Researchers at Warwick Medical School have discovered a way of identifying which women are most at risk of postnatal depression (PND) by checking for specific genetic variants. The findings could lead to the development of a simple, accurate blood test which checks for the likelihood of developing the condition. Presenting the research to the International Congress of Endocrinology/European Congress of Endocrinology, Professor Dimitris Grammatopoulos, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Warwick, said that approximately one in seven women who give birth ...

Genes play a greater role in forming character traits - such as self-control, decision making or sociability - than was previously thought, new research suggests. A study of more than 800 sets of twins found that genetics were more influential in shaping key traits than a person's home environment and surroundings. Psychologists at the University of Edinburgh who carried out the study, say that genetically influenced characteristics could well be the key to how successful a person is in life. The study of twins in the US – most aged 50 and over– used a series of ...

Across the United States, approximately 747,408 individuals are listed on sex offender registries. Contrary to popular belief, they are an incredibly heterogeneous group; they come from all walks of life, represent varied demographics and have criminal histories that range from a single relatively minor infraction to a laundry list of antisocial behavior. Despite their diversity, sex offenders are treated much the same: they are listed on registries for all the public to see, they are prohibited from holding certain jobs or living in particular areas, they are often ...

"The plants developed in the dark as if they were in light," says the Director of the studies Tilman Lamparter, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The seeds and seedlings of thale cress were fed with a synthetic substance named "15Ea-phycocyanobilin". In the plant cell, this substance replaces the natural, photoactive component of the photoreceptor, the "phytochromobilin". Incorporation of 15Ea-PCB activates the photoreceptor and the plant is made believe it is exposed to light. In spite of the darkness, model plants germinate and grow similar to a control group exposed ...

In Illinois, a judgment creditor can obtain a court order to put in place a wage deduction from your earnings. This is commonly referred to as garnishment. This wage deduction takes a percentage of your wages, before you ever see them, and transfers them to your creditor. Wage Garnishment This wage deduction, or garnishment, can only be done where there is a valid judgment debt. In Illinois, the creditor then files an action in court to deduct the lesser of either 15 percent of your gross wages for a week or the amount by which disposable weekly earnings exceed 45 ...

While experiments in the 1970s using electrical brain stimulation identified areas of the brain responsible for starting locomotion, the precise neuron-by-neuron pathway has not been described in any vertebrate – until now. To find this pathway, Dr Edgar Buhl and colleagues in Bristol's School of Biological Sciences studied a small, simple vertebrate: the Xenopus frog tadpole. They found that the pathway to initiate swimming consists of just four types of neurons. By touching skin on the head of the tadpole and applying cellular neurophysiology and anatomy techniques, ...

Jerusalem, May 16, 2012 – A method developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for training blind persons to "see" through the use of a sensory substitution device (SSD) has enabled those using the system to actually "read" an eye chart with letter sizes smaller than those used in determining the international standard for blindness. The eight congenitally blind participants in the Hebrew University test group passed the conventional eye-exam of the Snellen acuity test, technically surpassing the world-agreed criterion of the World Health Organization (WHO) for ...

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is designed to offer relief to business corporations and partnerships that have become overwhelmed by debt. In some cases, Chapter 11 bankruptcy can also be helpful to high-income individuals who do not qualify for relief under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Chapter 11 was developed more than 30 years ago as a way for filers to reorganize their financial affairs and pay creditors back over time. Recently, though, a number of prominent bankruptcy lawyers have begun to voice concerns that the current Chapter 11 system may not be well-suited to the realities ...

In a study about to be published in EPJ E¹, French physicists from the Curie Institute in Paris have demonstrated that the behaviour of a thin layer of cells in contact with an unfavourable substrate is akin to that of thin fluid or elastic films. Understanding the mechanism by which a thin layer of cells splits into disjointed patches, thus breaking the layer's structural integrity, bears great significance because the human tissue, or epithelium, covering organs can only fulfil its role if there are no holes or gaps between the cells. Thanks to the analogy between the ...

In what the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) refers to as a "clerical error," the notice of proposed rules concerning sleep apnea of truck drivers was released and withdrawn on the same day in April. The request for public comments details some of the factors the FMCSA may consider for a final rulemaking on the issue of drivers who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Obstructive Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea is a respiratory dysfunction where breathing temporarily stops, interfering with the exchange of oxygen in the lungs. The Mayo ...

Microscopes provide valuable insights in the structure and dynamics of cells, in particular when the latter remain in their natural environment. However, this is very difficult especially for higher organisms. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, and the American National Institutes of Health (NIH) have now developed a new method to visualize cell structures of an eighth of a micrometer in size in living fish larvae. It is published in the Nature Methods magazine (DOI:10.1038/nmeth.2025). "The zebrafish ...

A marriage is a partnership; when it ends, both partners should be entitled to a fair share of the financial fruits it bore. Even so, sometimes one spouse attempts to hide assets in an effort to prevent them from being equitably distributed. Concealing assets during a divorce is not only wrong, it's illegal. But, with help from a qualified divorce attorney and a little knowhow, you can prevent your soon-to-be ex from pulling a fast one. Common Vehicles of Deception Unfortunately, hiding assets is not as difficult as you may think. Financial folios for most couples ...

A new study, testing the benefits of a virtual exercise partner, shows that the presence of a moderately more capable cycling partner boosts motivation to stick to an exercise program. The work by Brandon Irwin and colleagues, from Michigan State University in the US, is published online in Springer's journal, Annals of Behavioral Medicine. For many people, lack of motivation is a barrier to achieving both the recommended amount and intensity of exercise. Using the principles of group exercise, which is known to increase people's motivation to stick to an exercise program, ...

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, approximately 37 million Americans have student loan debt, creating a student debt load of $870 billion. The research revealed that student loans are not just for young adults. People age 60 and older still owe $36 billion of their own student loan debts and they are delinquent on more than $3.6 billion of that amount. There are two main types of student loans: private and government-backed. Bankruptcy laws have changed over the years regarding treatment of these two types of student loans: - Prior to 1976, all student ...

The study of the "Demon star", Algol, made by a research group of the University of Helsinki, Finland, has received both scientific and public attention. The period of the brightness variation of this eclipsing binary star has been connected to good prognoses three millennia ago. This result has raised a lot of discussion and the news has spread widely in the Internet. The Egyptian papyrus Cairo 86637 calendar is probably the oldest preserved historical document of bare eye observations of a variable star. Each day of one Egyptian year was divided into three parts in ...

Cleveland-based Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP is proud to announce that several of its attorneys have recently been listed in Best Lawyers - a respected legal peer-review publication. Among the accolades, managing partner Peter H. Weinberger was voted Best Lawyers' Cleveland Medical Malpractice Law Plaintiff's Lawyer of the Year. Partner Dennis R. Lansdowne was selected as Best Lawyers' Cleveland Personal Injury Litigation Lawyer of the Year. And Messrs. Weinberger and Lansdowne merited mention on The Best Lawyers in America list, along with Spangenberg Shibley ...

Due to the large size of the olive trees in the Mediterranean region, many experts have claimed that they are millennia old but "there had never been a scientific study to verify this," as explained to SINC by the ecologist Bernat Claramunt from the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF). A team from this centre has now analysed the ages of the famous olive trees and the oldest found is 627 years of age. Claramunt states that "this is one of the oldest specimens recorded in the Mediterranean ecosystem and on the European Continent." Lead by ...

A common inquiry from potential clients is whether they can sue a property owner for negligence for slipping and falling upon or as a result of shoveled snow or ice? The correct answer depends upon where you fall. Illinois common law historically provides that a property owner is not liable for "natural accumulations" of ice and snow. In other words if snow falls from the sky and remains untouched there is no liability. On the other hand if the property owner engages in snow removal operations liability attaches for negligent activity. To a lay person this ...

TAMPA, Fla. (May 16, 2012) – Chlorothalonil, one of the world's most common fungicides used pervasively on food crops and golf courses, was lethal to a wide variety of freshwater organisms in a new study, University of South Florida researchers said Wednesday. Biologists Taegan McMahon and Jason Rohr, co-authors of the study published in the journal Ecology Letters, report that chlorothalonil killed amphibians, snails, zooplankton, algae, and aquatic plants below estimated environmental concentrations previously deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ...

New York civil rights violation lawyers at The Perecman Firm join the New York Civil Liberties Union and a number of other civil rights advocacy organizations in their call to outlaw discrimination in New York State based on gender expression or identity. "The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, known as GENDA, is a bill that explicitly bans discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people in New York," civil rights violation lawyer David Perecman explained. GENDA passed the New York State Assembly on April 30, said the New York ...

New research from North Carolina State University shows that the United States and Great Britain share common risk factors that increase the likelihood of behavioral problems in children – and that Britain's broader social welfare programs don't appear to mitigate those risks. The researchers – from NC State, California State University Northridge and the University of Illinois (UI) – evaluated data from a 1994 study of children between the ages of five and 13 in the U.S. and a 1991 study of children in the same age range from England, Scotland and Wales. In both societies, ...

A well-known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease triggers a cascade of signaling that ultimately results in leaky blood vessels in the brain, allowing toxic substances to pour into brain tissue in large amounts, scientists report May 16 in the journal Nature. The results come from a team of scientists investigating why a gene called ApoE4 makes people more prone to developing Alzheimer's. People who carry two copies of the gene have roughly eight to 10 times the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease than people who do not. A team of scientists from the University ...

Sheraton Atlanta Perimeter Hotel North, located near Perimeter Mall, announces a new special savings offer that lets guests save at least 20% on best available rates. The Starpicks Online Exclusive is available for stays booked now through May 18, 2012. Guests will receive: - Starpicks rates from $85 per night - Stay Thursday - Sunday, May 17 - June 3 - Earn Starpoints for your Starpicks stay Reference rate plan WHOTA2 when booking. Rates are pre-paid, non-refundable and blackout dates may apply. "Conveniently located only 15 miles north of downtown Atlanta ...

In recent years, U.S. budget deficits and the national debt have grown rapidly. Today, many in Washington and around the country think the runaway debt is out of control and cannot be turned around. However, Brightworth, Atlanta financial advisors, say some may be surprised to learn we've been here before and were able to bring the debt back down. During World War II, the United States ran massive budget deficits that caused our debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to skyrocket from 44 percent in 1940 to 109 percent in 1946. As the war came to an end, the United ...

The Atlanta house painting experts at The Painting Company encourage Atlanta homeowners to have their house's exterior painted for Spring. If your home is showing some weathering after this winter, let the Atlanta painters from The Painting Company spruce your home back up just in time for Spring! "Spring is a great time to paint your home's exterior," notes Chris Camp, owner of The Painting Company. "Many people like a fresh start when Spring arrives, and what is fresher than new paint for your home? Sometimes, making your home more beautiful on the outside ...