EurekAlert! - Policy and Ethics

Making the case for the social sciences

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Economic & Social Research Council) Issues such as redundancies, parenting and poverty often hit the headlines -- but the crucial research behind the stories rarely gets the same attention. Without the work of social scientists policymakers would not have the necessary research evidence to back up new policies. At a Whitehall event on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Economic and Social Research Council will launch a report "Making the case for the social sciences," which gives examples of social science in action.

From lawyer to novelist: an alumna's amazing journey

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(University of Montreal) Kim Thuy Ly, a Université de Montréal graduate, has reinvented herself several times since fleeing her native Vietnam in 1978. From the age of 10, shortly after coming to Quebec, she worked as a vegetable picker, seamstress and cashier during her studies. Since completing her degrees in law (1993) as well as in linguistics and translation (1990), she has worked as a translator, interpreter, lawyer, restaurateur, food commentator and most recently as a novelist

Barcelona becomes part of a worldwide research on tuberculosis

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(IDIBAPS - Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer) The Tuberculosis Trials Consortium conducts research about the diagnosis, medical treatment, and prevention of tuberculosis infection and disease. From now and until 2010, this Consortium will receive more than $90 million to develop more effective tuberculosis treatments. This funding will be distributed among 20 research sites, being Barcelona the only European representative: Barcelona Public Health Agency and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona-IDIBAPS will coordinate this site within the framework of the Tuberculosis Investigation Unit of Barcelona.

Handling emergencies online

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Inderscience Publishers) 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.

New research reveals burglars have changed their 'shopping list'

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(University of Leicester) Research being undertaken at the University of Leicester highlights a career change for criminals from the more traditional household burglaries to personal muggings.

Study: End-of-life care must reflect patient wishes and values

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Brown University) 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.

New study examines the impact on children of food product placements in the movies

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center) 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.

MSU launches first anti-counterfeiting research program

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Michigan State University) Michigan State University has launched the nation's first comprehensive research and training program designed to address product counterfeiting-- which the FBI has called 'the crime of the 21st century.'

Study: Cell-phone bans while driving have more impact in dense, urban areas

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) 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.

UC Riverside licenses technology to OlFactor Laboratories, Inc.

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(University of California - Riverside) OlFactor Laboratories, Inc., a majority owned subsidiary of Avisio, Inc. acquired an exclusive license to patented technology from the University of California, Riverside. The technology is based on an advanced scientific understanding of how two-winged blood-feeding insects, e.g. mosquitos and black flies, utilize their olfactory neurons to detect carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from animals and humans. CO2, which is a major component in human and animal breath, attracts the insect to its prey.

Nicotine replacement therapy is over-promoted since most ex-smokers quit unassisted

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Public Library of Science) 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.

The private sale of drugs in public hospitals

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Canadian Medical Association Journal) 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.

Renewable oil companies

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Inderscience Publishers) 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.

Bioethics memory aid can help assess patient decision-making capacity in medical emergencies

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) 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.

WIREs win 3 prizes at the PROSE awards

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Wiley-Blackwell) The Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs), the pioneering new publications launched by Wiley-Blackwell in 2009, have picked up three of the most prestigious awards in scholarly publishing at the annual PROSE awards.

Winning the war on weight

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Monash University) 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.

An answer to another of life's big questions

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Monash University) 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.

4 ORNL researchers selected for Recovery Act early career funds

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Four Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are among the 69 scientists that will receive five-year research grants as part of the US Department of Energy's new Early Career Research Program.

Researcher to track spread of disease, malware and power outages

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Virginia Tech) An assistant professor with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering has won a US Department of Energy Early Career Award to formulate a mathematical framework that can track the spread of pandemics among populations and malware across wireless computer networks, as well as how a blackout occurring on one major power grid can cause a cascade of additional neighboring networks to fail.

More than 30 percent of seniors are not immunized against pneumonia in 36 states

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Infectious Diseases Society of America) 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.

According to new survey, Americans support strong climate, energy policies

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(George Mason University) 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.

Commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(University of Haifa) 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.

Soft intelligence for hard decisions

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(Inderscience Publishers) 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.

Story tips from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory February 2010

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) 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.

Electronic health records need better monitoring, UT prof reports

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

(University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston) 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.