KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sept. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --The rising green consciousness in Asia Pacific is generating demand for natural products, and the personal care active ingredients market has been cashing in, especially with synthetics coming under scrutiny for its lack of sustainability. Customers' growing awareness and affinity for natural ingredients, higher affordability, and environment consciousness is turning them toward premium natural personal care products.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.chemicals.frost.com), Strategic Analysis of Asia-Pacific Personal Care Active Ingredients Market, finds that the market earned revenues of US$116.6 million in 2011 and estimates this to reach US$176.4 million in 2017.

"Technological innovations are giving market participants a competitive edge by enhancing the ingredients' functionality," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst Dr.Nandhini Rajagopal. "Following the success of the new ingredients, manufacturers are replacing traditional materials with innovative ingredients; for instance, light emollients are replacing some silicon products in final formulations."

The cosmetics industry is riding a crest due to the higher spending power of the people in the region. As the Asia Pacific is expected to be economically strong for the next few years, the demand for cosmetics, and thereby, active ingredients, is likely to be high.

Meanwhile, changing lifestyles and poor food habits are also altering strategies in the personal care active ingredient market. Premature aging due to lifestyle habits has created a new target group of 27-40 year olds for personal care products.

Apart from these shifting patterns, the biggest challenge faced by the active ingredient suppliers in the Asia Pacific is the smuggling and counterfeiting of ingredients. They are also significantly pegged back by competition from low-priced Chinese products.

As these illegal products evade import duty and sales tax, their suppliers can afford to price them competitively and still gain huge margins, placing enormous pressure on legitimate suppliers.

Countries need to design strict regulations and enforce adherence to eliminate the threat from counterfeit and smuggled personal care products. Further, suppliers could also establish local manufacturing facilities to mitigate the effects of this challenge.

"Strategic relationships between manufacturers will also help synergise their strengths and overcome individual weaknesses," noted Rajagopal. "While vertical integration of industries can result in higher margins, horizontal integrations are expected to expand the product line."

Such alliances have been useful to the majors operating in this segment, and could be replicated by other participants.

Read more:
Frost & Sullivan: Natural Ingredients' Success Alter Business Plans in the Personal Care Active Ingredients Market

BRUSSELS, September 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Rapid growth in offer, demand and funding - new portal on distance learning launched

The availability and popularity of online education in Europe are on the rise. Following the revolutionary developments in online learning in the US, Europe is now catching up, increasing both funding and infrastructure. To build awareness for European online learning, a new web-portal brings transparency to the quickly growing options available.

In the last decade, the US has heavily invested in online education: it is projected that US online education will outgrow traditional education by 2015. Already today, renowned institutes like Stanford and MIT offer massive online courses for free - followed by up to 100,000 students worldwide. Europe now heads in the same direction. Within its upcoming 'Erasmus For All' programme the European Commission makes more funding available to support distance education in Europe.

Traditionally, in Europe online education has been associated with commercial institutes, sometimes of doubtful quality. As distance learning however makes higher education more accessible and affordable it "has become an important answer to the current educational challenges and will significantly impact our educational landscape", states Piet Henderikx, Secretary General of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU). Today, about 500 European institutes provide short courses and entire degree programmes at a distance - with continuous success: last year student enrolment increased 15-20% while the offer grew with 40% as reported by universities across Europe. That makes online education an increasingly serious alternative to traditional education - and disproves many still widespread misconceptions.

A new portal will now be launched to bring transparency to the quickly growing study options: http://www.DistanceLearningPortal.eu. Funded by the European Union and developed by the European study choice platform Studyportals and EADTU, this central information source will support orienting learners worldwide to study abroad from home. On 27 September 2012 the portal will officially be launched by Commissioner Vassiliou at the EADTU annual conference in Cyprus.

To date, already 180 institutes participate in this European initiative (88 in UK and 3 in Ireland) ranging from Open University to London School of Economics - listing a total of more than 1,200 Bachelors, Masters, PhDs and Short Courses.

[Ambient Insight Market Study 2011]

More information on Studyportals: http://www.studyportals.eu. More information on http://www.distancelearningportal.eu: contact press@studyportals.eu or call +31402920060.

Link:
Europe Catching up on Online Education

A ROW has erupted over a priest banning yoga from a church hall because the class was not compatible with the Catholic faith.

Instructor Cori Withell said the classes she booked for yoga and pilates at St Edmunds Church building in Southampton were cancelled with 10 days to go.

She was told by the church's booking secretary that it was because yoga is a Hindu religious activity.

Father John Chandler from the church said that the hall has to be used for Catholic activities and he banned it because it was advertised as spiritual yoga.

The ban is not Catholic Church policy and decisions are left to the discretion of individual priests. Some Catholic retreats use yoga for relaxation.

Ms Withell, 37, from nearby Eastleigh, said the church accepted the booking two months ago and she paid 180.

She was called later and told that yoga was from another religion so she could not have the hall. A separate pilates class she had booked was also cancelled.

Concerned ... Father John Chandler

She said: I had never heard about any religious issue with yoga before but I have looked into it since and found that some other religions feel that when people meditate it could let the devil inside them.

But there was never any meditation in my class - it was just exercises. Yoga is not religious: spiritual, but not religious.

Go here to read the rest:
Catholic church sparks religious row by banning ‘Hindu’ Yoga classes

Speak of yoga and the first thing you hear to the effect of verbalism is Namaste (popularized by Western wannabe yogis); or the mental imaginings of Indian rishis (seers) knotted in terrifyingly painful postures or asanas, as yogis call it; and for simple you-and-me folk its all about longer than can moments of stretching and absolute mental nothingness. Bliss?! But lets seriously move beyond all that Hollywood gaga and go yoga as the real rishis would want us to! A true exercise that aims to engage the mind, body and soul, yoga since millennia has been highly extolled for its values of physical robustion, mental tranquility, and a means of reaching spiritual ascension if done right.

How to get started All you need is a yoga mat, a well-ventilated area (preferably near trees; open spaces work best), a tranquil state of mind (burn some invigorating incense for added effect or play soothing tunes from Buddha Bar) and you breathing in some fabulously cool and unrestrictive apparel. Is that asking for too much? Breathing is a very important aspect of yoga, but unfortunately people in present practice ignore it. They focus only on the dynamic part, which is not the highest recommendation of yoga itself, says Karthik Kasyup, who has a masters degree in Yogic Science and is a yoga instructor in India. Yoga must preferably be practiced in the mornings, when greater muscle stiffness is experienced. This should essentially be followed by relaxing meditation and tuning of the mind in silence for inner introspection. The stimulation of the nervous and endocrine system followed by relaxation produces wondrous effects. A sincere one-hour workout everyday is optimum to ensure a healthy and fit body.

What can it do for me? Everything from treating lifestyle and stress-related diseases like hypertension and diabetes, skin disorders like psoriasis, obesity, and redressing anger issues. I will even go as far as saying that cancer can be cured through yoga if diagnosed in the initial stages. Through balancing asanas and breathing exercises, cancer in the later stages can be controlled in intensity through yoga, asserts Kasyup. While oxygen therapy, a regimen that was advocated in the 1930s for the treatment of cancer, found many users in allopathic medicine, the exercise foundation of yoga lies in the intake of pure oxygen itself to achieve all its intended goals. Yoga not only increases physical fitness and endurance, but also improves concentration while allowing one to develop their intellect and other mental faculties. Cervical and lumbar spondylitis, and migraines caused by sedentary lifestyles and stress can be easily treated through yoga with shoulder and lumbar stretches of the vertebral column and spine that helps release stress, stiffness and provides mobility to musculature. Modern offshoots of the classical exercise like power yoga, rhythmic yoga, water yoga, and aerial yoga have also emerged today to suit the present pace of both lifestyle and individual exercise preference. While the benefits of these super yogas may help toward weight reduction in just five to six sessions, many people tend to ignore the benefits that classical yoga provides through overall stimulation of the senses, which is mostly absent in these new focused forms of yoga.

How is yoga different from other exercises? A one-hour session of yoga helps release toxins through the sweat glands, as opposed to other forms of sweat burn like using the treadmill, where breathing is not optimum or focused. Instead of releasing toxins, the body goes into stress mode, the breathing becomes shallower, and the entire purpose of treating diseases from the inside is lost, says Kasyup. In yoga the effort is on long and deep breathing in different postures. This increases the oxygen intake and lung capacity, which helps the cells to get revitalized.

Is yoga the exercise for me? Anyone from any age group and gender can practice the art of yoga safely. Around 500 different asanas exist in the 5,000-year-old ancient yogic scripture for the treatment of any particular ailment, constituting what they call today therapeutic yoga. But bear in mind that yoga must be practiced with care, and one should exercise yoga under the supervision of a certified yoga therapist, especially if there are health issues, as some yogic postures may create undesired effects if performed incorrectly.

Women and yoga Yoga is extremely beneficial for the treatment of symptoms accompanied with monthly cycles, specifically abdominal cramps, thighs and backaches. During cycles, lumbar stretches can be practiced to loosen the back, hips and thighs. Mental irritation and other PMS symptoms can be controlled with meditative yoga with the help of focus on breathing, says Kasyup. Common hormonal disorders like PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) are also known to be managed through yogic postures like pigeon pose, and the half and full butterfly that loosen the pelvic joints and uterus and help stabilize hormonal imbalances. Yoga can even be safely practiced during pregnancy in the second and third trimesters, although complete refrain must be exercised during the first trimester. Regular practice has been known to ease natural childbirths and labor pains from its focus on breathing, pelvic exercises, back strengthening, and stretching poses.

The Y-word There is a big inner world inside our bodies, and we never bother to look into it. Once we do, we can understand a lot, adds Kasyup. And yoga can help you do it. So spread the mat and start humming

Email: life.style@arabnews.com

Originally posted here:
Let’s go yoga!

The ban is not Catholic Church policy and decisions are left to the discretion of individual priests. Some Catholic retreats use yoga for relaxation.

Ms Withell, 37, from nearby Eastleigh, said the church accepted the booking two months ago and she paid 180.

She was called later and told that yoga was from another religion so she could not have the hall. A separate pilates class she had booked was also cancelled.

''I had never heard about any religious issue with yoga before but I have looked into it since and found that some other religions feel that when people meditate it could let the devil inside them,'' she said.

''But there was never any meditation in my class - it was just exercises. Yoga is not religious: spiritual, but not religious.

''I do not object to anyone having a religious viewpoint, but it seemed terribly petty to cancel the classes.

''As a nation we have an obesity epidemic. I was trying to bring some exercise to the community and coming across blocks like this is frustrating.

''I offered to go down and show them the moves and, literally, the shutters came down.''

Fr Chandler said the church was ''misled'' by Ms Withell's booking because he claimed that, at first, the hall was booked for pilates and then he found out it was also for spiritual yoga.

''Yoga is a Hindu spiritual exercise. Being a Catholic church we have to promote the gospel and that's what we use our premises for.

See the rest here:
Priest bans yoga for 'being incompatible with Catholic faith'

26 September 2012 Last updated at 06:42 ET

A priest has banned yoga from a church hall because the class was "not compatible" with the Catholic faith.

Instructor Cori Withell from Hampshire said her yoga and pilates classes at St Edmund's Church building in Southampton were cancelled with 10 days to go.

Father John Chandler said that the hall had to be used for Catholic activities, and he banned it because it was advertised as "spiritual yoga".

Ms Withell, 37, said it "seemed terribly petty to cancel the classes".

The ban is not Catholic Church policy and decisions are left to the discretion of individual priests.

Ms Withell, from Eastleigh, said the church accepted the booking two months ago and she paid 180.

She was called later and told that yoga was "from another religion", so she could not have the hall.

Source: BBC Religion and Ethics

A separate pilates class she had booked was also cancelled.

Read more:
Priest bans yoga from church hall

PARK CITY, Utah, Sept. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Fitness resorts have become a very profitable trend due to the success of popular NBC reality show "The Biggest Loser." What many of these resorts have been lacking is an attention to detail in the realm of location and staff expectations. Since partnering with Westgate Park City Resort and Spa, One Fitness Camp seems to be ready to fulfill all the desires that had once been left untouched by other fitness resorts.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120925/CG80919)

Westgate Park City Resort and Spa is located in the secluded mountain town of Park City, a town where the seasons change seamlessly, so fitness activities are easily varied year round. The founders of One Fitness Camp decided upon the location so that participants in the camp were able to not only lose weight and get fit, but to also custom-tailor fitness plans to be most beneficial to the personal routines and desires of each person that attends. Westgate Resort presented the perfect location for their goals as a fitness resort. The varying fitness activities that are often based around the weather ensure that participants never even have a moment to think about getting bored or complacent with their routine.

One Fitness Camp, a weight loss camp, has also put a great deal of thought and research into their staffing requirements. Their aim is to make an impact on not only a person's health and fitness goals, but to understand and overcome any psychological, medical or other health-related issues that may be attributing to difficulties in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. For this reason, their staff includes fitness instructors, nutritionists, chefs, counselors, chiropractors and spa specialists. This gives One Fitness Camp the "Best All Around" award for fitness camps worldwide.

"Our purpose with One Fitness Camp is to put all the pieces together to form the number ONE weight loss camp," says Wayne Larsen, Partner & Fitness Director at One Fitness Camp. "Aside from the beautiful surroundings, and lavish accommodations, OFC has the programming and education component that changes lives. Our intent is to help people adopt a more healthy lifestyle, not just eat well and exercise while they are at camp, but teach and inspire them to be healthy, and feel better both physically and mentally."

In addition to everything One Fitness Camp offers for their regular every day packages, they do have a promotion going on: 10% off their weekly price for the first fifty people that sign up for the ultimate get fit get away.

Media Contact: Diana Gonzalez One Fitness Camp, 888-592-2267, diana@onefitnesscamp.com

View original post here:
Westgate Resorts To Join Forces With Up-And-Coming Fitness Camp

Sept. 26, 2012, 4 a.m.

Fitness Perfection Health and Fitness Club Dubbos Bec Stubbs, manager Andrew Bassett, Natasha Newell, Cris Clark, Elise Walker and Cassandra Wills. Photo: LISA MINNER

A DUBBO fitness club has a brand new look after completing its two-month-long renovation.

West Dubbo's Fitness Perfection Health and Fitness Club opened its revamped doors on Saturday and introduced the new changes as well as its group fitness programs.

The renovation involved the weights area to be moved to a new location, where the 25-metre swimming pool had been before it closed in July. The old weights area has become a ladies-only area.

The old pool deck has a wide selection of strength and conditioning equipment.

The free weights area is also on the deck, with more weight machines downstairs where the pool used to be.

A wall now separates the hydrotherapy pool and the weights area, which is used for swimming lessons and people with sports injuries, but any member is invited to use it.

Gym manager Andrew Bassett said the renovation was necessary for the future direction of Fitness Perfection.

"Our services are inclusive to absolutely anybody, no matter how experienced they are in a gym," he said.

See the rest here:
New look in health and fitness unveiled at Dubbo

Chocolate Mousse made with healthy stealth ingredients such as dates and avocado, is served at the National Institute of Health and Fitness. The institute teaches people how to change their lives to become more health conscious.Chocolate Mousse made with healthy stealth ingredients such as dates and avocado, is served at the National Institute of Health and Fitness. The institute teaches people how to change their lives to become more health conscious.

Weston Fuller, National Institute of Health and

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the National Institute of Fitness was the place to lose weight and feel great. Owners Marc and Vicki Sorenson compiled an impressive track record at the Southern Utah resort for helping people shape up and overcome health issues such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. NIF's sensible approach included hiking in red rock canyons, exercise classes, hearty meals of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and daily seminars from Marc Sorenson, who has a doctorate from Brigham Young University in education with a health emphasis.

The Sorensons decided to sell their spa in 1994, and the property eventually became the Red Mountain Resort.

Over the years, the couple pursued other interests and organized some fitness retreats.

"But we missed making people well," said Marc Sorenson. "We had some fun at our ranch in Nevada, and taking cruises and traveling in Europe. But when people come to you daily and tell you that you saved their lives, you miss it and want to do it again."

And now they're back. The National Institute of Health and Fitness opened its doors in June as part of the Zermatt and The Homestead resorts in Midway. Guests can enjoy healthy meals, exercise and health classes; hiking the scenic Wasatch foothills, playing tennis, swimming laps in a heated pool, or relaxing in the geothermal waters of The Crater, a natural spring on the Homestead property.

"This is a working spa, not a bunch of ladies sitting around waiting to be pampered," is how Diane Richman of Beverly Hills, Calif., a resort guest in August, described it. "If you're going to lose weight and feel healthy, this is the place to go."

Steve Eddington, managing partner of Zermatt and The Homestead, said the NIHF is considered a "primary pillar" to both resorts. "We want to create destination locations, and this is a cornerstone to helping us accomplish it. We are in one of the most natural wellness areas in the world."

Marc Sorenson said he and Vicki had considered a few different offers in the St. George area, "But then Steve and his wife came and visited with us in St. George, and asked if we could do the same magic as we did before at NIF."

Originally posted here:
New Heber Valley resort is headed up by former health gurus

BEIJING--(Marketwire - Sep 26, 2012) - HP ( NYSE : HPQ ) today unveiled two new HP ProLiant Generation 8 (Gen8) four-socket servers that facilitate customers' move to cloud while delivering increased compute power in less space anda return on investment within three months.(1)

The industry's first four-socket servers to incorporate HP ProActive Insight Architecture, the HP ProLiant BL660c and DL560 Gen8 servers significantly reduce the time spent on maintenance tasks through high levels of automation and continuous monitoring of system health, saving IT staff more than 30 days of administration time a year.(2)

Clients are continuously virtualizing their compute-intensive applications in order to achieve greater utilization and efficiency, and to facilitate the move to private and hybrid clouds. Many clients have virtualized the basic infrastructure and smaller workloads, but a challenge still remains with more complex and higher-end workloads. Clients often face performance bottlenecks, data-center footprint and power limitations, and inadequate memory capacity from traditional two-socket servers.

As building blocks for HP Converged Infrastructure, these multiprocessor servers satisfy the need for high-end compute power that enables clients to extend end-to-end virtualization and provide a foundation for creating private and hybrid clouds.

With a three-to-one server-consolidation rate(3) and reduced server footprint in the data center, the HP ProLiant BL660c Gen8 server offers four-socket density in half the size of the previous generation(4), and reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 30 percent.(5)

Additionally, the HP ProLiant DL560 Gen8 server provides a space-minimizing four-socket server in a 2U form factor without compromising performance, scalability or expansion requirements.

New server capabilities in a powerful, compact footprint The HP ProLiant BL660c and HP ProLiant DL560 Gen8 servers were designed to drive better performance for complex, virtualized environments so clients can access their data faster, optimize their system to achieve higher-performing workloads and add more virtual machines (VMs) per server. The new servers deliver:

The new servers drive a balance of economics and density for customers, while optimizing application performance to help speed innovation and business growth. For example, ZTE Corporation, one of the world's largest smartphone vendors, needed to break through its capacity limitation and enhance the adaptability of the traditional data center in order to be able to keep up the business rapid growth.

"We needed to modernize our data centers in order to keep up with rapid growth and to ensure continued service to our customers across 140 countries," said Yu Yuan, product manager, ZTE Corporation -- Guangdong NewStart Technology Service Ltd. "We chose the HP ProLiant DL 560 Gen8 server over the competition because it offered increased virtual machine densities to reduce space and cost, while improving performance, which enabled us to develop a platform to build private clouds."

Built on HP Proactive Insight Architecture HP ProLiant Gen8 servers redefine expectations and economics in the data center by leveraging HP ProActive Insight Architecture to offer the new four-socket servers unprecedented lifecycle automation. A direct connection to the HP Insight Online portal accelerates problem resolution and reduced unplanned downtime. Through self monitoring, self diagnosing and proactive support, clients can resolve problems up to 66 percent faster.(12)

The rest is here:
HP Introduces ProLiant Gen8 Servers That Enhance Virtualized Performance, Facilitate Move to Cloud