Culture

A report published today by Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy offers concrete recommendations to U.S. negotiators on the territorial component of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

The report, "Getting to the Territorial Endgame of an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Settlement," draws on nearly two years of discussions between a working group of Israelis and Palestinians convened under the aegis of the institute's Conflict Resolution Forum and chaired by Baker Institute Founding Director Edward P. Djerejian.

If you won a million dollars today, what would you do? Say "sayonara" to your boss and head to Bora Bora, or invest your newfound wealth in a long-term T-bill?

According to new research by Dr. Danit Ein-Gar of Tel Aviv University's Recanati Graduate School of Business Studies, your answer may not be so clear-cut. She and her American colleague Dr. Camille Su Lin Johnson found that whether you'll indulge or be prudent is not necessarily based on your personality type or education, but may be strongly influenced by advertising and other environmental cues.

A community workshop sponsored by SNM's Clinical Trials Network (CTN) officially kicked off on Feb. 1, in Albuquerque, N.M., and presented participants with a series of educational sessions on the use of molecular imaging in clinical trials for investigational therapeutic drugs. Highly qualified leaders in medicine, industry and government shared their insights and expertise with a community that is given a unique opportunity to learn, in great detail, the inner workings of imaging in clinical trials.

SNM's Nanomedicine and Molecular Imaging Summit wrapped up today in Albuquerque, N.M., with in-depth discussion—and a high sense of energy looking ahead.

Nanotechnology is a quickly growing, but still-evolving field with nearly limitless possibilities for applying technology in highly targeted ways. For the medical community, nanotechnology involves using nanoparticles to target disease—and treat many common and devastating diseases before they spread. Concomitantly, molecular imaging can be used to assess the health and environmental impacts of nanomaterials.

A common plant virus lures aphids to infected plants by making the plants more attractive, but when the insects taste the plant, they quickly leave for tastier, healthier ones. In the process, the insects rapidly transmit the disease, according to Penn State entomologists.

"The virus improves the cues that insects use to identify food by elevating some aspect of a trait that is already in the plant," said Mark C. Mescher, assistant professor of entomology. "In this case they appear to elevate the odor cue, without changing it."

Young children of Hispanic mothers whose dominant language is Spanish spend less time in front of the TV than children whose mothers speak mostly English, according to research led by investigators at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and published in the February issue of Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.

A theory-based, abstinence-only intervention appears to be associated with a lower rate of sexual involvement among African American sixth- and seventh-graders, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Philadelphia – A new study weighs in on the controversy over sex education, finding that an abstinence-only intervention for pre-teens was more successful in delaying the onset of sexual activity than a health-promotion control intervention. After two years, one-third of the abstinence-only group reported having sex, compared to one-half of the control group. The study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania appears in the February 1 edition of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Studies conducted by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are helping to increase understanding about the environmental factors that regulate production of avenanthramides (Avns), metabolites with potent antioxidant properties, in oat grain.

St. Louis, MO, February 1, 2010, – Three daily servings of whole grains are recommended for prevention of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and excess weight gain. Yet few adolescents or young adults follow these guidelines, according to national survey data. In a study published in the February 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers from the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota report that young people are consuming less than 1 serving of whole grains per day.

Amsterdam, 1 February 2010 - As we begin the new decade, despite an abundance of food, worldwide, more than 1 billion persons are living with hunger. A Special Issue of Agricultural Water Management, "Investing in Water For Food, Ecosystems and Livelihoods", published by Elsevier, provides insight and recommendations regarding causes and potential solutions to the hunger crisis. Investments in agriculture have not kept pace with the need, particularly in developing countries.

Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered how the virulent food-borne bacteria Listeria monocytogenes induces infected immune cells to sabotage their own defensive response. The studies offer insight into host-pathogen interactions and suggest potential therapeutic targets for food poisoning, tuberculosis and autoimmune diseases.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center are incorporating radiation dose exposure reports into the electronic medical record, an effort that they hope will lead to an accurate assessment of whether any cancer risk is associated with low-dose radiation exposure from medical imaging tests, according to an article in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR). The electronic medical record allows for the storage, retrieval, and manipulation of one's medical records.

All the PR campaigns about the effects of negative body image have led to serious health issues - parents won't even admit that their children are overweight.

Half of the mothers who took part in a study thought that their obese four or five year-old was normal weight, as did 39 per cent of the fathers, according to the February issue of Acta Paediatrica.

When it came to overweight children, 75 per cent of mothers and 77 per cent of fathers thought that their child was normal weight.