(March 21, 2012 - Chicago, IL) Large-scale microfinance programs are widely used as a tool to fight poverty in developing countries, but a recent study from the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty suggests that they can have varying results for participants and may be the most cost-effective use of funds only in limited situations. The Thai Million Baht Village Fund is one of the largest government microfinance initiatives of its kind. Beginning in 2001, Thailand transferred one million Thai baht ($1.8 billion) in government funds to create almost 80,000 village ...

Hollywood mini-star and pop culture icon, Verne Troyer, joins the NavTones brand of celebrity GPS voices. Known for his roles in blockbuster films such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Men In Black, and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Verne Troyer's films have grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, but it was his role as "Mini Me" alongside Mike Myers in the Austin Powers franchise that catapulted him to international stardom. His tough attitude from the Powers films carries over to his GPS voice, albeit with the hilarious vocalization that the muted ...

Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia may spread within nerve networks in the brain by moving directly between connected neurons, instead of in other ways proposed by scientists, such as by propagating in all directions, according to researchers who report the finding in the March 22 edition of the journal Neuron. Led by neurologist and MacArthur Foundation "genius award" recipient William Seeley, MD, from the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, and post-doctoral fellow Helen Juan Zhou, PhD, now a faculty member at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, the ...

Bordeaux, France, March 21, 2012 -- An extensive study of country-specific risk of hip fracture and 10-year probability of a major fragility fracture has revealed a remarkably large geographic variation in fracture risk. Even accounting for possible errors or limitations in the source data, there was an astonishing 10-fold variation in hip fracture risk and fracture probability between countries. 'A systematic review of hip fracture incidence and probability of fracture worldwide', authored by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Working Group on Epidemiology ...

Australia's prolonged whooping cough epidemic has entered a disturbing new phase, with a study showing a new strain or genotype may be responsible for the sharp rise in the number of cases. A team of Australian scientists, led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), believe this emerging new genotype (called prn2-ptxP3) of the Bordetella pertussis bacterium may be evading the protective effects of the current acellular vaccine (ACV), and increasing the incidence of the potentially fatal respiratory illness, according to the study published in The Journal of Infectious ...

Women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) need clear communication and tailored support to enable them to understand this complex breast condition, which has divided the medical profession when it comes to its perception and prognosis. That is the key finding of a study published in the April issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Research carried out at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, looked at how 45 women felt when they were diagnosed with DCIS and how their experiences changed over time. It found that many of the women were very ...

According to a recent poll* of more than 10,000 citizens from ten European countries, pollution is the primary concern of the public at large among all issues that threaten the marine environment. A new position paper of the Marine Board-ESF shows that such public concern is not misplaced and is supported by scientific evidence. About 30,000 of the chemicals currently on the EU market have a production volume higher than one tonne per year. Increasing numbers of these substances end up in rivers, estuaries and seas with potentially damaging effects on marine organisms, ...

This research study aims to study up to what point administrative practices of persons in the workplace are different in management teams that have a higher proportion of women. "In line with known gender differences in individual leadership, we find that in workplaces with more women managers more individualized employee feedback is carried out," asserted the study's author, Eduardo Melero, Professor in the UC3M Department of Business Administration, who has published the results of this research in the Journal of Business Research. "Likewise we can see evidence, although ...

Readers whose mother tongue is Arabic have more challenges reading in Arabic than native Hebrew or English speakers have reading their native languages, because the two halves of the brain divide the labor differently when the brain processes Arabic than when it processes Hebrew or English. That is the result of a new study conducted by two University of Haifa researchers, Dr. Raphiq Ibrahim of the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities and the Learning Disabilities Department, and Prof. Zohar Eviatar of the Department of Psychology. "It ...

Researchers at the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) are working on a project to design and manufacture composite PVC materials based on nanofillings and intended for multi-sectoral applications. The ultimate aim of the Vinilclay project is to control and optimize the properties of the plastic material; specifically, its photostability, thermal resistance and gas permeation. The company Compuestos y Granzas, S. A. (CYGSA), which is acting as the co-ordinator, and the L'Urederra R+D Centre are also involved in the project. The researchers from the Public University of ...

Founded in 1986, SThree is a world leader in the recruitment industry, with over 61 offices located in 18 Countries worldwide. SThree provides both permanent and contract staffing services across the ICT, Engineering & Energy, Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology, Banking and Accountancy & Finance sectors. Announcement of the new partnership was made at the start of March by SThree Director of Commercial Process, Andy Hallett, who commented "All companies chosen to appear in the PSL are the best in class and members of APSCo - the Association of Professional ...

Powerful new cells created by Cardiff University scientists from cheek lining tissue could offer the answer to disorders of the immune system. While the body's immune system protects against many diseases, it can also be harmful. Using white blood cells (lymphocytes), the system can attack insulin-producing cells, causing diabetes, or cause the body to reject transplanted organs. A team from Cardiff's School of Dentistry led by Professor Phil Stephens, with colleagues from Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, have found a new group of cells with a powerful ability to suppress ...

A group of biologists from Denmark and the US led by Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard, University of Southern Denmark, and Catherine Carr, University of Maryland, have shown that the turtle ear is specialized for underwater hearing. The new discovery is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B March 21st , Special features of the turtle ear – a large, air-filled middle ear and a movable tympanic disk increase its sensitivity for underwater sound. Laser measurements of disk vibrations in response to underwater sound show up to 100-fold larger vibrations of the disk than ...

The behaviour of some of the most elusive particles in the known universe can be simulated using three atoms in a lab, researchers at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore have found. Principal Investigator Dimitris G. Angelakis and his group members Changsuk Noh and Blas Rodriguez-Lara have devised a scheme that uses the quantum states of three charged ions to simulate the 'oscillations' of neutrinos. The proposal is published in the March issue of New Journal of Physics. Neutrinos are pesky things to study: they barely interact ...

A recent study conducted at Marshall University may eventually help scientists develop new treatments for prostate cancer, the most common malignancy in American men. The study, which focused on the effects of cadmium on the prostate, was conducted by Dr. Pier Paolo Claudio, an associate professor in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program and Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the university's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, and an international team of colleagues from the University of L'Aquila and the National Cancer Institute in Italy, and the University ...

Tampa, Fla., USA – On March 22, during the 41st Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR), held in conjunction with the 36th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, a symposium titled "Rewarding Educational Research: the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning" will take place to assist dental administrators, educators and members of appointment, promotion and tenure committees in understanding the role and potential of educational research and develop strategies to facilitate scholarly inquiry into student learning ...

Tampa, Fla., USA – On March 22, during the 41st Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR), held in conjunction with the 36th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, a symposium titled "Challenges in Salivary Diagnostics" will take place to discuss the issues with saliva collection and storage, proteomic analyses, and the growing interest and availability of commercial tests for salivary biomarkers. Recently there has been a striking increase in published studies using salivary proteins and other oral biomarkers ...

ControlManager offers people and organizations different advantages and it's a module based product. Some of these modules include a security handbook, risk management, creating emergency and contingency plans. This way, managers can quickly stop and continue working on different tasks and keep track of their progress at the same time. Let's talk about some of the modules that come with ControlManager . 1. Risk Management - This module includes features like "View of Risk" and "Risk Assessment" that can help any IT manager make their job easier. ...

Tampa, Fla., USA – On March 23, during the 41st Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR), held in conjunction with the 36th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, a symposium titled "TMJ: Stem Cell Biology and Engineering toward Clinical Translation" will provide a rare forum for multidisciplinary discussion of the biology, engineering and clinical translation of fundamental discoveries towards novel clinical therapy. The symposium is co-sponsored by the Craniofacial Biology, Mineralized Tissue and Neuroscience ...

A new study suggests that climate change could pose a risk for Antarctic fur seals in their first few months of life. The study, published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, found that changing weather conditions can impact the metabolic rates of fur seal pups. Climate models predict windier and wetter conditions in Antarctica in the coming years, and that could cause young seals to assign more energy to thermoregulation, leaving less available for growth and development. For their study, a team of scientists led by Dr. Birgitte McDonald (University ...

Mauricio stands at 6ft 2 and just 17 years old. He can be found in the Los Angeles area. Mauricio's heartfelt lyrics are both touching and inspiring. Currently Mauricio and KBE are seeking international distribution. Mauricio is ready to perform and available for shows and interviews. Maurico is currently signed to indie company KBE who are marketing and distributing Maurico's single Not Another Love Song. KBE is looking to partner Mauricio up with a company that can brand Mauricio into a household name. Maurico is being compared to a young Ricky Martin. Mauricio sings ...

Tampa, Fla., USA – On March 22, during the 41st Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR), held in conjunction with the 36th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, a symposium titled "Building the Oral Health Care Workforce: Multipronged Research on Dental Therapy" will take place to help attendees understand opportunities for effective utilization of new workforce models in nontraditional settings within the oral health care community. For decades, the composition of the oral health care workforce in the ...

CINCINNATI—Health care practitioners have long understood the importance of "door to balloon" time for heart attack patients—the faster they can get the patient from the door of the hospital to a catheterization lab to open a clogged artery, the better the patient will do. But a University of Cincinnati (UC) emergency medicine researcher says it's also important to study the "medical contact to balloon" time, acknowledging the role that emergency medical services (EMS) responders play in speeding patient care. In a paper published online in the journal Academic Emergency ...

Washington, D.C.—On March 17, the tiny MESSENGER spacecraft completed its primary mission to orbit and observe the planet Mercury for one Earth-year. The bounty of surprises from the mission has completely altered our understanding of the solar system's innermost planet. As reported in one of two papers published today on Science Express, scientists have found that Mercury's core, already suspected to occupy a greater fraction of the planet's interior than do the cores of Earth, Venus, or Mars, is even larger than anticipated. The companion paper shows that the elevation ...

Physicists who have studied the mixing between two incompatible fluids have found that it is possible to control the undercurrents of one circulating fluid to optimise its exposure to the other. This work, which is about to be published in EPJ E¹, was performed by Jorge Peixinho from CNRS at Le Havre University, France, and his colleagues from the Benjamin Levich Institute, City University of New York, USA. The authors compared quantitative experimental observations of a viscous fluid, similar to honey, with numerical simulations. They focused on a fluid, which partially ...