Number of Portuguese students seeking foreign Universities increased 140%

European study shows that in July, 15,201 Portuguese student seeking to study abroad.

The number of Portuguese students applying for a foreign university is growing increasingly. Within a year, the percentage of young people in this situation grew 140%. In July of 2011 were just over six thousand, are now over 15,000. A number that puts Portugal among the EU countries where there is a greater willingness to emigrate even during the studies, a ranking dominated by the countries of South and East. The findings appear in the study "European Higher Education", organized by StudyPortals - online platform supported by the European Commission for research and comparison of university courses - which establishes a clear link between this development and the increasing rate of youth unemployment.

The United Kingdom, where he directed 24% of the applications, the Netherlands (14%) and Germany (7.7%) are the most sought after destinations by the Portuguese through this platform. Data were collected only between the universe of students who use the services of StudyPortals, which means it may be well short of the total numbers. Still, guaranteeing responsible are a good indicator, since all these path students was then monitored and it was concluded that about 90% even just to deliver the foreign application in a university.

For StudyPortals, the reasons for the phenomenon are well identified. This demand is directly related to the current economic situation, in which students from countries in Southern Europe see the courses in countries in northwestern Europe in order to improve their future career opportunities and to escape the economic outlook in their own countries with a high youth unemployment and lower wages.

University of Harvard study says that caffeine reduces the risk of skin cancer

Caffeine addicts can smile because it is known now, through a study published in the journal "Cancer Research", that increased coffee consumption reduces the likelihood of being able to develop the kind of most common skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma.
Professor, School of Medicine and School of Public Health, Harvard, Jiali Han said in the article published by the Journal of the American Association of disease research, that "research indicates that many more cups of caffeinated coffee is consumed, the lower the risk of skin cancer ".
On the other hand, Professor Jiali Han warned that may not be safe going to consume more caffeine "just based on these data." However, the second researchers say the results "basal cell carcinoma in a list of diseases whose risk is diminished when coffee consumption is increased." It should be noted that the list contains several other diseases such as Parkinson's and type 2 diabetes.
Jiali Han assured that due to the high number of newly diagnosed "some changes in the daily diet can have an impact on public health." The type of skin cancer, that although the study is to develop so long, there a high mortality rate and also a high cost for health care systems.

Portugal is in the group of countries that more money cuts to Universities

Portugal is one of most European countries that cut in higher education following the economic crisis. The conclusion is a study of the European University Association, recently presented in Lisbon.
According to the document, Portugal joined the group of countries that have reduced funding by 20% and that also includes Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and Spain.
According to the dean of the University of Lisbon, with the wage cuts, reduction in Portugal reached 45%, calling into question the functioning of many establishments and university autonomy.
Most countries cut 10% and some continued funding. In turn, Norway and Germany increased funding for higher education.

University of Porto received more than 3000 foreign students

The University of Porto received about 3100 foreign students in the second half of the school year, coming under international mobility programs, which equates to nearly 10 percent of total subscribers.
University of Porto says they received enrollment of about 3,100 young people from 63 different nationalities to attend the second semester of the academic year, representing about 10 percent of total students of the institution.
The University has been the preference of foreign students due to factors such as teaching quality, reputation or recommendation from teachers or peers who have already performed a mobility period at the university, data obtained through a survey conducted by the relations international institution.
It adds that foreign students last year, attended the University of Porto, 93 percent say they would recommend to the end of their studies.
Of the more than 3,000 students who have been studing in the last months at the University of Porto, about 1,500 are pursuing a full course, including masters and doctorates, but come 1559 youth this year through programs of international student mobility , known as 'Erasmus', or bilateral agreements between the U. Port and universities around the world.

Although from the five continents, from Thailand to Nicaragua, through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Fiji, Somalia and Vietnam, the largest share of these students continues to arrive from Brazil and Spain, followed by Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and the UK.

Anti-Obesity Vaccine Reduces Food Consumption in Animals

A new therapeutic vaccine to treat obesity by suppressing the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin decreases food intake and increases calorie burning in mice, a new study finds. The results was presented at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.
"An anti-ghrelin vaccine may become an alternate treatment for obesity, to be used in combination with diet and exercise," said Mariana Monteiro, MD, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Porto in Portugal. She is lead investigator of the study.
Ghrelin is a gut hormone that promotes weight gain by increasing appetite and food intake while decreasing energy expenditure, or calorie burning. Recent research shows that bariatric surgeries, such as gastric bypass, suppress ghrelin.
"This suggests that there is a hormonal mechanism underlying the weight loss attained by the surgical procedures," Monteiro said.
Monteiro's group developed a therapeutic vaccine using a noninfectious virus carrying ghrelin, which was designed to provoke an immune response -- development of antibodies against ghrelin -- that would suppress this hormone. They then vaccinated normal-weight mice and mice with diet-induced obesity three times and compared them with control mice that received only saline injections.
Compared with unvaccinated controls, vaccinated mice -- both normal-weight and obese mice -- developed increasing amounts of specific anti-ghrelin antibodies, increased their energy expenditure and decreased their food intake, the authors reported. Within 24 hours after the first vaccination injection, obese mice ate 82 percent of the amount that control mice ate, and after the final vaccination shot they ate only 50 percent of what unvaccinated mice ate, Monteiro said.
The effects of each vaccination lasted for the two months of the study, which for the normal 18-month lifespan of mice, corresponds to four human years, she said. They reportedly saw no toxic effects in the mice as a result of the vaccine.
Vaccinated obese mice also displayed a reduced expression of neuropeptide Y (NPY). Monteiro said, "NPY is the most potent signal that increases appetite in the central nervous system. This finding shows that the anti-ghrelin vaccine decreased the feeding signals in the brain."
Funding support for this study came from the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia) in Lisbon, Portugal.