The new tool allows users to perform a self-assessment against the Principles and Criteria of the RSB and a self-risk assessment. The online tool also calculates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of biofuels for each lifecycle production step, from farming to final fuel distribution; this calculation can be done according to various methodologies. The development of the new tool, which is directly accessible (free of charge) at http://buiprojekte.f2.htw-berlin.de:1339/, took about two years and was supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The ...

A breakthrough in genetic research has uncovered the defect behind a rare hereditary children's disease that inhibits the body's ability to break down vitamin D. This discovery has led researchers to develop the first genetic and biochemical tests that positively identify the disease. Idiopathic Infantile Hypercalcemia (IIH) is among the top ten most common inherited diseases. The researchers estimate that one in every 47,000 people – around 600 Canadians and 6,000 Americans – may suffer from IIH, but there was no way until now of confirming the diagnosis. "Developing ...

Access Legal from Shoosmiths, the national consumer legal services provider, has announced it has hired Nicholas Tubb as its new partner in the medical negligence team. Tubb has joined Access Legal from Challinors' clinical negligence department and will be based in Access Legal's Birmingham office. Tubb has considerable experience in the sector and has specialised in medical negligence claims on behalf of patients and their families for more than 10 years, with a particular interest in complex cases and a wide experience of claims involving surgical errors and ...

Bethesda, Md. (June 16, 2011) – Coaches, physiologists and athletes alike will attest to the importance of warming up before athletic competition. Warming up increases muscle temperature, accelerates oxygen uptake kinetics and increases anaerobic metabolism, all of which enhance performance. However, the question of how long and strenuous a warm-up should be is more contentious, with some in the sports community advocating longer warm-ups and others espousing shorter ones. Now researchers at the University of Calgary Human Performance Laboratory in Calgary, Alberta, Canada ...

RICHMOND, Va., (June 16, 2011) – According to new data published in Clinical Therapeutics, the way a medication is packaged can have a significant impact on whether patients take it as prescribed. The study showed that Shellpak® calendar blister packaging from MeadWestvaco Corp. (NYSE: MWV), a provider of pharmaceutical packaging solutions, was associated with improvement in prescription adherence behavior in patients when compared with traditional pill vials. According to the researchers, a Shellpak-based adherence strategy could provide a substantial cumulative public ...

Voyages Jules Verne has announced the introduction of scheduled flights to its popular programme of escorted tours in Jordan. Replacing the charter arrangement from Gatwick to Aqaba, clients will now fly from Heathrow to Amman with British Midland International (bmi), enjoying a number of additional benefits that include Saturday departures, an extended season (which means a wider choice of departures over a longer period), free connecting bmi flights from Manchester (supplement for other regional airports) and an upgraded flight option where customers can fly in even ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – More than half of the women in a recently published survey reported that near the end of their pregnancies, they took it upon themselves to try to induce labor, mostly by walking, having sex, eating spicy food or stimulating their nipples. Of the 201 women who responded to the survey at a Midwestern hospital, 102, or 50.7 percent, used these or other unprescribed methods to try to bring on labor. Other techniques they tried included exercise, laxative use, acupuncture, masturbation and herbal supplementation. Women who tried these techniques tended ...

FAIRFAX, Va.—Evaluating patients with multiple sclerosis who have narrowed jugular and azygos veins—and the value of widening those veins with angioplasty—warrants careful, well-designed research, noted members of a Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation's Research Consensus Panel. And, the multidisciplinary panel indicated that while specific parameters for a large-scale, pivotal multicenter trial are not now available, that type of study is the "mandatory goal" in exploring a condition called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (or CCSVI). "Much work ...

Access Legal, the consumer legal services provider, has announced it will be sponsoring motorcycle racer Leon Hunt in this season's Metzeler National Superstock Championship. Access Legal will be backing the 22-year-old from Brighton in all 12 rounds of the series, which began at Easter, at Brands Hatch. This is the first time that Access Legal has sponsored a rider. Leon is racing for Lincoln-based team AP Kawasaki in the Superstock 1000cc class, which supports the popular MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship. He will be riding a brand new Kawasaki ZX-10R. ...

Building upon previous efforts producing a high-quality de novo genome assemblies of deadly 2011 E. coli O104:H4 outbreak strain (http://www.genomics.cn/en/news_show.php?type=show&id=651), the BGI and their collaborators at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf have now released the first complete map of the genome and plasmids without any assembly gaps. (genome publicly available at ftp://ftp.genomics.org.cn/pub/Ecoli_TY-2482/Escherichia_coli_TY-2482.chromosome.20110616.fa.gz and plasmids at ftp://ftp.genomics.org.cn/pub/Ecoli_TY-2482/Escherichia_coli_TY-2482.plasmid.20110616.fa.gz) BThis ...

Old trees must be protected to save the homes of more than 1,000 different bird and mammal species who nest, says a new study from the University of British Columbia. Most animals can't carve out their own tree holes and rely on holes already formed. The study found that outside of North America, most animals nest in tree holes formed by damage and decay, a process that can take several centuries. The study, published this month in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, examined the holes birds and mammals were using for nesting around the world. The research ...

How researchers classify and quantify causes of death across a population has evolved in recent decades. In addition to long-recognized physiological causes such as heart attack and cancer, the role of behavioral factors—including smoking, dietary patterns and inactivity—began to be quantified in the 1990s. More recent research has begun to look at the contribution of social factors to U.S. mortality. In the first comprehensive analysis of such studies, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that poverty, low levels of education, poor ...

Northern Rock has reduced mortgage rates, making its range even more competitive. As well as reducing selected rates across its core mortgage range by up to 0.50%, it has improved its 2-Year Fixed rate deal available exclusively through Northern Rock's intermediary partners. The product is now available at 2.99% for those with a 30% deposit (70% LTV). All of the remaining reduced deals are available to both purchase and remortgage customers, the latter benefiting from Northern Rock's usual incentive of a free basic valuation and free standard legal costs. Northern ...

As everyone knows, the pharmaceutical industry is struggling to deal with bacteria that have become resistant to common antibiotics. Less well known is the similar struggle in agribusiness to deal with weeds that have become resistant to a herbicide that is widely used in farming practice. The herbicide, first introduced in 1974, is glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup products and also in herbicides produced by other manufacturers. The first case of glyphosate resistance was documented in 1997, and today more than 20 weed species globally are reported ...

Ever wonder why on earth you should pay good money to have your blog posts / web copy proofread? Unfortunately writers (yes, even good writers like you) write fast, especially if a deadline is looming. When you're in a hurry you make typos - we all do! In connection with the business copywriting and blogging side of Prompt Proofing, we have to research many specialized fields and I never cease to be surprised how many excellent writers make typos. These are well-educated literate people who are just in a hurry. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, instead of remembering ...

NEW YORK (June 16, 2011) -- As many as 15 percent of men have varicoceles, masses of enlarged and dilated veins in the testicles. There is new evidence that varicoceles, long known to be a cause of male infertility, interfere with the production of testosterone -- a crucial hormone to maintaining men's health. There is good news too: Microsurgery can increase testosterone levels in these men. Results of new research by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are in a recent edition of BJU International. "Varicoceles are a much ...

Washington, D.C.--On March 18, 2011, the MESSENGER spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury to become that planet's first orbiter. The spacecraft's instruments are making a complete reconnaissance of the planet's geochemistry, geophysics, geologic history, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and plasma environment. MESSENGER is providing a wealth of new information and some surprises. For instance, Mercury's surface composition differs from that expected for the innermost of the terrestrial planets, and Mercury's magnetic field has a north-south asymmetry that affects interaction ...

With the economic downturn still in effect, many air charter consumers are seeking low-cost options for private jet charter. Stratos Jet Charters, Inc., a worldwide air charter agency, warned private jet travelers today that some charter brokerages are offering reduced pricing on charter flights by engaging in unfair, deceptive business practices. In a recent interview on air charter safety, Stratos Jet Charters' president and founder, Joel Thomas, spoke out against charter brokers that engage in illegal charter flight activity, highlighting the value of working with ...

Washington, D.C., 16 June 2011 – Fortunately, postnatal depression often resolves itself in the weeks following childbirth. But for mothers with more profound or prolonged postnatal depression the risk of subsequent development of depression in their children is strong. A recent study by Lynne Murray and colleagues published in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) is the first to demonstrate that the effects of maternal depression on the likelihood of the child to develop depression may begin as early as infancy. ...

Innovative adult stem cell research by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) could aid efforts to apply the brakes to stem cells that produce the type of fat ringing the waists of millions. Research appeared today online ahead of the print issue of Cell Stem Cell. The scientists have developed a bold approach for targeting fat-generating stem cells that one day could aid in the delivery of drugs that slow the cells' ability to direct fat expansion. Because these cells are also used in regenerative medicine, this approach may ...

VESAG watch can now be used by an entire family and its members to avail the emergency medical services more conveniently. Most of the personal emergency response systems or PERS work only for a single member of a house. A VESAG watch can now be used by as many as five members of a family. All the customers will be provided with a unique identification number. With this unique number, they can access their individual account and view their health statistics from VESAG portal. In case the customer does not have access to internet, they can call the customer care centre ...

VIDEO: In this animation of a 3-D plasmon ruler, developed by a collaboration of researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Stuttgart, the plasmonic assembly acts as... Click here for more information. The world's first three-dimensional plasmon rulers, capable of measuring nanometer-scale spatial changes in macrmolecular systems, have been developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A survey of wine drinkers conducted by the University at Buffalo School of Management has found that 54 percent say they are opposed to a New York State proposal to sell wine in supermarkets. In a survey of more than 5,000 households, 42 percent of those opposing wine sales in supermarkets cited "negative impact on small businesses" as their reason for doing so. Other reasons included reduction of wine selection (19 percent), likely end of personalized services (15 percent), end of a unique shopping experience at specialty stores (11 percent), perceived ...

Two-year-old Owen Stark came to St. Louis Children's Hospital in the summer of 2010 near death from heart failure and dangerously high blood pressure in his lungs. Washington University physicians and surgeons at St. Louis Children's Hospital knew they had to act fast to save his life. They collaborated to make several strategic and innovative decisions that led to the first successful use of an artificial lung in a toddler. Their efforts are reported in the June 2011 issue of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. The artificial lung, made by Novalung ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – New research by electrical engineers at Oregon State University has confirmed that an electronic technology called "ultrawideband" could hold part of the solution to an ambitious goal in the future of medicine – health monitoring with sophisticated "body-area networks." Such networks would offer continuous, real-time health diagnosis, experts say, to reduce the onset of degenerative diseases, save lives and cut health care costs. Some remote health monitoring is already available, but the perfection of such systems is still elusive. The ideal device ...