Science Education & Policy

SOUTHINGTON, Connecticut, August 6 /PRNewswire/ -- CaptiveLearning.com, an on-line educational platform devoted to the captive insurance industry, was officially launched on August 1, 2008. The website is dedicated to building excellence in captive insurance company operations and governance, and is a captive.com companion website. (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080806/NEW105LOGO ) "CaptiveLearning.com will build on the success of captive.com which has served the captive insurance industry since 1995," reports Chris Mancini, CEO of Captive.com, LLC. "Captive.com is accessed by…

BURLINGTON, Massachusetts, August 6 /PRNewswire/ -- - Optimized Mobile Workforce Management System Schedules More Than 1,000 Technicians to Ensure Telecommunications Services run Smoothly Over seven million people at the Beijing Olympics are depending on more than 1,000 field technicians managed by ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (NasdaqCM: CKSW) products for reliable fixed line voice, broadband, video transmission and Internet service during the 16-day event. ClickSoftware's ClickSchedule and ClickAnalyze mobile workforce management software is helping China Netcom Group Corporation (CNC)…

A team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has used brain imaging, genetics and experimental psychology techniques to identify a connection between brain reward circuitry, a behavioral measurement of preference and a gene variant that appears to influence both. The report in the August 4 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry describes how variations in a gene involved with the brain's reward function are associated with the activity of a key brain structure and, in parallel, with the effort study participants 'invest' in viewing emotion-laden facial images. The…

Physicist Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson on computers and physics: The prestige attached to computers and their erudite gimmicks impresses almost everyone, but especially the simulators. They often believe they have proved that a system--like the little crystal of solid helium--can't possibly behave the way experiments show, therefore there's something dubious about the experiments, and not the simulations. Of course, to the casual observer computer simulations are far more impressive than old-fashioned logic and common sense. But we must remember that a simulation, even if correct, can't…

LONDON, August 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's decision by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve the reclassification of azithromycin for the treatment of chlamydia infection will mean convenient and effective care for patients, said the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB). Azithromycin, currently licensed as a prescription-only medicine, is expected to be available for sale from pharmacies without a prescription later this year. Azithromycin is the first oral antibiotic to be approved for reclassification. It will be available for people 16…

MINNEAPOLIS, August 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Since IISP announced the Certified Software Process Improvement Professional (CSPIP) program last March, we have received an overwhelming number of inquiries from organizations and individuals in different countries regarding the new certification. To better reflect this more global certification, the IISP Advisory Board approved the name change from Certified Software Process Improvement Professional (CSPIP) to the INTERNATIONAL SOFTWARE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT CERTIFICATION (ISPIC). "The new name reflects the global nature of the program," said Dr. Magdy…

SAN FRANCISCO, August 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncology NEWS International, a leading provider of news and coverage of the hematology and oncology market for the past 17 years, has announced a redesign of its editorial content aimed at addressing the ever-changing needs of the cancer care market. (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080805/AQTU031) Effective immediately, readers of Oncology NEWS International will notice a more functional and more appealing format that showcases broader coverage and better represents the readers in the oncology and hematology community. According to…

A new Carnegie Mellon University brain imaging study of dyslexic students and other poor readers shows that the brain can permanently rewire itself and overcome reading deficits, if students are given 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction. The study, published in the August issue of the journal Neuropsychologia, shows that the remedial instruction resulted in an increase in brain activity in several cortical regions associated with reading, and that neural gains became further solidified during the year following instruction. "This study demonstrates how remedial instruction can use the…

Despite concerns that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 would increase intolerance toward Muslims, the opposite is true, according to new research by University of British Columbia (UBC) and Stanford University researchers published this week in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Paul Davies, a professor of psychology at UBC's Okanagan campus, and co-investigators Claude Steele and Hazel Rose Markus from Stanford University created a research program to examine the relationship between foreign threats, national identity and citizens' endorsement of models for both foreign…

It may not be an ever popular artificial sweetener like NutraSweet, or have the crystalline texture of pure sugar, but the herb, which is commonly found at Trader Joes when it isn’t in its natural South American setting is sweeter than its sweetener counterparts—and calorie free. The once banned herb stevia, which is 300 times the sweetness of sugar, is safe to consume in the U.S. as a dietary supplement, but pronounced unsafe by the Food and Drug Administration if used in food. Originally discovered as a sweetener for yerba-matte tea in Paraguay and Brazil the herb is now legal to import,…