Author Archives: Guest Post

Writing About Anxiety Helps Students Ace Exams

*Research says test performance improves when students write about their worries*

Sian Beilock, lead author of a new study that appears on January 13 in the journal Science, says writing about test-related worries for ten minutes immediately before taking an exam is an effective way to improve test scores in classroom settings.

“By writing down one’s negative thoughts, students may come to realize that the situation is not as bad as they thought or that they are prepared to take it on,” said Beilock, an associate professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. “As a result, they worry less during the test.” (more…)

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Email Evolution: Web-based Email Shows Signs of Decline in the U.S. While Mobile Email Usage on the Rise

*Growing Number of Communication Channels Prompts Shift in Consumers’ Email Behavior*  

RESTON, VA, January 20, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released results from a study on U.S. consumers’ evolving email behaviors using data from its comScore Media Metrix and MobiLens services. The study found that in November 2010, the number of visitors to web-based email sites declined 6 percent compared to the previous year, while email engagement declined at an even greater rate. During the same time period, the number of users accessing email via their mobile devices grew by 36 percent as an increasingly complex digital environment influenced consumers’ communication habits.  (more…)

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Study Examines Risk Factors of a Mass Shooting

EAST LANSING, Mich. — It’s easy for American society to label young killers as simply crazy. But new research suggests that a complex array of factors – from bullying to lack of parental support to ineffective mental health services – are potentially involved when a student turns to violence.

The study, co-authored by Michigan State University’s Hyunkag Cho, examined the risk factors of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings by 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho that left 33 people, including the gunman, dead. (more…)

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Amazon to Acquire LOVEFiLM International Limited

LUXEMBOURG & LONDON – January 20, 2010 – Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire the remaining shares in LOVEFiLM International Limited (www.LOVEFiLM.com). LOVEFiLM is a leading European subscription entertainment service which combines the benefits of online DVD and games rental-by-post as well as streaming films and TV shows instantly over the internet to PCs, internet enabled TVs and Playstation®3. LOVEFiLM operates today in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.  Amazon already has a significant minority shareholding in LOVEFiLM and does not itself operate any similar business in Europe.  (more…)

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Parental Divorce Linked to Suicidal Thoughts

Adult children of divorce are more likely to have seriously considered suicide than their peers from intact families, suggests new research from the University of Toronto.

In a paper published online this week in the journal Psychiatry Research, investigators examined gender specific differences among a sample of 6,647 adults, of whom 695 had experienced parental divorce before the age of 18. The study found that men from divorced families had more than three times the odds of suicidal ideation in comparison with men whose parents had not divorced. Adult daughters of divorce had 83 per cent higher odds of suicidal ideation than their female peers who had not experienced parental divorce. (more…)

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