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Science29 Dec 2010

Understanding the New Export Control Attestation Requirement

Understanding the New Export Control Attestation Requirement Help for U.S. Employers of Foreign Nationals Effective December 23, 2010, the new Form I-129 (Petition for Non-Immigrant Worker) requires employers bringing foreign national workers into the country to take an extra step. The new export control attestation applies to the employers using H-1B, H1-B1, L-1, and O-1A non-immigrant visas for foreign employees. In part six of the new form, employers must review the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations ...

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Science29 Dec 2010

The Effects of Marijuana on Driving Abilities

The Effects of Marijuana on Driving Abilities Does driving while under the influence of marijuana make the roads more dangerous? According to researchers at Yale University, the answer to that question is a bit more complex than you might expect. Certainly, marijuana affects an individual's responses and technical skills as a driver. When under the influence of pot, an individual's perception of time and speed are altered, attentiveness is reduced and motor coordination is affected. The New York Times notes that researchers G. Berghaus and B. Guo concluded that pot ...

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Environment29 Dec 2010

Carbon Monoxide: the Odorless Killer

Carbon Monoxide: the Odorless Killer With winter's chill in the air, it's easy to take shortcuts with safety to stay warm. By doing everything from letting the car warm up in the garage to moving the grill too close to the house, we sometimes put our own and our family's safety at risk. Carbon monoxide (CO) exposure affects the health and safety of many every year, especially in the winter months. CO is an odorless gas that is contained within combustion fumes. CO is a danger to humans because it bonds to blood cells quicker than oxygen, and in doing so, puts our ...

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Science29 Dec 2010

Spartanburg Hotel Near Wofford College Offers Nearby Lodging to Fans Attending Wofford Terriers Men's Basketball

Hampton Inn Spartanburg - North I-85, a premier Spartanburg hotel, offers nearby accommodations to Wofford College Men's Basketball games this season. Basketball games are played on campus at Benjamin Johnson Arena. Upcoming Wofford Terrier's January, 2011 home games are: - Thursday, January 6 verse The Citadel at 7:00pm - Saturday, January 8 verse College of Charleston at 6:00pm - Thursday, January 20 verse Chattanooga at 7:00pm - Saturday, January 22 verse Samford at 2:00pm - Monday, January 24 verse Furman at 7:00pm - Saturday, January 29 verse Western Carolina ...

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Science29 Dec 2010

The Majestic Photobooth Company Opens New Photo Booth Rental Location in Philadelphia

The Majestic Photobooth Company, a photo booth rental company, has expanded its service area with a new office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The new Philadelphia photo booth warehouse, located close to downtown, joins The Majestic Photobooth Company's Atlanta photo booth rental headquarters, New York photo booth showroom, and other locations across the country. "Philadelphia is great city, and we're very excited to have a presence up there now," remarks Zach Brown, owner of The Majestic Photobooth Company. "We know that the fun loving people of Philadelphia will love ...

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Science29 Dec 2010

The Secret Society of Happy People Announces the Happiest Events and Moments of 2010

The Secret Society of Happy People announces its 13th annual Happiest Events and Moments of the year: 5. The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear lead by Jon Stewart and in-character Stephen Colbert served as a much-needed reminder that most Americans are still moderates. 4. President Obama signed into law the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell allowing all military personnel to serve with integrity. 3. Social media shows its influence as Facebook fans revive Betty White's career by petitioning for her to host Saturday Night Live ... and Mark Zuckerman graces the ...

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Science29 Dec 2010

Unique Gifts and Decor Celebrates a Successful Debut Christmas Season

Uniquegiftsanddecor.com announced that its first holiday selling season was very successful and increased its online presence as a destination site for truly unusual and special gifts and home decor products. Don Oppenheim, vice president stated: "For a site that just went live in mid October of 2010, we did extremely well. Above all we met our goal of excelling at customer service." Unique Gifts and Decor was established to provide consumers with a one-stop place for finding gifts and home decor items that are not easily found. "My son and I both like things that ...

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Medicine29 Dec 2010

A New Generation of Industrial Electronic Crane Scales with Enhanced Electronics is Now Available from Measurement Systems International

Measurement Systems International (MSI) announces a new generation "MSI-3460 Challenger 3" Digital Crane Scale with an enhanced electronics package and larger display readout, complimenting their full line of crane scales and other weighing products. "The MSI Challenger series was first introduced to the industrial marketplace in 1985 and has since become a world-renown standard for digital crane scales," according to MSI National Sales Manager, Tim Carroll. Now in its third generation, the Challenger 3 crane scale incorporates a newly developed and highly integrated ...

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Energy29 Dec 2010

www.USSelfStorageLocator.com -- Locate. Save. Rent - Self Storage Anywhere, Anytime

USSelfStorageLocator.com today launched a state-of-the-art search engine-rental website which allows consumers the ability to easily find the best storage facility nationwide that fits their needs. Equipped with the newest web technology available in the industry, USSelfStorageLocator.com's marketing presence will predictably benefit owner/operators immensely. Finding self-storage and comparing facilities with ease is now available thanks to USSelfStorageLocator.com (http://www.USSelfStorageLocator.com). As the website name indicates, this visually attractive and ultra ...

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Science29 Dec 2010

Popular Amateur Cake Decorating Competition Returns to Central Ohio Home & Garden Show

The Central Ohio Home & Garden Show announced today that it will again hold its Amateur Cake Decorating Competition. This year's competition will take place on Sunday, March 6, 2011, when five of the region's most talented amateur cake decorators will have the chance to compete for cash prizes before a live audience. The 2011 Central Ohio Home & Garden Show is slated for February 26 - March 6 at the Ohio Expo Center. Show guests can watch the Amateur Cake Decorating Competition from 2:00-3:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 6, with setup taking place from 1:00-2:00 p.m. Judging ...

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Science29 Dec 2010

VIDEO: La Bella Join Forces With the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department in Conjunction With Univision Radio

The spirit of Christmas was never felt more for 50 struggling Southeast Los Angeles families than when La Bella joined with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) and Univision Radio to host a Posada Navidena event full of joy and hope for the neediest. Eager children frolicked around a jolly red-suited Santa Claus whose day job finds him as LAPD Southeast Los Angeles Captain Phillip Tingirides. Every child received toys, and all enjoyed the presence of Latin pop artist Luz Rios, along with a festive hot dinner followed by a ...

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Medicine28 Dec 2010

Texas A&M research shows bacteria provide example of one of nature's first immune systems

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Dec. 23, 2010—Studying how bacteria incorporate foreign DNA from invading viruses into their own regulatory processes, Thomas Wood, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, is uncovering the secrets of one of nature's most primitive immune systems. His findings, which appear in "Nature Communications," a multidisciplinary publication dedicated to research in all areas of the biological, physical and chemical sciences, shed light on how bacteria have throughout the course of millions of years developed ...

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Science28 Dec 2010

New clues uncover how 'starvation hormone' works, investigators at UT Southwestern report

DALLAS – Dec. 26, 2010 – New findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers may solve a 17-year-old mystery about how the so-called "starvation hormone" affects multiple biological systems, including preventing insulin sensitivity and promoting cell survival. The results connect multiple observations about how the hormone adiponectin functions and eventually could lead to new treatments for conditions ranging from diabetes and weight loss to heart disease and cancer. "Until now, there wasn't really an obvious connection between all these different phenomena," ...

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Science28 Dec 2010

Longevinex exerts greater influence over genes than resveratrol

Las Vegas, NV (Dec. 24, 2010) - Three weeks of oral resveratrol or Longevinex® ingestion prior to an induced heart attack returned microRNA activity close to their pre-event levels in excised animal hearts. Among thousands of microRNA's studied, just six were attributed to exerting the majority of the gene-switching effects measured in the animal heart study — four microRNA optimally regulated by Longevinex® and two optimally by plain resveratrol. A pre-conditioning effect with resveratrol and Longevinex® had already been demonstrated in prior studies where these small ...

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Science28 Dec 2010

Researchers: Pay more attention to epilepsy

ST. PAUL, Minn. –Epilepsy, a common and serious neurologic disorder that affects millions of people, is not getting the public attention and funding for research it deserves, according to an editorial on a study published in the January 4, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "We have almost nonexistent epilepsy surveillance, or ongoing collection of data on newly diagnosed epilepsy, in the United States," said Edwin Trevathan, MD, MPH, Dean of the St. Louis University School of Public Health in St. Louis and a member ...

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Medicine28 Dec 2010

Human protein improves muscle function of muscular dystrophy mice

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A novel potential therapy based on a natural human protein significantly slows muscle damage and improves function in mice who have the same genetic mutation as boys with the most common form of muscular dystrophy, according to a paper published online Dec. 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a fatal genetic mutation in about one of every 3,500 boys. They are unable to produce a protein called dystrophin that keeps muscles strong. By eight years of age, the boys begin to have trouble ...

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Medicine28 Dec 2010

Team overcomes major obstacles to cellulosic biofuel production

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A newly engineered yeast strain can simultaneously consume two types of sugar from plants to produce ethanol, researchers report. The sugars are glucose, a six-carbon sugar that is relatively easy to ferment; and xylose, a five-carbon sugar that has been much more difficult to utilize in ethanol production. The new strain, made by combining, optimizing and adding to earlier advances, reduces or eliminates several major inefficiencies associated with current biofuel production methods. The findings, from a collaborative led by researchers at the University ...

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Science28 Dec 2010

Mechanisms of juvenile hormone action in insects could help fine tune pesticides

Just as raging hormones are part of the process of a child's maturation through the teen years to adulthood, juvenile hormones, a group of insect isoprenoids, play an important role as butterflies, fruit flies and mosquitoes transform their body structures as they molt from larva to pupa and then adults. Unlike humans, in insects the juvenile hormone inhibits development of adult characteristics until the insects reach a proper stage. Juvenile hormones also play a prominent role in regulating reproductive maturation in adult insects and synthetic juvenile hormone mimics ...

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Medicine28 Dec 2010

Full woodland strawberry genome sequenced

In a collaborative effort involving 74 researchers from 38 research institutes, scientists have produced the full genome of a wild strawberry plant. The research appeared today in Nature Genetics. Drs. Asaph Aharoni and Avital Adato of the Weizmann Institute's Plant Sciences Department were the sole Israeli scientists participating in the project, but they made a major contribution in mapping the genes and gene families responsible for the strawberry's flavor and aroma. The woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is closely related to garden-variety cultivated strawberry. ...

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Medicine28 Dec 2010

Standardized protocols would greatly enhance clinical and research potential of BTMs

An expert working group of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) has released a new position paper which reviews the evidence of bone turnover markers (BTMs) in fracture risk prediction and monitoring of osteoporosis therapy. More importantly, it identifies research priorities and recommends that specific markers be used as reference analytes for BTMs in clinical and observational studies. BTMs have been extensively studied in relation to fracture risk assessment and have ...

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Social Science28 Dec 2010

Parents' social problems affect their children -- even in birds

It may come as a surprise to many that quails are able to distinguish one another, let alone that they form close relationships with other quails. Nevertheless, it has long been known that disruption of the birds' social environment causes them stress. A group within the UMR 6552 at the CNRS-Université de Rennes 1 in France has been studying the influence of adults on the behavioural development of their offspring. Together with scientists in Austria, they have now shown that changing the composition of groups of quails housed together causes the birds to behave more ...

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Space28 Dec 2010

When the black hole was born

Most galaxies in the universe, including our own Milky Way, harbor super-massive black holes varying in mass from about one million to about 10 billion times the size of our sun. To find them, astronomers look for the enormous amount of radiation emitted by gas which falls into such objects during the times that the black holes are "active," i.e., accreting matter. This gas "infall" into massive black holes is believed to be the means by which black holes grow. Now a team of astronomers from Tel Aviv University, including Prof. Hagai Hetzer and his research student Benny ...

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Medicine28 Dec 2010

Structure of key molecule in immune system provides clues for designing drugs

PHILADELPHIA - A team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Utrecht University has deciphered a key step in an evolutionarily old branch of the immune response. This system, called complement, comprises a network of proteins that "complement" the work of antibodies in destroying foreign invaders. It serves as a rapid defense mechanism in most species from primitive sponges to humans. In a study published in the December 24 issue of Science, the groups of John Lambris, PhD, the Dr. Ralph and Sally Weaver Professor of Research Medicine at Penn, and ...

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Science28 Dec 2010

Comprehensive report on sudden oak death

ALBANY, Calif.—Synthesizing more than 10 years of cooperative research on the exotic invasive, quarantine sudden oak death pathogen, the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) recently published "Sudden Oak Death and Phytophthora ramorum: A Summary of the Literature." This 181-page comprehensive report covers a wide range of topics, including a history of sudden oak death, identification and distribution of the disease, epidemiology and modeling, management and control, and economic and environmental impacts. Compiled by retired U.S. Forest Service ...

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Science28 Dec 2010

ASPB applauds passage of America COMPETES reauthorization

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) applauds Congressional reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. Originally enacted in 2007, the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act underscored the nation's commitment to scientific research and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Among other provisions, the 2007 and 2010 bills establish broad directions and set maximum funding levels for some of the nation's key science agencies, including the ...

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