Plantation shutters are a beautiful, cost effective home improvement that increases the value of your house. After all the research you've done to make sure that this window treatment is the best option for your home, you probably want them delivered as soon as possible. With most domestically manufactured custom interior window shutters, delivery can take up to four to six weeks. It can take closer to eight weeks if you are purchasing shutters from a smaller company or if the manufacturer is backlogged. If your custom made plantation shutters are imported, you can ...

Katal Innovations Inc. is excited to announce their partnership with Austrian distributor Chris Haslwanter making their Landing Pad (LP) safety products available to the European market. With both their new products the Mega Landing Pad (Mega LP) and the Mini Landing Pad (Mini LP) currently in operation across Europe and North America, the Canadian startup is ramping up for big things in 2013. The Mega LP was unveiled in Austria this past winter kicking off the Chiemsee Progression Tour making the Mega LP available for public trials at a variety of European host resorts. ...

Phoenix Hard Money Lender the LM2 Investment Group which is composed of 3 principle owners, who self-fund all their loans, has surpassed $30 million dollars in hard money loans in only 2 short years. Much of their success is due to the fact they have their own capital & can fund loans often in 24 hours. Mike Corgiat was quoted as saying "Once a real estate investor is approved for funding, which is typically in less than 24 hours, all we have to do is wait for the title company to tell us to fund and the investor closes. Cash talks loudly in most real estate ...

Liberty Lake Vet, Legacy Animal Medical Center, is proclaiming February as Antifreeze Poisoning Awareness Month. Antifreeze poisoning in small animals is one of the most common forms of poisoning and many pets become ill and even die each year due to antifreeze poisoning. Antifreeze exposure and poisoning is a year-round issue but is more profound in the cold winter months as homeowners 'winterize' their homes. Antifreeze is used to prevent water from freezing and is commonly used in automobiles and homes in the Northwest and throughout the country. Pets typically ...

The old saying may suggest that the third time's the charm, but not for Maryland Filmmaker Gerard St. Denis. The Anne Arundel County native's first short film, Melancholy Marc, was recently accepted into the Annapolis Film Festival, which kicks off its first event this March. Melancholy Marc is likely to stand out at the festival, and not simply because of its cinematic craftsmanship, but rather because it's a black and white silent film that artfully evokes the classic genre. "In high school, during breaks in my Latin class, my teacher would play classic, silent ...

If your only experience of LGBT-friendly travel tours resembles a lost weekend in Ibiza, then Atlasremix is sure to surprise and delight. "A lot of people think the LGBT community is only interested in party-all-night type vacations," says Director Joanne Cerant. "However, more than half of the people we spoke with in the LGBT community--both men and women--wanted something much different in a vacation. They wanted rest and relaxation, choice of activities, one-on-one service, the opportunity to explore new places and meet new people--gay and straight--and ...

Press release service, 24-7PressRelease, offers both free and paid press releases, and has been in business since 2004, providing distribution for numerous leading organizations who wish to distribute their latest company news using a reputable distributor who will provide results. Therefore, the partners at 24-7PressRelease have seen how performance varies depending on the type of distribution a customer chooses. Although you do not always have to pay top dollar to receive high-quality service - in fact, 24-7Press Release has made a name for itself by catering to a ...

Microscopic ocean algae called coccolithophores are providing clues about the impact of climate change both now and many millions of years ago. The study found that their response to environmental change varies between species, in terms of how quickly they grow. Coccolithophores, a type of plankton, are not only widespread in the modern ocean but they are also prolific in the fossil record because their tiny calcium carbonate shells are preserved on the seafloor after death – the vast chalk cliffs of Dover, for example, are almost entirely made of fossilised coccolithophores. ...

You might not think much about pea aphids, but it turns out they've got skills enough to get aerospace engineers excited. A report in the February 4th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows that the insects can free fall from the plants they feed on and—within a fraction of a second—land on their feet every time. Oftentimes, the falling aphids manage to cling to a lower part of the plant by their sticky feet on the way down, avoiding the dangerous ground altogether. That's despite the fact that most aphids in a colony are wingless and have no special ...

KNOXVILLE, TN – Since the mid-nineteenth century, maps have helped elucidate the deadly mysteries of diseases like cholera and yellow fever. Yet today's global mapping of infectious diseases is considerably unreliable and may do little to inform the control of potential outbreaks, according to a new systematic mapping review of all clinically important infectious diseases known to humans. Of the 355 infectious diseases assessed in the review, 174 showed a strong rationale for mapping and less than 5 percent of those have been mapped reliably. Unreliable mapping makes it ...

The non-O ABO blood type is the most important risk factor for venous thromboembolism (blood clots in veins), making up 20% of attributable risk for the condition, according to a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). This finding has implications for genetic screening for thrombophilia, a genetic predisposition to abnormal blood clotting. Danish researchers looked at data on 66 001 people who had been followed for 33 years from 1977 through 2010 to determine whether ABO blood type is associated with an increased risk of venous blood clots in the ...

A combined strategy is needed to combat tuberculosis in Nunavut where the rate is 66 times higher than in the general Canadian population, states a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Nunavut, Canada's eastern territory in the north, has seen a dramatic increase in the disease since 1997. Previous efforts to eradicate the disease focused on early identification and treatment of people as well as treatment of latent cases. This intense approach helped decrease the number of cases, but was not continued. "Intensive control activities should be expanded ...

Physicians can and should help mitigate the negative health effects of climate change because they will be at the forefront of responding to the effects of global warming, argues an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Doctors could use their political influence to lobby government on climate issues that are already affecting health and to become signatories to the Doha Declaration on Climate, Health and Wellbeing. They can also act at a professional level, by leading health institutions to cut back on greenhouse gases and reduce clinical waste. "The ...

February 4, 2013 Cambridge, MA: On Monday, February 4, 2013, JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) will launch the first scholarly scientific video publication for chemistry. Following its successful introduction of video publications for the biological and physical sciences, JoVE received numerous requests for a chemistry counterpart. In response, the journal is launching a new section, JoVE Chemistry, dedicated to visualized publication of experiments across different areas of chemistry research including organic chemistry, chemical biology, electrochemistry, and ...

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 4, 2013 – University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researchers have uncovered a technique to halt the growth of cancer cells, a discovery that led them to a potential new anti-cancer therapy. When deprived of a key protein, some cancer cells are unable to properly divide, a finding described in the cover story of the February issue of the Journal of Cell Science. This research is supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. "This is the first time anyone has explained how altering this protein at a key stage in cell ...

For decades, popular writers have entertained readers with the premise that men and women are so psychologically dissimilar they could hail from entirely different planets. But a new study shows that it's time for the Mars/Venus theories about the sexes to come back to Earth. From empathy and sexuality to science inclination and extroversion, statistical analysis of 122 different characteristics involving 13,301 individuals shows that men and women, by and large, do not fall into different groups. In other words, no matter how strange and inscrutable your partner may ...

Extremes of temperature and rainfall are affecting the survival of elephants working in timber camps in Myanmar and can double the risk of death in calves aged up to five, new research from the University of Sheffield has found. With climate change models predicting higher temperatures and months without rainfall; this could decrease the populations of already endangered Asian elephants. The researchers matched monthly climate records with data on birth and deaths, to track how climate variation affects the chances of elephant survival. It is hoped this research ...

Boston, MA—Your family history is important, not just because it shaped you into who you are today, but it also impacts your risk for developing cancer and other chronic diseases. For example, if one of your family members had cancer, your primary care doctor needs to know. Being able to identify individuals at increased risk can help reduce mortality. In a study published this week in the online version of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) found that patients who use a web-based risk appraisal tool are more likely ...

PITTSBURGH—Historic lake sediment dug up by University of Pittsburgh researchers reveals that oceanic influences on rainfall in Central America have varied over the last 2,000 years, highlighting the fluctuating influence the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have on precipitation. The Pitt study, published in the February print edition of the peer-reviewed journal Geology, shows that factors currently producing drier climates in Central America actually resulted in wetter conditions a few hundred years ago, providing a deeper understanding of drought cycles in that region ...

State and local health departments face significant barriers and usually do not get involved when confronted with public health concerns resulting from food animal production sites, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The authors of the study, published in PLOS ONE, an open-access publisher of scientific research, examined the role of local and state health departments in responding to and preventing community-driven concerns associated with animal production sites. This ...

In 2005, Susan Lolle and colleagues from Purdue University published a paper in Nature, concluding that Arabidopsis thaliana plants do not obey the laws of Mendelian inheritance (the idea that all genes are inherited from their parents). Instead, Lolle found that these plants were demonstrating genetic traits from older generations, which shouldn't be possible according to our current understanding of how genes are passed on. At the time of publishing, the paper was recommended by 20 F1000Prime Faculty Members, and it is still one of the all-time top 10 papers on the ...

Boston, MA, February 4, 2013 – A team of scientists just won a battle in the war against antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" -- and only time will tell if their feat is akin to the bacterial "Battle of Gettysburg" that turns the tide toward victory. They won this particular battle, or at least gained some critical intelligence, not by designing a new antibiotic, but by interfering with the metabolism of the bacterial "bugs" – E. coli in this case – and rendering them weaker in the face of existing antibiotics, as reported today in Nature Biotechnology. It's the "kick ...

After the recorder, the violin is the instrument most commonly offered to children by state schools in the UK. The violin is a challenging instrument. Rapid, independent motion of the digital joints in the left hand is desirable. This study was conceived after an 11-year-old patient volunteered that she had given up playing the violin because of difficulty and discomfort manoeuvring the left small and ring fingers independently. On exami¬nation, she was found to have absent FDS (flexor digitorum superficialis) function in the small finger. The research investigated whether ...

Two wasp species, Calymmochilus dispar and Gelis apterus, have been recorded as parasitoids on ant-eating spiders in a study published in the open access journal ZooKeys. The host spider, Zodarion styliferum, belongs to the largest genus of predominantly ant-eating spiders. Their distribution area includes Europe, Asia and North Africa, significantly with at least 35 species reported for the Iberian Peninsula only, marking a record in numbers in Portugal, where this study was conducted. Available data on the biology of the host spider shows that all species of the genus ...

Examining the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) - data that characterises about 10% of the UK population - a team of researchers from Cardiff University's School of Medicine looked at the risk of death for patients taking insulin compared with other treatments designed to lower blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes. The team's epidemiological study found people have greater risk of individual complications associated with diabetes such as heart attack, stroke, eye complications and renal disease when compared with patients treated with alternative ...