In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to open civil marriage to same-sex couples. It's been nearly a decade since the first same-sex marriage was performed in The Bay State, and in that time thousands of same-sex couples have tied the knot. Of course, a lot can happen in the span of nine years. For one thing, although the federal government has not yet recognized same-sex marriage, multiple states have joined Massachusetts in legalizing same-sex marriage (and several others have embraced half measures, like permitting civil unions, recognizing same-sex marriages ...

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently reported that "more children than ever before are being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders." The CDC estimates 1 in 88 children are diagnosed with the social spectrum disorder before reaching the age of eight, a 23 percent increase since the last CDC report in 2009 and a 78 percent increase since the first report in 2007. There is much debate over the cause of this increase. Some contend the increase is simply the result of increased education and awareness, allowing professionals to make a diagnosis that ...

The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued its ruling on an important case involving a warrantless blood test on an individual suspected of drunk driving. The Court said a warrant must be obtained before performing a blood test on an individual against his or her wishes except when it is reasonable and urgent to forgo a warrant, which depends on the circumstances of the case. Do police ever need a warrant to draw blood from a drunk-driving suspect? The case originated in Missouri, where a man was pulled over for speeding. The officer noted signs of intoxication and asked ...

Vivian Van Dijk, Editor-in-Chief and President of EYES IN Magazine (Periodic Publication), introduces another captivating issue of her critically acclaimed EYES IN Magazine . Issue 19 features creators including architect professor Ben van Berkel, vocalist Krishna Das, astronaut Jerry L. Ross, ex-Navy Seal, founder and CEO of TRX Suspension Training Program - Randy Hetrick and artist and technology fashion designer, Amy Winters. Snippets of these interviews include: Architecture/Design: Innovative Creator, Architect & Designer Professor Ben van Berkel "My ...

Subject/verb agreement may seem really obvious but there are some sentences where it can be less clear. We all know that plural nouns take a plural verb and singular nouns take a singular verb - so far, so good. Additionally, there are collective nouns such as team, group, army, etc. that take a singular verb even though the noun in question may include many people. For example: The team works well together and has achieved its goals. (Remember the pronoun also has to agree, therefore it is 'its goals', not 'their goals'!) It gets a little more complicated when ...

National Commercial Bank was initially looking for a Digital Signage intending to replace the traditional printed communication across its branched and improve the customer waiting experience through entertainment and products promotion. Navori was selected for two main reasons: 1. It capability to display with the same level of quality than "Broadcast-TV look and feel" 2. Its reliability 3. CMS interface available in Arabic, local support provided through Navori local subsidiary 4. The Navori QL software ability to support at 100% the display of Arabic ...

A group of stakeholders dedicated to raising awareness on health disparities among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) males has collaborated with Men's Health Network (MHN) and the Office of Minority Health to develop a brief report titled: A Vision of Wellness and Health Equity for AI/AN Boys and Men. Among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), males experience alarming rates of illness and disease compared to their female counterparts and those often exceed rates for all other U.S. racial and ethnic groups. Unfortunately these health disparities among ...

Bachelorette Party Fun, the largest and longest running last night out website, has launched a renovated site, offering new ideas, games and downloads for bachelorettes. "This facelift comes after 11 years and over one hundred thousand parties planned," states Michael Lasky, founder and president of I-Volution, Inc., which owns and operates the number one ranked websites, including www.BachelorettePartyFun.com and www.Bridesmaid101.com. Mr. Lasky states that the new site makes it easier for his customers to obtain free bachelorette party ideas as well ...

Blood clots in the legs or lungs (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) kill an American about every 5 minutes. Adopting seven simple lifestyle steps could help reduce your risk of these potentially deadly blood clots, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology 2013 Scientific Sessions. In a large, long-term study, researchers followed 30,239 adults who were 45 years or older for 4.6 years. Researchers rated participants' heart health using the seven health indicators from the American Heart ...

Ljubljana, Slovenia – May 2, 2013 – A study published today in PLOS ONE finds that Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR™) technology is suitable for routine analysis of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food, feed, and seeds. More than 60 countries representing 40 percent of the world's population require labeling of food and feed when GMOs reach certain thresholds. Screening for and quantifying GMOs is essential to the integrity of this labeling policy. "Droplet Digital PCR could replace or be a good alternative to qPCR, the current benchmark in GMO quantification," ...

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites. The researchers hope that this so-called "master regulator" gene may be the key to developing a new treatment for tumors resistant to current drugs. "This master regulator is normally turned off in adult cells, but it is very active during embryonic development and in all highly aggressive tumors studied to date," says Linda Resar, M.D., an associate professor of medicine, ...

Brain function in adults as young as 35 may decline as their heart disease risk factors increase, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. "Young adults may think the consequences of smoking or being overweight are years down the road, but they aren't," said Hanneke Joosten, M.D., lead author and nephrology fellow at the University Medical Center in Groningen, The Netherlands. "Most people know the negative effects of heart risk factors such as heart attack, stroke and renal impairment, but they do not realize it affects cognitive ...

Universal access to modern energy could be achieved with an investment of between 65 and 86 billion US dollars a year up until 2030, new research has shown. The proposed investments are higher than previous estimates but equate to just 3-4 per cent of current investments in the global energy system. The findings, which have been presented today, 3 May, in IOP Publishing's Environmental Research Letters, also include, for the first time, the policy costs for worldwide access to clean-combusting cooking fuels and stoves by 2030. Access to electricity and clean-combusting ...

Lugano-CH, Brussels-BE, 2 May 2013 -- A test that measures the expression levels of 58 genes in oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancers can effectively differentiate between patients who are at higher and lower risk for having their cancer recur elsewhere in the body more than five years after diagnosis, researchers report. The new findings show that better individual risk prediction for women with these cancers is getting nearer, says study author Prof Michael Gnant from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. Prof Gnant reported the findings at the 5th IMPAKT ...

University of Manchester and National University of Singapore researchers have shown how building multi-layered heterostructures in a three-dimensional stack can produce an exciting physical phenomenon exploring new electronic devices. The breakthrough, published in Science, could lead to electric energy that runs entire buildings generated by sunlight absorbed by its exposed walls; the energy can be used at will to change the transparency and reflectivity of fixtures and windows depending on environmental conditions, such as temperature and brightness. The isolation ...

VIDEO: The tiny robot flaps its wings 120 times per second using piezoelectric actuators -- strips of ceramic that expand and contract when an electric field is applied. Thin hinges of... Click here for more information. Cambridge, Mass. - May 2, 2013 - In the very early hours of the morning, in a Harvard robotics laboratory last summer, an insect took flight. Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, it leapt a few inches, hovered for a moment ...

A new semiconductor device capable of emitting two distinct colours has been created by a group of researchers in the US, potentially opening up the possibility of using light emitting diodes (LEDs) universally for cheap and efficient lighting. The proof-of-concept device, which has been presented today, 3 May, in IOP Publishing's journal Semiconductor Science and Technology, takes advantage of the latest nano-scale materials and processes to emit green and red light separated by a wavelength of 97 nanometres—a significantly larger bandwidth than a traditional semiconductor. Furthermore, ...

HOUSTON – (May 2, 2013) – In an age where cybersecurity is of foremost interest for governments and businesses, public and private organizations must deploy risk-intelligence governance to secure their digital communications and resources from eavesdropping, theft or attack, according to a new paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The paper, "Risk-Intelligent Governance in the Age of Cyberthreats," was authored by Christopher Bronk, a fellow in information technology policy at the Baker Institute. Against the backdrop of technology experts and ...

Researchers at the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program at IDIBELL led by Manel Esteller, ICREA researcher and professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona, have described alterations in noncoding long chain RNA sequences (lncRNA) in Rett syndrome. These molecules act as supervisor agents responsible of 'switch on' or 'switch off' other genes in our genome that regulate the activity of neurons. The work has been published in the last issue of the journal RNA Biology. Dark genome Only 5% of our genetic material are genes that encode proteins. The remaining ...

LOS ANGELES (May 2, 2013) – Patients with increasing accumulations of coronary artery calcium were more than six times more likely to suffer from a heart attack or die from heart disease than patients who didn't have increasing accumulations, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The study, conducted at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) and five other sites, suggests more frequent monitoring of patients with coronary artery calcium accumulations could help determine the risk of heart attacks and ...

HOUSTON – (May 2, 2013) – Stem cells drawn from amniotic fluid show promise for tissue engineering, but it's important to know what they can and cannot do. A new study by researchers at Rice University and Texas Children's Hospital has shown that these stem cells can communicate with mature heart cells and form electrical couplings with each other similar to those found in heart tissue. But these electrical connections alone do not prompt amniotic cells to become cardiac cells. The study led by bioengineer Jeff Jacot, who has a joint appointment at Rice and Texas Children's, ...

Two researchers affiliated with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering have published a paper which reports that hot water recirculating systems touted as "green," actually use both more energy and water than their standard counterparts. Marc Edwards, the Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, originated the efficiency study of the systems as part of an undergraduate design class six years ago. After a thorough analysis, the class concluded the claims as false, and that it "was thermodynamically ...

The story is a familiar one: most people are able to lose weight while dieting but once the diet is over, the weight comes back. Many of us can personally attest that caloric deprivation weight loss diets typically do not produce lasting weight loss. Oregon Research Institute (ORI) senior scientist Eric Stice, Ph.D., and colleagues provide results in a recent issue of NeuroImage that further our understanding of how and why most weight loss diets fail and provide a more comprehensive description of the impact of caloric restriction. Results suggest that restricting food ...

TORONTO, May 2, 2013—Prompt use of an automated external defibrillator, or AED, can greatly increase the survival rates of people who suffer a cardiac arrest. Yet a new study has found that publicly registered AEDs in Toronto are not in the best positions to help victims of cardiac arrest. In fact, less than one in four of all cardiac arrests had an AED close by (within 100 metres is the required distance). The average distance to the nearest AED was closer to 300 meters. Current guidelines suggest areas associated with the highest risk of cardiac arrest should be targeted ...

Professor of Biochemistry Emad Tajkhorshid and colleagues have discovered that membrane transporters help not just sugars and other specific substrates cross from one side of a cellular membrane to the other—water also comes along for the ride. There are two main ways that molecules can cross a membrane. In passive transport, molecules are able to pass through a membrane protein called a channel (which provides a wide open pathway) to get from the high concentration side to low concentration side of the membrane. This requires no energy as the molecule flows easily down ...