has plummeted, and that she may now be a drag on her party's ticket among key voter groups.

Though she initially transformed the race with her energizing presence and a fiery convention speech, Palin is now a "much less positive force", said the findings of the poll conducted by the Washington Post, and added that six out of every 10 voters see her as "lacking the experience to be an effective president", and one third of the voters were now less likely to vote for McCain "because of her".

A month ago, voters rated Palin as highly as they did McCain or his Democratic rival Barack Obama, but after weeks of intensive coverage and several perceived missteps, the shine has diminished, said the poll findings.

Nearly one third of the adults in a new poll from the Pew Research Center said that they paid a lot of attention to Palin's interviews with CBS News's Katie Couric, a series that prompted grumbling among some conservative commentators about Palin's competency to be the GOP's vice presidential standard-bearer. The Pew poll showed views of Palin slipping over the past few days alone, added the paper.

It is the "experience question" that may prove to be Sarah's "highest hurdle", particularly when paired with widespread public concern about her party's Presidential candidate John McCain's age. About half of all voters said that they were uncomfortable with the idea of McCain taking office at age 72, and 85 percent of those voters said Palin does not have the requisite experience to be President.

The 60 percent who now see Palin as "insufficiently experienced" to step into the Presidency is steeply higher than in a Post-ABC poll after her nomination early last month. Democrats and Republicans alike are now more apt to doubt her qualifications, but the biggest shift has come among Independents. (ANI)

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London, September 4 (ANI): Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) say that they have devised a way to make unique nanoscale droplets that can pave the way for a potential new cancer treatment.

The researchers have revealed that their approach produces droplets that are much smaller than a human cell, and can be used to deliver pharmaceuticals. "What we found that was unexpected was within each oil droplet there was also a water droplet - a double emulsion. We have a water droplet inside of an oil droplet, in water," Nature magazine quoted Timothy Deming, professor and chair of the UCLA Department of Bioengineering and a member of both the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA and UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, as saying. "The big challenge was to make these double-emulsion droplets in the sub-100-nanometer size range with these properties and have them be stable. We have demonstrated we can make these emulsions that are stable in this size range, which no one has ever been able to do before. These double nanoemulsions are generally hard to form and very unstable, but ours are very stable," Deming added. The researchers point out that emulsions are droplets of one liquid in another liquid, a major success because the two liquids do not mix. "This gives us a new tool, a new material, for drug delivery and anticancer applications," said Thomas G. Mason, a UCLA associate professor of chemistry and physics who has been leading research on nanoemulsions since he joined UCLA five years ago. In the study report explaining the implications of this research, Deming said: "If we have water-soluble drugs, we can load them inside. If we have water-insoluble drugs, we can load them inside as well. We can deliver them simultaneously." Mason added: "Here, you effectively combine both types of drug molecules in the same delivery package. This approach could be used for a combination therapy where you want to deliver two drugs simultaneously at a fixed ratio into the same location." According to the scientists, it might be possible to insert a pharmaceutical inside a droplet and inject the droplet inside a cell.

The researchers are currently trying to determine whether such droplets can release their cargo inside a cell. "We're working on it. There's a pretty clear path on how to do that. There are still challenges for drug delivery, but we have demonstrated the key first step, that we can make these double emulsions that are stable in this size range," said Deming, who designs and engineers molecules. Pointing out that the cargo could be a protein toxin that helps to kill the cell, the researchers have revealed that one of the uses of their approach could be to involve an anticancer drug in the oil and a toxin-protein in the water - two molecules trying to kill the cell simultaneously.

While a cell can develop resistance to a single drug, they believe that the combination approach can be more effective. Deming and Mason, however, insist that there are likely many years of research before cancer patients could be treated in such a manner. "We'll have to do a lot of fine-tuning, but this approach has a lot of advantages. The size of these is a big advantage. We have discovered unique molecular features that can stabilize double emulsions. These are promising, but it's early on, and there are many ways these can fail. But we should at least learn how to make better drug-delivery vehicles," Deming said. The researchers say that their future studies will determine whether the droplets can harmlessly enter cells and release their cargo. Apart from medical purposes, the researchers say that the nanodroplets produced through their method can also be used in cosmetics, soaps and shampoos. (ANI)

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London, September 22 (ANI): A global assessment has warned that the populations of the world's common birds are declining as a result of continued habitat loss.

According to a BBC News report, the survey by BirdLife International found that 45 percent of Europe's common birds had seen numbers fall, as had more than 80 percent of Australia's wading species.

The study's authors said that governments were failing to fund their promises to halt biodiversity loss by 2010.

The State of the World's Birds 2008 report, the first update since 2004, found that common species - ones considered to be familiar in people's everyday lives - were declining in all parts of the world.

In Europe, an analysis of 124 species over a 26-year period revealed that 56 species had declined in 20 countries.

Farmland birds were worst affected, with the number of European turtle-doves (Streptopelia turtur) falling by 79 percent.

In Africa, birds of prey were experiencing "widespread decline" outside of protected areas. While in Asia, 62 percent of the continent's migratory water bird species were "declining or already extinct".

"For decades, people have been focusing their efforts on threatened birds," explained lead editor Ali Stattersfield, BirdLife International's head of science.

By consolidating data from various surveys, the team of researchers were able to identify trends affecting species around the world.

While well-known reasons, such as land-use changes and the intensive farming, were causes, Stattersfield said that it was difficult to point the finger of blame at just one activity.

"The reasons are very complex. For example, there have been reported declines of migratory species - particularly those on long-distance migrations between Europe and Africa," she said.

"It is not just about understanding what is happening at breeding grounds, but also what is happening at the birds' wintering sites," she added.

She said that the findings highlighted the need to tackle conservation in a number of different ways.

"It is not enough to be looking at individual species or individual sites; we need to be looking at some of the policies and practices that affect our wider landscapes," said Stattersfield.

One-in-eight of the world's birds - 1,226 species - was listed as being threatened. Of these, 190 faced an imminent risk of extinction.

The white-rumped vulture, a once common sight in India, has seen its population crash by 99.9 percent in recent years.

An anti-inflammatory drug for cattle, called diclofenac, has been blamed for poisoning the birds, which eat the carcasses of the dead livestock.

According to Stattersfield, the basis for the decline is well understood and measures are being taken to remove diclofenac from veterinary use in India. (ANI)

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London, Sept 26 (ANI): American actress Kirsten Dunst has always been proud of her crooked teeth, but on the latest Harper's Bazaar cover, she seems to have gotten them straightened.

Dunst had been determined not to succumb to the pressures of Hollywood, and had refused to conform to perfection as she found her misaligned teeth to be 'sexy', the Sun reported.

But in her latest picture, the actress could be seen appearing on the cover of the magazine with a dazzling white smile, with teeth seemingly to all aligned.

The picture has caused much speculation as to whether Dunst has been to a dentist, or if the picture is a result of computer technology.

Meanwhile, the 26-year-old actress has revealed that her biggest regret in life is taking on so many films at a young age. Dunst, who has worked in 25 movies, was just 12 when she made her big screen debut in 'Interview With The Vampire'. (ANI)

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