Society

Many parents of preschoolers struggle with their children’s fears of real and imaginary creatures. A new study offers some ideas on how they can better manage their children’s worries.
The study, which was carried out by researchers at the University of California, Davis, appears in the November/December 2009 issue of the journal Child Development.
Researchers studied about [...]

What are known as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can enhance the concept of democracy, boosting public participation. The most widespread manner of gathering the opinions of the public is through the electoral process. Over recent decades, thanks to ICTs, new systems for improving these election processes have been put forward.
University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU) [...]

Natural history plans to chart life on earth, yet the discipline risks being buried under a landslide of painstakingly collected data that isn’t always used. Now researchers at London’s Natural History Museum have created a social networking tool called ‘Scratchpads’ where natural historians can get together and share their data. A paper on this new [...]

Companies that commit fraud can find innovative ways to fudge the numbers, making it hard to tell something is wrong by just looking at their financial statements. But research from North Carolina State University unveils a new warning system that sees through accounting tricks by evaluating things that are easily verifiable, such as the number [...]

Fifty-eight percent of primary care doctors in the U.S. report their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and care, and half of U.S. doctors spend substantial time dealing with restrictions insurance companies place on their patients’ care, according to findings from the 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey published online today in the [...]

People are unconsciously fairer and more generous when they are in clean-smelling environments, according to a soon-to-be published study led by a Brigham Young University professor.
The research found a dramatic improvement in ethical behavior with just a few spritzes of citrus-scented Windex.
Katie Liljenquist, assistant professor of organizational leadership at BYU’s Marriott School of Management, is [...]

A new computerised approach to airport operations is being developed that will reduce delays, speed up baggage handling and decrease pollution.
The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and led by researchers at The University of Nottingham.
The research work aims to computerise and co-ordinate four key areas of airport operations: [...]

Some time soon, a powerful earthquake will trigger a massive tsunami that will flood the Pacific Northwest, destroying homes and threatening the lives of tens of thousands of people, says Yumei Wang, a geotechnical engineer at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Portland.
The region’s geology makes an earthquake-triggered tsunami inevitable and imminent [...]

If the wife of FBI boss Robert Mueller has warned him not to use Internet banking because of the threat of online fraud, then what hope is there for the average Jo? The results of research published in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics suggests that more of us [...]

Survey results published recently in the journal Health Affairs show that while only 27 percent of adults currently support the U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s proposed healthcare legislation, an amended bill could gain the majority’s favor.
The poll was created and commissioned by S. Ward Casscells, M.D., vice president of external affairs and public policy and the [...]

Medical tourism in Latin America needs to be regulated to protect consumers, according to Université de Montréal researchers. A new study published in the journal Developing World Bioethics argues that Argentinean fertility clinics are increasingly marketing themselves to international health care consumers: these clinics offer all-inclusive packages with fixed prices that feature airfare, accommodations, transfers, [...]

College students make strategic choices about where to vote, most prefer absentee ballots, and they are especially likely to vote absentee if their homes are in swing states, according to a new Northwestern University study of student absentee voting in the 2008 presidential election.
The findings were published on October 1st by the Center for Information [...]

Unlike other forms of suicide, physician assisted death does not cause substantial regret, or a sense of rejection among surviving family members. In addition, the prevalence and severity of depression and grief among family members whose loved ones received aid in dying is no different than family members whose loved ones did not pursue physician [...]

If you are planning to do some Oktoberfesting in Germany, you may want to pay attention to how you order your beverages. The server is not giving you a three-for-the-price-of-two beer special; you’re holding up the wrong fingers when you order.
This very hand-y tip is courtesy of a study by the University of Alberta’s Elena [...]

The anticipated onset of a second wave of the H1N1 influenza pandemic could present a host of thorny medical ethics issues best considered well in advance, according to the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, which today released nine papers for public discussion.
Topics include duty of health care workers to work during a serious [...]

Parents, get ready to say OMG and watch your teens roflol.
This will prolly comes as a bit of a shock to UR system, but findings from a group of University of Alberta researchers show that language commonly used in instant messaging has no effect on your child’s spelling abilities. If anything, says study author Connie [...]

Hummer drivers believe they are defending America’s frontier lifestyle against anti-American critics, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Authors Marius K. Luedicke (University of Innsbruck, Austria), Craig J. Thompson (University of Wisconsin–Madison), and Markus Giesler (York University, Toronto) researched attitudes toward owning and driving Hummers, which have become symbols to many [...]

The largest U.S subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research to be released on Friday by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, reveals [...]

In a decade-long initiative to protect millions of families from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, a U.S. government-funded project helped sell 50 million bed nets in seven countries, crafted a voucher system to allow the poor to receive them for free or partial cost, and created enough incentives for private companies that they invested $88 million [...]

The power of the imagination is well-known: it’s no surprise that scary music is scarier with your eyes closed. But now neuroscientist and psychiatrist Prof. Talma Hendler of Tel Aviv University’s Functional Brain Center says that this phenomenon may open the door to a new way of treating people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological [...]