In an unfortunate twist of fate, a seat-belt crusading Colorado state senator was involved in a car accident in which three passengers were not wearing seat-belts. On a stretch of highway outside of Amarillo, Texas, the head-on collision sadly cost the pregnant passenger of the other vehicle her life only one day after Christmas. Known for her outspoken support of seat-belt safety laws, Colorado State Senator Suzanne Williams was driving an SUV in which the passengers were not buckled in, two of whom -- ages three and seven -- were not in safety seats. Texas law requires ...

The oft-delayed and yet-to-be-released changes by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to the trucking industry's hours-of-service (HOS) rules are again causing controversy. As a reaction to lawsuits challenging the FMCSA's rule changes to the trucking industry in 2004, the FMCSA (under the Obama Administration's guidance) agreed to amend the rules -- further promoting driver safety and health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average commercial drivers' life expectancy is 16 years less than similarly situated ...

The Shapiro Law Firm of Plano, Texas was referenced in a Dallas Observer article concerning Super Bowl prostitution. The column, The Super Bowl Prostitute Myth: 100,000 Hookers Won't Be Showing Up in Dallas, appeared in the newspaper on Jan. 27. It discusses the unique situation regarding the mass influx of prostitutes to Arlington, Dallas and Fort Worth. The Shapiro Law Firm was highlighted for its estimate on the arrival of 40,000 prostitutes in the Dallas Area for Super-Bowl-related festivities. It briefly mentioned the experience of the firm's criminal defense ...

Attorney Daniel E. Schultz has once again been included in "Best Lawyers in America" in the Medical Malpractice category. Because inclusion on this list is determined by a confidential peer-review process, Mr. Schultz is especially proud of this honor. In addition to "Best Lawyers", Mr. Schultz has also been designated by Law and Politics as one of its Super Lawyers in the District of Columbia, another list which is compiled based upon a confidential peer-review process. Mr. Schultz's success during his career is reflected by his certified membership in both the ...

Attorney Kenneth M. Trombly of the Washington, D.C., law firm of Schultz & Trombly, PLLC, has once again been included in "Best Lawyers in America" in the Personal Injury category. Because inclusion on this list is determined by a confidential peer-review process, Mr. Trombly is especially proud of this honor. Mr. Trombly is also extremely pleased to have been a recipient of the 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award by the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. A Past President of that Association, he was honored for work that he has performed directed ...

Tracesmart the Cardiff-based consumer data specialist has relocated to Global Reach following recent significant growth. The company has transferred its 80 employees from three office locations to a single headquarters; a brand new, high-tech and environmentally friendly office complex in Cardiff Bay, providing a centralised workforce and further scope for expansion. Located within Cardiff's Celtic Gateway Business Park, the Global Reach office space has been completed to Grade A specification, and includes a solar shading system, which reduces the building's running ...

Radisson Blu Lyon has announced it is committed to developing sustainable tourism. Initiatives that are being put in place include helping children at local orphanages, reducing the paper consumption levels in the hotel and inviting guests to visit 'green' places of interest. The Radisson Blu Lyon hotel possesses The Green Key, which is awarded to tourism and leisure facilities. The Green Key is designed to raise awareness to the need to run a responsible business in the tourism and leisure sector. To be awarded with The Green Key the Radisson Blu Lyon had to fulfill ...

redspottedhanky.com, the online travel retailer, has scrapped its booking fee to become the cheapest place to buy train tickets online. This is an industry first and customers can now receive the best value with no unexpected costs. With rail now the preferred mode of transport used for over 3.6m* trips each day, business and leisure travellers can save up to 51% on the cost of train tickets using redpottedhanky.com.** James Bain, director at redspottedhanky.com says, "With the recent rises in rail fares, train travellers don't need or want to be paying more for their ...

IOS Health System announced today that Medios v4.62, is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as a Complete EHR on February 3, 2011 by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable Eligible Provider certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The 2011/2012 criteria support the Stage 1 meaningful use measures required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). IOS Health Systems, President and ...

Greg Rasmussen, President of Don Rasmussen Company, which represents BMW, Land Rover, MINI and Mercedes-Benz at several dealerships in and around Portland, Oregon, presented to Shepherd's Door directors Eric Bauer and Jan Marshall his 2010 gift. Shepherd's Door is a division of the Portland Rescue Mission and provides shelter to homeless and abused women and their children. The facility provides nutritious meals, safe accommodations, a beautiful and nurturing environment, counseling and training, all under one roof. The women attend classes to help them understand their ...

Dugan's Travels, a host travel agency, is celebrating 11 years hosting independent agents from all over the United States and Canada. Dugan's Travels started hosting outside travel agents in 1999. Many of those agents are still with Dugan's Travels today. Dugan's Travels has adapted over the years due to industry changes and increased travel agent training programs with help with many travel suppliers. Dugan's Travels independent agents have the ability to attend seminars both online and at various cities. Dugan's Travels will be having the 5th annual Dugan's Travels ...

The deVere Group, the world's largest international group for financial consultancy, is proud to announce that it has signed a new deal with J.P. Morgan, the leaders in asset management, making the best-performing funds available to deVere clients worldwide. With the help of a professional adviser, clients of deVere Group will be able to gain direct access to J.P. Morgan Asset Management's vast investment range which offers solutions for investors of all risk appetites, via the deVere Fund Platform. In addition, the fund manager also intends to support deVere financial ...

A new study takes advantage of genetic similarities between mammals and fruit flies by coupling a complex genetic screening technique in humans with functional validation of the results in flies. The new strategy, published by Cell Press on February 3rd in The American Journal of Human Genetics, has the potential to be an effective approach for unraveling genetically complex human disorders and providing valuable insights into human disease. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) involve sifting through the complete set of DNA from many individuals to identify genetic ...

Ever since researchers devised a recipe for turning adult cells into cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells, there has been lingering doubt in the field about just how close to embryonic stem cells each of those cell lines really is at a molecular and functional level. Now, researchers reporting in the February 4th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, have developed a systematic way to lay those doubts about quality to rest. They have devised a method to quickly and comprehensively characterize those cells using a series of genomic assays, ...

While there is no doubt that the ethical controversy surrounding human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research has given rise to an uncertain policy environment, the true impact of years of frequent policy changes has not been fully assessed. Now, an article published by Cell Press on February 3rd in the journal Cell Stem Cell reports on a recent survey of several hundred stem cell scientists in the United States and begins to reveal the substantial negative impact that this uncertainty has had on them, including both those who work directly with hESCs and those who work with ...

A new study sheds light on why individuals who inherit a particular family of mutations have a high risk of developing a very aggressive form of breast cancer. The research, published by Cell Press on February 4th in the journal Cell Stem Cell, shows that breast tissue cells from these individuals make abnormal cell-fate decisions even before cancer develops and provides exciting new insights into the mechanisms behind one of the most lethal types of breast cancer. There are many forms of human breast cancer. Mutations in the BRCA1 tumor suppressor gene are associated ...

Sand dunes in a vast area of northern Mars long thought to be frozen in time are changing with both sudden and gradual motions, as revealed by images from a high-resolution camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO. These dune fields cover an area the size of Texas in a band around the planet at the edge of Mars' north polar cap. Although the new findings suggest they are among the most active landscapes on Mars, few changes in these dark-toned dunes had been detected before a campaign of repeated imaging by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Timing is everything in the long-standing arms race between the flowering plant Arabidopsis and Hyaloperonospora, a downy mildew pathogen. Duke University researchers have found that the little mustard plant cranks up its immune system in the morning to prepare for the greatest onslaught of infectious spores released by the mildew. It isn't news that plants know what time of day it is and change their activities accordingly, but this is the first time that a plant's defensive systems have been shown to cycle on a daily basis – even when pathogens aren't ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Complexity ever in the eye of its beholders, the animal with the most genes -- about 31,000 -- is the near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, or water flea. By comparison, humans have about 23,000 genes. Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced. The findings are part of a comprehensive report in this week's Science by members of the Daphnia Genomics Consortium, an international network of scientists led by the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics (CGB) at Indiana University Bloomington and the U.S. Department of ...

BOULDER, Colo.—In a paradox typical of the quantum world, JILA scientists have eliminated collisions between atoms in an atomic clock by packing the atoms closer together. The surprising discovery, described in the Feb. 3 issue of Science Express,* can boost the performance of experimental atomic clocks made of thousands or tens of thousands of neutral atoms trapped by intersecting laser beams. JILA is jointly operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder. JILA scientists demonstrated the new approach using ...

The potentially deadly bacterium Salmonella possesses a molecular machine that marshals the proteins it needs to hijack cellular mechanisms and infect millions worldwide. In a paper published Feb. 3 online in Science Express, Yale University researchers describe in detail how Salmonella, a major cause of food poisoning and typhoid fever, is able to make these proteins line in up in just the right sequence to invade host cells. "These mechanisms present us with novel targets that might form the basis for the development of an entirely new class of anti-microbials," ...

The study shows that in 2008, more than one in ten of the world's adult population was obese, with women more likely to be obese than men. An estimated 205 million men and 297 million adult women were obese - a total of more than half a billion adults worldwide. The proportion of the world's population with high blood pressure, or uncontrolled hypertension, fell modestly between 1980 and 2008. However, because of population growth and ageing, the number of people with uncontrolled hypertension rose from 600 million in 1980 to nearly 1 billion in 2008. High-income countries ...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, U.S.A. (Feb. 4, 2011) — Like two unruly boys who need to be split up in class, a pair of protein molecules work together to speed up the toxic events of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio today announced the discovery of the second molecule and said its identification could lead to drugs that disrupt the interaction, and thereby block or slow Alzheimer's onset or progression. Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease marked by deterioration of nerve cells and eventual complete loss of ...

A new way of splitting layered materials to give atom thin "nanosheets" has been discovered. This has led to a range of novel two-dimensional nanomaterials with chemical and electronic properties that have the potential to enable new electronic and energy storage technologies. The collaborative* international research led by the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN), Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the University of Oxford has been published in this week's Science. The scientists have invented a versatile method for creating these ...

The human body has a remarkable ability to heal itself. Due to the presence of dedicated stem cells, many organs can undergo continuous renewal. When an organ becomes damaged, stem cells in the organ are typically activated, producing new cells to regenerate the tissue. This activity of stem cells, however, has to be carefully controlled, as too much stem cell activity can cause diseases like cancer. Current research in stem cell biology is starting to unravel the control mechanisms that maintain a balance between efficient regeneration and proper control of stem cell function. ...