Efforts are underway to develop a more environmentally friendly process for dyeing denim with indigo, the storied "king of dyes," used to the tune of 50,000 tons annually to color cotton blue jeans and hundreds of other products. That effort is the topic of an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. In the article, C&EN Assistant Managing Editor Michael McCoy notes that concerns about the environmental effects of indigo represent ...

Thailand's SailQuest Sailing School is to organise a series of exciting boat races at the SailQuest Samui Regatta in May 2012.   It gets started on May 26th and runs through to June 5th, combining on-the-water competitions and festivities with a number of shore-based tie-in celebrations.   The regatta itself is held between May 29th and June 2nd, with the remaining days dedicated to transporting participants back and forth from the Ocean Marina in Pattaya, where the SailQuest school is based.   A number of different classes of boat will compete in the lavish event, ...

People with severe depression are constantly despondent, lacking in drive, withdrawn and no longer feel joy. Most suffer from anxiety and the desire to take their own life. Approximately one out of every five people in Germany suffers from depression in the course of his/her life – sometimes resulting in suicide. People with depression are frequently treated with psychotherapy and medication. "However, many patients are not helped by any therapy," says Prof. Dr. Thomas E. Schläpfer from the Bonn University Medical Center for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. "Many spend more ...

New Rochelle, NY, April 4, 2012—Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women, and evidence-based national guidelines promote the use of daily aspirin for women at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. However, less than half of the women who could benefit from aspirin are taking it, according to an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online at the Journal of Women's Health website. "Based on this survey, it is evident that the majority of women for whom aspirin is recommended ...

Taking the 'White Privilege Pop Quiz' by Molly Secours might reveal the inner racist. The quiz is merely a mirror that reflects how internalized racial biases and fears prevent those classified as white from recognizing, understanding--and ultimately perpetuating--inequities in education, health care, criminal justice and perhaps even premature death. Sample questions from the quiz are on her site, mollysecours.com. In light of the recent, untimely, and racially charged death of Trayvon Martin, Secours posted a blog on the site Redroom that included a few of the questions ...

Nick and Bobbi Ercoline, the couple depicted on the "Woodstock" soundtrack album cover, have now been happily married for over 40 years. However, a new special issue of The Gerontologist showing the Ercolines as they look today — a portrait of successful aging — finds that their unmarried baby boomer counterparts generally fare much poorer in terms of economic, health, and social outcomes. In 2011, the first of the 79 million American baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) reached age 65. Among this population, approximately one in three people are unmarried; ...

Observations by the two of the European Space Agency's space observatories have provided a multi-wavelength view of the mysterious galaxy Centaurus A. The new images, from the Herschel Space Observatory and the XMM-Newton x-ray satellite, are revealing further hints about its cannibalistic past and energetic processes going on in its core. At a distance of around 12 million light years, Centaurus A is the closest large elliptical galaxy to our own Milky Way. It has been marked as unusual since shortly after its discovery in the 19th century due to a thick lane of dust ...

A showcase of Malaysian artwork is coming to Bali at the Floated art exhibition, to be held later this month at the Kendra Gallery.   Beginning on April 14th, the event will feature pieces from a trio of acclaimed contemporary artists and will run through until May 10th.   Visitors to the show will be able to see how these three creative contributors offer different interpretations of social and cultural realities in Malaysia, a quickly-evolving society with a thriving arts scene.   Jalaini Abu Hassan's art aims to offer a unique perspective on the way historical ...

World-leading ship science expert, Professor Ajit Shenoi, says that a seafaring tragedy on the scale of the Titanic disaster is unlikely to happen again. Professor Shenoi, who is the Director of the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute at the University of Southampton, believes this is due to the many lessons that have been learned as a result of the tragedy 100 years ago. "A detailed Board of Trade inquiry set up after the tragedy identified that the reasons behind the Titanic's sinking and the huge loss of life could be categorised under two headings," Professor ...

Superstar instrumentalist Kenny G will be treating audiences in Malaysia to some of his greatest hits at the forthcoming Heart and Soul show at Resorts World Genting.   To be held at the Arena of Stars on May 19th 2012, the performance will encompass many of the phenomenally popular entertainer's most enduring classics, including Songbird and The Moment.   Born Kenneth Bruce Gorelick, the artist burst on to the international music scene in 1986 with his scintillating saxophone solos, collaborating with music legends such as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra ...

Researchers are increasingly aware that fat in some parts of the body is more harmful than fat in other places. To help determine how obesity works, scientists turn to animal models and now, they are able to visualize how much fat their lab rats are carrying and where they are storing it. The method will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE). "One of the key benefits of this technique versus existing methods, like ex vivo analysis, is that this technique allows for non-invasive and longitudinal assessment of fat in small animal ...

A Chorus Line, one of Broadway's most celebrated musicals, is set to be performed in Singapore this May in a spectacular production.   The show will be staged at the Marina Bay Sands hotel from May 4th to 27th 2012, with show times available at 19:30 local time from Tuesdays to Fridays, while 13:30 matinees will also take place on weekends.   Telling the individual stories of 17 dancers whose lives have led them to a bare audition hall and a dream of appearing on the Broadway stage, the show debuted in 1975 and became one of the longest-running productions of all time.   It ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A compound found in red wine, grapes and other fruits, and similar in structure to resveratrol, is able to block cellular processes that allow fat cells to develop, opening a door to a potential method to control obesity, according to a Purdue University study. Kee-Hong Kim, an assistant professor of food science, and Jung Yeon Kwon, a graduate student in Kim's laboratory, reported in this week's issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry that the compound piceatannol blocks an immature fat cell's ability to develop and grow. While similar in ...

The web is all about searching and finding exactly what you want. Sometimes you find something a little extra, too. To introduce its new and improved website, OpenMoves, the leader in online marketing based in Huntington, NY, is launching an online search game, The Great April Moo Hunt on April 5, 2012. To enter, participants must seek out the grazing "April Moo" cow (recognized by her pinkish complexion) upon the newly expanded OpenMoves website. Up for grabs is $1,000, $500 and $250 worth of online marketing services: Email, search engine optimization (SEO), ...

Young males who have been sexually abused are five times more likely to cause teen pregnancy compared to those with no abuse history, according to University of British Columbia research. Sexually abused boys are also three times more likely to have multiple sexual partners and twice as likely to engage in unprotected sex. Published online in advance of the Journal of Adolescent Health's June issue, the UBC study explores links between sexual abuse and risky sexual behaviour, focusing on three areas: teen pregnancy, multiple sexual partners and unprotected sexual intercourse. ...

SEATTLE – The first large-scale U.S.-based study to evaluate the link between an injectable form of progestin-only birth control and breast cancer risk in young women has found that recent use of a year or more doubles the risk. The results of the study, led by breast cancer epidemiologist Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, are published online ahead of the April 15 print issue of Cancer Research. While the contraceptive, called depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate, or DMPA, contains the same kind of progestin as the menopausal hormone-therapy ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. ¬— Popular music videos have been criticized as having misogynistic messages and images. While more female music artists have gained visibility and created successful "brands" in recent years, critics argue that many of these artists are pushing the boundaries of acceptable norms with regard to race, gender and sexuality in popular culture. Cynthia Frisby, an associate professor of strategic communication in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and Jennifer Aubrey, an associate professor in the department of communication in the University of Missouri ...

Bigelow maintains the ability to expertly finish the cold heading process, enhancing the functionality, performance and appearance of precision metal parts, not unlike the way a great sports team finishes a game to achieve success and recognition. Their proven track record of meeting the needs of the marketplace is reflected in the expanding range of services and methods that enhance customer bottom lines. The Bigelow dedication to high quality performance yields cost savings, time efficiencies and logistical advantages that are right in step with the demands of the many ...

College professors and students are in an arms race over cheating. Students find new sources for pre-written term papers; professors find new ways to check the texts they get for plagiarized material. But why are all these young people cheating? A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests one reason: income inequality, which decreases the general trust people have toward each other. Lukas Neville, a doctoral student at Queen's University in Ontario, was inspired to do the study by his own teaching experience. ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have shown that popular free smartphone apps spend up to 75 percent of their energy tracking the user's geographical location, sending information about the user to advertisers and downloading ads. "It turns out the free apps aren't really free because they contain the hidden cost of reduced battery life," said Y. Charlie Hu, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering. Because smartphone batteries must be small and lightweight, power consumption is a major issue, the researcher said. He has led work to create ...

Hollywoodsportsbook (www.hollywoodsportsbook.eu, formerly www.hollywoodsportsbook.com) a leading online entertainment gaming site since 1997, today announced that April is "Nuthin' But Baseball" month. All month, Hollywood is giving away pairs of tickets to its qualifying clients to all levels of baseball games in their client's neighborhoods, whether it be MLB or even High School ball... Robert Evans, Hollywood's Director of Operations says "April is here and that means only one thing.... Baseball is in full swing!... And we want our players and let Hollywood ...

Diamonds are forever – or, at least, the effects of this diamond on quantum computing may be. A team that includes scientists from USC has built a quantum computer in a diamond, the first of its kind to include protection against "decoherence" – noise that prevents the computer from functioning properly. The demonstration shows the viability of solid-state quantum computers, which – unlike earlier gas- and liquid-state systems – may represent the future of quantum computing because they can be easily scaled up in size. Current quantum computers are typically very small ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Although use of the internet has been credited with helping spur democratic revolutions in the Arab world and elsewhere, a new multinational study suggests the internet is most likely to play a role only in specific situations. Researchers at Ohio State University found that the internet spurs pro-democratic attitudes most in countries that already have introduced some reforms in that direction. "Instead of the internet promoting fundamental political change, it seems to reinforce political change in countries that already have at least some level ...

M & M Tree Service has been one of Tampa Bay's preferred tree services since 1993. Owners Mike and Lynda Machado have served the Tampa Bay community for almost 20 years, providing dependable quality tree service and exceptional customer service to residential and commercial customers and are proud to unveil their new and improved website. Designed with easier navigation, a showcase of beautiful photos reflecting some of their many tree and landscape projects throughout Tampa Bay and a robust question-and-answer page providing valuable advice to clients and consumers. ...

Ecosystems today face various threats, from climate change to invasive species to encroaching civilization. If we hope to protect these systems and the species that live in them, we must understand them — an extremely difficult and time-consuming task, given the world's seemingly endless number of ecosystems, each with its own complex dynamics and relationships. But what if we could pinpoint the most powerful players in a given food web, those "keystone" species without which the entire ecosystem would collapse? And what if we could predict how changes to an ecosystem ...