ScienceDaily: Science & Society News

How 'spontaneous' social norms emerge Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:07 PM PST A scientific explanation has been provided by researchers for how social conventions -- everything from acceptable baby names to standards of professional conduct -- can emerge suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, with no external forces driving their creation.

To save your energy while strolling, walk this sway Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:10 AM PST The first people to walk across the original Millennium Bridge may have been unnerved when it began to sway, but the bridge was actually doing them a favor: the swaying enabled them to walk the distance with 5 percent less effort, a new study shows.

Whose numbers determine if a targeted cancer therapy is 'worth it? ' Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:10 AM PST "Increasingly physicians are being presented with health economic analyses in mainstream medical journals as a means of potentially influencing their prescribing. However, it is only when you understand the multiple assumptions behind these calculations that you can see that they are by no means absolute truths," says one expert.

Risk for autism increases for abandoned children placed in institutions Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:37 AM PST Children who were abandoned to institutional care have an increased risk for behaviors similar to those seen in children with autism, including impaired social communication, research shows. When these children were moved into child-centered foster family care at a young age, their social behaviors improved.

Top 10 challenges facing global pharmaceutical supply chains Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:46 AM PST Global pharmaceutical supply chains are fragmented and lack coordination, facing at least 10 key challenges, according to researchers. Their new article sheds light on the key areas of weakness and what specifically is needed to strengthen the pharmaceutical supply chains.

Bowhunting may have fostered social cohesion during the Neolithic Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:55 AM PST Bowhunting during the Neolithic period may have been one of the pillars of unity as a group of primitive human societies. This is one of the main conclusions reached by a team of Spanish archaeologists that has analyzed the Neolithic bows found in the site of La Draga (Girona, Spain).

Physical activity as medicine among Family Health Teams: Study Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:55 AM PST To better understand the current use of physical activity as medicine among Family Health Teams (FHTs) in Ontario, researchers conducted an environmental scan of 102 FHTs. Family Health Teams (FHTs) are part of a shift towards a multidisciplinary primary care model that addresses the healthcare needs of a community by allowing different healthcare professionals to work collaboratively under one roof.

Confidence in government linked to willingness to vaccinate Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:55 AM PST Confidence in government may play a key role in the public's willingness to get at least some vaccines, a new study suggests. The study found that people trusting the government's ability to deal with an epidemic were almost three times more likely to take the vaccine than were others.

Keep your enemies close? Study finds greater proximity to opponents leads to more polarization Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:54 AM PST Encouraging adversaries to have more interpersonal contact to find common ground may work on occasion, but not necessarily in the U.S. Senate, according to new research.

Many universities undercount sexual assaults on campus, research finds Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:53 AM PST A pattern of underreporting of on-campus sexual assaults by universities and colleges across the United States has been uncovered by researchers. Some schools have continued to underreport even after being fined for violations of federal law, according to a study.

Improving health of marine life, coastal economies Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:53 AM PST Sea turtles and coral reefs may hold the keys to improving Florida's offshore health and economy. Scientists are getting in on the ground floor of a new alliance that aims to improve the health of Tampa Bay's waters.

Finding valuable materials in metallurgical dumps Posted: 02 Feb 2015 05:07 AM PST Since metallic raw materials are scarce in Germany, it is reliant on imports. Yet some of these valuable materials are lying around unnoticed in dumps. Researchers are now compiling a Germany-wide registry of these resources, which reveals where these deposits are located and what metals they contain.

Interconnected IT for business models in rural areas Posted: 02 Feb 2015 05:07 AM PST More and more people are moving from rural areas to cities, leaving behind crumbling infrastructures that make daily life difficult for those who stay. Some people are bucking this trend. Researchers are now planning to create new business models in rural areas with the help of interconnected IT.

Urban taste for bushmeat poses threat to Amazonian wildlife Posted: 02 Feb 2015 05:07 AM PST Alarming evidence of an under-reported wild-meat crisis in the heart of Amazonia has been uncovered by researchers who interviewed households in two Brazilian 'prefrontier' cities -- cities which are surrounded by more than 90 per cent of their original forest cover. They found virtually all urban households in these cities consumed wildlife for food, including fish (99%), bushmeat (mammals and birds; 79%), turtles and tortoises (48%) and caimans (28%).

Mini synthetic organism instead of test animals Posted: 02 Feb 2015 05:06 AM PST In medical research, animal-based experiments have thus far been a necessary evil. Now researchers have developed a highly promising alternative, however: They are developing a mini-organism inside a chip. This way, complex metabolic processes within the human body can be analyzed realistically.

Amazon.com benefits from collaboration between competing firms Posted: 02 Feb 2015 05:06 AM PST Online-selling pioneer Amazon.com has utilized three individual business models, by means of which it engages in productive cooperation with its competitors. By harnessing its competitors within its own business operations and by looking strategically at customer value, Amazon.com has managed to raise the size of its current markets and to create entirely new markets both for itself and for its competitors. Through its competitor cooperation-driven business model, Amazon.com utilizes the existent resources most effectively, because it involves competitors in distributing the expenses incurred by business operations.

Researchers provide insights for reducing drug overdoses through community education Posted: 29 Jan 2015 09:55 AM PST Participants in drug overdose education programs tend to be parents (mostly mothers) who provide financial support for their son/daughter, have daily contact with their loved one, have applied for court-mandated treatment and have witnessed an overdose, a new study shows. Opioid use is a growing problem in the United States. Currently, more than 20 million Americans are illicit opioid users, misusing prescription opioids or using street opioids such as heroin.

Ebola candidate vaccine has acceptable safety profile Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:43 AM PST The first results from a trial of a candidate Ebola vaccine suggest the vaccine has an acceptable safety profile at the doses tested, and is able to generate an immune response. Larger trials in West Africa are needed to tell whether immune responses are large enough to protect against Ebola infection and disease, scientists say.

Health insurers using drug coverage to discriminate, experts say Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:43 AM PST Some insurers offering health plans through the new federal marketplace may be using drug coverage decisions to discourage people with HIV from selecting their plans, according to a new study. The researchers noted that insurers' use of "adverse tiering" puts significant and unexpected financial strain on those with chronic conditions. They added that, over time, the practice could lead to sicker people clustering in plans that offer more generous prescription drug benefits--which could in turn create a "race to the bottom" in insurers' drug plan designs as they try to avoid a large influx of sick enrollees that would negatively affect profits.

Which health messages work? Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:43 AM PST Is it better to be positive or negative? Many of the most vivid public health appeals have been negative -- 'Smoking Kills' or 'Drive, Drive, and Die' -- but do these negative messages work when it comes to changing eating behavior?