Culture

Reusable and recyclable packaging are shooting up the news, public, and political agenda, and increasingly can offer a cutting edge to the growing number of environmentally-conscious consumers. But what makes a refillable product successful, and why do so many fail to hit the mark? A new study publishing today in Packaging Technology & Science examines what consumers want from refillable packaging and how manufacturers can make a success of their green initiatives.

Although most Americans take the safety of their drinking water for granted, that ordinary tap water could become deadly within minutes, says Prof. Abraham Katzir of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.

To combat the threat of contamination due to industrial spillage, natural disaster or sabotage, the physicist has developed a new system to monitor the safety of a building or community's water supply in real time.

There has been sharp disagreement in recent years about how much, or even whether, winter snowpack has declined in the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon during the last half-century.

But new research leaves little doubt that a warmer climate has a significant effect on the snowpack, as measured by water content on April 1, even if other factors keep year-to-year measurements close to normal for a period of years.

CLEMSON — Industrial engineers Sandra Garrett of Clemson University and Barrett Caldwell of Purdue University have proposed a new system to warn of an impending pandemic by monitoring signals in human behavior. The system could result in using a simple icon on a television screen to warn of future phases of an outbreak of an illness such as the flu.

A new study provides doctors with guidelines on when to repeat bone mineral density (BMD) tests for their patients.

International clinical guidelines on the matter are hazy, with different practices followed in different countries. For a serious condition like osteoporosis, affecting millions, it is important to establish clear protocols.

Bethesda, MD -- Elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more satisfied with their health care, and experience fewer problems accessing and paying for care, than Americans with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), according to a study by Commonwealth Fund researchers published today on the Health Affairs Web site.

Many countries worldwide are digitizing patients' medical records. In the US, for example, the recent economic stimulus package signed into law by President Obama includes $US17 billion in incentives for health providers to switch to electronic health records (EHRs) and $US2 billion for the development of EHR standards and best-practice guidelines. What impact will the rise of EHRs have upon medical education? A debate in this week's PLoS Medicine examines both the threats and opportunities.

Aggressive, vengeful behavior of individuals in some South American groups has been considered the means for men to obtain more wives and more children, but an international team of anthropologists working in Ecuador among the Waorani show that sometimes the macho guy does not do better.

Rare and unique ecological communities will be lost if oceanic islands aren't adequately considered in a global conservation plan, a new study has found. Although islands tend to harbor fewer species than continental lands of similar size, plants and animals found on islands often live only there, making protection of their isolated habitats our sole chance to preserve them.

Rapidly rising cyber crime and the growing prospect of the Internet being used as a medium for terrorist attacks pose a major challenge for IT security. Cryptography is central to this challenge, since it underpins privacy, confidentiality, and identity, which together provide the fabric for e-commerce and secure communications. Cryptography since the beginning of the Internet has been based extensively on the RSA public key system, used for digital signatures and the exchange of private keys that in turn encrypt message content.

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC (May 11, 2009) – The Holocaust has shaped discourse on collective, social and cultural memory, serving both as touchstone and paradigm, according to a study published this month in the journal Memory Studies, published by SAGE.

A product recall can significantly affect a company's bottom line and its reputation, but a swift recall and restitution to purchasers can minimize harm to the company – and even improve customer satisfaction. A study examining more than 500 toy recalls between 1988 and 2007 suggests ways that firms can minimize the business impact of a recall.

Nearly one in 12 people exposed to terrorism report increased use and misuse of alcohol, according to researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Michigan. In a study published in the June issue of the journal Addiction, investigators combined data from 31 studies conducted in the aftermath of such incidents as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City Bombings of 1995, and the Intifada uprisings in Israel.

The recession will likely signal the end for many of Britain's smaller buy-to-let landlords, and poses a grim threat to city-centre new build properties, warn experts at The University of Nottingham.

New research suggests that while the buy-to-let market will survive the recession, a "property neutron bomb" will see the disappearance of many smaller private landlords.

New European Union (EU) regulations restricting use of animals to test the safety of shampoo, nail polish, and other personal care products are forcing cosmetic makers to seek alternative ways to test these products, according to an article scheduled for the May 11 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.