Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome: The Relatively Unknown Chronic Pain Chronic regional pain syndrome, commonly referred to as CRPS, is a condition of chronic pain that can affect any area of the body. CRPS can happen as a result of many reasons including head injuries from car accidents. However, it most commonly targets an arm or leg. Relatively rare and not well understood by doctors, CRPS, according to the Mayo Clinic, involves pain that "is out of proportion to the severity" to the injury or event that is believed to have triggered the condition. While ...

Residency Requirements for Uncontested Divorces in Pennsylvania Leaving a troubled marriage may not be so difficult when you know about the process of obtaining an uncontested divorce, otherwise known as a "mutual consent" divorce. If you are a Pennsylvania resident, have no minor children born of the marriage, and you agree on the distribution of assets and debts, you may file for an uncontested divorce. The benefit of this process is that no court appearance by either party, and it can be handled inexpensively. The couple is free to divide up what they have ...

Basics of Expungements in Minnesota Life is certainly tough enough, but it is considerably more difficult when you have a criminal record. Employers may choose not to hire you, rental agencies may not offer you a place to live, and insurers may consider you to be an unacceptable risk. While prior decisions are not reliable indicators of future behavior, many people still see trouble in a criminal record. Nevertheless, you should be able to move on with life after you have paid your debt to society. Because of this, Minnesota law allows some criminal records to be expunged. An ...

Colorado Supreme Court Upholds Wal-Mart Work Accident Damages Award An injury to a worker triggers a range of legal concerns, from whether workers' compensation coverage will provide sufficient benefits to whether someone other than the employer can be sued. For instance, when an employee is injured in a truck accident that was caused by another driver who is not a co-employee, motor vehicle liability insurance coverage can provide additional to workers' compensation. This is known as third-party liability. As with other personal injury cases, workers injured on the ...

Effort to Privatize Colorado Workers' Comp Insurance Fund Fails From Denver to Grand Junction, Colorado's workforce depends on a healthy and responsive workers' compensation insurance system to assist people with the financial difficulties caused by a work injury or fatal employment-related accident. When a worker has suffered a permanent partial disability in a work-related accident or has developed a chronic repetitive stress injury, the added anxiety of lost earnings and medical expenses requires a rapid solution. Nearly a century ago, lawmakers passed the Colorado ...

South Carolina Enacts New Restrictions on Inmate Communications People who are convicted of domestic violence, sex crimes and other crimes of violence in South Carolina face severe restrictions on their liberty, possibly for the rest of their lives. No single consequence of a criminal conviction is more serious than incarceration, and officials take serious steps to insulate the public and crime victims from individuals who are placed behind bars. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley recently signed a new law that makes it unlawful for inmates to utilize Internet-based ...

Aer Lingus is to move to George Best Belfast City Airport in the autumn after five years at Belfast International. Following a tender process involving both airports, the decision has been taken to base two aircraft at the city airport during the winter and three during the summer. A new-look winter schedule for 2012 will target two key routes for business, leisure and transfer traffic to London Heathrow and London Gatwick. There will be three flights daily to each airport in each direction. The summer schedule, which begins from the end of March 2013, will operate ...

VIRGIN EXPERIENCE DAYS has announced a special partnership with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's River Cottage HQ and will be the exclusive supplier of experience gifts to Britain's "most filmed farmhouse". Virgin Experience Days customers can choose to enjoy a variety of experiences at the River Cottage, made famous by the TV series and books inspired by Hugh's recipes based on home grown and reared produce. Guests get into the spirit of the country-side by travelling by tractor to River Cottage HQ where they can choose to enjoy experiences including a Friday ...

In these hard economic times, every property market is suffering, more so the ones within the European Union Zone. Disregarding Germany's genius economy for a moment, it seems every economy within Europe is suffering terribly, the property markets faulting along with them. Property prices have continued to increase rapidly to a level where regular members of society are unable to afford a single house, let alone a second apartment or a summer villa on the shores of an internationally stable, migratable and even visitable country. Turkey, however, doesn't hold to the ...

Buffeted by rising tire prices caused by global environmental forces and the resulting product shortages, fleet owners and executives should take control of the situation by implementing an effective relationship management plan with multiple tire suppliers. David Nitzsche, Vice President, Supply Management, for AmeriQuest Transportation Services, said in a blog posting that taking a proactive approach to this "new normal" is the best way for fleets to improve the bottom line and keep trucks rolling. "The first and maybe most important step they can take ...

Tampa, Fla. (July. 18 , 2012) – Two studies published in a recent issue of Cell Medicine [2(2)] report on the therapeutic efficacy of stem cell transplantation in animal models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal cord injury (SCI). Cell Medicine is freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/cm. Mensenchymal stem cell transplantation in spinal cord injured rats promotes functional recovery Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), multipotent stem cells with the ability to differentiate into a variety of cell types with ...

The largest oil spill on open water to date and other environmental factors led to the historically high number of dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico, concludes a two-year scientific study released today. A team of biologists from several Gulf of Mexico institutions and the University of Central Florida in Orlando published their findings in the journal PLoS ONE. For the past two years, scientists have been trying to figure out why there were a high number of dolphin deaths, part of what's called an "unusual mortality event" along the northern Gulf of Mexico. Most ...

Popeye inspired a generation of growing Baby Boomers to eat its spinach. Today, role models such as Batman can prompt children to develop their own healthy eating habits, a recent Cornell University study finds. "Fast food patronage is a frequent reality for many children and their parents. Simply instructing a parent to order healthier food for a child is neither empowering for a child nor easy for a parent," said Brian Wansink, Cornell professor of marketing, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and study co-author. "Advising parents to ask their child, 'What would ...

Could volcanic eruptions in the south-west Pacific save the Great Barrier Reef? Could the pumice that surges into the ocean once a volcano erupts in Tonga or elsewhere in the south-west Pacific save the Great Barrier Reef? World-first research conducted by Queensland University of Technology geologist Dr Scott Bryan indicates that yes, this is not only possible, but could be how the Great Barrier Reef formed in the first place. Dr Bryan and colleagues studied the westward flow or rafting of pumice after volcanic eruptions in Tonga in 2001 and 2006. Pumice forms when ...

A new study finds elevated levels of caffeine at several sites in Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Oregon—though not necessarily where researchers expected. This study is the first to look at caffeine pollution off the Oregon coast. It was developed and conducted by Portland State University master's student Zoe Rodriguez del Rey and her faculty adviser Elise Granek, assistant professor of Environmental Science and Management, in collaboration with Steve Sylvester of Washington State University, Vancouver. In spring 2010, Rodriguez del Rey and Granek collected ...

Most of the world's species are still unknown to science although many researchers grappled to address the question of how many species there are on Earth over the recent decades. Estimates of non-microbial diversity on Earth provided by researchers range from 2 million to over 50 million species, with great uncertainties in numbers of insects, fungi, nematodes, and deep-sea organisms. Some groups of species, such as plants and birds, are well-known, with scientists discovering relatively few new ones each year. For insects and fungi, however, it is almost impossible ...

Every sperm cell looks essentially the same, with that characteristic tadpole appearance. But inside, sperm cells carry differences within their genes—even cells from the same man. Now, researchers provide a detailed picture of how the cell's DNA varies in a new study published in the July 20, 2012 issue of the Cell Press journal Cell. The techniques used could be helpful for understanding male reproductive disorders or, when applied to other areas of research, for characterizing normal and diseased cells in the body. When parents pass on genetic material to their children ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research has shown that a protein does something that scientists once thought impossible: It unfolds itself and refolds into a completely new shape. This protein, called RfaH, activates genes that allow bacterial cells to launch a successful attack on their host, causing disease. The researchers determined that RfaH starts out in its alpha form, composed of two spiral shapes. Later, in its beta form, it resembles spokes on a wheel and is called a barrel. When RfaH refolds, it acquires a new function – yet another finding that researchers would ...

Highlights Patients with a particular kidney immune disorder experienced remission when taking the immune drug rituximab, even when standard therapies had failed. Rituximab was safe and well-tolerated by all patients in the study. Each year, an estimated 70,000 people globally are diagnosed with the disorder, called idiopathic membranous nephropathy. Washington, DC (July 19, 2012) — A drug commonly used to treat immune disorders such as lymphoma and arthritis also benefits patients with an immune disorder of the kidneys that can lead to kidney failure, according to ...

Highlights Phosphate binders, drugs commonly prescribed to patients with chronic kidney disease, may not be as effective as previously thought. Phosphate binders may have negative effects on cardiovascular health. Additional studies are needed on the safety and effectiveness of these drugs. Washington, DC (July 19, 2012) — Drugs commonly prescribed to patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) may not be as strongly effective as once thought, and may cause unexpected harm to blood vessels, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of ...

LA JOLLA, CA – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have simultaneously mapped two of the most important types of protein-modification in cells, revealing their extensive cooperation during an essential cellular process. Phosphorylation, the attachment of a phosphate group to a protein, and proteolysis, the cleavage of a protein, had almost always been studied independently. The new research combines techniques for mapping these events across all proteins in a cell population to show how they work together to execute the cellular "auto-destruct program" known ...

KANSAS CITY, MO—Scientists at the Stowers Institute of Medical Research have developed an innovative method to count the number of fluorescent molecules in a cluster and then applied the novel approach to settle a debate rampant among cell biologists—namely, how DNA twists into a unique chromosomal structure called the centromere. Knowing this helps explain how cells navigate the hazards of division and avoid the disastrous consequences of ending up with the wrong number of chromosomes. Centromeres, which sit at the cross point of the "X" used to represent duplicated ...

KANSAS CITY, MO—Not all adult stem cells are created equal. Some are busy regenerating worn out or damaged tissues, while their quieter brethren serve as a strategic back-up crew that only steps in when demand shoots up. Now, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have identified an important molecular cue that keeps quiescent mouse hematopoietic (or blood-forming) stem cells from proliferating when their services are not needed. Publishing in the July 20, 2012 issue of Cell, the team led by Stowers Investigator Linheng Li, Ph.D., report that Flamingo ...

ATLANTA –July 19, 2012—A large national sample of women diagnosed with cervical cancer between 2000 and 2007 finds lack of insurance was second only to age as the strongest predictor of late stage at diagnosis, a gap the authors say is likely attributable to lack of screening. The American Cancer Society estimates that 12,170 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,220 women will die from the disease in 2012. Although incidence and mortality from cervical cancer have declined dramatically since the introduction of the Pap test, one in three cervical cancer ...

PHILADELPHIA — Inhibitors of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) are being assessed in clinical trials as a potential treatment for recurrent or refractory solid tumors. Clear genetic rationale for these trials, together with evidence that primary and metastatic lung tumors might be particularly susceptible to the drugs, is now reported in a preclinical study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Our data provide preclinical genetic validation for the ongoing clinical trials testing IDO inhibitors in cancer patients," ...