Culture

Young men who stay at home with their parents are more violent than those who live independently, according to new research at Queen Mary, University of London.

The new study* indicates that men still living at home in their early twenties have fewer responsibilities and more disposable income to spend on alcohol.

This group makes up only four percent of the UK's male population but they are responsible for 16 per cent of all violent injuries in the last five years.

For the fourth consecutive year, the U.S. was home to the fastest-growing wind power market in the world in 2008, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Energy and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Specifically, U.S. wind power capacity additions increased by 60 percent in 2008, representing a $16 billion investment in new wind projects. "At this pace, wind is on a path to becoming a significant contributor to the U.S. power mix," notes report author Ryan Wiser, of Berkeley Lab.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A study of oyster reefs in a once-pristine California coastal estuary found them devastated by invasive Atlantic Coast crabs and snails, providing new evidence of the consequences when human activities move species beyond their natural borders.

DURHAM, N.C. -- While watching swimmers line up during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, former Olympic swimmer and NBC Sports commentator Rowdy Gaines quipped that swimmers keep getting bigger, with the shortest one in the current race towering over the average spectator.

What may have been seen as an off-hand remark turns out to illustrate a trend in human development -- elite athletes are getting bigger and bigger.

SAN DIEGO – (July 16, 2009) A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology has identified the specific gene which triggers the body to produce disease-fighting antibodies -- a seminal finding that clarifies the exact molecular steps taken by the body to mount an antibody defense against viruses and other pathogens. The finding, published online today in the prestigious journal Science, has major implications for the development of new and more effective vaccines.

To conduct controlled experiments with the sandfish, Goldman and graduate students Ryan Maladen, Yang Ding and Chen Li built a seven-inch by eight-inch by four-inch-deep glass bead-filled container with tiny holes in the bottom through which air could be blown. The air pulses elevated the beads and caused them to settle into a loosely packed solid state. Repeated pulses of air compacted the material, allowing the researchers to closely control the density of the material.

Fewer births in states such as California may be delaying the annual onset of a common intestinal virus in the southwest, according to epidemiologists. The timing of infectious outbreaks in other locations such as the northeast remains more or less unchanged.

Rotavirus is a leading cause of diarrhea among children, both in the developed and developing world. In the United States, the virus causes about 60,000 hospitalizations each year and kills about 40 children below the age of five.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Newly announced National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding will expand the reach of ongoing University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) research into a unique nanostructured coating to improve the performance and longevity of total joint replacement components. The broadened UAB research opportunity is funded by a four-year, $790,931 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant through the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).

Insurgent groups like the Taliban can only be effectively engaged with timely and accurate military intelligence, and even good intelligence may only succeed in containing the insurgency, not defeating it, according to a new study in the current issue of Operations Research, a flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).

Boston, MA--As part of a series about Americans' response to the H1N1 flu outbreak, the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health is releasing a national poll that focuses on Americans' views and concerns about the potential for a more severe outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) in the fall or winter. The polling was done June 22-28, 2009.

Likelihood of Serious Outbreak

WASHINGTON DC -- A group of 34 U.S. Nobel Laureates is calling on President Obama to urge Congress to include the president's proposed $150 billion Clean Energy Technology Fund in the climate legislation it is considering. The climate bill approved by the House in June falls far short of this goal, they told the president in a letter sent to the White House today.

New York, NY, July 16, 2009—As lawmakers debate how to pay for an overhaul of the nation's health care system, a new report from The Commonwealth Fund claims that including both private and public insurance choices in a new insurance exchange would save the United States as much as $265 billion in administrative costs from 2010 to 2020. Congressional leaders are attempting to keep 10-year federal budget costs of health care reform legislation under $1 trillion.

According to Christopher Lubienski, a professor of educational organization and leadership at the University of Illinois College of Education and primary author ofa study published in the American Journal of Education, school markets can be harmful. The study examined school options in three major metropolitan areas.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - More than three-quarters of parents would be willing to permit the use of their children's newborn screening samples for research purposes if their permission were obtained beforehand, a University of Michigan survey shows.

But permission is crucial: More than half of the parents surveyed said they would be "very unwilling" to permit use of their child's newborn screening sample for future research unless they were allowed a chance to grant or deny permission.