NEW YORK – October 17, 2011 – A study conducted by Columbia Business School's Prof. Jonah Rockoff, Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business, Finance and Economics, and Cecilia Speroni, a doctoral student at Teachers College, set to estimate whether subjective evaluations of teacher effectiveness have predictive power for the achievement gains made by teachers' future students. The study, which was recently published in Labour Economics, found that subjective evaluations are comparable with and complementary to objective measures of teacher effectiveness taken from ...

A protein that promotes the growth of neurons and blood vessels appears to stop the progression of a genetic disease that causes degeneration of the cerebellum, according to new preclinical Northwestern Medicine research published in Nature Medicine. The disease, spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, typically strikes people in their 30s and 40s and causes degeneration of the cerebellum, the part of the brain that helps coordinate movement. As the disease progresses over 10 to 20 years, patients eventually die from aspiration or infectious pneumonia. The disease is caused ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A protein critical to development appears to have a grave impact on lungs exposed to smoking and air pollution, researchers report. Blocking that protein, called calpain, in the lungs may prove an effective way to avoid narrow, scarred blood vessels and pulmonary hypertension, said Dr. Yunchao Su, pharmacologist at Georgia Health Sciences University. "Calpain enables the bad behavior that occurs in pulmonary hypertension," said Su, corresponding author of the study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Pulmonary hypertension is an often ...

Dr. Bateman, South Charlotte, NC dentist, of Bateman Family Dentistry is pleased to invite patients to leave reviews of their time spent at Bateman Family Dental on various search engines, including Google, and Yahoo! The reviews are easily accessible via any of the available search engines and allow patients to view how other patients' experiences at Bateman Family Dentistry were. Patients can visit Google, and Yahoo! to read reviews from previous patients who have received treatment from Dr. Richard Bateman, South Charlotte dentist. "It is important for me to ...

A new wireless device to help victims of spinal cord injury is receiving attention in the research community. Mesut Sahin, PhD, associate professor, in the department of biomedical engineering at NJIT, recently has published and presented news of his findings to develop micro-electrical stimulators for individuals with spinal cord injuries. The work, now in its third year of support from a four-year, $1.4 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, has resulted in the development and testing of a technology known by its acronym, FLAMES (floating light activated ...

As the leaves begin to change colors for the fall, Dr. Kevin Kiley, Palm Harbor dentist, celebrates 25 years in dentistry. During the month of October, Dr. Kevin Kiley's staff encourages patients to celebrate Dr. Kiley's 25th year in dentistry in North Pinellas County. "It is a privilege to be celebrating 25 years in dentistry. I am honored to continue to serve my patients and I look forward to many more years of making my patients smile bigger and brighter," said Dr. Kevin Kiley, dentist in Palm Harbor, FL. Dr. Kevin Kiley graduated from Northwestern ...

A new, open-access article in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management provides a review of cereal leaf beetle biology, past and present management practices, and current research being conducted. Cereal leaf beetle, Oulema melanopus L., is an introduced insect pest of small grains first recorded in the United States in the early 1960s. Since its introduction from Europe or Asia into Michigan, cereal leaf beetle has rapidly spread and can now be found in most states. Cereal leaf beetle feeds on numerous species of grasses and is considered a major pest of oats, barley, ...

A new, open-access article (http://tinyurl.com/5voksnc) in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management examines the Pecan Pest Information Platform for Extension and education (PIPE), a program that provides a new informatics resource that targets 5,000 pecan stakeholders located primarily in the southern tier of the United States. Pecan scientists and producers working with information technology experts have developed and delivered this program via the Internet since 2009. Stakeholder participation in and adoption of this resource has grown since inception and is expected ...

Leading Toms River cosmetic dentist, Dr. Stan Mahan, is pleased to offer new patients free whitening for life when scheduling an appointment. All new patients can now receive free whitening for life when they schedule a new patient exam with full mouth x-ray and prophy. When new patients make their appointment with Dr. Stan Mahan, emergency dentist in Toms River, they can mention the online coupon to receive their free whitening for life. This special is not to be combined with any other coupon. "I want my patients to smile longer and brighter than they have ...

Edmonton, AB - A report just released by the Alberta Diabetes Surveillance System (ADSS) shows a need for more teamwork among patients and their health-care providers and more effective use of medical records to aid Albertans with getting the laboratory tests necessary to help manage and prevent long-term complications of the disease. This is the first time that the Alberta Diabetes Atlas has included additional sources of data. With this enhancement it has become a vital tool for front line health-care providers and policy makers. According to the Atlas, many Albertans ...

BOSTON¬—Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute have found strikingly high levels of a bacterium in colorectal cancers, a sign that it might contribute to the disease and potentially be a key to diagnosing, preventing, and treating it. In a study published online in the journal Genome Research, investigators report the discovery of an abnormally large number of Fusobacterium cells in nine colorectal tumor samples. While the spike does not necessarily mean the bacterium helps cause colorectal cancer, it offers an enticing lead for further research, ...

Dr. H. Robert Stender, Pasadena cosmetic dentist, is pleased to announce the recent addition of informative articles and testimonials of his practice to Facebook and Twitter. Patients are encouraged to become fans of Dr. Stender's Facebook and to "follow" him on Twitter, as well, for frequent updates. "Facebook and Twitter are quickly becoming more popular as technology quickly advances. A majority of my patients actively utilize the benefits of the Internet through social media sites, making the decision to launch my own a necessity. With the launch of ...

A new study is the first to examine the effectiveness of a widely used counseling approach to treating substance abuse among African-Americans. The study found that African-American women were more likely than men to continue a counseling approach to treating substance abuse, but their substance-abuse issues continued. The study led by LaTrice Montgomery, a doctoral student in the University of Cincinnati Department of Psychology, is published this month in "Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology," a journal of the American Psychological Association. The study ...

Washington, D.C. — It is difficult to measure accurately each nation's contribution of carbon dioxide to the Earth's atmosphere. Carbon is extracted out of the ground as coal, gas, and oil, and these fuels are often exported to other countries where they are burned to generate the energy that is used to make products. In turn, these products may be traded to still other countries where they are consumed. A team led by Carnegie's Steven Davis, and including Ken Caldeira, tracked and quantified this supply chain of global carbon dioxide emissions. Their work will be published ...

Preliminary results from a 2011 survey conducted by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) suggest the production of a strong class of young-of-year striped bass in the Virginia portion of Chesapeake Bay. The 2011 year class represents the group of fish hatched this spring. The results are good news for the recreational and commercial anglers who pursue this popular game fish because this year class is expected to grow to fishable size in 3 to 4 years. The results are also good news for Chesapeake Bay, where striped bass play an important ecological ...

An international research team has discovered that a pervasive human RNA modification provides the physiological underpinning of the genetic regulatory process that contributes to obesity and type II diabetes. European researchers showed in 2007 that the FTO gene was the major gene associated with obesity and type II diabetes, but the details of its physiological and cellular functioning remained unknown. Now, a team led by University of Chicago chemistry professor Chuan He has demonstrated experimentally the importance of a reversible RNA modification process mediated ...

Innovative video effects creator and technology developer NewBlue, Inc. announces the inclusion of their new Titler Pro with Vegas Pro 11 from Sony, along with 13 other NewBlue plug-ins from 6 best-selling video plug-in collections. NewBlue Titler Pro (MSRP $299.95) is designed for the professional editor's schedule; to make it easy for editors to quickly create 2D & 3D graphics on a timeline. Titler Pro title animations use the computer's GPU to blend sophisticated 3D modeling with 2D raster processing to generate imagery in real time. Titler Pro also boasts an ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2011 — As millions of acres of farmland in the U.S. Midwest and South recover from Mississippi River flooding, scientists report that river flooding can increase levels of potentially harmful flame retardants in farm soils. But the higher levels apparently do not find their way into the milk produced by cows that graze on these lands. That's the reassuring message in the latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions" podcast series. Iain Lake, Ph.D., notes in the podcast that the flame ...

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a set of genes that act in muscles to modulate aging and resistance to stress in fruit flies. Scientists have previously found mutations that extend fruit fly lifespan, but this group of genes is distinct because it acts specifically in muscles. The findings could help doctors better understand and treat muscle degeneration in human aging. The results were published online this week by the journal Developmental Cell. The senior author is Subhabrata Sanyal, PhD, assistant professor of cell biology at ...

Designing a vessel to meet a tonnage parameter has proven to be the bane of designers, builders and owners since the earliest days of the maritime industry. Today, regulations initially established over 140 years ago in a surveyor's office in London can dramatically affect the construction of virtually every commercial vessel at work in the United States. "Every boat needs to have a tonnage certificate for whatever its type of function and any modification to a vessel can result in ramifications to the tonnage certificate," said David Krapf, editor in chief ...

An amorphous diamond – one that lacks the crystalline structure of diamond, but is every bit as hard – has been created by a Stanford-led team of researchers. But what good is an amorphous diamond? "Sometimes amorphous forms of a material can have advantages over crystalline forms," said Yu Lin, a Stanford graduate student involved in the research. The biggest drawback with using diamond for purposes other than jewelry is that even though it is the hardest material known, its crystalline structure contains planes of weakness. Those planes are what allow diamond ...

Canada Drug Pharmacy offers Wellbutrin XL at a cheaper price, much cheaper when compared to purchasing the same drug from traditional retail stores. As more and more people turn to the internet to shop online, they are also searching for ways to save money. One of the benefits of buying Canadian drugs from CanadaDrugPharmacy.com is that the price of prescription medications is cheaper than traditional brick and mortar pharmacies. Purchasing online is also convenient since the consumers don't have to leave their house to buy their medicine. Customers can now log-in to Canada ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Bad mortgage loans and rampant consumer debt were two of the primary causes for the recent economic recession in the U.S. Despite a national trend of debt problems, a University of Missouri researcher has found one American population that holds almost no consumer debt outside of typical home mortgages. Rui Yao, an assistant professor of personal financial planning in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri, found that while 72 percent of Chinese-American households hold a mortgage, only five percent of those households ...

UPTON, NY - It's a basic technique learned early, maybe even before kindergarten: Pulling things apart - from toy cars to complicated electronic materials - can reveal a lot about how they work. "That's one way physicists study the things that they love; they do it by destroying them," said Séamus Davis, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and the J.G. White Distinguished Professor of Physical Sciences at Cornell University. Davis and colleagues recently turned this destructive approach - and a sophisticated tool for "seeing" ...

Saranac Lake, N.Y.—Research underway at the Trudeau Institute could lead to new treatments for people sickened by Listeria and other sepsis-causing bacteria. Dr. Stephen Smiley's laboratory has published a study in the scientific journal Infection and Immunity that supports a new approach to treating these infections. Listeria can cause serious illness, especially among the elderly, the very young and those with compromised immune systems. The bacteria can also cause significant complications in pregnant women, including miscarriage. The CDC is reporting that one miscarriage ...