Driving is an everyday activity, but requires a significant amount of concentration and focus. However, anyone who has gotten behind the wheel recently knows that some drivers are better at focusing on the task of driving than others. This common observation was echoed in a recent study conducted by State Farm that revealed some alarming driving habits of teens and young adults. The survey asked 1,000 people who have a driver's license, own a mobile phone and who drive at least one hour per week. From a safety standpoint, the results were shocking. The survey found that ...

Many people will take to roadways throughout Minnesota during the holiday season. Whether it is an office party or a gathering with relatives, spending time with others is one of the things that most people look forward to this time of year. Often, there will be alcoholic beverages consumed at these gatherings. While motorists know the dangers of drinking and driving, some may not feel as though they are impaired and attempt to drive. Law enforcement is extremely aggressive in patrolling for DUIs during the holidays. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety reports ...

The past couple of years have not been easy financially for many New Jersey homeowners struggling to stay current on their mortgages and avoid foreclosure. And Hurricane Sandy made things infinitely worse for some. If you are facing unemployment or underemployment, or a personal crisis related to the storm, and mortgage payments are getting too heavy, contact your mortgage lender or mortgage servicing company to discuss possible assistance available either under the existing terms of your loan or through the bank. The lender may be willing to work directly with you to ...

In the years since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, there has been a lot of discussion about the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse among returning servicemembers. While this increased visibility is certainly helpful, PTSD and addiction are by no means new problems in the military community. Because of the stress they have experienced, combat veterans are more likely to experience issues with mental health or illegal drugs. The unique mindset that servicemembers have also means that they are often more unlikely to ask for help if problems ...

In the wake of a school bus accident involving an allegedly impaired bus driver on Oct. 3 in Long Island, a number of New York state officials have been calling for ignition interlock devices to be installed on school buses. The school bus driver in that case is facing numerous criminal charges after the alcohol-related traffic accident. None of the five small children aboard the bus that crashed into a house in Syosset were injured, but officials worry that might not be the case next time. The Crash That Started The Discussion The accident occurred just moments ...

This time of year is a beautiful time. Selecting the perfect gift for everyone on your list can be particularly exhilarating. With all of the sales and bonus gifts with purchase, overspending is tempting. Once consumers blow their budget, it is also common to rationalize it as being in the spirit of giving. The Orlando bankruptcy attorneys of Clark & Washington caution that this mindset leads to big financial trouble. Just one overzealous shopping spree can tip a previously tight budget into unmanageable territory, even resulting in bankruptcy. Here are some tips ...

Within a few short days, millions of people will be opening presents on Christmas morning. The joy of seeing the faces of loved ones light up is priceless; there really is no better feeling than knowing you have made someone happy. Clark & Washington, a law firm specializing in Tampa bankruptcy law, would like to extend some warm advice to shoppers this holiday season. They want to remind everyone that staying out of debt is just as important as purchasing gifts for friends and family members. With the convenience of credit cards and other tempting payment options, ...

AppSLAW, LLC, an emerging mobile applications and games developer, is excited to announce the launch of Listen Up! on the App Store. Compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, this new socially minded guessing experience takes turn-based puzzle gaming to a whole new creative level! The aim of the game is simple - players pick a word and record sound clips for their opponents to hear and guess what the word might be. After recording, the app sends off the recording to the other player to Listen Up! and guess. The better the recorded sound clips are, the more audio ...

It's a scratch card Christmas at Winner Casino! To celebrate our recent $1,000,000 Monty Python's Spamalot slots jackpot winner, the 5 star online casino is encouraging players to try the scratch card version of Spamalot! Tony, our Winner from Devon, UK recently won a GBP693,517 ($1,078,375) jackpot while playing the new hit Monty Python's Spamalot. As the slot game is only available in real play mode, Monty Python fans can now see what all the excitement is about in the Spamalot scratch card game which they can try for free. The Spamalot scratch card is very similar ...

This decision was necessary due to the increasing demand for collateralized loans and is aimed at helping more people to get cash fast for the holidays. "We're very excited to watch how online pawning is becoming a modern and trusted trend, leaving behind many other ways to get cash fast. We are very proud to be able to offer our best loan-to-value for our customers. And, during this busy holiday season, we are now able to serve even more customers, because we know how important it is for people to have that extra cash during this time of the year," said Jay ...

Adults who had parents who struggled with addiction, unemployment and divorce are 10 times more likely to have been victims of childhood physical abuse, according to a new study prepared by the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. The study, which was published online this week in the journal Child: Care, Health & Development, found that more than one-third of adults who grew up in homes where all three risk factors were present reported they had been physically abused by someone close to them while under the age of 18 and still living at home. ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – GEOLOGY ends 2012 with 23 new articles spanning a variety of geoscience phenomena and locations, including Mercury; Naica Cave, Mexico; Diamantina, Brazil; the Galápagos hotspot; China; the Aleutian island arc; Disko Bay and Uummannaq Fjord, central West Greenland; the California arc; the Pacific Ring of Fire; Po Plain, Italy; Torfajökull, Iceland; the U.S. Sierra Nevada; Spain; New Zealand; Turkey; Connecticut, USA; and Texas, USA. Papers cover 1. High-resolution images obtained by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging ...

NEW YORK (Dec. 20, 2012) -- Diagnosed with severe coronary artery disease, a group of patients too ill for or not responding to other treatment options decided to take part in a clinical trial testing angiogenic gene therapy to help rebuild their damaged blood vessels. More than 10 years later, in a follow-up review of these patients, doctors at Baylor College of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College (where the clinical trial and review took place) and Stony Brook University Medical Center report the outcomes are promising and open the door for larger trials to begin. The ...

Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have found evidence that liver mitochondria in mice adapt to become better metabolizers of alcohol and increase in number after chronic exposure, which may raise the potential for free radical damage associated with aging and cancer over time. The liver is a vital organ, playing a major role in metabolism and detoxification in the body. Overconsumption of alcohol has long been tied to liver diseases such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis, but how the substance damages ...

The genes of long-living and virus resistant bats may provide clues to the future treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer in people, researchers have found. Published in the journal Science, the research provides an insight into the evolution of bat's flight, resistance to viruses and relatively long life. Researchers at CSIRO and the Beijing Genome Institute led a team sequencing the genomes of two bat species - an Australian mega bat, the black flying fox, and a Chinese micro bat, David's Myotis. They then compared the bat genomes to the genomes of ...

December 21, 2012, Shenzhen, China – A study published online in Cell reports the latest investigation of de novo germline mutation by whole genome sequencing in autism patients. This study provides a global view of the landscape of mutability and its influence on genetic diversity and susceptibility in autism, and its implications on other human diseases. The work was a collaborative effort led by international teams comprised of the University of California, San Diego, BGI, and other institutes. The results are expected to shed new light on a deeper understanding of the ...

Starting January 1, 2013 the Archives journals will have new titles and a new distribution schedule. Please provide proper attribution to the new journal names. On first reference, one time only, we would prefer that you provide this attribution: "a study published online today in JAMA Neurology (formerly Archives of Neurology) ..." The names are JAMA (specialty), not the Journal of the American Medical Association (specialty). Here are the new titles and new embargo schedule: Mondays 3pm central time/4pm eastern time JAMA Pediatrics JAMA Neurology JAMA Internal ...

Despite more than 25 years of research on antiobesity drugs, few medications have shown long-term success. Now researchers reporting online on December 21 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism say that targeting taste sensors in the gut may be a promising new strategy. The gut "tastes" what we eat—bitter, sweet, fat, and savory—in much the same way as the tongue and through the use of similar signaling mechanisms. The result is the release of hormones to control satiety and blood sugar levels when food reaches the gut. The sensors, or receptors, ...

The X-factor in liver metabolism After you eat, your liver switches from producing glucose to storing it. At the same time, a cellular signaling pathway known as the unfolded protein response (UPR) is transiently activated, but it is not clear how this pathway contributes to the liver's metabolic switch. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Phillip Scherer at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report that activation of the UPR triggers the expression of Xbp1s, a protein that regulates genes needed for the metabolic ...

After you eat, your liver switches from producing glucose to storing it. At the same time, a cellular signaling pathway known as the unfolded protein response (UPR) is transiently activated, but it is not clear how this pathway contributes to the liver's metabolic switch. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Phillip Scherer at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report that activation of the UPR triggers the expression of Xbp1s, a protein that regulates genes needed for the metabolic switch. Scherer and colleagues found ...

H. pylori frequently causes gastric ulcers and is also one of the greatest risk factors for gastric cancer. H. pylori infection is also associated with another gastric cancer risk factor, iron deficiency. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Richard Peek at Vanderbilt University investigated the influence of iron on H. pylori-induced gastric cancer. Peek and colleagues found that low iron accelerated the development of H. pylori-associated cancerous lesions in gerbils. Further, H. pylori strains isolated from a human population at high ...

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, in collaboration with colleagues in Germany and the Netherlands, have identified a previously unknown group of nerve cells in the brain. The nerve cells regulate cardiovascular functions such as heart rhythm and blood pressure. It is hoped that the discovery, which is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, will be significant in the long term in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in humans. The scientists have managed to identify in mice a previously totally unknown group of nerve cells in the brain. These ...

PHILADELPHIA—Elevated levels of Cyclin D1b could function as a novel biomarker of lethal metastatic disease in prostate cancer patients, according to a pre-clinical study published ahead of print on December 21 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation by researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson. The group, headed by Karen E. Knudsen, Ph.D., Professor and Hilary Koprowski Chair, Departments of Cancer Biology, Urology, and Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University and Deputy Director for Basic Science at the KCC, found that Cyclin D1b, a variant of the ...

Someday, Oahu's Koolau and Waianae mountains will be reduced to nothing more than a flat, low-lying island like Midway. But erosion isn't the biggest culprit. Instead, scientists say, the mountains of Oahu are actually dissolving from within. "We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and what the influence of climate is on that rate," said Brigham Young University geologist Steve Nelson. "More material is dissolving from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion." The research pitted groundwater against stream water to see which ...

Over the past couple of years research into miRNAs has become increasingly diversified and attracted a great number of research articles across genetics and medicine. This should hardly come as a surprise to any scientist in the field, especially since it has become clear that miRNAs, a recently discovered class of non-coding RNAS, are represented in nearly all cellular functions and molecular pathways. A growing list of reports demonstrates that microRNAs play a critical role in cancer initiation and progression, and that miRNA alterations are ubiquitous in human cancers. ...