Children who grow up learning to speak two languages are better at switching between tasks than are children who learn to speak only one language, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. However, the study also found that bilinguals are slower to acquire vocabulary than are monolinguals, because bilinguals must divide their time between two languages while monolinguals focus on only one. In the study, bilingual and monolingual children were asked to press a computer key as they viewed a series of images -- either of animals or of depictions ...

In order to maintain healthy smiles, Dr. Chris Hooper, dentist in Virginia Beach, offers his patients extensive dental health care information around the clock. It is commonly understood that in order to avoid cavities and more serious dental problems, a person has to take good care of their teeth and Dr. Hooper of Gentle Dental Center helps reiterate this. "Consistent brushing and flossing habits do more than just protect your oral health, they also help keep a host of other serious conditions at bay. Because of this I want to ensure that my patients fully understand ...

Montreal, April 3, 2012 — Love it or leave it — if only it were that simple. According to new research from Concordia University, the Université de Montréal and HEC Montréal, staying in an organization out of a sense of obligation or for lack of alternatives can lead to emotional exhaustion, a chronic state of physical and mental depletion resulting from continuous stress and excessive job demands. Published in the journal Human Relations, the study found that people who stay in their organizations because they feel an obligation towards their employer are more likely ...

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered why diabetic-like symptoms develop in some patients given rapamycin, an immune-suppressant drug that also has shown anti-cancer activity and may even slow ageing. Rapamycin is widely used to prevent organ rejection and is being tested as a cancer treatment in clinical trials. About 15 percent of patients, however, develop insulin resistance and glucose intolerance after taking the drug; until now, scientists had not identified the reason. In a study published in Cell Metabolism, the researchers report that ...

It's raining money this spring as Intertops Casino gives away $70,000 in casino bonuses during its April Cash Showers event. Intertops promotions are designed so that players at every budget level have a chance to win. Just by playing any of the 300 casino games at Intertops, players automatically earn points and are ranked in six levels based on their deposits, wins and losses. Every month the casino, known for generous bonusing, gives away tens of thousands in casino bonuses divided amongst players at all six levels. "At most casinos you have to be a real high ...

Research shows iOlder adults who get infections of any kind – such as urinary, skin, or respiratory tract infections – are nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized for a dangerous blood clot in their deep veins or lungs, University of Michigan Health System research shows. The most common predictor of hospitalization for venous thromboembolism – a potentially life-threatening condition that includes both deep-vein and lung blood clots – was recent exposure to an infection, according to the study released April 3 ahead of print in Circulation. "Over half of ...

LA JOLLA, CA – April 3, 2012 ¬– A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has found antibodies that can prevent infection from widely differing strains of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in cell culture and animal models. HCV's very high rate of mutation normally helps it to evade its host's immune system. The newly discovered antibodies, however, attach to sites on the viral envelope that seldom mutate. One of the new antibodies, AR4A, shows broader HCV neutralizing activity than any previously reported anti-HCV antibody. "These antibodies attach to sites ...

In this 17-minute short the writer of El Cantante, starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, has now taken on the role of writer, producer and director. Blind hell depicts the story of a man who takes a questionable moral path in life, only to lose everything he cares about, including his eyesight. Treading though life in his "Blind Hell", the character is given a second chance for life and redemption. "I believe in karma. I think life catches up with you, but everyone needs a second chance. I know I myself have been given a million chances," ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — For children with autism, being born several weeks early or several weeks late tends to increase the severity of their symptoms, according to new research out of Michigan State University. Additionally, autistic children who were born either preterm or post-term are more likely to self-injure themselves compared with autistic children born on time, revealed the study by Tammy Movsas of MSU's Department of Epidemiology. Though the study did not uncover why there is an increase in autistic symptoms, the reasons may be tied to some of the underlying ...

I voluntarily began my tour of Sicilian dwellings at this 17th Century Palazzo built on the old city walls because of its owners who are my friends. My feelings for this place, the last home of the famous writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, are particularly fond and my appreciation for its imposing beauty have kept me close to the actual owner, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, whose painstaking restoration of the structure and its halls have brought it back to its original grandeur. Today I have left my sentimentalism behind and replaced it with a professional attitude. As ...

Exercise which can achieve both cardiovascular function and muscle strength "would be a preferred mode of training for older persons", say investigators Experienced practitioners of Tai Chi, the traditional Chinese mind-body exercise now enjoyed worldwide, have been shown in a study of older subjects to have improved expansion and contraction of arteries according to cardiac pulsation (arterial compliance) and improved knee muscle strength.(1) The findings, say the investigators, of better muscle strength without jeopardising arterial compliance suggest that Tai Chi ...

A study of the sexes reveals that when it comes to starting a business, women are more likely than men to consider individual responsibility and use business as a vehicle for social and environmental change. "We found that women are 1.17 times more likely than men to create social ventures than economic ventures, and women are 1.23 times more likely to pursue environmental ventures than economic focused ventures," says Diana Hechevarria, a doctoral candidate in management and entrepreneurship in the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business. Hechevarria, ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Golfers looking to improve their putting may find an advantage in visualizing the hole as bigger, according to a new study from Purdue University. "People in our study made more successful putts in a smaller hole when a visual illusion helped them perceive it as larger," said Jessica K. Witt, an assistant professor of psychological science who studies perception in sports. "We know that how people perceive the environment affects their ability to act in it, such as scoring as basket or hitting a baseball, and now we know that seeing a target as ...

Stephen W. Stewart, founding member of The Stewart Law Firm, P.L.L.C. in Austin, Texas, is pleased to announce that Burgess Williams has joined the firm as an associate attorney. Burgess devotes his career to helping those injured as a result of the negligence of others. Burgess handles cases involving wrongful death, workplace injuries, oilfield/industrial injuries, 18-wheeler crashes, motor vehicle crashes, defective products, toxic exposure, and insurance bad faith claims. Burgess Williams is a graduate of Wake Forest University, where he received a B.A. in History. ...

According to Facebook's own newsroom, the social media giant has more than 845 million users who log into the social platform each month. And for many of those users, it is not simply about keeping in contact with old friends and playing games -- it is about getting the information they need. Facebook recognizes this by continuing to make changes to the platform to make it more user-friendly. Thanks to one of Facebook's most recent changes, Timeline for Pages, businesses like the law firm of Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman (TGL) can provide more information to injured ...

BIOLOGY -- When neutrons and simulation unite . . . Scientific analysis of proteins, the workhorses of the cellular world, could become easier by uniting experimental and simulation techniques, according to research published in Biophysical Journal. A team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jeremy Smith demonstrated how the combination of high-performance computer simulation and a type of neutron analysis called spin echo can be used to study certain motions in proteins. When large chunks of proteins called domains move relative to each other, these interdomain motions ...

April 03, 2012— Younger girls are more likely than adult women to report side effects after receiving Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine. The side effects are non-serious and similar to those associated with other vaccines, according to a new study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in the Journal of Women's Health. As part of an ongoing study and evaluation of this relatively new vaccine, researchers surveyed 899 girls and young women (ages 11-26) within two weeks after they received the Gardasil vaccine injection in the upper ...

Robot squirrels from the University of California, Davis, are going into rattlesnake country near San Jose, continuing a research project on the interaction between squirrels and rattlesnakes. In the lab, robot squirrels have shown how squirrels signal to snakes with heat and tail flagging. Through field experiments, researchers from San Diego State University and UC Davis aim to learn more about rattlesnake behavior. It's not the only use of robots to study animal behavior at UC Davis. Terry Ord, a former postdoctoral researcher now at Harvard University, used robot ...

One of an employer's strongest arguments against a workers' compensation claim is that the person filing for benefits was not an employee at the time of the accident. This is often seen with independent contractors, since they are generally not covered by North Carolina's Workers' Compensation Act. North Carolina law defines an employee within this Act broadly. The scope includes "every person engaged in an employment under any appointment or contract of hire or apprenticeship, express or implied, oral or written, including aliens, and also minors, whether lawfully ...

ARGONNE, Ill. -- The early days of our solar system might look quite different than previously thought, according to research at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory published in Science. The study used more sensitive instruments to find a different half-life for samarium, one of the isotopes used to chart the evolution of the solar system. "It shrinks the chronology of early events in the solar system, like the formation of planets, into a shorter time span," said Argonne physicist Michael Paul. "It also means some of the oldest rocks on ...

Not too long ago, a Florida couple was eagerly awaiting the birth of their new baby. Like most couples, they were excited to bring their little bundle of joy into this world. The doctor and ultrasound technician who read the sonogram didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so the couple anticipated a healthy bouncing baby boy. Tragically, however, their son was born without any arms and only a single leg. The joy about their son's birth quickly shifted to concern and despair. In what is often called a wrongful birth suit, the couple sued their health care providers ...

A current controversy raging in evolutionary biology is whether adaptation to new environments is the result of many genes, each of relatively small effect, or just a few genes of large effect. A new study published in Molecular Ecology strongly supports the first "many-small" hypothesis. McGill University professor Andrew Hendry, from the Department of Biology and the Redpath Museum, and evolutionary geneticists at Basel University in Switzerland, studied how threespine stickleback fish adapted to lake and stream environments in British Columbia, Canada. The authors ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Add lower gastrointestinal (GI) problems such as ulcers, bleeding and perforations to the list of serious complications facing many rheumatoid arthritis patients. They are at greater risk for GI problems and gastrointestinal-related death than people without the disease, a Mayo Clinic study shows. Researchers say their findings point out the need for new ways to prevent and treat lower GI disease in rheumatoid arthritis patients; the incidence of lower gastrointestinal complications is rising even as upper GI problems decrease significantly among rheumatoid ...

Reports of teachers having inappropriate relationships with students seem to appear on the news with alarming frequency. The increase in teacher-student relationships may partly be explained by the expanding use of new technology, such as text messaging, email, or social media sites like Facebook. While these forms of communication may certainly make teaching easier or more appealing to students, they also present a problem for teachers and students alike when discussions veer from classroom topics. Online communications can quickly turn into the basis for allegations ...

Researchers at Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have assembled the draft genome of a marine algae sequence to aid scientists across the US in a project that aims to discover the best algae species for producing biodiesel fuel. The results have been published in Nature Communications. The necessity of developing alternative, renewable fuel sources to prevent a potential energy crisis and alleviate greenhouse gas production has long been recognized. Various sources have been tried—corn for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel, for example. But to truly ...