Missouri Mesothelioma Victims Not Limited to Workers' Comp Claims
2011-12-29
Generally, under Missouri law, workers' compensation provides an "exclusive remedy" to employees who suffer work-related injuries. Thus, most workers must rely on workers' compensation benefits when they are injured on the job and generally are not able to bring a civil negligence lawsuit against their employers.
However, a recent state Court of Appeals decision has changed this rule as it relates to Missouri asbestos exposure victims and workers suffering from other occupational diseases. These injured workers are no longer limited by the workers' compensation ...
Time for a change?
2011-12-29
Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have discovered a way to make time stand still -- at least when it comes to the yearly calendar.
Using computer programs and mathematical formulas, Richard Conn Henry, an astrophysicist in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Steve H. Hanke, an applied economist in the Whiting School of Engineering, have created a new calendar in which each new 12-month period is identical to the one which came before, and remains that way from one year to the next in perpetuity.
Under the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, for instance, ...
Badwater Basin: Death Valley microbe thrives there
2011-12-29
Nevada, the "Silver State," is well-known for mining precious metals.
But scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) do a different type of mining.
They sluice through every water body they can find, looking for new forms of microbial magnetism.
In a basin named Badwater on the edge of Death Valley National Park, Bazylinski and researcher Christopher Lefèvre hit pay dirt.
Lefèvre is with the French National Center of Scientific Research and University of Aix-Marseille II.
In this week's issue of the journal Science, ...
President Obama and leading GOP presidential candidate support health research
2011-12-29
WASHINGTON—December 27, 2011—Research!America's new national voter education initiative, Your Candidates-Your Health, features responses from President Obama and Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on important health research and prevention issues. Among the highlights: both Obama and Gingrich agree that research to improve health and prevent disease is part of the solution to rising health care costs, and boosting investment in medical research creates jobs that benefit a wide variety of industries. Their positions on embryonic stem cell research differ. ...
A new theory emerges for where some fish became 4-limbed creatures
2011-12-29
EUGENE, Ore. -- A small fish crawling on stumpy limbs from a shrinking desert pond is an icon of can-do spirit, emblematic of a leading theory for the evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians. This theorized image of such a drastic adaptation to changing environmental conditions, however, may, itself, be evolving into a new picture.
University of Oregon scientist Gregory J. Retallack, professor of geological sciences, says that his discoveries at numerous sites in Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania suggests that "such a plucky hypothetical ancestor of ours ...
Frogs use calls to find mates with matching chromosomes, University of Missouri researchers find
2011-12-29
Columbia, MO – When it comes to love songs, female tree frogs are pretty picky. According to a new study from the University of Missouri, certain female tree frogs may be remarkably attuned to the songs of mates who share the same number of chromosomes as they do. The discovery offers insight into how new frog species may have evolved.
Carl Gerhardt, Curators Professor of Biological Sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science and doctoral student Mitch Tucker studied two closely related species of grey tree frogs that live in Missouri, the eastern grey tree frog (Hyla ...
Georgia Child Support Process
2011-12-29
The law requires parents to support their children financially, whether the parents live together or not. Whether the parents divorce or were never married, one of the ways that the law can ensure that children are provided for is through child support orders. Georgia parents looking to obtain child support orders should be aware of the steps they need to take to get and enforce child support orders.
Beginning a Child Support Case
Either parent can open a child support case with the Department of Human Services (DHS) by filling out an application for assistance and ...
To children (but not adults) a rose by any other name is still a rose
2011-12-29
Two vital parts of mentally organizing the world are classification, or the understanding that similar things belong in the same category; and induction, an educated guess about a thing's properties if it's in a certain category. There are reasons to believe that language greatly assists adults in both kinds of tasks. But how do young children use language to make sense of the things around them? It's a longstanding debate among psychologists.
A new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, challenges the predominant answer. ...
Members of small monkey groups more likely to fight
2011-12-29
Small monkey groups may win territorial disputes against larger groups because some members of the larger, invading groups avoid aggressive encounters. In a new report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Margaret Crofoot, post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology, and Ian Gilby, professor at Duke University, show that individual monkeys that don't participate in conflicts prevent large groups from achieving their competitive potential.
The authors used recorded vocalizations ...
Weather deserves medal for clean air during 2008 Olympics
2011-12-29
RICHLAND, Wash. -- New research suggests that China's impressive feat of cutting Beijing's pollution up to 50 percent for the 2008 Summer Olympics had some help from Mother Nature. Rain just at the beginning and wind during the Olympics likely contributed about half of the effort needed to clean up the skies, scientists found. The results also suggest emission controls need to be more widely implemented than in 2008 if pollution levels are to be reduced permanently.
Reporting their findings December 12 in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, co-author atmospheric ...
Collaborative effort uncovers DNA duplications that may be responsible for genomic-based diseases
2011-12-29
An important part of saving a species is often understanding its DNA. Through a collaborative effort including 14 scientists representing organizations across Europe and the United States, researchers have been able to analyze the genome of the great ape species of the world.
"A robust appreciation of the means and methods of the evolution of genomes which underlies the diversification of the great apes requires a more detailed knowledge of genome variation that is poorly revealed by current genome sequencing methods. " said Oliver Ryder Ph.D., Director of Genetics ...
Scripps Research scientists discover a brain cell malfunction in schizophrenia
2011-12-29
LA JOLLA, CA – December 27, 2011 – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered that DNA stays too tightly wound in certain brain cells of schizophrenic subjects.
The findings suggest that drugs already in development for other diseases might eventually offer hope as a treatment for schizophrenia and related conditions in the elderly.
The research, now available online in the new Nature journal, Translational Psychiatry, shows the deficit is especially pronounced in younger people, meaning treatment might be most effective early on at minimizing or ...
Blowing the Whistle: Fraud and the False Claims Act
2011-12-29
A record-keeper for a major corporation sits in her cubicle, reviewing the company's latest statements. To the untrained eye, the records seem to be in order, but the employee's specialized knowledge and years of experience have allowed her to know better. The records point to a clear pattern of fraud perpetrated against the federal government. What is the employee to do?
The Latin phrase "qui tam" roughly translates to "who sues on behalf of the King as well as for himself." The qui tam provision of the False Claims Act accordingly allows private ...
Diet patterns may keep brain from shrinking
2011-12-29
ST. PAUL, Minn. – People with diets high in several vitamins or in omega 3 fatty acids are less likely to have the brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer's disease than people whose diets are not high in those nutrients, according to a new study published in the December 28, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Those with diets high in omega 3 fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the B vitamins also had higher scores on mental thinking tests than people with diets low in those nutrients. These omega 3 fatty ...
Ovarian cancer study proves drug delays disease progression, may improve survival
2011-12-29
(TORONTO, Canada – Dec. 29, 2011) – Treating ovarian cancer with the drug bevacizumab ("Avastin") delays the disease and may also improve survival, show the results of an international clinical trial co-led by Drs. Amit Oza of the Princess Margaret Cancer Program, University Health Network and Timothy Perren, St James's Institute of Oncology, Leeds, UK.
The findings, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, report that the drug halted the cancer's return for two months overall. However, for women with the highest risk disease, the delay was five to six ...
Targeted therapy extends progression-free survival of patients with advanced ovarian cancer
2011-12-29
PHILADELPHIA, PA (December 28, 2011)—Targeted drugs, which block or disrupt particular molecules involved in the growth of tumors, have been shown to be effective treatments against many types of cancer. A new phase 3 clinical trial conducted by the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) showed that a targeted therapy called bevacizumab (Avastin) effectively delayed the progression of advanced ovarian cancer. Patients with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer now typically undergo surgery and chemotherapy, but the new research suggests an additional avenue of treatment. The ...
An inside look at face transplantation
2011-12-29
Boston, MA - In March 2011, a surgical team at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) performed the first full face transplantation (FFT) in the United States and went on to complete a total of three FFTs this year. Now, in the first research publication to evaluate FFT in the US, and largest series worldwide, the researchers describe details of patient preparation, novel design and execution of the operation as well as unique immunosuppression protocol allowing for lowest long-term maintenance drug regimen. They also share details of the early functional outcomes and demonstrate ...
Potentially Disastrous Consequences for Student Loan Default
2011-12-29
With high unemployment and declining household incomes, meeting student loan obligations can be difficult, if not impossible. However, defaulting on federal student loans can have disastrous consequences. The government can garnish wages, withhold tax returns, and place liens on personal property. A default can also affect a person's professional license status. It's important for student loan borrowers to note that a default should be avoided at all costs.
Missing one student loan payment makes a borrower delinquent. Nine months of delinquency puts a borrower in default. ...
Netherlands mass gathering study finds substance abuse a small but significant problem
2011-12-29
In a study of 3.8 million attendees to 249 raves over 12 years, researchers found that almost 27,897 people visited a first aid station, and more than a third (10,100) reported a substance-related problem. Of these, 515 required professional medical care, and 16 cases were life-threatening. Most (66.7%) substance-related problems were associated with ecstasy, alcohol, or both. People using GHB most often required professional medical care, although the authors found no evidence for life-threatening, acute effects of the drug. The study was conducted based on data from ...
Wrong-Way Auto Accidents in Arizona
2011-12-29
Wrong-way auto accidents are exceedingly rare, but when they occur, they often have tragic results. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 23 people in Arizona died in car crashes in 2009 (the latest year with available data) when a driver entered a road against traffic or drove on the wrong side of the road.
In addition, in September 2011, two women in a sedan were killed by a man in a pickup truck travelling the wrong way on I-10 in Phoenix. Also, a wrong-way accident shut down the same freeway before Thanksgiving for several hours.
Impaired ...
Microbial communities on skin affect humans' attractiveness to mosquitoes
2011-12-29
The microbes on your skin determine how attractive you are to mosquitoes, which may have important implications for malaria transmission and prevention, according to a study published Dec. 28 in the online journal PLoS ONE.
Without bacteria, human sweat is odorless to the human nose, so the microbial communities on the skin play a key role in producing each individual's specific body odor. The researchers, led by Niels Verhulst of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, conducted their experiments with the Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto mosquito, which plays an important ...
New clues as to why some older people may be losing their memory
2011-12-29
ST. PAUL, Minn. – New research links 'silent strokes,' or small spots of dead brain cells, found in about one out of four older adults to memory loss in the elderly. The study is published in the January 3, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"The new aspect of this study of memory loss in the elderly is that it examines silent strokes and hippocampal shrinkage simultaneously," said study author Adam M. Brickman, PhD, of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University ...
Scientists fixate on Ric-8 to understand trafficking of popular drug receptor targets
2011-12-29
Half the drugs used today target a single class of proteins – and now scientists have identified an important molecular player critical to the proper workings of those proteins critical to our health.
A protein known as Ric-8 plays a vital role, according to new results from a team led by Gregory Tall, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The work was published recently in Science Signaling.
What you see, what you smell, how you feel – molecules known as G-protein coupled receptors and their prime targets, ...
Diet, nutrient levels linked to cognitive ability, brain shrinkage
2011-12-29
CORVALLIS, Ore. – New research has found that elderly people with higher levels of several vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids in their blood had better performance on mental acuity tests and less of the brain shrinkage typical of Alzheimer's disease – while "junk food" diets produced just the opposite result.
The study was among the first of its type to specifically measure a wide range of blood nutrient levels instead of basing findings on less precise data such as food questionnaires, and found positive effects of high levels of vitamins B, C, D, E and the healthy oils ...
UT Southwestern research suggests new way to ensure effectiveness of TB treatment
2011-12-29
DALLAS – Dec. 22, 2011 – A UT Southwestern Medical Center study using a sophisticated "glass mouse" research model has found that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is more likely caused in patients by speedy drug metabolism rather than inconsistent doses, as is widely believed.
If the study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases is borne out in future investigations, it may lead to better ways to treat one of the world's major infectious diseases. Health workers worldwide currently are required to witness each administration of the combination of drugs during ...
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