COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- An innovative proposal by the Ecuadorian government to protect an untouched, oil rich region of Amazon rainforest is a precedent-setting and potentially economically viable approach, says a team of environmental researchers from the University of Maryland, the World Resources Institute and Save America's Forests.
Culture
CORVALLIS, Ore. – One of the first set of studies to examine what tourists and recreation enthusiasts actually think about coral reef ecosystems suggests they are a rare exception to controversies over human use versus environmental conservation – their stunning beauty is so extraordinary that almost everyone wants them protected in perpetuity.
That core belief is often strong enough that if it means people have to be kept out, so be it.
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.
The study, which identifies opportunities for adolescents to improve their health based on routine daily activities, finds that regular participation in PE class is significantly associated with greater cardiovascular fitness and lower body mass index.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – 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.
With health insurance open enrollment season under way – when tens of thousands of workers learn of increases in their deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs – the issue is especially timely, said Mark A. Hall, J.D., a professor of law and public health in the Division of Public Health Sciences at the School of Medicine.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Although comics have been published in newspapers since the 1890s, they still get no respect from some teachers and librarians, despite their current popularity among adults. But according to a University of Illinois expert in children's literature, critics should stop tugging on Superman's cape and start giving him and his superhero friends their due.
Dartmouth Computer Scientist Hany Farid has new evidence regarding a photograph of accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Farid, a pioneer in the field of digital forensics, digitally analyzed an iconic image of Oswald pictured in a backyard setting holding a rifle in one hand and Marxist newspapers in the other.
Oswald and others claimed that the incriminating photo was a fake, noting the seemingly inconsistent lighting and shadows. After analyzing the photo with modern-day forensic tools, Farid says the photo almost certainly was not altered.
November 3, 2009, ATLANTA—Archaeologists at Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History have discovered unprecedented evidence that helps map Hernando de Soto's journey through the Southeast in 1540. No evidence of De Soto's path between Tallahassee and North Carolina has been found until now, and few sites have been located anywhere.
Millions of American homeowners are "underwater" on their mortgages – owing more than the value of their homes – and would be better off walking away.
That is the suggestion Brent T. White, a University of Arizona associate professor of law, makes in his newly released working paper, "Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis."
White, whose article will be published in this month's issue of Arizona Legal Studies, said fear, guilt and shame are what keep many homeowners from making rational economic decisions.
From their very first days, newborns' cries already bear the mark of the language their parents speak, reveals a new study published online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first babble or coo.
November 3, 2009, ATLANTA—Archaeologists at Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History have discovered unprecedented evidence that helps map Hernando de Soto's journey through the Southeast in 1540. No evidence of De Soto's path between Tallahassee and North Carolina has been found until now, and few sites have been located anywhere.
PHILADELPHIA – Although scientists are reluctant to officially endorse green tea as a cancer prevention method, evidence continues to grow about its protective effects, including results of a new study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, which suggests some reduction in oral cancer.
HOUSTON - Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-malignant condition known as oral leukoplakia, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The study, published online in Cancer Prevention Research, is the first to examine green tea as a chemopreventative agent in this high-risk patient population. The researchers found that more than half of the oral leukoplakia patients who took the extract had a clinical response.
Research examining issues surrounding homeless veterans and the types of relationships they had with their fathers was presented Nov. 4 at the VA Veteran Homelessness Summit in Washington, D.C. The research was a collaboration between Gary Dick, associate professor of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati, and Brad Schaffer, social worker for the Veterans Administration Cincinnati Medical Center. The summit, organized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, launched an initiative to end homelessness among veterans in the next five years.
St. Louis, MO, November 4, 2009 – Childhood obesity in the United States is reaching epidemic proportions. With more than one fourth of advertising on daytime and prime time television devoted to foods and beverages and continuing questions about the role television plays in obesity, a study in the November/December issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior examines how food advertising aimed at children might be a large contributor to the problem.
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.
The report, Science and Engineering Degrees by Race/Ethnicity: 1997-2006, developed by the Science Resources Statistics division of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences directorate shows more degrees awarded to minorities in nearly all categories.