Is losing weight as simple as doing a 15-minute writing exercise? In a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, women who wrote about their most important values, like close relationships, music, or religion, lost more weight over the next few months than women who did not have that experience. "We have this need to feel self-integrity," says Christine Logel of Renison University College at the University of Waterloo, who cowrote the new study with Geoffrey L. Cohen of Stanford University. When something threatens ...

The Affiliate Summit West conference will take place in Las Vegas from the 8th to the 10th of January 2012. This is the foremost event for affiliate marketing, and the 2012 summit will be the 19th conference to be held. Affiliate marketing is a method of marketing whereby an enterprise rewards its affiliates for customers or visitors generated by the affiliate's marketing efforts, and with the ever-increasing Internet trade, this field has grown rapidly since its early days. There are four main players in the affiliate marketing game: the merchant (sometimes called the ...

New Rochelle, NY -- The current issue of Medical Acupuncture, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., explores how the U.S. military is incorporating medical acupuncture to assist in the medical care of military personnel serving in the war zones and the efforts underway to explore military applications of acupuncture. The issue is available online at http://www.liebertpub.com/acu. "The use of acupuncture for helping wounded warriors suffering from pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and mild traumatic brain injury is growing rapidly," says Richard ...

The National Federation of Thai Film Associations is to organise the Hua Hin International Film Festival 2012 from January 26th to 29th.   Over the course of the four days, more than 50 films are set to be screened from around the world, including Fernando Meirelles' newest Hollywood project 360, as well as the Malaysian hit KL Gangster, the award-winning Filipino movie Ways of the Sea and the lavish Taiwanese production Warriors of the Rainbow.   Korean movie Always will be the opening film, with its stars So Ji Sub and Han Hyu Joo set to be among the many confirmed ...

A team of researchers have for the first time estimated the cost and impact of disabilities on the finances of disabled people. According to data, 90% of the population with a serious disability in Spain is in a state of moderate poverty and 56% lives in a state of extreme poverty. "With a compared and contrasted methodology, our study shows how high the cost of being dependent can be and how much it can contribute to increasing poverty," explains Francisco Javier Braña Pino, researcher at the University of Salamanca (Spain) and author of the recent study that analyses ...

Visitors to Kuala Lumpur over the coming weeks will have the opportunity to see the United Buddy Bears exhibition, which is now being held in the Malaysian capital. Taking place downtown on Jalan Bukit Bintag, the special display sees 143 specially designed bear statues lining the streets in order to raise awareness of charity programmes, as well as spreading a message of global brotherhood and tolerance. The programme was originally launched in Berlin in 2002 and has travelled to more than 15 countries, with Malaysia being the first nation in south-east Asia to ...

Tourists seeking a family-friendly way to mark the Chinese new year will be flocking to Hong Kong Disneyland in January 2012 to experience the theme park's Year of the Dragon Celebration.   The fun-filled venue regularly holds lavish events to mark major cultural celebrations and will be getting into the Chinese new year spirit between January 13th and February 5th 2012.   Guests can expect to see famous characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy walking through the park in Chinese-inspired costumes as they preside over parades, musical events and other ...

This press release is available in French. Montreal -- Lithocholic acid (LCA), naturally produced in the liver during digestion, has been seriously underestimated. A study published in the journal Oncotarget shows that LCA can kill several types of cancer cells, such as those found in some brain tumors and breast cancer. The research team, led by Concordia University, included scientists from McGill University and the Jewish General Hospital's Lady Davis Institute in Montreal as well as the University of Saskatchewan. Previous research from this same team showed LCA ...

The Boshe VVIP Club in Bali will be the venue for the Kotak Live in Concert show in the coming weeks. A popular Indonesian act, Kotak will be playing at the trendy club on January 19th 2012, with support acts including Flash and DJ Ditto Logix. The rockers have achieved notable success on the Indonesian music scene since winning the Dream Band talent show in 2004, going on to release multiple albums and touring the country, as well as scooping several industry awards. Visitors to the area can find out what the fuss is about by purchasing a ticket for 150,000 ...

The incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are increasing with time and in different regions around the world, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "Insight into the worldwide epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease is important for the identification of geographic patterns and time trends," said Gilaad G. Kaplan, MD, MPH, of the University of Calgary and lead author of this study. "Our findings will help researchers estimate the global public health burden of inflammatory ...

The lives of hundreds of women could be saved every year, thanks to a simple online calculator that could help GPs identify women most at risk of having ovarian cancer at a much earlier stage. Academics from The University of Nottingham and ClinRisk Ltd have developed a new QCancer algorithm using the UK QResearch database. The new algorithm assesses a combination of patients' symptoms and risk factors to red flag those most likely to have ovarian cancer and enable them to be referred for further investigation or treatment at a much earlier stage. A study into the effectiveness ...

Bangkok will be the venue for La Fete in February 2012 as the Thai capital once again plays host to a celebration of all things French. This year's event will begin on February 2nd and will run for almost two months, encompassing around 20 different cultural or artistic shows and performances, before the festival draws to a close on March 29th. Items on the programme include circus acts, classical music performances, visual theatre, cinema screenings, dance shows and everything in between, with many events set to be free of charge. Bangkok acts as the hub for ...

New Rochelle, NY -- Therapeutic hypothermia has been proven to reduce mortality and improve neurologic outcomes after a heart attack, yet it was rarely used in a sample of more than 26,000 patients, according to a study published in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available at www.liebertpub.com/ther Therapeutic hyperthermia was used in only 0.35% of cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in this study. The authors, Pratik Patel, Sayona John, Rajeev Garg, Richard Temes, Thomas ...

British rock legends Judas Priest will be thrilling fans in Seoul one last time in February 2012 as part of their valedictory world tour, Epitaph.   The iconic band will play at the Olympic Hall in the South Korean capital on February 4th 2012 as part of a final tour that aims to take in all of the world's major cities.   Since blazing on to the scene with their debut album Rocka Rolla in 1974, Judas Priest have become one of the biggest names in heavy metal, with records such as Unleashed in the East and Screaming for Vengeance becoming massive hits.   The band has ...

Using powerful magnets to levitate fruit flies can provide vital clues to how biological organisms are affected by weightless conditions in space, researchers at The University of Nottingham say. The team of scientists has shown that simulating weightlessness in fruit flies here on earth with the use of magnets causes the flies to walk more quickly — the same effect observed during similar experiments on the International Space Station. Dr Richard Hill, an EPSRC research fellow in the University's School of Physics and Astronomy, is one of the researchers involved in ...

Singapore will become a busy hub of cultural activities in January when the Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2012 take place in the city.   Beginning on January 1st and running until February 12th, Singapore's Chinatown area will be adorned with colourful lights and decorations to mark the start of the year of the dragon on January 23rd.   Visitors can expect a wide variety of events to take place during the festival, commencing on January 1st with a fireworks show attended by prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.   Further highlights include a countdown party on ...

The rotovirus vaccine was pulled from the marketplace in 1999 after being associated with painful gastrointestinal complications, however, the updated rotavirus vaccines do not appear to increase the occurrence of these potentially fatal side effects, according to a new study by child health experts at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. The two updated versions of the vaccine,re-introduced in 2006 and 2008, prevent infection by rotavirus, which causes vomiting, abdominal pain, severe diarrhea and frequently requires hospitalization for young infants and children. Rotavirus ...

Troy, N.Y. – Electronics are getting smaller and smaller, flirting with new devices at the atomic scale. However, many scientists predict that the shrinking of our technology is reaching an end. Without an alternative to silicon-based technologies, the miniaturization of our electronics will stop. One promising alternative is graphene — the thinnest material known to man. Pure graphene is not a semiconductor, but it can be altered to display exceptional electrical behavior. Finding the best graphene-based nanomaterials could usher in a new era of nanoelectronics, optics, ...

For more than a quarter of a century, Jerald "Snook" Pataky's research in the University of Illinois Sweet Corn Hybrid Disease Nursery has been helping growers make important decisions to increase their profitability. His observations and trends from evaluating sweet corn hybrids for disease resistance are featured this month in Plant Disease. "Few crop scientists have anywhere near a quarter century of data – from their own lab – that tells such a comprehensive story," said Marty Williams, a weed ecologist with the USDA-ARS at the U of I. "Although the nursery represented ...

AMHERST, Mass. – A recent analysis led by ecologist Bethany Bradley at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests that climate change predicted for the United States will boost demand for imported drought- and heat-tolerant landscaping plants from Africa and the Middle East. This greatly increases the risk that a new wave of invasives will overrun native ecosystems in the way kudzu, Oriental bittersweet and purple loosestrife have in the past, members of the international team say. The kudzu invasion of the past few decades saw whole forests overgrown in the Southeast, ...

Dydacomp, a leading provider of business technology platforms for eCommerce and multichannel merchants, today announced the appointment of Mark Brandwein as Vice President of Sales. He brings more than twenty-five years of successful sales experience in computer software and technology. Mark is responsible for building Dydacomp's sales organization in the U.S. and U.K. to drive new revenue growth for the company's Multichannel Order Manager (M.O.M.) and SiteLINK commerce management solutions. "This is a very exciting time to join the Dydacomp team and I'm looking ...

Leading Bloomington dentists, Drs. Ryan Tschetter and Joshua Howder, of Jackson Creek Dental, invite patients to visit their two office locations for increased convenience and care. Both offices strive to deliver quality dentistry to informed patients in a friendly Bloomington, IN environment. Both offices are conveniently located in Bloomington, IN for easy access. With the opening of both Jackson Creek Dental and Bloomington Dental Group offices, patients can visit the location that is closest for them. Both offices offer general and cosmetic dental care, including ...

Obesity has become a global epidemic with more and more younger children affected by the overweight trend. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 15 percent of children aged between 3 and 17 are overweight. With serious consequences – childhood obesity is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and also increases the chances of developing coronary heart disease or cancer in adult life. Nutritional experts are therefore keen to find effective prevention methods. "Efforts to control weight gain and obesity should target the earliest possible stages of development," says Professor ...

Premier podiatrist in St. Louis, MO, Dr. Richard Wittock, is pleased to offer patients a new treatment for toenail fungus treatment, hair removal, varicose veins, and soft tissue lesion removal. Treatments above the ankle level are available through Dr. Wittock's medical director, Dr. Aisenstat, patients can visit Ankle and Foot Institute to experience treatment with the new Fotona Laser. "I am proud to announce that the world class Fotona podiatry laser is now available in our office and is ready to treat toenail fungus. This is the only podiatry Fotona laser ...

KINGSTON, R.I. – January 4, 2012 – Abraham Kovoor was studying a brain protein, called RGS9 2, that he had previously related to the involuntary, random and repetitive body movements that are side effects of drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. While studying these side effects, which are called dyskinesia, Kovoor, an assistant professor in the University of Rhode Island's College of Pharmacy, discovered that RGS9 2 also plays a role in regulating body weight. Results of his study were published in the November issue of PLoS One, an interactive ...