The South African Guild of Motoring Journalists yesterday awarded the Boxer Porsche as the car of the year, beating rivals that included Range Rover, Ford Bakkies and the Kia family of cars. Klingshield, the company who created the "smash and grab" concept in the 70's feel very proud and honoured to be the official supplier of Porsche Centre Johannesburg with all their window film requirements to ensure that their drivers experience a safe and comfortable drive. Klingshield's new Nano Ceramic window film stops 50% of the infra red heat, creating a cooler ...

AQB, a QuickBooks small business consulting firm, today announced it was named Intuit's Premier Reseller of the Year 2012-2013. AQB received this prestigious award for excellent year-over-year sales as well as a top net promoter score of 98% at the 2013 Intuit Premier Reseller conference in Mountain View, California. AQB, founded in 2009, also received this award in 2010, and has seen triple digit growth in 2010, 2011 and 2012 as an Intuit reseller. "It's an exciting honor to receive the Intuit Premier Reseller of the Year award again," said Marjorie Adams, ...

The High-Rise Insulation Experts at Thermafiber have developed another solution for the curtain wall industry. The new system (CW-D-1014) was tested with a 24" high spandrel area, the shortest spandrel height in the UL Fire Resistance Directory. This is also the first UL system that allows for the extension of vision glass to the floor line. The new system reduces material costs and installation time for curtain wall manufacturers and contractors. The UL System, CW-D-1014, incorporates multiple components of Thermafiber's patented Impasse system. The Impasse hangers ...

PaySimple, the cloud-based platform for managing and growing small businesses, today launched a redesigned mobile payment and business management iOS application accompanied by a new mobile credit card reader. The updated Run-Your-Business App offers service-based business owners the flexibility they need to operate their companies from anywhere and from a range of devices. PaySimple Mobile is now available in the App Store. It is available to all PaySimple users and enables them to accept all forms of electronic payment - including all credit cards, debit cards, and ...

New York, NY—March 11, 2013—Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new "plug-and-play" method to assemble complex cell microenvironments that is a scalable, highly precise way to fabricate tissues with any spatial organization or interest—such as those found in the heart or skeleton or vasculature. The study reveals new ways to better mimic the enormous complexity of tissue development, regeneration, and disease, and is published in the March 4 Early Online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "George Eng, an MD/PhD student ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — All-cause and cardiovascular mortality were similar for transaortic valve replacement compared to open-heart surgery in high-risk older patients at three years with no increased risk of stroke after 30 days, according to results from the PARTNER study presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system was investigated as an alternative to open-heart surgery for high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis—narrowing of a main circulatory gateway ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A team of sleep researchers led by UC Riverside psychologist Sara C. Mednick has confirmed the mechanism that enables the brain to consolidate memory and found that a commonly prescribed sleep aid enhances the process. Those discoveries could lead to new sleep therapies that will improve memory for aging adults and those with dementia, Alzheimer's and schizophrenia. The groundbreaking research appears in a paper, "The Critical Role of Sleep Spindles in Hippocampal-Dependent Memory: A Pharmacology Study," published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Earlier ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — Bypass surgery done without a heart-lung machine, known as off-pump, may provide better post-operative outcomes than on-pump bypass surgery for high-risk patients, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. In the first study to look specifically at on-pump versus off-pump bypass surgery among patients deemed to be at high operative risk, researchers examined the primary endpoint of patients' combined outcomes of all-cause death, stroke, heart attack or renal failure requiring ...

Des Moines, IA - A short walk around the barn might improve the future fertility of Yorkshire gilts. According to research presented by Samantha Kaminski, a graduate student at North Dakota State University, swine fetuses showed significant ovarian development after their mothers exercised. Kaminski and fellow researchers already knew that uterine blood flow could affect blood flow to the ovaries of developing fetuses. To further study the relationship between uterine blood flow and ovary development, Kaminski and fellow researchers designed an experiment to increase ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Children who avoid situations they find scary are likely to have anxiety a Mayo Clinic study of more than 800 children ages 7 to 18 found. The study published this month in Behavior Therapy presents a new method of measuring avoidance behavior in young children. The researchers developed two eight-question surveys: the Children's Avoidance Measure Parent Report and the Children's Avoidance Measure Self Report. The questionnaires ask details about children's avoidance tendencies, for instance, in addressing parents, "When your child is scared or worried ...

The downed limbs and other woody debris that are inevitable byproducts of timber harvest could be among the most important components of post-harvest landscapes, according to a new study led by the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. Researchers found that retaining moderate levels of logging debris, also known as "slash," helped to both directly and indirectly increase the growth rate of Douglas-fir seedlings replanted after harvest. The findings, which are among the first to speak to the benefits of second-growth logging debris, are published ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — The prescription drug eplerenone appears to reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality and heart failure after a heart attack by more than one-third, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The REMINDER (Reduction of heart failure morbidity in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction) trial was a randomized, double-blind trial of 1,012 patients who had a heart attack caused by a complete blockage of one of the heart's arteries. Patients had no signs or ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — A single dose of an investigational anti-inflammatory drug, inclacumab, reduced damage to heart tissue during angioplasty in a study presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. More than 1 million coronary angioplasty procedures are performed in the United States each year, at a cost of more than $10 billion. Heart tissue can be damaged during angioplasty, often leading to additional procedures, poor outcomes and higher health care costs. In this trial, researchers compared a single dose of ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — A clot-busting therapy may benefit some heart attack patients who cannot have immediate angioplasty, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. "Drug therapy before transfer is at least as effective as [angioplasty], and an urgent catheterization was avoided in two-thirds of patients," said Frans Van de Werf, MD, PhD, professor of cardiology at University of Leuven, Belgium, and the study's lead investigator. "It gives [clinicians] time to consider other options, such ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — A commonly used anti-anginal drug reduces chest pain in patients with type 2 diabetes and appears to have a more pronounced effect in those with poorer glucose control, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Ranolazine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of chronic angina, or chest pain, both as first line therapy and as an add-on when symptoms are not relieved with other anti-anginal drugs, including beta-blockers, calcium channel ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — Heart attack patients given a combination of high-dose oral vitamins and minerals do not exhibit a significant reduction in recurrent cardiac events, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. However, the results of one component of the NIH-funded Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) study, shows that when combined with active chelation therapy, high-dose vitamins and minerals may provide some additional benefit. The TACT study tested the safety and effectiveness of ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) —Digoxin significantly reduces the likelihood of hospital admission due to all causes among ambulatory older patients with chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Researchers reviewed patient outcomes from 1995 in the Digitalis Investigation Group (DIG) trial of 6,800 patients with HFrEF—a condition in which the heart is too weak to pump and patients suffer from breathlessness and fatigue. Patients with HFrEF ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — The clot-busting drug tenecteplase prevents death or circulatory collapse in a subgroup of patients with a blood clot in the lungs and appears to be especially useful in patients younger than 75, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Pulmonary embolism occurs when part of a blood clot in a vein breaks off and travels to the lungs. It is fatal about 10 percent of the time, killing between 60,000 and 100,000 Americans each year. The most common cause of death is progressive ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — For at-risk patients, a simple screening and management program can be effective in preventing heart failure, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The five-year STOP-HF study enrolled asymptomatic patients over 40 years of age with risk factors for heart failure and randomized them into an intervention and a control group. Patients in the intervention group were screened for blood levels of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a hormone that indicates how well the heart ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) —Despite high hopes that a blood pressure-lowering medication called aliskiren would help people following hospitalization for heart failure, no beneficial effects were found, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization for people over age 65, costing Medicare billions of dollars annually, and researchers are always on the lookout for more effective treatments. The Aliskiren Trial on Acute Heart Failure Outcomes (ASTRONAUT) ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — Despite high expectations for a commonly used erectile dysfunction drug to treat patients with diastolic heart failure, no beneficial effects were found in a study presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The RELAX Study is the first multicenter trial to look at the effect of chronic therapy with sildenafil in diastolic heart failure. Sildenafil is a phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitor, a class of drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction and certain types of pulmonary arterial hypertension. ...

Charlottesville, VA (March 12, 2013). In a study of 90 patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor, researchers in Lithuania (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) and the United States (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard University) have discovered that the finding of low T3 (triiodothyronine) syndrome is predictive of unfavorable clinical outcomes and depressive symptoms. Details of this study are furnished in the article "Low triiodothyronine syndrome as a predictor of poor outcomes in patients undergoing brain tumor ...

The human skin is home to countless microorganisms that we can't see, but these microbes help define who we are. Our invisible passengers – known as the skin microbiome - contribute to our health in numerous ways including educating our immune system, protecting us from pathogens, and mediating skin disorders. In a new study, researchers investigated how the skin microbiome is transmitted between players in a contact sport, using roller derby as their model system. The skin is the largest organ and an important barrier that regulates microbial entry into the human body. ...

HEIDELBERG, 12 March 2013 – Attaching chains of the small molecule ADP-ribose to proteins is important for a cell's survival and the repair of DNA damage, making this process a promising target for the development of new cancer drugs. Researchers have now identified a much sought after enzyme that removes such ADP-ribose modifications from proteins by studying a genetic mutation that causes neurodegenerative disease in humans. These findings, published today in The EMBO Journal, suggest that not only addition but also removal of ADP-ribose from proteins is essential for ...

Pasadena, CA—For only the second time in history, a team of scientists--including Carnegie's Michele Fumagalli--have discovered an extremely rare triple quasar system. Their work is published by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It is available online. Quasars are extremely bright and powerful sources of energy that sit in the center of a galaxy, surrounding a black hole. In systems with multiple quasars, the bodies are held together by gravity and are believed to be the product of galaxies colliding. It is very difficult to observe triplet quasar ...