Alexandria, VA – Tornadoes are notoriously difficult to forecast, with often deadly results: In 2011, tornadoes in the U.S. killed more than 550 people, a higher death toll than in the past 10 years combined. Now a new study on short-term climate trends offers a fresh approach to tornado forecasting that may give people in tornado-prone regions more warning that twisters may soon be descending. By sorting through average atmospheric conditions in tornado-prone regions, Michael Tippet, a climate scientist at Columbia University, may have found a way to predict tornado ...

TAMPA, Fla. (April 3, 2012) – Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have carried out a study to validate the utility of new tumor classification systems for staging and predicting relapse-free survival for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and who may be candidates for surgery. The results of their study were published in a recent issue of the Annals of Surgery. Neuroendocrine tumors, which form in the islet cells of the pancreas, are a relatively rare form of cancer, accounting for about 3 percent of all pancreatic malignancies. NETs that have not spread ...

(Boston) - Anurag Singh, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Boston University School of Medicine has been invited to present his recent work on targeted therapeutics for colon cancer at the American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. Singh's seminar, scheduled for Tuesday April 3rd, will be featured in the "Late-Breaking Abstracts Mini-Symposium". This highlights recent and provocative groundbreaking research in cancer biology. Over one million cases of colon cancer are diagnosed worldwide ...

People who are excluded by others online, such as on Facebook, may feel just as bad as if they had been excluded in person, according to researchers at Penn State and Misericordia University. "If you've ever felt bad about being 'ignored' on Facebook you're not alone," said Joshua Smyth, professor of biobehavioral health and of medicine at Penn State. "Facebook -- with its approximately 800 million users -- serves as a place to forge social connections; however, it is often a way to exclude others without the awkwardness of a face-to-face interaction. Most people would ...

Higher-spending hospitals do have better outcomes for their emergency patients, including fewer deaths, according to a Vanderbilt study released as a working paper through the National Bureau of Economic Research. Vanderbilt's John Graves, Ph.D., assistant professor of Preventive Medicine, along with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University, examined Medicare ambulance and hospital data from 2002-2008, finding that higher-cost hospitals have significantly lower one-year mortality rates compared to lower-cost hospitals. "At ...

Dr. Steve Hahn, Acworth prosthodontist, and his staff are pleased to announce the pending opening of a new location in Midtown, Atlanta. The new location will give Dr. Hahn and his associates access to a whole new group of patients. Roughly 30 miles from the current Acworth location, the Midtown location will be able to bring dental services to a large population center in the heart of Atlanta. For patients of the Acworth dentist who may live closer to Midtown or are employed there, the new location offers a new level of convenience. "We are all tremendously ...

CHICAGO, IL – April 3, 2012 – The brains of people with anorexia and obesity are wired differently, according to new research. Neuroscientists for the first time have found that how our brains respond to food differs across a spectrum of eating behaviors – from extreme overeating to food deprivation. This study is one of several new approaches to help better understand and ultimately treat eating disorders and obesity. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. And more than two-thirds of the U.S. population are overweight or obese – a health ...

Scientists have long believed that vitamin D, which is naturally absorbed from sunlight, has an important role in the functioning of the body's autoimmune system. Now Prof. Howard Amital of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sheba Medical Center has discovered that the vitamin may also affect the outcomes of patients in intensive care. In a six-month study, Prof. Amital and his colleagues found that patients who had a vitamin D deficiency lived an average of 8.9 days less than those who were found to have sufficient vitamin D. Vitamin D levels also ...

Dr. Scott Melamed, East Side podiatrist, further enhances his patients' knowledge of foot and ankle health care through the launch of Progressive Foot Care's educational resources via their website. Patients can visit the website for this podiatrist in Union Square for instant access to the vast education library, which is available 24/7 to provide patients with advanced knowledge of various foot and ankle health care information. "When my office is closed, I want my patients to be able to easily access important podiatric information. To accomplish this, we have ...

High fat diets cause damage to blood vessels earlier than previously thought, and these structural and mechanical changes may be the first step in the development of high blood pressure. These findings in mice, by Marie Billaud and colleagues from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in the US, are published online in Springer's Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research. With age, increasing weight and metabolic disease, the internal walls of our large arteries progressively thicken and become less elastic, which can lead to furring up of the arteries ...

Children who grow up learning to speak two languages are better at switching between tasks than are children who learn to speak only one language, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. However, the study also found that bilinguals are slower to acquire vocabulary than are monolinguals, because bilinguals must divide their time between two languages while monolinguals focus on only one. In the study, bilingual and monolingual children were asked to press a computer key as they viewed a series of images -- either of animals or of depictions ...

In order to maintain healthy smiles, Dr. Chris Hooper, dentist in Virginia Beach, offers his patients extensive dental health care information around the clock. It is commonly understood that in order to avoid cavities and more serious dental problems, a person has to take good care of their teeth and Dr. Hooper of Gentle Dental Center helps reiterate this. "Consistent brushing and flossing habits do more than just protect your oral health, they also help keep a host of other serious conditions at bay. Because of this I want to ensure that my patients fully understand ...

Montreal, April 3, 2012 — Love it or leave it — if only it were that simple. According to new research from Concordia University, the Université de Montréal and HEC Montréal, staying in an organization out of a sense of obligation or for lack of alternatives can lead to emotional exhaustion, a chronic state of physical and mental depletion resulting from continuous stress and excessive job demands. Published in the journal Human Relations, the study found that people who stay in their organizations because they feel an obligation towards their employer are more likely ...

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered why diabetic-like symptoms develop in some patients given rapamycin, an immune-suppressant drug that also has shown anti-cancer activity and may even slow ageing. Rapamycin is widely used to prevent organ rejection and is being tested as a cancer treatment in clinical trials. About 15 percent of patients, however, develop insulin resistance and glucose intolerance after taking the drug; until now, scientists had not identified the reason. In a study published in Cell Metabolism, the researchers report that ...

It's raining money this spring as Intertops Casino gives away $70,000 in casino bonuses during its April Cash Showers event. Intertops promotions are designed so that players at every budget level have a chance to win. Just by playing any of the 300 casino games at Intertops, players automatically earn points and are ranked in six levels based on their deposits, wins and losses. Every month the casino, known for generous bonusing, gives away tens of thousands in casino bonuses divided amongst players at all six levels. "At most casinos you have to be a real high ...

Research shows iOlder adults who get infections of any kind – such as urinary, skin, or respiratory tract infections – are nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized for a dangerous blood clot in their deep veins or lungs, University of Michigan Health System research shows. The most common predictor of hospitalization for venous thromboembolism – a potentially life-threatening condition that includes both deep-vein and lung blood clots – was recent exposure to an infection, according to the study released April 3 ahead of print in Circulation. "Over half of ...

LA JOLLA, CA – April 3, 2012 ¬– A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has found antibodies that can prevent infection from widely differing strains of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in cell culture and animal models. HCV's very high rate of mutation normally helps it to evade its host's immune system. The newly discovered antibodies, however, attach to sites on the viral envelope that seldom mutate. One of the new antibodies, AR4A, shows broader HCV neutralizing activity than any previously reported anti-HCV antibody. "These antibodies attach to sites ...

In this 17-minute short the writer of El Cantante, starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, has now taken on the role of writer, producer and director. Blind hell depicts the story of a man who takes a questionable moral path in life, only to lose everything he cares about, including his eyesight. Treading though life in his "Blind Hell", the character is given a second chance for life and redemption. "I believe in karma. I think life catches up with you, but everyone needs a second chance. I know I myself have been given a million chances," ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — For children with autism, being born several weeks early or several weeks late tends to increase the severity of their symptoms, according to new research out of Michigan State University. Additionally, autistic children who were born either preterm or post-term are more likely to self-injure themselves compared with autistic children born on time, revealed the study by Tammy Movsas of MSU's Department of Epidemiology. Though the study did not uncover why there is an increase in autistic symptoms, the reasons may be tied to some of the underlying ...

I voluntarily began my tour of Sicilian dwellings at this 17th Century Palazzo built on the old city walls because of its owners who are my friends. My feelings for this place, the last home of the famous writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, are particularly fond and my appreciation for its imposing beauty have kept me close to the actual owner, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, whose painstaking restoration of the structure and its halls have brought it back to its original grandeur. Today I have left my sentimentalism behind and replaced it with a professional attitude. As ...

Exercise which can achieve both cardiovascular function and muscle strength "would be a preferred mode of training for older persons", say investigators Experienced practitioners of Tai Chi, the traditional Chinese mind-body exercise now enjoyed worldwide, have been shown in a study of older subjects to have improved expansion and contraction of arteries according to cardiac pulsation (arterial compliance) and improved knee muscle strength.(1) The findings, say the investigators, of better muscle strength without jeopardising arterial compliance suggest that Tai Chi ...

A study of the sexes reveals that when it comes to starting a business, women are more likely than men to consider individual responsibility and use business as a vehicle for social and environmental change. "We found that women are 1.17 times more likely than men to create social ventures than economic ventures, and women are 1.23 times more likely to pursue environmental ventures than economic focused ventures," says Diana Hechevarria, a doctoral candidate in management and entrepreneurship in the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business. Hechevarria, ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Golfers looking to improve their putting may find an advantage in visualizing the hole as bigger, according to a new study from Purdue University. "People in our study made more successful putts in a smaller hole when a visual illusion helped them perceive it as larger," said Jessica K. Witt, an assistant professor of psychological science who studies perception in sports. "We know that how people perceive the environment affects their ability to act in it, such as scoring as basket or hitting a baseball, and now we know that seeing a target as ...

Stephen W. Stewart, founding member of The Stewart Law Firm, P.L.L.C. in Austin, Texas, is pleased to announce that Burgess Williams has joined the firm as an associate attorney. Burgess devotes his career to helping those injured as a result of the negligence of others. Burgess handles cases involving wrongful death, workplace injuries, oilfield/industrial injuries, 18-wheeler crashes, motor vehicle crashes, defective products, toxic exposure, and insurance bad faith claims. Burgess Williams is a graduate of Wake Forest University, where he received a B.A. in History. ...

According to Facebook's own newsroom, the social media giant has more than 845 million users who log into the social platform each month. And for many of those users, it is not simply about keeping in contact with old friends and playing games -- it is about getting the information they need. Facebook recognizes this by continuing to make changes to the platform to make it more user-friendly. Thanks to one of Facebook's most recent changes, Timeline for Pages, businesses like the law firm of Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman (TGL) can provide more information to injured ...