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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Giving Your Bathroom A Modern Feel | Easy Home Improvement Blog

Posted: April 9, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: Bathroom |

The bathroom is one of the most important rooms in any home, allowing you to get ready for the day ahead or to relax and unwind from the stresses you have faced. With this in mind, it is essential that you have a modern and stylish bathroom in which you feel comfortable and relaxed.

If you are looking to completely replace your bathroom suite, one potential option is to purchase a complete bathroom package. These are put together by bathroom design experts, with quality and style in mind. From simplistic bath suites to the multiple bathing options provided by shower bath suites, there are many different types of bathroom suites available to add a touch of class to your home. While these suites are designed to the highest standards, all elements within a suite can usually be modified, allowing you to make changes to bring the overall style in line with your own personal preferences.

If you would like to upgrade your bathroom but a complete refurbishment is not required or you do not have the budget for this change, there are still plenty of ways you can make your bathroom feel more modern. A new shower enclosure is one of the best ways to bring a bathroom up to date, offering a refreshing and comfortable bathing experience. Modern showers provide complete control over the temperature and the power of the water, meaning you will never again have to worry about the water suddenly going cold, causing a shocking and uncomfortable end to your bathing.

As well as the shower itself, an enclosure is also an essential part of your bathroom. There are many different styles of shower enclosure, depending on your own personal preferences and the style of your bathroom. One of the most popular choices in modern bathroom design is a quadrant shower enclosure . These are ideal for smaller or ensuite bathrooms, ensuring that plenty of space is available for the rest of your bathroom, offering up a number of possibilities for further development.

The bathroom suite of the future

A shower enclosure is just one way you can move the style and design of your bathroom into the modern era. Your bathtub is another element which can give your suite a visually pleasing and attractive appearance, with freestanding baths offering a traditional style that can be customised to have a modern twist. The feet that are added to these bathtubs can ensure they match the overall theme of your bathroom, as well as fitting in with any colour scheme that you may have in mind for your modern and stylish bathroom.

To put the finishing touches to your bathroom, having pictures to the walls or adding new and vibrant colours are an ideal way to improve the overall feel of your space. This is a superb way to modernise your bathroom without having to make any further costly and time consuming additions.

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Source: http://easyhomeimprovement.co.uk/2013/04/09/giving-your-bathroom-a-modern-feel/

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Apps help U.S. consumers rent from each other

By Natasha Baker

TORONTO (Reuters) - Whether it is houses, cars, luxury clothing or sports equipment, more consumers are opting to rent, borrow or lease than buy, and a range of new apps are helping them do it online.

In the last two years, more than half of Americans surveyed said they had rented items they would have purchased in the past, according to a poll about buying habits commissioned by solar panel rental company Sunrun.

The trend toward renting was highest in people 55 years and older, the poll of 2,252 Americans found.

"There's a return to simplicity, a return to cutting down on waste and being a little bit smarter about how you spend your money and what you buy," Sunrun co-founder Lynn Jurich said.

Getaround, which is available for iPhone users and on the web, is a free car-sharing app that allows users to rent vehicles from other people. Users can find nearby cars, reserve them and unlock them with the app. Another free app called RelayRides provides a similar service.

For consumers interested in ride-sharing, SideCar and Lyft, both available for iPhone and Android, help people hitch rides for a fee. The service can be less expensive than taxis and gives riders an opportunity to meet new people.

The apps use social networks, such as Facebook, to show the identity of the user and provider, and any mutual associations, to make people feel more comfortable doing business with strangers online, said Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and an expert on digital economics.

"Relationships and ties that exist in the real world are now available to marketplaces to take advantage of. They don't have to build trust from scratch to get people to participate," he said.

On DogVacay, an iPhone and web app that helps vacationing pet owners find temporary care for their dog, identities are verified via Facebook and telephone interviews.

Car-sharing apps such as Getaround provide insurance coverage for both the car owner and driver for liability, collision and theft. Airbnb, an app for private rental accommodations, offers property owners up to a $1 million insurance guarantee.

While a downturn in the economy and a return to simplicity may be fueling the trend and the apps that support it, Sundararajan believes demand will continue, even if the economy bounces back strongly.

"In many ways, it's just as much about getting access to greater variety and quality," he said.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apps-help-u-consumers-rent-other-185746417.html

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US expected to increase aid to Syrian rebels

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, right, greets US Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of a meeting in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in central London, Wednesday April 10, 2013. Kerry is meeting in London with Syrian opposition leaders and Russia's top diplomat, a day after saying the U.S. could soon step up aid to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. Kerry is in London for a G8 foreign ministers' meeting today and Thursday. (AP Photo/Paul J. Richards, pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration's next step in aid to Syrian rebels is expected to be a broader package of nonlethal assistance, including body armor and night-vision goggles, as the U.S. grapples for ways to stem the bloodshed from Syria's civil war.

Administration officials say an announcement of the new aid is not imminent. But Secretary of State John Kerry says the administration had been holding intense talks on how to boost assistance to the rebels fighting forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"Those efforts have been very much front and center in our discussions in the last week in Washington," Kerry said Tuesday, a day before meeting with Syrian opposition leaders in London. "I'm not sure what the schedule is, but I do believe that it's important for us to try to continue to put the pressure on President Assad and to try to change his calculation."

The United Nations estimates more than 70,000 people have been killed during more than two years of fighting between rebels and government forces.

Britain and France have already been shipping armor, night-vision goggles and other military-style equipment to the rebels.

Earlier this year, the U.S. announced a $60 million nonlethal assistance package for Syria that includes meals and medical supplies for the armed opposition. The aid package marked the first direct American assistance to the opposition forces trying to overthrow Assad.

But thus far, the U.S. has resisted providing lethal weapons to the rebels, in part out of fear that the arms could fall into the hands of jihadi groups that are designated as terrorist fronts linked to al-Qaida. However, the U.S. has said it would not stand in the way of other nations that decide to arm the rebels.

Senior officials from the White House, State Department and Pentagon held a high-level meeting Friday that focused on Syria.

In London, Kerry attended a British-hosted lunch alongside several leading members of the Syrian opposition. They included the interim prime minister, Hassan Hitto; Vice Presidents Suheir Atassi and George Sabra; Secretary-General Najib Ghadbian and the opposition's envoys to the United States and Britain.

Kerry then was to meet one-on-one with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks on the Syrian civil war and several U.S.-Russian disputes that have strained the relationship. Discussions on Syria are expected to continue into Wednesday night when the top diplomats from all the Group of Eight industrialized nations get together.

Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in London contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-10-US-Syria/id-29d2dc72a42c4028a853a3ffdf2e2c2b

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Shingles vaccine is associated with reduction in both postherpetic neuralgia and herpes zoster

Apr. 9, 2013 ? Shingles vaccine is associated with reduction in both postherpetic neuralgia and herpes zoster, but uptake in the US is low.

A vaccine to prevent shingles may reduce by half the occurrence of this painful skin and nerve infection in older people (aged over 65 years) and may also reduce the rate of a painful complication of shingles, post-herpetic neuralgia, but has a very low uptake (only 4%) in older adults in the United States, according to a study by UK and US researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.

The researchers, led by Sin?ad Langan from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reached these conclusions by examining the records of 766,330 Medicare beneficiaries* aged 65 years or more between 2007 and 2009.

They found that shingles vaccine uptake was extremely low -- only 3.9% of participants were vaccinated -- but was particularly low among black people (0.3%) and among people with a low income (0.6%).

Over the study period, almost 13,000 participants developed shingles and the vaccine reduced the rate of shingles by 48% (that is, approximately half as many vaccinated individuals developed shingles as those who were not vaccinated). However, the vaccine was less effective in older adults with impaired immune systems. The authors also found that vaccine effectiveness against post-herpetic neuralgia was 59%.

The authors say: "Herpes zoster vaccination was associated with a significant reduction in incident herpes zoster and [post-herpetic neuralgia] in routine clinical use."

They continue: "Despite strong evidence supporting its effectiveness, clinical use remains disappointingly low with particularly low vaccination rates in particular patient groups."

The authors add: " The findings are relevant beyond US medical practice, being of major importance to the many countries, including the UK, that are actively considering introducing the zoster vaccine into routine practice in the near future."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Sin?ad M. Langan, Liam Smeeth, David J. Margolis, Sara L. Thomas. Herpes Zoster Vaccine Effectiveness against Incident Herpes Zoster and Post-herpetic Neuralgia in an Older US Population: A Cohort Study. PLoS Medicine, 2013; 10 (4): e1001420 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001420

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/QybIeyvGhYg/130409173504.htm

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

How a weight-loss drug could improve fragile x symptoms | MNN ...

The drug, called rimonabant, blocks receptors that are activated by marijuana in the brain. Mice treated with the drug in the study showed improved memory and reduced seizures, and ?more normal sensitivity to pain, compared with mice not treated with the drug.

It's not clear whether the same improvements could happen in people. Rimonabant, which basically works by creating the opposite effect of "the munchies" (or an increased appetite experienced by some marijuana users), was withdrawn from the market in 2009 because it caused depression and suicidal thoughts in some patients.

However, the drug seems to improve autismlike symptoms at much lower doses than those typically used for weight loss, said study co-author Arnau Busquets Garcia, a neuroscience researcher at the University Pompeu Fabra in Spain.

"It could be an interesting therapy approach in humans, but I think there is a lot of work to do to confirm this," Busquets Garcia said.

Overactive brain cells

People with fragile X syndrome have a single change in a gene called FMR1, which prevents them from making enough of a key brain chemical that directs communication between brain cells. As a result, brain cells tend to fire too much, causing seizures, mental retardation, memory problems and insensitivity to pain.

The research team noticed that receptors called CB1 receptors, which are activated by marijuana, also played a role in the firing of brain cells. Because brain cells go haywire in fragile X syndrome, they wondered whether quieting these receptors could reduce the symptoms of the disease.

To find out, they gave rimonabant to mice that had a genetic change similar to fragile X, and measured the effects.

Blocking the marijuana receptors?with rimonabant improved the mice's performance in a memory maze, and also eliminated their cognitive deficits. Mice given rimonabant also had fewer seizures and more normal pain responses.

When examined under a microscope, the brain cells also looked more like healthy brain cells than those typical of fragile X syndrome.

Autism symptoms

The new approach could, in theory, show promise for other forms of autism.

"In lots of these autism deficits, there are also these imbalances between excitatory and inhibitory signals in the brain," Busquets Garcia said.

However, the researchers would first have to show that rimonabant was safe at lower doses, and effective in people who had fragile X syndrome, he said.

The findings were published March 31 in the journal Nature Medicine.

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Source: http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/how-a-weight-loss-drug-could-improve-fragile-x-symptoms

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iMaze Lets You Turn Your Photos Into A Maze And Race Your Friends To The Finish

While visiting, and judging, the Photo Hack Day at Facebook headquarters yesterday, one of the more than 60 hacks presented in a two-minute format was iMaze. The team that put it together in just a little over a day was comprised of developers, some of whom were high-school students, and it ended up being one of the most polished apps coming out of the hackathon. With Aviary and Facebook putting on the event, some really cool things came out of it, but iMaze is one that just flat-out stuck with me. It’s simple: It turns your favorite photos into a maze. Once the maze is created, you can either make your way through it yourself or challenge your friend over the web in a real-time speed-test. Before we get to the app itself, the team geekily put together some stats on what went into making iMaze: 5 People 24 Hours 1304mg of Caffine 1,492 Lines of Code 194 GitHub Commits 12,920 Calories 3 APIs Impressive. Now to iMaze. Since you probably have a ton of photos on your computer or tossed about all over the web, iMaze uses Filepicker.io to let you pull in photos from Dropbox, Facebook, Flickr, Google Drive, Google Photos, Instagram or of course your machine. Once you upload the photo, you can use Aviary to edit it down before it’s turned into an interactive maze game that changes each time you upload a photo. Pick single player or invite a friend, and then compete with them in real-time. Now you’re ready to compete in getting all the way through this ZuckMaze by dragging the line with your mouse: Considering that this was a hack put together in a day, it’s pretty fun and well-designed. The iMaze team won third place overall, but I hope that they keep working on it, because it would be a fun Facebook game and app. Once in a while, I enjoy playing hangman or Tic Tac Toe, not because I’m a gamer, but because I like doing something while I chat with my friends. Considering that these mazes are built on top of your photos, it’s a nice way to reuse images from the past and start a fun discussion with your closest pals.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7LXjzN7zgJc/

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Monday, April 8, 2013

Judge deals blow to high-tech workers' lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? A federal judge on Friday struck down an effort to form a class action lawsuit to go after Apple, Google and five other technology companies for allegedly forming an illegal cartel to tamp down workers' wages and prevent the loss of their best engineers during a multiyear conspiracy broken up by government regulators.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif., issued a ruling Friday concluding that the companies' alleged collusion may have affected workers in too many different ways to justify lumping the individual claims together. She denied the request to certify workers' lawsuits as a class action and collectively seek damages on behalf of tens of thousands of employees.

The allegations will be more difficult to pursue if they can't be united in a single lawsuit. Koh, though, will allow the workers' lawyers to submit additional evidence that they have been collecting to persuade her that the lawsuit still merits class certification.

"Plaintiffs appreciate the court's thorough consideration of the evidence and are prepared to address the court's concerns fully in a renewed motion," employee attorney Kelly Dermody wrote in a Friday email.

Apple Inc., Google Inc. and the other companies targeted in the lawsuit have been vigorously fighting the allegations. More is at stake than potentially paying out significant damages to more than 100,000 workers. If the lawsuit proceeds, it could also expose secret discussions among prominent technology executives who entered into a "gentlemen's agreement" not to poach employees working at their respective companies.

The case, filed in San Jose federal court, already has disclosed emails raising questions about the tactics of Apple's former CEO, the late Steve Jobs, and Google's former CEO, Eric Schmidt. Other sensitive information has so far been redacted in various court documents, including parts of Koh's 53-page ruling, but more dirty laundry could be aired if the lawsuit proceeds.

The lawsuit is trying to hold the companies accountable for an alleged scheme that cheated employees by artificially suppressing the demand for their services. The complaint hinges on the contention that the workers would have gotten raises either from their current employers or at other jobs if an anti-poaching provision hadn't been imposed. In most instances, the recruiting restrictions were in place from March 2005 through December 2009, according to the lawsuit.

Besides Apple and Google, the lawsuit is aimed at computer chip maker Intel Corp., software makers Intuit Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc., and film makers Pixar and LucasFilm, both of which are now owned by Walt Disney Co.

With the exception of LucasFilm, all the companies being sued settled similar allegations of an anti-poaching conspiracy with the U.S. Justice Department in 2010. The government opened its investigation in 2009 after finding evidence that the companies had reached behind-the-scenes agreements not to recruit each other's employees without permission. Apple, Google and the other companies lifted their poaching prohibitions without acknowledging any wrongdoing, as part of their settlement with the Justice Department.

Documents filed in the lawsuit indicated executives knew they were behaving badly. Both Schmidt and Intel CEO Paul Otellini indicated that they were worried about the anti-recruiting agreements being discovered, according to declarations cited in Koh's ruling. Nevertheless, Schmidt still fired a Google recruiter who riled Jobs by contacting an Apple employee, according to evidence submitted in the case.

Sometimes, workers who applied for a vacant position of their own volition were turned away if they were employed by one of the companies already adhering to the recruiting restrictions.

In her ruling, Koh said there's evidence that some of the employees working at the companies named in the lawsuit probably didn't earn as much money as they would have in a completely free market.

"The sustained personal efforts by the corporations' own chief executives...to monitor and enforce these agreements indicate that the agreements may have had broad effects on (their) employees," she wrote.

The problem with the lawsuit, Koh said, is that the circumstances for each employee differ too widely to qualify as a class action.