Agoda.com, Asia's global hotel booking site and part of the Nasdaq-listed Priceline.com Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN), announces a host of summer hotel deals in Rome to coincide with Estate Romana. Now in its 34th year, Estate Romana is a citywide celebration of all things artistic, musical, and cultural. From pop and rock concerts to classical recitals, art exhibitions, and theatre performances, this summer-long spectacular encapsulates the very spirit of Italy's chic and vibrant capital. For those who like their music live and loud, Rock in Roma is not to be missed. With ...

This release is available in German. »Medicines from plants« – one thinks of herbal teas or valerian drops. However, that has nothing in common with what the researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Aachen, Germany, are doing. They use plants to produce biopharmaceuticals. Those are proteins that, unlike many other medications, cannot be chemically produced. Biologically produced medications, such as recombinant insulin or therapeutic antibodies to fight cancer, have become indispensable. Plants are particularly suitable ...

Lanner, the simulation modeling and process optimization solutions provider, announced details of its latest channel strategy at its annual reseller conference held in Prague, Czech Republic last week. Speaking to an audience of channel partners from a dozen countries, CEO David Jones set out Lanner's focus for the next 12 months, including new channel relationships, key markets and territories, further investment in people, and a renewed focus on customer support. As part of the simulation software provider's objective to grow its channel strategy, two new channel ...

This release is available in German. What do potato chips and thin-film solar cells have in common? Both need films that protect them from air and water vapor: the chips in order to stay fresh and crisp; the solar cells in order to have a useful life that is as long as possible. In most cases, glass is used to protect the active layers of the solar cells from environmental influences. Dr. Klaus Noller from the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Freising explains the advantages of a plastic film: "The films are considerably lighter – and ...

Cornerstone Farm (www.cornerstonefarminc.com), a local business offering horseback riding lessons and horse training services to area residents for 14 years, has announced its 2011 summer horsemanship camp schedule. Cornerstone Farm specializes in hunter/jumper instruction for beginning through advanced riders on all breeds of horses, and offers camps, lessons and training at Triple Creek Ranch (www.triplecreek-ranch.com), 4255 Nelson Road in Longmont. Three types of camps are offered: an Introductory camp for beginners; Beginner 2 for those who can walk and trot and ...

"If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own." . . . Wes "Scoop" Nisker Taking a page from the book of San Francisco radio legend Scoop Nisker, biologists who find themselves dissatisfied with the microbes nature has provided are going out and making some of their own. Members of the fast-growing "synthetic biology" research community are designing and constructing novel organisms and biologically-inspired systems - or redesigning existing organisms and systems - to solve problems that natural systems cannot. The range of potential applications for synthetic ...

A free exhibition of Jacques-Henri Lartigue's work is currently on show at the CaixaForum Madrid, offering art fans the chance to see many of his pictures in the city for the first time. The French artist carried his camera with him throughout his life and the images he captured offer snapshots of a generation and how they enjoyed themselves before the first world war. Among the 200 pictures in the collection are scenes showing people taking part in motorsports, swimming and embracing new fashions. Lartigue was also a painter, but it is his photographs that have ...

This release is available in German. mp3 for phone calls – Considering the poor sound quality of many phone calls, this is a great idea. Videoconference phone calls in particular can be unintentionally awkward because the participants start to speak at the same time due to the time delay in the transmission. The reasons for this are long delay times and the poor quality of today's video calls. Fraunhofer's task was therefore to improve the quality and simultaneously minimize the delay time. The technology that makes this possible is called Enhanced Low Delay Advanced ...

Musicians are expected to flock to the 2011 Cairns Ukulele Festival (CUF) next month for an ambitious attempt to break a world record. The organisers are hoping to set a new benchmark for the largest ukulele ensemble, having tried and failed to achieve this goal at last year's event. With the bar currently standing at 851, the team behind the festival have registered the attempt with Guinness World Records and are hoping to attract 1,000 players to the Courthouse Hotel on July 2nd. All those who take part in the challenge will have to join in with a five-minute ...

Next month will see the Heart for Healing Festival take place in Bali, with all sorts of alternative therapies and workshops to be offered. The event is held on Saturday June 18th at the Bumi Ubud Resort and will kick off at 10:00 local time with a performance by children from the Pelangi School. Their presence is of prime importance to the occasion, since the festival is a fundraiser for the youngsters, with all proceeds going to a scholarship programme. Healing massages, healthy food and lectures are among the activities on offer over the course of the day. The ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A team of researchers at MIT has found a way to make complex composite materials whose attributes can be fine-tuned to give various desirable combinations of properties such as stiffness, strength, resistance to impacts and energy dissipation. The key feature of the new composites is a "co-continuous" structure of two different materials with very different properties, creating a material combining aspects of both. The co-continuous structure means that the two interleaved materials each form a kind of three-dimensional lattice whose pieces are fully ...

This release is available in French and Spanish. University of Granada researchers have proven that music therapy combined with other relax techniques based on guided imagery reduces significantly pain, depression and anxiety, and improves sleep among patients suffering from fibromyalgia. Thus, this therapy enhances patients' quality of life. This pioneer experimental study in Europe has shown that these two techniques enhance the well-being and personal power of patients with fibromyalgia, who are allowed to take part in their treatment. This research study was conducted ...

For cooperation to persist in the often violently competitive realm of bacteria, cheaters must be kept in line. Two Indiana University Bloomington biologists have learned that in one bacterium, at least, bacterial cooperators can evolve to "police" the cheaters and arrest their bids for dominance. "Even simple organisms such as bacteria can evolve to suppress social cheaters," said Gregory Velicer, who with Ph.D. student Pauline Manhes has reported the policing behavior in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their laboratory experiments suggest ...

Research suggests that landfill gas-recovery projects should be implemented quickly if the maximum amount of methane gas is to be retrieved from organic waste in as short as time as possible, according to a study published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management. Through appropriate management, landfill can be used to generate an alternative fuel gas containing that has half the caloric value of natural gas. Landfill gas (LFG) comprises approximately 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide. However, such management requires significant ...

Bats at Wetlands is sure to be a popular exhibition for fans of the winged animal who visit the wildlife park. It has been organised as part of the venue's fifth anniversary and will be running until October 31st 2011. In a statement, the organisers said: "Visitors may discover the fun facts about the behaviour, cultural symbolism and conservation research projects on bats through a wide range of high-tech games, videos, interactive panels and interpretation sessions." They went on to point out that the animal has a special significance in Hong Kong, ...

New research shows that residents of the Stroke Belt—a southern portion of the U.S. with significantly elevated stroke morality rate—also have a greater incidence of cognitive decline than other regions of the country. Researchers believe shared risk factors among members of this population are to blame. Results of this study, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), are published in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association. In 1965 the Stroke Belt first appeared in medical literature to describe the ...

FORT LEE, N.J., May 26, 2011 -- Neurologix, Inc. (OTCBB: NRGX) announced the presentation today of efficacy results through one year of follow-up in patients treated as part of the Company's successful Phase 2 clinical trial for its novel, investigational gene therapy NLX-P101 for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). Improvements in the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) at 12 months for the randomized, double-blind, sham surgery-controlled trial of 45 subjects with advanced PD confirmed that patients treated with NLX-P101 experienced sustained, positive, ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — For the first time, researchers have shown why precision-tinted lenses reduce headaches for migraine sufferers, a finding that could help improve treatment options for patients battling the debilitating ailment. Jie Huang of Michigan State University's Department of Radiology used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to reveal how precision-tinted lenses normalize brain activity in patients with migraine headaches, preventing such attacks. Huang's research appears in the current edition of the journal Cephalalgia, published by SAGE. While ...

Portrait of Moscow has opened at the Seoul Museum of History (SMH), offering visitors a chance to learn about a broad period of Russia's past. Images in the collection date from modern times all the way back to the late 19th century, with each one providing a snapshot of the political or social context in which it was taken. There are 80 pictures to view, all of which have been borrowed from the Moscow City Museum (MCM). Attendees will find the exhibition split into four sections, with one featuring historical images, another looking at scenes from Moscow's Soviet ...

WASHINGTON, May 26—Vanderbilt University engineers have created a "spongy" silicon biosensor that shows promise not only for medical diagnostics, but also for the detection of dangerous toxins and other tiny molecules in the environment. This innovation was originally designed to detect the presence of particular DNA sequences, which can be extremely helpful in identifying whether or not a person is predisposed to heart disease or certain kinds of cancer. The new sensor is described in the Optical Society's open access journal, Optics Express. Biological chemical sensors ...

Next month will see some of the top badminton players in the world congregate for the Singapore Open Super Series 2011. Running from June 14th to 19th, the event is one of the highlights of the country's badminton calendar. It takes place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and will give attendees the chance to see the best players on the domestic scene take on international stars. Some names to watch out for are Danny Bawa Christnanta, Vannessa Neo and Hendra Wijaya. They all came home from the recent Li Ning New Zealand International Challenge 2011 with trophies. Christnanta ...

San Diego's leading news site SignOnSanDiego.com recently partnered with digital agency Cuker Interactive to redesign Daily Deals, a service featuring deals of up to 90 percent off of local restaurants, attractions, and services. Located at http://dailydeal.signonsandiego.com, the program allows users to sign up to receive email notifications for daily deals, share them with friends and family, and earn credits for referral purchases. Since the site launched in March, the Daily Deals site has generated significant revenue, including a record-setting $366,035 through a single ...

This release is available in Spanish. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) researchers and a university colleague have found several factors involved in blueberry splitting, a significant problem that can cause losses of $300 to $500 per acre. Splitting and cracking occur in southern highbush and rabbiteye blueberries if they receive preharvest rainfall when fully ripe or approaching ripeness, according to scientists with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS). ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. ARS horticulturist Donna Marshall, retired ...

OAKLAND, Calif. — A woman's risk of developing diabetes during pregnancy can be identified up to seven years before she becomes pregnant based on routinely assessed measures of blood sugar and body weight, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the online issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., studied 580 ethnically diverse women who took part in a multiphasic health checkup at Kaiser Permanente Northern California between1984 and 1996. The researchers looked ...

AUDIO: Listen to a plumbeous vireo singing in a quiet area. This was recorded by lead author Clinton Francis of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. Click here for more information. Durham, NC — Some birds that live near noisy sites can alter their songs to deal with din. But closely related species with similar songs may tweak their tunes in different ways, says a new study led by Clinton Francis of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, NC. The ...