Aussie today launched a new credit card designed to help save online shoppers on overseas sites some of the estimated millions of dollars in international transaction fees they currently pay each year. A recent study1 has estimated that online shopping expenditure by 9.5 million Australians aged over 15 years, reached $13.6 billion in 2011 - expected to grow to $16 billion in 2012. Australians who make online purchases from overseas sites pay around 3 per cent per transaction in international transaction fees. Executive Chairman of Aussie, Mr John Symond said, ...

The estimated 8 million Australian who travel overseas this year could be big winners from today's launch of the new MasterCard card by the country's leading non-bank financial services group, Aussie. The Aussie Platinum MasterCard will not charge the approximate 3 per cent international transaction fees common to the majority of credit cards. According to an online poll conducted by Aussie1, 57 per cent of respondents have bought goods with their credit card, yet 78 per cent of them do not know what they pay in international transaction fees. Executive Chairman ...

An online survey by Aussie of 517 people1 found a staggering 69 per cent bought goods with their credit card from overseas online or when travelling overseas (57%) and yet almost 80 per cent (78%) of people do not know how much they are paying in international transaction fees when they do. The survey was conducted in conjunction with today's release of the new Aussie MasterCard card. Almost two thirds of those surveyed (59%) did not think credit card reward programs were good value, and almost the same percentage (56%) had never claimed back any credit card rewards. "This ...

In late October, Hubshout added another resource to its SEO reseller program--a new video tutorial series for SEO resellers. HubShout CEO, Chad Hill and President, Adam Stetzer Ph.D. produce the Google Hangout videos to summarize SEO trends and topics and answer questions, many of which are submitted by members of the SEO reseller program. The videos arm SEO resellers with information that helps them throughout the SEO and online marketing sales process. Members of the HubShout SEO reseller program can rely on the HubShout team to condense the deluge of SEO news into short ...

Savings balances show the emergence of a geographic split, which contrasts the more typical north south divide. When examined at Local Authority level, the latest Halifax research reveals that, between July and September, whilst nine of the ten highest savings balances in England and Wales are in the south, so are over half of lowest savings balances. The 'South-South' disparity is driven predominantly between Local Authorities in the South East and Greater London. South Buckinghamshire tops the list for the highest average savings balance at GBP13,459, which is more ...

Why is NASA conducting plant research aboard the International Space Station? Because during future long-duration missions, life in space may depend on it. The ability of plants to provide a source of food and recycle carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen may prove critical for astronauts who will live in space for months at a time. In addition, plants provide a sense of well-being. At the McMurdo Station for research in Antarctica -- a site that in the dead of winter resembles the space station in its isolation, cramped quarters, and hostile environment -- the most ...

The Tucson, Arizona -based Offshore Group recently dialogued with Alberto Gayou, the principal attorney at the Ciudad Juarez-headquartered Mexican law firm LexCorp Abogados, S.C. on the topic of the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement, or BASA, that exists between the United States and Mexico During the course of the conversation, Gayou clearly explains the ways in which the accord will concretely affect the growth of the aerospace industry in Mexico for the next decade or more. According to Gayou, "It (the BASA) is an accord that is of critical importance. ...

Next week, FreeCast, Inc - a leader in digital TV distribution (DTVD) with the largest virtual guide of popular television, movies, and music content sources - will be unveiling a partnership with "As Seen on TV" DRTV giants Telebrands Corp that is expected to offer consumers an unmatched 10,000+ channels and decisive alternative to traditional cable and satellite offers over the Internet. The product, RabbitTV, will deploy a unique yet simple distribution model to deliver digital media on a more massive scale than current set-top boxes (Roku, Boxee, Apple ...

In the spirit of holiday giving, Plackers, a leading brand of oral care products, has donated more than 75,000 of its popular Micro Mint disposable flossers for families staying at Ronald McDonald Houses in Texas, California, Louisiana and Missouri. Through its Ronald McDonald House(R) programs, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC(R)) provides comfort, compassion and vital resources in a home-like environment for families with critically ill or injured children traveling to receive necessary care. Donations like these from Plackers aid in the mission of RMHC by offering ...

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, a founding resident company of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, will host its Lifetime Achievement Award Gala on Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 6 PM at The Westin Philadelphia. This year's Gala honors one of music's greatest contributors - Burt Bacharach. The event is black tie. The evening's event will include the presentation of the prestigious Annual Chamber Orchestra Lifetime Achievement Award to Mr. Bacharach with a mini-concert including surprise musical guests, a cocktail hour, a three-course sit-down dinner, dancing ...

Changes in how genes in the immune system function may result in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of visual impairment in older adults, based on preliminary research conducted by National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigators. "Our findings are epigenetic in nature, meaning that the underlying DNA is normal but gene expression has been modified, likely by environmental factors, in an adverse way," said Dr. Robert Nussenblatt, chief of the National Eye Institute (NEI) Laboratory of Immunology. Environmental factors associated with AMD include ...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – New studies released today reveal important advances in cancer care quality measurement, physician adherence to quality standards, and end-of-life care, while highlighting the overuse of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. The studies were released in a presscast today in advance of ASCO's inaugural 2012 Quality Care Symposium. The Symposium will take place November 30 – December 1, 2012, at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. Four major studies were highlighted in today's presscast: Study finds that most preventive double mastectomies occur ...

Scientists believe that fish ear bones and their distinctive growth rings can offer clues to the likely impacts of climate change in aquatic environments. The earbones, or 'otoliths', help fish to detect movement and to orient themselves in the water. Otoliths set down annual growth rings that can be measured and counted to estimate the age and growth rates of fish. "Otoliths can form the basis of new techniques for modelling fish growth, productivity and distribution in future environments," said Dr John Morrongiello of CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans Flagship, lead author ...

According to psychological lore, when it comes to items of information the mind can cope with before confusion sets in, the "magic" number is seven. But a new analysis by a leading Australian professor of psychiatry challenges this long-held view, suggesting the number might actually be four. In 1956, American psychologist George Miller published a paper in the influential journal Psychological Review arguing the mind could cope with a maximum of only seven chunks of information. The paper, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two. Some Limits on Our Capacity ...

Quasars are the intensely luminous centres of distant galaxies that are powered by huge black holes. This new study has looked at one of these energetic objects – known as SDSS J1106+1939 – in great detail, using the X-shooter instrument on ESO's VLT at the Paranal Observatory in Chile [1]. Although black holes are noted for pulling material in, most quasars also accelerate some of the material around them and eject it at high speed. "We have discovered the most energetic quasar outflow known to date. The rate that energy is carried away by this huge mass of material ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- More than half of all couches tested in a Duke University-led study contained potentially toxic or untested chemical flame retardants that may pose risks to human health. Among the chemicals detected was "Tris," a chlorinated flame retardant that is considered a probable human carcinogen based on animal studies. "Tris was phased out from use in baby pajamas back in 1977 because of its health risks, but it still showed up in 41 percent of the couch foam samples we tested," said Heather Stapleton, associate professor of environmental chemistry at ...

Cambridge, MA (November 28, 2012)--The vast majority (80 percent) of parents with at least one child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) would pursue genetic testing if a test were available that could identify risk in a younger sibling, citing the desire for earlier identification of children at risk, earlier evaluation and intervention, closer monitoring and lessened anxiety. The findings were reported in "Parental Interest in a Genetic Risk Assessment Test for Autism Spectrum Disorders," a survey published online today in the journal Clinical Pediatrics. The survey ...

PULLMAN, Wash. - Imagine landing on the moon or Mars, putting rocks through a 3-D printer and making something useful – like a needed wrench or replacement part. "It sounds like science fiction, but now it's really possible," says Amit Bandyopadhyay, professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University. Bandyopadhyay and a group of colleagues recently published a paper in Rapid Prototyping Journal demonstrating how to print parts using materials from the moon. Bandyopadhyay and Susmita Bose, professor in the School of Mechanical ...

Philadelphia, PA, November 28, 2012 – Medication development efforts for cocaine dependence have yet to result in an FDA approved treatment. The powerful rewarding effects of cocaine, the profound disruptive impact of cocaine dependence on one's lifestyle, and the tendency of cocaine to attract people who make poor life choices and then exacerbate impulsive behavior all make cocaine a vexing clinical condition. In this battle, many candidate pharmacotherapies have been tested, but none have succeeded sufficiently to be adopted widely. Perhaps like cancer, heart disease, ...

As part of the European study TRANSEURO, five patients with Parkinson's disease will undergo brain cell transplants at Skåne University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, in early 2013. These are the first operations of their kind in Europe for over 10 years. The TRANSEURO study, which in Sweden is led by Lund University, is now taking a critical approach to the viability of cell therapy as a future treatment for Parkinson's disease. Can we replace cells that die as a result of our most common neurological diseases? What are the therapies of the future for neurodegenerative diseases ...

Amsterdam, the Netherlands: The latest Access to Medicine Index, which ranks the top 20 pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicine in developing countries, finds that the industry is doing more than it was two years ago, with GlaxoSmithKline still outperforming its peers, but an expanding group of leaders closing the gap. The Index, published Wednesday, found that Johnson & Johnson was one of the most dramatic risers, climbing from the middle of the field in 9th position in the 2010 Index to 2nd this year, closely behind GlaxoSmithKline. It ...

Collaboration between medical and anthropological expertise can solve complex clinical problems in today's multicultural women's healthcare, shows Pauline Binder, a medical anthropologist, who will present her thesis on 1 December at the Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University, Sweden. Pauline Binder has applied in-depth medical anthropological research approaches to understand clinical problems in ways not possible using only statistics. Why pregnant Somali women have an increased risk of complications even after migration has been the starting point for her fieldwork. ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Oregon have found a way to exploit cloud-based Web browsers, using them to perform large-scale computing tasks anonymously. The finding has potential ramifications for the security of "cloud browser" services. At issue are cloud browsers, which create a Web interface in the cloud so that computing is done there rather than on a user's machine. This is particularly useful for mobile devices, such as smartphones, which have limited computing power.The cloud-computing paradigm pools the computational ...

An international team led by researchers from the University of Warwick and Oxford University is now dealing with unexpected results of an experiment with strongly heated graphite (up to 17,000 degrees Kelvin). The findings may pose a new problem for physicists working in laser-driven nuclear fusion and may also lead astrophysicists to revise our understanding of the life cycle of giant planets and stars. The researchers were attempting to get a better understanding about how energy is shared between the different species of matter, especially, how it is transferred from ...

Children of low socioeconomic status work harder to filter out irrelevant environmental information than those from a high-income background because of learned differences in what they pay attention to, according to new research published in the open access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Numerous studies in the past few years have begun to reveal how poverty affects brain development and function. In 2008, Amedeo D'Angiulli of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and his colleagues used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain wave patterns associated ...