Thistle Hotels has announced the appointment of Paul Knightley as general manager of the four star Thistle Kensington Gardens. Already an established general manager within the Thistle group, Knightley makes the move from its Hyde Park property to oversee the multi-million pound refurbishment of Thistle Kensington Gardens.  Knightley has worked for Thistle for over 10 years and progressed through several roles in the business, starting as a trainee in the finance department and working his way up to his current role as general manager. In this new role, he will be responsible ...

Russell Jones & Walker Solicitors' Business Crime & Regulation team has launched a UK-wide survey of businesses to assess their understanding of, and preparedness for the implementation of the Bribery Act in April 2011. The Bribery Act survey, targeted at key decision makers and executives of SMEs with an annual turnover up to GBP100 million, will be conducted across the finance and banking, media, and property and construction sectors. A full report of the survey findings will be available in February 2011. The UK Bribery Act represents a significant change to ...

Woolworths has helped Britain set a new world record for the largest ever game of pass the parcel, as confirmed by Guinness World Records. The giant parcel, created by family superstore Woolworths.co.uk started out the size of a car, weighing 440.9 lbs and measuring 2,500mm in length by 2,250mm in width by 1,500mm in height.  It delivered over GBP10,000 of toys to over 100 families over the course of a 1,125.5 mile two-week tour of the UK, visiting 10 towns and cities in England, Wales and Scotland along the way.  Woolies' snowmen, Stan and Ollie Snow, accompanied ...

The Royal Mint has immortalised five 'Queens' of the small screen in metal to mark the 50th anniversary of the nation's longest-running soap, Coronation Street. Coronation Street legends Vera Duckworth, Hilda Ogden, Bet Gilroy, Deirdre Barlow and current Rovers firebrand Becky McDonald have been joined by their on screen husbands on a series of beautifully rendered medals, designed to mark five decades of the Weatherfield saga. This is the first time the Royal Mint has ever commemorated a soap opera with TV memorabilia. The medal designs faithfully capture intimate ...

Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel in Riga, Latvia is marking its fifteenth anniversary in 2010 with new green commitments aimed at minimising the hotel's environmental impact. As well as participating in the Radisson Responsible Business initiative, the hotel was recently awarded the Green Key Certificate by Latvia's Ministry of Environment, marking its achievement in reducing any negative impact on the environment. Opened on 1st July 1995, the Radisson Blu Daugava was the first internationally branded First Class hotel in Riga, the Latvian capital. Located on the banks of ...

Bigmouthmedia has released its annual predictions for 2011, this year in conjunction with LBi. The document predicts that 2011 will be a landmark year for digital marketing, with the industry coming to terms with a raft of legislative, technical and economic changes that look set to make a fundamental impact on the sector. Entitled 2011: The Year Ahead in Digital Marketing, the document focuses on the legislative change set to strike in March, when the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) plans to expand the Committee of Advertising Practice to cover the digital sector. ...

With the gadget wars in full swing, many new iPhone 4 owners are finding that they need their iPhone repaired soon after purchase. The bigger shock is finding that the repair they need is often not covered by the smartphone's warranty. While the iPhone is easily one of the more expensive smartphones on the market, it's latest 4th generation model has come with its own set of problems and bugs to fix. The new gadget boom has created a new industry of certified gadget repair sites and brick-and-mortar shops around the US. Those that specifically fix iPhones are seeing ...

If you're the kind of savvy online poker player who's always looking for the best deals, you've probably already heard of Buy-in Bank. An online poker rewards program designed to help online players earn sponsorship packages and tournament buy-ins to live poker tournaments around the world, Buy-in Bank has grown rapidly in popularity since its launch back in June of this year. In an effort to reward their many loyal users, Buy-in Bank will soon launch their first Online Poker League and award $10,000 worth of buy-ins to live poker tournaments, cash, sponsorship points, ...

GALVESTON, Texas — Underrepresented minority medical students, including Hispanics and particularly African Americans and women, show the greatest benefit from comprehensive medical education reform according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In the first study to show system-wide outcomes of such reform, at UTMB Health reported that failure rates of the Step 1 licensing exam dropped dramatically among some students while significantly increasing graduation rates. Published in the December issue of Medical Education, the outcomes ...

Almost 5 million Californians have been diagnosed with asthma, and those living in poverty suffer more severe consequences from the condition than those in higher income brackets, according to a new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Low-income Californians with asthma experience more frequent symptoms, end up in the emergency room or hospital more often, and miss more days of work and school, researchers found. Of the more than 600,000 Californians who experience frequent — daily or weekly — symptoms that can signal uncontrolled asthma, a significant ...

JUPITER, FL, December 16, 2010 – Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shown that prions, bits of infectious protein that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow disease," have the ability to adapt to survive in a new host environment. In this regard, although they lack DNA and RNA, they behave much like viruses, producing distinct self-perpetuating structural mutations that provide a clear evolutionary advantage. The study was published this week in the online Early Edition ...

LOS ANGELES (December 16, 2010) – Living near a freeway may be associated with increased risk of autism, according to a study published by a team of researchers from Children's Hospital Los Angeles, the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and the UC Davis MIND Institute. The paper will appear online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives this week. "Children born to mothers living within 309 meters of a freeway appeared to be twice as likely to have autism," said Heather Volk, PhD, MPH, and first author on the study. Dr. ...

BOCA RATON, FL (December 17, 2010) – It is well known that music arouses emotions. But why do some musical performances move us, while others leave us flat? Why do musicians spend years perfecting the subtle nuances that bring us to tears? Scientists at Florida Atlantic University have now identified key aspects of musical performance that cause emotion-related brain activity, and they have shown for the first time how these performance nuances work in the brain, in real-time (http://www.science.fau.edu/video/emotionmovie/)*. The study, titled "Dynamic Emotional and ...

RENO, Nev. – It's just a worm, a tiny soil-dwelling nematode worm – but the implications are big for biomedicine and circadian biology as shown in a recent study authored by University of Nevada, Reno researcher Alexander van der Linden. The article on the circadian clock of the Caenorhabditis elegans worm was published in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal, PLoS Biology. "Circadian rhythms are important in all organisms because they regulate biological functions such as food intake, temperature, metabolic rate and sleep," van der Linden said. "The discovery of clock-controlled ...

Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with normal to mildly impaired lung function may benefit from a new investigational drug designed to help prevent formation of the sticky mucus that is a hallmark of the disease, according to researchers involved in a phase 3 clinical trial of the drug. Called denufosol, the investigational medication can be given early in the CF disease process, and may help delay the progression of lung disease in these patients, the researchers found. The findings were published online ahead of the print edition of the American Thoracic Society's American ...

A new study from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business finds that customers of eBay who participate in the company's online communities become more conservative buyers and more selective and efficient sellers. The study, "The Impact of Customer Community Participation on Customer Behaviors: An Empirical Investigation," appeared recently in the journal Marketing Science and was co-authored by Rice's Sharad Borle, associate professor of marketing; Siddharth Singh, assistant professor of marketing; and Utpal Dholakia associate professor of management, along ...

New research into the health benefits of beetroot juice suggests it's not only athletes who can benefit from its performance enhancing properties – its physiological effects could help the elderly or people with heart or lung-conditions enjoy more active lives. Beetroot juice has been one of the biggest stories in sports science over the past year after researchers at the University of Exeter found it enables people to exercise for up to 16% longer. The startling results have led to a host of athletes – from Premiership footballers to professional cyclists – looking into ...

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, December 17, 2010 – As middle ear infections increase during the winter months, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) suggest that in many cases the most appropriate treatment is "watchful waiting" instead of using antibiotics immediately. The review, published in the scientific journal Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy, does not suggest use of watchful waiting in all cases when the infection, also known as Acute Otitis Media (AOM), is suspected by a pediatrician, but notes that a large majority of cases can be treated this ...

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) at the University of Oxford have uncovered a clue that may help to explain why the earliest evidence of complex multicellular animal life appears around 550 million years ago, when atmospheric oxygen levels on the planet rose sharply from 3% to their modern day level of 21%. The team, led by Professor Chris Schofield, has found that humans share a method of sensing oxygen with the world's simplest known living animal - Trichoplax adhaerens - suggesting the method has been around since ...

Danish sleep researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the Danish Institute for Health Services Research have examined the socio-economic consequences of the sleep disorder hypersomnia in one of the largest studies of its kind. The sleep disorder has far-reaching consequences for both the individual and society as a whole. Hypersomnia is characterised by excessive tiredness during the day. Patients who suffer from the disorder are extremely sleepy and need to take a nap several times a day. This can occur both at work, during a meal, in the middle of a conversation ...

VIDEO: In this animated illustration, an electron (black ball) flies across a lattice of magnetic vortices. The forces transferred in the process allow the magnetic structures to be controlled with relatively... Click here for more information. One of the requirements to keep trends in computer technology on track – to be ever faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient – is faster writing and processing of data. In the Dec. 17 issue of the journal Science, physicists ...

Cancer treatment with ion beams developed at GSI is characterized by an excellent cure rate and only minor side effects. The therapy has been routinely in use for a little over one year. The effectiveness of the ion beams not only depends on the tumor type, but also on the genetic disposition and the personal circumstances of the individual patient. For the first time, scientists at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung have irradiated samples of vital human tumor tissue in the scope of their systematical and fundamental research. Their long-term goal is to enhance ...

Plants that "lose the battle" during competitiveness for light because they are shaded by larger neighbours, counteract. They adapt by rapid shoot elongation and stretch their leaves towards the sun. The molecular basis of this so-called shade avoidance syndrome had been unclarified to date. Research scientists from the Utrecht University in the Netherlands and the Ruhr University in Bochum have now been able to unravel a regulation pathway. A specific transport protein (PIN3) enables the accumulation of the plant hormone auxin, which plays an important role during this ...

"I have ready!" With this sentence the FC Bayern Munich coach Giovanni Trapattoni finished a furious rant about his team's performance in 1998. And "Mr Angelo" in a coffee advert points out to his neighbour with a mischievous smile: "I don't have a car at all". In both cases the Italians are unmistakeably recognizable and so the exuberant temperament of the first and the charming way of the second are seemingly "typically Italian". The accent someone talks in plays a crucial role in the way we judge this person, psychologists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena ...

VIDEO: Compression causes nanotubes to buckle and twist and eventually to lose atoms from their lattice-like structure. Click here for more information. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A pipefitter knows how to make an exact cut on a metal rod. But it's far harder to imagine getting a precise cut on a carbon nanotube, with a diameter 1/50,000th the thickness of a human hair. In a paper published this month in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society ...