Invasive plant species are a serious environmental, economic and social problem worldwide. Their abundance can lead to lost native biodiversity and ecosystem functions, such as nutrient cycling. Despite substantial research, however, little is known about why some species dominate new habitats over native plants that technically should have the advantage. A common but rarely tested assumption, say biologists, is that these plants behave in a special way, making them more abundant when introduced into communities versus native plants that are already there. If true, ...

It has already been called one of the largest winter storms since the 1950s and it is affecting 30 U.S. states today with snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain. NASA satellites have gathering data on the storm that stretches from Texas and the Rockies to the New England states. NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites have been providing visible, infrared and microwave looks at the storm system's clouds, precipitation, temperatures and extent. Visible and infrared images and animations of the storm's clouds and movement are created every 15 minutes by the NASA GOES Project at ...

Human amniotic epithelial cells, stem cells derived from human placenta left over from live births and generally discarded, proliferated and differentiated when they interacted with one kind of melatonin receptor, MT1. This potentially therapeutic response occurred when the stem cells were transplanted into laboratory test tube and animal models of stroke. The same cells did not perform similarly when interacting with melatonin receptor MT2. Researchers from the University of South Florida's Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, and co-researchers in Brescia, ...

Hepatitis C is a leading cause of illness and death for individuals infected with both HIV and hepatitis C. Recent reports from around the world demonstrate that hepatitis C is emerging as a sexually transmitted infection among HIV-infected men who do not inject drugs. However, many HIV-infected men do not receive continued screening for hepatitis C throughout their HIV care. Hepatitis C symptoms often do not manifest themselves until the later stages of the illness, so people are not as likely to know that they have become infected and hence need further testing and ...

Several NASA satellites have been monitoring the growth of powerful and massive Cyclone Yasi and providing data on clouds, rainfall and intensity to forecasters as it nears Queensland, Australia. NASA data shows where the heaviest rainfall is occurring, frigid temperatures at the top of its thunderstorms and the size of Yasi's eye. Tropical cyclone Yasi became much more powerful and was upgraded to a dangerous category fpur tropical cyclone on the Saffir Simpson scale on February 1, 2011. A Cyclone Warning is now in effect for Queensland, Australia for coastal areas ...

Windshields that shed water so effectively that they don't need wipers. Ship hulls so slippery that they glide through the water more efficiently than ordinary hulls. These are some of the potential applications for graphene, one of the hottest new materials in the field of nanotechnology, raised by the research of James Dickerson, assistant professor of physics at Vanderbilt. Dickerson and his colleagues have figured out how to create a freestanding film of graphene oxide and alter its surface roughness so that it either causes water to bead up and run off or causes ...

HOUSTON — A targeted delivery combination selectively crosses the tight barrier that protects the brain from the bloodstream to home in on and bind to brain tumors, a research team led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. In experiments with mice, the researchers demonstrated that the targeted particles guide payloads to image tumors, treat tumors, or can potentially do both to monitor treatment as it occurs. Their findings open a new research avenue for detecting and ...

Chestnut Hill, MA (2/1/2011) – More than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies commit themselves to corporate social responsibility initiatives in order to protect themselves against negative information. But these moves don't serve as a strong insurance policy against bad press and criticism, according to a report in the current edition of the Journal of Service Research. The authors found that general corporate social responsibility in and of itself will not shield a company from criticism or negative information because consumers separate ethical/social issues from product ...

Boulder, CO, USA - The February 2011 Geosphere includes two articles designated for the latest Geosphere theme, "New developments in Grenville geology: In honor of James McLelland." Other topics include 3-D characterization of rocks, ash, minerals, lava, and so forth through various technical means: X-ray computed tomography, Stereo Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray micro-fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, and terrestrial LiDAR. Also studied: the La Silla and Todos Santos Formations, Mexico, Death Valley, the south-central Andes, and the Nellis Dunes Recreation Area. Keywords: ...

Teenage girls and young women infected with HIV get pregnant more often and suffer pregnancy complications more frequently than their HIV-negative peers, according to new research led by Johns Hopkins investigators. A report on the multi-center study, based on an analysis of records from 181 patients with HIV, ages 13 to 24, treated at four hospitals over 12 years, will be published in the Feb. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings are alarming for at least two reasons, the investigators say. First, teen pregnancies — planned or ...

Efforts to keep hospital patients safe and continually improve the overall results of health care can't work unless medical centers figure out a way to get physicians more involved in the process. "Physicians' training and perspectives on patient care make their contributions to improvement efforts essential," says Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., a Johns Hopkins patient safety expert and co-author of a commentary published in the Feb. 2 Journal of the American Medical Association. "But the work of improving quality currently rests primarily with hospital administrators ...

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found a better way to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells—adult cells reprogrammed with the properties of embryonic stem cells—from a small blood sample. This new method, described last week in Cell Research, avoids creating DNA changes that could lead to tumor formation. "These iPS cells are much safer than ones made with previous technologies because they don't involve integrating foreign viruses that can potentially lead to uncontrolled, cancerous cell growth," says Linzhao Cheng, Ph.D., an associate professor of medicine in ...

Even the most horrible criminals feel guilt, and according to new research from the University of Montreal, playing on that sentiment might be a good way to extract a confession. In order to gain a better understanding of why and how criminals admit to their crimes, Michel St-Yves, a forensic psychologist and lecturer, and lead author Nadine Deslauriers-Varin, both of the university's School of Criminology, worked with 221 prisoners from a federal penitentiary, analyzing the conditions under which they did or didn't confess. The study findings highlighted the predominant ...

CHICAGO --- A hip fracture is not common in a 54-year-old woman, unless she is a 54-year-old breast cancer survivor, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. Researchers found that a combination of early menopause due to breast cancer treatment and common drugs used to treat breast cancer, could be weakening the bones of breast cancer survivors once they hit middle age, leading to hip fractures. Results of the study are published in the February 2011 issue of Clinical Cancer Research. Hip fractures are rare in people under 70. Yet, Northwestern Medicine physician ...

New York, NY, February 2, 2011—Two years after the reauthorization and expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a new Commonwealth Fund state-by-state scorecard evaluating how the health care system is working for children finds that federal and state action on behalf of children has helped preserve, and even expand, health coverage for this group, despite the severe recession. Yet wide differences persist among states when it comes to health insurance coverage, affordability of health care for families, children's receipt of preventive care and treatment, ...

The GoodLife Team, Austin's most tech-savvy real estate firm, proudly announces the addition of 30-year real estate veteran Stuart Sutton. Officially joining the team in January, Sutton and his agents will serve all GoodLife Team clients in Williamson County, Texas. Sutton is now headquartered at the newest GoodLife Team office in Georgetown, Texas. This second location will help the firm expand its reach beyond Austin to better serve clients across the Central Texas region. Stuart Sutton, an expert agent working in real estate since 1981, believes in the GoodLife ...

Few years ago Scott suffered from an unfortunate auto-accident that completely changed his life forever. Way back in 1991, his left foot got severely damaged due to multiple fractures which made him exposed to a permanent nerve damage and deformity. This precisely affected common peroneal nerve. The result was a severe dysfunction in the foot all at the age of 19. Even though the damage was intense, Scott thought himself to be fortunate to be living. He had multiple fractures on the left foot and ankle; he was relieved that the damage did not affect his head. He stayed ...

Yellowfin, a leader in Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), has released a dedicated android application that gives users the ability to run and access Yellowfin reporting and analytics from their android device, anywhere, anytime. "Yellowfin's native android application allows you to interact with all your latest business data the same as you would from your PC," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. "Users have full access to Yellowfin's world-class BI features on-the-go. You're able to filter results, drill down and through data, comment on and email reports to make critical ...

Kent Station welcomes Reds Wine Bar to the popular downtown shopping center. This new wine bar is located across from the Sound Transit parking garage. Owned by husband and wife team Nick and Angela Xavier of Kent, Reds features a selection of regional wines along with artisan crafted beers. In addition to wine and beer, Reds offers a tapas-style menu of fresh bread, cheese, soup, salad, paninis, and appetizers with a focus on healthy ingredients and palate-pleasing wine pairings. Food and wine by the bottle may be ordered to-go. Members of the Reds wine club will enjoy ...

Matter Of Opinion (MOO), an Atlanta based website and bipartisan concept, posted another survey on January 28, 2011. MOO is asking surveyors to post their opinions about the recent riots in Egypt, Mubarak's attempt to dissolve the current government, Obama's response to the controversy, and their internet and cell phone interruption. On January 25, 2011 citizens of Egypt expressed their grievances in the form of several, heated riots which led Mubarak to interrupting Internet and cell phone service. Obama steps in by urging reform. Was Mubarak right in not resigning and ...

A clinical trial under way at the East Carolina Heart Institute is testing the benefit of a new medical device designed to help high-risk people suffering from leaky heart valves. Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood Jr., director of the Heart Institute and professor of cardiovascular surgery at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, secured the clinical trial for the MitraClip System for the treatment of mitral valve regurgitation (MR). A serious heart condition, MR can lead to arrhythmias and congestive heart failure if left untreated. Dr. Curtis Anderson, ...

Award-winning Author Mayra Calvani joins the Stories for Children Publishing February '11 World of Ink Tour Stories for Children Publishing will be touring Award-winning author Mayra Calvani's latest children's book, "Frederico the Mouse Violinist" and her other books all month long in February 2011. You can find Mayra Calvani's World of Ink Author/Book Tour schedule at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/MayraCalvani. There will be giveaways, reviews, interviews, and guest posts. Make sure to stop by and interact with Mayra Calvani and the hosts at the different ...

TeamEXtension, a Java development and maintenance firm based in the United States is launching Javameme, a Java news and article aggregator for Java developers. It provides a daily view of what's happening in the Java world. The site also has resource information that is useful for Java programmers. Javameme uses RSS content from renowned online sources such as Computerworld, Developer.com, DevX, DZone, eWeek, IBM developerWorks as well as InfoQ, James Gosling, Java Posse, java.net and Javalobby. Additional contents are from JavaWorld, JDJ, NY Times, OnJava, Oracle Technology ...

Diamond Integrity Group, Inc. based in Chandler, AZ, today announced the acquisition of Chandler West Management a company specializing in commercial real estate management and acquisitions. "Our investors and partners will continue to receive the same exceptional service of which they have come to expect," said Chairman Joseph Compton. Together, the companies will work and consult with key players in the commercial real estate industry to maximize their objectives. The integration of both companies will take place over the next three quarters and will strengthen ...

Furry Friends Rescue in Freemont, California has been named the February 2011 beneficiary for Rescue Chocolate, the vegan chocolate company which donates 100% of its profits to animal rescue organizations. A different non-profit group is picked each month to receive the company's largesse. Furry Friends Rescue (FFR) has saved more than 11,000 animals since its founding in November 1998. It has also assisted more than 6,000 pet owners to find new homes for their pets, and it works with more than 21 animal shelters in the Bay Area. In addition, FFR's Purple Heart Miracle ...