In 2008, the National Electrical Code began requiring electricians to include tamper-resistant electrical receptacles in all new and renovated homes and domiciles. Residential and commercial electric service Pat Murphy Electric, Inc., wishes to clarify what tamper-resistant electrical receptacles are and their importance. Smarter and Safer Outlets Before the National Electrical Code began requiring differently, homes were typically outfitted with standard electrical outlets. These outlets served their purpose, but Pat Murphy Electric's residential electrical contractors ...

After Unum, the world's largest disability insurance company, was accused of unfairly denying thousands of valid claims from policyholders, consumers turned to legal professionals like The Unum Law Group to assert their rights and seek justice. Unum's alleged mistreatment of policyholders has been the subject of numerous investigations, and government officials have accused the company of deliberately denying valid claims as a business strategy. Unum, formerly known as UnumProvident, has allegedly utilized many tactics to deny claims, including misreading medical records, ...

Debuting the perfect survival straw, the H2O Xtreme Straw Water Filter, one of the best types of survival gear available. This survival water straw is one of the most durable, innovative, and creative pieces of technology that is small enough to fit in a pocket. It is a portable filter, that filtrates all types of bacteria and germs from harmful water. Once wet, an electrostatic charge is created that not only attracts contaminants, but also electroplates them through a unique process called "Electro Chemical Oxidation Reduction". The lifestraw effectively ...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A pearl net filled with seedpods, tethered by a rope anchored in the coastal mud but swaying with the tide, could be an especially effective way to restore disappearing marine meadows of eelgrass, according to a new study. The resulting crop of eelgrass grown by SF State researchers is as genetically diverse as the natural eelgrass beds from which the seeds were harvested, said Sarah Cohen, an associate professor of biology at the Romberg Tiburon Center. As eelgrass meadows are threatened by a number of human activities, restoration plans that maintain ...

A Virginia Tech researcher has developed a new way to classify and name organisms based on their genome sequence and in doing so created a universal language that scientists can use to communicate with unprecedented specificity about all life on Earth. In a paper published in the journal PLoS ONE, Boris Vinatzer proposes moving beyond the current biological naming system to one based on the genetic sequence of each individual organism. This creates a more robust, precise, and informative name for any organism, be it a bacterium, fungus, plant, or animal. Vinatzer, an ...

PHILADELPHIA – An antibody found in the blood of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) may be present long before the onset of the disease and its symptoms, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014. "If our results can be replicated in larger populations, our findings may help to detect MS earlier in a subgroup of patients," said study author Viola Biberacher, MD, with Technical University in Munich, Germany. "Finding the disease before symptoms appear ...

In a large clinical trial testing dietary supplements for prostate cancer (PCa) prevention, baseline selenium (Se) status (measured by toenail Se concentration), in the absence of supplementation, was not associated with prostate cancer (PCa) risk. However, when baseline toenail Se concentrations were high, supplementation with high-dose Se almost doubled the risk of high-grade PCa risk among older men, according to a new study published February 21 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. High-dose vitamin E also more than doubled the risk high-grade PCa risk, ...

SEATTLE – A multi-center study led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that high-dose supplementation with both the trace element selenium and vitamin E increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer. But importantly, this risk depends upon a man's selenium status before taking the supplements. These findings, published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, are based on data from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial, or SELECT, a rigorously executed, randomized and placebo-controlled trial conducted by the SWOG cancer research cooperative ...

New Rochelle, NY, February 21, 2014—Even small increases in blood sugar caused by a diet high in carbohydrates can be detrimental to brain health. Recent reports in medical literature link carbohydrate calorie-rich diets to a greater risk for brain shrinkage, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, impaired cognition, and other disorders. David Perlmutter, MD, best-selling author of Grain Brain, explores this important topic in a provocative interview in Alternative and Complementary Therapies from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Alternative ...

VIDEO: On Jan. 28, 2014, NASA's newly-launched Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer, or IRIS, observed its strongest solar flare to date. Click here for more information. On Jan. 28, 2014, NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, witnessed its strongest solar flare since it launched in the summer of 2013. Solar flares are bursts of x-rays and light that stream out into space, but scientists don't yet know the fine details of what sets them off. IRIS peers into ...

A molecule previously linked to lung injuries in factory workers producing microwave popcorn might play an important role in microbial infections of the lung suffered by people with cystic fibrosis (CF), according to a recent study led by San Diego State postdoctoral researcher Katrine Whiteson. The molecule, known as 2,3-butanedione or diacetyl, can be detected in higher concentrations in CF patients than in healthy ones. CF patients experience day-to-day persistent coughing and increased mucus production, punctuated by periodic flare-ups of these symptoms, known as ...

MADISON, Wis. — Generating electricity is not the only way to turn sunlight into energy we can use on demand. The sun can also drive reactions to create chemical fuels, such as hydrogen, that can in turn power cars, trucks and trains. The trouble with solar fuel production is the cost of producing the sun-capturing semiconductors and the catalysts to generate fuel. The most efficient materials are far too expensive to produce fuel at a price that can compete with gasoline. "In order to make commercially viable devices for solar fuel production, the material and the ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Food-finding tests in five lemur species show that fruit-eaters may have better spatial memory than lemurs with a more varied diet. The results support the idea that relying on foods that are seasonally available and far-flung gives a competitive edge to individuals with certain cognitive abilities -- such as remembering where the goodies are. In a study appearing in the journal Animal Cognition, researchers Alexandra Rosati at Yale University and Kerri Rodriguez and Brian Hare of Duke compared spatial memory skills across five species of lemurs living ...

NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Guito as it exited the Mozambique Channel and moved into the open waters of the Southern Indian Ocean. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Guito on Feb. 21 at 07:05 UTC/2:05 a.m. EST and took a visible image of the storm exiting the Mozambique Channel. The image showed bands of thunderstorms were still wrapping around the western quadrant of the storm. At 0900 UTC/4 a.m. EST, Guito ...

A study of the Pine Island Glacier could provide insight into the patterns and duration of glacial melt. The Pine Island Glacier, a major outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, has been undergoing rapid melting and retreating for the past two decades. But new research by an international team including researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory shows that this same glacier also experienced rapid thinning about 8,000 years ago. Using LLNL's Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry to measure beryllium-10 produced by cosmic rays in glacially transported ...

Selecting a Chevy Volt, Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf — or one of many other new models — shoppers in the United States bought more than 96,000 plug-in electric cars in 2013. That's a tiny slice of the auto market, but it's up eighty-four percent from the year before. By 2020, the International Energy Agency forecasts, there will be 20 million electric vehicles on the world's roads, many of them plug-ins. This is good news in terms of oil consumption and air pollution. But, of course, every plug-in has to be, well, plugged in. And this growing fleet will put a lot of new ...

Although community network studies show that sexual relationships occur between members of "risk groups" -- men who have sex with other men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PWID), non-injection drug users (NIDU) -- and heterosexuals, researchers at New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) note that little research has been done to help explain how HIV epidemics and programs in one population affect others and how to reduce the risks of transmission. A recent study conducted by researchers from CDUHR, led by Samuel R. Friedman, Director of both ...

(Phoenix , Ariz. Feb 21, 2014) -- Research on cervical cancer performed by a physician at the University of Arizona Cancer Center at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The multi-site research project by Bradley J. Monk, MD, is expected to change the standard of care for women with advanced cervical cancer. The featured research revealed that women with advanced cervical cancer live about four months longer with the combined use of bevacizumab (Avastin®) and chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone. ...

A pathway to more effective and efficient synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs and other flow reactor chemical products has been opened by a study in which for the first time the catalytic reactivity inside a microreactor was mapped in high resolution from start-to-finish. The results not only provided a better understanding of the chemistry behind the catalytic reactions, they also revealed opportunities for optimization, which resulted in better catalytic performances. The study was conducted by a team of scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley ...

Amsterdam, February 21, 2014 – From 1971-1982 Air Force reservists, who flew in about 34 dioxin-contaminated aircraft used to spray Agent Orange and returned to the US following discontinuation of the herbicide spraying operations in the Vietnam War, were exposed greater levels of dioxin than previously acknowledged, according to a study published today in Environmental Research. "These findings are important because they describe a previously unrecognized source of exposure to dioxin that has health significance to those who engaged in the transport work using these ...

West Orange, NJ. February 21, 2014. Kessler Foundation researchers have found that among persons with multiple sclerosis, self-generation may be influenced by variables such as task meaningfulness during learning and memory. They also found that type of task (functional versus laboratory) had a significant effect on memory. This is the first controlled investigation of therapeutic and patient-specific factors that supports the inclusion of self-generation in cognitive rehabilitation. The study was published in the January issue of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: An ...

Lexington, Ky. -- (Feb. 20, 2014) -- a recent study suggests that self-reported memory complaints might predict clinical memory impairment later in life. Erin Abner, Ph.D, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, asked 3,701 men aged 60 and higher a simple question: "Have you noticed any change in your memory since you last came in?" That question led to some interesting results. "It seems that subjective memory complaint can be predictive of clinical memory impairment," Abner said. "Other epidemiologists have seen similar ...

Despite a number of social/behavioral intervention and educational programs, the spread of hepatitis C (HCV) in people who inject drugs (PWIDs) remains a chronic problem. Now, researchers affiliated with New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) are focusing on intervention strategies that highlight the lesser-known dangers of HCV transmission through the sharing of other injection equipment such as cookers, filters, drug-dilution water and water containers. Their article, "The Staying Safe Intervention: Training People Who Inject Drugs in ...

Physics can provide insights into societal trends. Problems involving interactions between people linked in real-life networks can be better understood by using physical models. As a diversion from his normal duties as a theoretical physicist, Andrés Gomberoff from the Andres Bello University in Santiago, Chile, set out to resolve one of his real-life problems: finding a suitable weekend for both partners in his recomposed family to see all their children at the same time. He then joined forces with a mathematician and a complex systems expert. This resulted in a study ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 21, 2014) -- A new report from the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) reveals the prevalence and charges associated with drug overdose in the Bluegrass state. The report, "Drug Overdose Deaths, Hospitalizations, and Emergency Department Visits in Kentucky, 2000-2012", analyzes overdose morbidity and mortality among Kentucky residents and documents the enormous societal and financial toll on the Commonwealth's population. KIPRC, located in the UK College of Public Health, is a bona fide agent for the Kentucky Department for Public ...