Is the vacuum-packed chicken leg really still fresh and edible? Looks alone do not tell the whole story. And the "best-before" date is no guarantee, either. Scandals involving the sale of rotten meat have added to the uncertainty, and the customer him- or herself may be shortening the shelf life through improper storage. This is an area in which a sensor film developed by the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies EMFT in Munich can immediately give a green – or rather: yellow light, or warn of spoiled goods. EMFT developed the film in a project ...

California Family Courts deal with a huge volume of traffic every year. Just the Los Angeles Superior Court -- Family Law handles 100,000 filings per year. The high number of filings combined with the fact that over 70 percent of litigants in family law are unrepresented -- meaning they don't have an attorney -- many courts have adopted local rules and procedures in an attempt to more efficiently process the high volume of family law cases. While some of these rules and procedures help speed up the process, the price that efficiency comes at was the virtual elimination ...

This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a group of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disc that is tidally distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. The swathe of blue jewels across the top is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot young blue stars. These massive stars glow fiercely in ultraviolet light. The smaller, nearly edge-on companion shows distinct signs of intense star formation at its ...

While the foreclosure crisis has had a devastating effect on the real estate market, loan modifications have been equally as troubling for struggling homeowners. The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was supposed to help millions of Americans struggling to pay their mortgages by modifying home loans to reflect the current value of their properties. Unfortunately, HAMP has not been as effective as first contemplated. As of March 2011, less than 500,000 mortgages have been modified through this program, when it was estimated that 3-4 million mortgages would be ...

Thanks to a certain protein, rhesus monkeys are resistant to HIV. Known as TRIM5, the protein prevents the HI virus from multiplying once it has entered the cell. Researchers from the universities of Geneva and Zurich have now discovered the protein's mechanism, as they report in Nature. This also opens up new prospects for fighting HIV in humans. Unlike people, certain monkey species, such as rhesus or night monkeys, are resistant to HIV thanks to TRIM5, a cellular protein: In the case of an HIV infection, the protein intercepts the virus as soon as it enters the ...

BOSTON (April 20, 2011, 5pm ET) − Eating more n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, commonly known as omega-3 fatty acids, may help carriers of a genetic variant on the perilipin 4 (PLIN4) gene locus lose weight more efficiently. Based on this observation, researchers at the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University identified a microRNA (miRNA) which may elucidate the underlying biological mechanism. Led by Jose M. Ordovas, PhD, director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA, researchers genotyped seven ...

A new study from the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry finds that mothers who feed their babies breast milk exclusively, as opposed to formula, are more likely to bond emotionally with their child during the first few months after delivery. The breastfeeding mothers surveyed for the study showed greater responses to their infant's cry in brain regions related to caregiving behavior and empathy than mothers who relied upon formula as the baby's main food source. This is the first paper to examine the underlying neurobiological mechanisms as a function of breastfeeding, ...

In February 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama made the ground-breaking announcement that his administration would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages. While the change in federal DOMA enforcement is a great stride forward in equal rights for the LGBT community, there are still alarming conflicts between federal law and Washington state law. If you are considering registering for a domestic partnership, are in a registered domestic partnership or if you advise people who are in a registered domestic partnerships, ...

The passwords of the future could become more secure and, at the same time, simpler to use. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden have been inspired by the physics of critical phenomena in their attempts to significantly improve password protection. The researchers split a password into two sections. With the first, easy to memorize section they encrypt a Captcha – an image that computer programs per se have difficulty in deciphering. The researchers also make it more difficult for computers, whose task it is to automatically ...

When Congress' recent revisions to federal laws governing credit card usage went into effect, some consumers saw interest rates double or even triple. The law now allows for credit providers to be more flexible with interest rate raises, provided they give the cardholders notice of the action and share information about the total amount of the debt and approximately how long it will take to pay it off. The changes in the law were initially introduced as a way to protect consumers, but, in practice they are much more biased toward lenders. Following the enacting of those ...

New York, NY, April 20, 2011 - A 20-member blue-ribbon panel, the Study Group on Corporate Boards, co-sponsored by Columbia Business School and the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, today released "Bridging Board Gaps," a report designed to improve board performance and effectiveness by offering a series of recommendations in critical areas of governance. The report calls for a renewed commitment to the purpose of corporate boards, and suggests guidelines to improve board practices and standards along seven core dimensions: ...

WASHINGTON — Those childhood music lessons could pay off decades later - even for those who no longer play an instrument – by keeping the mind sharper as people age, according to a preliminary study published by the American Psychological Association. The study recruited 70 healthy adults age 60 to 83 who were divided into groups based on their levels of musical experience. The musicians performed better on several cognitive tests than individuals who had never studied an instrument or learned how to read music. The research findings were published online in the APA ...

Scientists are reporting development of a new battery that extracts and stores energy produced from the difference in saltiness at the point where freshwater in rivers flows into oceans. A report on the battery, which could supply about 13 percent of the world's energy needs, appears in ACS' journal Nano Letters. Yi Cui and colleagues cite the intensive global scientific effort to develop renewable energy sources to supplement supplies of oil and other traditional fuels like coal, which contribute to global warming. Solar, wind, and geothermal are renewable, sustainable ...

New technology that combines production of electricity with capture of carbon dioxide could make billions of barrels of oil shale — now regarded as off-limits because of the huge amounts of carbon dioxide released in its production — available as an energy source in a greenhouse world of the future. That's the conclusion of a report on "electricity production with in situ carbon capture" (EPICC) in ACS' journal Energy & Fuels. Adam Brandt and Hiren Mulchandani explain that almost 3 trillion barrels of oil are trapped in the world's deposits of oil-shale, a dark-colored ...

The North Carolina Legislature is considering proposed medical malpractice legislation that would limit damages for non-economic damages. The state has already enacted a law that caps monetary damages in negligence cases to $1 million where the parties agree to go to binding arbitration, but Bloomberg reports that few have actually exercised this option. Proposed Malpractice Damage Cap The legislation calls for a limit of $250,000 on non-economic damages, which include compensation for pain and suffering, disfigurement, mutilation, loss of a limb, paralysis, and death. ...

A needle-in-the-haystack search through nearly 390,000 chemical compounds had led scientists to a substance that can sneak through the protective barrier surrounding the brain with effects promising for new drugs for Parkinson's and Huntington's disease. They report on the substance, which blocks formation of cholesterol in the brain, in the journal, ACS Chemical Biology. Aleksey G. Kazantsev and colleagues previously discovered that blocking cholesterol formation in the brain could protect against some of the damage caused by chronic brain disorders like Parkinson's ...

The costly, often-frustrating quest for new ways of preventing and treating diseases that strike vegetables, fruits, and other food crops bears striking similarity to the better-known saga of the pharmaceutical industry's pricey search for new drugs for humans. That's the topic of an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine. C&EN Senior Business Editor Melody M. Bomgardner points out that the R&D investment in new herbicides, fungicides, and other plant chemicals almost rivals that for human pharmaceuticals on a one ...

Atlanta landscape lighting company NightVision Outdoor Lighting is offering its lighting maintenance services to the former customers of Southern Nights, Inc., a landscape lighting, design, and contracting company local to Atlanta. NightVision Outdoor Lighting specializes in Atlanta outdoor lighting for residential and commercial needs, using the highest quality bulbs and fixtures combined with years of experience and dependable service. Having recently gone out of business after 18 years in the industry, Southern Nights, Inc. left many homeowners across the metro Atlanta ...

DURHAM, N.C. – A major discovery about an enzyme's structure has opened a window on understanding DNA repair. Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have determined the structure of a nuclease that will help scientists to understand several DNA repair pathways, a welcome development for cancer research. DNA repair pathways are very important in the context of cancer biology and aging, but the tools the cell uses to do those repairs are not well understood. "Until we saw the structure using X-ray crystallography, we didn't understand how it could recognize so many ...

FAIRFAX, Va.—The Society of Interventional Radiology has a long-term commitment to radiation safety, taking a leading role in measuring and assessing radiation dosage; developing educational programs on radiation safety, radiation protection and reduction of skin dosage; and promoting the safety of patients and health care professionals. Four articles, published this month in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, illustrate SIR's frontline stance on facets of patient safety and standards of care by exploring opportunities to improve patient safety through ...

A new discovery in a deadly lung disease may change the direction of research while uncovering increased risk for many patients and families. The Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF) and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) applaud the efforts of scientists that led to the discovery of a genetic variation associated with the MUC5B gene which may increase the risk of developing Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF). The two patient organizations partner with National Jewish Health (NJH), which led the team of researchers in the study, on a genetic counseling line that provides ...

(Boston) – A pulse oximetry training video produced by Rafael Ortega, MD, the vice-chair of academic affairs for the department of anesthesiology at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and professor of anesthesiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), and his colleagues is featured in this week's New England Journal of Medicine. The training video, which is the fifth BMC-produced video to appear in the NEJM's Videos in Clinical Medicine section, provides best practices for physicians utilizing pulse oximetry. Pulse oximeters are small, non-invasive sensors placed ...

If a friend or relative won $100 and then offered you a few dollars, would you accept this windfall? The logical answer would seem to be, sure, why not? "But human decision making does not always appear rational," said Read Montague, professor of physics at Virginia Tech and director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. According to research conducted over the last three decades; only about one-fourth of us would say, "Sure. Thanks." The rest would say, "But that's not fair. You have lots. Why are you only giving me a ...

Glover's Flooring America, an Atlanta flooring company, has announced the addition of Tigressa Soft Style carpet to its line of flooring options. Glover's is a family-owned company offering huge selections of Atlanta carpet, hardwood floors, tile, laminate, vinyl and area rugs. Tigressa Soft Style only enhances the already expansive Atlanta flooring showroom available at Glover's Flooring America. The advanced flooring blends strength and durability with softness and elegance. "With its abundance of styles and colors combined with its supreme durability, we believe ...

PHILADELPHIA - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are delving into the details of the complex structure at the ends of chromosomes. Recent work, e-published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology last month, describes how these structures, called telomeres, can be protected by caps made up of specialized proteins and stacks of DNA called G-quadruplexes, or "G4 DNA." Telomere caps are like a knot at the end of each chromosome "string," with the knot's role preventing the string from unraveling. "Although G4 DNA has been studied in test tubes ...