Disabled veterans know that disability benefits are available from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). But veterans who are unable to work due to disability may be eligible for a second disability benefit from the Social Security Administration. If you are a veteran, you may be able to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits in addition to VA benefits. In fact, your claim for Social Security benefits may be processed more quickly because you are a veteran. However, you must meet all the criteria for disability benefits from the Social Security ...

At the Tribeca Film Festival here on April 25th, LabTV announced the first-ever winners of its Gold Awards to student filmmakers who submitted outstanding video portraits of young medical scientists who work in labs funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Also honored were student filmmakers in special categories, along with finalists and semi finalists for the awards. A total of $16,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the winning filmmakers, courtesy of LabTV. These are the first awards in what will be an ongoing series of semi-annual honors. Winners ...

Those who loved The Kite Runner, will be eager to read Hosseini's second novel. Set in Afghanistan, the title of the novel is taken from a poem about Kabul: "One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls." The author's love for this once beautiful city is apparent but the novel is set against the background of the turbulent events that have shaped this country and impacted its inhabitants over the last four or five decades from Soviet occupation to the Taliban and beyond. The novel features two ...

Reduction Engineering Scheer, the leading manufacturer of plastic pulverizers, has released a new product in its line of disposable pulverizer disks made with a high-carbon, high-chromium alloy steel. "The addition of this new product gives a terrific option to companies facing the toughest applications," said Richard A. D'Angelo, chief operating officer for Reduction Engineering Scheer. "Our newest disks provide enhanced wear performance when processing abrasive plastics without using a heavy standard disk. "The savings from shipping costs to sharpen standard disks ...

Corcentric, a leading provider of SaaS Accounts Payable automation solutions hosted in the cloud, today announced an agreement to implement its AP automation solution for one of the nation's leading professional sports organizations. The integration of COR360 into the organization's Accounts Payable processes will help the organization not only fill the automation gap related to their invoice workflow; it will also eliminate the use of paper invoices, fulfilling a commitment to reduce the use of paper. The COR360 solution will streamline the invoice approval workflow ...

"I am very excited about the opportunity to leverage the C2C brand through the African continent," says Newton. "I have been a long-standing admirer of the work ethic and business ethos of this company and believe it is well positioned to play a significant role in helping businesses capitalise on Africa's economic revolution - most notably in key regions and countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, to name but a few." According to Newton, businesses who want to market their products and services into these regions need to be mindful of the following 5 elements required ...

Rena Adam Enterprises LLC, a company offering a range of car accessories and related products, presents its new, automotive bug remover product. Aptly called Scrubless Bug-a-Way, the liquid is added to the windshield washer cleaner to help clean bugs off the windshield. "We understand how frustrating it is to clean off bugs, and we are excited to offer a product that works," the Brighton, Michigan-based company says. "Let the Scrubless-Bug-a-Way product be the perfect companion for extensive trips on the road. There is no need to stop along your trip just to clean the ...

Today, Urgency Network presents Ticket To Rise, the fundraising initiative that gives earth dwellers the chance to win a private trip to space by donating to one of the participating nonprofits organizations. Urgency Network is partnering with Motherboard to spread the word about the galactic opportunity, featuring a host of tastemakers discussing their favorite charities and what space means to them. On the surface it's very simple: - A donation of $10 or more to one of the participating nonprofits enters you into a drawing to win a Founders Ticket on the XCOR Lynx ...

Great Minds in STEM is proud to be an exhibitor at the 3rd USA Science and Engineering Festival, hosted by founding and presenting sponsor Lockheed Martin. Designed to inspire the next generation of innovators, the Festival is a free, family-friendly expo comprising over 3,000 interactive activities and 100 live stage performances intended to engage the public and educate students of all ages. The festival will take place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC on April 26th and 27th from 9am - 6pm. Visit GMiS, a founding partner of the USA Science ...

Many couples agree not to have children after only one discussion, and sometimes none at all, the British Sociological Association's annual conference in Leeds heard today. [Friday 25 April 2014] Edina Kurdi, of Middlesex University, said that 40% of the childless women she surveyed for a study had either not talked about having children, or had only discussed this once early in their relationship. Miss Kurdi carried out an online survey which included responses from 75 UK women aged 35 and above who were childless. She interviewed nine of them face-to-face. The ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (24 April 2014)—Annual carbon emissions from global agriculture can be reduced by as much as 50 to 90 percent by 2030—the equivalent of removing all the cars in the world—according to a comprehensive new report released by Climate Focus and California Environmental Associates. The study highlights twelve key strategies—led by reduced global beef consumption, reduced food waste and better farm nutrient management and production—that can deliver big climate wins while maintaining food security and building resilience. The report, Strategies for Mitigating ...

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have found genetic evidence that one of Britain's native tree species, the dwarf birch found in the Scottish Highlands, was once common in England. Genes from dwarf birch were found in birch tree populations across Britain, which reflects a much wider distribution occupied by the "wee tree" when the British climate was colder. "We seem to have found genetic footprints of the retreat of dwarf birch into its current refuges in the Scottish Highlands," said Dr Richard Buggs, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary's School of Biological ...

AUDIO: New research published on World Malaria Day finds that interactive training for health workers can halve malaria overdiagnosis and prevent wastage of drugs. In this audio interview, lead author Dr.... Click here for more information. Interactive training programmes for health workers could reduce overdiagnosis of malaria by half and help prevent valuable drugs from being wasted on patients who don't have the disease, according to new research published on World Malaria ...

Blood and urine samples taken from athletes to spot signs of doping should be stored for 10 years, to enable technology to catch up with substances that currently evade detection, says a consensus statement of international anti-doping bodies, published in a special issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine. And much wider use should be made of biological profiling—the athlete's "biological passport"—which will show up tiny changes made to the individual's unique genetic blueprint by doping substances and methods, without the need to identify the presence of the ...

New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that increasing coffee consumption by on average one and half cups per day (approx 360ml) over a four-year period reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes by 11%. The research is led by Dr Frank Hu and Dr Shilpa Bhupathiraju, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA, and colleagues. Coffee and tea consumption has been associated with a lower type 2 diabetes risk but little is known about how changes in coffee ...

Boston, MA — People who increased the amount of coffee they drank each day by more than one cup over a four-year period had a 11% lower risk for type 2 diabetes than those who made no changes to their coffee consumption, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. In addition, the study found that those who decreased their coffee consumption by more than a cup per day increased their type 2 diabetes risk by 17%. "Our findings confirm those of previous studies that showed that higher coffee consumption was associated with lower ...

"Much research has focused on how HIV adapts to antiviral drugs – we wanted to investigate how HIV adapts to us, its human host, over time," says lead author Zabrina Brumme from Simon Fraser University. In a study published in PLOS Genetics, which traces the evolution of HIV in North America, the Brumme lab and colleagues at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Harvard University, the New York Blood Center, and The San Francisco Department of Public Health found evidence that the virus is slowly adapting over time to its human hosts. However, this change is so gradual ...

Respiratory failure caused by chronic lung infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria is a common cause of death in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic disease that is common in individuals of European descent. A study published on April 24th in PLOS Pathogens demonstrates that an antimicrobial peptide produced by human immune cells can promote mutations in the bacterium that make it more lethal. Daniel Wozniak, from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, USA, and colleagues studied a process called "mucoid conversion", which involves mutations ...

Washington, DC (April 24, 2014) — Many kidney failure patients in Australia who could benefit from undergoing dialysis at home are being treated in hospitals and dialysis units, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). This is creating significant costs for healthcare providers and causing unnecessary disruptions to patients' lives. Home dialysis is more convenient for patients and can provide similar or better care than hemodialysis, which must be done in a clinic. Blair Grace, PhD (Australia ...

Washington, DC (April 24, 2014) — Dialysis patients with more muscle mass had better scores on a 6-minute walking test as well as better scores on physical and mental health questionnaires in a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The findings suggest that physical activity that builds muscle mass may help improve the health and quality of life of dialysis patients. Physical functional ability is often significantly impaired in patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Srinivasan Beddhu, MD (University ...

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have applied a new image processing technique to obtain near-infrared scattered light photos of five disks observed around young stars in the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes database. These disks are telltale evidence for newly formed planets. If astronomers initially miss something in their review of data, they can make new discoveries by revisiting earlier data with new image processing techniques, thanks to the wealth of information stored in the Hubble data archive. This is what Rémi Soummer, of the Space Telescope ...

PHILADELPHIA – A new study suggests that targeting B cells, which are a type of white blood cell in the immune system, may be associated with reduced disease activity for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The study is released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014. For the study, 231 people with relapsing-remitting MS received either a placebo or one of several low dosages of the drug ofatumumab, which is an anti-B cell antibody, for 24 weeks, with the first 12 weeks making up ...

Fetal heart experts working with the American Heart Association have developed guidelines to help healthcare providers care for unborn babies with heart problems, as well as their families. The statement, Diagnosis and Treatment of Fetal Cardiac Disease, is published in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation. "Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect that can result in either death or significant health problems in newborn babies," said Mary T. Donofrio, M.D., lead writer of the statement, and director of the Fetal Heart Program and Critical ...

A substantial proportion of risk for developing autism spectrum disorders (ASD), resides in genes that are part of specific, interconnected biological pathways, according to researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who conducted a broad study of almost 2,500 families in the United States and throughout the world. The study, titled "Convergence of Genes and Cellular Pathways Dysregulated in Autism Spectrum Disorders," was first published online in the American Journal of Human Genetics on April 24. ASD affects about one percent of the population ...

Have you ever accidently missed a red light or a stop sign? Or have you heard someone mention a visible event that you passed by but totally missed seeing? "When we have different things competing for our attention, we can only be aware of so much of what we see," said Kyle Mathewson, Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois. "For example, when you're driving, you might really be concentrating on obeying traffic signals." But say there's an unexpected event: an emergency vehicle, a pedestrian, or an animal running into the road—will you actually ...