EurekAlert! - Business and Economics

Indiana U. at APHA: Studies about health education for people with ID, stability balls at work

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Indiana University) The first study examines a curriculum used to help people with intellectual disabilities make good decisions about their health and fitness. People with ID are living more and more independently yet they aren't taught about personal health. The second study examines how the use of a stability ball for an office chair affects leg muscles. It also looks at the influence of handedness.

The University of Oklahoma joins Kyoto University for international symposium in Japan

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Oklahoma) The University of Oklahoma will partner with Kyoto University to present the International Symposium on Radar and Modeling Studies of the Atmosphere Nov. 10-13 in Kyoto, Japan. The symposium is being organized by OU's College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences and Atmospheric Radar Research Center in collaboration with Kyoto University’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute and Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere under a 2008 cooperative agreement between OU and Kyoto University.

UWM study explores why women leave engineering careers

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee) A study getting under way at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is the first systematic study of women's retention in engineering. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the study, POWER (Project on Women Engineers' Retention) includes an online survey open to all women who have completed at least a bachelor's degree in engineering, whether or not they have worked as engineers.

New finding suggests prostate biopsy is not always necessary

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center) Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that some elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in men may be caused by a hormone normally occurring in the body, and are not necessarily a predictor of the need for a prostate biopsy.

Carnegie Mellon researchers link health-care debate to risk of dying in US and Europe

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Carnegie Mellon University) A new Web site, www.DeathriskRankings.com, developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon allows users to explore differences in the probability of dying across European countries and the US states for men and women of different ages and races.

We spend more on products with detailed nutritional information

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) People would be willing to pay more for products that carry detailed nutritional information than for the so-called light items. Thus it has been confirmed by researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Center for Agro-Food Research and Technology of Aragón (CITA) in a new study on the nutritional labeling of breakfast biscuits.

Hodgkinson Prize goes to 'Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations'

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Springer) Springer's Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations, edited by Ram A. Cnaan and Carl Milofsky, has been awarded the 2009 Virginia A. Hodgkinson Research Prize by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). The prize is given annually to the best book on philanthropy and the nonprofit sector that informs policy and practice.

DNA barcodes: Creative new uses span health, fraud, smuggling, history, more

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL)) Some 350 experts from 50 nations gathering in Mexico for their 3rd global meeting will outline the latest creative applications of DNA barcoding, including several projects related to human health, fraud, smuggling, the food chain and reconstructing environmental history.

Biologists, educators recognize excellence in evolution education

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(American Institute of Biological Sciences) The National Association of Biology Teachers will recognize Leonard C. Yannielli, professor of biological sciences at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, Conn., with the 2009 Evolution Education Award during the NABT annual professional development conference to be held Nov. 11-14, 2009 in Denver, Colo.

Penn's Arthur H. Rubenstein receives Distinguished Service award from AAMC

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) Arthur H. Rubenstein, MBBCh, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System, and Dean, School of Medicine, will receive the Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The award will be presented on Saturday, Nov. 7, during the association's annual meeting in Boston.

Physical education key to improving health in low-income adolescents

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of California - San Francisco) School-based physical education plays a key role in curbing obesity and improving fitness among adolescents from low-income communities, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and UC Berkeley.

How does the mind grasp climate change?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(The Earth Institute at Columbia University) A new 43-page guide, "The Psychology of Climate Change Communication," released today by Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, looks at how people process information and decide to take action, or not.

Carnegie Mellon researchers receive grant

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Carnegie Mellon University) Carnegie Mellon's Lucio Soibelman, H. Scott Matthews and Jose M.F. Mourareceived a three-year $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to identify inexpensive ways to track energy consumption.

For improving early literacy, reading comics is no child's play

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Carol L. Tilley, a professor of library and information science at Illinois, says that comic books are just as sophisticated as other forms of literature, and children benefit from reading them at least as much as they do from reading other types of books.

Higher health insurance costs force doctors to talk about money with patients

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center) As health insurers require people to base more treatment decisions on out-of-pocket costs, physicians should learn to talk to patients about money, according to researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Nanyang Technological University joins leading US innovation transfer network, the iBridge Network

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Nanyang Technological University) The iBridge (SM) Network, a program of the not-for-profit Kauffman Innovation Network, Inc., today announced that it has expanded internationally by signing the acclaimed Nanyang Technological University as its 100th member organization. The addition of Singapore's leading science and technology university clearly demonstrates the Network's commitment to providing industry leaders battling the global economic downturn with access to university-developed innovations, leading to further advances and next-generation products and services.

Tackling new Arctic challenges from space

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(European Space Agency) International scientists, researchers and decision makers met at the Space and the Arctic workshop to identify the needs and challenges of working and living in the rapidly changing Arctic and to explore how space-based services can help to meet those needs.

International survey of physicians in 11 countries reveals US lagging in access, quality, HIT use

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Commonwealth Fund) Fifty-eight percent of primary care doctors in the US report their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and care, and half of US doctors spend substantial time dealing with restrictions insurance companies place on their patients' care, according to findings from the 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey published online today in the journal Health Affairs.

All dressed-up and nowhere to go

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(BioMed Central) Parents who dress their children in inappropriate clothing could be inadvertently hampering their child's physical activity in childcare settings. The study, reported in BioMed Central's open access journal, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, suggests that inadequate or inappropriate clothing could restrict children's outdoor play.

Professor: Fear, shame keep homeowners from defaulting

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Arizona) University of Arizona law professor Brent White has just published a working paper making the case that homeowners who are underwater in their mortgage should just walk away from their homes. He says shame and guilt are keeping more homeowners from walking away from their mortgages, even if it might be a smart decision.

Religion and medicine: Sometimes a healing prescription

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Brandeis University) Do pediatric oncologists feel that religion is a bridge or a barrier to their work? Or do they feel it can be either, depending on whether their patients are recovering or deteriorating? A novel Brandeis University study examines these questions in the current issue of Social Problems.

Minority students earned greater number of academic degrees in fiscal year 2006

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(National Science Foundation) A new National Science Foundation report shows an increase in the number of academic degrees awarded to minority students since 2004, the last time such data were published.

Benefit of a mentor: Disadvantaged teens twice as likely to attend college

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Brigham Young University) Adult mentors give teens a 50 percent greater likelihood of attending college.Mentorship by a teacher nearly doubles the odds of attending college for disadvantaged students.The students who need mentors the most are the least likely to have them.

USGS science picks

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(United States Geological Survey) Did you know that that the United States uses less water today than 35 years ago and that there might be caves on Mars? In this edition of Science Picks, learn more about these stories, as well as the latest on carbon storage in the Arctic and faulty wallboard from China that may be making Florida residents sick. Also, discover why bats are dying near wind turbines and how endangered whooping cranes are being saved.

Emerging infectious diseases call for 'One Health' summit Nov. 17

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(National Academy of Sciences) The growing threat of the H1N1 pandemic and West Nile virus -- as well as other emerging zoonotic, food or waterborne diseases and environmental changes -- has prompted experts to look for solutions to the increasingly integrated problems among animal, human and environmental health.