Researchers question effectiveness of warning labels on over-the-counter drugs

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EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Medicine packages barrage consumers with information, some required to be "prominent" and "conspicuous." But marketing claims and brand names still overshadow critical fine print on nonprescription medications, Michigan State University researchers found.

In a study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, MSU researchers examined the effectiveness of two required warnings on over-the-counter medications, specifically their relative prominence and conspicuousness.

A new X-ray spectroscopic tool for probing the interstellar medium

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What's in your water?: Disinfectants create toxic by-products

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Although perhaps the greatest public health achievement of the 20th century was the disinfection of water, a recent study now shows that the chemicals used to purify the water we drink and use in swimming pools react with organic material in the water yielding toxic consequences.

Taking cues: Sometimes environmental cues can activate thrifty behavior

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Consumers are constantly bombarded with subtle and even subconscious cues from their environment. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research examines whether these cues activate goals that affect behavior in the long term or momentary desires that fade away.

Authors Aner Sela and Baba Shiv (both Stanford Graduate School of Business) investigated the difference between goals that influence behavior and semantic activation, which has no lingering effect on behavior.

Engineers develop method to disperse chemically modified graphene in organic solvents

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AUSTIN, Texas – A method for creating dispersed and chemically modified graphene sheets in a wide variety of organic solvents has been developed by a University of Texas at Austin engineering team led by Professor Rod Ruoff, opening the door to use graphene in a host of important materials and applications such as conductive films, polymer composites, ultracapacitors, batteries, paints, inks and plastic electronics.

Green marketers should take cue from ten commandments

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AUSTIN, Texas—Companies offering "green" products and services can improve sales by making simple shifts in marketing language, new research from The University of Texas at Austin and the University of South Carolina has demonstrated.

The key findings, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Marketing Research, hinge on an aspect of consumer decision-making which might seem trivial at first.

Teens cool off from sports with each succeeding winter

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Montreal, March 31, 2009 – Although winter's grasp has subsided to spring, its effects could have a long term impact on the exercise patterns of teenagers. According to a five-year study published in the Annals of Epidemiology, while teens are generally more active in warmer months, significant drops in physical activity during winter months contributes to a general slowdown in exercise habits throughout adolescence that could persist over time.

Third sector gears up to meet

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Multi-colored uniforms improve perceptions of hospital nurses among children and parents

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Putting hospital nurses in brightly coloured, unconventional uniforms makes children more comfortable and parents more confident, according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Researchers from the University of Florence, Italy, surveyed a total of 112 children before and after nurses on two paediatric wards at Meyer Children's Hospital started wearing colourful new uniforms. The children, who had an average age of 10, were split into two groups of 56 and one parent was interviewed for each child taking part.

To swim or to crawl: For the worm it's a no brainer

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A study at the University of Leeds has shown, for the first time, that C. elegans worms crawl and swim using the same gait, overturning the widely accepted belief that these two behaviours are completely different.

The findings have important implications for biologists and geneticists using C. elegans for their research. Until recently scientists have largely limited their observations of the worm to crawling on solids, but this discovery suggests that it is just as important to consider a range of environments when studying the behaviour of the worm.