CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Sand in an hourglass might seem simple and straightforward, but such granular materials are actually tricky to model. From far away, flowing sand resembles a liquid, streaming down the center of an hourglass like water from a faucet. But up close, one can make out individual grains that slide against each other, forming a mound at the base that holds its shape, much like a solid. Sand's curious behavior — part fluid, part solid — has made it difficult for researchers to predict how it and other granular materials flow under various conditions. A ...

Despite being known for its historic shop keeping tradition, the Local Data Company reported the UK saw a 14.6% rise in town centre vacancies in February, considered to be the highest rise since the retail risk index was created in 2008. The areas of the lowest and highest risk in the UK have now been published by BNP Paribas Real Estate as a guide to the best areas for retail investment. The riskiest places to invest include Bradford, Derby, Wolverhampton, Southampton, Hull, Sheffield, Swindon, Warrington, Stockport and Nottingham, while the best places for a business ...

WASHINGTON – The American Psychological Association Council of Representatives has approved a new set of national guidelines that outline models for preparing high school teachers to teach psychology effectively. The guidelines will be distributed to all state and the District of Columbia boards of education for review and consideration for implementation. "These guidelines are the foundation for preparing professionals for the teaching and learning of psychological science at the high school level," said Kenneth A. Weaver, PhD, chair of APA's Board of Educational Affairs ...

DETROIT –Henry Ford Hospital dermatology researchers are urging caution about using claims data for identifying nonmelanoma skin cancer, suggesting that the commonly used method, which previously had not been validated, may be unreliable. Instead, researchers say, an electronic pathology report (EPR) is far superior for more accurately identifying cases. Claims data is common health insurance billing information. EPR shows the biopsy of a skin specimen result. In a study published online Thursday in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, lead author and Henry Ford ...

Market-leading UK daily deals and voucher codes specialist DiscountVouchers.co.uk has this week announced a new and exclusive daily travel deals partnership with top provider Secret Escapes. The partnership was agreed and announced at this year's DD Summit Europe in London, and the agreement will see DiscountVouchers.co.uk subscribers benefit from access to a wide range of specialist four and five-star luxury travel deals with significant savings. Gerard Doyle, CEO of DiscountVouchers.co.uk, commented: "We are delighted to make this announcement and it really ...

Troy, N.Y. – Most medical imaging equipment is not designed with overweight and obese patients in mind. As a result, these individuals can be exposed to higher levels of radiation during routine X-ray and CT scans. A new study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the first to calculate exactly how much additional radiation obese patients receive from a CT scan. Research results show the internal organs of obese men receive 62 percent more radiation during a CT scan than those of normal weight men. For obese women, it was an increase of 59 percent. New technology ...

ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, has demanded that all the country's telecoms providers must clarify their use of industry terms to help subscribers enjoy greater peace of mind and fairness. The regulator is focusing on terms like 'cap' and 'unlimited plans' as it seeks to drive through greater equality and clearness for consumers. ACMA wants providers to commit to making subscribers' lives easier by signing up to a voluntary code of conduct which sees all operators pledge to remove misleading terms from contracts and advertising. 'Unlimited ...

In a discovery that could help instructors better teach deaf children, a team of University of Chicago researchers has found that a gesture-sign mismatch made while explaining a math problem suggests that a deaf child is experiencing a teachable moment. Through a series of experiments with 40 deaf children, ages nine through 12, all of whom were fluent in American Sign Language, researchers were able to distinguish between ASL signs and gestures that look like the gestures hearing children produce when explaining the same math problems. The deaf students who expressed ...

Going through a divorce can be an extremely difficult time. The decision to finally end a marriage and move on usually comes after a lot of soul-searching. It is not easy to walk away from someone who has been such a major part of your life. The entire process can be a long, drawn-out affair that can be emotionally draining, and it may be tempting to try to get the divorce over as soon as possible to move on. However, most people do not realize the severe economic challenges that may arise as a result of the divorce until it is too late. Whether it is a house, car or ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--- African-Americans and Hispanics with major depressive disorder are less likely to get antidepressants than Caucasian patients, and Medicare and Medicaid patients are less likely to get the newest generation of antidepressants. Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health examined data from 1993 to 2007 to try to understand the antidepressant prescribing patterns of physicians. They looked at two things: who received antidepressants, and what type of antidepressant was prescribed. They found that race, payment source, physician ...

Nanotechnology offers powerful new possibilities for targeted cancer therapies, but the design challenges are many. Northwestern University scientists now are the first to develop a simple but specialized nanoparticle that can deliver a drug directly to a cancer cell's nucleus -- an important feature for effective treatment. They also are the first to directly image at nanoscale dimensions how nanoparticles interact with a cancer cell's nucleus. "Our drug-loaded gold nanostars are tiny hitchhikers," said Teri W. Odom, who led the study of human cervical and ovarian ...

Miami… A six-year collaboration between two faculty members of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has yielded new insight regarding the regulation of intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma - an irreversible blinding disease that causes progressive visual impairment due to optic nerve damage and is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. The key finding by associate professors of ophthalmology Richard K. Lee, M.D., Ph.D. and Sanjoy Bhattacharya, M. Tech., Ph, D. validates their hypothesis that the response of aqueous humor ...

One of the defining moments for teenagers in the U.S. is earning a driver's license, which equates to gaining some independence from parental supervision. This defining moment can quickly turn devastating, however, due to various factors like disobeying traffic laws and distracted driving. There has been an alarming spike recently in the number of teenagers who die in car accidents each year across the nation. Particularly in North Carolina, the rate of teenage driver deaths is on the rise, so safety groups in the state are ready for action. Spike in Deaths According ...

With a 95 percent genomic similarity to humans, mice have long been used to learn about the genetic causes of human disease. Once researchers can shine a light on the genetic factors that cause disease in mice, they can start to develop prevention and treatment options to protect the human population. But this process, called genetic mapping, is a long and difficult road, made more challenging by the 5% difference between the humans and lab mice. Now Prof. Fuad Iraqi of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine is closing the gap with an international project ...

Despite the fact that nifedipine increases the risk of heart attacks and death, doctors still prescribe this immediate-release blood pressure drug to elderly patients. The Cologne-based research group led by Ingrid Schubert has now published the results of their investigation in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2012; 109[12]: 215-9). Immediate-release nifedipine is classified as a potentially dangerous drug in the PRISCUS list published in 2010. Earlier studies demonstrated that, in comparison to other antihypertensive drugs, ...

If you have been arrested or convicted of a crime in New Jersey, you may simply want to move on with life without a criminal record haunting you in the future. It is true in many respects that decisions made earlier in life are not reliable indicators of future behavior. Unfortunately, many people still see trouble in a criminal record. Certain employers may choose to pass you by, rental agencies may disqualify you and military recruiters can be particularly sensitive about criminal records. In an effort to promote ex-offender re-entry back into the community, the law allows ...

In the largest multicenter clinical trial of children undergoing early-stage surgery for single-ventricle heart defects, differences in intraoperative management did not significantly affect neurodevelopmental outcomes at 14 months of age. Instead, the strongest influences were innate patient characteristics and general medical morbidity during the child's first year of life. Children born with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome (HLHS) and related single-ventricle defects have long been known to be vulnerable to developmental impairments, and researchers suspected that ...

New Rochelle, NY, April 5, 2012—In most people, high blood levels of the fat known as triglycerides are an early warning sign of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, but in people of African descent these dangerous health conditions may go undiagnosed because triglyceride levels are not at the level used to diagnose metabolic syndrome (>150 mg/dL). This is known as the "TG (or lipid) paradox." Understanding how African Americans are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) despite a normal TG level is unclear and is the focus of a review article in Metabolic ...

Some Texas DWI defense attorneys estimate the financial costs of a drunk driving conviction anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 for even a first time offender. For those who made one mistake or for those who were wrongly accused of driving while impaired, the cost of just three drinks can quickly become very expensive. A driver can be arrested for a Texas DWI if his or her blood alcohol content is at or above .08. Consuming three beers is enough for some people to reach the level of legal intoxication; others may consume more and others may consume less and still reach ...

The risks of distracted driving to South Carolina motorists, passengers, pedestrians and bicyclists are well understood. When drivers focus their attention on something other than the road ahead, the chances of a truck, motorcycle or car accident increase substantially. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, more than 3,000 people died in 2010 in motor vehicle crashes caused by distracted driving. Studies funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have shown that drivers are 30 percent more likely to be involved in a car wreck if ...

URBANA - When University of Illinois researchers surveyed over 3,500 college applicants, more than a third couldn't report their weight accurately, and overweight and obese men were more likely to underestimate their weight than women. "This misperception is important because the first step in dealing with a weight problem is knowing that you have one," said Margarita Teran-Garcia, a U of I professor of food science and human nutrition. The study is part of the Up Amigos project, a collaboration between scientists at the U of I and the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis ...

New England is expected to experience a "moderate" regional "red tide" this spring and summer, report NOAA-funded scientists working in the Gulf of Maine to study the toxic algae that causes the bloom. The algae in the water pose no direct threat to human beings, however the toxins they produce can accumulate in filter-feeding organisms such as mussels and clams— which can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in humans who consume them. Under a newly developed rating system, a moderate bloom could cause the closure of shellfish beds along an estimated 126 – 250 miles ...

The Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta Airport Hotel (North I-85) offers nearby accommodations to guests attend the upcoming Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball (MLB) games. The home baseball games are held at Turner Field, near downtown Atlanta. The Braves 2012 home opener will take place on Friday, April 13 at 7:35pm at Turner Field. The Braves will play the Brewers. Other upcoming home games at Turner Field include: - Braves verses Brewers, April 14 - 15 - Braves verses Mets, April 16 - 18 - Braves verses Pirates, April 27 - 30 Since opening in 1997, Turner ...

Washington, D.C. (April 5, 2012) The International Communication Association's flagship journal, Journal of Communication, released a special issue on social media and democracy. As revolutions erupted in real time in Tunisia and Egypt in late 2010 and early 2011, it was obvious that social media were important and not well understood. This special issue has a selection of articles that tell a fascinating but complicated story of media and political change in the Middle East and other countries. "With pundits of all persuasions rushing to judgment, I believed it was ...

In early March, Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced a release of an algorithm update to target sites with excessive SEO. Since that time, there has been some ambiguity as to when this algorithm will be released and how it will affect rankings. Since the announcement, there have been some random online complaints that site owners have experienced sudden, unexplained ranking drops. Some of these reports claim considerable drops in ranking, although Mr. Cutts has claimed in his blog that this update is not very large. At this point, the update does not ...