Recently, there has been much debate with respect to updating the "spousal elective share" statute in Massachusetts. This statute law allows a disinherited spouse to "elect against" their deceased spouse's Will and receive a mandatory share of the deceased spouse's estate, irrespective of the terms of the deceased spouse's will. Specifically, a disinherited spouse will receive a "life interest" in one-third of the deceased spouse's probate estate. If the deceased spouse left no offspring, the surviving spouse's share increases to one-half. The ...

If you are thinking about having a love psychic reading performed, chances are good that you're going to want to know what the future has in store for you concerning your love life. A new website, PsychicsOnlineFree.com has been launched with the intention to offer free guidance and amazing, affordable opportunities to connect with the world's best, most accurate psychic advisers. Most people who visit do so because they have questions about their romantic future. This indicates that love and romance are at the forefront of most of our thoughts. Naturally, this comes ...

Frontiers in Psychology Numerical cognition in bees and other insects In this article, Dr. Mario Pahl and colleagues review the main studies on the ability of insects to perceive number, and discuss the possible mechanisms involved in number recognition. Recent behavioral investigations have shown that several invertebrate species (animals without backbones) share various numerical activities with bigger animals, such as birds and mammals. This is because the ability to assess the number of food items, competitors or mates can help animals – even smaller ones like insects ...

Salt Lake City, Utah -- The entire world becomes an aftershock zone after a massive magnitude (M) 7 or larger earthquake—but what hazard does this pose around the planet? Researchers are working to extend their earthquake risk estimates over a global scale, as they become better at forecasting the impact of aftershocks at a local and regional level. There is little doubt that surface waves from a large, M≥7 earthquake can distort fault zones and volcanic centers as they pass through the Earth's crust, and these waves could trigger seismic activity. According to ...

SALT LAKE CITY, April 19, 2013 – A new University of Utah study has identified hundreds of previously unrecognized small aftershocks that happened after Utah's deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse in 2007. The aftershocks suggest the collapse was as big – and perhaps bigger – than shown in another study by the university in 2008. Mapping out the locations of the aftershocks "helps us better delineate the extent of the collapse at Crandall canyon. It's gotten bigger," says Tex Kubacki, a University of Utah master's student in mining engineering. "We can see now that, ...

Can scientists rid malaria from the Third World by simply feeding algae genetically engineered with a vaccine? That's the question biologists at UC San Diego sought to answer after they demonstrated last May that algae can be engineered to produce a vaccine that blocks malaria transmission. In a follow up study, published online today in the scientific journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, they got their answer: Not yet, although the same method may work as a vaccine against a wide variety of viral and bacterial infections. In their most recent study, which ...

A new Swedish study published in the journal Neurology shows that the risk of developing dementia may have declined over the past 20 years, in direct contrast to what many previously assumed. The result is based on data from the SNAC-K, an ongoing study on aging and health that started in 1987. "We know that cardiovascular disease is an important risk factor for dementia. The suggested decrease in dementia risk coincides with the general reduction in cardiovascular disease over recent decades", says Associate Professor Chengxuan Qiu of the Aging Research Center (ARC), ...

It has long been known that certain proteins, known as transcription factors, directly control the way in which information is read from DNA. As a result, it is widely believed that changes in genes encoding such proteins underlie the mechanisms responsible for evolutionary adaptation. The idea that small RNA molecules, so-called microRNAs, may play an important part in evolutionary changes to animals' appearance is completely new. An international team of researchers, including Christian Schlötterer and Alistair McGregor from the Institute of Population Genetics of ...

Wearing a knee brace has been shown to "significantly improve the pain and symptoms" of a type of osteoarthritis affecting the kneecap, according to a new study. Arthritis Research UK-funded researchers at The University of Manchester claim their findings, presented at the Osteoarthritis Research Society International meeting in Philadelphia tomorrow (Friday April 19) have enormous potential for treating this common joint condition effectively – as well as providing a simple and cheap alternative to painkillers. Osteoarthritis of the knee affects around six million people ...

Scientists have revealed how a bacterial enzyme has evolved an energy-efficient method to move long distances along DNA. The findings, published in Science, present further insight into the coupling of chemical and mechanical energy by a class of enzymes called helicases, a widely-distributed group of proteins, which in human cells are implicated in some cancers. The new helicase mechanism discovered in this study, led by researchers from the University of Bristol and the Technische Universität Dresden in Germany, may help resolve some of the unexplained roles for helicases ...

Barcelona, Friday 19 April 2013.- Yellow vision, pseudo-pulmonary obstruction, involuntary body movements, respiratory paralysis. These are some of the 1,600 known side effects (SEs) produced by drugs. Adverse effects are one of the main causes of hospital admission in the west. These effects are difficult to predict, and in practice specific assays are required to test the safety of agents in pre-clinical phases, thus these effects are often not discovered until the drug has been launched. A study published by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB ...

Young people seeking help who are at high risk of developing psychosis could significantly reduce their chances of going on to develop a full-blown psychotic illness by getting early access to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), new research shows. Researchers from The University of Manchester found the risk of developing psychosis was more than halved for those receiving CBT at six, 12 and 18-24 months after treatment started. The team from the University's School of Psychological Science and the Psychosis Research Unit at Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS ...

A smaller proportion of black carbon created during combustion will remain in soil than have been estimated before. Contrary to previous understanding, burying black carbon in the ground in order to restrain climate change will not create a permanent carbon reserve. Instead, a part of black carbon will dissolve from soil to rivers. The flux of dissolved black carbon from the rivers to the ocean was estimated in a research article published in Science on 19 April. The burning of organic matter creates 40 million tons of black carbon every year. Black carbon is formed through ...

New research, just published, details how University of Cincinnati researchers have developed and tested a solar-powered nano filter that is able to remove harmful carcinogens and antibiotics from water sources – lakes and rivers – at a significantly higher rate than the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon. In the journal "Nano Letters," Vikram Kapoor, environmental engineering doctoral student, and David Wendell, assistant professor of environmental engineering, report on their development and testing of the new filter made of two bacterial proteins ...

A major Nordic research project involving researchers from the University of Copenhagen has, for the first time ever, mapped the use of alternative treatment among multiple sclerosis patients - knowledge which is important for patients with chronic disease and the way in which society meets them. People with multiple sclerosis (MS) often use alternative treatments such as dietary supplements, acupuncture and herbal medicine to facilitate their lives with this chronic disease. This is the result of a new study of how MS patients use both conventional and alternative treatments ...

AUDIO: This is a North American red squirrel emitting a territorial vocalization called a "rattle ". Click here for more information. Stressed-out mothers raise stronger, heartier offspring – at least among squirrels. In a new study, international researchers – including University of Guelph biologists – say squirrels tailor their parenting to meet the varied conditions facing their young. For pups born during crowded, stressful times, mama squirrels kick ...

This year marks the 23rd year of observing for the Hubble Space Telescope. Alongside cutting-edge science, the orbiting observatory has produced countless stunning astronomical images. Some of the most striking and beautiful subjects of Hubble's images have been nebulae -- vast interstellar clouds of gas and dust. This new Hubble image, captured and released to celebrate this milestone, shows part of the sky in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). Rising like a giant seahorse from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard ...

A long-forgotten candidate for antiviral therapy is undergoing a renaissance: Since the 1970s, the small molecule CMA has been considered a potent agent against viral infections, yet it was never approved for clinical use. Scientists at the Bonn University Hospital have now deciphered how the molecule can actually stimulate the immune system to combat viruses. The results are now being presented in the journal "EMBO" of the European Molecular Biology Organization. Finding an active substance to stimulate the immune system and thus better combat dangerous viruses has been ...

Astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to photograph the iconic Horsehead Nebula in a new, infrared light to mark the 23rd anniversary of the famous observatory's launch aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever since its discovery more than a century ago. The nebula is a favorite target for amateur and professional astronomers. It is shadowy in optical light. It appears transparent and ethereal when seen at infrared ...

PHILADELPHIA — Smoking tobacco in a water pipe resulted in a different pattern of exposure to toxic substances and may result in a cancer risk profile that is different from that of cigarette smoking, according to data published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Water-pipe smoking at 'hookah bars' has become popular with young people in the United States, and some believe that it is less harmful than cigarette smoking," said Peyton Jacob III, Ph.D., a University of California, San Francisco research ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A new study debunks the myth that younger moms are more likely to "bounce back" after having a baby – teenage pregnancy actually makes women more likely to become obese. Women who give birth as teens are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese later in life than women who were not teen moms, University of Michigan Health System researchers found. The nationally representative study, which is the first believed to identify teen pregnancy as a predictor of obesity, appears in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. "When taking ...

Smart electronics are taking the world by storm. From techno-textiles to transparent electronic displays, the world of intelligent technology is growing fast and a revolutionary new device has just been added to its ranks. Researchers at the University of Exeter have developed a new photoelectric device that is both flexible and transparent. The device, described in a paper in the journal ACS Nano, converts light into electrical signals by exploiting the unique properties of the recently discovered materials graphene and graphExeter. GraphExeter is the best known room temperature ...

NORMAN – Fishes account for over half of vertebrate species, but while groups such as mammals, birds and reptiles have been fairly well understood by scientists for decades, knowledge about relationships among many types of fishes was essentially unknown – until now. A team of scientists led by Richard Broughton, associate professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, published two studies that dramatically increase understanding of fish evolution and their relationships. They integrated extensive genetic and physical information ...

MANHASSET, NY – A researcher at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research has discovered additional mechanical properties of articular cartilage, a protective cartilage on the ends of bones that wears down over time, resulting in the development of osteoarthritis. The findings are published in the April issue of PLOS ONE. To better understand the onset and progression of osteoarthritis, Nadeen Chahine, PhD, and collaborators at other institutions looked at cells from articular cartilage using atomic force microscopy (AFM). They used this technology to measure the mechanical ...

SALT LAKE CITY, April 18, 2013 – When superstorm Sandy turned and took aim at New York City and Long Island last October, ocean waves hitting each other and the shore rattled the seafloor and much of the United States – shaking detected by seismometers across the country, University of Utah researchers found. "We detected seismic waves created by the oceans waves both hitting the East Coast and smashing into each other," with the most intense seismic activity recorded when Sandy turned toward Long Island, New York and New Jersey, says Keith Koper, director of the University ...