A member of the South Texas College of Law graduating class of 1987, Texas attorney Randy Sorrels was recently honored at the school's 2013 Awards Gala. Sorrels was presented with the Dean's Award for his continued commitment to excellence in the practice of law and contributions to the long term success of the South Texas College of Law. Randy Sorrels is the managing partner at the Houston personal injury law firm of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels, Agosto & Friend. He is board-certified in both Personal Injury Law and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal ...

Despite efforts to reduce a backlog of cases, an application for Social Security Disability (SSD) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) can take a long time. Nationally, the average wait time for a hearing before an administrative law judge is about 11.4 months, according to a website that tracks Social Security Administration data. In Pennsylvania, applicants for Social Security Disability or Supplemental Security Income wait an average of 12 months for a hearing. In Pittsburgh, the average wait is 13 months, according to data from December 2012. The extended waiting ...

When one person has the courage to stand up against illegal, corrupt or fraudulent business practices in an effort to stop the wrongdoer and to stop the waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars, that person's risks should not be without reward. Yes, there are risks to blowing the whistle, but there are also protections and incentives built into the process as well. A whistleblower is someone with knowledge and evidence of fraud. Anyone can be a whistleblower if they know of fraudulent or illegal business practices. Under the False Claims Act, a whistleblower can file a whistleblower ...

First an Assistant District Attorney in three North Carolina counties, then a dedicated criminal defense lawyer and now one of the top 100 trial lawyers in North Carolina, according to The National Trial Lawyers. North Carolina defense attorney Patrick Roberts of Roberts Law Group, PLLC, has built his career on a commitment to his clients and an unwavering focus on obtaining the best possible results in difficult cases. Attorney Roberts was recently invited to join The National Trial Lawyers' Top 100 Trial Attorneys based on nomination(s) by his peers and an intense ...

Parental alienation is an increasingly used tool in the war between divorced or divorcing parents. However, legal experts and psychologists differ about whether such a thing really exists. Depending on the expert, parental alienation syndrome, or PAS, is either made-up psychobabble or behavior by one parent that causes significant harm to children during child costody disputes. The reality, of course, is that it's a little of both. Examples of parental alienation First, it helps to understand how PAS is defined by those who accept its existence as a syndrome. It is ...

As the dust settles after a debtor files for bankruptcy, questions and inquiries begin to arise relating to removing any negative credit data or hint of a recent bankruptcy filing. Irwin Pollack, President of Boston, Massachusetts-based Patriot Bankruptcy, encourages clients to focus on three key issues relating to prior bankruptcy information and how they can protect their credit reports given the alleged financial fresh start: 1. You don't have to do anything in order for your bankruptcy or any included accounts to be removed automatically. Chapter 7 bankruptcies are ...

It turns out that in lieu of divorce, many couples simply choose to live apart. The reason: They believe they cannot afford to divorce. A recent longitudinal study conducted at Ohio State University shows that couples who separate but don't divorce primarily do so for financial reasons. The role of religion, often thought to play a role in separations, turns out to be less important. This explains why divorce filings go down during a recession, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Moreover, in the current very slow economic recovery, many houses ...

Nicaragua ranked among the 11th largest apparel supplying countries to the United States in terms of volume and the 12th largest in value in 2012, thus becoming an important player in the global textile and apparel industry, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA). Nicaragua's Textile & Apparel industry is an important development engine for the national economy, as it accounted for nearly 59 percent of total free zones exports in 2012 with US$1,368 million and employed 69,000 people by the end of 2012. That same year, ...

An impressive product line hit the market aimed at repelling head lice is now being bought for beneficial purposes with amazing results. From fostering hair growth to calming split ends, the Emu and Argan oils found in the Head Hunters Naturals Lemon Heads Repellant Shampoo and Conditioner have people flocking to buy their products. Parents initially began using Head Hunters Naturals Products to repel head lice, alleviate itching and repair the scalp. However, after noticing how shiny and healthy the hair on their children became, a surprising number of "moms" ...

Renowned for its literary associations, the Bloomsbury area boasts three first class cultural institutions - the British Museum, the British Library, and the Wellcome Collection - all of which are putting on a series of exhibitions, talks, tours and events which draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area this summer. A highlight of the cultural calendar in London 2013 is the British Museum's exhibition on Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Items which have never left Italy before are included in this British Museum exhibition which continues until Sunday ...

BOSTON–Afghanistan's geography is dominated by a collection of craggy peaks, the highest—a mountain known as Noshaq—has been measured to 7,492 meters. Consequently, the soldiers on duty in this mountainous terrain must often ascend to great heights as part of their duty. However, quick climbs without adapting to altitude can lead to a condition called acute mountain sickness (AMS), marked by headache, fatigue, gastrointestinal distress, nausea, and insomnia. Conventional knowledge suggests that to avoid AMS, climbers need to "stage," or set up camp, at a lower altitude ...

BOSTON — Snot. It's not something most of us spend a lot of time thinking about, but, for a team of researchers in Washington, D.C., it's front and center. Robert I. Henkin, founder of the Taste and Smell Clinic in is charmingly self-deprecating. He says with a chuckle that he's often called a "spit and snot doctor," but he knows all too well that for his patients – those who no longer can appreciate the fragrance of fresh-cut grass or the intricacies of an herb-infused sauce – such loss is no laughing matter. "You might think: 'Oh well, you can still hear. You can ...

Boston, MA— A new website application for athletes called Dietary Analysis Tool for Athletes (D.A.T.A.) has been validated as accurately recording dietary intake based on the 24-hour recall method. "This tool offers sports dietitians and health professionals a new, quick alternative to analyze athletes' dietary intake," said Lindsay Baker, PhD, Principal Scientist, Gatorade Sports Science Institute. To confirm the accuracy of the tool, Baker and colleagues compared D.A.T.A. with the USDA 5-step multiple-pass method. A total of 56 athletes ages 14-20 participated in the ...

Boston, MA—Adding more color to your diet in the form of berries is encouraged by many nutrition experts. The protective effect of berries against inflammation has been documented in many studies. Diets supplemented with blueberries and strawberries have also been shown to improve behavior and cognitive functions in stressed young rats. To evaluate the protective effects of berries on brain function, specifically the ability of the brain to clear toxic accumulation, researchers from the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and University of Maryland ...

BOSTON — Researchers at Northeastern University in Boston have developed a gene therapy approach that may one day stop Parkinson's disease (PD) in it tracks, preventing disease progression and reversing its symptoms. The novelty of the approach lies in the nasal route of administration and nanoparticles containing a gene capable of rescuing dying neurons in the brain. Parkinson's is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder caused by the death of dopamine neurons in a key motor area of the brain, the substantia nigra (SN). Loss of these neurons leads to the characteristic ...

BOSTON — Heart disease and approximately half of all strokes are the results of advanced atherosclerosis with damaged endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels. In 2009, the direct and indirect annual cost of heart disease and stroke was approximately $312.6 billion. Projections are for the total cost of heart disease to increase from $523 to $1.126 billion from 2013 to 2030. And by 2030, it is expected that there will be more than 148 million of the US population would have heart disease. Development of new technologies for assessing and treating endothelium damage ...

BOSTON — Stress triggered neuropsychiatric disorders take an enormous personal, social and economic toll on society. In the US more than half of adults are exposed to at least one traumatic event throughout their lives. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating anxiety disorder associated with exposure to a traumatic event outside the range of normal human experience. PTSD typically follows a chronic, often lifelong, course. Patients have diminished quality of life, are more likely to manifest other psychiatric disorders such as depression and six times more ...

BOSTON — More than 1 in 270 people in the US are living with HIV and every 9.5 minutes someone is else is infected. The economic cost estimates associated with HIV/AIDS exceed 36 billion dollars a year. The development of effective drug treatments have allowed people with HIV to live longer with federal health officials now predicting that by 2015 one-half of the population with HIV in the US will be older than 50. Efavirenz (tradenames: Sustiva®, Stocrin®) is an antiretroviral (ARV) drug commonly used to treat HIV. Its popularity as a medication, alone or more commonly ...

BOSTON — Depression is the leading cause of disability with more than 350 million people globally affected by this disease. In addition to debilitating consequences on mental health, depression predisposes an individual to physiological disease such as heart disease, and conversely heart disease increases the risk of depression. According to the World Health Organization by the year 2020 heart disease and depression will be the number one and number two leading causes of disability in developed countries. While the co-occurrence of these disorders is well recognized, an ...

Geneva, Switzerland: Unavoidable damage caused to the heart and lungs by radiotherapy treatment of tumours in the chest region can be limited by the administration of an ACE inhibitor, a drug commonly used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, a group of Dutch researchers have found. [1] Common cancers such as breast, oesophagus, lung, and Hodgkin's lymphoma are frequently treated with radiotherapy, but the radiation dose that can be given safely is limited by the sensitivity of the health lung tissue which is also irradiated. The lung is a particularly complex ...

Middle school students from rural Maine will present a poster at the Experimental Biology 2013 conference detailing how their involvement with the Aspirnaut science-outreach program led to them becoming active scientific researchers. Students from the Dedham School in Dedham, Maine, were participants in the Aspirnaut program (http://www.aspirnaut.org), a science-outreach program started at Vanderbilt University, in which scientists engage with middle- and high-school students through videoconferencing. Showing a great interest in the research that was being demoed by ...

Geneva, Switzerland: Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) gives better results than standard radiotherapy in patients with early breast cancer, according to results from a randomised trial presented today (Sunday) to the 2nd Forum of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO). IMRT is an advanced, high-precision form of radiotherapy that can deliver an even dose of radiation, thus reducing the cosmetic problems that can often occur after breast radiotherapy. "We believe that this study, the largest prospective trial in the world to test breast IMRT ...

Lisa B. Overton is opening up and telling the world about her life as the child of a forbidden love affair. This moving story details her experience growing up as the child of a Roman Catholic priest and an ex-nun who entered into a 30+ year clandestine love affair. She tells the poignant story of her childhood and how she survived loneliness, shame and hypocrisy in her parents' painful and secretive shadow and how she eventually forgave them both. She never knew who her father was until finally, on her mother's death bed Lisa asked, "Was Uncle my father?" ...

Brene Brown will be the featured speaker at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work (GCSW) inaugural scholarship luncheon, "Daring to Soar," at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 8 at the Houston Country Club. For more than a decade, Brown has been researching and writing about shame, vulnerability, courage and compassion in her role as a research professor at the UH GCSW. Her latest milestone was a two-episode appearance with celebrated talk show host Oprah Winfrey to discuss Brown's new book, "Daring Greatly," which made its way onto ...

On Monday, April 29th 2013 the 14th annual Newport Beach Film Festival will present its Australian Spotlight, an evening celebration of Australian cinema and culture. The event will feature the West Coast Premiere of the highly anticipated film, Drift, followed by a festive post screening gala. Drift is an action-packed ride that reflects the dynamic surf culture and spirit that is shared by Austrialia and southern Califoria. The film, based on a true story, follows two brothers (Absolut Vodka and Stella Artois Beer, 10 top Orange County restaurants serving signature ...