Culture | Page 2574 | Science Codex

CeBIT 2011: Electronic fitness trainer

Eating a healthier diet, getting more exercise and doing more sports – lots of people recommit themselves to these goals over and over. But one's baser instincts are often stronger and invincible. On the couch in the evening, you take stock of the day only to admit that you have failed to rally once again. And yet, physical fitness is now considered a remedy for many illnesses. Particularly for older people, daily exercise is important – not only during rehabilitation following major surgery but also for one's general sense of physical well-being.

What your TV habits may say about your fear of crime

What's your favorite prime-time crime show? Do you enjoy the fictional world of "CSI" or "Law & Order," or do you find real-life tales like "The First 48" or "Dateline" more engrossing? Your answers to those questions may say a lot about your fears and attitudes about crime, a new study finds.

Study: Neighborhood natives move out when immigrants move in

WASHINGTON, DC, February 1, 2011 — Native residents of a neighborhood are more likely to move out when immigrants move in, according to new research by three American sociologists.

"Neighborhood Immigration and Native Out-Migration" appears in the February issue of the American Sociological Review. Study authors are Kyle Crowder of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Matthew Hall of the University of Illinois-Chicago and Stewart E. Tolnay of the University of Washington.

Impact of FDA regulations restricting outdoor cigarette advertising near schools examined

San Diego, CA, February 8, 2011 – When the FDA proposed new rules restricting outdoor tobacco advertising near schools and playgrounds in 2009, the tobacco industry argued that such rules would lead to a near complete ban on tobacco advertising in urban areas. An article in the March 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that the effect of these rules would be less severe than the industry contends.

Use of atypical antipsychotics in treatment of dementia declined after FDA warning

A warning issued by the Food and Drug Administration regarding the use of atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of dementia was associated with a significant decline in the use of these medications for treating dementia symptoms in elderly patients, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Choices, not discrimination, determine success for women scientists

ITHACA, N.Y. – It's an incendiary topic in academia – the pervasive belief that women are underrepresented in science, math and engineering fields because they face sex discrimination in the interviewing, hiring, and grant and manuscript review processes.

Researchers develop outline that may help weigh benefits of new imaging technologies

A new article in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology provides a roadmap for imaging manufacturers to navigate the unique and increasingly complex U.S. regulatory and reimbursement environment. "Evidence Requirements for Innovative Imaging Devices: From Concept to Adoption," identifies and addresses the five phases of an imaging procedure's lifecycle and the distinct clinical evidence needs for each phase.

Brandeis study shows economic impact of dengue virus in Americas

Dengue illness, the most common mosquito-borne viral disease in the world, has expanded from its Southeast Asian origins and is resurgent in countries such as Argentina, Chile and the continental United States.

Larger cities drive growing wage gap between the rich and the poor, study shows

Why in the United States are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer?

Part of the answer lies in the unique economies of our larger cities, finds a study by Ronni Pavan of the University of Rochester and Nathaniel Baum-Snow of Brown University and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

"Our results show that overall up to one-third of the growth in the wage gap between the rich and the poor is driven by city size independent of workers' skills," says Pavan.

Facebook users more prone to developing eating disorders

The same has been found with regard to exposure to music and fashion on the Internet, and to harmful programs on TV. The study also reveals that the risk of developing eating disorders in adolescent girls is moderated when there is more parental supervision over viewing habits.

The more time adolescent girls spend in front of Facebook, the more their chances of developing a negative body image and various eating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia and exaggerated dieting. This has been shown in a new study from the University of Haifa.

We are strangling the pharmaceutical industry

New drugs are too expensive, pharmaceutical companies are too greedy and don't care about people, say people in the UK. But declining progress in pharmaceuticals is also blamed on a failure of innovative drive in the industry, failure of the UK to support basic research, failure of venture capital to invest in early stage research, or failure of the Health Service to provide smart procurement.

Review confirms benefits of outdoor exercise

A systematic review carried out by a team at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry has analysed existing studies and concluded that there are benefits to mental and physical well-being from taking exercise in the natural environment. Their findings are published in the leading research journal Environmental Science and Technology today, 4th February 2011.

Seeing the light: Berkeley Lab scientists bring plasmonic nanofields into focus

In typical plasmonic devices, electromagnetic waves crowd into tiny metal structures, concentrating energy into nanoscale dimensions. Due to coupling of electronics and photonics in these metal nanostructures, plasmonic devices could be harnessed for high-speed data transmission or ultrafast detector arrays. However, studying plasmonic fields in nanoscale devices presents a real roadblock for scientists, as examining these structures inherently alters their behavior.

UC San Diego engineers play role in warehouse fire safety

In their research, Gollner and his team are focusing on the most commonly used packaging material in warehouses – corrugated cardboard— which has been found to affect predictions of upward flame spread by current descriptions. As part of the study of the combustion of boxes of commodities, rates of upward flame spread during early-stage burning were observed during experiments on wide samples of corrugated cardboard.

Ongoing policy uncertainty is detrimental for stem cell scientists

While there is no doubt that the ethical controversy surrounding human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research has given rise to an uncertain policy environment, the true impact of years of frequent policy changes has not been fully assessed.