AllSolarFountain.com, an online retailer of name brand solar water fountains, now has available for purchase the Umbrella Solar Fountain Series. Both fountains, Boy and Girl Reading on a Bench and Boy and Girl Piggyback, are charming garden accents. "The designers at Smart Solar have outdone themselves with these artistic, whimsical water features," said Cecelia Maenza, AllSolarFountain.com owner. "Each fountain is an attractive addition to the garden, whether the water is flowing or not!" Both Boy and Girl Reading on a Bench and Boy and Girl Piggyback ...

The dinosaurs of the Cretaceous may have faced an unexpected hazard: fire! In a paper published online today, researchers from Royal Holloway University of London and The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago have shown that during the Cretaceous (145-65 million years ago) fire was much more widespread than previously thought. The researchers traced fire activity in the fossil record through the occurrence of charcoal deposits, compiling a global database for this time interval. "Charcoal is the remnant of the plants that were burnt and is easily preserved in the ...

The State of Illinois is facing an important renewable energy deadline in 2025, and Northwestern University's Harold H. Kung has a piece of advice for Springfield to consider now: Investment Tax Credit. Illinois is obligated to begin increasing its production of electricity from renewable sources, and a significant chunk of that will be wind power. Wind farms are expensive to build, resulting in higher energy costs for consumers and some risk to investors (who are needed to stimulate wind farm development). Fortunately, a number of government tax incentives can help ...

WASHINGTON -- A proposed study could help determine if there is a link between living near nuclear power plants or other nuclear facilities and having a higher risk of cancer, but challenges and limitations exist, says a new report from the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. The report recommends that a pilot study be completed first to evaluate the feasibility of a full-scale study, although the ultimate decision about whether to perform either would be the responsibility of the U.S. Nuclear ...

Researchers have discovered a new way in which computers based on quantum physics could beat the performance of classical computers. The work, by researchers based in Singapore and the UK, implies that a Matrix-like simulation of reality would require less memory on a quantum computer than on a classical computer. It also hints at a way to investigate whether a deeper theory lies beneath quantum theory. The finding is published 27 March in Nature Communications. The finding emerges from fundamental consideration of how much information is needed to predict the future. ...

A new chemical analysis of lunar material collected by Apollo astronauts in the 1970s conflicts with the widely held theory that a giant collision between Earth and a Mars-sized object gave birth to the moon 4.5 billion years ago. In the giant-collision scenario, computer simulations suggest that the moon had two parents: Earth and a hypothetical planetary body that scientists call "Theia." But a comparative analysis of titanium from the moon, Earth and meteorites, published by Junjun Zhang, graduate student in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, and four ...

A new X-ray study of the remains of an exploded star indicates that the supernova that disrupted the massive star may have turned it inside out in the process. Using very long observations of Cassiopeia A (or Cas A), a team of scientists has mapped the distribution elements in the supernova remnant in unprecedented detail. This information shows where the different layers of the pre-supernova star are located three hundred years after the explosion, and provides insight into the nature of the supernova. An artist's illustration on the left shows a simplified picture ...

Last week PerDM reported growth of 16% in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 6% from 2011. The Field Marketing Company's development has been attributed to their ability to provide successful marketing campaigns to businesses of all sizes. PerDM place importance on Nationwide or Global reach while ensuring that local consumer patterns and industry knowledge is obtained from individual markets. The concept of being able to offer and deliver maximum capacity and local expertise are difficult to master but essential to true optimisation. 'Out network of offices offer ...

New Orleans, LA – Research led by Lauren Cole, a public health graduate student, and Dr. Edward Peters, Associate Professor of Public Health and Director of the Epidemiology Program at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, reports that the incidence of head and neck cancer has risen at sites associated with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection, with the greatest increase among middle-aged white men. At the same time, younger, Non-Hispanic blacks experienced a substantial decrease in these cancers. They also found that the disease process for tumors associated with HPV ...

There were only 16 seats for this seminar that included over the shoulder work from some of the founders of ProU to jump start our businesses. There were many many more applicants to these seats than the event could hold and Dr Jill was lucky enough to get one of the seats. Dr Jill stated that it was a fast paced detailed, informative seminar. The one-on-one critique of the assignments that each participant brought with them was the best part of the weekend. Dr Jill now feels even more confident in her marketing endeavors with ProU. She is sure that she made the correct ...

BOZEMAN, Mont. – The land around Yellowstone and Glacier national parks might look like it's filling up with people and houses, but it's nothing compared to the rate of development around some other U.S. national parks, according to a new Montana State University study. While population densities rose 246 percent around Yellowstone/Grand Teton and 210 percent around Glacier between 1940 and 2000, they surged 3,092 percent around the Mojave National Preserve in California, 2,962 percent around the Colorado River parks and almost 2,473 percent around the Everglades National ...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Mutations in a gene called XRCC2 cause increased breast cancer risk, according to a study published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The study looked at families that have a history of the disease but do not have mutations in the currently known breast cancer susceptibility genes. Sean Tavtigian, Ph.D., a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) investigator and associate professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah (U of U) is one of three co-principal investigators on the study, along with David Goldgar, Ph.D., ...

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, today called on the nation's elected and appointed leaders to immediately develop a new, coordinated strategy to take on a national public health emergency – the autism epidemic – in the wake of a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) finding that autism is now diagnosed in a staggering 1 in every 88 American children. Bob Wright, co-founder of Autism Speaks, said, "We have an epidemic on our hands. The costs are staggering and will continue to rise as prevalence ...

Authentic Luxury Goods (ALG), San Diego's designer consignment shop, has been featured in a recent special report by Consumer Bob on NBC 7 San Diego. Consumer Bob shows viewers "how they can make money selling their high-fashion accessories" by spotlighting the ALG boutique, which specializes in buying and selling lightly used designer handbags, shoes, jewelry, and watches. Authentic Luxury Goods was founded last year by Joy Blackburn, who saw that San Diego women were longing for a special kind of consignment store, one that would deal exclusively in upscale ...

An international team of researchers led by the University of Melbourne has used new technology to fast track the discovery of a breast cancer risk gene and could assist in the discovery of other cancer genes. Professor Melissa Southey of the Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, Department of Pathology at the University of Melbourne, who led the study, said it was a significant discovery and the first breast cancer risk gene to be discovered using the latest genetic sequencing technology. "The mutations in the newly identified gene XRCC2, although rare, explain another ...

WASHINGTON — Simultaneously attaining a reliable water supply for California and protecting and rehabilitating its Bay-Delta ecosystem cannot be realized until better planning can identify how trade-offs between these two goals will be managed when water is limited, says a new report from the National Research Council. Recent efforts have been ineffective in meeting these goals because management is distributed among many agencies and organizations, which hinders development and implementation of an integrated, comprehensive plan. Additionally, it is impossible to restore ...

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other gastrointestinal (GI) disorders may be exposed to significant doses of diagnostic radiation, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "Our results show that significant increases in radiation exposure in the last decade have paralleled the increased use of computed tomography imaging," said Alan N. Desmond, MB, BMedSc, MRCPI, of the Cork University Hospital, Ireland, and lead author of this study. "While cumulative ...

An international team that includes University of British Columbia physicists has used ultra-fast laser pulses to identify the microscopic interactions that drive high-temperature superconductivity. In the experiment, to be outlined this Friday in the journal Science, electrons in a prototypical copper-oxide superconductor were excited by extremely short 100-femtosecond (0.0000000000001-second) laser pulses. As the material's electrons relax back to an equilibrium state, they release their excess energy via deformation of the superconductor's atomic lattice (phonons) ...

Physicists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered patterns which underlie the properties of a new state of matter. In a paper published in the March 29 issue of the journal Nature, the scientists describe the emergence of "spontaneous coherence," "spin textures" and "phase singularities" when excitons—the bound pairs of electrons and holes that determine the optical properties of semiconductors and enable them to function as novel optoelectronic devices—are cooled to near absolute zero. This cooling leads to the spontaneous production of a new coherent ...

MaxiAids Products for Independent Living (www.MaxiAids.com), a leading supplier of products for the blind, low vision, deaf, hard of hearing and those with special needs, today announced the addition of Barry Reiter as director of business development. "We are happy to welcome Barry to the MaxiAids family," said Elliot Zaretsky, the company's president and founder. "His strong knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry is a perfect fit for our business and our goals." Mr. Reiter spent a majority of his career as chief operating officer of a major ...

Conventional wisdom tells us that in the business world, "you are who you know" — your social background and professional networks outweigh talent when it comes to career success. But according to a Tel Aviv University researcher, making the right connection only gets your foot in the door. Your future success is entirely up to you, says Prof. Yoav Ganzach of TAU's Recanati School of Management. When intelligence and socio-economic background (SEB) are pitted directly against one another, intelligence is a more accurate predictor of future career success, he asserts. ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR-D), Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets (JGR- E), and Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences (JGR-G). In this release: Regional models expect drier, stormier western United States Declining sea ice to lead to cloudier Arctic Improving plume forecasts using Fukushima data How did the equatorial ridge on Saturn's moon Iapetus form? Thermokarst lakes increased atmospheric methane ...

A new study estimates that 1 in 88 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Thursday (March 29) that looked at data gathered in 2008 from 14 communities, including central North Carolina. The new data show that autism rates in the U.S. are higher than previous estimates released in 2009, which found 1 in 110 children were diagnosed with autism or a related disorder. The latest figures also show that autism spectrum disorders are almost five times more common among boys than girls ...

A new study evaluates the seismic hazards for the entire Central America, including specific assessments for six capital cities, with the greatest hazard expected for Guatemala City and San Salvador, followed by Managua and San José, and notably lower in Tegucigalpa and Panamá City. The study, published in the April issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), included input from seismic hazard experts from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Norway and Spain. All seismic experts from Central American countries, except ...

Idan Ginsburg, a graduate student in Dartmouth's Department of Physics and Astronomy, studies some of the fastest moving objects in the cosmos. When stars and their orbiting plants wander too close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, their encounter with the black hole's gravitational force can either capture them or eject them from the galaxy, like a slingshot, at millions of miles per hour. Although their origin remains a mystery and although they are invisible, black holes found at galaxy centers make their presence known through the effects ...