Science Education & Policy

BRISTOL, England, October 6 /PRNewswire/ --
Laborie Medical Technologies is pleased to announce that an exclusive strategic agreement has been signed to carry the T-DOC(R) line of air-charged Urodynamic and lower GI catheters to international markets.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071101/NETH128LOGO )
Laborie Medical Technologies has been actively marketing T-DOC(R) products with its award-winning Urodynamics systems for several years in North America. Air-charged technology offers ease of use along with repeatability of measurement needed in diagnostic procedures such as…

Afraid to fly? It may not be rational, since airplanes are quite safe, but to people who have that phobia, it defies rationality. Researchers from the Center for Obesity Research and Education and the department of kinesiology at Temple University say the same psychological barrier may inhibit some obese women from exercising.
Much like a crippling worry that arachnophobes have about spiders, the research presented at the Obesity Society's Annual Meeting on October 5th says some obese women face a barrier when it comes to exercise that normal weight women do not.
"This is the first time we…

Sarah Palin lost the room immediately after Joe Biden choked up, say Karen Kohn Bradley and Karen Studd, certified movement analysts who study the nonverbal and movement behaviors of political leaders.
They don't say (though it's easy to guess) their political party so you have to calibrate their analysis carefully, but they do say that on a movement level, both Vice-Presidential candidates showed a sense of urgency and the increasing speed of their deliveries meant that, halfway through, everyone in the huge nationwide audience was in some sort of trance, like watching a merry-go-round…

LONDON, October 3 /PRNewswire/ --
- AvantGard Wins Recognition for Liquidity, Risk and Treasury Management
SunGard's AvantGard (http://www.sungard.com), which provides cash management solutions for treasury, payments and receivables to corporations and financial institutions, has been recognized with seven different industry awards in the past six months. These awards include: Best Technology Provider from Treasury Management International (www.treasury-management.com) for the three categories of Cash and Working Capital Management Solutions, Risk Management and Best ASP Solution; and three…

LONDON, October 3 /PRNewswire/ -- FIS Software Ltd., a leading global provider of package-based software solutions for life and pensions companies, is delighted to announce the successful implementation of ALIS, its class leading policy administration system at Rosgosstrakh in Russia. The implementation went into production in July 2008 and ALIS is now operating live in all 65 regional sales offices across Russia.
Background
At the beginning of 2007, Rosgosstrakh, the leading insurance company in Russia with over 30 million policies, awarded FIS Software a multi-year, multi-million dollar…

PORTO SALVO, Portugal, October 3 /PRNewswire/ --
- Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer support Magellan Initiative to help meet education and technology goals of governments and citizens.
The government of Portugal and Microsoft Corp. today signed an agreement to help accelerate technology adoption in education with the international launch of the Microsoft Magellan Learning Suite. In support of the Portuguese government's "e-Escolinhas" program, Microsoft has developed a comprehensive suite of software, training, content, services and support for the…

CLEVELAND, Ohio, October 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Simbionix, the world's leading developer of medical simulation systems, advances procedural simulation from theoretical promise to operating room reality.
The PROcedure Rehearsal Studio(TM), Simbionix' latest innovative medical simulation system, is the world's first medical simulator that enables clinicians to create practice scenarios based on their patient's unique pathology and anatomy.
Dr. Karl Illig, Chief of Vascular Surgery at Strong Medical Center in Rochester, NY, explains why physicians are eager to start using the new simulator: "…

LONDON, October 3 /PRNewswire/ -- You may not know it, but animals around the world have a special day all of their own. World Animal Day which takes place on October 4th was first launched in 1931 at a convention of ecologists to draw attention to the plight of endangered species. Its scope has since developed to encompass the animal kingdom in general.
In light of World Animal Day, Party for Animals Worldwide (PAW) is calling on people to remember the numerous animal charities around the world that work hard on our behalf to help and protect animals in need.
PAW is a unique and fairly new…

LONDON, October 3 /PRNewswire/ --
- Cervical Cancer is the Second Most Common Cause of Death From Cancer Among Women Worldwide
- Every Year Half a Million Women are Diagnosed With Cervical Cancer Worldwide
- Over 280,000 women Die From Cervical Cancer Annually
- Cervical Cancer is Caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) but can be Largely Prevented by Early Detection and HPV Vaccination
WHAT:
- The launch of the Women Against Cervical Cancer (WACC) Network, a new international network of voluntary organisations, institutions, NGOs and individuals committed to the fight against cervical…

A new study has concluded that musicians have IQ scores than non-musicians, supporting other recent research that intensive musical training is associated with an elevated IQ score.
Vanderbilt University psychologists Crystal Gibson, Bradley Folley and Sohee Park have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.
One possible explanation the researchers offer for the musicians' elevated use of both brain hemispheres is…