After taking a year off from blogging for work and family reasons, former magazine editor Aun Koh has re-launched his ultra-popular food and gourmet-travel blog, Chubby Hubby (www.chubbyhubby.net). The blog has a worldwide audience, prior to Koh's hiatus, up to 90,000 unique visitors and over 3 million hits per month. Chubby Hubby returns with a complete redesign and now boasts a striking visual aesthetic that fluidly adapts to all devices. This makes browsing through Chubby Hubby equally easy and pleasurable, no matter if one's using a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. ...

Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich have identified an enzyme that is involved in a modification pathway that is essential for bacterial pathogenicity. Because it shows no similarity to other known proteins, it may be an ideal target for development of novel antimicrobial drugs. Studies on a number of pathogenic bacteria have shown that these strains become pathogenic only when an enzyme called elongation factor P (EF-P) is chemically modified on a conserved lysine residue. EF-P is a universally conserved translation factor, which is involved ...

The Rio+20 summit on promoting jobs, clean energy and a more sustainable use of our planet's resources closed today after three days of talks. During the summit, the role of Earth observation in sustainable development was highlighted. In 1992, a blueprint to rethink economic growth, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Now, 20 years later, the Rio+20 Summit brought participants from governments, the private sector, non-govermental organisations and other stakeholders once again to Brazil ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A multidisciplinary team of researchers at MIT and in Spain has found a new mathematical approach to simulating the electronic behavior of noncrystalline materials, which may eventually play an important part in new devices including solar cells, organic LED lights and printable, flexible electronic circuits. The new method uses a mathematical technique that has not previously been applied in physics or chemistry. Even though the method uses approximations rather than exact solutions, the resulting predictions turn out to match the actual electronic ...

Whether you're a mummy-to-be who is loving the latest maternity dresses, or a proud mum who likes to style up the little ones, simply style an outfit from this season's Next's maternity or childrenswear ranges - to value of GBP500 and write an accompanying blog post telling Next why these are your fashion favourites. The Next's Mummy Stylist competition allows you to show off your creative flair with moodboards, links, pictures and social platforms to tell everyone about why your style choices shine above the rest. Be as original and imaginative as you like; perhaps ...

First published over 10 years ago, this novel was widely acclaimed and won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2002. On the surface it is a fantasy adventure tale of a young man surviving more than seven months adrift in the Pacific, in the company of a 450-pound Bengal tiger. To be fair, I should confess that I am not generally a big fan of 'castaway' novels; despite this, I found Life of Pi so intriguing that I read it one sitting, even though I was guilty of skimming a little over some of Pi's adventures while adrift in the ocean. Without wishing to give away too ...

A business card is tangible, something that can be handled and felt, which in this day and age of 'virtual' everything is something that people like. A great business card can make a lasting impression, especially if it's visually striking or unique in some way. In fact, a well-designed business card that uses high-quality materials can be as good at making sales as any brochure or sales pitch, and sometimes better. Bce-online.com is a high-quality printing service that specializes in business cards that are unique, high quality and a cut above the rest. They use the ...

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have engineered nanoparticles that show great promise for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow. One of the difficulties doctors face in treating MM comes from the fact that cancer cells of this type start to develop resistance to the leading chemotherapeutic treatment, doxorubicin, when they adhere to tissue in bone marrow. "The nanoparticles we have designed accomplish many things at once," says Başar Bilgiçer, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (06/15/2012) – University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have collaborated with the School of Public Health and discovered an enzyme that, when found at high levels and alongside low levels of HDL (good cholesterol), can dramatically reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The enzyme – glutathione peroxidase, or GPx3 – is a natural antioxidant that helps protect organisms from oxidant injury and helps the body naturally repair itself. Researchers have found that patients with high levels of good cholesterol, the GPx3 enzyme does not make ...

RICHLAND, Wash. -- The design of a nature-inspired material that can make energy-storing hydrogen gas has gone holistic. Usually, tweaking the design of this particular catalyst -- a work in progress for cheaper, better fuel cells -- results in either faster or more energy efficient production but not both. Now, researchers have found a condition that creates hydrogen faster without a loss in efficiency. And, holistically, it requires the entire system -- the hydrogen-producing catalyst and the liquid environment in which it works -- to overcome the speed-efficiency ...

DENVER – Research presented in the July 2012 issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) Journal of Thoracic Oncology, concluded that patients with limited large cell neuroendocrine tumors or with limited stage small-cell lung cancer who were treated with perioperative chemotherapy and surgery had better overall survival outcomes than patients treated with surgery alone. Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) represents about 15 percent of lung cancers annually. Of those, about 30 percent of patients have limited disease SCLC. Whereas large-cell ...

DENVER – Until recently, many elderly patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer were left untreated because treatment may not improve their quality of life. However, stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) has become one of the standards of treatment for these patients. The outpatient treatment given over a two-week period allows frail patients to undergo the treatment. Researchers wanted to know if this treatment maintained the same health-related qualify of life levels as patients receiving surgery. The researchers received questionnaires from 382 patients ...

Richmond, Va. (June 15, 2012) – A multi-institutional research study has uncovered a new mechanism that may lead to unique treatments for lung cancer, one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The study recently published in the journal Genes & Development was a collaboration between Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, the University of California, San Diego, the University of Minnesota and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The scientists discovered ...

Superhydrophobicity is one of most important interfacial properties between solids and liquids. SHI Yanlong and his group from the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key laboratory of Hexi Corridor Resources Utilization of Gansu Universities, Hexi University investigated the superhydrophobicity of the water boatman's hind wings. The study showed that superhydrophobicity plays a crucial role in the water boatman's swimming, balance, and breathing in water, and in its escape ability from water area under unfavorable conditions. Their work, entitled "Investigation ...

An experiment that Sigmund Freud could never have imagined 100 years ago may help lend scientific support for one of his key theories, and help connect it with current neuroscience. Today at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, a University of Michigan professor who has spent decades applying scientific methods to the study of psychoanalysis will present new data supporting a causal link between the psychoanalytic concept known as unconscious conflict, and the conscious symptoms experienced by people with anxiety disorders such as phobias. ...

Rio, 17 June 2012 – The world's fixation on economic growth ignores a rapid and largely irreversible depletion of natural resources that will seriously harm future generations, according to a report which today unveiled a new indicator aimed at encouraging sustainability - the Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI). The IWI, which looks beyond the traditional economic and development yardsticks of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI) to include a full range of assets such as manufactured, human and natural capital, shows governments the true state ...

An experiment of surfaces in hotel rooms finds television remotes to be among the most heavily contaminated with bacteria and items on housekeeping carts carry the potential to cross-contaminate rooms. Researchers from the University of Houston report the findings today at the 2012 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. "Hoteliers have an obligation to provide their guests with a safe and secure environment. Currently, housekeeping practices vary across brands and properties with little or no standardization industry wide. The current validation ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital have identified commensal bacteria in the human intestine that produce a neurotransmitter that may play a role in preventing or treating inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease. "We identified, to our knowledge, the first bifidobacterial strain, Bifidobacterium dentium, that is capable of secreting large amounts of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). This molecule is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central and enteric nervous systems," says Karina Pokusaeva, a researcher on the ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Tiny, transient loops of genetic material, detected and studied by the hundreds for the first time at Brown University, are providing new insights into how the body transcribes DNA and splices (or missplices) those transcripts into the instructions needed for making proteins. The lasso-shaped genetic snippets — they are called lariats — that the Brown team reports studying in the June 17 edition of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology are byproducts of gene transcription. Until now scientists had found fewer than 100 lariats, mostly ...

As a caregiver of a child on the autism spectrum, it's imperative to educate yourself on all available treatments and therapies, but finding the time and money to travel to and attend autism seminars and conferences can be a challenge--and in some cases, simply impossible. Dr. Kurt Woeller is a biomedical autism treatment and recovery specialist, author and guest speaker at autism conferences and seminars throughout the United States. He understands that attendance at these conferences and seminars are limited to those with the time and the resources to attend--a very ...

The collaborative research team led by Professor Tadashi ISA, Project Assistant Professor Masaharu KINOSHITA from The National Institute for Physiological Sciences, The National Institutes of Natural Sciences and Fukushima Medical University and Kyoto University, developed "the double viral vector transfection technique" which can deliver genes to a specific neural circuit by combining two new kinds of gene transfer vectors. With this method, they found that "indirect pathways", which were suspected to have been left behind when the direct connection from the brain to motor ...

We all tend to assume that refugees want to go home. But often refugees cannot just return to their home country when conflict ends. Many have spent decades in exile; many second and third-generation refugees have never seen the place which they are now expected to call home. Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) shows that for many refugees a quick return isn't the right answer. Dr Katy Long at the London School of Economics says: "There is usually political pressure to start organising refugee returns as soon as there's a possibility of ...

Walker Author Tours, a company that brings new authors to the attention of the reading public through online, virtual book tours, is pleased to announce the two-week book blog tour for Camille Matthews's second Quincy novel, Quincy Moves to the Desert. This book tour will include tour stops at a variety of book blogs on the Internet where readers may read reviews, author interviews, and ask questions of the author as well as a webcast radio spot with a live interview with Ms. Matthews. The Quincy Moves to the Desert book tour will run June 18 through 29, 2012. This ...

The world population is over seven billion and all of these people need feeding. However, the energy requirement of a species depends not only on numbers but on its average mass. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Public Health has estimated the total mass of the human population, defined its distribution by region, and the proportion of this biomass due to the overweight and obesity. Up to half of all food eaten is burned up in physical activity. Increasing mass means higher energy requirements, because it takes more energy to move a heavy ...

Carbon stored in Arctic tundra could be released into the atmosphere by new trees growing in the warmer region, exacerbating climate change, scientists have revealed. The Arctic is getting greener as plant growth increases in response to a warmer climate. This greater plant growth means more carbon is stored in the increasing biomass, so it was previously thought the greening would result in more carbon dioxide being taken up from the atmosphere, thus helping to reduce the rate of global warming. However, research published in Nature Climate Change, shows that, by stimulating ...