SYRACUSE, NY - Better body armor, etc., have yielded an unmatched number of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan disabled, and 20% are from towns with under 5,000 residents.  Barriers to productivity for those with disabilities affect the soldier and the city.  The Dept. of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University launched "Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities" (EBV), a training program in entrepreneurship/small business management for vets disabled in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.  Mike Haynie, Whitman assistant professor of entrepreneurship and an ex-major in the U.S. Air Force, says EBV will stress practical training in the tools of new venture creation and growth, reflecting issues unique to disability and public benefits programs.  Participants will learn how to write business plans, raise capital, get clients, select effective marketing, hiring needs, and how to expand.  EBV is offered with the Burton Blatt Institute, which seeks to advance civic, social, and economic participation of persons with disabilities (315-443-8736, or EBVinfo@syr.edu).

CHICAGO - Want a pair of glasses with lenses transparent or dark, in shades of yellow, green, or purple - on command.  A lens with chameleon powers promises to improve sunglasses' function dramatically.  Prototype "smart" glasses were presented at the American Chemical Society's 233d meeting.  "These lenses are more intelligent than today's sunglasses," said Chunye Xu, research assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington.  "Because of the materials we're using, we don't think the price is going to be very different."  Some high-end sunglasses let athletes adjust to changing conditions by swapping out lenses.  The new shades, which take from 1-2 seconds to transition, allow a much quicker switch and would offer a range of options on one accessory.  Doctors advise sunglasses that darken in response to lighting, known as photochromic lenses.  These use incoming UV rays to trigger a chemical reaction to darken the lens, but users can't adjust the shade.  The lenses may stay bright under strong midday light or get too dark in low-level evening light due to the angle of incoming rays.  Photochromic lenses won't change color behind a UV-aided surface - a car window.

HANOVER, NH - If you drink two cups of tea a day, you could cool your risk of skin cancer thanks to chemicals with a protective effect, a study from Dartmouth Medical School, BBC News noted.  A study led by Dr. Judy Rees, and a Dartmouth team, examined 770 adults with basal cell carcinoma, 696 with squamous cell carcinoma, and a control group devoid of skin cancer.  The patients, all diagnosed 1993-1995 or 1997-2000, were asked about their diet, lifestyle, and downing of green and black teas, both rich in antioxidants and shown in animal tests to prevent development of cancer cells.  Regular tea drinkers had a lower risk of either skin cancer; those who consumed two or more cups a day had a 65% lower risk of squamous cell carcinoma.  Tea drinking seemed to protect against basal cell carcinoma, but to a lesser degree, BBC noted.  For a bigger boost, add a lemon slice.

STRASBOURG, FRANCE - Reuters reports: to be good to your heart and possibly live a lot longer, drink grape juice three times a week.  Research from the Universite Louis Pasteur concludes Concord grape juice can have a similar effect (against heart disease) as red wine without alcohol.  "That is a very important message," said study author Dr. Valerie Schini-Kerth.  Certain types of grape juice and red wine are packed with high levels of polyphenols, shown to block the production of a protein linked to cardiovascular disease.  When endothelial cells stop working, heart and vascular problems develop.  Scientists found polyphenols in Concord grape juice activate the endothelial cells so they make nitric oxide to protect the heart from cardiovascular disease and help maintain healthy blood vessels and blood pressure.  Make sure it's Concord grape juice. Other types of grape juice, which don't have the same high polyphenols levels and are processed differently, don't have the same healthy punch.

WASHINGTON - Monday Morning in Washington, DC noted the VSA arts and Volkswagen of America Inc.  "Driven" contest for young artists with disabilities (deadline July 6, 12 p.m. MST).  With no entry fee, it’s open to U.S. artists with disabilities, 16 -25.  "Driven" asks artists to pinpoint motivation for their artistic expression and to identify what sustains creative energy.  Art must be original and done in the last three years.  Eligible media include: paintings, drawings, fine art prints, photography, computer-generated prints, and mixed media presented in two dimensions.  It shouldn’t exceed 60 inches to either side, and 15 finalists will be given a total of $60,000 at a ceremony on Capitol Hill in September.  Artwork will be displayed in a touring exhibition that debuts at the Smithsonian. To apply, visit: www.vsarts.org, or call 800-933-8721, x3885; e-mail: jenniferw@vsarts.org.

STOCKHOLM - MedPage Today disclosed testicular cancer risk can be cut if surgery for undescended testicles occurs before puberty, scientists say.  In a Swedish study, the cancer risk later for boys who had surgery before 13 was less than half for men and boys operated on later, said Dr. Andreas Pettersson, of the Karolinska Institute.  Results "suggest the ectopic position of the testis is a factor in testicular cancer," he and his team wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Undescended testis occurs in 2-5% of full-term male infants and is tied to impaired fertility and testicular cancer, scientists note.  The cancer risk rises 2-8 times in men who had this problem, they said, and up to 10% of all men with testicular cancer had undescended testis.  Surgery can be done as early as six months, but it hadn’t been clear whether early surgery has any effect on risk, scientists said.  They looked at 16,983 Swedish men and boys with the condition 1965-2000, using Sweden’s cancer registry data and hospital discharge records: 56 developed testicular cancer; only 20 cases would have been expected based on the general Swedish population incidence rate.

LONDON - HealthDay News noted laughter is contagious, and British scientists identified how your brain is "infected" by it.  At University College London (UCL), they found hearing laughter and positive sounds trigger the area of the brain activated when we smile.  "It seems it's absolutely true that 'laugh, and the whole world laughs with you'," Dr. Sophie Scott, of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, stated.  "We've known that when we’re talking to someone, we often mirror their behavior, copying the words they use and mimicking their gestures.  We've shown the same appears to apply to laughter - at least at the level of the brain."  Scientists played sounds to volunteers while using functional MRI to monitor their brain responses.  The response was greater when volunteers heard positive sounds, which suggests they're more contagious than negative sounds.  The study was in the Journal of Neuroscience.

ANN ARBOR, MI - Genetic testing for eye disease is yielding vital data on complex retinal diseases, especially to confirm a clinician’s diagnosis.  In a review of tests in a five-year period at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, scientists confirmed a clinician’s diagnosis in half of the cases.  The tests were in the lab of Dr. Radha Ayyagari, director of Kellogg’s Ophthalmic Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory.  In the Archives of Ophthalmology, her team tells of 350 genetic tests done since 1999, when the lab became one of the first in the U.S. to get government approval for ophthalmic testing under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment.  Of the 350 tests, 266 were done to confirm a clinician’s diagnosis, by far the most common use of genetic testing for eye disease.  Another 75 tests sought to determine whether an individual was a "carrier" of a disease, and nine tests were used to predict the likelihood an individual with a family history of a given eye disease would develop it.

STOCKHOLM - HealthDay News noted longer life raised the 2005 cost of caring for 6 million-plus Americans with Alzheimer's disease and other dementia forms to about $76 billion.  That is nearly one-sixth of what the U.S. government is expected to spend this year on Medicare.  The global cost of caring for 29.3 million people with dementia in 2005 was $315 billion, stated Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.  That is significantly higher than the 2003 global figure of $250 billion by the same scientists, showing costs accelerated in two years and underscoring the need for more study of the disease.  The $315.4 billion figure is higher than the total budget of all but the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Italy, England, China, and Spain, scientists said.  Lead author Dr. Anders Wimo, of the Karolinska Institutet, said the rise reflected the "graying of the world," and higher gross domestic product in developing countries that boosts the wages of medical personnel and caregivers.

DENVER - Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may aid memory by using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).  A study in CHEST, the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) peer-reviewed journal, shows the majority of patients with OSA, memory-impaired prior to treatment, showed normal memory performance after three months of optimal CPAP use.  Patients who used CPAP for at least six hours a night were nearly eight times as likely to demonstrate normal memory abilities versus patients who used CPAP two or fewer hours a night.  "Patients with OSA often complain of forgetfulness, e.g., losing keys, forgetting phone numbers, or forgetting to complete daily tasks," said senior study author Dr. Mark S. Aloia, of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, who did his research at Brown University Medical School in Providence, RI.  "Where memory is concerned, we may have the ability to reverse some impairments by providing effective and consistent use of CPAP treatment." Dr. Aloia and colleagues examined the degree to which varying levels of CPAP adherence improved memory in 58 memory-impaired patients with clinically diagnosed OSA.  After three months of CPAP treatment, 21% of poor users, 44% of moderate users, and 68 % of optimal users demonstrated normal memory performance.