Culture

KINGSTON, R.I. – May 5, 2010 – The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and epic flooding in Tennessee have created a "perfect storm" for businesses that rely on an efficient supply chain, according to a University of Rhode Island professor.

In addition, the volcano in Iceland is causing unprecedented interruptions in the ability of businesses in Europe and the Baltic regions to ship goods via air transport, said Douglas Hales, associate professor of operations and supply chain management in URI's College of Business Administration.

A 70% effectiveness rate for a vaccine that will need to be taken again in the future and is for a rare and very treatable cancer but is being marketed to elementary school girls is running into resistance; educated mothers. Arguments for the HPV vaccine are not great and skeptical mothers are not buying it despite hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing. Yet.

Organic farms may be seen as wildlife friendly, but the benefits to birds, bees and butterflies don't compensate for the lower yields produced, according to new research from the University of Leeds.

In the most detailed, like-for-like comparisons of organic and conventional farming to date, researchers from Leeds' Faculty of Biological Science found that the benefits to wildlife and increases in biodiversity from organic farming are much lower than previously thought – averaging just over 12 percent more than conventional farming.

Wheat products, and in particular, wholegrain products, are important sources of dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and other components which are beneficial for human health. Analysis of a diverse range of wheat varieties within the HEALTHGRAIN project of the European Union has shown substantial variation (up to four-fold) in the content and composition of these components.

Emergency physicians may be providing less comprehensive services for white teen girls than black, according to Carolyn Holland, M.D., M.Ed., a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Cente, but it isn't racism. Or it is, depending on how you look at things. The reason for different treatment levels is that physicians are more likely to document sexual histories of black adolescent girls with symptoms potentially related to sexually transmitted infections (STI) than white teen girls with the same symptoms.

'Apparent correlation' is skepticism in science circles but no one likes skepticism when it comes to their work and a group of researchers who got the term attached to their work don't like it. The Organ Donor Taskforce is unrealistic if it thinks that it can dramatically increase donation rates without adopting a policy of presumed consent, say those researchers on bmj.com today.

INDIANAPOLIS – Leading physician policy experts are calling for changes in medical education policy at multiple levels to ensure that doctors are prepared to treat the country's aging adult population.

A water feature found in the Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, is the earliest known example of engineered water pressure in the new world, according to a collaboration between two Penn State researchers, an archaeologist and a hydrologist. How the Maya used the pressurized water is, however, still unknown.

The decline in the generosity of Social Security benefits for workers who recently reached their 60s has been the leading cause of the trend toward delayed retirement of older men, a new national study suggests.

Between the periods of 1988-1992 and 2001-2005, there was a 4.7 percentage point increase in the number of men aged 55 to 69 in the workforce.

The new study found that between 25 and 50 percent of that increase can be explained by declining Social Security benefits, said David Blau, co-author of the study and professor of economics at Ohio State University.

How many times have you, after a particularly hard day, reached for some chocolate or ice cream? It's common for many people, but for those trying to lose weight, it can be detrimental to their long term success, and most weight-loss programs never even address it.

They focus on choosing healthier foods and exercising more, but they never answer a key question: how can people who have eaten to cope with emotions change their eating habits, when they haven't learned other ways of coping with emotions?

Kansas City, MO – May 4, 2010 – A new study has found for the first time that as Americans are gaining more body fat, so are their babies. The research, which reviewed data from more than 74,000 births, found that a key measure of body fat composition in newborns increased significantly over a 15-year period, mirroring similar increases among pregnant mothers. The findings were presented Sunday by researchers from Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting.

Charitable giving is an important pillar of the American way of life, but in these choppy economic waters, philanthropies need to look more closely at their appeal to prospective givers. A new series of studies from Tel Aviv University may have the right formula to get people giving where it counts.

New York City and terrorism are in the news again due to the arrest of Pakistani Faisal Shahzad, living in Shelton, Connecticut, who was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport after tryingto flee to Dubai.

Why do terrorists seem to hate New York? In America, it is the most likely city to be sympathetic to Muslim states that promote terrorism, so it would seem counterintuitive to bomb it.