Researchers in the medical and health care field who receive postdoctoral training abroad have succeeded very well in their careers. This is demonstrated by the impact report of the Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Health. The report is entitled “Strategic funding for enhanced research impact? Three examples from the field of health research” and is part of the Academy’s SIGHT2006 publications describing the state, level and impact of Finnish scientific research.

An international t

The huge response to the first COST open call has exceeded all expectations. Until the collection date on 31st May 824 proposals for scientific networks have been transmitted from the various scientific disciplines and member countries.

The COST Office announces that its first Open Call has had a first ‘deadline’ yesterday with a great success. A high number of scientists submitted their proposals from the various scientific domains. A huge demand is addressing the Domains ‘Ind

Lessons learned from the behaviour of England fans and Portuguese police at ‘Euro2004’ include:

– Low profile policing is the most effective way to tackle English football hooliganism abroad.
– Unnecessary use of ‘riot police’ can lead to conflict.
– The low profile approach works by helping to support positive forms of English football fan identity
– Positive English fan identity improves relationships with other fans and the police whilst at the same time undermining the

A trail-blazing research project started by academics at the University of Leicester has paved the way for a new generation of academics.

’Cyberparents’- a project by University of Leicester academics Clare Madge and Henrietta O’Connor -started in 1998 in order to examine how new parents used the web for information and as a form of social support.

Such has been the success of this project that the researchers secured funding from the Economic and Social

At the Psycholinguistic Laboratory of the University of the Basque Country (EHU-UPV), Basque-Spanish bilingualism and the relation between language and the brain have been under study. It is a fact that the human brain is organized specifically for us to master languages. Also taking part in this research into bilingualism are researchers from Catalonia and the Canary Islands. Within this context they analysed how word order and grammar, amongst other things, are structured in the brain.

Study finds that the economic and political transformation of the Central Eastern European region over the last two decades may be simultaneously considered a success and a failure.

2004 saw the accession to the European Union of several Central Eastern European countries, attesting to their newly established democratic political systems and functioning market economies. The rapid pace of reform and the relative harmony surrounding the process may be regarded as a great success st

A recent Finnish randomized population-based study shows that TV-viewing, and particularly exposure to adult-targeted programs, such as current affairs programs, TV series and police series and movies, markedly increases the risk of sleeping difficulties in 5-6 year old children. Also passive exposure to TV increases sleeping difficulties.

Questionnaires concerning TV viewing, sleep disturbances, and psychiatric symptoms were administered to 321 parents of children aged 5-6 years, represen

A UCLA/Veteran’s Affairs study showed that more than 40 percent of patients who initially had received a positive result on a fecal occult blood test (FOBT) — an initial screening tool for colon cancer — did not receive appropriate diagnostic follow-up tests such as a colonoscopy or barium enema in 2002. According to the authors, the study may even underestimate this problem in the United States, since previous studies have shown the VA’s level of preventive care and follow-up traditi

Whether finding your way through an unfamiliar neighborhood to a friend’s house or deciding on a political candidate, your brain is adept at adapting. It can make decisions based on incomplete information and update those decisions based on new information.

The nature of such sophisticated decision making in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for high-level processing, has been “poorly studied and little understood,” according to Wako Yoshida and Shin Ishii of the Nara Inst

Imagining things from another’s perspective may help in making medical choices

If a deadly bird flu reaches America, which would you choose: To get a risky experimental vaccine now, or to forego that risk but face an even greater risk of dying in the epidemic? What would you choose for your child? What if you were in charge of public health for your community?

A new study probes how we make such tricky decisions, and how our decisions might change dramatically i

Researchers evaluated the effects stress, depression and cortisol

Caregivers of people under psychological or physical stress, as well as those with the conditions themselves, should not overlook their oral health, according to a new study printed in the Journal of Periodontology.

The results from the study suggest that being a caregiver to relatives with dementia, hypercortisolemia (overproduction of cortisol) or stress were associated with elevated plaque levels and inc

Variations in the strength of the sun have played a major role in glacial fluctuations in the tropical Andes for hundreds of years, and combined with current greenhouse gases generated by humans, paint an alarming picture for tropical glaciers in the near future.

A study conducted in part by the University of Alberta in Edmonton, along with the universities of Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, Barcelona and Caracas, shows that even modest natural variations of solar radiation in the Ve

Memory tests performed with amnesiacs have enabled researchers to refute a long-held belief in an essential difference between long-and short-term memories. In the study, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania determined that the hippocampus — a seahorse shaped structure in the middle of the brain — was just as important for retrieving certain types of short-term memories as it is for long-term memories.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, overturn th

The European Science Foundation (ESF) and the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity (ORI) join together in announcing plans to hold a World Conference on Research Integrity in Lisbon, Portugal on 17 to 19 September 2007. ESF and ORI are working together as co-organisers for this event which is being hosted by the Portuguese Ministry for Science, Technology and Higher Education as part of the forthcoming EU Portuguese Presidency.

Research integrity has

A major international study to test whether a new combination treatment that increases good “HDL” cholesterol prevents heart attacks and strokes will start to recruit patients later this year, it was announced today (Wednesday 31 May).

It will recruit 20,000 patients with vascular disease from the UK, China and Scandinavia to investigate whether combining niacin with a new drug (MK-0524A) that minimises niacin’s side-effects (chiefly facial flushing) can drive down still further t

Travel is something that impacts on most of us. For many, the daily commute is a way of life and bookends the beginning and end of the day. But is travel time ‘dead time’ that needs to be reduced to a minimum by providing more and faster transportation, or is there more to the way we choose to use our travel time?

The latest research from the University of the West of England into travel time is featured on a new Research TV film that can be seen at http://www.research-tv.com/stories/soc