A female director wins best director at the Oscars. A female-driven movie wins two Academy Awards, including best adapted screenplay. It may not be a huge sign, but it signals a huge shift in what the general public is watching and how Hollywood is viewing the much-maligned genre, the "chick flick."
Culture
Vienna, Austria, Friday 16 April: 24 weeks of treatment could be sufficient to cure between 93 and 100% of treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 (G1) infected patients if they have a fast antiviral response to Telaprevir (TVR) with Peginterferon (PEG-IFN) and Ribavirin (RBV), according to new research presented today at the International Liver CongressTM 2010, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Vienna, Austria.
To help children become better readers, a Kansas State University professor thinks they may 'need to spend less time with their noses stuck in books.
Lotta Larson, a K-State assistant professor of elementary education, is finding that electronic readers allow children to interact with texts in ways they don't interact with the printed word.
Since fall 2009, Larson has been using the Amazon Kindle in her work with a pair of second-graders. The e-reader has features that make the text audible, increase or decrease font size and let readers make notes about the book.
The researchers used a dance-therapy program called The Lebed Method (TLM), which includes a combination of low-impact dance steps choreographed to music. Sessions were led by certified TLM instructors and adjusted to fit the specific needs of the seniors who participated.
According to the Alerta 2010! Report on Conflicts, Human Rights and Peacebuilding, sexual violence was used as a weapon in most armed conflicts taking place in 2009. In addition to the report, the School for a Culture of Peace of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona also published the Yearbook 2010 on Peace Processes. This year the report includes a Human Rights Index which measures the level of non-compliance of states regarding their obligation to protect human rights. The index is headed by Myanmar, Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Thailand, Russia, Somalia and India.
KAUNAS, LITHUNIA—Searching for ways to improve the nutritional quality of leafy green vegetables, Lithuanian researchers have found success with new technology that features high-density photosynthetic photon flux generated by a solid-state illuminator. The technology, which can be applied in greenhouses for preharvest treatment of leafy vegetables, was found to decrease concentrations of harmful nitrates while allowing some beneficial nutrient levels to increase. The research results were published in a recent issue of HortScience.
Washington, DC – Fueling the growing momentum toward openness, transparency, and accessibility to publicly funded information, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2010 (FRPAA) has been introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) and a bi-partisan host of co-sponsors. The proposed bill would build on the success of the first U.S.
Just weeks after the passage of a health bill that will dramatically increase the number of Americans covered by private health insurers, Harvard researchers have detailed the extent to which life and health insurance companies are major investors in the fast-food industry – to the tune of nearly $2 billion.
Weizmann Institute scientists have 'trained' an electronic system to be able to predict the pleasantness of novel odors, just like a human would perceive them – turning the popular notion that smell is completely personal and culture-specific on its head. In research published in PLoS Computational Biology, the scientists argue that the perception of an odor's pleasantness is innately hard-wired to its molecular structure, and it is only within specific contexts that personal or cultural differences are made apparent.
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed* the world's most efficient single photon detector, which is able to count individual particles of light traveling through fiber optic cables with roughly 99 percent efficiency. The team's efforts could bring improvements to secure electronic communication, advanced quantum computation and the measurement of optical power.
PITTSBURGH—Once defined by heavy-industry and blue-collar masses, Pittsburgh now hosts the fifth most educated young workforce in the United States, a distinction that groups the city with such bastions of erudition as Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., according to a recent report in the Pittsburgh Economic Quarterly published by the University of Pittsburgh's University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR).
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — An approach to teaching young children the principles of writing and literacy that prohibits them from borrowing from our common cultural landscape is a problematic one, according to a University of Illinois professor who studies childhood learning and literacy development.
Ann Arbor, Mich. – Black men with chronic pain related to an accident, injury, illness, surgery or other causes were more likely to experience depression, affective distress and disability than white men with chronic pain, according to a new study by the University of Michigan Health System.
The persistent pain black men experienced was more severe which might lead to greater disability, but the study by U-M researchers give clues to other factors that drive the downward spiral to depression and disability.
Washington, D.C. -- Disease statistics buried within patient records or detailed in newspaper clippings can be sorted and organized to depict geographic patterns, allowing the discovery of trends that were previously overlooked, according to a Penn State geographer.
"The use of interactive maps and graphs, combined with word search interfaces, can lead to greater insight into complex events like the spread of Swine flu," said Frank Hardisty, research associate, Penn State GeoVISTA Center.
It's popular to assume retiring baby boomers will benefit from Social Security and Medicare at the expense of younger generations, as analysts estimate that these government-run programs will pay out more than they collect in payroll taxes by 2017.
But a far-reaching new study from the University of California, Berkeley, concludes that younger Americans – specifically those born between 1972 and 2060 – are actually getting the better deal when the value of public education is factored in as an intergenerational entitlement program on a par with Social Security and Medicare.