Exposure to attractive, aggressive, female leads in films affects how men and women think about who women ought to be in the real world. Women in particular have high standards for other women, and expect them to be both stereotypically feminine and masculine i.e. beautiful and aggressive rather than beautiful and passive. That's according to new research by Laramie Taylor and Tiffany Setters, from the University of California, Davis in the US, published online in Springer's Sex Roles journal. Taylor and Setters' work looks at the impact of media representations of film ...

In recent years, bed bug infestations have become increasingly common in Swedish homes. There are two different species of bed bug that suck blood from humans – the common bed bug and the tropical bed bug. Increased foreign travel has meant that tropical bed bugs frequently accompany travellers to Sweden. A team of researchers from Lund University and Mid Sweden University in Sundsvall have now identified and quantified a type of smell that bed bugs produce, known as alarm pheromones. The researchers have studied these smells in both adult bed bugs and nymphs (immature ...

What is an individual voluntary agreement? An individual voluntary agreement or IVA is an agreement which helps people to evade bankruptcy in case they are experiencing difficulties while repaying an unsecured debt. In Scotland, this agreement is also known as protected trust deed. Individual voluntary arrangements can only be prepared by licensed insolvency practitioners who would forward your creditors a formal proposal regarding the payments. This proposal will be based on the detailed evaluation of your financial conditions and would usually outline regular monthly ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Internet security researchers at Indiana University and Microsoft Research have exploited software flaws in leading online stores that use third-party payment services PayPal, Amazon Payments and Google Checkout to receive products for free or at prices far below the advertised purchase price. The research group that included IU Bloomington School of Informatics and Computing Associate Professor XiaoFeng Wang and doctoral student Rui Wang, as the lead author, was able to receive electronics, DVDs, digital journal subscriptions, personal health care ...

Social Candy, Inc. announces its online subscription service, enabling companies to personalize their Facebook Fan Pages with video, graphics, custom content, integrated product catalogs and special "Fan Only" Promotions through a unique Facebook-Friendly template system. Its flexible architecture and easy-to-use interface allows businesses of all skill levels to customize Facebook Fan Page and improve their social media marketing campaigns. "We have listened to Facebook business users, and many of them don't have the technical and financial resources to embrace the ...

DURHAM, N.H. – In a paper to be published in the April 10, 2011, issue of The Astrophysical Journal, scientists on NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission, including lead author Nathan Schwadron and others from the University of New Hampshire, isolate and resolve the mysterious "ribbon" of energy and particles the spacecraft discovered in the heliosphere – the huge bubble that surrounds our solar system and protects us from galactic cosmic rays. The finding, which overturns 40 years of theory, provides insight into the fundamental structure of the heliosphere, ...

Los Angeles-based Public Relations Professional Bobbi Cowan announces this week a new strategic social media collaboration with Arizona-based Kaboodle Ventures, LLC. The new alliance will provide clients with a full array of Organic SEO & Social Media made easy packages and solutions for everyone. From initial setup to ongoing Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube presence, distribute podcast feeds, promotional videos, press releases, audience development and event marketing across the Social Media landscape. Kaboodle Ventures currently reps, are a very impressive ...

A new discovery published in the April 2011 issue of Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) raises hope that new treatments for illnesses like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are on the horizon. That's because they've identified IL-23, a cytokine used by the immune system to ward off disease, as a major contributor to the inflammation that is the hallmark of these illnesses. With this information, it is now possible to develop new treatments that stop or reduce the damaging effects of IL-23, potentially bringing relief to millions of people with inflammatory ...

A two-year trial of entecavir followed by lamivudine (LAM) in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection resulted in a virologic rebound rate of 24% and 12% drug-resistance rate. Patients who continued on entecavir therapy throughout the study period had undetectable HBV DNA at the two-year endpoint. Details of this trial are published in the April issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 2 billion people worldwide ...

The Beverly Hills Playhouse acting school proudly introduces their new teacher Cotter Smith who teaches acting classes in New York at 154 Christopher St., New York, NY 10014. If you are located in New York and are looking for acting classes NYC then you have a great opportunity to be trained at the Beverly Hills Playhouse Acting School. The Beverly Hills Playhouse has four major locations: Beverly Hills - 254 S Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 : (323) 657-5966 Los Angeles - Skylight Theatre, 1816 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027 : (323) 657-5966 New ...

In what could be a potential breakthrough in the battle against AIDS and a major development in the rational design of new drugs, scientists have engineered a new protein that prevents the virus from entering cells. This protein is based on a naturally occurring protein in the body that protects cells from viruses, except the man-made version does not cause inflammation and other side effects at the dosages needed to inhibit AIDS. This discovery was published in the April 2011 issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org). "This is science fiction made reality. ...

UPTON, NY — As part of the quest to form perfectly smooth single-molecule layers of materials for advanced energy, electronic, and medical devices, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that the molecules in thin films remain frozen at a temperature where the bulk material is molten. Thin molecular films have a range of applications extending from organic solar cells to biosensors, and understanding the fundamental aspects of these films could lead to improved devices. The study, which appears in the April 1, 2011, ...

PRIME is the only charity in the UK aimed at helping older people to set up their own business as a way of getting back to work. Established by Prince Charles as a sister charity to The Prince's Trust, PRIME helps the growing number of people in the 50+ age group who need to continue working, or get back into work after losing their job, by helping them to set up their own businesses. "Being a small charity, we don't have the resources to do everything we'd like to do," confirms Ian Stobie, Marketing and PR Manager for PRIME. "We have a huge amount of useful material on ...

Computer programs are incorporating more and more safety features to protect users, but those features can also slow the programs down by 1,000 percent or more. Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a software tool that helps these programs run much more efficiently without sacrificing their safety features. "These safety features – or meta-functions – can slow a program down so much that software developers will often leave them out entirely," says Dr. James Tuck, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and leader ...

This release is available in German. Body weight influences the risk of developing diabetes: between 80 and 90 percent of patients with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. According to scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne and the Cologne Cluster of Excellence in Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-associated Diseases (CECAD), short ribonucleic acid molecules, known as micro-RNAs, appear to play an important role in this mechanism. The researchers discovered that the obese mice form increased levels of the regulatory RNA molecule ...

AuraPortal (www.auraportal.com), a global provider of Business Process Management (BPM), has announced today that the University of Deusto has signed a cooperation agreement with the company AURA, owner of the AuraPortal Learning System, in which AURA provides Deusto with a software tool for its use in educational activities in order to introduce and develop educational and research programs for BPM technologies. Currently, the AuraPortal BPM Suite is being used by the UTIC (Technical Unit for Innovation and Quality) for the implementation of quality processes in colleges. ...

To combat the obesity epidemic, the National Institutes of Health is encouraging diverse scientific investigations through a new Strategic Plan for NIH Obesity Research. More than one-third of adults in the United States and nearly 17 percent of the nation's children are now obese, which increases a person's chance of developing many health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease, and some cancers. In 2008, obesity-related medical costs were an estimated $147 billion. Government, nonprofit and community groups, businesses, ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers need to proactively engage lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in health studies and collect data on these populations to identify and better understand health conditions that affect them, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The scarcity of research yields an incomplete picture of LGBT health status and needs, which is further fragmented by the tendency to treat sexual and gender minorities as a single homogeneous group, said the committee that wrote the report. The report provides a thorough compilation of what is ...

KindredSole.com has announced that on 1st April between 6am and 1pm it will be having its first ever flash shoes sale. It might be April fools but this is no joke, its KindredSole.com shoe sale extravaganza! KindredSole.com flash sale will include designer brands from J Shoes to Bronx Shoes with savings of up to 50% off. A surge in customers are expected to form an orderly online queue following an online promotion through loyal customers and social media campaigns on Twitter and Facebook. Visitors to Kindred Sole will be able to access the sale through the following KindredSole.com ...

This press release is available in French.Montreal, March 31, 2011 – Anyone who's ever used an electric or gas lawnmower knows how pushing the device can cause tingling hands. This side-effect is caused by motor vibrations and comes with the turf for people who cut grass for a living. Workers who employ handheld power tools in the mining, forestry, manufacturing and services sectors can also be exposed to large levels of vibrations in their hands and upper arms. Such vibrations are not without consequence. "Prolonged exposure to intensive tool vibration can cause ...

This release is available in Spanish. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have found strains of bacteria that could one day be used as environmentally friendly treatments to keep caterpillars and other pests out of gardens and cultivated fields. Researchers with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) surveyed the agency's bacterial collection and discovered that strains sharing the ability to produce a particular enzyme survive being fed to caterpillars longer than those that don't. Such survivability makes them better candidates for controlling ...

TakeCare, a provider of online personality and risk assessments and TeenPalz.com, which offers virtual supervision, support and activities for the millions of teens home alone, have agreed to offer NannyTest as screening tool for virtual "Palz". NannyTest is an online personality test that helps parents screen potential caregivers. It is unique in combining both risk assessment and personal traits assessment. The test provides better insight into the personality and traits of the caregiver, and ensures parents that they have done the best they can to leave their kids ...

Hospitals can reduce the risk of life-threatening bloodstream infections in children with peripherally inserted central venous catheters by assessing daily the patient's progress and removing the device as early as possible, according to a new Johns Hopkins Children's Center study published online March 31 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The findings will be presented on Saturday, April 2, at the annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. The study, believed to be the largest one to date of its kind in pediatric patients, analyzed ...

New Haven, Conn.—Fuel cells have been touted as a cleaner solution to tomorrow's energy needs, with potential applications in everything from cars to computers. But one reason fuel cells aren't already more widespread is their lack of endurance. Over time, the catalysts used even in today's state-of-the-art fuels cells break down, inhibiting the chemical reaction that converts fuel into electricity. In addition, current technology relies on small particles coated with the catalyst; however, the particles' limited surface area means only a fraction of the catalyst is ...

Congratulations for the Eleventh consecutive year. Rang Mahal, the exquisite rooftop Indian restaurant at Rembrandt Hotel, was honored once again as one of Thailand's Best Restaurants 2011 by Thailand Tatler. The award-presentation took place at Central World and featured some of Bangkok's most famous restaurants, famous Thai and foreign celebrities and media personalities. HSH Prince Bhisadej Rajani, a guest of honor, presided over the event and presented the prestigious awards. General Manager, Eric Hallin, Hotel Manager, Simon Rindlisbacher, and Quentin Fougeroux, ...