Britain's small businesses are likely to create almost two thirds of the country's jobs in an average year, a major new study has revealed.
Research shows firms employing fewer than 100 workers accounted for 65 per cent of new jobs in the UK in the period from 1997 to 2008.
The finding is likely to reignite the debate over the role of small companies in sustaining the nation's economy — particularly in light of the Budget, which was widely regarded as favourable to them.
Montreal, March 30, 2010 – The Last Supper – relentlessly studied, scrutinized, satirized and one the world's most famous paintings – is still revealing secrets. Researchers Olivier Bauer, Nancy Labonté, Jonas Saint-Martin and Sébastien Fillion of the Université de Montréal Faculty of Theology have found new meaning to the food depicted by Leonardo Da Vinci's famous artwork.
(Nairobi, Kenya) Today the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, together with the Department of Family Health (Division of Child and Adolescent Health), unveiled a renewed set of national policy guidelines to redouble diarrhoeal disease management and control efforts by putting proven interventions to work within the country's health system. This announcement comes at a time when global progress against diarrhoea has stalled. Contrary to what many Kenyans believe, diarrhoea is dangerous and not a normal part of childhood development.
URBANA – University of Illinois researchers may have debunked the myth that foliar fungicides can improve corn's tolerance to hail damage.
In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted a supplemental label registration for use of Headline fungicide on registered crops for disease control and plant health. This label stated that the fungicide can provide a benefit of "better tolerance to hail" in corn.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new University of Illinois study has bad news for advertisers who hope a sprinkling of glossy-but-obscure product claims will woo buyers.
Advertising that touts head-scratching scientific ingredients or other details only an expert could appreciate can turn consumers away instead, according to research by Alison Jing Xu and Robert S. Wyer Jr., of the U. of I. College of Business.
The popularity of weight training has grown over the past decade. A new study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital has found that the number of injuries from weight training has increased as well. The study found that more than 970,000 weight training-related injuries were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments between 1990 and 2007, increasing nearly 50 percent during the 18-year study period.
There are a number of factors that influence how well we do in school, including the amount of time we study and our interest in a subject. Now, according to new findings in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, how quickly we expect to receive our grades may also influence how we perform.
Ovarian endometriomas, better known as ovarian 'chocolate' cysts for the brown liquid they contain, can be easily removed by surgery. However, recurrence is common, which can cause ongoing pain and complications. A study evaluated for Faculty of 1000 suggests a simple and effective remedy – the oral contraceptive pill (OCP).
Nations of the Greater Mekong Subregion need to 'rethink' their agricultural industries to meet future food needs, given the social shifts and climate changes that are forecast for the coming decades. With better farming practices, and by managing agriculture within the wider context of natural ecosystems, nations could boost production and increase the wealth and resilience of poor people in rural communities. Demand for food is forecast to double by 2050, as populations swell and people's dietary choices change.
Acoustic analysis of the 'giggle' sound made by spotted hyenas has revealed that the animals' laughter encodes information about age, dominance and identity. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Ecology recorded the calls of 26 hyenas in captivity and found that variations in the giggles' pitch and timbre may help hyenas to establish social hierarchies.
Decades of drought, interspersed with intense monsoon rains, may have helped bring about the fall of Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilization at Angkor nearly 600 years ago, according to an analysis of tree rings, archeological remains and other evidence. The study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may also shed light on what drives — and disrupts — the rainy season across much of Asia, which waters crops for nearly half the world's population.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---In the ruins of a city that was once Rome's neighbor, archaeologists last summer found a 1,000-pound lead coffin.
Who or what is inside is still a mystery, said Nicola Terrenato, the University of Michigan professor of classical studies who leads the project---the largest American dig in Italy in the past 50 years.
The sarcophagus will soon be transported to the American Academy in Rome, where engineers will use heating techniques and tiny cameras in an effort to gain insights about the contents without breaking the coffin itself.
Want to kill old people without all the cultural drama? Framing the debate is the answer. Discard the word 'euthanasia' because it mixes ideas and values that confuse the debate about dying, states an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj100338.pdf.
FAIRFAX, Va., March 29, 2010—In a time when only a handful of TV news stations employ a dedicated science reporter, TV weathercasters may seem like the logical people to fill that role, and in many cases they do.
In the largest and most representative survey of television weathercasters to date, George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication shows that two-thirds of weathercasters are interested in reporting on climate change, and many say they are already filling a role as an informal science educator.
Two people with compromised immune systems who became ill with 2009 H1N1 influenza developed drug-resistant strains of virus after less than two weeks on therapy, report doctors from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.