Culture | Page 2873 | Science Codex

Fraunhofer in Korea -- trends for mega cities

This press release is also available in German.

Housing as far as the eye can see – Seoul is one of the world's mega cities. South Korea's capital city has undergone exponential growth over the past few decades: Its population has quadrupled in fifty years. Ten million people live within the city boundaries today. If the count is extended to cover the metropolitan region surrounding the city, it comes to over 20 million. The population growth has had a dramatic impact on the environment, bringing about a huge increase in traffic noise and air pollution.

Cosmic connections: Imperial scientist locates the origin of cosmic dust

The research, published in the journal Geology, shows that some of the cosmic dust falling to Earth comes from an ancient asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. This research improves our knowledge of the solar system, and could provide a new and inexpensive method for understanding space.

Children with TVs in their room sleep less

Middle school children who have a television or computer in their room sleep less during the school year, watch more TV, play more computer games and surf the net more than their peers who don't – reveals joint research conducted by the University of Haifa and Jezreel Valley College.

Legal to freeze assets of Somalis in Sweden

The freezing of assets of the three Somalis residing in Sweden was not an infringement of international law. Those who criticize the action are undermining the legitimacy of UN sanctions, according to Fredrik Stenhammar, a doctoral candidate at the Department of Law, Stockholm University, in Sweden.

Intima media thickness of the carotid artery

Intima-media thickness (IMT) of the carotid artery can easily be evaluated by non-invasive ultrasound technique. The technique is standardized, has a high reproducibility and allows monitoring over time. Intima-media thickness can also be measured in the brachial and femoral arteries. IMT should be measured preferably on the far wall. This is because IMT values from the near wall depend in part on gain settings and are less reliable. It is also possible to visualize plaques in the artery with ultrasound technique.

The challenge of paying for quality nursing care

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, and Washington, DC – (August 29, 2008) It may cost money to improve the quality of nursing care through increases in staffing or work environment changes but those costs may be offset through improved patient outcomes and nurse retention, according to research in a Special Issue of Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice published by SAGE.

Depression common among Rwandan youth who head households

More than half of orphaned youth age 12 to 24 who head households in rural Rwanda meet criteria for depression, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Bowling alone because the team got downsized

The pain of downsizing extends far beyond laid off workers and the people who depend on their paychecks, according to a new UCLA-University of Michigan, Ann Arbor study.

Even a single involuntary displacement has a lasting impact on a worker's inclination to volunteer and participate in a whole range of social and community groups and organizations, found the study, which appears in the September issue of the international scholarly journal Social Forces.

Feats of strength begin a lizard's day

Male Jamaican anole lizards begin and end the day with displays of reptilian strength -- push-ups, head bobs and extensions of a colorful neck flap, or dewlap -- to defend their territory, according to a new study.

Robots learn to follow

Whether driving on the highway or walking down the street, we pick up on both deliberate signals and unconscious cues to predict what other people are going to do and act accordingly. But robots have trouble following each other around, for example, when a leader turns a corner and disappears from sight. Researchers at UC Davis have come up with a control system that allows a robot to pick up on cues that the leader is about to turn, predict where it is going and follow it.

Yellowstone's ancient supervolcano: Only lukewarm?

The geysers of Yellowstone National Park owe their eistence to the "Yellowstone hotspot"--a region of molten rock buried deep beneath Yellowstone, geologists have found.

But how hot is this "hotspot," and what's causing it?

In an effort to find out, Derek Schutt of Colorado State University and Ken Dueker of the University of Wyoming took the hotspot's temperature.

The scientists published results of their research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s division of earth sciences, in the August, 2008, issue of the journal Geology.

Why is Greenland covered in ice?

There have been many reports in the media about the effects of global warming on the Greenland ice-sheet, but there is still great uncertainty as to why there is an ice-sheet there at all.

Reporting today (28 August) in the journal Nature, scientists at the University of Bristol and the University of Leeds show that only changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide are able to explain the transition from the mostly ice-free Greenland of three million years ago, to the ice-covered Greenland of today.

Collision of galaxy clusters captured by astronomers

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) – Two UC Santa Barbara astronomers are part of a team that has made a stunning discovery using the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, it was announced today by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The capture of a collision of galaxy clusters was made by a team led by Marusa Bradac, a postdoctoral researcher and Hubble fellow in UCSB's Department of Physics. The international team also included Tommaso Treu, assistant professor of physics at UCSB.

Study reveals gap in HIV testing knowledge among college students

Athens, Ga. – Most college students understand how they can prevent the transmission of HIV but are less knowledgeable about HIV testing, according to a new University of Georgia study.

Su-I Hou, associate professor in the UGA College of Public Health, surveyed more than 500 students and found that they scored higher on general questions related to HIV and AIDS (82 percent correct) than items specifically related to HIV testing (72 percent correct).

Trying to satisfy too many agendas slows school reform

Despite investments, community goodwill and some good ideas, a vexing question remains in the age of school reform: Why has so much hope and effort led to disappointment?

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Chicago Public Schools, like many urban schools systems, launched a series of initiatives to reorganize schools, improve teaching and encourage parental participation. The changes in Chicago not always have met the expectations of proponents, wrote Charles Payne in his new book, "So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools".