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Policy/Ethics
Key: Meeting Journal Funder Dissertation
Public Release: 9-Feb-2010
International Journal of Emergency Management
Handling emergencies online
Online social networking sites could solve many problems plaguing information dissemination and communications when disaster strikes, according to a report from US researchers in a recent issue of the International Journal of Emergency Management.

Contact: Connie White
connie.m.white@gmail.com
Inderscience Publishers

Public Release: 9-Feb-2010
JAMA
Study: End-of-life care must reflect patient wishes and values
An analysis of more than a quarter-million hospital admissions of nursing home residents indicates that the decision to use feeding tubes is more a matter of hospital practice than patient preference. Findings of that study by Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University and her colleagues appear in the Feb. 10, 2010, issue of JAMA.
NIH/National Insitute on Aging

Contact: Mark Hollmer
Mark_Hollmer@brown.edu
401-863-1862
Brown University

Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
Transportation Research Record
Study: Cell-phone bans while driving have more impact in dense, urban areas
A new study analyzing the impact of hand-held cell phone legislation on driving safety concludes that usage-ban laws had more of an impact in densely populated urban areas with a higher number of licensed drivers than in rural areas where there are fewer licensed drivers, according to a University of Illinois researcher.

Contact: Phil Ciciora
pciciora@illinois.edu
217-333-2177
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
Pediatrics
New study examines the impact on children of food product placements in the movies
New research from the Hood Center for Children and Families at Dartmouth Medical School for the first time sheds light on the significant potential negative impact that food product placements in the movies could be having on children.

Contact: David Corriveau
david.a.corriveau@dartmouth.edu
603-653-0771
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
PLoS Medicine
Nicotine replacement therapy is over-promoted since most ex-smokers quit unassisted
Health authorities should emphasize the positive message that the most successful method used by most ex-smokers is unassisted cessation, despite the promotion of cessation drugs by pharmaceutical companies and many tobacco control advocates.

Contact: Andrew Hyde
press@plos.org
44-122-346-3330
Public Library of Science

Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
Canadian Medical Association Journal
The private sale of drugs in public hospitals
Governments are under increasing pressure to provide access to expensive new drugs. Canadian patients who want access to drugs that are not publicly insured are seeking to pay for these drugs within public hospitals, states an article in CMAJ.

Contact: Kim Barnhardt
kim.barnhardt@cmaj.ca
613-520-7116 x2224
Canadian Medical Association Journal

Public Release: 5-Feb-2010
International Journal of Green Economics
Renewable oil companies
The entry of oil companies into the realm of renewable energy could present major obstacles for the development of a sustainable economy that is not based on carbon resources, according to a report in the International Journal of Green Economics.

Contact: Jack Reardon
Jreardon02@hamline.edu
Inderscience Publishers

Public Release: 5-Feb-2010
Chest
Bioethics memory aid can help assess patient decision-making capacity in medical emergencies
Physicians in training and bioethicists at Johns Hopkins have created an easy-to-remember checklist to help medical students and clinicians quickly assess a patient's decision-making capacity in an emergency.
Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation

Contact: Michael Pena
mpena@jhsph.edu
410-625-7872
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health
Winning the war on weight
Co-author and Head of Monash University's Consumer Health Research Group Dr. Samantha Thomas said those in the severely obese category with a body mass index of more than 40, blamed themselves for their weight and often described themselves as at war with their bodies. Additionally, most felt blamed and ashamed by public health and education campaigns about obesity, which did little to actually help them address their weight.
Australian Research Council

Contact: Samantha Blair
samantha.blair@adm.monash.edu.au
61-039-903-4841
Monash University

Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
Science
An answer to another of life's big questions
Monash University biochemists have described the process by which bacteria developed into more complex cells and found this crucial step happened much earlier in the evolutionary timeline than previously thought.

Contact: Samantha Blair
samantha.blair@adm.monash.edu.au
61-039-903-4841
Monash University

Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
More than 30 percent of seniors are not immunized against pneumonia in 36 states
A new report, "Adult Immunization: Shots to Save Lives," released today by the Trust for America's Health, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that more than 30 percent of adults ages 65 and older had not been immunized against pneumonia in 36 states as of 2008.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Contact: John Heys
jheys@idsociety.org
703-299-0412
Infectious Diseases Society of America

Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
According to new survey, Americans support strong climate, energy policies
Despite a sharp drop in public concern over global warming, Americans -- regardless of political affiliation -- support the passage of federal climate and energy policies, according to the results of a national survey released today by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities.

Contact: Tara Laskowski
tlaskows@gmu.edu
703-993-8815
George Mason University

Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
Commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations
Extensive commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations in the Mediterranean. This has been shown in a new study carried out at the University of Haifa's Department of Maritime Civilizations. "Unfortunately, we turn our backs to the sea and do not give much consideration to our marine neighbors," states researcher Dr. Aviad Scheinin.

Contact: Rachel Feldman
rfeldman@univ.haifa.ac.il
972-482-88722
University of Haifa

Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems
Soft intelligence for hard decisions
An approach to decision making based on soft metrics could allow problems to be solved where no definitive "yes-no" answer is possible in fields as diverse as health care, defense, economics, engineering, public utilities and science. Writing in the International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems Mihaela Quirk of Los Alamos National Laboratory explains how.

Contact: Mihaela Quirk
pal@lanl.gov
Inderscience Publishers

Public Release: 3-Feb-2010
Story tips from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory February 2010
Mammograms could save more lives with a technology being developed by ORNL and the University of Chicago. Intrusion detection systems preventing cyber attacks could soon be turbocharged with a tool being developed at ORNL. A fan will save ORNL's computing complex $150,000 a year in energy costs. Researchers from ORNL and the University of Tennessee has discovered a novel type of receptors in bacteria that sense changes in oxygen concentration and other redox parameters.

Contact: Ron Walli
wallira@ornl.gov
865-576-0226
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Public Release: 3-Feb-2010
JAMA
Electronic health records need better monitoring, UT prof reports
The push is on for health-care providers to make the switch to electronic health records but it is hard to tell how well these complex health information technology systems are being implemented and used, writes a health informatics researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in a Feb. 3 commentary in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
National Library of Medicine

Contact: Robert Cahill
Robert.Cahill@uth.tmc.edu
713-500-3030
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Public Release: 3-Feb-2010
Psychological Science
Pay it forward: Elevation leads to altruistic behavior
Seeing someone perform a virtuous deed (especially if they are helping another person), makes us feel good -- a positive, uplifting emotion, known as "elevation." New findings suggest that elevation may lead to helping behavior: participants who viewed an uplifting TV clip spent almost twice as long helping a research assistant than participants who saw a neutral TV clip or a comedy clip.

Contact: Barbara Isanski
bisanski@psychologicalscience.org
Association for Psychological Science

Public Release: 3-Feb-2010
Not on the fast track to academic success? Try the slow road
Scientists choosing a new research project should take time to find out where their interests lie. How do scientists decide what to investigate? Often, they choose an area that is in high demand, hoping to get their work into the best journals as soon as possible.

Contact: Steve Pogonowski
press@f1000.com
Faculty of 1000: Biology and Medicine

Public Release: 3-Feb-2010
Journal of Clinical Nursing
Violence is part of the job say nurses as study shows only 1 in 6 incidents are reported
Three-quarters of nurses providing private and public care experienced workplace violence, but only one in six incidents were formally reported. The majority had been verbally abused, 69 percent had been physically threatened and 52 percent had been physically assaulted. Forty percent had been involved in an incident with a weapon, including guns and knives. Emergency department nurses faced an average of 46 incidents a year, with mental health nurses facing an average of 40 per year.

Contact: Annette Whibley
wizard.media@virgin.net
Wiley-Blackwell

Public Release: 2-Feb-2010
Baker Institute Report: Mapping the territorial contours of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement
A report published today by Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy offers concrete recommendations to US negotiators on the territorial component of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

Contact: David Ruth
druth@rice.edu
713-348-6327
Rice University

Public Release: 2-Feb-2010
Academy of Consumer Research Conference
To be or to become: That's the question for advertisers
According to new research by Dr. Danit Ein-Gar of Tel Aviv University's Recanati Graduate School of Business Studies, whether you'll indulge or be prudent with your money is not necessarily based on your personality type or education, but may be strongly influenced by advertising and other environmental cues. Her research is the first to quantify the effect of advertising on personal desires using these parameters.

Contact: George Hunka
ghunka@aftau.org
212-742-9070
American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Public Release: 2-Feb-2010
Psychopathology
Excessive Internet use is linked to depression
People who spend a lot of time browsing the 'Net are more likely to show depressive symptoms, according to the first large-scale study of its kind in the West by University of Leeds psychologists.

Contact: Hannah Isom
h.isom@leeds.ac.uk
44-113-343-4031
University of Leeds

Public Release: 1-Feb-2010
Engineers explore environmental concerns of nanotechnology
As researchers around the world hasten to employ nanotechnology to improve production methods for applications that range from manufacturing materials to creating new pharmaceutical drugs, the national Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology looks at potential environmental exposure, biological effects and ecological consequences.
National Science Foundation

Contact: Lynn A. Nystrom
tansy@vt.edu
540-231-4371
Virginia Tech

Public Release: 1-Feb-2010
Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
The new civil defense: UC researchers look at public's role in national cybersecurity
"Duck and cover!" should now be updated to "Scan and protect!" according to a new research paper by University of Cincinnati political science professors. They cite individual users as the weakest link in the nation's cybersecurity, and call for a new phase of civil defense.

Contact: Carey Hoffman
carey.hoffman@uc.edu
513-556-1825
University of Cincinnati

Public Release: 1-Feb-2010
BioScience
Managed wolf populations could restore ecosystems
Writing in BioScience, wildlife researchers argue that advances in animal control techniques mean it should be feasible and acceptable to introduce small, managed populations of wolves into a variety of parks and other sites for the purpose of ecosystem restoration. This practice could also increase the public's appreciation of wolves and boost ecotourism.

Contact: Timothy M. Beardsley
tbeardsley@aibs.org
20-262-815-00226
American Institute of Biological Sciences