LONDON, December 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- Fair Pay Rise Would Boost Consumer Spending

Members of Unite, the largest union in the country, are holding a 'work to rule' day of action tomorrow (Wednesday, 3 December) over the 'derisory' three-year NHS pay deal.

And as Unite members take action in hospitals and health centres throughout the UK, the union argues that giving public sector workers, including NHS staff, a fair pay rise would also have the added benefit of boosting consumer spending power in the High Street - and would cost a fraction of the billions earmarked to bail-out irresponsible bank bosses.

Squirrels are also facing an economic crisis.  Apparently, acorns are disappearing all over the country...or at least on the East Coast.  I know some fellow turkey hunters on the East Coast have reported a very spotty acorn crop.  Supposedly it's not just acorns, but hickory nuts as well.  This is very bad news for woodland creatures.  Acorns are a mainstay of their winter diet and are a valuable source of protein after the grasshoppers die in first fall frosts.  No acorns or hickories means less food for squirrels, turkeys, etc.  That in turn means less food for owls, coyotes, and so on.  If this year really is worse than most in terms of acorns, it will be interesting to see how wildlife nu

NAPA, California, December 1 /PRNewswire/ --

Senetek PLC (OTC Bulletin Board: SNKTY), a life sciences company engaged in the development of technologies that target the science of healthy aging, announced today that Dynamics Group AG, specialists in the fields of strategic development, communication management and research with offices in Zurich, Bern and Geneva has published a Research Report on the Company.

LONDON, December 1 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photos

As the economic downturn bites and food costs continue to rise, it's reassuring to know that there is no need to compromise the festive spirit on quality, taste, convenience or health. While cautious consumers purposefully seek out good value holiday nibbles, peanuts - recently overshadowed by more exotic, expensive alternatives - are set to make a comeback as a natural, tasty, energy powerhouse snack.

Health education consultant for the American Peanut Council Dr Andrew Craig said, Research tells us that all nuts are extremely beneficial for health. The more exotic nuts may be great - but they are expensive, whereas peanuts offer all the health benefits at an affordable everyday price.

It's an idea that has pervaded a huge amount of science fiction and fantasy stories, from Star Trek to Harry Potter, and there are few of us that would deny a couple of hours with one - but is an invisibility cloak actually possible? Although the lightweight, flowing cloak of Harry Potter may be impossible in the near future, scientists are quickly creating and studying new metamaterials - materials with a negative index of refraction - that are paving the way to making invisibility a reality.

CHICAGO and KISTA, Sweden, December 1 /PRNewswire/ --

In developing a model to explain the motion of atoms in a magnetic field, scientists have overcome a decades-old obstacle to understanding a key component of magnetic resonance.

The new understanding may eventually lead to better control of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and higher resolution MRI diagnoses.

Collaborators at Ohio State University in Columbus and three institutions in France--the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Université d'Orléans, and the Université de Lyon--presented their findings in a paper published in the Journal of Chemical Physics.

A dual-headed dedicated gamma camera used during molecular breast imaging (MBI) can accurately detect small breast tumors less than 2 cm in size, according to a study performed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

One-hundred fifty patients who had suspicious lesions smaller than 2 cm in size were imaged using dual-head molecular breast imaging. “There were 128 cancers confirmed in 88 patients,” according to Carrie B. Hruska, MD, lead author of the study. “The sensitivity rate of dual-head MBI during the study was 90% (115/128)”, she said.

Are consumers under too much pressure to be healthy? Has the global financial crisis sidelined the promotion of sustainable food? And how much do consumers actually know or care about the subject?

A stunning discovery based on epigenetics (the inheritance of propensities acquired in the womb) reveals that consuming choline—a nutrient found in eggs and other foods—during pregnancy may significantly affect breast cancer outcomes for a mother's offspring. This finding by a team of biologists at Boston University is the first to link choline consumption during pregnancy to breast cancer. It also is the first to identify possible choline-related genetic changes that affect breast cancer survival rates.

"We've known for a long time that some agents taken by pregnant women, such as diethylstibesterol, have adverse consequences for their daughters," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "But there's an upside.