How do females select partners? Darwin's initial idea that the fittest males would be the most desirable and would therefore be most likely to secure partners has represented a cornerstone of evolutionary theory since the publication of "The Descent of Man" in 1871. Darwin proposed that secondary sexual characteristics enabled females to see at a glance which male was "best", i.e. best for every female. This male would be the chosen partner as he would pass on the best possible genes to the next generation, thereby increasing the fitness of the species. Towards the ...

A bacteria which infects people with cystic fibrosis could help combat other antibiotic-resistant microbes, according to a team from Cardiff and Warwick Universities. Continuous use of existing antibiotics means that resistant bacteria are now causing major health problems all over the world. New antibiotics are urgently needed to combat the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria such as the MRSA superbug. Now a surprising source of hope has emerged in the form of Burkholderia, a group of bacteria which can cause severe lung infections in people with the genetic ...

A team of researchers from the Royal Institute and Observatory of the Navy (ROA) in Cádiz (Spain) has developed a method to track the movement of geostationary objects using the position of the stars, which could help to monitor space debris. The technique can be used with small telescopes and in places that are not very dark. Objects or satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) can always be found above the same point on the Equator, meaning that they appear immobile when observed from Earth. By night, the stars appear to move around them, a feature that scientists have ...

This neat and tidy software can help in organizing your thoughts as they day races by, eliminating the problem of finding the notes you know are somewhere on your hard drive. Save all that time spent looking for bank account numbers, PINs, addresses and phone numbers. Now it is cheap and easy to store all your notes, to-do lists, memos and business data in one organized place, so you can find them quickly when you need them. Along with logging your daily activities, so you can effectively track how you use your time. AlfaPad Notes Organizer uses an intuitive, double-paned ...

Research from the University of Warwick shows a trip to the zoo can boost your child's science and conservation education more than books or classroom teaching alone. In research conducted at ZSL London Zoo, more than 3,000 school children aged between seven and 14 were asked about their knowledge of animals, habitat and conservation and then tested again after their trip. The results show that 53% had a positive change in educational or conservation-related knowledge areas, personal concern for endangered species or new empowerment to participate in conservation ...

Halfpricesoft.com(www.halfpricesoft.com) released a new version of its employee attendance and time software, ezTimeSheet. This update is the software developer's response to customers' requests for increased reporting options. ezTimeSheet software makes it easy and affordable to automate employee attendance management processes and slashes the time to run payroll for small businesses. This employee attendance and time tracking software was designed specifically for small business owners and HR department managers. And the newly released update version is more powerful ...

FRANKFURT. Salmonella is widely prevalent in the animal kingdom. The reason we do not suffer from severe intestinal infections very often is due to our body's defence system, which manages to digest invading bacteria. This is why, generally speaking, a healthy human being will only fall ill if he consumes more than 100.000 salmonella bacteria via a contaminated food source, such as eggs or meat. An international team of researchers, led by Prof. Ivan Dikic from the Goethe University in Frankfurt has now found out how body cells recognise salmonella and render it harmless. ...

Dr. Sloss received his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Sloss completed his residency at Washington University, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a staff physician at the Emergency Department at SSM St. Joseph Hospital West in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Sloss has training in incident response to terrorist bombings and prevention and response to suicide bombing ...

5% to 10% of all breast cancers are monogenic in origin. In other words, there is a mutation of the genes BRCA1, BRCA2 or other high-risk genes. In this edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108(19): 323 30), Alfons Meindl of the Klinikum rechts der Isar (Munich) and coauthors report on new insights into the pathogenesis and treatment of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and newly-discovered risk genes. Meindl et al. evaluated data including those derived from the work of the German Consortium for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer. ...

The reason being: "So far scientific studies were limited mostly to the movement of sick animals or to single aspects of locomotion", says Fischer, Professor of Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology. To change this, Professor Fischer and his team started a comprehensive study about the locomotion of healthy dogs in 2006 and have now presented the results. With enormous technical effort the scientists measured, documented and compared the motion sequences of 327 dogs from 32 different breeds. The dogs were filmed by two high speed cameras in different gaits from ...

Investec offers specialised lending for deals in the closed-end funds market - Investec believes many closed-end funds are trading at attractive discounts to their net asset values (NAVs) - Consolidation is expected in the closed-end fund space - Investec's lending is expected to be concentrated around funds focusing on alternative asset classes Investec Specialist Private Bank ('Investec') has launched a new lending proposition for fund managers looking for 'event driven financing' focused on the closed-end fund space. This includes financing mergers; the acquisition ...

Christian Brothers Automotive Corporation, a national automotive repair chain known for its upscale home-charm decor and ethical business practices, has been honored with the Houston Better Business Bureau's (BBB) coveted Excellence Winner of Distinction award. This marks the sixth time, and second-consecutive year, the corporate office has been recognized with this award. The BBB Excellence Winner of Distinction award recognizes companies that demonstrate a consistent commitment to ethics, overall excellence and quality in the workplace. "Christian Brothers ...

Low-cost catfish fillets sold as expensive sole fillets or cod caught in the North Sea but declared as originating from the Baltic Sea are both examples of types of fraud in the fisheries sector. A European Commission report published today shows how molecular technologies - based on genetics, genomics, chemistry and forensics - can provide clear answers to questions such as "what species does this fish product come from….where was this fish caught….is it wild or farmed?". The report by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), is called "Deterring illegal activities ...

Researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have discovered what enables embryonic stem cells to differentiate into diverse cell types and thus to be pluripotent. This pluripotency depends on a specific molecule – E-cadherin – hitherto primarily known for its role in mediating cell-cell adhesion as a kind of "intracellular glue". If E-cadherin is absent, the stem cells lose their pluripotency. The molecule also plays a crucial role in the reprogramming of somatic cells (body cells) into pluripotent stem cells (EMBO Reports, advance online ...

Most homeowners are waiting in anticipation for the commencement of the Federal mortgage relief program ( http://obamamortgagereliefplanqualifications.com/ ) this fall. The federal mortgage relief program offers hope to homeownersâEUR country wife with the promise of bailing borrowers out by lowering the monthly mortgage repayments. With the commencement of the Federal mortgage relief program borrowers will be able to either get their interest rates reduced or part of their principal debt written off. However, it is important to note that this program will not to salvage ...

Brain interventions must be planned so that the neurosurgeon can access and remove the tumor without causing unnecessary damage. Before the brain tumor can be removed, crucial questions must be answered. Where do the functional areas of the cortex (gray matter) of the patient lie? What are the paths of the nerve fiber tracts that connect them? Answering these questions is important because the functional areas of the brain are interconnected via nerve pathways, also known as nerve fiber tracts. These nerve tracts must be protected as much as possible; otherwise, permanent ...

Digital creative agency Outside Line has been recognised at the International Food and Beverage Creative Excellence Awards for the third year running following the outstanding success of its online marketing campaign for Cravendale. The multi award-winning agency scooped the prize for the Best Website Campaign of 2011 following of its popular Make The Tea community site, which judges praised for its blend of innovation, eye-catching design and effective communication. Collecting the prestigious award at a packed London ceremony earlier this week, the social media and ...

NEW YORK – May 27, 2011 – A study by Columbia Business School Professor Eric Johnson, co-director of the Center for Decision Sciences (http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/decisionsciences) at Columbia Business School, Ye Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Decision Sciences, and Lisa Zaval, a Columbia graduate student in psychology, found that those who thought the current day was warmer than usual were more likely to believe in and feel concern about global warming than those who thought the day was unusually cold. The study, recently featured in Psychological Science, ...

Open-source parenting websiteSAHMAnswers.com [http://sahmanswers.com] relaunched with a new look on Monday. SAHMAnswers.com launched in 2004 by author and web entrepreneur Dominick Miserandino, founding editor of TheCelebrityCafe.com [http://thecelebritycafe.com]. The redesign will provide users a cleaner, easy-to-use interface, as well as give the site a much-needed makeover. The WordPress platform will make it easier forSAHMAnswers.com editors to monitor comments and block spam. "We're very pleased with the new look and - most importantly - we hope that our ...

University of Calgary Faculty of Kinesiology researcher Elias Tomaras says the idea came to him while watching track and field sprinters warm-up for a race. "If you watch sprinters, short distance speed skaters or cyclists before their race, they will often warm-up for one to two hours, including several brief bouts of high intensity exercise. From an exercise physiology point of view, it seemed like it might be pretty tiring." Many coaches and physiologists believe that a longer warm up provides an increase in muscle temperature, acceleration of oxygen uptake kinetics, ...

Part of what determines how much success you will have in the dating world is whether you have a good sense of whether people find you attractive. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that certain personality traits contribute to being a good judge of whether someone else thinks you're worth meeting again. The study is one of a series to come out of a big speed-dating experiment held in Berlin about five years ago. "Most of the prior research had worked with hypothetical scenarios, where people are ...

Developing drugs to combat or cure human disease often involves a phase of testing with mice, so being able to peer clearly into a living mouse's innards has real value. But with the fluorescent dyes currently used to image the interior of laboratory mice, the view becomes so murky several millimeters under the skin that researchers might have more success divining the future from the rodent's entrails than they do extracting usable data. Now Stanford researchers have developed an improved imaging method using fluorescent carbon nanotubes that allows them to see centimeters ...

Pacific West Capital Group announced today that they will host informational seminars on June 7 and 8 at Brix Restaurant in Napa, California. Pacific West Capital Group representatives will discuss investing in the Life Settlement market. The company has specialized in the sale of beneficiary interests in life settlements to individual investors for the past seven years. The life settlement market is the secondary market for life insurance. Life settlements are an alternative to traditional investments because returns are not tied to stock market fluctuations, interest ...

A new product launched by Chipkin Automation Systems in May 2011 now helps the automation professionals to read current, voltage, phase, power and other variables from the Hobart devices. The Hobart Ground Power Gateway serves data from a Hobart Ground Power controller as Modbus, BACnet or Web data for easy remote monitoring. The intelligent Gateway connects to the Hobart Ground Power controller, then reads data and stores it internally. When a remote system requests data, this data is served in a form that is appropriate to the protocol (e.g. Modbus, BACnet and HTML). ...

Boulder, CO, USA - What would we see and what would we learn if we were able to cut North America in half, pull it apart, and look at the resulting cross section through the continent, from the surface all the way down to its very deepest mantle roots? Although it sounds like an impossible undertaking, Philip Hammer of the University of British Columbia and colleagues have done just that. In the June issue of GSA Today: The big picture: A lithospheric cross section of the North American continent Philip T.C. Hammer et al., Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British ...