A 30-year old New York construction worker died and four others were injured when a crane collapsed and fell into Site J of the subway's 7 line extension project, reported the New York Post (4/3/2012). http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/mta_suspends_no_train_line_extension_BwKn6J1Hg6F6bUmcgMvnuJ#ixzz1r5klcoXe Fire Department of New York officials said the crane's boom came apart in two pieces, reported ABC News (4/4/2012). http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nyc-officials-dead-hurt-crane-accident-16068773 This construction accident was New York City's ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida astronomers have found compelling evidence for two low-mass planets orbiting the nearby star Fomalhaut, just 25 light years from Earth. Twice as massive as the sun and 20 times brighter, Fomalhaut is surrounded by a ring of dust and debris, making it a favorite system for astronomers to study and a natural laboratory for testing planet formation theories. In 2008, images of Fomalhaut taken by the Hubble Space Telescope led to the discovery of "Fomalhaut b," the first extra solar planet to be directly detected in visible light. ...

Scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have identified similarities and differences among regions of the human brain, among the brains of human individuals, and between humans and mice by analyzing the expression of approximately 1,000 genes in the brain. The study, published online today in the journal Cell, sheds light on the human brain in general and also serves as an introduction to what the associated publicly available dataset can offer the scientific community. This study reveals a high degree of similarity among human individuals. Only 5% of the ...

A 25-year old New York construction worker died when a house collapsed in Brooklyn, reported the New York Daily News (4/3/2012). http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/1-worker-critically-injured-4-hurt-brooklyn-building-collapse-article-1.1055111#ixzz1qzzFF4sT "Of the many hazards that can happen on a construction site, a building collapse is one of the most catastrophic construction accidents that can take place," said David Perecman, a construction accident lawyer in New York with over 30 years of experience providing falling debris construction ...

This press release is available in German. The transmission of knowledge to the next generation is a key feature of human evolution. In particular, humans tend to copy behaviour that is demonstrated by many other individuals. Chimpanzees and orangutans, two of our closest living relatives, also socially pass on traditional behaviour and culture from one generation to another. Whether and how this process resembles the human one is still largely unknown. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for ...

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and several other civil rights advocacy groups recently filed a lawsuit of great interest to New York civil rights violation lawyers at The Perecman Firm and other defenders of civil rights. The NYCLU lawsuit (No.12-CIV-2274) was filed against the New York City Police Department. It claims officers violated civil rights and challenges a controversial stop-and-frisk type program in private rental apartment buildings called "Operation Clean Halls." http://www.nyclu.org/news/class-action-lawsuit-challenges-nypd-patrols-of-private-apartment-buildings http://www.nyclu.org/files/releases/Clean_Halls_complaint_3.28.12.PDF ...

Sleep apnea, a condition in which the narrowing of the upper airway results in poor, disrupted sleep, not only results in a bad night's sleep, but also leads to fatigued drivers. In fact, some believe that when it comes to driving, sleep apnea may present as great a danger as too much alcohol. For this reason, the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), in conjunction with the American Transportation Research Institute of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), will begin screening commercial driver's license (CDL) holders thought to be susceptible ...

Los Angeles, CA (April 12, 2012) Police officers are always trying to control the misconduct of those who are on parole in order to control crime in the community, but what types of behaviors land them back in jail and what can law enforcement officials do about it? A recent article in the Journal of Correctional Health Care (JCHC), published by SAGE, discusses how to target the most common risky behaviors among specific groups of parolees in order to lower crime in the community. Researchers David Wyatt Seal, Michelle Parisot, and Wayne DiFranceisco interviewed 126 ...

Authorities in New York are trying to crackdown on drugged driving. State legislators recently started pushing for a swab test that would allow officers to test for drug use during a traffic stop. Law officials and policymakers believe this will greatly reduce citations for driving while ability impaired by drugs. In New York State, the number of arrests of drivers operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs has increased by nearly 35 percent over the last decade. This may be an indication that law enforcement has already been getting much more aggressive ...

Baltimore, MD – A study released today by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has identified the most feasible and impactful solutions for Nigeria's immunization program that could offer the best hope yet for scaling up vaccine access to the nation's most rural areas and taking aim at the country's precipitous number of child deaths. While the nation has made progress on child survival in recent years, Nigeria is still responsible for one out of every eight child deaths worldwide. The country is second only ...

Abandoned army bunkers along the Jordan River have become a habitat for 12 indigenous bat species, three of which are already designated as endangered and two that are on the critical list. The bats were recently identified by a group of Tel Aviv University researchers who were granted access to the bunkers, spread out along a 60-mile-long stretch of land between the Sea of Galilee in the north of Israel to the Dead Sea's northern edge. According to Ph.D. student Eran Levin of TAU's Department of Zoology, the local bat population is estimated to be in the thousands. ...

The specific mechanisms by which humans and other animals are able to discriminate between disease-causing microbes and innocuous ones in order to rapidly respond to infections have long been a mystery to scientists. But a study conducted on roundworms by biologists at UC San Diego has uncovered some important clues to finally answering that question. In a paper published in this week's early online issue of the journal Cell Host & Microbe, the researchers discovered that intestinal cells in the roundworm C. elegans, which are similar in structure to those in humans, ...

Whitbread Plc. has opened a brand new Premier Inn hotel in Llanelli. The property will contribute over GBP1.7 million to the local economy whilst creating 35 new jobs for Llanelli residents. This hotel is the second Premier Inn to open in the area due to an increased demand for rooms. The brand new 28 bedroom hotel is situated on Sandpiper Road in Llanelli and has been built adjacent to the existing Sandpiper Brewers Fayre restaurant. Guests will be able to experience all the local attractions Llanelli has to offer such Pembrey Country Park and the Millennium Costal ...

(Boston) – Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a gene that plays a key role in regulating inflammatory response and homeostasis. These findings could help lead to the development of innovative methods to reduce the inflammation associated with cancer, type 2 diabetes and other diseases. The study, which was led by Valentina Perissi, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry at BUSM, was done in collaboration with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at the University of California, San Diego. The results are published online ...

Billboard.com and Chevrolet announced today that six finalists in the "Cruze-ing to Vegas" competition have won a road trip to Las Vegas and the chance to compete for the gig of a lifetime: a live performance at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards, to be televised on ABC, 8 p.m. ET, on Sunday, May 20. The finalists were selected from a field of 18 up-and-coming young artists competing from six regions across the country. They are: Northwest: Savannah Outen, pop vocalist, Hillsboro, Oregon Southwest: Saints of Valory, rock, Austin, Texas Midwest: Take the ...

Spring rains in the eastern Horn of Africa are projected to begin late this year and be substantially lower than normal. From March - May, the rains are expected to total only 60 to 85 percentage of the average rainfall in this region. This is a significant deterioration compared to earlier forecasts. Lower rain amounts would have significant impacts on crop production, rangeland regeneration for livestock, and replenishment of water resources. This would put greater stress on the region, particularly Somalia which is still recovering from a famine declared last year, ...

URBANA – With the global recession and the food price spike of 2008, one would expect migrants to be particularly affected, but a recent University of Illinois study revealed migrants in at least one Central Illinois county to be surprisingly resilient in their ability to control their environment through work, particularly women. "Women appear to be more flexible and resourceful. When they lose their jobs, they start looking for other options," said Gale Summerfield, U of I community development and gender specialist. "They took jobs in child care, cleaning houses ...

Global Banking and Finance Review today announced it has named BMO Harris Private Banking the Best Private Bank in Canada 2012 for the second consecutive year. The awards honour companies that stand out in particular areas of expertise in the banking and finance industry. BMO Harris Private Banking ranked first in the Best Private Bank in Canada category by the judging panel of industry analysts. Criteria considered by the panel included detailed research on quality, performance and strong banking ability of management team and staff. "We are very pleased to ...

Worrying may have evolved along with intelligence as a beneficial trait, according to a recent study by scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and other institutions. Jeremy Coplan, MD, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate, and colleagues found that high intelligence and worry both correlate with brain activity measured by the depletion of the nutrient choline in theGlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Sackler Institute of Columbia University, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, Psychiatric Institute ...

Two new studies into the "plumbing systems" that lie under volcanoes could bring scientists closer to understanding plate ruptures and predicting eruptions—both of which are important steps for protecting the public from earthquake and volcanic hazards. International teams of researchers, including two scientists from the University of Rochester, have been studying the location and behaviour of magma chambers on the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system—a vast chain of volcanoes along which the Earth forms new crust. They worked in the tropical region of Afar, Ethiopia and ...

Durham, NC — Physically fit frogs have faster-changing genomes, says a new study of poison frogs from Central and South America. Stretches of DNA accumulate changes over time, but the rate at which those changes build up varies considerably between species, said author Juan C. Santos of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina. In the past, biologists trying to explain why some species have faster-changing genomes than others have focused on features such as body size, generation time, fecundity and lifespan. According to one theory, first ...

Eleven young men of color from Compton, Long Beach, and surrounding areas were invited to The White House in a once in a lifetime trip February 20th-23rd, 2012 and will be sharing their experience in a special event April 19 at The Long Beach Playhouse. First Lady, Michelle Obama, hosted "At the Crossroads: A History of the Blues in America," an educational workshop for middle and high school students from across the country, held in the State Dining Room. The local young men ranged in age from 15-22 years and are skilled in digital media or singers and musicians ...

"If you want to test a man's character, give him power," said Abraham Lincoln. It's a truism that power magnifies personality—but is it true? A new study says no. "Before, people thought that disposition is linked to will; it's mainly internally driven," says University College London psychologist Ana Guinote, who conducted the study with Mario Weick of the University of Kent and London doctoral student Alice Cai. "Our findings show that the environment crucially triggers dispositional or counter-dispositional behavior in powerful people." The findings appear in Psychological ...

On April 5, 2010, the sun spewed a two million-mile-per-hour stream of charged particles toward the invisible magnetic fields surrounding Earth, known as the magnetosphere. As the particles interacted with the magnetic fields, the incoming stream of energy caused stormy conditions near Earth. Some scientists believe that it was this solar storm that interfered with commands to a communications satellite, Galaxy-15, which subsequently foundered and drifted, taking almost a year to return to its station. To better understand how to protect satellites from intense bursts ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A recent discovery of "hypervirulent" Salmonella bacteria has given UC Santa Barbara researchers Michael Mahan and Douglas Heithoff a means to potentially prevent food poisoning outbreaks from these particularly powerful strains. Their findings, in a paper titled "Intraspecies Variation in the Emergence of Hyperinfectious Bacterial Strains in Nature," have been published in the journal PLoS Pathogens. Salmonella is the most common cause of infection, hospitalization, and death due to foodborne illness in the U.S. This burden may continue to ...