The Costs of Medical Errors According to a recent ABC story, a study confirmed anecdotal evidence of the "July Effect" - a rise in medical errors during the month of July, when new residents fresh out of medical school report to their teaching hospitals. A 2000 publication by the Institute of Medicine indicated that up to 98,000 Americans may die each year as a result of preventable medical errors. Though the qualitative costs of medical errors can be devastating, a recent article in The Wall Street Journal says the quantitative costs can also be staggering. Citing ...

British Airways has launched its new 'lower price holiday finder' which allows customers to save time and money when booking their holiday package. Claire Bentley, managing director BA Holidays commented: "Following the success of dynamic packaging where flight plus hotel or flight plus car rental were combined to offer our customers the lowest pricing on ba.com, we have now developed more advanced options such as the new 'lowest price holiday finder' on ba.com. This new technology ultimately gives customers the opportunity to save even more time and money when booking ...

Hotels.com's latest destination hot list league table has found Venice taking the top spot list as the fastest rising destinations in terms of year on year searches through the site. The Italian city of Venice came out as being the hottest destination on the list for Brits with a 655% increase in searches on the UK Hotels.com site in June 2010 compared to June 2009, however with summer in full swing, traditional UK seaside destinations have also been proving popular as Cromer in Norfolk and Llandudno in North Wales saw rises of 565% and 495% respectively year on year. ...

Hotels.com's latest hot list of the fastest-rising destinations for hotel searches across in July has revealed that Farnborough in Hampshire has managed to top the list.  The town famed for its annual summer air show topped the table of fastest rising destinations with a 565% increase in searches in July compared with the same time last year. The interest in staying in Farnborough around the time of the air show provides a good indicator of the continued endurance in popularity of the UK 'staycation' throughout 2010. Further afield and with schools out for the summer, ...

Hays Social Housing, the leading recruiting expert, is working in partnership with AmicusHorizon, one of the largest housing associations in the South East region on a job seeking skills programme. The three-month programme, which was set up because residents said they needed support in gaining employment, has already secured jobs or training for several tenants and has improved the employability of many others. The programme started in June with introductory seminars and a series of one-on-one career coaching sessions. Each participant also attended five Hays workshops, ...

Most professional financial planners will tell you that planning for retirement is an ongoing process that requires a comprehensive strategy with continuous reviews and adjustments. This usually means a commitment of both time and money either by hiring a professional financial advisor or dedicating the resources to acquiring and learning a professional financial planning software like ExecPlan Express. Though ExecPlan Express is an easy to use application because of its needs based analysis design and its focus on the basic fundamentals of retirement planning, it is ...

Fantazzle Weekly Fantasy Football Games enters Week Three of the 2010 fantasy football season with a special fantasy game now available every Sunday on the site. Fantazzle introduces the SuperStakes Sundays Fantasy Football Game. SuperStakes Sundays will be offered every week at Fantazzle with guaranteed cash prizes awarding thousands of dollars to each week's winners. For the inaugural Fantazzle SuperStakes Sunday, limited time fantasy football promotions are available, which include a guaranteed prize pool with free cash added, plus a special deposit bonus that includes ...

The web site, www.noworriesnow.org, provides opportunities for prom attendees to learn more about the proms, RSVP for events, and offers a number of ways for people to participate in the organization. Also seen on the web site is a blog with latest news, audio and video clips, and information about past and future proms. In addition, the interactive site allows visitors to request a prom in their city. Fred Scarf, Foundation founder explains, "It is important to have a website that can be easily integrated into the lives of the patients, donors, and fans of No Worries ...

Author Rene Natan announces the release of the new suspense thriller "The Blackpox Threat". The Blackpox Threat. A deadly virus is on its way to Canada--from Ukraine via Italy. Would beautiful Tamara Smith, thirty-two, be able to help in the covert operation that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has carefully orchestrated? Would Tamara Smith be able to prevent an epidemic of Blackpox? Rene Natan's new thriller is available at OldLinePublishingllc.com and Amazon.com. Website: http://vermeil.biz/Irene Gargantini, aka RENE NATAN, has authored seven ...

"A giant rhino with a ridiculously supersized head." "Fifteen long, pointed sideways oriented eye horns: one over the nose, one atop each eye, one at the tip of each cheek bone, and ten across the rear margin of the bony frill." "A horned face: large horn over the nose and short, blunt eye horns that project strongly to the side." Such phrases have been used to describe two newly discovered species of dinosaurs with looks only a mother could love. Still, they are drawing the attention and inspiring the imagination of scientists and lay people alike. Announced today ...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2010 — If America is to recover from years of severe job losses and financial crisis, the nation must stay the course of smart, sustained investments in our most valuable economic engine: scientific research and globally competitive education that together fuel technological innovation. So says a National Academy of Sciences report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited, that was issued today. "The Academy has taken a responsible position with long-term stability in mind," said American Chemical Society President Joseph S. Francisco, Ph.D. ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers report this month that MALAT1, a long non-coding RNA that is implicated in certain cancers, regulates pre-mRNA splicing – a critical step in the earliest stage of protein production. Their study appears in the journal Molecular Cell. Nearly 5 percent of the human genome codes for proteins, and scientists are only beginning to understand the role of the rest of the "non-coding" genome. Among the least studied non-coding genes – which are transcribed from DNA to RNA but generally are not translated into proteins – are the long non-coding RNAs ...

A University of Oklahoma research team has uncovered a key to arresting the growth of thrush—a type of oral yeast infection that sickens patients with compromised immune systems, diabetes and newborns as well as healthy individuals, who may contract the disease following antibiotic treatment of an illness. An OU team of natural products chemists and microbiologists observed several clinical strains of Streptococcus mutans capable of arresting the growth of the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. The bacteria species, S. mutans keeps other oral microorganisms in check ...

Washington, DC, September 23, 2010 – A new study looking at how hospitals account for the number of pediatric patients who develop catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CA-BSIs) found substantial inconsistencies in the methods used to report the number of patients who develop these infections. The study, conducted by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Focus Group, appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals ...

Grand Rapids, Mich. (September 23, 2010) – Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) scientists participated in a study with researchers from the University of Utah that could help find ways to improve shunt systems used to treat the neurological disorder hydrocephalus, or "water on the brain," the leading cause of brain surgery for children in the United States. Researchers studied the shunt systems under a variety of conditions by creating a bioreactor that mimics the environment inside patients. Hydrocephalus is an excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in ...

Development of an effective vaccine for malaria is a step closer following identification of a key pathway used by the malaria parasite to infect human cells. The discovery, by researchers at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, provides a new vaccine target through which infection with the deadly disease could be prevented. Each year more than 400 million people contract malaria, and more than one million, mostly children, die from the disease. The most lethal form of malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Part of the parasite's ...

A half-billion years ago, vertebrates lacked the ability to chew their food. They did not have jaws. Instead, their heads consisted of a flexible, fused basket of cartilage. This week, an international team of researchers led by a faculty member from the University of Colorado at Boulder published evidence that three genes in jawless vertebrates might have been key to the development of jaws in higher vertebrates. The finding is potentially significant in that it might help explain how vertebrates shifted from a life of passive "filter feeding" to one of active predation. "Essentially ...

Stress has become one of the major disease states in the developed world. But what is stress? It depends on from where you look. You may experience stress as something that affects your entire body and mind, the causes of which are plentiful. But if we zoom in on the building bricks of the body, our cells, stress and its causes are defined somewhat differently. Stress can arise at the cellular level after exposure to pollution, tobacco smoke, bacterial toxins etc, where stressed cells have to react to survive and maintain their normal function. In worst case scenario, cellular ...

Science is literally in the dark when it comes to the birth of stars, which occurs deep inside clouds of gas and dust. These clouds are completely opaque to ordinary light. Now, a group of astronomers has discovered a new astronomical phenomenon that appears to be common in such clouds, and promises a new window onto the earliest phases of star formation. The phenomenon - infra red light that is scattered by unexpectedly large grains of dust, which the astronomers have termed "coreshine" - probes the dense cores where stars are born. (Science, September 24, 2010) Stars ...

As the shipping industry's emissions are predicted to continue to grow in the future, the UK will fail to meet its commitment to avoid dangerous climate change if additional cuts are not made to other sectors. According to a University of Manchester study, the global shipping industry, despite being traditionally viewed as one of the most energy efficient means of transport, releases increasing amounts of harmful emissions into the atmosphere every year. Indeed, as the rest of the world strives to avoid dangerous climate change, the global shipping industry's carbon ...

In a series of reports to be presented at a major conference this week, scientists at The University of Manchester claim using sustainable wood and other biofuels could hold the key to lowering harmful greenhouse gases. Building district heating schemes which would provide heat and hot water for a neighbourhood or community would not only drastically reduce greenhouse gases but would also be highly cost effective, the authors claim. Focus groups to test the UK public's eagerness for such schemes have already been held and have resulted in the majority of people being ...

Milan, Italy, 24 September 2010 – After the loss of a limb, most patients experience the feeling of a phantom limb – the vivid illusion that the amputated arm or leg is still present. Damage to the nervous system, such as stroke, may cause similar illusions in weakened limbs, whereby an arm or leg may feel as if it is in a completely different position or may even feel as if it is moving when it is not. Cases of phantom limbs in non-amputees have previously been considered rare events, but a new study published in the October 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex) ...

Milan, Italy, 24 September 2010 – Playing video games for hours on end may prepare your child to become a laparoscopic surgeon one day, a new study has shown. Reorganisation of the brain's cortical network in young men with significant experience playing video games gives them an advantage not only in playing the games but also in performing other tasks requiring visuomotor skills. The findings are published in the October 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex). Researchers from the Centre for Vision Research at York University in Canada ...

EUREKA project E! 4104 ECOPROMAT has developed a novel and environmentally-friendly type of matting for use in protection against the spread of contagious animal diseases such as avian influenza, and for routine hygiene in animal and food production. Soaked with disinfectant solution, the matting can be used for disinfecting vehicle tyres, and the shoes and boots of personnel. As it is made of 100% natural fibres, it is highly absorbent to disinfectant solution; it is also fully biodegradable and therefore avoids the high disposal costs of synthetic alternatives. The under-surface ...

The well-documented disparities in cardiac care may begin almost as soon as patients arrive at hospital emergency rooms. In a study published in Academic Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report that African-American and Hispanic patients assessed for chest pain were less likely than white patients to be categorized as requiring immediate care, despite a lack of significant differences in symptoms. Such practices directly violate American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines specifying immediate electrocardiogram ...