Rock climbers are having a negative impact on rare cliff-dwelling plants, ecologists have found. Writing in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology they say that in areas popular with climbers, conservation management plans should be drawn up so that some cliffs are protected from climbers. The Northern Franconian Jura and the Swabian Alb are two of Germany's most important climbing areas but also the last European stronghold of the rare yellow whitlowgrass (Draba azoides) – a small plant that lives on limestone cliffs where it forms cushion-like rosettes. To ...

Noise is annoying. It interrupts communication, reduces productivity and tires people out – in extreme cases it can even make them ill. Sound absorbing surfaces are therefore needed in rooms where people work, talk to each other or are trying to relax. These decrease reverberation and so make rooms quieter. However so called acoustically «hard» materials such as glass and concrete, which are commonly used in interior design, scarcely absorb sound at all. Heavy curtains made of material such as velvet are often used to absorb sound. On the other hand, lightweight and transparent ...

Employees often suspect that participating in work-family programs could harm their careers, and prior research studies have shown they are right to be worried. Employees who use the programs are at risk of fewer promotions and lower wages than those who do not. But now, two researchers have shown how employees could gain the intended benefits of work-family programs -- such as flexible schedules with prorated pay -- without harming their careers. Forrest Briscoe, assistant professor of management, Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Katherine Kellogg, associate ...

Washington, DC, May 3, 2011 – Fifteen percent of U.S. nursing homes receive deficiency citations for infection control per year, according to a new study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. Conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health, the study analyzed deficiency citation data collected for the purpose of Medicare/Medicaid certification between 2000 and 2007, representing ...

NEW YORK (May 3, 2011) – Rotational grazing of cattle in native pasturelands in Brazil's Pantanal and Cerrado regions can benefit both cattle and wildlife, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society. The technique, which has been adapted for a variety of livestock worldwide, calls for cattle to graze in small areas for shorter periods of time before moving onto other pastures. The result is a greater forage base that produces larger, more valuable cattle while reducing incentives for deforestation, uncontrolled burning, and replacement ...

Stem cells extracted from body fat may pave the way for the development of new regenerative therapies including soft tissue reconstruction following tumor removal or breast mastectomy surgery, the development of tissue-engineered cartilage or bone, and the treatment of cardiovascular disease. An interdisciplinary team of Queen's University researchers led by Dr. Lauren Flynn, a professor in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Anatomy and Cell Biology, has been working with stem cells extracted from samples of human fat and is developing new methods in the lab ...

With spring hurtling dangerously close to summer, and the sunshine peeking its face from behind the clouds to grace us with some much needed blue skies and warmth, Boden has put together a range of whites that will keep you cool and breeze through the sunnier months. Nothing shows off your summer tan quite like one of our white dresses, and Boden's Limited Edition Broderie Dress and their Pleat Neck Linen Dress are both light and breezy enough to keep you fresh in the heat, while making even the palest of skin glow with radiance offset against their lighter shade of ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new experimental drug selectively kills the cancerous cells that cause chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to a new study by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). The study shows that the experimental agent PCI-32765 selectively kills the malignant B lymphocytes that cause chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The researchers say the findings, published online in the journal Blood, are important because current CLL therapies ...

A team of scientists, including several from the Smithsonian Institution, discovered that leaves of flowering plants in the world's first rainforests had more veins per unit area than leaves ever had before. They suggest that this increased the amount of water available to the leaves, making it possible for plants to capture more carbon and grow larger. A better plumbing system may also have radically altered water and carbon movement through forests, driving environmental change. "It's fascinating that a simple leaf feature such as vein density allows one to study plant ...

Ah, the 1970s. No other decade did "Eye Catching" quite like it, with its bright colours, stunning patterns and sunglasses big enough to hide a car behind. If you were too young to experience the decade in all its glory, then have no fear - Boden are here to give you a taste with their new range of funky attire. You can celebrate the hot weather 70s style, stepping out into the Sun in one of our Voile Maxi dresses, a Funky Bikini and towel packed in your Big Beach Bag. Once you get to the seaside, just kick off your comfy Elastic Espadrilles, slip into your ...

Global climate change is anticipated to bring more extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves that could impact human health in the coming decades. An analysis led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health calculated that the city of Chicago could experience between 166 and 2,217 excess deaths per year attributable to heat waves using three different climate change scenarios for the final decades of the 21st century. The study was published May 1 edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. "Our study looks to quantify the impact ...

Dallas Janitorial Services is a commercial cleaning business that specializes in a process driven approach. Dallas Janitorial Service incorporates the service-profit chain phenomenon into their operations. The philosophy of the service-profit chain phenomenon is that a business will naturally exude profits and success if employees customers are satisfied. Some traits of the service-process chain include: High level, highly effective internal processes- Dallas Janitorial Services uses effective processes in all parts of its internal functions. At an employee level, ...

CINCINNATI—Hepatitis B virus (HBV) continues to be a major health issue in the United States despite prevention strategies. Now, research at the University of Cincinnati (UC) provides evidence that current prevention and screening standards are worth the cost and may even need expansion to include more of the population, further helping prevent the spread of this life-threatening disease. The findings are published in the May 3, 2011 advance online edition of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Mark Eckman, MD, UC Health physician and professor of medicine, ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The cactus, stalwart of the desert, has quite a story to tell about the evolution of plant communities found the world over. In a paper published in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Brown University biologists and colleagues have discovered that the rapid speciation of cacti occurred between 5 and 10 million years ago and coincided with species explosions by other succulent plant groups around the world. The researchers propose that a prolonged dry spell and possibly lower levels of atmospheric ...

Have something to say about our conveyor systems? Tell us...and the rest of the world about it - we'd love to hear from you. Dorner Manufacturing has launched its new Dorner Conveyor Blog on http://blog.dornerconveyors.com. Each week Dorner engineers, product managers and others will be posting topics such as conveyor designs, unique applications, product development, conveyor maintenance, industry observations - virtually any topic related to conveyors and material handling. The interactive Dorner Conveyor Blog seeks readers' input by allowing people to voice their ...

SEATTLE – Many patients who undergo bone marrow or blood stem cell transplantation to treat blood cancers or a "pre-leukemic" condition called myelodysplasia experience a decline in mental and fine motor skills due to the toll of their disease and its treatment. A new study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, published in the May 2, 2011 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that overall, these effects are largely temporary and that most patients can expect a return to normal motor and memory function within five years. However, ...

Many people reach toward the back of the fresh-produce shelf to find the freshest salad greens with the latest expiration dates. But a study led by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists may prompt consumers to instead look for packages that receive the greatest exposure to light--usually those found closest to the front. The study was led by postharvest plant physiologist Gene Lester while at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Crop Quality and Fruit Insects Research Unit in Weslaco, Texas. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency. Lester ...

WESTERVILLE, OH – Imagine a battlefield medic or emergency medical technician providing first aid with a special wad of cottony glass fibers that simultaneously slows bleeding, fights bacteria (and other sources of infection), stimulates the body's natural healing mechanisms, resists scarring, and—because it is quickly absorbed by surrounding tissue — may never have to be removed in follow-up care. Or, imagine diabetics with hard-to-heal wounds finding a source of relief from the battle against infections and limb amputation. Those scenarios are the hope of the developers ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A team of researchers is beginning to see exactly what the response to threats looks like in the brain at the cellular and molecular levels. This new information, including the discovery that a model of social stress can increase inflammation among brain cells, should provide new insight into how the stress response affects inflammatory and behavioral responses. It may also provide new targets for drugs treatments in the continuing struggle to curtail depression and anxiety. Scientists from Ohio State University's Institute of Behavioral Medicine ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A new study from Rhode Island Hospital has found that more than one in 10 catheter-related bloodstream infections due to Staph aureus in hospitalized adults are caused by infected peripheral venous catheters (PVC). The study points out the substantial medical burden that arises from complications from these infections due to the large number of such catheters used in hospitalized patients. The study is published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and is now available online in advance of print. Senior author Leonard Mermel, ...

This release is available in French. Montreal, May 3, 2011 – Most Canadian teenagers are expected to make their own decisions, while Chinese adolescents are still heavily influenced by their parents, according to a study published in the Journal of Business Research. Led by Concordia University and the University of Texas at Arlington researchers, the investigation found child-rearing practices appear to impact teen outlooks and decision-making patterns differently across cultures. Why? Parenting varies in both countries, since Canada is an individualist culture and ...

Boston- Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center have found that by adding one family physician per 1,000, or 100 per 100,000, could reduce hospital readmission costs by $579 million per year, or 83 percent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) target. These findings currently appear on the website of the "Robert Graham Center," a primary care think tank. Growth of family physicians has fallen over the last decade due to payment disparities and other strong incentives for subspecialization, and lack of accountability ...

PITTSBURGH—Taking their cue from social media, educators at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a social networking application called Classroom Salon that engages students in online learning communities that effectively tap the collective intelligence of groups. Thousands of high school and university students used Classroom Salon (CLS), http://www.classroomsalon.org/, this past academic year to share their ideas about texts, news articles and other reading materials or their critiques of each others' writings. With the support of the Next Generation Learning Challenges ...

Rice University senior engineering students are using the sun to power an autoclave that sterilizes medical instruments and help solve a long-standing health issue for developing countries. The student's used Capteur Soleil, a device created decades ago by French inventor Jean Boubour to capture the energy of the sun in places where electricity -- or fuel of any kind -- is hard to get. In attaching an insulated box containing the autoclave, the students transform the device into a potential lifesaver. The Capteur Soleil, which sits outside Rice's Oshman Engineering ...

URBANA – A Vietnam veteran who conducted early-morning mine sweeps on that country's roads, University of Illinois nutrition professor John Erdman knows the damage that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause. That's why he was happy to chair a committee that gave the Department of Defense recommendations that will improve the odds of recovery for persons wounded by roadside bombs. "Within the first 24 hours after head trauma, patients need to receive at least 50 percent of their normal caloric intake, including a higher-than-normal amount of protein, to reduce inflammation ...