ANN ARBOR, Mich.---When local residents are allowed to make rules about managing nearby forests, the forests are more likely to provide greater economic benefits to households and contain more biodiversity, two University of Michigan researchers and a colleague conclude from an analysis of forest practices in tropical developing countries of East Africa and South Asia. Lauren Persha and Arun Agrawal of the University of Michigan and Ashwini Chhatre of the University of Illinois used evidence from more than 80 forest sites in six tropical countries to test how local participation ...

Stroke patients who received electrical brain stimulation coupled with swallowing exercises showed greater improvement in swallowing ability than patients who did not receive this stimulation, according to a pilot study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Difficulty swallowing, known as dysphagia, is a common and serious stroke complication. It can lead to aspiration, when food or foreign matter accidentally enters the lungs causing pneumonia. Aspiration and aspiration pneumonia are common complications after stroke and can be deadly. The ...

Patients who have suffered a "mini stroke" are at twice the risk of heart attack than the general population, according to research reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. These mini-strokes, called transient-ischemic attacks, or TIAs, occur when a blood clot temporarily blocks a blood vessel to the brain. Although the symptoms are similar to a stroke, a TIA is shorter ─ usually lasting only minutes or a few hours ─ and does not cause long-term disability. A TIA, also called a "warning stroke," signals a high risk of a subsequent, larger ...

In an industry characterised by the need for strong technical skills, the development of the interpersonal side of things is often forgotten. If you're aiming for your first job post qualification or rising through the managerial ranks, Michael Page Finance knows that it's your soft skills that can set you apart from the crowd. Recruiters on the lookout Accountancy jobs can demand a varying set of skills. A range of different employers, from small businesses to FTSE-listed multinationals rely on us to recruit their finance professionals. With exposure to so ...

Researchers from China, Leicester and Oxford have discovered a remarkable fossil which sheds new light on an important group of primitive sea creatures. The 525-million-year-old fossil belongs to a group of tentacle-bearing creatures which lived inside hard tubes. Previously only the tubes have been seen in detail but this new specimen clearly shows the soft parts of the body including tentacles for feeding. Details of the discovery have been announced today in the journal Current Biology. The study was funded by the Royal Society and the National Natural Foundation ...

The variety on offer at the Foire de Paris means everyone is likely to find something they are interested in at the exhibition, with stands ranging from travel destinations to cooking gadgets. It runs from April 28th to May 8th 2011 and features three sections: home, leisure and world culture. Visitors will find plenty of inspiration for luxury holidays and property renovations at the event, with exhibitors sharing top tips on how people can spend their cash. To add to the fun, challenges and awards will be handed out during the fair for visitors and products. The ...

Children with Tourette syndrome could benefit from behavioural therapy to reduce their symptoms, according to a new brain imaging study. Researchers at The University of Nottingham discovered that the brains of children with Tourette syndrome (TS) develop in a unique way — which could suggest new methods of treating the condition. The study, published in the journal Current Biology, found that many children with TS experience a 'reorganisation' of the brain structure in their teens, as their brain compensates for the condition and allows them to gain control over their ...

A study published today provides a new perspective on the Great Depression of the 1930s. A widely held view is that there were remarkable improvements in life expectancy of over five years. Using data from urban populations, researchers found that it was actually associated with an increase in suicides but reduction in motor-vehicle accidents, a pattern consistent with the impacts of the current recession in Europe and the U.S. The study, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, is published in today's issue of the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Senior ...

Your CV is first-class, your interview skills are impeccable and you've researched the company inside out and back-to-front, but there's one further hurdle you may need to overcome before that job is yours - the personality test. Employers are increasingly incorporating pre-set personality tests into the interview process to quickly establish a candidate's suitability for the role and compatibility within the larger organisation. Personality tests tend to follow a standardised format of quick-answer, true-or-false or multiple-choice questions (up to 500 in some instances). ...

DALLAS – March 24, 2011 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a hormone pathway that potentially could lead to new ways of treating type 1 diabetes independent of insulin, long thought to be the sole regulator of carbohydrates in the liver. Results of this new study will be published March 25 in Science. Another hormone, fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19), has insulin-like characteristics beyond its role in bile acid synthesis. Unlike insulin, however, FGF19 does not cause excess glucose to turn to fat, suggesting that its activation could lead ...

Bar Harbor, Maine -- A Jackson Laboratory research team, working in collaboration with researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, show that RNA granules--key players in messenger RNA (mRNA) processing--can affect eye development, leading to juvenile cataracts in humans and mice. The research, published in the March 25 issue of Science, also demonstrates the first connection between RNA granules and glaucoma, as the humans and mice in the study developed glaucoma. In the laboratory of Jackson Professor and Howard Hughes Medical ...

BINGHAMTON, NY – A Binghamton University computer scientist with an interest in "green" software development has received the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award for young researchers. Yu David Liu received a five-year, $448,641 grant from the NSF's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. The highly competitive grants support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research. He also recently received a $50,000 grant from Google for a related ...

The 2011 Oceania and Asia Pacific Championships will see top male and female skaters flock to the Gold Coast in mid-April. It features three different disciplines - speed, inline hockey and artistic skating - all of which will take place at venues across the Queensland resort. Speed trials are scheduled for the Broadwater Parklands at Southport, a three-kilometre stretch of foreshore that is widely recognised as one of the state's most iconic attractions. The Runaway Indoor Sports Centre has been chosen to host the artistic element and the inline hockey action ...

The multitouch microscope integrates two Finnish innovations and brings new dimensions into teaching and research. Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) have in collaboration with the Finnish company Multitouch Ltd created a hand and finger gesture controlled microscope. The method is a combination of two technologies: web-based virtual microscopy and a giant-size multitouch display. The result is an entirely new way of performing microscopy: by touching a table- or even wall-sized screen the user can navigate and zoom within a microscope ...

Some of the incredible inventions of Leonardo da Vinci are brought to life in an interactive installation coming to Adelaide next month. The Da Vinci Machines Exhibition boasts more than 60 models interpreted from his original designs and drawings by the Artisans of Florence. Display pieces include the bicycle, tank and air screw, alongside a number of simpler items that are commonly used today, including cam hammers and ball bearings. Visitors can get a better understanding of many of these constructions by taking part in group challenges such as building an arched ...

Prescribing antibiotics for patients with discoloured phlegm caused by acute cough has little or no effect on alleviating symptoms and recovery, a Cardiff University study has found. Acute cough is one of the common reasons why people visit their GP and accounts for a large proportion of antibiotics prescribed in the community. One of the most common questions asked by GPs to their patients is about their phlegm: "Are you coughing anything up?" or "What colour is your phlegm?" Clinicians and patients commonly believe that yellow and green phlegm production is associated ...

The team, working with Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, investigated eye movements in Chinese and British people to further understanding of the brain mechanisms that control them and how they compare between different human populations. They found that a type of eye movement, that is rare in British people, is much more common in Chinese people, suggesting that there could be subtle differences in brain function between different populations. Tests of eye movements can be used to help identify signs of brain injury or disease, such as schizophrenia and multiple ...

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have joined with researchers at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to mount a three-pronged attack on one of the most obstinate puzzles in materials sciences: what is the pseudogap? A collaboration organized by Zhi-Xun Shen, a member of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES) at SLAC and a professor of physics at Stanford University, used three complementary experimental ...

Performers from across the world will travel to Western Australia next month to take part in the annual Fremantle Street Arts Festival (FSAF). Over the years, the event has grown to become the biggest of its kind in the country, attracting artists from as far afield as England, France, Japan and the US. FSAF 2011 looks like it will be bigger and better than ever before, with the programme expanded to four days to coincide with the long Easter weekend (April 23rd to 26th). Thousands of people are expected to pack the streets of Fremantle throughout the festival ...

This press release is available in German. "Neurons synchronize with different partners at different frequencies" says Dr. Dirk Jancke, Neuroscientist at the Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany. A new imaging technique enabled to show that such functioning results in distinct activity patterns overlaid in primary visual cortex. These patterns individually signal motion direction, speed, and orientation of object contours within the same network at the same time. Together with colleagues at the University of Osnabrück, the Bochum scientists successfully visualized ...

New vouchers and deals introduced this week by popular voucher codes specialist DiscountVouchers.co.uk are able to save UK consumers money on leading brands right now. The latest weekly deals feature money off top name furniture plus also hotels, electrical and eating out to help consumers make the most of their budgets. Available this week on the www.discountvouchers.co.uk website are deals which include - - LoveFilm - EXCLUSIVE 30 Day Free Trial plus a GBP10 Amazon Voucher - Movie buffs can enjoy this exclusive deal to save - DiscountVouchers.co.uk is home to ...

Sabrient Systems and Stutland Volatility Group (SVG) announce the formation of Stutland Volatility Funds (SVF), an asset management firm offering a suite of long/short quant funds designed to deliver superior stock selection with enhanced risk management. SVF will benefit hedge funds, actively managed ETFs, mutual fund distributors and privately managed accounts for investors starting at $100,000. "As U.S. markets approach 11 years of negative and near zero returns, simple buy-and-hold is no longer acceptable as a viable investment strategy," said SVG Managing Partner ...

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have developed a new method which enables researchers to label any protein of their choice with any of a wide variety of previously available compounds, in living cells, by introducing a single reactive artificial amino acid. Published today in Angewandte Chemie, the new technique enables researchers to label even rare proteins very precisely for optical imaging and in the future likely also for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Carsten Schultz, Edward Lemke and colleagues tricked the ...

Have you been wearing your retainer? It's a question countless parents ask of their children post-braces. Now Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine researchers are getting serious about the question. "We found little written about the kinds of retainers prescribed and how compliant patients are in using them," said Case Western Reserve's Manish Valiathan, an assistant professor of orthodontics and a member of the American Board of Orthodontics. He notes that there is a dearth of information despite the devices being common in orthodontics practice. Consequently ...

In a deal that is 99% complete and yet to be announced publicly, we can exclusively reveal that Victory Poker is due to leave the Cake Network to join The Cereus Poker Network imminently. Meanwhile Cake has news of its own: it is now owned by the PokerListings affiliate group. Victory Poker, currently stable to pros such as Antonio Esfandiari, Lee Markholt, Paul Wasica and Andrew Robl to name but a few of the 20, only joined the Cake Network in the last quarter of 2010. But they are already on their way to greener pastures. The Cereus network is currently only made ...