In recent months, there has been a veritable plethora of discussion in the media about the dangers of distracted driving. Although distracted driving is a proven danger to motorists, a new study suggests that it may not be as significant of a cause of car accidents as it was once thought. The study found that a technological feature that has been on vehicles almost since their inception -- turn signals -- is to blame for more collisions than being distracted by newfangled technology. According to research conducted by the Society of Automotive Engineers, drivers fail ...

Safer coal mining operations in West Virginia have been a renewed priority for many lawmakers since the Upper Big Branch explosion two years ago. That includes House Speaker Rick Thompson, whose father long ago died in a coal mining roof fall accident. A new coal mining safety bill sponsored by Speaker Thompson passed both chambers by narrow margins this session, and was signed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in March. A range of new measures will take effect in June, including: - Establishment of an anonymous mining safety tip line - Increases in fines and penalties for ...

What is the overall effect on safety when cameras are installed at intersections to detect traffic violations? Red-light cameras, as they are commonly known, have been controversial in the Chicago area and in several other cities across the country. Their advocates present them on public safety grounds, as a way to prevent people from running red lights by using technology to automatically issue a ticket to violators. There are several concerns, however, that accompany use of this tactic. Civil liberties proponents argue that the specter of Big Brother lurks in letting ...

How much is a stream worth? Can we put a dollar value on a wetland? Some conservation proponents have moved to establish the economic value of "ecosystem services," the benefits that nature provides to people. The approach translates the beauty and utility of a wetland into pounds of phosphorus removed from agricultural runoff, Joules of heat pulled out of urban wastewater, and inches of floodwater absorbed upstream of riverside communities. The idea of trading ecosystem services has surged in popularity since the 2005 United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. But ...

When most people are admitted to the hospital, their primary concern is getting better and going home. To that end, a lot of people worry that their surgeries will not be successful, or that their doctors will make a diagnostic mistake or medication error. Most aren't aware that a silent killer is lurking in the background. Unfortunately, hospital-based infections are a huge problem in American medical facilities. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1 in 20 hospitalized patients will develop an infection during their stay. ...

Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) have identified a catalyst that provides the same level of efficiency in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as the currently used platinum catalyst, but at 5% of the cost. Since more than 60% of the investment in making microbial fuel cells is the cost of platinum, the discovery may lead to much more affordable energy conversion and storage devices. The material – nitrogen-enriched iron-carbon nanorods – also has the potential to replace the platinum catalyst used in hydrogen-producing microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that creditors must give repossessed property back - even though it was repossessed legally - after debtors file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The Facts In the case, the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) repossessed Theodore Thompson's 2003 Chevy Impala after he fell behind on payments. On February 5, 2008, soon after repo men took the car, Thompson filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Thompson asked GMAC to return the car but GMAC refused. Bankruptcy Court Decides Against Thompson The bankruptcy court, ...

ZnSnP2, an absorber material for solar cells, transitions from an ordered to a disordered structure at high temperatures. Researchers from University College London and the University of Bath have proposed taking advantage of this structural change to design high-efficiency solar absorbers. The team used theoretical calculations to investigate the electronic structure of both phases, and predicted a significant difference in the bandgap between the ordered and fully disordered materials. Experimental measurements of the bandgap of ZnSnP2 are consistent with predictions ...

Sea waves are a renewable and inexhaustible resource found in abundance across the planet. But efficiently converting sea wave motion into electrical energy has been challenging, in part due to the difficulty of compensating for the relatively low speeds and irregular movements of ocean waves. Researchers from the University of Beira Interior in Portugal have designed and simulated a new energy conversion device that addresses both these challenges (i.e., low speed and irregular movements). Their proposed device consists of a floating body attached to a new type of conversion ...

The newly renovated Comfort Inn & Conference Center Northeast, a leading north Atlanta hotel, named the official sponsor of the Paul Murphy World Title Belt Tournament of Champions. The event will take place August 31 - September 2, 2012 at the Forest Fleming Arena in Doraville, GA. Sanctioned under the Georgia Amateur Boxing Association, the tournament is open to boxers of all ages and the winner of each weight class division(s) will win a Title belt. Registration is required; contact Sugar Bert Boxing Academy for details. Conveniently located less than 1 mile ...

A team of researchers from Peking University in Beijing, China, and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has demonstrated that carbon nanotube-based integrated circuits can work under a supply voltage much lower than that used in conventional silicon integrated circuits. Low supply voltage circuits produce less heat, which is a key limiting factor for increased circuit density. Carbon-based electronics have attracted attention mostly because of their speed. The new research shows that carbon nanotube integrated circuits could also offer the promise of extending Moore's ...

Tampa, FL (June 22, 2012) – Growth factors shown to cure Alzheimer's disease in a mouse model and administered to cancer patients as part of their treatment regimen were linked to significant improvements in the patients' cognitive function following stem cell transplantation, a preliminary clinical study reports. The findings by researchers at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute and Moffitt Cancer Center are reported online in Brain Disorders & Therapy. The retrospective study showed that cancer patients treated with granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating ...

Minority college students who major in the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math – earn at least 25 percent more than their peers who study humanities or education, according to the results of a new study. And those who took jobs related to their STEM degrees earned at least 50 percent more than their classmates who majored in humanities or education fields. Published in the June issue of Research in Higher Education, the study followed more than 1,000 Asian and Pacific Islander, Latino and black students over nine years. The students were scholarship ...

Eurostar, the official international rail provider of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has announced details of a new partnership with the French National Paralympic Committee, which will see the high-speed rail operator proudly carry the French Paralympic team to the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Over the summer, Eurostar will carry the majority of the French Paralympians including the blind football, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball teams to London on a specially chartered service on the 25 August and then again on their celebratory, homecoming ...

Sometimes only a child has the strength to face reality. In Mary and the Invisible Scaffolding, the new novel by author David Michael Conner, eight-year-old Mary's life in Cactus, Nevada comes to an abrupt end when her mother tears her from bed in the middle of the night and relocates them to lush, strange New Orleans. Bewildered, Mary must adapt to a new world with only her memories to guide her. "Initially, Mary was a short story inspired by the Tori Amos song 'Marys of the Sea (Les Saintes Maries de la Mer),'" said Conner. The Amos song is about the theory ...

Some Norwegian women with birth anxiety face additional trauma in their meeting with the country's health service, according to research carried out in Stavanger. The Cesarean section rate is rising in most developed countries and many pregnant women around the world suffer from a fear of childbirth. In Norway, birth anxiety affects one in five pregnant women and can prompt some to demand a Caesarean delivery. But the question is how afraid a woman must be before her wishes are heard. Unlike many other countries, Norway does not give women an automatic right to a Caesarean ...

Researchers from Aarhus University have now located the place in the human body where the earliest virus alert signal triggers the human immune system. They have also discovered a new alarm signal, which is activated at the very first sign of a virus attack. The groundbreaking finding has just been published in the highly esteemed scientific journal Nature Immunology. "It may turn out that patients suffering from frequent infections actually have problems with activating the mechanism that we have now detected," says Søren Riis Paludan, professor of immunology and virology ...

After 10 years of archaeological investigations, researchers have concluded that Stonehenge was built as a monument to unify the peoples of Britain, after a long period of conflict and regional difference between eastern and western Britain. Its stones are thought to have symbolized the ancestors of different groups of earliest farming communities in Britain, with some stones coming from southern England and others from west Wales. The teams, from the universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Southampton, Bournemouth and University College London, all working on the Stonehenge ...

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have previously documented that substances from the South African plant species Crinum and Cyrtanthus – akin to snowdrops and daffodils – have an effect on the mechanisms in the brain that are involved in depression. This research has now yielded further results, since a team based at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences has recently shown how several South African daffodils contain plant compounds whose characteristics enable them to negotiate the defensive blood-brain barrier that is a key challenge in all new drug development. "Several ...

Technicians from Madrid City Council and a team of Pole and Spanish researchers have analysed the density and intensity of traffic on Madrid's M30 motorway (Spain) throughout the day. By applying mathematical algorithms, they have verified that drivers should pay more attention to the road between 6pm and 8pm to avoid accidents. Detection devices installed by the Department of Traffic Technologies of Madrid City Council on the M30 motorway and its access roads were used to conduct a scientific study. Researchers from SICE, the traffic management company in charge of ...

The Marketing Store Worldwide, one of the world's largest privately held global brand activation agencies, announced today that Michael Edelstein has joined the agency as vice president, director of brand partnerships. Edelstein joins The Marketing Store from Learning Curve Brands, Inc where he was vice president, Preschool division. Edelstein will be based at The Marketing Store's Chicago office where he brings his licensing and partnership expertise to brand activations that The Marketing Store produces for its leading CPG (consumer packaged goods) and QSR (quick ...

Data from a nationally representative sample of 5,404 community-dwelling Canadians ages 50 and older at baseline (1994/1995) was used to estimate the effects of alcohol drinking patterns on quality of life when subjects were aged =50 years and after a follow-up period. Health-related quality of life was assessed with the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3). The authors report that most participants showed stable alcohol-consumption patterns over 6 years. Detailed information was available on the participants alcohol consumption. Moderate drinkers were defined as ...

iResumed.com announces the launch of their online web-site, providing job-seekers the ability to link a video to their resumes, and employers with the ability to screen job candidates more effectively. The Video resume site provides a bridge between the traditional resume of the past and the video resume of the future by making them both work together. "Video resumes have received a lot of consideration but have provided little value to the employer," explains Mike Mead, President, and Founder of iResumed.com. "Besides seeing what someone looks like and ...

According to the Canadian Diabetes Association, more than nine million Canadians have diabetes or prediabetes. By 2020, it's estimated that diabetes will cost the Canadian healthcare system $16.9 billion a year. "Although clinicians, managers and policy makers expend significant time and resources attempting to optimize care for patients with diabetes, the optimum approach to improving diabetes care and outcomes remains uncertain," Dr. Tricco said. Her review of clinical trials found: For patients with high levels of HbA1c – the average blood sugar level over ...

HOUSTON - Once considered merely a passive link between proteins that matter, Grb2 - pronounced "grab2" - actually lives up to its nickname with its controlling grip on an important cell signaling pathway, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the June 22 issue of Cell. "Grb2 is a switch that controls normal signaling through the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR)," said the paper's senior author, John Ladbury, Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. "Perhaps the best way to think ...