UPDATE TO CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY’S 2016 BEST ONLINE PROGRAMS RANKING

Creighton University’s online graduate business program has been moved to the ‘Unranked’ category.

The university’s Unranked status will last until the next edition of the Best Online Graduate Business Programs rankings.

Creighton University recently advised U.S. News that it misreported data that were used in the 2015 Best Online Programs rankings. The misreported data resulted in the school’s numerical rank being higher than it otherwise might have been in the 2015 Best Online Graduate Business Programs rankings, which exclude MBA programs.

Because of the discrepancy in Creighton University’s ranking, U.S. News has moved the school to the “Unranked” category in the 2015 Best Online Graduate Business Programs rankings on usnews.com. Schools in the Unranked category do not receive numerical rankings from U.S. News.

The school’s Unranked status will last until the publication of the next edition of the Best Online Graduate Business Programs rankings and until Creighton University confirms the accuracy of its next data submission in accordance with U.S. News’ requirements.

We have noted this Unranked status on Creighton University’s profile page, and have included its new data reported as correct by the school on usnews.com.

Creighton University advised U.S. News that it submitted an incorrect three-year graduation rate for its 2010-2011 entering class. The school told U.S. News that its correct three-year graduation rate for that class was 43 percent; it originally reported the incorrect rate of 91 percent. This is a 48 percentage-point difference.

A school’s three-year graduation rate was used in the 2015 Best Online Graduate Business Programsrankings methodology. The graduation rate was weighted at 9.9 percent of the ranking formula.

U.S. News will continue to handle each case of data misreporting on an individual basis.

HOW TO BANISH LAUGH LINES NATURALLY

Laugh lines are deep creases that develop around the mouth. These are static wrinkles that become more obvious when you laugh or smile – hence the name. Although repeated muscle movement causes laugh lines, genetics and sun exposure are also factors that could increase the likelihood of these wrinkles! And once they form, there is no way to get rid of laugh lines except dermatological treatments. In today’s post, we are listing down ways to avoid laugh lines and reduce their appearance without using drugs or turning to invasive treatments:

 

Quit Smoking

This is the best time to quit smoking. Smoking causes the muscles around the mouth to contract and expand repeatedly. This causes the upper vertical lines to appear around the mouth. Over time, the repeated motions of inhaling and exhaling of smoke leads to permanent wrinkles. Free radical damage caused by smoking could also weaken the skin, accelerating aging. Quitting smoking right now will stop wrinkles before they even start!Applying a Vitamin C Serum

Collagen is a type of protein that keeps the skin plump and younger-looking. But as we age, the collagen level in the skin is depleted. Over time, the skin becomes prone to dryness and fine lines. To delay the signs of aging, you need to increase the production of collagen in the body. You can do that by applying a serum formulated with vitamin C. Applying the serum promotes repair, strengthening the skin to prevent deep creases, including laugh lines. You can also take vitamin C supplements to ensure line-free skin!

 

Stick to a Healthy Diet

What you eat will translate on your skin. If your daily diet is full of empty calories and grease, this will translate to dry, irritated skin. Eventually, all the junk you eat could weaken the skin, making you vulnerable to wrinkles!

 

So make sure you stick to a healthy diet teeming with antioxidants, beneficial fats, and vitamins. Make your meals colorful with vegetables and fresh fruits. Stick to lean protein from poultry and fish to keep the skin youthful and plump. Avoid foods that are high in salt, sugar, and saturated fats.

 

Dealing with Stress

Lack of sleep could cause the level of stress hormone cortisol to shoot up in the system. The sustained level of cortisol will age the skin, weakening the cell connections that lead to sagginess. Getting enough sleep is a great way to reduce stress and keep the skin youthful! Get at least 7 solid hours of sleep every night to prevent laugh lines and wrinkles. It helps if you find healthy ways to de-tress such as exercising, getting a massage, or doing yoga.

 

Hydrate the Skin

There are two ways to keep the skin youthful and hydrated: drink 8 glasses of water daily and moisturize the skin twice per day!

 

Drinking water helps flush out toxins in the system. It also replaces all the fluids you lost when you perspire. Proper hydration also ensures the healthiness of the skin by preventing dryness.

 

On the other hand, moisturizing the skin using skin creams and beauty oils strengthen the skin structure. These products keep the skin smooth, plump, and younger-looking. We suggest using beauty oils like argan, rosehip, and sweet almond oil to banish laugh lines. Apply daily and you will see a significant difference in your skin texture in no time at all.

HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES FOR JOINT PROBLEMS

Homeopathic remedies are developed to treat the symptoms of certain ailments. And if you are dealing with persistent joint problems, we put together a list of homeopathic remedies to ease aspects of joint pain:

Rhus Tox

Rhus toxicodendron – simply known as Rhus tox – is a type of herb commonly known as poison ivy. This herb is prepared in different ways to heal skin conditions and joint problems. Rhus tox is recommended for joint pain that get worse after resting or joint problems that become better after walking or moving around.

Bryonia Alba

Bryonia Alba is a type of vine that belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family. This herb is native to Europe and Northern Iran and is notorious for causing illnesses and even death. As a homeopathic remedy, this herb is used to ease joint pains made worse by either rest or motion. Bryonia Alba is the ideal treatment for osteoarthritis pains. This herb is also a great treatment for joints that are inflamed, swollen, or eroded.

Ledum Pal

Ledum Pal – also known as wild rosemary – is a type of flowering plant that belongs in the family Ericaceae. This herb is known for its distinct scent that attracts pollinating insects, particularly bees. Ledum Pal is a great remedy for gout, joint pain among smaller joints as well as arthritis. This herb is an effective treatment for inflamed joints that are hot and painful to the touch.

Causticum

Causticum is a holme phatic preparation made from prepared slaked slime and sulfate of potash. This preparation is typically used to heal damaged nerves, sore muscles, and stiff joints. Causticum is also used to treat paralytic or weak limbs. This preparation is also used when there is severe tearing of the limbs aggravated by warmth and redness. Causticum helps ease pain by increasing the coldness within the joints and muscles.

Arnica Montana

Arnica Montana – also known as leopard’s bane – is a type of flowering plant that belongs to the sunflower family. This herb is native to Europe and is cultivated for medicinal uses. In fact, this herb has been used as a remedy for joint pain since the ancient times. Arnica Montana is typically used to treat lame, sore, and painful joints and muscles. If the affected area is sore and bruised – as if it is beaten with sticks – use Arnica Montana. Arnica Montana is also used as a treatment for injuries caused by a bad fall or accidents.

Actea Spicata

Actea Spicata – also known as baneberry – is a flowering plant that belongs to the Actaea genus. This herb is extremely poisonous so always use as directed. This herb is used for healing joint pains of the hands and wrist. Actea Spicata is also used to treat rheumatic pain, swollen wrists, and pain after moving or using the hands. In addition, Actea Spicata is also used to treat painful finger joints due to rheumatoid arthritis.

Chinum Sulph

Chinum Sulph is a homeopathic preparation used to treat the sudden onset of acute articular rheumatism. This preparation is used to treat severe joint pain as well as muscle soreness./healthydietbase.com/

1.3 billion-year-old ripple shows Einstein was right

Scientists have made one of the most exciting discoveries of the modern era after being able to observe for the first time ripples in the fabric of space time known as gravitational waves, arriving from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe 1.3 billion years ago.

A statement from LIGO Scientific Collaboration said: “This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.”

The discovery was made by scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration in work that involved more than 1,000 scientists and 90 universities and research institutes, as well as 250 students.

Gravitational waves carry information about their dramatic origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot otherwise be obtained. 

Physicists have concluded that the detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. This collision of two black holes had been predicted but never observed. 

Professor Stephen Hawking, interviewed by the BBC, said the finding “has the potential to revolutionise astronomy”.

“I would like to congratulate the LIGO team on their groundbreaking discovery. These results confirm several very important predictions of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It confirms the existence of gravitational waves directly.

“This discovery is the first detection of a black hole binary system and the first observation of black holes merging.”

He said the observed properties of the system were consistent with predications he made about black holes in Cambridge in 1970.

According to Nature magazine, the historic discovery — which physicists say will probably lead shortly to a Nobel Prize — opens up the new field of gravitational-wave astronomy, in which scientists will listen to the waves to learn more about the objects that can produce them, including black holes, neutron stars and supernovae.

The gravitational waves were detected on 14 September 2015 by both of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, United States. 

The LIGO Observatories are funded by the National Science Foundation, and were conceived, built and are operated by the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT. 

The discovery, accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters, was made by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (which includes the GEO Collaboration and the Australian Consortium for Interferometric Gravitational Astronomy) and the Virgo Collaboration using data from the two LIGO detectors. 

When black holes collide

Based on the observed signals, LIGO scientists estimate that the black holes for this event were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, and the event took place 1.3 billion years ago. 

About three times the mass of the sun was converted into gravitational waves in a fraction of a second – with a peak power output about 50 times that of the whole visible universe. By looking at the time of arrival of the signals – the detector in Livingston recorded the event seven milliseconds before the detector in Hanford – scientists can say that the source was located in the Southern Hemisphere. 

According to general relativity, a pair of black holes orbiting around each other lose energy through the emission of gravitational waves, causing them to gradually approach each other over billions of years, and then much more quickly in the final minutes. 

During the final fraction of a second, the two black holes collide into each other at nearly one-half the speed of light and form a single more massive black hole, converting a portion of the combined black holes’ mass to energy; according to Einstein’s formula E=mc2 [squared] energy is emitted as a final strong burst of gravitational waves. It is these gravitational waves that LIGO has observed.

The existence of gravitational waves was first demonstrated in the 1970s and '80s by Joseph Taylor Jr and colleagues. Taylor and Russell Hulse discovered in 1974 a binary system composed of a pulsar in orbit around a neutron star. Taylor and Joel M Weisberg in 1982 found that the orbit of the pulsar was slowly shrinking over time because of the release of energy in the form of gravitational waves. 

For discovering the pulsar and showing that it would make possible this particular gravitational wave measurement, Hulse and Taylor were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993. 

The new LIGO discovery is the first observation of gravitational waves themselves, made by measuring the tiny disturbances the waves make to space and time as they pass through the earth. 

“Our observation of gravitational waves accomplishes an ambitious goal set out over five decades ago to directly detect this elusive phenomenon and better understand the universe, and, fittingly, fulfils Einstein’s legacy on the 100th anniversary of his general theory of relativity,” said Caltech’s David H Reitze, executive director of the LIGO Laboratory. 

Big Bang insight

Stephen Hawking said: “Until now our observations of the universe have exploited light, radio waves and other electro magnetic radiation. Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking at the universe. 

“This will revolutionise what kind of things we could discover. Apart from testing general relatively we could hope to see black holes throughout the history of the universe. A cosmic distance ladder using these black holes would be extremely accurate, and complement existing distance ladders based, for example, on supernovae. 

“We may even see relics of the very early universe during the Big Bang at the most extreme energies possible.”

The discovery was made possible by the enhanced capabilities of Advanced LIGO, a major upgrade that increases the sensitivity of the instruments compared to the first generation LIGO detectors, enabling a large increase in the volume of the universe probed – and the discovery of gravitational waves during its first observation run. 

The US National Science Foundation leads in financial support for Advanced LIGO. Funding organisations in Germany (Max Planck Society), the UK (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) also have made significant commitments to the project. 

Several of the key technologies that made Advanced LIGO so much more sensitive have been developed and tested by the German UK GEO collaboration. Significant computer resources have been contributed by the AEI Hannover Atlas Cluster, the LIGO Laboratory, Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. 

Several universities designed, built and tested key components for Advanced LIGO: the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide, the University of Florida, Stanford University, Columbia University in the City of New York, and Louisiana State University. 

International collaboration

LIGO research is carried out by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, or LSC, a group of more than 1,000 scientists from universities around the United States and in 14 other countries. More than 90 universities and research institutes in the LSC develop detector technology and analyse data. Approximately 250 students are strong contributing members of the collaboration. 

The LSC detector network includes the LIGO interferometers and the GEO600 detector. The GEO team includes scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute or AEI), Leibniz Universität Hannover, along with partners at the University of Glasgow, Cardiff University, the University of Birmingham, other universities in the United Kingdom, and the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain. 

LIGO was originally proposed as a means of detecting these gravitational waves in the 1980s by Rainer Weiss, professor of physics, emeritus, from MIT; Kip Thorne, Caltech’s Richard P Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, emeritus; and Ronald Drever, professor of physics, emeritus, also from Caltech. 

“With this discovery, we humans are embarking on a marvellous new quest: the quest to explore the warped side of the universe – objects and phenomena that are made from warped space time. Colliding black holes and gravitational waves are our first beautiful examples,” said Thorne. 

“The description of this observation is beautifully described in the Einstein theory of general relativity formulated 100 years ago and comprises the first test of the theory in strong gravitation. It would have been wonderful to watch Einstein’s face had we been able to tell him,” said Weiss. Source: /universityworldnews.com/

5 DRINKS YOU SHOULD NEVER DRINK AGAIN

Beverages are so diverse that there must be thousands to choose from! A trip to the largest grocery store would give you dozens of options – a selection of juice, soda, energy drink, coffee, tea, milk, bottled water, beer, wine, and spirit, just to name a few. Add to that the coffee shops, tea houses, wineries, breweries, and specialty shops that sell or serve drinks which aren’t found anywhere else.

All of these beverages are available for your choosing, but not all of them are good for you. Here are the 20 drinks you should never drink again.

1. Fruit Juice

Why it’s bad for you: Most “fruit juices” sold in markets aren’t actually made of fruits. They use synthetic flavors instead of real fruit juice. Refined and artificial sugars are then added as sweeteners. What you get is a sugar-loaded, high-calorie beverage that puts you at risk for obesity and diabetes.

Fruit juices may also contain food coloring and other preservatives to prolong their shelf life. But even those made from real fruits can be detrimental to one’s health. Unless derived from organic sources, they are more likely to be contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. The combination of additives and chemicals in fruit juice create a deadly cocktail for cancer.

2. French Press Coffee

Why it’s bad for you: Also known as the cafetière, it offers a rich coffee-drinking experience which combines bitter flavors with viscous texture. Unfortunately, it isn’t as healthy as other types of coffee. The plunger mechanism doesn’t effectively removecafestol and kahweol, two fatty lipids normally found in coffee. Studies have shown that too much of these lipids increases “bad” cholesterol and raises your risk for heart disease.Another problem with cafetière is its high caffeine content. Each cup has about 100 mg. Excessive intake of caffeine causes a surge in homocysteine, an amino acid that triggers heart attack. You only need 5 cups of cafetière every day for two weeks to raise your homocysteine levels by up to 10 percent.

3. Boiled Coffee

Why it’s bad for you: Whether it’s Turkish, Greek, or percolated, you should never drink boiled coffee again. Forget their rich aroma and tempting flavors. Every cup of this beverage contains more cafestol, kahweol, and caffeine than French press coffee.

Turkish and Greek varieties have the most caffeine with an average of 200 mg per cup. Meanwhile, percolated coffee usually has 124 mg of caffeine. Due to their high caffeine, it takes less quantities of boiled coffee to increase your homostyceine. Thus, you are at greater risk for atherosclerosis or heart attack.

Boiling also results in the better extraction of fatty lipids from coffee beans, which isn’t exactly good for your health. This only means a higher concentration of cafestoland kahweol per cup of boiled coffee, and a greater possibility for heart disease.

4. Flavored Water

Why it’s bad for you: It’s basically water with calories, except that it comes in different flavors and colors. Some contain refined sugars and are infused with real fruit juice, albeit in small amounts. Other varieties include food coloring, artificial flavoring, and even artificial sugars.Flavored water made of artificial ingredients put you at risk for cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, and other serious health problems. Even those made with natural ingredients still have sugar in them, needlessly adding to your daily intake of sugar and calories. Besides, flavored water has poor nutritional value and contains too little vitamins and minerals – or none at all.

5. Cocktails

Why it’s bad for you: Oh it’s not the alcohol that should get you worried, especially if you drink moderately. There’s something more dangerous about these party drinks, and the answer lies in their ingredients.Some cocktail recipes could literally kill you. Take the “Red Bull Vodka” for example – it’s supposed to keep you awake after a long night of partying. But it also triggers palpitations, placing you at greater risk for a heart attack and even death. Yikes! Some cocktails simply have too many calories, with the Piña Colada, White Russian, and Frozen Strawberry Daquiri being the greatest sinners of them all. These cocktails average to 560 calories per serving – the same amount you would get from a light meal or a heavy snack.