Culture | Science Codex

Record for Swedish Crown Princess Victoria

Political leaders such as Barack Obama and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt may be popular among Swedes. However, they are not as popular as Swedish Crown Princess Victoria, according to the results of the latest SOM survey - University of Gothenburg, Sweden - which were presented Tuesday during the seminar Focus on the Leaders.

Although Swedes' confidence in the Swedish Royal Court is at a record low, it turns out that Crown Princess Victoria is the most popular of all royalties included in the survey.

Rituximab promotes long-term response for patients with immune destruction of platelets

(WASHINGTON, May 7, 2012) – A new analysis concludes that rituximab, a drug commonly used to treat blood cancers, leads to treatment responses lasting at least five years in approximately one quarter of patients with low platelet counts and a risk of bleeding due to chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

The Psychology of Regifting: Yes, they think this is science

Birthdays, graduations, Christmas, baby showers, bridal showers, bar and bat mitzvahs, Mother's Day, Father's Day, first marriages (and second.. and third…), wedding anniversaries, the spontaneous friendship gesture, the occasional sorry-about-that gesture, hostess gifts and presents that don't even fall into a recognizable category. The year is filled with opportunities and obligations to give and receive.

New research about Facebook addiction: Yes, they think this is science

Are you a social media enthusiast or a Facebook addict?Researchers from Norway have developed a new instrument to measure Facebook addiction, the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale.

The use of Facebook has increased rapidly. We are dealing with a subdivision of Internet addiction connected to social media, Doctor of Psychology Cecilie Schou Andreassen says about the study, which is the first of its kind worldwide.

Kids with cerebral palsy may benefit from video game play

Philadelphia, PA, May 7, 2012 -- Like their healthy peers, children with disabilities may spend too much time in front of a video screen. For children with cerebral palsy (CP), this leads to an even greater risk of being overweight or developing health issues such as diabetes or musculoskeletal disorders. A group of scientists has found that video games such as Nintendo's Wii offer an enjoyable opportunity to promote light to moderate physical activity in children with CP, and may have a role to play in rehabilitation therapy.

Diabetic retinopathy research could reduce screening costs

Research carried out at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), University of Exeter, has concluded that it would be a safe and cost-effective strategy to screen people with type 2 diabetes who have not yet developed diabetic retinopathy, for the disease once every two years instead of annually.

The research is supported by funding from the National Institute for Health Research Peninsula Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR PenCLAHRC). It is published today (00:01hrs BST Monday 7th May 2012) on-line in Diabetes Care.

First oral agent to quell invasive macular degeneration, restore lost vision

Ft. Lauderdale, FL (May 6, 2012) – There may be new found hope for patients whose vision is threatened when medicine injected directly into the eyes fails to cause abnormal blood vessels to recede. While injectable drugs called angiogenesis (an-gee-oh-jen-esis) inhibitors are considered a modern miracle and have become the standard of care for patients with the fast-progressive form of macular degeneration, they are not foolproof.

Higher risk of birth defects from assisted reproduction

A University of Adelaide study has identified the risk of major birth defects associated with different types of assisted reproductive technology.

Girls, parents not buying into HPV vaccine

GALVESTON, Texas – April 30, 2012 – The proportion of insured girls and young women completing the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among those who initiated the series has dropped significantly – as much as 63 percent – since the vaccine was approved in 2006, according to new research from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston.

Teachers show 'positive bias' for minority students - and that's bad

Remember that teacher you grumbled about back in your school days, the really tough one who made you work so hard, insisted you could do better, and made you sweat for your A's? The one you didn't appreciate until after you graduated and realized how much you had learned?

Minority students in the U.S. might have fewer of those teachers, at least compared to white students, and as a result they might be at a significant learning disadvantage.

'Game-powered machine learning' opens door to Google for music

Can a computer be taught to automatically label every song on the Internet using sets of examples provided by unpaid music fans? University of California, San Diego engineers have found that the answer is yes, and the results are as accurate as using paid music experts to provide the examples, saving considerable time and money.

New Vermont law: Researchers to measure 'genuine progress'

"What you measure is what you get," said Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Soon Vermont may measure its economic well-being somewhat differently.

This week, the Vermont legislature sent a bill to Governor Peter Shumlin that charges the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics with developing a new way of measuring the health of the state economy: it's called the Vermont Genuine Progress Indicator.

The law would be the first of its kind in the U.S. and builds on a growing network of state GPI initiatives, most notably Maryland's.

Economics study homes in on factors influencing value of great art

PULLMAN, Wash.—Arzu Aysin Tekindor has never seen "Antiques Roadshow," the PBS television program that routinely subjects artworks and other collectibles to the burning question: What is it worth?

But she has devised an economic model that gets at the underpinnings of the question, breaking down how some paintings sell for astronomical prices, like the record auction price of $120 million fetched by Edward Munch's "The Scream" earlier this week.

Sloppy shipping of human retina leads IU researchers to discover new treatment path for eye disease

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Sloppy shipping of a donated human retina to an Indiana University researcher studying a leading cause of vision loss has inadvertently helped uncover a previously undetected mechanism causing the disease. The discovery has led researchers to urge review of how millions of dollars are spent investigating the cause of a type of age-related macular degeneration called choroidal neovascularization.

Study examines necessity of additional imaging in PET/CT oncologic reports

Radiologists and nuclear medicine physicians recommended additional imaging about 30% of the time in oncologic PET/CT reports, with about half of those recommendations being unnecessary, a new study shows.