CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A gap in reading and math scores still exists in lower grades, with boys continuing to outpace girls in math, and girls ahead of boys in reading, two University of Illinois education professors say. Using national longitudinal data to perform their analysis, Joseph P. Robinson and Sarah Lubienski investigated male and female achievement in math and reading, looking for when gender gaps first appeared and where in the distribution the gaps were most prevalent. Except for kindergarteners in the 99th percentile, boys and girls generally start out on equal ...

A recent death of a 12 year old in Florida highlights the danger inherent in the operation of All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs). Since their introduction in the early 1980s, ATVs have resulted in thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of emergency room visits. While the designs have changed from the original 3-wheel, tricycle layout of the first Honda ATV, what hasn't changed is the danger posed by using these recreational vehicles. Since 1982, Florida has reported 447 deaths in connection with ATVs. Nationwide, in the same period, at least 10,000 people have died ...

Most school text books contain messages about health, but 24.6% of these are not based on any scientific evidence, according to a study by the Knowledge Management Unit at Baza Hospital (Granada), published in the journal BMC Public Health. "We analysed a total of 844 health messages in primary and secondary school text books in order to identify the level of scientific evidence underpinning these texts, and we classified them into three categories – messages with a high, medium or low level of evidence, messages with an unknown level of evidence, and messages with no ...

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently issued a press release putting mandatory motorcycle helmet use on its Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements. It reported that from 1997 through 2008, the number of motorcycle fatalities more than doubled during a period when overall highway fatalities declined The NTSB has recommended that everyone riding a motorcycle be required to wear a helmet. Currently, only 20 states, the District of Columbia and four territories have universal helmet laws that apply to all riders. Twenty-seven states ...

The Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta Airport Hotel (North I-85) offers nearby accommodations to travelers planning to visit the Fernbank Museum of Natural History near midtown Atlanta. The Museum recently launched a new permanent exhibition, Fernbank NatureQuest. Guests can climb trees and cross rope bridges to a working clubhouse, which sits atop giant trees. Tickets for Fernbank NatureQuest are included with Museum admission and free for all members. Fernbank's other permanent exhibitions include: - Dinosaur Entrance Plaza - Giants of the Mesozoic - A Walk through Time ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Demonstrating an important milestone for the longevity and utility of implanted brain-computer interfaces, a woman with tetraplegia using the investigational BrainGate* system continued to control a computer cursor accurately through neural activity alone more than 1,000 days after receiving the BrainGate implant, according to a team of physicians, scientists, and engineers developing and testing the technology at Brown University, the Providence VA Medical Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Results from five consecutive ...

Conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and other conservation and research groups have discovered that groups of dolphins in the western Indian Ocean do not mix freely with one another. In fact, dolphin populations are kept separate by currents and other unseen factors. Specifically, the researchers have found that genetically distinct populations of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin may be formed in part by currents, surface temperature differences, and other environmental barriers, a finding made possible by ...

Debenhams has launched its latest app for the professional shopper on Android and Nokia phones, making the retailer the first on the high street to offer apps for the three key smartphones. The free-to-download, fully transactional apps follow the highly successful launch of the Debenhams iPhone app in October 2010. Designed to target the on-the-move shopper and enrich the in-store experience, the Debenhams iPhone app achieved 360,000 downloads and sales of nearly GBP1 million within five months of launch. With the success of the iPhone app and sales on the Debenhams ...

SEATTLE – A study of Yup'ik Eskimos in Alaska, who on average consume 20 times more omega-3 fats from fish than people in the lower 48 states, suggests that a high intake of these fats helps prevent obesity-related chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. The study, led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and conducted in collaboration with the Center for Alaska Native Health Research at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, was published online March 23 in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "Because Yup'ik Eskimos have a traditional ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A prototype scanner aboard the international space station has been taking new images of Earth's coastal regions during the 16 months since it was launched, providing scientists with a new set of imaging tools that will help them monitor events from oil spills to plankton blooms. The images and other data are now available to scientists from around the world through an online clearinghouse coordinated by Oregon State University. Additional details of the project will be announced in a forthcoming issue of the American Geophysical Union journal, EOS, ...

Travelzest has announced the launch of its Hotel & Villa Collection brochure for 2011. The 250-page brochure brings together four of Travelzest's biggest brands for the first time, in recognition of the fact that some of its customers are interested in more than one company in Travelzest's wide-ranging portfolio of luxury hotels and luxury villas. The included brands are Best of Morocco, Tapestry Collection, VFB Holidays and the Wow House Company. Travelzest's Hotel & Villa Collection 2011 brochure includes over 30 different destinations in regions as diverse as Canada, ...

Menlo Park, Calif. — Scientists have found the strongest evidence yet that a puzzling gap in the electronic structures of some high-temperature superconductors could indicate a new phase of matter. Understanding this "pseudogap" has been a 20-year quest for researchers who are trying to control and improve these breakthrough materials, with the ultimate goal of finding superconductors that operate at room temperature. "Our findings point to management and control of this other phase as the correct path toward optimizing these novel superconductors for energy applications, ...

Access Legal, the law firm from Shoosmiths, has been named best provider of home purchase and sale conveyancing services by the Conveyancing Alliance. The national law firm came top in a survey conducted by the Conveyancing Alliance which was voted for by estate agents. Users of the Conveyancing Alliance portal ranked law firms on several service standards including communication levels, speed of delivery and client feedback. Client feedback was a key area for Access Legal, as it is very customer focused and aims to treat people as individuals rather than just another ...

New Orleans, LA – Research led by Daitoku Sakamuro, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans and the LSUHSC Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, has identified a protein that enables the activation of a DNA-repair enzyme that protects cancer cells from catastrophic damage caused by chemo and radiation therapy. This protein, called c-MYC oncoprotein, can initiate and promote almost all human cancers and discovering the role it plays in cancer treatment resistance may lead to advances that save lives. The work is published in the March 29, ...

University of British Columbia chemists have developed a new model to predict the optical properties of non-conducting ultra-fine particles. The finding could help inform the design of tailored nano-structures, and be of utility in a wide range of fields, including the remote sensing of atmospheric pollutants and the study of cosmic dust formation. Aerosols and nano-particles play a key role in atmospheric processes as industrial pollutants, in interstellar chemistry and in drug delivery systems, and have become an increasingly important area of research. They are ...

Littlewoods Europe has announced the addition of a wish lists feature to its website. The wish list service is new to the Littlewoods Europe site and it allows customers to save items they are interested in and then come back later and purchase the items directly from their wish list, with the list keeping a record of the items which have been purchased and the items which are still to be bought. The wish list service also allows the creation and naming of multiple lists for one account. This means that customers can organise lists in the way that is best suited ...

LAUREL, Md. -- Wild migratory birds may indeed play a role in the spread of bird flu, also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1. A study by the U.S. Geological Survey, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Chinese Academy of Sciences used satellites, outbreak data and genetics to uncover an unknown link in Tibet among wild birds, poultry and the movement of the often-deadly virus. Researchers attached GPS satellite transmitters to 29 bar-headed geese – a wild species that migrates across most of Asia and that died in the thousands ...

ESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory has spotted extremely hot matter just a millisecond before it plunges into the oblivion of a black hole. But is it really doomed? These unique observations suggest that some of the matter may be making a great escape. No one would want to be so close to a black hole. Just a few hundred kilometres away from its deadly surface, space is a maelstrom of particles and radiation. Vast storms of particles are falling to their doom at close to the speed of light, raising the temperature to millions of degrees. Ordinarily, it takes just a ...

OSP International LLC has today launched The PM Exam Simulator (http://www.pm-exam-simulator.com), a tool to help candidates for PMI's Project Management Professional (PMP) exam to prepare effectively. This new PMP Exam Simulator offers unlimited online access to over 1,800 exceptionally realistic PMP exam practice questions. "Anyone who has sat the PMP exam knows that studying the PMBOK Guide and having 35 contact hours is just not enough," says Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, President, OSP International LLC. "When I talk to successful candidates about their experiences with ...

X-ray observations made by the Suzaku observatory provide the clearest picture to date of the size, mass and chemical content of a nearby cluster of galaxies. The study also provides the first direct evidence that million-degree gas clouds are tightly gathered in the cluster's outskirts. Suzaku is sponsored by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) with contributions from NASA and participation by the international scientific community. The findings will appear in the March 25 issue of the journal Science. Galaxy clusters are millions of light-years across, and ...

It's not unusual for NASA satellites to attend the birth of tropical cyclones, and NASA's Aqua satellite was there when Tropical Cyclone Bune was born early today in the South Pacific Ocean. Bune developed from System 99P, a low pressure area that was about 200 miles southeast of Suva, Fiji yesterday, March 23. The low intensified into tropical depression 19P and today strengthened further into Tropical Storm Bune. A Tropical Cyclone Alert is in force for Lau, Lomaiviti and nearby smaller islands. A strong wind warning is also in force for the Lau group, Lomaiviti group ...

WARHEADS, the authentic, edgy sour candy, has signed up to be a leading sponsor of the 2011 USA Ultimate College Championships being held in Boulder, Colorado, May 27th-30th. Ultimate, a fast paced, non-stop action team sport, combines the endurance of soccer with the aerial passing of football using a high-tech plastic disc. As the national governing body of Ultimate, USA Ultimate's membership topped 35,000 in 2010 and includes groups of all ages and genders. Over 700 collegiate teams will test their skills in the upcoming Championship series, which culminates with the ...

Philadelphia, PA, March 25, 2011 – A new study published in the April 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association indicates that inadequate nutrition is linked to a greater risk of anemia in postmenopausal women. "This study suggests that inadequate nutrient intakes are a significant risk factor for anemia in this population of older women and use of multivitamin/mineral supplements is not associated with lower rates of anemia," reports lead investigator Cynthia A. Thomson, PhD, RD, Associate Professor Nutritional Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson. ...

The largest-ever assessment of high-deductible health plans finds that while such plans significantly cut health spending, they also prompt patients to cut back on preventive health care, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The findings are published in the March edition of the American Journal of Managed Care. Studying more than 800,000 families from across the United States, researchers found that when people shifted into health insurance plans with deductibles of at least $1,000 per person, their health spending dropped an average of 14 percent when compared ...

A newly published report reveals that children with epilepsy are more likely to have psychiatric symptoms, with gender a determining factor in their development. Findings showed that girls had more emotional problems, while boys had more hyperactivity/inattention problems and issues regarding peer relationships. Details of this study in Norwegian children are now available online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy. Previous studies have shown that children with epilepsy are at increased risk of ...