CORPUS CHRISTI – Just as corn and peanuts stunned the world decades ago with their then-newly discovered multi-beneficial uses and applications, Texas AgriLife Research scientists in Corpus Christi think microalgae holds even more promise. "It's a huge, untapped source of fuel, food, feed, pharmaceuticals and even pollution-busters," said Dr. Carlos Fernandez, a crop physiologist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Corpus Christi who is studying the physiological responses of microalgae to the environment. There are an estimated 200,000 to 800,000 ...

Kuoni, the luxury travel company, has announced it scored joint top place with a customer satisfaction score of 80% in the recent Which? Top 20 Travel Companies survey. Which?, the consumer organisation famous for its impartial product reviews and ratings, surveyed nearly 10,000 people who travelled on holiday over the last two years. Trailfinders also scored 80% in the overall rankings making it joint winners with Kuoni. Customers were asked to rate the holiday companies based on overall organisation, customer service, value for money, accommodation and journey. ...

The first two weeks of June 2010 were a blur for six scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). As the world focused on the ongoing crisis in the Gulf of Mexico after the blowout of BP's Deepwater Horizon Macondo well, the scientists dropped everything to estimate how much oil was flowing from the mangled wellhead. The clock was ticking: Their work would help assess the environmental impact of the disaster, as well as develop ways to cap the well, which had been spewing unchecked since April 20. They ...

Boulder, CO, USA - Topics in the August GEOLOGY include banded iron formations, the San Andreas fault, the 12 Jan. 2010 Haiti earthquake, a shorter "dead interval" for marine organisms after the end-Permian mass extinction, fossil reef framework-forming cold-water corals, the Holocene sea-level history for the U.S. Atlantic coast, digital image correlation and the 1980 Mount St. Helens collapse, paleotemperature estimates from exquisitely preserved fossil bivalve shells and sediments, and an investigation of earthquakes in the Tonga-Vanuatu region. Mineral ecophysiological ...

H. Samuel, the UK's favourite high street jeweller, is now offering the entire UK GUESS watch collection online. This is the first time that the complete UK GUESS range has been made available online at H. Samuel and offers many benefits to consumers, including greater choice and competitive pricing and the opportunity to browse the entire GUESS watch range in one place. H. Samuel is committed to offering consumers the largest possible range of fashion watches and delivering the best service possible. With over 150,000 visitors to the website each week, H. Samuel is ...

A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine reveals that several unhealthy lifestyle factors, such as weight problems, physical inactivity, high alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, and hard drugs are associated with sexual dysfunctions in men. Additionally, an unhealthy lifestyle is more common in persons who are sexually inactive. Researchers led by Associate Professor Morten Frisch, MD, PhD, DSc, of Statens Serum Institut, used nationally representative survey data from 5,552 Danish men and women aged 16 – 97 years in 2005 to study the association of lifestyle ...

SAN FRANCISCO, July 6, 2011 -- In 1840, renowned English botanist George Gardner reported a strange sight from the streets of Vila de Natividade in Brazil: A group of boys playing with a glowing object that turned out to be a luminescent mushroom. They called it "flor-de-coco," and showed Gardner where it grew on decaying fronds at the base of a dwarf palm. Gardner sent the mushroom to the Kew Herbarium in England where it was described and named Agaricus gardneri in honor of its discoverer. The species was not seen again until 2009. San Francisco State University researcher ...

Miles For Hope announced today that it has partnered with two brain tumor organizations, Accelerated Brain Cancer Cure Foundation (ABC2) and the Stephen M. Coffman Charitable Trust, in awarding a $100,000 research grant to University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) neurosurgeon Linda Liau, M.D., PhD to begin the clinical trial, Optimizing Dendritic Cell Vaccination for Low Grade Glioma Patients. This is the first trial of its kind for patients that have been diagnosed with low grade gliomas, a common form of brain cancer. This grant is the collaboration to fund research ...

Move over, boy bands of America—there's a new group in town. Four middle-school students from Carmel Valley Middle School in San Diego, California, entered The Christopher Columbus Awards Competition, a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program that challenges middle-school students to identify a community problem and solve it using science and technology. Taking a cue from the popular group the Backstreet Boys, the students call themselves the Back Straight Boys. The Boys took first place nationally and are presenting their study at the upcoming Human Factors ...

Los Angeles – July 6, 2011 – A new study now appearing in the peer-reviewed British Journal of Nutrition, finds that fat in pistachios may not be completely absorbed by the body. The randomized controlled-feeding study, which is the first-of-its-kind research with nuts, indicates that pistachios may actually contain fewer calories per serving than originally thought. Conducted by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the study shows pistachios to be one of the lowest calorie nuts with 160 calories per 30 gram serving ...

With the Women's World Cup in full swing in Germany, soccer fans can now rest assured that women are less likely than men to fake on-field injuries, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center published in the July issue of the journal Research in Sports Medicine. "Injuries are common in women's soccer and seem to be on the rise at the international level," said Daryl Rosenbaum, M.D., an assistant professor of Family and Community Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist. "The goals of our study were to determine the frequency of apparent injury ...

Hireacar.ie, a car hire website that is geared to helping customers with their car rental needs, is now offering free quotes and price comparisons for the world's finest car hire companies in over 22,000 locations worldwide. The website has also introduced a brand new sleek modern design offering a much more user friendly experience for cistomers. Often, when making travel plans, it can be very daunting for customers to determine where they should hire a car. With so many different companies promising cheap rental cars to satisfy almost any budget, researching the many ...

CHICAGO (July 6, 2011) – The type of primary insurance patients carry affects outcomes of cardiac valve operations in the United States according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. As a result, the type of primary insurance should be considered as an independent risk factor during preoperative risk stratification and planning, the researchers reported. They found that uninsured and Medicaid patients incur worse unadjusted and risk-adjusted outcomes following cardiac valve operations compared with those who carry private insurance. In ...

CHICAGO (July 6, 2011) – One consequence of the expanded access to health care facilitated by health care reform will be a shortfall in the necessary numbers of physicians and other advanced medical professionals. According to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the United States will face serious shortages in the combined workforce of physicians, advance practice nurses, and physician assistants over the next two decades. The study concluded that, without an adequate supply of advanced medical professionals, the U.S. ...

Tel Aviv — We know that physical education teaches children about fitness and encourages them to live a healthy lifestyle. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher has statistical evidence that sports participation is also beneficial to a child's cognitive, emotional and behavioral well-being. Keren Shahar, a Ph.D. student at Tel Aviv University's Bob Shapell School of Social Work working under the supervision of Prof. Tammie Ronen and Prof. Michael Rosenbaum, says that over the course of her study, which included 649 children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, a continuous ...

Landsat 5 captured an image of flooding occurring along the Iowa/Nebraska border on June 30, 2011. Flooding is still occurring on July 6, and Flood Warnings are still in effect from the National Weather Service. The Landsat 5 image captured was an enlargement of the area just north of Omaha. The flood waters show up as very dark blue and, where the water is shallow, medium blue. In the image, the Interstate is cut off by flood waters, just south of Missouri Valley, Iowa, and about 20 miles north of Omaha. According to Omaha.com, officials from federal, state and local ...

Tower Legal Staffing, Inc., the growing NYC-based legal staffing company, announced the opening of its newest branch office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The office is located at One Oxford Centre, 301 Grant Street in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. Tower Legal President and CEO, Leslie Firtell, Esq., selected Pittsburgh, one of the top US cities for finding employment, because it has a large corporate presence and it affords Tower Legal's clients another cost-effective, onshore alternative for their temporary legal staffing needs. "We have clients in the Pittsburgh ...

PHILADELPHIA — Improvements in colorectal cancer mortality rates are concentrated in the northern part of the United States, while southern states continue to fall behind, according to a report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Ahmedin Jemal, D.V.M., Ph.D., vice president for surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, said the decrease in death rates ranged from about 37 percent in Massachusetts to no reduction in Mississippi. "This was very surprising, because when you look at the ...

Progress in reducing colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality rates varies significantly across states, with rates in the Northeast showing the most progress and those in the South showing the least progress, according to a new study. As a result, the highest burden of CRC mortality shifted from the Northeast in the early 1990s to the southern states along the Appalachian corridor in the mid 2000s. The decrease in CRC mortality rates by state correlated strongly with uptake of screening. The study appears in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, and says improving screening ...

Boston, MA -- Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Providence Health & Services have found that expanding low income adults' access to Medicaid substantially increases health care use, reduces financial strain on covered individuals, and improves their self-reported health and well-being. This is the first study to evaluate the impact of insuring the uninsured in the U.S. using a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard in medical and scientific studies. The ...

The philanthropic arm of global corporate giant, Walmart, has granted part of an $11.5 million investment in summer learning to Summer Advantage USA. Recognized by MSNBC, TIME Magazine, and the White House initiative United We Serve, Summer Advantage USA is one of the nation's few evidence based summer learning programs. In 2011, the nonprofit program will engage thousands of students (called "scholars") in learning and physical fitness. The monumental investment is part of a national partnership between the Walmart Foundation and the National Center ...

TasteHawaiiOnline.com wants to reward the "Invitation To Foodies" culinary event attendees by paying airfare, hotel and car rental to Hawaii in 2012. The attendees who purchase a "Seminar - a la carte" ticket will be eligible to enter a drawing during the "Private Special Event" for three-day registrants on September 4th. The "Invitation To Foodies" culinary event benefits two Maui non-profits: Friends of the Children's Justice Center of Maui and Ka Lima O Maui. Maui residents and visitors will enjoy cooking demonstrations, ...

In the past 16 months, Angie Wallace, a petite, 38 year-old blonde, has lost 96 pounds wearing her BodyMedia FIT (TM) Armband. By the end of next week, she wants to make it 100. As she and her husband drive to a local line-dance club, Angie checks her wireless wristband monitor to find that she has expended 1,915 calories so far today. She has consumed 1,629 - a total of 286 fewer calories into her body than out. As she dances, her body heats up. On the back of her armband, a pair of galvanic skin response sensors detects changes in the electrical conductivity of her ...

Sally Marks, co-author of the self-improvement book, Erase Negativity and Embrace the Magic Within is scheduling free workshops and seminars to organizations and businesses in the Phoenix area during the month of July. Interesting charities, businesses and organizations are asked to contact Marks Public Relations at 480-664-3004 or email MarksPR@cox.net for guidelines. "We all want to be happy but don't always realize how we sabotage ourselves," said Marks, an Arizona author and public relations expert. "By practicing a few simple tips we can bump up ...

Dr. David Snodgrass DDS has become the pediatric dentist of choice for many Hermitage residents. With each passing year, the Hermitage pediatric dentist' s practice continues to increase in size and in reputation. Because of this welcome growth, the Hermitage pediatric dentist has seen fit to recruit a business specialist to ensure that all of the Snodgrass-King offices stay ahead of the curve. To this end, the Hermitage pediatric dentist announces the hire of Mr. Jason Keen as Snodgrass-King's Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer. "All of our middle Tennessee ...