For pregnant women, including those who are overweight and obese, following a healthy calorie controlled diet during pregnancy is safe and can reduce the risk of serious complications such as pre-eclampsia, diabetes and premature birth, finds a study published on bmj.com today. In the UK, more than half the women of reproductive age are overweight or obese, and across Europe and the US, up to 40% of women gain more than the recommended weight in pregnancy. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is associated with a number of serious health problems. Pregnancy is thought ...

The recent excesses of Wall Street may be big news but behind the headlines there's another story: When it comes to men and women stockbrokers, someone is taking home a bigger paycheck. New research shows that women stockbrokers sometimes earn as much as 20 percent less than their male counterparts. "Stockbrokers are among the highest paid workers, yet they have the greatest gender inequality among all sales worker jobs," says Prof. Janice Fanning Madden, who conducted the research. Her paper "Performance-Support Bias and the Gender Pay Gap Among Stockbrokers," will ...

Dr. Joseph Kizior, Brookfield orthodontist, is pleased to offer an easy to use online appointment request form as a part of his practice's comprehensive website. The appointment request form is just one of the features on the Western Springs orthodontist's website designed to make dealing with Dr. Kizior's practice easy for patients. To schedule an appointment, patients simply have to navigate to the appointment request form on Dr. Kizior's website. Once there, patients can request the date and time that they wish to come in for an appointment and the practice's scheduling ...

This week's slot promotion at Spin and Win Casino not only gives players a chance to win a share of GBP250 as the top wagerer but in addition upload photos of their own tattoos to win free cash prizes on the Spin and Win Facebook Page. A 50 loyalty point booster will be credited to players SpinandWin.com account for sharing their photo plus they'll be entered into a competition for an additional 1000 points for the best tattoo. The Facebook page for SpinandWin.com is a hub for players to get involved with enjoying promotions, games and freebies! Just 'liking' the ...

One-letter switches in the DNA code occur much more frequently in human genomes than anticipated, but are often only found in one or a few individuals. The abundance of rare variations across the human genome is consistent with the population explosion of the past few thousand years, medical geneticists and evolutionary biologists report in the May 17 advanced online edition of Science. "This is a dramatic example of how recent human history has profoundly shaped patterns of genetic variation," said Joshua Akey, University of Washington associate professor of genome ...

This year the show will commence on May 22nd and wrap up on May 26th. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show contains many different aspects including unique exhibits every year, showcases from emerging talents and seminars to help amateurs solve the many challenges of gardening in both an urban and country setting. Held in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show quite literally takes over south-west London during the 5 days which it is held in May. Many of the feature gardens require some assembly so massive awnings and screens are erected to not ...

Defects in the gene that encodes the XIAP protein result in a serious immune malfunction. Scientists used biochemical analyses to map the protein's ability to activate vital components of the immune system. Their results have recently been published in Molecular Cell, a journal of international scientific repute. Researchers at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen have mapped how the XIAP protein activates a vital component of the immune defence system, specifically the component that fights bacterial infections in the ...

SEATTLE—People have more and more chances to participate in genetic testing that can indicate their range of risk for developing a disease. Receiving these results does not appreciably drive up— or diminish—test recipients' demand for potentially costly follow-up health services, according to a new study in the May 17, 2012 early online issue of Genetics in Medicine. The study was done by researchers with the Multiplex Initiative, a multi-center collaborative initiative involving investigators from the National Institutes of Health's Intramural Research Program, Group ...

Greece is a yet to recover completely from the economic turmoil that it was going through, but the tourism industry seems to have taken an excellent initiative to make sure that the flow of foreign currency remains intact - almost the entire tourism department of Greece seems to have gone on a price slashing spree and the industry is mainly banking on Kefalonia. The property owners and the hotel owners catering to tourists to Greece have reduced their prices considerably and that has made Kefalonia an exotic destination less the price tag associated with such destinations. Kefalonia ...

PULLMAN, Wash.—There are jerks, and then there are jerks. Joel Anaya has given them a fair amount of study, focusing on that very special jerk who can take a routine service experience—dining out, paying at a cash register, air travel—and make it a nightmare. Anaya has even coined a term for it—"customer service sabotage"—and discerned seven different categories of rude customers who can be a serious liability for the service industry. "Customers don't just go to a restaurant to enjoy a burger," he says. "They go to have a good time, to enjoy the ambience of the establishment. ...

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently signed a bill into law that increases penalties for bodily harm caused by aggressive driving. Jessica Rogers' Law Jessica Rogers was 16 when she was involved in an automobile accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down and necessitated 24 surgeries. Jessica's accident was the result of aggressive and reckless driving behavior, known commonly as "road rage." After her accident, Jessica's parents lobbied for tougher laws for those that commit road rage crashes, believing that current laws did not penalize ...

Some New York lawmakers and other tort reform advocates wish to reform the state's scaffolding laws, reducing the liability of contractors and property owners and leaving injured employees at risk. Current New York Scaffolding Law New York is the only state in the nation that holds contractors and property owners absolutely liable for any worker injury sustained from a fall or a falling object, otherwise known as a fall injury. This type of liability is known as "strict liability." The law also requires employers to take all reasonable action to prevent ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Contrary to recent scholarship and popular belief, parents experience greater levels of happiness and meaning in life than people without children, according to researchers from the University of California, Riverside, the University of British Columbia and Stanford University. Parents also are happier during the day when they are caring for their children than during their other daily activities, the researchers found in a series of studies conducted in the United States and Canada. These findings appear in a paper — "In Defense of Parenthood: Children ...

Checking the heart of the unborn baby usually involves a stethoscope. However, an inexpensive and accurate Bluetooth fetal heart rate monitoring system has now been developed by researchers in India for long-term home care. Details are reported in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Computers in Healthcare. Vijay Chourasia of the LNM Institute of Information Technology in Jaipur and Anil Kumar Tiwari of the Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan, in Jodhpur, explain how fetal phonocardiography is the modern equivalent of the stethoscope in ante-natal ...

Two new safety reforms should help keep New Yorkers safe on the Empire State's roads and highways. Cuomo Funds New Bus Safety Inspection Program New York Governor Andrew Cuomo promised $1 million to fund a new bus safety inspection system targeting the worst-performing companies. Cuomo's decision came on the heels of a tumultuous year for New York fatal bus accidents. One accident last March resulted in the deaths of 15 people. The accident involved a bus which routinely shuttled gamblers from New York City to a popular Connecticut casino. Another accident last ...

Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have shown that zebrafish could be used to study the underlying causes of psychiatric disorders. The study, published online in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, found zebrafish can modify their behaviour in response to varying situations. Dr Caroline Brennan, from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences who led the study, said: "Zebrafish are becoming one of the most useful animal models for studying the developmental genetic mechanisms underlying many psychiatric disorders; they breed prolifically ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — People with bleeding brain aneurysms have the best chance of survival and full recovery if they receive aggressive emergency treatment from a specialized team at a hospital that treats a large number of patients like them every year, according to new guidelines just published by the American Stroke Association. Diagnosing and immediately treating this kind of "bleeding stroke", and using advanced techniques to prevent re-bleeding and aneurysm recurrence, reduces the chance of immediate death and disability by 30 percent for patients with aneurysm-related ...

The Debate Continues The need for surgery can make anyone feel vulnerable. Most people find solace in the fact that they will be treated by surgeons with many years of training. Even so, the rate of medical mistakes that result in injury or death is shocking: a 1999 study by The Institute of Medicine reported that medical errors were responsible for almost 100,000 deaths and more than one million injuries every year in the United States. Those rates have steadily increased in the past 13 years since that study was performed. In fact, The New England Journal of Medicine ...

Toronto, CANADA (May 17, 2012)— By focusing on the identification of common genetic variants, researchers have identified 57 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that predict—with a high degree of certainty--the risk that siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will also develop the condition. The findings were presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research. ASD is among the most common form of severe developmental disability with prevalence rates up to 1 in 88 children. Boys are greater than four times more likely to be diagnosed with ...

Scientists at The University of Nottingham have opened the way for more accurate research into new ways to fight dangerous bacterial infections by proving a long-held theory about how bacteria communicate with each other. Researchers in the University's School of Molecular Medical Sciences have shown for the first time that the effectiveness of the bacteria's communication method, a process called 'quorum sensing', directly depends on the density of the bacterial population. This work will help inform wider research into how to stop bacteria talking to each other with ...

A recent pit bull attack led to the tragic death of an East Texas boy and many questions about dog bite liability. The four-year-old had wandered away from home around sunset and was found dead late the next morning by a neighbor after an all-night search by family members and more than 100 volunteers and law enforcement officers. The boy had apparently entered the neighbor's yard about a half mile from home, where several dogs were restrained. A Victoria County Sheriff's Deputy told reporters that one of the dogs, a pit bull or pit mix, had mauled the boy. Media attention ...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued new regulations that ban commercial motor vehicle drivers from using handheld cell phones. The regulations became effective on January 1, 2012. These regulations have forced many trucking companies to revise their communication policies with their drivers. Cell phones provide a quick and convenient method for companies and their dispatchers to remain in contact with their driver and shipments. If a crash occurs when a driver is talking or texting on a cell phone there is a strong inference that the phone ...

VIDEO: New research from Kennedy Krieger finds that a simple pull-to-sit task at six months of age may predict risk of an autism spectrum disorder. Researchers at Kennedy Krieger identified weak... Click here for more information. BALTIMORE, Md. – A new prospective study of six-month-old infants at high genetic risk for autism identified weak head and neck control as a red flag for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and language and/or social developmental delays. Researchers at the ...

Lake Mead, on the Colorado River, is the largest reservoir in the United States, but users are consuming more water than flows down the river in an average year, which threatens the water supply for agriculture and households. To solve this imbalance scientists are proposing a Cap and Trade system of interstate water trading. The proposal, published in Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA), builds on the success of such an initiative in Australia. The research was inspired by a first-year university assignment by Noelani (Olenka) Forde, who was studying ...

Most drivers are aware that a DUI conviction can lead to the installation of an ignition interlock device in their vehicle. An ignition interlock, of course, will not allow a vehicle to start unless the driver breathes into the device and passes a test for alcohol consumption; the driver may also be required to periodically provide a breath sample while the engine is in operation. The consequences of a DUI arrest can be harsh if you are ultimately convicted, and an ignition interlock may be the least of your worries. But forget alcohol testing as a consequence: some ...