Culture

During the May 5th meeting of the National Science Board, National Science Foundation (NSF) officials announced a change in the implementation of the existing policy on sharing research data. In particular, on or around October, 2010, NSF is planning to require that all proposals include a data management plan in the form of a two-page supplementary document. The research community will be informed of the specifics of the anticipated changes and the agency's expectations for the data management plans.

Flying can become considerably more environmentally friendly, say aviation experts from the "Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe" (ACARE) in the guidelines they compiled for the European aviation industry.

Policy makers are calling for a 50 percent reduction in carbon dioxide and noise emissions by 2020; nitrogen oxide output should be reduced by 80 percent.

Sleep disorders are common among bus and tram drivers in Gothenburg: a quarter say that they have problems with daytime sleepiness, which could affect safety. Such are the results of a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, presented at the annual Swedish Sleep Medicine Congress in Gothenburg on 21-23 April.

The survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma (also known as Myanmar) in May 2008, continue to face challenges in rebuilding their lives, in lack of access to relief and reconstruction efforts, and in violations of basic rights more than one year after the storm, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Emergency Assistance Team—Burma.

Eat seaweed to lose weight? Red wine will make you live longer?

Claims about the health benefits of foods and nutritional supplements have proliferated in recent years, most of them based on studies measuring ingredients' effects on biomarkers as substitutes for actual clinical outcomes.

Los Angeles, CA (May 6, 2010) The majority of students (about 80%) are never sent out of class to the principal's office or it happens only once in a year and why children are referred changes as they age, according to an article in the April 2010 issue of the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions (published by SAGE). Elementary school-aged students primarily are disciplined for fighting with fellow classmates, middle school students for being defiant or disruptive with teachers and staff, and high school students for being late or skipping class.

Local papers are not cultural dinosaurs yet, though they are dwindling in numbers. Some good news: In areas where members of Congress get lots of ink in local newspapers, voters are more informed and representatives do more to serve local interests, according to a study to be published next week in the Journal of Political Economy.

However, the researchers say the findings also suggest that the current trend toward fewer local newspapers could make for less responsive politicians in the future.

Access to sustainable energy and increased energy efficiency is a prerequisite for achieving the MDGs.

According to the new report from the UN, the lack of access to modern energy is a significant barrier to economic development. Today, more than 1.6 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity and close to one billion people depend on firewood, etc. as their energy supply for cooking and heating. A reliable, affordable energy supply is key to economic growth and the alleviation of poverty in the world.

In a study of residents of Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) in Los Angeles showed that 65% had clinically significant sleeping problems and that poor sleep was associated with declining quality of life and increased depression over a six month follow-up period. This study is published today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

PITTSBURGH— Straying from the grocery list can yield some surprises in your shopping cart, but not necessarily in your wallet, according to University of Pittsburgh researchers and a coresearcher from Baylor University who have coauthored a new study. The researchers found that shoppers often expect to buy a certain number of unplanned items, and most have a fairly accurate estimate as to how much they will spend on them. The study's coauthors use the term "in-store slack" to describe the room shoppers leave in their budget for unplanned purchases.

The majority of teens say they have never heard of acetaminophen – or what the appropriate dosing of it is even with access to the label instructions – despite having taken the medication recently, according to a new University of Rochester Medical Center Study assessing teens' health literacy. More than 60 percent of the teens in the study had never before heard of acetaminophen despite 21 percent of them having taken it within the previous month.

The majority of children living in apartments are exposed to secondhand smoke, even when they don't live with smokers. This study from the University of Rochester Medical Center is the first to examine whether housing type is a potential contributor to children's exposure to cigarette smoke. The abstract was presented this morning at the Pediatric Academic Society Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – For parents wondering when they should talk to their children about sex, the writing may be on the wall — or on their child's Facebook page.

New research suggests that display of sexual references on teens' Facebook profiles is associated with their intention to initiate intercourse.

In the wake of 'hide the decline' and words like 'trick' regarding the 'hockey stick graph', ClimateGate and the resulting drop in confidence among the public about climate science researchers, two hundred fifty-five members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel Prize laureates, have joined together to defend the rigor and objectivity of climate science.

Their statement, "Climate Change and the Integrity of Science," will be published in Science tomorrow as the lead Letter, along with a supporting editorial.