According to a recent survey by American Express, 62 percent of homeowners plan to invest in home improvement projects to enhance the appearance and value of their property. That supports the latest release of LIRA, the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies that predicts an increase in home improvement spending by homeowners. Since more homeowners are staying and improving instead of moving the question for do-it-yourselfers is what improvements give the best payback for their effort. The answer from DIYORNOT.com, featured ...

What is the best sleep apnea treatment? It is not CPAP, according to a recent study that showed 60% of patients abandon CPAP use. At least it is not the best treatment for the 60% of patients who abandoned it. This does not mean CPAP is not the most effective treatment, what it means is no matter how effective a treatment may be, it is a poor treatment if it is not used. Oral appliances are an extremely effective treatment for mild to moderate sleep apnea but less effective for morbidly obese patients and those with severe sleep apnea. Oral appliances are the "Best ...

For any bad debt that your company is listing to be resolved by a third-party collection agency, you should consider House Bill 10-1222. Providing excellent customer service to our clients and consumers to resolve unpaid accounts is our specialty. The agency that you choose to contract with for resolving any bad debt incurred for services rendered within the state of Colorado, will need to be physically located in Colorado. HOUSE BILL 10-1222 BY REPRESENTATIVE(S) Middleton, Apuan, Frangas, Liston; also SENATOR(S) Carroll M., Foster, Williams. Concerning ...

Dr. Janice Hall Ormsby is improving lives in Ithaca, Cortland, Tioga, Broome and all around New York with custom night-use oral appliances that keep the airway open, ensuring a restful night sleep and lowering her patients' risk of stroke, heart disease, and sleep-related car accidents. Sleep apnea is a life threatening medical condition that is often treated with the CPAP machine. The problem is less than half the people prescribed CPAP use it regularly. Dr. Ormsby has joined the national I Hate CPAP campaign and launched http://www.Ithaca.IHateCPAP.com to introduce ...

SimpleCare World Health, a private international healthcare company, officially announces the launch of their new "Free MRI or CT scan review Process". R. Prats, Medical Director of SimpleCare, describes his enthusiasm with this new service: "I am very pleased with our ability to provide free MRI or CT consultations... As we continue giving the consumers the ultimate experience in purchasing their health care, this service will play a vital role in our business strategy, not only with our valued members, but with the general public looking for an alternative to the ...

Opera in the Outback offers music lovers the opportunity to combine their passion with some of the most spectacular scenery in Australia. The event, which takes place between October 7th and 10th 2010, is held in the Undara Volcanic National Park, around a 200km journey from Cairns. This sanctuary is home to the remains of the earth's longest flow of lava to stem from a single volcano. Given the isolated nature of the location, it is likely that people who are keen to travel to Queensland to attend one of the performances throughout the festival will have to spend ...

A production of Pere I El Llop - AKA Peter and the Wolf - is being performed in Barcelona's Gran Teatre de Liceu this autumn, with audiences set to be treated to marvellous music with fun visual additions. This show is primarily aimed at youngsters, but it will no doubt be appreciated by many adult guests at some of the cheap hotels Barcelona has to offer. "Each instrument represents a character in this musical story, told by a narrator, about a little boy called Peter who was so brave and intelligent that he was able to capture a wolf," explained the organisers. With ...

A showcase of the films of Vincente Minnelli is playing at the Barbican in London, which is sure to excite plenty of vintage movie fans. The director worked alongside some of the most famous names in cinema during his time in the industry, including Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy and Judy Garland, who he ended up getting married to. Guests at London hotels have a broad spectrum of his films to see at the Barbican, including Gigi, An American in Paris and Meet Me in St Louis, with the final screening taking place on October 2nd 2010 and showing The Band Wagon. This ...

Guests of Bournemouth hotels will have an opportunity to see electronic duo Crystal Castles play live next month. The Canadian band are set perform at the south coast resort's O2 Academy on Tuesday October 12th, having released their second album to much acclaim in May this year. Formed in Toronto six years ago, Crystal Castles is comprised of producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass. The pair's self-titled debut album sparked excitement among fans when it appeared in 2008, spawning singles such as Crimewave, Air War and Courtship Dating. It was ranked at ...

Car lovers and motor industry figures are set to descend on the Sharjah Expo Centre next month for the tenth International Automobile Show. The event takes place between October 14th and 18th 2010 and has been described by its organisers as the most popular biennial exhibition of its kind in the Middle East. Auto dealers from across the region typically use the expo to show off all their latest models and gadgets, featuring everything from convertibles and 4x4s to prototypes, video systems and satnavs. Most of the 2011 models from a range of manufacturers are likely ...

Scottsdale podiatrist, Dr. Mark Forman, has announced the recent launch of his practice blog. The informative blog was created in order to improve patient education and communication between the patient and office. The blog's url is http://www.blogster.com/scottsdalefootpain/. Patients that already "like" the practice on Facebook will automatically get the blog on their Facebook account. The educational blog is updated regularly by the Scottsdale, AZ podiatrist and can be easily accessed by patients via the practice's website. Past blog posts written by Dr. Forman include ...

Dr. Neil Baum, a well-known urologist in New Orleans, is pleased to announce that his practice is now offering same and next-day appointments. Whether patients are coming in for a routine visit or have health concerns that require immediate attention, Dr. Baum is providing same and next-day attention that is convenient for his patients' schedules. "A patient's care should never be put on hold because they can't get in to see the doctor. Our practice makes it as easy as possible to get the care you need, when you need it. Simply call or email requesting a same-day or ...

The biggest winners at SwipeAuctions now have something extra to celebrate - a brand new website they can call their own. The site, http://www.SwipeAuctions-Top-Winners.com, was launched today to showcase the men and women who have won the most auctions and contests on the increasingly popular penny auction site. "The big winners are the people who are most dedicated to SwipeAuctions," said Jennifer, the company's Customer Service Director. "It only makes sense to do something special for them. Being featured on their own site is our way of showing them how much ...

Medical malpractice action can be for injury or death against a licensed health care provider based upon negligence, misconduct, errors or omissions, or breach of contract in rendering medical services. Basic elements of proof include that there was a duty, breach of that particular standard of care, proximate causation and damages. Particularly important is proving that the licensed health care provider breached the applicable standard of care--meaning that the provider failed to exercise that degree of care, skill and learning expected of a reasonable, prudent health ...

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), providing sweeping protections for those with disabilities. Just over 20 years later, the effects of this legislation are apparent in day-to-day life. Elevators are equipped with instructions in Braille; city buses and public buildings are designed to accommodate wheelchairs. Among the most important protections of the ADA are those relating to employment. Today, employment notices almost universally come with promises that the employers will not discriminate on the ...

A Floyd County, Ga., Superior Court jury recently awarded Loretta Terhune $8.5 million in actual damages and $35 million in punitive damages as a result of the poor care her father received during the eight months he was a resident at Moran Lake Road Nursing Home in Rome, Ga. The verdict is, by far, the largest nursing home judgment on record in the State of Georgia. Terhune sued Forum Medical, the company that owned and operated Moran Lake. Her father, Morris Ellison, was malnourished, dehydrated, denied medical care for a broken hip and ultimately died after what was ...

Workers' compensation is a no fault system; if you are injured on the job, you are entitled to benefits regardless of whether your employer's negligence caused your injuries. The system aims to provide compensation for injured workers without focusing on who is to blame. However, the fact that you don't have to demonstrate that the injuries were your employer's fault does not mean that there is no room for disagreement on the matter of compensation. An employer may argue that your injuries are not work-related, or may accept that one injury is work-related while denying ...

High level managed futures investing has essentially been reserved for wealthy individuals and corporations with minimum accounts of $1,000,000 being standard in the industry. Through his firm, Hoffman Asset Management, award winning Commodity Trading Advisor Dean Hoffman is changing the playing field with the launch of a managed futures program for smaller investors in the $30,000 - $125,000 range. "Hoffman Asset Managed is dedicated to overcoming the challenges of the small account conundrum and serving smaller investors who want the benefits of a high level individual ...

It was announced today that the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau (CCTB) has selected Advanced Reservation Systems, Inc. (ARES) to provide booking engine capabilities for ChooseChicago.com and for the CCTB call center, 1-877-Chicago. "The CCTB mission is to position Chicago as the top global destination - no small task in today's economic climate. ARES was selected to partner with us because of their personalized customer service as well as their commitment to meeting our goals," said Cathy Domanico, Director, Tourism for the CCTB. "We are thrilled to partner ...

The end of summer is one of the best times to start thinking about your intimacy. PinkyPleasure is in the midst of the some of the best sales of the season. We're talking up to 20% percent off, and we are maintaining a very low price for pleasure movies - only USD19.95 per month for an unlimited library of movies. PinkyPleasure.com is one of the few online shops that has a large selection of play-toys, lingerie, movies and CDs to expand enjoyment of intimacy. PinkyPleasure aims to rub the adult entertainment market right with high-end positioning and by addressing ...

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, has identified misfolding and other molecular anomalies in a key brain protein associated with autism spectrum disorders. Palmer Taylor, associate vice chancellor for Health Sciences at UC San Diego and dean of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and colleagues report in the September 10 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry that misfolding of a protein called neuroligin-3, due to gene mutations, results in trafficking deficiencies that may ...

In people with Alzheimer's, the brain becomes riddled with clumps of protein, forming what are known as amyloid plaques. Now, a report appearing in the September 17th print issue of Cell appears to have found a function for the amyloid precursor protein (APP for short) that yields the prime ingredient in those plaques. It turns out that APP is an iron oxidase whose job it is to convert iron from an unsafe form to a safe one for transport or storage. When APP fails to function properly, as it does in Alzheimer's disease, iron levels inside neurons mount to toxic levels. "This ...

For Immediate Release – September 10, 2010 – (Toronto) – Mental illness is associated with more lost work days than any other chronic condition, costing the Canadian economy $51 billion annually in lost productivity. In the first study of its kind, researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have calculated the actual cost of mental health leave and found that on average it's double the cost of a leave for a physical illness. The study, published in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, looked at data tracking the short-term disability ...

A study by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and cooperators provides new details about how fertilizing soils with biosolids also introduces triclosan—an antibacterial agent in soaps and other cleaning supplies—into the environment. Farmers add "Class B" biosolids, also known as treated wastewater solids, to their fields as a fertilizer. These biosolids meet federal regulations for human health and safety, but little information has been obtained about their triclosan levels. Triclosan has not been identified as a human health hazard, but the U.S. Food ...

ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Two amateur astronomers who independently observed and videotaped an asteroid striking the giant planet Jupiter on June 3 have opened the possibility, in effect, of a giant research lab in space for planetary scientists. According to a paper by professional astronomers, expected to be published today online by Astrophysical Journal Letters, the asteroid was eight to 13 meters in diameter and packed a punch equivalent to a 250- to 1,000-kiloton nuclear bomb — smaller than the violent airburst that decimated trees for 40 kilometers around Tunguska in central ...