Culture

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – African-Americans age 65 and younger are more than twice as likely to have a stroke compared with Caucasians in any region, and people who have a stroke are more likely to die in the South than elsewhere, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health.

The findings are from UAB's Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, one of the largest ongoing health studies that includes more than 30,200 U.S. participants.

INDIANAPOLIS – The most frequent error in medicine seems to occur nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to a specialist. A new study found that nearly a third of patients age 65 and older referred to a specialist are not scheduled for appointments and therefore do not receive the treatment their primary care doctor intended.

Climate models project that the global average temperature will rise about 1°C by the middle of the century, if we continue with business as usual and emit greenhouse gases as we have been. The global average, though, does not tell us anything about what will happen to regional climates, for example rainfall in the western United States or in paradisical islands like Hawai'i.

How might policymakers make reasonable decisions when they have limited information?

That's the question Northwestern University's Charles F. Manski explores in his new paper, "Vaccination With Partial Knowledge of External Effectiveness." The paper is published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/02/05/0915009107.full.pdf+html.

A team from the University of Copenhagen, led by postdoc Luke Holman of the Center for Social Evolution, describes in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, published on the 24 February 2010, that ant queens are much more devious than previously thought.

Recently, the Obama administration called for a total ban on candy and soda in the nation's schools, something schools added in during the early 1990s because they insisted they did not have enough money otherwise. Some states are beginning to impose 'sin taxes' on fat and sugar to dissuade people from eating junk food. Pricing strategies may change behavior while others say subsidies are a way to encourage people to eat fruits and vegetables and whole grains. The thought is that if you make it cheaper, people will eat more of it, more expensive and people will eat less.

Today, scientists from the NOAA-funded Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project issued an outlook for a significant regional bloom of a toxic alga that can cause 'red tides' in the spring and summer of this year, potentially threatening the New England shellfish industry.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A national survey of large and small colleges and universities aimed at identifying brand connection and affinity among alumni shows that while size may matter, large public universities can compete on the same playing field as a small, private college.

A new paper by Jim McAlexander and Hal Koenig, both marketing professors in Oregon State University's College of Business, explores brand community in different settings in higher education. The research is in a future issue of the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education.

A recent report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) confirmed that 3.5 to 5.3 million people (1-2 % of the U.S. population) have chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Despite efforts by federal, state and local government agencies to control and prevent these diseases, they remain a serious public health concern. The major factor impeding efforts to control HBV and HCV is lack of knowledge and awareness among health care providers, social service professionals, members of the public, and policy-makers.

After remaining stable for 2 decades, the average hours worked per week by physicians decreased by about 7 percent between 1996 and 2008, according to a study in the February 24 issue of JAMA.

A team of paleontologists has discovered a new dinosaur species they're calling Abydosaurus, which belongs to the group of gigantic, long-necked, long-tailed, four-legged, plant-eating dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus.

In a rare twist, they recovered four heads – two still fully intact – from a quarry in Dinosaur National Monument in eastern Utah. Complete skulls have been recovered for only eight of more than 120 known varieties of sauropod.

WASHINGTON – The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Editorial Board has selected six PNAS papers to receive the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize, an award that recognizes outstanding contributions to the scientific disciplines represented by the National Academy of Sciences.

Papers selected for the Cozzarelli Prize were chosen from more than 3,700 research articles published by PNAS in 2009 and represent the six broadly defined classes under which the National Academy of Sciences is organized.

ST. LOUIS -- The extract from a vegetable that is common in India and China shows promise in triggering a chain of events that kills breast cancer cells and prevents them from multiplying, a Saint Louis University researcher has found.

Ratna Ray, Ph.D., professor in the department of pathology at Saint Louis University and lead researcher, said she was surprised that the extract from the bitter melon she cooks in stir fries inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells.

WASHINGTON – The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Editorial Board has selected six PNAS papers to receive the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize, an award that recognizes outstanding contributions to the scientific disciplines represented by the National Academy of Sciences.

Papers selected for the Cozzarelli Prize were chosen from more than 3,700 research articles published by PNAS in 2009 and represent the six broadly defined classes under which the National Academy of Sciences is organized.

There is something about the rhythm and texture of early cinema that has a very different "feel" than modern films. But it's hard to put one's finger on just what that something is. New research may help explain this elusive quality. Cognitive psychologist (and film buff) James Cutting of Cornell University, along with his students Jordan DeLong and Christine Nothelfer, decided to use the sophisticated tools of modern perception research to deconstruct 70 years of film, shot by shot.