Doren in the Austrian Bregenzerwald, February 2007: a slope 650 meters long breaks, resulting in a massive slide into the valley below. The nearest residential buildings are very close to the 70-meter-high rim. This barely avoided catastrophe is not the only incident. Geologists have been monitoring increasingly unstable masses of earth over the past few years in the Alps and other Alpine regions, which have slipped down slopes and on slid unchecked down valleys to more stable substrates. The scientists are primarily looking at heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused by climatie ...

Border states from California to Texas have been the site of some of the most heated rhetoric over U.S. immigration policy in recent years. After Arizona's passage of its notorious state law dominated American headlines for weeks in 2010, politicians in many states around the country followed suit by introducing similar legislation. Recent legislation approved by the Utah legislature and awaiting its governor's signature is receiving praise as a rare example of "sane" immigration policy. Key features of the Utah immigration reform bill include enhanced law enforcement, ...

A University of Iowa study finds that patients treated with a short course of antidepressants after a stroke have significantly greater improvement in physical recovery than patients treated with a placebo. Moreover, the study is the first to demonstrate that this physical recovery continues to improve for at least nine months after the antidepressant medication is stopped. "The idea that antidepressants might benefit early recovery from stroke has been around for a couple of years," said Robert Robinson, M.D., UI professor and head of psychiatry and senior study author. ...

Patients with a temporary surgical implant have used regions of the brain that control speech to "talk" to a computer for the first time, manipulating a cursor on a computer screen simply by saying or thinking of a particular sound. "There are many directions we could take this, including development of technology to restore communication for patients who have lost speech due to brain injury or damage to their vocal cords or airway," says author Eric C. Leuthardt, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Scientists have typically programmed the ...

The Florida foreclosure crisis has created distress across the state. Government officials are now pursuing people who may have contributed to the crisis through deceptive or unlawful practices. The Office of the Attorney General of Florida has announced that it is investigating all aspects of the foreclosure crisis and prosecuting cases involving fraud or misrepresentation. For example, in March 2011, three people were charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and mortgage fraud in a mortgage-fraud case. Two of them were also charged with conspiracy to commit ...

New Rochelle, NY, April 7, 2011—New recommendations from the American Thyroid Association (ATA) on outpatient radioiodine (131I) treatment aim to minimize unintended radiation exposure and maximize the safety of patients, their families, and the public. The new ATA recommendations are presented in the April issue of Thyroid, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The ATA recommendations are available free online at www.liebertpub.com/thy The ATA convened a task force to update radiation safety information related to outpatient ...

Discussions of tax evasion often focus on individual and corporate taxpayers. Perhaps this is because people and corporations responsible for paying taxes have direct incentives to misrepresent their income or otherwise provide inaccurate information on their tax returns. When investigating tax evasion, however, the Internal Revenue Service does not limit its inquiries to those who are responsible for paying taxes. Since 1996, the IRS Criminal Investigation Return Preparer Program has investigated and prosecuted tax preparers suspected of breaking tax-preparation laws ...

Workers exposed to welding fumes may be at increased risk of damage to the same brain area harmed by Parkinson's disease, according to a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Fumes produced by welding contain manganese, an element that scientists have linked to neurological problems including Parkinson's disease-like symptoms. "In the United States alone, there are more than 1 million workers who perform welding as a part of their jobs," says Brad Racette, MD, professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine. ...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's Oregon National Primate Research Center may have good news for women at high-risk for ovarian cancer who also want to have children. The research suggests that a layer of cells, which serve as the "breeding ground" for ovarian cancer, may be removed yet allow the women to have children. This would be a vast improvement over the current prevention strategy for women at high risk for ovarian cancer: Removal of the ovaries entirely. The research is published in the current online edition of the journal Human ...

(Edmonton) Ian Colman, an epidemiologist in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, recently completed a study that suggests that treatment of depression may have long-term benefits. The data Colman reviewed came from the National Population Health Survey, a longitudinal Canadian study, and showed depressed adults who use antidepressants are three times less likely to be depressed eight years later, compared to depressed adults who don't use antidepressants. To date, research into the effects of antidepressant treatments for individuals with major ...

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, across the nation at least 1.7 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year. Of those injured, 52,000 die. There are more then 5.3 million people living in the United States with disabilities caused by TBI. These figures may underreport instances of TBI, since those the number of people who receive no hospital or emergency room care is currently unknown. Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms TBI occurs when trauma causes damage to the brain, frequently a result of a sudden and violent blow to ...

Warning labels on junk food would be more effective than a "fat" tax for deterring overweight people from making unhealthy purchases, a new University of Alberta study has found. A survey of 364 shoppers in random Alberta grocery stores showed that while price alone wouldn't deter people from reaching for junk food, shoppers—including those with the heaviest body mass index—did heed a label that warned of high fat content and included a note that the item was being taxed because of it. The study asked shoppers to choose between high-fat and healthier snacks in the ...

WASHINGTON -- A new supercomputer simulation shows the collision of two neutron stars can naturally produce the magnetic structures thought to power the high-speed particle jets associated with short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The study provides the most detailed glimpse of the forces driving some of the universe's most energetic explosions. The state-of-the-art simulation ran for nearly seven weeks on the Damiana computer cluster at the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) in Potsdam, Germany. It traces events that unfold over 35 milliseconds -- about three times faster than ...

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a report indicating that medical mistakes accounted for more than one million injuries and as many as 98,000 deaths every year in the United States. The report spawned a national movement to reduce medical errors, but a new study published by The New England Journal of Medicine shows bleak results. The first large study in a decade to analyze and track harm resulting from medical care shows that the number of patients suffering harm from medical errors or inadvertent problems persists at a steady pace. Remedial Efforts Falling ...

If someone entered your apartment -- because the front door locks were broken -- and physically assaulted you, it may be possible to hold the landlord legally responsible. The same is true for management in a restaurant or other public place, if an attack occurs there. Under traditional laws of negligence, one private person has no duty to another private person to protect him or her from an assault or other violent act. For many years, landlords, innkeepers, and other property owners used this quirk of the common law to avoid liability. But across the country, courts ...

Florida remains near the top in the country in foreclosure filings.Florida remains near the top in the country in foreclosure filings. A recent report released by Florida's Office of the State Court's Administrator (OSCA) showing a marked decrease in its backlog of court foreclosure cases does not mean that the crisis is easing. South Florida experienced a drop of 8.9 percent in its foreclosure case load in the final three months of 2010, while Miami-Dade and Broward Counties saw a drop of 44.2 percent from the last quarter in the disposition of foreclosure cases. None, ...

The Law Office of Richard M. Kenny, located in New York City, was hired by Jonathan Zimmerman of Brooklyn in his lawsuit against the New York City Police Department. Attorney Richard M. Kenny has represented injured clients in several high-profile cases throughout New York since 1990. Zimmerman, 26, sued the New York City Police Department alleging police brutality. Zimmerman was sitting in a parked car with a friend outside her home in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The officers approached Zimmerman's vehicle and told him that he was getting a ticket for being double-parked. When ...

CORAL GABLES (April 7, 2011) -- Climate change is already widely recognized to be negatively affecting coral reef ecosystems around the world, yet the long-term effects are difficult to predict. University of Miami (UM) scientists are using the geologic record of Caribbean corals to understand how reef ecosystems might respond to climate change expected for this century. The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Geology. The Pliocene epoch--more than 2.5 million years ago--can provide some insight into what coral reefs in the future may look like. ...

BOULDER—Cities worldwide are failing to take necessary steps to protect residents from the likely impacts of climate change, even though billions of urban dwellers are vulnerable to heat waves, sea level rise, and other changes associated with warming temperatures. A new examination of urban policies by Patricia Romero Lankao at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), in conjunction with an international research project on cities and climate change, warns that many of the world's fast-growing urban areas, especially in developing countries, will likely suffer ...

Searching for magnetic fields produced by plants may sound as wacky as trying to prove the existence of telekinesis or extrasensory perception, but physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, are seriously looking for biomagnetism in plants using some of the most sensitive magnetic detectors available. In an article that appeared this week in the Journal of Applied Physics, the UC Berkeley scientists describe the instruments they used to look for minuscule magnetic fields around a titan arum – the world's largest flower – during its brief bloom, the interference ...

The Hampton Inn & Suites, a premier Scottsboro Alabama Hotel, announces a special deal for their hotel guests to enjoy. From now through June 30, 2011 this Hotel Scottsboro is offering the Grand Nights special. To receive the offer Hilton HHonors members must first register at www.HHonors.com/Grand prior to completing any eligible stay within the Promotion Period. The Grand Nights special is not valid with any other offers or promotional rates and is subject to availability at participating hotels. Reservations must be booked online. Among other Scottsboro hotels, The ...

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2011 – Science is playing an increasingly prominent role in many controversial political, religious and socio-economic debates, such as those about embryonic stem cells, genetically modified foods, teaching evolution and climate change. As a result, scientists are finding themselves forced into the fray and frustrated when their data and findings are misunderstood by policymakers and the public and even misrepresented for political gains. At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, April 10, at the Experimental Biology meeting in the Washington, D.C., Convention Center, ...

For the weeks leading up to the wedding for Prince William of Wales and his longtime love, Catherine Middleton, GoldenPalace.com has introduced a couple of Royal-related promotions in anticipation for the momentous day. GoldenPalace.com has created a special application that allows enthusiastic Royal watchers to join in on all the majestic ballyhoo. Using this handy new tool, loyal subjects can enter their names and upload their photos to create a one-of-a-kind Royal Wedding invitation that they can then share with friends and enemies of the throne, alike. Whether they ...

April 7, 2011 – (BRONX, NY) – For many types of cancer, the original tumor itself is usually not deadly. Instead, it's the spread of a tiny subpopulation of cells from the primary tumor to other parts of the body—the process known as metastasis—that all too often kills the patient. Now, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have identified two molecules that enable cancer to spread inside the body. These findings could eventually lead to therapies that prevent metastasis by inactivating the molecules. The regulatory molecules are involved ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A new study from Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.com/), the largest long-term study of kidney transplant recipients published to date, demonstrates that progressive damage to kidney transplants may be less common and less severe than previously reported. The study, involving 797 patients transplanted between 1998 and 2004 and followed for at least five years, shows that 87 percent of patients have mild or no signs of progressive scar damage to the transplanted organ when biopsied at one year after transplant. This number decreases only slightly ...