Culture

Scientists had feared that melt-water which trickles down through the ice could dramatically speed up the movement of glaciers as it acts as a lubricant between the ice and the ground it moves over.

But in a paper published today in PNAS, a team led by scientists from the University of Bristol found it is likely to have a minor role in sea-level rise compared with other effects like iceberg production and surface melt.

When gathering public input on policy questions, scientists can speak with authority about facts, but must remember that everyone is an expert when it comes to values.

DETROIT – Pain is the most common reason a patient sees a physician but few physicians have received adequate training to help their patients, according to a Henry Ford Hospital article published in the Journal of American Osteopathic Association.

White people are more likely to be represented, and in a positive light, than Blacks or Asians in Canadian television advertisements, says a new study from the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM).

"Previous studies have looked at depictions of race in Canadian media, but this is the first to focus on advertising," says Professor Shyon Baumann, chair of UTM's Department of Sociology. "It's also the first to take a sample of commercials and use quantitative data to find the connections between products and different racial groups."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An anonymous stranger you encounter on websites like Yelp or Amazon may seem to be just like you, and a potential friend. But a stranger on a site like eBay is a whole different story.

A new study finds that on websites where people compete against each other, assumptions about strangers change.

Previous research has shown that people have a bias toward thinking that strangers they encounter online are probably just like them.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Although planning for a comfortable retirement is a mainstay of public discussion, far less attention has been paid to the tax consequences of generating retirement income, says a University of Illinois expert on taxation and retirement benefits.

According to law professor Richard L. Kaplan, the income tax consequences for retirees are varied, outdated or often outright inappropriate.

Bethesda, MD (August 12, 2013) — Patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS-D, treated with eluxadoline achieved better clinical response and experienced more symptom improvement than those using placebo, according to a recent study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Eluxadoline, which is currently in phase 3 trials, is under development as a potential treatment for IBS-D.

Just under a third of young Swiss men prefer beer when they drink alcohol, taking in at least two thirds of their alcohol consumption in the form of the beverage. Far fewer (around five percent) prefer wine. Is there an association between the preference for particular alcoholic beverages and a riskier approach to alcohol or other substances?

Preliminary research out of the University of Cincinnati is providing a rare look at the construction of masculinity on the covers of mainstream and gay-themed sports magazines. The research by Jodi Stooksberry and J. A. Carter, both doctoral students in the UC Department of Sociology, was presented at the 108th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in New York, N.Y.

Todd Callais, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati's Blue Ash College, is one of the select sociologists from across the world to be named to present at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Professor Callais' presentation, Music and Social Movements: Historical Hip-Hop Participation Frames and Modern Rap as Social Movement Participation, explores the evolution of hip-hop from party music into a political platform.

The findings by the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center will be published in the September issue of Pediatrics.

While some habits were the same for all overweight and obese children, the study found some gender differences in the habits influencing body weight.

Data from 1,714 sixth grade students enrolled in Project Healthy Schools showed girls who drank two servings of milk each day were less likely to be obese, and boys who played on a sports team were also at a healthier weight.

NEW YORK CITY — A new study shows that grandparents and grandchildren have real, measurable effects on each other's psychological well-being long into grandchildren's adulthood.

Need a loan? You appear to have an advantage if you're an African American female. According to a study by University of Iowa sociologist Sarah Harkness, lenders perceive African-American women just as favorably as white males, and would lend them as much money. The reason: African-American females are generally perceived as single mothers who are industrious and hardworking.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology want to put your signature up in lights – tiny lights, that is. Using thousands of nanometer-scale wires, the researchers have developed a sensor device that converts mechanical pressure – from a signature or a fingerprint – directly into light signals that can be captured and processed optically.

NEW YORK CITY — An Indiana University study found that the percentage of votes for Republican and Democratic candidates in 2010 and 2012 races for the U.S. House of Representatives could be predicted by the percentage of tweets that mentioned those candidates — and it didn't matter whether the tweets were positive or negative.