Temporary staff members working in a hospital's fast-paced emergency department are twice as likely as permanent employees to be involved in medication errors that harm patients, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. Results of the research raise serious issues related to temporary nursing staff in particular because they already are a substantial and growing part of the health care workforce owing to the national nursing shortage. These fill-ins are used to plug holes in both short-term and long-term work schedules, and are seen as a cheaper alternative to permanent hires. ...

Providing access to an outpatient clinic isn't enough to keep some trauma patients who have been discharged from the hospital from returning to the emergency department (ED) for follow-up care, even for such minor needs as pain medication refills and dressing changes, according to new Johns Hopkins research. Reporting in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, the researchers say that patients with Medicaid, Medicare and those with no insurance were 60 percent more likely to seek such care in the ED. Those living in poor neighborhoods were 70 percent more likely than patients ...

The Carlsbad Department of Development (CDOD) recently attended the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) in San Antonio, Texas. Over 4,800 legislators from all over the United States attended the annual conference. The CDOD made positive connections related primarily to the nuclear efforts in Carlsbad and throughout Eddy County. The CDOD, which exists to develop the City of Carlsbad and Eddy County, New Mexico, works to promote and recruit existing and new industry to the area. CDOD representatives were on hand at the NCSL to promote the success of the Waste ...

Believe it or not, one thing that predicts how well a CEO's company performs is the width of his face. CEOs with wider faces, like Herb Kelleher, the former CEO of Southwest Airlines, have better-performing companies than CEOs like Dick Fuld, the long-faced final CEO of Lehman Brothers. That's the conclusion of a new study which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Elaine M. Wong at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her colleagues study how top management teams work. But they have ...

PHILADELPHIA—Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University, among other institutions, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have developed single vaccines to protect against both rabies and the Ebola virus. Successfully tested in mice, these bivalent vaccines have several advantages over other Ebola candidates that could help speed up development for use in humans and primates. It's built on the same platform as the already approved and financially viable rabies vaccine, and it protects at-risk populations against two viruses, not just one, ...

Popular money-saving offers site DiscountVouchers.co.uk this week introduces new deals which can allow consumers and shoppers make the most of their budgets at top name department stores. The website, which is home to discount deals for over 800 stores and suppliers, is this week offering deals redeemable at House of Fraser and Debenhams. Savings on garden furniture, bed linen and free delivery are all on show on the DiscountVouchers.co.uk website this week with deals redeemable at House of Fraser. Consumers who want to get themselves great value homeware can log on ...

Chickens eject sperm from males they don't fancy New research finds that even though hens aren't terribly picky about their mates, they are picky about whose sperm makes it to the egg. Female domestic chickens generally mate with multiple males and are known to sometimes eject sperm following mating encounters. It was unclear, however, whether the sperm ejection was a consequence of receiving a large amount of ejaculate, or because hens are actively trying to rid themselves of undesirable sperm. A team led by Oxford researcher Rebecca Dean investigated the phenomenon ...

Online retailer of bathroom vanities, Home Design Outlet Center Chicago, is joining Skokie Chamber of Commerce to support and serve the community. About Home Design Outlet Center Home Design Outlet Center is a fast growing online retailer of bathroom vanities. Homeowners will be pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of vanities available on the Company's official website. Besides offering the more commonly seen contemporary designs, Home Design Outlet Center also stock up on antique vanities. This is to ensure that homeowners can easily find the design that is ...

Thin brick installations hit an all-time high this summer, as builders and contractors continue to look for building solutions that are both environmentally sound and affordable. American Brick Company (Ambrico) reports that the popularity of thin brick has been growing steadily in the last ten years, as more attention is being paid to finding economical solutions to building renovations and new construction projects. According to the experts at Ambrico, thin brick, also known as "faux brick", can be used in just about any type of construction project, from ...

Physicists with the Institute of Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL) at The City College of New York have presented a new way to map spiraling light that could help harness untapped data channels in optical fibers. Increased bandwidth would ease the burden on fiber-optic telecommunications networks taxed by an ever-growing demand for audio, video and digital media. The new model, developed by graduate student Giovanni Milione, Professor Robert Alfano and colleagues, could even spur enhancements in quantum computing and other applications. "People now can detect ...

The Milky Way will have the fuel to continue forming stars, thanks to massive clouds of ionized gas raining down from its halo and intergalactic space. This is the conclusion of a new study by Nicolas Lehner and Christopher Howk, faculty in the Department of Physics at the University of Notre Dame. Their report, "A Reservoir of Ionized Gas in the Galactic Halo to Sustain Star Formation in the Milky Way," will be published in Science tomorrow (Aug. 26). Using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, one of the newest instruments on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, these researchers ...

CINCINNATI—Hot chili peppers are known to make people "tear up," but a new study led by University of Cincinnati allergy researcher Jonathan Bernstein, MD, found that a nasal spray containing an ingredient derived from hot chili peppers (Capsicum annum) may help people "clear up" certain types of sinus inflammation. The study, which appears in the August 2011 edition of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, compares the use of the Capsicum annum nasal spray to a placebo nasal spray in 44 subjects with a significant component of nonallergic rhinitis (i.e., nasal congestion, ...

Award-winning car hire price comparator Carrentals.co.uk - the website home to bargain rental deals from companies like Alamo, Auto Europe, Budget, Holiday Autos and Sixt - announces Neill Watson has joined the site as a contributing blogger. Neill Watson is a seasoned motoring expert photographer and writer and will write on auto industry issues for the hire car website. Involved in the motoring industry for more than 25 years, Neill Watson has been a professional auto photographer and writer since 2002. Recent years have seen Neill's job take him testing out supercars ...

BERKELEY, Calif. (Aug. 25, 2011)—A supernova discovered yesterday is closer to Earth—approximately 21 million light-years away—than any other of its kind in a generation. Astronomers believe they caught the supernova within hours of its explosion, a rare feat made possible with a specialized survey telescope and state-of-the-art computational tools. The finding of such a supernova so early and so close has energized the astronomical community as they are scrambling to observe it with as many telescopes as possible, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Joshua Bloom, ...

BATAVIA, Illinois -- The physics community got a jolt last year when results showed for the first time that neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts, antineutrinos, might be the odd man out in the particle world and have different masses. This idea was something that went against most commonly accepted theories of how the subatomic world works. A result released today (August 25) from the MINOS experiment at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory appears to quell concerns raised by a MINOS result in June 2010 and brings neutrino and antineutrino ...

Free delivery has been a key to the success of a new business which has turned from a home-based hobby into a full-time online enterprise for a Norfolk couple. Martin and Monica Lott set up FYFO.co.uk, and now sell footwear through their own website and on eBay from more than 60 top brands and offering no-cost delivery on all standard orders has helped them hit the ground running since the site was launched at the start of this month. But according to marketing director of online delivery services agent Parcel2Go.com, Richard Mercer, they are just one of many examples ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois researchers are giving a light answer to the heavy question of cell growth. Led by electrical and computer engineering professor Gabriel Popescu, the research team developed a new imaging method called spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM) that can measure cell mass using two beams of light. Described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the SLIM technique offers new insight into the much-debated problem of whether cells grow at a constant rate or exponentially. SLIM is extremely sensitive, quantitatively ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Zoologists at Oregon State University have discovered that a freshwater species of zooplankton will eat a fungal pathogen which is devastating amphibian populations around the world. This tiny zooplankton, called Daphnia magna, could provide a desperately needed tool for biological control of this deadly fungus, the scientists said, if field studies confirm its efficacy in a natural setting. The fungus, B. dendrobatidis, is referred to as a "chytrid" fungus, and when it reaches high levels can disrupt electrolyte balance and lead to death from cardiac ...

For the first time, scientists can see pathways to stop a deadly brain cancer in its tracks. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have imaged individual cancer cells and the routes they travel as the tumor spreads. The researchers used a novel cryo-imaging technique to obtain the unprecedented look at a mouse model of glioblastoma multiforme, a particularly aggressive cancer that has no treatments to stop it from spreading. A description of their work, and images, will be published Sept. 1 in the journal Cancer Research. "We're able ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A supernova discovered Wednesday is closer to Earth ––approximately 21 million light years away –– than any other of its kind in a generation. Astronomers believe they caught the supernova within hours of its explosion –– a rare feat for events of this type. The discovery of a supernova so early in its life, and so close to Earth has energized the astronomical community. Scientists around the world are scrambling to observe it with as many telescopes as possible, including the Hubble Space Telescope, and telescopes from the UC Santa Barbara-affiliated ...

Studies about medications published in the most influential medical journals are frequently designed in a way that yields misleading or confusing results, new research suggests. Investigators from the medical schools at UCLA and Harvard analyzed all the randomized medication trials published in the six highest-impact general medicine journals between June 1, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2010, to determine the prevalence of three types of outcome measures that make data interpretation difficult. In addition, they reviewed each study's abstract to determine the percentage ...

Ascensio System SIA, the developer of IT solutions for corporate use, launches a fully-featured mobile version of the Projects section that is a constituent of the TeamLab platform for project management and team collaboration. From now on, the TeamLab users gain a virtual analogue of their office activities. The mobile Projects module incorporates a complete set of tools to control and participate in projects outside office: both team leaders and teammates view projects, create and leave status comments on tasks, initiate and manage milestones, take part in discussions ...

Philadelphia, PA, August 26, 2011 – Eating and physical activity habits for a lifetime can develop at an early age. As the use of preschool child care increases and the prevalence of childhood obesity is at an all-time high, the opportunity to positively impact eating and exercise habits within this setting presents itself. A review in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association describes and evaluates research addressing opportunities and strategies for the prevention of obesity among preschool children in child-care settings. It examines ...

Divorce is not easy on anyone. When two partners decide to part ways, the painful divide affects more than just the two spouses. Multiple lives are clearly impacted. Children of divorcing parents are also confronted with strong emotions and abrupt changes in lifestyle. Certainly, their lives often become tumultuous, for an adjustment period, anyways. While their world suddenly looks different, there is good news. It is true that divorce may be challenging, difficult and even painful for children of all ages, but they truly can survive their parent's divorce. In fact, ...

A caesium fountain clock that keeps the United Kingdom's atomic time is now the most accurate long-term timekeeper in the world, according to a new evaluation of the clock that will be published in the October 2011 issue of the international scientific journal Metrologia by a team of physicists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom and Penn State University in the United States. An early posting of the paper on the journal's online site will occur on 26 August 2011. The clock is one of an elite group of caesium fountain clocks that have been ...