Culture

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) — Two professors at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a new method that doubles the efficiency of wireless networks and could have a large impact on the mobile Internet and wireless industries.

Monterrey, 13 November 2012—Today, the Nuevo León state ministry of sustainable development, with support from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), launched a revamped air quality information management system in Monterrey, Mexico, using AirNow-International.

With grilled chicken, salads and oatmeal now on fast food menus, you might think fast food has become healthier. And indeed, there has been greater attention in the media and legislatively, paid to the healthfulness of fast food. But a close look at the industry has found that calorie counts have changed little, while the number of food items has doubled.

There is widespread condemnation of female genital surgeries and it is considered a form of mutilation and a violation of human rights, but an international advisory group argues that poor understanding and unfair characterizations of the practice are not really helping.

Older North American farmers work fewer hours than their younger peers but spend more time operating heavy machinery and equipment—raising their risk of serious injury, according to new research from the University of Alberta.

A survey of 2,751 Saskatchewan farmers showed that as farmers age they turn to less physically strenuous work such as operating machinery. Farmers aged 45 to 64 years spent six to eight more days a year operating tractors and combines than farmers 20 years their junior—a situation that puts older farmers at risk, say the study authors.

A controversial program that uses the private market to provide affordable malaria treatments to people in Africa has dramatically increased access to care and should be continued, according to a policy article by scholars including Ramanan Laxminarayan of Princeton University in the Nov. 2 issue of the journal Science.

An investigation into the molecular causes of a debilitating condition known as "Man on Fire Syndrome" has led Yale researchers to develop a strategy that may lead to personalized pain therapy and predict which chronic pain patients will respond to treatment.

More than a quarter of Americans suffer from chronic pain and nearly 40 percent do not get effective relief from existing drugs. In many common conditions such as diabetic neuropathy, no clear source of pain is found.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13—Drawing heavily upon nature for inspiration, a team of researchers has created a new artificial lens that is nearly identical to the natural lens of the human eye. This innovative lens, which is made up of thousands of nanoscale polymer layers, may one day provide a more natural performance in implantable lenses to replace damaged or diseased human eye lenses, as well as consumer vision products; it also may lead to superior ground and aerial surveillance technology.

Philadelphia, PA, November 13, 2012 – Advocates of planned home birth have emphasized its benefits for patient safety, patient satisfaction, cost effectiveness, and respect for women's rights. A clinical opinion paper published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology critically evaluates each of these claims in its effort to identify professionally appropriate responses of obstetricians and other concerned physicians to planned home birth.

DURHAM, N.H. – Underemployment has remained persistently high in the aftermath of the Great Recession with workers younger than 30 especially feeling the pinch, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Why do so many beginning teachers quit the profession or change schools? Surprising new research finds it's not a heavy workload or lack of resources that has the most significant effect, but instead the relationship between teachers and their principal.

Peter Youngs, associate professor of educational policy at Michigan State University and lead investigator on the study, said the findings reinforce the need for principals to serve as strong, supportive leaders in their schools.

Did the "metrosexual" male come into being and die out with the last decade, or has he become the new normal? Erynn Masi de Casanova, a UC assistant professor of sociology, presented truly irrelevant research about the label at the 111th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Francisco.

Big fish that have grown up in marine reserves don't seem to know enough to avoid fishers armed with spear guns waiting outside the reserve.

The latest research by an Australian team working in the Philippines into the effects of marine reserves has found there is an unexpected windfall awaiting fishers who obey the rules and respect reserve boundaries – in the form of big, innocent fish wandering out of the reserve.

On December 22, 1887, Srinivasa Ramanujan was born to a poor family inthe state of Tamil Nadu in South India. From humble and obscurebeginnings, he blossomed into one of the greatest mathematicalgeniuses of all time. Largely self-taught and cut off from much ofthe current mathematical work of his time, he nevertheless producedobservations and results that continue to dazzle.

Researchers propose a model for the electronic support of practice-based translational research, including the information architecture, processes, and software requirements needed to support practice-based research networks.

The model, which identifies seven independent applications that interact over the Internet using standard Web services, scales to a size large enough to support every PBRN and primary care practice in the United States and supports local customization and enhancement.