Considering the recurring discussions online and elsewhere regarding the radioactive nature of granite, the Atlanta granite countertop specialists at Craftmark Countertops urges homeowners to go directly to the Environmental Protection Agency website for the facts rather than sifting through the propaganda that may be found in online. As any natural igneous rocks mined from inside the earth, granite has the potential of containing some radioactive elements. Uranium, radium, and thorium are a few that may appear in any number of minerals that may be crystallized in granite. ...

NEW YORK, May 16, 2012 – Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have identified a target for slowing the progression of multiple myeloma by using currently available drugs. Published recently in Nature Cell Biology, the study reveals a pathway that, if deactivated, may help slow the development of the disease. "We have the ability to target this pathway with drugs that already exist," said lead investigator Michele Pagano, MD, the May Ellen and Gerald Jay Ritter Professor of Oncology in the Department of Pathology and a member of the NYU Cancer Institute at NYU Langone ...

In this "themed" issue, Deutsches Ärzteblatt International is focusing on medical students. Bernd Gibis, of the German National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, and his coauthors investigate the question how medical students envisage their future professional lives as doctors (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2012; 109(18): 327-332). Another perspective is provided by Esther Ziemann and Jörg-Wilhelm Oestmann, who studied doctors' role as academics and analyzed the publication activities of doctoral candidates at Berlin's Charité University Medical School over a period ...

Lipsi Cosmetics, a Greek-inspired makeup brand based in Santa Monica, CA, is on a mission to help women throughout the world by connecting and sharing information via social media websites. The company's goal is to provide a wide variety of makeup tutorials, including tips and tricks, focused on accentuating natural beauty while hiding imperfections. Lipsi Cosmetics posts fun, helpful articles on the company blog, and shares videos on a regular basis. Women looking for makeup tips can find answers to their questions on the Lipsi Cosmetics blog, which is located ...

VIDEO: Today's mega forest fires of the southwestern US are truly unusual and exceptional in the long-term record, suggests an unprecedented study that examined 1,500 years of ancient tree ring and... Click here for more information. Today's mega forest fires of the southwestern U.S. are truly unusual and exceptional in the long-term record, suggests a new study that examined hundreds of years of ancient tree ring and fire data from two distinct climate periods. Researchers ...

Reported by Channel 10's Tampa Bay News May 14, 2012: "Police say the victim of a violent beating caught on camera is a 24 year old and has lived in Tampa for less than a month. He's a United States Army soldier assigned to MacDill Air Force Base and lives not far from the base at Dale Mabry Hwy. and Interbay Blvd." According to police reports on Sunday morning, at around 3 a.m., the soldier's car broke down a few miles from home along Westshore Blvd. The attack came when he was walking home and using Iowa St. to get from Westshore to Dale Mabry. At the intersection ...

FAME II trial demonstrates the importance of targeting treatment to the right patients A ground breaking international trial, presented yesterday at EuroPCR, has demonstrated for the very first time the true value of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with stable coronary artery disease. The study highlights the critical importance of targeting these interventions to patients with ischemia and may revolutionise the patient selection procedure for PCI. The FAME II study is the first of its kind and has shown that targeting fractional flow reserve (FFR) ...

Medical practice management software users have been issued a temporary reprieve from the Government, reports Harry Selent, President of www.medicalbillingsoftware.com. The government still allowed the deadline to pass without extending the deadline, however, they delayed the enforcement of the new rules for physicians, therapists, billing services, and others that submit medical electronic claims until June 30, 2012. "The new ANSI 5010 rules are required for a number of reasons" reports Selent. "One of the main reasons is to allow for the new ICD-10 diagnosis ...

ACE2, a molecule that has been shown to prevent damage in the heart, is now proving to be protective of the major organs that are often damaged in diabetic patients. Gavin Oudit, a researcher with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, and his colleagues at the University of Florida, found that lab models that lacked ACE2 had worse cardiovascular complications related to diabetes. "We show that if you take ACE2 away, they [lab models of diabetes] do very poorly," said Oudit. "It worsened their heart function and their vascular function."In patients, if you have high levels ...

After seeing faces for less than a blink of an eye, college students have accuracy greater than mere chance in judging others' sexual orientation. Their "gaydar" persisted even when they saw the photos upside-down, and gay versus straight judgments were more accurate for women's faces than for men's. The findings, published May 16 in the open-access online journal PLoS ONE, suggest that we unconsciously make gay and straight distinctions. "It may be similar to how we don't have to think about whether someone is a man or a woman or black or white," said lead author Joshua ...

BEER-SHEVA, Israel, May 16, 2012 – A team of Israeli and German scientists from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces have found an enamel-like layer in the mandibles of freshwater crayfish, according to an article in Nature Communications titled "Enamel-like Apatite Crown Covering Amorphous Mineral in a Crayfish Mandible." Dr. Shmuel Bentov from BGU's Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering discovered that this species of crayfish protect their teeth against wear in a very specific ...

Liquid Promo LLC, a leading private label energy drinks maker, has launched the Artsy Drinks line of energy drinks featuring amazing graphic designs by talented artists from around the world. Artsy Drinks are sold exclusively online at website ArtsyDrinks.com. A design is only featured for one day after which the particular Artsy Drink will no longer be available for purchase. "We really thought there should be more to having an energy drink than just getting pumped," said Jason Vigil, President of Liquid Promo. "We have created the Artsy Drink as a collectible ...

For the first time, scientists have seen an X-ray-irradiated mineral go to two different states of matter in about 40 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second). Using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford, Stefan Hau-Riege of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and colleagues heated graphite to induce a transition from solid to liquid and to warm-dense plasma. Ultrafast phase transitions from solid to liquid and plasma states are important in the development ...

Standard treatment for chronic leukemia is too harsh for many older patients. Early clinical trials testing indicates that these patients respond well to the experimental drug ibrutinib. This agent merits further testing as a first-line therapy for older chronic-leukemia patients. COLUMBUS, Ohio – The experimental drug ibrutinib (PCI-32765) shows great promise for the treatment of elderly patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to interim findings from a clinical trial. The phase I/II trial, co-led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– By combining the light of three powerful infrared telescopes, an international research team has observed the active accretion phase of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy tens of millions of light years away, a method that has yielded an unprecedented amount of data for such observations. The resolution at which they were able to observe this highly luminescent active galactic nucleus (AGN) has given them direct confirmation of how mass accretes onto black holes in centers of galaxies. "This three-telescope interferometry is ...

The system doctors use to classify patients' malignant brain tumors is outdated. Researchers have revised the system to accommodate treatment advances and molecular markers. The new system will be validated in future clinical trials for malignant gliomas. COLUMBUS, Ohio – Radiation oncology researchers have revised the system used by doctors since the 1990s to determine the prognosis of people with glioblastoma, which is the most devastating of malignant brain tumors. The outdated system was devised for glioblastoma and related brain tumors that were treated by ...

Using gene transfer techniques pioneered by University of Florida faculty, Taiwanese doctors have restored some movement in four children bedridden with a rare, life-threatening neurological disease. The first-in-humans achievement may also be helpful for more common diseases such as Parkinson's that involve nerve cell damage caused by lack of a crucial molecule in brain tissue. The results are reported today (May 16) in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The children in the study, who ranged in age from 4 to 6, inherited a rare disease known as aromatic L-amino ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The early April earthquake of magnitude 8.6 that shook Sumatra was a grim reminder of the devastating earthquakes and tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people in 2004 and 2005. Now a new study, funded by the National Science Foundation, shows that the residents of that region are at risk from yet another potentially deadly natural phenomenon – major volcanic eruptions. Researchers from Oregon State University working with colleagues in Indonesia have documented six major volcanic eruptions in Sumatra over the past 35,000 years – most equaling ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (May 16, 2012) – For older adults with "C2" fractures of the upper (cervical) spine, surgery and nonsurgical treatment provide similar short- and long-term outcomes, reports a study in the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Although the patients were at significant risk of complications and death in the year or two after C2 fracture, these risks are similar with surgical and nonsurgical treatment. "[T]hus, age ...

Washington, D.C., May 16, 2012 – Last week the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued its obesity-prevention report at the Weight of the Nation™ conference hosted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This report included a call to action for increased access to healthy foods (like fruits and vegetables) at retail outlets nationwide . Findings from a new Michigan State University (MSU) study released today, underscored the critical role that canned fruits and vegetables play in helping Americans increase these intakes, regardless of geography or income level. It's time ...

RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products including ethernet cables and coaxial cable connectors, wants to thank customers based in Nottingham who have helped raise more than GBP500 for the Help for Heroes charity. With several members of the RS branch team in Nottingham having close links to the forces, Help for Heroes was chosen as their charity of choice. Customers have fully supported the fundraising with donations towards the free-vend drinks and ...

Response efforts to outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Africa can benefit from a standardized sampling strategy that focuses on the carcasses of gorillas, chimpanzees and other species known to succumb to the virus, according to a consortium of wildlife health experts. In a recently published study of 14 previous human Ebola outbreaks and the responses of wildlife teams collecting animal samples, the authors of the new study conclude that most efforts to collect samples from live animals (i.e. rodents, bats, primates, birds) failed to isolate Ebola virus or antibodies. ...

Leading online gaming portal operator Right Casino Media have teamed up with fundraiser Hayley Fuller to help raise awareness and funds for the Help for Heroes charity, which supports soldiers wounded in current conflicts. Right Casino Media, who operate a network of industry leading websites including http://www.liveroulette.co.uk, have given GBP500 in much-needed sponsorship to Hayley, as she takes part in a 7-day fundraising bike trek through France this month. Established in 2007, the Help for Heroes charity raises money to help provide direct, practical support ...

A new study suggests that dumping old or unneeded medications in the trash can may be the best way to reduce the environmental impact of the 200 million pounds of pharmaceuticals that go unused in the U.S. each year. The report, which weighs the emissions from flushing, incinerating or trashing drugs, appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology. Stephen J. Skerlos and colleagues explain that to avoid the risks of abuse and accidental poisoning, as well as other problems that unused, unwanted or expired pharmaceuticals pose, they shouldn't be kept in homes. ...

This year marks 60 years since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. London is marking the Diamond Jubilee with a series of events, taking in exhibitions, processions, pomp and pageantry, from a grand flotilla making waves on the Thames to a stately parade bound for St. Paul's Cathedral. The events mark the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth's coronation on June 2 1953. The UK's workforce can look forward to a double bank holiday on June 4th and June 6th which looks set to be great time to visit London and join in the fun. Thanks to LondonTown.com's wide selection of discounted ...