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New study urges new thinking over government widening participation policy

Widening participation efforts in UK universities should do more than simply create a 'wow moment' for young people, according to a new study led by the University of Leicester.

It found that there was a risk of overstating the value of higher education and universities at the expense of other ambitions young people might have.

The findings from the University of Leicester Department of Geography comes just ahead of the Government's publication of performance indicators for participation of people from socially disadvantaged communities in higher education.

New tool can help predict risk of Alzheimer's in elderly

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A new tool can help predict whether people age 65 and older have a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Research on the tool is published in the May 13, 2009, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Study finds surprising new pathway for North Atlantic circulation

Oceanographers have long known that the 20-year-old paradigm for describing the global ocean circulation– called the Great Ocean Conveyor – was an oversimplification. It's a useful depiction, but it's like describing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as a catchy tune.

Novel therapy may prove effective in treatment of 30 percent of cancers

A ground-breaking Canada-wide clinical trial led by Dr. Katherine Borden, at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal, has shown that a common anti-viral drug, ribavirin, can be beneficial in the treatment of cancer patients. Published in the journal Blood (First Edition), the study demonstrates that ribavirin suppresses the activities of the eIF4E gene in patients. This gene is dysregulated in 30 percent of cancers including breast, prostate, head and neck, colon and stomach cancer.

Obituary photos suggest growing bias against aging faces

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study that looked at obituary photographs published in one metropolitan newspaper suggests that Americans may have become more biased toward youthful appearance, particularly for women.

The study found that the number of obituary photographs showing the deceased at a much younger age than when he or she died more than doubled between 1967 and 1997.

And women were more than twice as likely as men to have an obituary photo from when they were much younger.

No longer afraid to be a bridesmaid or travel with the boss

CHICAGO --- One of Laurie Keefer's patients was afraid to be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding, others worried about traveling with the boss or even going to parties in peoples' homes.

Optimal trip and load planning

A company wants to deliver paper to five customers in Bavaria. The trip planning software currently used calculates that one truck will be enough to cover the locations in central Bavaria if another truck on the Baden-Württemberg route takes over two of the deliveries. The problem is that, although the trips have been optimized, the trucks are not fully loaded. "At present, transport companies first compile the orders and then assign them to trips and vehicles. Truck capacity utilization is only optimized afterwards.

Study outlines how to succeed with refillable packaging

Reusable and recyclable packaging are shooting up the news, public, and political agenda, and increasingly can offer a cutting edge to the growing number of environmentally-conscious consumers. But what makes a refillable product successful, and why do so many fail to hit the mark? A new study publishing today in Packaging Technology & Science examines what consumers want from refillable packaging and how manufacturers can make a success of their green initiatives.

Monitoring water through a snake's eyes

Although most Americans take the safety of their drinking water for granted, that ordinary tap water could become deadly within minutes, says Prof. Abraham Katzir of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.

To combat the threat of contamination due to industrial spillage, natural disaster or sabotage, the physicist has developed a new system to monitor the safety of a building or community's water supply in real time.

Any way you slice it, warming climate is affecting Cascades snowpack

There has been sharp disagreement in recent years about how much, or even whether, winter snowpack has declined in the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon during the last half-century.

But new research leaves little doubt that a warmer climate has a significant effect on the snowpack, as measured by water content on April 1, even if other factors keep year-to-year measurements close to normal for a period of years.

Researchers study the human factor in spread of pandemic illness

CLEMSON — Industrial engineers Sandra Garrett of Clemson University and Barrett Caldwell of Purdue University have proposed a new system to warn of an impending pandemic by monitoring signals in human behavior. The system could result in using a simple icon on a television screen to warn of future phases of an outbreak of an illness such as the flu.

When to get your bone density measured -- that is the question

A new study provides doctors with guidelines on when to repeat bone mineral density (BMD) tests for their patients.

International clinical guidelines on the matter are hazy, with different practices followed in different countries. For a serious condition like osteoporosis, affecting millions, it is important to establish clear protocols.

Advocacy group says medicare beneficiaries prefer it over employer-sponsored health plans

Bethesda, MD -- Elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more satisfied with their health care, and experience fewer problems accessing and paying for care, than Americans with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), according to a study by Commonwealth Fund researchers published today on the Health Affairs Web site.

Medical education: Do electronic health records help or hurt?

Many countries worldwide are digitizing patients' medical records. In the US, for example, the recent economic stimulus package signed into law by President Obama includes $US17 billion in incentives for health providers to switch to electronic health records (EHRs) and $US2 billion for the development of EHR standards and best-practice guidelines. What impact will the rise of EHRs have upon medical education? A debate in this week's PLoS Medicine examines both the threats and opportunities.

Waorani warriors do not always get the girl

Aggressive, vengeful behavior of individuals in some South American groups has been considered the means for men to obtain more wives and more children, but an international team of anthropologists working in Ecuador among the Waorani show that sometimes the macho guy does not do better.