Though ships many seem like an unlikely place for a fire, fires can and too often do occur on-board. It is the responsibility of the vessel owner to ensure that measures are in place to prevent on-board fires which could injure or kill crewmembers. Maritime Liability The Jones Act, passed in 1920, granted seamen and their families the right to hold maritime employers responsible for any injury, illness or death sustained during the course of employment on a ship caused by their employer's negligence. It is an employer's responsibility to provide adequate fire prevention, ...

Dubai (UAE), Geneva (Switzerland) (April 20, 2012): A report released today at the World Heart Federation World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai reveals significant gaps in public awareness regarding the cardiovascular risks of tobacco use and secondhand smoke. The report, entitled "Cardiovascular harms from tobacco use and secondhand smoke", was commissioned by the World Heart Federation and written by the International Tobacco Control Project (ITC Project), in collaboration with the Tobacco Free Initiative at the World Health Organization. According to the report, half ...

Dubai (20 April 2012): Omega-3 fatty acids may help to reduce the physical harm caused by smoking, according to a new study presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology. The study, carried out in Greece, assessed the effect of four-week oral treatment with 2 g/day of omega-3 fatty acids on the arterial wall properties of cigarette smokers. The results showed that short-term treatment with omega-3 fatty acids improves arterial stiffness and moderates the acute smoking-induced impairment of vascular elastic properties in smokers. "These findings suggest that ...

Dubai (20 April 2012): Exercise may help smokers to quit and remain smokefree, according to new data presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology. Moreover, exercise increases life expectancy in smokers and non-smokers alike. The study of 434,190 people who went through medical examination program at a private fee-paying company between 1996 and 2008 in Taiwan revealed that active smokers (those engaged in at least moderate activity) were 55 per cent more likely to quit smoking that those that were inactive. Furthermore, these active smokers were 43 per cent ...

Dubai (20 April 2012): Women with heart disease are more likely to give birth to female rather than male babies according to a new study presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology. The study found that three-quarters of the 216 children born to 200 pregnant women with diagnosed heart disease were female. The study reviewed the sex of children born to 200 pregnant women with diagnosed cardiac disease. Sixty-four per cent of these women had diagnosed valvular disease, 19 per cent were living with dilated cardiomyopathy, while 14 per cent had uncorrected or significant ...

Dubai (20 April 2012): Women with acute coronary syndrome∗ (ACS) receive inferior or less aggressive treatment compared to men, according to three large studies presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology. The CREATE registry study of 20,468 patients in India revealed that relatively fewer women are admitted with ACS. Moreover, these women are older, reach hospital later, have more risk factors, receive inferior treatments and have worse outcomes. While the BRIG project study of 3,168 patients in China concluded that a substantial portion of women with ...

SAN DIEGO - Calorie intake from white potatoes is surprisingly modest for adults and school-aged children, according to a new study released today at the Experimental Biology 2012 Annual Meeting. Dr. Maureen Storey, Chief Executive Officer for the science-based Alliance for Potato Research and Education (APRE) presented the new analysis using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). "School-aged children consumed, on average, only three percent or less of calories per day from all types ...

CLEVELAND -- Clinical-researchers from University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center report that cochlear implantation provides an effective and safe way of restoring hearing in patients with far advanced otosclerosis (FAO), a hereditary condition that can lead to severe hearing loss. "This is the first study to demonstrate that cochlear implants provide robust and long-term hearing restoration for patients with FAO," said lead author Maroun T. Semaan, M.D., an otolaryngologist with UH Case Medical Center and an Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University ...

Emirates Tours, a leading travel operator specialising in luxury holidays, has announced a new competition to win a travel bag made by designer luggage brand, Aspinal of London. The tour operator has teamed up with the luggage brand which shares its belief in high-quality products, in order to give back to its loyal customers through this unique opportunity. "We are proud to be offering customers the chance to own an Aspinal of London Weekender Bag. When you are passionate about travel like we are, then arriving at your destination with stylish, top quality luggage ...

Carnivory is behind the evolutionary success of humankind. When early humans started to eat meat and eventually hunt, their new, higher-quality diet meant that women could wean their children earlier. Women could then give birth to more children during their reproductive life, which is a possible contribution to the population gradually spreading over the world. The connection between eating meat and a faster weaning process is shown by a research group from Lund University in Sweden, which compared close to 70 mammalian species and found clear patterns. Learning to ...

Studying a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, neuroscientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen have observed correlations between increases in both soluble and plaque-forming beta-amyloid – a protein implicated in the disease process – and dysfunctional developments on several levels: individual cortical neurons, neuronal circuits, sensory cognition, and behavior. Their results, published in Nature Communications, show that these changes progress in parallel and that, together, they reveal distinct stages in Alzheimer's disease with a specific order in time. In ...

INDIANAPOLIS — Neither screening for cognitive impairment nor screening followed by computerized alerts to the health care team improved patient outcome according to the first randomized, controlled study of care provided to hospitalized patients with cognitive impairment. The study, conducted by researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine, screened 998 older adults for cognitive impairment within 48 hours of admission to the hospital. Approximately 40 percent were found to have cognitive impairment and were enrolled in the study. ...

Scientists have identified a link between different strains of malaria parasites that cause severe disease, which could help develop vaccines or drugs against life-threatening cases of the infection. Researchers have identified a key protein that is common to many potentially fatal forms of the condition, and found that antibodies that targeted this protein were effective against these severe malaria strains. The protein has sticky properties that enable it to bind to red blood cells and form dangerous clumps that can block blood vessels. These clumps, or rosettes, ...

When loggerhead turtles are accidentally captured by humans, a recovery process follows, the complexity of which varies according to the turtle's injuries. Spanish researchers have analysed the process of reintegrating these animals into the environment and they have discovered that there are changes in the behaviour of the turtles that have a complicated recovery process. The study, which has been published in Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, involved placing satellite transmitters on the shell of 12 healthy, wild loggerhead turtles' (Caretta caretta), ...

The Radisson Blu Hotel Cape Town is delighted to announce that it will be refurbishing all 108 of its Standard rooms. All Standard rooms will be receiving a make-over that will result in them having newly designed bathrooms and new bedroom furnishings. With pure, clean lines brought from a Scandinavian Minimalistic background, all the furnishings will present a definite look of effortless sophistication. The Radisson Blu hotel Cape Town takes pride in providing a stay for guests that is both relaxing and outstanding. This includes having rooms that are sophisticated, ...

The development of new applications based on nanoimprinting techniques (NIL) is evolving at a rapid pace. But what are the challenges to be overcome in order to reach the market? How do we bridge the gap between basic research and its uptake from the industry? What are the tools needed for each product? The European project NAPANIL deals exactly with this topic, i.e. Nanopatterning, Production and Applications based on Nanoimprinting Lithography. The project, now reaching its end, presented its final results over the last few days at Photonics Europe. The event took ...

Your best side may be your left cheek, according to a new study by Kelsey Blackburn and James Schirillo from Wake Forest University in the US. Their work shows that images of the left side of the face are perceived and rated as more pleasant than pictures of the right side of the face, possibly due to the fact that we present a greater intensity of emotion on the left side of our face. Their work is published online in Springer's journal Experimental Brain Research. Others can judge human emotions in large part from facial expressions. Our highly specialized facial muscles ...

BOSTON, MA—When chromosomes replicate, sometimes there is an exchange of genetic material within a chromosome or between two or more chromosomes without a significant loss of genetic material. This exchange, known as a balanced chromosomal abnormality (BCA), can cause rearrangements in the genetic code. Researchers from 15 institutions in three countries including Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Broad Institute found that due to these rearrangements, BCAs harbor a reservoir of disruptions in the code ...

NEW ORLEANS – A mysterious, difficult-to-diagnose, and potentially deadly disease that was only recently discovered can be controlled most effectively if treatment is started within the first month that symptoms occur, according to a new report by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers analyzed 565 cases of this recently discovered paraneoplastic condition, called Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis, and determined that if initial treatments fail, second-line therapy significantly improves outcomes compared with repeating ...

Choice Hotels Europe, the company behind the Comfort, Quality and Clarion brands in Europe, has announced that video footage on the majority of its UK properties has been posted on choicehotelsuk.co.uk, giving travellers a useful visual summary on each Choice-brand hotel and its amenities. The videos are presented by each hotel's General Manager who introduces the property and outlines the hotel's features and services, as can be seen for Quality Hotels Maida Vale. The programme is part of a European-wide initiative to include video footage of all Choice-brand properties ...

Friday, April 20, 2012 – Researchers from Cleveland Clinic's Wellness Institute and Harvard University have found that greater consumption of sugar-sweetened and low-calorie sodas is associated with a higher risk of stroke. Conversely, consumption of caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee was associated with a lower risk. The study – recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition – is the first to examine soda's effect on stroke risk. Previous research has linked sugar-sweetened beverage consumption with weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, high ...

The development of more effective cancer drugs could be a step nearer thanks to the discovery, by scientists at Warwick Medical School, of how an inbuilt 'security check' operates to guarantee cells divide with the correct number of chromosomes. Most cells in our bodies contain 23 pairs of chromosomes that encode our individual genetic identities. The process of chromosome segregation is monitored by a system called the spindle checkpoint that ensures daughter cells receive the correct number of chromosomes. If daughter cells receive an unequal number of chromosomes, ...

NEW ORLEANS – Teasing out the exact type or types of dementia someone suffers from is no easy task; neurodegenerative brain diseases share common pathology and often co-occur. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are continuing efforts to differentiate diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) from frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), as FTLD is often clinically difficult to distinguish from atypical presentations of AD. In a series of studies being presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting ...

The recent mild winter throughout much of the United States was a cause for celebration for many. However, butterfly aficionados shouldn't be joining in the celebration. A new study by Jessica Hellmann, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, and researchers from Western University found that mild winters, such as the one many of us just experienced, can be taxing for some butterfly or possibly other species. Hellmann and her fellow researchers studied caterpillars of the Propertius Duskywing butterfly, which feed on Gary Oak trees. ...

CINCINNATI—Researchers at UC have confirmed that fat surrounding the outside of arteries in humans—particularly the left coronary artery—may influence the onset of coronary artery disease, or atherosclerosis, which is the leading cause of death in the U.S. These findings, being presented at the American Heart Association's Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB) 2012 Scientific Sessions in Chicago April 20, 2012, may help in identifying the molecular culprit, with the goal of creating targeted therapies for atherosclerosis before the disease forms. Coronary ...