Culture

By observing the global flow of news online, Cornell computer scientists have tracked and analyzed the "news cycle" – the way stories rise and fall in popularity.

Jon Kleinberg, Cornell professor of computer science, Jure Leskovec, postdoctoral researcher, and graduate student Lars Backstrom tracked 1.6 million online news sites, including 20,000 mainstream media sites and a vast array of blogs, over the three-month period leading up to the 2008 presidential election – a total of 90 million articles, one of the largest analysis anywhere of online news.

The overall number of glaucoma surgical procedures appears to be increasing, but payments by Medicare for the procedures have been decreasing, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

University of Denver (DU) researchers found that couples who live together before they are engaged have a higher chance of getting divorced than those who wait until they are married to live together, or at least wait until they are engaged. In addition, couples who lived together before engagement and then married, reported a lower satisfaction in their marriages.

The research, which appears in the "Journal of Family Psychology," was conducted by Galena Rhoades, senior researcher, Scott Stanley, research professor, and Howard Markman, professor of psychology.

Anyone who has ever had cats knows how difficult it can be to get them to do anything they don't already want to do. But it seems that the house cats themselves have had distinctly less trouble getting humans to do their bidding, according to a report published in the July 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

The design engineer's head is spinning. He has been analyzing data on his computer for hours, with no end in sight. Designing a hydroelectric power station, he would like to know what the pressures, temperatures and fluid flows will be in the facility. He may simulate them with simulation software. However, this only delivers vast columns of numbers or a one-dimensional representation which he will have to analyze bit by bit – a laborious task.

Vienna, July 12, 2009 – A doctor's positive attitude to Alzheimer's diagnosis and their trusting, personal relationships with local dementia support service providers are powerful enablers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, according to new research reported today at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.

Vienna, July 12, 2009 – Partnering with local physicians, working with local clinics, and conducting educational seminars and health fairs were found to be the most effective tools in recruiting people for Alzheimer's clinical studies, according to new research reported today at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.

More and more children are participating and getting hurt playing sports each year. A new study presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Keystone, Colorado, (July 9-12) details the benefits and risks of repairing a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in young athletes under the age of 14.

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009 — The President of the American Chemical Society, Thomas H. Lane, Ph.D., issued the following statement today on President Obama's nomination of Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., to be Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH):"At no other time in recent memory has there been such a sense of opportunity — and expectation — in the power of science to deliver solutions to the grand challenges facing our nation, and indeed, all of humanity. As the nation's largest source of basic research funding, NIH will be looked to, to lead and deliver.

Geneva, Switzerland – The 40 member organizations of the International Tiger Coalition (ITC) applaud remarks by the World Bank today stating that legalizing tiger farming is too great a gamble for the world to take if tigers are to have a future in the wild.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Association for Cancer Research applauds President Obama's nomination of Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., to be the 16th director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A study by a team of global health researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine examined HIV infection among male clients of female sex workers in Tijuana and found that over half of male clients had recently had unprotected sex. They also reported a high prevalence of drug use.

WASHINGTON -- The Bureau of Justice Statistics' programs to collect data on crime in the U.S. have generated a solid body of information, but the bureau should be repositioned within the Justice Department to provide the independence -- and protection against structural and political interference -- appropriate to a statistical agency, says a new report from the National Research Council. It recommends that the bureau be moved out of its current position within the Office of Justice Programs and that its leaders report directly to the attorney general or deputy attorney general.

KEYSTONE, CO – Replacing a joint in any part of the body often leads to a long recovery process and the possibility of not being able to return to a sport or activity. However, a new study presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Keystone, Colorado, (July 9-12) presents findings that even an older individual who receives a total shoulder joint replacement can return to full participation within approximately six months of surgery.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The withdrawal of Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste repository has reopened the debate over how and where to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste.