Bankruptcy can be a great way for consumers saddled with burdensome debt to get a fresh financial start. With the economy slowly gaining steam, bankruptcy filings in the U.S. are down overall in the early months of 2013. However, many areas hit particularly hard by the recession are still struggling. Tennessee had the highest per capita rate of bankruptcy filings in the country during the first quarter of 2012. In an analysis of data from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Tennessee, The Daily News found that many residents of Shelby County are still seeking ...

Gilbert, Arizona representative and head of the House Judiciary Committee, Eddie Farnsworth, would like to overhaul the state's outdated exemption laws, according to the East Valley Tribune. The representative has made it clear that he's not attempting to change the way in which people can go about seeking the protection that bankruptcy can offer them -- he just seeks to update the sections that discuss what individuals are allowed to keep after filing for bankruptcy protection, particularly in the case of a Chapter 7 filing. What is Chapter 7 bankruptcy? Chapter ...

A defective airbag part has lead to a global recall of more than three million vehicles manufactured by Honda, Toyota, Nissan and General Motors. Additional automakers are expected to announce similar recalls soon. The recalls affect vehicles manufactured between 2000 and 2004. Faulty canisters may explode At issue in the recalls are small, propellant filled canisters manufactured by the Takata Corporation of Japan. These canisters are installed in millions of vehicles all over the world and are essential components in airbag systems. When a car accident occurs, ...

Floridians with teenagers are right to be concerned when their children get behind the wheel. Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Statistics reported by the CDC indicate that about 3,000 teenagers died on America's roads in 2009. The problem with teen drivers The CDC says that drivers aged 16 to 24 have the highest accident rate. These young drivers have about 150 accidents per 1,000 drivers, compared to less than 80 accidents per 1,000 for all other age ...

Boston law firm Cushing & Dolan, P.C. is proud to announce, Medicaid planning attorneys Leo Cushing and Todd Lutsky will be presenting at the upcoming Medicaid Planning Update Seminar, sponsored by the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. (MCLE). This program provides an overview of the current regulations and recent case law in Massachusetts. It will offer guidance to help you develop effecting Medicaid planning techniques. The seminar will discuss Irrevocable Trusts under Doherty and Guerriero, drafting Testamentary Trusts in light of Victor and much ...

Corcentric, a leading provider of Accounts Payable automation and electronic invoicing solutions, talks about the explosion in the use of mobile devices for business in their latest blog, focusing on the AP invoice approval process. The Corcentric blog is a knowledge center for accounts payable professionals to explore automation best practices along with the latest trends and news in financial process automation. This week, Corcentric reveals survey results showing how C-suite executives, globally, are dealing with the ubiquity of mobile devices in the workplace. The ...

Ye Olde Mill has been scooping its famous Velvet Ice Cream for almost 100 years, and this year the Mill underwent significant renovations designed to enhance its visitor experience. The updates continue to accent the Mill's vintage vibe, but give a nod to the beloved ice cream brand's new packaging and brand image. Ye Olde Mill serves as a tourism destination where Velvet Ice Cream is made, with opening day kicking off to the public at 11 a.m., Wednesday, May 1. With a special offering of 99-cent opening-day ice cream cones to mark Velvet Ice Cream's 99th birthday, Ye ...

If the phrase life imitates art is true, then Atlanta Georgia mural artist Corey Barksdale is often imitated as he paints bold strokes across the canvas of life. African American artist Corey Barksdale represents a growing trend in a new era of the arts where artists combine styles and mediums in creating their own original pieces. My work is layered and very gestural, he says of his most recent paintings; his current work blends ceramic pieces with encaustic, a mixture of hot wax with oil paint, creating a new style in what has become unofficially recognized as mixed ...

The deVere Group Caymans Ltd will mark the company's first office in the Caribbean and will be headed by Chief Executive Officer Mr Nigel Green and long-time deVere Executive, Mr Simon Pratt. The deVere Group Cayman Islands presence is expected to be established on West Bay Road in Grand Cayman - in the heart of the Cayman Islands' financial industry. The deVere Group Caymans Ltd will specialise in Insurance Brokerage, whilst delivering yet another promise to its clientele to be wherever they choose to live around the world. Nigel Green expects the 'final ...

As scientists probe and parse the genetic bases of what makes a human a human (or one human different from another), and vigorously push for greater use of whole genome sequencing, they find themselves increasingly threatened by the unthinkable: Too much data to make full sense of. In a pair of papers published in the April 25, 2013 issue of PLOS Genetics, two diverse teams of scientists, both headed by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, describe novel statistical models that more broadly and deeply identify associations between ...

Proteins, unlike diamonds, aren't forever. And when they wear out, they need to be degraded in the cell back into amino acids, where they will be recycled into new proteins. Researchers at Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have identified a new way that the cell's protein recycler, the proteasome, takes care of unwanted and potentially toxic proteins, a finding that has implications for treating muscle wasting, neurodegeneration and cancer. The consensus among scientists has been that the proteasome is constantly active, chewing up proteins ...

Boston, MA April 25, 2013 - Research recently presented at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology conference in Boston, MA shows that resistant starch content of potatoes is similar across potato varieties; but can be altered significantly by the cooking and serving methods. Resistant starch is starch that is resistant to enzymatic digestion and, thus, is not absorbed in the small intestine. Researchers from the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota and the University of Minnesota ...

A University of Washington astronomer is using Earth's interstellar neighbors to learn the nature of certain stars too far away to be directly measured or observed, and the planets they may host. "Characterization by proxy" is the technique used by Sarah Ballard, a post-doctoral researcher at the UW, to infer the properties of small, relatively cool stars too distant for measurement, by comparing them to closer stars that now can be directly observed. Ballard is lead author of a study accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal that used this method and observations ...

In seeming contrast to the notion that the elderly often have memory problems, a new study from an HF/E researcher finds driver retraining to be an effective strategy for improving the safe-driving habits of older drivers over the long term. In his Human Factors article, "The Long-Term Effects of Active Training Strategies on Improving Older Drivers' Scanning in Intersections: A Two Year Follow-up to Romoser and Fisher (2009)," Matthew R. E. Romoser conducted a follow up study to see if participants from a 2009 study who received training retained the safe driving behaviors. ...

Philadelphia, PA, April 25, 2013 – Weight loss is a topic of concern for nearly 36% of Americans who are considered obese. There are many barriers that can interfere with weight loss. For those attending face-to-face weight loss programs, barriers can include travel, conflict with work and home, need for childcare, and loss of anonymity. In a new study released in the May/June 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, investigators from The University of Kansas Medical Center continue to explore alternative weight management delivery methods to ...

Sand-dwelling and rock-dwelling cichlids living in East Africa's Lake Malawi share a nearly identical genome, but have very different personalities. The territorial rock-dwellers live in communities where social interactions are important, while the sand-dwellers are itinerant and less aggressive. Those behavioral differences likely arise from a complex region of the brain known as the telencephalon, which governs communication, emotion, movement and memory in vertebrates – including humans, where a major portion of the telencephalon is known as the cerebral cortex. ...

Sophia Antipolis, 26 April 2013. A practical guide on the use of the new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) has been produced by the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). A guide was needed to summarise existing information on different drugs, to answer clinical questions that fall outside what drug companies can legally answer, and to make distinctions between the different drugs. ESC guidelines on atrial fibrillation recommend the NOACs as preferable to vitamin K antagonists for stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Friday 26 April 2013: Regular exercise has been proven to reduce the chance of developing liver cancer in a world-first mice study that carries hope for patients at risk from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The research announced at the International Liver Congress™ 2013 involved two groups of mice fed a control diet and a high fat diet then divided into separate exercise and sedentary groups. The exercise groups ran on a motorised treadmill for 60 minutes per day, five days a week. After 32 weeks of regular exercise, 71% of mice on the ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Friday 26 April 2013: A study presented today at the International Liver CongressTM 2013 – which evaluated the relationship between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), early predictors of atherosclerosis and the 10-year Framingham risk score (FRS) – showed that NAFLD increases the risk of early atherosclerotic lesions independent of established cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. NAFLD is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease. Patients with NAFLD have an excess prevalence of CV events and typically have an increase frequency ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Friday 26 April 2013: Data from a number of clinical trials presented today at the International Liver Congress™ 2013 shed new light on the use of TACE and SIRT in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a technique in which small particles designed to block blood vessels mixed or coated with chemotherapeutic drugs are injected directly into an artery supplying the tumour; it has become a standard treatment in selected patients with HCC. New data presented today has identified a scoring system ...

Up to 10 per cent of the population is affected by specific learning disabilities (SLDs), such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and autism, translating to two or three pupils in every classroom, a new study has found. Led by Professor Brian Butterworth, a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne's School of Psychological Sciences and Emeritus Professor of cognitive neuropsychology at University College London, the study gives insight into the underlying causes of specific learning disabilities and how to tailor individual teaching and learning for individuals and education ...

New research shows that movement of the ring-like molecule pyrrole over a metal surface runs counter to the centuries-old laws of 'classical' physics that govern our everyday world. Using uniquely sensitive experimental techniques, scientists have found that laws of quantum physics - believed primarily to influence at only sub-atomic levels – can actually impact on a molecular level. Researchers at Cambridge's Chemistry Department and Cavendish Laboratory say they have evidence that, in the case of pyrrole, quantum laws affecting the internal motions of the molecule ...

When predicting the outcome of a fight, the big guy doesn't always win suggests new research on fish. Scientists at the University of Exeter and Texas A&M University found that when fish fight over food, it is personality, rather than size, that determines whether they will be victorious. The findings suggest that when resources are in short supply personality traits such as aggression could be more important than strength when it comes to survival. The study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, found that small fish were able to do well in contests ...

Los Angeles, CA (April 26, 2013) – Intermittent fasting is all the rage, but scientific evidence showing how such regimes affect human health is not always clear cut. Now a scientific review in the British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease published by SAGE, suggests that fasting diets may help those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, alongside established weight loss claims. Intermittent fasting –fasting on a given number of consecutive or alternate days – has recently been hailed as a path to weight loss and improved cardiovascular risk. A team led by ...

This press release is available in German. The flu is caused by an infection with the influenza virus, which mainly attacks the upper respiratory tract – the nose, throat and bronchi and rarely also the lungs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around five to 15 percent of the population are affected by upper respiratory tract infections during seasonal flu outbreaks, and between 250 000-500 000 people die of the illness every year. However, a main cause of death in people having the flu is actually a secondary infection with bacteria. Influenza increases ...