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The more green spaces are there in a college campus, the better satisfied are students with their lives, says a new study.According to the research, campus green spaces can help students feel better about life and improve learning.

In the study led by L. McFarland, a graduate student in the Department of Agriculture at Texas State University, the researchers surveyed 373 undergraduates at the San Marcos campus.

The respondents were then ranked as “low users”, “medium users”, or “high users” of campus green spaces.

More than 90 percent of respondents were ranked as either high or medium users of green space. The students were also asked to rate their perception of quality of life.

A mean score of more than four (on a scale of 1 to 5) indicated that most students rated their quality of life as positive.

According to McFarland, the researchers were able to make a “statistically significant” correlation between green space users and those who gave a high rating to their quality of life.

“These findings indicated that those (students) who used campus green spaces more frequently rated their overall quality of life higher when compared with students who used the campus green spaces and arboretum less frequently”, said McFarland.

Moreover, students who spent greater time in green space also rated their cognitive ability to apply knowledge learned in college as higher compared to those students who spent less time.

The results are published in the April 2008 issue of the American Society for Horticultural Science’s journal, HortTechnology.

From Oct 2, the government will introduce its new no-smoking policy. Most Bollywood personalities like Saif Ali Khan, Shabana Azmi and Akhshaye Khanna welcome this move, but some feel it would be unfair to ban smoking in movies.Saif Ali Khan: Smoking should be banned indoors in public. But why ban it on screen? It’s just acting and everyone knows it.

Akshaye Khanna: Smoking should be banned in public places, but not in movies.

Shabana Azmi: Yes, smoking should be banned in public spaces, but not on screen. Because smoking could reveal a lot about a character especially if it’s a woman. And to me endorsement of cigarettes by celebrities is a big no. But banning isn’t the solution. We’ve to create enough awareness so that people would want to give it up on their own, as was the case in the US. Children should be so aware of the damage done by smoking that they should stop their parents from smoking.

Hema Malini: Yes, smoking should definitely be banned in both - public places and films.

Rakhi Sawant: I agree with Hemaji. Smoking should be banned, that’s all.

Irrfan Khan: In public places, yes! Smoking must be banned since it’s one of the primary sources of air pollution.

Lilette Dubey: I’m against banning smoking in open public places. To smoke is a personal choice, and we are a democracy. As long as we don’t offend someone by polluting his or her space there’s no harm in smoking. However, on screen it’s a different matter. There’s a huge impressionable audience. So smoking should definitely be banned on screen. If screen icons are shown smoking, it immediately becomes cool. We’ve to accept the fact that films wield a great influence.

Sudhir Mishra: I’ve just managed to quit smoking. But I think there should be enclosed spaces in public places for smokers.

Neil Mathur: There should be areas marked for smokers in public. But I see no reason to ban smoking from screen. If a script demands a character to smoke, why not? So many vices are depicted. Do we ban all of them?

Arshad Warsi: I can understand the need to ban smoking in public places. But ban smoking in films? No way! And if the government wants us to do what they want, why don’t they fulfil at least 10 percent of their promises?

Amrita Arora: Yeah, it’s better to ban smoking in public and in movies. It’s only fair to people who don’t smoke… not to mention the lungs of those who do.

Malaika Arora: It should be banned in public places. But on screen? I really don’t see the purpose.

Javed Akhtar: Public places? Yes, smoking should be banned. On the screen? No!

Anurag Kashyap: Banning smoking in public places is fine. Ban it by all means. But not in films. For that you’ll have to ban cigarettes altogether.

Kangana Ranaut: No I don’t think smoking should be banned. But no one should smoke in front of babies. As for the movies, we should be allowed to do what we want to within limits. Nothing should come in the way of our creativity. Smoking is not the only thing that’s injurious to health. What about noise pollution in pubs? We all have to leave our bodies one day anyway. Some sooner than others. No worries.

Prakash Jha: No I don’t think smoking should be banned, but definitely restricted and discouraged. And the same goes for the screen. Smoking should never be glorified. I am in principle against any kind of ban.

Madhur Bhandarkar: Of course, smoking should be banned in public places. Smoking is injurious to everyone especially children. But on screen I say no, no ban. That’s just acting.

Shia LaBeouf’s conspiracy thriller “Eagle Eye” debuted at the top of the weekend box office with $29.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Paramount-DreamWorks release was the second No. 1 premiere for LaBeouf and director D.J. Caruso, who also teamed on 2007’s hit “Disturbia.” Opening in second-place with $13.6 million was another reunion, the Warner Bros.

romantic drama “Nights in Rodanthe,” featuring “The Cotton Club” and “Unfaithful” co-stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane. The previous weekend’s top flick, Sony’s thriller “Lakeview Terrace,” slipped to No.

3 with $7 million, raising its 10-day total to $25.7 million. The Samuel Goldwyn release “Fireproof,” a Christian drama starring Kirk Cameron as a firefighter who turns to God to help save his marriage, premiered in fourth-place with $6.5 million.

“Eagle Eye” helped pull Hollywood out of the box-office doldrums that have lingered the last two months. The top-12 movies took in $87.8 million, up 15 percent from the same weekend last year.

“You put a summer-style movie in the heart of the fall, and you can take advantage of the marketplace,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. Spike Lee’s World War II drama “Miracle at St.

Anna” opened weakly with $3.5 million, coming in at No. 9.

The Disney release features Derek Luke in a saga of four soldiers from an all-black unit stuck behind enemy lines in Italy. Two other movies, Fox Searchlight’s “Choke” and Lionsgate’s “The Lucky Ones,” opened in narrower release of about 400 theaters each, compared to 3,510 cinemas for “Eagle Eye.

” “Choke,” starring Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston in a quirky tale of a sex addict who feigns choking in restaurants to get money for his mom’s psychiatric care, opened outside the top-10 with $1.3 million. “The Lucky Ones,” a road trip tale among three Iraq War veterans (Tim Robbins, Michael Pena and Rachel McAdams), bombed with just $208,000.

“Eagle Eye” stars LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan as strangers hurled together in an escalating series of politically motivated adventures, their lives controlled by a mysterious female voice directing their actions through technology. “The conceit of the film is intriguing to all,” said DreamWorks spokesman Chip Sullivan.

“Between GPS, employee codes, bank PIN numbers, this could conceivably be within the realm of possibility within a few years.” The movie secures LaBeouf’s position as a steady box-office draw.

His other credits include “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Transformers,” along with the latter’s upcoming sequel. “Nights in Rodanthe” features Gere and Lane as strangers who fall for each other over a weekend at a secluded inn as a hurricane approaches.

The romance made for good counterprogramming to the action-oriented “Eagle Eye,” said Warner Bros. general sales manager Jeff Goldstein.

Female movie-goers made up three-fourths of the audience for “Nights in Rodanthe,” he said. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “Eagle Eye,” $29.2 million.

2. “Nights in Rodanthe,” $13.6 million.

3. “Lakeview Terrace,” $7 million.

4. “Fireproof,” $6.5 million.

5. “Burn After Reading,” $6.2 million.

6. “Igor,” $5.5 million.

7. “Righteous Kill,” $3.803 million.

8. “My Best Friend’s Girl,” $3.8 million.

9. “Miracle at St.

Anna,” $3.5 million. 10.

“Tyler Perry’s the Family That Preys,” $3.2 million. ___ On the Net: http://www.

mediabynumbers.com ___ Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Rogue Pictures are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.

; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.

; Disney’s parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.

; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros.

, New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp.

, Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.

; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.