Washington - The flow of undocumented immigrants into the United States slowed down over the past year, according to a study released by the Pew Hispanic Centre on Thursday.

The research shows a fall in the total number of illegal immigrants, to 11.9 million in 2008 from 12.4 million in 2007. However, the centre would not formally say the number had in fact declined because of the study's margin of error.

"We cannot say with confidence that there was a decrease, but with full certainty there was a halt," said senior demographer Jeffrey Passel.

Washington, October 2: Purdue University researchers have shown that it is possible to use nanoparticles for delivering treatments to injured brains and spinal cord cells.

Richard Borgens, a researcher at the School of Veterinary Medicine's Center for Paralysis Research and Welden School of Biomedical Engineering, says that he has already used silica nanoparticles coated with a polymer to target and repair injured guinea pig spinal cords.

Describing his research in a research paper, being published in the October edition of the journal Small, the researcher said that his team used the coated nanoparticles to deliver both the polymer and hydralazine to cells with secondary damage from a naturally produced toxin.

Washington, Oct 2: A groundbreaking discovery by researchers at the University of Virginia may provide physicians and patients a potential new approach towards the creation of less resistant and more effective antibiotics.

"As bacteria become more resistant to our current classes of antibiotics, there also has been a general lack of new targets for developing novel antibiotics," says John H. Bushweller, Ph. D., who led a new study.

"This is a dangerous situation, but our discovery provides a starting point for a completely novel class of antibiotics, acting via a different mechanism," he added.

Washington, Oct 2: Sarah Palin has struggled after her successful entry onto the national stage. Though she continues to attract large crowds on the campaign trail and delight social conservatives, her performance in the past few weeks has raised questions, even among conservatives, about whether McCain made a wise choice.

A new study by University of Rochester Medical Centre suggests that pain is not a symptom of arthritis but it is a cause of the condition.

Washington, Oct 2: US President George W Bush today hailed the Senate's approval of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and said that it would strengthen global efforts to stall the spread of nuclear weapons.

In a statement Bush said, "This legislation will strengthen our global nuclear nonproliferation efforts, protect the environment, create jobs, and assist India in meeting its growing energy needs in a responsible manner."

He also said that he was looking forward to sign the bill into law and continue to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership.