WHO: Renee Weber is VP, Consumer Strategy and Research at The Marketing Store Worldwide, one of the largest brand activation, loyalty, and youth and family marketing agencies in the world, leads youth research for consumer products, toys and promotional marketing efforts working with major brands. Renee is an expert in youth and family. At The Marketing Store, her primary responsibilities are to provide more in-depth understanding of youth/families, youth promotions/product development, help lead consumer-based product innovation and establish The Marketing Store Play ...

Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have found just such a specimen – the fossilized remains of a 60-million-year-old South American giant that lived in what is now Colombia. The turtle in question is Carbonemys cofrinii, which means "coal turtle," and is part of a group of side-necked turtles known as pelomedusoides. The fossil was named Carbonemys because it was discovered in 2005 in a coal mine that was part of northern Colombia's Cerrejon formation. The ...

David Cerami, CKBR (Certified Kitchen & Bath Remodeler), owner of Hometech Renovations, Inc. & Let's Face It, Inc., has been selected by Remodeling magazine to join the remodeling Big50. The Big50 awards were presented at a gala dinner at the Remodeling Leadership Conference in Baltimore, MD on May 11, 2012. The 2012 Big50 winners are featured in the May issue of remodeling, a national trade publication read by more than 80,000 professional remodeling contractors. Each year since 1986, the remodeling Big50 inducts 50 owners of remodeling companies that have ...

Playing make-believe is more than a childhood pasttime. According to psychologists, it's also crucial to building creativity, giving a child the ability to consider alternative realities and perspectives. And this type of thinking is essential to future development, aiding interpersonal and problem-solving skills and the ability to invent new theories and concepts. That has been shown to be a component of future professional success in fields from the arts to the sciences and business. But can creativity be taught? Prof. Nira Liberman ofTel Aviv University's School of ...

New research by psychologists at three North American universities, including the University of British Columbia, finds that parents experience greater levels of happiness and meaning from life than non-parents. The findings, which contrast sharply with recent scholarship and popular beliefs, suggest that parents are happier caring for children than they are during other daily activities. The research also suggests that the benefits of parenthood appear more consistently in men and older and married parents. To be published in the journal Psychological Science, the ...

People have increasing opportunities to participate in genetic testing that can indicate their range of risk for developing a disease. Receiving these results does not appreciably drive up or diminish test recipients' demand for potentially costly follow-up health services, according to a study performed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and colleagues at other institutions. The study in the May 17, 2012 early online issue of Genetics in Medicine was done by investigators with the Multiplex Initiative, a multi-center collaborative initiative involving ...

Roanoke, Va. – Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on my parahippocampal gyrus. Scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have found that suspicion resides in two distinct regions of the brain: the amygdala, which plays a central role in processing fear and emotional memories, and the parahippocampal gyrus, which is associated with declarative memory and the recognition of scenes. "We wondered how individuals assess the credibility of other people in simple social interactions," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory ...

52,000 bluebells were delivered to Sherwood Forest this week which are being planted along the entrance drive. Since 8th May, Center Parcs Conservation Rangers at Sherwood Forest have been planting the bluebells which guests will be able to see when arriving for their forest breaks and departing. Grown from their seed for three years, the 13,000 pots of native English bluebells filled 26 trollies. They were transported this week from Norfolk, travelling more than 130 miles to their new home at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest. Chosen for their rarity in ancient woodlands ...

HOUSTON – An experimental drug targeting a common mutation in melanoma successfully shrank tumors that spread to the brain in nine out of 10 patients in part of an international phase I clinical trial report in the May 18 issue of The Lancet. The drug dabrafenib, which targets the Val600 BRAF mutation that is active in half of melanoma cases, also cut the size of tumors in 25 of 36 patients with late-stage melanoma that had not spread to the brain. The drug also showed activity in other cancer types with the BRAF mutation. "Nine out of 10 responses among patients with ...

The world's largest religious wax museum turns 25 this year. To honor the anniversary, BibleWalk, the Living Bible Museum located in Mansfield, Ohio is offering the tours for just 25 cents during its birthday week, Aug. 12-17. The museum offers four different tours, a collection of rare Bibles and the world's largest collection of American votive folk-art. This unique art form became stylish in the 1910s among newly arrived immigrants who would collect costume jewelry, hat and tie pins, beads, cuff links, collar studs, coins, and other items, sculpting them into elaborate ...

A device which could restore sight to patients with one of the most common causes of blindness in the developed world is being developed in an international partnership. Researchers from the University of Strathclyde and Stanford University in California are creating a prosthetic retina for patients of age related macular degeneration (AMD), which affects one in 500 patients aged between 55 and 64 and one in eight aged over 85. The device would be simpler in design and operation than existing models. It acts by electrically stimulating neurons in the retina, which ...

AURORA, Colo. (May 17, 2012) - We have known for years that when the proteins RalA and RalB are present, cells in dishes copy toward aggressive forms of cancer. However, until this week, no study had explored the effects of RAL proteins in human cancers – an essential step on the path to developing drugs to target these proteins. From metastasis in bladder cancer, to seminal vessel involvement in prostate cancer, to shortened survival in squamous cell carcinoma, a study published this week in the journal Cancer Research shows that proteins RalA and RalB are associated with ...

(Monterey, CA) – The work of Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Operations Research Professor Moshe Kress will be featured in the upcoming edition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science Journal, a leading scientific research and news publication. Kress' article, titled "Modeling Armed Conflicts," reviews quantitative approaches to modeling military operations, threat situations, and force structure. The piece reviews historical, classical, present and future armed conflict models, including the dynamics of today's insurgencies. Kress has ...

The excitement for the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London, England is starting to build. And though Beijing's impressive $100 million-plus opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics will be hard to top, London is certainly going to try. In December, Prime Minister David Cameron doubled the budget for the opening and closing ceremonies to $130 million (81 million pounds) and new casting calls went out almost immediately. Danny Boyle (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) is choreographing the event and is promising 12,000 performers, including dancers, drummers, acrobats, skateboarders, ...

Innate differences in immunity can be detected at birth, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. And babies with a better innate response to viruses have fewer respiratory illnesses in the first year of life. "Viral respiratory infections are common during childhood," says first author Kaharu Sumino, MD, assistant professor of medicine. "Usually they are mild, but there's a wide range of responses — from regular cold symptoms to severe lung infections and even, in rare instances, death. We wanted to look at whether the innate ...

A McGill-led research team using the Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament connects two clusters of galaxies that, along with a third cluster, will smash together and give rise to one of the largest galaxy superclusters in the universe. The filament is the first structure of its kind spied in a critical era of cosmic buildup when colossal collections of galaxies called superclusters began to take shape. The glowing galactic bridge offers astronomers a unique opportunity to explore ...

Harmful ingredients masked in product labels affect the unaware The National Skin Care Institute wants to warn consumers of the risk toxic products poise to their skin and overall general health. There is not enough transparency being seen from big brand names and consumers are often unaware of the harmful chemical ingredients contained in the products they are bringing into their homes and exposing their families to. The worst part is that many of these products are being marketed as safe for use on the smallest and most vulnerable of us all - babies. Big brand name ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- How species diversity is maintained is a fundamental question in biology. In a new study, a team of Indiana University biologists has shown for the first time that diversity is influenced on a spatial scale of unparalleled scope, in part, by how well tree seedlings survive under their own parents. Scientists have long considered conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD), a process where the mortality of a species rises in coincidence with its increasing abundance, to be a key mechanism maintaining diversity at the local scale. In new research ...

Hamilton Equipment - 800-733-0275 - is proud to introduce the new Danuser Wobble Auger, in addition to the full line of stocking Danuser wholegoods and parts. The Wobble Auger is called the "Dirtless Digging Solution" because it quickly produces a hole with no loose dirt in the bottom - or around the top of the hole! The spiral and checkered hardfacing pushes through dirt, frozen ground, sand, clay, asphalt, compacted rock and embedded rock. See our video, above, to watch the Wobble Auger work in packed dirt and frozen ground!! There are various collar ...

OTTO, NC--Research by USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists shows that the impacts of recent outbreaks of southern pine beetle further degraded shortleaf pine-hardwood forest ecosystems in the southern Appalachian region. The authors suggest that cutting and burning these sites reduces heavy fuel loads, improves soil nutrient status, and opens the canopy for restoration of these shortleaf pine communities. In an article published in the June issue of journal Forest Ecology and Management, research ecologist Katherine Elliott and fellow scientists ...

Frontline Test Equipment, Inc. is pleased to announce simplified licensing for NetDecoder and Serialtest Async analyzers and will no longer charge for software updates on these products. From now on if customers own an RS-232 ComProbe II, RS-422/485 ComProbe or a CC-Link ComProbe they can install the software on any PC. The new changes for the NetDecoder and Serialtest Async software will go into effect on May 1st with the release of version 12.2.24.1. These changes mean that customers have increased freedom to use the software as they please. Customers will also benefit ...

A tiny filter could have a big impact around the world in the fight against tuberculosis. Using the traditional microscope-based diagnosis method as a starting point, a University of Florida lung disease specialist and colleagues in Brazil have devised a way to detect more cases of the bacterial infection. "We're hopeful that this more sensitive method, which is both simple and inexpensive, will improve diagnosis in patients," said lead researcher Kevin Fennelly, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor in the UF College of Medicine's department of medicine and Southeastern ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- University of Florida researchers have described a new extinct giant turtle species from the same Colombian mine where they discovered Titanoboa – and one of the only animals the world's largest snake could not have eaten. Working with scientists from North Carolina State University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus name the species in a study published online today in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. The study's findings could be useful for understanding ...

PHILADELPHIA — Two studies led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and National Geographic's Genographic Project reveal new information about the migration patterns of the first humans to settle the Americas. The studies identify the historical relationships among various groups of Native American and First Nations peoples and present the first clear evidence of the genetic impact of the groups' cultural practices. For many of these populations, this is the first time their genetics have been analyzed on a population scale. One study, published in the American ...

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – There are always exceptions to a rule, even one that has prevailed for more than three decades, as demonstrated by a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) study on RNA splicing, a cellular editing process. The rule-flaunting exception uncovered by the study concerns the way in which a newly produced RNA molecule is cut and pasted at precise locations called splice sites before being translated into protein. "The discovery of this exception could impact current ideas on how missteps in splicing triggered by mutations in the DNA sequence can lead ...