Culture

WASHINGTON, DC, March 8, 2010 – The 2010 Sleep in America poll released today by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) reveals significant differences in the sleep habits and attitudes of Asians, Blacks/African-Americans, Hispanics and Whites. It is the first poll to examine sleep among these four ethnic groups.

SALT LAKE CITY, March 8, 2010 – University of Utah engineers developed a computer-controlled, motorized hand and arm support that will let doctors, artists and others precisely control scalpels, brushes and tools over a wider area than otherwise possible, and with less fatigue.

St. Louis, MO - Breast cancer patients with early stage disease that has spread to only one lymph node may not benefit from radiation after mastectomy, because of the low present-day risk of recurrence following modern surgery and systemic therapy, a finding that could one day change the course of treatment for thousands of women diagnosed each year, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer.

A defendant is much more likely to be sentenced to death if he or she kills a "high-status" victim, according to new research by Scott Phillips, associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver (DU), who must really hate Harris County, Texas, because he used them to claim economic status resulted in more death penalties a few months ago also.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Men who undergo prostate-cancer screening should discuss with a doctor the uncertainties, risks and benefits of the test before it is performed, says Edward Partridge, M.D., president-elect of the American Cancer Society (ACS) National Board of Directors and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center.

A report released today by Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business found that despite the 8 million Toyota vehicles recalled since October 2009, current Toyota owners are not yet wavering in their support of or satisfaction with the company.

About 300 residents from St. Ann's in Nottingham are expected to take part in a one day programme of interactive workshops during the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Festival of Social Science. The event, which will explore key local issues including drug use, poverty, migration, education and social division, has been organised by sociologists at the University of Nottingham as part of the university-wide 'Community Partnership' scheme.

Sunderland City Council has teamed up with a group of academic researchers to put on an exciting interactive event aimed at making internet users more aware of the problems of disclosing personal information online. The event forms part of the nationwide Festival of Social Science which is run by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) – the leading funder of social science research in the UK - and is intended to help the general public discover more about the world of social science.

France had the first one back in the 12th century. In 1980, less than 60 existed worldwide. But since then, the number had doubled.

Stock markets, once a way to manage debt and create capital for companies, have seemingly become a status symbol for some nations, or are used as a means for countries to access international funds for development.

But Michael Lounsbury, in the University of Alberta's School of Business, argues that the global rush to develop modern financial institutions-including stock markets-has had a huge downside.

ELDORET, KENYA (5 March 2010)—As East Africa recovers from the worst drought in decades, an innovative program launched today will use a low-cost, mobile phone payment and data system, and automated, solar powered weather stations, to offer thousands of farmers in parts of Western and Central Kenya affordable, "pay as you plant" insurance to protect their investments in desperately needed high-yielding seeds, fertilizers, as well as other farm inputs.

Unfortunately labelled 'organic' foods have been a bonanza for farmers who have no shame, but if you like paying $15 a dozen for free range chicken eggs, at least your liberal guilt for being able to afford $15 a dozen eggs is assuaged.

Not so in wine where quality matters more than process or cultural placebos. "Green" labels do not seem to pack the same financial wallop for California wines that they do for low-energy appliances, organically grown produce and other products, it actually decreases the price consumers are willing to pay, a new study has found.

Is a happy life filled with trivial chatter or reflective and profound conversations? Psychological scientists Matthias R. Mehl, Shannon E. Holleran, and C. Shelby Clark from the University of Arizona, along with Simine Vazire of Washington University in St. Louis investigated whether happy and unhappy people differ in the types of conversations they tend to engage in. Volunteers wore an unobtrusive recording device called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) over four days. This device periodically records snippets of sounds as participants go about their lives.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Debate has simmered for a half-century over why firms pay out cash dividends, siphoning money away from business-building investments and often creating an added tax burden for the shareholders who collect them.

New research has uncovered a surprising springboard for thousands of smaller companies and banks that share profits with investors instead of sinking everything back into the business.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Geologists have found evidence that sea ice extended to the equator 716.5 million years ago, bringing new precision to a "snowball Earth" event long suspected to have taken place around that time.

Led by scientists at Harvard University, the team reports on its work this week in the journal Science. The new findings -- based on an analysis of ancient tropical rocks that are now found in remote northwestern Canada -- bolster the theory that our planet has, at times in the past, been ice-covered at all latitudes.