Couch Oil and Gas, the Irving, Texas-based Oil and Gas Exploration, Investment and Operations firm ran by Charles Couch is in the midst of hosting a prestigious drilling conference with experts from around the world to talk about obtaining efficiency in radial jet drilling. Experts from Texas, Louisiana, Italy, Sicily, Oman, and Oxy Petroleum's Tech Division have been out in the Andrews oil field where radial jetting has been tested with great efficiency. Today is the third day the large group of drilling experts convened to achieve different ways to obtain maximum ...

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, August 31, 2011 -- Parents who want to improve their child's motivation to complete homework this school year need to change their own attitude and behavior, according to a new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers. In the study published in Learning and Individual Differences, BGU researchers found that if parents had a more positive, supportive attitude and communicated the learning value as motivation, rather than focusing on completing an assignment or getting a higher grade, then the child's attitude and motivation would ...

PHILADELPHIA (August 31, 2011) – Scientists from the Monell Center report that approximately one third of patients with unexplained body malodor production test positive for the metabolic disorder trimethylaminuria (TMAU). A definitive diagnosis offers relief to these individuals, as symptoms of TMAU can hinder social and workplace interactions and cause psychological distress. But once the disease is identified, these debilitating symptoms can be ameliorated using changes in diet and other approaches. "Health care professionals must arrive at a correct diagnosis to suggest ...

Golden Riviera Online Casino announced an update to its Free Spins offer. This casino has changed its main game to Riviera Riches, a strategic move as the casino is this game's namesake. Casino staff members and management are eager to see how this move will affect the casino. Emily Alessi said, "We are proud to announce a game that bears our name as our Free Spins game for new players. Riviera Riches carries our theme of sophisticated gambling in the luxury of the Riviera. We are offering newcomers a generous fifty Free Spins on the game, so that they can experience ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Adding a pretreatment step would allow producers to get more ethanol from switchgrass harvested in the fall, according to a Purdue University study. Michael Ladisch, a distinguished professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Youngmi Kim, a research scientist, compared switchgrass based on growing location, harvest time and whether it was given a pretreatment step. They found that location wasn't important, but the other two factors could significantly increase the amount of ethanol obtained from the feedstock. "Switchgrass harvested ...

Solar or photovoltaic cells represent one of the best possible technologies for providing an absolutely clean and virtually inexhaustible source of energy to power our civilization. However, for this dream to be realized, solar cells need to be made from inexpensive elements using low-cost, less energy-intensive processing chemistry, and they need to efficiently and cost-competitively convert sunlight into electricity. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has now demonstrated two out of three ...

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- It's all about the grandkids! That's what a team led by an Indiana University biologist has learned about promiscuous female birds and why they mate outside their social pair. Many humans find the idea of mating for life a romantic ideal, but in the natural world, non-monogamous relationships may have their benefits. According to new research published online today (Aug. 31) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, IU postdoctoral research associate Nicole Gerlach and colleagues have uncovered one of the benefits of this promiscuity: more grandkids! ...

From the macro-economic perspective gold will remain on its upward trend as long as there remains uncertainty with respect to the US dollar and Euro. Even the recent chatter about a potential quantitative easing by the Fed was enough to pull the value of gold down a few percentage points off of its record high as a number of institutional investors timidly and temporarily left gold to return to dollar denominated assets. This is the epitome of volatility and is a clear sign of lack of confidence in currencies. The savvy European investor led the procession toward the ...

Women who breast-feed are far more likely to demonstrate a "mama bear" effect — aggressively protecting their infants and themselves — than women who bottle-feed their babies or non-mothers, according to a new study in the September issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. And when breast-feeding women behave aggressively, they register a lower blood pressure than other women, the study found. The results, the researchers say, suggest that breast-feeding can help dampen the body's typical stress response to fear, giving women ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Paleoceanograpy (PA), Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), and Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences (JGR-G). 1. Was ocean acidification responsible for history's greatest extinction? Two hundred and fifty million years ago, the world suffered the greatest recorded extinction of all time. More than 90 percent of marine animals and a majority of terrestrial species disappeared, yet the cause of the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) die-off remains unknown. Various ...

PHILADELPHIA - A sideline visual test effectively detected concussions in collegiate athletes, according to a team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Concussed athletes scored an average of 5.9 seconds slower (worse) than the best baseline scores in healthy controls on the timed test, in which athletes read a series of numbers on cards and are scored on time and accuracy. This quick visual test, easily administered on the playing field, holds promise as a complement to other diagnostic tools for sports-related concussion. ...

Cerebral palsy is a devastating birth injury that results in damage to the brain and central nervous system of an infant or young child. The damage has life-changing effects on the child, their parents, and other loved ones. The emotional and financial burden of having a child born with cerebral palsy can seem overwhelming, especially if the birth injury was the result of the negligence of the doctor, the nurses, or another healthcare professional who was attending the birth. During labor, a baby experiences stress and sometimes experiences distress. A doctor or nurse ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 31, 2011) – Using a patient's own bone marrow stem cells to treat acute stroke is feasible and safe, according to the results of a ground-breaking Phase I trial at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The trial was the first ever to harvest an acute stroke patient's own stem cells from the iliac crest of the leg, separate them and inject them back into the patient intravenously. The first patient was enrolled in March 2009 at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. This research, with additional funding from the National ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Troops overseas often want nothing more than to get back home to loved ones – but the reunion period often can be more emotionally taxing than the deployment. Returning service members are at a greater risk of both depressive symptoms and relationship distress, and research shows the two often go together, says University of Illinois researcher Leanne Knobloch (pronounced kuh-NO-block). That's not a good thing, since someone suffering from depressive symptoms "really needs the support of their romantic partner." In a study published in August in the ...

Only around 30 percent of medical malpractice cases result in a settlement for injured patients in the United States. This means that around 70 percent of these cases are thrown out or dismissed due to insufficient evidence or inadequate patient representation. Because these cases are so difficult to win, most medical malpractice attorneys will only take them on if serious or catastrophic injury has occurred. To evaluate the extent of your injuries, an experienced medical malpractice attorney will require both time and substantial information before progressing with ...

NEW YORK (Aug. 31, 2011) -- A landmark study in the late 1960s and early 1970s used marshmallows and cookies to assess the ability of preschool children to delay gratification. If they held off on the temptation to eat a treat, they were rewarded with more treats later. Some of the children resisted, others didn't. A newly published follow-up revisits some of the same children, now adults, revealing that these differences remain: Those better at delaying gratification as children remained so as adults; likewise, those who wanted their cookie right away as children were ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- University of Florida researchers may help resolve the public debate over America's future light source of choice: Edison's incandescent bulb or the more energy efficient compact fluorescent lamp. It could be neither. Instead, America's future lighting needs may be supplied by a new breed of light emitting diode, or LED, that conjures light from the invisible world of quantum dots. According to an article in the current online issue of the journal Nature Photonics, moving a QD LED from the lab to market is a step closer to reality thanks to a ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — UC Davis researchers have developed an accurate computer model to test the effects of medications for arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, before they are used in patients. The new tool -- described in the Aug. 31 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine -- will help scientists screen anti-arrhythmia medications early in the drug-development pipeline and eventually guide physicians in prescribing those interventions to patients who could benefit the most. "Drug development for arrhythmia has failed because it is difficult to anticipate ...

The Kingston, New Jersey law firm of Hanan M. Isaacs is pleased to announce that managing partner Hanan Isaacs has been named by New Jersey Super Lawyers magazine as one of the top attorneys in New Jersey for 2011. Only five percent of the lawyers in the state are afforded this distinction by Super Lawyers. When asked about receiving this recognition for the second consecutive year, Attorney Isaacs said, "I am humbled to be recognized by Super Lawyers again this year. My focus is on effectively representing my New Jersey clients, so the recognition is gratifying." SUPER ...

When it comes to defibrillators, simpler may be safer, even though more complex machines are used on a majority of patients. That's according to a new study from a team that included University of Colorado School of Medicine researcher Paul Varosy, MD. The group reviewed more than 100,000 records of cardiac patients. They found that there was more chance of surgical problems and death with devices that require electrical leads to be attached to two chambers of the heart compared to those that work on one chamber. Although there are potential theoretical benefits, the ...

PHILADELPHIA — In solid materials with regular atomic structures, figuring out weak points where the material will break under stress is relatively easy. But for disordered solids, like glass or sand, their disordered nature makes such predictions much more daunting tasks. Now, a collaboration combining a theoretical model with a first-of-its kind experiment has demonstrated a novel method for identifying "soft spots" in such materials. The findings from University of Pennsylvania and Syracuse University physicists may lead to better understanding of the principles that ...

Few topics are as likely to provoke a heated response as concealed carry laws and their effect on crime. Proponents of the laws claim more guns mean less crime. In Pennsylvania, they certainly mean more guns. Concealed Carry Since the 1980s, the numbers of citizens licensed to carry a concealed gun has grown from less than a million to 6 million, The Daily Item reported recently. The story notes nearly 1 in 11 people in Synder County has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Pennsylvania Above Average They point out that while 1 of 50 Americans has a license ...

LA JOLLA, CA – August 31, 2011 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown that a particular white blood cell plays a direct role in the development and spread of cancerous tumors. Their work sheds new light on the development of the disease and points toward novel strategies for treating early-stage cancers. The study was published in September 2011 print issue of the American Journal of Pathology. Scripps Research Professor James Quigley, Staff Scientist Elena Deryugina, and colleagues had previously demonstrated that white blood cells known as neutrophils—bone ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Here's an easy way to improve your health: trust your neighbors. A new study from the University of Missouri shows that increasing trust in neighbors is associated with better self-reported health. "I examined the idea of 'relative position,' or where one fits into the income distribution in their local community, as it applies to both trust of neighbors and self-rated health," said Eileen Bjornstrom, an assistant professor of sociology in the MU College of Arts and Science. "Because human beings engage in interpersonal comparisons in order to gauge ...