Working with genetically engineered mice and the genomes of thousands of people with schizophrenia, researchers at Johns Hopkins say they now better understand how both nature and nurture can affect one's risks for schizophrenia and abnormal brain development in general. The researchers reported in the March 2 issue of Cell that defects in a schizophrenia-risk genes and environmental stress right after birth together can lead to abnormal brain development and raise the likelihood of developing schizophrenia by nearly one and half times. "Our study suggests that if ...

Casual apparel and activewear company OBX Outfitters is providing a free online resource for Outer Banks groups and organizations to publicize their springtime charity running and other outdoor events, http://www.obxspringtraining.com. Additionally, OBX Outfitters is offering a 25% off its North Carolina-Made Find Your Stride activewear for runners and supporters of the events. "We're committed to helping community organizations in the Outer Banks, and providing free publicity and discounts on our running shirts is just one small way we can make a contribution," ...

CDAA Pty Ltd, an Australian based Certified Web Company, today announced the signing of its newest client, William Buck, a leading firm of Chartered Accountants and advisors in Australia and New Zealand. CDAA is providing graphic design, web design, web development, web hosting and email marketing services to William Buck to help increase its brand visibility, website traffic and build new client relationships. "We are partnering with CDAA, a leading-edge Web Company, to design and develop our new website. With CDAA we aim to ensure that our online image is ...

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame and Pennsylvania State University have announced breakthroughs in the development of tunneling field effect transistors (TFETs), a semiconductor technology that takes advantage of the quirky behavior of electrons at the quantum level. Transistors are the building blocks of the electronic devices that power the digital world, and much of the growth in computing power over the past 40 years has been made possible by increases in the number of transistors that can be packed onto silicon chips. But that growth, if left to current ...

CHICAGO – For nearly 30 years, Tom Rogers' left hand would shake when he tried to use it, making even simple tasks such as drinking a glass of water, writing a check, or making a sandwich challenging. The tremor eventually became so disruptive that he lost use of his dominant hand. Rogers sought care and learned that his tremor was a symptom of Parkinson's disease, yet felt he was suffering from something different. "I was familiar with Parkinson's because my father had it and I knew this wasn't the same," said Rogers, a 66-year-old retired truck driver who resides in ...

Boast Capital announces SR&ED Seminar at Innovate Calgary on Wednesday, April 4th from 7:30-9:30am to discuss changes to the SR&ED program arising from the new federal budget. Canada is one of the most generous countries in funding research, innovation, and experimentation, providing approximately $7 billion annually to over 30,000 companies. Over $4.5 billion of this funding pool is provided under the SR&ED program. As a part of the Federal Budget on March 29th, 2012, significant changes are expected to the SR&ED program. This seminar will provide ...

A growing body of research shows that birds and other animals change their behavior in response to human noise, such as the din of traffic or the hum of machinery. But human clamor doesn't just affect animals. Because many animals also pollinate plants or eat or disperse their seeds, human noise can have ripple effects on plants, too, finds a new study reported in the March 21, 2012, issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In cases where noise has ripple effects on long-lived plants like trees, the consequences could last for decades, even after ...

Bruce Wilson of Comcast Spotlight announced today a new interactive cable TV service called "Telescoping" that is being launched in April in the Decatur Zone that will empower advertisers to better explain their products and services in ways that a thirty or sixty second commercial spot cannot. He explained that, "Telescoping is an interactive overlay on a TV commercial that allows advertisers to free themselves from the restrictions of a thirty second commercial and extend messaging about their product or service on demand." For some time now Comcast ...

Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) often undergo multiple courses of antidepressant treatment during their lives. This is because the disorder can recur despite treatment and because finding the right medication for a specific individual can take time. While the relationship between prior treatment and the brain's response to subsequent treatment is unknown, a new study by UCLA researchers suggests that how the brain responds to antidepressant medication may be influenced by its remembering of past antidepressant exposure. Interestingly, the researchers ...

Concluding a four-year global consultation, international experts have agreed on key efforts needed to reduce the on-going loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. On Day 2 of the Planet under Pressure conference in London (planetunderpressure2012.net) March 27, leaders of the global biodiversity research programme DIVERSITAS described the urgent need to better understand the "5 Ws" -- who, what, where, when and why -- of biodiversity loss, and how humanity might mitigate it. Human well-being depends on ecosystems like forests and coral reefs continuing ...

April marks the 29th anniversary of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time dedicated to child abuse education, awareness and prevention activities. To observe National Child Abuse Prevention month, Love Our Children USA, (a national organization headquartered in New York whose mission is to break the cycle of violence against children) begins its ninth annual GET BLUE campaign - a national effort to educate and raise awareness for Child Abuse Prevention. The "Blue Ribbon" is the symbol for child abuse prevention. Love Our Children USA urges every person ...

Obese youths with particular genetic variants may be more prone to fatty liver disease, a leading cause of chronic liver disease in children and adolescents in industrialized countries, according to new findings by Yale School of Medicine researchers. The study, which focused on three ethnic groups, is published in the March issue of the journal Hepatology. Led by Nicola Santoro, M.D., associate research scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, the authors measured the hepatic, or liver, fat content of children using magnetic resonance imaging. ...

Intensive research around the world has focused on improving the performance of solar photovoltaic cells and bringing down their cost. But very little attention has been paid to the best ways of arranging those cells, which are typically placed flat on a rooftop or other surface, or sometimes attached to motorized structures that keep the cells pointed toward the sun as it crosses the sky. Now, a team of MIT researchers has come up with a very different approach: building cubes or towers that extend the solar cells upward in three-dimensional configurations. Amazingly, ...

PROSSER, Wash. -- While Washington winemakers grow most of their grapes on their natural rootstock, the coveted quality of their crop--and wines--is unlikely to change if they join the rest of the world and start grafting their varieties to more disease- and pest-resistant roots. That day will probably come, say WSU experts, but growers have little to fear. The spectre of a vine-destroying invasion has been lurking in the shadows of Washington vineyards for years. What if, wine industry professionals have fretted, growers had to start grafting in order to beat the insects ...

The Lint Center, a non-profit charity, focused on supporting the educational pursuits of the next generation of America's Counterintelligence and National Security Workers, today formally announced Miguel Ibarra was awarded the Special Agent/SSG Richard S. Eaton Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship award aims to support undergraduate and post-graduate educational pursuits of scholars interested in National Security. Lint Center scholarship winners are chosen on various grounds but are all well-rounded individuals whom the scholarship namesake would be or would have ...

Amsterdam, NL -- Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and the only cause of death among the top 10 in America without a way to prevent, cure or even slow its progression, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Today, 5.4 million Americans are living with the disease, and another American develops it every 69 seconds. Unfortunately, many Alzheimer's disease drugs targeting the misfolding of the amyloid beta protein have failed clinical trials, leading some to question the validity of the amyloid hypothesis. In upcoming issues ...

Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is a key foundational species in an ecosystem that is threatened by invasion of cheatgrass and the subsequent increase in fire frequency. Critical to the conservation, reestablishment, and restoration of the sagebrush steppe ecosystem (which comprises 63 million hectares of the Great Basin of North America) is understanding the dynamics of A. tridentata seeds—how long do they remain viable and are they able to persist in the seed bank for any length of time? Previously it was thought that A. tridentata seeds did not persist in the ...

Continuing to ride the wave of success, the Panic Room Company has just returned from Madrid's eminent security show SICUR 2012 (Salón Internacional de la Seguridad) where its innovative product gained centre of attention and screen time on several of Spain's most-viewed TV channels. Ignacio Sanchez-Teran, Director of SIMEC, the Panic Room Company's Spanish dealer and stand-holder in Madrid, said, "This Spanish debut for the Panic Room has been nothing short of a triumph. We attracted significant media interest and featured in nationwide news reports on the likes ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A team of scientists from the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station and the University of Córdoba in Spain recently developed a new methodology that measures the economic impact of forest fires on timber resources. When evaluating and planning fire management program activities, it is important to know the value of the forest ecosystems protected. However, determining the true volume or economic value of the resources lost during a fire can be difficult. For example, when a fire burns through a timber stand, the market value lost ...

Caring Transitions of North Central Ohio, a company specializing in estate sales, downsizing and senior moves today announced the sale of a vast Barbie collection on the company's exclusive online auction Web site, http://www.ctonlineauctions.com/ncentraloh. The auction, starting at 9 a.m. EST today, Sunday, March 25th, features more than 400 lots of Barbie dolls, clothing ensembles, accessories, furniture, vehicles, novelties, convention items and other Barbie collectibles. This extensive collection has been fueled by a local collector's passion for Barbie and it has ...

This press release is available in French and German. A study led by Dr Janet Shipley from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London in collaboration with Dr Mauro Delorenzi from the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics in Lausanne has shown that a simple genetic test could help predict the aggressiveness of rhabdomyosarcoma tumours in children. The test, which should be introduced into clinical practice, would lead to changes in treatment for many patients, allowing some children to escape potentially long-term side-effects whilst giving others the intense ...

SAN DIEGO, March 27, 2012 — Scientists today reported striking new evidence that green, or unroasted, coffee beans can produce a substantial decrease in body weight in a relatively short period of time. In a study presented at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, Joe Vinson, Ph.D., and colleagues described how a group of overweight or obese people who consumed a fraction of an ounce of ground green coffee beans each day lost about 10 percent of their body weight. "Based on our results, ...

SAN DIEGO, March 27, 2012 — Some of the flame retardants added to carpets, furniture upholstery, plastics, crib mattresses, car and airline seats and other products to suppress the visible flames in fires are actually increasing the danger of invisible toxic gases that are the No. 1 cause of death in fires. That was the finding of a new study presented here today at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. Anna A. Stec, Ph.D., led the research, which focused on the most widely-used category ...

Lanner, a provider of simulation software proven to maximize performance and optimize resources, today announced the expansion of its partner network in China, with two new reseller agreements focused on increasing the market share of WITNESS, Lanner's flagship simulation software. Beijing Tianyan Rongzhi, a specialist in the provision of software and training to education organizations will work with Lanner to increase adoption of WITNESS within the 65 universities already using the software, as well as new universities and teaching establishments. As part of the agreement, ...

SAN DIEGO, March 27, 2012 — Thirty-five years after a landmark report documented minority women as the most underrepresented individuals in science, engineering, medicine and dentistry, dramatic improvements have occurred for women of color, but serious obstacles remain. That was the message from a report here at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The presentation was part of an ACS symposium titled, "The Double Bind: Minority Women in Science and Update Thirty Five Years Later." It ...