A recent decision by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has decided to centralize 22 different lawsuits against Watson Pharmaceuticals in the Northern District of Illinois. These cases all stem from allegations that a product manufactured by Watson - a transdermal pain medication known as a fentanyl patch - is defective and has caused severe injuries and death. Originally, Watson had hoped the Judicial Panel would have consolidated all fentanyl patch cases, including cases involving other manufacturers - such as ALZA Corp, Johnson & Johnson and Mylan ...

During the summer months, it is a familiar sight -- orange cones, flashing lights, signs urging motorists on the highway to merge into one lane. While these work zones are necessary to maintain the safety of our infrastructure, they pose a risk both for workers on the job and drivers passing by. Consequently, it is imperative for Philadelphia drivers to exercise caution when traveling through work zones. According to the Federal Highway Administration, accidents resulting in fatalities have decreased in recent years. In 2008, there were 716 fatal collisions in work zones ...

Distracted Driving: A Leading Cause of Serious Car Accidents Texting while driving has become a serious safety concern, one that legislators and safety agencies are addressing nationwide. According to the Ohio Department of Public Safety/Bureau of Motor Vehicles, texting while driving takes your eyes off of the road for approximately five seconds. In this time, you are 23 times more likely to get into a car accident. A recent survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 35 percent of drivers admit to texting and driving. In 2009, this driving habit claimed ...

Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, the Ottoman inspired luxury resort located on Palm Jumeirah, has launched two 'As seen on X Factor' holiday packages prior to its debut on UK and Irish TV screens. The hotel, which provided one of the locations for hit TV series The X Factor, hosted celebrity judge Nicole Scherzinger and her guest judge Ne-Yo alongside TV presenters Dermot O'Leary and Caroline Flack as they filmed one of four parts of the Judges' House scenes in Dubai. The Royal and Deluxe holiday packages will give hotel guests the chance to replicate the experience of the ...

Barclaycard has announced the launch of its Barclaycard Cashback and Barclaycard Freedom Rewards cards, both designed to make it easier for customers to get value and rewards on their everyday spend, without changing the way they shop. The Cashback card is built on simplicity, giving customers four times more cashback on their five biggest monthly purchases, with no tiers or thresholds. Customers earn 2% on their five biggest monthly purchases and 0.5% on everything else. All customers need to do is make fifteen purchases a month, of any amount to qualify for the 2% ...

The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio has gained a national reputation as one of the most haunted places in America, while also being an architectural and cultural treasure. Travelers come from around the globe to brave the historic reformatory's hair-raising, one-of-a-kind Haunted Prison Experience. Beyond the Haunted Prison Experience, six additional haunted sites are now available in and around Mansfield, making the city a dream destination for fans of the paranormal investigation, as well as visitors who just love a good scare. The prison and many of Mansfield's ...

Are you looking to prepare your business for winter? If so, it's wise to stock up on safety supplies before the cold spell hits. This is the latest advice from whatishealthandsafety.co.uk and is designed to keep staff, visitors and general members of the public safe. - The importance of winter safety products highlighted by website - Snow shovels, snow ploughs and de-icing equipment deemed essential - Companies advised to carry out a risk assessment ahead of winter According to the site - which provides a wealth of safety information for both small and large organisations ...

Wyzax Surrogacy Consultants (WSC) is a specialized surrogacy arm of Wyzax Corp., which is engaged in a vast range of healthcare activities like Pharmaceutical marketing, Biotechnological research and Medical Tourism. WSC is The Only Healthcare Corporate in India which functions differently from the ART clinics because unlike the latter, we work on the US model, whereby, rather than carrying out IVF at our own centre, we offer the IPs the option of getting the IVF done at any of the world class ART clinics which are on our panel. We at WSC provides end to end surrogacy ...

Vienna, Austria, 29 September 2012 – Treatment with the drug sorafenib as a third or fourth line therapy does not result in improved overall survival among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings released at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. However, a post-hoc biomarker analysis of the trial data that was also presented suggests that patients with EGFR-mutant tumors may benefit. Sorafenib is an oral inhibitor of several tyrosine protein kinases, which can be active in cancers. At the ...

Vienna, Austria, 29 September 2012 –- Promising new data on drug combinations to treat metastatic melanoma are presented at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. The phase I and II trials focus on combining drugs to slow the development of resistance to drugs that inhibit BRAF, a gene that is mutated in about half of melanomas. Earlier trials with drugs that target BRAF generated excitement for their ability to quickly shrink melanoma tumors in suitable patients. But for many patients the benefits proved short-lived, as the cancer ...

VIENNA, Austria, 29 September 2012 –- New trial data showing improvements in the treatment of esophageal and gastrointestinal cancers were released today at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. Phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of gefitinib versus placebo in esophageal cancer progressing after chemotherapy The first phase III trial to address the need for second-line treatments in esophageal cancer shows that gefitinib improves important quality-of-life measures and extends progression-free survival, ...

Vienna, Austria, 29 September 2012 –- Governments around the world are leaving hundreds of millions of cancer patients to suffer needlessly because of their failure to ensure adequate access to pain-relieving drugs, an unprecedented new international survey reveals. The new data, released to the public during the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna, paints a shocking picture of unnecessary pain on a global scale, said Prof Nathan Cherny, lead author of the report from Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel, Chair of the ESMO ...

Combined treatment with two drugs targeting different points in the same growth-factor pathway delayed the development of treatment resistance in patients with BRAF-positive metastatic malignant melanoma. The results of a phase I/II study of treatment with the kinase inhibitors dabrafenib and trametinib will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine and are being released online to coincide with a presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Vienna. "We investigated this combination because of research we and others have conducted ...

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. – September 28, 2012 – Scientists at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography have made the first observation of a predator avoidance behavior by a species of phytoplankton, a microscopic marine plant. Susanne Menden-Deuer, associate professor of oceanography, and doctoral student Elizabeth Harvey made the unexpected observation while studying the interactions between phytoplankton and zooplankton. Their discovery will be published in the September 28 issue of the journal PLOS ONE. "It has been well observed that phytoplankton ...

The apple flea weevil, a sporadic insect pest in the early 1900s, has reemerged as a severe pest in organic apple orchards in Michigan, where outbreak population levels have been observed since 2008, and damage has resulted in up to 90% losses for apple growers. According to the authors of "The Reemergence of an Old Pest, Orchestes pallicornis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)," an open-access article appearing in the lastest issue of the Journal of Integrated Pest Management, the weevil can be managed by broad-spectrum insecticides used in conventional agriculture, but there ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — UC Davis investigators have found new evidence that a promising type of stem cell now being considered for a variety of disease therapies is very similar to the type of cells that give rise to cancer. The findings suggest that although the cells -- known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) -- show substantial promise as a source of replacement cells and tissues to treat injuries, disease and chronic conditions, scientists and physicians must move cautiously with any clinical use because iPSCs could also cause malignant cancer. The article, ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois researchers have a new low-cost method to carve delicate features onto semiconductor wafers using light – and watch as it happens. "You can use light to image the topography and you can use light to sculpture the topography," said electrical and computer engineering professor Gabriel Popescu. "It could change the future of semiconductor etching." Chip makers and semiconductor researchers need to very precisely control the dimensions of their devices. The dimensions of the components affect performance, speed, error rate and time ...

Tadpole shrimp are pests of rice production systems in California and have recently been found impacting Missouri and Arkansas rice fields. The shrimp feed on rice seedlings and uproot them during foraging, and their foraging behavior causes water to become muddy, which reduces light penetration to submerged seedlings and delays the development of the rice plant. In "Review of a New Pest of Rice, Tadpole Shrimp (Notostraca: Triopsidae), in the Midsouthern United States and a Winter Scouting Method of Rice Fields for Preplanting Detection," a new open-access article appearing ...

This gives new meaning to the complaint "I'm bored" — literally. Canadian researchers — including a professor from the University of Guelph — have come up with a new, precise definition of boredom based on the mental processes that underlie the condition. Although many people may see boredom as trivial and temporary, it actually is linked to a range of psychological, social and health problems, says Guelph psychology professor Mark Fenske. He's among authors of a new study in Perspectives on Psychological Science, published by the Association for Psychological Science. Boredom ...

Millions of pounds of unexploded bombs and other military ordnance that were dumped decades ago in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as off the coasts of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, could now pose serious threats to shipping lanes and the 4,000 oil and gas rigs in the Gulf, warns two Texas A&M University oceanographers. William Bryant and Neil Slowey, professors of oceanography who have more than 90 years of combined research experience in all of the Earth's oceans, along with fellow researcher Mike Kemp of Washington, D.C., say millions of pounds of bombs are scattered ...

The IUCN World Conservation Congress has adopted a motion sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society and partners to create a Green List to assess conservation success. The Green List for Species would include species identified as 'fully conserved,' which are those that exist in ecologically significant numbers, interacting fully with other species in their ecosystems. The motion was adopted at the World Conservation Congress, which was held this month in Jeju, Republic of Korea. The aim of the Green List is to highlight species that are thriving parts of a healthy ...

Super Typhoon Jelawat is a large and powerful storm that has been bringing very rough seas to areas in the western North Pacific. NASA's Terra satellite passed over the monster storm and captured a visible image as it nears the big island of Japan. NASA's Terra satellite passed over Super Typhoon Jelawat on Sept. 28 at 0238UTC (10:38 p.m. EDT, Sept. 27) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer captured an infrared image as the storm approaches Okinawa, Japan. Jelawat's center passed by Ishigaki-jima by 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) on Sept. 28 and was approaching ...

The sun erupted with a wide, Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) on Sept. 27, 2012 at 10:25 p.m. EDT. CMEs are a phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later, affecting electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models estimate that the CME is traveling at around 700 miles per second and will reach Earth on Sept. 29. CMEs of these speeds are usually benign. In the past, similar CMEs have caused auroras near the poles but have not caused disruption to electrical ...

Infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite today, Sept. 28, revealed strong convection and thunderstorms have built up again in Tropical Storm Nadine as it moved over warm waters in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. That convection strengthened Nadine back into a hurricane today. Nadine has lasted over two weeks, but is nowhere near breaking the record for longest-lived tropical cyclone. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over long-lived Nadine on Sept. 28 at 0441 UTC (12:41 a.m. EDT) when it was still a tropical storm and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured ...

The National Hurricane Center issued their last advisory on Miriam on Sept. 27 at 11 p.m. EDT when it became a remnant low pressure area. At that time, the center of post-tropical cyclone Miriam was located near latitude 22.0 north and longitude 116.7 west, just over 400 miles west of the southern tip of Baja California. Miriam had maximum sustained winds near 30 knots (35 mph/55 kmh). NOAA's GOES-15 satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Miriam and a developing low pressure area in the Eastern Pacific on Sept. 28 at 1145 UTC (7:45 a.m. EDT), off the coast ...