Killing microorganisms has become a national obsession. A pair of antimicrobial compounds known as triclosan and triclocarban are lately the weapons of choice in our war of attrition against the microbial world. Both chemicals are found in an array of personal care products like antimicrobial soaps, and triclosan also is formulated into everyday items ranging from plastics and toys to articles of clothing. But are these antimicrobial chemicals, as commonly used by people across the nation, really safe for human health and the environment? More pointedly, do they even ...

Between 20 and 30 percent of women who undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures suffer from significant symptoms of depression. Many practitioners believe that the hormone therapy involved in IVF procedures is primarily responsible for this. But new research from Tel Aviv University shows that, while this is true, other factors are even more influential. According to Dr. Miki Bloch of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, stress, pre-existing depression, and anxiety are more likely than hormone therapy ...

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in West Virginia are finding ways to improve soil on degraded land so it can be used for sports fields and other uses. Researchers with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at the agency's Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center (AFSRC) in Beaver, W.Va., are developing constructed or replacement subsoils and topsoils to build better and less-costly sports fields, raingardens and lawns on former landfills, mine lands and other degraded land. ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. The constructed ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Some scholars estimate that presenteeism, a relatively recent buzzword that applies to people who are less productive at work because of health issues, costs employers as much as three times the dollar amount as absenteeism in terms of lost productivity. But researchers at University of Michigan believe those numbers may be inaccurate. A new opinion paper suggests that the tools for measuring and quantifying hours of lost productivity and translating those hours to dollars are unreliable and don't capture the entire presenteeism picture, said Susan ...

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy. "What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. "We don't fully understand their nature or origin." The ...

DALLAS – Nov. 9, 2010 – A hormone already responsible for increasing blood pressure by prompting the kidneys to retain salt appears to moonlight as a major stimulator of the brain centers that control the vascular system and blood pressure. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center studied patients who overproduce aldosterone to see whether the hormone had any effect on sympathetic nerve activity responsible for blood pressure increases. "Between 10 percent and 20 percent of patients with high blood pressure who are resistant to treatment have elevated aldosterone ...

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way -- a finding likened in terms of scale to the discovery of a new continent on Earth. The feature, which spans 50,000 light-years, may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy. "What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass., who first ...

BOSTON—Dementia and cognitive impairment are widespread among elderly individuals in the United States, affecting more than 8 million people to some degree. The Sweet 16, a new screening test developed by a team of geriatricians and neurologists at the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, could help clinicians more rapidly detect dementia in elderly patients. The Sweet 16 will be available without charge to any nonprofit organization, and may provide an alternative to the Mini-Mental State Examination. The findings ...

One of America's favorite seafood is shrimp. Did you know that they fossilize as well? Rodney Feldmann, professor emeritus, and Carrie Schweitzer, associate professor, from Kent State University's Department of Geology report on the oldest fossil shrimp known to date in the world. The creature in stone is as much as 360 million years old and was found in Oklahoma. Even the muscles of the fossil are preserved. Their study will be published in Journal of Crustacean Biology. "The oldest known shrimp prior to this discovery came from Madagascar," Feldmann said. "This one ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- The clot-busting drug rt-PA remains the most beneficial proven emergency treatment for strokes caused by blood clots, according to an editorial in the November issue of Archives of Neurology by Dr. José Biller. "The benefits of treatment outweigh the risks in patients treated with intravenous rt-PA within 4.5 hours of symptom onset," Biller wrote. Biller is chairman of the Department of Neurology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and an internationally recognized expert on stroke care. Most strokes are ischemic, meaning they are ...

During college years, students become more sedentary and as their physical activity levels decrease, Body Mass Index and weight increase. "Basically, students came out of college significantly less active and heavier compared to the start of their freshman year," said Jeanne Johnston, assistant professor in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. "But it is a gradual process." She and her colleagues conducted a survey that asked a sample population of undergraduate students questions about physical activity. No matter what their year, college students ...

Couples who score well on a simple test of numeracy ability accumulate more wealth by middle age than couples who score poorly on such a test, according to a new study of married couples in the United States. Researchers found that when both spouses answered three numeracy-related questions correctly, family wealth averaged $1.7 million, while among couples where neither spouse answered any questions correctly the average household wealth was $200,000. Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts, and are skills typically learned during ...

A multi-tiered effort designed to stem binge drinking at a large university and to change the drinking culture among its students produced notable results during the 2.5 years of an Indiana University study. Freshmen living on campus showed significant drops in the average number of drinks consumed in a week; in the percentage who drank at least once a week in the last year; and in the proportion of students who engaged in binge drinking in the previous week. Heavy drinking by college students and the associated consequences -- poor health and academic performance, ...

Chief Executive Officer of ZEN Home Energy Systems, Richard Turner, reports the company has been 'inundated' with calls from schools wanting solar power systems before submissions close for the 2010-2011 funding round. 'We are currently speaking to 40 schools (for round two funding) across South Australia and Mildura to install solar panels. This is a 50% percent leap in demand from last year. We offer a solution to match with the schools funding budget and a consultative system design for the school with education and quality of the systems performance as the key ...

Rosendin Electric (www.rosendin.com), the nation's largest private electrical contractor and a 100-percent employee-owned company, today announced that four of its commercial construction projects received honors from California Construction magazine, including Best Overall Project and three Best of 2010 awards. In all, Rosendin Electric projects garnered five awards in four categories, including Best Overall Project, Best Government/Public Building project, Best Transportation Project, and two Healthcare awards for Best Project and an Award of Merit. The Mineta San ...

DocVerify, a leading pioneer in advanced electronic and digital signature solutions, electronic notaries, and encryption technology, today announced a new partnership with Ingeo Systems, Inc. Through the partnership, DocVerify will provide expanded services to its core customers, including electronic recording applications. A trusted provider of electronic document recording technology, Ingeo Systems, Inc. offers the nation's large e-Recording network. The company is the premiere choice for electronic recording services among banks, title companies and mortgage firms. ...

progeCAD USA / progecad.us Announces Solutions for Civil/Survey CAD Portland, Oregon, USA - progeCAD USA / progecad.us announces the availability of software solutions for Civil/Survey designers, based on progeCAD Professional. progeEARTH is a complete Civil/Survey application, including COGO, Survey, Digital Terrain Modeling, and Road Design. The Survey, COGO, DTM, and Road Design software provides a total solution for point entry, point manipulation, lot design, annotation, contours, profiles, cross sections and corridor design. progeEARTH software runs on progeCAD ...

Under the agreement, IPS Securex will distribute Creative Electron's TruView range of X-ray systems that have been designed for non-invasive and in-house screening of components, PCBs and other devices. TruView exceeds the requirements of all component authenticity verification standards, including IDEA STD-1010-A, MIL-STD-83C, CCAP-101, and AS5553. The state-of-the-art software originally designed for the USA Department of Homeland Security, distinguishes TruView from the competition. With the aid of the proprietary software, quality control professionals can easily ...

Because the fall can be an overwhelming time for students, it's important to keep a log of scholarship deadline dates. At the education site SocialWorkPrograms.org, staff writer Jill Cohen suggest students pay as much attention to scholarship and grant deadlines as well as the admission application requirements. This states, "Fall can be an overwhelming time because students are trying to visit colleges, fill out admission applications and also keep track of deadlines for fall scholarships." Ms. Cohen notes that since many students rely on scholarship money to be able ...

Immunologix, Inc, a Charleston, SC biotechnology company and a leader in fully human therapeutic antibodies for a variety of diseases and GenScript, a contract research organization (CRO) based in Piscataway, NJ and the industry leader in bio-reagent services, assay development & screening, lead optimization, and antibody drug development, announced today that the companies have formed a strategic partnership to offer a complete platform for producing human antibody therapeutics. Immunologix holds the exclusive worldwide license rights to a proprietary technique used to ...

Celebrity stylist Heather Galwey has moved to Steven Paul Salon, 7045 E. 3rd Ave. in Scottsdale. Galwey previously worked at Abila Salon for more than three years, and Rumors in Tempe prior to that. The Arizona stylist specializes in European hair styling which emphasizes technique cutting to add or subtract weight to the hair and create a more aesthetically pleasing silhouette. Her expertise also includes: color correction, updos, special event styling and makeup, relaxers and extensions. She is a Swartzkopt certified colorist and educated in the Redkin shades EQ color ...

Angelina, the new fitness apparel line from sisters Angelina and Sharon Pacaldo has officially launched online and in retail stores. The sisters formed Angelina in 2010 with the goal of making a positive impact on the lives of fitness enthusiasts in California and beyond. Angelina's line of clothing is designed to appeal to every Woman that has a fitness goal or passion in her life; whether it is walking, yoga, running, weight training or even kickboxing. The sisters have been busy preparing their latest line of Angelina apparel that will be launched in the coming month ...

San Francisco Urgent Care Dr. John Horning MD is pleased to announce the expansion of his San Francisco Urgent Care services to the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Since launching his hotel and house call service in February 2007, Dr. Horning has seen increasingly significant demand for his services. Dr. Horning discovered that house call medicine provides a great opportunity for the patient and the doctor to connect with each other, something he rarely had the chance to do during his tenure as an emergency room physician. "Dr. Horning has proven to be an extraordinary ...

Scottsdale Dental Arts is pleased to announce that it is teaming up with Kierland Smile Design dental laboratory to sponsor the Smile of Scottsdale smile makeover contest. From October 15, 2010 to January 15, 2010, contestants can enter to win a $20,000 smile makeover by Dr. Jason McCargar, DMD of Scottsdale Dental Arts in Scottsdale, AZ. Each contestant must explain in 250 words or less how improving their smile would improve their life. Visit http://www.scottsdaledentalarts.com or call 480-860-8282 for entry details and competition rules. Scottsdale Dental Arts is excited ...

Individuals looking for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet the challenges of tracking game in the African bush can do so in Africa's Tuli region, starting next spring. DeepIntoAfrica, a highly respected ecotourism organization, is offering the opportunity for individuals who are looking to stretch the limits of their own mental and physical fitness. Through the program, participants will learn to track both game and human spoor during an intensive two week course. The next course will be April 12-27, 2011. "This is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to ...