Sexual jokes, suggestive glances, and other forms of gender and sexual harassment may be funny to writers, producers and viewers of workplace-based situation comedies, but Penn State researcher Beth Montemurro says they are far from a laughing matter.
Montemurro, assistant professor of sociology, studied five such programs on the NBC television network – Veronica’s Closet, News Radio, Working, Just Shoot Me and Suddenly Susan – during 1997 and 1998 to see just how prevalent gender and sexua
What would you use to try and find an underground water leak, your ears or radar? Believe it or not the only way to find water leaks involves trying to hear the hiss of the leak through a device like a stethoscope. This antiquated system could soon be a thing of the past as a fast and full-proof method using radar is being developed thanks to an investment of £76,810 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts), the organisation that invests in UK creativity and innovation.
We do not feel the nitrogen of air, and scientists do not believe that under normal pressure nitrogen can affect human organisms. However, being under water or in the altitude chamber nitrogen produces a different effect. Once the pressure is increased about four times, simulating the pressure which exists at the 30- meter depth, the first signs of intoxication usually show up. They are the same that accompany alcoholic intoxication: unreasonable gaiety, talkativeness, depressed attention, impaired s
University of Chicago researchers have found that a substance that functions as a neurotransmitter in humans also plays a crucial role in plant reproduction, guiding growth of the tube that transports sperm from a pollen grain on a flower’s surface to the egg cells within a plant’s ovules.
Their finding, published in the July 11, 2003, issue of the journal Cell, is a major step forward in understanding plant fertility. The discovery could also help researchers understand similar b
Scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, have unlocked an important door to understanding one of the most important crops in the world – corn. Researchers at Rutgers’ Waksman Institute of Microbiology have redefined the nature of heterosis or hybrid vigor, the phenomenon underlying corn’s remarkable success. Heterosis is the robustness seen in hybrids when different lines are crossed and result in higher yields than either of the parental lines would produce themselves.
Hypochondriasis, or excessive worry over one’s health, is a psychiatric disorder that can affect every aspect of a person’s life — especially interpersonal relationships. University of Iowa researchers are finding ways to study the condition and how it affects relationships, including patient-doctor interaction.
Hypochondriasis involves preoccupation with a fear of having or developing a serious illness, despite lack of physical evidence of illness. It affects 4 to 9 percent of f
Physics Lab in Japan reports evidence for the Pentaquark; Jefferson Lab data supports discovery
A Five-quark state has been discovered, first reported by a group of physicists working at the SPring-8 physics lab in Japan. All confirmed particles known previously have been either combinations of three quarks (baryons, such as protons or neutrons) or two quarks (mesons such as pions or kaons). Although not forbidden by the standard model of particle physics, other configurations of qua
Argonne physicists have precisely measured the masses of nuclear isotopes that exist for only fractions of a second or can only be produced in such tiny amounts as to be almost nonexistent in the laboratory. Some isotopes had their masses accurately measured for the first time.
The results help explain the characteristic X-ray spectrum and luminosities of strange astronomical objects called “X-ray bursters.”
X-ray bursters comprise a normal star and a neutron star. Neutron stars
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have shown that a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) applied as a cream directly to the skin is safe and effective in lessening muscle soreness experienced 24 to 48 hours following exercise, when soreness reaches its peak. In addition, the direct application bypasses the internal body-route taken by oral medications, thus avoiding unpleasant side effects sometimes experienced with NSAIDs.
In a study pu
A University of Minnesota study has confirmed the pivotal role of an enzyme known as JNK2 in the development of nonmelanoma skin cancers. The findings suggest that JNK2 should be evaluated as a target for the prevention and treatment of such cancers. Lead author Zigang Dong, director of the university’s Hormel Institute in Austin, Minn., will present the work at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, July 13, at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in the Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Pl
Significant genetic differences exist between tumors of the right and left side of the colon, according to data presented today at the 94th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and these distinctions should be considered for future research and treatment.
“With emerging treatments directed toward specific molecular targets, there should be special emphasis on such an important differentiation,” said Sanne Olesen, M.Sc. of biology, Aarhus University Hospital
For the first time, African Heads of State, the UN, the World Bank, DFID, The Global Fund, The Gates Foundation and other powerful actors are due to place HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis at the centre of their agenda in an open forum with the rest of the world.
In July 2003, the second annual Summit of the African Union will take place in Maputo to mark the changing of chairmanship from President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, to President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique. This event
A study on mice suggests that a type of stem cells found in blood vessels may someday be able to regenerate wasting muscle in muscular dystrophy (MD) patients.
The authors caution that more research must be done before researchers consider applying these findings to humans. Nonetheless, their results provide a possible new direction for efforts that have met largely with frustration thus far. The study appears in the journal Science, published by AAAS, the science society.
A group of leading U.S. public sector agricultural research institutions has agreed to allow access to each other’s current and future patented agricultural technologies and is exploring ways to ensure that new licensing agreements allow for technologies to be used to fight global hunger and to boost the domestic agricultural sector.
The agreement will accelerate research and development to improve staple crop varieties like rice, cassava, sorghum and potatoes essential to resource-poor fa
Parents whose kids are allergic to peanuts may be relieved to know that it’s possible their children could outgrow their allergy over time.
In a study of 80 children ages 4 to 14 with well-documented peanut allergies, researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and Arkansas Children’s Hospital found that some children completely lost their potentially serious or life-threatening allergy to peanuts, and that among those who did, there was a low risk of allergy recurr
May be factor in human infertility as well as cancer and aging
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have discovered a gene mutation in mice that causes premature ovarian failure, a form of infertility affecting an estimated 250,000 women in the United States.
The investigators say the discovery will lead to unique animal models of premature ovarian failure (POF), or early menopause, useful for further studying the poorly understo
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