Culture

In today's financial crisis, networking know-how is a necessity for finding jobs and business opportunities. But a series of new studies by Dr. Yuval Kalish of the Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration at Tel Aviv University suggests that, in some cases, networking can do more harm than good.

"If you're at the intersection of two previously unconnected niches of a network, you're occupying what I call a 'structural hole,'" says Dr. Kalish. Filling that space can lead to prestige, opportunities and power ― or it may have quite the opposite effect.

It's a curious paradox. Black adults are more likely to smoke than white adults and most smokers start as teenagers. But statistics show that fewer black youths than whites begin smoking as adolescents.

A new University of Washington study indicates that lower rates of smoking among black teens may be the result of black parents setting concrete guidelines about substance use and establishing clearly defined consequences for not following those guidelines.

Researchers have discovered why most insect-pollinated flowers have special cone-shaped cells on the surfaces of their petals. They literally help bees get a grip, according to a report published online on May 14th in Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.

What's more, the researchers also showed that bumblebees will preferentially choose to land on petals that are easier to hold on to. The findings exemplify both the intricacy and the elegant simplicity that can be found in nature, the researchers say.

Osteoporosis, or bone loss, is a disease that is most common in the elderly population, affecting women more often than men. Until now, it was not clear exactly how the disease develops. Researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now elucidated a molecular mechanism which regulates the equilibrium between bone formation and bone resorption. Dr. Jeske J. Smink, Dr. Valérie Bégay, and Professor Achim Leutz were able to show that two different forms of a gene switch – a short isoform and a long isoform – determine this process.

A pioneering study of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in nursing homes reveals that more than half of them incurred at least one work-related injury in the previous year. One in three received some kind of means-tested public assistance, and nearly half of those without medical insurance claimed they could not afford their employer-sponsored plan.

New technology allows student doctors to practice operations and other procedures on simulators before trying them out on real patients, just as pilots practice for emergencies on aircraft simulators. Medical educators feel that this will increase patient safety, by avoiding first-time mistakes being made on live patients. But does education by simulation actually work? Can doctors learn new skills on simulators instead of on humans?

The transition from basic education to upper secondary school is a challenge for many young people. According to a study of school burnout at different stages of school and higher education, upper secondary school is a particularly challenging stage for many young people. Success-oriented female upper secondary school pupils are at the greatest risk: up to 20 cent of them suffer from school burnout. Burnout is a phenomenon to be taken seriously, as it can lead to depression.

The large forest fires that sweep through Indonesia in dry periods are not only the result of severe drought. A team of researchers, including Veni grant winner Guido van der Werf, has analyzed the density of smog during forest fires. They have now established that the intensity of the forest fires is directly linked to population density and land use. Nature Geoscience published the results of the research on Feb. 22.

Widening participation efforts in UK universities should do more than simply create a 'wow moment' for young people, according to a new study led by the University of Leicester.

It found that there was a risk of overstating the value of higher education and universities at the expense of other ambitions young people might have.

The findings from the University of Leicester Department of Geography comes just ahead of the Government's publication of performance indicators for participation of people from socially disadvantaged communities in higher education.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A new tool can help predict whether people age 65 and older have a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Research on the tool is published in the May 13, 2009, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Oceanographers have long known that the 20-year-old paradigm for describing the global ocean circulation– called the Great Ocean Conveyor – was an oversimplification. It's a useful depiction, but it's like describing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as a catchy tune.

A ground-breaking Canada-wide clinical trial led by Dr. Katherine Borden, at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal, has shown that a common anti-viral drug, ribavirin, can be beneficial in the treatment of cancer patients. Published in the journal Blood (First Edition), the study demonstrates that ribavirin suppresses the activities of the eIF4E gene in patients. This gene is dysregulated in 30 percent of cancers including breast, prostate, head and neck, colon and stomach cancer.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study that looked at obituary photographs published in one metropolitan newspaper suggests that Americans may have become more biased toward youthful appearance, particularly for women.

The study found that the number of obituary photographs showing the deceased at a much younger age than when he or she died more than doubled between 1967 and 1997.

And women were more than twice as likely as men to have an obituary photo from when they were much younger.

CHICAGO --- One of Laurie Keefer's patients was afraid to be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding, others worried about traveling with the boss or even going to parties in peoples' homes.

A company wants to deliver paper to five customers in Bavaria. The trip planning software currently used calculates that one truck will be enough to cover the locations in central Bavaria if another truck on the Baden-Württemberg route takes over two of the deliveries. The problem is that, although the trips have been optimized, the trucks are not fully loaded. "At present, transport companies first compile the orders and then assign them to trips and vehicles. Truck capacity utilization is only optimized afterwards.