Jackson Design & Remodeling (JDR) announced today it has won a 2011 Better Business Bureau (BBB) Torch Award for marketplace ethics in the category for San Diego businesses with 25-99 employees. The company won BBB awards in 2007 and 2009. Winning companies are only eligible to submit entries every two years, making this JDR's third consecutive win. The Torch Awards are the BBB's annual awards program honoring outstanding local for-profit companies and nonprofit charitable organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to ethical business practices, both in operations ...

Trees that produce frankincense – used in incense and perfumes across the world and a key part of the Christmas story – are declining so dramatically that production of the fragrant resin could be halved over the next 15 years, according to a new study published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. Ecologists from the Netherlands and Ethiopia say tree numbers could decline by 90% in the next 50 years. If fire, grazing and insect attack – the most likely causes of the decline – remain unchecked frankincense production could be doomed, they warn. ...

Every cloud has a silver lining: weather forecasting models could predict brain tumor growth Ever wondered how meteorologists can accurately predict the weather? They use complex spatiotemporal weather models, i.e. mathematical equations that track the motions of the atmosphere through time and space, and combine them with incoming data streams from weather stations and satellites. Now, an innovative new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology Direct has determined that the mathematical methodology used to assimilate data for weather forecasting ...

Hay fever (runny nose, sneezing, itchy eyes) is caused by an allergy to pollen, and most commonly to grass pollen. These tiny grains bring misery to sufferers through spring and summer and pollen levels are often included as part of weather reports to help sufferers prepare. However new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Clinical and Translational Allergy shows that, regardless of medication and other allergies, for the same grass pollen levels, hay fever symptoms are worse in the first half of the season than later on. Worldwide there are over ...

A new candidate malaria vaccine with the potential to neutralise all strains of the most deadly species of malaria parasite has been developed by a team led by scientists at the University of Oxford. The results of this new vaccine independently confirm the utility of a key discovery reported last month from scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute who had identified this target within the parasite as a potential 'Achilles' heel' that could hold significant promise for vaccine development. According to the World Malaria Report 2010, malaria killed an estimated ...

Diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and can reduce blood supply to the heart tissue and damage cardiac cells, resulting in heart failure. New research has investigated if nerve growth factor (NGF) gene therapy can prevent diabetic heart failure and small vascular disease in mice. The study by Professor Costanza Emanueli, British Heart Foundation Senior Research Fellow and colleagues of the Bristol Heart Institute in the Regenerative Medicine Section of the School of Clinical Sciences at the University of Bristol is published online in Diabetes, ...

The list of well known musicians who have died at age 27 may look like more than a coincidence – Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Brian Jones to name a few – but their age is unlikely to have been the cause of their demise, according to research in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today. While fame may increase the risk of death for musicians, probably due to their rock and roll lifestyle, this risk is not limited to age 27, say the authors led by Adrian Barnett from Queensland University of Technology in Australia. To ...

Salt policy makers in the Netherlands are consuming more than the average daily recommended salt intake of 6 grams in one hot meal at their work canteens, finds a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today. The authors, led by Dr Lizzy Brewster at the University of Amsterdam, say the policy makers eating at their staff canteens were consuming around 15.4 grams of salt a day. They warn that this amount of salt, compared to the recommended intake, translates to up to a 36% increase in premature death. Excess salt intake is estimated to cause 30% of all high ...

The phrase "obs stable" in hospital notes is ambiguous and does not reliably indicate a patient's health status, concludes a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today. Dr Gregory Scott and colleagues argue that the phrase is potentially misleading and advise doctors to stop using it and write the observations in full. The expression "obs stable" is written daily in hospital notes to indicate that there are no alarming problems with a patient's bedside nursing observations. Abnormalities in these observations act as an alarm for doctors when assessing ...

A review of a historical study from 1848 reveals that cod liver oil was an effective treatment for tuberculosis, says Professor Sir Malcolm Green in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today. In the study, carried out by physicians at the Hospital for Consumption, Chelsea (now the Royal Brompton Hospital), 542 patients with consumption (tuberculosis) received standard treatment with cod liver oil. These patients were compared with 535 'control' patients who received standard treatment alone (without cod liver oil). While improvement rates were similar in the two ...

The history of evolution is periodically marked by explosions in biodiversity, as groups of species try out a wide range of shapes and sizes. With a new analysis of two such adaptive radiations in the fossil record, researchers have discovered that these diversifications proceeded head-first. By analyzing the physical features of fossil fish that diversified around the time of two separate extinction events, scientists from the University of Chicago and the University of Oxford found that head features diversified before body shapes and types. The discovery disputes previous ...

After the gifts have been unwrapped and the turkey is reduced to leftovers, Intertops Poker has a full schedule of Christmas poker tournaments to keep the festivities going. Bounty, free roll and guaranteed tournaments begin Christmas day and continue throughout the week. A 50% (up to $300) reload bonus is also available until next Wednesday. Intertops Christmas Poker Tournament Schedule: Sunday, December 25th -- NL Hold'em $500 Added Bounty Tourney Monday, December 26th -- NL Hold'em $1500 Guaranteed Double-Chance Deepstack Tourney Tuesday, December 27th -- PL Omaha ...

PASADENA, Calif. -- Identifying the composition of the earth's core is key to understanding how our planet formed and the current behavior of its interior. While it has been known for many years that iron is the main element in the core, many questions have remained about just how iron behaves under the conditions found deep in the earth. Now, a team led by mineral-physics researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has honed in on those behaviors by conducting extremely high-pressure experiments on the element. "Pinpointing the properties of iron ...

This press release is available in German. Progress of metamaterials in nanotechnologies has made the invisibility cloak, a subject of mythology and science fiction, become reality: Light waves can be guided around an object to be hidden, in such a way that this object appears to be non-existent. This concept applied to electromagnetic light waves may also be transferred to other types of waves, such as sound waves. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now succeeded in demonstrating for the first time an invisibility cloak for elastic waves. Such ...

Exforsys Inc is excited to announce the historic event of their flagship website geekinterview.com reaching 500,000 registered membership milestone. The company is currently working hard on adding new features for the benefit of geekinterview.com website users. One of the core principles behind Exforsys Inc's decision to launch geekinterview.com was to help millions of job aspirants succeed in their endeavor. Geekinterview.com provides a congenial platform for its community members to learn, share and grow. In accordance to its core principles, the website has assiduously ...

Since the first democratic elections in Spain, some 23.7% of ministers have not had a political party card when handing over their portfolio. This means that Spain has had the highest number of independent ministers compared to those other countries of Europe that have parliamentary governments in which percentages do not exceed 5% according to a study at the University of Valencia (UV). Juan Rodríguez Teruel, lecturer at the University of Valencia (UV) and author of the programme geared towards MP selection, declares that "in the majority of European countries with ...

British researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have found out why the African naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), one of the world's most unusual mammals, feels no pain when exposed to acid. African naked mole-rats live densely packed in narrow dark burrows where ambient carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are very high. In body tissues, CO2 is converted into acid, which continuously activates pain sensors. However, naked mole-rats are an exception: they have an altered ion channel in their pain receptors that is inactivated by acid ...

URALCHEM Holding P.L.C., one of the largest producers of nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers in Russia, announced its unaudited IFRS financial results for the first nine months of 2011 ending 30 September 2011. - Revenue increased to US $ 1,556 million, compared to US $ 980 million in the first nine months of 2010. - Operating profit increased to US $ 487 million, compared to US $ 126 million in the first nine months of 2010. - Adjusted EBITDA grew to US $ 560 million, compared to US $ 205 million in the first nine months of 2010. - Net profit amounted to US $ 289 ...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A program for women at risk of substance abuse during pregnancy could save nearly $2 billion annually in health care costs if implemented nationwide, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' journal, Obstetrics & Gynecology. The cost-benefit analysis of the Kaiser Permanente Early Start program follows a 2008 Kaiser Permanente study that showed the program helps pregnant women at risk of substance abuse achieve similar health outcomes — for both mothers and their infants — as ...

Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) have created a functional model of the native extracellular matrix that provides structural support to cells to aid growth and proliferation. The model could lead to advances in regenerative medicine. The extracellular matrix (ECM) provides the physical and chemical conditions that enable the development of all biological tissues. It is a complex nano-to-microscale structure made up of protein fibres and serves as a dynamic substrate that supports tissue repair and regeneration. Man-made structures designed to mimic ...

Application hosting continues to garner attention from a growing number of healthcare providers, particularly in the community hospital space, according to the KLAS report "Application Hosting: Dynamic Changes Bring Providers Better Options." Healthcare providers see hosting as a way to offload capital expenditures and tap into the higher level of technology a hosting provider can offer. One CIO of a 25-bed hospital in the Midwest said, "I don't worry about anything. [Our hosting provider] takes care of it all; I couldn't possibly try to maintain all the ...

Scientists studying a unique collection of human skulls have shown that changes to the skull shape thought to have occurred independently through separate evolutionary events may have actually precipitated each other. Researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Barcelona examined 390 skulls from the Austrian town of Hallstatt and found evidence that the human skull is highly integrated, meaning variation in one part of the skull is linked to changes throughout the skull. The Austrian skulls are part of a famous collection kept in the Hallstatt Catholic Church ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The first study to examine patterns of emergency care for an entire state has found that 40 percent of emergency department visits in Indiana over a three-year period were by patients who visited more than one emergency department. This finding challenges conventional wisdom that patients are tightly bound to health care systems and tend to repeatedly visit local facilities. The Regenstrief Institute study, "All Health Care Is Not Local: An Evaluation of the Distribution of Emergency Department Care Delivered in Indiana" has been honored with a 2011 Distinguished ...

Christmas has come early for Reindeer Readies player Elizabeth from Glasgow the successful winner of LadyLuck's Christmas prize draw. Britain's favourite mobile casino has beat Santa in bringing the best Christmas presents to our lucky recipient! The Christmas present package includes the following amazing prizes: Nintendo Wii PlayStation 3 LCD flat-screen TV Portable DVD player iPod Touch Selection of top DVDs and Chocolates Given the fantastic prizes she won, Elizabeth was too shocked to speak but managed a "Wow, Wow, Wow! Merry Christmas!" ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – It's rubbed on the skin to reduce signs of aging and consumed by athletes to improve endurance but scientists now have the first evidence of one of vitamin E's normal body functions. The powerful antioxidant found in most foods helps repair tears in the plasma membranes that protect cells from outside forces and screen what enters and exits, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Everyday activities such as eating and exercise can tear the plasma membrane and the new research shows that vitamin E is essential ...