Estimated 750,000 Problem Gamblers Among America’s Youth
Gambling activity is widespread among U.S. adolescents and young adults ages 14 through 21, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions (RIA).
Results of the first national survey of its kind show problem gambling — described as gambling with three or more negative consequences (for example, gambling more than you intended or stealing money to gamble) in the past year — occurring at a rate of 2.1 percent among youth 14 to 21. That percentage projects to approximately 750,000 young problem gamblers nationwide.
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May 7, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentAs Gas Prices Climb, Employee Productivity Plummets
Rising gas prices are affecting more than the family budget. More pain at the pump results in more employee stress on the job, says Wayne Hochwarter, the Jim Moran Professor of Management at Florida State University’s College of Business.
“People concerned with the effects of gas prices were significantly less attentive on the job, less excited about going to work, less passionate and conscientious and more tense,” Hochwarter said. “These people also reported more ‘blues’ on the job. Employees were simply unable to detach themselves from the stress caused by escalating gas prices as they walked through the doors at work.”
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May 6, 2008 | Filed Under General | Leave a CommentAlcoholism is Not Just a Man’s Disease Anymore
- A new examination of data on similarly aged groups, compared across decades, has found substantial increases in drinking and alcohol dependence among women.
- Increases were particularly notable among white and Hispanic women – beginning with those born in the United States after World War II.
Cross-sectional studies, which collect information at a single point in time, generally find that young Americans report having more lifetime alcohol problems than older Americans, despite having had less time to develop these problems. But these studies are hampered by the fact that people of different ages may remember or report problems to different degrees. A new examination of data, collected on similarly aged groups one decade apart, has found substantial increases in drinking and alcohol dependence among women – particularly white and Hispanic women – beginning with those born in the United States after World War II.
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May 5, 2008 | Filed Under Medical | Leave a CommentTurning Fungus into Fuel
A spidery fungus with a voracious appetite for military uniforms and canvas tents could hold the key to improvements in the production of biofuels, a team of government, academic and industry researchers has announced.
In a paper published today in Nature Biotechnology, researchers led by Los Alamos National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute announced that the genetic sequence of the fungus Tricoderma reesei has uncovered important clues about how the organism breaks down plant fibers into simple sugars. The finding could unlock possibilities for industrial processes that can more efficiently and cost effectively convert corn, switchgrass and even cellulose-based municipal waste into ethanol. Ethanol from waste products is a more-carbon-neutral alternative to gasoline.
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May 5, 2008 | Filed Under Chemistry | Leave a CommentA Gentle Touch for Better Control
The Particle Whisperers
G. Volpe, S. Perrone, J. M. Rubi, and D. Petrov
As many parents know, it’s often easier to keep your kids under control by exerting less authority rather than more. A child who fidgets uncontrollably in a confining booster seat, for example, may be perfectly content on a plain old chair. A team of physicists at the Universitat de Barcelona has found that the same is true in controlling the movement of particles suspended in liquids. What’s more, they speculate that many microscopic systems, macroscopic ecosystems, and human social systems may respond to a gentle touch for the very same mathematical reasons.
In order to test their hypothesis that heavy handedness can lead to loss of control, the researchers used optical tweezers to grab hold of floating microscopic beads. They then dragged the particles back and forth in the fluid as they ramped up the intensity of the lasers that formed the tweezers. As they expected, increasing laser power provided an ever tighter grip on captured particles, but only up to a point. Eventually, ramping up the laser led to a poorer control of the particles, which jostled around more and more as the laser intensity increased.
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May 5, 2008 | Filed Under Physics | Leave a CommentDid the Solar System Bounce Finish the Dinosaurs?
The sun’s movement through the Milky Way regularly sends comets hurtling into the inner solar system – coinciding with mass life extinctions on earth, a new study claims.
Scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology built a computer model of our solar system’s movement and found that it “bounces” up and down through the plane of the galaxy. As we pass through the densest part of the plane, gravitational forces from the surrounding giant gas and dust clouds dislodge comets from their paths. The comets plunge into the solar system, some of them colliding with the earth.
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May 3, 2008 | Filed Under Astronomy | Leave a CommentOxygen-Depleted Zones in Tropical Oceans are Expanding
An international team of physical oceanographers including a researcher from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has discovered that oxygen-poor regions of tropical oceans are expanding as the oceans warm, limiting the areas in which predatory fishes and other marine organisms can live or enter in search of food.
The new study is led by Lothar Stramma from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, and is co-authored by Janet Sprintall, a physical oceanographer at Scripps Oceanography and others. The researchers found through analysis of a database of ocean oxygen measurements that levels in tropical oceans at a depth of 300 to 700 meters (985 to 2,300 feet) have declined during the past 50 years. The ecological impacts of this increase could have substantial biological and economical consequences.
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May 2, 2008 | Filed Under Chemistry | Leave a CommentRace Significant Factor in Death Penalty Cases
New research by Scott Phillips, associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver, finds that in Harris County, TX the District Attorney (DA) was more likely to pursue the death penalty when the defendant was African American and less likely to pursue the death penalty when the victim was African American. The study, “Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment,” will be published in the Houston Law Review this fall.“Conventional wisdom holds that the race of the victim is pivotal,” Phillips says. “But, current research suggests that the race of the defendant and victim are both pivotal.”
Phillips studied whether race influenced the DA’s decision to pursue a death trial or the jury’s decision to impose a death sentence against defendants indicted for capital murder in Harris County, located in the Houston area. He spent several years looking at more than 500 capital murder cases that occurred between 1992-1999. Although Texas has a reputation for executing a large number of people, Harris County executed more people than any other state but Texas.
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May 2, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentDwarf Cloud Rat Rediscovered After 112 Years
A team of Filipino and American scientists have rediscovered a highly distinctive mammal ¨C a greater dwarf cloud rat ¨C that was last seen 112 years ago. Furthermore, it has never before been discovered in its natural habitat and was thought by some to be extinct.
The greater dwarf cloud rat (Carpomys melanurus) has dense, soft reddish-brown fur, a black mask around large dark eyes, small rounded ears, a broad and blunt snout, and a long tail covered with dark hair. An adult weighs about 185 grams.
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May 2, 2008 | Filed Under Biology | Leave a CommentAltruism’s Unexpected Ally - Selfishness
Just as religions dwell upon the eternal battle between good and evil, angels and devils, evolutionary theorists dwell upon the eternal battle between altruistic and selfish behaviors in the Darwinian struggle for existence. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), evolutionary theorists at Binghamton University suggest that selfishness might not be such a villain after all.
Omar Tonsi Eldakar and David Sloan Wilson propose a novel solution to this problem in their article, which is available in the online Early Edition of PNAS (http://www.pnas.org/papbyrecent.shtml). They point out that selfish individuals have their own incentive to get rid of other selfish individuals within their own group.
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May 2, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a Comment
