Culture

Online social networks such as Facebook are being used to express and communicate real personality, instead of an idealized virtual identity, according to new research from psychologist Sam Gosling at The University of Texas at Austin.

COLUMBIA, Mo. –Surveys have shown that the public pays little attention to foreign policy, but politicians regularly cite the importance of public support for military actions overseas. Now, a new study has found that these responses may be heavily influenced by White House rhetoric. University of Missouri researchers have found that foreign policy explanations from presidential administrations that are plainly stated and easier to understand are likely to receive public support, while policy explanations that are complicated and convoluted are likely to face greater public skepticism.

Two researchers from the University of Salamanca have developed a procedure to enable forensic police to extract metric data from crime scenes using just a single photograph. Their proposal, published this month in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, makes it possible to reconstruct a crime scene in 3D.

Amsterdam, 01 December 2009 – Elsevier announced today the publication of the November issue of Reproductive Health Matters. Articles in the issue look at criminalisation in relation to a range of global issues: rape and sexual violence; female genital mutilation; selling and buying sex; provision and use of modern contraception and induced abortion; homosexuality, and HIV transmission.

SEATTLE—Women with major depression were no less likely than were women without it to have successful results with a weight loss program, according to an article in the Winter 2009 Behavioral Medicine. Group Health Research Institute Senior Research Associate Evette J. Ludman, PhD, the study leader, concluded that weight loss programs should not exclude depressed people.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. - A study in the Dec.1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that short, unpleasant, dreamlike mental activity occurs during sleepwalking and sleep terrors episodes, suggesting that people with these sleep disorders may be acting out dreamlike thoughts.

The antibiotic, called azithromycin, is effective in treating infections such as syphilis, Chlamydia and Ureaplasma urealyticum – a bacterial infection thought to play a significant role in causing preterm labour. Recent studies have also shown that the drug is effective in reducing the risk of miscarriage following amniocentesis, a medical test for infection and foetal abnormalities.

The challenge is to change that tune: to develop the technology to quickly seal a levee breach and reduce floodwaters through the opening within four to six hours of detection—before the water can do major damage.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Women were less likely than men to receive major funding for scientific research, according to a study from the University of Michigan Health System. The study also found that only a quarter of all researchers, both men and women, who received a major early career award went on to get further federal funding within five years.

A few home visits by a health care specialist to educate children with asthma about basic strategies for earlier symptom recognition and improving medication use can lead to fewer flare-ups and less frequent trips to the ER, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children's Center published in the December issue of Pediatrics.

An estimated 6.5 million children in the United States have asthma, which is the leading pediatric chronic illness in this country and disproportionately affects minorities.

Religious people tend to use their own beliefs as a guide in thinking about what God believes, but are less constrained when reasoning about other people's beliefs, according to new study published in the Nov. 30 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A school-based behavioral intervention program developed under a federal grant in the mid-1990s at the University of Oregon, already in widespread use, now has shown real value on a complex stage, scoring robust improvements among at-risk elementary students in the predominantly minority Albuquerque, N.M., school district.

Low-income women are four times more likely than higher-income women to report fair or poor health and nearly twice as likely to report a health condition that limits their basic physical activities, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

These women also experience inadequate access to health insurance and health care to a far greater degree than their higher-income counterparts, the study found.

Communicating "I have some good news and some bad news" is better than combining messages into a single, bleak result when small gains and large losses occur together, according to a study in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).

"The Silver Lining Effect: Formal Analysis and Experiments" is by Peter Jarnebrant of the European School of Management and Technology and Olivier Toubia and Eric Johnson of Columbia University.

The relative security of employment in the public sector, together with a more 'family friendly' ethos in the private sector, both the UK and Italy, is thought to foster fertility. 'The public sector tends to offer a guaranteed job to return to, a career progression more linked to seniority and more flexible hours and time off to care for sick children', Dr Nazio explains.